Both Ken and Hongbin were close to filling the entire neighborhood with their manly shriek the moment their eyes met with the mysterious visitor’s. They were beyond surprised, yes, but they were not actually the only one who felt like slapping their own cheeks to bring at least a bit of their senses together. Because that was what the familiar figure in front of them nearly did too.

“W-what in the hell are you guys doing here?!”

Those loud and boldly-said words successfully yanked the boys’ mind back to reality, rendering them to stare at each other’s face with probably the stupidest expression they ever made. Nothing eventually slipped out of their tongue, only sounds of endless gulps that further described their speechlessness.

“Hellooo…!? Can anyone hear me!?”

The small figure before them continued to yap for an answer, and for that, Hongbin quickly looked at their ‘uninvited guest’ and forced out a dry laugh, hoping that it could somehow make the situation less depressingly awkward.

“W-well… you see, we’re visiting ___! Just like you! We didn’t expect anyone to come here though… at least-- not today… haha…”

Ken joined in, “Y-yeah! No one said that we couldn’t give a sick person a visit, right? Especially when she’s our own cousin!” He toned down, more than ready to slip out the question that had bothered him the most, “So… what are you doing here...… Sujin?”

Sujin had her arms crossed nearly immediately, along with a reversed arch on her pale pink lips.

“What? No one said that we couldn’t visit our best friend too, right?”

She made sure to emphasize those two words, probably to let the two male giants know that she too had all the rights to be here, in your house.

“Then why am I having you two greeting me by the door like this? Where’s ___? Is she not home?”

Cold sweats were clear to see on Ken’s temples now. This time, the smooth-talker had reached his limit. Ken was never that loud whenever he panicked though.

“S-she’s… uhh… ummm…”

Hongbin swiftly cut him, “She’s sleeping!”

An awkward laugh then came from Hongbin’s rim, followed with invincible jabs to Ken’s waist.

“Y-yes! He’s right! She’s sleeping and can’t even step out from her bed! H-hahaha…!” Luckily, Ken got the subtle hints, and now he’s doing his best to pull the hidden acting skill out from him.

Sujin’s frown became even clearer, “Oh my! Is her condition really that bad?! She must be suffering a lot right now…” She was close to hurdle inside the house, but the pointy-nosed boy was quicker. With both arms stretched out, he filled the gap left by the opened door, blocking Sujin’s way.

“Excuse me…?” She stared at Ken with furrowed eyebrows, totally confused.

God! Why in the world does she have to show up here!? Worse, at a time like this! Let this girl go inside and she’ll find out that we’re all living together with her best friend in less than a second! ! I can’t even imagine her meeting the ‘current’ Leo-- damn!

“…Ken?” Sujin tried to pry Ken’s arms away, but to no luck, they were just as sturdy as an iron fence. Forget the part that it was because he’s a boy, Sujin sure had missed the fact these two gorgeous-looking lads were not humans to begin with.

“Sujin…”

Hongbin suddenly called her name, earning him a mix of a confused and surprised stare from the short girl with dyed brown hair funnily tied in twin pigtails.

“We are very sorry, but… we can’t let you go inside. Uhh… there are… reasons.”

Sujin blinked in unsettlement, loss at words.

“Wha… what do you mean…?”

“Umm… we really can’t let you come inside, at least, not for now…” Ken sighed with arms still spread out, leaving completely no space for Sujin to break in.

She pulled another pointless attempt on jerking Ken’s arm, “Why can’t I go inside!? For God’s sake-- ___ is sick! And I want to see her to make sure that nothing serious happens to her! So stop joking around!”

“We’re not joking…” Hongbin stepped forward, approaching her in way which what people might perceive as intimidating, “You can come back again tomorrow… or maybe some other days?”

Or maybe you can just promise us to never come back again to this house… forever.

“H-huh…? I… I don’t get it…” Bewilderment was most likely to be the only thing that Sujin felt at the moment. She didn’t have the slightest idea of why these two guys, that she just met less than a month ago, but apparently shared a kinship with her best friend, would block her off and told her to just scram like this.

Hongbin groused in frustration, “Look, we’re really sorry--“

“--Is everything okay? Who’s that?”

