thoob

Niki was staying at your apartment after being given some time off from his company. It was hard being part of Enhypen but he loves it to bits. You had decided to go to Korea and continue your studies there rather than in Japan. Or so you said.

Your parents had convinced you to uproot your whole life and move to Korea to be there in case Niki needs help and they can't get to him as fast as they could. They would have asked your older sister had she not been accepted to a prestigious internship program and is in the middle of her studies. It would be unfair to halt all of that to be Niki's safety net in Korea.

It was hard for you, to adjust to class spoken in Korean and living in a strange place. You love the country and you love the city, but the people there can be... harsh. It was hard enough learning a new language and adapting all by yourself, the last thing you need is to be poked fun at.

Which was exactly what had happened.

Somehow people found out that you were Niki's older sister. Maybe they connected the dots from your last name, maybe someone got a tip from sasaeng. But it happened and the news spread first in your class.

You came to class to be swarmed by people asking whether or not the news were true. Being a foreigner, it was hard for you to make friends. So it was an overwhelming experience for you. On top of being swarmed, people finding out about your famous brother wasn't helping. It started with them initially praising your brother to your face, telling you how they want Niki to know that they love him and how they think he's so talented. The way they were trying to make you a messenger to their confession left a bitter taste in your mouth. They were YOUR classmates, why do they care more about a snotty brat who don't even know they exist? That was harsh. You love your brother, he's not snotty but he is a brat.

But it didn't stop there.

Within 20 minutes, someone decided to play mental breakdown limbo with you.

"I don't get how a person as talented as Nishimura Riki has a sister as plain and burdensome like you. You can't even do a presentation properly"

And suddenly the narrative changed to "let's see how far we can push (y/n)."

So of course after a long day of being berated, the last thing you want is to be welcomed to YOUR apartment with more mockery.

The second you entered the apartment, you were greeted with the sight of Niki standing (tall) by the entranceway. He had a frown on his face that eas actually an act, but the distress of the day barred you from recognizing it as such. Seeing his stature made you freeze up immediately, your body's natural reaction from seeing an unhappy Niki from years of prioritizing his happiness over yours as the middle child.

"Where have you been?" He asked, arms crossed on his chest. "I-I was-" you wanted to tell him that you had to hide in the library so you can work on your assignment peacefully but also to cry alone. But Niki cut you off before you could say anything, "I was here all alone, I didn't know where things are so I can't cook and I can't really order in or else people would know I'm here. It's 9 pm, noona, you've been gone for over 12 hours! How could you leave your precious little brother alone like this? Huh? Do you not feel bad? Do you think mom would like this?" He smirked smugly as he taunted you.

Niki was having so much fun joking to not realize that your hands had began shaking and tears once again for the nth time that day streamed down your cheeks.

It wasn't until he heard you sniffling that his smirk dropped, eyes widened, and panic course through his body. He began stammering, not knowing what to do or say at the moment

"Yeah, sure. I'm a bad sister, I'm a bad daughter, I'm a bad person. I'm never gonna be enough, am I?" You said through sobs. As if it wasn't wide enough, Niki's eyes almost bulged out at your words. He never thought you're a bad sister. Heck, out of the two, you're his favourite sister. That's why instead of going back to Japan to spend his vacation with everyone else.

"I'm never gonna be enough and that sucks. I've made peace with it but it still sucks. Why can't everyone see that I'm trying so hard to keep it all together? If you're so burdened with the fact that I have a life, why don't you just go back to your dorm where there are more interesting people around? People who are on your level. Unlike your pathetic, good-for-nothing, loser sister," you spat, voice rising with each words before pushing past him into your room.

You locked yourself in and cried yourself to sleep that night. Niki sat in front of your door, leaning his forehead on the wood as he heard you cry. His brave and strong sister, broken down so bad and he might be at fault. Tears pooled in his eyes when he heard you chanting about how you hate yourself, about how it's useless to try. He wanted to run in and hug you, tell you how amazing and wonderful he thinks you are.

The next morning, you found Niki asleep on the floor. You felt guilty for yelling at him when he didn't do anything wrong. So you tried your best to at least drag his body to the carpet on your living room. You pulled the blanket and pillow from your bed and make sure that Niki was sleeping comfortably.

