A FEW MOMENTS LATER...

"I cannot believe we're doing this," D.O. grumbled as he was hiding in the bushes with a bunch of his other brothers. "This is ridiculous! Why do we do what he says?" he asked.

"I don't know...tradition? It's just for a day, though," Baekhyun said beside him, his head covered with twigs and leaves to blend easily behind the bushes they were hiding.

"A day is too long," D.O. groused.

"Can't we try and prank him instead? I don't like this!" Sehun suddenly exclaimed, a little loud.

"Shh! She'll hear," Chanyeol warned, peeking behind the bushes and signaling to Kris on the other side of the forest road. The taller teen was holding a cord of some sort, though he held it limply and seemed to still be contemplating on his life's choices. Luhan, Xiumin and Suho were on the other side as well, looking just as hesitant.

"Are we really going to do this to Jae-yah? Doesn't feel right," Lay then piped up, a pouty look on his face as he watched the girl approaching them from the other side, unaware of the trap that Chen had made them set up.

Apparently, things were going to be different this year. He was going to spare them of humiliation, but the catch behind it, was that they all were going to help him prank Jae.

Why? Because the King of Trolls reasoned that since it was April Fool's Day, those that got pranked had to obey the King of Fools, which was him, at this point. If he got to prank Jae as well, she would have to do everything he said. It was genius, really, though the boys resented that they hadn't thought of it themselves, so they would never admit that to Chen of course.

Since they were his 'minions' for the day, they didn't have much choice but oblige to his wishes. And so, they found themselves hiding behind bushes while Chen lured Jae to come meet him half way. The plan was that Xiumin would freeze parts of the road so that Jae would slip. Chen would 'catch' her and once Chanyeol gave the signal, Kris would pull the string, which led to bucket hanging from a tree filled with sticky glitter. Chen would pretend to have saved Jae from an April Fool's prank, so the girl would be grateful and then- well, the King didn't divulge in what he thought would happen next.

It was a ridiculous plan though. All the brothers agreed to that.

"I don't like it either, gege. We should warn Jae-noona instead of pranking her," Tao mused after having thought things through.

"But Chen is the King, what can we do?" Baekhyun responded, looking more and more ridiculous himself as he found more leaves and branches to stick in his hair just to stay camouflaged.

"Isn't there a rule that we can try to prank him, instead, though?" Kai suddenly mentioned. The brothers exchanged knowing glances with one another. D.O. grinned.

"Chanyeol, signal to the other side. Let's try to get Chen to stand underneath that trap."

Meanwhile, Chen was making sure that his plan was not going to be spoiled, and that Jae would meet him at the right place. He could already see her approaching and he smiled widely. This has to work!

Straightening his clothes and smoothing over his hair, he walked towards her cheerfully, already waving at her and running towards her to make sure that she wouldn't accidentally miss the mark.

"Jae-noona!" he sang. "Annyeong!" his eyes subtly dashed on either side of the road, to make sure his brothers were in place. Why did he have the feeling that something was off, though?

"Hi Chen-Chen," she greeted sweetly, his heart making a little jump when she used the nickname. "I got your text. What's up? It sounded important," Jae waved her phone briefly in the air, as Chen subtly looked over to where he knew Xiumin was waiting, so he would ice the floor underneath Jae's feet.

"Oh, well, I wanted to meet because everyone else seemed to have disappeared. I was bored," he chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.

Jae blinked at him, her pretty almond-shaped eyes looking confused. She checked her phone again.

"Jae-noona! Jae-noona! Come meet me at the forest path! There's something I need to tell you! Kiss, Chen," she read out loud from the screen, making him flinch. "You sent me that only so I would meet you?" she asked skeptically, but there was an amused smile on her face.

"Ah- well..." Chen muttered, wondering why it took so long for his brothers to come to action. She was standing at the right spot!

"If you were bored and wanted to hang out, you should've said so, Chen. I was really worried something happened," she shook her head whilst smiling. "Where are the others though? I haven't heard anything from them either," she looked around as though she expected them to be around, but Chen quickly distracted her.

"I don't know, noona, that's why I texted you," he quickly said, but he was starting to become a bit nervous since he was starting to suspect that his brothers are trying to pull a fast one on him. Trying to mess with the King, huh?

"It is rather suspicious that neither of us heard anything from them though," he added, speaking loudly and slowly so that they would get the hint.

"Wait a minute," Jae suddenly mused, squinting her eyes at him. "Isn't it April Fool's Day today?" she asked and Chen nearly panicked.

"I-is it? Oh, wow-," he stammered, trying to keep calm under Jae's gaze. When she leaned forward to continue side-eying him, he leaned back a little.

"Hmm..." she mused. "What if the boys are planning something? That's why they disappeared?" she suddenly asked, and Chen nearly let out a sigh of relief.

"Maybe! We should be extra careful, noon-AH!" as Chen was trying to regain himself, he slipped on a suspicious icy surface on the road, startling Jae.

