“And…” I swiped the last bit of dirt off the kitchen countertop. “Done! Phew!” I stood in the middle of the dorm and scanned everything once more. Yup, everything looked sparkly and extra clean today.

“Woah, what’s the occasion?” Taecyeon sauntered into the room, followed by wide-eyed Jaebum.

“Nothing special. I just needed to clear my head and I ended up cleaning the entire house somehow.” I shrugged, finally realizing that I might have gone a little overboard.

I’d been pondering what to say to those two. I just couldn’t choose between them at this point. I loved Junsu, and that was for certain. But I needed to figure out what I felt for Nichkhun.

“I’ll make lunch now! Have any requests?” I smiled and turned back to the kitchen.

“Well, we’d usually request from anyone else,” Chansung also entered the conversation, “but everything you cook is good Eun-Gyo Noona. Just make whatever and we’ll eat it!”

“Agreed!” Chorused Junho and Wooyoung.

“You guys sure? It seems like I always make what I feel like making. I should try something more special today. How does Italian sound? I used to make pasta sauce with my father a lot when I was a girl.”

“I ordered a towel from Italy~” Wooyoung sang out from his ‘Abracadabra’ parody from the ‘Dirty-Eyed Girls.’

“Shut up!” Chansung squeezed his eyes shut. “Bad memories! I can’t believe that actually went on national television and millions of people saw us in tight clothing!”

“I thought it was fun! We should do something like that again,” Taecyeon gave a cheesy grin. “I call costume coordinator!”

“You really shouldn’t call yourself a ‘coordinator,’ Taecyeon,” Wooyoung shook his head. “There is no part of your clothing taste that includes that word, look at yourself.”

I stifled a laugh as I finally caught a glimpse of Taecyeon’s outfit of the day.

There he stood, that famous ‘fashion terrorist.’ He wore a regular orange logo shirt, but somehow didn’t comprehend that the red and white-checkered pants just didn’t work.

“It looks like you’re trying to be some sort of peppermint candy on the bottom, but got squished by a orange-creamsicle on top,” Jaebum snorted.

“Good afternoon!” Nichkhun cheerfully entered along with Junsu.

“Where were you guys?” I rushed to help them take off their coats and greeted them. “I was getting worried. Anyways, we’re all here discussing about having Italian pasta for lunch, but the conversation somehow got transferred to Mr. Fashion Terrorist’s clothes today.”

“We had a talk…a long talk,” Junsu quietly slipped out of his shoes and pattered to the couch.

“Yes, yes we did,” Nichkhun agreed and then looked up at . “Taecyeon…you really need to go to a fashion class or something to get how to put together clothing. I would have thought that after a year or so now, you’d actually get it, seeing what the coordinator Noonas put together for you.”

“Maybe I have learned. Maybe I just do this to annoy you guys!” Taecyeon revealed his huge teeth and wiggled an eyebrow.

“Maybe you’re just being delusional and making up excuses for yourself!” Jaebum attempted to hit Taecyeon on the head, but because of the height difference, was unsuccessful.

“s***!” He cursed in English.

“Hey!” Nichkhun barked back. “Not in front of Eun-Gyo! It’s not good to swear in front of ladies!”

I shook my head and sighed. “Alright then. Italian pasta it is, I’ll get started. Have fun you guys.”

“Wait!” Junsu stood up and walked over to the kitchen area. “I’ll help you. I’m not in the mood to deal with them now either,” he motioned to the other boys fooling around.

“That would be lovely. Thank you!” I smiled and pointed to some vegetables I’d pulled out of the refrigerator. “Could you start by washing a peeling those for me?”

“I’ll help too!” Nichkhun’s body was suddenly standing next to me, and I nearly jumped from the shock.

“Oh well, thank you. Could you wash the vegetables too? There’s a lot I want to put in the sauce. You boys need nourishment at your age and for the amount of work you do.”

“No problem, I’m on it!” Nichkhun stalked over to the sink, where Junsu was already washing vegetables.

I turned to the pan, and poured some olive oil into it.

‘Well, those two seem to have sorted their rift out. I hope it will stay this way.’


“No! My gosh, Junsu! You’re cutting it wrong!”

“No, I’m not! You are! What’s with that shape? It’s supposed to be this way!”

“I don’t think so! Why are you even helping?”

“I’m helping because I offered and Eun-Gyo accepted, Nichkhun. Bug off!”

“Whatever…this is tiring!”

“If it’s tiring, then stop!”

“No! Why don’t you?”

I sighed as I heard the two bicker back and forth. At least they weren’t yelling each other’s heads off. I had actually found it funny in the beginning because they were talking to each other, but it had gotten to the point where it was becoming annoying and exhausting.

“Will you two cut it out?” I sharply breathed out. “You guys offered to help! Do your job then, okay? Look, maybe it would be better if I assigned you two different jobs.”

