Jongdae woke up, freezing cold.

For some reason, the blankets on his and Xiumin’s bed were discarded, sitting a heap on the floor across the room.

Deciding to give him crap for it, he flipped over to find Xiumin, but instead, he found an empty space beside him on the bed.

The clock on the bedside table read; 7:54am.

Xiumin never woke up early. Most days, it was Jongdae who had to untangle himself from his arms and shake him violently, before he even opened one eye. For that reason, it was hard to think of a reason as to why he wasn’t there.

Rolling out of bed, Jongdae threw on his clothes and headed down the hall.

No one was sitting on any of the upstairs couches, and all the bedroom doors were open except one, so he figured they must have been downstairs.

He was right.

The ten of them were either on the couches talking, or walking around aimlessly, looking for something to do.

Chanyeol had fallen back to sleep on the living room carpet.

Xiumin walked in from the kitchen, spotting Jongdae standing on the bottom stair.

“Aw.” He walked up to him and ruffled his hair. “Look how cute you are when you’re half asleep”

Jongdae glared at him, causing his smile to falter.

“...And angry. What’s wrong?” He asked.

“I’m fricking cold.” He declared.

“What? Why?” Xiumin asked, cupping his face in his hands.

“Because someone pulled the sheets off me this morning. I can’t imagine who.”

“Sorry.” Xiumin smiled again, pinching his boyfriend’s cheeks. “I’ll make you some coffee. Go sit.”

Obeying, Jongdae went to sit on the couch beside Kai, resting his feet on Chanyeol’s back, who still lay face down on the floor.

“Does anyone else want coffee?” Xiumin called.

Everyone either raised their hand or groaned like Tao, who looked like he was about to fall asleep again, too.

“Do you think Chanyeol wants one?”

“Most likely.” Jongdae responded.

*********

After waking everyone up including Chanyeol, Xiumin gave out the twelve cups of coffee, and called everyone to the living room for a ‘meeting’.

Luhan turned out to be the one who was still upstairs sleeping when Jongdae woke up, and he didn’t seem any more awake when he came down than he was before.

“Okay, I’ll start.” Xiumin spoke up. “So, since we’re staying until monday, we need to figure out some stuff. Like, cooking and dishes, etcetera.”

“Ooh! I’ll cook!” Kyungsoo perked up. “I love cooking.” He was visibly the least tired of the group.

“Okay, great, but you can’t do it by yourself every day.”

“I’ll help him.” Kai spoke up. “I can cook pretty well, too.”

“Okay, cool. But I can cook every second day or whenever you guys want a break.” Xiumin said. “Me too.” Jongdae added.

As much as he was a miserable cook, it was an excuse to spend even more time with Xiumin, and maybe if he learned to make a few things, Xiumin wouldn’t be so bothered by the fact that he was the only who ever cooked anything back at the apartment.

“I can do the dishes,” Tao suggested. 

“You shouldn’t do dishes for twelve people by yourself though,” Jongdae said. “We’ll all help, right?”

Again, everyone replied ‘yes’ or made a sound of approval.

 “Perfect. I think that’s it. And anything else that needs to be done we’ll sort out later.”

 “So, what are we going to do today?” Lay asked.

 “I’m glad you asked. We were thinking of going into the city, there a bunch of little shops and packed full of people. It’s like a little town that goes on forever.” Jongdae told him.

 “Sounds fun.”

 “Yeah. But I came up with a way to make it a bit more interesting.” Xiumin said mischievously. “We’re going to split up into two groups and have a competition to see who can bring back the coolest stuff from the stores.” “But it has to be useful.” Jongdae added. “And if you don’t want to use your money we’ll loan some.”

Everyone seemed to like that idea.

 “But how are we going to split up?” Luhan asked.

 “Oh, don’t worry. I have my team-making methods.” Xiumin told him.

 “We’re calling them teams now?” Kyungsoo laughed.  

 “He planned this one on his own, by the way.” Jongdae said.

 “Hold on,” Xiumin pulled a plastic bag full of little folded pieces of paper, out of his pocket. “I’m gonna pass these out, but DO NOT open them. Kay?”

He passed around the bag, and everyone reached in to pull one out. When it came to Jongdae’s turn, there were only a few papers left.

 With his luck, he’d end up with all of Xiumin’s friends who, some of them, he didn't really know yet.

Xiumin had spent a really long time during the last few days before the trip planning out everything they were going to do for every single day. He was obviously really excited. Jongdae knew better than to protest against anything he suggested.

 “Okay, open them.” Xiumin told them. They did as told.

