FREE TIME 

“Huh?” you hear Sehun say. Even his ‘huh?’ doesn’t show interest, so you take off your shoes and head to the living room, which also happens to be where he sleeps. He’s sitting by his desk, his back turned towards you, and he’s writing something, glancing at his laptop screen every now and then.

“Not a peep,” you say, making some ridiculous hand gesture and plopping down on the spread-out couch. “For two weeks.”

“Silence before the storm?” Sehun questions, his voice quiet and low.

“Don’t say that,” you scold. You look at his profile. He looks very serious. He’s frowning at his paper, and his laptop screen shows some weird organs. Or the inside of them – you’re not sure. “What are you doing?”

“Essay,” he shoots.

“Should I go?”

“Naw.”

“I should, shouldn’t I?”

“You can stay, just—“

“Shut up?”

“Well, I wouldn’t use the word ‘shut’—“

“Because you’re a gentleman—“

“—But do shut up, Dal.”

You snort, and you see Sehun smiling a private smile.

*

“Okay,” says Kai, turning on the TV. “Whose turn is it?”

“Mine!” says Eun, raising her hand and standing up. Xiumin moves his legs a little so that she can cross the distance between the couch and the shelf where Kai keeps all the movies. As Kai sets the TV, Eun picks the movie she wants the pack to watch today, and happily hands it to the boy.

“What do you think it’s gonna be today, Dal?” Taemin asks, addressing an orange that he’s holding.

He drew eyes and lips on it, and he keeps on calling it ‘Dal’ and talking to it. Everyone except for Kai is deeply amused by it.

“Something better than these random trust falls Kai told us to do last week, that’s for sure,” Baekhyun says, yawning nonchalantly.

“It was for pack bonding, Baekhyun,” says Chen, parroting Kai’s voice and overall demeanor. “You’re so ungrateful!”

“Let’s be real tho, we all knew Suho is the only one who’d catch him,” Tao speaks up.

“I bet his still hurts from all that falling,” adds Min, snorting loudly.

“Ha, ha,” Kai says angrily. “Shut up.”

They all let out ‘oooh’ sounds and pretend to be scared, after which they burst out laughing.

“Come on dude,” says Luhan, smiling warmly at Kai. “Let’s watch a movie.”

“I saved you a seat,” Yixing informs, motioning for Kai to join them. Kai deflates a little and walks back to the couch once he turns on the movie. He gets slapped in the by Kris as he goes, but he doesn’t mind.

*

Sehun comes home to you doing the dishes and talking to Kyungsoo on the phone at the same time.

He’ll never understand girls and their multitasking.

He automatically starts listening into the conversation, and when he enters the kitchen, he also sees that you made food. He melts inside. He’s so happy he’s living with you.

“Besides that, nothing much happened lately,” he hears Kyungsoo say. “Mm, for the past three days Taemin’s been referring to me exclusively through pop culture references, there’s that.”

Sehun chokes on the water he’s drinking, and you look up to outwardly smirk at him. As he tries to clear his throat, Kyungsoo continues:

“I’ve been called Zuko, Ozzy Osbourne, Jean Valjean, and more.”

“This is savage,” Sehun comments, putting away the water bottle and reaching out for the food you made that’s on one big plate. You notice him trying to do it sneakily, so you grab a cloth you use to dry the dishes and slap his hand with it, while Kyungsoo keeps on talking to you.

Sehun yells in surprise and looks at you, betrayed, as he rubs his stinging hand.

“Do not snap towels at me, I had a very dramatic childhood,” he says, making you laugh out loud.

“I feel pushed out of the conversation,” says Kyungsoo. You laugh again.

“Sorry,” you say. “Sehun’s distracting me.”

“Better don’t say that to Kai, he’s gonna get the wrong idea,” Kyungsoo reminds you. “By the way, Kai ate the orange Tae’s been using as you, so obviously, he had to replace you with something.”

“Oh, I know,” you say, turning off the water and taking the same towel you used on Sehun before to wipe your wet hands. “He sent me a pic.”

“Are you talking about the tennis ball?” Sehun makes sure. You nod. “Well, at least Kai can’t eat it.”

“Right?”

“My dad just put ice cream into mashed potatoes,” Kyungsoo speaks up, completely changing the subject. His voice sounds like he can’t believe what he’s seeing, and is very hesitant. “I don’t know if that’s a thing or an obese thing. Or both.”

You and Sehun burst out laughing,

*

Kai, Taemin, Kyungsoo, Yixing, Seon and Myungsoo are at the gym. Taemin and Kai have been sparring for some time now, while the rest observed and talked.

“Sloppy,” Taemin says right before managing to avoid Kai’s punch and punching him in the stomach himself. Kai doesn’t even cringe, but Taemin still counts that as a win – it’s super hard to actually hit Kai. “I win!”

