When the weekend finally hit, they became so immersed in preparing for their Music Bank appearance that they almost completely forgot about the whole Baekhyun situation. It wasn’t until they were in their dressing room and they heard shouting that they realised their other intentions for being there.

Jongdae and Junmyeon went off to see what was up as the other stayed behind to finish preparing for their appearance.

Of course nothing changed. Of course, when they opened the door labelled Byun Baekhyun they would find said boy sobbing and shaking, and a middle aged man in front of him with his hand raised, as if ready to strike.

Jongdae could feel the anger rising inside him. He was never one to just stand by and let things like this happen but when Junmyeon grabbed his forearm and gave him a look that said You’ll only make this worse, he tried to calm down and stop himself from gouging out the pathetic man’s eyeballs.

Well, that was until Baekhyun let out a sniffle that his resolve shattered. However, instead of punching the man he grabbed Baekhyun’s arm and all but dragged him out of the room. He didn’t notice, nor care, that Junmyeon hadn’t followed him. He’s the leader and he’s responsible enough not to do anything stupid.

Once he’d gotten what he deemed a safe enough distance away from Baekhyun’s dressing room, he turned to the boy and leant down a bit to reach his eye level.

Puffy, red, wet eyes shone back at him and he immediately reached up; intending to use his sleeve to wipe away the tears, but when Baekhyun flinched at the raised hand he paused. Once again, anger surged inside him, but it quickly dissipated as he realised that getting angry now, when Baekhyun had done no wrong and would probably take his anger the wrong way, was not going to help.

“Hey. I’m not going to hit you. It’s alright.” Why was Jongdae not blessed with the skill of comforting people? Kyungsoo was good that that. Yes, he’ll take him to Kyungsoo. “Hey, my friend gives really good hugs, and he also really likes cute things. I’m sure he’d like you, do you want to go see him?” Jongdae attempted his warmest smile, stretching his lips impossibly wide, showing almost all of his teeth until he could barely see out of his eyes. When he saw Baekhyun sniffle and give a slight nod, he gently grabbed his hand and led him back to the EXO dressing room.

As he knocked on the door, he could sense Baekhyun moving to hide behind him. Barely concealing a smile, he pushed the door open and led Baekhyun inside slowly. The other members turned their heads and to say they were surprised when they saw the small figure of Baekhyun hiding behind Jongdae was an understatement.

They all moved to get up and come closer to see him, but Jongdae was quick to shake his head, instead looking pointedly in Kyungsoo’s direction. The others seemed to understand and sat back down and Kyungsoo slowly got up and made his way over to Jongdae and Baekhyun.

Jongdae turned around to face Baekhyun and gestured towards Kyungsoo. “Hey Baekhyun, this is Kyungsoo, the friend I was talking about earlier that gives really good hugs.” Baekhyun looked up at Kyungsoo with shining eyes and a quivering bottom lip and Kyungsoo felt an immediate rush of protectiveness.

He smiled, then spoke to Baekhyun in the softest voice he could muster, as to not scare the boy who’d probably only ever been yelled at. “Hey, do you want a hug? Jongdae said I give really good ones, but I’m telling you they’re better than good, they’re amazing.”

The shock was apparent on all of their faces when Baekhyun all but lunged at Kyungsoo and squeezed him tightly as if he was a stuffed toy. Kyungsoo, however, was quick to recover and wrapped his arms around Baekhyun’s small waist; careful not to squeeze too tightly.

They stayed like that for a while, even after Junmyeon came back and entered the room with a frustrated sigh. He’d paused when he saw a very content Baekhyun hugging a very protective Kyungsoo, but smiled when he realised that Kyungsoo wasn’t protective because anyone in here had hurt him, but because of that scumbag that Junmyeon had just had the displeasure of speaking with. When they had twenty minutes until their appearance, Kyungsoo reluctantly let go of Baekhyun and looked at him with a small smile.

“I’ve gotta get ready for my performance now, okay? But you can stay in here and wait until we’re done and I’ll even get the staffs to turn on the TV here so you can watch us, alright? When we get back we’re going to have a talk, okay? And don’t worry, you haven’t done anything wrong.”

Kyungsoo grabbed Junmyeon and Jongdae and pulled them out into the hallway.

“What is this about? From what I saw YG was lying when they said they’d ensure it’d never happen again but exactly what did happen?”

“I don’t think he actually hit him, but before we walked in we heard shouting and when we opened the door his manager had his hand in the air about to hit him and Baekhyun was crying.” Jongdae paused for a moment, seemingly contemplating something. “And… After I took him away I stopped for a moment to wipe his tears but when I reached up he flinched, like he thought I was going to hit him. It made me really angry but I decided he was more important and I forgot about it until now. It’s making me angry again.”

Junmyeon and Kyungsoo could almost see the steam coming out of his ears. They were all silent for a moment before Junmyeon spoke up.

“I spoke to his manager after he left with Baekhyun.” He paused. “I asked him why he hit him and he said – and I’m quoting this, it’s not me saying it – that ‘the little tried to eat before his performance’ so I asked him what was bad about eating before the performance, because we all do that, and he just said that ‘he’ll get fat’ and stormed out. I don’t think this is a one-time thing either, by the looks of Baekhyun. He looks like he hasn’t had a proper meal in months if you ask me.” His fists were clenched tightly by his sides. He looked both of them directly in the eye and said “I’m going to talk to our manager about this after our performance. This isn’t legal and Baekhyun obviously doesn’t understand that what’s happening to him is wrong.” Junmyeon then turned and left, determination and anger radiating from him.

“Can’t you bring it up with Lee Sooman-seonsaeng-nim? Or someone who can make Baekhyun an offer to move to a different company that will look after him properly? Or add him to a group or something? Just please, try to get him out of there. He doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment. What if it was one of us?” Junmyeon added the last sentence while looking directly into his manager’s eyes, and he knew he’d gotten through to him.

And he was drooling.

Truly, too cute.

And of course, Kibum – whom everyone knows cannot control himself over cute things – could not control himself.

“Oh my god!” He exclaimed in English. “He’s so adorable!” He cooed, moving to hug the small boy in his sleep, then turns to Taemin who seemed to be mid playful argument with Jongin and gives him an accusing glare. “Taemin can’t you go back to looking like this, please? You’re too y these days, it makes me feel like I’m looking at my little brother turn into a stripper or something. Please tone it down a bit.” He then looks back at Baekhyun drooling on his shoulder and smiles again. “Why’s he here, though?”

“We saved him from his pathetic excuse of a manager.” Sehun replied, not taking his eyes away from the sleeping form that Kibum was still cooing over.

“Ah. Makes sense. I thought YG was going to do something about that, though?” He mused.

“So did we.” Junmyeon said as he entered the room. “Talked to our manager. I somehow convinced him to bring it up with Sooman seonsaeng-nim.” He finished with a hopeful smile.

“Really?” Minho exclaimed. “That’s great! Maybe he’ll end up joining SM.”

“I suppose there’s that.” Minseok replied, essentially ending the conversation that hadn’t even begun yet.

The rest of the car ride was sat in silence. Jongin had recorded Baekhyun’s performance and was now watching it together with Kyungsoo and Chanyeol. The others decided that sleeping was the best option they had at the moment.

They were expecting Baekhyun’s personality to be extremely loveable, and through texting the were able to confirm that. Everyone but Kyungsoo texted Baekhyun on a daily basis. Kyungsoo doesn’t really like using phones.

What they weren’t expecting the following week was their manager calling a meeting for them with the CEO. Immediately their minds when straight to the situation with Baekhyun and they inwardly cheered at the thought of something being done about it.