When summer finally arrived, Heechul decided that they should travel somewhere. Of course, this ‘somewhere’ resulted in a huge fight until Zelo got up and pointed on a spot on the map.

South Africa.

Heechul stared, mouth opening and closing again like a fish. Hankyung seemed surprised. Yongguk thought it over for a moment before he grinned and nodded.

“South Africa’s cool,” he said, and then it was decided. They’d travel to South Africa for two weeks during the summer holidays.

Yoseob, of course, started whining and begging as soon as he heard about it, but Heechul kept saying no and eventually he gave up. He did not give up on making Yongguk promise at least once a day that he’d call him, even if it was expensive, take a lot of photos and send him postcards. Yongguk promised at least once a day, if Yoseob in return promised he’d tell the others which he always did.

Yongguk sometimes tried to speak to Zelo about his childhood, but Zelo always said the same thing; the past is the past and they’ll just have to come to terms with it and accept it, so eventually he just gave up.

The trip was amazing. Surely it was a bit hot, but it wasn’t like Yongguk minded. He was really tan when they came home, but Zelo had only managed to burn his neck what with his pale complexion.

They got two days of sleeping the jet lag away when they came home before Jiyong and all the others invited themselves over, rudely waking both Yongguk and Zelo up with loud shouts.

“Guys!” Yoseob yelled in an awfully sing-song voice. “Time to wake up~!”

Yongguk groaned and turned over, pulling the quilt over his head. Zelo let out a similar sound from the other side of the room, but he actually got out of bed, staggered across the room and fell across Yongguk, who let out an oof, but didn’t say anything.

“Aw, how cute!” Jiyong squealed, giggling like a school girl. Yongguk wanted to strangle him. “Too bad Zelo isn’t just a little bit older.”

“Seunghyun,” Yongguk groaned, “can I please strangle your boyfriend?”

Seunghyun let out a laugh as he protested. Jiyong laughed too as he sat down on the edge of the bed, making the mattress bounce. Zelo whimpered and got in under the covers to hide from him. Yongguk didn’t even open his eyes as he pulled him closer to his chest, burying his face in his hair.

“No really. We made pancakes,” Kyuhyun added. “Mainly because Sungmin insisted and his pancakes are awesome, but we made them!”

“Yoseob, you’ll clean up whatever eggshells and saliva there is in the sink,” Yongguk warned. Apparently his words were very funny, because the room exploded in laughter.

“Not this time, thank God,” Yoseob assured once he’d caught his breath. “The taste of eggshells is rather horrendous.”

“Mm, give us ten minutes and we’ll be down,” Yongguk finally agreed.

“Ten minutes! I’ll be back up if you’re not down by then and I’ll tickle you to death!” Jiyong threatened before the door closed and the room was silent once more. Yongguk let out a sigh and pulled Zelo impossibly closer.

“Good to know they’re as crazy as they were when we left,” Zelo murmured against his chest and Yongguk laughed.

“Yeah. Shall we go downstairs?”

Zelo whined and pressed even closer, but allowed Yongguk to slip out of bed and pick him up, carrying him all the way downstairs and placing him on a chair in the kitchen. Zelo immediately lay his head on the table, nestled in his arms, and successfully elicited spread awws from pretty much everyone in the kitchen.

“Zelo-ah,” Yongguk said, waiting until the boy looked at him. “Pancakes.”

He chuckled as Zelo immediately sat up straight, eyes lit up and reaching out for the pancakes. Without needing to be asked, or even looked at, Yongguk got up and checked the freezer for any ice cream that might possibly be there.

“Look, we have your favorite!” he said as he successfully dug out some strawberry ice cream and put it on the table. Zelo’s grin widened. The others watched the scene with smiles of their own on their faces.

“We’re like a family, aren’t we,” Jiyong eventually broke the silence. “A young, big, happy family.”

Yongguk rolled his eyes but said nothing as he watched Zelo wolf down his pancakes at an impressive speed.

~~

Summer passed way too quickly. Yongguk wasn’t very surprised, seeing as most summers passed just as quickly — especially if they were spent doing crazy things with a bunch of good friends.

