The next day, you were woken up extremely early. Opening your eyes a tiny fraction, you groaned silently when you saw the time.

6am? Really?

You wriggled around in your bed, shifting yourself nearest the wall and furthest away from your sudden guest who had come to lie down beside you. You huffed and turned to him.

'Oppa, it's 6 in the morning. What are you doing here?'

'I'm just making sure princess is okay.'

'Why are you awake?'

'I wanted to check on you.'

'So why are you lying on my bed?'

'You looked cold'

You laughed quietly and placed your blanket over Chanyeol's body.

'Here, let's share it.'

Chanyeol took the blanket off him, shaking his head.

'No, no. It's not right if we share a blanket.'

You raised your eyebrows at him and put the blanket back on him anyway.

'My room, my bed, my rules. If you use the blanket, I'll be even warmer. Just think of it as you giving me a favour and being my lifesaver again'

'Again?'

You nodded sleepily as you snuggled into Chanyeol's warm body.

'Remember when we first met? I was having dinner with the others at the restaurant'

'And you had an asthma attack- didn't half bloody scare me'

'Mmm... And you helped me'

Chanyeol smiled as he shifted his arm around you.

'Yeah, I think I remember that now.'

You lay still in his arms, almost falling asleep again until you heard a soft raspy whisper leave Chanyeol's lips.

'Tell me if you're hurting.'

He gazed down at you with soft eyes and you couldn't bring yourself to look back. He slowly brought up his free hand and tilted your chin so he could look at you straight. 

'Haneul, please. If you're hurting, I want to know... Are you crying?'

'No' you said, quickly turning your head

'Wait, no, this isn't happening. Tell me what's wrong?'

'I just can't believe he did it...'

'Hyun Ki?'

You nodded, wiping your eyes on your blanket. 'Why would he be so stupid?... Why couldn't he just tell the police or something? Why couldn't he have at least warned me?... And then when I think about how he died-'

Chanyeol clasped his free hand over your mouth.

'Stop it. Don't put yourself through it.'

You started to cry again and he pulled you in closer. You closed your eyes and just allowed yourself to be held in silence. 

'Shhh... Just keep your eyes closed.'

He pulled out his iPod from his sweatpant pockets and gently placed an earphone in your ear. 

'Go to sleep now, Haneul and don't worry. I'll always be here for you.'

He began to play a song and you shut your eyes, carefully taking in the lyrics. As the song was about to finish, Chanyeol asked you one final question before you fell asleep.

'Do you feel any better?'

'No...' you replied shaking your head, 'but I feel safe with you here.'

You took a few final deep breaths before falling back asleep. Chanyeol carefully wiped your eyes, sighing as he pushed your hair away from your face. 

'If I told you I love you, would we still be able to do this?'

 

***

 

'Wake up! Wake up!' Tao screeched at the top of his voice, banging on your door

'Oh cripes, it's Tao!' said Chanyeol whispering rather loudly

Tao burst in through the door, 'Umm Chanyeol-hyung, you're going to be in big big trouble!' 

He ran out of the room screaming for Kris and Chanyeol quickly jumped out of bed. 'Right, gotta go before Kris comes and smashes my face in-' 

'You were saying?' Kris said darkly

'Oh ' 

You laughed and crawled out of bed too, wandering out of your room. You added a quick 'G'morning Kris' and tiptoed to give him a peck on the cheek.

'Hey! Where's my morning kiss?' Chanyeol pouted

'You got a long morning hug, surely that's better?' 

'Fair enough' 

He began to make his way out of your room too but Kris shut the door as soon as you had ambled out, blocking off Chanyeol's exit. 

'Enjoy that, did you?' 

'Well...' 

'Chanyeol, what did we say about staying in a room with girls?'

'Not to do it.' 

'And what did you just do?' 

'I wanted to check up on her, that's not a sin.' 

'It is when you have feelings for her' 

'Shhh! Do you want everyone to know?!'

'Well it's not like people don't already.' 

'What? Like Luhan who's no longer living with us and Lay who now has Huiling?' 

'Hey, we don't know what Huiling is to him-'

'Speaking of which, hasn't she been sleeping with Lay in your room?' 

'It might not mean anything Chanyeol' 

'But it might mean everything, mighten it?'

'Yeah, okay, it might.'

'So doesn't that mean I have a chance, Kris? For once in my life, I may have the chance of actually being wanted.' 

