It took forever. And it was one of the hardest things ever, too. Like, all these things kind of weren't supposed to happen, the chapter wasn't supposed to exist. But then I had one scene in my mind and, well, I needed to set the whole thing. Lots of ??? and unplanned , really. And then I hardly finished this and then the next evening I had two parts done of the next chapter, out of four parts, so, yeah. :| Either way, finally done, yaaay~ \(^u^)/ Here you go~

#


"Kyungsoo! Kyungsoo!"

Kyungsoo almost drops the pan, when he hears the yelling. He turns around to see Joonmyun running into the kitchen.

"Kyungsoo!" Joonmyun runs over to him and grabs him by his arms, shaking a bit. "Kyungsoo!"

"Hyung! Calm down." Kyungsoo tries to catch Joonmyun's hands, because, really, the shaking is disturbing. Joonmyun's panicking is already freaking Kyungsoo out enough, he doesn't need to make it worse. "Calm down, hyung, and tell me what's-

"Kyungsoo! Emergency! You need to make a cake!" Joonmyun finally yells, but the shaking doesn't stop.

Kyungsoo blinks at that piece of information and zones out the rest of the yelling.

Like, really, what the hell, a cake? What is Joonmyun doing? What is this nonsense?

Kyungsoo decides to zone in again and maybe listen to some more of the insanity.

"- Jongdae's birthday, he-"

Kyungsoo zones out again.

Oh, that explains a lot. Everybody knows that Jongdae has a special place in Joonmyun's heart.

But Kyungsoo won't have Joonmyun freaking out on him like this, it's annoying and uncomfortable and the shaking is just unbearable.

"Hyung!" Kyungsoo finally manages to catch Joonmyun's hands and takes them off himself. "Explain calmly. So Jongdae has his birthday. And needs a cake to be done for it. When?"

Joonmyun stares at Kyungsoo for a moment. And then he gasps like he's suffering badly.

"Jongdae's birthday is today! With all the craziness going on I forgot, Kyungsoo! I forgot!" Joonmyun throws himself at Kyungsoo once again and pretty much sobs into his shoulder. "We need to make everything and the cake and the presents and the nice surprise party and just to make it all awesome for him."

A few more sobs follow and Joonmyun looks up back at Kyungsoo, his eyes all wide and sad and Kyungsoo just feels bad, because Joonmyun is too nice to be sad.

"Will you help me?"

Kyungsoo feels pretty startled. He doesn't want Joonmyun to be sad, but does he really want to be pulled into all the craziness that the guy is going to make surely happen?

Kyungsoo thinks not.

Over Joonmyun's shoulder Kyungsoo notices Yifan and Minseok walking into the kitchen and clearly they're surprised by seeing what they're seeing: which is Joonmyun sobbing all over Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo quickly mouths "run away!" at them, but they don't have enough time to react to that, before Joonmyun senses their presence and finally lets go of Kyungsoo as he turns around.

"Hyungs!" Joonmyun moves towards them. "Will you help me, too? You're clearly the two most reasonable among the lot in this house, which isn't exactly difficult, but anyway, you need to help me!" Joonmyun smiles at them cheerfully.

Minseok and Yifan blink at him. They glance at each other and back at Joonmyun. They're not sure what to think about the helping thing and then the compliment about being the most reasonable didn't sound like a compliment at all.

But then, since they're supposed to be the most reasonable ones, they should know better than to agree to anything Joonmyun is so enthusiastic about. Especially that they don't want to have any part in that.


*


Which is how all eleven of the guys end up gathered together in the kitchen and discussing the plan, Jongdae busy with showering and changing his clothes as juice was accidentally poured on him (but Joonmyun was all panicky like get him out of here! and Yixing just panicked, too. But it worked).

"Kyungsoo and Yixing should stay and take care of the food," Joonmyun decides, scribbling something in his notes. They have no idea when he managed to get notes for Jongdae's birthday, considering how busy he was with panicking just moments ago.

But the decision has no complaints. The guys know better than to suggest somebody else, though Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, because it seems like cooking is all he does in this damn house.

"We'll need to decorate the house, too," Joonmyun continues. "I think Yifan-hyung, Baekhyun and Chanyeol can get the stuff and get it done."

At that most of the guys look at Joonmyun like he's crazy. Because is he really choosing those three to do any sort of decoration? Has he not seen Yifan's rhinoceros drawing that for some reason got hung on the fridge? Doesn't Joonmyun know how weird Chanyeol's ideas are most of the time? Doesn't he remember how unique Baekhyun's taste gets at times?

"The gifts... I think I should go. And Minseok-hyung, Luhan-hyung and Tao." Joonmyun smiles at the youngest out of them. Still nobody has corrected him in thinking that Tao's Korean is crap (nor Tao found out that Joonmyun isn't actually mental with his moments), but somehow Tao has managed to become one of Joonmyun's favorites anyway.

Tao smiles back, because shopping is exactly what he had planned for today, Joonmyun is so considerate, really.

"That leaves Jongdae going food-shopping," Joonmyun finishes. "With-"

"What."

The guys turn towards the door, when they hear Jongdae's voice. Just in time.

"Oh. Since we've all got some time today, I thought we should do some chores around the house. You got the trip to the market." Joonmyun smiles cheerfully.

Jongdae grimaces. He's not exactly happy with the idea.

"And you'll be accompanied by Jongin and Sehun," Joonmyun adds.

The grimace fades and turns into a curious, slight smile. Jongdae isn't all that opposed to being around the two youngests; they're always so hilarious around each other, being all obvious best friends and then pretending they're not.

