In the beginning, claiming that Choi Seungcheol was the struggling father of twelve had been but a joke, a jab at the leader of the often wild boys. As time progressed, however, the truth in such a statement seemed to grow increasingly apparent.

    It wasn’t entirely true, however; he really wasn’t the father of twelve.

    As he was in a relationship with Jisoo, he was only the father of eleven. A small victory, yet one he would gladly accept nonetheless.

    He hadn’t paid much thought to their situation when he and Jisoo had begun dating - he figured that things would still be the same with all of the other members. They’d all still spend time with one another as usual, like the (almost) adults that they were,  paying no mind to the fact that Seungcheol and Jisoo were in a relationship. However, if anything, they seemed to grow even more childish as time passed.

    It was rare for Seungcheol and Jisoo to find so much as a minute to themselves in the dorm. Of course, that was to be expected in a house full of thirteen boys, but it seemed that the others were going out of their ways at times to insure that the two were never by themselves. Even when they slept, they shared a room with other members. There really was no privacy for them. They did all that they could to secure time away for themselves, but the end result seemed always to be the same; failure.

    Regardless, when they saw opportunities, they took them, and the snow that had blanketed the world while they slept was nothing if not an opportunity.

    “It’s snowing,” Jisoo had stated plainly upon waking up, standing by the window as he watched the little flakes fall. After speaking, he turned to Seungcheol with his eyebrows raised, asking a silent question.

    He didn’t need to speak; Seungcheol understood. The elder nodded, immediately picking up on Jisoo’s idea - he had been thinking exactly the same thing, after all. Operation “Get Rid of the Boys”, begin.

    They had slept late that day, desperately attempting to cling to a few moments of time for themselves, so it was no surprise to find the members all awake (though some quite clearly more alert than others) and sitting in the living room with one another, all either on their phones or looking at the TV.

    Seungcheol and Jisoo exchanged one more brief glance before stepping out into the view of the others - they were definitely on the same page with this idea, and they were willing to fight tooth and nail to make it a reality.

    “Woah, it’s snowing!” Exclaimed Seungcheol as he dashed out in front of the boys, doing the best acting that he could muster (and, not that he wanted to brag about it, but his acting was pretty top notch).

    He was met by a blank gaze from Seungkwan, notoriously the hardest member to trick, and even more so when he was tired and grumpy -as he seemed to be now. “And?” He asked, expression bored. “It’s not like this is the first or last time it’ll snow.”

    “There’s a lot of it,” chimed in Jisoo, sincere look taking over his face as his eyes went wide. Seungcheol might’ve laughed at the situation had it not been of the utmost importance to him that they succeeded. He simply nodded, emphasizing the American’s point.

    Some members were far easier to get riled up than others, and it was easy to pick out said members from their reactions to Jisoo’s words. While none stood from their spots yet, the way that Soonyoung, Seokmin, and Chan all perked up was apparent. Seungcheol could already feel their impending victory - if they could just get the most excitable members on their side, then they would be home free.

    “How much?” Asked Soonyoung, attempting (and failing quite miserably) to seem disinterested, though his curiosity ended up getting the best of him.

    “I can’t tell from up here,” said Jisoo, that special sort of glint in his eyes like when he was about to say something clever, “you’d have to go outside to check.”

    Seungcheol was floored - that was the smoothest thing that he’d ever heard come out of Jisoo’s mouth, and if not for the situation that they were in, he would’ve dropped everything that he was doing to applaud him. A sense of pride swelled up within him - only his boyfriend could be so smooth.

    The gears seemed to be turning in Soonyoung’s head - he was a smart guy, after all, so it wouldn’t be particularly difficult for him to deduce that this was a scheme by Seungcheol and Jisoo. A lightbulb seemed to go on in his head, understanding dawning on him, and he nodded at the two. Seungcheol wanted to cheer; he was so grateful for such brilliant members.

    Soonyoung stood, clapping his hands as he looked to the other members, still draped lazily about the room. “Yah, what are you all doing still sitting there?” He scolded, looking over each and every one of them. “We don’t get chances to play in the snow much, let’s go do it!”