'Chanyeol, I can't promise you that she'll feel the same way about you. I mean, you never know. There might be more people that feel the same way about her in this dorm.' 

'Are you saying-'

'I'm not saying anything. It's just a possibility... What's with that face? Oh please, grow up. I don't see Haneul like that.' 

'Juuuust checking' 

'I'd figure out if anyone else likes her before you go and confess, that's all.'

'But what if she rejects me? What if she rejects me just like my parents did?'

'You can't control ones feelings, I'm sorry'

Chanyeol pulled at his lip in thought. 

'I'll make sure no one else likes her before I confess then, hyung.'

'Fine by me. Just make sure I don't catch you in here again.'

'Aye sir' 

 

Outside, you had flounced into the kitchen following the smell of japanese pancakes.

'Oppa, good morning!' 

'Morning, Haneul. Here's your juice.' 

D.O expertly poured the apple and cranberry juice into your glass at the same time, ensuring equal quantities of each. 

'Woah!' you said in awe, 'you're insane, oppa!'

'Why thank you, madam' D.O replied, bowing gracefully

'Is this a new recipe, hyung?' Kai said, poking his head into the kitchen and taking a huge sniff, 'smells freaking fantastic!' 

'Chihiro-ssi left it for me.' 

'Did she speak to you?' you asked a little too excitedly

'No, she just passed me the recipe through noona. Apparently she overheard me telling Sehun I'd try and learn how to make them. He's been bugging me ever since you got him that 'Japanese for dummies' book.' 

'She really likes him, doesn't she?' Kai said smiling

'You think?' you grinned

'Et voila!' D.O carefully stacked the pancakes on top of one another. 'Aish, I burnt that bottom one...' 

'What burn? I can't see anything that's burnt?' you said

D.O ruffled your hair, 'that's very sweet of you'

'Food is up!' Kai yelled

As you walked out still chatting with D.O and helping him hold everything, Lay sat at the other end of the table. Seohee's words had been echoing around his head for the past few days.

'So who do you think are the others?'

'D.O-ssi. Definitely.'

'D.O? No way!'

Seeing D.O give you a hug had always seemed like such a normal thing but after recent events, he wasn't so sure. Did D.O harbour feelings just as he and Chanyeol did? Was there going to be more competition in the dormitory? Would they argue and break apart?

'What are you so deep in thought about?' Xiumin said, thumping Lay on the back and disturbing his train of thought.

'I've been thinking...'

'That's dangerous' Xiumin laughed

'D.O likes Haneul' Lay finished without thinking

The room froze. Huiling looked at Lay who was sat beside her with an immense amount of concern.

'Yixing? Erm... What was that you just said?' 

Chanyeol and Kris sat in their places at the table lookin from each other to Lay and D.O. Kai too looked slightly flustered by the sudden remark. The most flustered however was D.O who turned bright red, especially when you turned to look at him straight in the eye.

'Lay, don't joke about like that' you said, trying to ease the tension, 'it's too early in the morning.'

'I... Erm, sorry. I'm a bit muddled, sorry. Sorry.' Lay muttered, quickly shoving a pancake down his throat and choking.

Huiling handed him a glass of water and quietly whispered in his ear, 'are you okay?' 

Lay nodded and all eyes turned back to D.O who was still holding some plates of pancakes. Kai took one of them when he realised his hyung was shaking a little. Trying to keep himself composed, D.O turned to you and smiled.

'Of course I like Haneul. She's the only one polite enough to say good morning to me every morning without fail.'

You giggled. 'And I obviously like oppa back.' 

D.O felt his heart explode and his hands grow sweaty. He quickly put down the remaining plates before wiping his hands on his trousers to discard the evidence.

'Can we eat please?' Sehun huffed impatiently, 'seriously, I've been waiting for ages to try these out!' 

'Just take them,' said Chen leaning over and picking a few up for himself, 'hey D.O, I think you burnt this one...' 

'Damn. Trust Chen to notice' D.O said to you as you both sat down at the table

'You're still the best chef in the world to me.'

 

 

---

I cry because this was pathetically bad oh my but hey! Lay's onto D.O. Kai's onto D.O. Chanyeol and Kris are onto D.O help help help and oooh is Lay going to fall for Huiling oh you tell me ohohohohohoho *evil grin*

On another more serious note, during the time it has taken for this update to be written, I also wrote up a post on tips for stress and other problems for anyone feeling a bit pressured by exams and/or life in general. I hope you'll go check it out here and find it useful.