They touched down in the early hours of morning. Rubbing sleep from their eyes, they trudged after the managers, who led them through customs, past the relatively small group of fans at the exit and finally to the familiar white van that would take them home. The car ride was quiet, the members too exhausted to do more than slip on headphones and shove wayward limbs aside. It was blessedly peaceful without the usual singing and laughing and bickering over the seating arrangement, and Lay was about to doze off when Suho broke the silence.

“Beautiful day, isn’t it?” said Suho, smiling widely. Lay glanced out the window at the overcast skies and violent winds and wondered if the leader’s supply of optimism was limitless.

“Shut up, hyung,” Kai muttered from the back seat. His mood had been especially foul on the plane and he had kicked the seat in front of him until a fed-up D.O. had turned around and threatened to deny him dinner.

Oblivious, Suho rambled on. “But isn’t it great being back on Korean soil? There’s something about the mountains and trees and roaring rivers that stirs my heart and makes my blood sing!”

“Please, hyung, spare us the purple prose and save it for your blog,” Sehun yawned, purposely aiming for the leader’s head as he stretched. 

“What's a blog?” Suho asked, brows furrowed slightly in what seemed like genuine confusion. Lay would have laughed if not for the fact that he was trying very hard to maintain a poker face. Not all the members were as technologically challenged as “Gramps” and he couldn’t be too careful around the likes of Sehun (who pretty much lived on the Internet and may have developed the dirt-digging skills of the average netizen).

Sehun rolled his eyes. “It’s a place online where you dump your feelings when no one in real life cares about what you have to say.”

“And sometimes random strangers stumble across it and leave comments about how amazing you look,” Tao added as he pushed Sehun’s arm aside and propped his head on Lay’s shoulder. 

“Really? So it’s kind of like online therapy?”

Lay couldn’t help but chuckle as he thought about all the venting he had done on his own blog. “Pretty much, except it works and it’s free.” He regretted his words the moment they left his mouth because Sehun suddenly snapped to attention and gazed at him with narrowed eyes.

“So what do you blog about, Lay-hyung?” Lay faked a yawn to buy some time as his mind scrambled for an answer, an answer that would prevent the maknae from poking around and discovering his secret.

Finally, he shrugged as nonchalantly as possible and replied, “Oh you know, boring grown-up stuff like architecture and the wisdom of Confucius.”  

*****

“You’d think we’d get a break after a concert,” Chen mumbled as they walked towards the dance studio for another gruelling practice. They barely had time to drop off their suitcases before being whisked back to Headquarters. Like Chen, the other members were dragging their feet while stifling yawns and even the managers' promise of lunchtime pizza did nothing to change their glum faces.

“What kind of attitude is that?” Lay said as he handed Chen a water bottle. “Real dansheen masheens don’t complain about extra practice.” Chen shot him a glare and grabbed the bottle with more force than necessary, muttering something about “goddamn workoholics” under his breath.

“Morning, boys!” Tiffany called out cheerfully as the members of Taetiseo begin to file out of the dance studio. Her trademark eye-smile was in place and Lay could practically see the hearts in Baekhyun’s eyes. Yet, his loving gaze soon turned venomous when Taeyeon walked passed and punched Chanyeol playfully on the shoulder.

“Practice hard, okay?” she said teasingly, “And try not to send Sehunnie to the hospital this time.” Sehun and Luhan burst into laughter and even D.O. couldn’t hide his smile. It was clearly an inside joke and Baekhyun’s expression became borderline murderous.

“Yes ma’am!” Chanyeol relied with a cheeky salute. They watched the girls walk away and only when they had disappeared into the elevator did Baekhyun round on Chanyeol.

“Stop flirting with my noonas,” Baekhyun growled, crouching into an almost territorial stance.

“Your noonas?” Chanyeol said mockingly. “I wasn’t aware they belonged to you seeing how you’ve never even talked to them.”

“Yeah, well, do you think they’ll ever talk to you again if they found out how much of a ert-“

“That’s enough,” Kris cut in, sending both members a terrifying glare. It was much too early in the day to question Kris’s authority so both Baekhyun and Chanyeol stalked off in opposite directions upon entering the studio.

They broke off into small groups to stretch and Lay sidled over to where Sehun and Luhan were stretching, bent double with their palms pressed against the floor.

“So what was that hospital joke all about?” he asked casually as he approached.

“Well, Chanyeol was-“ Luhan began but he was quickly silenced when Sehun put a hand over his mouth.

“Why should we tell you for free?” Sehun deadpanned. “Weren’t you the one who said every secret has a price?”

“You’ve learned, young grasshopper,” Lay nodded in approval. “But you’ve still got a ways to go and there’s no way I would pay for secrets that belong to amateurs.”   

*****

By early evening, it was clear that the roommate argument from that morning was merely the tip of the iceberg. Lay was giving Suho a tour of his favorite blogging website (after it became evident that basic HTML would be impossible given Suho’s inability to distinguish between backslash and slash) when there came a loud knock on the door.

D.O. burst in, eyes wide with panic and yelled, “Guys, you have to come. Now!” They rushed across the hall to the K dorm and found Baekhyun and Chanyeol wrestling on the soapy kitchen floor, hair mussed and shirts wrinkled from the fight. It took them one whole minute to pull the two apart and Lay was gasping for breath when he finally managed to pin Baekhyun against the fridge.

“This…thing,” Baekhyun panted, pointing an accusing finger at Chanyeol. His mouth opened and closed but no sound came out; there seemed to be no words to describe the sheer rage evident in his eyes.

“What’s going on?” Suho demanded as he sat a gasping Chanyeol on the sofa.

Chanyeol, who was still semi-coherent, shook his auburn bangs out of his eyes and said, “He ing attacked me with a ing spatula.”

“I should have used a knife,” Baekhyun muttered darkly and Lay had to grab hold of his hand before he could reach for the dish rack.

“And how would Chanyeol’s death resolve your problems?”

“If he hadn’t been a total and showed my noonas that horrible video, then maybe I would still have a chance at future happiness.”

“For the last time, it was an accident. It was a related video and they clicked on it before I could stop them.”

“But you still let them watch it and now my life is over…” In an instant, his anger melted into absolute despair. Ever the drama queen, Baekhyun sunk to his knees and let out a dejected whimper that would put kicked puppies to shame.

Curiosity soon got the better of him and Lay piped up, “Which video are we talking about here?”

The other members exchanged knowing looks and answered in unison. “The Light Dance.”

The very mention of the video caused Baekhyun to collapse in a sobbing heap of misery, so Lay stepped aside and allowed D.O. to do the shoulder-patting and tear-wiping. After apologizing to no avail, Chanyeol sighed, grabbed a sweater and headed out.

“Well, this has turned out to be quite the birthday,” Suho said when Baekhyun finally quieted down.

“What birthday?” Three pairs of eyes stared at him in confusion.

“Huh. I guess everyone forgot.” There was a slight tremor in Suho’s voice and he quickly followed Chanyeol out the door.

They watched the door slam shut for a second time before D.O. said with a wry smile, “You can go too. I’ve got it covered.”

Lay nodded, spared Baekhyun a pitying look and made a mental note to search up The Light Dance as soon as he could boot up his laptop.