Lay looked over at Chen with a small smile. He didn’t know when the younger had arrived, but it was nice to see him. They’d not really been hanging out as much lately, what with Chen being with Xiumin or Sehun most of the time.

“I was starting to think you’d forgotten about me” Lay said softly, a small smile playing on his lips.

Chen shook his head, moving forward and taking Lay’s hands in his arms, “Never” he smiled sweetly, “You’re not the kind of person someone can just forget, you know”

“That’s good to know” Lay laughed tenderly, “So you’ve not replaced me then?” he asked.

Chen shook his head again, “Couldn’t do that, even if I wanted to” he said, pulling Lay into a hug.

They stayed like that for a long time before pulling back, but to Lay’s surprise, he was no longer looking at Chen’s face. It was Suho’s.

“Am I not good enough anymore?” Suho asked, looking astonishingly hurt.

Lay gaped slightly before finding the will to answer, “What? No, I... you’re more than enough, you’re perfect! Why would you say that?” he asked, gripping the front of Suho’s t-shirt tightly in his fists.

“He’s saying that because of me” Chen said from behind him.

Lay whipped his head around to see Chen and Suho stood beside one another before looking front again and noticing his hands here clenched around nothing but air.

“I... I don’t understand” Lay said, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

“He thinks you love Chen and not him. It’s kind of obvious really” a voice said from beside him. He turned to see Baekhyun, only the younger boy looked odd. His hair was bright pink and he was wearing what seemed to be a news paper suit.

“But Chen’s my best friend. I love them both in different ways” Lay said, unsure as to what was going on.

There was a shrill laugh from his other side and he turned to see Luhan, “Well I know that, and you know that, but do they know that?” he asked Lay.

Lay looked over his friend with a frown. Did Luhan always wear bright red lipstick and blue eye shadow? And since when did he wear his hair in pigtails?

Lay looked back to Chen and Suho who were now looking at him expectantly. He also noticed that Sulli was now next to Suho, whispering frantically into his ear and shooting Lay evil looks. Behind Chen stood Xiumin, who was ferociously trying to pull him away from the scene, but Chen only looked at Lay with a hand outstretched to him.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do!” Lay screamed in frustration.

He heard Chanyeol’s booming laugher. He looked behind him to see the happy giant stood next to Kris, both of them wearing nothing but Y-fronts and bonnets.

“Yixing-ah” Kris cooed, “It’s time to open your eyes” but his voice didn’t sound like his own... it sounded oddly like Suho’s...

Suddenly he was shoved quite harshly and came face to face with Tao who shouted, “Kris is mine, you falopean tube!” before pushing him again, making him fall to the floor, landing on his back.

Sehun, Kai and Kyungsoo appeared then, looking over him, “Wake up, Xing” Sehun said, looking down at Lay with an amused smile.

“You need to open your eyes~” Kyungsoo cooed, “Come on, baby” he snickered. That was odd. Since when did Kyungsoo call him ‘baby’?

“Wake up now, it’s almost time to go!” Kai said, before the others all seemed to be looming over him, telling him to ‘open his eyes’ and ‘wake up’ over and over again.

Lay woke up with a start, coming face to face with Suho who jumped back slightly as the slightly younger boy sat up suddenly.

“I DON’T LIKE CHEN! I ONLY LOVE JUNMYEON! STOP TELLING ME TO OPEN MY EYES, I DIDN’T CLOSE THEM!” He screamed.

“Um... Xing-ah?” Suho said tentatively, moving back towards Lay and sitting next to him.

Lay relaxed slightly at the sound of Suho’s voice, laying back down and resting his head in the elder’s lap.

Suho smiled as he ran his fingers through Lay’s hair soothingly, “Did you have a bad dream, love?”

“Mm” Lay muttered, “And I call you ‘love’ so stop stealing my words, mister” he chuckled sleepily.

“I’m ever so sorry” Suho gasped in mock horror, “What was I thinking? Taking your words?!”

Lay laughed, rubbing his eyes as he did, “Dreams freak me out. They’re so weird”

Suho hummed in response and continued to Lay’s hair, enjoying the sweetness of the moment.

They didn’t talk for a while until Suho finally let out a soft sigh, “Penny for your thoughts” he said, brushing Lay’s fringe back from his forehead.

“You don’t think I love anyone more than you, right?” Lay whispered finally, glancing up at Suho, who simply smiled at him.

“Who was it this time?” he asked.