Neither Hongbin nor Ken could contain their heart when they heard that familiar voice. Sujin quickly tiptoed to take a peek on what was behind Ken’s shoulder and caught a glimpse of another boy, walking down the stairs.

And the first thing she did was screamed.

“Hyuk!!?”

The youngest’ eyes grew big nearly instantly, close to smashing his arse to the wooden floor. From all people that could possibly show up on their door, he wondered why did it have to be Sujin. He didn’t hate her, and the same goes with the rest of the boys. But none of them expected her to be here either.

“What are you doing here!? I-I mean, how?!  Aren’t you supposed to be resting at home because you injured your waist after a soccer game?!”

….

“Uhh… ummm… err-- I… well……” Hyuk bit his lower lip, panicking.

Hongbin was pulling his last resort of contemplating any less devilish way that could render the loud girl ‘unconscious’ when Ken suddenly break the awkwardness, saving Sujin from getting a possible knock on her head or being smothered with chloroform by the fairest-looking among the six.

“I-I brought him here!” He wailed, “I… I picked him from the hospital after he got his waist checked! This brat kept on saying that he wanted to see ___, a-and I was on my way here too! That’s why I brought him with me! H-haha.. ha!”

Ken forced himself to laugh, hoping that Sujin would buy his story and leave in peace. But she didn’t. In fact, she wondered why would Ken, be it out of kindness or whatsoever, bring an injured person here when he knew that rest was what he needed the most.

Knowing that Sujin had her guard down, Hongbin quickly shot Hyuk a glare and mouthed him a ‘go away’ with eyes leered at the stairs. The youngest didn’t need a long time to catch the signal and obediently strode back to N’s room.

“B-bye, Sujin! See you at school tomorrow! H-haha!” He ran upstairs in lightning speed, not even caring to at least wave at the flustered girl.

“H-hey! Wait--“

Sujin blinked before shifting his gaze back to the tall boy, too bad Hyuk was already nowhere in sight. She then eyed the other two with foot impatiently tapped to the floor.

“Okay, back to square one. Please explain to me what the hell is going on here.”

“What to explain…? Hongbin flashed a fake smile, “We’re her cousins. We have all the rights to be here, be it when she’s sick or not. I know that you’re worried about her, and we appreciate your effort on coming here. But I’m afraid… you’ll have to leave… now.”

He slowly put his hands on Sujin’s shoulders and tried to push the brown-haired girl back to the front gate. But you were not the only stubborn girl around. Sujin stood firm on her feet, arms solidly folded across her chest, showing no signs of returning back at all. She wanted to see you, and nothing could stop her.

“Ya! You guys keep telling me that I can’t see her-- but why!? I don’t get it! You two may be her cousins, but this is her house! You can’t just step in my way and tell me leave! At least… give me a reason!”

Ken locked his eyes to the ground, hand awkwardly scratching the back of his neck, “It’s because…”

Because Leo is still in that ‘kill-everything-that-moves’ mode and we can’t possibly let you know that we’re all living together! What should we tell her about it anyway-- that it’s because we need her best friend to fall in love with at least one of us?! God damn it, this is so frustrating!

“Forget it. I’ll just give her a call--”

Sujin pulled something pink out from her pocket and was close to dialing your number on its keypad when a pale hand suddenly snatched her cell phone away.

 “W-wha… hey!!”

She groaned in annoyance as she jumped with both hands stretched in the air, trying to get his cell phone back from the so-called thief.

Meanwhile, Hongbin lifted his hand high. Thanks to his gigantic height, there was no way for Sujin to get her cell phone back.

“Y-ya! Give it back!”

He kept on wriggling his hand left and right, trying to avoid Sujin’s desperate hands from reaching his. Frown was all over Hongbin’s well-sculpted face when he finally realized that the girl before didn’t show any signs of giving up. He then tiptoed even higher, hoping that it would at least put an end to Sujin’s futile endeavors.

Aishhh… why is this girl so stubborn!?

“Lee Hongbin! Give me back my cell phone! Now!” Sujin yelled with teeth firmly gritted.

 “Yoo Sujin!”