They didn’t only manage to start a sand-war at the beach and get everyone else their age to join, they also managed to start a food war at the Chinese restaurant five minutes from Yongguk’s place and get banned for good, unintentionally ruin the color on about three cars, almost start a fire, once again get chased for bathing in the fountain, catch a thief and get a price for it, land Doojoon in the hospital with a concussion and almost die.

The last event happened when they decided to go to the beach and have a swimming competition. They’d swam too far, too quickly, gotten tired and nearly drowned. It was lucky Zelo was still on the beach and knew to speak when there was an emergency. When he noticed that his hyungs were way too far out, he called for the life guard and told him what was going on.

None of them were seriously injured, but they were all kept overnight for observation. Doojoon was glad for the company.

“Couldn’t you at least have waited until they’d let me go?” he whined. Yoseob smacked him, thankfully not over his head.

“We could not. Or, more like Jiyong could not,” Henry calmly replied from behind the book he was reading.

“Yah!” Jiyong protested, but he was too tired to say much more. He’d been the first into the water, he’d swam the fastest and so he’d used the most energy out of them and been the one closest to drowning. After him was Seunghyun, because when he realized his boyfriend kept disappearing under the surface he’d panicked and tried to rescue him. Needless to say, it didn’t go very well.

Yongguk watched his friends with a small smile on his lips and pulled the almost-asleep Zelo closer to his side. He was just relieved that neither of them had really drowned or gotten seriously injured.

 ~~

Going back to school was boring, but somehow calming. Yongguk, Heechul, Hankyung, Jiyong, Seunghyun and Yoseob joined forces and eventually managed to convince Yongguk’s teachers to allow Zelo to follow Yongguk around in school. He’d even been given some material of his own to work with, on one condition; he didn’t bother Yongguk too much.

But it quickly showed that Zelo was intelligent. He solved most problems by himself and only asked Yongguk if he really couldn’t figure what he was supposed to do, or asked him to check if he’d done it correctly if he was unsure.

He was the best at Korean and English and extremely rarely did something wrong. He was almost as good at math and he wasn’t bad in the other subjects either, but those three were definitely his best.

Allie was amazed with Zelo’s skills and more than gladly helped him whenever he needed it. Yongguk tried to offer help before her as often as possible, because he felt uneasy whenever he saw the two of them together, regardless of whether he was right next to them or a few meters away.

Allie gradually revealed more information about herself. She was half Korean, half Japanese but had been adopted by a couple in America. She hadn’t even known she was from Korea until her biological mother’s sister visited to hand over the sad news of her mother’s passing away. Allie hadn’t been that sad, considering she’d never known her mother, but she’d agreed on moving back to Korea with her aunt, at least for a while. If she didn’t like it there, she could move back to America after two years.

“So I’ve actually been living on Korea for a little over a year now,” she said. Yongguk couldn’t help but to be surprised. She looked Korean, she spoke the language so well… She laughed when he told her.

“Do you ever think of moving back?” he asked and she shrugged.

“Sometimes. I don’t know. There are a lot of things I miss with America, but I like it here too and I’ve made so many friends… You, for example.”

Yongguk just rolled his eyes at her and continued eating his lunch. Allie giggled and continued talking, but Yongguk stopped listening. He only picked up enough to figure that it was about her ex’s new girlfriend or something like that.

Yongguk considered Allie good company, but she was not really a friend. She was a little bit annoying sometimes and she was nowhere near crazy enough to qualify as one of his friends.

This fact proved to be true when Jiyong thought it a good idea to skip school and drag Yoseob, Seunghyun and Kyuhyun over to visit Yongguk. The others refused as they did not want to be yelled at by their parents, but the other four did not seem to care.

The entire class jumped when the door slammed open and Jiyong stepped inside.

“Yongguk-ah!” he yelled before quickly localizing his friend. He pulled chair over and sat down next to Zelo. “What’s up.”

Yongguk gave him a look.

“You came all the way here to say what’s up?” he asked disbelievingly. Jiyong snorted, shaking his head.

“Of course not. Beside, Yoseob and Seunghyun and Kyunnie came too,” he answered.

“Hey! My name is Kyuhyun, you ,” Kyuhyun said loudly as he stepped into the classroom, smacking Jiyong on the back of his head with a book. Yongguk’s teacher seemed to be frozen in place in shock.