“Five to four for Kai,” Kyungsoo says.

“Another round?” Taemin asks, pointing at Kai a bit carelessly. He’s covered in sweat and breathing heavily; Kai’s sweaty, too, but he doesn’t look tired at all.

“Pass,” Kai says, heading to the rest to drink some water. Taemin looks over at Kyungsoo.

“Ayo young Billy Ray Cyrus, come spar with me,” he says.

“Pass,” young Billy Ray Cyrus replies. “I’m a lover, not a fighter.”

“I thought you were a singer?” Seon questions.

“Oh come on,” Taemin drawls out, pouting. “Just turn your head around, show me that party in the back.”

“What the hell are you guys talking about?” Myungsoo asks, chuckling.

“Only 90’s kids will understand,” Taemin tells him.

“I’m your age!” Myungsoo replies, smiling even wider now.

“Are you now?” Taemin asks, surprised. “Come spar with me then! I’m ready for some action.”

“You don’t stand a chance,” Seon speaks up, smirking. Taemin quirks a brow at her.

“Ohh,” he says, drawling out the sound. “Sounds like a challenge. Bring it on.”

“Five on Taemin,” says Yixing, reaching his hand out towards Seon. Myungsoo stands up, smiling nonchalantly.

“Deal,” says Seon, shaking Yixing’s hand. Taemin winks at Yixing.

“Don’t let me down fam,” Yixing asks him.

Taemin and Myungsoo turn out to be almost equal when it comes to combat, but Taemin is a bit more tired. They’re tied when he decides that he can’t do it anymore, so he just tackles Myungsoo onto the ground and then they wrestle until Taemin decides to see whether or not Myungsoo is ticklish.

Myungsoo loses the last round, and Yixing laughs at Seon for the next two days.

*

Krystal is laughing at Myungsoo’s joke when she hears a particular thought that just seems to randomly tear into her brain.

I could’ve done more.

With the words comes a memory of a dying, starving girl. Krystal’s smile falls, and Myungsoo gets freaked out by that.

“Krystal?” he asks, confused. Krystal turns her head to look at the person who just had these thoughts, and her eyes stop on Baekhyun. “Krystal.”

She snaps her eyes back at Myungsoo. He looks concerned.

“You okay?” he asks. It takes her a moment to come back and understand what he’s asking for.

“Yeah,” she says slowly. “Yes. I’m okay. I just heard some—thoughts.”

“My sun and stars!” Amber screams suddenly, running into the room and tackling Baekhyun, who’s on the couch. They both fall off of it with similar grunts and sounds of pain. “Where're your werewolf reflexes at?!” 

*

“Mei,” says Changmin to a secretary of theirs, as he frowns down at a form he’s holding. “I thought I’ve filled that one before?”

Mei looks up from her computer screen to take a look at the document.

“You have,” she says, “but you’re supposed to make two copies.”

Changmin goes pale.

“But I already gave the original to Maeng,” he says. Mei, who easily freaks out over even the tiniest mistakes, opens her eyes widely.

“What?” she says. “It’s incomplete then. You need to make two copies and give them to the chief.”

“He’s not going to take them,” Changmin says, lowering his voice and leaning forward, so that he’s closer to Mei as well. “He hates it when I forget stuff!”

“Ask Heechul to smuggle it in,” says someone behind Changmin’s back. He straightens up and looks over his shoulder to see Kris shrugging. “He goes through Maeng’s papers every day, anyways. Maeng won’t notice.”

“How did you hear him?” Mei asks, squinting at Kris. Changmin looks at her, then back at Kris, who looks busted and is doing a poor job hiding it.

“It’s not like you were subtle,” Kris says, his cheeks going pink. Changmin gives him a deadpan look. Mei’s already pretty suspicious of everything Kris does, and Kris using his werewolf mojo on a daily basis doesn’t help. So she just squints harder at him.

Changmin sighs. “Heechul won't help me,” he says, sounding sad.

“Because?” Mei questions.

“Because I was a to him today,” Changmin admits. “I told him he looks like a homeless person in that new coat of his.”

“I agree with that,” says Kris, nodding wisely.

“You guys know nothing about fashion, that coat is absolutely gorgeous,” Mei butts in, giving them an outraged look. Changmin and Kris, on the other hand, exchange ‘done’ looks, and head to their desks.

They go about their usual duties (paperwork, mostly) when Heechul and a few other cops come back from field work. They got a call about a fight in the city around an hour ago, and now they’re bringing in the offenders, or so it seems.

The second they open the door to walk in, Kris senses that something’s wrong. He looks up and there comes Heechul.

And he has Chen - handcuffed - next to him.

Chen’s been coming to the station quite a lot lately (Mei points that out daily – after all, Chen is just a civilian, and yet, even the chief treats him like one of the police officers), but this time he’s wearing handcuffs.