"Okay." Jongdae chuckles as he looks over at Jongin and Sehun making unhappy faces at each other.

Baekhyun nods at Joonmyun in a bit of awe, because that went so quickly and easily.

"It was Kyungsoo's idea." Joonmyun shrugs. He wasn't sure what to do with Jongdae that would get him distracted enough, but since it works, he doesn't really care.

Baekhyun glances at Kyungsoo, who's smiling cutely to himself. (And there's Yifan standing next to him and pretending not to be glancing at Kyungsoo.)

"Sometimes I feel like in reality Kyungsoo is the spawn of the devil here," Baekhyun says quietly.

"You think that, too?" Chanyeol agrees from the side. Baekhyun nods, because, duh.

They observe Kyungsoo for a few moments. Then they turn their eyes to Yifan.

"How long do you think it'll take for him to realize?" Chanyeol asks, grinning.

"Yifan-hyung? Like, a few weeks at least, with the way he's been moving." Baekhyun shakes his head. He's kind of disappointed with the silliness that is his hyung.

"Yeah. He keeps staring at Kyungsoo and he looks so confused." Chanyeol chuckles. "But I think I'll give him a week."

Baekhyun looks at Chanyeol like he's lost his mind.

"Time for him to at least figure it out. It's maddening to look at him." Chanyeol shrugs.

Baekhyun shakes his head.

"I say a month, at least."

Chanyeol grins.

"Wanna bet?" He takes out his hand to Baekhyun.

"Bet?"

Chanyeol and Baekhyun panic a bit, when they hear Yifan's voice from just beside them.

"Uh, yeah."

"Baekhyun gives Jongdae more than a month, before he gives in and does something about his crush on Joonmyun-hyung," Chanyeol quickly says. Baekhyun sighs in relief.

"Well, Chanyeol says a week," Baekhyun can't help adding.

Yifan looks at Chanyeol like he's gone insane.

"Exactly what I think," Baekhyun says chuckling as he sees Yifan's reaction. It works for both situations, he guesses.


*


"How about these?" Baekhyun says, holding up party hats. They look wonderful and sparkly, all covered with glitter and sequins.

Yifan stares at the hats, then at Baekhyun for a few moments. He finds the hats ridiculous. He looks to the side to exchange looks of shared annoyance at the lone fact that such hats dare to exist with Chanyeol, but Yifan doesn't see the guy. He looks around and only sees a bit of Chanyeol's head on the other part of the shop.

Yifan sighs. Chanyeol seems to have found stuff to get excited with, Yifan knows that's not difficult.

Yifan looks back to Baekhyun as the guy is deciding whether to choose pink or orange hats.

"These or these?" Baekhyun murmurs to himself. Yifan shakes his head, because the younger is acting like it's such an important decision.

"I'm going to find things for the poster," Yifan says. A nod is all he receives from Baekhyun. "Every birthday party needs a big, awesome poster. I'll create it just beautifully." Yifan grins to himself as he turns and moves towards where he saw the colorful markers. "Maybe I should even draw Jongdae, hm..."


*


"You really think clothes might be the right presents?" Joonmyun looks around the shop. He's pretty sure Jongdae isn't that much into fashion and the place is all proper and expensive and has brands with names that Joonmyun can't even pronounce.

"Yeah," Luhan answers cheerfully as he's looking through jackets, Minseok helping him.

"Oh, this one is nice," Minseok says as he puts his hand on Luhan's to stop him. Luhan beams.

"It would look good on you," he says.

"Really?" Minseok smiles cheerfully at Luhan, who can't help but swoon a little.

Joonmyun watches the two for a moment and then decides it has no point. So he leaves them to find Tao, hoping that maybe the younger is being reasonable and searching for something nice for Jongdae.

Except, Joonmyun doesn't even have to approach Tao to find out the guy isn't doing any of those. Because Tao is holding a thing that Joonmyun doesn't even know what that is and how one wears that. So, yeah, Joonmyun doesn't think it's for Jongdae.

Tao notices Joonmyun and shows him the clothing.

"Nice?" he asks excitedly.

Joonmyun only smiles weakly and nods. Tao smiles wider and looks back to the mirror.

Joonmyun sighs and gives up. He decides to find something by himself.

He looks around, wondering what Jongdae could want.

"Oh, nice pants~" Joonmyun quickly walks over. The pants would go great with that one dressing shirt he got last Christmas.


*


"Hey, here is your fave-" Sehun cuts off, when he realizes what he's saying while pointing at Jongin's beloved brand of chocolate. He coughs awkwardly. "I mean, look, chocolates, so many," Sehun corrects.

Jongin looks over curiously and then immediately appears next to Sehun, when he notices his favorite thing.

Jongdae chuckles.

"Nice save." He grins at Sehun, who only glares at the older.


*


As they're coming back home from the fast, little shopping of the most necessary stuff, Yixing is pretty content, a shopping bag in one hand and a candy floss in the other. A very tasty candy floss.

Because there was this little shop in front of the little nearest market and it was all nice and lovely and Yixing just suddenly felt like a candy floss.

Kyungsoo only stared at him at the idea, but in the end he just sighed and waited for Yixing to get his sweet.

Except, as Yixing notices they're not walking back home the same way, he grows less content and more worried. Because the way Kyungsoo chose is a less safe one, with a few suspicious shops around instead of the pretty, little park.

