Shame That Nobody Ever Believes A Pink, Flower-Patterned Curtain (Chapter 1)
Title: Shame That Nobody Ever Believes A Pink, Flower-Patterned Curtain
Rating: PG:13
Genre: fluff, comedy
Pairing: Tao/Sehun, Chanyeol/Kai, Kyungsoo/Kris, Xiumin/Luhan, Suho/Chen, (for now? ?_?)
Words: 5 984
Summary: Yixing has lived in the house with other people for a few months and it was pretty intense, which means now he's left alone. Except, not for long, because eleven new housemates are on their way and they might make things even more intense and insane. Yixing is kind of looking forward to it.
A/N: it seems like no or poor internet connection and no exo fics to read might be kind of helpful. kind of being the key word, as this thing happened. whoops. ^^
*
Yixing sighs again as he's walking towards the postbox.
Really, whose stupid idea it was for the thing to be placed so far away from the actual house. Like, five meters from the door, through a little, unkept garden and mostly dead grass, at the beginning of the land.
It's so long of a walk. It sucks.
Yixing sighs once more.
When he reaches the postbox, he takes out two letters and a few advertisements from nearby foodshops and he turns around to go back inside the house.
Unfortunately, neither he nor any of the neighbors present outside at this time, neither of them notices a pink, flowery-patterned curtain moving evilly in one of the windows of the house.
Only it knows the chaos is coming.
#
Sehun glances at his bag. It's scarily empty and it's been so for days, ever since he found out he'd be moving to another place in two weeks. Which is today.
Sehun blinks. Then he blinks a few more times. The bag stubbornly stays empty.
Resigned, he throws himself onto the bed. He's so screwed.
But, fortunately, it's one of his hyungs that agreed to help him move and drive him ad his bags to the new place. The same hyung who was "convinced" to do so by the hyung's boyfriend. (And that's the little details Sehun wants to know.) The same hyung who's-
Sehun blinks and glances at his cellphone.
- who's calling Sehun right now and it's probably to say that at the moment he's parking his car outside and he wants to see Sehun and his bags in his car in sixty seconds.
Fuck.
Sehun picks up.
"Yes, hyungie?" he says cutely.
What he hears first is a sigh.
"I'm almost finished here. When will you be ready?" Kyuhyun asks.
"You don't have to hurry that badly, hyung. Maybe half hour? You'll have time to get here and I'll finish packing?" Sehun suggests. In his mind it's followed by a thought, I mean, after I actually 'start' packing first, which Sehun knows better than to say out loud.
"Okay. I'll be there in at east thirty minutes. Be ready."
"I'll be waiting~ Drive safely, hyungie~" because a little aegyo at the end of the call can't hurt.
Except, it's followed by a kind of awkward silence and then Kyuhyun hangs up.
Sehun sighs and sits up. He looks at his clothes that are still properly in his closet and at all the other stuff, also untouched.
"Fuck."
*
Baekhyun raises his hand to knock, but even before he does, the door opens. Baekhyun almost jumps, surprised by that, and then only keeps on being surprised at the guy who's now looking at him.
Baekhyun thinks the guy seems confused for some reason. And the guy is definitely not wearing pants, which kind of makes Baekhyun a little confused as well.
"You're..." The guy glances at a paper he's holding. "Sehun?"
Baekhyun only shakes his head for a 'no'.
The guy frowns.
"Yifan?"
Now Baekhyun frowns. The name doesn't sound Korean. Does he look like a non-Korean?
"No?"
"Hm... Jongin?"
Baekhyun blinks.
"I'm Baekhyun," he says, because it might just fasten things up, hopefully.
"Oh." The guy looks into his paper. "So I was close."
Baekhyun isn't even going to ask.
"Come in, Baekhyun," the guy says and moves back a bit, not even a little bit of formality, that is usually happening during first meeting, present.
Baekhyun takes his bags, the few he can take at once and walks inside the house.
The guy blinks confusedly at the bags that left outside and Baekhyun, seeing that the guy clearly has no intention of helping, sighs and goes back for the rest.
It takes a few moments, but when finally all of Baekhyun stuff is inside the house, the guy is searching through his few papers, still confused.
"How is this-" He turns the current page upside down. "So if it's- Then this one-"
Baekhyun only keeps staring at him.
"Okay, I think I almost know which room is yours," the guy says, obviously pleased with himself.
Baekhyun lets himself glance at the paper. It's a map of the house.
Really, what is this person?
"Here, my name." Baekhyun points at it.
"Oooh~"
They stare at the paper for a few more moments. It's awkward and silent and Baekhyun doesn't do awkward nor silent well, so-
"You're not wearing pants," slips out.
The guy blinks and looks down.
"Uh, not again," he whines to himself and pouts.
Seriously, what the hell is this person?
"And I'm Yixing."
*
It's not even ten minutes after Baekhyun manages to get his bags into the room that is his and a guy he saw to be called Chanyeol, when he hears a doorbell. Which means another person has come.
Baekhyun has his bed chosen, his bags somehow put in reasonable places and the sides, so he or anybody else won't trip over them, so deciding it's enough for now, he goes to see who's the new guy.
Or maybe it's his roommate? Baekhyun is really curious about whom he'll be sharing the room with. He hopes they'll get along.
So as Baekhyun gets downstairs, he makes it just in time to see Yixing opening the door. Luckily, Yixing is wearing pants this time.
Baekhyun comes closer to the door and sees a tall guy looking at Yixing pretty calmly and nodding in greeting. When he notices Baekhyun, he nods again and looks back to Yixing, who's staring at his papers, the same confused expression on his face.
"Are you..." Oh, here we go, Baekhyun thinks amusedly. "Sehun?"
The guy frowns.
"I'm Jongin," he says and frowns harder.
Baekhyun raises his brow, curious, because such frowning is really not needed. Like, why is Jongin making such a face?
But what Baekhyun doesn't know and will not, the hard frown is on Jongin's face, because he knows the name, Sehun. He's known it since he was a very, very little kiddie, he's said and heard and thought the name lots and lots of times. He hasn't lately, though, and kind of hopes it's just a Sehun, that it's not a way for the fate to piss on him.
Because, really, he hasn't kept in touch with the little, irritating shit that is one particular Oh Sehun for a reason.
So as Jongin's cursing inwardly and hoping for things not to be as he's fearing they might be, Baekhyun frowns a little, because Yixing pouts at his papers. Like he's not happy he didn't get to guess. That's sad, he shouldn't be pouting, Baekhyun doesn't like seeing pouting Yixing, that's like watching a crying unicorn, just simply nope.
So Baekhyun approaches Yixing from the side and glances at his papers.
"Let's find Jongin-sshi's room," he suggests happily. Yixing glances at him and beams. Baekhyun can't help but grin widely.
So they proceed to search through the map and Baekhyun doesn't even ruin Yixing's fun by pointing at Jongin's name, he just looks at the map and tries to fit that with what he saw of the house. There are two rooms, each for two people, on the ground floor. Yixing is in one of them, and then Jongin's name is put in the other one with some dude called Joonmyun.
There are five rooms on the first floor, three for two people each and two with only one person. Not bad, Baekhyun thinks and wonders how those two managed to get single rooms.
"I think it's this one," Yixing decides and points at Jongin's name.
Baekhyun grins, because, yeah, that's the one and it went faster than with his name.
"Which one?" Jongin steps closer and glances at the map.
"This one," Yixing repeats, still pointing at the paper.
"Yeah, I can see my name. But which room is it?" Jongin's frown comes back.
"This one. Here," Yixing says again, slight exasperation clear in his voice.
Jongin narrows his eyes at Yixing. They are so not getting each other.
"Yeah, but-"
"This one," Baekhyun cuts in and points at the door, the room.
"Okay then." Jongin takes his bags and Baekhyun notices bitterly he's got only two and manages them easily. "Thank you." He moves towards the room.
"That's what I was saying." Yixing sighs and shakes his head, watching Jongin go.
"High five for job well done." Baekhyun grins at Yixing and raises his hand. Yixing laughs and high-fives Baekhyun.
*
It might literally be three minutes after Jongin, when the doorbell is heard again.