Whilst moving him around, you felt how light he was. Has he lost more weight ? Last time you dragged him around, you could've sworn there were more resistance.

So you decided to make him something to eat before hatching a plan to avoid him until he has to go back to his dorm in a couple of days. After all, the best appology is with food, right?

In the middle of preparing, you realized that there were some things missing. Sighing, you decided to run out to the store real quick after making sure you tidied up a bit..

Niki woke up 20 minutes after you left. He was confused as to how he suddenly moved from your door to the living room with your blanket and pillow. Though it took a bit of an effort (due to him still being in an incoherent state), he put two and two together and realized that you had been the one to put him there. He smiled slightly at the thought of your caring nature.

But he immediately took notice that the apartment was too quiet and that your bedroom door was ajar and the room itself was empty. He didn't know why, but his first reaction was to panic.

The boy ran around the apartment trying to look for you. But since the apartment was fairly small, it didn't take him long to decide to look for you outside.

Clad in his hoodie that covered his face, he ran out whilst hastily putting his face mask on.

The elevator ride never felt so long to Niki. It really felt like he had spent two hours on it before it reached the ground floor. Once the doors were opened, he dashed out to look for you. Though it was true that he was specifically told to keep his identity well kept by his managers, at that moment he wasn't really thinking about the repercussion of being spotted. All he cared about was finding you.

It was by sheer dumb luck that he spotted you with your grocery bag in one hand. You had your back to him so you didn't see him. He felt a huge weight lifted off his chest and immediately, he jogged to you. But as he got closer, he saw that you were talking to three guys and by the looks of it, they had just said something very amusing judging from the smug smirks on their faces.

"Were you actually hurt by what we said?" One of the guys asked. The question made Niki stopped dead in his tracks. He decided to hear what the guy had to say because there was something unsettling with how he spoke to you.

The two people next to him snickered at what the middle dude bro said. When Niki's eyes shifted to you, he could see how your stance was tense. He wondered how often have they bothered you like this.

"We're adults, (y/n), for god's sake, learn to take some criticism. What we said were both facts and highly constructive. With the way you are in class and with your family, burdening everyone, there's no way you'll succeed in life! You'll end up mooching odd of your successful, rich brother until he drops you because he WILL get tired of your loser ass. What? Can't understand what I'm saying??" The same guy taunted more. Niki saw how hard you were gripping your grocery bag and that's when he decided that enough was enough.

As the three men bothered you, making gestures and speaking loudly with obnoxious enunciation. If it were up to him, he would've thrown his slippers at their heads. And that was as a warning.

Niki walked fast ripped his hoodie and mask off, revealing his face.

When one of the three men noticed him, he stopped as his eyes widened. He tapped his friends and pointed at Niki who was glaring at them. At 186 cm, Niki towered over the people in front of him even at a distance. But what scared those men weren't (just) his height and expression, but also because he's famous. They literally had a celebrity throwing daggers at them.

You frowned at the sight of your classmates suddenly looking dead afraid. You were about to turn and leave when suddenly an arm wrapped around your shoulder and Niki stood firmly by your side.

"Did you meant what you said about my sister? You think of her so lowly?" He growled.

For the first time ever, you saw a side of Niki that you've never seen before. He didn't look like your baby brother who asked to swap his lemon candy for your strawberry one with teary eyes and pouty lips. The same baby brother who cried when you graduated elementary school because you wouldn't be able to walk him to class anymore. But his protectiveness over you is unchanging.

The three men stammered, nervous that they had just been heard and terrified of what Niki will do to them.

"Well?" Niki asked, stepping forward and closer to them.

Their fight or flight instinct was triggered instantly. Instead of answering, they just scrambled away. You were rather glad that the confrontation was over but slightly nervous to what Niki might think or do. You pride yourself as being the older sibling so you don't really know what's gonna happen next.

You waited for Niki to turn and do something, anything. But after 3 minutes of standing and staring at the direction of where your bullies ran to, nothing still happened.

Suddenly, you heard sniffles from your tall brother and you panicked. Why was he crying? He didn't get hurt, right? You didn't black out and missed a fight, did you? Did he saw someone recognizing him somewhere?

