PROLOGUE

Finally, promotions were over. Their two-month break would begin starting tomorrow.

That night, the twelve boys of EXO file in their apartment and proceed to lie down everywhere—couches, table tops and the floor. After consecutively working on a concert, a tour and a fan meet, the energy tank immediately dropped to empty. Everyone fell asleep on their respective places. Except for one person.

Little Omma, Do Kyungsoo.

Nobody asked him to do it; nobody ever does, really. But he makes it a point to care for s. He dragged each one of the sleeping boys into their respective rooms and tucked them in. The hardest part was dragging the tall ones—seriously; shrink a bit, please? Your long limbs are all over the place!

After getting Jong In properly tucked in their shared room, Kyungsoo lied on his own bed for some rest. He closed his eyes and sighed; tried to make his way to the land of dreams. But before he got there, his train of thought brought him to a pit stop—to reflection.

Because it’s been a while since the members appreciated the small things he did for them.

Or appreciated each other, for that matter.

During the first time they lived together, everyone was considerate—everyone said “please” and “thank you”; there were hardly any arguments; there was respect and there was love. There was brotherhood.

But the MAMA and History era passed, now everything was on Overdose—literally.

Chanyeol had a daily habit of complaining about Baek’s scattered eyeliners in their room.

Chen and Xiumin couldn’t live a day without arguing about who picks the better caps.

Suho gets mad at Lay because the latter can’t even hold a single conversation without spacing out every 5 seconds. That did not hold well on interviews.

Kris wouldn’t stop hanging his “beautiful masterpieces” (messy doodles) on every space of the wall in his and Tao’s shared room; even when Tao begged.

Sehun would leave his empty milk tea cups everywhere; no matter how many times Luhan told him to dispose of them properly.

Jong In couldn’t care less that Kyungsoo hated his messy clothes—leaving them wherever he pleased inside their shared room. Eventually, Kyungsoo just stopped scolding him and fixed it himself.

Then there was the worst change of all—Kyungsoo started feeling more like a maid than a mother. Not that he really was a mother, but you get the point.

He always cooks for them, warms their bath water, hangs the bath towels, does most of the dorm cleaning, irons and folds their laundry, and leaves little notes on the fridge about each of their schedules. At the beginning, they appreciated all his efforts—they thanked him and would even offer to do a few tasks themselves, or to help. Back then, it was Kyungsoo’s pleasure to help out in the house; it never felt like a job to him. But now, it seems that it just became natural for Kyungsoo to care for them. No one shows gratitude anymore—they just expect him to do all those chores. There are times they even complain if what’s for dinner isn’t a dish they like, or if the bath water isn’t warm enough, or when a few creases were seen on their ironed clothes.

A time came when Kyungsoo was fed up with it all.

“Is it too much to ask for a little appreciation, here? Everything I’m doing is for you guys; can’t you even say “please” or offer to help? You might as well do these things yourselves!”

But everyone just brushed him off—saying he was being needlessly dramatic and that he was the omma anyway. If that’s the role he’s given, he should just do it and not act like such an attention seeker.

He cried alone in his room that time.

Being omma —that was the conclusion Kyungsoo came to. But the problem was, even if he didn’t need to assume that role—even if he didn’t need to care, he still does. He loves s; they’re family now. But they sure don’t act like one.

He found himself missing the old days—back when stress wasn’t overwhelming and the pressure didn’t put them to their limits. They were just boys living the dream. Now, it was more like the dream was away their lives. In result, everyone’s so easily aggravated—no one cares for the other anymore. They’re always tired and irritable; doing the things that they like without being concerned with others.

That night ended with a prayer on Kyungsoo’s lips.

He asked for a day off—or possibly longer—from being the one who had to care. He asked to be the one cared for; he asked to be loved.

Because honestly, he’s forgotten what that feels like. He asked for everyone to get along—to feel like a family again. And he gave thanks for the two month break. Hopefully, in this brief time of rest, they could find a way to say that EXO is one—not just for the fans, but also for themselves.  

Kyungsoo was the first to wake up.

