Dear Cizenies,

I am currently outside my home country, and there is a problem with my laptop so I can't respond to messages/comments yet. The reason of this long abscense has to do with some personal reasons, which I wouldn't mind explaining but again my laptop isnt great right now for typing.

I should get back home in less then 2 weeks, but I will try to fix my laptop and update before then as chapter for next update is half done, wish me luck.

As always, lots of love and thanks,

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Lee Jisung.

If you asked Taeyong to describe his precious maknae he would be able to gush for hours about how cute he was; it was a term that Jisung hated to be called by, but nobody, truly nobody cared about that, even Mark who slipped the word “cute” a lot of times in the face of his adorable dongsaeng.

If you would listen to Taeyong’s ramble then you would understand that Jisung was cute for a lot of reasons, such as the fact that his cheeks were dangerously stretchy and perfect to pinch, or how Jisung transformed into a clingy coala whenever he was too tired to care about his “cool image”.

All those reasons were good enough, but the one that Taeyong thought was the cutest was that his maknae  tried to make friends eventhough he was very shy and a person of few words (one of those habits that Taeyong blamed on Mark yet again).

Jisung was unlike Chenle, who flew like a butterfly from flower to flower, content with peace and quite, yet he couldn’t help but crave for friendship as he wasn’t good at being lonely either.

When Jisung was 15, he started to attend a dance academy instead of school, separating him from the constant presence of Chenle who was his brother and best friend.

The first of week had been akward, so akward that Jisung had nearly renounced on the idea to continue his studies there. Thankfully Jisung’s classmates quickly noticed a few things;

And that’s how a week after, Jisung started to slowly adapted into his new environment, making slowly but surely a couple of friends that started to become his inner social circle.

The moment his dad had discovered this (which as a couple of weeks later), Taeyong being Taeyong had tried to invite those friends home, but getting shy Jisung to allow this (Taeyong’s love was sometimes a bit to overwhelming to show off in front of people in the humble opinion of his kids), had taken him a lot time to achieve.

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“Babe, give him some space.” Taeil had tried to appease a sulky Taeyong, who was petulantly cooking their dinner in the kitchen.

“What’s wrong Dad?” Jeno who just came back from his late afternoon evening class asked with his usual eye smile, although Taeyong could see some traces of tiredness on his beloved Nono’s face. University life wasn’t healthy, if you asked Taeyong: his Hyung-line was always so overworked and busy, and Taeyong didn’t even talk about the finals weeks.

“Your Dad wants to invite Jisung’s friends home.” Winwin who had been casually reading a book (there was a phone hidden behind the cover, but he didn’t want to give Chenle any excuse to stay glued on his phone by giving the wrong example) answered lightly as he continued to read (his phone) book in all elegance and grace.

“Ah..” Jeno nodded in understanding; he didn’t really liked to invite the few friends and acquaintance he had either at home, but that was more out of concern of not wanting them to discover his identity then anything else. It had always made Taeyong sad, as he dreamed to invite his kids friends home, but with silent Mark as the oldest (who was way to carefull with his circle of friends and busy with his duties as a prince), very loyal and tsundre Renjun who didn’t let anyone easily in his heart and who found friendship annoying (Moonbyul and Hendery were the exceptions), and Jeno himself who when being younger had been more of the type to play sport outside with his friends then to stay at home and play, Taeyong’s dream had been fulfilled only on a couple of rare instances, which greatly saddened the tpo-much-affectionate papa he was.

Seeing the golden occasion that presented in front of his eyes, Taeyong lamented again as he nearly forgot about the stew that he was cooking.

But unlucky for poor Jisung, Taeyong always gets his way (especially when he is sulking) and thats how on a nice Sunday afternoon Jisung friends were looking on Mina’s phone to make sure that they had actually arrived at their destination.

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“You sure its here?” Sungha asked with a bit of skeptism towards the security gate of the big penthouse complex that towered out behind it.

“Hey, can you read a Google map better then me? If not, shut up.” Mina muttered as despite her confidence, she too was a bit unsure of this being the right destination.

They both turned towards Hyunbin who was the only one who had kept silence as usual.

Hyunbin turned towards them as he felt their gaze on him: “What?”

“You are rich right? Do you know where we are?” Sungha asked without reserve while Mina slapped him lightly as she rolled her eyes; “Can’t you have some tact?”

“What? It aint a secret if his driver picks him up and from the school every day?” Sungha snorted as he turned back to Hyunbin; “And?”

Hyunbin rolled his eyes; he always thought that Sungha’s only smart and sharp mind was  limited to dance only, and such moments only reaffirmed his trail of thoughts.

“You aren’t rich, so do you know all poor and middle-class neighboorhoods?” Hyunbin retored with a bit of sarcasm.

Sungha huffed, ignoring Hyunbin’s usual cold attitude; “Great. So, where are we?”

“There is a car coming, I am gonna ask.” Mina nodded towards a sport car that was approaching them.

“Excuse me!” she waved before Sungha or Hyunbin could reply, making the driver slow down even more while a window lowered down from the front seat.

“I am sorry” Mina continued a bit flustered at the young charming man that was behind the wheel, “But is this the right address?”