Your hand reached forward for his shoulder, "Riki?" You asked as you slowly pulled him to turn to look at you.

The sight of him crying fat tears made you drop your grocery bag to cup his face, "Oh my god, Riki, are you okay?" You asked. Surprisingly, he shoved your hands off his face and he glared at you, "Okay? Me?? Are you seriously asking me if I'm okay!?" He asked, voice cracking at how emotional he was being. "I should be asking you that! Are those the assholes who made you cry last night? Have they been bothering you so much? Have they been feeding you lies!?" He questioned at a rapid pace.

A sigh left your lips and you shrugged, "It doesn't matter, Riki. It's just-" "Of course it fucking does!" He interjected loudly. You froze in utter surprise at his outburst. "They made you believe that you are less than nothing! That's not okay whatsoever- that's not nothing! It matters to me, noona! How can they talk about you like that? You are the best person ever and you deserve to be treated like a fucking queen for putting up with me, mom, dad, and our eldest sister. I can't let them get away after saying those things about you. I can't, I won't," he cried while shaking his head, his fists balled so tightly that it shook and his feet were shifted side to side as if he was preparing to take off running.

Now, this Niki reminds you so much of your little brother. You can see the resemblance to a younger him who cried quite often and it softened you.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry for thinking so lowly of myself," you comforted him by putting one hand on the back of his head and one on his back and pulling him close so he could rest his face on your shoulder. That was when you thought "when did he get so big?" because truly, it seems like he's the older sibling.

"Don't say sorry for that, THEY are the ones who should be sorry," he sobbed, "Them and me." You chuckled and patted his head softly, "You have nothing to be sorry about, Riki. You are my baby brother, the best brother anyone could ask for and I'm really thankful to have you here with me, accompanying and protecting me."

Niki pulled away whilst sniffling, "I should be saying that about you, noona. You're my favourite person and no one can take that title away. Like those guys said, I WILL take care of you when we're older. I'll make lots of money so you can mooch off of me with no problem," he said with much sincerety.

You chuckled at this and reached to grab both his hand and the grocery bag on the sidewalk. "But what if you and I get married?" You asked, playing into his scenario. "No problem, we'll still live together and they HAVE to get along," he said as he gripped your hand tightly.

Once you both were in the elevator, Niki bumped his head with you before looking down on his feet, seemingly shy. "If I don't say this enough, I'm sorry. But I love you so much, you helped me be the person I am today and I wouldn't have gotten so far without your support. Although we don't see each other as much as I like, knowing that you're in the same country as me gave me reassurance that I at least have one support that counts here. I can never repay you."

You didn't know whether to coo at him or cry because those words made you feel so appreciated. Most appreciated in a while. Not even your parents had said those things to you. You smiled back and nod at him, "There's no where else I'd rather be than to support you and make sure that you're okay. You're my favourite person too, Riki. No one will ever take that spot which is why you don't have to worry about repaying me. You have nothing to repay for because I'm here because I love you too, okay?"

Niki grinned widely despite the residual tears dropping out of his eyes. If anything, he looks so adorable at that moment that you just wanted to pinch his cheeks.

"Sungmin, you have to try to join these kids. They're gonna be your friends!" you persuaded him, trying to appeal to his social side. Sungmin is a very open and loud kid. When he wants to. The move had just taken its toll on him and he isn't as excited as could've been because he wasn't given the proper time to process that he had to leave his friends behind.

You looked around the area to see if you can see other kids that could potentially be his new friend. That was when you noticed loud screams that were followed by children giggling from the other side of the playground. Soon, a young man with a white tshirt and sweat pants emerged, slightly jogging as 7 kids followed behind him.

The sound seemed to peaked Sungmin's interest as he lifted his face from your now wet shoulder. Realizing this, you nudged the boy slightly, "Doesn't that seem fun? You wanna join?" You asked him. Despite wanting too, Sungmin pursed his lips and shrugged, a clear indication that he actually wanted to but was too shy to ask for it.

