I'm sorry for taking so long to write this (╥﹏╥)

*not edited, I'm so sorry if this chapter is boring

Joonmyun’s eyes fluttered open and he took in his surrounding, his eyes slowly adjusting to the sun’s brightness. A soft sigh escaped his lips as he rolled on his side to glance at the clock hanging on the pristine white wall.

His eyes widened in horror.

The sleepiness vanished from his eyes in a second and he frantically jumped off the bed before making a mad dash to the bathroom.

By the time he stepped into the dining room, only three people were left at the table. Great. Frustration oozed inside like a river- he was late for breakfast, again.

“Oh, you’ve woken up.” Chen grinned and winked at Joonmyun just after taking a bite of crispy bacon. “I didn’t hear you come downstairs.”

Baek lifted up his face to look at Joonmyun and he feigned an apologetic look. “We ate everything. Sorry sweetie, there was nothing left for you.”

The laugh that Baek let out was extremely annoying. Joonmyun held himself back from strangling Baek to death as he quietly shuffled to the table. He mentally sobbed to see empty plates and bowls on it. He had been warned by D.O, countless times, that they would have their breakfast at 8.30 sharp every morning.

Regardless of the warning, he never failed to amaze them with his habit of waking up at exactly 9 o’clock. Most of the time, due to his poor cooking skill, he only ate some biscuits or bread to fill his empty stomach.

“I leave some fried rice in the microwave. Eat it.”

Baek groaned in unison with Chen as Joonmyun casted a gaze on D.O and mouthed ‘thank you’ to the man. D.O was the last person he was introduced to. Frankly, he was frightened by the intense stare given by D.O when they shook hands, and he had a mere thought that the man didn’t like him. D.O rarely talked. He always sat alone in one corner of the living room when the others were watching television, only made a click sound with his tongue when Chen or Baek were beyond loud.

Sometimes, Joonmyun could feel D.O staring at him while he was doing household chores. He had tried to cover his uneasiness but when he was alone with Kris, he couldn’t help but to pour out his troubled feelings. Much to his annoyance, the blond just laughed at him in response. He never told Kris anything about D.O after that.   

“I’m about to share my bacon with him, you busybody.” Chen snarled at D.O with mouth full of bacon. “Why must you interrupt our moment, you owl.”

“Want me to end your life with the kitchen knife?”

Baek burst out laughing when Chen stopped chewing and bolted up from his seat and flew out of the scene. A leering grin spread across his thin lips as he patted the seat beside him. “Sit here Joonmyun. I hate sharing food but since you’re so cute you can have some.”

The invitation didn’t sound appealing at all. Joonmyun shifted a bit and took a step away from the table, from Baek. There was no way he would sit beside the troublemaker. “Thanks Baek but I think I will eat the fried rice....in the kitchen.” with that, he scurried like a mouse into the kitchen.

As he chewed his fried rice, Joonmyun noticed how dead quiet the house was. They must have already left for work. They must be really hardworking, he thought, because they left the house so early, every morning, without fail. They always came home around midnight and complained that they were tired- but they never told him anything detailed about their work.

D.O, Baek and Lay were usually at home, and he had a suspicion that the three men had been assigned by Kris to look after him when the others were outside working. Baek and Lay seemed alright with it, but D.O didn’t look happy at all. A scowl seemed to be permanently imprinted on D.O’s face and his low tone voice made him even scarier to Joonmyun.

Stacks of dirty dishes and pans greeted Joonmyun as he got closer to the sink. Weird. He glanced over his shoulder and saw no one at the table. His features pulled into a frown, knowing that D.O would never leave the kitchen dirty.

A brilliant idea flashed into his mind. He must take that chance to please D.O. A smile might appear on D.O’s face instead of a scowl once he saw the kitchen was squeaky clean. He in a deep breath and rolled up his sleeves. He was determined to make D.O smile at him at the end of the day.

~~~~~~

There was nothing left to do, Joonmyun thought as he sat on the sofa in the living room, a soap drama playing quietly on the television. Of all days, he felt extremely bored and unproductive today. He tilted his head backward over the arm of the sofa and looked at the window. The laundry hanging on the clothesline caught his eyes, and absentmindedly, he began to count with the tips of his fingers.

Tao sure had a lot of clothes.

Sighing, Joonmyun grabbed another handful of potato chips and slowly munching them as he focused his eyes back on the television and tried to understand the plot of the boring drama.

“Alright.” Joonmyun talked to himself and got to his feet. “No one told me I can’t look around.”

Two months living in the house, Joonmyun had never really explored the house. He was afraid to bump into anyone, especially Baek and Chen, and mostly because he thought he was still considered a stranger in the house.

Curiosity drew him to the third floor- to the floor with most rooms. His room was on the second floor, so was Kris and D.O, and he had no reason to go up to the third floor. He walked up the stairs slowly and stopped at the top of the stairs to scan the hallway with cautious gaze.

Joonmyun won’t enter their room, of course, he knew his limit. And that was the very reason why he ended up standing in front of a door with a sign ‘Lay’s study’. He swallowed to ease his nerves before knocking on the door for several times. He was pretty sure Lay said he would be working in his study until night, so it was weird when the dimpled-man didn’t answer him.

“Lay, are you inside?”

No answer.

It took Joonmyun a moment to gather his courage, and as soon as he did, he twisted the doorknob gently and opened the door, slowly, and carefully peeked inside.

A frown quickly made its way on his forehead.

The study didn’t look like how he had pictured it in his head at all. It was definitely not a room for paperwork and stuff.

It was a lab.

A large lab with a lot of strange things that he didn’t know in all his life. Baffled by the discovery, he took in his surrounding, lips slightly parted as he walked further into the room/lab/. He stopped at a bench- conical flask, test tubes, chemical bottles scattered all over it.

What exactly did Lay do with all those things?

“What the bloody hell are you doing in here?”

Joonmyun almost screamed at the sudden voice. He swiveled his head to look behind him and felt his heart stop beating for a second to see Maknae glaring down at him.

It was not a good sign.

“I-I am looking for Lay.”

“Who told you can enter his lab?” The silver-haired male walked toward Joonmyun and jabbed a finger against the latter’s chest. “Do you know how dangerous all the chemicals here? Do you want to get yourself poisoned?”

The waves of anger in Maknae’s eyes chilled Joonmyun to his core. He looked down, eyes widened as he noticed a spot of blood on Maknae’s jeans. A thick lump formed in his throat. “I was just looking around. I didn’t touch anything. I swear!”

“Rub your hands with this.” Maknae growled, handing Joonmyun a small bottle of sanitizer gel. “Go back to your room and don’t come out until I tell you.”

The menacing tone was clearly telling Joonmyun that it was an order, not something that he could whine or argue over and so, out of fear he bowed deeply and scurried out of the lab. Once he was outside, he ran downstairs to his room as if pursued by a criminal and crawled under his blanket.

Twenty minutes passed just like that with him doing nothing under the protection of his blanket. The lack of fresh air started to suffocate him so he slowly pulled the blanket off and sat up, a sigh unconsciously escaped him. He felt thirsty, but going to the kitchen was absolutely not the perfect decision at that moment. Maknae clearly said he was not allowed to leave his room.

With nothing much to do, Joonmyun decided to kill his time with a nice bubble bath. He undressed and quickly made his way to the bathroom. Then he began to fill the tub with hot water. He stepped into the tub and almost moaned at the feel of warm water lapping around him. He had all the time in the world, so he took his time to soap and scrub every inch of his body until most of his skin was red.

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