It was a chilly November morning. It seemed like the snow would come any day now.
As Z was getting out of bed, he noticed that the door to Tae-young's bedroom was left ajar, and he could see him inside, looking in the mirror. He could see Tae-young pinching his cheeks, and squishing the chub on his legs and belly. He looked dejected, as if he was disappointed in himself.
"Tae."
Tae-young jumped a bit when he heard his name spoken. He looked up. "Yeah?"
"I'm gonna make some breakfast, are you hungry?"
Tae-young pursed his lips for a moment, but lowered his head. "No, not really."
Z cocked an eyebrow for a second, but shrugged. He knew Tae-young was going through his period, and after cramps on the first day came mood swings on the second. He'd probably come down later.
Later in the evening, as the guys were all eating dinner together, Z noticed that Tae-young was taking an awful long time to eat a small amount of food. He also didn't have any makeup on. He elbowed him. "Hey; why aren't you eating?"
Tae-young scowled at him. "I am eating."
"Yeah, but you usually have bigger portions than that." Z sat up a bit straighter. "And you didn't have any breakfast either."
The other guys were now looking at Tae-young as well, with the same concerned look on their faces. Feeling cornered, Tae-young finished off his last bites, put his dishes in the sink, and took off.
The guys all looked at each other. Since Jesse had also cleared his plate, he stood up. "I'll go talk to him." He put his dishes away and went upstairs, where he found Tae-young face down on his bed. He sighed and sat down next to him. "What's going on with you? Why won't you eat anything?"
Tae-young lifted his head and wailed "I'm fat and I look like a girl!", before smushing his face back down into the pillow.
"Hey…" Jesse put a hand on Tae-young's back. Tae-young looked up at him, and sat up to lay on his shoulder. Jesse put an arm around Tae-young to soothe him. "There's nothing wrong with how you look."
Tae-young swabbed at his nose and hiccupped. Jesse tilted his chin up. "See, look at you, you've got big brown eyes, and a button nose, and squishable cheeks."
"I mean, Mamá always says you look like me and, like…I'm gorgeous. So."
Jesse looked up at the doorway, where T was now standing. "Thank you, Aaron, very helpful." He turned back to Tae-young. "Look at me; it does not bother me one bit if you've put on weight. Just means to me that you're eatin' good."
Tae-young sniffed. "Yeah?"
"Mmhmm." Jesse rubbed Tae-young's bicep. "I think back to when we first brought you home, and you were so skinny, cause you had hardly eaten anything in a week. I don't ever want that for you. Okay?"
Tae-young laid his head back down on Jesse's shoulder. "Okay."
"Good." Jesse ruffled Tae-young's hair. "Trust me; I much prefer the chunky little guy you are now over who you were a year ago."
"There are still some potatoes and rice leftover," said T, coming in. "Whattaya say about it, buddy boy?"
Tae-young grinned and nodded, and so T lifted him up onto his shoulders. "Don't carry him down the stairs!" Jesse shouted at him.
"Aw, I'll be careful!" To appease Jesse, T went down the staircase very slowly, and held on tightly to the railing, while Tae-young clung to him for dear life.
When they got to the kitchen, Robaire and Z were still there; they were taking their time finishing their dinner. "You feel better now, Tae-bear?" Z asked.
"Mmhmm," mumbled Tae-young. Once T put him down, he picked his dishes out of the sink, plated what was left over, and sat down at the table.
"That's good," said Robaire, "cause I know it upsets Jesse when you don't eat." He turned back to Z. "Okay, you've been pushing that piece of chicken around on your plate for like ten minutes, either eat it or don't."
"Fine," said Z. "Tae-bear, I'm stuffed, you want this?"
"Sure." Tae-young stabbed the chicken with his fork and brought it over to his own plate.
"Guys, look, it's snowing!"
The guys all looked over at the sliding door to the porch, and true to T's word, some scattered snowflakes were falling. All of them crowded around to watch it.
"That's real light stuff," said Robaire. "It might be another week or so before we get snow that sticks."
"You're lucky you grew up somewhere with lots of snow," said Z. "You wouldn't see something like this in Glendale."
"Or Tampa," said Jesse.
T jumped a bit when he heard Jesse's voice. "How did you get here?"
"I have legs and our house has stairs," said Jesse, giving T that oh-so-familiar "you just said something dumb" look. "I walked, dumbass."
Robaire and Z laughed at T, while Tae-young stayed fixated on the snow. Jesse patted Tae-young's back, and the five of them continued watching the adorable little snow chunks float to the ground.