You were about to concoct a plan to talk to the guy you saw when you realized someone had stood in front of you and your brother. When you looked up, you realized that it was the running guy. As your eyes analyzed him, you realized that he was very cute. His eyes sparkled and his smile looked kind. Definitely a highly likable person with just how nice he looked.

"Hi! I've never seen you two around here!" He greeted with a big grin on his face.

Even his voice sounds friendly.

You smiled at him and nodded, "Yeah, we literally just moved into building B," you told him. His eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up in surprise, "Oh my god, you're the new tenants in B805, right?" he said. This time you were the one surprised.

Seeing your expression, he chuckled and lifted both of his hands up, "I'm not a creep, I swear, I live in B807. We literally share a hallway and our apartments are adjacent to each other's. Your dad wasn't exactly quiet this morning," he explained. You laughed at that, "Oh yeah, he was probably scolding the movers, fussing over their carelessness over his gundams or something," you rolled your eyes at him before continuing, "I saw that you were playing with the other kids there. Are they your relatives?" you asked, peering over him towards the 7 kids nearby, playing among themselves.

Beomgyu peered behind to see the kids before looking back to you whilst shaking his head, "Nope, those are the kids I babysit sometimes. I'm a part time babysitter if that's not obvious, trying to save some money whilst attending Nursing School," he grinned proudly.

Despite wanting to inquire more, you realized that your main goal was to cheer Sungmin up a bit. You repositioned the boy so Beomgyu could see him better, "Do you think Sungmin here can join? I think he can use some friends from this area," you asked him. Beomgyu nodded eagerly before he crouch down to be eye-level with your brother. He tilted his head and reached his right arm forward, "Hi there, Sungmin was it? I'm Beomgyu," he introduced himself. With his sniffle dying down, Sungmin cautiously reached his own right hand forward and shook Beomgyu's hand before promptly letting it go.

Though it was seemingly miniscule, Beomgyu beamed happily at the reciprocation. "Do you like the playground here? I personally love it because there's like four different slides there and you can go absolutely nuts on them," he said. Sungmin's eyes blinked as he stared up at Beomgyu with great interest. He looked between you and Beomgyu back and forth, as if asking you for permission. You only grinned and helped him down.

Soon, he dashed off with Beomgyu, a slight spring on his steps. He seemed to have forgotten his sadness and within 10 minutes, you saw him giggling and not long after, you saw him completely cracking up with one of the kids.

As you kept a close eye on your brother, watching what he did and where he went, you felt a pair of eyes watching you. From your peripheral vision, you saw Beomgyu looking at you every so often as he played with them. He may or may not spend a little extra attention and care to your brother so he could be in your line of sight.

30 minutes in, Sungmin trodded to you asking for a drink from your water bottle. As he gulped the cold water, you helped pat his forehead to blot the sweat off. "Did you have fun, Minnie?" you asked, trying to suppress a grin as he nodded enthusiastically. His cheeks red from the activity, heat, and being happy, but he still answered you, "Yes! I even made a friend, Kijoon, he said he has a lot of robots!" he said enthusiastically.

You couldn't help but chuckle at him, "I'm glad you like the kids here," you said. "Well, I like Beomgyu hyung too! And I think he likes you!" he said out of the blue. Your eyes widened as you felt your cheeks reddened at the revelation. Though, you couldn't help but become intrigued. "R-really? What makes you say that," you asked him. Sungmin put the water bottle back in your hand and scratched his head, "He kept asking about you and kept saying that you're nice and pretty," he shrugged. Suddenly, he leaned forward which made you lean closer to him, "I can help you date him if you want, I don't mind," he said in a hushed tone before running off back to his new friends,

At this point, you think your face had bursted out in flames. But you couldn't help yourself from trailing your eyes over to Beomgyu. To your surprise, he was already looking at you and when your eyes met, he threw you a bright smile. You could've sworn that a slight blush was painted over his cheeks that you assumed could be because of the sun but a part of you wished that the cute guy was blushing because of you. So you smiled back and waved at him slightly.

Internally, you thanked Sungming for having a breakdown over the move. Because if he hadn't you would have probably meet Beomgyu at a later time or not at all. This way, you both had made contact and it's only a matter of time before you start spending time with the babysitter from across your apartment.

