L woke up with a burning headache. The sunlight shone through the room as he tried to stand up, immediately failing as the weight on his body prevented him. His vision got clearer and he saw Sungyeol lying on his stomach, mouth open and snoring. Instead of going to their respective rooms, the brothers had slept in the upstairs living room, ending up sprawling on the floor and using each other as pillows.

L hit Sungyeol's head, snapping him awake, "Yah, time for school." Sungyeol grunted and hugged L's torso in disagreement, "I don’t wanna go to school…"

"Hyung!" L kicked Dongwoo who stirred, hugging Hoya. "Aish, why isn't anyone waking up?" He unwrapped Sungyeol's arm around him and stood up, finally noticing the missing presence of Sunggyu. He blinked, "Isn't he back yet?" Shrugging the thought off, he kicked each of his brothers awake as they groaned in unison. Each brother went off and took a shower in their own bathrooms came down wearing their school uniforms. All except one. Woohyun looked up, "Oh, L. You have work today?"

L nodded, grabbing his bag, "I'm already late. I should get going." The elder hummed in response.

L spotted one of the maids, "Did Sunggyu hyung leave already?"

She bowed before answering, "No, sir. He's still sleeping. Do you need me to wake him up?" Myungsoo nodded before he turned around, his eyes rolling at the sight.

His five brothers were in the entertainment room, all on their own computers as they repeatedly pressed down on keys.

"HYUUNG! WHY'D YOU KILL ME!? WE'RE ON THE SAME TEAM!" Sungyeol cried out, slumping back on his chair. Woohyun turned to him, "To win, one has to sacrifice."

Sungyeol scowled, "That only works if you're giving up something that's yours."

"You are mine," Woohyun winked at him.

"URRGHHGHNNNN. GRRREEAASSYYYY." the others said in unison, turning away from the sight.

L let out a chuckle, "Guys, you do know there is school, right?"

Engrossed in the next round, Dongwoo waved him off, "Huh? Oh y-yeah. Totally. Whatever. Bye." The rest of them followed their hyung, eyes still glued to the screen, and waved at L. He rolled his eyes once again and left the room.

About to leave, his eyes wander towards the living room couch making him straighten in his spot. He felt like something was out of place. The couch's back faced him so he couldn't see what was on it, but he knew something was up. Walking towards it, he craned his neck for a better view when he spotted something unexpected. He went around to the front and his eyes furrowed.

There was a neatly folded blanket with a pillow on top. But that wasn't what caught most of his attention. On top of the pile, there was a plain, white envelope. Curious to what was inside it, L picked it up, scanning both sides. He hesitated, wondering whether it was right to open it or not. It's not addressed to anyone, he thought, It wont be wrong…

He sighed, sliding his finger in the opening before ripping the top. Only halfway through opening it, his phone rang, startling him. He hurriedly took it out, answering it, "Hello?"

"HYUNG! WHERE ARE YOU!?" a voice shouted through the phone, making L jerk his head back.

"Hyung! The place is a jungle and we're having trouble c-c-COPING." the voice ended with a cry. L straightened, "Yah. Yah! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. But hurry, hyung!"

The call ended with a yelp along with a few shouts in the background and L started to worry. Zipping his bag open, he put his phone in, mindlessly joining the half open letter with it. He rushed out the door, slipping his arm into his bag straps as he went.

"Sungjong! Hyungs! I'm leaving!" was the last thing he said before the maids shut the door behind him.

Six handsome boys walked through the hallways during recess as they arrived at school. Sunggyu sighed for the nth time.

"AH! Hyung! Stop sighing! It's really annoying!" Sungjong cried out, earning a few squeals from girls at his overloading cuteness. Sunggyu looked up, looking lost at the maknae's words, "H-Huh?"

Woohyun rolled his eyes, "Don’t tell me you have no idea you were sighing just then."

Sunggyu sighed once more, his brothers on the tip of killing him as he looked down on the floor.

"I-I just… never mind actually. Lets just get to class." he cut himself off, walking ahead of the group.

"What in the world is wrong with him…" Dongwoo muttered, watching as Sunggyu walked further away from them.

The five of them stopped at Sungyeol's locker, waiting for the choding to grab something that was supposedly important.

Hoya mindlessly looked at the nearby lockers, eyebrows furrowing at the one right next to Sungyeol's. The blue paint was peeling off, showing the metal behind as it started to rust. The sight was cringe worthy and Hoya wondered who owned such a locker.

"Yah, Sungyeol. Who owns this locker?" Hoya asked him. The latter looked at where his hyung was referring to, "Its-" He stopped when he realised who owned the locker and looked away.

