Vernon walked into his house to see it in a state of chaos. The bookshelves and display cabinets had been squished into the loungeroom and dining area so furniture could be hauled through the house. Vernon's younger sister was sitting on the loungeroom floor less than half a metre away from the TV, squished under one of his mother's display cabinets that looked like a small bookshelf screwed onto a desk.

Vernon tried to sneak into his room. He knew if his dad noticed he was home he would have to help move furniture. He was almost at his room when he crashed into his dad as he and another man were exiting the office room.

"Hansol! Remember I told the family about our new guest? He's here!" Vernon's dad sounded much too enthusiastic, Vernon didn't want to correct his father and tell him he was at the cafe when the man made the announcement. "Hansol, this is Joshua," Vernon's dad gestured to the other man, "Joshua, this is Hansol." Joshua extended a hand forward, which Vernon took to shake.

The other man, who Vernon now thought was only two or three years older than him, looked incredibly awkward. He had ginger hair and was nicely dressed in well fitting jeans and a nice shirt ("boyfriend clothes" immediately popped into Vernon's mind, and he vowed to never let Seungkwan around this guy unsupervised). He looked quite well put together, especially considering he'd probably gotten off a long plane flight in the last couple of hours.

"Um... hi?"

Vernon couldn't help but inwardly cringe. He could hear the multiple question marks at the end of Joshua's statement. "Hey," he replied, tone at least even.

There was a few moments of silence before Vernon's dad rescued them. "Ok," the man had said, clapping his hands together, "let's get back to moving furniture!" He shifted slightly to face Vernon. "Hansol, you can sit for a bit while Joshua and I get everything into his room, then you two can shift everything about so it's how he wants it."

Vernon shrugged. "Sure, I'll be in my room. Homework. Holler when you need me."

Vernon sat at his desk for a bit. He didn't want to start on his maths without his friends; it wasn't his best subject and they were all the year above him so they knew how to do most of it. That left English, which felt like cheating whenever he had to do it. He'd been brought up speaking English so he was way beyond what his peers were learning in class. "Easy A class it is," he muttered to himself as he grabbed his English work out of his bag.

He hadn't been doing his homework for more than half an hour before he heard a timid knock on his door. "Yeah?" he called lazily.

Vernon's bedroom door opened to reveal Joshua. "Mr Chwe sent me to get you - we finished moving the furniture to my room. He wanted you to help me shift it around and build my bed, but I can do it all on my own if you're busy."

Vernon stood up. "I'm mostly done, I'll help. You're probably dying to sleep anyway."

Together, the two went to Joshua's new room. "Should we build the bed first?" Vernon asked, unsure.

"I've never moved before, but I guess? It makes sense."

The room was fairly quiet, only the noises of both boys muttering under their breath when their screwdrivers slipped off screws punctuating the silence.

"How was the flight?" Vernon eventually asked. Even a dumb question's better than silence.

Joshua shrugged. "It was a flight? Long and boring."

And like that, the silence was suffocating again.

"Do you mind if I put on some music?" Joshua asked not long after.

Vernon shook his head. "Go ahead. Better than awkward silence."

Joshua went to one of the corners where Vernon hadn't noticed anything was. The older boy pulled a Macbook out of the laptop bag and set it on the floor. After a couple moments of Joshua fiddling around, music poured out of the Macbook's tiny speakers.

It was RnB and American pop music, not the hip hop and rap Vernon usually listened to, but Vernon found himself enjoying it overall. Except the One Direction. ("You listen to One Direction?" "You know who they are?" "Yeah, Sophia likes them, they're almost as bad as some idol groups." "... I only like a few songs, ok?")

Vernon and Joshua had managed to build the bed, move Joshua's furniture to their desired locations, and had even started unpacking some of Joshua's stuff ("Be careful with Taylor!" "It's a guitar, not a girl." "Taylor's more precious than any girl!") when Vernon's mum came in and told them it was lights out for Vernon.