Beomgyu woke up earlier than usual with slight confusion. He had expected to be woken up by his members; he had expected Yeonjun to sing his own rendition of happy birthday, Soobin holding a cake, and Taehyun and Kai dancing goofily.

Instead, when he went out, he saw Kai and Taehyun on the couch, watching a movie without even sparing him a glance. When he made his presence known, the two youngest simply grunted in acknowledgement.

Maybe it was the pettiness within him, but he refused to say anything at first.

"Where's everyone?" Beomgyu asked. Without looking away from the tv, Kai answered, "out, we think?" at that, Beomgyu was hopeful. They could be going out to get him cake and presents.

"Something about an individual schedule or something, we're not sure. Manager Kang and Manager Oh came by to pick them up like an hour ago or so. We're both gonna get picked up later too but they didn't say anything about you," Taehyun added.

With that, he was once again crushed.

Deciding that he wouldn't let his member's busy schedule and what he perceived as indifference ruin his day, Beomgyu decided that he wants to spend the day with his partner, you.

But of course, you had a family emergency that day. When he called you, you sounded like you were preoccupied and you couldn't even spare 2 minutes to talk to him before you hung up.

Not only that, but his mom, dad, and brother said that they might come by late. They said that the train was having issues and there weren't any more trains scheduled to depart from Daegu to Seoul until 8 pm.

Disappointed, he ended up spending the whole day playing games. He realized that at some point his members had returned home and went out again, so he decided to just sleep. And even after he woke up, he shut his phone off permanently.

So there Beomgyu sat; alone, heartbroken, and seething. He had received wishes from his fans but not the people who are the closest to him. It hurts. It sucks.

When he looked up to the clock above the tv, he felt some of his tears drop.

"Happy Birthday to me," he choked out as he blew the candle with shaky breaths, comically as the clock struck 12.

Suddenly, the front door slammed open and you stood with the boys behind you.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHOI BEOMGYU!" you all yelled.

Beomgyu's eyes widened and his first reflex was to burst into tears.

Panicked, you shove the cake into Taehyun's arms and rush to him. "Baby, why are you crying?" you asked, wrapping your arms around his shoulders and pulling him close so that his face was buried just under your chest.

"You forgot! You all forgot! It's too late, it's not my birthday anymore!" He choked out in between tears, sobs, and snot. Whilst the others cringed at him, you simply grab a few tissues and carefully wipe his face, "No no no baby, we didn't forget! See!" you said as you pointed at the grinning boys.

Looking up, Beomgyu sniffled, his hands had somehow wrapped themselves tightly just below your bottom, "I-It's not my b-birthday anymore," he whined.

This time, Yeonjun spoke up with a teasing grin, "well, it still is," he said. Beomgyu turned his head and furrowed his eyebrows, "remember last month when you told us you don't trust us to make a surprise party because our ideas suck? Well, (y/n) and I thought that we can prank you by pretending to forget your birthday and when you were taking an angry nap, Kai snuck into your room to change your phone's clock and all the clocks here to another time zone. It's actually still 8.30 pm," Yeonjun added.

Beomgyu had to take a second to let everything sink in.

You all stood in anticipation, waiting for his reaction.

Merely seconds later, you all jumped in surprise when Beomgyu let out a mixture of laughter and cries. He laughed loudly as tears kept streaming down his face.

"You a-a-all are assholes! I-I-I- y-y-ou go-t m-me! I was r-really scared! I h-ate yo-u all!" he said in between laughter and tears. Thankfully, you all know him good enough to realize that he was actually thankful and relieved.

You were pulled onto Beomgyu's lap, him hugging you tightly as he pepper kisses onto your face, making you giggle. Despite the "excessive" PDA, the boys gathered and sat around the dining table. You all spent the rest of the day by ordering in, singing, playing, making fun of Beomgyu, and reassuring him that his family really couldn't come until the next day because their train was really delayed.

His elbows almost slipped and his head almost bumped his head on the side of Odi's cage. "Excuse me, what?" He asked, flabbergastered. You slid from his bed to sit next to him, hugging your knees, "Well, I see you with Odi and it seems great and I kinda want that for myself," you sheepishly grinned.

