Lu Han arrives home on Sunday night with a bronze medal hanging around his neck and a very proud Sehun clinging to his arm. Sehun’s mother is already waiting to take her son home, and according to the freshman, she has been waiting in the driveway for nearly an hour now.

“Lu Han!” Sehun’s mother exclaims when she spots the medal hanging around the figure skater’s neck as they’re getting out of the car. “Sehunnie texted me about your win! Congratulations!”

“Thanks, Mrs. Oh,” Lu Han smiles politely. “Honestly, I don’t think I could have won any medal without your son. I couldn’t have asked for a more supportive friend.”

“Aw, thank you, Lu Han,” she replies. “I’m glad Sehunnie is being so kind to his friends. I just see him moping around the house and locking himself in his room nowadays. But, I guess that’s just the ways kids are sometimes, right? Though between you and me, Sehunnie wasn’t always this way,” she says, dropping her voice down to a stage whisper so that Sehun could still hear her. “You see, my little Sehunnie here used to be the cutest, most cheerful boy in the world.” She grabs a horrified Sehun by the cheeks and squishes them before planting a kiss on each side and ruffling his hair. The freshman’s face is a bright red, and he looks like he wants to crawl into a hole and stay there for all of eternity.

Lu Han laughs (a little bit too hard) at this. “Ah, to be honest, Mrs. Oh, all the boys still believe Sehunnie is the cutest boy in the world. He may not smile all the time, but he’s our little maknae and we’ll never stop babying him.”

“Well it’s nice to know that my little boy is in good hands,” Mrs. Oh beams, embracing both Luhan and Sehun (who, at this point, strongly resembles a very ripe tomato).

/*/*/*/

Being good friends with Lu Han’s parents, Mrs. Oh is invited out to dinner with them that evening. Both Lu Han and Sehun decline the invitation, opting to stay at home and celebrate the skater’s victory amongst themselves with several packets of ramen and a movie.

As the two boys move around harmoniously in the kitchen, Sehun smiles to himself. This is something he could really get used to. Because to Sehun, Lu Han is so much more than just his figure skating friend.

To Sehun, Lu Han’s the boy that always answers his texts at 3 am. Lu Han’s the boy who lets him borrow his shoulder when he starts to yawn. Lu Han’s the boy that always manages to make Sehun smile and laugh. Lu Han’s the boy who drove hours to adopt Vivi and gift the cute puppy to him. Lu Han’s the sweetest boy— the boy who’s always there for him. Lu Han’s so much more than his best friend, and, to be perfectly honest, Sehun can’t even begin to imagine what his life would be like without Lu Han in it.

“I’m so proud of you, Lu-hyung,” Sehun says for the umpteenth time as they’re preparing the ramen. “I knew you could do it. Soon, you’ll be a world champion. And then an Olympic champion You’ll have a fan base. You’ll have boys and girls screaming your name at every competition you attend. You’ll be all over the news. You’ll be a freaking sensation.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you, Sehunnie,” Lu Han replies, beaming up at the taller boy. “Honestly, when I was saying all that great stuff about you to your mom, I wasn’t lying. You’ve been incredible. Just so wonderful and perfect. Really, Sehunnie, I can’t thank you enough.”

“Does that mean that I can continue coming to your morning training sessions and all your competitions?” Sehun asks, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Of course!” Lu Han exclaims. “But you have to start playing the violin for me more, okay? I want private concerts on a weekly basis.”

“Ok, deal.” Sehun grins.

“Thanks, kiddo.” The older boy ruffles his hair and returns to preparing the food. Sehun’s smile falters a bit. Lu Lu, the younger boy thinks. Will you only ever think of me as a kid? Will I ever be anything more to you?

/*/*/*/

It’s nine in the evening when Jongdae and Minseok are dropped off at the latter’s house. Minseok is already pretty beat from the trip (he hadn’t slept a wink all weekend since he had stayed up doing homework), and having to handle Jongdae makes the older even more tired. From the moment Junmyeon backs out of the driveway to drop off the other boys, Minseok is semi-forced to drag a wailing Jongdae into his home.

