He could tell how tired they were. His band, his friends, his family, his loves. They were all tired out, weighed down by heavy schedules, demanding managers and exhausting practices. Jongdae watched as Yixing’s eyes slowly lost their bright shine, as Baekhyun’s smile slowly started to fade, Junmyeon’s shoulder started to sag even more, and his heart ached.

i. yixing

“Ge,” Jongdae starts with Yixing. The Chinese man looks up at him when he enters his room. It was one he so rarely used now that it had become a spare bed for whenever someone from the other dorm wanted some peace and quiet. “Are you okay? You look extra tired nowadays.”

Yixing smiles up at him softly, but Jongdae can see the fatigue in his eyes, and it hurts. “I’m okay, Jongdae-ah.” Jongdae frowns at that, especially when Yixing has a hard time lying down on his bed. Ever since his waist injury, he’s been having difficulty getting up and down. Jongdae helps him, a gentle hand, and climbs up over Yixing when he’s comfortably settled on his stomach.

“Jongdae?” Yixing asks, voice muffled half by the pillow and half with sleep.

“Shh,” Jongdae shushes, his thumbs applying pressure at the base of Yixing’s spine. Yixing makes a noise of contentment, the sore muscles being pressed out. “Just sleep, ge. I’ll take care of you.”

And Yixing does, wrapped up in the comfort and warmth that is Jongdae's care.

ii. chanyeol

Chanyeol hardly ever sleeps at the dorm nowadays, preferring to spend time in his studio till strange hours of the night, crashing on the sofa that he keeps in his studio. Jongdae doesn’t exactly approve of his choices, considering his height probably makes sleeping on the couch extremely uncomfortable, but he doesn’t say anything. It’s what Chanyeol loves to do, after all.

He tells their manager where he’s going before disappearing out the door in a hoodie and face mask, making a detour into Chanyeol’s favourite restaurant to pick up a bowl of naengmyeon, three portions of galbi and a couple of cans of coke. Armed with food and drinks, he marches his way up to Chanyeol’s studio.

Bursting in - Chanyeol had forgotten to lock the door again, Jongdae really needed to lecture him about safety and potential sasaengs - he crows his entrance, startling Chanyeol and making him jump about a foot into the air, knees knocking against the underside of his desk.

“Damn it, Jongdae!” Chanyeol curses, in pain. Jongdae laughs and rubs Chanyeol’s knee motherly.

“Poor baby,” He coos. “I bought you food, though. Forgiven?”

Chanyeol yells and dives into the plastic bags like a man starved. “Forgiven,” He says, grinning widely and holding a piece of galbi up to Jongdae’s lips.

iii. minseok

Jongdae knows that he’s probably not the best person to try to comfort Minseok. They’re close, yes, and while they do have the ability to communicate with only their eyes if they so wanted to, Jongdae has never really seen Minseok lose his calm and collected front, and as such, has really no idea what to do with him.

He sets about by cleaning up his portion of the room. While he’s a lot tidier than anyone - the fans, especially - believe him to be, he’s not as religious about it as Minseok is, who takes to vacuuming his bed once a week. But today, he does so, and arranges everything on their shared bedside table until they’re in straight lines.

Minseok watches him with an appraising eye when he returns to the room to see that. Jongdae gives him a kitten smile and Minseok rolls his eyes, but it’s a fond gesture that has Jongdae’s insides warming.

His chance comes when the air conditioner starts leaking. Minseok was already fast asleep, but Jongdae supposes the rocking of the mattress had woken him up. He smiles down at Minseok and tells him not to worry about it when the older man stares up blearily at him, still holding the cloth up to prevent the water from leaking.

He doesn’t think much of it after he crawls into bed and falls asleep, but the next morning, he wakes up to breakfast prepared for him already - none for Baekhyun, apparently, because he’s in the corner of the kitchen whining about favouritism - and a warm squeeze from Minseok.

iv. jongin

Everyone knows - the fans, the members, Jongin’s family, perhaps - that Jongin pushes himself too much, too hard and too fast. His ridiculous want and need to be the best dancer, to perfect his moves until they’re like razor sharp blades has led to his waist injury, his ankle injury, pretty much every injury he’s ever suffered.

