Eunhyuk woke up on the middle of the night, sweating and heart racing from the nightmares of his bullies. He blinked when he saw his bedside lamp and he took in his surroundings. He was in his own room but he didn’t remember getting there himself. He remembered the boys hitting and kicking him and the cold water being thrown on him. He remembered his clothes being torn from his body and being locked inside that bathroom, crying out for help until his voice ran coarse but still no one came to his rescue.

He looked around him and saw Sungmin and Minho sitting on the floor on his right, hand still holding his blanket as they slept with their head on the sheeted mattress. Siwon sat on the chair near his study table, also sleeping.

Eunhyuk jumped when he felt a shaking hand cup his left cheek while another squeeze his left hand. He looked to his left and saw his brother Jaejoong crying while wiping Eunhyuk’s tears and Heechul holding his hands and kissing his knuckles, thanking him for waking up and whispering that everything was going to be okay.

Eunhyuk knew that they knew. There was no way that they wouldn’t. But would they reject him too if they knew it all? If they knew that he was gay, would they shun him just as others had done? Would they find him disgusting just as Kyuhyun had?

He was surprised when Jaejoong took him into his arms, and said the words that killed the worries that were eating him inside, “it’s okay to be gay. We still love you. You are our baby brother. We love you no matter what.”

The silent tears became sobs, both of pain and relief because his brothers knew and they accepted him as he was. Heechul too hugged him over Jaejoong, encasing the small boy in a cage of arms, “We would love you even if you had leprosy. Baby what made you think that we wouldn’t? We loved you. There is nothing wrong with being gay. Love is not about gender okay?”

Each sentence was said with so much tenderness and love that Eunhyuk felt overwhelmed. His brothers were okay. He was okay. They were okay. It had been hurting him so much that he had to hide himself from them, especially when things in school had taken a turn for the worse.

Eunhyuk felt a couple more hands coil around him and he opened his wet eyes to see Sungmin, Minho and Siwon awake too, and hugging him as much as