“Ah-waeee?” the junior whines as he tries to walk to his bike, which he had parked in Minseok’s garage two nights ago. “Minnie, let go!”

“You’re not getting that damn bike from my garage until McDonald’s closes,” Minseok replies, nearly pulling Jongdae’s arm out of his socket. “There’s no way in hell you’re working tonight.”

“Ah-waeee?” Jongdae yells again, trying to tug his arm away from the senior and making grabby hands at the garage. “I told my manager I would come in tonight.”

“Dae, you haven’t slept at all this weekend,” Minseok says. “For once in your life, will you just please listen to me and rest? You need to watch your health more often.”

“What about you?” the junior shoots back. “With all those muffins and cookies and cakes. And you want to criticize my health? Oh, Minnie, my xiao long bao, you’re too cute.”

“Dae,” Minseok states as he grasps the other boy’s hands. “You know what I mean. Don’t play dumb.”

Jongdae takes one look in the older boy’s worried eyes and sighs in defeat, allowing himself to be dragged away from the garage and into Minseok’s home. “Okay, fine. You’re right. I’ll call my boss.”

“And you’ll be staying with me tonight,” the senior adds. Jongdae raises his eyebrows as he begins to send out the text to his boss. “My parents are out and I’m lonely.”

Jongdae smiles his insanely bright smile and bumps his forehead against the older boy’s. He sighs in content, closing his eyes to relish what little time he has left with the senior before he graduates and goes off to college. His heart sinks a bit, thinking about not spending every single day with the other boy. What would Jongdae do without him?

And as if he could read the younger boy’s mind, Minseok whispers, “I know what you’re thinking about, Dae. I know you too well.”

Jongdae tries to gulp down the lump in his throat. “I just-” his voice breaks a little. “I just don’t know what I would do without you, Minnie.”

“Hey,” Minseok says, cupping his hands over the other boy’s cheeks and lifting his head up gently. “Hey. It’ll all be okay, okay? It’s just one year, and then you’ll graduate too.”

“One year is too long,” Jongdae whines softly. “I won’t get to see you everyday anymore. How am I going to survive?”

“You’re such a drama queen,” Minseok teases, gently poking the younger boy in the chest. “You’ll be more than fine, Mr. Valedictorian. Now, are you going to help me bake for the guys tonight or are you just going to stand there and whine?”

“Neither,” Jongdae replies, breaking into his usual angelic grin. “I’m going to sit here and admire the view.” The junior climbs onto one of the stools at the counter and rests his head in his hands. His warm brown eyes are sparkling with glee, and Minseok can’t help but feel his heart flutter with admiration for the other boy’s seemingly constant and eternal happiness.

The senior huffs in amusement and gets to work. The group had enjoyed his baking so much over the weekend (even Kyungsoo liked the baguette, despite being initially horrified by the sight of it as he was reminded of the numerous drawings of the bread in his AP Statistics notebook), and Minseok was absolutely thrilled every time he received a heartfelt compliment from one of the boys. But tonight, Minseok is planning to do something special for the new addition to their group as a welcoming gift. Baekhyun looks so malnourished all the time, and it’s honestly a miracle how he’s still able to function with the amount of food he seems to have access to per day (which is basically just Minseok’s bake-of-the-day and half of Chanyeol’s sandwich).

Thirty minutes later, Minseok puts the tray lined with triple chocolate chunk cookie dough in the oven and begins to clean up the mess he had made in his kitchen. Jongdae hasn’t moved from his seat and he’s still staring intently at the other boy. The junior whines dramatically and makes grabby hands at the bowl with the leftover dough in it, making Minseok roll his eyes but give the boy the bowl anyway.

Jongdae receives cookie dough happily, practically jumping in his seat with excitement (Minseok wonders if it really was a good idea to give the already-hyperactive junior a bowl containing a -ton of sugar) and stuffs the gigantic bowl in his face, not even bothering to use an utensil to scoop the dough out. His head doesn’t pop out from behind the bowl for a good five minutes and when he does appear again, his face is covered in the dough. Minseok chuckles at this sight, shaking his head at the goofy younger boy.

