What is home to you? A commercial advertisement blared from the TV screen across the room.

 

From Eve's perch at the kitchen sink, idly scrubbing away at dirty dish after dirty dish, she thought of an answer.

 

Home was the sound of Sunggyu's snores as he lounged across the couch, barely holding on as Hoya and Sungyeol subtly tried to kick him off, so as to make room for people who were actually viewing the program in front of them, not sleeping through it.

 

Home was watching Dongwoon prance around in his pig underwear and having to throw multiple projectiles at him (pillows, jackets, dirty laundry, etc.) for him to at least put on some pants when she was around.

 

Home was this home. Not the stuffy apartment up in Seoul, designed for one and occupied by one. Her proper and official residence.

 

Because of course, she didn't live with Infinite. She was only the house keeper.

 

Then again, even housekeeper wasn't a proper title for what Eve was to the boys.

 

To them, Eve was: the caregiver, the lover, the mom, the friend, the eye candy, the (in Myungsoo's loving, yet blunt opinion) fine piece of that cleaned their home.

 

Eve was everything and more. And Eve could reciprocate those feelings. She loved the boys – her boys. Whenever inquired about her love interests she would simply reply to them, “I have 7 boys to take care of, there's no time for romance in my life.”

 

And she meant it. She could have grown old caring for those boys, long past the time (knock on wood) the group disbanded, if need be.

 

She was the one they called when they needed a ride home, or some good advice, or even to just talk.

 

So it only made sense that their life was very, very complicated, right?

 

“Okay!” Eve chirped out, abandoning the seemingly endless pile of dirty dishes for the oven. From it, she procured a freshly baked chicken, and began to cut pieces off for each of the members. “I'm making your dinner and then I'm going home early. Alright?”

 

All at once, chaos arose.

 

Sunggyu awoke with an abrupt snort and finally fell of the coach, shouting, “wait, what?”

 

Hoya and Sungyeol jumped off the coach - forgetting that they finally had it to themselves - and circled her like vultures, demanding to know why in gods name did she want to leave early.

 

Dongwoon ran out (in his pig underwear) and began shrieking about how she can't leave and she has to take him somewhere because he really wanted to go and had wanted to go for ages and -

 

“Guys!” She shouted. “Calm down and back away. I am the one with the knife right now.” She added threateningly, brandishing the knife a little to get her point across.

 

Like an ocean wave they fell back, all settling into a seat at the kitchen table and patiently awaited a reason for this bombacity.

 

“I...” She hesitated, looking into the faces of the boys she loved, the ones whom she called her own. “I'm going on a blind date.”

 

Shock. One by one they took in the news. Our sister... Our lover... On a blind date?

 

“Please tell me you're kidding!”

 

“You belong to us and us only!”

 

“You can't claim her stupid! Maybe that's why she's running off in the first place.”

 

“Guys!” She shouted, almost laughing with relief, “That's what your concerned about? That I'm going to leave you?”

 

They pursed their lips childishly, not wanting to admit that that was their reason exactly.

 

“Oh!” She squealed, setting down the knife and engulfing them into one large group hug, “I'll never leave you. I'll be here as long as you need me.”

 

“Well we need you right no-”

 

“Except for right now,” She cut off, “Okay, everything's ready. You're all adults! I'm leaving, good bye!”

 

She had to run out quickly, trying her best to ignore all the crying and begging and pleading for her to stay.

 

“They're like a bunch of kids.” She sighed as she walked down the hallway purposefully.

 

“So you're really leaving?” A voice asked from behind her.

 

“Ahh!” She shrieked. She jumped around on the spot, prepared to fight off whatever intruder it might have been.

 

From the shadows, Myungsoo emerged, hands in his pocket, acting all the cool boy he was. “Really?” He smirked.

 

“I-” She blushed, praying to god the dim lit hallway wouldn't capture it. “Yes. I'm really leaving Myunggie.” She finished dumbly.

 

He took a sharp breath, closing his eyes slowly.

 

“Are you okay? Because I really have to get going.” She tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for him to move.

 

“Not...” He hesitated, staring at her intently. He took a heavy step toward her. Then, empowered by his decision it seemed, he closed the distance in between them, pressing his lips to hers and taking his hands out of his pocket to weave into her hair.

 

“Myungsoo!” She gasped, then, feeling his satin like lips upon her own, she sighed, holding onto his side for dear life as she kissed him back.

 

They relaxed into each other, melting into the kiss happily.

 

“Hey Myungsoo, are you going to come in and ea-”

 

As if they had been electrocuted, Myungsoo and Eve shot apart, moving to opposite sides of the room much unlike the best friends they were.

 

They stood, eyeing the other, unsure of what to do, until with tears in his eyes, Sunggyu fled, leaving an embarrassed and awkward Myungsoo and Eve.

 

“What was that about?” Eve asked innocently.

 

Myungsoo simply shrugged, walking back into the house and slamming the door shut without looking back at Eve once.

 

She grimaced.

 

Should I go back inside? She wondered.

