As she led him up the stairs, he could only think about what he got himself into. It’s not that he regretted his decision, per se. But he thought about the relationships between him and Jay, him and the others, and the others with Jay.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized how much he didn’t know.

He partly agreed to do this because how he wanted to accept himself and his abilities, but everything had begun to blur.

“Well, you can choose whichever one you want. Except for these four.”

Soonyoung wasn’t paying close attention as he almost bumped into Jay who had stopped.

The boy shrugged as he stared at the rooms. “It doesn’t matter to me.”

Jay glanced back and shrugged her shoulders as well. “Ok, then how about this room in the corner next to Jihoon’s?”

He peered toward her gestured hand and nodded. “Fine with me.”

She nodded. “I’ll leave you to settle in.”

She disappeared and he went into his room and closed the door behind him.

It was spacious with his own bathroom. There was limited furniture with a bed, a dresser, and a desk table sitting unused.

He thought back to his old room at his house. How he decorated with all the things that he liked, how his mom would get angry and tell him to get rid of all his “junk”.

He smiled at the memory, but it immediately fell off when the silence of the room brought him back to reality. He set his suitcase and backpack on the floor and flopped on the bed.

It was a queen sized bed and comfortable, but nothing could beat the familiarity of his old bed.

But before he knew it, he fell asleep.

 

It took time for him to get used to everything.

The house, the residents of the said house, and everything in between.

The only thing Jay had asked him was to go on a run with the guys every morning. It wasn’t until later that she started to put him in more training.

They went on a brief run one morning and Soonyoung was exhausted.

When they came back to the manor, he immediately took a shower and collapsed on his bed.

As he silently laid in the cold bed, he heard a knock.

Soonyoung propped up and looked in the direction of the door as he it opened.

A boy with dark hair and eyes appeared in front of him.

“Lunch is ready.”

Soonyoung blinked at him.

The male returned the same reaction.

Soonyoung squinted his eyes in an attempt to get a read on the boy. But it was too difficult for the amateurish eyes he had. Sometimes the other boys could tell what Seungcheol was thinking even Jay could do it, but not him.

The female leader appeared behind the stoic boy.

“Do you know where-” she started to say. She paused when she realized that the boy was talking to Soonyoung. “Oh, sorry. Didn’t know you were busy.”

“Not busy,” he immediately replied the moment her words left .

She seemed taken aback by his sudden reply. “Um. Okay.”

There was an awkward silence before Jay looked into the room. “You know, I never asked. How’s the room, Soonyoung? Everything to your liking? If there is anything that bothers you, let me know. I can change the interior to however I want, so don’t hold back.”

Soonyoung shook his head. “Nah, it’s all good. I get my own personal bathroom. What more can I ask for?”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, trust me. There is a lot you can ask for. Jihoon is a perfect example. That boy made me personalize the interior of his room very extensively. He really knows how to take advantage of the situation. Not that I’m surprised.”

She shook her head. “Anyways, lunch is ready. So, come down downstairs.”

“I already told him,” Seungcheol murmured quietly.

Her eyes lit up with muffled delight. “Oh? Good for you, taking initiative.”

He turned away. “Jihoon wasn’t going to do it, and Jisoo was busy cooking.”

She leant closer, the smile on her lips growing larger by the second. “But still.”

He didn’t reply. But that was when Soonyoung noticed something odd.

Seungcheol, who Soonyoung had already began to associate as calm and cool, looked like he was blushing.

As Jay peered at Seungcheol, she frowned.

Her hand slowly crept to his cheek and gently forced him to face her.

Both Seungcheol and Soonyoung were surprised at her actions. But she seemed oblivious at their surprise.

She gently brushed the area beneath his right eye and took her hand off. “You had a stray eyelash.”

Seungcheol’s hand immediately flew to the area where she touched. “You could have just told me.”

She laughed and winked cheekily. “Yes, but I wouldn’t be able to see this reaction.”

And Soonyoung couldn’t believe his eyes.

Whether Seungcheol’s anguished look was because of Jay’s closeness or simply because of embarrassment, Soonyoung didn’t know and didn’t care. Even though this was literally his first meeting everyone, it was fascinating to him to see the most emotionless person in the household have such raw emotions.

Perhaps Seungcheol felt the intense stare Soonyoung was giving off since he grimaced and pulled Jay by the arm. “Let’s go.”

She was startled by his sudden action but let him pull her down the stairs. “Come down whenever you’re ready, Soonyoung,” she called out.