    Such coaxing was enough to pull Seokmin and Chan up from their places, giddy smiles as they were more than willing to follow along with Soonyoung as their leader. Three down, eight to go.

    With the most energetic members at the ready, the others began to look at one another, the members that tended to ‘go with the flow’ simply shrugging before standing - Jeonghan and Hansol stood beside the others without putting much thought into it, fine with whatever they ended up doing, be it sitting inside or playing in the snow.

    The duos then began to exchange glances, silent words passing between them. Mingyu looked at Wonwoo expectantly; the latter raised an eyebrow, seemingly amused by his childish antics, but complied nonetheless. Jun and Minghao looked at one another, tilting their heads from side to side in a way that didn’t make much sense to any of the other members, but it seemed sufficient for them, as they were willing to join as well.

    In the end, the only members left sitting were Seungkwan and Jihoon - the biggest challenges of them all. These, Seungcheol knew, would not be so easy as the others.

    “Why don’t you go ahead?” Said Jisoo to the standing members, once again on the same wavelength as Seungcheol without having to ask. “We’ll be out in just a few minutes.”

    The nine standing complied, bundling up in coats and scarves before heading out, leaving Seungcheol and Jisoo versus Jihoon and Seungkwan.

    Before either of the two conspirators could even speak, Seungkwan interjected with, “Save it, I’m not going out.”

    Jisoo folded his arms across his chest, making an expression not unlike that of a mother whose child has talked back to them. “Why not?”

    “I don’t really care that much about the snow,” Seungkwan challenged, a fire in his eyes indicating his refusal to back down.

    It wasn’t long before Jisoo and Seungkwan were locked into a full out battle, snapping back and forth at one another as to why they should/shouldn’t go out. Amid it all, however, Seungcheol saw their one chance at success - Jihoon.

    Jihoon, like Soonyoung, was a very intelligent man. Certainly by then he had long since discovered their plan, and was simply not going along with it out of sheer laziness. If Seungcheol could convince him, he could convince Seungkwan - victory was so close he could almost taste it.

    He shot a knowing look at Jihoon, raising his eyebrows and pleading silently.

    He was met with an empty stare from the younger.

    Upping the stakes a bit, he folded his hands together, begging even harder.

    Still, there was no reaction.

    Knowing that it was all or nothing, it was all Seungcheol could do to employ his biggest weapon - the puppy dog eyes. He widened his eyes as much as he could, pouting ever so slightly. Normally Jihoon wouldn’t break to such things, but it was his only chance - all he wanted was the dorm empty for he and Jisoo for once.

    Luck seemed to be on his side that day, however, as Jihoon rolled his eyes, mouthing the words, “You owe me,”. Seungcheol didn’t mind - he’d pay Jihoon every penny that he earned for the rest of his life for helping him out just this once.

    “Seungkwan,” came the short male’s voice, “let’s go.”

    Seungkwan turned to Jihoon, disbelief in his eyes, yet he didn’t utter a refusal - for reasons that could likely be chalked down as fear, Jihoon was the one member of the band that Seungkwan couldn’t stand to refuse. “Are you sure?” He asked tentatively, unsure of how to react to the decision that was uncharacteristic for the producer.

    Jihoon stood, beginning his way over to the door without waiting for Seungkwan. “Positive. C’mon.”

    Seungcheol wanted to be slightly irritated when Seungkwan stood and followed him out the door without question, but he couldn’t - finally, victory was theirs.

    He turned to Jisoo with a wide grin on his face, only to find the younger mimicking his expression as he pulled him in for a hug, placing an excited kiss on his cheek.

    “Let’s go back to bed and put on a movie, yeah?” He offered, pulling away just enough to look into Jisoo’s eyes. “I just want to spend a lazy day together.”

    Jisoo beamed, nodding as he followed the leader.

    They had finally succeeded-

    -at least until the members came filing back in ten minutes later, claiming that they were too cold.

    Round two, begin!