Yixing is actually showing Baekhyun the kitchen and just explaining little useful things about the house, but the moment they heard the doorbell, they turn to look at the door, a big smile on Baekhyun's face.
He gestures at Yixing to go first, because in the end it's Yixing who's kind of like a leader here and he's the one responsible for all the stuff. Baekhyun will be only very happy to support.
But when Yixing opens the door this time, what they see first is a very pleasant smile and that kind of confuses Baekhyun for a moment, the mood all different from his and Jongin's.
"You're Yixing, right?" the guy asks, smiling at Yixing, who only stares for a moment, too confused and surprised.
Baekhyun blinks, because it's not the kind of fun he expected. Like, not fun at all.
"Yeah, I am. And you're..." Yixing looks into his papers. "Sehun?"
Baekhyun snorts quietly. He wonders why Yixing is so stubborn with that Sehun guy. Has he heard something interesting about him, so now Yixing wants to quickly know Sehun or is he annoying and supposed to have, like, troubles with the rooming and maybe demands changes and Yixing can only do that as long as not everyone are here or maybe he somehow knows Sehun and doesn't remember how he looks like or maybe they've been friends online for five years and Yixing kind of got a crush on his penpal, even not knowing how the guy looks like, but anyway Yixing came to Korea for Sehun and now found out they'd live in the same house and finally have their happy ending?
Baekhyun definitely likes the last idea, it speaks to the romantic in him.
Baekhyun glances at the paper Yixing is looking at now and sees the list of names, Sehun at the beginning. He frowns, as he sees Sehun's name being followed by Yifan, then Jongin and his own at fifth position.
Or maybe Yixing is just guessing the names in the order they've been written? And that would explain how Yixing had been close to guessing Baekhyun's name.
Far from such a fun idea like the penpal love one was. Bummer.
Baekhyun pouts to himself and looks at Joonmyun, who's still smiling and only with one brow raised slightly, even though he just got asked if he's Yifan.
"No?" he answers carefully.
"Are you sure? You don't sound very sure." Yixing wants to make sure.
The smile twitches a bit, but stays.
"I'm sorry for that. But, yes, I'm positive that's not me."
"Hm... Are you Jongin?" Yixing tries again.
"N-"
"Wait, no. Jongin's here already," Yixing cuts in, frowning at his list.
Baekhyun tries his best not to laugh, which is hard, but he's giving his best. Some don't seem to be so good at stopping themselves, because Baekhyun hears chuckle coming from behind them. When he turns his head, he sees Jongin who seems to be just as amused by Yixing's ways and Joonmyun's smile breaking a bit.
"Are you Minseok?"
"No." The smile is still there, but it seems like Joonmyun is having a bit harder time to keep it on. "I'm Joo-"
"Are you Baekh- Wait, no, this one is also here already." Yixing glances quickly at Baekhyun and smiles at him.
Baekhyun can't do this anymore and a giggle sneaks out. He hears Jongin chuckling, too, and turns to look at the guy, because it's always more fun to laugh at things with somebody.
"Are you-"
"I'm Joonmyun," the guy finally says and coughs softly, then puts the proper smile back on.
"I was just about to ask that," Yixing mumbles to himself and pouts.
"Yes, well." Because there isn't really much Joonmyun can say at this point.
"Now, your room." Yixing puts the paper with the map on top.
Baekhyun already knows where Joonmyun's room is and whom he's rooming with, but why would he ruin the fun, nope, definitely not happening.
Obviously, it takes a moment, Yixing just staring at the map, and Joonmyun's smile gets strained a little quicker this time. He glances at Baekhyun, who just smiles encouragingly, and decides to just wait, entertaining himself by looking around.
"I think it might be this one," Yixing finally murmurs softly, pointing at Joonmyun's room. Joonmyun steps closer and looks at the map, probably trying to figure out which one it might be in real life. "And your roommate... Oh, Jongin-sshi."
The three turn to look at Jongin, who's only smiling at them amusedly. He nods his head at Joonmyun, deciding to say nothing.
Joonmyun also nods, but more to himself, that he knows now which door lead to his room. He takes his bags and brings them inside, putting the stuff down as soon as his inside. He straightens up and puts a hand on his back, grimacing a little bit.
"The keys?" he asks Yixing.
Baekhyun and Jongin look at Yixing immediately, because, what? Oh. Right. Whoops.
"Oh!" Yixing exclaims and quickly goes towards his own room. On the way he somehow manages to lose the hold of his papers and they go flying around the room.
"Whoops." He bends to starts picking the papers up.
Joonmyun sighs and moves to help quickly.
"Hey, Yixing-sshi?" Joonmyun starts, most of the papers already in his hands.
"Just Yixing," Yixing says. The list said they're the same age, so he thinks that's okay.
"Okay. Yixing. Do you think it's okay, if I were to do this?" He gestures to the papers. "Like, getting people in. You've been doing well, of course," Baekhyun and Jongin look at each other, not sure if they heard right, and back at Joonmyun," but I'm sure you probably have better things to do. And I just like doing such things. What do you think?" He smiles at Yixing encouragingly.
Baekhyun and Jongin grimace at Joonmyun, he's ruining all the fun.
Yixing looks at Joonmyun, at the papers and back at Joonmyun.
"Can I call you just Joonmyun?" he asks.
"Of course."
"Deal." Yixing quickly gives Joonmyun the papers he picked up, then proceeds to his room. Moments later he gives Joonmyun a box with the keys and smiles.
"I'll be in the kitchen," Yixing says and retreats, the smile on his face turning weird as he keeps glancing at Joonmyun.
Baekhyun can imagine what Yixing is thinking. It's probably the same what Baekhyun was thinking about thirty minutes ago.
What is this person?
*
Fifteen minutes later Joonmyun is ready. He's got his bags in his room, he talked a bit with Jongin, he went through Yixing's papers, he checked how the rooms upstairs look and how they go with what's on the map (and he decided it's just a perfect map and then found out Yixing made it) and segregated all the keys, after he gave the right one to Baekhyun, Jongin and himself (he also asked Yixing why there are so many keys to Yixing's room. Yixing answered it's because of the curse that make the keys to this one room disappear sometimes. Joonmyun stared at Yixing for a moment and only then nodded, deciding to say nothing).
In the meantime, Yixing actually is making a cake. He didn't really give a reason for that, only that he felt like it. Nobody complained and Baekhyun ended up helping while Jongin just sat in the kitchen with them to join the conversation.
But then they hear the doorbell.
Joonmyun is the first to get to the door. He takes a deep breath and opens, ignoring Baekhyun and Jongin spying from the kitchen's door, curious how it'll go.
Except as half a minute later has Joonmyun knowing the guy is Yifan and talking to him about the house as he's leading Yifan upstairs to show him his room, Baekhyun and Jongin glances at each other, grimace again and go back to Yixing and his cake making, deeming Joonmyun's doing very, very far from interesting.
*
After Yifan comes Minseok and Baekhyun and Jongin don't even react to the doorbell this time, knowing very well that Joonmyun will do well and there's nothing fun about that.
Soon Minseok joins them in the kitchen, Yifan following after him. Yixing, Baekhyun and Jongin can't help but kind of stare at the two, how adorably-looking and little Minseok seems in comparison to serious-faced and ridiculously tall Yifan.
Baekhyun is actually a bit jealous, not being very tall himself. But at least he's taller than Joonmyun, though.
Another doorbell is heard and this time they don't even glance that way, everyone too focused on the conversation or helping Yixing with the cake.
Except suddenly they hear, like, a very loud, deep voice and it's kind of distracting and sounds too cheerful and they all can't help but look at the door and wonder who is that person and, as almost everyone glance at Yifan, what does the guy looks like, if Yifan's this serious, dangerous looking one and his voice definitely isn't as deep.
And then they hear the guy saying he's Chanyeol and Baekhyun pretty much sprints out of the kitchen to meet the guy (and find out if he's really as scary as he sounds. Baekhyun hopes very, very much he's not.)
Jongin and Minseok follow out of the curiosity, Yifan goes just behind them looking all serious and pretending he doesn't care and isn't at all curious (when in reality he is curious and badly so). Yixing is left and pouts when he's left alone as he can't go with them, dough in his hands.
