Zico let out a heavy sigh as he dragged himself into Block B’s dorm around 3 A.M. He had been working late at the studio again and felt drained – he only stopped because their manager had walked in, took one look at what he had been writing, and told him that his work whenever he hadn’t slept for days was terrible.

Zico relented and dragged himself back to the dorm, ready to collapse onto his bed as soon as he walked into his room.

However, he froze as soon as his hand was on the doorknob of his bedroom when he heard Kyung practically screaming his name as he staggered out of the room down the hall and rushed forward, tackling him to the ground.

“What the hell, Kyung?” He groaned in pain, having taken the pain from the fall.

“I missed you!” Kyung squealed; Zico was mortified when Kyung planted a large, sloppy kiss on his cheek.

“Ugh!” Zico grunted in disgust, shoving his friend off of him. “What’s gotten into you?”

“Two entire bottles of soju,” B-Bomb deadpanned from down the hall.

“What?” Zico sat up and stared at him in disbelief. “Two? You know how much of a lightweight he is!”

“I am not a lightweight!” Kyung slurred, sitting up next to Zico, but quickly falling over across Zico’s back like a wet noodle. Zico scowled and shoved Kyung off of him again.

“Look, I just want to go to bed – I’m exhausted.”

“But he’s missed you!” Yukwon squealed, lunging out of the room and landing squarely on Minhyuk’s back. Minhyuk grunted and winced, but sighed and grabbed Yukwon’s legs so that he wouldn’t fall of anyways. Zico stared at Yukwon in disbelief for a few moments, noting his droopy eyes and flushed cheeks.

“Is he drunk, too?” Zico exclaimed in disbelief, pointing incredulously at Yukwon.

“We’re all drunk!” Taeil slurred heavily, stepping out of the room and leaning against the doorframe, waving a bottle of soju in the air. Jaehyo hiccupped and also appeared, using Taeil’s head as an armrest.

“My treat,” was his slurred declaration while nodding towards Zico, gesturing at him with the nearly-empty bottle of soju in his hand.

“How much alcohol did you buy?” Zico practically screamed while struggling to stand up with Kyung’s weight draped over him.

“Enough to get completely wasted!” Yukwon started cackling in Minhyuk’s ear; Minhyuk rolled his eyes and let go of Yukwon’s legs, making the younger boy scream and fall off of his back, landing on his at Taeil and Jaehyo’s feet. Yukwon groaned in pain and fell backwards onto his back, sprawling across the center of the hallway. “Oh god, that hurt!” He cried out, kicking his legs in the air. “I think I’m gonna diiiie…” he sobbed overdramatically, making MInhyuk roll his eyes and step over him.

“You’re not acting drunk,” Zico deadpanned as Minhyuk began to walk into his room.

“I only had one shot,” he told him. “I decided to stay sober to make sure they didn’t do anything too stupid.”

“So now what’re you doing?” Zico asked with a frown, drawing a small smirk from Minhyuk.

“I’ve been awake for three hours to babysit these idiots -”

“Wait, where’s Jihoon?” Zico suddenly cried out in horror, shoving Kyung off of his shoulders another time and trying to run for the room they were all stumbling out of, yelping when Kyung latched onto his leg as he ran away.

“Relax, hyung,” the deep-yet-drowsy voice of their magnae came from the room that Minhyuk was about to enter. Zico let out a sigh of relief and smiled at Jihoon.

“Thank god,” Zico smiled. “I was worried you’d done something stupid.”

“I don’t like alcohol,” Jihoon mumbled, turning back around and dragging himself back to his bed.

“Which is weird!” Jaehyo declared. “With his body mass, you’d think he’d be the best drinker of all of us – holy !” He started swaying as he spoke and nearly fell over due to an extravagant wave of his hands that was probably meant to be a gesture towards all of the members.

Off to the side, Taeil had put his foot on top of Yukwon’s stomach and puffed out his chest with his hands on his hips, striking a victory pose with a proud grin that was pretty much ruined when Yukwon squealed at him and shoved his foot away, sending the older-but-shorter man to the ground, giving Yukwon an opportunity to start wrestling with him.