“Dae, you’ve got some dough on your face,” Minseok tells him, gesturing at the cookie dough that’s sticking to the other boy’s forehead, cheeks, nose, mouth, and chin.

“Oh, thanks,” Jongdae says. He his lips, collecting about one percent of the dough that’s on his face. “Did I get it all?”

Minseok giggles, reaching for the roll of paper towels by the sink. “Not quite, buddy. Here. Let me do it.”

He lifts the younger boy’s chin up gently with one hand and begins to wipe the cookie dough off. The stuff is so sticky that it takes the senior a good few minutes to even finish cleaning it off of his forehead. It’s when he reaches the nose that he realizes that Jongdae has been staring intensely at Minseok the whole time. There’s this look that the junior is giving him that sends chills down the other boy’s spine.

“What?” Minseok frowns, lowering the towel a bit. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Jongdae doesn’t reply. For the first time since Minseok has met the obnoxiously loud and talkative boy, he’s silent. He just sits there and continues to stare at the older boy with that look in his eyes.

And suddenly, Jongdae’s thin lips are pressing against Minseok’s pink plush ones. Jongdae can feel his heart racing and he begins to panic when the other boy doesn’t respond. Then, after what feels like eternity, Minseok kisses him back, dropping the towel and bringing his hands up to cup the junior’s face. Jongdae grins into the kiss, sliding off the stool and pushing the older boy against the counter.

Minseok can feel some of the sticky cookie dough begin to attach to his face, and he knows that they probably look like idiots right now with both their faces smothered in the stuff. But he doesn’t care. The kiss is sweeter than the triple chocolate chunk cookies sizzling away in the oven.

The first batch of cookies come out burnt.

/*/*/*/

Yifan should really be doing his homework right now. He has been staring at the same Calculus problem for the past ten minutes and he has gotten absolutely nothing done. It’s really not his fault, though. How could anyone focus when an adorable boy like Yixing is sitting on your bed while serenading your unicorn plushie?

Yixing has a really nice voice, Yifan realizes. It’s so soft and pure, yet so unique at the same time. Glaring at his homework one last time, Yifan decides to give up and focus his attention on the boy sitting cross-legged on his bed. Yixing has a soft, faint smile on his face and he’s petting the unicorn plushie like it’s the most precious thing in the world. His long eyelashes are still visible even though Yifan is a good few feet away, and his dark brown hair just looks like it’s the fluffiest thing in the world. He’s drowning in one of Yifan’s hoodies as his frame is small compared to that of the basketball captain’s. Gosh, he looks stunning, Yifan thinks.

“Wu Wu?” Yixing speaks softly, putting a temporary pause on serenading the unicorn plushie. “Can I tell you something?”

Yifan moves to sit next to the other boy, blushing a bit when Yixing presses his thigh against the taller boy’s. “Sure thing, my little star.”

“Do you want to know why I called you so early in the morning and asked to stay with you for awhile?” the other boy asks.

Yifan pauses, trying to formulate the best answer possible. “Yes,” he finally answers truthfully. “I do want to know if something’s wrong. But I won’t make you tell me if you’re not comfortable with it.”

“Then I’ll tell you,” Yixing replies, leaning down to plant a gentle kiss on the unicorn plushie’s nose. He doesn’t speak for a few minutes, deciding how to start his story. “Uncle started drinking again.”

Yifan freezes. He can feel his heart begin to thump rapidly. His blood begins to boil. This isn’t the first time Yifan has heard about Yixing’s uncle.

Yixing’s uncle is the only family he has left. His mother and father had given him up just after he was born, and he had been placed into the care of an alcoholic uncle who did not want a child to take care of.

His uncle had tried to stop drinking a few times, even going to therapy sessions after his alcoholism had begun to affect his job at the local scrap metal yard. He had made Yixing countless promises of getting better, but these promises had always gone unfulfilled.