“What the hell, Chen?” is the first thing Kris asks when his and Chen’s eyes meet.

“Don’t worry, we’re not going to charge him,” Heechul says.

“I didn’t do anything,” Chen says, shrugging innocently. “It was the other guy acting violent, I just did my duty as a Korean citizen!”

“You got into a fight?” Changmin asks, standing up from his chair. They’re all sharing the same working space, and it happens to be right next to Maeng’s office. The blinds are rolled down in there, though, so he can’t possibly see what’s going on outside.

“I had to,” Chen says. “That guy over there,” he says, throwing his head back to point at a man a few other policemen are bringing in, “was this close to trashing the entire restaurant, come on. He hit his girlfriend!”

“Calm down Zorro,” Heechul says, sitting him down on a chair by Kris’s desk.

“You know what’s worse?” Chen asks, staring at Kris wide-eyed. “I called shotgun, and that ,” he nods at Heechul, who shakes his head in disbelief, “shoved me in the back! I mean—I get that I was being arrested, but the rules of shotgun are pretty clear, man. Talk about awkward.”

Changmin and Kris stifle a laugh. Mei is staring at Chen like he’s grown a pair of antennae.

“Hey, Heechul?” Changmin asks meekly. It’s so weird that Chen actually chokes on air, and turns his head to make sure its Changmin that spoke up. Heechul squints even before he looks at Changmin, and when he does, Changmin swallows hard. “Um…I have a favor to ask of you. You see, last week I filled out that form—“

“I’m sorry,” Heechul says, blinking owlishly and looking away from Changmin. “I…can’t hear you…I think the connection’s…breaking up…”

And with that, he heads to Maeng’s office. Kris snorts so hard he sounds like coughing.

*

You hear a soft knock on your door and you wake up from a nap. Blinking away the sluggishness, you recognize Sehun standing in the threshold. He holds up a rustling bag.

“I’ve got food for you,” he says. You smile lazily, stretching out in bed. “Rough day?”

“Physical training,” you explain with a yawn. You sit up, and Sehun closes the distance between you two. He sits down on your mattress and starts unpacking the food. It’s chicken wings and fries. Only when you smell it do you get reminded of how hungry you are.

“You should eat more,” Sehun says. “You move a lot, and you don’t sleep much. You should at least take care of your diet.”

“Okay dad,” you say, taking your portion from him. Sehun nudges you with his elbow. You eat in silence for a while.

“Heard Kai got a job?” Sehun says then.

“Mmm,” you nod energetically, trying to swallow what you already have in your mouth. “I can’t imagine him at work, to be honest.”

“Yeah. Kai and human interaction? Hold me.”

You laugh at that.

“It’s time, though,” you say. “I think he finally got bored enough without us around to actually go and look around for something to do, besides watching movies and playing games with Taemin.”

“He should just go and work at the gym, teach old ladies samba,” Sehun comments.

“Imagine Kai wearing a colorful dancing suit,” you snort. Sehun makes a weird, wheezing sound.

“God,” he says. “He’d have glitter in his hair, I’m sure.”

“Oh my God, buy me some glitter, please. Next time I see him, I’ll just pour it all over him.”

“Dude, I’m in,” Sehun says enthusiastically.

You eat in silence. Then Sehun goes to throw away the boxes and leftovers, and you follow him into the kitchen to have something to drink. He starts to sing-song Spice Girls.

“Sehun,” you say.

“Mm?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

“Why don’t you try being with Sulli?”

He stops in the middle of throwing out the trash. He stares at the trash can, bent towards it slightly. Then he slowly straightens up.

“You told me you love her,” you remind him when he doesn’t reply. “It’s not something that you should just ignore.”

“I’m not ignoring it,” Sehun says weakly. He resumes cleaning after your dinner. “I talked to her about it already.”

“And?”

“And we both know it just won’t work out.”

Something sharp goes through your heart. Why does it feel like your heart is being broken, when it’s Sulli and Sehun that are hurting?

“Why?” you question. “You get along. You’re protective of each other. You understand each other—“

“There’s a few reasons,” Sehun interrupts you. He finishes cleaning, and he finally looks you in the eyes. But he crosses his arms over his chest. “We just know, Dal.”

“I thought I would never be with Kai, and look at us now.”

“It’s different.”

“Different how?”

He purses his lips.

“Sulli doesn’t want a relationship,” he says finally. “She can barely understand and accept herself, and she’s not ready for accepting anyone else just yet. Not in this way, not this—profoundly. And even if she did, she wouldn’t—she can’t…”

He doesn’t finish, because his voice suddenly cracks. You stare at him, watch his eyes go red from tears, and you feel scared and sad for him.

You approach him and pull him into a very long hug.

Decided to write a pack-centered chapter :) Hope you liked it honey bee cookies!