“Are you trying to become Yixing hyung?” Jongdae huffs as he holds an ice pack to Jongin’s waist, who’s in pain.

Yixing, who happens to be in Korea and in their dorm at the time, walks by and throws a towel at Jongdae’s face, cheeks puffed out cutely. Jongdae sends him a quick peace sign and a cheeky wink before going back to grilling Jongin about being irresponsible about his own body.

“You idiot,” Jongdae scolds, even harsher than the scolding that Jongin had gotten from the managers, perhaps, because Jongdae wasn’t one to hold his words back when he was genuinely worried, genuinely concerned for someone. “You’re going to break your waist one day and then you won’t be able to dance at all. Do you want that, you stupid oaf?”

“No,” Jongin whimpers pitifully, shifting so that the ice pack numbs a different part of his aching waist. “No, I don’t, hyung, I’m sorry.”

Jongdae sighs, one hand holding onto the ice pack and the other doing something on his phone. He secures the ice pack in place and presses a kiss to Jongin’s hair. “You know I’m just scared for you, right, Nini?”

“Yes, hyung,” Jongin replies, completely honest. Jongdae smiles at him.

Jongin falls asleep on the couch like that, but when he wakes up, there’s a cardboard box of chicken right in front of his nose.

v. kyungsoo

If there’s someone who’s been as busy as Yixing is, it’s Kyungsoo. With multiple dramas, movies to film, he’s running around Seoul, running around Korea, even, with hardly any time to rest, but he never complains. Jongdae’s so proud of him, and so scared for him that one day he’ll collapse from exhaustion just like Yixing.

So Jongdae tags along when Junmyeon goes out and buys a bunch of vitamins and supplements for him under Junmyeon’s recommendation and careful scrutiny. He buys lavender scented candles for Kyungsoo - throwing one at Baekhyun when the other hand begun whining - and lavender pouches to put in his pillowcase to help him sleep.

Kyungsoo doesn’t seem to acknowledge what he’s doing, but Jongdae doesn’t really care about that. He just wants to help his beloved member out, and he doesn’t need anything in return. Kyungsoo does look a lot better, though, and Jongin’s noted that he sleeps a lot more and a lot better nowadays. It makes Jongdae’s chest warm with happiness and pride.

Then he starts noticing things, like how he would always have a slightly larger portion of food than the others, how there would be little trinkets appearing on his bedside table, clearly there for him because Minseok doesn’t have the preference for such things, and candles of different scents that he wouldn’t have bought for himself but finds he likes a lot.

It’s only when he sees Kyungsoo placing a small locket on his bedside table by accident that he gets it. Kyungsoo’s flushed face is adorable, but Jongdae’s too happy to do anything other than grab Kyungsoo and hug him tight.

vi. baekhyun

Baekhyun’s a cuddle monster, that’s something that’s been established since before debut. Even during their audition, Baekhyun had clung onto his arm in a way that would have been considered strange for mere strangers - and that was what there were, really, strangers, considering they’d only met at the audition.

Baekhyun doesn’t sleep much at home nowadays, either, so busy with his drama filming that he’s often out in some other part of Korea, wearing historical clothing and being a general menace. Jongdae doesn’t know how he landed a roll that allowed him to be a little and be paid for it, but Jongdae supposes Baekhyun had his ways.

But when he does come home, Baekhyun’s affection deprived, and the empty room that he shares with Yixing is cold and lonely. Most of the time, he collapses on the couch, because he doesn’t want to be alone in an empty room that’s too large for him. It reminds him of the fact that Yixing isn’t here with them, and he hates it.

Jongdae takes it upon himself to be Baekhyun’s cuddle partner, letting Baekhyun cling to him like a koala. Sometimes, when Baekhyun’s too tired to even initiate the cuddling, he’ll go up to Baekhyun and tug him into his arms, picking him up like a child. Baekhyun will murmur muffled declarations of awe at Jongdae’s strength that will have Jongdae throwing him back onto the couch, eliciting giggles.

