[so uh, my picture won't save pretend you see the chapter twenty five thingy :D]

"YOU know, I never thought I'd be going to the mall on a school day to get a frog plushie from build-a-bear." Minghao chuckles, buckling himself up as they were already in Jun's car. They had already dropped off their stuff, informed Jun's mother about their small trip and of course, Jun had to argue with Fengjun before leaving midway.

Jun raises his brows and shakes his head, "Quite an adventure, I still can't believe Fengjun is making me buy him a bear, as if he'd play with it."

"Well, sometimes it's nice to have a furry friend on your bed to cuddle with," Minghao tells, Jun shrugs his shoulders and inserts the keys into the ignition, "I haven't been to the mall in forever, I wonder if it still looks the same."

"When's the last time you've gone?"

Minghao taps a finger on his chin, "I'd say about five months ago."

Jun darts his head towards Minghao before removing his foot from the brake, "Five months? Wow, well let's make this trip count. Any stores you want to stop by?" Finally, Jun starts the drive, he checks the rear mirror before removing his vehicle from its parked position. Getting on the street, they begin to move. "We can look around if you don't remember any of the stores."

"I think I want pretzels."

The brunette nods, "On it captain, that can be arranged."

"Speaking of captain, do you have practice tomorrow?" Minghao questions, wondering about his school plans. The last time he wasn't informed about his schedule he had to stay with Jun in the volleyball team's club room until their practice had ended.

"Wednesday, why? Do you want to go on another date?" Jun glances over to him, raising a brow but Minghao uses his index finger to return the brunette's eyes back on the road. "Guessing that's a no."

"I think I'll go out with Wonwoo and Soonyoung tomorrow," Minghao tells, Jun pouts from the said statement but returns to his normal expression. The ravenette knew he was joking, Jun was just a mere baby. "I'll hang out with you on Wednesday, I'll switch off each day."

"I'm fine with that, you need to spend a lot of time with them. Besides, you and I are living inside the same house now. I'll see you from morning to night." Jun reassures, Minghao replies with a small, 'mhm'. "Anyways, about those frog names?"

"Junnie, just drive."

☆

Shortly, the two boys had arrived at the mall. Jun didn't have to fight for parking this time as many did not decide to spend their weekdays at the shopping center. Entering the large building, Minghao was refreshed with the smell of polished shoes and the sweet tang of smoothies from a nearby bar. "Can we get smoothies later?" Minghao questions shyly, tugging on the bottom half of Jun's shirt to grab his attention. He discretely points to the stand and Jun nods,

"Yep, let's go get your froggie first."

The couple walk together to find the store, since Jun had forgotten where the location of the shop was they had to find a directory before setting off. Minghao's eyes never stayed in one place, they wandered everywhere as it's been a while since he's stepped foot in the building they were currently inside. After figuring out the shop was on the second floor, Minghao and Jun find the nearest escalator to take in order to get to the level below them. "What bear are you getting for Fengjun?"

"I don't know, he said any is fine as long as it's a bear. No dogs, dragons, cats, specifically has to be a bear." Jun firmly restates, after hearing his little brother's words he was somewhat afraid to see what would happen if he brought home something else. "I think I'll get one of the regular ones I saw online, they aren't much and are still cute."

"He must really like bears."

"I guess, I didn't even knew he liked them."

Minutes later, Minghao and Jun found themselves walking into the store that attracted many young children's eyes. The colorful interior and variety of stuffed animals displayed was comforting to the soul to some. "It's over there," As Jun points to the green frog standing on a holder, he grabs Minghao's hand and drags him over to the side that carries the unstuffed frog. Not to mention, this moment was uncalled for to the ravenette as he was literally dragged by his boyfriend. The tall duo now stand in the front of the row of kept animals, Jun grabs a frog for Minghao and hands it to him. "It's Jelly." He says a bit too cutely for Minghao's heart, Minghao gently takes it and nods,

"Yes it is Junnie."

"I'm going to go pick out a bear for Fengjun. You can go to the stuffing station." Jun points out to the next part of the creation process, Minghao nods and walks away from Jun to continue. The brunette was not only on a hunt for a bear for his brother, but something for Minghao as well. As he walked away to find an employee, he found a young male nearby and taps his shoulder. "Hi, uh..odd question. How can I buy something here without someone noticing? It's a gift but the person is here."

Taehyung raises his brow, he removes the hidden IPad from his large pockets and opens up the store's website. "What are you looking for?"

"You know that's a good question, I just thought about this like two minutes before walking into the store." Jun admits, which doesn't make the employee's job easier. "If you had a significant other, which animal would you give them?"