Soonyoung blinked. The scene that played out in front of him now rapidly replaying back in his head.

He grinned. He might not know what his direction in life was right now, but that was okay. He was always the go-with-the-flow kind of guy.

And now that he realized that the people in this house weren’t as one-dimensional as he thought, he believed that things just might turn out okay.

 

If there was someone Choi Seungcheol did not know how to interact with, it was Kwon Soonyoung.

Hong Jisoo was easy to get along with. He knew his boundaries and respected them. He does get a little curious here and there, but Seungcheol wasn’t too bothered about it. Like he said, he respected boundaries when he put them up.

Lee Jihoon was easy to handle. Sort of. He was simply a ball of anger. He never took it upon himself to get along with anybody. In fact, it was the very opposite. They would obviously encounter each other in the house, but it was more or less civil. Kind of. Jihoon would mutter some less than appropriate things, but Seungcheol usually ignored his words. And he was okay with that.

But with Kwon Soonyoung, he simply did not know how to deal with him.

Jisoo seemed to get along well with him, getting entangled in his antics, but Jisoo never seemed too irritated or angry about it. He simply smiled and told Soonyoung to stop when he got too rowdy. And Soonyoung always did as he said. Seungcheol remembered hearing Soonyoung saying something how he never wanted to see Jisoo angry ever again.

Jihoon just took it upon himself to make sure the boy knew how much he disliked him. Insults were not few for Soonyoung from Jihoon. But Soonyoung seemed to enjoy bantering with the other male. But Seungcheol was sure the feeling was not mutual. Seungcheol was positive that Jihoon took extra care to make sure their paths met as little as possible.

And Jay, well, all of them respected her in some way. She never seemed bothered by any of their vast personalities and got along with all of them easily. But she never interfered unless it got really bad. That was something Seungcheol never wanted to see.

But going back to the said person. Kwon Soonyoung was the type of person Seungcheol would never associate in real life.

Too hyperactive, too noisy, too much.

Don’t get him wrong, he didn’t hate the boy, he just didn’t know how to act around him.

And even if Seungcheol made it pretty obvious about that fact, Soonyoung never seemed to be bothered about it. In fact, it almost seemed to Seungcheol that he was encouraged by it. A notion that seemed unfathomable to him.

 

 

Soonyoung wasn’t stupid. He just acted stupid. Or what he liked to call incredibly majestically nonsensical. He had tried to get the others to call him that, but with no avail. The best he got was “entertaining” from Jisoo and a snort slash laugh from Jay.

But he was not deterred. Because he had lived his life where people questioned his sanity, and he wasn’t going to let them have the pleasure of defining him so black and white.

It was his current mission to be the most entertaining in the house, and so far, it was going so swimmingly that Soonyoung has his lips curved in a smile almost 24/7, much to Jihoon’s annoyance.

You would think Jihoon would be the worst for Soonyoung, but you would be wrong.

No, Choi Seungcheol was the person Soonyoung wanted to win over.

He admired the older immensely, more than he, himself, realized.

At first, he found it funny. The way the older looked so confused and annoyed with him whenever he tried to joke around.

But after awhile, it bothered him. Why was he the only one that he didn’t like to talk to? He even was able to communicate with the small spitfire of a devil called Lee Jihoon.

But not him?

It bothered him.

So, he took it upon himself to do something about it.

 

Hong Jisoo liked to think of himself as a well-rounded guy. Someone that could see his surroundings clearly. Someone who was a good listener and a good observer.

So, as he sat there drinking his tea, he could only watch curiously at the two.

Choi Seungcheol and Kwon Soonyoung.

Or rather Soonyoung constantly trying to talk to Seungcheol as the latter ignored the younger.

The younger boy latched onto the older’s arm causing him to drag him across the room.

The funny part was that Seungcheol didn’t even try to acknowledge what was happening and only tried to continue on his day. Which was getting increasingly harder for him.

It was funny to see, and Jisoo chose not to do anything about it. He considered it sort of as entertainment.

“What’s the idiot doing now?”

Jisoo glanced at Jihoon who had emerged from his room. Such a rare occasion that Jisoo would have applauded him for that, but right now there was something much more interesting going on.

“Who knows? I never know what Soonyoung’s thinking.”

The other boy scowled. “I think you have to at his mental capacity to actually understand the idiot.”