Of course; vacation had officially started, after all. He could sleep in like all the others, but he wasn’t that type of guy. So even though a bit drowsy, he got up to prepare breakfast.

But when he got to the kitchen, his eyes closed on him.

Fine, fine; I’ll go back to bed.

I guess someone else can be responsible for today.

Kyungsoo’s mistake was walking back to his room with his eyes still closed.

He walked right into a wall and hit his head hard as he fell on the floor.

“GAAAAAHHH!!”

“Tao, shut up!  I don’t care what happened to your Gucci, it’s too early for this.””

Tao poked the lifeless Kyungsoo on the floor.

“KYUNGSOO’S DEAD!!”

“Tao, we all know Kyungsoo won’t die without informing us ahead of time. Hey wait, what are you— Let go!"

Tao dragged Kris by the foot; effectively making him a human floor mop.

“Oh.”

Kris saw Kyungsoo on the kitchen floor. He placed his head on the latter’s chest.

Thump Thump Thump

“You oversized Panda, he’s alive! Just unconscious, I guess. Wonder what happened.”

“Maybe he slipped and hit his head?”

“You think?”

Kris ran his hand at the back of Kyungsoo’s head. “Yup, there’s a bump alright.”

He lifted Kyungsoo off the ground and carried him to the couch.

Because Kyungsoo remained as stiff as a stick, everyone had to do everything themselves. It was a rather eventful morning as Lay almost burned the kitchen down. “Why did you even volunteer!? You know you have the attention span as large as a peanut!” Suho angrily reprimanded the Chinese dancer. In the end, the members had ordered take-out for all three of their meals. Because even as the night had arrived, Kyungsoo did not wake up. Xiumin decided to call their manager about the situation, who in turn sent a doctor to the boys’ apartment.

The doctor said the bump on Kyungsoo’s head wasn’t that bad. And he certainly did not have internal head bleeding, as Sehun had suggested. After examining Kyungsoo some more, the doctor concluded nothing was wrong with him—therefore nothing was to be fixed. Why he was still unconscious until now, who knows?

The doctor left with everyone still baffled about the situation.

Chen shouted loudly at Kyungsoo’s ear.

Chanyeol banged pots and pans.

Baekhyun drew on Kyungsoo’s face with eyeliner.

Nothing was working.

“Maybe he needs true love’s first kiss to break the spell,” Tao suddenly suggested.

It was stupid, but they were desperate enough to actually consider it. Everyone looked at Kai; well aware that “Kaisoo” was one of EXO’s main ships.

“NO, NEVER.” Kai growled.

“Let Luhan hyung do it! He’s the closest thing to a girl that we’ve got!”

It was a valid argument.

Before Luhan could give a rebuttal about being a manly man, Xiumin got a call from their manager.

He put the phone on speaker.

“Boys, I’ve called Kyungsoo’s parents about the matter. Did he hit the middle part of the back of his head?”

“Yes hyung, he did,” Xiumin replied.

“Ah, I see. That’s the problem. Because in the Do family, people who get hit on the head in that certain area, lose all rationality and normalcy. It is known in their family as '4D Irrationality.' He will remain unconscious the rest of the day. As soon as he wakes up, he will be a very weird random mess. Please look after him; make sure he doesn’t do anything illegal. He will be totally unpredictable; he might even act like an inanimate object.

He'll be like this for about twleve days. You boys can take care of him for that much, right?”

Everyone grimaced.

“Well, good luck boys. I trust that Kyungsoo’s in good hands. You all owe him anyway for being the mother of the group. Have a nice 12 days of Kyungsoo!”

The call ended and groans erupted.

“Aaaaaarrrgghh! I don’t want to babysit Kyungsoo~” Chanyeol complained.

“Maybe I can have him rob a bank…”

“Thank you Chen, that’s very helpful” Luhan said sarcastically.

“Let’s just all hope he acts like a rock for the next twelve days…” Suho sighed.

With members that were lazy and had no sense of cooperation if it wasn’t choreography, they could only hope for the best.