But by then Baekhyun is standing a few feet behind Joonmyun already and staring at the new guy and kind of not sure if he's seeing right.
Because the guy kind of looks like an elf and there's this crazily wide grin and it's kind of scary in a way and Baekhyun's pretty sure one of the guy's eye is twitching. And he's huge, probably as tall as Yifan is.
They must've heard wrong. Somehow. Baekhyun can't even imagine how, but, really, they couldn't hear right.
"Chanyeol?" Baekhyun asks carefully.
The guy nods.
"And you are?" he asks.
Everyone beside Joonmyun and Chanyeol gasps, because, here, it's the voice and it's coming of out this elf-like person.
"Baekhyun. We're rooming together."
Chanyeol smiles, kind of more properly than the crazy grin from a moment ago.
"Cool." He makes his way closer to Baekhyun. He raises his hand and Baekhyun chuckles as he high fives Chanyeol. "Show me the room?"
Baekhyun nods and leads Chanyeol away, actually liking the guy already, despite of all the crazy aura. He seems cool.
The rest are left gaping after Chanyeol. Joonmyun is frowning, though, not appreciating being left behind and ignored like this.
Except, Joonmyun doesn't get much time to sulk, because he barely manages to close the door, when the doorbell rings again. He perks up and opens the door again.
The moment Chanyeol disappears upstairs, the rest of the guys loses interest and retreats back to the kitchen. Jongin is the last one to leave and he turns his head to see who came now.
When he does see the new person, he quickly turns his head back ahead, not wanting to be noticed.
"Fuck," he mumbles. Then he notices Yixing coming out of the kitchen, his hands finally clean. Minseok and Yifan pass by him, as Yixing is frowning, because it seems like he missed all the fun.
Then he focuses on the new guy just in time to hear him saying his name.
"I'm Sehun," he says, staring expressionlessly at Joonmyun, the older's eager smile doing nothing to him.
"I could've guessed that without asking," Yixing murmurs to himself. He finds Joonmyun way of asking for the name really boring.
"Fuck," Jongin repeats, quickly running into the kitchen.
*
Jongin stays in the kitchen, eavesdropping till he hears Sehun walking upstairs. Then he stays in there, even though another doorbell rings and, he keeps grimacing and wondering and kind of a little bit worrying how Sehun will react, when he finds out Jongin is here as well.
Yifan and Minseok keep watching him, feeling pretty entertained by various face expression Jongin is making. They're sure he's not even aware of himself doing and of them watching him as they're talking.
But they hear a loud noise coming from the door and they're curious again. Yifan gets up and goes to see what's going on. Minseok tries to go, too, but he's stopped by Yixing and pouts, because he's really curious. From what Baekhyun has said, things have been lots of fun in here.
Though, Minseok thinks looking at what Yixing is putting in his hands, he can deal with sneaking licks of chocolate cream, yeah, it sounds good enough.
*
In the doorway, Joonmyun is having his own troubles and sees no positive light. Because, really, the guy in front of him looks like a dark, dangerous ninja. Like, very muchly so. Like, he's got this long, thick stick and when Joonmyun opened the door, the guy hit the door while bowing and he might've done in on accident, but the accident sounded and looked hard. And if an accident is that strong, then Joonmyun is scared even to imagine what's if something isn't an accident.
The guy apologizes for hitting the door, but it's not even a clear sorry, just a mumbled one.
"I'm Joonmyun." He glances at the list. "Are your name is?"
"Hwang Zitao," the guy answers and bows a little again. Joonmyun bows slightly, too.
"Oh, I see." He sees the name written in Chinese characters, the hangul next to it. He sees the date of birth, too. "It's nice to meet you, Zitao. I hope it's okay for me to call you that? Because you're younger. And you can call me Joonmyun-hyung." Joonmyun keeps smiling happily and trying to figure out the most cheerfulness that he can, so the ninja guy will find him all harmless and fine.
"Thank you," is said with a very obvious Chinese accent, the Korean syllables not very clear. "Joonmahao." Tao bows slightly again.
Joonmyun doesn't bow back this time, though, too confused by what Tao said. For a moment he thinks it might be a Chinese word, but he doubts that. Only then he realizes it's supposed to be Joonmyun-hyung, except not very clear at all.
"No, no. Say after me," his voice gets louder, as he tries to carefully pronounce every word. "Joonmyun-hyung."
"Joonma-hao?" Tao tries. Joonmyun's eye twitches.
"One more time. Joon. Myun. Hyung." Joonmyun's voice gets even louder, as he tries for the guy to get it right.
"He's Chinese, not deaf," Yifan speaks up, from where he's observing the scene. It's really hilarious to him.
Joonmyun turns to glare at him. Except then he remembers Yifan is all big and scary, so maybe glaring isn't a good idea. He turns back to Tao.
"Anyway. Your room. Here." Joonmyun points at the map. "We go. Okay?"
Tao blinks at him, looking very confused and uncomfortable.
Yifan snorts, the amount of strength he's using not to just laugh out loud being huge.
"Your." Joonmyun gestures at Tao with his hand. He doesn't dare to just point a finger at him. "Room." He thinks for a moment and draws a square with his hand and then mimics sleeping. "There." He gestures towards the stairs.
Tao only turns even more confused, staring at Joonmyun wide-eyed.
Yifan can't help it anymore. He bursts out laughing, because that's just too hilarious for anyone to bear, especially him.
Both Tao and Joonmyun turn to look at him, one to stare confused and the other to glare in annoyance. Yifan keeps laughing for a few moments and when he finally calms himself down a little bit, he decides to help. He can't take more of this, really.
"What Joonmahao is trying to say is: let's get you to your room. It's upstairs," Yifan explains amusedly in Mandarin.
Joonmyun listens to the whatever Yifan is saying and doesn't understand any of it. He hears Joonmahao, though, and snorts, because Yifan knows better Korean that this and this botching up his name is no accident on his account.
"Oh, okay. Thanks." Tao smiles softly and both Yifan and Joonmyun feels a bit shaken up by how a little smile can change Tao's face. And, yeah, how adorable it makes him look. "But is he... Is Joonmahao," Tao tries to pronounce it better this time and not doing a very good job out of it," is he okay? Like, are there things wrong with him? Like, with his head?" Tao asks carefully, hoping it's not a touchy subject or not okay to mention.
Yifan tenses hard, because he really doesn't want to laugh at Tao, but he's asking if Joonmyun is retarded. That is just simply too much for Yifan. Like, he gets it's probably a big misunderstanding, with Tao most likely getting Korean pretty well and just pronunciation being quite off most of the time, and Joonmyun deciding that means Tao's Korean is almost non-existent.
But Yifan isn't going to explain the situation.
"He's okay. He has his... moments, though," Yifan answers, finishing with a thoughtful tone, as if there is something. Because he thinks there kind of is. Something seems to be unique about every one of the guys living in this house so far. Yifan guesses he might be the only one normal in here.
"Just follow him. He'll take you to your room, okay? Later come to the kitchen, over there," Yifan points the kitchen," it's where your roommate and most of the guys are. You'll meet them."
"Oh. Okay." Tao looks a bit nervous at the thought of meeting so many people. Yifan smiles softly at the adorableness that Tao is turning out to be.
"No need to worry. We've all met only today and some are still to come. We're all starting from scratch."
Tao smiles with gratitude, nodding eagerly.
"Joonmyun-ah, show Tao his room," Yifan switches to Korean easily. He notices that for some reason it makes Tao smile wider.
Joonmyun only snorts at Yifan, but does as he's told.
"We." He gestures at himself and Tao. "Go~" He points at the stairs. "Okay?"
Tao's smile fades a bit, but he nods, looking quite uncomfortable again.
Joonmyun assumes Tao's uncomfortable, because being alone with Joonmyun means speaking Korean and Korean makes Tao uncomfortable. Yifan guesses, and most likely he's correct, it's because Tao still thinks Joonmyun might be a little bit retarded.
Yifan watches them for a few seconds and go to the kitchen to laugh hard and maybe tell the guys about what just happened.
*
When the next doorbell is heard, Joonmyun has managed to sort himself out after the fail that happened with Tao. He tried to talk with the guy, using simple words and gestures, just to be nice and maybe make Tao relax a bit, but Tao only kept gawking at him and stayed uncomfortable.
