They’d left getting Baekhyun a lawyer up to Junmyeon. He’d even offered to pay for the lawyer himself in place of Baekhyun, but the currently hospitalised boy had adamantly refused to let him do so.

While he was dealing with that, the other members had taken turns in between schedules to visit Baekhyun. Chanyeol and Jongdae ended up being the ones with the most spare time, and so they landed themselves in Baekhyun’s hospital room more times than they could count.

They found that Baekhyun was surprisingly easy to get along with. He had the same kind of personality as the two of them so they managed to click together unexpectedly quickly. When the other members were there they usually either talked about trivial matters, joked a bit, or enjoyed everyone’s quiet company, but when it was Chanyeol, Jongdae and Baekhyun, it felt like that moment when you’d just opened the door after a week-long trip and your puppies went nuts because oh my god they’re back.

The other members had noticed Baekhyun’s lightened mood whenever the two were in the room, and didn’t really know how to feel about it. Should they feel sad that Baekhyun likes Chanyeol and Jongdae more than them or should they be happy that Baekhyun is at least opening up to someone? The members had mixed feelings. Most of them decided to be happy that he’s opening up but some – for example, Sehun, who was initially the one who was closest to Baekhyun, and Kyungsoo, who feels a little left out in the whole situation – feel jealous.

But there was not a lot they could do about it. Kyungsoo and Sehun had schedules to attend to currently whereas Chanyeol and Jongdae do not.

The door of the small white room opened with a bang, startling Jongdae, and a tall man in a white coat entered the room without shame.

“So; it’s been a week and while you’re not fully healed yet, you can go home anytime you want within the next two days. You’ll have to put your schedules on hold while you heal, though. You won’t be able to sing properly with your ribs in that state.” The doctor explained with a smile. How he could smile while telling a singer he can’t sing because of some prick is beyond him.

Baekhyun, who was currently playing Go Fish with Chanyeol – and losing terribly, might he add – returned the man’s smile with one of his own incredibly charming smiles.

“Thanks for letting us know.”

“Just talk to one of the nurses on your way out and she’ll give you the necessary paperwork to fill out before you leave.” And with a curt nod and a small wave, the doctor left as abruptly as he came.

A comfortable silence fell over the three in the room until Baekhyun picked up his cards again to continue playing at the same time that Jongdae asked him when he wanted to leave.

Baekhyun tilted his head and tapped his lips with his cards in thought, something that both the other men in the room though to be illegally adorable, before responding with a short “Tonight sometime.” Before resuming his card game that Jongdae later joined in on.

It turns out that ‘tonight sometime’ meant earlier than Jongdae had expected. Around 5pm Baekhyun started to get out of the bed – with apparently great difficulty – and searched around for his belongings. He’d managed to wake up Jongin, who had arrived a little less than two hours ago and promptly fallen asleep on one of the recliner chairs in the far corner of the room, and the still-tired boy had slowly gotten up to help Baekhyun with his search despite the shorter male already having more than enough help from Jongdae and Chanyeol.

They’d managed to get out of the hospital faster than Jongdae had thought they would, but now came the hard part. What to do with Baekhyun?

They could just drop him home. He lives alone already so it’s not like he can get any from the company there, but they didn’t really want to risk it. Chanyeol had suggested that he stay with them at their dorm for the time being but Jongdae had argued saying they hadn’t warned anyone else about it and they can’t just barge in with a guest unexpectedly. Rather than that, it was more that Jongdae didn’t think Baekhyun would like the state that their dorm was currently in. Maybe if he called Minseok in advance and told him to clean the dorm it would be okay. Or they could just force Baekhyun to stay in the living room until they cleaned the rest of the house to an acceptable level. He really didn’t want to scare the innocent male with the towers of takeout boxes they had in the kitchen or the hills of dirty and clean clothing lying around – something he entirely blames Junmyeon for, whether it was his fault or not.

