"What happened?!" Jongdae was the first one running out of his room when he heard the door open. 

EXO-K was back from their performance in a K-pop festival and Sehun had texted the group chat, informing everyone that Jongin was injured. It earned a smack from Jongin because he really didn't like it when the members knew of his injuries. Actually, no one liked letting the others know about their injuries because the boys tend to be really over protective. That one time when Kyungsoo sprained his ankle, the boys actually got him a bell and made him ring it whenever he wanted something. They didn't let him move an inch, someone even had to be in the bathroom with him when he showered just in case.

This time, Jongin had overworked his muscles and on top of that, his waist was hurting again. The former was due to straining it too much (serves him right for attempting to do a mock triathlon yesterday in his free time) and the latter was an old injury acting up again. By now, the other four EXO members were out in the living room, crowding around the crippled. 

"Strained his muscles and his waist hurts," Chanyeol explained, looking at Jongin with worried eyes. 

"I'm fine, guys," Jongin groaned. "I'm not dying." 

"You will!" Chanyeol snapped. "Stop working so hard, Jongin! Your health is the most important and right now, it's in the slumps." 

"He's right, you know," Yixing clucked his tongue. "By the way, was the straining of muscles due to―"

"The stupid triathlon thing he and Taemin tried yesterday?" Baekhyun offered. Without waiting for a reply, he confirmed, "Yes." 

"It's not stupid," Jongin mumbled. "It was fun." 

"Is it fun now that you're almost dying?" Sehun cackled, receiving a glare in return. 

"We'll go shower first," Junmyeon arranged. "Then, someone help Jongin bathe―"

"I can shower on my own!" The indignant boy exclaimed. His eyes darted from person to person, obviously anxious because he didn't want anyone to see him . He was already sure that his fans probably imagine him and― Oh God, he needed to stop thinking about that. Jongin stated in a stronger voice, "I can shower on my own." 

"Are you sure?" Tao narrowed his eyes, his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Because―"

"Yes, I'm sure," Jongin snapped. "Look, you guys, this has happened before and I'll be okay. Stop babying me." 

"Oh, the more you don't want us to baby you, the more we will do it," Minseok grinned evilly. 

In the end, Chanyeol and Sehun supported Jongin to his bed, one on each side of him. He knew they wouldn't let him off, but he was at least glad that they let him shower without anyone accompanying him. Jongin really didn't like sharing a shower stall with other people, which was why he was always the last one to shower. Also, it gave him more time to sleep. The only downside was that he had to hurry because the members before him liked to dilly-dally and he had to make up for the lost time. 

Jongin laid on his bed even though he was sweaty. The others went to shower, Kyungsoo being the first. That boy always showered really quickly and he was out before anyone could say 'Do Kyungsoo is satan in the form of a tiny boy.' It was true because Sehun tried once, shouting at the top of his voice. The moment 'Do Kyungsoo is' came out of Sehun's mouth, a half Kyungsoo was already by his side, holding onto a towel. Kyungsoo wrung the towel and attacked Sehun with it, causing many red marks to appear on the maknae's body. 

Kyungsoo sat on the edge of Jongin's bed, ruffling his wet hair with his towel. "Do you want me to massage your waist?" 

"Maybe after I shower," Jongin mumbled. It was quiet for a moment before he spoke up again, "You know I'm fine, right? I don't get why the others are making such a big fuss out of this. It's annoying."

Kyungsoo smiled. He really didn't know, did he? When Kyungsoo had sprained his foot, Jongin acted the same way as the others are doing to him now. Truthfully, EXO is a close knitted family. There are ten of them and despite the big number, everyone is family. They care for each other; sometimes Junmyeon or Yixing would make tea for them, sometimes Sehun would remind everyone to wear their coats or scarves before they left the house, sometimes Jongdae would bring an extra scarf just in case someone forgot. They care for each other whenever they have a concert; sometimes leaning on each other for support, sometimes drinking from each other's bottles, sometimes covering up each other's mistakes. But even more so, they cared for each other when they were injured. 

Jongin might have thought that the boys were over reacting and they probably were. But even he, himself, did the same when the others were sick or wounded. Like that one time when Yixing accidentally bit his tongue so hard that it bled, Jongin googled 'How to stop tongue bleeding' the moment it happened. After that, he held a wet towel to the elder's tongue, staring intensely at the wound and at Yixing. It was a day everyone doubted whether or not Jongin was straight. 

