It was a warm summer morning that a 4-year-old Jongin woke up to. He eyes were closed, yet instead of black, the inside of his eyelids were red; and warm. Sunlight was filtering through his thin white curtain, forcing him to akcnowldge that he needed to wake up. Normally, he would hug his baby blue blanket tighter to his chest after pulling it over his head and wait for his mom to kiss him awake. But that morning, he jumped out of bed in excitement and ran to the bathroom.

    After brushing his teeth for exactly two minutes as his doctor had told him, he ran downstairs to his mom in the kitchen. When he saw her, he lached himself onto the leg squealing.

"Well, someone's excited!" his mother picked him up and placed a kiss on his cheek. "Good morning sweetie."

"Mommy! I get to see Chanyeol hyung again! He was probably so lonely without me all week," the 4-year-old gushed out. "Can we go already!!! Please, please-"

"Shhh," Mrs. Kim said interrupts him as she put him down. "It's only 9, Chanyeol isn't there yet. Eat your breakfast first, okay?" 

"What's for breakfast?" he asked, sniffing the air for any hints. "Pancakes?" he guesses.

"Not just any pancakes!" She lifted the pan to show it to Jongin, "Dinosaur Panckaes!" she exclaimed. 

    Jongin pumped his fist, whispering a quite "Yes," as he quickly runs to the dining table. His mother places a stack of pancakes infront of him, and a bottle of maple syrup. He just about inhaled his favorurite breakfast. Normally he wold have put the sweet, soft creatures against one another to a death match, visciously stuffing the loser in his mouth. But today, he was too excited. He wanted to finish his food quickly so they could leave. He had been bedridden with a stomach flu and had been away from his daycare for a week day. Although his best friend Taemin came to visit and watched all the ice age movies with him, he still missed his friends at the daycare. They all lived far away from each other so they couldn't meet up. 

    However, through all the jittering nerves in the 4-year-olds body, he still made sure to savour his food. He made sure to proparly chew his T-rex, allosauraus, triceratops, stagosaurus and spinosaurus (he got a dinosaurus book for his birthday, and had different types each meal). His mother drank a cup of coffee ("ew, iths so bitther," he had shrieked when he first tried it as he tried to wipe it off his tongue with the table cloth) and muched on a bagel. 

As soon as he finished, he presented the plate to his mom. 

"All done!" 

"Alright, go get dressed while mommy cleans up okay?" She took the syrup smeared plate to the sink, while he ran up the stairs to his room. Quickly grabbing red shorts and a teenage mutant ninja shirt, he changed and ran back downstairs to put his shoes. He put his sketchers velcro sneakers on because 4-year old jongin does not know how to tie shoelaces. His hyung, Chanyeol tried to teach him but he he just made ugly knots that took an hour to untie. He liked velcro better anyway.

    He heard the jingling of his mom's keys and streched on his tip-toes to reach the doorknob. As she seacherd for her shoes, he ran out to the car.
"Nini, wait up for mommy!" she yelled after her hyperactive son. She chuckled at his eagerness, wishing he had the same reaction towards his dentist appointments. The doors were unlocked , and Jongin settled in his booster seat by himself. His mother got in the car, and they were off (much to Jongin's delight).

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    A white Subaru Forester slowly parked itself within the yellow contraints outside white building beside Longos. Jongin and his mother got out of the car and the doors lock with a couple of loud beeps that always startled Jongin. Although he wanted to run, the four year old didn't want to leave his mother all by herself after she drove him all the way here. So he settled for swinging their arms a bit as he played 'avoid the cracks' on the pavement. With careful light footsteps and an amused expression on his mothers face, they safely made it to the daycare without breaking Mrs. Kim's back. 
  

 Once past the red door, and the welcoming smiles of Minji, the volunteer, Jongin was signed in.

"Jonginie, I'll come back for you at aroud 2:30 okay?" She kissed his cheek, "behave," and flicked his small nose. The little man rubbed his nose and then smiled up at his mom.

"Of course," he said with a salute. 

She handed him his lunch."Okay, mommy's gonna leave now. Bye sweetie!!." Little Joninie waved back, ignoring the shaking floor boards under his feet and the sound of pounding footsteps. Jongin didn't get to see his mom disappear out of the room, because apparently he the day care floor missed him a little too much while he was away. He landed in a heap of arms and legs, specifically a pair of arms and legs that smelt like rosewood. 

"Chayeol hyungggg...my arm! Armss..get off..umf..arms..." Jongin wailed while the infamous hyung shifted to give his arm more space, but tightned his hold on him again.

"Jonginieee, why'd you leave me? I missed you so much." the 6-year old complained. "Ugh, my fried brother from another mother, don't do that aymore!!!"

