I woke up feeling uncomfortable, my back aches and my throat feels dry.

Looking around, I see 8 guys sleeping in different positions: Suho-hyung who’s all curled up inside the comforter beside Minseok-hyung who’s sleeping with his hands above his head; Lay-hyung who had decided to sleep on the couch instead of sleeping beside us; Baekhyun with mouth wide open, was sleeping beside Chanyeol who was sleeping eyes half closed; I heard Kai murmured something incoherent, who slept beside me, before turning to his other side and now facing Sehun who was sleeping like a lost baby at one side. How we end up all sleeping in the living room of the house we rented out is something I cannot clearly remember.

Smiling at the sight of them sleeping, I stood up and stretched my body. I reached for my glasses and look out the window. It is still a little bit dark outside and soon enough, once these guys woke up, the whole neighborhood will be awake. So I hurriedly wash my face and decided to prepare breakfast for us.

Fortunately last night, Chanyeol was able to book a house that would fit all of us immediately. It was also that instance that we have decided to rent it for 2 nights and 2 days so we need to quickly pack our bags and go out shopping for foods that would last for 2 days.

Seems like luck was on our side at that time since even though it was already late at night, we were still able to buy the things we needed. How we were able to finished everything and arriving here before midnight was something miracle for us too, since we were all already a bit drunk coming from the barbeque place we eat at. Good thing Yongjun-hyung insisted on driving us here because Chanyeol won’t give up on driving for us.

*

Everyone was now speaking so loudly now that we were on the second round of our drinking session. We started of chatting and laughing at each other’s stories but now we ended up debating about something weird that we all know no one will win.

“Nooo, I told youuuu, it’s supposed to be likeee thaaaat. Water first before anything elseeee.” Baekhyun said in slurry words.

“Noooo!” Chanyeol blurted out. “Pot first!” he continued that made Chen laugh loudly.

“Youuu guys are boooth wrong.” He started, “How can you cook noodles without the ramen itseeeelf!”

“No!” Sehun said. “Hyuuuuungs are wrooooong. You should have fiiire first.” He said then laugh. Everyone else laugh with him afterwards and the debate for what’s important to have first continues.

*

It’s nearing 1:30 in the midnight and everyone has tone down their noises. I was just staring at the bottle of beer in front of me when I heard Suho-hyung speak.

“You know how we are always here for you right?” he said, pertaining to no one, making everybody silent. I turned my gaze to him and was surprised that everyone was looking at me, concern and worry reflecting their eyes.

“We don’t know what exactly happened and we don’t want to ask you about it.” He continued, “But Kyungsoo-ya, it has been 5 years. We don’t want to tell you this but it’s hurtful how we see you try to stand up on your feet for the whole year only to crumble down when that day comes.” Everyone turned their gazes away from me but nodded their head in agreement.

“You might not want to talk about it, but seeing you lose the excitement in your eyes worries all of us. We always watch your back, have your back, because we all know that you don’t want us to worry about you so you’re pretending to be strong.” Xiumin-hyung said. I looked at Xiumin-hyung and I can see the sadness in his eyes.

“Hyung, you know that we don’t need to pretend in front of us rig