So Joonmyun left after smiling awkwardly at Tao for the last time.
But now he's standing in front of the door again. He takes a deep breath and opens the door, his usual smile on.
"Hello," Joonmyun says cheerfully. "I'm Joonmyun. And you are?" he asks, glancing at the list. Only three are left.
The guy blinks at him, looking very confused, and says something that sounds very much like Chinese.
Joonmyun gasps.
"Not again," he whines pitifully and buries his face in his hands. That is too much, he can't do this again. He is so done.
"Hey, I was only joking, dude," Joonmyun hears the guy say and he raises his head to stare at him. "I speak Korean, relax."
"What." Joonmyun blinks at the guy. "That wasn't funny."
"Except, it kind of was." The guy chuckles. Joonmyun glares. "I'm Luhan."
Joonmyun glances at his list and crosses another name out.
"Well, okay then. Let me take you to your room. I think your roommate is in there." Joonmyun gestures at Luhan to follow him.
"Okay, okay. Let's go." Luhan seems excited. And he's curious about his roommate, too. He hopes it won't end up like with the one before.
"But no joking," Joonmyun says strictly as he turns his head to Luhan and then back ahead. Luhan only chuckles. He makes no promises.
*
The next time Joonmyun opens the door, he's ready for another uncomfortable surprises. The list says there are not more Chinese people, but he can't be sure. It really seems like there are going to be lots of insanity going on with all the guys that are already here. Joonmyun doesn't think the two more are going to be much different or normal, sadly.
Except, when he opens the door, he sees somebody he's very glad to see in this mad house.
"Jongdae! It's been so long. So nice to see you!" Joonmyun is all grinning and happy, because, really, he knew Jongdae in high school and he was such a nice dongsaeng, always so supporting and pleasant. Joonmyun never understood the rumors he kept hearing, about Jongdae being mischievous and a joker and just plainly annoying. Jongdae was precious and at this point Joonmyun couldn't be happier to see him.
"H-hyung," is all Jongdae manages, though. It's really difficult, as all that are coming to his mind are curses and cries and how is this his life. Like, really, what are the odds of him ending up living in the same house as his crush from high school. And he was crushing hard back then and ended up completely devastated, when Joonmyun finished his high school education.
But no, Jongdae is okay now. Even before Jongdae himself was done with his third year, he decided he's done with his crush and was okay and felt nothing, Joonmyun was just a hyung he knew.
So, yeah, Jongdae definitely isn't fighting the temptation to call Joonmyun senpai like he sometimes did in his fantasies. He's so not, he's long done with that.
"Really awesome that you're here." Joonmyun just can't keep grinning. He takes Jongdae's hand, at which Jongdae tries not to hyperventilate, and brings him inside, even helping with his bags. "Here, your room is over there." Joonmyun points at the door that are seen even from where they're standing. "Your roommate is Yixing. He's nice. A bit quirky, but nice." Yeah, Joonmyun thinks, that's a poor description of Yixing, but it should be enough for now. "Let's get you settled and I'll introduce you to the guys." He grabs Jongdae's wrist and starts pulling him towards the room.
Jongdae only keeps glancing at Joonmyun's hand on his wrist and pretending he's not overwhelmed by Joonmyun's enthusiasm and his cheerful smile and the happiness at Jongdae's sight. Jongdae is totally over the senpai phase of his life.
Except, unless he takes into consideration that he's clearly not over. But he doesn't want to.
*
The last time the doorbell rings, Joonmyun opens the door to see wide eyes looking at him. Like, he sees a person and all, but the eyes are so big and so distracting, that he does get distracted for a short moment.
But then he's not again and soon he knows the guy is the last one of his housemates and his name is indeed Kyungsoo and he'll be taking the last room, alone.
Joonmyun wonders how it was decided that Kyungsoo and Yifan both got single rooms. It must be nice to have the privacy. On the other hand, Jongin seems nice. He guesses.
But Joonmyun takes Kyungsoo to his room, gives him his keys and lets him get settled. He notices that the room is still a bit cold, though he's sure he turned on the heating a bit, but maybe it just needs time.
Then Joonmyun proceeds to the kitchen, because it seems like the guys decided it's going to be like the common room of the house, almost all of them gathered in there by now and waiting for the cake to be done baking.
He joins Sehun and Luhan, who are coming out of their room and seem to be also directing to the kitchen. The two are getting on splendidly already and Joonmyun gasps a little at the cute, little smile that is present on Sehun's previously expressionless face.
And then Joonmyun gasps again, because Sehun directs a smile at him, too. Sehun chuckles a bit at the reaction, but he doesn't mind. He's happy, his roommate is cool and fun and tries to make Sehun call him gege (Sehun thinks not). He was a bit afraid how it would be to live somewhere else that his own home, when he starts college, but for now it seems to be working out.
And Sehun keeps thinking that and keeps on being happy with everything, till he's not in the kitchen. Because there's this one person, who isn't looking at him and just keeps his back to Sehun. And Sehun wouldn't really care, 'cause what is one weird person in comparison to nine cool ones (because the one that just arrived still is in his room, so Sehun doesn't know). Or maybe the person is just shy and weird. He really wouldn't care nor even notice, but there's just something about that guy. Something suspicious, something familiar and he just can't really say exactly. Except he's seen the back so many times, he's known, he's-
"For fuck's sake, Jongin," Sehun whines as he realizes and facepalms.
And, indeed, it's Jongin who finally turns to look at Sehun. He doesn't seem surprised to see him, so Sehun guesses he saw him before and it's why he was being weird.
"You know each other?" Luhan asks. It's probably what everyone are thinking, because Sehun's outburst made the others look at the two.
"Yeah," is all Sehun answers.
The others want to ask more, want to know more, but somehow the face expressions of Sehun and Jongin don't make them think it's a good idea. Maybe some other time they'll ask and without one of the two guys.
Jongin sighs and Sehun rolls his eyes.
They really didn't expect to see each other or at least so soon. Because it's been only a few months since the day they fought and never spoke again.
Sehun isn't so happy anymore, knowing that he lives in the same house as Jongin does now. Quoting one of the hyungs they knew in high school, this is not the reality he wanted.
"Fuck," comes suddenly from the door. Everyone looks to that side and sees startled Baekhyun, followed by Chanyeol's who's looking at him confused.
"Um, I almost tripped," Baekhyun says weakly and moves towards one of the chairs, as if nothing happened.
Chanyeol follows him, curious. Because he knows that Baekhyun didn't trip, he just suddenly stopped and swore. Because, Chanyeol's guessing, he saw somebody here. Somebody he knows. Chanyeol is even more curious and keeps observing Baekhyun. The guy isn't really subtle, though, because it doesn't even take Chanyeol a minute to figure out Baekhyun is sometimes glancing at the guy he hears to be Luhan. And Luhan sneaks a few awkward glances at Baekhyun, too.
"Baekhyun?" Chanyeol whispers, leaning over close to Baekhyun, who glances at him and sighs. He quickly figures out what Chanyeol's asking.
"Not now," he whispers back, trying to keep acting as if nothing is wrong.
Chanyeol looks at him for a moment, but lets it be, especially as the last one of the twelve finally comes to the kitchen.
The happy cheer at surprised and wide-eyed Kyungsoo is disturbed by Yifan coughing and spouting a little of his tea. Standing close by, Kyungsoo is the first one to hit Yifan's back in case something got stuck in his throat.
Yifan coughs some more and finally calms down a bit.
"Are you okay?" Kyungsoo asks, looking at Yifan, his big eyes full of worry.
Yifan coughs weakly.
"Y-yes." He coughs once more. Kyungsoo nods, satisfied with the answer and smiles softly at Yifan, whose face gets weird for half a second and turns into the serious bitchface it was, when he came into the house.
Kyungsoo's smile falls at that and he turns to grab the rag lying on the counter behind him. He quickly wipes the bit of tea on the table and then moves towards the only free chair.
Yifan looks after him, his face being a quite disturbing mix of frown and bitchface.
Yixing is looking at Yifan for a moment, quite amused by the display. He's wondering what is Yifan doing, but then deems it very unimportant as the oven rings, announcing the cake is done.
