“Do you want hyung to buy you something?”

He shook his head.

“Food?”

Usually, he wouldn’t say no but today he had decided to sulk so he had to say no. “No.”

Suho pretended to be shocked. “Really? No bubble tea?”

Sehun found himself considering the offer but then reminded himself he was angry and he should act how an angry act. “I am angry.”

“Oh, believe me, I can see that.” Suho smiled.

Sehun hugged the pillow that he had been hugging for the past half an hour tighter to his chest. “Good. Because I really am.”

Suho stood up from Sehun’s bed. He was trying to coax the younger boy but he knew only one person could put some sense into the sulking Sehun. “Don’t be too angry.”

Sehun didn’t reply.

Suho reached out for Sehun’s hair and ruffled it. “I’m going. I do not want to get any call from any of your hyungs complaining about you. Do you get that?”

Sehun nodded. He could be angry all he wanted but when receiving any order from the leader he had to put his anger aside.

“Be good.” Suho said before he left the room and almost bumped into Baekhyun who was on his way to enter the room.

Suho’s accusing looks had Baekhyun automatically defending himself. “What? I didn’t do anything!”

“Are you sure you weren’t being a total to Sehun?”

“No!” Baekhyun told the leader. “He won’t even talk to me.”

Suho’s eyes darkened, not liking what Baekhyun just told him. “I thought I’ve told you to fix your problem with Chanyeol. Your fight scared Sehun, that’s why he doesn’t talk to you.”

Baekhyun groaned at the mention of Chanyeol’s name. He had had an ugly fight with Chanyeol when Sehun was present and Sehun had avoided him ever since.

“They fight all the time. You should be worried if they don’t.” Chen came, just in time to not let Baekhyun answer the leader.

Chen’s words had Suho thinking and Baekhyun frowning.

Then, Suho nodded agreeing. Having Chanyeol and Baekhyun fighting was better than seeing them not talking to each other. It was worrisome when they were both silent. “You take care of everything here while I’m gone. I have to see Mr. Lee.”

“Is there something wrong?” Chen questioned.

“Not that I know of.” Suho shrugged. He had feared if his group had misbehaved again but after thinking for some time, he really had nothing to be worried about. His group had been in their best behaviour. “Manager hyung told me it’s nothing serious.”

Chen sat on the bed with the grumpy maknae and crossed his arms over his chest, looking very doubtful. “Okay then.”

“Make him eat.” Suho ordered as he pointed to Sehun and then he exited the room.

Baekhyun too plopped down on the bed on Chen’s other side. “What do you think this is all about?”

“Hmm…” Chen appeared to be thinking very hard.

“What’s with the hmm?”

“Last time they said ‘nothing serious’ they actually caught an anti-fan trying to poison Luhan.” Chen said while side eying the maknae.

“What?” Baekhyun gasped. “How can we not know about this?” Baekhyun questioned looking both upset and worried. “When the hell did this happen?”

 “It happened during the promotion in China. A fan gave him a drink and Luhan just took it and he drank it.” Chen explained. “He vomited just seconds after. He was lucky though because he was with Xiumin hyung. Xiumin called the manager and they took him to the hospital very fast. We weren’t very suspicious as to why they were not at the hotel room that night. Manager told us nothing’s wrong. He said Luhan and Xiumin were hanging out with Luhan’s friends and that they had the permission to. We knew nothing until the next day because Xiumin hyung came back to the hotel crying.”

Baekhyun still looked surprised. “Xiumin hyung cried?”

Chen nodded, still eying Sehun who was avoiding eye contact and had not given any reaction. “Yes. I am not allowed to tell you this. Xiumin hyung might break my neck but we don’t judge him. He thought he was losing Luhan.”

“No, I won’t judge.” Baekhyun rubbed his chest and shook his head slowly. “Phew…How the hell did we not know about this? Luhan hyung seemed fine when he came back from China. I mean, wow, all of you really know how to act.”

Chen shrugged. “We didn’t want the incident to affect our comeback. The company even chose to not make this public.”

“Antis are ing crazy man. My mom always reminds me to be careful with the fans too. Even fans are too much to handle.” Baekhyun huffed.

Chen nudged the dramatic Baekhyun and said. “Hey, it’s okay now.”

Baekhyun leaned back to the wall and looked up to the ceiling, still couldn’t stop worrying. “I never knew it’ll be this crazy you know. Isn’t there any side effect to the poisoning? Is he completely healed?”

“I don’t know he never told us any detail about the poisoning. He didn’t want us to worry but I do realize he kept having a coughing fit now and then since the incident.”

Baekhyun frowned hard. “Aren’t you worried about this?”

