”So, what happened?” Yongguk asked Jiho the following day during breakfast. Heechul and Hankyung were still fast asleep. Jiho shrugged.

“My dad kind of tried to strangle me. Mom managed to distract him and told me to get away,” he said, poking the food around his plate without really eating anything.

“And you don’t want me to call the police?” Yongguk asked, not really sure if he should do as his friend said or attack the phone right this instance. Jiho looked up to glare at him.

“No, I don’t want you to call the police. Then I’d rather just live on the street,” he said. Yongguk nodded.

“Sure, whatever you say man. What about Kyung, then?” he asked. “Does he know?”

Yongguk didn’t know this Kyung-guy, but it seemed he was close friends with Jiho if Zelo’s story was anything to go on. Jiho shrugged again.

“Kyung doesn’t know. I think he suspects something though. He’s been mad at me for months because I won’t let him visit me,” he answered. “If you ask me, he’s way too sensitive.”

Yongguk was thinking of something to say when Jiho’s cell rang.

“Speak of the devil,” he muttered as he picked it up from his pocket and seeing the caller ID. He didn’t say a word when he answered it and left the kitchen, but Yongguk assumed he and Kyung were good enough friends. Zelo and Yongguk continued eating in silence.

“He’s worried as ,” Jiho said with a sigh when he walked back into the kitchen, one of his hands going through his hair. “Is it okay if he comes over, too? I’ll text him the address.”

Yongguk merely shrugged.

“Sure,” he said. The apartment was getting rather crowded, but it wasn’t like he minded. They were all people he cared about anyway; his crazy cousin, his friendly gege, his mute blonde, his childhood friend and, a lot of the time, his boyfriend.

“Anyway, Zelo and I gotta run. We’ll be late for school,” Yongguk said as he walked into the hallway. Zelo quietly followed him.

“Zelo can stay home with me if he wants to,” Jiho called from the kitchen. They had decided that he’d stay home instead of following Yongguk to school. Yongguk’s poor teachers would most likely have a nervous breakdown.

“When Kyung comes over?” Yongguk retorted.

“Aw, okay,” Jiho gave in. “Kyung says he’ll call in sick today so he can come over here instead. I promise we won’t trash the place.”

“You better not,” Yongguk said with a snort. “Heechul is home, remember? He’ll skin you alive if you break anything.”

“Right,” Jiho answered with a snort of his own. “See you later, then.”

“See ya.”

Yongguk went straight up to Kyuhyun as soon as he spotted him in school and pulled him to the side. Kyuhyun looked very annoyed, but allowed Yongguk to pull him away anyway.

“If you’re going to ask why I’m not dating Zhou Mi yet, don’t,” he growled. Yongguk gave him an odd look before he chuckled.

“Don’t worry, I won’t. I was going to ask you a favor,” he said. Kyuhyun raised an eyebrow as he looked at him.

“Yeah. What?”

“You know, Jiho? Yeah, he’s at my place right now. He has some trouble at home and kinda needs a place to, you know, hide. I just wanted to ask you if maybe you could tutor him? I don’t want him to fall behind in school.”

Kyuhyun stared at Yongguk until the bell rang. Then he gave a curt nod before turning around and running so he wouldn’t be late for class. Yongguk watched him leave with a sigh.

The day passed by fairly eventless. The only attention-grabbing thing that happened was that Lee Sungmin apologized to Zhou Mi when he bumped into him. Sungmin was not known for apologizing to people — especially not to people like Zhou Mi.

When Yongguk and Zelo came home, Kyung and Jiho was watching one of the war movies Himchan had forgotten when he’d proposed the movie marathon and Hankyung and Heechul were out.

“Ah, Yongguk-sshi!” Kyung exclaimed, flying up from the couch once he noticed him. “I’m Park Kyung, nice to meet you.”

He offered a small bow, but Yongguk told him to straighten up.