“Ow! Now who’s an ? At least I don’t hit my friends,” Jiyong retorted, sticking his tongue out at Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun rolled his eyes and sighed at his friend’s childishness before he turned to grin at Yongguk.

“Surprise!” he exclaimed, a little belatedly. Yongguk laughed as Yoseob and Seunghyun entered the classroom as well, shouting greetings of their own.

“You guys are crazy,” he said. Seunghyun snorted and Jiyong let out a sound of disapproval.

“Oh please. Tell us something we didn’t already know? Besides, you can’t deny you like it. And you’re at least as crazy!” he said. Yongguk laughed and nodded in agreement.

Only then did his teacher react. She yelled at them to get out of her classroom, threatened Yongguk with detention when they wouldn’t budge, threatened to call their headmaster… It didn’t work. They stayed. In the end she allowed them to stay, as long as they did not disrupt the lesson.

Surprisingly, they didn’t, but they wreaked havoc during lunch. Yongguk didn’t think anything would’ve happened had not one of his classmates bullied Jiyong and Seunghyun for being a couple. Jiyong threw his plate at him before he decided to retaliate by grabbing Seunghyun’s neck and pulling him in for a kiss. It wasn’t a little innocent peck on the lips, either; Yongguk had to cover Zelo’s eyes.

This only resulted in the bully throwing his own food at them, and then his friends too. Jiyong and Seunghyun didn’t stop. Yongguk just had to laugh at them and Kyuhyun and Yoseob joined him.

“Guys!” he called, attempting to breathe and speak at the same time as he was doubled over in laughter. Jiyong and Seunghyun finally broke apart, snickering at the sight of each other and Yongguk. Allie was standing beside Yongguk and Zelo along with Yoseob and Kyuhyun, but she did not look half as amused as the four of them.

“Yeah?” Jiyong said, poking Yongguk’s ribs to drag an answer out of him. Yongguk just shook his head and attempted to stand straight, gasping for air.

“I don’t see what’s so funny,” Allie said flatly. Yoseob shook his head, tears of laughter in his eyes.

“I don’t either,” Kyuhyun agreed although he was laughing too. Allie just sighed and shook her head, turning around to take a seat.

“I don’t think the lunch ladies will allow you to take another portion,” she told Jiyong. Jiyong merely shrugged and led Seunghyun to a seat before placing himself in his lap and forcing the older to feed him.

“I don’t need another portion,” he said through a mouthful. Allie scrunched up her nose, but wisely kept quiet.

She kept quiet the entire lunch, while the boys around her happily chatted away, Zelo being the only exception. Eventually she leaned towards him and whispered something in his ear that made his eyes glint in that amused way Yongguk hadn’t seen since Zelo started allowing himself to laugh freely. He quickly shifted his focus from the ongoing conversation — something about Zhou Mi and his desperate attempts to get that Chanel bag he’d wanted for forever — to Zelo and Allie. That uneasy feeling was back in his stomach.

He watched from the corner of his eye as Allie continued whispering in Zelo’s ear and that invisible smile grew on his face. She seemed to notice nothing of it, which made Yongguk feel an odd kind of satisfaction. At least she did not speak his silent language. Only Yongguk did.

The bell rang just as Zelo’s lips began twitching, the smile wanting to break out full-force. Yongguk grabbed his hand as he stood up, relieved, and pulled the quickly turning confused boy along with him as he left the cafeteria.

“I’m sorry, I just…” Yongguk sighed and looked behind him to make sure none of the others had caught up yet. “She gives me an odd feeling.”

Zelo seemed content with his answer as he gave a quick nod and stopped looking so confused, his face rather taking on a content expression.

For the remaining lessons, Jiyong, Yoseob and Seunghyun seemed rather bored. Kyuhyun helped Zelo with his stuff. Yongguk tried to both study and keep an eye on his friends and Allie. It wasn’t easy and the teacher told him several times to at least try to concentrate — it only made it worse.

Needless to say, Yongguk was rather relieved when they could finally go home. Jiyong, Seunghyun and Yoseob seemed to agree. Jiyong jumped on Seunghyun’s back and forced him to give him a piggyback ride, earning spread laughter from around the school and Yoseob skipped after them; literally skipped, twirling ever fourth step and all.

