I usually get up if the sun has risen and shines light onto my face, my alarm clock rings and there’s an undeniable reason for me to get up, or I wake up and I just can’t go back to sleep. The first one is the most pleasant out of the three, especially if I got a good night’s sleep and birds are chirping. The second event occurs the most often. I usually don’t mind it if I haven’t been greeted by the alarm the day before at the same time. However, waking up to a dark sky, when morning still hasn’t been born or beginning to come to life is harsh in my opinion. Combine that with a frosty chill nipping at your nose and cheeks and a heavy backpack sentencing long study hours for midterms, and you created my yearly December.

Sometimes I think school in the winter should be made illegal.

Well, I was up because of the third choice. I had tossed and turned, lying on my sides to my back, trying to get back to sleep. By the time I the light, my pillow was on one end of the room, my blankets on the other, my sleeping bag was crumpled into some unidentifiable figure, and Yin Yang was upside down, limbs askew underneath the desk.

“Lovely,” I muttered, sliding myself on the floor to get Yin Yang. I crawled out once I got the panda’s head under my arm. Sighing, I started making my bed.

I stepped out into the silent hallway, the wooden floor a cold contrast from the carpet from my room. Well, I was barefoot. I tiptoed, what I hoped was silently, until I could see the kitchen clock.

6:30 AM??? Seriously?! I shook my head. The clock had no second hand, so I couldn’t see if it was broken or not. And I didn’t feel like waiting a minute to see if the minute hand moved.

I hissed through my teeth when I realized I left my phone somewhere else besides my pocket. Specifically, in my room. I might as well change out of my pajamas, since I probably wouldn’t be going back to sleep, even if it was this early.

After putting my pajamas away (while singing “Pajama Party”, I must confess, which the boys had sang last night) and freshening up in the bathroom, I decided to take a look at today’s breakfast. Well, it’s not like I was expecting one already done. Well, maybe a little, but my cell phone and the silent building confirmed that I would have to make breakfast. Which, of course, I knew how to do, somewhat.

Not because I got up early of course. I love getting up late on weekends. I learned how to make breakfast when I got to the point of being too lazy to get Mama to make me breakfast.

Trust me, cooking is a great way to distract an empty stomach. Especially if you can eat some of the ingredients while you’re cooking.

I opened up their refrigerator. No bad smells came at me-pretty good. The impression of these guys was definitely growing on me. Well, at least they didn’t fit the stereotype of guys not knowing how to do domestic chores.

The fridge was filled pretty well. I spotted a carton of eggs and took it out. A bowl, a frying pan, a bottle of oil, some salt, a wooden spatula, and one stovetop later, a plate of scrambled eggs was sitting on the counter. And by the bottle of oil, I mean part of the bottle. God bless whoever actually needs a full bottle of oil to cook eggs, and the victim who probably would break out the next day. Unless you’re cooking five batches.

I heard footsteps, and a bleary-eyed Tao stumbled in. He blinked. “Oh. Hi.”

“Good morning. Eggs?”

“Sure.” I slid one of the plates I had filled to him. He blinked then started scarfing them up. After watching him for awhile, I took a plate and a seat and started to do the same.

Lu Han poked his head in and sniffed the air. “Do I smell eggs?” His eyes had the same sleepy gaze, but he seemed to be perking up as his brain registered the aroma in the air.

“Yup. Help yourself,” I said, pointing with my chopsticks.

“Wonderful.” He took the plate from the counter. “We say thank you, right Tao?”

Tao grunted and kept eating.

“Not a morning person?” I joked.

They both looked at me. “Are you?” Tao asked.

I shook my head. “I just feel awake today for some reason.”

“Me too,” Lu Han said, digging in again. “Must be the eggs.”

“If you want this kind of breakfast every day, you may need more eggs,” I said, eying the empty carton.

“Well, we can cover that when we go shopping today,” Lu Han replied.

“Shopping?”

“For your new clothes. If I understand correctly, the earthquake destroyed almost everything. You can’t wear the same clothes every day.”

“Well I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you-“

“Inconvenience him?” Tao popped up. “Trust me, Lu Han doesn’t mind shopping.”

“Besides, we would have to wash your clothes everyday then. That would be inconvenient,” Lu Han said, making a face. “Not to mention, I need clothes too,” he added.

“Ripped your pants again?” Tao snickered.

“Was that the birds I heard?” Lu Han said while frowning, smoothly playing ignorant. “They are very loud-you’ll get used to it. Then after we’re finished shopping, Tao is going to show you your school since you’ll be attending the same one, Lay is going to look at your injuries, and then…err…” Lu Han scratched his head, turning his hand so he could see the palm.

Tao rolled his eyes. “Obviously you can see he’s not the leader for a reason,” he told me as he got up and washed his dishes. “He can’t get anything straight.”

“You wouldn’t either with all the stuff Kris gave me,” Lu Han retorted.

Tao shrugged, putting the dishes on the drying rack. “Thanks for the breakfast Kalyn,” he said, swinging the backpack onto his shoulders. “I’ll see you both later then.”

Lu Han shook his head as the door closed. “Kids these days.” He stood up to wash his own dishes. “Ready?”

“What about the other plates?” I waved to the counter near the stovetop.

