He stepped out of the car and stared back at the house that’s been his home for a few months now. Even during the days where he would return to his parents’ home, he would still miss the comfort of this house. The manager took his bigger luggage and dragged it across the grass before ringing the bell.

Not even 5 steps were taken when blurred images of Xiumin and Chen running into him. Falling into the grass with both guys on top of him, he felt a burst of air rush into his lungs, but mostly he felt the heavy weights on top of him. Distorted voices called out to him, but he felt too light headed to understand it clearly. Chen was the first to get off him and helped Xiumin to stand up.

“Lay ge I’m sorry…” he said pitifully as he tried to help him up. A mixed look between sadness and worry flashed across Chen’s face as Chen realized maybe he shouldn’t have tackled his hyung. He stared at the grass feeling guilty as he muttered more apologies.

Meanwhile Xiumin, who felt more easy going towards the situation, decided to brush grass off Lay’s bag, pants and hair. His fingers brushes through Lay’s short hair and he combed Lay’s bangs backward, knowing full well how much Lay hated his forehead. He smirked as Lay noticed Xiu’s actions and Lay playfully smacked his hand away as he pulled Xiumin into a hug.

“I missed you guys too” he said in his funny accent and hugged him tightly before letting go of Xiumin.

“Don’t look so sad Chenssi…who’s gonna create the mood if you’re sad” as Lay hugged him more tightly. Chen’s throat tightened as emotions overcame him, and he buried his face into Lay’s shoulder. Lay patted Chen’s back as he whispered some words to his ear.

“Hey…how come I don’t get a longer hug?” Xiu asked as he noticed the emotional situation and walked closer to them. Lay stretched open his left arm as Xiu joined the hug.

A minute passed when Lay suddenly said “So…can we go in now? I have to pee..”

Xiumin burst into laughter and let go of Lay while Chen began to playfully smack him.

“I’ll bring your bag” as Xiu took his bag from his back and walked inside.

Lay grabbed Chen’s hand and walked inside with Chen.

“I brought my mom’s food! We can eat it!” Lay exclaims as he let go of Chen’s hand and ran to the bathroom. Chen laughed at Lay’s silliness before helping Xiu to unpack his luggage.

They both fell over laughing as they saw that his luggage contained more dolls than clothes or belongings. Lay stared in confusion as he walked out of the bathroom.

“Lay ge why do you always have so many dolls?” as Chen took out two identical Baymax. He hugged one of them and felt the softness.

“Oh that was from fans…but I want you both to have it…”as he gave one Baymax to Xiu and the other to Chen. “That way Baymax can heal you instead of me when I’m not around” he explained, but was met with more laughter.

“You’re so silly…thank you” as Xiu hugged him again.

“You guys like it right?” Lay asked in confusion

“Yes!!” they both shouted in unison and did a high five when they realized the sync in shout.

Lay took out the big package in plastic bags in his luggage.

“You guys have to try this…It’s really good” as Lay opens the plastic bag and took out the food.

“Okay let’s eat it all now before K members, and dumb and dumber comes” Chen commented as he drooled over the food.

Lay laughed as he remembered dumb and dumber was Tao and Sehun nicknames. The nickname was given after one particular incident where they both almost burned down the house. Since then, they were not allowed to stay home alone unless Chen, Xiumin, DO, Lay or Suho were there. Suho have also decided that Baek, Chanyeol and Kai would not be good babysitters to them.

“no…that’s mean...let’s leave this for them, but we’ll eat the others” Xiu replied as he pointed to the dish with cucumbers. Lay laughed again as he realized why Xiumin picked it

“You just want Baek to suffer! And I like that dish” Chen whined to his hyung

“I’ll just separate half of each dish” as Lay took out half of each dish and placed them in a big plate. He stored the rest in the fridge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sehun stared at his watch in annoyance as he realized they were an hour late to M’s dorm.

“See! We’re so late…it’s all your fault!” he whined to Tao as he smacked him with a small pillow that was beside him.

“It is not! The jeans were ripped and I refuse to be an embarrassment…Suho hyung is enough secondhand embarrassment for the group!” Tao exclaimed as he tried to defend his situation.

