It was only the first day of the competition and Woohyun already thought he had this in the bag.

            He had been so excited to have a girl in the house to chase after. He was so jealous of Sunggyu. Sunggyu had it all; he had Julia. Woohyun had put his crush on Julia behind him awhile ago, but he was still jealous. He wanted a girlfriend, too. Maybe Shelly would be the one.

            She was quite… different from the girls he was used to though. She was obviously different appearance wise, but it was her outright iness that was surprising. Unlike Julia, who was completely clueless, Shelly knew she was y. And she didn’t hide from it.

            After Shelly had settled in Julia’s room she came into the living room with everyone else. She sat on the floor with a tired sigh and leaned her back against the wall.

            “Sunggyu and I have to go look at some reception halls today,” Julia started saying to them before she was interrupted by Sunggyu.

            “Even though that is something we could get a wedding planner to do.”

            “Yah! Kim Sunggyu! I don’t need help planning our wedding.” She said it with the impatience of someone who had this conversation multiple times. She glared at him for a minute and then he looked away hiding a smile.

            She turned her annoyed eyes to the others before she softened her expression. “Anyway, we are going to go out for a bit and Shelly is really jet lagged and tired,” Julia said as she patted Shelly’s head of curls from where she sat below her. “So she is going to stay here and rest. I want everyone to make her comfortable.”

            “I’ll be fine Jules,” Shelly said up to Julia with a smile. When noona heard the name ‘Jules’ she almost started to cry. She held back her tears and leaned down to hug her cousin around the neck quickly. “Okay we’re leaving,” Julia choked out through tears as she quickly grabbed Sunggyu and dragged him from the house.

            Woohyun was looking at Shelly’s face as she watched Julia leave. He could tell from her gaze how much she loved Julia and Woohyun felt comforted by that. But then again, who didn’t love Julia. As soon as the door closed though Shelly looked at the rest of them and smiled devilishly.

            “So who’s ready to have some fun?”

            Apparently she wasn’t so tired after all.

            Dongwoo liked Shelly already. Sungyeol seemed a little scared of her since the rat thing, but that just made Dongwoo like her even more. This house could use some fun and this girl seemed like a lot of fun. The competition was a silly idea; Dongwoo didn’t take it seriously. He didn’t take a lot of things seriously.

            As soon as Julia left Shelly became a different person. Even her facial expression seemed to morph in front of them. When she had looked up at Julia she seemed sweet, innocent, and loving. But as soon as Julia left she turned mischievous. Dongwoo enjoyed mischief. He was the hyung here now, but even Sungjong was more suited to keep an eye on the guys than Dongwoo was.

            At least Hoya was there. Hoya was much more mature than any of them that were left in the house. Dongwoo trusted him to put a stop to any situation that might get too out of hand. Hoya would let Dongwoo know if he needed to calm down. He was one of his closest friends, after all.

            Dongwoo looked to Hoya as Shelly stood up and stretched. Hoya had that suspicious expression on his face as he watched Shelly’s every move. He just needed to relax sometimes. He wasn’t quite as carefree and silly as the other guys, but nothing made Dongwoo happier than when Hoya did decide to goof off with them.

            Dongwoo turned back to Shelly to see her stretching this way and that with her arms above her head. Her shirt lifted a little showing a flash of bare midriff. Dongwoo tried not gape at her.

            “Where do you guys keep the liquor?” she asked with a grin.

            “Okay, we’re out. Come on Sungjong,” Myungsoo said as he stood up.

            “Hyung,” Sungjongie whined, but he stopped as Myungsoo turned his piercing gaze on him.

            “Really, Jongie?” Myungsoo gave Sungjong an incredulous look and waited for him to figure out why they were leaving.

            Sungjong frowned as he remembered. Dongwoo witnessed him in his drunken state at the rooftop party that night. He had thought it was funny, but Dongwoo also had no idea about all the stuff that had been going on between the two of them at the time. Dongwoo was a bit clueless at times, but he enjoyed life that way.

