It would’ve been a strange sight for someone to see. A group of eight men in their twenties crowding around a single door in a hallway was not something one would see every day. But alas, here they are.

Junmyeon knocked on the door. He was slightly worried, should they have called Baekhyun first and told him they were here? Or at least texted him? What if he’s not home?

His worrying was interrupted when a seemingly just-woken-up Baekhyun opened the door. He rubbed his eyes in what appeared to be an attempt to get a better look at everyone, then beamed at them.

“Hi! I was about to shower but come inside anyway.” He continued to talk as everyone made their way through the small doorframe one by one. “Sorry I don’t have much to do here. I do have a TV though! But I don’t know how to use it, so I don’t know if it still works. Sorry.” He gave a small apologetic smile, but upon seeing Kyungsoo his smile widened instantaneously and he practically jumped onto him. It seems Baekhyun likes hugs.

Kyungsoo didn’t seem to mind, though, and hugged him back with an almost equal amount of enthusiasm. Yixing took the bag of ingredients from Kyungsoo’s arm that was -still- wrapped around Baekhyun and asked Baekhyun where the kitchen was.

Baekhyun reluctantly let go of Kyungsoo and smiled to the group of people behind him. “I should give you a tour! There isn’t much, but it will be fun! I’ve never given someone a tour of my house before.” He trailed off as he began walking towards another room which looks like the living room of sorts. He explained to them in great detail about each of the rooms in his house and how often, or not, that he uses them. His bedroom – as one would expect – was not only the messiest room of the house, but the brightest. The walls were a normal off-white colour, but the rest of the room was full of blue and purple blankets, a very colourful array of stuffed animals and other toys, and on his bed was a giant Rilakkuma plush. Obviously, Chanyeol was not in any place to judge. In fact, he pretty much squealed when he saw it.

“Oh my god! Where did you get this from?” He exclaimed, picking up the oversized bear and squeezing it until it looked as though its head would fall off.

“Giant? I got him from a friend like ages ago. Sorry, he never told me where he got it from.” At this, Chanyeol looked severely disappointed. Baekhyun’s eyes widened, thinking he was going to lose one of his new friends he panicked, “But you can keep him! I’ll miss him a lot because he gives nice hugs too and I really like him and all but you can keep him if you really – “ He was cut short by Sehun putting his hand on his shoulder.

Sehun smiled. “No, Baekhyunnie. It’s alright, Chanyeol is just being a big baby, you don’t have to give him your bear.” He gave Chanyeol a pointed look, and it wasn’t until then that Chanyeol registered the situation. His eyes widened for a moment in shock of how quickly things has just escalated but as he was being stared down by the other seven members, he moved towards Baekhyun and put a hand on his head. He’d put a hand on his shoulder like Sehun, but Baekhyun’s so short that his head is at shoulder height.

“Yeah, it’s okay, you don’t have to give me ‘Giant’. I have plenty of Rilakkumas at home, I’ll be fine.” Baekhyun stared up at him, the panic in his eyes slowly subsiding.

“A-are you sure? I can give him to you if you really want.” He stuttered, wanting to make his friend happy.

“Nah, it’s alright Baekhyun. He needs you more than he needs me.” Chanyeol smiled until his cheeks squished his eyes and his right eye twitched.

“Okay…”

Jongdae decided to put everyone out of their misery and change the subject. “Hey Baekhyun, Kyungsoo and I are going to go cook you some kimchi spaghetti. Do you mind if we use your kitchen?”

Baekhyun turned to Jongdae and smiled. “No! I don’t mind! I don’t have a lot of stuff in my kitchen, though.”

“That’s alright. We bought the ingredients for it. As long as you have a few pots and pans and a working stove, that’s good enough.” Kyungsoo reassured him as they walked towards the kitchen. “I’m sure we’ll be able to find everything we need. You said earlier that you were about to have a shower; why don’t you go do that while we cook? Then Chanyeol can teach you how to play some games. I think he bought Mario Kart with him and a few 3DS’.” Baekhyun looked very excited at the prospect of games and food, then nodded quickly and rushed off to his room to shower.

He and Jongdae then set off to start cooking. After an argument with one of the cupboard doors, Jongdae managed to find enough pots and pans to hold enough food for nine people. Kyungsoo had already started chopping vegetables and such, and they continued to prepare in a comfortable silence.

The rest of the members had moved themselves into Baekhyun’s slightly small living room. It wasn’t that small, but for six grown men, it was a tiny bit crowded. Chanyeol was the one that started the conversation first.

“Should I teach him Mario Kart or Super Smash Brothers first? I was gonna bring something like League of Legends but I wasn’t sure if he had a laptop or if he would be able to play a game like that straight up.” He looked over to Jongin for his opinion.

“Mario Kart. It’s always the best choice. And it’s not too hard to play either. Just don’t pick Rainbow Road and he should do fine.” Jongin chuckled.

“Hey, I’m not that cruel.” Chanyeol glared at Jongin playfully.

“How many 3DS’s did you bring?” Sehun piped up from where he’d made himself comfortable on the couch.

