“Your daughter’s condition is much better than before now. But, she’ll be hospitalized for the night.” The doctor said. He flipped his paper and scanned it, “I would recommend that since she’s only a two year old, even if you were to tell her that she can’t eat peanuts or consume anything with peanuts as an ingredient, for the time being, try to lay off of foods with them until she’s a bit older to understand.” He lay the stapled papers down and faced Hana and Byeong-goo.

Dasom lightly smiled, “Thank you.”

“If you’ll excuse me, I’ll get the papers for the hospitalization.” He stood up and exited out.

Byeong-goo took in his wife’s hand and breathed out, “Our daughter’s fine.”

“Hana was right.” Dasom beamed a smile, “She is and has always been a great mother.” Thank you, Hana. I’ll learn from my trials and become a mother to my children. It is time I pick up the parenthood baton from you. I’ll learn to know what you know in those four years of raising my children. She thought of the time when Hana was standing with Luhan and Taeyang and whispered, “Taeyang, you have the best mother there is.”

*

It was around midnight and Hana entered the bedroom with midnight snacks and drinks she had prepared for her and Luhan’s late-night catch up on homework for tomorrow since they couldn’t get a chance to do them at all today. In the middle of the bed laid Taeyang fast asleep without a fever, a first since his infection.

Taeyang’s pediatrician said that his body is normally reacting and responding to the medicine he prescribed to Taeyang, so it was nothing big Hana and Luhan had to be worried about. His past feverish nights weren’t related to his internal inflammation as that had been stopped, so nothing serious was going to happen. Relieved, Taeyang and Hana could expect peaceful nights now.

“You’re going to get fat if you eat those right now.” Luhan teased as he helped Hana placed the huge tray in between them on the bed. They were lying opposite of Taeyang, with their feet near his head so that their work space could be bigger, and so that if they were to bicker, it wouldn’t be close enough to wake Taeyang up.

Hana glowered at him, “Pabo, anyone would get fat eating these.”

“No, just you.” Luhan said with a straight face, as if that statement was obvious.

She poked his forehead, “Pabo.” She picked up her lead pencil and searched for her paper. “Besides, I can’t get fat. I’m already big.” She depressingly burrowed her face into the bed.

Luhan laughed, “You don’t care about how you’re dressed, but you care about that?” He reached for his milk in the glassed cup, “You’re weird.”

Hana peeked up and mumbled, “You’re a guy, so your fat leaves your body much easier. But for us girls, our fat stays longer due to hormonal changes and—”

“Hey, I don’t want to know about that.” Luhan hissed. He raised his cup, “I’m drinking.” He placed his cup back onto the tray. “It’s okay. You don’t need to worry about your weight. Just like how you’re y when you’re in casual clothes, you’re still y the way you are now, too.”

Again, it happened every time he gave any kind of compliment about her figure. She could feel heat blanketing her body. She wanted to cringe, but she was flattered enough to be bashful about it. Her head sank lower into the bed to hide her flushed face.

Stupid Luhan! Why does he keep saying this about me!

“You shouldn’t need to worry about getting fat. At the end, you’re just going to live with cats anyway.”

Great.

Hana clicked her tongue while her head was still burrowed. She should’ve known that this was going to end up like this. It was Luhan after all.

She raised her head slowly and grinned at him, “What. Was. That. Again?”

Luhan didn’t recognize the angry and threatening tone of voice she had used while innocently repeating his last words, “I said, you shouldn’t need to worry—”

Hana gripped his neck and started to shake him back and forth. “You jerk!”

“H-Hana!” Said Luhan who was getting dizzy from getting shaken back and forth. “MERCY!”

Hearing the surrender, Hana let go and proudly snorted, “That’s what I thought.” She went back to her spot and frivolously started to do her assignment.

Luhan touched his neck. He smiled. Hana never meant any harm to him. She couldn’t. And she wouldn’t. Ever. Even though his teases could offend all of the girls in the world, only one would understand that he meant otherwise.

To further, he scoot to her and gave her the last blow. “Meow.”

Hana looked at him and they both giggled.