“Jiho’s friends are my friends. Nice to meet you too, Kyung,” he said with a grin. He sent Jiho a meaningful glance, but the other shook his head. Yongguk rolled his eyes.

“Jiho told me you’re the one taking care of… Zelo, is that it?” Kyung said uncertainly. Yongguk nodded and Kyung smiled. “Where is he? I’d like to apologize.”

Yongguk called for Zelo who appeared with chocolate on his nose and whipped cream on his cheek. The three boys stared at him for a moment before they all started laughing.

“Were you going through the fridge, Zelo?” Yongguk asked, but there was no accusation in his voice. The guilty look on Zelo’s face said it all and Jiho’s laughter increased.

“Come here,” Yongguk said, grinning widely as he motioned for Zelo to step closer. The boy did as he was told, scrunching his nose when Yongguk rubbed the chocolate off it and the offered his finger for the boy to , which he happily did. The cheek went through the same procedure and Yongguk straightened up to find Kyung and Jiho staring at them with odd looks on their faces.

“You two really are like appa and son,” Jiho said, a streak of awe in his voice. Yongguk just shrugged.

Kyung went through with apologizing properly to Zelo, but Zelo wanted none of it. To Yongguk’s and Jiho’s great amusement and Kyung’s great shock and relief, Zelo pulled him off the floor by his hair and hugged him.

“I think you’re forgiven,” Jiho said, snickering as Kyung rubbed the back of his head.

Zelo, looking very pleased with himself, went into his room to fetch his notebook before lying on the floor of the living room and writing. Yongguk was curious of what he was writing about this time, but didn’t ask.

While Kyung made himself comfortable on the couch, Yongguk not-so-subtly gestured for Jiho to follow him into the kitchen. Jiho heaved a sigh, but followed without protesting.

“You have to tell him, you know,” Yongguk admonished. Jiho rolled his eyes. “Trust him. He’s your best friend, right?”

“Since forever,” Jiho agreed.

“Exactly. I doubt he’ll let you down,” Yongguk pointed out. Jiho sighed and looked down.

“I know hyung. But I don’t know how to do it…”

“You’ll find a way,” Yongguk assured him. “If you don’t, I can do it.”

Jiho looked up then, a little smile on his lips.

“You can?” he asked, sounding hopeful. Yongguk chuckled and nodded.

“Right now?” he asked. Uncertainty passed briefly over Jiho’s face once more, but then he nodded. Yongguk made a sweeping gesture towards the door with his hand. “Go get him, then.”

Jiho came back a moment or two later with a very confused looking Kyung trailing behind him.

“Jiho said you have something so say, so… What is it?” he asked, sitting down at the table and looking expectantly up at Yongguk.

“Do you know why Jiho is here?” Yongguk asked. Kyung frowned and slowly shook his head.

“Not really. He said he’d tell me later…” He threw a quick glance at his friend. “Is that what you’re gonna tell me now?”

Yongguk smiled. This kid was smarted than he seemed. Even if Kyung did wear classical nerd glasses, he did not look like the particularly intelligent type of person. It was most likely because of the way he dressed and the way his laidback personality so easily shone through.

“Yes. I am. Jiho’s parents…” Yongguk paused and glanced at Jiho. Suddenly he understood why he had such difficulties telling anyone, even his best friend since forever. “Jiho’s parents are abusive.”

Kyung’s eyes widened almost comically from behind his glasses. He looked at Jiho, looked at Yongguk and then settled on looking at Jiho, who was staring at the ground as he fiddled with his fingers.

“Why did you not tell me? I could’ve helped you!” he exclaimed.

“Because… You would’ve called the police, wouldn’t you?” Jiho murmured, still not looking up. Kyung sighed softly and got up, moving over to give his friend a hug. Yongguk did his best to melt into the background, feeling as though he was witnessing something private.

“No. I actually don’t think it would’ve helped you to have your parents taken away from you. But I could’ve protected you, fed you… whatever.”