Soobin sat up and stared at you with an eyebrow raised, "So you're saying you want a hedgehog?" He asked.

You pursed your lips, shrugging, "Well, I don't know what animal exactly but-" before you could finish, Soobin had gripped your shoulders in his hand, lips stretching to a big smile, "This is great! We can be the couple with a couple pet! You get a girl hedgehog, that way Odi can have someone too!" He rambled, eyes shining brightly with excitement.

At that moment you weren't sure which of you wanted the pet.

⇀ Yeonjun

You were in bed with Yeonjun, him scrolling through his Tiktok as you scroll through yours. The both of you were watching different contents; him catching up with the trends, and you going through pet tok.

Craning your head up to look at him, you raised your phone to show him your screen, "Junnie, I want this cat," you told him.

He glanced slightly, smirking and shrugging, "You should baby, go get it," he answered. You pouted at his lack of interest, "But I wanna get it with you. You know, like a couple's pet thing," you mumbled, burrying your face into his chest.

With that, he dropped his phone onto his face, surprised. He jolted and yelped, making you giggle. But when he recovered, he stared down at you, "Y-you sure you wanna- I mean, are we there? Are we committed to THAT point already?" He asked, blinking quickly.

You couldn't help but bite your bottom lip, suppressing a grin as you nodded quickly.

At your confirmation, he set his phone aside and snatched your phone. The rest of the afternoon were spent planning on a pet you both can adopt.

⇀ Beomgyu

The whole day you've been at home, you kept sending Beomgyu pictures and Tiktok videos of puppies.

He kept replying about how adorable they are, how much he wants to squish and hug them. And you told him about which dog breed you preferred based on the Tiktok videos you binged watched. You then told him that you both should go to a pet café soon.

When Beomgyu came to your home, you were on your couch, still staring at your phone.

"Hi sweetie," Beomgyu called. You heard him taking off his shoes but you couldn't stop staring at this one video of a puppy. "Gyu, I'm going nuts here. I think I wanna get a puppy," you whined, dropping your phone to look at him.

Your eyes widened at the sight in front of you.

There Beomgyu stood, a proud smile on his face, and a puppy of the breed that you had told him you preffered in his arms. The puppy has its tail wagging hard when it saw you. If you had to be honest, the puppy looked so much like Beomgyu at that moment.

"Good, because I kinda already gotten you one and I don't think I have the heart to toss our new baby out if you didn't actually want him,"

⇀ Taehyun

"Tyunnie," you called out to him.

You had Hobak on your stomach, running a hand through the cat's fur as it purred in content. Taehyun, who's behind you as you are laid between his legs, hummed in acknowledgement.

"How hard was it raising Hobak?" You asked as the cat rolled over so its body resembles more of a croissant than a cat. Taehyun pursed his lips, thinking for a moment before answering, "Not that hard, but I had help so it was fairly easier," he shrugged.

This time, you pursed your lips, "Do you think I should get a pet of my own?" You asked him, leaning back to rest your head on his shoulder as you look up at him. He chuckled as he looked down at you, he pecked your forehead and pulled you closer, "Well, if you want to then you should! I think Hobak would like a fellow feline friend to play with," he smiled.

But the look on your face made him raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I wasn't talking about a cat... maybe something more like an iguana or a chameleon or even geckoes," you smiled sheepishly at him which made him widen his eyes at you in surprise.

⇀ Huening Kai

You both came home from Meerkat Friends, an exotic animal café, tired but very satisfied and happy.

"Can you imagine having to take care of that much animal?" Kai chuckled as he dropped his body onto the couch. Following suit, you glomped and snuggle into his arms, "Yeah, but don't you think they were cute? Especially the arctic fox," you said, voice slightly muffled from being covered by his shirt.

Kai's chest vibrated as he laughed, "You said I looked like them," he said as his nose scrunched. You looked up at him with a mischevious glint in your eyes, "You know what else looks like you? The Fennec Fox I saw that was up for adoption," you said innocently.

At that, he groaned, "(y/n), why do you feel the need to take care of some animal when you have me? Your boyfriend, your baby, your everything-until-you-get-an-animal-to-replace-me," he pouted at you.