"Are you dating a five year old or something?" The bluenette questions, Jun deadpans away but Taehyung grabs his wrist and apologizes quickly as he didn't want a bad review at the register. "There are a lot of online exclusives you can get, some of them are cuter than the in-store items." He displays the screen to Jun and allows him to search, "I can add scents, sounds, and clothing later. Just find one for now."

"You didn't even answer my question man!"

"You didn't answer mine either." Taehyung shoots back, "but, if you're really that desperate. I'd go with an animal they'd like."

"He's already buying one though." As Jun discreetly points to his boyfriend who's stuffing his frog, Taehyung raises a brow and sighs.

"I don't know, buy him another one?" Taehyung suggests, unsure of what the boy wanted to do. "if he loves frogs, there's no hurt in getting him another one. Plus, I've seen a lot of people put their frogs in bunny suits. They're very cute."

"Okay deal, I'll do that." Jun quickly decided, afraid that Minghao would get suspicious of his doings. "is there anyway that I can add a like a scent, oh and a sound!"

"I can, just hold up man. You're going to need to do the sound now if that's fine. Is there a specific scent you want?"

"Donuts." Jun answers as he follows Taehyung who's walking to the sound section of the store, "it's because we had our first kiss in a Dunkin' Donuts parking lot."

Taehyung lets out a laugh, setting up the process, "That's nice to hear, but here, you're going to press the button and it'll record. You'll only have one take so make it count." The bluenette hands Jun the small sound box and the boy nods from his instructions.

"I already know what I want to say," Jun confidently says, which leads to Taehyung rolling his eyes. The brunette lifts the sound box near his mouth and presses the record button, "I love you Minghao, to the moon and back."

After that was done, he stops the recording and hands it to Taehyung. The bluenette held a confused expression, Jun assumed that it was due to the fact that he spoke in another language. "Alright, should I fill out my information now? I have to buy something for my brother."

"Yeah, just basic stuff. It'll be done quick." Taehyung quickly adds up his total and hands the IPad back to Jun. The brunette's hands were quick enough to type everything in, he even memorized all the details on his card so it only took him a minute or so to complete the whole thing. He returns the device back to Taehyung and thanks him, "It'll he shipped in a couple days, have a nice day—"

"Jun, it's Jun. And thank you Taehyung." He shortly informs before leaving to find a bear for Fengjun. Taehyung nods, giving him a thumbs up and returning to work.

Minghao who was already at the naming process had his own things up his sleeve, the ravenette had named the frog Junnie instead of Jelly like he stated before. But, Jun didn't need to know that. He had other features in his bear, but to reveal everything at once was no fun. Jun had finally picked out a caramel colored bear, it was simple but still adorable. He stood at the stuffing station, participating in the heart ceremony so he could bring the bear to 'life' and give it lots of love. Minghao smiled at the six foot giant, he hopped tinily as that's what the worker instructed him to do. He could only laugh as he found it quite adorable.

Once Minghao was finished, he had paid for everything and waited for Jun. The brunette who was done stuffing his bear walked towards Minghao. He stared at the house shaped box that was being held in Minghao's right hand raised a brow. "You paid for it yourself?" He questions, not satisfied by the sight.

"Yeah, but it's okay. I felt bad."

"I wanted to pay for you though."

Minghao kisses the boy's cheek and shakes his head to reassure him, "You have to pay for Fengjun's stuff. It's okay."

"I'll buy you a smoothie and pretzels later, is that okay?"

"Yes, that's fine. Now continue on with the process you baby." He lightly shoves Jun back to where he was supposed to be. Jun looks over his shoulder, scrunching his nose as he didn't appreciate the harsh action.

Minghao enjoyed the little things with Jun, whether if it was holding hands and giving each other small kisses as a way to comfort one another. And or, sneaking out during the cold night - watching the concealed night that was spotted with stars. He loved everything he did with Jun, Minghao was a fool to believe that listening to his mother's words was the way to live. Because, it definitely wasn't.

It was all until he received a text from his father, he looks down at the stream of messages and they shake his insides. The light hair on his arm stands and he forms goosebumps.

dad
> minghao please come home,
we need to discuss something
important. come home as soon
as possible okay?
read 4:54 p.m.

Minghao reminded himself that he did tell Jun he'd message his father somewhat later within the day. He hesitates to send a message, thumbs hovering over the screen as if the words in his mind would automatically transfer to the small message box. Typing one word, it's the one word that leads to a disaster.

minghao
> ok.
read 4:54 p.m.

a/n: pls don't hate
me for this
- if you do that's valid