It was like an invisible dam had broken when Jiho started crying. He clung onto Kyung like a baby koala and Kyung held him, gently hushing him. Yongguk decided that was his cue to silently leave and go back to the living room.

Zelo’s inquisitive eyes met him when he sat down on the floor next to him. He made no move to cover what he’d written and Yongguk made no move to read it, but instead held Zelo’s gaze steadily with a small smile on his lips.

“Let Kyung comfort him. I think he needs a best friend,” he murmured. Zelo gave a quick nod and went back to his writing.

Yongguk was content to just watch him; his excessive blinking, the way his hand moved, how his tongue would sometimes peek out to wet his lips, how he sometimes paused to think over his words, chin in his hand and eyes set on the wall. He was beautiful, Yongguk decided. At least as beautiful as Himchan.

In the kitchen, Jiho was finally calming down, but Yongguk didn’t notice, too busy watching Zelo. He didn’t notice much of his surroundings at all until the doorbell rang and caused his body to jerk in surprise.

“Come in!” he called. The door opened, closed, and Yongguk got up to greet his guest.

It was a dripping wet Cho Kyuhyun. Yongguk, confused, threw a look out the window. Oh. It was raining.

“Need a towel?” he asked. “Dry clothes?”

“I’m fine,” Kyuhyun muttered. “I was just gonna come over and see this kid I’m gonna tutor.”

“Oh, right. Jiho!” Yongguk called. Kyung appeared in Jiho’s place.

“Jiho says he won’t show his face to anyone unless he washes it first,” he informed them. Kyuhyun snorted.

“He obviously showed his face to you,” he retorted and earned a glare from both Kyung and Yongguk.

“Don’t be a , hyung,” Yongguk warned him. “This is Kyung, Jiho’s childhood friend.”

“Cho Kyuhyun,” Kyuhyun replied with a small smile and a nod in Kyung’s direction. “I guess I’ll just… hang out with Zelo… How’s his writing going, by the way?”

“Really good, he’s writing stories,” Yongguk replied with a stupidly proud smile, leading Kyuhyun into the living room. “Of course there are some spelling mistakes and such, but nothing serious.”

“Hey little one,” Kyuhyun greeted as he sat down on the floor next to Zelo. “I hear you’re good at writing. Maybe you’ll be an author when you grow up.”

Zelo acknowledged him by lifting his head and looking at him for a moment before going back to his writing. Kyuhyun chuckled and ruffled his hair, turning once more to Yongguk.

“He’s not very social, is he,” he stated. Yongguk shrugged, eyeing Zelo.

“He’s more social than you might think. He’s always around and he actually communicates. You just have to learn him,” he replied, earning an impressed look.

A few moments later, Kyung and Jiho entered the living room and Kyuhyun dragged the two to Yongguk’s bedroom to begin their tutoring; even as Kyung tried to protest by saying he’s not the one skipping school, Kyuhyun refused to take no for an answer.

“You’re here, right?” was his argument. “You could just as well be a part of Yongguk’s pretty little collection.”

Yongguk snorted.

“Excuse me? Collection?” he questioned. Kyuhyun rolled his eyes.

“Don’t even try. You got a crazy cousin, a humble Chinese, an extremely talented, surprisingly straight Chinese-Canadian and his boyish girlfriend — maybe he’s not so straight — a mute child, a previously overweight victim of bullying, three crazy gays, a fashionista Chinese, a teenage genius, a princess boyfriend — are you sure he’s not an ulzzang — plus a practically homeless childhood friend and his best friend. Don’t tell me that’s not a collection,” he said.

Yongguk stared. Jiho stared. Kyung stared. Even Zelo, who had sneaked up behind Yongguk, was staring. Kyuhyun merely shrugged.

“That’s definitely a collection of people,” Kyung broke the silence. “It sounds rather interesting too. Care to tell me?”

Jiho let out a giggle-snort as she shook his head.

“I had no idea you liked collecting people, hyung,” he said, sounding rather amused.

“I don’t do it on purpose!” he protested.