    Jongin smacked him for the fried comment and tried the lift the chubby kid off him. Chanyeol saw him struggle, and got off him, not forgetting his manners, and pulled him up. He hugged him again, properly this time. The smaller of the two was glad that in the five days that he was away, his favourite hyung hadn't forgotten him.

     When he returned the older's hug, putting his chin on the other's shoulder did he realize another boy behind them. The boy looked around his age. Jongin knew all the 14 kids in the daycare and he'd never seen him before. The kid had his hands behind his back and looked up from the ground locking eyes with Jongin. The new kid glared at Jongin before he looks down again. 

"Hyung, there's a kid staring at us," he whispered into Chanyeol's ear. The older finally lets of of the younger, but leaves his arms around the smaller's shoulder and turned around

"Chanyeollie, I'm gonna go read some books," the new kids whispered. He spun on his heels and tried to leave when Chanyeol intervened.

"No no, Soo, you haven't met my dongseng yet," he exclaimed, squeezing his dongseng. 'Soo' turned around with a sigh. 

"Kyunsoo, this is Jongin." He put his free hand under Jongin's chin. "Jongin, this is Kyungsoo." With the same hand, he called him over. 

"Hi Kyungsoo! Are you new here?" Jongin asked only to get flicked on the head by his hyung.

"He's your hyung, stupid. He's five, call him hyung," he told him sternly. 

"Oh, you're older?" The kid looking Jongin with a blank face didn't look much younger than Jongin. He remembered when he was knew, Chanyeol was so nice and friendly to him and made him feel comfortable. So he wanted to help Kyungsoo enjoy the daycare as much as he did and he was looking forward to making a new friend. 

    But Kyungsoo continued to stare at them with a blank, bored looking face. Something about the other kid's eyes made Jongin uncomfortable to the point where he couldn't hold his gaze. So he turned to a smiling Chanyeol, his chubby cheeks forcing his eyes into cresents.

"Kyungsoo's my neighbor. He moved in while you were away!" Again, the said boy doesn't respond. "My mommy said I have to take care of him now because I'm older. I'm like his personal boduguard Jonginee! Isn't that so cool!" he explained energetically. 

"Hyung, you replaced me while I was gone?" Jongin realized then that this new boy was going to take his favourite hyung away. The other kids were nice, but they all had their best friends and Chanyeol being his. 

"Nobody can replace you Jonginee, don't be sad," Chanyeol panicked, looking between Kyungsoo and Jongin. The latter's eyes were getting watery, he was always a big cry baby, while the former was too shy. He tried to make Jongin feel better, not wanting him to cry on his first day back.

"Don't worry, Kyungsoo is really cool, you'll like him," he assured the teary-eyed boy.

"No hyung," Jongin whispered, side galncing at Kyungsoo, "he's scary."

"No, that's just his face-"

"Chanyeolie," a sharp voice interrupted the two boys, "I'm going to play with Zitao." Kyungsoo looked at Jongin again, before he quickly escaped.

"Jongin, you scared him," Chanyeol bluntly blamed the younger.

"No, he scared me," Jongin replied, but he was ignored by his hyung, who was planning a way to break Kyungsoo out of his shell and befriend Jongin so they could be the golden trio (of the UNIVERSEE!).

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 Jongin spent the better half of the day avoiding Kyungsoo, which wasn't all that hard because Kyungsoo was playing the same game. Just like he had said, Kyungso did play with Zitao. It made sense to Jongin, since they were both scary looking. Sehun, the only other kid Jongin's age, was tagging along with the duo, watching them try to make a buliding out of blocks. Meanwhile, Chanyeol and Jongin played a card game Jongin's sister taught him- goldfish. Halfway through, Jongin admitted that he forgot how to play it. Chanyeol was dissapointed, but when Jongin started feeling bad for messing up their game, so Chanyeol made a new game. If one of them pulled out spades (because it looks like a fish?), randomly, the other person has to yell "goldfish" before the other person hits him, otherwise they get hit without complaint.
   

         For lunch time, both boys showed up to the table with red arms, which Minji questioned. While Jongin was explaining their new game to her, Chanyeol disappeared to put his plans in action. Chanyeol managed to get seats right across Kyungsoo, who was sharing his bunny cut apples with Sehun, and Tao drinking a glass orange juice beside them. He hoped he could get the two boys running around each other to bond over food, because everyone loves food right?

         He waved to Kyungsoo, who smiled back and gave a little wave of his own. Chanyeol sighed a heavy sigh for a six year old. If only Jongin could see how cute and cool his new friend was they would all be happy. 

"Soo, Jongin and I are gonna sit with you okay?" The younger boy's eye widened a bit, already panicking.

