“Hyukjae,” he heard an unfamiliar voice calling him. “Hyukjae, wake up.”

There’s no way he will wake up that early; he felt it was too early for him to wake up.

“Hyukjae, feed me!” he heard a demanding voice once again, and this time it didn’t feel that unfamiliar.

Hyukjae grumbled and turned his back to the source of that sound.

“Hyukjae, I’m hungry,” Donghae repeated, and the raven head could only sigh after hearing that.

“You can go and cook something for yourself,” he mumbled sleepily.

“I’m five, Hyukjae.”

“Oh, right… Wait, what?!”

Hyukjae got up immediately, looking at surprised Donghae with big eyes. The boy was sitting on the edge of the bed and almost fell after Hyukjae’s sudden move; the raven head had to grab his hand in order to prevent the younger’s falling. And once his big hand grabbed that small one, he remembered everything.

Coming at Donghae’s place at a late hour.

Seeing unconscious Heechul.

Seeing Donghae who became a little boy…

“Oh my God,” Hyukjae mumbled. “It wasn’t a dream.”

Donghae tilted his head in confusion, though the raven head was sure the younger understood what he meant. Hyukjae felt like he could do one of two things in this situation: panic or calm down and try to solve everything. He honestly felt like panicking, but…

Donghae’s stomach growled all of a sudden, and the boy covered it with his hands, staring at the raven head with his pleading puppy eyes.

Hyukjae couldn’t even remember how he ended up in the kitchen, but here he was – examining Donghae’s fridge while the younger was sitting on a chair swinging his legs.

“I can’t understand your choice of food, Lee Donghae,” the raven head said eventually after five minutes of looking at absolutely random food stuffed in the fridge. “How can you even cook a proper meal with that?”

“They fit perfectly in my smoothies,” Donghae said, and his “th” sounded more like “sh”, and trust him, Hyukjae put all his effort to not coo after hearing that.

“Potatoes and bananas?”

“They taste good together.”

Hyukjae sighed.

“Should I cook you a smoothie then?”

“No!” the boy whined all of a sudden.

“What? But you’re making it every morning!”

“Not when I’m five!”

“What am I supposed to do then?”

“Think about something? It’s not me who can deal with things now.”

And this time, Hyukjae growled. Donghae was smiling naughtily; he clearly enjoyed this situation, even though the raven head couldn’t understand how that was possible.

“Why the hell are you screaming so early in the morning,” they heard Heechul’s husky and angry voice, and soon he appeared in the kitchen, looking sleepy and a bit exhausted. “What are you two doing here?”

“Hyukjae’s cooking me breakfast,” Donghae said, smiling, and the expression on Heechul's face became much softer after hearing the younger's voice.

“Why couldn’t you cook it by yourself and be quiet?”

“He’s five, Heechul.”

“Oh, right.”

“Seriously?!” Hyukjae snapped. “You’re not even slightly surprised?”

“Do I have a reason to be?” Heechul asked and shrugged, coming closer and sitting beside Donghae. “I remember what happened yesterday.”

‘Yet you could at least pretend that you care about it,’ Hyukjae thought, but decided to say nothing about it.

“So what are we going to do now?” he said instead, finding eggs and deciding to cook an omelet.

“Cook that for me too,” Heechul said, ignoring the raven head’s judging look. “What do you mean by ‘what are we going to do’?”

“I mean aren’t we supposed to tell Leeteuk or something? This situation… may cause a lot of problems.”

“Hell no,” Heechul said strictly. “He already thinks about us as if he’s dealing with a bunch of kids, imagine what would happen to him once he knew he now has an actual kid as a member.”

Hyukjae frowned.

“So what are we going to do then?”

“Does it seem like we actually can do something? Maybe you know some spells or you have a magician friend? I’m here to listen if you do.”

“No, but… ugh,” Hyukjae sighed. “We need to do something.”

“Of course we do,” Heechul nodded in agreement. “You need to cook us breakfast, and then I need to call our manager and say Donghae got drunk.”

“I don’t drink, Heechul,” the boy said.

“That’s why he will believe me if I say you drank two glasses and now we can’t wake you up.”

“I wish everything could be that easy with schedules,” Hyukjae said.

“Well,” Donghae spoke. “It’s not like I have a lot. I just needed to go to agency to sort out one thing, but that’s it for today.”

The room became silent all of a sudden; Heechul and Hyukjae stared at Donghae.

“You’re joking, right?” the raven head asked, and the boy frowned.

“No, why?”

“You mean no schedules at all?” Heechul asked. “No fanmeeting as your birthday party, no event, no recording, no… anything? Even though you've been so busy lately?”

“No?..” the younger said uncertainly.

“Maybe you at least have a dinner with friends? Or with your family?”

“We decided to have a big dinner on a weekend, and I made my schedule free to just stay home and… enjoy things? Also the only friends I wanted to spend this day with are you, guys.”

The room became silent once again. Heechul and Hyukjae kept staring at Donghae, who looked at them confusedly, failing to understand what’s wrong.

“I don’t know if I feel touched or want to hit you for wasting your birthday like that,” Heechul said eventually.

“Same,” Hyukjae agreed. “If you weren’t a child I’d slap you already.”