"Oh my God, Chen!" she reached out to him in alarm, but heard a strange noise coming from above her. She blinked and shook it off, quickly going to Chen's side to help him. However, as she didn't see the slippery surface, she slipped as well and smoothly landed on top of Chen.

"Ow! What's wrong with this path?" she groused, looking around before her eyes met that of Chen's.

His breath caught in his throat for a moment, seeing her only inches away from him. The pain and bewilderment he had felt before disappeared like a flash.

"Are you okay?" Jae asked him, and he blinked. Act cool, Chen, act cool!

However, his mental encouragement only resulted to him nodding like a mute idiot. However, as they helped each other get up, he noticed a strange scene behind Jae and held in his breath to keep from laughing. Having seen his expression, Jae wanted to turn around to see what he was looking at, but Chen reacted quickly.

"Noona! How about I go and try to find the guys? I'll let you know when I found them. Meanwhile you can go into town and relax?" he suggested out of the blue.

"Uh, I guess?" Jae hesitated, noticing his odd behavior. "I can go look for them with you, though."

"No, no need. What if they try to prank you, noona? That would be terrible!" he acted, before grinning brightly at her. "Just go ahead, noona. I'll find them. You can count on me! Just keep walking ahead and don't look back, okay?" he pushed her gently forward.

"O-okay. I'll guess I'll see you later then?" Jae said and Chen nodded enthusiastically.

"Later, noona!"

When Jae was out of sight, he turned around to look at the mess his brothers created. "Do I even want to know what happened?" he asked, crossing his arms across his chest. Kris, Chanyeol and Sehun were stacked on a heap on the floor, covered in sticky glitter. Nearby, Kai and D.O. were on the floor as well, with Xiumin and Luhan looking on, cringing. Tao tried to pat the glitter off Kris while Suho stood next to Lay, who was holding the empty bucket.

"FYI, this was not my idea," Baekhyun told Chen.

Chen shook his head and sighed. "Plan B!"

He later found out that Xiumin had purposely tried to make him slip while Luhan would float the bucket to dump its contents over him while he was down. What they didn't anticipate was Jae actually rushing over to help him, just as Luhan was about to tip the bucket over. Tao had frozen the bucket in place so it wouldn't hit her and told Chanyeol, Sehun and Kris to go grab it. As they rushed over to get it, Tao was distracted by Jae falling on top of Chen and dropped the bucket, the glitter falling all over his three brothers. Kai went to grab the bucket in case the thud would be heard by Jae, but smacked against D.O. when the latter tried to do some form of damage control.

"You can't prank the King of Pranks!" Chen whined again as they set up another trick involving a paintball gun. "Just do as I say and it'll be fine! I have to prank Jae-noona!"

"Why do you have to target her, though? What did she ever do to you, hyung?" Tao asked.

"Shh, no talking, more doing! On my signal, Luhan will mentally pull the trigger of the paintball gun while Baekhyun pretends to be a pigeon. Jae-noona will think that a bird did number two on her and panic because girls don't like icky stuff and I'll take her jacket off and tell her it was a joke! Nothing harmful about that, right?" he explained quickly. "So...JUST DO IT!" he ordered, laughing maniacally for emphasis before heading over to a nearby bench to wait for Jae.

"You know, Chen-Chen is generally really kindhearted, but he really scares me on April Fool's Day. He's like a different person...kind of mean..." Lay said in a careful whisper, hiding behind a tree.

"This coming from you?" Luhan smirked skeptically.

Lay blinked blankly at him. "What do you mean, Lu-ge? I'm not mean!" he protested.

"You are when you're dancing. I know about a hundred girls at school that think that you're plain cruel when they see you dance," Luhan explained while Xiumin laughed quietly beside him.

A look of panic and worry overcame him. "Is that true, Xiumin-hyung?" he asked for confirmation while the eldest of the pack tried to keep his laughter in.

"'Fraid so, Lay-ah. They cry when they see you dance," he answered, Luhan biting his lips to keep from laughing out loud.

"What? Oh no- why? I like to dance, I'd never do it to hurt others," he said, genuinely concerned, unaware that his hyungs were still laughing at him.

"Don't listen to them, Lay. It's a joke," Suho soothed nearby, giving the innocent-faced hyungs a glare for good measure.

"Aiyah, April Fool's joke!" Lay suddenly exclaimed, but still looked confused. "Right?" he asked for confirmation.

"You know, Lay-hyung, you're making it really easy," D.O. said sympathetically.

"Make what easy?" Lay asked, confused. He bit his lip and looked at Sehun who stood close by. "I don't really do mean things to girls when I dance, do I?" he asked sadly.

Sehun, who was also part of the dance club quickly shook his head. "Of course not, Lay-hyungie. Just ignore them," he soothed, unable to stand to his hyung look at him like that.

