I woke around 3:30 a.m. to a screaming stomach, headache, and nausea. I groaned, trying to remember where I was and why I was on the floor, with such a painful abdomen.

Oh right. I had been learning Korean just last night with Sungmin! Then I grimaced as I realized I hadn’t been able to eat a few hours ago since all the food had disappeared so quickly. Still half unconscious, with one hand pressed to my stomach I grabbed my purse from my mattress-side and pulled the package of seaweed out from my escapade the previous day. The wrapper was torn open again and the strips steadily disappeared into my mouth. I was smart enough to slow my eating to one strip every five minutes or so; I didn’t really want to barf up the only nutrition I’ve had in days. Peeking at the wrapper under the moonlight, still propped on one elbow on my mattress, I read a little ‘25’ next to where the calories were supposed to be. Really? Only twenty-five calories in this whole package? I smiled and gently pushed the last strip into my mouth, setting the packaging back into my purse, then quietly rolled out onto the floor to look for something to make me sleep a bit more.

I tiptoed into the kitchen area, which was even darker than the bedroom. Hoping not to wake anyone up, I started opening random cabinets and drawers since I quickly discovered the fridge was near empty. Then I pulled open a drawer right next to the fridge.

“What the heck?” I whispered under my breath. This thing was like a little mini fridge! An…interesting smell erupted from it, tempting me to plug my nose, but at the same time I identified it as the rotten-vegetable stuff known as kimchi. Food! Healthy food!

I pulled the container of kimchi out of the drawer-fridge and took the lid off. Without bothering to get chopsticks, I picked up one unidentifiable veggie and shoved it in my mouth. Instantly, I felt my stomach calm down, and I smiled. Bliss.

Then I realized I could easily get caught doing this, in more ways than one. I hurriedly put the lid back on after sneaking another bite and set it back down in the drawer-fridge, then tiptoed back to the girls’ room to wait for morning.

My eyes bounced open again as I heard an alarm clock go off. Uki grumbled from her bed and slapped at it, missing the button. Then I heard a thunk as the clock fell off of the stand between their beds.

I rubbed my eyes blearily and got off of my comfy mattress, straightening the comforter before going to put the clock back on the nightstand. One hand moved to wake up Alex, but I hesitated. Was it my place to wake them up? I shrugged and gently shook Alex’s shoulder.

She said something unintelligible and rolled over. I shook her again. “Alex, it’s time to wake up,” I murmured.

She hissed, “If you don’t want to die, leave me alone.”

I took a hurried step back. She sounded really angry at me. Sighing, I turned to Uki and put a hand on her shoulder. “Uki, it’s five-thirty, we have to make breakfast for the boys,” I whispered.

A pitiful whine emanated from her. “Oh-pah, I don’t want to,” she whispered, wiggling her booty a bit underneath the comforter.

I giggled and resisted the urge to smack her bottom. What the heck is an oh-pah? “Uki, wake up,” I said again, with a firmer shake.

Suddenly she shrieked and bolted upright, her hair wild and her eyes still half closed. She grabbed the clock and threw it at me, screaming harsh Korean words at me. I barely dodged in time, looking at her in alarm as she wound up to throw a pillow at me. She was standing at this point, shooting lasers through my skull. I ducked behind the foot of her bed as she threw the pillow, catching me in the side of the head. “Uki! What are you doing!” I yelped, dodging her continuous attacks, trying to escape.

The door to the room abruptly opened and three of the boys rushed in groggily, brandishing different weapons. Yesung started to yell at Uki, waving a measuring cup at her, and Henry jumped up on the bed to try and take the next item, a purse, out of her hand. Alex had sat up at this point, staring around blindly, trying to take in the noise.

Meanwhile, Uki had pretty much punched Henry in the gut, and he keeled over onto the floor, gasping and wincing. Sungmin and Yesung threw their ‘weapons’ to the side and jumped on top of Uki as I crawled to Henry. I tried to pull Henry away from the scene, not succeeding, when I realized it had gone quiet.

I looked up at the bed and realized that Sungmin had Uki’s face pressed into her comforter, holding her in such a way that she was pretty much unable to move. She was quivering beneath him, but couldn’t break away. Wow, was Sungmin a master at martial arts or something? Yesung was on the other side of the bed. When he sat up, he spit a few angry words at Uki, who mmph-ed into the comforter and wiggled again. Within a minute, Sungmin was off of her and Uki sat up, rubbing her wrists and glaring at him. He did that cutesy thing again, puffing out his cheeks and doing puppy dog eyes, but she just sighed and smacked him. Then she turned to me.

“Sorry, Ryn. I kind of forgot you were staying here.” She smiled sheepishly. “I’ve even attacked my brother before. Don’t worry, it’s not a regular occurrence.”

I nodded. “It’s okay, you didn’t really hit me. If anyone, you should be apologizing to Henry and poor Yesung over there.” I motioned to my brother, who was still clutching his stomach, and the poor creature on the other side of the bed who was rubbing his head.

“Ha. No.” She hopped off of the bed and started rummaging through her clothes as she threw some Korean words over her shoulder. Both Yesung and Henry moaned in reply, and started to drag themselves back into the hallway. Sungmin followed, trying to help them both at once.

After the boys had disappeared back into their respective rooms to sleep for another hour, Uki slipped into short shorts and a shirt, and started to walk out of the room, leaving Alex and I, dazed, behind her. She stopped and spun on her heel, smiling at us. “You coming? Food for twelve won’t fix itself.”

I heard my phone buzz in my purse as Alex and I struggled to stand. “Yeah, yeah, in a minute,” Alex muttered, running a hand through her short hair while searching for her glasses. I quickly got out of her way and slid a bit to grab my phone and see who texted me. Instantly, my heart stopped.

From: Mary

 Park. Now.

~~~~~~

Haha, you guys make me laugh so much with your comments! Anyway, I hope this was acceptable, it felt really y and just like a filler chapter. I would have rewritten it but class starts soon :/ Anyway, comment and tell me what you think! I accept criticism :) And keep guessing, because still nobody has it right yet! :D

By the way, 'Mary' is neither family, nor gay. That includes pets because pets are family. Um, I don't really, well, know how to give you guys a hint without giving it away, but let's just say it has to do with her childhood. :)

P.S. So earlier, there was someone sitting in on my AP lang class and we were talking about something, and then he said, "This fantastic Romantic era." But of course, what I heard was "Fantastic Elastic." Sheez, K-pop is invading my mind! >.<