Firstly I'd like to thank the readers who always comment, you guys know who you are and you are awesome. Belated happy birthday to Mr Zhang Yixing, I wish you all the best in life. Enjoy :)

That night, after everyone had returned from their missions, Lay had managed to catch Chen alone in his room.

“Hyung it’s been a long day,” Chen said. “Let’s go down for dinner please.”

“Not until we sort this out.” Lay answered with conviction. “I know why you’ve been avoiding me.”

Chen’s eyes widen slightly but after all these years of being an idol he has learnt not to let anything show on his face unless he wants to. “Really?” he asked airily.

“Yes. It’s because you think I don’t like you. I don’t know what made you think that Jongdae-ya but it’s not true. I like you a lot, like a younger brother.”

At the start of this, Jongdae had actually thought that Lay had figured it all out but when he ended, Chen burst out laughing. This was so ridiculous, he had no idea where Yixing was getting any of this. Yixing was equally confused as to why Jongdae had burst out laughing.

“Gege please tell me that you’re not that oblivious?” Chen half joked and half begged him.

Yixing frowned. “What?”

Jongdae sighed. It was a good time as any to tell Yixing the truth and if he did maybe he’d get over him. “I like you Xing. I like you a lot. I like you like how Baekhyun likes Taeyeon noona. And all if this is so unfair because we don’t like boys yet I find myself liking you. And it’s not fair because you’re my band member and we’re constantly under the scrutiny of the media and the company so even if you liked me back, this wouldn’t work out so I was in for a heart break either way. I know I’ll regret this but I’m so glad I finally told you because this was eating me up and I really don’t like avoiding you gege. Ok so let’s just pretend I never said any of this, don’t worry hyung I won’t come on to you in fact I’m going to try my hardest to get over you, and we can go back to the way things were. Let’s not make this any more awkward then it needs to be, ok? So when you leave this room, I promise to become the younger brother that only looks up to you and not the boy who has fallen in love with you. Ok?” Jongdae said that all in one go whilst looking down at the floor so when he looked up, he was surprised to see that he was crying.

Yixing was taken aback. He really wasn’t expecting this to happen, all he had wanted to do was clear up a misunderstanding. He watched the tears stream down Chen’s face and how his fists clenched to keep himself in check, Lay’s heart hurt to see Chen like that. “Jongdae-”

“Please leave gege.” Jongdae’s voice cracked as he begged him.

Yixing nodded, still very much in a daze, and left the room. He didn’t like leaving Chen all on his own to cry but he really had no idea how to handle this situation.

Instead of going down to dinner, he went back to his room, he didn’t feel like eating. He didn’t know how long he had been lying in bed staring at the ceiling when Xiumin came in and sat down on his bed.

“How did it go?” he asked. By his tone, Lay could tell that he already knew how it went but he wanted Lay’s version of the events.

“Umm I told him that I liked him.” Xiumin hummed in understanding. “Then he confessed to me.”

Minseok nodded. “What did you do next?”

“Nothing.” Yixing sighed. “Hyung, I don’t like boys. I don’t want…I don’t know…I’m confused.”

“I understand. Would you mind if I asked you a couple of things?” Yixing shook his head. “Why do you always take extra care of Jongdae?”

“I take extra care of everyone.” Protested Lay.

“No, you take care of everyone but you take extra care of Chen. There is a difference.”

“He had the shortest training period.”

Xiumin wasn’t having that. “So did Baekhyun.”

“He’s Korean and he was put into M”

“So was I.”

“He’s the youngest.” Lay tried.

Minseok frowned. “No he’s not, Sehun is and Tao is in M.”

Lay was getting frustrated. “I don’t know hyung. I guess I just wanted to protect him. I’ve been in the entertainment industry since I was a child, I know exactly what it’s like and Chen had a short training period, he was young and he had to promote in another country so that’s why.”

“Jongdae’s an adult, he doesn’t need protecting, and he can take care of himself.”

Lay frowned, he had never heard Xiumin speak this way before. “Yes he does. He always puts others before himself, he always works hard on getting his danced moves right and in sync with the rest of us, he’s always working hard to get the pronunciations of our songs right and he practises his Mandarin until late into the night so he can show the Chinese media and the fans that he is trying to fit in. These are only a few example, there is so much more, so don’t you dare say he doesn’t need protecting because he doesn’t know when to stop unless someone stops him.”

Xiumin smiled inwardly and said nonchalantly, “Sounds like you really love him.”

“Of course I do.”

“Then give him a chance.”

Lay was flustered. “I…um…I…”

“Yixing you honestly don’t see how perfect you and Jongdae are together? Look, if it doesn’t work, then you can both say you tried and go back to how things used to be.”

Lay wasn’t so sure about this but he knew the prospect of dating Chen made him nervous and he wasn’t sure why. “I’ll date Jongdae when you date Lu-ge.” Propositioned Lay.

“If Luhan stops being so sleazy and asks me out properly and sincerely, I’d actually say yes.”

“Kim Minseok, will you go out with me?”

Both Yixing and Minseok turned to find that Luhan had materialised out of no where.

“How-”

Yixing was cut off by Xiumin. “I will but you have to have one hell of a first date planned to make it up to me.”

Luhan grinned. “Only the best for my Baozi.”

“I’m not your Baozi yet and I never will be if the date goes badly.”

Luhan gave him a mock salute. “Yes sir.” Then ran off giggling like a school girl.

They could hear Luhan shouting to the whole dorm how Minseok had finally said yes to him and Sehun replying with you mean you finally had the balls to ask him out properly. What followed were probably sounds of Luhan chasing Sehun around the dorm as Sehun tried to hide behind their members and furniture. Minseok laughed before turning back to Lay.

“Listen to me Zhang Yixing, we don’t get to choose who we fall in love with, love’s a like that.” Lay gasped, he never heard Xiumin swear before. Xiumin rolled his eyes before continuing. “Not everyone can find love and us being idols makes that near impossible. You and Chen have a chance at love, please don’t let that go even before giving it a chance. Besides, I’m going out with Luhan now so you have to go out with Jongdae.”

Lay groaned. “I bet you two planned that.”

Xiumin laughed and stood to leave. “Nope. Good luck Yixing.”

Lay groaned again and buried his face in his pillow. He had no idea how he was going to ask out Chen. Just thinking about it was making his heart beat faster and palms super sweaty.

“What’s there to be nervous about?” he said to himself. “Ask him out like a man Zhang Yixing. Jongdae will you go out with me? No that’s too unfeeling. Chenchen do you want to go out with me some time, buing buing? What am I doing? Ageyo? Hell no!”

This continued for a while until Kyungsoo came to get him to come down for dinner