His brothers looked at each other at the boy's weird actions before Sungyeol closed his locker, leaning against it as he looked at each of them.

"It’s Minjee's." he finally told them. A heavy feeling filled them. Guilt? Maybe.

"Do you think she's okay?" Sungjong asked his hyungs quietly. They didn't answer him. They couldn’t. How were they supposed to know?

"I… I'm sure she'll be fine." Woohyun told them.

Sungyeol sighed, "I feel guilty."

"But it's not our fault, right? We didn’t say anything about wanting her to leave…" Hoya said, although knowing it wasn’t a good enough excuse.

"But Dongyul told one of us to go looking for her… and we didn’t." Dongwoo sighed.

Woohyun called for a random student, "Hey!" She jumped before blushing shyly at the kingka who was talking to her, "Y-Yes.."

"Are you in Kwon Minjee's class?" he asked her. The girl nodded, not meeting his eyes.

"Is she here today?" he asked again. The girl looked up, wondering why he would ask about that when she got mesmerised by his looks.

Woohyun waved his hand in front of her face, "Hello? Is she here today or not?"

She snapped out of her trance and answered, "S-She isn't here today o-oppa." Woohyun cringed at the way she called him, "Okay. Thanks." She bowed before running towards her friends, squealing.

Woohyun turned to his friends and cringed again, "I really hate that word."

"She's not here…" Sungyeol muttered, loud enough for the group to hear.

"I'm… I'm sure she's just tired from yesterday." Dongwoo told them, "We should get to class." The others agreed and went their owns ways towards their class, the thought of Minjee still lingered in their minds.

"Sorry. We don’t employ high school students here," the man told her, shutting the door.

Minjee's shoulders slumped. That's probably the nth time she got told that today. The fact that she only had her school uniform didn’t help. What was so wrong about hiring a high school student anyway?

She rolled her shoulders, hearing a slight crack as she did so, making her wince in pain. Her whole body was practically stiff from walking around all day, trying to look for a place that would take her as an employee. It was already past 5 in the afternoon and she had been searching since she left at 6 in the morning.

Not giving up though, she continued to walk, hoping that there was one shop that could employ her.

She spotted a bubble tea shop right at the corner of the street and sharpened her eyes. The place was filled with high school students, mostly girls, and she could see the employees running around like crazy. Right in front of the store, advertising in big, pink letters was hiring sign.

That was all she needed.

She immediately quickened her pace and squeezed through the crowd of girls, ignore the remarks she got. Once people weren't breathing down her neck, Minjee looked around for someone that would look like the owner. Not finding any luck, she stopped a teenage boy holding a mop in his hands, "Do you work here?"

He nodded before he jerked his head to the shriek at the other end of the shop, his eyes widening. Minjee turned around, finding spilt bubble tea on the floor along with two girls glaring at each other, one covered in green liquid.

"Can you tell me where your boss is?" Minjee asked quickly, knowing he was busy.

"She's over there," the boy motioned quickly before moving to help the customer, not even waiting for a thank you. Minjee looked over where he pointed and saw a middle-aged lady, bending over to wipe the tables. Minjee couldn't silently gasped. Even though the lady looked exhausted and worn out, she still had a unique beauty emitting from her. The lady turned around, finished cleaning the current table and met eyes with the sixteen year old.

"Annyeonghaseyo. My name's Minjee" Minjee bowed before pointing to the sign, "Is the spot still available?"

The lady looked to where she was pointing and back at her, "Yes, are you looking for a job?"

Minjee nodded, proceeding to take out all her application info before she was stopped by the lady's voice.

"You're hired," she smiled at her, understanding her surprised expression, "I trust that you'll work hard, that's all an employee needs."

"But don’t you need to check all my information first?" Minjee asked her. The lady shook her head, motioning for Minjee to follow her, "Come along. I'll show you around. My name's Misook by the way." Minjee nodded, following her instructions.

The place was bigger than normal bubble tea shops. A lot bigger. There was a lot of tables that customers could occupy just to chat with their friends and have a cup of bubble tea. Minjee realized this was probably a usual place students would go to afterschool but she wondered why students came here up to the point where one couldn’t have space to breathe.

Just to reach the counter, she had to hold her breathe as she passed the people, feeling extremely uncomfortable to be physically close to others.

The owner showed her all the necessary things an employee needs to know as Minjee listened intently, wanting  to take the job seriously.

"And that's pretty much it," Misook concluded as they stood inside the small storage room. Minjee nodded, taking in all the information given to her.