Especially one of those shops is very suspicious. Yixing has heard stories. Bad, bad stories. Lots of bad. And they're getting near that place and Yixing glances at his candy floss and only hopes nobody from the shop's crowd will be around at the moment. Because that could mean he'd lose his candy floss. Like, it would fell on the ground while he was being beaten up. Not cool.

And they're actually a few steps away from the scary shop, bar, place, Yixing's not sure, because he's never been inside, and Yixing sees nobody, so he feels almost hopeful that everything will be okay.

And it almost, almost is okay, except then Kyungsoo slows down. Yixing is ready to panic, because maybe the younger noticed something, but he doesn't get to ask.

"Wait here a moment," Kyungsoo says calmly and walks inside the scary shop.

At first Yixing is too shocked to even try to stop Kyungsoo. Then, when the door closes after the other, Yixing is mostly too scared to do anything.

He's staring confused at the door. He has no idea what to do. Does he need to go inside and maybe save Kyungsoo? Should he? Can he? Is he allowed to? He's pretty torn and panicking.

He's wondering hard if he maybe should go inside, except then he realizes it's been like a few minutes and Kyungsoo's probably getting scalped at this point and Yixing can help nothing. If he goes in, there will be just two bodies, so maybe he should just keep it at one murder and less cleaning. Yeah, that'd be nice. All he can do is to call the police and maybe find a nice specialist, because he's sure Yifan will be sad and he's even surer that nobody out of the housemates should be allowed to help anybody like that.

So Yixing takes a few more moments staring at his phone and contemplating whether to call the police already and report the murder, when the shop's door opens.

In surprise Yixing makes a few steps back, afraid of who might come out (like for example, a bloodied big guy with a bloodied knife and leaving a trail of blood after himself), but then he sees only Kyungsoo (a whole Kyungsoo, alive Kyungsoo, not even a drop of blood on him, no bruise, nothing, what???) with one more bag in hand. From the sound of it, Yixing is pretty sure there are bottles inside.

Though perplexed how the other is still alive and even smiling, Yixing sighs with relief.

And then Yixing gasps in fright, because a guy is following after Kyungsoo, a big, scary guy with lots of tattoos on him, except with no blood.

"Hyung, we can go," Kyungsoo says to Yixing cheerfully like nothing has happened and nobody terrifying is following him.

Yixing can only stare at Kyungsoo in confusion.

"Just make sure to visit me more often, Kyungie," the scary guy says patting Kyungsoo's shoulder eagerly. Yixing is awed that the younger doesn't stumble under the guy's obvious strength.

"Of course, Jinnie-hyung." Kyungsoo grins at the guy.

Jinnie smiles back (and it kind of makes him look even scarier) and makes a little wave at Kyungsoo as he's walking inside the shop.

"Let's go~" Kyungsoo nods and moves.

Yixing only stares after him, because, really, what???

"Hyung?" Kyungsoo pauses and turns his head to look at Yixing.

"N-nothing," Yixing stutters and quickly follows after the other.

They like joking how in reality Kyungsoo is the spawn of the devil, but, ugh.

Yixing glances subtly at Kyungsoo.

What really is this person? And how much of a joke is their joke?


*


"Here."

Joonmyun stands in front of the entrance of a music shop and opens his arms wide.

Minseok, Luhan and Tao watch him with little to no interest, all of them holding shopping bags, which Joonmyun is pretty sure don't hold presents for Jongdae.

"We're going in." Joonmyun grabs Tao and Minseok's hand and drags them inside, sure that Luhan will follow as well (which he does).

A few minutes later Joonmyun is trying his best to remember what band Jongdae liked the most during their high school years. He thinks it would be a nice reminder of those times.

Except, he can't remember, it's like he's got a hole in his brain and there's just nothing inside.

Joonmyun almost makes a mistake of asking Tao, if maybe he's got any idea, but as he turns to the younger, he sees Tao getting excited over the latest album of Big Bang.

Joonmyun sighs and looks for his two oldest hyungs.

He sees them occupying the machine lets you listen to the songs they sell in the shop. They're singing quietly and giggling together.

Joonmyun shakes his head. He's getting a little bit annoyed at this point.

"Oh, 4MEN's album!" He quickly skips towards the shelf. He doesn't have this one.


*


"And twelve packs of jelly," Jongin reads from his phone.

Because though Kyungsoo and Yixing are supposed to take care of food in general, Joonmyun decided that the three can buy some more unsuspicious food and then just some food they’ll need anyway to survive another week.

Except, the twelve packs of jelly are no way in hell unsuspicious, because Sehun and Jongdae turns to stare at Jongin immediately as they hear it.

"What."

Jongin almost repeats the thing thoughtlessly, but he pauses. He thinks for a moment and looks back to his phone. What he was reading was something sent to him by Joonmyun, so he wasn't really paying attention.

Jongdae is confused, too, so he reaches for Jongin's phone to see for himself, but Sehun notices that and steals the cellphone first.

He stares at it for a few moments and looks at Jongin.

"What is this?"

Jongdae frowns, because he wants to know, too.

"Show me," he demands.

"Joonmyun sent me a few websites for us to buy stuff." Jongin shrugs, though now he's also wondering what the previous stuff were for.

"But-" Sehun sighs. "Did you actually read any of these?" He puts the cellphone in front of Jongin's face.

"Guys." Jongdae is very annoyed at this point. He's their hyung, they have no right to ignore him, the little s. "I want to see, too." He tries to grab the phone, but Sehun holds up his hand as high as he can and doesn't even glance at Jongdae.

