"I saw that, Kai!", Taehyun muttered under his breath, letting out a heavy sigh of frustration before tackling the boy opposite to him onto the ground, cursing him out in rapid whispers. "One more attempt at cheating and I'll shave your head!"

The others watched with pity, shaking their heads incessantly as they observed the scene; a red-haired hothead constantly hitting a younger brown-head who screamed in sheer agony - it was not a new sight, not at all. In fact, it was as typical as it could get as the five friends sat under the roof of Yeonjun's family mansion during the weekend, playing with cards and nibbling on snacks every now and then.

“Taehyun, my love, please don’t kill Kai. We need him.”, Beomgyu complained, tugging at Taehyun’s shirt as he took a sip of his soda.

At that, Taehyun pulled away and sat up straight but his eyes were still fixated on Kai. He waited for a few seconds before letting out a chuckle as he leaned against Beomgyu.

“Well, now that Kai is safe and alive, can we continue?”, Soobin asked as he aggressively slammed a card onto the table, forcing a smile. He tried to sneak a glance at the set of cards in the hands of the person beside him – Yeonjun – but was caught almost immediately.

“Soobin! At least try being discreet about it!”, Yeonjun complained as he kept his cards beside him, proceeding to throw a cushion at the other with presumably gentle force. “Taehyun, beat him up for me!”

“No thanks, you can do that yourself.”

Yeonjun stared at the red-head in disbelief. “You- Taehyunie, have I mentioned how beautiful your red hair looks today? I think I prefer this compared to the raven look from last month!”

Soobin furrowed his brows and tilted his head with disapproval: “Wow, Yeonjun-hyung, you really stooped that low just to get Taehyun to tackle me? Amazing, amazing, really ama-”

But Soobin couldn’t even complete expressing his exaggerated fascination at his friend’s behaviour as he was immediately pushed to the ground helplessly, being tickled at his sides while Taehyun sat on top of him.

“Ah, boys! Is this the first thing I need to see as soon as I return home?”

All eyes turned towards the voice, and upon recognising who the voice belonged to, Taehyun fled back to his place in the blink of an eye, while Soobin pulled himself up; it was Yeonjun’s mother, who had returned back to Seoul after a month of being overseas for some international work regarding partnerships for hotels and restaurants.

“Mrs. Choi, welcome back!”, they greeted the woman in a chorus.

Soobin jumped to his feet and walked over to the woman, picking up some of her bags, nodding at the butler who only smiled in response.

“Oh, my dear Soobin, I’ve missed you so much!”, Mrs. Choi exclaimed with a wide smile as she ruffled the boy’s hair. “Meanwhile, my own little Yeonjun won’t even spare a glance at me!”

“Hmm, I don’t think I need to, mom.”, Yeonjun crinkled his nose and let out a giggle. “But if you insist… Welcome back, my lady.”

“Oh, is that how it’s going to be? Very well, then. I suppose I can give away these Swiss and Belgian chocolates to your friends instead.” The woman giggled to herself as she saw the shocked expression on her son’s face.

“Mom!” Yeonjun frowned as he saw his mother lead the way to her bedroom with Soobin and the butler following shortly. “Soobin, get some chocolates for me!”

“Not a chance, hyung!”, the other’s voice echoed through the hallway.

As Yeonjun turned back to the abandoned game, he gritted his teeth dangerously at the other three that were staring at him with a smirk. “Shut up. If I’m not getting those chocolates, none of you are. My mom loves me.”

There was a moment’s pause before Yeonjun returned to his thoughts, as if reassuring himself: “Yeah. That’s right! She loves me. I mean, she has to, right? Oh my God, Beomgyu, slap me!”

Just like a genie granting a wish, Beomgyu struck his hand across the other’s face, giggling to himself. “Oh, that felt so nice. Oh my God, Kai, Taehyun, let’s punch him together next time!”

“Yah! What the hell?!? This is abuse!”, Yeonjun complained as he hastily crawled over and pulled Beomgyu into a headlock.

Meanwhile, Soobin quietly followed Mrs. Choi upstairs to her bedroom; he glanced at the butler by his side who seemed just fine, while he was struggling to carry all the weight up the stairs – kind people seemed to have it hard at times. He tried not to pant audibly, feeling weak compared to the butler.

“Soobin, wait.” The butler spoke as he halted his steps and proceeded to carry one of the luggage that the younger was overwhelmed with; seeing Soobin widen his eyes in response, he smiled. “Better?”

“Thank you, Jungkook-hyung!” Soobin nodded giddily, tightening his grip around the single bag he was carrying. He could only wonder why the woman travelled with so many bags – so many heavy bags.

Mrs. Choi finally noticed the state of the two boys; she quickly pushed the doors to her bedroom wide open, before rushing back to the stairs. “Enough, enough, boys! I’m so sorry to pull you both up here. I can take it from here, thank you so much.”

Soobin bowed respectfully along with the butler, before they both turned around to return back to where they were supposed to be. However, Soobin stopped halfway through the stairs as he heard a fa