“Stop making excuses! You could have worn anything but you made us wait an hour just to pick another one!” Sehun hit him again with the pillow, which caused Tao to smack him back with his hand.

Whenever they would physically fight, Tao would end up constraining him with his arms and Sehun would use his legs to kick him back.

Meanwhile Suho was too preoccupied in his mind to notice the maknaes’ arguments. He sighed to himself as he couldn’t believe that he spent half of his morning getting Tao ready in his freaking “trendy clothes” and the other half telling the members to get ready faster. He closed his eyes and couldn’t wait to transfer these 7 problems to someone else.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Xiumin cleaned the table as Chen did the dishes and Lay laid down in the sofa closing his eyes. A minute passed by when the door bell rang. Xiumin opened the door to greet the K members.

“Is he here?” Kai asked excitedly while holding his paper bag.

“Yep…” Xiu said as he nudged his head towards the living area.

Lay stood up as he saw K members ran to him

“Hyung I brought some wine…let’s have that drink” Kai said while holding his paper bag up. He hugged his hyung, but not long enough since Baek pushed him away so he could hug Lay.

“Hyung why did you have to go so long?” he asked in a sad tone

“If I didn’t then you wouldn’t miss me” Lay replied jokingly and hugged him tightly before letting go.

Sehun immediately pushed Baek away and pulled Lay into a hug before Lay could have a chance to say a word. He laughed as Sehun picked him up and twirled him around.

“Layy you got skinnier…I’m staying here until you gain pounds!” he exclaimed before letting him go reluctantly.

“Good!” “Thank god” “Finally..” were the few comments that came out from K members when Sehun made his declarations.

Lay laughed at everyone’s reaction and asked “why? What did our maknae do now?”

“A lot…we have things to talk about” Suho explained as he walked up and hugged him.

“Okay” Lay nodded seriously. “In meantime I brought some food for you guys” were the words that he wanted to say but everyone else already ran to the table before he finished the words.

Tao walked closer to Lay with a sad face as he looked at him

“What’s wrong?” Lay stared worriedly at him

“Everything’s been really hard and you weren’t there” Tao replied in a whisper and pulled him into a hug while holding back his tears. Lay whispered back to him in Chinese while comforting him. Tao couldn’t hold back his tears and cried on his shoulder, which caused the members to notice.

Baekhyun who saw this scene walked up to them and tried to lift up the mood.

“Cmon Tao…he’s back. Everything’s fine. I saw your favorite food…kungpao chicken..” as Baek rubbed his back. Tao let go of Lay and wiped his eyes.