What happened in the next few seconds managed to stop Sujin from jumping up and down. With feet rooted to the ground, she had gawked wide, gasping for breaths. Even Hongbin nearly lost his grip on Sujin’s cell phone too. Because the scene that occurred before his eyes right now was probably something that he had never, in any possible way, imagine happening.

Hongbin’s eyes repeatedly blinked, ”What the… hell…”

Sujin slightly jerked her head to the right and found a head dug to her shoulder. A head with a face that didn’t look Korean at all. A head that belonged to one of the six hottest boys at school whose name was repeatedly chanted by the girls who dreamed to have him as their boyfriend.

It took Sujin less than a second to blush, making her face as red as a ripened tomato. Forget about yelling, she had even lost the power to move away from the blindingly handsome boy who was hugging her right now. No, more like she couldn’t move. Because Ken had his sturdy arms tightly wrapped around your best friend’s body.

“Please…” Ken softly whispered to her ear, letting his hardly hoarse voice to make the flush on Sujin’s cheeks to become even redder.

“K-k-k-ken…? W-wha… what are…... d-doing?...” She stuttered, barely understood the situation.

“Please, listen to me… just this once.”

Ken slowly lifted his face and brought it right in front of Sujin’s, staring at her. Their faces were barely a few centimeters away and Sujin could swear to anything that she could feel his warm breaths on her lips.

He flashed her a gentle smile, “No need to worry about ___. We promise that we’ll take a good care of your best friend. But I’m afraid that we’ll need some ‘family time’ now, you know, those kind of talking that only families can understand. Oh, I’ll let ___ know that you came to visit her, though. So, could you please leave and go home now?”

Sujin’s lips was twitched, ready to give the culprit who had made her brain nearly stopped functioning an answer. But the only sounds that came out from her were those hard thumps from her heart.

Realizing that he had successfully ‘caught’ his target, Ken launched another attack in a form of a pout, a cute one actually. Slowly, he put a strand of hair behind Sujin’s ear, only to make the girl before him flinched the second his cold hand brushed her skin. He then patted Sujin’s shoulder softly while giving her another breath-taking smile.

“You will understand, won’t you?”

Deep down Sujin knew that this wasn’t right. She came here to see you, and it was natural for her to fight off anything that tried to stop her from completing her objective. But the moment Ken buried her body in his, Sujin’s mind had also flew somewhere far. Thus, she ended giving Ken a silence nod. 

With that, Ken brought Sujin to the gate, dragging her limp body away from the front door,

“Okay, so which way to your house? Left or right? Towards to the bus station or the convenience store? That way or--” Ken patiently asked while pointing around, but Sujin failed to give him a response. He then waved his hand in front of her face, trying to bring her senses back.

“Hey, Yoo Sujin~” He flicked his fingers.

“H-huh?! Y-yes...!?” Her high-pitched voice gave Ken an urge to laugh.

He slightly bent his body, holding his laughter, “Seriously, which way to your house?”

“E-eh!? W-why…!?!” Sujin remained stuttered, she didn’t even realize that Ken had dragged him out from your courtyard. Worse, her heart seemed like skipping a beat whenever the boy beside him called her full name.

Far from those two, Hongbin leaned his broad back on the wall, smirking.

Goodness, Lee Jaehwan. Looks like your long nose is not the only good thing about you, huh? As expected from a ‘joker’, full with dirty tricks…

“I’ll take you home. So please be a good girl and show me the way.” Ken wittily grinned.

Sujin frantically shook both of her head and hands while trying her best to avoid Ken’s gaze. She eventually learned that the longer she stared at Ken’s clear orbs, the higher her chance of dying from massive nosebleed.

“Are you sure? It’s getting dark, you know… it’d be too dangerous for a girl like you to walk alone. Besides, I don’t want anything bad happen to you…” Ken swiftly lunged his hand around Sujin’s neck and the latter jolted in alarm, quickly backing away.

“N-no! I-I’m going to be fine! I… I can go home by myself! B-bye--“

Sujin was about to hurl when Hongbin suddenly called her, forcing her to stop nearly instantly.

“Hey girl, don’t forget your cell phone.” A smirk was still branched on Hongbin’s face as he treaded his way to the front gate, he then took Sujin’s hand and placed her cell phone in it, “Be careful on your way home.” He smirked even wider.