Everyone's attention immediately focuses on the oven and they cheer.
Because cakes make everything better.
*
(Chapter 2)
Rating: PG:13
Genre: fluff, comedy
Pairing: Tao/Sehun, Chanyeol/Kai, Kyungsoo/Kris, Xiumin/Luhan, Suho/Chen, (for now? ?_?)
Words: 5 984
Summary: Yixing has lived in the house with other people for a few months and it was pretty intense, which means now he's left alone. Except, not for long, because eleven new housemates are on their way and they might make things even more intense and insane. Yixing is kind of looking forward to it.
A/N: it seems like no or poor internet connection and no exo fics to read might be kind of helpful. kind of being the key word, as this thing happened. whoops. ^^
*
Yixing sighs again as he's walking towards the postbox.
Really, whose stupid idea it was for the thing to be placed so far away from the actual house. Like, five meters from the door, through a little, unkept garden and mostly dead grass, at the beginning of the land.
It's so long of a walk. It sucks.
Yixing sighs once more.
When he reaches the postbox, he takes out two letters and a few advertisements from nearby foodshops and he turns around to go back inside the house.
Unfortunately, neither he nor any of the neighbors present outside at this time, neither of them notices a pink, flowery-patterned curtain moving evilly in one of the windows of the house.
Only it knows the chaos is coming.
#
Sehun glances at his bag. It's scarily empty and it's been so for days, ever since he found out he'd be moving to another place in two weeks. Which is today.
Sehun blinks. Then he blinks a few more times. The bag stubbornly stays empty.
Resigned, he throws himself onto the bed. He's so screwed.
But, fortunately, it's one of his hyungs that agreed to help him move and drive him ad his bags to the new place. The same hyung who was "convinced" to do so by the hyung's boyfriend. (And that's the little details Sehun wants to know.) The same hyung who's-
Sehun blinks and glances at his cellphone.
- who's calling Sehun right now and it's probably to say that at the moment he's parking his car outside and he wants to see Sehun and his bags in his car in sixty seconds.
Fuck.
Sehun picks up.
"Yes, hyungie?" he says cutely.
What he hears first is a sigh.
"I'm almost finished here. When will you be ready?" Kyuhyun asks.
"You don't have to hurry that badly, hyung. Maybe half hour? You'll have time to get here and I'll finish packing?" Sehun suggests. In his mind it's followed by a thought, I mean, after I actually 'start' packing first, which Sehun knows better than to say out loud.
"Okay. I'll be there in at east thirty minutes. Be ready."
"I'll be waiting~ Drive safely, hyungie~" because a little aegyo at the end of the call can't hurt.
Except, it's followed by a kind of awkward silence and then Kyuhyun hangs up.
Sehun sighs and sits up. He looks at his clothes that are still properly in his closet and at all the other stuff, also untouched.
"Fuck."
*
Baekhyun raises his hand to knock, but even before he does, the door opens. Baekhyun almost jumps, surprised by that, and then only keeps on being surprised at the guy who's now looking at him.
Baekhyun thinks the guy seems confused for some reason. And the guy is definitely not wearing pants, which kind of makes Baekhyun a little confused as well.
"You're..." The guy glances at a paper he's holding. "Sehun?"
Baekhyun only shakes his head for a 'no'.
The guy frowns.
"Yifan?"
Now Baekhyun frowns. The name doesn't sound Korean. Does he look like a non-Korean?
"No?"
"Hm... Jongin?"
Baekhyun blinks.
"I'm Baekhyun," he says, because it might just fasten things up, hopefully.
"Oh." The guy looks into his paper. "So I was close."
Baekhyun isn't even going to ask.
"Come in, Baekhyun," the guy says and moves back a bit, not even a little bit of formality, that is usually happening during first meeting, present.
Baekhyun takes his bags, the few he can take at once and walks inside the house.
The guy blinks confusedly at the bags that left outside and Baekhyun, seeing that the guy clearly has no intention of helping, sighs and goes back for the rest.
It takes a few moments, but when finally all of Baekhyun stuff is inside the house, the guy is searching through his few papers, still confused.
"How is this-" He turns the current page upside down. "So if it's- Then this one-"
Baekhyun only keeps staring at him.
"Okay, I think I almost know which room is yours," the guy says, obviously pleased with himself.
Baekhyun lets himself glance at the paper. It's a map of the house.
Really, what is this person?
"Here, my name." Baekhyun points at it.
"Oooh~"
They stare at the paper for a few more moments. It's awkward and silent and Baekhyun doesn't do awkward nor silent well, so-
"You're not wearing pants," slips out.
The guy blinks and looks down.
"Uh, not again," he whines to himself and pouts.
Seriously, what the hell is this person?
"And I'm Yixing."
*
It's not even ten minutes after Baekhyun manages to get his bags into the room that is his and a guy he saw to be called Chanyeol, when he hears a doorbell. Which means another person has come.
Baekhyun has his bed chosen, his bags somehow put in reasonable places and the sides, so he or anybody else won't trip over them, so deciding it's enough for now, he goes to see who's the new guy.
Or maybe it's his roommate? Baekhyun is really curious about whom he'll be sharing the room with. He hopes they'll get along.
So as Baekhyun gets downstairs, he makes it just in time to see Yixing opening the door. Luckily, Yixing is wearing pants this time.
Baekhyun comes closer to the door and sees a tall guy looking at Yixing pretty calmly and nodding in greeting. When he notices Baekhyun, he nods again and looks back to Yixing, who's staring at his papers, the same confused expression on his face.
"Are you..." Oh, here we go, Baekhyun thinks amusedly. "Sehun?"
The guy frowns.
"I'm Jongin," he says and frowns harder.
Baekhyun raises his brow, curious, because such frowning is really not needed. Like, why is Jongin making such a face?
But what Baekhyun doesn't know and will not, the hard frown is on Jongin's face, because he knows the name, Sehun. He's known it since he was a very, very little kiddie, he's said and heard and thought the name lots and lots of times. He hasn't lately, though, and kind of hopes it's just a Sehun, that it's not a way for the fate to piss on him.
Because, really, he hasn't kept in touch with the little, irritating shit that is one particular Oh Sehun for a reason.
So as Jongin's cursing inwardly and hoping for things not to be as he's fearing they might be, Baekhyun frowns a little, because Yixing pouts at his papers. Like he's not happy he didn't get to guess. That's sad, he shouldn't be pouting, Baekhyun doesn't like seeing pouting Yixing, that's like watching a crying unicorn, just simply nope.
So Baekhyun approaches Yixing from the side and glances at his papers.
"Let's find Jongin-sshi's room," he suggests happily. Yixing glances at him and beams. Baekhyun can't help but grin widely.
So they proceed to search through the map and Baekhyun doesn't even ruin Yixing's fun by pointing at Jongin's name, he just looks at the map and tries to fit that with what he saw of the house. There are two rooms, each for two people, on the ground floor. Yixing is in one of them, and then Jongin's name is put in the other one with some dude called Joonmyun.
There are five rooms on the first floor, three for two people each and two with only one person. Not bad, Baekhyun thinks and wonders how those two managed to get single rooms.
"I think it's this one," Yixing decides and points at Jongin's name.
Baekhyun grins, because, yeah, that's the one and it went faster than with his name.
"Which one?" Jongin steps closer and glances at the map.
"This one," Yixing repeats, still pointing at the paper.
"Yeah, I can see my name. But which room is it?" Jongin's frown comes back.
"This one. Here," Yixing says again, slight exasperation clear in his voice.
Jongin narrows his eyes at Yixing. They are so not getting each other.
"Yeah, but-"
"This one," Baekhyun cuts in and points at the door, the room.
"Okay then." Jongin takes his bags and Baekhyun notices bitterly he's got only two and manages them easily. "Thank you." He moves towards the room.
"That's what I was saying." Yixing sighs and shakes his head, watching Jongin go.
"High five for job well done." Baekhyun grins at Yixing and raises his hand. Yixing laughs and high-fives Baekhyun.
*
It might literally be three minutes after Jongin, when the doorbell is heard again.
Yixing is actually showing Baekhyun the kitchen and just explaining little useful things about the house, but the moment they heard the doorbell, they turn to look at the door, a big smile on Baekhyun's face.