Right at that moment it seemed like the sky had darkened, just over the spot where the brothers were hiding. Out of the blue, a zap of lightning fell in between of them, signaling as a crackling warning signal.

"Yah!" Kris yelped in alarm, looking at Chen in the distance. He urgently placed his finger in front of his mouth to signal them to be quiet and then proceeded to wait for Jae.

Honestly, is it that hard to do as you're told? Chen thought to himself as he waited for Jae. Just this once it has to work. Only once...

Chen jumped up when he saw Jae rushing towards him again, waving at her. "Jae-noona! Annyeong!" he greeted again.

"Chen! I came as soon as I saw your text. How did Luhan get stuck in a tree?" she asked in disbelief.

Chen felt the mental smack he received from his hyung, but ignored it. "Ah, noona, it was so strange. I don't know what Luhan-hyung was thinking. He doesn't even like heights. Something about a wanting to see the world through a bird's eye perspective?" he wasn't necessarily subtle about the hint, and sighed in relief when he heard Baekhyun making the sound of a pigeon. Jae, however, frowned and looked up at the sky.

"What the- is that-? Is that Baekhyun?" she questioned.

As Chen did his best to come up with an excuse, the brothers knew that it was their signal to shoot the gun.

"Luhan, just do it," Xiumin urged his best friend, but the former sighed.

"He made me sound like a crazy person in front of Jae!" he protested.

"Ugh, Luhan-hyung, just do it already, so we can get this over with," D.O. then stated and Luhan grumbled.

"Fine," he clicked the trigger of the paintball gun with his mind, but Kai frowned when he saw the trajectory of the paintball. During their fussing and Chen warning them with that lightning bolt, the gun had sagged a bit and lost its initial aim. Right now, the paintball was dangerously hurling towards Jae, heading straight for her head.

"Omo!" Kai startled and reacted on instinct, quickly teleporting his way to Jae to stand in front of her. Both Chen and Jae where startled when he appeared out of nowhere.

"Kai?" Jae exclaimed, looking up when she heard a strange thud coming from the boy. "What the heck? What's going on?" she wondered, looking at a cringing Kai who did his utmost best to stand still, having just taken a paint bullet for the unwitting girl.

"Yes, Kai, please, do tell, what is going on?" Chen repeated, looking at the kid.

Suddenly realizing that he had to explain himself, Kai felt a bit flustered. He had half a mind to oust Chen, but looking at his hyung, he realized that he couldn't.

"L-Luhan-hyung," he suddenly started. "He fell out of the tree, but everything is alright now. Lay-hyung is healing him. Just thought that you wanted to know," he shrugged, but the paintball still stung his back. Jae-noona was short, if Kai hadn't stepped up in front of her, the bullet would've hit her face. Chen seemed to realize that when he gasped, but quickly recovered when Jae looked at him questioningly.

"A-ah!" he started, swallowing. "Good. I'm glad he's alright. Well, then, guess I called you out for nothing, huh, noona?" he chuckled again, but was obviously more nervous now. He quickly rushed over to Kai to wrap his arm around the boy's shoulder in support.

Jae folded her arms across her chest, looking at the suspicious teens. "Okay, which one of you is going to explain what's going on? Chen, you've been acting weird all day and Kai, you and the others have vanished. What's going on?"

"It's nothing, noona, really," Chen replied, wide grin plastered on his face.

Jae didn't believe him. Chen could tell. She was glaring at him again, eyes squinting at him.

"The boy who cried wolf," she suddenly said.

"What, noona?" He and Kai replied simultaneously.

"The story," Jae clarified. "I don't know why but you remind me of it. You especially, Chen," she pointed out. He chuckled weakly in response.

"Alright, look, I don't know what's going on, but I promised to meet up with my Mom for some tea at the coffee shop. I'll be there if you need me, or you know, when you guys get whatever this is, together," she then announced.

"That's fine, noona," Chen nodded. "Enjoy and tell your mom we said hi," he greeted quickly, Kai just numbly nodding along.

Jae stared at them one last time before letting out an exasperated sigh and left. In that instance, Chen quickly pulled Kai towards him in a tight hug.

"Aigoo! Are you okay, Kai?" he asked in concern.

"Can't. Breathe. Hyung!" the younger teen responded breathlessly.

"Omo! Did the paintball hit your lung? Was it that powerful? I'm sorry!" Chen hugged him tighter since this was definitely not something that was supposed to happen. He'd never hurt anyone with his pranks, not like this.

Kai, however, still struggled in his grasp trying to make his point across. "Aniya- hyung! Too. Tight. Can't breathe," Kai patted Chen's back and he finally got the message.

"Omo! Sorry!" Chen said again, letting go. "You're okay, though, right?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," Kai confirmed. "Can we stop doing this now, hyung?" he asked, but of course he should've known that Chen wouldn't give in that easily.

"Phase three," Chen exclaimed. "This time it'll work!"