“Oh well, let’s get to learning!” Kyuhyun interrupted before Yongguk could do as Kyung asked and actually start describing his collection.

When Himchan arrived a few minutes later, he did not bother ringing the doorbell or even send Yongguk a text message. He merely stepped in as if he owned the place, shook his umbrella so the whole hallway was showered and shouted a greeting.

“Yongguk-ah!” he called. “Yongguk-ah! We should spend some time together.”

Yongguk came out into the hallway, watching with an amused half-smirk as his boyfriend continued to act as if it was he who lived there and not Yongguk. It wasn’t really like he minded, but it was fun to see.

“The place is kinda crowded but yes, we should,” he agreed. Himchan’s head shot up from where he’d been attempting to untie his drenched shoelaces with cold fingers.

“Crowded?” he asked, giving Yongguk a thankful smile as the other kneeled in front of him to untie his shoes for him.

“Jiho needed a place to crash and his best-friend-since-forever, Kyung, was worried so he came over too. Kyuhyun is over to tutor them. Besides them, it’s you, me and Zelo,” he answered.

“Mm, maybe Zelo will want to be with the others though. He’s pretty keen on learning, isn’t he?”

Yongguk shrugged, abandoning his boyfriend in the hallway in favor of getting a towel for the floor.

“I guess so,” he said when he came back. “I’ve only ever taught him how to read and write, though.”

Himchan nodded slowly and made his way to the living room, once more acting as if he owned the place as he threw himself onto the couch.

However, Himchan was right. Zelo seemed to be mesmerized by Kyuhyun’s improvised lesson and Himchan and Yongguk got some alone time in the living room.

They did, to be fair, attempt to watch a movie, but it was difficult to keep their hands off each other. Eventually they ended up in very much the same position Yongguk and Yoseob had once been in; Himchan on his back with Yongguk on top of him. Only this time, they were interrupted.

“Excuse me,” Kyuhyun said, sounding pretty annoyed, “you’re spoiling poor little Zelo’s innocence.”

Yongguk looked behind Kyuhyun and sure enough, there stood Zelo with an amused, somewhat confused little smile on his lips. Without saying anything, he got off Himchan and tried to ignore the blush he knew was rising to his cheeks.

“Sorry,” he muttered, but Kyuhyun just waved him off.

“So you’re actually… gay?” Kyung tentatively asked as he slowly followed Jiho. “I’m sorry, I guess I kind of just… Wanted to think it was a joke or something.”

Himchan scrunched up his nose, “Do you have anything against it?” Kyung shot him a smile and shook his head.

“He’s religious,” Jiho offered, shoving Yongguk to the side and making himself comfortable on the couch to continue watching the movie where Yongguk and Himchan had left off. Yongguk sighed, but at the same time he was relieved. Jiho was back to his normal self.

~~

Kyung was still there in the morning when Yongguk woke up and proudly declared that he would not leave without Jiho. Yongguk merely shrugged and made sure to leave a note on the kitchen table for Heechul to find so he would not be freaked out. Maybe Kyuhyun was right; Yongguk was a people collector.

During math class, Yongguk got a text message from Kyuhyun.

Is Jiho a victim of abuse?

Yongguk stared at the message, shocked, until the teacher called for his attention. As soon as the teacher left to go to the bathroom however, Yongguk pulled his phone out again, typing a quick reply.

How did you know?

He did not have to wait long for the reply.

He doesn’t like touching, doesn’t talk much about his family and I’m a genius.

Yongguk snorted softly to himself and answered the last text with a warning to Kyuhyun of telling anyone. Kyuhyun, of course, promised and Yongguk decided not to press the matter further. Kyuhyun was a guy who’d keep his word.

~~

Yongguk and Zelo came home to a raging Heechul and an amused Hankyung. Kyung and Jiho had hidden themselves in Yongguk’s room. As soon as the door opened, Heechul turned to Yongguk.