"I am!" He had countered. No one really believed him, since all he got in reply was narrowing of eyes. "It's just that Yixing hyung's tongue―" He was in the midst of explaining, the towel in his gesturing hand when he saw Yixing's tongue bleeding again. "OH MY GOD IT'S BLEEDING AGAIN!!!!!"

Baekhyun glanced at Minseok and remarked, "Maybe he's just girly because that scream was so feminine."

Anyhow, the point was that Jongin didn't know how much alike he was with the others when it came to the members being injured. And also that he isn't gay. (Jongin swore in a game of Truth or Dare that he would chop off his if he ever turned gay.) 

"Hyung," Jongin called Kyungsoo. "Taemin and I planned to watch a movie tomorrow, do you think―"

"No," Kyungsoo laughed. "I don't think they're gonna let you out of the house without a full body brace and a team of doctors and nurses."

The younger boy groaned. Tao entered the room, sitting on Jongin's bed too. "Yah, my bed isn't that big, you know," Jongin reached over to slap Tao's stomach. 

"Don't do that!" Tao whined. "You're going to hurt yourself even more!" 

"Hurt myself or hurt you?" Jongin murmured to himself. Tao heard it, of course. 

"Yah!" He screamed, causing Kyungsoo to laugh as he watched Tao hitting Jongin's arm repeatedly as the victim screamed for help. So much for not wanting Kai to hurt himself even more. 

"Your turn to shower, Kim Kai!" Sehun yelled from the bathroom. 

Tao paused his movement before giving Jongin one final slap to the arm. The younger boy sat up, rubbing his red arm. Kyungsoo got up, walking towards Jongin's wardrobe to get his clothes. Once he had gotten everything, Tao and him helped Jongin to the bathroom. The injured kept insisting that he was fine but Tao liked to show off how manly and strong he was. They sat Jongin on the covered toilet seat while Tao adjusted the temperature of the water and Kyungsoo set the fresh clothes on the bathroom counter.

Jongin shooed the two of them out once they were done. While he was showering, Chanyeol, Sehun and Baekhyun were in the kitchen. They were cooking for dinner tonight. It was actually Chanyeol's and Baekhyun's turn to prepare dinner tonight, but the maknae wanted to help out since Jongin was injured. It really wasn't necessary because Sehun liked to play more than he worked, so no one really liked having him around the kitchen. Which was also why he didn't really have any schedules in cooking. Even if he did, he would end up buying take out. 

"We need to cook ginseng soup because Jongin is sick," Sehun nodded wisely, rummaging through the cupboards for the ingredients. 

"Do you even know what's in ginseng soup?" Minseok asked dubiously from the living room where he and Tao were playing with the PS4. 

Sehun rolled his eyes, glaring at the eldest, "Duh. Ginseng... And soup." 

Someone next to him snorted. Baekhyun. The boys laughed at the maknae's ignorance and Baekhyun nudged Sehun. "Every time someone is sick, you think ginseng soup will magically cure them." 

"Doesn't it?" Sehun blinked blankly at Baekhyun, obviously believing wholeheartedly that ginseng soup was the magic potion to everything. 

"Get out of the kitchen, you idiot," Chanyeol groaned, pushing Sehun out. The youngest boy kept whining and assuring that he would be a great help. But Chanyeol shouted back, "You'll be an even greater help if you stayed out of the kitchen!" 

"Rude," Sehun scoffed, plopping down on the couch behind Minseok as he laid on his side, watching them play. 

Junmyeon was texting on his phone and being the busybody he was, Sehun leant over to take a look at what he was doing. But Junmyeon was quick to tilt his phone so Sehun couldn't read the screen. The older male stared at Sehun with raised eyebrows, as if asking him what he wanted. Sehun glanced around like he didn't do anything and went back to his original position. He wasn't giving Junmyeon any of his attention anymore but Junmyeon was restless. He kept glancing at the little devil, expecting Sehun to be creeping on him. 

"Aish, hyung!" Sehun cursed. "I'm not interested in your texts to your girlfriend!" Frustrated, he got up from the sofa. "I'm going to disturb Jongdae hyung." 

So the maknae went to look for Jongdae in his room. To his surprise, Jongin and Kyungsoo were there as well. The eldest was sitting on the desk chair, spinning, while Jongin was on Jongdae's bed. Kyungsoo was massaging Jongin's waist. Sehun wanted to be involved, so he went over to Kyungsoo. The shorter male looked at him with owlish eyes, wondering what he wanted. 

"I wanna help massage Jongin too."