“I brought enough for most of us to play. Kyungsoo won’t want to, and I’m not sure about the rest of you. I think I have about six. Maybe. I don’t know, I didn’t really count them.” Chanyeol replied. “I figured I’d just let him play by himself until he gets the hang of it. Then we can all play. But don’t go too hard on him, think back to how much we when we first played. Man I was a mess back then.” He laughed, remembering his old self not knowing how to turn properly for weeks.

“I’ll play. Jongdae will probably want to play as well.” Minseok spoke for the first time since getting there. “His house is cute. Did you see his bedroom? It looked like someone had let Chanyeol go into a toy shop without restraints. He has so many plushes.”

Chanyeol scoffed. “I know, right? I wish I had that many Rilakkuma plushes.”

“Don’t let him hear you say that; he might try to give them all to you.” Minseok laughed good-naturedly.

“True. Honestly didn’t think he’d react like that. I guess he just wants to make others happy.” Chanyeol smiled unconsciously, as did the other members.

“He’s really too cute.” Sehun mumbled, the others agreeing in silence.

They sat around and talked for the rest of the time Baekhyun was in the shower. Kyungsoo and Jongdae had nearly finished cooking by the time he got out. He walked into the living room and was immediately swarmed by Jongin and Yixing who were pushing him back towards the bathroom with exclamations of “Why is your hair still wet?” “You’ll catch a cold!” and “You should dry your hair properly.” from multiple members.

They’d grabbed the fluffiest towel they could find and dried Baekhyun’s hair for him, despite Baekhyun’s attempts to tell them that he could do it himself. Baekhyun wasn’t allowed to move until they’d deemed his hair was at an acceptable level of dryness. They were too focused on drying his hair that they missed his adorable pout.

Once they’d deemed his hair’s dryness acceptable, they went back to the living room with an obviously sulking Baekhyun who was wearing an oversized blue sweater and beige jeans. Of course, everyone seemed to find this cute as opposed to sad, with his currently fluffy hair and all.

Sehun had latched onto him as soon as he’d plopped down onto the couch with a huff and simply hugged him while the others picked up a conversation again.

“Kyungsoo and Jongdae are almost done with the food. How has practice been going recently, Baekhyun?”

Minseok’s question makes Baekhyun’s face flash in fear for a moment, but he quickly recovers and replies with a slightly deflated look. “I tried to make manager-hyung laugh by telling him Jongdae’s jokes. But he just got really mad. The other staffs laughed, but he didn’t. Kyungsoo said he doesn’t like laughing. Why not?” Baekhyun’s innocent question makes everyone feel a little depressed, but they decide to not let it show as to not worry Baekhyun.

Jongin’s face hardened a bit. “What did he do when he got mad, Baekhyunnie?” Baekhyun flinched at the question and started to fidget uncomfortably, and everyone then knew exactly what he did.

He started to stutter out random syllables, trying to form complete words. “U-uh… He… W-well…”

“Baekhyun, did he hit you?” Again, he flinched. Well at least that confirmed their suspicions.

“I-I can’t tell you.”

“Why?” Jongin’s fists were clenched which only seemed to make Baekhyun more uncomfortable. Yixing noticed this and tapped Jongin’s arm to get him to stop.

“He… he told me not to say anything. I can’t tell you. I can’t. He will get angry again.” He mumbled through a trembling bottom lip.

Sehun squeezed Baekhyun a bit tighter, moving his head from where it had been resting on Baekhyun’s shoulder. “It’s okay Baekhyunnie. He’s not here, he can’t hurt you. You can tell us. We won’t tell him you told us.” Baekhyun still seemed uncomfortable, but Sehun’s words and reassuring smile relaxed him a bit. It took a few moments for Baekhyun to answer them, but he did. Softly, but he did.

“Yes…” Jongin’s fists clenched again, even though he already knew the answer to the question they’d asked him, Baekhyun confirming it just made it all the more real.

“Where?” Yixing asked in a soft, comforting voice, leaving the unsaid option for Baekhyun to back out of the conversation if he truly felt too uncomfortable. When Baekhyun’s hand moved to his right cheek, they became confused. Why was there no mark? Looking closely, the cheek was swollen, but it wasn’t bruised or anything. Unless…

“Are you wearing makeup, Baekhyun?” Yixing asked, and suddenly all eyes went from Baekhyun to him, then back to Baekhyun. Again, Baekhyun took a while to answer the question but it seemed that Yixing’s comforting voice and face seemed to relax Baekhyun enough for him to give them the answer.

“Yeah… I also didn’t just wake up when I opened the door. I just made it seem like that so you wouldn’t think…” Baekhyun’s voice was so small and defeated that it almost broke their hearts.

“I’ll be back.” Yixing announced as he got up and headed off towards the direction of the bathroom.

They sat in silence for the few moments that Yixing was gone until he returned with a cloth in one hand and makeup remover in the other. Baekhyun’s eyes widened a bit and he looked as though he wanted to run away, but Sehun kept him in place.

“It’s okay, Baekhyunnie. We just want to see what he did in case we have to get you medical attention, alright?” Yixing smiled and Baekhyun slowly nodded, allowing Yixing to wipe the makeup from his soft baby-like skin.

The moment the black and blue bruise began to appear from underneath the makeup the other members let out small gasps of surprise and/or disgust. Not at Baekhyun, obviously, but at the reality of the situation and the pathetic excuse of a man that did this to him.