He gestures at Yixing to go first, because in the end it's Yixing who's kind of like a leader here and he's the one responsible for all the stuff. Baekhyun will be only very happy to support.
But when Yixing opens the door this time, what they see first is a very pleasant smile and that kind of confuses Baekhyun for a moment, the mood all different from his and Jongin's.
"You're Yixing, right?" the guy asks, smiling at Yixing, who only stares for a moment, too confused and surprised.
Baekhyun blinks, because it's not the kind of fun he expected. Like, not fun at all.
"Yeah, I am. And you're..." Yixing looks into his papers. "Sehun?"
Baekhyun snorts quietly. He wonders why Yixing is so stubborn with that Sehun guy. Has he heard something interesting about him, so now Yixing wants to quickly know Sehun or is he annoying and supposed to have, like, troubles with the rooming and maybe demands changes and Yixing can only do that as long as not everyone are here or maybe he somehow knows Sehun and doesn't remember how he looks like or maybe they've been friends online for five years and Yixing kind of got a crush on his penpal, even not knowing how the guy looks like, but anyway Yixing came to Korea for Sehun and now found out they'd live in the same house and finally have their happy ending?
Baekhyun definitely likes the last idea, it speaks to the romantic in him.
Baekhyun glances at the paper Yixing is looking at now and sees the list of names, Sehun at the beginning. He frowns, as he sees Sehun's name being followed by Yifan, then Jongin and his own at fifth position.
Or maybe Yixing is just guessing the names in the order they've been written? And that would explain how Yixing had been close to guessing Baekhyun's name.
Far from such a fun idea like the penpal love one was. Bummer.
Baekhyun pouts to himself and looks at Joonmyun, who's still smiling and only with one brow raised slightly, even though he just got asked if he's Yifan.
"No?" he answers carefully.
"Are you sure? You don't sound very sure." Yixing wants to make sure.
The smile twitches a bit, but stays.
"I'm sorry for that. But, yes, I'm positive that's not me."
"Hm... Are you Jongin?" Yixing tries again.
"N-"
"Wait, no. Jongin's here already," Yixing cuts in, frowning at his list.
Baekhyun tries his best not to laugh, which is hard, but he's giving his best. Some don't seem to be so good at stopping themselves, because Baekhyun hears chuckle coming from behind them. When he turns his head, he sees Jongin who seems to be just as amused by Yixing's ways and Joonmyun's smile breaking a bit.
"Are you Minseok?"
"No." The smile is still there, but it seems like Joonmyun is having a bit harder time to keep it on. "I'm Joo-"
"Are you Baekh- Wait, no, this one is also here already." Yixing glances quickly at Baekhyun and smiles at him.
Baekhyun can't do this anymore and a giggle sneaks out. He hears Jongin chuckling, too, and turns to look at the guy, because it's always more fun to laugh at things with somebody.
"Are you-"
"I'm Joonmyun," the guy finally says and coughs softly, then puts the proper smile back on.
"I was just about to ask that," Yixing mumbles to himself and pouts.
"Yes, well." Because there isn't really much Joonmyun can say at this point.
"Now, your room." Yixing puts the paper with the map on top.
Baekhyun already knows where Joonmyun's room is and whom he's rooming with, but why would he ruin the fun, nope, definitely not happening.
Obviously, it takes a moment, Yixing just staring at the map, and Joonmyun's smile gets strained a little quicker this time. He glances at Baekhyun, who just smiles encouragingly, and decides to just wait, entertaining himself by looking around.
"I think it might be this one," Yixing finally murmurs softly, pointing at Joonmyun's room. Joonmyun steps closer and looks at the map, probably trying to figure out which one it might be in real life. "And your roommate... Oh, Jongin-sshi."
The three turn to look at Jongin, who's only smiling at them amusedly. He nods his head at Joonmyun, deciding to say nothing.
Joonmyun also nods, but more to himself, that he knows now which door lead to his room. He takes his bags and brings them inside, putting the stuff down as soon as his inside. He straightens up and puts a hand on his back, grimacing a little bit.
"The keys?" he asks Yixing.
Baekhyun and Jongin look at Yixing immediately, because, what? Oh. Right. Whoops.
"Oh!" Yixing exclaims and quickly goes towards his own room. On the way he somehow manages to lose the hold of his papers and they go flying around the room.
"Whoops." He bends to starts picking the papers up.
Joonmyun sighs and moves to help quickly.
"Hey, Yixing-sshi?" Joonmyun starts, most of the papers already in his hands.
"Just Yixing," Yixing says. The list said they're the same age, so he thinks that's okay.
"Okay. Yixing. Do you think it's okay, if I were to do this?" He gestures to the papers. "Like, getting people in. You've been doing well, of course," Baekhyun and Jongin look at each other, not sure if they heard right, and back at Joonmyun," but I'm sure you probably have better things to do. And I just like doing such things. What do you think?" He smiles at Yixing encouragingly.
Baekhyun and Jongin grimace at Joonmyun, he's ruining all the fun.
Yixing looks at Joonmyun, at the papers and back at Joonmyun.
"Can I call you just Joonmyun?" he asks.
"Of course."
"Deal." Yixing quickly gives Joonmyun the papers he picked up, then proceeds to his room. Moments later he gives Joonmyun a box with the keys and smiles.
"I'll be in the kitchen," Yixing says and retreats, the smile on his face turning weird as he keeps glancing at Joonmyun.
Baekhyun can imagine what Yixing is thinking. It's probably the same what Baekhyun was thinking about thirty minutes ago.
What is this person?
*
Fifteen minutes later Joonmyun is ready. He's got his bags in his room, he talked a bit with Jongin, he went through Yixing's papers, he checked how the rooms upstairs look and how they go with what's on the map (and he decided it's just a perfect map and then found out Yixing made it) and segregated all the keys, after he gave the right one to Baekhyun, Jongin and himself (he also asked Yixing why there are so many keys to Yixing's room. Yixing answered it's because of the curse that make the keys to this one room disappear sometimes. Joonmyun stared at Yixing for a moment and only then nodded, deciding to say nothing).
In the meantime, Yixing actually is making a cake. He didn't really give a reason for that, only that he felt like it. Nobody complained and Baekhyun ended up helping while Jongin just sat in the kitchen with them to join the conversation.
But then they hear the doorbell.
Joonmyun is the first to get to the door. He takes a deep breath and opens, ignoring Baekhyun and Jongin spying from the kitchen's door, curious how it'll go.
Except as half a minute later has Joonmyun knowing the guy is Yifan and talking to him about the house as he's leading Yifan upstairs to show him his room, Baekhyun and Jongin glances at each other, grimace again and go back to Yixing and his cake making, deeming Joonmyun's doing very, very far from interesting.
*
After Yifan comes Minseok and Baekhyun and Jongin don't even react to the doorbell this time, knowing very well that Joonmyun will do well and there's nothing fun about that.
Soon Minseok joins them in the kitchen, Yifan following after him. Yixing, Baekhyun and Jongin can't help but kind of stare at the two, how adorably-looking and little Minseok seems in comparison to serious-faced and ridiculously tall Yifan.
Baekhyun is actually a bit jealous, not being very tall himself. But at least he's taller than Joonmyun, though.
Another doorbell is heard and this time they don't even glance that way, everyone too focused on the conversation or helping Yixing with the cake.
Except suddenly they hear, like, a very loud, deep voice and it's kind of distracting and sounds too cheerful and they all can't help but look at the door and wonder who is that person and, as almost everyone glance at Yifan, what does the guy looks like, if Yifan's this serious, dangerous looking one and his voice definitely isn't as deep.
And then they hear the guy saying he's Chanyeol and Baekhyun pretty much sprints out of the kitchen to meet the guy (and find out if he's really as scary as he sounds. Baekhyun hopes very, very much he's not.)
Jongin and Minseok follow out of the curiosity, Yifan goes just behind them looking all serious and pretending he doesn't care and isn't at all curious (when in reality he is curious and badly so). Yixing is left and pouts when he's left alone as he can't go with them, dough in his hands.
But by then Baekhyun is standing a few feet behind Joonmyun already and staring at the new guy and kind of not sure if he's seeing right.