"No!!!!!" Jongin yelled, flopping onto his back in a jiffy. "I don't wanna die yet!"

"You should've thought about that when you did that stupid triathlon yesterday," Jongdae mumbled. He looked at Sehun seriously, "Give him your best shot."

"Hyung!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Jongin screamed.

Sehun, Kyungsoo and Jongdae stared at Jongin. Kyungsoo was deadpanned as he stated, "No one's touching you, doofus." Jongin opened his tightly shut eyes and looked at the three boys in turn.

"What's going on?" Yixing poked his head into the room. "Jongin dying already?" 

The said boy threw one of Jongdae's soft toy at the newcomer. Yixing laughed as he came in with a phone to his ear. Jongdae raised an eyebrow but Yixing simply held his phone out to Jongin. The boy furrowed his eyebrows but nonetheless took the device. He glanced at the caller ID before grinning and pressing the phone to his ear. Everyone else in the room was quiet, waiting for words to be said. 

Meanwhile, Tao was hitting and shouting at Minseok for killing him in a game. The older boy swore that it was on accident but Tao wasn't convinced because quote and unquote Huang Zitao, "Who the hell accidentally kills your own team mate?!"

"Yah, you're very noisy, do you know that?!" Baekhyun shouted from the kitchen.

Tao made a face at Baekhyun and Minseok told on him, "Baekhyun-ah, Tao just made his usual ugly face even uglier and imitated you like a grandmother." 

"I did not―" Tao didn't have enough time to kill Minseok because Baekhyun stormed out of the kitchen and whacked him on the back of his head. 

"Guys, please," Junmyeon sighed, looking up from his phone. "Cut it out." 

"Yeah, Baekhyun," Tao snarled. "Cut it out." 

"Oh my God, I want to smash your head against―" 

"Baekhyun," Junmyeon warned. 

Baekhyun glared at Junmyeon, then at Tao. He scoffed, "You guys are so irritating." 

"You guys are so irritating," Tao mocked behind Baekhyun's back as he returned to the kitchen. 

"Huang Zitao!" Baekhyun ran back, strangling Tao with his arm. 

Junmyeon shook his head when he saw Tao's bulging eyes staring fearfully at him, asking for help. "You just don't know when to stop, Huang Zitao."

"Ah, so noisy!" Kyungsoo yelled in the room, stomping towards the door and slamming it shut. It didn't help, of course, since the room wasn't sound-proof or anything.

Kyungsoo walked back to the bed where the rest were staring intently at Jongin on the phone. Jongdae had left the chair and squeezed on the bed where all five of them crammed at. Jongin was grinning and he really looked like a lovesick teenage girl, probably like one of their fangirls. Sehun and Kyungsoo locked eyes and they immediately knew that they had the same thought. The both of them burst out laughing with Sehun slapping Kyungsoo's shoulder like he always does when he laughs. 

Jongdae and Yixing were looking at the two crazies, rolling around the tiny bed, bumping into each other and hitting each other in a fit of hysterics. Jongdae and Yixing glanced at each other, hoping that their brothers weren't as crazy as they seemed. They'd better not be. Because Jongdae was this close to sleeping in a hotel room for the rest of the year. 

"Luhan hyung said that you guys are very noisy!" Jongin shouted, kicking Sehun's leg. 

"Tell Luhan hyung to shut up!" The younger boy shouted back. 

Jongin didn't have to convey that message since Sehun was loud enough for Luhan to hear from the other side. Luhan chuckled, feeling his heart clench as he thought of the boys in Korea without him. He missed them so much. Luhan shouted back into the phone, "Yah, don't make me fly back to Korea and kick your !" 

Luhan heard Jongin put the call on loud speaker as he told Sehun what he had said. Jongdae chipped into the noise, "Then come back and kick our asses!"

Kyungsoo leant in closer to the mouthpiece, "Yeah, we miss you, hyung." 

Luhan sighed, "I miss you guys, too..."

"Guys! Dinner!" Chanyeol's low voice was heard in the background and Luhan grinned like an idiot. He missed the giant too. His voice became louder when he popped his head into the crowded room, "Guys, dinner's ready." 

The five of them in the room stared at Chanyeol quietly. The intruder raised a questioning eyebrow as he roamed his eyes over all of them and finally dropping his gaze to the phone in the center. He entered the room, leaving the door open. 

"Chanyeol!" The giant heard Luhan's voice as clear as day and he perked up immediately. 