Jongdae huffs and tries to reach the phone.

"Oh," is all Jongin says as he's thinking of what he just read.

Birthday Party was actually something he noticed before. He didn't pay much attention to the cute cupcake and pictures of kids.

And then he didn't even notice how the website was called kidspot and was all about kids.

Whoops.

"Yeah, oh." Sehun shakes his head at Jongin, his hand still up high.

At this point Jongdae is actually making subtle jumps to reach the phone. He's not succeeding, of course, but he's got too much pride to jump properly as the two would notice.

Jongdae snorts and watches as the two too tall little s glance at Jongin's cellphone again and then at each other.

"We're not buying the jelly," they both say at the same time like they sometimes do and this time they don't even get mad about this, because, seriously, no jelly eating contest is happening, just nope.

The youngest lowers his hand and Jongdae is just waiting for this moment. He grabs the phone out of Sehun's hand and finally looks at the screen.

Except, it seems like Sehun's, the littlest Jongdae's ever known, managed to turn off whatever was the jelly thing and now all Jongdae is seeing is the cellphone wallpaper Jongin has set with only one icon almost unnoticeably hidden in the corner of the screen.

Except, Jongdae quickly finds it difficult to be mad, because the wallpaper...

He grins and looks Jongin, wiggling his eyebrows.

Sehun's standing next to Jongdae and he steals a glance at the screen, because he has no idea what might've made Jongdae react like this, especially after how annoyed he was a moment before.

What Sehun sees makes him snort and he doesn't even manage to hide a grin of his own.

Jongin's only feeling really confused, seeing the two's face expressions, because for a moment he was still sure Jongdae was looking at the jelly page. But he gets suspicious very quickly and steals his cellphone from Jongdae's hand.

"I- No-" is all he manages, when he sees what they saw. "I can explain this?" he finally mumbles. Except he kind of can't. And doesn't want to. And has no idea how he could explain that other than saying the truth, which he just will not.

"Explain away." Jongdae grins wider and Sehun snorts, because, really, Jongin's being hilarious.

(And Sehun won't even admit to thinking this, but it's the best friend's duty to laugh, when the other is crushing on somebody so hard.)

Because what they saw on Jongin's cellphone was a picture of Chanyeol and Jongin. And what made Jongin's precious crush so obvious was the fact that the picture wasn't just a simple one. It had the two very close, with Jongin's head lying on Chanyeol's shoulder and the older's head on Jongin's. Chanyeol had his eyes closed, most likely sleeping, and Jongin was smiling shyly and glancing at the cellphone while carefully taking the picture.

Jongin definitely didn't mean for anybody to see the picture. It was just for his own enjoyment, mostly because he didn't want anybody to know...

... And also because he knew the reaction would be like Sehun and Jongdae's at the current moment. Jongin doesn't think he can even imagine the amount of teasing that will start happening in a few seconds. If he can only think of something to distract them and fast-

"Sehun and Tao in the shower. Pretty often," Jongin blurts out.

Whoops.

But on the other hand, it works, because the grins fade as Sehun glares at Jongin and Jongdae turns to Sehun.

"Eww!" He slaps Sehun's arm. "We all use the showers, dude! That's gross!" Jongdae grimaces. The thought of the Sehun and Tao doing... things in the shower that he uses is just... ew. He would rather think of his dongsaeng as aual and not even knowing how one does the do. Well, unless Jongdae was to tease them or they were worried and needed an advice, he can't not help, but-

No, he wants to know nothing, no stories, really, none.

Jongdae keeps on slapping Sehun's arm, who keeps on huffing at Jongin, who keeps looking around.

Finally, Jongdae stops as he tries to make himself feel better by the thought that Sehun and Tao's rooms are on the second floor and they're most likely use the bathroom on that floor. So he and his shower should be more innocent than the other.

But, still, ew.


*


"Oh, so you're home." Yixing stands in the door to the living room, a half eaten lollipop in his hand. He's been in the kitchen all this time since he came back with Kyungsoo. At some point he heard people coming home and making noise and talking loudly, but he didn't dare to stop helping Kyungsoo, he was too scared after the encounter earlier. But Yixing quickly decided that it's not Jongdae's group, because nobody came to the kitchen begging for food, as it would be with the youngest two, nor Joonmyun's group, because Joonmyun didn't come to panic at them. So Yixing didn't have to worry.

But now as Yixing is looking around the living room, did he really have no reason to worry?

"And how is it goin-" Kyungsoo starts, when he walks into the living room after Yixing, but cuts off quickly, looking around. "Joonmyun will be so impressed," he says quietly and puts his own lollipop into his mouth.

"Really?" Chanyeol asks cheerfully as he also looks around.

Kyungsoo doesn't answer. He just glances at Chanyeol, because the guy seems to be honestly excited and that's pretty confusing. Because Kyungsoo believes that the, um, very interesting poster on the wall, the glittery hats and paper cups and more things and then a few things that he doesn't even have any idea what they are (is he seeing a bag with various animal headbands right or is it just a hallucination from how excited he is?), Kyungsoo's sure that all of these things speak for themselves.

"Awesome poster," Yixing comments blankly. Because, really, the poster is pretty awesome with how captivating it is, definitely the main point of the decoration with all the colors and shapes and difficult to read "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JONGDAE" and the things that they can assume is Jongdae himself, except very, very disfigured and confusing and anorectic and after a few fatal accidents. Yeah, Yixing is sure it'll be very memorable.