Yongguk was a little surprised when he felt an additional weight on his back and a pair of legs wrapping around his waist, but he smiled when he turned his head and noticed that it was Zelo. The younger leaned forward to wrap his arms around Yongguk’s chest and pushed into his ribs with his knees, urging him on like a horse. Yongguk laughed, but walked forward nonetheless.

He was exhausted when they came home, but he didn’t mind, because the giggle Zelo let out when Yongguk dropped him on the couch was adorable.

“Want some ice cream?” Yongguk asked as he walked towards the kitchen where the others were waiting. Yongguk had just entered the kitchen when a loud squealing sound came from the living room. He froze and looked between the other four before they all simultaneously burst into laughter.

“He’s too cute,” Yoseob said. “Wait, I’m just going to pinch his cheeks.”

More squealing and adorable giggles — both Yoseob’s and Zelo’s — soon emerged from the living room. Yongguk shook his head, even if it seemed the smile on his lips was permanently stuck.

~~

Zelo’s birthday arrived maybe a little earlier than what Yongguk would have liked, because he had no idea what to give him. He went to his friends for advice, but he should’ve known it was a bad idea.

Doojoon suggested soccer equipment, which was probably the second best of their ideas. Kyuhyun suggested another notebook, maybe a coloring book and some pencils, which Yongguk noted as the best of the ideas. Jiyong and Zhou Mi suggested brand clothing. Yoseob suggested candy, which made Yongguk roll his eyes. Amber suggested a trip somewhere. Henry suggested an instrument.

In the end, Heechul and Yongguk went birthday shopping for Zelo while Hankyung looked over Zelo at home. Yongguk decided to buy a coloring book and pencils, while Heechul bought a notebook and, to Yongguk’s surprise, a cellphone.

“Why a cellphone, hyung?” he asked when they were on their way home. Heechul shrugged.

“You know. If you for some reason need to go somewhere alone. So he can text you or call you if he needs to,” Heechul replied. Yongguk was surprised at how clever Heechul actually was.

Zelo’s birthday was on a Thursday that year, but they decided they’d celebrate it on Saturday. Yongguk was a little nervous that Zelo would wake up before everyone else, as usual, and ruin their surprise, but it was actually Yongguk who woke up first.

He started preparing breakfast for Zelo with most of his favorite things to eat; pancakes, chocolate ice cream, strawberry ice cream, the cake Hankyung had prepared the previous day… When Hankyung and Heechul came up not many minutes later, they started wrapping the presents and arranging the tray everything would be carried on.

When they walked into the room, singing, Zelo woke up pretty quickly. He was adorable as he sat up in bed, his hair all over the place, blinking confusedly at them with eyes a little bigger and rounder than usual. Once he realized what it was all about, he let out another of those adorable squeals — which caused Heechul to start laughing in the middle of the song — and a huge grin spread on his face. Yongguk couldn’t resist laughing as well when Zelo giggled and clapped his hands like a little child.

The surprise breakfast in bed was a huge success. Heechul and Hankyung stayed long enough to wish Zelo a belated happy birthday and give him a hug before they left to give the boys they considered their sons some time to talk, as they knew Zelo would not talk for as long as they were there.

“Is it good?” Yongguk asked Zelo, receiving a slightly confused hum in reply. “The cake.”

Zelo’s eyes lit up and he nodded vigorously. He made a thumbs up as his mouth was too full for him to be able to speak.

“It’s awesome. Hankyung made it?” he answered. Yongguk grinned and nodded before he sat down next to Zelo, content to just watch him eat his breakfast. In that moment, Yongguk was positive he knew at least two things Zelo treasured above all; words and food. He suspected he himself might be on that list as well, but he was unsure.

“Zelo,” he said, deciding to ask. “What three things do you treasure the most in the world?”

Zelo hurried to swallow, almost choking as he did so.

“You, hyung!” he said with a bright smile once he’d blinked the tears out of his eyes. “Then words… and sweet things.”

Yongguk smiled and Zelo’s cheek, unable to find words for what he was feeling.

“But I treasure you the most!”

-------------

Thought it was time for my first real author's note~
So hello!
Mostly I'd just like to thank you guys, so so much. I love you all and your comments are so encouraging, keep them coming :) I hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoy your comments.
Thank you! <3