Kingdom of Knuffel

When Tae finally got back, he felt exhausted. He took his shoes off and set them aside. He could see Haneul and Ju-Kan in the living room, but didn't see Lain. He went into their room and turned on the light to unpack his stuff. Although, he saw Lain sleeping on the bed and quickly turned the light off again. Tae unpacked in the darkness, putting some things away before taking his laundry to wash it.

Lain was still doing his breathing to relax thing, although he'd settled into the pattern of breathing so much he wasn't consciously doing it anymore. He had his eyes closed and was very relaxed, although he was still awake.

The light turned on and then just as quickly turned off. Lain heard Tae rummaging around in the darkness and lay still, wondering whether to greet Tae or to pretend to be asleep. If he greeted Tae then Tae might think he woke him up by turning on the light, though. So Lain decided to stay quiet.

When Tae left the room Lain decided to go wake Ju-Kan if he was still sleeping. After all, it would help no one if Ju-Kan messed up his sleep schedule by having a too-long nap.

Lain went and shook Ju-Kan awake. He had to shake him roughly and call his name loudly in his ear. When Ju-Kan sat up and blinked blearily, Lain said, "It's been hours, hyung. I had to wake you."

"You did the right thing," Ju-Kan said with a massive yawn.

"Can you help me with the dance? Tae taught me the dance break so I only need to learn the first minute."

"I'll help you tonight," said Ju-Kan. "I don't even feel like moving at the moment."

"Okay. Thanks, hyung," said Lain. He went back to his room and turned on the light, wondering what to do until dinnertime.

After Tae did his laundry, he went back to their room. The light was on and Lain was awake. "S-Sorry, hyung, did I wake you?" He hoped that turning on the light hadn't woken him up. He had only come in to get a book to read. It was too early for him to go to sleep, even though his body was exhausted.

"You didn't, don't worry. I got up to ask Ju-Kan to help me with the dance, and he said he'll do it after dinner." Lain smiled at Tae. "I've been lying here all afternoon, I got up on my own."

Tae looked really tired, Lain noticed. "Do you want to rest now?" It made him sad and proud at the same time how hard Tae pushed himself and Lain was always reminding him not to overexert himself.

Did he want to rest? Did Tae really look that tired? "No, hyung, I'm okay." He said quietly. "I don't be able to sleep yet, anyway." He added. "I was just going to read for a bit."

Tae said he was going to read for a bit. Lain widened his eyes. "I was wondering what to do until dinner. I could read too! What book are you reading?" Although, Lain tended to read mostly manhwa. They were easy to get through. He used to enjoy reading novels but they got so busy after debut that he didn't have time for them anymore. He used to be forced to leave a novel partway and when he finally got the time to return to the novel he'd have forgotten most of what he'd already read of it.

Lain went over to the shelf that held a few manhwa. "I should probably get a subscription to borrow comics instead of buying them," he mumbled. "I've already read all of these." Maybe he could go to there now, take a subscription and borrow a few manhwa.

The place he was thinking of was called Prince Comics. He frequented it when he was a child; it was in his native street but still wasn't far from their dorm. The part-store, part-lending library had novels too, so perhaps Tae would be interested. Neither Haneul nor Ju-Kan had much of a reading hobby so he and Tae could share a subscription between them... but then he didn't know if it had the kind of books Tae'd like. Maybe someday he could take Tae there so Tae could decide for himself.

"Oh, um, just something my eomma sent me." Tae said, holding up the book to show Lain that it was in English. His mom sent him books every now and then so he could read in English too. Then Lain was at his shelf and mumbling. "What?" Although he wasn't entirely sure if Lain was actually talking to him or not.

"Ooh, you're brushing up on your English!" Lain smiled. Lain was okay with English, enough to get by. They'd all been required to take some English lessons as trainees to prepare for tours abroad when they'd meet international fans.

When Tae asked him what he was saying, Lain explained, "There's this lending library I used to go to. I was thinking I need new books to read. Do you want to go there together sometime? I don't know what kinds of books you like, but they've got a variety."

"I guess, it's just a book I used to read a lot before coming here." Tae admitted quietly. Growing up in the United States wasn't something he talked about a lot. He already felt different enough, no reason to point it out all the time. Then he started talking about a library he used to go to. "Oh, um, yeah, hyung, that sounds like fun." He said finally. At least, it would be something other than work to get him out of the dorm.

"Cool, let's go there on our next day off." If the books there turned out to be to Tae's taste, then Lain could borrow books for him even when Tae was too busy or tired to go there. Because Lain would be going there anyway to borrow comics for himself.

"I'll leave you to read, then," said Lain, so as not to take up more of Tae's time. He slid out a volume of a manhwa from the shelf and settled on the bed to read.