When Yixing isn’t in the country, Jongdae tugs Baekhyun into his shared room with Minseok and drags him down onto his bed, singing to him softly until Baekhyun falls asleep, rings of exhaustion around his eyes. Sometimes, Minseok will join in, his soothing voice twining with Jongdae’s, and they’ll share a fond smile over Baekhyun’s shoulder once the telltale sign of Baekhyun falling asleep - the snuffling, puppy-like noise he makes - is elicited.

vii. sehun

Sehun’s one of the easiest to deal with when he’s upset. Jongdae knows this because he’s had to do it more times than he can count. While the members that Sehun are closest too are Chanyeol, Jongin, Junmyeon, none of them can really handle Sehun’s snark when he’s tired and upset.

Jongdae, on the other hand, can take it and fire it back at the maknae thrice as harsh. Jongdae knows that Sehun doesn’t mean anything he says when he’s in that state of mind. It’s a defense mechanism that he’s built up over the years, and Jongdae doesn’t like it, but that doesn’t mean he won’t help Sehun deal with it.

It’s with this in mind that he engages Sehun in a video game tournament, just the two of them. He knows he has to win once, then purposely lose the rest of the games, but in a way that Sehun doesn’t suspect that he’s losing them on purpose. It’s difficult, really, because Jongdae’s competitive spirit sometimes surges up and he wants to lose, but he always reminds himself that this isn’t for him, it’s for Sehun.

It’s like this that he takes Sehun’s jabs that he’s a terrible player, he can’t even beat his dongsaeng, how useless is he, he can’t dance, looks stupid when he tries. He doesn’t take any of it to heart, just continues beating Sehun’s player up into a pulp and stopping just before Sehun’s player dies and letting himself be annihilated.

Because when it’s all over and done with, when Sehun’s come out of that state of mind, he always cuddles into Jongdae, burying his face into Jongdae’s neck and mumbling out apologies, sometimes on the verge of tears that he’s said all those mean things to Jongdae, and Jongdae will smile, shake his head, and rub his hand soothingly up and down Sehun’s back because he knows Sehun didn’t mean them.

viii. junmyeon

Most of the time, Junmyeon doesn’t need Jongdae to help him. Yes, his shoulders hunch with more responsibilities, but Jongdae already helps him out by taking care of the other members, helping them when they’re tired, when they’re down, and that’s really all that Junmyeon needs: A little off time from playing leader all the time.

But there are times when Junmyeon comes home with a clenched jaw, with a hard glint in his eyes. The members all avoid him when it comes to that point, even Minseok. They all leave it to Jongdae, because they know that only he can handle Junmyeon at a time like that, when Junmyeon’s strung so tight he’s ready to snap at any given moment.

“Junmyeon,” Jongdae will always call, forgoing the honourific. At times like this, he isn’t Chen, main vocalist of EXO, not Kim Jongdae, dongsaeng of Junmyeon, but Jongdae, Junmyeon’s boyfriend. It’s times like this that he takes the control out of Junmyeon’s hands, pushes him down onto the bed and kisses him until he’s relaxed, hands trailing up and down Junmyeon’s sides to get him to calm down.

“Junmyeon,” Jongdae will always whisper into Junmyeon’s ear, getting him to come back to them, to him, to stop locking himself up in his mind.

“Junmyeon!” Jongdae will always cry, in the throes of pleasure, back arched in bliss as Junmyeon gives him what he wants, what he needs, as Jongdae does the same for his leader, for his love, for his Junmyeon.

“Junmyeon,” Jongdae will always murmur, reverent, kissing down the knobs of Junmyeon’s spine, intent on showing Junmyeon how much he needs him, how much they all need him, how important he is to them.

“Junmyeon,” Jongdae will always say, smiling, kitten-like, at his lover, his boyfriend, his beloved, when Junmyeon thanks him with a kiss.