"Yifan-hyung's work," Baekhyun says, grinning, and Chanyeol chuckles. They find the older's art just as interesting as the other two, except much more amusing, too. "He's such a great artist. Aren't you, hyung?" Baekhyun looks at Yifan, smiling.

Except Yifan isn't paying any attention to him. Baekhyun feels annoyed for a moment, till he notices that all Yifan is focusing at is Kyungsoo and his lips and the lollipop he's .

Baekhyun grins and looks at Chanyeol to check, if he noticed that, too. He did, obviously, because Yifan isn't being subtle at all. Even Yixing managed to catch on while Kyungsoo's being thankfully pretty ignorant, watching the rest of the decorations and keeping on playing with the lollipop.

"Hyung?" Chanyeol tries, almost laughing. It gets no reaction, so he elbows Yifan's side. This one works.

"W-what?" Yifan stutters out. His voice comes out weird, so he coughs, hoping it would help.

"Let's finish up, hyung," Chanyeol says, grinning ridiculously while Baekhyun and Yixing are laughing. Yifan glances at them, confused with their behavior. He gives his best not to look into Kyungsoo's direction, that one time made him feel weird enough.

"Yeah."


*


Some time later Joonmyun's group comes back as well. They knock the door and then wait for somebody to open it for them, which does annoy the others a bit, especially Baekhyun, who ends up being the one sent out. As if they don’t have keys, he snorts.

But when Baekhyun opens the door, he's more surprised than annoyed, because, damn, the guys just didn't have hands to do so themselves.

"Jongdae is getting load of present, I see," he laughs, motioning towards the bags Joonmyun and the other three are holding. There are so many bags.

"Yeah." Joonmyun clears his throat awkwardly and glances at the bags he's holding.

Tao and Luhan chuckle at that and Minseok just shrugs. They pass by Joonmyun smoothly and walk inside the house.

"I'll just... Take them to my room and, um, get them ready," Joonmyun murmurs awkwardly and quickly makes his way inside.

Baekhyun watches Joonmyun's back as he's leaving. His behavior was pretty confusing, yeah. But on the other hand, everybody is weird in this house, Baekhyun thinks as he closes the door and goes back to sorting the glittery party hats and animal headbands into pairs and assigning each to every housemate.


*


The guys decide to keep Joonmyun away from the living room, where the more interesting decorations are. Partly for fun, as shocked and freaking out Joonmyun will definitely be fun; partly, because Joonmyun most likely would decide the decorations are to be changed or a few things gotten rid of, which would need an effort on the guys' part and that's a nope. So it's just easier this way.

Except, easier doesn't mean easy, because it has Joonmyun helping in the kitchen, which never is a good idea. And that's how the number of people in the kitchen grows to six, because one needs to have an eye on some all the time.

"Guys, Sehun texted me. They'll be here in about four minutes!" Baekhyun yells, running into the kitchen.

That's when the chaos starts. The guys start running and taking food and plates and everything and taking the stuff to the living room, where most of things are already there, but still not everything and the everything needs to be done now, pronto.

Thankfully, they manage before Jongdae and the two youngests come back. Joonmyun is so panicked with checking, if everything is done, that he doesn't even notice the decoration.

At least, he doesn't notice at first. Because the decoration has the last position on his mental list and he finally gets there and-

"What the ."

The guys gape, because that's like the first time they've heard Joonmyun swear.

"What the are these things?" Joonmyun's voice raises and turns mad. "All the glitter, the headband, the wreaths of fake flowers, the- what the ing !" He finally notices the poster.

"I told you he'd be impressed," Yixing whispers to Yifan. The older just glances at him confused, because he doesn't remember ever having heard anything like that. Baekhyun and Chanyeol are standing next to the two and they do remember and it makes them laugh.

Joonmyun glares at Baekhyun and Chanyeol.

"You!" He points his finger at him.

The two panic. Joonmyun is all angelic and caring most of the time, so even the idea alone of him being furious is scaring them. And now Joonmyun is seriously angry and stomping towards them.

"You hear that?" Minseok cuts in. Everybody stops to listen.

And, yeah, they hear somebody trying to open the door with the key.

"Quick, turn off the light!" Joonmyun yells quietly, the angry mood immediately distracted and gone. Baekhyun and Chanyeol sigh with relief.

Tao turns the light off and everybody somehow finds a way to stand or hide smartly to be able jump out and surprise Jongdae.

The command was just to listen and to yell at Jongdae, when he walks into the living room and turns on the light, but...

"I don't like you."

"Well, I don't like you."

"I don't like your . It's fat."

"And your doesn't exist."

That wasn't part of the plan, though. There was nothing about what to do in a situation, when the main thing they hear is Jongin and Sehun's childish fight and Jongdae laughing at them. It's a bit awkward.

"At least I can be seen in the dark."

"At least I don't blind people, when the sunlight reflects off me."

Finally then, Jongdae turns on the light, still laughing.

"H-happy birthday!" is heard then, though a bit more awkwardly and quietly than it was planned, because some of the guys got pretty distracted with the fight.

"W-what?" Jongdae can't help but only keep blinking. That definitely wasn't something he expected, he didn't even think anybody knew it was his birthday today, how did they knew, when did they do this, how-

-how does that poster thingy even exist, what is on it-

"Happy birthday," Jongin says quietly from his side, the fight with Sehun totally abandoned.

"Happy birthday, hyung," Sehun adds, smiling cutely. Jongdae this shocked is really adorable.

