Three years later…

There are persistent knockings and doorbell-ringing which wakes Joonmyeon up, and he inwardly curses whoever is on the other side who had woken him up from his much needed nap as he gets up from his bed and drags his body to the monitor on the wall. Joonmyeon groans to himself once he sees – not one, but few –  faces that are popping out through the screen.

“Joonmyeon, open the damn door!” Baekhyun yells as he smashes his fist onto the door. Zitao, who is standing next to him, is persistently (and annoyingly) pressing the doorbell at the same time.

“Could it be that he’s not home?” another voice asks from somewhere behind Baekhyun, and Joonmyeon recognizes it immediately as Chanyeol’s.

Great, the loud pair are here, Joonmyeon thinks and presses onto the intercom. The guys jump upon hearing his voice. “You guys disrupted my sleep and annoyed my neighbours. I’m calling security,” he says.

“We wouldn’t be annoying your neighbours if you’d just open your door sooner!” Zitao whines.

Joonmyeon sighs. “What did I do wrong to deserve these kind of people in my life?” he mutters under his breath before he presses a button on the monitor to unlock the door. He hears Zitao’s delighted squeal before the door opens, and the trio barges with paper bags and plastics in their hands.

Joonmyeon frowns when he sees those.

Before he could say anything, the door to his guest room opens abruptly and everyone freezes when they hear the banging of the door against the wall before turning to see Sehun trudging out of the room, looking very annoyed and pissed.

“It’s Saturday, and it’s eight o’clock you dumbos!” he yells, glaring at each and every one of his friends. Aside from Joonmyeon that is.

“Wait, you slept over?” Zitao asks, pointing an accusing finger at Sehun. The latter nods. “No fair! Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve joined if I knew!”

“Stop being a child, Huang Zitao. You’re old enough to have grandchildren already.” Baekhyun mutters as he walks past them to the kitchen.

“But Baek, if Zitao is old enough to have grandchildren, what about Joonmyeon? And Minseok? Luhan?” Chanyeol asks, giggling.

Joonmyeon grits his teeth and tells them to disappear before walking off to the bathroom to shower, and when he comes back into his bedroom, he sees Sehun and Zitao sprawled onto his bed on their sides facing each other. They’re talking in low voices which causes Joonmyeon to get suspicious.

Before Joonmyeon could even think about eavesdropping on those two, Zitao notices him standing by the door and raises a brow. “What are you doing there?” he asks, making Sehun turn his head to him as well.

“I should be asking you guys the same thing.”

“We’re just chilling.” Sehun replies and lies down on his back. “Is everyone here yet?”

Zitao picks up his phone while Joonmyeon goes to the closet to pick out a shirt and jeans, and he absentmindedly listens to the two as he changes into something more comfortable. “Jongdae said he’s just arrived and is waiting for his bags, and Yixing is already waiting for him too. Kyungsoo is on the way, and Jongin might be late because he needs to drop his sister somewhere.

“Who else is not here?”

Yifan, Joonmyeon wants to stay but pretends to not be bothered by anything as he combs his hair.

“Luhan and Minseok I think. But they’re already–” There’s a distant sound of the doorbell that causes Zitao to pause in his words, and they exchange glances and simultaneously grins when they hear Baekhyun announcing the couple’s arrival. “We’re still missing Jongdae, Yixing, Kyungsoo and Jongin I guess.” Zitao concludes with a nod.

Just then, the door to Joonmyeon’s bedroom opens and Minseok carefully peaks his head inside before grinning when he spots the three of them. “There you guys are. What are you guys doing in here?” he asks.

The door opens wider before anyone could answer and reveals Luhan. “Yo, what are you guys doing in here?” he asks as well, immediately marching up to Joonmyeon to greet the guy before joining Sehun and Zitao on the bed.

“I just got done with my shower,” Joonmyeon replies. “What are you guys doing, crowding in my room? Get out.”

“I like it in here. It feels… nice.” Zitao says, laying down on his back as well.

“Good to know. Still, get out.”

“No thanks,” Sehun snorts. “I don’t want to deal with those people out there.”

“Those people as in ChanBaek?” Minseok asks from where he stands leaning against the wall beside Joonmyeon.

“They’re the noisiest, most obnoxious pair ever.”

“We are the noisiest and most obnoxious group ever,” Luhan refutes with a snort.

“Guys–”

“No no no no no! I’ve met a worse group before. I don’t remember who those guys were though but they wouldn’t shut up at all. And we were at a company function yet they were laughing like hyenas!” Zitao tells them.

Sehun makes a face at that and it’s so adorable that Luhan couldn’t help but to coo at him. Joonmyeon sighs but smiles when he sees Sehun’s red face but gets reminded again of what he wanted to say.

“Guys!” he yells and the teasing ceases as they all turn to him. “First of all, this is my private space and I want you all out. And second, I had on those sheets a couple of nights ago and haven’t been bothered to change it.”

Sehun and Zitao jumps off the mattress like burnt the moment Joonmyeon finishes his sentence, and they scamper out of the room screaming bloody murder while Luhan slowly gets up and joins his husband as they laughed at the other two. They pause mid-laugh when they realize that Joonmyeon is not laughing along.

“Wait, you were serious?” Minseok asks, eyes wide.

Joonmyeon scoffs. “Pfft, no. I mean I did have a couple of nights ago, but I changed the sheets already. Duh.”

The couple smiles in amusement as Joonmyeon lets out a chuckle before following after him outside to the living room. Joonmyeon smiles to himself when he sees the disgusted look Zitao is throwing him from the other couch and chuckles under his breath. He never used to play such jokes with his friends before, but after three fantastic and noisy years with them, Joonmyeon could feel himself changing for the better. He’s much more fun to be with and would always speak his mind, unlike his old self.

As quoted from Kim Jongdae and Oh Sehun, Joonmyeon adds to himself as he watches his friends.

Baekhyun has found the remote for his Samsung 42” LED TV and is randomly flipping through the channels while humming a song under his breath, and Sehun has disappeared somewhere – probably to take a shower – while Zitao has secured a spot for himself on the single couch, occasionally throwing Joonmyeon nasty glares from his position. Minseok has joined Chanyeol in the kitchen who is on duty to help prepare the ingredients to Kyungsoo’s famous kimchi spaghetti for tonight’s main dish, while Luhan talks to their daughter on his phone as he’s perched on a high stool by the kitchen counter.

This has become quite a common sight in Joonmyeon’s everyday life for the past three years ever since Yifan died. None wanted to repeat the mistake of not keeping in touch and drifting away like they did before, so they’ve all made sure to at least meet up a few times when they’re free and exchange text messages between themselves a lot more. Soon, things blew out of proportion when Minseok created a group chat for all eleven of them, and Joonmyeon would wake up and go to sleep with hundreds of messages on his app every day.

Their meeting today was not of any special; Joonmyeon’s birthday was on last Wednesday but they couldn’t meet up to celebrate because the man himself was in Japan with Mrs Wu for a short vacation. Even Jongdae was not in town due to his program shooting and had only flown back in today. The guys have decided amongst themselves that they should always meet up to ce