 Scribbled on the inside of Jongdae’s piece, was ‘Team 2’. Looking up from the paper, everyone else was unfolding theirs too.

 “Who else is team 1?” Kris asked, looking around the room.

“I am.” Baekhyun said.

 “I’m team 2,” Kyungsoo told them, leaning over to look at Luhan’s paper. “Hey, so are you.”

 “Chanyeol, what are you?” Suho asked. “I’m team 1.”

“Ya, same.” Chanyeol replied.

 “Okay. Hold up your papers if you’re team 1.” Xiumin instructed.

Chanyeol, Suho, Kris, Tao, Baekhyun, and Lay all held up their papers. Chanyeol and Kris high-fived.

 “Okay, group 2?”

 Luhan, Kai, Kyungsoo, Sehun, Xiumin and Jongdae himself, raised their hands. Luhan looked worried for a moment, then looked back down at his paper.

“Luhan?” Jongdae asked. Luhan looked up, noticing all the eyes on him now. He smiled reassuringly at Jongdae.

He knew something was up, but he didn’t want to embarrass Luhan in front of everyone, so he just left it.

 “Kris, you can be your group’s leader.” Xiumin said, drawing the attention away from, him.

 Luhan looked relieved. Kyungsoo wrapped his arm around his shoulders.

 Jongdae didn’t know what had just happened with Luhan, but he was suddenly glad that Kyungsoo was in the same group as him. Hopefully it wasn’t anything about the activity. Xiumin would feel bad, and a sad Xiumin wasn’t something Jongdae wanted to deal with at the moment.

When everyone left to get ready to go, Kai and Kyungsoo set off to make breakfast.

 The plan was to get ready to go, eat breakfast quickly, and drive into town and get there by nine o’clock.

 Each team had a car, so Team 1 took Jongdae’s van, and Lay made team 2 squish into Xiumin’s jeep, since he didn’t want to risk having his porsche damaged or stolen.

 As dangerous as it was, Jongdae partially sat on Xiumin’s lap. In a way, it was alright, because Xiumin held onto him like a seatbelt as they drove off.

--------------------------------------------------------

Kris, team 1’s leader, turned out to be a horrible driver.

 The entire trip into the city was bumpy and he turned corners so sharply, Baekhyun barely held on to the toast Kyungsoo had made him for breakfast.

 Arriving near the shops, Kris parked the van on a side street, in front of what appeared to be a cheese shop, but was filled with people who wore leather jackets and bandanas and looked like bikers.

 Already, this place looked interesting.

 Walking the rest of the way, they rounded a corner into one of the smallest, yet busiest streets Baekhyun had ever seen. Kris suggested it would be better to just stick close together on the sidewalk.

 Xiumin was right. There were tons of stores. It reminded him of his hometown. Always busy, filled with these kinds of little shops.

 He walked ahead of the group, wanting to see everything, but eventually slowing down and falling into step beside Chanyeol.

 At first, it was awkward. Neither of them said anything, but Baekhyun sensed that Chanyeol wasn’t one to just walk silently, no matter who he was with.

 “So,” Chanyeol spoke.

Not surprising.

 “What do you think we’ll find here?” He asked Baekhyun.

 “I don’t know,” Baekhyun replied. “Hopefully something cool.”

 “Yeah...I’m Chanyeol, but you probably know that. I know Jongdae introduced me already.”

 “Yeah, you were the one who showed me those pictures of Suho last night. As you might remember, I’m Baekhyun.” He replied, extending his hand for Chanyeol to shake.

Chanyeol just high-fived him instead, making Baekhyun chuckle.

 “Nice to meet you Baekhyun.” He smiled at him. “...Why are you laughing?”

 “You already did that yesterday.”

 “Oh. Sorry. My memory isn't usually this bad.” He said, visibly embarrassed.

 Baekhyun decided to continue.

“So what do you do with your life?” He asked him. Chanyeol looked at him funny, then laughed.

“Sorry, that sounded weird. I meant what do you do currently.”

 “I know what you meant,” Chanyeol reassured. Baekhyun watched him, as he thought about it.

“I’m a music major in university, singing, to be specific. I’m 23 and I live alone in my own tiny apartment near campus… hmm,”

 “Don’t you go to the same university as me?” Baekhyun asked.

 “Oh yeah! That’s right.”

 “I didn’t even know you could major in music there.”

 Chanyeol nodded. “Not many people do.”

 He was hoping Chanyeol wouldn't ask him about his university life. Compared to his, Baekhyun’s days were spent in more boring ways.

 “So what about you?”