And there’s also one more thing about Yixing’s uncle that Yifan particularly despises: when he gets drunk, he turns violent. He hurts Yixing. And, unfortunately, he gets drunk more often than not. Yifan can’t count the number of times Yixing has shown up to school covered in bruises and scrape marks. When teachers ask Yixing what happened, he lies and tells them that he fell off his bike. Because Yixing’s uncle is the only family he has left, and, as much as he hates it, he needs his uncle to provide him with food and shelter until he goes off to college.

“Did he hurt you?” Yifan asks, his dark brown eyes as cold as ice. He tugs at the smaller boy’s sleeves, checking for cuts and bruises.

“No, he didn’t touch me this time,” Yixing says calmly. “He waved a broken glass bottle at me, but he didn’t hurt me. He left when he started to get fired up.”

“Yixing...” Yifan’s voice breaks off. He can feel hot tears begin to well up in his eyes.

“It’s okay, Wu Wu.” Yixing hugs the taller boy tightly. “You know this happens all the time. I just thought you should know why I’ve invaded your home, that’s all.”

“That’s not the point, Yixing,” Yifan snaps. “This shouldn’t be a thing that happens all the time. You shouldn’t be so calm about this right now. This isn’t right, Yixing. Nothing about this is okay.”

Yixing remains silent, and Yifan observes as the boy continues to gently pet the unicorn plushie and pepper it with soft kisses. Yixing looks so small, so innocent, and it pains Yifan to see someone so harmless and lovable be so hated and unloved.

“Yixing,” Yifan speaks quietly, deciding to break the ice first. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt, okay?”

“Wu Wu hyung, you always take such good care of me,” Yixing says, tearing his eyes away from the plushie to look at the other boy and smiling serenely. “Why are you so good to me?” He throws his arms around the taller boy’s waist, hugging him tightly.

Yifan just presses a small kiss on Yixing’s forehead and hugs him back. He doesn’t reply, but his heart is saying I love you, Zhang Yixing.

/*/*/*/

Chanyeol parks his car on a street that’s three blocks away from Baekhyun’s new home. It has only been a week since he has met Baekhyun, but this is something he has been doing routinely since their study session at the library.

“Thanks for the ride, Yeollie,” Baekhyun smiles, gathering his belongings (a clean hoodie Kyungsoo had given him back at the motel, a small Ziploc bag full of Minseok’s ice skating-themed sugar cookies, and a unicorn plushie Yixing and Yifan had gifted him). “And for the room and the food and the water and the jacket and your company….”

Chanyeol chuckles at the smaller boy as he continues listing off the things he’s thankful for. “I get it, Baekkie,” Chanyeol finally cuts in when he sees Baekhyun begin to run out of breath. “You’re more than welcome for everything. And thank you for coming out with us this weekend and supporting Lu Han. It really meant a lot to him that you were there.”

Baekhyun shrugs. “It’s what friends do, right? Or so I’m told.”

Chanyeol snickers at the reference to Tao’s previous (and, frankly, passionate) speech. “Yeah, of course. And speaking of what friends should do for one another,” Chanyeol says. “Do you want me to walk you home?”

Baekhyun grimaces and Chanyeol’s smile immediately drops. “Ah, Yeollie,” Baekhyun sighs. “Please, don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the offer, I really do. It’s just that it’s hard enough for me to walk around in school and even hang around with you guys while trying to ignore the state I’m in compared to the state everyone else is in.

“I know you guys aren’t like those stupid jock kids and you guys don’t care about my economic status, but it’s still a struggle. To be the way I am, to have been the way I am for my entire life, it’s really humiliating. To show up to school every day wearing the same dirty outfit and the same greasy hairdo, and to feel judged by virtually everyone in the building is a lot for me. I’m embarrassed enough by the way I look. And I know you won’t judge me by the state of my home, but I don’t even want to be exposed to that possibility of feeling ashamed of my household. So, really, don’t feel bad about my turning your offer down, Yeollie. Because I really do appreciate everything your doing for me.”