Tao sniffed and replied “Okay…but it’s all mine!” as Tao snatches the food away from the table, which caused the members to shout against him.

~~~~~~~

The members were sitting around the couch as they browsed through the channels. Most were either preoccupied by their phones or by the tv. Suho signaled Lay out of the room with his nod and Lay followed him to one of the bedroom.

While the leaders were busy discussing a few plans, the atmosphere in the room changed.

Baekhyun was bored with his phone and decided to sit next on the arm rest, where Xiu hyung fell asleep. He poked Xiu’s forehead, and then his cheek, but there was no reply from him. Baekhyun looked back at the members, who were all either sleeping or preoccupied with their phones.

He reached for the end of Xiu’s shirt and slowly lifted it up. He started to lightly caress his stomach with his fingers and slowly placed his palm on his abs. He started to check whether it’s as hard as he thought and felt the defined edges between each ab. He wondered how long it took his hyung to form such fabulous abs and moved his hand further up. As he got closer to his area, he saw brown eyes staring back at him in confusion before anger settled in. Xiumin pushed him off before standing up with an angry look. Baekhyun ran to the room where the leaders were in, however the door was lock

“Baekhyun! Come back here!” Xiumin yelled which caused the other members to wake up from their slumbers.

“Hyungs! Open the door!” Baekhyun started smacking the door. He almost smacked Suho face when the door opened.

“Baekhyun stop it with the ruckus!” Suho replied in annoyance, but became distracted when Baekhyun ran behind him and used him as a shield. Xiumin approached with his fist curled up and was ready to attack him when Suho stopped him.

“Wait…stop…what did he do?” Suho asked, knowing full well the answer is either he touched inappropriately or he broke something important.

“He touched me again…just let me punch him once…” Xiumin glared at Baekhyun

“no no…my face is too precious. It’s so hard to make it beautiful and soft…I practically had to use double the amount…” Baekhyun started rambling.

Lay shooked his head as he watched this scene and grabbed Baekhyun’s arm to pull him out from Suho’s back.

“That’s enough…Baekhyun apologize” Lay glared at him

“I…I’m sorry…I was just curious what your abs felt like…” Baekhyun looked down on the floor. He flinched when he saw Xiumin fist coming for his arm, but felt a light smack instead. Xiumin laughed and grabbed his arm.

“You should have seen your face” Xiumin smiled and pulled him into a hug. Baekhyun felt relieved, but was also shocked that he got tricked so easily.

“Your punishment is…to help me clean the kitchen and dishes…that’s okay?” Xiu asked Suho, who nodded in agreement. Baekhyun nodded in defeat and followed his hyung.

“See what I mean…half of these problems are just them being brats….” Suho started defending his opinion again. Lay nodded in agreement and hugged Suho.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Guys settle down…” Suho started talking as he saw a few members were still talking and their backs were turned against them

“Sehun! Baekhyun!” Lay shouted and they both fell quiet while turning around to look at Suho.

“Okay…we’re doing a quick meeting on upcoming stages. We want to show the best so please…no random ad libs” as he glared at Baekhyun “and behave” as he stared at the maknaes. Tao huffed at his comment and looked away as if everything he said was completely untrue.

“Most of all we need to start practicing the Chinese version of every song…so vocal line will be with Lay while rap line will be with Tao” Suho explained but was met with arguments by the rap line.

“What?! No…I refuse to have Tao as teacher” Sehun started

“He called me stupid when I kept messing up!” Kai whined

“I want Lay instead…” Chanyeol said

“It’s not my fault these imbeciles don’t know the difference between saying xia and chia” Tao defended himself

“Tao!” both leaders yelled at his language

“Tao…you need to step up to the plate and handle this better. That means you can’t throw water balloons at them every time they mess up…” Lay told him sternly in Chinese. Tao looked displeased at this fact but accepted Lay ge words.

“I think he said Tao can throw his shoes at us” as Baekhyun started to guess

The members laughed at his ridiculous statement and some even shooked their heads.

“No…whoever can get it right, he can pick their vocal partner” Lay teased them. It was a common fact that they’d practice in partners so they could improve better on each other criticism. Suddenly everyone had their hands up including Suho. Lay pointed to Suho first.

“He’s not allowed to throw balls?” he replied and lay shook his head. He pointed to Kai.

“He can’t smack us in the head?” Kai said hopefully and Lay shook his head again.

“He can’t grind against your back/side when you get it right?” Sehun stated which caused the members to look at him

“Um he does that to you?” Baekhyun asked in shock

“It was just for fun!” Tao started to argue back, which earned the glare of his hyungs

“No... That’s wrong. Tao grinding in excitement isn’t allowed too…” Lay stated back as Tao looked upset at this newer rule.

Chen, who has been putting his arm as high as he could, started to make noises to get Lay’s attention. Lay laughed as he allowed Chen to talk.

“He can’t throw water balloons at you! And something about being better” Chen replied in excitement. Lay laughed and nodded.

“Yes you were the closest one… and I don’t think you guys will catch the first part since it’s an idiom” Lay explained

“Boo teacher’s pet!!!” Baekhyun mocked Chen, who replied “at least I understand which bathroom is for men”

The members laughed as they remembered the incident where Baekhyun accidently went into the girls’ bathroom. He was horrified when he saw his fellow female idols threw makeup and tampons at his face for being a ert.