"Happy birthday, Jongdae." Joonmyun walks over to him, smiling the beautiful smile Jongdae loves so much. Then the older embraces him tightly and Jongdae hugs back and it's just beautiful, he doesn't want to ever let go.

(And it must be really his birthday, because the other guys don't start sprouting out some weird, teasing comments. Jongdae isn't complaining.)

"Thank you, Joonmyunnie-se- hyung," the word almost slips out, but Jongdae notices in time. It was just a quiet whisper, too, so he doesn't think Joonmyun heard that.

"Anything for you, Jongdae," Joonmyun whispers back and Jongdae is almost crying, because how did he come to deserve that.

(And he promises himself some fun fantasies time later, because the anything is just asking for that.)


*


Jongin watches Jongdae hugging all of the guys. Though, it took him time to let of Joonmyun. It's all lovely, how moved and delighted Jongdae is by the surprise and that they remembered and knew, when his birthday is.

And then Baekhyun says it's Joonmyun, who told them. Which in Jongdae's mind means senpai notices me enough to remember my birthday!!1eleven and Joonmyun gets even more hugs, for once Jongdae being too excited and happy to feel awkward touching Joonmyun.

Jongin can only sigh and look away, because Jongdae's situation is just so hopeless, he's hopeless, how is he a hyung, how hasn't Joonmyun noticed, Jongin just doesn't know.

But he does know, when Sehun disappears from his side and appears next to Tao, all smiley and happy. Jongin rolls his eyes at the younger, because, really, can they be any more obvious? He doesn't think so.

"Your exists enough for me to adore it," Tao says quietly. Except, not quietly enough, because Jongin would really love not to hear such things.

Sehun only grins. He knows that, but it's nice of Tao to say that. He'll probably thank him later, too, because why not, since Tao loves his this much.

Jongin grimaces, because he knows what the grin means.

Ew.

"You're not fat," Jongin suddenly hears from behind. He turns around, surprised, and looks at Chanyeol. The older only shrugs. "You're just the right size."

Jongin watches Chanyeol for a moment, because, really? Is he hearing correctly? And the Jongin decides he must've heard correctly, he hopes he did, and he can't help but bite on his lower lip, trying to control the wide grin that wants to appear on his face.

Because it's kind of awesome. Really awesome. Like, Chanyeol thinks Jongin is not fat. Chanyeol thinks Jongin's size is just right. Chanyeol thinks Jongin's is not fat. Chanyeol thinks Jongin's is just perfect.

"Thanks," Jongin murmurs quietly, trying to look everywhere but at Chanyeol and to fight off the slight blush he's sure is coloring his cheeks.

Because, well, since Chanyeol thinks Jongin's is hot, he must've stared at it. Maybe even a few times. Maybe a lot.

And usually Jongin would mind that a lot, he doesn't like to get stared at unless he's performing (and even then he doesn't like the creepy, disturbing stares), but Chanyeol is just... Chanyeol.

(And Jongin might've stared at Chanyeol's , too. And it was, is awesome.)


*


It takes some time, mostly for lots of hugs and guys getting distracted and just doing stuff, because who would ever focus on the thing they were supposed do when they can be all excited about being touchy with the object of their desire that just keeps being unfairly precious and kind. Like, some sort of birthday or whatever, like Jongdae cares about this kind of unimportant stuff at the moment.

Except, then there's Joonmyun and he's putting food on the table and it's just one of the most beautiful things Jongdae's ever seen.

(Or, there might be Kyungsoo, Chanyeol and Jongin helping Joonmyun, too, or, actually, most likely it's Joonmyun helping them, but Jongdae cares even less.)

Fortunately, nobody is really paying attention to Jongdae and his awed expression, because they're all distracted by all the glorious food that is appearing on the table.

And then somebody turns off the light again, which throws Jongdae off for a moment, but then it makes sense as the main treat appears: the cake with twenty one lit candles on it. He's not sure what kind of a cake it is, but it's definitely a big and awesome one.

And it's got candles! For him!

Jongdae stands up, when the cake is put on the table in front of him. He grins and gets ready.

He closes his eyes and takes a moment thinking a wish, various cheers yelled at him by the other guys. He peaks through one eye at Joonmyun that is standing next to him and thinks of the hand on his elbow.

Jongdae opens his eyes and blows the candles.

Loud, happy yells follow, he gets clapped on his back a few times and then he gets a half-hug from Joonmyun, which only makes Jongdae more excited, because he's just so lovely.

The light is back on and immediately Chanyeol is taking out the candles, so they get can get the cake and eat it.

Jongdae is pretty sure that's the only reason why he didn't have his face pushed into the cake: because the guys want to eat it and badly. And the cake is all beautiful and chocolate and with so much cream and gloriousness and they just have to get to it, they can't waste the cake with something like Jongdae's face.

He definitely doesn't mind. The less things he gets on his face, the better. Unless it is Joonm-... ekhm.

"What was your wish?" Baekhyun asks, grinning mischievously, as Jongdae's getting the first piece of the cake.

Jongdae's delighted it's his birthday: it's the first time he manages to get his hands on the food first and the others are letting him.

"A nice thing," Jongdae decides to answer. He's so not going to tell them. And, of course, only because it would make the wish not come true.

Baekhyun snorts and looks at him funny. Jongdae just rolls his eyes and glances at the others and for some reason they're watching him amused as well, as if they know something. Except they totally don't, they can't, no way.