Because the guy kind of looks like an elf and there's this crazily wide grin and it's kind of scary in a way and Baekhyun's pretty sure one of the guy's eye is twitching. And he's huge, probably as tall as Yifan is.
They must've heard wrong. Somehow. Baekhyun can't even imagine how, but, really, they couldn't hear right.
"Chanyeol?" Baekhyun asks carefully.
The guy nods.
"And you are?" he asks.
Everyone beside Joonmyun and Chanyeol gasps, because, here, it's the voice and it's coming of out this elf-like person.
"Baekhyun. We're rooming together."
Chanyeol smiles, kind of more properly than the crazy grin from a moment ago.
"Cool." He makes his way closer to Baekhyun. He raises his hand and Baekhyun chuckles as he high fives Chanyeol. "Show me the room?"
Baekhyun nods and leads Chanyeol away, actually liking the guy already, despite of all the crazy aura. He seems cool.
The rest are left gaping after Chanyeol. Joonmyun is frowning, though, not appreciating being left behind and ignored like this.
Except, Joonmyun doesn't get much time to sulk, because he barely manages to close the door, when the doorbell rings again. He perks up and opens the door again.
The moment Chanyeol disappears upstairs, the rest of the guys loses interest and retreats back to the kitchen. Jongin is the last one to leave and he turns his head to see who came now.
When he does see the new person, he quickly turns his head back ahead, not wanting to be noticed.
"Fuck," he mumbles. Then he notices Yixing coming out of the kitchen, his hands finally clean. Minseok and Yifan pass by him, as Yixing is frowning, because it seems like he missed all the fun.
Then he focuses on the new guy just in time to hear him saying his name.
"I'm Sehun," he says, staring expressionlessly at Joonmyun, the older's eager smile doing nothing to him.
"I could've guessed that without asking," Yixing murmurs to himself. He finds Joonmyun way of asking for the name really boring.
"Fuck," Jongin repeats, quickly running into the kitchen.
*
Jongin stays in the kitchen, eavesdropping till he hears Sehun walking upstairs. Then he stays in there, even though another doorbell rings and, he keeps grimacing and wondering and kind of a little bit worrying how Sehun will react, when he finds out Jongin is here as well.
Yifan and Minseok keep watching him, feeling pretty entertained by various face expression Jongin is making. They're sure he's not even aware of himself doing and of them watching him as they're talking.
But they hear a loud noise coming from the door and they're curious again. Yifan gets up and goes to see what's going on. Minseok tries to go, too, but he's stopped by Yixing and pouts, because he's really curious. From what Baekhyun has said, things have been lots of fun in here.
Though, Minseok thinks looking at what Yixing is putting in his hands, he can deal with sneaking licks of chocolate cream, yeah, it sounds good enough.
*
In the doorway, Joonmyun is having his own troubles and sees no positive light. Because, really, the guy in front of him looks like a dark, dangerous ninja. Like, very muchly so. Like, he's got this long, thick stick and when Joonmyun opened the door, the guy hit the door while bowing and he might've done in on accident, but the accident sounded and looked hard. And if an accident is that strong, then Joonmyun is scared even to imagine what's if something isn't an accident.
The guy apologizes for hitting the door, but it's not even a clear sorry, just a mumbled one.
"I'm Joonmyun." He glances at the list. "Are your name is?"
"Hwang Zitao," the guy answers and bows a little again. Joonmyun bows slightly, too.
"Oh, I see." He sees the name written in Chinese characters, the hangul next to it. He sees the date of birth, too. "It's nice to meet you, Zitao. I hope it's okay for me to call you that? Because you're younger. And you can call me Joonmyun-hyung." Joonmyun keeps smiling happily and trying to figure out the most cheerfulness that he can, so the ninja guy will find him all harmless and fine.
"Thank you," is said with a very obvious Chinese accent, the Korean syllables not very clear. "Joonmahao." Tao bows slightly again.
Joonmyun doesn't bow back this time, though, too confused by what Tao said. For a moment he thinks it might be a Chinese word, but he doubts that. Only then he realizes it's supposed to be Joonmyun-hyung, except not very clear at all.
"No, no. Say after me," his voice gets louder, as he tries to carefully pronounce every word. "Joonmyun-hyung."
"Joonma-hao?" Tao tries. Joonmyun's eye twitches.
"One more time. Joon. Myun. Hyung." Joonmyun's voice gets even louder, as he tries for the guy to get it right.
"He's Chinese, not deaf," Yifan speaks up, from where he's observing the scene. It's really hilarious to him.
Joonmyun turns to glare at him. Except then he remembers Yifan is all big and scary, so maybe glaring isn't a good idea. He turns back to Tao.
"Anyway. Your room. Here." Joonmyun points at the map. "We go. Okay?"
Tao blinks at him, looking very confused and uncomfortable.
Yifan snorts, the amount of strength he's using not to just laugh out loud being huge.
"Your." Joonmyun gestures at Tao with his hand. He doesn't dare to just point a finger at him. "Room." He thinks for a moment and draws a square with his hand and then mimics sleeping. "There." He gestures towards the stairs.
Tao only turns even more confused, staring at Joonmyun wide-eyed.
Yifan can't help it anymore. He bursts out laughing, because that's just too hilarious for anyone to bear, especially him.
Both Tao and Joonmyun turn to look at him, one to stare confused and the other to glare in annoyance. Yifan keeps laughing for a few moments and when he finally calms himself down a little bit, he decides to help. He can't take more of this, really.
"What Joonmahao is trying to say is: let's get you to your room. It's upstairs," Yifan explains amusedly in Mandarin.
Joonmyun listens to the whatever Yifan is saying and doesn't understand any of it. He hears Joonmahao, though, and snorts, because Yifan knows better Korean that this and this botching up his name is no accident on his account.
"Oh, okay. Thanks." Tao smiles softly and both Yifan and Joonmyun feels a bit shaken up by how a little smile can change Tao's face. And, yeah, how adorable it makes him look. "But is he... Is Joonmahao," Tao tries to pronounce it better this time and not doing a very good job out of it," is he okay? Like, are there things wrong with him? Like, with his head?" Tao asks carefully, hoping it's not a touchy subject or not okay to mention.
Yifan tenses hard, because he really doesn't want to laugh at Tao, but he's asking if Joonmyun is retarded. That is just simply too much for Yifan. Like, he gets it's probably a big misunderstanding, with Tao most likely getting Korean pretty well and just pronunciation being quite off most of the time, and Joonmyun deciding that means Tao's Korean is almost non-existent.
But Yifan isn't going to explain the situation.
"He's okay. He has his... moments, though," Yifan answers, finishing with a thoughtful tone, as if there is something. Because he thinks there kind of is. Something seems to be unique about every one of the guys living in this house so far. Yifan guesses he might be the only one normal in here.
"Just follow him. He'll take you to your room, okay? Later come to the kitchen, over there," Yifan points the kitchen," it's where your roommate and most of the guys are. You'll meet them."
"Oh. Okay." Tao looks a bit nervous at the thought of meeting so many people. Yifan smiles softly at the adorableness that Tao is turning out to be.
"No need to worry. We've all met only today and some are still to come. We're all starting from scratch."
Tao smiles with gratitude, nodding eagerly.
"Joonmyun-ah, show Tao his room," Yifan switches to Korean easily. He notices that for some reason it makes Tao smile wider.
Joonmyun only snorts at Yifan, but does as he's told.
"We." He gestures at himself and Tao. "Go~" He points at the stairs. "Okay?"
Tao's smile fades a bit, but he nods, looking quite uncomfortable again.
Joonmyun assumes Tao's uncomfortable, because being alone with Joonmyun means speaking Korean and Korean makes Tao uncomfortable. Yifan guesses, and most likely he's correct, it's because Tao still thinks Joonmyun might be a little bit retarded.
Yifan watches them for a few seconds and go to the kitchen to laugh hard and maybe tell the guys about what just happened.
*
When the next doorbell is heard, Joonmyun has managed to sort himself out after the fail that happened with Tao. He tried to talk with the guy, using simple words and gestures, just to be nice and maybe make Tao relax a bit, but Tao only kept gawking at him and stayed uncomfortable.
So Joonmyun left after smiling awkwardly at Tao for the last time.