And so, the inevitable question fell right into Baekhyun’s lap.

 “Well, I’m in university, I live alone in a big apartment near campus, I’m 23 too, I don’t really have anything that I do in my free time. After school I’m pretty sure I’ll just go into my dad’s company. I don’t really have anything else I’m interested in.”

 Short but simple. That's all he had to say. Going more into detail about his hopes for the future would probably bore him. There were a lot more things Baekhyun wished he could do, but his dad was expecting him to help him run the company, and getting more into those things on his own wouldn't be considered worthwhile, in his opinion. As upsetting as it was, he had his life cut out for him.

 “Not even, like, becoming a beekeeper, or maybe a dance teacher?” Chanyeol asked.

Baekhyun smiled sadly.

 “No. Besides, I’ve been preparing for a long time to work alongside my dad.”

 “Fair enough.” Chanyeol said. “I think I want to become a singer. If that wasn’t evident already.”

 “I had no idea.” Baekhyun said sarcastically.

 “So, Baekhyun. You’re 23, same age as me,” He pointed out. Saying it slowly, suggesting that he was about to ask or say something Baekhyun might be reluctant to answer.

 “Yeah,..” He grew worried. What was he about to ask?

 “You got a girlfriend?” Chanyeol asked, lightly elbowing his side.

 “No.” He replied quietly. Of course Chanyeol would ask him that. He’s good looking, he’s probably had tons of girlfriends.

 “When was the last time you had a girlfriend?” Chanyeol asked. Baekhyun could tell he would be made fun of if he told him he’d never dated anyone, so he decided it would be more to his advantage to lie.

 “High School,” he told Chanyeol. “But I dumped her when I graduated.”

It would have been worse to tell him that he was the one who got dumped, especially since his ‘girlfriend’ wasn’t real.

 “Nice.” Was all he commented.

 “What about you?” Baekhyun asked. “When was the last time you had a girlfriend?”

Chanyeol’s expression became sad for a moment, then he glanced at Baekhyun, who was watching him intently, waiting for an answer, before looking ahead again, smirking.

“I don’t really do girlfriends. You know?” He said.

 “Yeah.” Baekhyun replied.   

 Unbelievable. Not only was Chanyeol a tall, handsome, and talented boy but he used it to his advantage in the worst way.

For a while after he said that, Baekhyun was quiet. Suddenly, Chanyeol didn’t seem like someone he’d want to be friends with, but then again, his love life wasn’t his business, nor would it affect the way he treated him, so in the end it didn’t really matter.

 They walked, while Chanyeol listed a few of the girls he’d met within the year, saying how he’d dumped or been dumped by each.  

Eventually, they left the subject.

 “Do you like any movies or books?” Chanyeol asked.

 “I like action movies, but also a bit of rom-com.” He responded.

 “Cool. I love sci-fi. Especially supernatural stuff. I’m kind of a geek.” Chanyeol laughed.

 “A geek?” Baekhyun asked.

 “Ya, why, are you a hater?”

 “I’ve just only ever heard the word geek used as an insult.”

 “Nah,” He said. “I use it more as a description than an insult.”

 Now that, he found amusing. Chanyeol was a cool college kid who dated tons of girls and partied hard, but also had a secret geeky side. And he was good at music. It amazed him, just how much there is to learn about someone.

 “I don’t think I’m a geek.” He said. “I watch movies and read books but I’m not really a bookworm or a huge movie fan.”

 That was kind of a lie.

Baekhyun couldn’t remember the last time he watched a movie that he didn’t like. He got really into movies. Especially sad ones that made him cry.

 “Really?” Chanyeol asked. “You don’t even have any posters up in your apartment or anything?” Chanyeol looked at him in disbelief.

 “Nope,” He said. “Do you?”

  “Tons. All over the place.”  

After passing a few more shops, Suho decided he wanted to stop in a ridiculously busy candy store, so Baekhyun and Chanyeol waited outside.

 “Hey, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol spoke first again.

 “Yeah?”

 “Can I be honest?” He asked.

 “Um, sure?” Baekhyun replied.

 “I think you’re cool, but you’re also kind of mysterious. Has anyone ever told you that before?”

Baekhyun laughed. “Yeah. I had a friend who used to say that too.”

 “Not to sound weird or anything.”

Baekhyun shook his head.

 Overall, Baekhyun’s impression of Chanyeol was pretty much the same. He was nice, funny and pretty outgoing. The only thing was that he was kind of a player, but that wasn’t a problem to Baekhyun. What worried him about Chanyeol though, was the way he just ta