"Damn it."

**

Chanyeol put on a shirt while I thought about his words for a while. My mind was fried, in my defense. How do you respond to that? Say yes, right? Or no. No sounded better. But then yes was good too. Yes?

"Your shirt's nice," I complimented him while ignoring the big question that loomed over me like a hawk. "Is that pink or red?"

Chanyeol whined a bit, much to my surprise. "It's not pink, it's salmon."

"Wow," I said. "You're such a guy."

"Well, I am male," he joked, going back to his nice and easy-going attitude. Not going to lie, I kind of missed the abs. But they were way too distracting, honestly. I probably wouldn't have been able to look him in the eye if he stayed that way. When it came to shirtless boys that were next to me in a tree house, I was like a hormonal guy who could only look at a girl's chest. So it was good that he put on his shirt. 

"I can tell," I said, going along with the joke, "I've seen plenty."

"And yet you still won't invite me to dinner," he said. He smiled brightly, showing off his pearly whites. Damn him, why did he have to be so chipper?

"It's a complicated situation," I told him. "It's not that I don't want you to come over. I mean you're very-"

I stop myself from saying anything further. Wow, have I really turned into a person who was so focused on looks? What was I, some kind of lookist? (Lookist was not even a word, huh.)

Honestly, Chanyeol's personality made me enjoy his presence better. The little I've encountered it so far, really. Attractive guys with terrible personalities right off the bat are honestly terrible people to talk to. There's nothing wrong about people who know they're attractive to begin with, as they've probably heard it a lot for their whole lives. But then it's another thing when they're complete jerks. Just turned me off completely.

"Very what?" he asked. "Blessed with a mind like Einstein's?"
 

"You could say that," I said, but rolled my eyes a little at his comment. "It's not like I'm rejecting you completely, Chanyeol. I'm pretty sure if my parents think I bring a boy home for dinner, they'll expect things."

"But we're friends, aren't we?" he said innocently. He batted his eyelashes. "Guys can be friends with girls. Even if some people don't think it could happen, it's possible!"

"It's nice that you think we're friends when we've only just met," I said. Chanyeol saying these words make me pause, though. Maybe it's just something I've noticed but I think all the guys (Luhan, Baekhyun, Sehun) I've met so far have considered me their friend. It's not like I expected myself to be a part of some harem (as if!) or that being nice to somebody meant they were supposed to like me, but it's kind of weird. No, I guess I was just disappointed. Definitely not offended or mad, but just a little disappointed. I should really stop it with the romantic movies and TV shows and whatever in the damn sea that has romance. Oh, well. A hopeless romantic could dream, right?

"We'd be friends eventually," he insisted. "There's a lot of us in the neighborhood, guys, I mean. But a girl? Practically nonexistent until you came here. Imkyung, you're blessed."

Maybe I was blessed. I mean, it's not like everyday you got to meet a lot of really nice guys around your age (at least I think...) that were also pretty good looking. That's a big plus. I let Chanyeol's words repeat themselves over again in my head and then I paused.

My eyes widen. "T-there's more guys in this neighborhood?"

"Of course!" he said, like it was common knowledge I had to know. "Who did you meet again?"

"Besides you, Luhan, Baekhyun, and Sehun. I think that's right." I thought about the people I managed to see today so far and those were the only faces that pop up in my mind. Unless one of the supposed guys that lived in this neighborhood was somehow in the background and I never noticed, those were all the people I remembered meeting.

"There's twelve of us," Chanyeol deadpanned, suddenly serious.

"You're kidding," I said. Please don't let them all be attractive. That would be bad. Well, not that bad, but whatever. 

He patted my head. "Why would I ever lie to you?"  

"Well," I listed the reasons, "It's not like we've known each other long."

"Another reason why I should come over and invite myself to dinner! The more you know, the more you grow! Knowledge is power. Knowledge is the key to living!"

"I feel like I've been seduced into an infomercial." I voiced my thoughts aloud.

Chanyeol decided to be a sneaky bastard and used my moment of distraction to his advantage. "What time do you eat dinner?"

"Usually six thirty. Or something like that." 

"Okay, I'll see you then. Save me a seat."

"Wait, what?"

"When you open the door, tell me how many of us you've met again. It's like a game. Find all twelve of us and win a prize. It might take you a week, but at the rate you're going, maybe a day or two."

"I see," I replied. I let his words of advice stick inside my brain for a little. 

"I like kimbap, you know. Just to let that out there," Chanyeol grinned. He winked, much to my surprise. But being the sly bastard he was, he managed to perfect the wink and actually wink with one eye. Not blink with two eyes. What a talented fool.

"I'll be going now," I said, standing up.

"Don't do anything too exciting," he laughed. "See ya!"

I nodded and turned to the exit. I made my way down the tree house stairs, silently praying that I wouldn't randomly trip and fall and break a leg or something. That would be pretty lame. But in a perfect world, if that did happen, maybe one of the other guys in this neighborhood would suddenly come out of no where and magically catch me. A girl could dream, right? After all, I had meant plenty of guys already.

But I managed to get down safely and just as I expected, there was nobody down there. I looked around curiously, spinning around like a fool a few times, but there was nobody I could see. Unless one of the boys wanted to scare the living out of me, I was pretty sure that nobody was near where I was.

I went back home for the second time. Nothing crazy happened. No shirtless boys. No dog coming out to jump me. No sign of Baekhyun, Luhan, or Sehun. The neighborhood was quiet, except for a nice grandma who waved at me. I waved back and politely answered her questions when she asked me if I was new to this particular neighborhood and whether I had just recently moved in. See, I could totally not be boy crazy for a moment. 

The moment I got home, however, and opened the door, was a different story. I rung the doorbell and waited. It wasn't like earlier where I could just invite myself in. Because the door was locked and I didn't have a key.

Standing in front of me was a boy in an apron. He looked me up and down. Seeing him in front of my doorway made me second guess myself. Was it possible that I had somehow ended up at the wrong house? I looked up, at the house number. Then I looked at the house parked in the driveway and the slightly wet grass, probably from the earlier sprinkler fiasco. It was indeed my house. I had not walked up to the wrong home, like I thought I did. But there's no way that this boy in front of me somehow introduced himself to my parents, right? 

"Hi, I'm Do Kyungsoo. You must be Seo Imkyung. I invited myself over to your house because... well, it's a long story. How do you like the neighborhood so far?"

Seriously, world? I disappear for a while and this is what you do to me? Another boy? ANOTHER ONE? (Was he going to eat dinner at my house too? With Chanyeol?)

"It's... going good," I managed to say. My response wasn't much.

The boy, Kyungsoo, opened the door wide enough so I could enter my house. He scooted out of the way so we wouldn't bump into each other. He's a real considerate person, from what I could tell.

I stepped inside my house. And proceeded to trip and fall not even a moment later.

"Damn it."

ignore the lame pun that I inserted in this story about how long it's been I'M SO SORRY FORGIVE ME (also holy shiz this story is a lot popular than I thought it was) (golly whiz)