*

Seungkwan hadn't been at the cafe. Vernon was beating himself up for forgetting about his best friend the night before just because he was putting a bed together. He'd been so angry at himself he hadn't talked the whole time. Mingyu had told him Seungkwan would be at school, he just wasn't up to hanging out in a public area. Vernon hadn't even caught up to Seungkwan before the bell went.

In class, he was assaulted by Chan. "Vernon, you seemed distracted yesterday. Are you ok? You didn't even hear me telling you about my showcase."

Vernon thought it was nice Chan was worried about him. "I'm fine, I was just concerned about a friend. You can tell me about your showcase now. Dance, right?"

Chan beamed. "Yeah, and it's this Saturday! I can't wait. Hoshi, well his real name's Soonyoung, choreographed the whole thing by himself and he's only nineteen! He's one of the youngest teachers at the studio! He gave me my own solo, and it's only me and one other student that got one. The other boy that got a solo doesn't speak Korean well 'cause he's Chinese and only been here a year or so, but he b-boys so well! I want him to teach me sometime.

"Anyway, I got some tickets to give to friends and family. My parents are coming, but my friends are either in the showcase or busy."

Vernon had zoned out a little amongst all Chan's rambling, but had been paying enough attention to feel a little sorry for Chan. Only his parents were going?

"I was wondering if you wanted to come? We chat enough in class for me to feel comortable asking you, and you can bring your sister if you want." Chan had a light dusting of pink over his cheeks.

Vernon thought it was funny the other boy had gotten so embarrassed over asking him if he wanted to go. "Yeah, I'll go. Do you want my number so you can text me the details or something?" Chan nodded. "Cool, I'll give it to you at lunch."

A few hours of numbers and dead people later, Vernon was typing his phone number into Chan's phone while the other erased pencil off his desk.

"How do you manage to get pencil all over your desk?" Vernon asked as he put Chan's phone on the desk.

"I get very enthusiastic whenever I try choreographing. I think of how energized Hosh-"

"Vernonnie!" a familiar voice called from the classroom door, interrupting Chan. It'd only been around a day since Vernon had last heard Seungkwan call his name, but he found himself so relieved to hear his best friend's voice that it felt like breathing after holding your breath for too long.

"Hey Seungkwan, glad you're feeling better," Vernon called, forgetting his conversation with Chan. Vernon walked towards Seungkwan, who grabbed his wrist when he was close enough and pulled him to his side, linking their arms.

"I'll text you the details later!" Chan called as Seungkwan dragged Vernon out of the classroom.

"What was that about?" Seungkwan asked as they were further down the hallway.

"He asked me to go to his dance showcase, nothing big." Vernon shrugged.

"Oh. Well, it's been a while since Dokyeom and I stayed at your place. I'm sure your mother'd be happy if Mingyu sat this one out; he eats half your food in a night."

They'd reached the other two boys.

"Actually, mum said her and dad don't care if you're gay, they're fine with us in my room together."

The other two boys whooped. "Finally, we can stop third wheeling!"

Seungkwan shoved Mingyu. "Shut up." Then he turned to Vernon, "Is Saturday night ok?"

Vernon nodded. "Should be fine, Chan's showcase shouldn't end too late."

"Who's Chan?" Dokyeom asked.

"Just one of Vernon's classmates," Seungkwan answered.

"See if we can go, I like watching people dance," Mingyu put in.

Suddenly, Vernon remembered about his family's new house guest.

"We had some guy move in! One of parent's friends from America's kids."

"She cute?" Mingyu asked.

"He. I dunno, though. Dresses kinda stuffy, this morning he was wearing one of those white shirts you wear under a suit."

The rest of lunch was spent discussing Joshua.

"Bring him to the cafe tomorrow, maybe Junghan can get a friend his own age," Dokyeom suggested as the bell rang.

"I'll see if he wants to. What's the worst that could happen?"

============

A/N:

Oh my gosh, 93 subs?! I hadn't noticed how many people had subscribed until now. Thank you, and I hope I can continue to write chapters that you guys enjoy, as well as me enjoying them. Also, don't feel like you have to stay subscribed if you stop enjoying the story, it won't hurt my feelings.

Thanks again for reading!