“I am sure he is okay. Manager loves him; pretty sure he is being taken care of very well.” Chen followed Baekhyun’s gaze and stopped at the ceiling. “What is so interesting with the ceiling?”

Baekhyun didn’t answer Chen. “Things like this are more likely to happen to an idol with more fans. More fans means more antis.”

“So?”

It took Bakehyun few seconds before he replied. “I have to be very careful.”

Chen froze. He told himself to not respond to Baekhyun’s statement. He will pretend like he didn’t hear it. Baekhyun’s ability to annoy him to no end was getting on his nerve. So, instead of giving a reply to Baekhyun, Chen shifted his focus to Sehun. “Talk to me.”

Sehun shook his head.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Sehun didn’t answer.

“What’s wrong with both the maknaes anyway?” Baekhyun stretched his leg towards Sehun and kicked the younger boy’s leg, not caring that Chen was sitting between them. “And this kid won’t even talk to me! Talk to me kid!”

Chen frowned at Baekhyun’s abusive leg that was now across his own legs and pushed it away, saving the maknae from Baekhyun. “Kai misses his sister. She promised to come today but she cancelled it last minute.”

Baekhyun quickly adjusted in position, giving up on Sehun who acted like he didn’t exist. “Which sister?”

“The oldest one.”

“He is acting up because his sister doesn’t want to come?”

“He hasn’t seen her for months.”

“I haven’t seen my brother for five months, my life is great.” Baekhyun exclaimed, flinging his hands in the air.

Chen laughed. Baekhyun’s relationship with his sibling was the contrary of Kai’s relationship with his two sisters. Baekhyun always had complains about his brother. Either for being bullied or being ignored totally. “You love him.”

“I do. But I wish my brother acts more like Luhan. Luhan is nice.”

“Luhan is a good brother.” Chen confirmed.

“Damn, we are lucky nothing bad happened to him.”

“Yes, can you imagine EXO without Luhan?”

“I don’t even want to. It’s horrible.”

“Sure is.”

Sehun thought he had had it with these two and stood up abruptly that he almost knocked Chen over. “I am out.” He declared.

*********

Sehun grumpily claimed the sofa and hoped no one would ever come and bother him. He was not in the mood to talk or even listen to anyone. He thought if he just sleep, the anger would soon fade away. Even sleeping was a hard thing to do. The room was so cold and he was only wearing shorts and a thin shirt.

He bent his elbow under his head and closed his eyes. He hummed to his favourite song in attempt to calm down and to avoid worrying about the thing that was already over. There was no need to worry about Luhan. He was fine. He looked fine. Well, if he wasn’t fine he wouldn’t go shopping with Minseok and left him here waiting. Oh, still, he could be angry. He had to be angry.  

For what felt like two hours later but in reality was just twenty minutes, Sehun fell asleep.

**********

“What did I do?”

“What did you not do?”

“What does that even mean?”

“He is always angry when you don’t do something.”

“Okay, I don’t even know what I did not do now.”

“Did you forget his birthday present?”

“I already gave him his birthday present… A week before his birthday!”

“Maybe he doesn’t count that as birthday present?”

“I told him it is a birthday present!”

“Did you buy him birthday cake?”

“Minseok, he got way too many cakes he could open up a bakery!”

“Luhan…”

“Minseok!”

“Okay, try to remember if you promised him anything?”

There was a pause, a blissful silence; Sehun thought he could finally continue sleeping now. The conversation had woken him up and he stretched a little. He didn’t even hear the detail about the conversation; it was just loud and annoying.

Sehun was very sleepy to realize Luhan and Minseok were hovering above him, having an argument about him. In a few seconds, Sehun went back to his own happy place.

“Is he awake?” Luhan asked.

“Let him sleep.” Minseok warned as he slapped Luhan’s hand that was reaching for Sehun’s hair.

Luhan pouted and said in a lower tone. “He is probably angry at you.”

Minseok snorted. “Me?”

“You keep stealing me away from him.” Luhan said grinning like an idiot. “He is probably angry you forced me to go out with you today.”

Minseok actually considered the reason but then quickly remembered it was Luhan who dragged him out earlier that day. “Luhan…” He said totally exasperated.

“Yes, Minseok?”

“Seriously, did you promise him anything?”

Luhan tilted his head up, thinking hard. “Not that I can remember.”

“Try, you always forget something.”

Luhan shot Minseok a glare but the later was already on his way back to his room. “Where are you going?”

“I am going to leave you. Figure out why he is angry at you.” Minseok stopped. “Ah... On second thought, I think he will let you know fast enough why he is mad… when he wakes up.”

Luhan groaned. “It is amusing how all of you can easily conclude that he is angry with me. He could be angry at you, or you!” Luhan yelled as he pointed a finger towards Chen.