            “Okay, okay,” Sungjong said as he tried to hide his displeasure. He stood up beside Myungsoo and strung his fingers through his sweetly before they went to hide out in Myungsoo’s room the rest of the day.  

            Shelly’s eyes had widened at their hand holding. “Are they…?”

            They all looked at her blankly.

            “You know what I mean? Are they… gay?” She whispered.

            “Is that a problem?” Hoya replied still sounding suspicious and maybe a bit too harsh.

            She gave him an uneasy look before breaking out in a genuine smile, “Of course not. That’s awesome.”

            Dongwoo felt himself release a breath. Myungsoo and Sungjong had been through a lot and if she were to upset their balance even a little bit, Dongwoo would ask noona to have Shelly leave. It would be completely uncharacteristic of him and would probably surprise some people, but he didn’t want them to hurt again. For any reason.

            He felt the others around him let out a similar breath. They were all protective of their maknaes.

            “We don’t usually keep alcohol in the house,” Dongwoo said going back to her original question. He thought about going back to get Myungsoo and Sungjong seeing as how they weren’t actually drinking, but something told him the alcohol was an excuse for them to escape. At least for Myungsoo to escape.

            Shelly pouted a cute Julia like pout. In most ways they seemed nothing alike, but then she would do something like that.

            “Where I come from we always drink when we play truth or dare,” she said as she folded her arms under her chest. Her new stance just managed to make her bust look larger than it already was. Dongwoo wondered if she was doing it on purpose.

            “Truth or dare?” Woohyun questioned beside him.

            “How else are we going to get to know each other?” She smiled. There was a wicked gleam to her green eyes.

            “We could just talk,” Hoya suggested like she was an idiot.

            “You’re no fun,” she sighed as she sat down and rested her chin in her hand. She languidly traced circles on the marble floor with her finger. As soon as she stopped speaking a dark cloud seemed to hover over her. Dongwoo didn’t like it.

            “Dare,” Dongwoo said to Shelly. Her head pricked back up quickly. The dark cloud vanished and she smiled wickedly at Dongwoo.

            Hoya tried not to frown when Dongwoo decided to play along with Shelly’s games. But for some reason Hoya wasn’t sure if he was upset or relieved. She had seemed so disappointed after what he said to her that it oddly disturbed him. He didn’t trust this girl, but he strangely didn’t like seeing her sad. She was Julia’s cousin after all and Julia had asked them to make her comfortable. That was most likely the reason.

            Hoya tried for everyone’s sake to lighten up. His intention was not to trouble anyone. But Truth or dare? Hoya did not like this game. Either way you lost. The dares were meant to embarrass you and truth forced you to reveal things you otherwise wouldn’t. Truth could be just as embarrassing.

            But he wanted everyone to be happy. So he played along. He instantly felt better though when Dongwoo had to do his dare.

            “Let’s start out small,” Shelly said with a smile. “I dare you to… shove as many ice cubes into your mouth as you can and hold them there until they melt.”

            “I don’t know if we have enough ice to fill Dongwoo’s mouth,” Hoya chuckled. It was an innocent dare at least. Hoya had been worried for a minute that she’d ask him to go streaking or something.

            Turns out they did have enough ice. They were all laughing and taking pictures as Dongwoo stood in the kitchen with melting ice dripping from his mouth and wetting the front of his shirt. He danced in place as he tried to handle the cold. After a minute his face had gone slightly blue.

            Shelly laughed as loud as they did and even leaned on Woohyun as she doubled over at the waist. Hoya noticed that her laugh reached her eyes now and he watched her slightly mesmerized. When she noticed him watching her she straightened a little and took her hand off of Woohyun.

            “Dongwoo, you don’t have to do the whole dare,” she chuckled as she approached him. “You might get hypothermia.” She laughed as Dongwoo refused to give up. When the ice had melted enough Dongwoo chewed it noisily and blew cold air in Shelly’s face with a proud grin.