"Now, I guess your wondering how much you get paid?" the lady asked with a smile. Minjee looked at her, not believing herself that she forgot about that one thing.

The lady continued, closing the storage room door, "You'll get paid around ₩ 9000 an hour, not including the tips you get from customers." Minjee just nodded.

"Now, what else is there…" the Misook trailed off, thinking.

"Ah!" she suddenly exclaimed, "Time to meet the family!" Minjee furrowed her eyebrows and muttered, "Family?"

Misook disappeared out to the front and Minjee quickly followed.

The customers had decreased, only a few hanging around in the tables and she could now clearly see who were the employees. And boy, were they eye catching.

As soon as they spotted Misook approaching they stopped what they were doing and walked towards her. They were all dressed in white polo shirts, with either matching shorts or pants and all boys ages from about 13 to 17.

"Alright boys, we have our newest member of the family here," Misook introduced Minjee, making the latter's eyes widen at the way she did so.

The boys cheered and gave her bright smiles, all giving her welcoming words. The lady laughed, patting Minjee's shoulder. Minjee slightly froze at the unfamiliar gesture towards her.

"At least we at least have a female around here," Misook said with a chuckle. Minjee looked at her in surprise. As if a girl never signed up for the job.

Misook spotted a customer by the counter, looking at the menu and excused herself, "Boys, I'll do the work. Introduce yourselves, okay?" And with that, she left to help the customer.

One of them, looking like one of the oldest, stepped up with a smile, "Annyeonghaseyo. My name's Seungcheol. I'm the oldest."

"I'm Doyoon! The mother," another one said with a grin.

"Junghan here!" he gave a small wave.

"Jisoo," he smiled.

"Junhui!" he lifted a hand.

"Soonyoung," he said with a smirk.

"Wonwoo," he copied the other.

"Jihoon," he pushed the two back, "And ignore them."

"Mingming!" he saluted.

"Seokmin," he said with a small nod.

"Mingyu!" he beamed at her.

"Seunggwan," he shot a small smile.

"Hansol," he gave a wink.

"Chan!" he showed a v sign.

"Dongjin," he softly said.

They paused and kept looking at Minjee and the latter just stared back.

"And… you?" Seokmin told her.

"Minjee," she said in a monotone voice, not wavering her emotionless face.

The boys weren't surprised at the way she responded, unlike the usual response she got and instead made their smiles bigger. They were starting to weird her out and fortunately, Misook came back.

"Alright, we are closing in 20 minutes but no seems to be around so, who's up for free bubble tea?" she happily said, clasping her hands.

"ME!" the boys answered in unison The younger ones ran to join tables together whilst the older ones helped Misook prepare the drinks. Minjee sighed and turned to leave.

"Mingyu-ah! Remember to add another table for Minjee-sshi!" Doyoon told the younger. Minjee turned around, surprised at what she just heard.

"Minjee-sshi!" Seunggwan waved her over, "Come on! The tables are set up!"

Minjee just stood stiff in her spot, the unfamiliar feeling of warmth filling her. The drinks were ready and Seungcheol and Jisoo was taking to them to the table in trays.

"Hyung! That's mine!" Dongjin cried.

"There's another one!"

"This has more!"

"They're the same!" Doyoon ended the fight, shutting the two up.

Misook chuckled, "Doyoon-ah, I seriously think you're a better mother than me."

She noticed the missing presence and craned her neck to look behind the standing Mingyu, "Oh. Minjee-sshi. Come on. What are you doing just standing there?" She nodded her head to the seat in front of her.

"Yeah! Come on!"

"Don’t be shy!"

"You have your own here!"

Wonwoo stood up, walking towards her before she lightly pushed her towards the table, "Your legs will become numb if you continue standing." Minjee moved out of his reach, glaring at him without a word. The latter gulped, feeling the lasers shoot right at him. Silence filled the shop before Hansol stood up to continue pushing her towards her seat, making sure to avoid her gaze.

He pulled out the chair for her but Minjee just kept shooting daggers at him.

Something pink blocked her vision and she jerked her head back.

"I didn’t know what flavour you wanted, so I just gave you strawberry." Junhui told her, holding the cup in front of her, "Almost everyone likes strawberry."

Minjee looked at the pink coloured liquid with small black pearls sinking at the bottom. Junhui shook it in front of her and Minjee felt a hands take hers, pulling her down to the chair.

"Sit down and take your drink missy. Before tomorrow comes," Misook told her playfully. The boys sat back down and the conversations started, laughter and teasing emitting from the large table. Minjee silently listened, her eyes still on the strawberry flavoured beverage on the table.

