Sehun gave an irritated glare toward Chen and Chanyeol. “Spaghetti-Os. I mean, come on now. Really?”

“And just where have you been, misters?” Suho, the demander-in-chief asked, ignoring Sehun and folding his arms across his chest. He cringed inwardly when he realized how strange his word choice was, but continued, carefully. “Do you know how much trouble you’re going to be in when I call Tao?”

“Kuhsoo let go me!” Xiumin whined, his face beginning to crumple into a pout when he realized pulling and squealing wasn’t going to get the preoccupied almost-3-year-old to release his grip on his hand so he could return to playing.

“None,” Chanyeol replied to Suho. The others on Suho's side (minus the squirmy baby) looked at him, wanting to know how he was going to back up that assertion.

“And just what makes you think that?” Suho asked.

“That fact that you’re not gonna tell Tao,” he smirked.

"Of course I'm telling Tao! It's my job to keep all of this from getting out of hand. What makes you think I wouldn't?"

Chanyeol gave a quick glance over his shoulder, and the other two Beagles quickly filed in behind him. They'd had enough tastes of his power to know that they liked it very much. “Because snitches get stitches.”

'Oh, that's what they meant,' Suho thought, gulping as he took a half-step back. Being around two years older, the three had a significant size advantage over him; Chanyeol alone towered a good eight inches over him. “B-but you can’t… I’m your hyung…”

"Not anymore, you're not." Chen said, cracking his knuckles.

“Besides, how many times has that not worked today?” Baekhyun snickered. “C’mon, let’s do this the easy way. Give us your phones.”

“No way,” Lay asserted, “we don’t negotiate with bullies!”

“Guys, this is going too far,” Kai sighed.

“No it’s not. We’re bigger, so they have to do what we say.” Chen turned his attention from Kai back to the boys in front of him, who were trying to put on brave faces but were clearly apprehensive.

“Sehun…” Kai said, looking to the other for support.

“I’m not involved." Said other appeared entirely ambivalent, before a small smirk worked its way onto his face. "I've made up my mind; I don't want any part of their little rebel group. I’m just waiting to see what happens when we go back to being grown-ups. You three are gonna get it big time.”

“Give us the phones!” Chanyeol demanded, ignoring Sehun.

“No way!” Suho shouted back.

“You guys. Are ALL SO DEAD!”

Tao’s voice sounded a lot deeper now that it was the only one post-puberty.

All of them, even the ones who hadn't done anything wrong, flinched as Tao crouched in through the window and slammed it shut behind him. Of course, they'd expected him to come back furious, but not nearly so soon. Kai and Sehun exchanged terrified glances, and Baekhyun and Chen rushed to be behind Chanyeol again, who had turned around and was trying not to wet himself.

"T-T-T-Tao..."

“Do you realize that if I hadn’t run into a lady who’d seen you get on the bus back here, you would have had me out on a wild goose chase all over Seoul? Do you realize how suspicious five kids running around together, who just happen to look like EXO members as kids, is? DO YOU REALIZE THAT!?”

“N-now Tao… Be reasona-”

He shrieked as he was grabbed by his bad wrist and pulled toward the living room sofa, where Tao sat down and pulled Chanyeol over his knee.

“TAO, WHAT ARE YOU- *SLAP* OH GOD, YOU CAN’T *FWOMP* SPANK ME, I’M YOUR *BWAP* HYUNG TAO *SMACK* STOOOP I PROMISE I’LL *WHAP* BE GOOD. I- *FWISH* PROMIIIIIIISE *SWITCH* OH GOD!!!”

The others didn’t dare to watch.

Four chairs around the dinner table held four, sober souls. Five others, as punishment for running away, stood around it (although seeing as Chanyeol would have been worse off sitting, it was only punishment in that he was exhausted from crying and wanted to be off his feet and in bed.)

“Come get your food,” Tao called curtly from the kitchen. The group was happy to finally have an excuse to move after a silent 15 minutes; D.O. whispered to Xiumin to stay put as he got his dinner for him.

Upon looking at the food before them, Sehun was the only one both cranky (seeing as he'd gone galavanting across Seoul instead of taking his afternoon nap) and audacious enough to speak up.

“What’s this?”

“What’s it look like? It’s your dinner?”

“This is eight packets of kimchi-flavored,” Sehun paused to smell, “and… beef-flavored instant ramen, mixed together. What happened to the food from earlier?”

“You guys already ate all of it except for this,” Tao grumbled.

“Why didn’t you buy more?” Sehun challenged again. The others began to distance themselves from him.

“Excuse me?”

“The younger ones can’t eat this, especially Xiumin.”

The ‘chef’ was more than miffed at this point. “If you guys don’t want to eat, then don’t”

“I didn’t mean it like that, I meant it’s a choking ha-“

“Just forget about it! Go to your rooms, all of you.”

“But-“ Sehun gave an incredulous look. Was Tao really being this ridiculous?

“No food tonight. Go. Now.” He demanded.

“You …” came another one of the little voices, from someone so unexpected that Tao's question was only half-rhetorical.

“…What was that?”

“I said you !” Suho yelled. “I've been trying to make things easier on all of us by being cooperative, but I can't anymore. All the time… especially when you’re sick, you expect us to wait on you hand-and-foot like servants, and you can’t even put out the same effort for a DAY. We’ve been washing dishes and doing chores, and the first thing you decide to do yourself you can’t even put effort into! You just get angry without even trying!”

“…Is that how you feel? That I’m not trying?” Tao said in a low voice. “First thing this morning, with a cold, I had to buy food, diapers, and clothes for nine children. I come back to see that you had destroyed the kitchen and done a really crappy job of cleaning up. Not even mentioning the fact that I make breakfast for you, I clean everything up, then I ask you guys to do the dishes, and five of you end up running away. I’m worried out of my mind that someone will recognize you until I manage to track you back here, and I’m so worried that even though I realize I severely underestimated the amount of food nine kids can eat, I don’t dare leave to get more. I throw together the only thing we have left that resembles a meal, and you guys turn your noses up at that, then get mad when I send you to bed without food.” It wasn’t until the last word left his mouth that he realized his face was burning, his voice trembling, and his vision blurred. “I’m doing all I can to take care of you and you don’t appreciate any of it!”

Most of the group couldn’t help but feel sickeningly guilty as they watched Tao break down and openly wail, leaning over the countertop for support and crying into his folded arms.

“Okay, okay, I'm sorry for insulting the food…” Sehun muttered, sliding down from his chair and going over to hug Tao around the waist. “And I'm sorry for running away today. I got carried away."

"Yeah, sorry..." Chanyeol, Chen, Baekhyun, and Kai murmured together from their seats. Sehun didn't fail to notice the first three laying on their apologetic faces a litle too heavily and 'cutely'.

"I..." Suho started, before realizing that he couldn't apologize to Tao from a place of honesty at the moment. "Look, we’ve all had a long day… Let’s all eat and go to bed. Maybe we’ll even be back to normal tomorrow.”

“I’ll check to see if there’s any baby food left somewhere,” Sehun offered before slinking into the pantry.

There was, and it wasn’t long before Tao had calmed down and the group were able to successfully, if quietly and tediously, eat their food. No one complained, despite the taste being one they never wanted to have the displeasure of experiencing again, and as Tao tiredly put the group to bed, everyone was in a much better mood, but as they drifted off they still wished for the day to have just been a strangely realistic dream.