*


It's only after all of the guys can barely move with how much they ate and still managed to make Jongdae go through his presents (all awesome and useful. Some also embarrassing, but definitely useful, Jongdae hopes. And he thinks Joonmyun's big, surprised eyes at the sight and then his glares at the other guys were cute.), when the alcohol is out. It's kind of awesome, too, because the brands are just better and it's not just usual, cheap soju, though there are a few bottles of this as well.

But, really, there a few bottles of those colorful things that just look fascinating enough that all of the guys want to try. And then more colorful bottles that look really unsuspicious, but then Yixing actually glances at the etiquettes and he's like what, because, damn, the percentage is wow.

Yixing glances at Kyungsoo, who's smiling all innocently while pouring drinks skillfully.

Wow. Simply wow.

"You two did awesome job shopping," Baekhyun says to Yixing, already sipping the glass of whatever he got from Kyungsoo.

Yixing almost wants to say that he had no part in that, he almost died even, he was this close to getting scalped, but he catches Kyungsoo's quick glance to his side. It's a simple look that says Tell nothing, that much is clear, and Yixing would love to be like "you think a glance is enough? you don't phaze me", except the glance is enough and Kyungsoo does phaze him, when he's like that, that little secretive devil.

So Yixing pouts, not sure what to answer Baekhyun, as he looks to the side at the younger man. It turns out that Baekhyun's already distracted, because it's Yifan's turn to get his drink and it's just one of their favorite things in the house, Yifan's oblivious and obvious crushing.

"It's not really my style, this kind of thing," Yifan says, trying to go for the cool and chick attitude. Kyungsoo only keeps smiling cutely, like he believes him, and says nothing. "But okay. I've got the strong head. Pour away."

Kyungsoo chuckles.

"Of course, hyung." He smiles. And then he pours like does to everyone, because being adorable and silly won't get Yifan more alcohol, at least not yet.


*


Except three drinks later being adorable isn't going to get Yifan more alcohol either, Kyungsoo decides, because the strong head of his is completely smashed already and pretty much cuddling into Kyungsoo.

"So cuddly," Yifan murmurs softly, his arms around Kyungsoo's waist and head resting on the younger's shoulder.

Kyungsoo only glances at Yifan, not sure how to proceed. He's mostly amused, with little parts of him feeling confused. Like, it's definitely not what he expected. But it's kind of nice, how clingy Yifan is being. You'd think it'd be all awkward, with him big tall and long and a bit pointy at some places, but it's actually not.

It only gets a little bit awkward, when one of Yifan's hand moves on Kyungsoo's thigh, quite too close to where it shouldn't be.

And the hand squeezes.

Kyungsoo blinks in surprise and quickly takes the hand into his own, preferring this to where Yifan's hand might happen to travel, if not stopped.

Yifan doesn't mind his hand being stopped, though, because he grins while looking up at Kyungsoo from the younger's shoulder. Then he looks back to their hands and links their fingers.

"So little," he mumbles. Kyungsoo frowns, because even though it's true, his hand is definitely smaller than Yifan's huge hands, it's not nice to hear little. "So lovely," Yifan adds after a moment, caressing Kyungsoo's hand with his thumb.

Kyungsoo can only watch him, confused. Like, he thinks it amazing how alcohol changes people, with Yifan being such a ball of loveliness and affection at the moment. It's Kyungsoo's first time seeing Yifan like this, even though the others keep saying he's actually a very cute, nice person.

"Wow," Kyungsoo suddenly hears from the side. He turns to look and sees Jongdae watching Yifan, on the verge of laughing horribly.

"Where's Joonmyun-hyung?" Kyungsoo asks, not really liking how teasing and amused Jongdae's look is.

"Bathroom," Jongdae answers, getting a little bit distracted the moment the older is mentioned.

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, because, obviously, his Yifan situation has been happening for almost half an hour now, but Jongdae notices only when there's no Joonmyun in his little Joonmyun world.

Suddenly Yifan moves his head up from its place on Kyungsoo's shoulder and looks into Kyungsoo's eyes when the younger turns his face back to him.

He starts saying things in Mandarin softly and only sometimes a Korean or English word slips in and Kyungsoo just has no idea what's going on. It seems like it might be something important, with how intently Yifan's watching him, although his look turns a bit blurry at times.

Yifan's hand on Kyungsoo's waist moves to his cheek and caresses him slightly, when the other squeezes his hand.

Kyungsoo keeps watching him with wide, confused eyes, having absolutely no idea what to do. He hears a strange, high sound from the side and only manages to glance fleetingly, preferring to watch Yifan in case of another unexpected action.

And the sound comes from Luhan, because he's another person sitting pretty close. Except, Kyungsoo thought the older would be too much into his Minseok's world to notice anything, because the oldest is still sitting next to him. But, nope, Luhan is staring at Yifan and his face is torn between huge amusement and shock and horrified.

Minseok pokes him, understanding only a few words, therefore wanting Luhan to translate as Luhan always likes doing whenever they're watching something in Mandarin. Luhan only shakes his head, because, hell no, he's so not translating that to Minseok, at least not now, not when it's Yifan talking.

Tao doesn't seem to share the sentiment, because as soon as he notices something is going on and he starts listening, he also gets poked by curious Sehun. But Tao wastes no time leaning close and whispering the translation into Sehun's ear. The younger's eyes grow big as quick as after a few words already.

Minseok pouts at Luhan, because he wants to know, too. But Luhan just gives his best not looking at Minseok, just watching the food and walls and the window and pretty much anything, because he doesn't want to hear, like, really, so many things he's never wanted to hear from Yifan.