Lay blinked slightly, not really sure what to say before he let out a quiet sigh, “Jongdae” he admitted, “Then everyone was getting at me about it, saying I need to show you that you’re the only one I have eyes for”

Suho laughed sweetly, leaning down to press a quick kiss to Lay’s lips, “You don’t have to do anything. I know how you feel, Xing. You wear your heart on your sleeve”

“I wondered why I was so dead...” Lay said, biting back a smile.

“Idiot” Suho rolled his eyes, chuckling at Lay’s offended look before adding, “But you’re my idiot”

***

“Okay, think about it for a minute. You could go and cause trouble with Kris, but what would be the point really? Because if you two fight, and he hurts you, I’ll ing kill him, Sehun-ah. I don’t want anyone fighting more than they have to” Luhan said softly but firmly, “As much as I hate to say it, it’s between Baekhyun and Kris. Let them deal with it, okay?”

Sehun looked at Luhan like he’d gone insane, which he was pretty sure the elder had. He knew Luhan wanted to land a fist in Kris’s face just as much as he and Kai did, but he knew Luhan was right. This wasn’t their fight.

“Fine. Okay, but only because you asked nicely” Sehun sighed, pouting slightly at Luhan who let out a soft chuckle before opening his arms and nodding Sehun towards him.

“Come here, you big baby!” he giggled as Sehun walked quickly towards him and wrapped two long arms around his waist.

Luhan beamed as Sehun leant in and pressed a soft kiss to his lips before resting their foreheads together, “What do you say we go find Kai and Soo and go ice skating?”

“Or we could bang” Luhan grinned, wiggling his eyebrows.

Sehun laughed, “Princess, we have classes tomorrow. Do you really want to waste the day having se- oh who am I kidding, let’s go” he grinned, leaning in and capturing Luhan’s lips in a sweet, yet teasing kiss.

Before it could be taken further though, Kai burst through the door with Sulli, both of them looking flustered and exhausted.

Sehun turned to say something but was cut off by Sulli, “Chanyeol has Kris tied to a chair and said he’s going to make him learn how to be a good friend”

“So far, he’s covered him in golden syrup and left the window so that, and I quote, ‘the bugs can make him learn’ and Kris is almost in tears because he thinks that he’s going to be eaten alive by ants and flys” Kai added breathlessly.

Sulli leant against the doorframe tiredly, “And he won’t let us in, even Baekhyun can’t calm him down. Chanyeol said Kris has to make up for upsetting his ‘wittle Baekkie-poo’ and this is the only way. Tao even tried to break the door down, but then he and Baekhyunnie got into an argument about Kris and Baekhyun said that Kris needed to be taught a lesson, even though like an hour ago he was saying that he was just mad at Kris and he didn’t want them to actually fall out... Then Tao got all huffy, called Baekyun a drama queen and stormed off to ‘get supplies for when it’s Yeol’s turn to suffer for hurting his Krissy Wissy’ so yeah...” she rolled her eyes.

Sehun just looked at the both incredulously, Luhan still in his arms. He wondered if this was all just some ed up dream. Every single thing that had happened to him since he arrived at this place had been bat crazy, but then again, if it was that would have meant Luhan would have also been a dream. And the had been too good for his imagination to have cooked that up.

“Okay, and what do you want me to do about it?” he answered evenly.

Sulli quirked an eyebrow whilst Kai scoffed, “Dude,” Kai said, “You look like a serial killer-”

 “– I really wish people would stop saying that –”

“– so anyone would be crazy to mess with you, you’re the only one who can get in!” Kai finished, ignoring Sehun’s complaints.

Luhan pulled away from Sehun and sighed, “How the did he get Kris tied to a chair exactly?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest.

Kai laughed at that, “He got this rag and said to Kris ‘hey, does this smell like chloroform to you?’ and Kris gave him this really scared look and said ‘I’m not smelling that’ then Chanyeol did this weird like ‘lalalalalalalala’ thing and hit Kris around the head with a picture frame and knocked him out... Then he looked at me, Sulli, Baek and Soo – we were stood in the hall at the time – and said ‘you saw nothing!’ in this really creepy voice then slammed the door shut and locked it” he explained.

“Then when Kris came around, we heard him scream ‘why the am I covered in... what the even is this?!’ then Chanyeol laughed like a weirdo and said ‘GOLDEN SYRUP’ really loud then they were yelling and lots of stuff was said and he still won’t open the door, and I’m pretty sure he’s since added jam, peanut butter, marshmallow fluff and shaving cream to Kris’s body” Sulli added with a roll of her eyes.

Sehun opened his mouth to reply but was stopped short by the sound of Chanyeol’s voice from down the hall yelling “HOW DOES IT FEEL KREASE?! HMM?! HOW DOES IT FEEEEEEEL?!”