Jisoo laughed. “But if I had to guess, I think he’s trying to get Seungcheol to like him.”

Jihoon made a face. “And why in the hell would he do that?”

“Who knows?”

Jihoon rolled his eyes. “I knew that boy was ing stupid.”

“And yet you allow him to bother you too. You must like him more than you let on.”

The other male scowled. “What did you say?”

Jisoo simply smiled.

Jihoon muttered a few more less than appropriate words which Jisoo learned to tune out.

What was much more interesting was the scene in front of him.

He sat back and wondered who would come out as the victor.

Jisoo was betting his money on Soonyoung.

 

 

 

What Soonyoung did not expect was how strenuous this job was.

Was this even a job? He wasn’t getting paid for it, but he was receiving some kind of exchange for being a part of Jay’s team. Help her with whatever she does and get a room and food in return. That was like a job, right? In some kind of weird way?

He shook his head. He wasn’t even sure what Jay even did. He got that she was sort of a hero who went out and fought baddies. And that she sometimes went on missions, but only by herself. She never took any of them with her whenever she got a text or call. And from what he gathered from the others, none of them had been taken on a mission either.

She said it was because they weren’t experienced enough and that they had to be at a certain level before she would take any of them.

Which is why Soonyoung now understood the reason they were running in the forest every morning.

Being the newest member, he could tell that he was not up to par.

Jisoo had told him that they ran every day in the morning and after that, Jay would teach them how to fight hand-to-hand combat. But then he paused and added that he might have to roll first.

Soonyoung didn’t know what that meant, but he was already having difficulty keeping up with the other three.

Not that he wanted to judge, but he had thought that Jisoo, being slightly scrawnier than the rest, was the same as him.

But he was wrong, Jisoo apparently had a pretty good stamina, which he said he got from training. They all did.

However, he was, as the Jay observed and told him, good at observation and able to think quick on his feet. Seungcheol was physically stronger and Jihoon was better at dodging and reacting.

And all of this was evident as Soonyoung straggled behind the pack and slowing down to a stop.

The rest of the guys continued to jog forward and Soonyoung figured he could catch up in a short while. Right now, he just wanted to rest for a second.

He looked around and settled on a mossy rock to sit down on.

He was glad for the shade the forest provided and the slight breeze that accompanied it. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the quiet of the greenery around him.

He stayed there for a couple of minutes, forgetting every worry that bothered him.

A sudden cold on his cheek startled him out of his daydreaming and he let out a girly scream. His eyes popped open and he turned to the person who had elicited such a reaction from him.

“Seungcheol?”

The boy stared blankly at him and extended his hand without a word.

Soonyoung looked down to see a bottle of water. He looked back up at the older male and blinked.

“Take it,” he finally said.

Soonyoung hesitated slightly before taking the water from him.

“Thanks,” he mumbled out in embarrassment.

As Soonyoung opened the bottle and drank it gratefully, his gaze soon raised towards the male in front of him.

Seungcheol wasn’t looking at him and was gazing into the nothingness of the forest.

He had never expected Seungcheol to be here.

In fact, why was he here in the first place?

Soonyoung was never one to beat around the bush.

“Was something the matter?” he asked.

Seungcheol’s attention redirected back to Soonyoung.

“What do you mean?”

Soonyoung answered, “I didn’t expect you to come back. I thought the three of you just went ahead.”

Seungcheol shrugged. “Jisoo noticed you were missing and figured that you stopped to rest. He wanted to wait for you.” He looked away passively. “I didn’t want to waste time, so I told him that I would go look for you to make sure you were okay.”

Soonyoung grinned. “Aw. Really? You guys care that much about me?”

Seungcheol didn’t flinch at Soonyoung’s attempt to . “We’re a team.”

Soonyoung didn’t have a response to the older’s comment, his own teasing backfiring on him. He looked down. “Jisoo aside, I thought you guys didn’t like me,” he mumbled.

Seungcheol raised an eyebrow, one of the few expressions he let get through him. “Everyone in the house, or specifically me?”

“I suppose specifically you. I mean, I know Jihoon hates everyone and everything, so I don’t really care about that. Jisoo is pretty nice to everyone, so he doesn’t count. I know Jay was the one who recruited everyone. But I didn’t really know about you. You were hard to figure out. And from the way you interacted with me, I thought you didn’t like me.”