“Take care, Sujin. Do keep in mind that I’d be worried as hell if anything bad happened to you.” Ken’s lips formed a thin smile as he stared at Sujin’s face worriedly.

“I-I told you-- I’ll be fine!” She yanked her head away from Ken, still blushing, “B-bye!” Without looking back, Sujin ran inside a small alley on the left of the road and finally disappeared.

After they made sure that Sujin was nowhere in sight, loud laughter eventually erupted. Ken slightly hunched his back with hands perched on his knees, while Hongbin had long sprawled on the ground while holding his stomach. The two continued to fill the stillness in the air with their snarls.

“Family meeting, huh…? Pfft--” Hongbin kept on laughing while playfully hitting Ken’s shoulder.

“Gosh-- I can’t believe that she fell to my cheap trick! Hahahaha!” Ken tried to hold back his laughter, his long fingers were wiping tears that had long formed in the corner of his eyes.

“Aishh… Lee Jaehwan, you really deserve an award for this one! Tell you what, why don’t you just call that fishy-looking CEO from back then and start a career as an actor instead? I know you’d do well!” Hongbin gave both of his thumbs.

“Hell yeah, no one can resist my charm~” Ken smugly smirked.

“True, no one can resist a player like you.”

He immediately frowned, “Ya! I’m not a player!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to tell ___ about how you passionately hugged that Sujin girl. Oh, not to mention how genuine your worried look was when she said that she’ll go home by herself.” Hongbin snickered, “Aigooo… looks like our Lee Jaehwan has found another princess.”

Ken quickly gave her ‘brother’ a nice jab in the arm, “Ya, stop that. You know I didn’t mean that. It was clearly an act.” His voice suddenly didn’t sound as cheery as before, “My heart didn’t even a skip a beat when I hug her, it feels like I’m hugging a bolsters… or mannequin, whatever...”

“For real?” Hongbin jabbed back.

“Yeah, it feels terrible to hug someone that you don’t particularly like. And now I feel like hugging ___. If it’s her, be it a hug or whatever, I’d do it forever…”

This time Hongbin’s voice went deep too, “Don’t even think about it, bro…”

Suddenly, a shrill voice, came from the boy who supposed to be resting due to a waist injury after a fictional soccer game, echoed from behind the front door.

“Is she gone…?”

Both Hongbin and Ken whirled their heads and stared at the youngest among them. He looked guilty, probably for appearing out of a blue back then. With hands branched at the edge of the door, he sent an apologetic look to his older ‘brothers’.

“Don’t worry, Hyuk. Everything is under control.” Ken flashed him a wink as he walked pass the youngest and made his way to the stairs.

“Huh? H-how come…?”

“Trust me, you won’t believe what I just saw.” Hongbin slightly giggled, “Thanks to actor Ken, I get to see the best drama that I’ve ever seen in my whole life.” He then parted ways with the other two and marched to the kitchen for some drink.

Hyuk crossed his arms and playfully kicked Ken in the leg, pushing the latter to stop being so trivial and just spit out the truth, “Ya, what did you to her? Hm?”

He tapped his shoulder and whispered, “Something that a kid like you can never do.”

With eyes indifferently rolled, Hyuk ran passed him, “Whatever…”

The two then treaded the stairs together. Hyuk was walking ahead of Ken, with hands dug deep inside his pocket in silence, while the latter followed behind and didn’t say anything in particular either. They were just a few steps away from the room where N was when Ken suddenly blurted out a question.

“Did you tell ___ about Sujin?”

“I did. And guess what happened…” Hyuk raised an eyebrow and smirked, as if Ken could actually see the playful expression he was putting.

“She freaked out, right?”

Hyuk shook his head, “Nope. Wrong answer. She was totally cool with it.”

Ken’s steps were skidded, he then stared at the boy in front of him with eyes goggled wide, “Jinjja?”

A chuckle was what followed, “She’s more worried if it was her brother returning home.”

“I can see why…” Ken tapped his chin as he continued walking, “I can’t even imagine what will happen if her brother suddenly returned. I mean… I don’t know what to say to him.”