Zico sighed and started massaging his forehead because Minhyuk had just slammed the door shut, leaving him in the hallway with four completely-hammered idiots.

“I just want to go to bed…” He whimpered.

“PFFFFTT…” Kyung tried to scoff; he failed miserably and ended up blowing a raspberry instead, only succeeding in sending flecks of spit all over Zico’s ankles and calves, making the group’s leader gape down at him in disgust. “Good luck with that!” He slurred before bursting into another slew of obnoxious, drunken laughter.

“Your heads are going to be killing you tomorrow,” Zico grumbled, trying to shake Kyung unsuccessfully off of his leg.

“I am a sea cucumber!” Kyung yelled, dragging himself tighter to Zico’s leg, “And you are my sea reef!”

“That makes no sense, Kyung,” Zico sighed, massaging his forehead. Off in the background, he could still hear the painfully-suggestive thumping and grunting noises as Taeil and Yukwon still wrestled on the floor; Jaehyo had started singing to himself and turned around, swaggering drunkenly back into his room.

Jaehyo was the relatively-quiet and tired drunk, which meant if he had been drinking with the guys for three hours then he would pass out soon. That meant he only had three drunken idiots to deal with.

“Guys, seriously -” Zico groaned, trying to shake Kyung off of his leg again. “I really want to go to bed!”

“You don’t love me anymore!” Kyung sobbed overdramatically.

“God, I hate it when you’re drunk,” he sighed, dragging his hand down his face.

“I don’t know, I don’t know - gah!” Yukwon began to yell his lines from “NanlinA”, but was cut off by his loud yelp when Taeil shoved him over and sat on top of him in an attempt to silence him.

“Girl you want it, and love it~!” Taeil began to screech his lines, falling over and rolling off of Yukwon when he tried to dance in the process. As soon as he hit the ground he burst into a fit of drunken giggles, completely oblivious when Yukwon sat up and stared around blankly.

“Where’s my Minhyukkie?” He whimpered, opening his eyes wide and pouting up at their leader.

“He went to bed almost fifteen minutes ago,” Zico deadpanned, pointing at the door to Minhyuk and Jihoon’s room.

“Minhyukkie!” Yukwon shrieked – Zico cringed and covered his hands with his ears – and dragged himself to his feet using the wall for support, then stumbling down the hall towards the door. Once he was standing between Zico and the door to Minhyuk and Jihoon’s room, he stopped and turned back and forth, looking between the two rooms with a blank expression. “Which one am I looking for again?” He slurred, scratching his head.

“Minhyuk,” Zico deadpanned, pointing at the door Yukwon was standing closest to.

“Oh…” Yukwon nodded, nearly falling backwards in the process if Zico hadn’t grabbed his shoulders to steady him. He stared blankly at Zico before taking a deep breath and throwing his head back. Zico jolted and shot his arms out, clamping his hands around Yukwon’s mouth and head to silence him.

“You’re being loud enough,” he seethed, removing his hands slowly. Yukwon gave him a blank stare before shrugging and turning around, struggling to open the door.

“Minhyukkie!” He sobbed overdramatically, slumping against the door. “Minhyukkie!” Zico sighed and massaged his forehead again as Yukwon started scratching the door like a cat that wanted to be let in. “Minhyu -” the door flew open and Minhyuk grunted as he grabbed Yukwon’s arm, yanking him into the room and slamming the door immediately after. Zico sighed with relief and shook his head.

Two drunken idiots to go. He heard loud, obnoxious snoring down the hall and turned to look towards Taeil, staring blankly at the older member – he was sprawled out across the floor like a starfish on his back, his mouth wide open as loud snores escaped in time with the rise and fall of his chest.

Scratch that – one drunken idiot to go. He turned his gaze back down to Kyung and sighed, trying to shake his leg.

“Kyung, please let go,” he tried to ask, but it came out forcefully, sounding more like a sarcastic demand.

“Never!” Kyung cried out, making Zico cringe.

“Kyung, please,” he sighed. “I really want to go to bed.” Kyung rolled onto his back, still with one arm wrapped tightly around Zico’s leg, and stared up at Zico.