But now he's standing in front of the door again. He takes a deep breath and opens the door, his usual smile on.
"Hello," Joonmyun says cheerfully. "I'm Joonmyun. And you are?" he asks, glancing at the list. Only three are left.
The guy blinks at him, looking very confused, and says something that sounds very much like Chinese.
Joonmyun gasps.
"Not again," he whines pitifully and buries his face in his hands. That is too much, he can't do this again. He is so done.
"Hey, I was only joking, dude," Joonmyun hears the guy say and he raises his head to stare at him. "I speak Korean, relax."
"What." Joonmyun blinks at the guy. "That wasn't funny."
"Except, it kind of was." The guy chuckles. Joonmyun glares. "I'm Luhan."
Joonmyun glances at his list and crosses another name out.
"Well, okay then. Let me take you to your room. I think your roommate is in there." Joonmyun gestures at Luhan to follow him.
"Okay, okay. Let's go." Luhan seems excited. And he's curious about his roommate, too. He hopes it won't end up like with the one before.
"But no joking," Joonmyun says strictly as he turns his head to Luhan and then back ahead. Luhan only chuckles. He makes no promises.
*
The next time Joonmyun opens the door, he's ready for another uncomfortable surprises. The list says there are not more Chinese people, but he can't be sure. It really seems like there are going to be lots of insanity going on with all the guys that are already here. Joonmyun doesn't think the two more are going to be much different or normal, sadly.
Except, when he opens the door, he sees somebody he's very glad to see in this mad house.
"Jongdae! It's been so long. So nice to see you!" Joonmyun is all grinning and happy, because, really, he knew Jongdae in high school and he was such a nice dongsaeng, always so supporting and pleasant. Joonmyun never understood the rumors he kept hearing, about Jongdae being mischievous and a joker and just plainly annoying. Jongdae was precious and at this point Joonmyun couldn't be happier to see him.
"H-hyung," is all Jongdae manages, though. It's really difficult, as all that are coming to his mind are curses and cries and how is this his life. Like, really, what are the odds of him ending up living in the same house as his crush from high school. And he was crushing hard back then and ended up completely devastated, when Joonmyun finished his high school education.
But no, Jongdae is okay now. Even before Jongdae himself was done with his third year, he decided he's done with his crush and was okay and felt nothing, Joonmyun was just a hyung he knew.
So, yeah, Jongdae definitely isn't fighting the temptation to call Joonmyun senpai like he sometimes did in his fantasies. He's so not, he's long done with that.
"Really awesome that you're here." Joonmyun just can't keep grinning. He takes Jongdae's hand, at which Jongdae tries not to hyperventilate, and brings him inside, even helping with his bags. "Here, your room is over there." Joonmyun points at the door that are seen even from where they're standing. "Your roommate is Yixing. He's nice. A bit quirky, but nice." Yeah, Joonmyun thinks, that's a poor description of Yixing, but it should be enough for now. "Let's get you settled and I'll introduce you to the guys." He grabs Jongdae's wrist and starts pulling him towards the room.
Jongdae only keeps glancing at Joonmyun's hand on his wrist and pretending he's not overwhelmed by Joonmyun's enthusiasm and his cheerful smile and the happiness at Jongdae's sight. Jongdae is totally over the senpai phase of his life.
Except, unless he takes into consideration that he's clearly not over. But he doesn't want to.
*
The last time the doorbell rings, Joonmyun opens the door to see wide eyes looking at him. Like, he sees a person and all, but the eyes are so big and so distracting, that he does get distracted for a short moment.
But then he's not again and soon he knows the guy is the last one of his housemates and his name is indeed Kyungsoo and he'll be taking the last room, alone.
Joonmyun wonders how it was decided that Kyungsoo and Yifan both got single rooms. It must be nice to have the privacy. On the other hand, Jongin seems nice. He guesses.
But Joonmyun takes Kyungsoo to his room, gives him his keys and lets him get settled. He notices that the room is still a bit cold, though he's sure he turned on the heating a bit, but maybe it just needs time.
Then Joonmyun proceeds to the kitchen, because it seems like the guys decided it's going to be like the common room of the house, almost all of them gathered in there by now and waiting for the cake to be done baking.
He joins Sehun and Luhan, who are coming out of their room and seem to be also directing to the kitchen. The two are getting on splendidly already and Joonmyun gasps a little at the cute, little smile that is present on Sehun's previously expressionless face.
And then Joonmyun gasps again, because Sehun directs a smile at him, too. Sehun chuckles a bit at the reaction, but he doesn't mind. He's happy, his roommate is cool and fun and tries to make Sehun call him gege (Sehun thinks not). He was a bit afraid how it would be to live somewhere else that his own home, when he starts college, but for now it seems to be working out.
And Sehun keeps thinking that and keeps on being happy with everything, till he's not in the kitchen. Because there's this one person, who isn't looking at him and just keeps his back to Sehun. And Sehun wouldn't really care, 'cause what is one weird person in comparison to nine cool ones (because the one that just arrived still is in his room, so Sehun doesn't know). Or maybe the person is just shy and weird. He really wouldn't care nor even notice, but there's just something about that guy. Something suspicious, something familiar and he just can't really say exactly. Except he's seen the back so many times, he's known, he's-
"For fuck's sake, Jongin," Sehun whines as he realizes and facepalms.
And, indeed, it's Jongin who finally turns to look at Sehun. He doesn't seem surprised to see him, so Sehun guesses he saw him before and it's why he was being weird.
"You know each other?" Luhan asks. It's probably what everyone are thinking, because Sehun's outburst made the others look at the two.
"Yeah," is all Sehun answers.
The others want to ask more, want to know more, but somehow the face expressions of Sehun and Jongin don't make them think it's a good idea. Maybe some other time they'll ask and without one of the two guys.
Jongin sighs and Sehun rolls his eyes.
They really didn't expect to see each other or at least so soon. Because it's been only a few months since the day they fought and never spoke again.
Sehun isn't so happy anymore, knowing that he lives in the same house as Jongin does now. Quoting one of the hyungs they knew in high school, this is not the reality he wanted.
"Fuck," comes suddenly from the door. Everyone looks to that side and sees startled Baekhyun, followed by Chanyeol's who's looking at him confused.
"Um, I almost tripped," Baekhyun says weakly and moves towards one of the chairs, as if nothing happened.
Chanyeol follows him, curious. Because he knows that Baekhyun didn't trip, he just suddenly stopped and swore. Because, Chanyeol's guessing, he saw somebody here. Somebody he knows. Chanyeol is even more curious and keeps observing Baekhyun. The guy isn't really subtle, though, because it doesn't even take Chanyeol a minute to figure out Baekhyun is sometimes glancing at the guy he hears to be Luhan. And Luhan sneaks a few awkward glances at Baekhyun, too.
"Baekhyun?" Chanyeol whispers, leaning over close to Baekhyun, who glances at him and sighs. He quickly figures out what Chanyeol's asking.
"Not now," he whispers back, trying to keep acting as if nothing is wrong.
Chanyeol looks at him for a moment, but lets it be, especially as the last one of the twelve finally comes to the kitchen.
The happy cheer at surprised and wide-eyed Kyungsoo is disturbed by Yifan coughing and spouting a little of his tea. Standing close by, Kyungsoo is the first one to hit Yifan's back in case something got stuck in his throat.
Yifan coughs some more and finally calms down a bit.
"Are you okay?" Kyungsoo asks, looking at Yifan, his big eyes full of worry.
Yifan coughs weakly.
"Y-yes." He coughs once more. Kyungsoo nods, satisfied with the answer and smiles softly at Yifan, whose face gets weird for half a second and turns into the serious bitchface it was, when he came into the house.
Kyungsoo's smile falls at that and he turns to grab the rag lying on the counter behind him. He quickly wipes the bit of tea on the table and then moves towards the only free chair.
Yifan looks after him, his face being a quite disturbing mix of frown and bitchface.
Yixing is looking at Yifan for a moment, quite amused by the display. He's wondering what is Yifan doing, but then deems it very unimportant as the oven rings, announcing the cake is done.
Everyone's attention immediately focuses on the oven and they cheer.
Because cakes make everything better.
*
(Chapter 2)