This was another reason Luhan loved to sleep with Hana and Taeyang. Sometimes, when Taeyang went to sleep earlier than expected and he and Hana weren’t tired, he’d make a fool of himself and she’d laugh at his foolishness. He was always in daze at how graceful her laugh was and the sincerity it emitted.

She was the only one who in this entire world who understood and accepted his stupidity for whom he was. It was nights like this where he felt that they were in a world they two only lived in.

Continuing on his act, while Hana laughed on her back, he plopped his head onto her stomach and started purring and acting like a cute cat that wanted to be cuddled and loved. He knew she was ticklish and that she found this to be hilarious. It was a two-way kill.

She laughed harder and tried to get him off of her but couldn’t. She was too feeble because of his dorkiness. She had to cover when Luhan started to tickle her with his paws on her tummy.

“Meow.” Luhan would insert the cat sounds here and there. He even included cute cat impressions. “Stop laughing, meow, or Taeyang will wake up.”

“Stupid!” Hana said in between laughs, “You’re tickling me!”

Luhan pretended to look confused, “Meow, what are you saying?”

As if it couldn’t get any worse than this, Hana’s hand accidently whipped her cup of milk and it tipped over the both of their heads.

After a two second silence and freezing because of what happened, the two laughed together because of the accidental accident. Seeing each other’s head being dripped and wet with milk all over made them laughed because it looked funny.

Hana rested a hand over to stomach as she and Luhan sat up slowly. “Luhan, it’s your fault the milk spilled.”

“Meow, you were the one who tipped it.”

Hana nudged him on the shoulder, “Stop with your funny meow.”

“Why, meow?” Luhan inquired with an innocent look. He tried to hold in his laughter because the sight of Hana’s forehead being stained with milk was amusing. Seeing this, he got an idea he knew he’d get her to laugh even more. He combed his hair with his hand and spiked it up. He got off of the bed and flexed his imaginary muscle on his arm, “Look at me.” He flashed a y smile, “y, aren’t I?”

As expected, Hana giggled uncontrollably. “Stop it, pabo!”

“Why?” Luhan still acted as if he wasn’t understanding the situation. “I just want to show you how…” he made another pose. This time, he flexed the other arm, “…awesome I am!”

Again, Hana laughed in response. Losing energy, she leaned on one hand and finally remembered that milk spilled all over them. She gasped in horror when she saw their worksheets were completely damped with the milk.

Luhan caught on and slapped his cheeks to exclaim, “Oh no! Our homework!”

Hana grimaced, “What are we going to do? It’s for his class.”

He groaned, “Why must it be the homework for Minwoo songsaenim?”

Minwoo Lee was their math teacher who taught math like there was no day tomorrow. He assigned a crazy amount of homework problems and gave math projects as if it was a science class. His grading ways were no joke either. It was only thanks to the fact that all five of them helped each other that they currently had a passing grade at the moment.

Hana and Luhan looked at one another. They’d just have to face punishment tomorrow.

*

The time was finally here.

As luck would have it, the last class of the day was Minwoo math class.

Hana and Luhan braced themselves.

Because Luhan sat at the corner near the door, when he heard the sounds of someone walking, he froze up and tried to persuade that his grade won’t falter.

Hana shook in her spot. This class was the only class she would never ever not turn her homework in because math was her worst subject. It was her archenemy. She glared at Luhan who was far from her. It’s your fault we’re going through this! If only you hadn’t been so stupid yesterday!

The door slid open and in walked Minwoo songsaenim. Like always, he never spoke a word until he reached the middle of the class where a pedestal half his size stood. There, he’d placed his big monstrous heavy-looking black suitcase on the floor, right next to it. It was practically his life. You’d never see him without it. It was like his personal silhouette.

He was those kinds of people that took everything seriously and believed one could only go far if given extreme loads of work to do. He hardly associated himself with the class and/or other teachers. He only spoke to other teachers when it was time for school conferences or other job-related works.

“Open your text book to page seventy-four.” He never began with a greeting either. “We’re continuing off from yesterday’s example.” He turned around and grabbed a chalk and started writing from the very top left corner, “I’m not going to review what we did. We’re going straight to work.” While writing and making the sounds on the chalkboard that anyone cringed to but him, he added, “Before I forget, there will be a quiz tomorrow. Be prepared.”