“It wasn’t my fault! I asked Tao and he gave me the wrong direction!!” Baek stuttered as he tried to get rid of more embarrassment.

“Hey! I told you left! It’s not my fault you went right!” Tao huffed back at him

“Okay that’s enough…Chen who are you going to pick?” Lay tried to steer the conversation back to reality while at the same time chuckling to himself.

Chen pulled Lay ge close to him as an indication of his choice. Chen slipped his hand to his hyung’s hand and held it tightly.

“Hey! That’s not fair!”

“You can’t pick the Chinese member…that’s cheating”

“No! Lay is my pick!” were the few arguments that came out of the members’ mouths.

“Enough! It’s perfectly fine. Tao will be handling rap line so I don’t want to hear any more arguments. And Tao…no more punishments…” Suho was starting to get annoyed by the members

“But if I don’t they don’t have incentive to get it right!” Tao argued but in reality he really just wanted to punish his hyungs for fun.

“It’s fine Suho…paper balls and that’s it. If I see any other forms of punishment, we’ll be punishing you” Lay replied harshly. Tao looked down at the floor in guilt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay that’s all…I guess we can go home now…” Suho said as the members cheered.

“Wait!!! I want to suggest something!!” Sehun yelled as he stood up, and broke off Chen and Lay’s linked hands. Chen glared at Sehun before sitting down beside Baekhyun again. Baekhyun felt restless so he laid his head to Chen’s shoulder.

Kai who was so used to an early bedtime was starting to use Kyungsoo as his pillow. He grabbed soo’s arm and cuddled his face to the crook of his neck. Kyungsoo didn’t mind since Kai knew his boundary. Chanyeol saw this and wanted the same thing, but was met with a stomach smack when he tried.

“I have this new idea for playboy dance…Lay just follow my lead okay” he started talking as he turned lay’s back in front of him and he faced his back to Lay’s back. Lay nodded in confusion as he felt Sehun’s leg leaning against his

“So instead of rubbing, I want to us to face each other”

Sehun started the body movement for playboy and Lay followed. When they were supposed to stand back against back, Sehun swung his right leg to be in between Lay’s legs while Lay’s leg is between Sehun’s legs.

“Instead of rubbing our , our leg should rub against the crotch area...” Sehun explained. “And then we look into each other eyes like this” as Sehun moves Lay’s face and leaned his forehead against Lay. Lay stared back at his brown eyes and their noses touched.

“I could have sworn Tao was the gay one” DO muttered to himself, which was heard by a laughing Chanyeol.

“Um I dunno Sehun…that looks too ual” Suho chuckled while feeling embarrassed for saying the ual

“I like it!!! I pick Xiumin as partner!” Baekhyun suddenly shouted

“What?! No…Chen help me out here” Xiumin looked at Chen with puppy eyes

“Wait wait…we haven’t voted yet…” Suho started

“But we don’t need to vote…you said if the main dancer agree then it’s okay!” Sehun complained as he stood up. He grabbed Lay with his arms and pulled him in to a back hug.  “And Lay is fine with it!”

“Actually Kai is main dancer…” Suho nudged his head towards Kai, who was fast asleep in Kyungsoo’s shoulder. “And he’s useless…” Suho sighed

“So does that mean Lay’s vote wins?” Sehun said excitedly

“What do you think? Is it doable? It seems awkward…” Suho stated while ignoring Sehun’s huffs at his words.

“Well…we need to tweak it a bit but we could do front to front dancing instead” Lay explained. Sehun shouts in excitement and hugged Lay even more.

“But the partners have to be almost same height so the leg doesn’t accidentally jerk up to his crotch…” Lay then continued while laughing

“No!!! We’re supposed to be partners” Sehun stomped his foot and glared at Lay

“Sehun…you’re too tall and you might hurt me with your leg when we do the squat part. And I want kids one day” The members laughed at his last comment, but Sehun kept glaring at him with anger.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay…so the partner for this will be the same for vocal practice too. The 4 tall members can fight it out in that room” Suho pointed to an empty room

“But I wanted to be with Kyungsoo” Chanyeol pouted at Soo and nudged his arm. Soo looked at him once and looked away.

Since no one could wake up a sleeping Kai, Lay had to do the task. He’d sit on Kai’s lap and combed his fingers through his hair while whispering to him. Kai would slowly open his eyes and smiled at his hyung. They hugged before Lay stood up and walked to the younger brothers who were fighting.

“What are we doing?” Kai asked sleepily

“Choosing partners…you’re mine okay?” he asked with his wide eyes

“Sure…I don’t care”

“But don’t you love me more? Look I even made this Kyungsoo fanclub!” Chanyeol asked while pouting. Kai laughed while pretending to barf. Kyungsoo gave Chanyeol his glare and looked away again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seeing that Lay was busy, Suho grabbed Tao’s hand and pushed him into the empty room to make this process go a little faster. He saw Sehun standing in anger and decided to coax him.

“Sehun….come on…you can be partners with Lay another time…”

“No... I don’t like him anymore. I’ll be partners with Chanyeol!” as he stomped his feet towards Chanyeol. He pulled Chanyeol off his feet and pushed him towards the empty room together.

“Alright Kai…go into that room too. You’ll be partners with Tao” Suho stated

“Oh okay…bye soosoo” as Kai waved bye to him

“Does this mean I’m stuck with Baekhyun again?” DO stared at Suho hoping he can choose someone else

“nah… I’m sure you’ll be with M members” were the words that fell out of his mouth, but turned into regrets when he saw the members arguing in the corner.