"Luhan hyunggggg~!" Chanyeol sang into the phone. Luhan was laughing. Even though he was supposed to be having dinner with his family, he took a break to talk to the boys. Like he said, he missed them. 

Hearing Chanyeol's greeting, the remaining four boys ran into the Already Crowded room. Despite being hungry before, they forgot their hunger because they wanted to talk to Luhan. 

"Hyung!" Everyone greeted cheerfully.

"Ugh, you're sitting on my hand!" Sehun whined as he pushed Tao away from him. 

"Move it, fatty," Minseok nudged Baekhyun who already got a seat on the bed. 

"Just because you're tiny doesn't mean everyone's fat," Baekhyun countered but still shifted to give Minseok some space to settle in. 

"How have you guys been?" Luhan's radiant voice could be heard through the phone. Everyone's answers came in at the same time.

"Jongin is almost dying!" Sehun (of course).

"Not too bad, you?" Jongdae. 

"Not so good..." Jongin.

"Boring without you!" Tao. 

"How have you been?" Chanyeol. 

"I'm―"

Luhan was cut off by Junmyeon, "Jongin is injured, you know that?" 

"Yeah, I do," Luhan laughed at how over protective the boys were. He heard Jongin whining and complaining about how they should stop repeating that fact to him. If he was there, he would definitely baby Jongin too. Afterall, he was like a brother he never had. All of them were. 

"Did you know it's 'cause he and Taemin did this―"

"Don't tell!" Jongin clamped a hand over Yixing's mouth. 

"―Mock triathlon yesterday during his spare time?" Kyungsoo finished for Yixing and was met with Jongin's death glare. No one could give deadlier death glares than Do Kyungsoo himself, so it didn't affect Kyungsoo at all.

"Tell him how stupid it is, hyung!" Baekhyun suggested. 

"It's extremely stupid of you, Kim Jongin," Luhan clucked his tongue in mock disappointment. "You should have known better! Especially with your waist injury."

"I know..." Jongin mumbled while glaring at the members who had told on him. 

"It's for your own good, Jongin," Luhan continued. The other members pursed their lips and nodded, making Jongin feel guilty. 

No matter how annoying they were to Jongin, no matter how irritating they were as tattletales, Jongin knew that they were just worried for him. And as if nine people worrying over him wasn't enough, they wanted Luhan to know too. Not being with them was a downside but they could always feel Luhan's care and concern. Especially when the members were either texting or calling him everyday. And even though he was absent, Luhan still showed and communicated his concern through this mere phone call. Jongin knew how worried Luhan was, too.

"I'll be careful next time," Jongin sighed in defeat as he promised Luhan and the others.

"Damn hell you will," Baekhyun knocked his head. 

"Hyung!" Jongin whined. 

Luhan laughed, "Alright, boys. I gotta go. I was having dinner when Xing called. It's dinner time there too, remember to eat, okay?"

"Yes~" All ten of them chimed as if Luhan was their mother who had gone for a business trip. "Bye bye!" 

Luhan said his goodbye too and hung up the phone. The ten boys sat in the room, staring blankly at the cellphone in the middle. There were so many of them and it was stuffy. But none of them noticed that. They were too wrapped up in each other's thoughts to notice their oxygen level running low. 

"I miss Luhan hyung," Sehun sighed, breaking the silence. Everyone else nodded their heads in agreement. 

Chanyeol swept his eyes across the EXO members and saw how gloomy their faces and the atmosphere were. He beamed and chirped, "Group hug!!!!!!!!!!" In a blink of an eye, Chanyeol had flung his arms around the members closest to him, pulling Kyungsoo, Sehun, Tao and Jongin down onto the bed. 

Seeing the small pile, Jongdae climbed on top of them and pulled Yixing by the wrist. The Chinese hugged Kyungsoo's side. Kyungsoo twisted his head and grabbed Baekhyun's elbow, pulled him into the puppy pile. There was a lot of noise; laughing, screaming, yelling, giggling. Junmyeon shook his head but still went over to wrap his arms around the big ball of mess. Minseok grinned as he ran and jumped on the pile, being the cherry on top to finish. 

"You guys are so heavy!" Sehun choked out. It was clear that there was no air left in him. 

"I love you guys!" Yixing shouted, hugging the members even closer. 

"I love all of you!" Chanyeol yelled back. 

"My waist!" Jongin's strangled voice was heard. 

"Serves you right for doing that triathlon!" All nine of them countered, causing Jongin to blush and all of them to laugh.