"Hyung, he doesn't like me though," Kyungsoo argued. 

"Of course not! He's just shy, like you!" Chanyeol tried to reassure him. Kyungsoo shook his head stubournly. 

"No, he thinks I'm weird. He doesn't like looking at me."

"He's just reaallllyyy shy, I swear he's awesome. He is my favourite dongseng-"

"Can I be your favourite dongseng too?" Sehun interrupted, mouth stuffed with apples. 

"No, you brat, you can only have one favourite." Chanyeol shot him down without mercy. Sehun immediatly pouted his bottome lip. 

"You're my favourite dongseng, ignore him," Tao rubbed his back affectionately and offered his juice to him. 

"Thanks," Sehun mumbled, grinning into the glass.

    While they were all distracted by the random scene of affection, Jongin had spotted Chanyeol and began making his way towards him while clutching a brown paper lunch bag. But his steps slowed down when he saw who the older was talking to. 

    Kyungsoo. The boy he had been trying to avoid all day. He usually doesn't dislike people, but the boy was pretty mean during their first meeting. People are allowed to dislike other people, that didn't make you a bad person. Jongin guessed that Kyungsoo hyund and him just weren't compatible, a word he had overhead when his older sister was talking about her boy friend. But even though Jongin didn't want to be around him, he couldn't pull Chanyeol away from him, that would be rude. So Jongin had no choice but to seat himself beside Chanyeol and nudged him with his knees when Chanyeol didn't notice him.
    

He leaned in closer, and whispered, "I don't want to eat with that hyung," loud enough for the older to hear. 

"Just eat your chicken."

"Mommy said I can't always have chicken!" he whined, "She gave me all vegetables! Look!" he demanded, opening the paper bag. Chanyeol was glad that he had gotten distracted, and humored him by patting his shoulders. Then, he thought of an idea.

"Hey, Kyungsoo likes vegetables, you can share with him!" 

"Ew, only old people like vegetables," Jongin commented. 

"No, strong and smart people like vegetables. Kyungsoo's going to tall and strong while you don't grow at all," Chanyeol argued.

"Then why should I give my veggies to him? I'm going to eat it all and become strong!" Jongin poured out all the contents of his lunch bag, and started with the carrots, "for my eyes," he recited. 

Chanyeol let out another sigh as he watched his friend being an idiot. Across the table, a confused looking Kyungsoo wanted to tell Jongin to stop eating so quickly or he'd choke, but then Jongin looked up at him, glared and began munching on his celery stick. Kyungsoo looked away, deciding to just finish eating only to find that his apples had dissapeared. 

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          The day at Exo Day Care ended without much success for Chanyeol's plans. He said his goodbyes to Jongin, cheering up as he reminded himself that there was always tomorrow. 
    

          Jongin, unaware of anything, excitedly made his way to the park near his house with his mother to meet Taemin. When they arrived at the park, he found his friend at the top of the yellow slide. Taemin slid down, waving at Jongin. The 4-year olds made their way to the swings. Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Kim watched from afar as their sons tried to get the big swings by themselves. Usually the mothers would help, but the boys didn't want to be treated as babies, so the mothers left them alone. When thye finally got on their swings, the next hurdle was to get the swing to well..swing. So their solution was to try to push themselves, swinginf their legs back and forth with as much force as they could muster. 
  

          After around six minutes of sweat-working physical excertion, they were swinging lightly, content with the comfortable pace. Jongin decided to fill in his friend on the new boy he met that day. He explained how they met, and how the boy had looked so mean.

"His eyes were scary," he explained. 

"You know, there's this guy with fish eyes in my day care. I think his name was minho? minko? Something like that." Taemin added. 

"Fish eyes?" the darker of the two giggled. "Kyungsoo's not that weird, but when he stares at you, it make you fell uncomfortable."

"Do my eyes make you uncomfortable Jonginiee?" Taemin asked, widening his eyes. Jongin palmed his face lightly.

"No, they're pretty, like  a girl's." He let out a high sqeak when Taemin punched him on his arm, right where Chanyeol had hit him during their game of Goldfish.

"We both have normal eyes, that's good."

"You know, we should thank our mommys and daddys. They gave us normal faces." Jongin suggested, looking over to his mother on the benches. "Well, yours made you look like a girl." He recieved another punch. 

        Taemin hopped off his swings and Jongin followed his lead. And thye both ran towards their mothers, who stood up as their sons raced towards them. Both of them hugged their mothers, muttering about 'normal genes, and 'I don't look like a girl' and thanking them for giving them nice eyes. The two women looked at each other, brows furrowed in confusion. But they decided to just shrug it off and returened the hugs.