“I think he’s lost his mind...” Luhan whispered, glancing at Sehun with a slightly fearful look in his eyes.

Sehun nodded, “Yeah” he said and with that, the four of them made their way down to Kris and Chanyeol’s room, where the others – along with Eli and Kiseop – were stood talking in hushed voices.

“Oh hey guys” Kyungsoo greeted them, causing the others to turn and look at them too.

They quickly said their hellos before Sehun made his way to the front of the group and banged a fist on the door, “Yeol?! Open up!” he said loudly.

“NO!” came Chanyeol’s voice from in the room.

“GOD PLEASE HELP ME SEHUN!! HE’S GOING TO KILL ME!” Kris’s voice shortly followed.

Sehun scoffed, “Shut up Kris!” he yelled back before addressing Chanyeol again, “Hyung... Think about this, Kris might be a , but he’s your best friend. Not to mention Beakhyunn said he already forgave Kris, remember? Don’t you think he’s suffered enough for one day?”

“No, he needs to learn his lesson” Chanyeol called back.

Sehun sighed, “Hyung, can you please just let me in? Just me, please. I just want to talk to you”

“No because you’ll just let all the others in and try to save this stupid... thing...” Chanyeol said, clearly a little stroppy.

“Please, dear god, it’s getting in my eyes!!” Kris wailed.

“Shut up, Kris!” Both Sehun and Chanyeol shouted before Sehun continued, “Hyung, I promise I won’t let anyone else in. It’ll just be me and you, come on, please?”

There was a scuffling behind the door, then the sound of the lock clicking before an arm reached out, grabbed Sehun by the collar and dragged him into the room, followed by the door slamming shut ad being locked again.

Chanyeol stood with his back against the door, eyeing Sehun suspiciously.

Sehu took that time to look over at Kris who was tied to a wooden chair – from where, he didn’t know – with thick ropes. He was covered in everything Sulli and Kai had told him about too, they’d failed to mention though, that he was in nothing but his boxers ad socks. He also noticed that Chanyeol had put a tarp down first to protect the carpet.

It was nice to know that even Chanyeol was sensible sometimes... well, when you didn’t add why he’d put the tarp down...

“So..” Sehun said after a moment or two, “How’s it going?”

Chanyeol let out an almost whimper, “Sehun... I think I’ve gone too far... But... But I can’t stop!”

Kris glared at the two for a moment, “You think?! You think?! Chanyeol, I’m tied to a chair in nothing but my skivvies, covered in golden bloody syrup and you think you’ve gone too far?!”

Chanyeol blinked for a second, as though Kris’s anger was totally unexpected through his almost tears, before sighing, “You hurt Baekhyun” he said finally.

Sehun sat on the bed and watched as Kris sighed and looked at Chanyeol with soft, yet tired eyes, “You know I didn’t mean to. I only went to ask him a question and he got mad, and although I get why, it was just... it made me angry and I yelled back and things just got out of hand. I really didn’t mean to, Yeol. You know that I’d never upset him intentionally. It was all just a misunderstanding” he let his head hang down, golden syrup dripping from his earlobe.

“But, it’s just... he’s mine, you know? I mean, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t stick up for him?” Chanyeol bit his lip slightly, feeling a little guilty for what he’d done to his best friend. With a small pout he walked over and closed the window, before walking over to Kris and untying him. The ropes fell onto the tarp with a soft ‘thunk’.

Kris looked from Chanyeol to Sehun and back before getting to his feet, cringing at the feeling of gloopy syrup trailing down his body as he shifted. Kris made a move to the door but stopped suddenly as Sehun cried “WAIT”

Sehun stood up and made his way over to Chanyeol’s desk, picking up a few newspapers – he didn’t even want to know why Chanyeol had them – and started to lay out a trail of them to the door.

“Sehun, what the are you doing?” Kris asked with a raised brow.

Sehun only rolled his eyes though, “shut up. I’m still mad at you, so either keep quiet or ruin your ing carpet. An idiot could figure out what I’m doing” he huffed, unlocking an opening the door to reveal the rest of the guys – and girl.

Kris followed on the newspaper path as Sehun laid them out in a trail to the showers. The others were following curiously behind Kris and Chanyeol brought up the rear, pouting until Baekhyun slid a hand into his.

By the time Kris got into the shower, the others were gathered around shouting a million questions at him, none of which he felt like answering.

After a while, most of them went back to their respective rooms – Sulli followed Eli and Kiseop to theirs – leaving just Sehun, Kris and Luhan. The latter was happily perched on the sinks, swinging his legs back and forth as he waited for Sehun to finish talking to Kris.