The boys looked at me with big eyes, as if they were being conscious of something. I ignored their looks and continued.

“Okay, one of you stay over there and finish the cutting of vegetables, and one of you come here and stand with me. I need someone to stir the sauce because I’m going to be running around looking for ingredients soon.”

“Great,” Nichkhun, again, had somehow gotten next to me in the blink of an eye. He took the spoon and began to stir, but was interrupted by Junsu.

“Hey, hey, hey! Who said that you get this job?”

“Who said I didn’t?”

“Not fair!”

“Fine, ‘rock-paper-scissors’?”

“No! That’s only for when we’re on variety shows or ‘on air.’ Other than that, ‘rock-paper-scissors’ are for children!”

“Don’t be so immature, Junsu.”

“I’m not! What are you doing?”

“GUYS!” I shouted. “I can’t work with you two in here bickering. That’s it. I’ll just do everything by myself now. What’s gotten into you two? I thought you were going to be getting along now, but I guess I was wrong. Both of you, out! OUT!” I shooed the boys out of the kitchen.

What was with them? It seemed like something was going on, but I didn’t know what. I’d just have to ask them later though, because I had a huge amount of food to cook at the moment…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well…” I sat in the room Eun-Gyo had shooed Nichkhun and I in, and shrugged. “That went well.”

“I’d say,” Nichkhun sighed and shook his head. “We both didn’t make a good impression that time.”

“Wow, it’s just the beginning of the ‘deal,’ but we’re already so competitive?”

“I guess so. But none of this would have happened if you…never mind. There’s no point in arguing now. We’re not being let back into that kitchen…ever…”

“Yo,” Jaebum’s small head craned in the doorway. “What’s with you two today? I know there’s been a little tension between you guys, but it looked like it was over. Why the bickering back and forth? Eun-Gyo wasn’t happy about it.”

‘Crap,’ I thought. ‘We’re found out.’

“Nothing,” Nichkhun looked away. “We’re both…on edge today…”

“You’re not girls!” Chansung opened the door and pushed Jaebum in, before walking in himself. “Tell us the problem.”

“Great. Might as well get all members in here to listen!” I sarcastically rolled my eyes.

“Not a bad idea,” Jaebum poked his head through the door crack again. “Hey guys! Meeting in bedroom #1!”

“Coming!”

“Be there, on second!”

I looked in disbelief and slight anger at Jaebum. “I was kidding! What was that for?”

“You two need to get your stories straight. With all of us present.”

“So what’s wrong?” Junho sat on the bed, next to Chansung.

“Yeah, what’s wrong?” Taecyeon settled in a chair.

Wooyoung didn't say anything, but he questioned with his eyes.

“It’s time to be serious everyone,” Jaebum started. “Now…Nichkhun, and Junsu. Tell us everything. From the beginning to the end, and don’t leave anything out.”


“WHAT?!?!?!” Wooyoung’s eyes grew large and he stood up.

“Oh god…” Junho closed his eyes.

“Wooyoung, sit,” Chansung pulled on Wooyoung’s shirt, his face expressionless. I guessed that he had already heard something similar from Eun-Gyo about the sticky situation. I mean, they were practically like siblings. They shared everything with each other.

“This is definitely a shock,” Taecyeon blew out a breath.

“But why did you guys make a bet?” Jaebum squinted his eyes.

“We tried talking it over ourselves,” I began.

“But neither of us thought we’d be able to give her up without a fight, so we’re competing by having her choose,” Nichkhun finished.

“Does Eun-Gyo know anything about this bet?”

“Well…no…” Nichkhun looked away.

“We didn’t want her to feel pressured,” I explained. “We thought it would end up driving her away more, or we’d become way too competitive.”
“But, you are being way too competitive.”

I looked at the ground. He was right. It really when Jaebum’s actually right.

“Well,” Taecyeon ran his hand through his hair. “At least we all know. I think this bet can still go on. Now that we know, we can all keep an eye out and do something about it when things get out of hand.”

“You’re encouraging this?” Junho frowned.

“Yes I am. These two are both being stubborn about a girl, so they found a way to play even. It might seem weird or stupid to you, Junho, but if you really loved someone that was loved by another man too, what would you do?”

“Mmmph…” Junho didn’t argue back.

“Food’s ready!” Eun-Gyo’s voice rang out through the dorm. “Come and eat!”

“We’ll all be watching out for you two, and Eun-Gyo,” Jaebum headed out with the other boys.

As soon as the room was empty, I looked at Nichkhun again, who also happened to be staring back as well.

“You’d better be ready for what’s coming your way!” He warned.

“Worry about yourself,” I retorted back.

“We’ll see…” Nichkhun smirked, and then strolled out the door. “Food will get cold. Better hurry up, Junsu.”

‘Oh you bet I will. We’ll see who’s going to be smirking in the end!’