Why was there so much warmth coming from one drink? Her heart felt heavy. Too much was weighing it and this time, she was fighting the doubt that it wasn’t just coldness. Coldness. She was too familiar with that feeling. But this…

This was definitely different.

But being Minjee, she doesn’t trust easily. Not even herself. And what she was feeling, it was too foreign to trust.

Minjee snapped out of her thoughts and drifted her eyes away from the drink only to meet with more than a dozen pair of eyes looking straight at her. During her zone out, they had noticed her lack of speech causing them to turn their attention to just her.

Minjee looked at each of them, an unreadable expression on her face. What were they asking her to do?

She noticed a small gesture from Jihoon and she instantly understood why. She looked at the drink once more before taking it in her hands and taking a sip. She looked up and saw content and happy faces and she felt that warmth come back. It's just the bubble tea, Minjee. You haven't had it before… so its new. That’s all, she thought as she put the cup back down.

The boys smiled at her actions, knowing too well what they meant. "It's not the bubble tea, Minjee-sshi." Soonyoung spoke, shooting her a small grin. Minjee blinked at him before she noticed the rest giving her a similar look. They just chuckled.

Misook looked at the interaction between the teenagers a smiled. They were all good people, she knew that. Her eyes directed to the girl in front of her. Even though her face showed a cold and ignorant expression, Misook could just barely see the amount of emotions in those dark eyes.

Minjee felt a gaze on her but she didn’t look up. She cursed herself for not being strong enough. She would usually coldly stare right back at someone, but why couldn’t she do it now? She wasn’t like this. She was stronger than this.

But at the moment, all she had the confidence to look at were her fiddling fingers.

The cold slapped Minjee's exposed skin. It was finally time to close down and the boys managed to make her finish her drink.

"Ah! Wait. I left something inside." Misook suddenly cried out, running back into the store.

"Boys! Do you have your school bags?"

They heard a faint shout and they immediately ran back inside, realizing they did. Well, except for one.

Minjee was left with Doyoon outside as only the night's breeze was heard between them.

Minjee straightened. Was she actually waiting for them before she leaves? Tightening the grip on her school bag, Minjee started to walk away.

"Are you wondering…" Doyoon's voice, as if a trigger, immediately made Minjee spin around. The latter regretted the action.

"Are you wondering why Imo said that you were the first girl to be employed here?" he continued. Minjee stared at the ground. Was she that easy to see through?

"Well, to be honest, you aren't," he told her. Minjee jerked her head to look at him, surprise painted her face.

"You aren't and you are," he added, chuckling afterwards.

Seeing no response, he continued, "Imo only takes in special people into the family. All those girls who were employed here before weren't anything close to special. They were… well, normal."

Minjee's eyebrows slightly furrowed.

Doyoon shrugged before giving her a sincere smile, "Just know this. All of us, every single one of us, are glad you're here. Really."

Minjee's cold expression wavered for a millisecond before she forced it on again, yet she was left speechless.

Chatter and footsteps were heard and then followed the group of boys coming out of the store. Misook was wrapping a scarf around Dongjin's neck, muttering things that it wasn’t good for a child to be in the cold.

Misook looked at Minjee with a smile, finished with Dongjin. "Minjee-ah," she stepped closer to Minjee before wrapping a pink scarf around her neck, startling the latter, "It's too cold for you too go around without this."

She pat her head and scolded her playfully, "You better come tomorrow wearing that or I'll give you a beating missy."

"We've taken enough of your time I think. Go home and rest okay?" Misook told her soothingly before turning around.

Minjee watched as Misook walked away with the boys, trying to keep them all together. She saw her give Mingyu and Wonwoo headlocks, rubbing their head with her knuckles. She saw her give Dongjin a hug, protecting him from his teasing hyungs. She saw her call for Chan and Hansol who weren't watching where they were going. She saw them laughing, teasing and showing their love to one another.

She felt tears blur her vision. They were complete, all walking towards their home. Turning around, she smiled bitterly.

Go home and rest okay?

Was where she stayed enough to call a home? It was filled with a guy that hated her, people she barely knew and people she could never imagine become the people that completed her home. Home?

She knew she'd never be able to find one.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Long chapter, sorry for the wait!~ Seventeen minus Samuel appeared! ;) I dunno if I should include the maknae or not.... :/ As you can probably tell, Doyoon's one of my biased. He's too cute that I hate him. >< 

Now tell me, how do I stop stanning these idiots? They're ruining my life. T_T