Yifan keeps mumbling for some more time, while watching Kyungsoo intently, and the younger can't help but want to know what got Luhan so freaked out. He glances at Tao, hoping that maybe he'd explain as he didn't seem to have a problem translating things to Sehun, but he sees the youngest dragging Tao to somewhere.

Kyungsoo quickly looks around but everyone that are present only keeps watching Yifan and him, both in confusion and amusement. Then there's Luhan, who's pretending nothing is happening. Kyungsoo doesn't see Yixing, though, and pouts, because, seriously, where is Yixing where you need him. Maybe Kyungsoo could make him into explaining the things that are coming out of Yifan's mouth.

Except, Yifan suddenly stops. Kyungsoo glances back to him and sees him looking at Kyungsoo's pouting lips. The pout disappears immediately and Kyungsoo his lips nervously. Yifan stills at that and looks for a few more seconds, before moving his eyes to meet Kyungsoo's.

Kyungsoo blinks, totally not sure how to react to the strength in Yifan's eyes at the moment, some kind of emotion that Kyungsoo isn't sure what that is. And then Yifan suddenly starts moving closer, slowly but surely, and Kyungsoo feels his heartbeat quickening.

Is he going to kis-

Kyungsoo is too shocked to even finish that thought. He closes his eyes, when it's just a few centimeters between their faces, and waits for the touch of Yifan's lips to his.

Except, then it doesn't happen. He furrows his brows and slowly starts opening his eyes. He notices only quick movement and then feels something on his cheek and his eyes widen to observe Yifan smiling dumbly as he's moving away.

Kyungsoo's wide eyes only blink as he's staring at Yifan, the only thought in his mind that Yifan just kissed his cheek. He pecked Kyungsoo's cheek. Kyungsoo is confused and is feeling confused inside and his heart is feeling confused and just what.

"So cute," Yifan mumbles, in English this time, because it seems like with every more moment the few drinks he's drunk hit him harder, and cuddles himself into Kyungsoo again. "My cute."

And, okay, Kyungsoo might not be the most fluent in English, his grades at that class were pretty average, but, WHAT.


*


After some time, Kyungsoo isn't confused anymore, because Yifan is asleep, which means nothing unexplainable is going happen. He's okay with this, he didn't understand things enough and now Kyungsoo can even deal with Yifan partly lying on him as long as the older isn't spewing confusing English nor Mandarin.

Though, Kyungsoo does mind the pictures Baekhyun took of them and how he, Chanyeol and Jongin were giggling at those.

The rest of the guys kept sending him amused looks, but now they're either too distracted or too drunk. Mostly the latter.

Kyungsoo glances at Luhan who's sprawled on the table and playing with two bottles. Like, he's literally playing with them, pretending the bottles are characters and are having a fight at the moment. Soon the bottles start making up and the way of them doing it would be not appropriate for younger audience, if they weren't bottles.

Minseok is watching the little show of Luhan and giggling, which only prompts Luhan to keep going. The oldest seems to be too drunk to even notice that Luhan switched to Mandarin at the beginning of the show and therefore he understands very little.

Then there's Joonmyun who suddenly got all loud and alive and is talking about whatever and gesturing with his hands a lot and these are things that never really happen, when he's sober. And the thing which does happen, regardless of how much whoever drinks, is of course Jongdae staring at Joonmyun lovingly. Except, it's much more obvious at this point and Kyungsoo is sure Jongdae can't even say what Joonmyun's talking about.

There are Baekhyun and Chanyeol with sleeping Jongin, Baekhyun trying to be evil and to draw things on Jongin's face and Chanyeol trying to stop him or take the marker from him. Chanyeol does succeed, though, and then Baekhyun figures out another marker and the whole thing turns into a fight between them two trying to draw on each other, totally not limiting themselves to just the faces.

Kyungsoo hasn't seen Tao and Sehun since the latter dragged Tao out when Yifan was being confusing in Mandarin and Kyungsoo doesn't want to imagine what the two were or still are up to. Just no. He'd rather keep thinking of them as innocent, little dongsaengs.

And then Yixing is left, lying somewhere between two armchairs. He's been there for quite some time already, having fallen asleep even before the thing with Yifan, except it took time before anybody noticed Yixing hidden there.

So, yeah, it really seems that in this house nobody likes wasting time. And it seems taking things slowly with alcohol would be just that, Kyungsoo thinks distantly as he decides inwardly that the party is over. Maybe he should go to sleep, it's getting boring just watching a few idiots and being slept on.

It takes Kyungsoo a few minutes before he manages to free himself off Yifan and replace his body with some random pillow that luckily got thrown pretty closely. Though, even sleeping Yifan seems to feel the difference, squeezing the pillow tightly and furrowing his brows, but he gives up quickly and relaxes.

Kyungsoo sighs with relief. He thinks for a moment that maybe it'd be nice of him to drag Yifan back to his bed, since the older kindly agreed to share his room with Kyungsoo, but he quickly decides that meh, Yifan seems comfortable enough and Kyungsoo simply doesn't feel like dragging a body that weights more than himself and will probably act like an unconscious bag of potatoes.

So with that solved, Kyungsoo moves towards the door of the mess that used to be their living room. He glances at Baekhyun and Chanyeol, passing by them, because at the moment Baekhyun is sitting on Chanyeol and drawing on his faces and with his hands locked with Baekhyun's legs, Chanyeol can't do anything else but screech. Kyungsoo only smiles faintly, amused that nobody seems to notice or even hear that, definitely not worth paying attention to, because, well, what's new.


#