She showed her phone which showed her conversation with Jisung who had texted her his address.

“...” the young man eyes suddenly turned into the most charming eyesmile she had seen, cresent like the moon: “Are you guys Jisungie’s friends?”

“Eh? Yes!” Mina hurriedly answered after being flustered yet a second time.

“Nice meeting you. I am Jisungie’s hyung. Why don’t you guys take a place here,” he nodded behind him, “I will guide you in. Its quite a way to walk and I need to park the car.”

“S-sure. Thank you very much!” she opened the car’s backdoor and entered without thinking too much while Sungha frowned; following a stranger didn’t seem smart, rich stranger or not.

“Come on, there are camera’s here.” Hyungbin muttered as he followed behind Mina, giving Sungha no choice but to follow as well.

“I thought Jisungie’s friends would arrive before I came back from work.” Jeno’s voice asked curiously as he typed the password, opening up the gate and driving in.

Today had been only morning classes, so he had gone to NCT’s to do some work done with the upcoming project so that he could study a bit during the weekend.

“We kinda got lost?” Mina chuckled embarrassingly while Sungha muttered how big the complex was as Jeno continued to drive until they arrived at the last penthouse building which seemed to be the most expensive one amongst all those they had drove by.

“Didn’t know he was actually rich too,huh.” Sungha couldn’t help but comment yet again while Mina and Hyunbin both knocked their punch on his thick head.

Jeno chuckled, ignoring the comment as he said:

“Its your first time coming here; my dad wanted to pick you up himself but Jisungie thought that would be awkward for you guys.”

Sungha and Hyunbin nodded not bothering to show the truth while Mina thanked Jeno for the kind intentions of their father.

A while later the trio of them followed Jeno through the entrance of the building, entering the elevator who opened up after a couple of seconds to reveal a spacious yet elegant entrance.

“I am home.” Jeno greeted, taking off his shoes, while finally letting go of his heavy handbag that contained way too heavy notes and his notebook.

“Welcome back!” Taeyong yelled from the kitchen which smelled great thanks to the cookies and other delicacies that he was preparing for their arriving guests.

“Dad, our guests arrived.” Jeno yelled lightly back while taking off his jacket and wearing his comfortable slippers, ignoring his Dad’s surprised yelp.

Not even a couple of seconds later the figure of his dad emerged at the entrance, his curious eyes quickly glancing over them while Taeil arrived shortly after with a warm smile on his face.

“Welcome, I am Jisung’s Dad.” Taeyong gave them his most dazeling smile, while Taeil smiled at their stunned expression, an arm around Taeyong’s waist as he warned: “Don’t scare them off Babe.”

“How am I-” Taeyong sulky sentence was interrupted by Chenle who screamed with his high pitched voice towards the stairs of their double complex penthouse apartment: “Sungie, your friends arrived!”

Jeno chuckled as he heard the soft footsteps of his brother coming down the stairs while Chenle already arrived at the entrance, his warm dazzling eyes already checking out his brothers friends who were starting to feel lost at the amount of attention they were getting.

While the trio just both finished to greet Taeyong and Taeil politely, Jisung arrived yet before he could chase his dad away or even greet his friends, he heard an annoying voice ask: “The chipmunks friends are here?”.

Donghyuck who had stopped by home after the day’s schedule had ended, piped up curiously as he took a glance at the entrance from where he was seated comfortable on the couch, making the Mina cry out in surprise as she recognised the idol.

Jisung groaned dragging his friends towards his room as quickly as his legs allowed, praying that the devil would stay put and not cause any other trouble. Chenle followed them, smiling innocently, yet even Taeil knew that Jisung wouldn’t be able to get rid of his curious brother.

“Sungie-ah the food-” Taeyong chirped in surprise as his son pushed his friends up the stairs.

“Later dad, later!” Jisung weakly protested as he ushered his friends (while Chenle sneaked silently in) into his room.

Taeil and Jeno both chuckled at Taeyong’s devasted face, and while Taeil comforted him that his chance to serve his guests would come, Jeno greeted Donghyuck before asking: “What are you doing here?”

Donghyuck snorted; “Wow, I missed you too, thank you very much.”

Jeno smiled, not bothered by the snarky comment as he took a seat in front of the idol: “Were you that curious about Jisung’s friends?”

“As if, who would be interested in that chipmunks life...” Donghyuck muttered with an eased voice while sipping on the cup of tea that he had received from Taeil: it was a good herbal remedy for his throat and Taeyong had made it in a way that was actually quite tasty.

“Well then I guess I don’t need to tell you that his friends seemed fine to me, right?”

 Jeno smiled softly while thanking his dad (still looking slightly devasted) who proposed a cup of warm tea to his son: “How was your day?”

Jeno replied with some small facts, satisfying the curiosity of his dad and a half-listening Donghyuck ( who seemed to have some talk with Taeil), and while his cup’s content disappeared bit by bit the sound of the elevator opening up yet again stopped everyone continuing their conversation.

“Finally.” Donghyuck muttered as a grinning Renjun, holding hands with a soft looking Lucas who’s other hand contained way too much shopping bags greeted them warmly.

“What are you doing here?” Renjun asked Donghyuck.

“Do you siblings greet everyone like this?