“--Then you’ll need to practice your acting skill more, actor Lee Jaehwan.”

The two had their heads whirled back nearly immediately, only to see Hongbin walked behind them, approaching with two cups of freshly brewed tea in his hands.

“Aishh…” Ken groused, “Do you really think a mere act would help when that time comes? This one is a serious matter, bro! We need ___, no matter what her brother’s decision would be. And I’d prefer taking her away from him in the nicest way as possible. He’s going to be my future brother-in-law anyway…”

“Keep on dreaming, Pinocchio.” Hyuk snorted.

The three of them eventually met up with Ravi, who had been guarding Leo’s door for the whole time. And judging from the witty smile he flashed the moment he saw his ‘brothers’, it was clear to them that he somehow overheard whatever they were talking about.

“You have no other choice but to try, though…” He leered at Ken, “We are so going to count on your acting skill later, so you better think of a good reason to convince him to get along with our… situation.”

“Oh, really? Then what if I tell him ‘hello, hyung! Like it or not, we’re all destined to be together with your sister and make her fall in love with one of us! And by the way, we’re not humans. We’re dolls and we’re technically immortal after we got cursed by an Evil King! That’s why we need your sister to free us from the curse!’… how’s that sound?” Ken sarcastically glared.

“Well, it’s worth to try… good luck, bro! And I sincerely hope that he won’t flatten your precious nose when you said that in front of his face!” Hyuk giggled as he walked inside N’s room, leaving the other three to finish the talking.

“Yeah, great idea, Lee Jaehwan. Tell him that and we’re all going to end in either prison or mental hospital.” Hongbin playfully nudged Ken’s shoulder before joining the youngest.

“I told you my acting skill won’t work, you morons!”

Ken let out a desperate growl but the two just laughed even louder. He was about to step inside the room too when he suddenly felt something caught his sleeve.

“Hey.”

He turned back and saw Ravi already stood behind him. He didn’t remember saying anything rude or hurtful to him, yet his face was dark as if someone just badmouthed his mother right in front of him.

“I mean it.”

Ken slightly jerked his head, confused, “What…?”

Ravi waited for both Hongbin and Ken to close the door before continued with whatever had made his mood gone sour, “I mean it when I say that you need to think of a way to deal with her brother. Remember, this is not just about you, but about all of us…”

Ken silently pondered, eyes glued to the floor. He’s right…

He sighed, “It may be nothing but a mere joke for now, but when the time comes… we definitely can’t count on any reasons that randomly cross our minds. Think about ___ too, we can’t bring her any more troubles, Ken. What if her brother throws all of us out from this house? Have you ever imagined being separated from her?”

Ken finally looked up, still confused, “I know… but I can’t think of anything. At least for now…”

Ravi squeezed his shoulder lightly, “We have to think of a way… together.”

Leo could only groan when he felt his muscles tightened and his blood rushed uncontrollably. Soreness was the first thing that entered him when he opened his eyes, followed with dryness on his throat, as if he had been screaming for hours and someone choked his neck afterwards. Pain was strangely all over his body, yet he couldn’t even remember why. Worse, he felt like there was a knot on his lungs, preventing airs from coming in and gave him nothing but troubles breathing. But somehow, he was too tired to deal with all of them, so he just closed his eyes and let those horrible sensations tortured him in silence.

A few minutes passed and all the pain suddenly gone, completely. But the sweats and panting were still there. Leo coughed several times, before prying his eyes open again, only to be greeted with blurry vision. It made him wonder why it felt so hard for him to just sit on his bed. Like where had his energy gone to. But before he could have any of those questions answered, a low voice was heard from his side.

“…You okay?”

A soft pat on his cheek forced Leo to narrow his eyes, hoping it could recover his vision and help him to tell who had insolently touched his cheek. But the familiar voice echoed in his ears again and it took Leo less than a second to recognize whose voice was that.

Ravi.

The towel stuffed inside his mouth was taken away and that was when Leo finally felt oxygen filled his wrinkled lungs. It surprised him how he didn’t even notice such thing that big being shoved into him. He didn’t even have a chance to ask why in the world there was a towel inside his mouth when Ravi suddenly tapped his shoulde