Ten walked into the dorm. He hadn’t waited long in the 127 dorm after they had all left for the showcase. He sighed remembering that he had a practice scheduled in two hours and decided that a short nap would be a good idea.

What he hadn’t counted on was the dreamies having some sort of indoor volleyball match. The living room was a mess and he nearly had a fit when he saw that someone had drawn an unflattering caricature of himself on the ball. He saw this in the quick seconds as the ball flew towards his face.

The dreamies stopped yelling when the ball smacked Ten’s face loudly.

“Oops,” Jisung said.

Ten stood still, aware of how his face was burning up.

Jeno seemed to be on the verge of apologizing profusely when Lucas burst into loud nervous laughter. That was enough for Chenle to start laughing and soon all the kids were laughing.

Renjun cackled. “You should have seen your face!”

“That’s it, you devils. No more volleyball in the house and you’re going to clean everything right now!” Ten said, in as much a stern tone as he could muster.

There was a collective groan at this but since Jeno started cleaning up, the others followed soon.

Ten began walking towards his room, muttering at how he didn’t deserve kids who weren’t even his own at this stage in life. “And where is Kun? How did he allow this to happen? Have you locked him somewhere?”

Renjun and Jaemin passed a look. Jaemin was the one who asked, “Didn’t you two go out together last night?”

An icy hand gripped Ten’s heart. “He came home last night.” When none of them responded, he added, “Right?”

Jeno said, “No, he didn’t.”

Ten felt faint. “He didn’t come back?” His imagination was jumping to conclusions. He should have come home with Kun last night. He shouldn’t have let him go alone. He took out his phone, fingers shaking as he dialled Kun’s number. Kun picked up after three rings. “Kun?” Ten found he could breathe again. “Where the are you?...Oh, oh…Okay, yeah, alright…Bye-bye.”

The dreamies were all watching him now.

“You guys scared me!” Ten laughed awkwardly. “He said he came home last night and headed out just a few minutes ago to get some chocolate milk.”

“Well, no offence but that’s a lie,” Renjun said.

Jisung nodded slowly. “We would know if he came home last night.”

“And when he supposedly left a few minutes ago? Bruh, we have been playing here since hours.”

Ten made a face. “Anyway, Kun is safe so it’s all okay.”

The dreamies were passing another look amongst each other and since it was a well-known fact that despite all appearances Ten liked Renjun best, it was Renjun who grabbed his hand and made him sit on the couch. All of them crowded around him.

“Hyung,” Chenle said, “we have to tell you something.”

“You guys killed my cactus, right?” Ten asked, accusingly.

“No, that was you,” Jaemin said, sighing as if that question had been asked often.

“Then, is it about—”

Renjun blurted. “We think Kun gege has a boyfriend.”

Ten looked at their faces and began laughing. “Wait, you guys are serious!?”

“We have receipts,” Jeno added.

“Kids, kids, you are all so clueless. Kun has probably never even kissed a guy let alone have a boyfriend. He’s—he’s Kun! Besides, we’d know if he was dating. He’s always at home. It’s preposterous. The stuff you kids think up.” Ten wiped a tear, still laughing. “Wow, you guys made my day.” He made to get up but Chenle sat beside him.

“Remember when he said he was out grocery shopping for two whole hours and then turned up with no grocery?”

Ten frowned. “Yeah, he said he forgot to get the bags. It happens. Us adults are under a lot of stress.”

Renjun tsk-ed. “And where was he all night?”

“He must have come back after your bed-time. It was pretty late when we got free,” Ten rationalized.

Jaemin rolled his eyes. “We were up till three.”

“What!?”

“He’s always texting these days,” Jisung quickly said.

“So, you all think he has a boyfriend?” Ten was still laughing.

“Well, I think he’s Batman,” Lucas commented, raising his hand.

Everyone turned to him and Ten realized he