Once Soonyoung started talking, he couldn’t stop. “And well, at first, I didn’t really care. It was funny, messing with you guys. And you hardly gave reactions, but when you did, I thought it meant us getting closer. But then I started to think that maybe you were getting annoyed at me or even worse, hating me. And I didn’t want that to happen. I mean, who wants to be hated?”

He suddenly stopped talking as if he realized that he pretty much blabbered everything he didn’t really want to say at that moment. He peeked at Seungcheol to gauge his reaction.

The older boy looked thoughtful as if he was trying to understand Soonyoung and gather his own thoughts. It was quiet before he spoke.

“I don’t hate you. And I don’t think you’re annoying.” He paused. “Well, maybe a little. But I definitely don’t hate you. I just… don’t know how to act around you.”

Soonyoung’s head whipped up at his words. “What do you mean?”

Seungcheol sighed and sat down next to Soonyoung. “My whole life I was around people who were serious and didn’t live to have fun. Everything we did was to ensure we would have a good future. We didn’t do… this,” he explained, gesturing to Soonyoung with a wave of his hand as he said the last word. “We never acted silly or whatever it is that you do. So, having someone like you around, well, it baffles me.”

Soonyoung frowned. “You didn’t have fun?”

“That was the only thing you got from that?” Seungcheol with a light-hearted chuckle.

“Well, I mean, I just can’t believe you lived that way! Living solely for the purpose of the future, you’ll never be able to enjoy the present.”

“It was never a priority.”

Soonyoung jumped and faced Seungcheol, much to the latter’s surprise.

“You don’t hate me, right?”

Seungcheol shook his head. “I don’t hate you,” he repeated.

Soonyoung placed his hand on the other’s shoulders and gripped them firmly. “Then I swear to you, Seungcheol, right here, right now. I swear that I will make your life you live in the present enjoyable.”

Seungcheol blinked. “And how will you do that?”

Soonyoung removed his hands and shrugged. “I don’t know, but I will make it happen.”

Seungcheol rolled his eyes and smiled slightly. “Well, I look forward to it.”

He stood up as well. “We should go. Jisoo is waiting for us.”

They walked down the path in complete silence. But even though it was quiet, it wasn’t uncomfortable. There was some kind of understanding between them, that there was nothing needed to be said.

In the far distance, they could see two figures. Once they got closer, Jisoo stood up and greeted them.

“Good to see that you didn’t die,” he laughed.

“It’s going to take a lot more effort to kill me,” Soonyoung tossed back.

“. Finally,” Jihoon muttered. “Why the hell did you guys take so long?”

Jisoo looked at him and smiled sweetly. “You didn’t have to stay. I told you to go ahead without me.”

Jihoon scowled. “And get there first? Jay would think I was overly eager with training. God forbid she would think that.”

“Well, we’re alive. So, that’s all that matters,” Soonyoung concluded.

“Let’s go,” Seungcheol finally said.

As they walked back, they chatted amicably, although it was mostly between Soonyoung and Jisoo. Jihoon would mutter a few curse words whenever he tripped or almost ran into things. And Seungcheol, like always, was quiet.

But Soonyoung now knew a little better.

That was just how Seungcheol was.

Just like how he was just Soonyoung.

 

 

They got back to an awaiting Jay.

“Glad to see that it took literally another hour for you to get back.”

“There were some complications,” Soonyoung explained vaguely.

She gave them a suspicious look. “I won’t ask, but next time, let me know that you’ll be getting back an hour later. The food’s gotten cold.”

“Finally, some goddamn grub,” Jihoon muttered, pushing everyone out of the way to enter the house.

Jisoo chuckled and followed him with Soonyoung trailing behind.

Seungcheol was about to follow suit when Jay stopped his with a slight grab of his arm.

“Hey, I’m glad you talked with him. I know it was hard for you to talk about these things. But I would have hated to see you guys not get along. I should have been better about it. But I wanted to see if you guys could solve it out without my interference.”

Seungcheol’s eyes widened before returning to normal size. He coughed. “How did you know?”

She laughed and winked. “I know everything about you and everyone,” she sang, bringing her hands outward.

He snorted. “That makes you sound like a stalker.”

She grinned. “But I would only stalk you guys.”

He groaned. “Please stop.”

“I will never.”

“Why am I even here?”

“Because you secretly like everyone and enjoy the life you have now.”

Seungcheol opened his mouth to refute but he knew that there was no point.

From the grin she gave him and the hesitation on his part, he knew that there was nothing to deny.

---

Hopefully giving you more insight in each character.