“Smile.”

“What?” Zico frowned and tilted his head to the side.

“Smiiiile~!” Kyung sang drunkenly, poking Zico’s leg with his free hand. Zico had a sense of déjà vu and remembered how he would use the same teasing tone on Yukwon when they were speaking English.

“Kyung…” He sighed, crouching down and poking his friend’s head, making him whine and try to swat Zico’s hand away. “Kyung, I really just want to go to bed.”

“Smiiile!” Kyung cried out again, flailing and nearly hitting Zico in the face.

“Fine, fine…” He grumbled before forcing a grin.

“Not like that,” Kyung slurred, attempting to shove Zico – had he been sober, Zico would have been knocked over. But in his drunken state, he only nudged Zico’s shoulder weakly. The leader stared down at his friend as his fake smile disappeared.

“Whaddaya mean ‘not like that’?” Zico snorted, sitting down anyways, making Kyung let go of his leg and sit up on his elbows.

“Smile like you used to,” he said gently, nudging Zico’s knee. His eyes started to become glassy, and Zico thought it was the drunken glaze that he had noted on the rest of the boys – until he saw tears forming in Kyung’s eyes. “I want you to smile again, Jiho,” Kyung whimpered.

“Oh, God,” Zico groaned, reaching up and dragging his hand down his face. “You’ve reached the sentimental-drunk stage,” he sighed, shaking his head as his hand fell into his lap. “You should pass out any time now,” he grumbled, standing up to go and drag Taeil back to his bed – or at least toss him on top of Jaehyo. However, Kyung grabbed his hand as he stood up, making Zico groan and look down at him. “Kyung -”

“I haven’t seen a real smile on your face since everything happened,” Kyung rasped, tears falling. “I got drunk because I thought it would help me forget, but instead it only made me think about it more. I miss you, Jiho,” he looked up at Zico, tears now streaming down his face, and whimpered, “I miss my best friend.”

Zico gaped at Kyung, completely at a loss for words. Had they been in an anime, the background would have faded into a spectrum of pastel colors with sparkles littered throughout, especially around Zico and Kyung’s eyes, as slow, emotionally-moving music started to play in the background. “Kyung… I…”

The mood was killed when Taeil jolted and snorted in his sleep, letting out an incredibly long and particularly loud snore. Zico sighed and turned away from Kyung to go towards Taeil’s unconscious body.

“Give me a minute so that I can go dump him on top of Jaehyo, and then we’ll talk,” he sighed, picking up his much-shorter bandmate and dragging him into the room, tossing him onto the nearest bed, next to Jaehyo. He was too tired to dump Taeil on his own bed, and he figured Jaehyo wouldn’t mind.

‘They’re going to wake up drooling on each other,’ he thought, leaving the room and stopping when he saw Kyung still sitting in the same spot Zico had left him in. Zico took a deep breath and walked around Kyung, crouching in front of him.

“It still hurts,” Zico told him, making Kyung look up. “It’s like… I want to smile, Kyung. I really do.” He lowered his gaze to the floor and closed his eyes in disappointment, shaking his head. “But as much as I want to, I can’t bring myself to. The fact is, I’m just not ready to smile again. At least, not how I used to.” He lifted his head and looked into Kyung’s eyes again, forcing a small smile. “But I promise you that I’ll get better. Just give me some time.” Kyung sniffed and stared at Zico blankly for a few moments before nodding slowly.

“Okay.”

“Good,” Zico sighed as he stood up. “Now, I just want to go to bed.” He opened the door to his room and stopped to turn around and stare down at Kyung, who hadn’t even moved to stand up. “Kyung? Aren’t you coming? We share a room, remember?” Zico pointed towards the bed across the room from his. Kyung stared at the opposite wall for a moment before looking up at Zico. He stared at him for a moment before falling backwards and lying flat on the floor. “Kyung, what are you doing?”

“I am a cucumber,” he deadpanned.

“So?”

“Cucumbers don’t move.”

“… God dammit.”

*****

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, BLOCK B!