 

She closed her eyes, adamant, and turned away form the apartment door, making up her mind right then and there.

 

“I'm not going to be young forever.” She muttered to herself as she turned corner after corner to get out of the big apartment complex. “And I'm not going to be Infinite's housekeeper forever. I need my own life.” One last time, she stopped, pondering what the right thing to do would be.

 

With tears forming in the corners of her eyes, she walked out of the apartment building and towards her dingy car.

 

 

 

“Don't act so surprised, god damnit!” Myungsoo suddenly bellowed. He jumped off the bed and started pacing furiously.

 

The tension had been almost unbearable for the past hour. Like wildfire; the knowledge that Eve and Myungsoo had kissed spread throughout the house.

 

“What do you mean?” Sungyeol asked, weary and not wanting to be involved in this soap opera that was suddenly his life.

 

“She's my best friend. I'm closer to her than any of you. Any of you. So why is everyone so shocked that she decided to kiss me?”

 

The room grew silent. Sunggyu, the most furious amongst them all, stood up and grabbed Myungsoo's arm to get him to stop the pacing.

 

The second Myungsoo had been jerked to a stop, he let go, tears falling from his eyes as well. “I understand why you did that, Myung. But you knew I loved her. You knew and you still did it.

 

“I just don't want her to get away.” Myungsoo said quietly, voice quavering.

 

“What do you mean?” Dongwoon piped up from his position in the corner.

 

“If I don't kiss her then somebody else will! Her blind date or any other guy. She's gorgeous, we all know that. If this date goes well, she's not going to stay single for long. And even if it doesn't work out with him, then it will with someone else and before we know it...” He trailed off, suddenly growing weary. He fell onto the ground, and finished: “she'll be gone.”

 

The room grew achingly silent as every member considered this.

 

“Maybe,” Sungjong said into the silence, “we should just.. .Talk to her.”

 

 

 

She had practiced what she was going to say in every way, shape or form, but still, the words seemed wrong, misplaced on her lips.

 

Of course, the blind date had gone terribly, the man turning out to be some sort of pompous who could have gotten away with it had he been more attractive.

 

But now, as she sat in her car door parked outside Infinite's apartment complex, hands gripping the wheel, she needed to think her way out.

 

When had things become so confusing? Why had Myungsoo kissed her and why had Sunggyu cried? None of it made sense to her, really.

 

Yet still, she repeated, “Myungsoo, I can't be with you.” But I wish I could. “Sunggyu, that kiss meant nothing to me.” Lie.

 

Then suddenly, a knock on the car door shocked her into realization, she looked to her left.

 

Sungyeol awaited outside, a coffee cup in one of his delicate hands.

 

She pressed the botton to open the window and stared forward, letting the whir of the window fill the silence between them.

 

“What?” She whispered.

 

“If you're not coming in the house today, can I come in your car?”

 

Without saying a word, or looking at him, she clicked open the lock, letting that be her unspoken answer.

 

He walked around the front of the car and slipped into the passenger side, wordlessly handing her the cup of coffee, which she took with a small thanks.

 

“Listen, Eve, everybody knows about the kiss.”

 

“And?”

 

“And they're not mad at you. They're mad at themselves. Honestly, Eve. Just come upstairs and talk to us. I think you'll be excited once we share the good news.

 

“And you?” She asked, choosing to ignore the bit about the good news.

 

“What about me?” Sungyeol chuckled.

 

“Who are you mad at?”

 

When the silence stretched a bit too long, Eve dared to glimpse at Sungyeol. His expression had turned to stone, his usual good nature obscured in a dark mask. “Me? It's not important.”

 

“To me it is.” She whispered, forcing him to make eye contact with her.

 

“Eve-” his voice broke, “can I just do this one thing? Just once, please?”

 

“Sure.” She agreed,without knowing what he had in mind.

 

Then, he leaned in and kissed her once on the cheek, so quickly she couldn't be sure if it had really happened.

 

“Now, let's go, the boys are waiting for you.” With that, he opened the car door and slammed it shut behind him, knowing full well that she would follow.

 

And she did. Those were her boys waiting for her in there.

 

 

 

When one thing leads to the other, I didn't know what to do, Eve wrote down into the small journal she kept hidden under her bed in her new room, which just so happened to be in Infinite's apartment.

 

It's like a dream. Is this real? Am I really living with a Kpop group? She laughed out loud to herself, knowing that soon the boys would stir and she would also have to get up and greet the day.

 

After she had gone up to the apartment, the boys had immediately apologized, and after she accepted, they had invited her to live with them. As simple as that.

 

That was a year ago though, and things hadn't quite calmed down since then.

 

From time to time, you could walk into her room to find her kissing Myungsoo passionately, for Myungsoo was forceful and Eve was easily persuaded.

 

Sometimes, Dongwoon would walk around stark , making Eve in fact very grateful for the pig underwear.

 

Infinite was crazy, and their fan base was growing, but at the end of the day, they all had each other.

 

In this crazy, stupid life, we're all given someone to love.

 

But I got lucky, she wrote.

 

I have 7.