“But thanks to me you don’t have to think about an excuse for all the events we’d have to cancel because of this situation!” Donghae pouted and crossed his arms in defend while saying that.

“Well, true,” Heechul said, getting up and patting Donghae's friend, as if telling him to stop sulking. “And while Hyukjae’s cooking us another breakfast I’m going to deal with the only thing you had to do today.”

“What do you mean by cooking another breakfast?” Hyukjae frowned.

“The omelet is burnt.”

“!”

“Don’t swear in front of a child.”

***

Hyukjae felt like they were insane, but everything was… okay. All of them were calm and, after dealing with Donghae’s tiny schedule, they finally could focus on their usual stuff. Hyukjae was reading different Internet articles about a possibility of making a child an adult, and Heechul… Heechul brought games to Donghae’s place and now was teaching the younger how to play. The raven head almost hated how he was the only one who kept searching for a solution. But even though he tried hard the only things he could find were different advertisements of private schools where "Kids will grow up good adults". He sighed.

That caught Donghae’s attention immediately, and he got distracted. Dropping a joystick right into Heechul’s hands, the boy looked at Hyukjae and asked, “What happened?”

“Damn, Donghae, play or talk, don’t do both!” Heechul grumbled.

“Language, Heechul,” Hyukjae mocked him and then looked at Donghae.

The boy was sitting at his hyung’s lap and looked oh so tiny. Heechul also brought him pajama he quickly chose in the shop (because they decided it's not okay for Donghae to walk around in his t-shirt that now was too big for him), though Hyukjae really doubted that white pajama with bunny ears and tail was a random choice, but Heechul will never admit he spent two hours on choosing a cute pajama for Donghae.

Hyukjae smiled and shook his head, as if telling the younger that everything's okay. Call him insane, but it was simply impossible to not smile, not only because that boy with beautiful eyes looked simply adorable, but because it reminded him about good old days.

No, he didn’t know Donghae when they were that young, but they barely were teens when they’ve met each other, and everything seemed so cool, they were expecting a bright future and, even though they already were familiar with how hard life can be, they still were so… unbothered. Turning into a child really brought back that look on Donghae’s face; a look of someone who won’t concentrate on problems too much.

Lee Donghae tends to think and focus on a bad stuff a bit more than a usual human being, so call him insane, but Hyukjae was… a bit happy? He was happy that Donghae could enjoy this day without worrying about tomorrow or even today, without thinking too much about all the problems they’re facing every day. So maybe, just maybe, there was something good in this situation.

But his thoughts were interrupted with a sudden call. Hyukjae noticed a terrified look on Donghae’s face and Heechul’s frown once the younger took a phone in his his hands.

“M… mom’s calling!” Donghae screamed before the raven head could ask anything. “Oh my God, I didn’t think she would call!”

“I will not comment about how you thought that your own mother won’t call to congratulate you on your birthday,” Heechul said.

“You can scold me later, but now,” Donghae got up, but was still standing on Heechul’s lap with his tiny feet, holding a phone in his hands, “do something, please!”

“You seriously want me to talk to your mother? She will think I made you drink and will arrive immediately.”

Donghae yelped, and jumped off Heechul’s lap, making the other cry out of pain, and quickly ran to Hyukjae.

“Hyukjae, Hyukjae, Hyukjae!” the younger kept screaming, panicking. “Answer, please!”

“What am I supposed to say?” the raven head asked, trying to grab a phone from Donghae’s hands; it wasn’t easy, since the younger was running in circles around him.

“You think about it!” Donghae said, and once again Hyukjae could just sigh. Everything was happening too fast, and he really hasn't had time to think about it, so he just answered the call without thinking about what to say once Donghae's mother asks him about her son.

“Hello?” he said, hoping for the best.

“Oh, Hyukjae?” he heard Donghae’s mother’s voice.

“Yes, hello, very nice to hear you,” Hyukjae tried to sound cheerful and even smiled.

“I’m happy to hear you too! How are you doing?”

“I’m fine, just having a lazy day.”

“No schedules?”

“Cancelled them a week ago because I wanted to celebrate Donghae’s birthday with him,” he saw Donghae’s surprised look, and this time it wasn’t a look that a young boy gives you when he’s confused, it was Donghae’s look, the one Hyukjae used to see so often; confusion, disbelief and tenderness, gratitude mixed all together. Yes, little Donghae was adorable, but an adult Donghae was just…

“Talking about my son,” Donghae’s mother interrupted his thoughts once again. “Where’s he?”

“Oh,” Hyukjae realized he hasn’t found an excuse yet. “He’s… Umm… In the bathroom?”

Donghae opened his mouth, and Hyukjae could swear the expression on his face meant ‘Are you serious?’

“Oh,” the woman said. “It’s okay, tell him to call me back once he’s done, okay?”

“Actually,” the raven head continued, “he can’t do that.”

A small pause.

“Something happened, Hyukjae?” Donghae’s mother asked in a worried tone.

“No, I mean… Donghae can’t call you back because… he’s sick.”

The room went silent once again. Then he heard Heechul slapping his own face while muttering, “Idiot.”

“He’s sick, and that’s why I told him to have a warm bath,” Hyukjae continued, ignoring flabbergasted look on Donghae’s face. “It’s nothing serious, in fact he… he lost his voice and can’t talk to you because of th