"-go back to the dorm."

The younger man stared up at the leader of the group. "But Hyunwoo hyung... I don't think I'm ready yet-"

Shownu shook his head, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Kihyun, you've worked hard. We all have. Go home."

As the only two of the group left in the practice room, Kihyun and Shownu had been dancing the longest. The taller of the two sighed, realizing that the younger wasn't going to budge on the subject.

"I'll be going now, make sure to turn the lights off when you leave," the older sighed, patting the orange haired boy on the head before grabbing his things to leave," Don't stay too long, it's almost midnight."

About half an hour later Kihyun was lying on the ground, breathless and sweaty from dancing. His head lolled to the side, orange hair sticking out every which way and tired eyes attempting to focus on the clock above the mirrors.

It's late, he thought to himself, chest puffing out with every intake of breath. 

Kihyun contemplated staying a little longer - running through one more round of Hero - but when his mind flashed briefly to what Shownu said he decided it was probably time to go. Rolling to his feet, the vocalist readied himself to leave. He forced himself to tidy up the room despite his extreme exhaustion - knowing full well that the group would be punished if the practice room was in any worse condition than how it was when the group got there. Kihyun did a few laps around the room, making sure to toss out the empty water bottles and picking up a couple of the towels that had been left behind. The man sighed out as he shut off the lights, leaving the practice room when it looked relatively spotless. He pulled at his shirt, unhappy with the way his sweat had his clothes clinging to him as he stumbled up the stairs and back to the dorm. 

A pair in the corner of the hallway grinned, eyes trained on the retreating figure of Monsta X's lead vocalist. The taller of the two pulled out his phone.

"Kihyun has left the practice room, I repeat, Kihyun has finally left the practice room."

x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x

Kihyun dragged his legs as he pushed through the front door of the dorm. Quickly doing away with his shoes - seemingly unaware of the fact that they were the only pair occupying the space - the vocalist proceeded to strip out of his clothes as he made his way to the bathroom. Normally he wouldn't  be so careless about where he flung his clothes - he wouldn't even undress outside the bathroom or bedrooms - but the feel and smell of being drenched in sweat had become unbearable and his aching body told him not to care about something so trivial as walking around the dorm . 

He didn't even bother locking the door as he entered the bathroom, stepping immediately inside the shower. Bracing himself for a stream of cold water, Kihyun almost jumped up in shock when instead he was hit by an influx of warmth. The warm water ran along every crevice of his body, washing away the slick of sweat. He stood there longer than necessary after washing himself, merely enjoying the feeling of warm water drenching his aching muscles and only stopping when the water began to run cold. 

Legs wobbling, Kihyun quickly patted himself down with a towel before wrapping it around his body and creeping into his room. The lights were off and he left it that way - not wanting to wake up anyone up - as he quickly threw on a loose fitting T-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts. What the vocalist failed to recognize was that there was no one else in the room. He couldn't help but to laugh as his body hit the mattress, exhaustion hitting him full force like a ton of bricks. Sighing in content, the vocalist willingly allowed sleep to take him, his eyes slowly flickering closed.

x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x  x

"Hyunwoo hyung... I think he fell asleep."

Shownu stared down at the sleeping male and nodded - a gesture barely seem by the other five males standing around him.

"What do we do?"

The leader turned to the rest of the group.

"Cover the cake and put the presents on the kitchen table, we'll celebrate later."

Nodding in agreement, the men shuffled out of the room - all except Shownu. He watched the others leave before turning back to Kihyun, eyes finally focusing correctly in the dark. Bending down beside the sleeping vocalist, the leader couldn't help but to smile.

"You look so tired," he whispered, hand swiping away a few locks of orange hair off of Kihyun's face.  "I hope you sleep well."

He spent a few more moments admiring the boy's relaxed expression before standing up.

"You deserve it."

As he turned around to leave a hand shot out, wrapping gently around his wrist.

"Hyung..." The younger rasped out, voice husky from sleep. "Please..."

Shownu turned to look at the younger, his wide eyes raking across his younger bandmate's face. Kihyun stared up at his leader through heavily lidded eyes, sleep fighting against his will to stay awake as he kept his hand wrapped around the older's.

"Please what?" Hyunwoo whispered, in his lower lip as he stepped closer to his bed.

Kihyun looked up to him, eyelids falling slightly with every passing second and hand tugging him forward.

"Join me."

Shownu nodded before moving away momentarily to slip out of his day clothes.

"Where do you want me?" he whispered when he walked back to the vocalist's bed.

"Behind me," Kihyun mumbled, eyelids finally falling shut all the way.

The older complied, knees pressing into the mattress as he crawled over the smaller man's body. Shownu slowly rested behind Kihyun, pressing his chest against the other's back. Shownu wrapped one arm around the vocalist, the other hand resting gently against his head. The vocalist eased back into the other's embrace, sighing out in comfort at the warmth.

"Hyung..." he whispered, fingers coming up to trace gently along the arm wrapped around his waist.

Shownu shushed him, fingers Kihyun's hair slowly, soothing him closer and closer to sleep. Just as the pair were about to fall asleep the door cracked open. The male squeezed into the room, quietly but not unnoticeable.

"Shownu hyung?" he whispered. "Where are you?"

Walking closer to the bed, the younger male whined.

"Hey I wanna cuddle too!"

It only took a few seconds for the male to crawl into bed with the other two, his forehead pressing softly against Kihyun's and his arm crisscrossing with Shownu's as it wrapped around the former's waist. He interlaced his fingers with Kihyun's free hand, pressing his body closer to the older male.

"Changkyun-" Shownu grunted out before being interrupted by another intruder.

"Aww why would you guys leave me out?" the new intruder groaned before shouting out the door. "Dongsaeng's I found them!"

The man stumbled through the dark room, followed quickly by the other three groupmates. He stumbled over to the bed - eyes not yet used to the darkness of the room - before climbing over Changkyun, Kihyun, and Shownu.

"Hoseok," the oldest huffed out as the other vocalist wedged his toned body between the wall and his own.

"I call behind Changkyun!" the shortest of the three standing men shouted, bounding towards the bed and carefully maneuvering himself around the youngest's body.

The last of the members - Hyungwon and Minhyuk - followed, miraculously finding space on the bed behind Jooheon and Wonho. The seven boys squished against each other, Kihyun sandwiched between all of them. The vocalist couldn't help but to smile as the boys piled on around him, their arms and legs all interlocked. The warmth of their bodies soothed him, his body relaxing further into the men's embrace. Shownu's fingers continued to trace gently against Kihyun's waist, his other hand playing slowly with his hair. He smiled, lips pressing gently against the back of the younger man's neck.

"Happy birthday Kihyun."