~~~~~~~~~

“But hyung, you said I was your favorite dongsaeng” Baekhyun pouted

“Yes in K! But you’re after Chen and Lay…so your argument is invalid” Xiumin explained to him. He looked back at Chen, who seemed to find this situation extremely funny.

“I’m not allowed to be partners with you though according to SM…so I have to be with Lay” Chen told Xiumin

“But that’s only for roommates not for vocals” Xiumin pouted

“No I’ll be taking Baekhyun…SM told me his pronunciation got the most criticism…” Lay explained while glaring at Baek

“What? That’s not my fault…” Baek said nervously while feeling guilty cos he didn’t practice nightly as he should have

“So who am I with?” Chen pouted

“I don’t want to be with Baekhyun no matter what you say…He kept grabbing my and pretended it was all for show” Kyungsoo stated as he walked towards them. Xiumin gave Kyungsoo a high five which soo accepted.

“Shhh let me decide okay” Lay felt annoyed all of a sudden

“Baekhyun and Chen will alternate with me for vocals while the other goes with Suho since I obviously have to be harsher…” Lay glared at them before they could argue. “Xiumin will go with Soo since they’ll both balance each other vocally.”

“Okay hyung” as Baekhyun patted his and slowly transfer his patting to Xiu’s , who was next to Lay. Xiumin noticed it and judged him with a glare.

~~~~~~~~~~~

“Bye hyung…I’m glad you’re back” Kyungsoo hugged Lay tightly before he walked out of the door. Lay nodded and waved

“That wine was superrrr good. I like how it made me hyper in the beginning and then completely crashed me” Kai said excitedly while rubbing his eyes. Lay laughed as he patted his .

“Okay Kai…let’s go to the car” Suho stated as he nod to Lay and almost had to carry Kai into the car. Unfortunately Kai tripped on a small rock, which brought both of them down. Chanyeol pointed and laughed at them while DO smiled.

“Ugh…will you guys please help instead of laughing?!” Suho said in annoyance and Chanyeol finally got out of the car and helped Kai into the car.

Baekhyun was still holding Xiu in a back hug as Xiu walked to the front door. As they walked, Baek noticed how it was almost like he was grinding against his . So Baek decided to really grind against his back, which caused Xiu to push him away.

“Get out!” Xiu shouted at Baek jokingly as he pointed to the door

Baek laughed and ran to Lay for a hug.

“He’s so mean hyung” Baek explained to Lay as Lay kissed his cheek. He patted his before Baek went into the car.

“Don’t go to back China okay…stay here” as Sehun hugged him. He seemed to forgive Lay easily than he would forgive his other hyungs. Lay laughed and shook his head.

“I can’t….I have to finish filming. We’ll sleep over tomorrow okay?” as Lay grabbed his face and stared at his eyes. Sehun nodded in sadness and walked away.

As the members drove away, he realized how much he missed this despite his happy feeling in China. It was only for two weeks so he couldn’t imagine if he had to leave for a longer time.