Suho lifted the blinds, peering out the window for what felt like the hundredth time, before walking back to the kitchen counter where blueprints and plans were spread out. He was starting to get worried. Baekhyun had said that he and his friends would come at nine, and it was five minutes till ten. Suho would have driven them himself, but he'd wanted to come early to get things ready, and besides, there would be too many people for one car anyway. Taking his phone out of his pocket he checked for messages, and, seeing none, tried calling Baekhyun. The phone rang a few times before going to voice mail, and Suho sighed. He was already starting to regret his decision to let Baekhyun and his friends help him fix up his new house. Originally, he'd planned to hire professionals to do everything, but his step-brother had scoffed at the idea, saying that it was a waste of money and that professionals should only be used for things that they couldn't do themselves. Baekhyun had only been Suho's step-brother for five months, but Suho already knew better than to argue with him when he got his mind set on something. It seemed Baekhyun's friends knew it too, because he'd somehow roped them into helping. He'd even managed to get a few of Suho's friends to help, despite their protests. Suho loved Baekhyun, the little brother he'd always wanted, but he kind of scared Suho sometimes.

He reached for his phone again, ready to call Kris, one of his friends that was coming to help, but paused when he heard the sound of vehicles approaching. Rushing to the window, he looked out again, breathing a sigh of relief when he recognized one of the two cars coming up the driveway as his friend Xiumin's. He went outside to meet the new arrivals, waving as he approached the cars. Baekhyun, Baekhyun's friends, and Suho's friends hopped out, returning the wave.

Suho reached the group and exchanged greetings before turning to Baekhyun. "Why're you guys so late? You were supposed to be here an hour ago."

Baekhyun shrugged. "First Lay couldn't find his keys, so we had to help him look for them, and then Kris wouldn't wake up. We spent fifteen minutes outside his apartment waiting for him."

"You left out the part where we waited on you for twenty minutes because you were taking forever to get ready," Baekhyun's friend, who Suho recalled being named Chen, said, grinning cheekily and earning himself a glare from Baekhyun. 

"Well, I'm sorry that some of us actually care about how we look." 

Ignoring the backhanded remark about his appearance, Chen rolled his eyes. "We're renovating a house, not going clubbing. No one here cares whether you have eyeliner on or what clothes you're wearing." 

Deciding that enough time had been wasted, and realizing that Baekhyun and his friend weren't going to stop arguing anytime soon, Suho cut in. "We should probably get started soon. Since everyone here doesn't know each other, let's introduce ourselves. I'll go first. I'm Suho, and Baekhyun here is my step-brother. I thank you all for coming today to help with my house."

Chen went next. "Chen, I'm Baekhyun's best friend. Nice to meet you all. And I'm sure it's nice to meet me as well." He smiled, lips curving up at the ends.

"I'm Kris, and this is Luhan and Xiumin. We're friends with Suho." Kris pointed first to himself and then Luhan and Xiumin as he spoke.

The introductions continued without a hitch until everyone had introduced themselves. There were eleven people in total: Suho, Baekhyun, Baekhyun's friends: Kyungsoo, Kai, Tao, Chen, Lay, and Sehun, and Suho's friends: Xiumin, Kris, and Luhan.

Smiling, Suho waved his hand toward the house in a grand gesture. "Nice to meet you all, now, let's get to work!"

Some of them cheered, caught up in the moment, while others groaned at the thought of having to actually do work for once in their lives, and a few showed little to no reaction. Ignoring the naysayers, Suho led the way to house, leaving everyone else with little choice but to follow him. 

Turning the doorknob, Suho swung open the door and stepped inside. "Welcome to my humble abode!" 

The others, who had been trailing in behind him, froze, slowly looking over the hall that they were standing in. Scrunching up his nose, Baekhyun practically gagged. "What the-? Orange wallpaper with green stripes? And why is the carpet purple? Who decorated this place?" If the hall was any indication as to how the rest of the house looked, then they had their work cut out for them.

"I have to agree," Kris said, "As an artist, I find this color scheme appalling."

Looking at Kris, Tao's eyes widened. He'd never met an artist before. "You're an artist?" 

Unable to hold back, Baekhyun burst out laughing. "No, no he's not. I saw a portrait of Suho he painted for Suho's birthday, and that, that was not art."

Kris pouted, and Luhan huffed, glaring at Baekhyun. "Hey, don't be mean to Kris. His art is great. You just don't understand art. I have several of his pieces hanging on the walls in my apartment." 

"Maybe we should be renovating your place then, instead of Suho's?" Baekhyun suggested, and Luhan hissed, raising his fist, but Lay chose that moment to intervene, stepping between the two of them.

"Guys, we're supposed to be helping Suho, not fighting, remember?" Lay spoke calmly, voice soft, and Luhan and Baekhyun had the decency to look sheepish, apologizing to Suho, who, of course, forgave them. It's nice to have at least one person on my side, Suho thought as he smiled at Lay and whispered him a thank you.

Finally, after all of the delays, everyone was in the kitchen, which didn't look much better than the hall, bending over the blueprints. Everyone was nodding as Suho pointed at different spots on the papers and explained how he wanted everything to be. Tao didn't really understand anything Suho was saying, but he went along with it anyway. He was more of a hands on person, so he'd figure it out once they started working. 

To help things move faster, Suho split the eleven guys, including himself, into two teams for the day. One team would work in the living room while the other worked in the kitchen. To decide the teams everyone picked a piece of paper, each of which having either "living room" or "kitchen" written on them, from Kai's hat, which he'd agreed to let them use. Once everyone had drawn a piece of paper the teams were finalized. Suho, Lay, Xiumin, Chen, Luhan, and Kris would be in the kitchen, while Baekhyun, Kai, Kyungsoo, Tao, and Sehun would be in the living room. For the most part, everyone was happy with their teams, but there were two people cursing their bad luck as they left the kitchen and made their way to the living room.