He stretched his arms. “Well, Kris and Chen will get up soon, and Lay and Xiu Min could always use the microwave,” he replied, checking his watch.

“Right.” Oh, wonderful modern kitchen appliances, how did I forget about you?

“Well then, let’s get going,” Lu Han said, opening the door and waving me through.

“So how did Kris and all of you get together?” I asked as we walked into the elevator.

Lu Han looked at me with a questioning look. “He didn’t-of course he didn’t,” he said, looking like he caught himself form saying something he wasn’t supposed to.

“He didn’t what?”

He sighed. “It’s a long story—and one that only a select few can hear, since the details are so bizarre that it’s unbelievable, but will be self-destructive to us if the wrong people know.”

I tried to make sense of what he said. “So, you guys are like secret agents are something? Because letting a person move in, even me, doesn’t sound like a great move if you guys are.”

“How?”

“Well, I mean, I could stumble on some secret papers you wouldn’t want anyone to see, or maybe cause an alarm by accident.”

Lu Han let out a chuckle, running his hand through his hair. “Well, we did talk about that, you moving in, but we’re not that…important, where we have to be that secretive. In truth, we’re really just some normal guys who work and live together, and we travel for business trips and stuff like that. Our company barely gives us days off, and we constantly train to keep our jobs. And of course, we have pretty good coworker relationships. Really though we don’t have that much of a different life than other working people.”

“Wait, Tao works and goes to school?” I asked as the door slid open and we walked out of the elevator.

“Yeah, we all did, although it was kind of hard when we were out of the country,” he replied as we crossed the lobby. We thanked the guard as he held the door open for us, wishing us a good morning. “But we managed. You will too, I’m sure, since you’ve been doing quite well for an earthquake survivor.”

I shrugged. “Where are we going?” I asked, eager to change the subject. The last thing I needed was to be reminded of that buzz of anticipation of fear.

“We’re going to the shopping mall, so you’ll have many choices,” Lu Han replied, as we arrived at a metro station and stepped on an escalator step. “Do you have a certain style or a color preference?”

“Black.” The word immediately came out of my mouth without a thought. “No completely pink articles of clothing. Clothes have to be moderately appropriate, not too revealing.”

He blinked. “Any reason for those choices? Not that I’m being critical.”

I shrugged. “I don’t really like standing out most of the time, I guess,” I replied as we stepped off the escalator, letting my voice trail away.

Lu Han looked at me, pressing me to go on. I could tell he wanted a reason why I didn’t want to be noticed. The truth was, I never really knew why. It was like the feeling I would get before something bad happened-undefined, but undeniable.

He finally dropped his gaze, but handed me a card. “Here, your smart card. Kris got if for you yesterday.”

“Thanks.” We skipped the huge line for bag check and went through the gates. The gates opened when I waved my card over the scanner. An electronic display at the gates displayed my remaining balance. I felt like an imaginary STAPLE© button should appear: That was easy. REALLY easy.

“We have about four stops in between before we have to get off. I’ll warn you about a stop ahead too,” Lu Han said as we went down the steps. “We’re taking the blue line, on the left.” He pointed to the left side.

“Okay.” Now one of the most important characteristics about China is that people are aggressive with public transportation, especially in the subway. A train had just pulled out, so there wasn’t a huge crowd around the guidelines of where the doors would be. Yet. I raced for an empty bracket, Lu Han close at my heels.

Immediately pushy women, who somehow always have a higher priority, tried to elbow their way through. I glared at them on reflex, and they immediately backed off. They got this timid look on their face as if I was some tornado ready to strike. They scattered, probably off to terrorize some other bracket, any waiting place but ours.

I met Lu Han’s eyes, which were wide open in amazement. “Did you just do that?”

“The look? Yeah.” I shrugged.

He looked impressed. “You’re going to have to teach me that look.” The train pulled in, and we narrowly grabbed some seats as everyone crowded in.

But I knew I couldn’t teach him the look. I didn’t tell Lu Han of course, but for some reason I knew it was impossible to master just by learning.

Maybe I was born to be unnoticed, to be untouchable. I could make people fall with just a look. I had a preference for dark, neutral colors. (Well, most of the time. Sometimes there are some bright colors that I cannot resist.) Not to mention I got shivers down my back before disasters happened.

Was there something wrong with me? Was it just me being me? 

*

If EXO-M had breakfast with me every morning, I would never skip breakfast. XD

Actually I probably would be just sitting there, watching them eat. I mean, when I get up at a REASONABLE time like 8 AM or later, I will eat breakfast, but any earlier and there's a good chance my body will reject the food. Seriously, I will get up at some school morning and will only have milk tea, daisy tea, or even just water for breakfast because if I try to eat solids, my stomach threatens to throw up.

Does anyone else have this problem? Maybe it's just me. (I snuck in food during my 2nd period class last year all year, so hopefully that made everything alright XD) But seriously I get really annoyed when people go "breakfast is the most essential meal of the day" because I'm like "well what do you want me to do, eat it and then barf so that either way, it doesn't get into my stomach?" 

Another annoying phrase is "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" cuz that's so not true with me. I'm allergic to apples.

BUT ANYWAY enough me digressing here, hope y'all enjoyed this update, and let's hope I get the next chapter typed up soon >.<