Donghae and Eunhyuk walked into the kitchen after Ryeowook was done cleaning up from breakfast and nodded to one another before getting his attention.  He was standing at the counter, checking on the chicken which had been marinating overnight, when the two walked up and stood on either side of him.

            “Hey Wookie!” Donghae greeted him.

            “Oh, hi guys,” he said, grinning as he looked back and forth between them.  “You changed clothes.”

            “Yeah,” Eunhyuk began.  “We have an errand to run and it looks a little goofy to go in our uniforms.  We have to go to the nursery and make an order for the flowers we’re going to plant this year in the gardens.  Sometimes we even end up having to bring some back with us if they already have some in stock, so we didn’t want to get messy.”

            “Oh,” Ryeowook said, nodding as if he understood.  “When will you be back?”

            Eunhyuk scrunched his face up.  “That depends,” he said, unable to commit to a time.  “The man who usually handles our orders retired this year and back when he was running the show it still took two or three hours.”

            “That one time it was four and a half.  Remember?” Donghae piped in.

            Eunhyuk pointed to him and nodded.  “That’s right.”

            It was late morning already and Ryeowook looked up at the clock.  “You’ll be back for dinner, right?”

            “Is that what you’re making?” Donghae asked.

            “Yes, karaage.”

            “Definitely,” he promised.  “We’ll make sure that we are.  We’ll tell them we have an important appointment we need to be back for if we have to.”

            “The only trouble is that we are going to fall behind on our other chores,” Eunhyuk complained.

            Donghae nodded.

            “I mean, now that Heechul is finally asleep, I should be trying to rest myself but instead I have all this work to do because he doesn’t let me be.  And now, since we promised Shindong we’d put the order in this weekend, we’ll be even further behind,” Eunhyuk said, trying to sound frustrated.  It wasn’t hard to do, since he really was tired of Heechul’s nit-picky requests and his sleepless nights.

            “Oh!” Ryeowook said, holding his hands to his chest.  “Why don’t I help you out?  I have some extra time this afternoon.”

            “Really?” Donghae asked.

            “Are you sure?” Eunhyuk said, placing his hand on shoulder.

            “Of course!  I don’t mind,” he swore.

            “Well, there’s a lot to do and certainly one person couldn’t get it done in a few hours but Leeteuk’s bedding should be replaced and the laundry needs to be continuously worked on.  Then the rooms on the main floor need vacuuming and the furniture needs dusting.”

            “The inside windows need washing,” Donghae added.

            “All the supplies are in the closet next to the laundry room,” Eunhyuk informed him.

            “Okay,” Ryeowook said, nodding.

            “You are such a god-send,” Donghae praised.  “I don’t know what we’d do without you.”

            “Oh, but I owe you guys so much for bringing me here,” Ryeowook said, wrapping one arm around each of them.

            Donghae glanced at his watch.  “Oh, we’re going to be late if we don’t get moving, hun.”

            “Yeah, yeah,” he said.  “Heechul just fell asleep so he shouldn’t need anything and Kyuhyun has locked himself upstairs again, so you may want to check in with Leeteuk to see if he needs something but I have a sneaky feeling he’s checking his work emails while his brother and cousin aren’t around to reprimand him, so he shouldn’t need anything.”

            Eunhyuk felt like he was leaving his kids with a babysitter and decided not to ponder how close that was to the truth as he made his way to the back door and thanked Ryeowook again as they snuck out of the house. 

            “Karaage!”

            “I hope doing our chores doesn’t make dinner run too late,” Eunhyuk said, hopping into the car.

            “That’s probably a good thing because I intend to pig out at the fair.  It will be at least an hour or two before I’m ready to eat afterwards,” Donghae explained.

            “I can’t believe how easy that was!”

            “We should have invited your brother with.  He wouldn’t rat us out to Kyuhyun,” Donghae said.

            “But he’s already buddying up to Wookie.  Besides, he said that he had some hot date today,” Eunhyuk said, starting the car and heading down the driveway.

            “A hot date?  Is he giving up on Yesung then?”

            “Sounds like it.”

            “What?  But poor Yesung,” Donghae only said.
            “Yesung had all this time to make a move if he really was interested.  He hasn’t.  My brother shouldn’t wait around forever,” he countered, not feeling the least bit sorry when he’s seen how dejected Sungmin has felt over Yesung’s rejections.  It was time for him to find someone who wanted him too.