He relents to Chanyeol and turns around to tell Baekhyun who’s sitting in the backseat with Jongin that he’ll be staying with them for a while, but smiles when he sees that said boy is asleep with his mouth parted and his head resting on Jongin’s shoulder. He taps Chanyeol’s shoulder and points to the backseat.

He texts Minseok a message, missing the look of adoration and miniscule amounts of jealousy on Chanyeol’s face.

When they finally arrive back at their dorm, they are careful enough to avoid the fans by parking inside the building. They wake Jongin up not-so-gently but Chanyeol offers to carry Baekhyun in, insisting that he’s hurt and should rest as much as possible.

Jongdae agrees because it will save Baekhyun’s eyes in case Minseok didn’t actually end up cleaning.

Chanyeol thanked every God he could that he’d been working out recently, otherwise he’d never be able to pick Baekhyun up like this. Baekhyun wasn’t heavy by any means, but past Chanyeol was exceptionally weak.

He didn’t really know what it was that compelled him to act like this around Baekhyun, but he figured it was because he was so small and innocent that he felt the need to protect him. Even if that’s not what it is, that’s what he’s going to go with.

Upon entering the dorm, they were met with a relatively clean living room. Whether or not the rest of the house was in the same state was another question, though. Jongdae had left to go look for the others while Jongin helped Chanyeol by setting up some pillows on the couch for him to set Baekhyun down on.

“Is he okay?” Minseok asked concernedly as he walked into the room with Jongdae and Yixing.

“Yeah, he’s just asleep.” Jongin replied as he gently spread a blanket over him.

Minseok gave the sleeping boy a once-over. “Where’s he going to sleep? He can’t sleep there. He’s hurt.” His voice was stern, not allowing any room for arguments; the benefits of being the eldest.

“He can take my bed.” Yixing offered.

“We’ll sort that out once everyone gets back. For now, let him sleep there.”

The other members of EXO had taken their sweet time in getting home that night. With the final arrival of Junmyeon from his radio appearance, they all gathered in his room to discuss things.

“We can take turns sleeping on the couch?”

“Don’t we have a spare bed somewhere? Surely we do. Taemin’s slept over sometimes.”

“Yeah, but you two end up falling asleep on the couch anyway. I don’t think he’s ever slept on a bed here before.”

“Ah.”

“Is anyone offering their bed?”

Immediately, Yixing, Chanyeol, Sehun, and Kyungsoo raise their hands.

“Chanyeol, Sehun, you’re both way too tall to even think about fitting on the couch. Yixing an Kyungsoo, on the other hand, will fit. If no one else wants to give up their bed for the fragile, hurt, vulnerable Baekhyun then I suppose you two will have to take turns.” Junmyeon said in an attempt to guilt trip the others into giving up their beds.

It’s not that they didn’t want to, but they all had very heavy schedules and needed to be able to rest in between without waking up with a sore neck. And if they really needed to, they’d give up their beds in a heartbeat.

Sehun glared at Junmyeon. “Wait, why are you trying to guilt trip them when you didn’t even give up your bed?” He accused.

Junmyeon shifted for a bit under the scrutinising of his fellow bandmates. “Okay. He can have my bed too.” He relented before walking away, followed by various mumbles of ‘I’m too tall for the couch’ ‘making me leave my own room’ and ‘selfish pricks’. But they all knew he was just being a baby.

They all slowly shuffled out of the room, Kyungsoo making sure that the two beagles – Chanyeol and Jongdae – stayed quiet as to not wake up Baekhyun before moving off to the kitchen to make himself a light meal.

Chanyeol turned to Junmyeon who was now sulking in a chair opposite the lounge that Baekhyun was still sound asleep in. He wanted the boy to wake up because a sulking Junmyeon was not very good company, but he didn’t want to get slapped by Kyungsoo for waking him up either.

So he sat there and waited, staring at Baekhyun’s face as he slept. The dorm had quietened down significantly so that he could hear the soft puppy-like whimpering coming from none other than the boy he was staring so intently at. He didn’t notice when Junmyeon called him a creep, and he didn’t notice when he himself fell asleep either.