            “My turn,” he attempted to say. His tongue was so numb that he was nearly unintelligible only causing Shelly to laugh even more.

            They played the game for awhile and it seemed Shelly was the main target. She always picked dare. Woohyun had her limbo as low as she could go under a broom that he and Sungyeol held. Their eyes were all wide as they watched her play the game. She didn’t look like she would be so flexible, but she went very low. Her waist was exposed again as she made her way under the broom.

            She didn’t seem to mind their gaping looks. She even stopped to put a finger under Woohyun’s chin and push it back into place with a click. She stood waiting for them to lower the broom as they both gawked at her. Managing to lift just her left eyebrow, she gave the younger boys a questioning stare. Sungyeol and Woohyun came back to reality. They lowered the pole until it was only about two feet off of the ground. When she finally fell back all four of them rushed forward to help her up. They hooted and clapped as she took a bow.

            Because the guys all picked her she then got to choose someone else every time. She picked on each guy until only Hoya was left unchosen. She looked like she wanted to pick Dongwoo again, but that would have seemed odd. She chose Hoya.

            “Truth or dare,” she said as she avoided his eyes and looked down to her fingers.

            “Truth,” Hoya said. “But only if you pick truth on my turn.”

            “That isn’t the way the game is played,” she replied quietly as she shifted in her spot. The idea of picking truth seemed to make her very uncomfortable.

            “I thought we were getting to know each other better. I haven’t learned anything except that you can limbo. Unless you’re just scared,” Hoya said with a shrug. He was playing dirty, but when Hoya wanted something he went for it.

            His tactics worked.

            “Fine. Truth it is. What’s your problem with me, Hoya?” Her eyes blazed with green fire that matched her fiery red hair as she glared at him from across the room.

            “I don’t have a problem with you,” he answered with a shrug.

            “I think you do.”

            “Your hard for me to read,” he admitted.

            “Maybe you just haven’t learned my language yet.”

            He nodded to himself. That was definitely true, but that was the problem; he didn’t like the unknown and she wasn’t revealing much.

            “My turn, then,” he said after sufficiently answering her question. “How often do you lie?”

            She threw her head back and laughed like he was the funniest person in the world.

            “If you are that suspicious that I tell lies, how will you know if my answer is actually the truth?”

            “Hopefully, I’ll be able to tell. And then I’ll know everything I need to know.”

            She looked almost scared as she looked into his eyes. Hoya suddenly couldn’t help but feel guilty for grilling her like this. She hadn’t done anything wrong. But everything about the way she acted confirmed his doubts about her.

            “I only lie when it’s necessary,” she said quietly.

            “When is that?”

            “You don’t get two questions,” Dongwoo chuckled nervously.

            “When I feel threatened,” she answered anyway.

            “Good,” Hoya said with a smile. “Because there are no threats to you here.” But why did he still feel that she was somehow a threat to them.

            “Do you mind if I ask one more question?” Her voice was unusually quiet.

            Hoya had expected her to ask him something cutting as payback for his behavior. He already felt bad. He didn’t want her to feel interrogated, but his restless heart wanted answers.

            “Your friend Sunggyu, he really loves Julia. Right?” She met Hoya’s eyes again and he saw that the fire in them had died down. In that moment she no longer looked guarded, humorous, or playful. Her question and her intention behind it were genuine.

            “Yes. He would do anything for her. We all would,” Hoya said seriously. The guys all nodded emphatically in agreement.

            “She’s a lucky girl…” Shelly said as she looked at them all with a new appreciation and an odd sadness in her eyes.

            Hoya wanted to apologize to her, but she got up and moved towards Julia’s room.

            “Thanks for the fun guys. It was nice meeting you all, but if you don’t mind I think I’ll go to sleep.”

              When Shelly left the room a dark cloud hovered over them all; replacing her strangely intoxicating presence.