“I understand Jiho, because he needed help, and Zelo, because he’s… special. But this Kyung-guy? Why, Yongguk?” he yelled. Yongguk’s eyes widened and he took a tentative step back.

“Because Kyung cares,” he said then. “Kyung cares and Jiho needs him.”

Heechul stared for a moment. The he shrugged and left for the kitchen, where Hankyung was cooking Beijing Fried Rice. Zelo and Yongguk shared a look before they simultaneously shrugged and deposited their backpacks at the side — Yongguk had insisted giving one for Zelo that he could carry notebooks, books and pencils in — and bent down to untie their shoes.

“You look like extremely synchronized robots,” Kyung commented as he walked into the hallway just in time to see it.

“Yeah!” Yongguk agreed with a grin as he straightened up, still in sync with Zelo. “Zelo’s my robot and has to be in absolute sync with his creator or there’ll be an error.”

Kyung stared weirdly at them, but the glint in Zelo’s eyes when Yongguk glanced at him told him the boy thought it was fun and would play along without further instructions. Yongguk tried by bringing his hand up to his jacket. Zelo followed his movements without any trouble. Yongguk grinned. Zelo grinned back.

“Okay, that’s just creepy.”

Zelo’s grin widened, a silent version of a laugh. It was good enough for Yongguk, even if he’d love to hear those childish giggles he knew Zelo could give.

~~

Himchan broke up with Yongguk the same day. He called during dinner and Yongguk, as always, excused himself from the nowadays very crowded table to be able to talk in the privacy of his room.

“What’s up? Miss me?” he teased, throwing himself down on his bed. To his surprise, there was a soft sigh substituting the laugh he normally heard.

“Yes,” Himchan murmured. “More than you’d think.”

Frowning, Yongguk heaved himself up on his elbow. This couldn’t be about Zelo, could it? Again? … When he thought about it, Yoseob hadn’t actually left him because of Zelo. This couldn’t be about him, either.

“You know, I’m not even supposed to be here. I’m not supposed to be in your class,” Himchan said, and it sounded like the beginning of a explanation, so Yongguk stayed silent.

“I live quite far away from here. I just had a fight with my parents and I called my sister, who said I could live with her and her boyfriend for a while. She’d even get me into the nearby school. I met you the same day and then I didn’t want to leave, but… my parents are moving. Out of the country. They really want to give me another chance and I… I know I’ll regret it if I don’t come with them.”

There was a pause during which Yongguk thought of what he’d just heard. There was still a piece missing, he realized.

“That’s not all, is it?” he murmured. Himchan sighed again, the soft kind that seemed to float in the air, a little unwilling to alert Yongguk to its presence.

“No. It’s… Ever since… Ever since Zelo came back, you’ve been so… so distant. You spent more time with him than with me. Everyone seems to understand how special he is, the special bond the two of you have… But I don’t. I’m so sorry, Yongguk, but I just can’t figure it out and it’s killing me.”

There was another pause. Yongguk stiffened when he thought he heard a small sob, but didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say. All that Himchan was saying was true. He had neglected his beautiful, princess-like boyfriend. There was nothing he could say, he knew that nothing could make it hurt less.

“I’m always so jealous, but then I feel guilty because I shouldn’t be jealous. I just feel that you deserve someone not as stupid and jealous as me, okay?” Himchan concluded. There were a lot of things Yongguk wanted to say in that moment. He wanted to protest, tell the other how beautiful he thought he was, that he missed him too, he’d get better at this… But nothing came out and he stayed silence.

“Goodbye, Yongguk,” Himchan whispered finally.

“I’ll miss you,” Yongguk choked out.

“No,” Himchan chuckled, softly correction him. “You’ll miss me a while, but then I’ll be a memory. Please just don’t forget me, us, okay?”

“I promise.”

There was a click that told Yongguk that Himchan had hung up. For a few minutes, he lay still, listening to the dial tone. Then he heaved a sigh as he removed the phone from his ear ad hung up as well, letting his hand fall limply by his side.

He didn’t feel like moving right now.