Chen who was on his way to the kitchen stopped and gave Luhan his most innocent look. “What did I do?”

“You put the idea into Minseok’s head that it is my fault why the maknae is being grumpy!”

“Trust me, he is angry at you.” Chen told Luhan confidently. “Only you can make him feel so upset.”

“What makes you think so?”

“Oh, I can’t recall Sehun being so angry at any of us. It is always something you did that pissed him off.”

“Or something you did not do.” Minseok added.

“I don’t even know what I did not do!” Luhan barked.

Minseok put a finger to his lips. “Luhan, calm down. You are going to wake that kid up.”

Luhan shut his mouth and checked on Sehun. Sehun didn’t move an inch instead his mouth was wide opened and soft snores could be heard coming from him. When Luhan was sure Sehun was still sleeping he looked at Minseok and hissed. “I just don’t think it is fair for you to just assume that I made him angry without any clear evidence.”

“We don’t need any evidence.” Minseok waved his hand dismissively as he spun back around and entered his room.

Luhan’s lips curled in irritation.  Every time the maknae sulked the members would leave him to deal with it. He hated to admit that Minseok and Chen were right, Sehun could only be so angry when it came to him.

“Did you say something to him? Something hurtful?” Chen said.

“I did not.” Luhan quickly answered.

“Sure?”

“I am pretty sure.” Luhan confirmed.

“Are you sure you didn’t make any comment about his new hair?”

Luhan gave Chen his worst look. “What the hell, Chen?”

Chen shrugged and carefully added. “I don’t know, you can be a little insensitive when making comment about someone’s physical.”

“Yes. He can be.” A serious looking Kai came into the living room and agreed. “And my skin isn’t so dark.”

 There was a short silence before Luhan said. “I thought we passed that.”

“I am still angry though. Poor, stupid Tao may forgive you but I won’t.” Kai put one hand over his chest and dramatically exclaimed. “I was deeply wounded. I and hundred others people with dark skin tone.”

“Kai!” Chen warned.

Kai was just teasing but Luhan had taken his words seriously. Luhan was looking terribly guilty and Chen knew he had to say something before Luhan get all depressed again. Lucky for him Minseok came back, bringing a blanket with him.

“I do believe he had learned his lesson. You can stop now Kai.” Minseok went over to the sleeping Sehun, patted Luhan’s shoulder on his way and put the blanket on Sehun.

“Where are you going?” Chen asked Kai upon seeing the younger man all dressed up. It was also his poor attempt to change the subject.

Kai smiled widely and answered. “My noona is coming. We are having dinner together.”

“Thank goodness.” Chen announced rather loudly. The lead dancer’s mood was quite worrisome before and it had changed totally now. His face lit up like a ing Christmas tree.

Even Minseok laughed at Kai’s overly excited reaction. “You really miss her, don’t you?”

Kai nodded, looking like a happy five year old boy. “She promised to come and then she cancelled the plan but I made sure she feels horribly guilty for making me wait. So, she’s coming nonetheless.”

“He was sulking.” Chen informed Minseok but he couldn’t help but noticed Luhan’s gloomy expression.

“Maybe it is something I said.” Luhan who appeared to be thinking deeply, said. “I am an insensitive .”

Minseok and Chen shared a worried glance. Luhan was a nice person who had made a grief mistake by taking the joke that was supposed to be shared just between the members out to the public. He had made a poor comment about dark skin colour in an interview while joking with Tao and of course the public and fans had taken it seriously.

Luhan even got scolded by the manager and was depressed for days about it.

Minseok walked over to where Luhan was standing and took his hand. “Don’t think too much about it. The issue died away and there’s nothing to be worried about anymore.” He assured the dejected member.

“I am so stupid sometimes.” Luhan said bitterly.  “Maybe Sehun is angry because I said something to him.”

“I am sure it isn’t something serious.”

“I am an idiot.”

“No you are not. You are the nicest person I’ve ever met.”

Luhan looked down to the floor. “No, I am not. I am horrible.”

Minseok tipped Luhan’s chin up so he could look at him in the eyes. “You are a wonderful person, Luhan. Don’t let one mistake allow you to think otherwise.”

Luhan took the hand that was touching his chin and smiled at its owner. It was always nice to hear comforting words coming from Minseok.

Kai who was absolutely clueless of what his teasing had led to, just gaped at the two oldest members. “What-what is happening here?”

Chen coughed loudly, attempting to alert the oldest members about Kai’s presence that they seemed to have forgotten. These two weren’t so good at hiding their affection towards each other. Chen didn’t want to have Kai traumatized. “Okay!!! Let’s not forget that we have an angry maknae to deal with. Other feelings aside let’s focus on this one.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Kai questioned.