“You’re mad at me” Kris said. It was a statement, not a question, there was no point in making it a question.

“Yes” was Sehun simple response.

Kris sighed, lathering a heart amount of soap over his body, “Why?”

“Where do I start?” Sehun deadpanned, “First, you upset Yeol-hyung. Then you make Baekhyunnie hyung cry, THEN you ing bruise Luhan’s wrists?! And I’m not meant to be mad?!”

Kris frowned, his wet hair sticking to his forehead, “I didn’t mean to cause all this trouble. And the last thing I wanted was to hurt Luhan. He was the one that helped me when no one else would, and I’m really really sorry for that”

Sehun watched the elder for a moment before glancing over at Luhan, who shot him a smile and a wave, then looking back to Kris with a sigh, “Alright, fine.. I get where you’re coming from, but you get why people are huffy with you, right? I mean, you don’t have the best track record...”

“I know” Kris smiled slightly, “But I’m trying to make up for it, I swear. It just seems like when I go to make thing better, I make them worse”

Sehun smirked, “That’s because you’re an idiot” he said slyly.

“Yeah, because I’m an idi- hey!” Kris shot back indignantly as Sehun chuckled.

Kris went to splash water at the younger but Sehun had already dashed over to Luhan, grabbed the elder by the hand, pulling him off the sinks, and ran out of the washroom.

Kris shook his head, but smiled, feeling better than he had done the past couple of days.

***

“I think we should have an early night tonight” Luhan yawned as he and Sehun changed out of their clothes into something more comfortable.

Sehun smirked slightly, “Well, you should. I don’t have to be in until one” he teased, sitting down on the bed, and watching Luhan change.

“Well I should be so lucky. I have to be up at six, so shut up, or you can sleep in your own bed tonight” Luhan shot back, pulling one of Sehun’s t-shirts.

The elder walked over to his bed and sat down next to Sehun.

“You know,” Sehun smiled, “I was thinking... Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea if people knew about us...”

“What makes you say that?” Luhan cocked an eyebrow as he placed a hand on Sehun’s thigh.

Sehun shrugged, his cheeks tinged pink, “Because... People are always all over you and touching you and I’m tired of not being able to tell them not to”

“Sehun-ah... Only friends touch me. Most of the people on campus already think we’re dating anyways” Luhan laughed slightly.

“Friends, yeah. They’re the problem. Xiumin is always all over you and it annoys me, then there’s Lay, who seems to think people are pillows and not human beings. And don’t even get me started on Baekhyun!” Sehun huffed, placing his hand atop of Luhan’s.

“Oh my god! You’re jealous!” Luhan laughed, “Oh Sehun is actually jealous of our own friends! Who would have thought?!”

“I am not! I just... they need to learn how to respect people’s boundaries!” Sehun shot back indignantly.

Luhan chuckled again before pulling Sehun closer and giving him a long lingering kiss.

“Sehun-ah, there’s nothing to be jealous about, I like you. Not them, you. I care about you, and I want you. So really, don’t fret over it” he said softly, “But if it makes you feel better, you – no we – can tell them, okay?”

“Really? You don’t mind that I’m just up and changing my mind about the plan?” Sehun asked, nuzzling into Luhan’s neck.

Luhan sighed in delight at the contact, “No, not one bit. I told you from the get go I didn’t mind if they knew, so we’ll do whatever you want. Mm, that feels nice” he added, as Sehun pressed soft kisses over his neck, every so often stopping to , nibble or lap his tongue over the sensitive skin.

“Okay, then we’ll tell them this week at some point... Well, if Kai doesn’t out us first” Sehun said between fluttering kisses.

“Kai knows?” Luhan asked distractedly as he turned slightly, giving Sehun better access to his neck whilst pulling them closer together.

Sehun hummed against Luhan’s jaw, “Yeah,” he whispered, “Overheard us talking or something”

“Oh, fair enough” Luhan breathed, not really caring about anything but Sehun touching him in the moment.

Sehun hummed again, moving away from Luhan’s neck and connecting their lips whilst pushing Luhan down to lay on the bed, coming to hover over him.

Luhan’s arms wrapped around the younger’s neck loosely as they continued to kiss, and just like that, all thoughts of an early night were out of Luhan’s mind, replaced with only the thought of needing Sehun to touch him everywhere, and in every way possible.

And Sehun, being the amazing boyfriend he was, could only do as Luhan wished, even if it meant the elder would be grumpy and tired the next morning, because sometimes, you’ve got to just go with the flow.

And that, is exactly what they did...