His so-called quizzes shouldn’t be called quizzes at all. They took the entire class period and had at least thirty questions! What kind of quiz had more than five questions?

The class session ended and just five minutes before school was out, he asked the horrific question, “Who did not do their homework?”

Unlike other teachers who only could tell who didn’t do their homework by grading, he orally asked instead and marked them.

Hana and Luhan hoped they weren’t the only two.

“M-me.” The friends said with faltered voices.

“The campus couple, eh?” Minwoo confirmed as he closed his book. He was the only teacher Hana and Luhan didn’t dare try to correct about their relationship.

Hana and Luhan looked around the room and saw that they were the only ones who didn’t have their homework to turn in.

“For your punishment…”

Yes, punishment. Just like how Minwoo wasn’t like any other teachers, he, too, didn’t grade homework like a normal teacher did. He gave out punishments to the students who didn’t do their homework so it’d be an incentive for the student to never forget again.

“Since it’s your guys’ first, clean the classroom.” He placed his book away in his suitcase and walked out of the class right when the bell rang.

The class sighed out loud—a usual response at the end of the day.

Luna, Lay, and Xiumin ran over to Hana, and Luhan dragged his feet over.

Luna shook Hana’s desk, “Oi, why did you two not do your homework? No matter what, his assignments must be done! Even if you are dying!”

Hana slumped into her chair, “Milk.”

“Milk?” The friends repeated.

Luhan sat on the floor, hopeless, “Yesterday…we were playing around…and…she spilled milk over our papers.”

Hana pouted, “But you were making me laugh.”

The friends blankly stared at them. They had no idea how laughing and milk were the cause of getting the punishment. Regardless, they stayed silent. Something told them to not ask.

Hana stood up and without motivation, she said, “Let’s start cleaning. The faster, the better.”

Luhan weakly got up, “Yeah.” He patted Xiumin, “Hey, can you tell Coach that I won’t make it to practice?”

“Yeah.” Xiumin assured him. “I’ll go now.”

Luna pitied her friends. “Want us to help?”

“Nah, you guys head on home.” Luhan said. “Man-girl and I got it.”

“Thanks, Luna.” Hana said.

Lay confirmed it once again, “You sure?”

“Yeah, we’re sure.” Hana and Luhan said together.

Luna grabbed her bag, “You know, you two had the entire day to copy off the answers. You could’ve just asked us.”

Hana and Luhan freeze up. Why didn’t they think of that? They only needed the worksheet because it had the questions.

Luhan shrieked, “Man-girl! Why didn’t you do that?”

Hana exclaimed, “How was I supposed to know?”

“You’re smarter than me!”

Hana scoffed and groaned.

Lay took his girl and led the way out, “Come on. With them like this, they’ll just fight until they realize they have to clean.”

Luna followed and giggled on the way out.

*

Xiumin scanned the baseball field for Coach Yunho. Is he late again? A few players were playing catch and some were stretching.

“Xiumin?”

Xiumin turned around to see who called him. It was Jongsuk.

Jongsuk was carrying a bat and had on a baseball glove. “Where are the others?”

Xiumin grinned, “Oh, asking about Hana already?”

Jongsuk reddened, “Well…”

“Sunbae, you really like Hana, don’t you?”

Jongsuk nodded.

“Sorry, but I’m only here to pass on a message.”

“Message?”

Xiumin nodded. “Luhan can’t make it to practice because Minwoo songsaenim punished them for not turning in their homework.”

“Ah, Minwoo songsaenim.” Jongsuk had him, too, so he knew exactly how things went down. “Wait, you said…’them’?”

“Yeah. Luhan and Hana.”

“The both of them?”

“Don’t worry. Hana is a good girl. This is actually her first time forgetting to do her homework. She has a lot going on, so she’s probably stressed out.” Xiumin heard the whistle blew and looked back at the field. Yunho was suddenly in the field and if he blew the whistle, that meant training was beginning. “Please tell Coach for Luhan. Later, sunbae!”

Jongsuk watched Xiumin dashed away. I’ll drop by later to check up on her. He happy smiled. I’ll buy her a drink, too.