“He is angry at Luhan hyung.” Chen said, relieved at how easy it was to distract Kai.

Kai let out a loud ‘Hmphh’ while dramatically rolling his eyes. “You promised to go with him to visit his family today but you went out with Minseok hyung instead.” Kai said, as he walked away heading to the door.

“Ah…That.” Luhan said, sounding relieved before he panicked. “That! Oh my god I forgot!”

 

*********

Luhan had been doing a lot of thinking while Sehun had been doing a lot of glaring. Luhan wished he was in China doing promotion instead of facing Sehun. Sehun wouldn’t say anything; he just kept glaring at him.

He had promised Sehun that they will go to Sehun’s parents’ house together today but he had forgotten about it totally and he went out with Minseok instead. Damn Minseok was right; it was something he did not do.

Sehun had all the right to be angry because the next free days they were going to get were at least a month away, if they were lucky enough. The fact that for the next two weeks Luhan and the rest of EXO M members will be in China only added up to Sehun’s anger.

“I am angry.” Sehun exclaimed. It was not like he didn’t know Luhan knew but something was worth saying out loud.

“Sorry.” Luhan said. “I completely forgot. But hyung bought you this.” Luhan pulled out a sweater from one of his shopping bags and tossed it to Sehun.

Sehun wasn’t amused. “You just give this to me because I am upset! You know I don’t like animal prints!” He barked.

Luhan shrugged and smiled at his own failure. “Well, I tried.”

“Well, you !” Sehun threw the sweater back at him.

 Luhan caught it. “I am giving you the most expensive item I bought today.”

“I don’t want it!”

Luhan shifted farther from the maknae. “Okay. Okay. I am sorry. I’ll make it up to you. What do you want hyung to do?”

“You will forget, why bother asking?” Sehun said, kicking the sofa Luhan sat on.

“Sehun, I know you are mad at me but I am still your hyung.” Luhan warned as he pointed to Sehun’s log leg that was abusing the poor sofa. “Just… just tell me what I have to do. I will do it. Right away I will.”

Sehun actually considered this. He pulled the blanket he had tighter to his body. “You will have to tell me the truth.”

“Well, okay. Not that I am hiding things from you. So, yeah, I guess if that will make you feel better.” Luhan quickly agreed. This was better than promising to do something he was sure he will end up not doing. “What do you want to know?”

Sehun studied Luhan carefully before he asked. “Are you okay?”

Luhan didn’t expect the question but he answered it anyway. “Uhm…yeah. I am okay.”

“Sure?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s just something you haven’t told me.”

This was the time when Luhan usually would feel like ripping off his head, time like this when the members just gave him hints instead of telling him directly what they wanted to say. “Something I haven’t?”

“Yes. Something about someone almost kill you?”

Luhan’s eyebrows met. “What?” Luhan swore sometimes he just couldn’t get the maknae. Sehun had always been the clingy younger brother to him but sometimes he could also be a very y younger friend.

“Chen hyung said a fan poisoned you in China.” Sehun said, now starting to doubt Chen.

“Err…what?” Luhan asked, completely baffled. “Who tried to poison me?”

“He… he said a fan gave some drinks to you and you drank it, something about you were hospitalized and Minseok hyung cried and we weren’t supposed to know, did he… did he lie to me?” Sehun came to realization when Luhan innocently shrugged.

Sehun’s jaw dropped. “What the . I was worrying for nothing!”

“Yes…Probably.” Luhan added carefully. Sehun’s rage was more visible than earlier. “And… isn’t that what happened to Yunho hyung?”

Sehun slapped his forehead. “The .”

“He is probably just saying things so you can forgive me.”

“Well, that is not so nice is it!” Sehun barked.

Luhan held both hands up to his chest level. “Wow, don’t get mad at me. You can kill him, I will totally support you.”

Sehun stood up abruptly, still having the blanket covering his body. “Oh yeah I will. Lying about this kind of thing is not funny at all. Wait until Baekhyun hyung knows.”

“Yes. Not funny at all. You show him.” Luhan said, encouraging. He was secretly relieved Sehun’s focus was now diverted to Chen. Luhan started picking up his shopping bags, eager to go to his room. “People can’t just easily poison me, I am too important for this group.”

Sehun who was already on his way to Chen’s room, stopped as if he just hit an invisible wall. “Maybe there’s something else you can do for me.”

“Oh god, what now?” Luhan said exasperated, dropping his shopping bags back on the floor.

 “Never leave EXO.” Sehun said, not turning around to look at Luhan. “That is probably the best thing you can do for me to make up for today. I can’t imagine us without you.” He added before he walked away.

It was when Sehun was already inside Chen’s room did Luhan reply. “Yes… Sure…”