Chanyeol shakes his head rapidly. “Yeah, no I get it, Baekkie. It was wrong for me to push you like that. I’m sorry.”

Baekhyun scoffs. “Don’t apologize for something that’s not your fault.”

“...sorry,” Chanyeol mutters before breaking into a breath-taking grin.

“God, why are you so nice?” Baekhyun asks, scoffing again. “How are you so nice? It’s insane, really.”

“Sorry?”

“Shut up.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes and begins to climb out of the car.

“Baekhyun, wait,” the other boy says, wrapping his hand around Baekhyun’s small wrist. The said person turns, looking at Chanyeol with wide eyes. What happens next occurs so fast. Without even thinking about what he’s doing, Chanyeol presses his lips against Baekhyun’s cheek, making the smaller boy blush a deep red. The peck is over in half a second, but both boys sit there, staring at each other for several moments in stunned silence.

It’s Chanyeol who finally breaks that silence. He clears his throat and says a bit too loudly, “Yeah, well see you tomorrow, Baek.” He turns away quickly, trying to hide his grimace at the squeakiness of his typically deep and smooth voice.

And suddenly, he feels Baekhyun’s lips on his cheek. “Good night, Channie,” the smaller boy mutters into his ear. “Sleep well, okay?”

He steps out of the car and shuts the door before Chanyeol can even respond. Baekhyun smirks a bit at the state of the taller boy; his ears are a bright red, his gorgeous almond-shaped eyes are wider than ever, and his mouth is agape.

Baekhyun can’t keep himself from grinning the whole way home. He can feel his cheek still burning where Chanyeol had kissed him, and his lips are burning as well from its contact with the taller boy’s soft skin.

And that’s when Baekhyun begins to think. Just one week ago, he couldn’t have even imagined having a friend, let alone eleven friends. He couldn’t have imagined finding someone as sweet and considerate as Chanyeol, and he certainly couldn’t have imagined falling for someone, if that is how he feels towards the tall boy with abnormally large (but cute) ears. He had had a plan. A plan that had worked for years and years. A plan that was now in utter ruins, whether Baekhyun likes it or not. Actually, Baekhyun doesn’t mind that his plan is destroyed. He’s quite content about that being gone, and he now has a new and improved plan: to stay here as long as possible and hopefully graduate with his friends (because, yes, Baekhyun finally has friends).

Baekhyun is still grinning like a mad-man when he steps into his house. Everything is absolutely chaotic. The small boy’s smile is wiped off his face when he sees his mother frantically running around the kitchen, stuffing their few belongings into bags. The distant relative that had agreed to their living in her home is red-faced, waving a bottle of whiskey around as she screams crazy insults at his mother. It’s when the relative begins sprouting insults at Baekhyun and waving the bottle threateningly at him that his mother spots him. She collects the bags quickly and drags Baekhyun out of the house.

“Come on, Baekkie,” she mutters as she slams the front door behind them. “We’re not welcome here anymore. We’ve need to get out of this damn town.”

Author’s note:

Hello! I’m back!

I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve updated. I’ve been swamped with school and works and a bunch of other stuff that I haven’t found the time to write. But thank you for all the love and support! <3

Hopefully this chapter makes up for my absence? I couldn’t focus on one particular couple this time so I switched around a lot. I hope that doesn’t bother anyone…

I’m thinking that the next chapter is going to be very chanbaek oriented, though, so I’ll make up for the lack of them.

Yeesh, I made the storyline for Sehun/Lu Han and Yixing/Yifan a lot darker and sadder than I meant. Whoops? Maybe I’ll make up for it with a happy ending.

As per usual, the chapter title is a OneRepublic song which you can listen to here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s2C6c_cPiM

In addition, I’d like to mention that being demiual (surprise?), I’m not very comfortable with reading/writing/talking about anything remotely -related, so please don’t expect a lot of that kind of stuff in this fic. The most you’ll probably read is something along the lines of what happened with Jongdae and Minseok. Sorry… :\

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. Hopefully, I’ll be back soon(-ish).