*

It was almost six-thirty and Hana and Luhan finally finished cleaning the classroom. It was tiring to move the desks and put them back when it was just the two of them. They finally appreciated the fact that everyone cleaned the classroom from time to time instead of someone doing it. They even took out the garbage and threw it out. They erased the chalkboard and made sure the eraser was free of leftover chalk remnants.

With the windows widely opened, the cool breeze blew in and calmed them down.

Hana zipped her backpack closed and picked it up, “Let’s go get Taeyang. We’re done already.”

Luhan, resting his head on a desk, exhaustingly said, “Five more minutes.”

“You said that the past twice already.” Hana tugged him, “Taeyang’s waiting. It’s getting dark, too.”

“Don’t worry. Anyone who sees you will run.”

Hana pinched his cheek, “Get up.”

Luhan pouted. He wanted to rest longer. Stretching, he said, “Let’s get something to drink along the way.”

“Yeah, I’m thirsty, too.”

Heading out and walking in the hallway, Hana hopped onto his back, “Carry me downstairs!”

“You’re heavy!” He yelped.

“Don’t confuse me with a body-weight builder, man-girl!”

“I’m too tired to walk down the stairs.” She still clung onto him.

“That’s why I said we should’ve rested for five more minutes.”

“But, I want to see Taeyang.”

Luhan pulled her hands away. Hana was about to use her special dog-eyes to persuade him to piggyback her but Luhan was already crouching down. “Fine. Get on.”

Hana exclaimed in joy, “Really?”

“I want to see Taeyang, too.”

Hana jumped onto his back and tightly hugged him from the behind while he got up, “Yay!”

“Lose some weight.” Luhan lied.

Hana sneered. To get back at him, she said, “Didn’t you say I’m perfect the way I am?”

“Tch, when did I ever say that?”

She rested her chin on his shoulder, “Ah, you didn’t say perfect. You said…y.”

Luhan stopped walking. His face flushed because Hana seductively emphasized the word out loud.

“You said that my body is y the way it is.”

“Pabo, why are you saying that out loud?” He was at the top of the stairs and clenching tight onto the legs of Hana, he said, “I’m stepping down now.”

“Ah, be careful. I don’t want to die with you.”

“I don’t want to die with you.” Luhan retorted. “I want to die with a prettier, ier, and better looking- Ow”

Hana pinched his cheeks from behind, “-yeah, you better keep looking or else.”

“Understand, your highness.”

Hana giggled and rested her head on his back. “Hurry, slave.”

Luhan muttered to her, “When we get home, this devil is going to get you!”

“Taeyang will protect me.”

“Ha, like he can do anything.”

“I’ll make him use his crying attack.”

Luhan sulked, “You’re mean, Hana. That’s instant K.O. to me.”

She grinned, “Exactly.”

*

Jongsuk exited out of the school and headed towards the gates. Along the way, he bumped into his friend Woobin.

“Jongsuk? Where’s your girl?” He saw the bottle of water and pointed to it, “Didn’t you go to give that to Hana?”

Jongsuk didn’t want to think about it. He walked away, something he never did to his friend.

“What’s wrong, Jongsuk?” Woobin followed him. “Did something happen?”

Jongsuk stopped walking. Did something happen? Nothing happen. Jongsuk clenched on the water bottle. While waiting to surprise her, I missed my chance and thanks to that, I saw something I didn’t want to see…and heard something…I didn’t want to hear.

“…Jongsuk?” Woobin slowly uttered. It was rare to see his friend like this – not responsive.

“They’re together.” Jongsuk finally said something.

“Huh?”

“Hana and Luhan. Together. I saw them.”

Woobin exhaled, “You’re her boyfriend now, so you have a right to go in between them. You don’t need to give them space like you’ve always done before.”

“Even though we’re dating…it doesn’t feel like it.” He looked at the water bottle, “It doesn’t look like it either.”

Woobin smirked. Wrapping an arm around his friend, he whispered, “That’s why I said make her your woman on V-day.” He pulled away, “Speaking of V-day, I have to meet mine. Later, man.”

Jongsu