            Yesung remained surprisingly unruffled, not showing the slightest repulsion as children ran past them, bumping into his legs on occasion, their little faces and fingers sticky with ice cream or cotton candy.  There were people screaming as they rode past on the roller coaster, a band playing on the stage and still he didn’t seem in any rush to leave.  Then again, they’d never gone somewhere just by themselves before.  Usually Donghae and Eunhyuk dug him out with them.  Even the other day, they’d taken Ryeowook out shopping.  It was never just the two of them with the exception of Yesung occasionally driving him home, so seeing this side of Yesung was new to him and he didn’t know quite what to make of it.  It was late afternoon and they’d already been at the fair since the morning.

            “Are you tired of being here?” Sungmin asked.

            “No,” Yesung said, bringing his attention back to Sungmin.  “They have fireworks later, so I thought we’d stay for them.”

            “Really?” Sungmin said, clasping his hands together.  “I didn’t think you’d want to stay this long!”

            “This is a lot better than being at home right now, trust me.”

            That’s right, Sungmin thought, his heart sinking.  Yesung was only here with him to avoid all the company at the house.  It had nothing to do with wanting to see him. 

            “Are you tired from being up all night?”

            “Oh, no,” Sungmin said, correcting him.  “I pre-recorded last night’s show, so I got some rest.  I only usually drive in to deejay three or four nights a week.  The other one or two we record ahead of time during the other times I’m there,” he explained.

            “Oh, I didn’t know that,” he admitted.  “I guess I never asked how your schedule worked before,” he said, mumbling to himself a bit.  “That’s good to know.”

            Sungmin had no idea why it intrigued Yesung so much and was about to ask when Yesung stopped suddenly in the middle of the walkway and pointed to the ride ahead of them.

            “What?  Do you want to go on that one?” Sungmin asked.

            “Look who’s riding on it!”

            The ride was twirling around in circles, so it took a minute to spot what Yesung had.  “Eunhyuk and Donghae!  What are they doing here?”

            “That’s an excellent question since they don’t have the day off unless Kyuhyun excused them for some reason…and I highly doubt that,” he said, pulling his cellphone out of his pocket and aiming it at the ride as it began to slow to a stop.

            “Are you going to confront them?”

            “No,” he said, snapping a picture and sending it out as a text.  “It’s not my job to discipline them and it’s my day off.”

            “They’re going to see us if we stay here,” Sungmin pointed out.

            “You’re right,” he said, shoving his phone back in his pocket and reaching out to grab Sungmin’s hand.  He threaded his fingers through Sungmin’s and began to pull him away from the ride before the dizzy riders regained their senses and spotted them.

            Even when they were away from the rides and safely walking through the animal farms, Yesung kept holding onto his hand and chatting with him, as if they were on a real date instead of simply hanging out together so Yesung could dodge the house.  And Sungmin let himself believe, if only for this one day, that this was something more than he knew it to be.  After all this time, he deserved at least one date.

            Kyuhyun was too distracted to even play his games after finishing breakfast and instead lay down on the sofa as he thought about everything that had happened that week, especially focusing on his anger with his cousin and his apparent inability to share, as Heechul put it.  As much as he intended to stay on that train of thought until he had it all figured out, his thoughts kept drifting to the way Ryeowook’s eyes seemed to twinkle when he was amused and the funny high-pitched sound of his voice and the feel of him in his arms.  He ended up eventually falling asleep and woke to a knock on his door.  He was so thrown off that someone would bother knocking, since Ryeowook was already out of the habit, that he got up and walked to the door, opening it wide when he spotted his cousin on the other side.

            “Hey,” Kyuhyun greeted him, yawning.

            “I have a concern.”

            “What’s that?”

            “Your new cook is cleaning the whole bottom floor of the house and washing my bedding.  Isn’t that normally Donghae and Eunhyuk’s job?”

            “Yeah, what are they doing?”

            “I don’t know.  I haven’t seen them since this morning.”

            Kyuhyun looked at his watch.  It was already late afternoon.

            “I wouldn’t normally think a think of it but he’s starting to look a little frazzled and worn out and, frankly, I know Hyuk and Hae’s track record for taking advantage of people and I’m willing to bet my money on them sticking Ryeowook with their work.”

            “Thanks,” he said, patting Leeteuk’s shoulder and heading downstairs via the back staircase.  The room was empty.  When he opened the door to the hallway, he saw a giant heaping mass of blankets and sheets with two skinny legs walking his way.  Since it didn’t appear to have e