“Time for dinner!” Kyungsoo called.

Baekhyun sighed and put the book he had been reading down on his bedside table. He turned to look at the shivering lump on the other bed. “Oi, get up, it’s time for dinner.”

The lump continued to shiver. Baekhyun massaged his temples. “You’re injured. You need to eat Chanyeol.”

The tuft of hair poking out of the lump shook in a way that Baekhyun knew it was a ‘no’. He sighed. “They aren’t that scary Chanyeol.”

“You weren’t the one who almost died.”

“What did you expect? You pushed your creepy self into Zitao’s space and you’re not dead, that’s pretty good.”

“I’m not leaving this bed.”

“…Chanyeol.” The lump shuddered. “Chanyeol…eat?” No movement. Baekhyun balled his hands into fists. His injury was your fault. You have to take responsibility. “Chanyeol, eat please?” The ‘please’ tasted bitter on his tongue but it did the trick.

Chanyeol slowly got out of bed, brown hair tussled and messy, pouting like a child. “Fine…” he mumbled, playing with his fingers. “If Baekkie says so…”

Baekhyun smirked and grabbed a hold of Chanyeol’s wrist before he could chicken out again. “Let’s go.”

By the time Baekhyun had finished coaxing Chanyeol to the dinner table, the rest of the boys had already sat down. To Chanyeol’s dismay, the two empty seats weren’t next to each other. Baekhyun didn’t seem to mind and just sat down beside Kyungsoo. Chanyeol pursed his lips and went over to the other empty seat and sat down.

Ppphftttt.

Chanyeol blinked.

Kai looked part disgusted and part amused. “Yeols…couldn’t you have kept it in until dinner was over at least?”

“…it wasn’t me?” Blushing bright red, Chanyeol reached under him and held up a green rubber balloon. “…a whoopee cushion?”

The boy with high cheekbones who had been sitting next to Chanyeol burst out into giggles and darted out of the room.

Chanyeol blinked, bewildered. Kai decided to come to his rescue. “That’s Chen-hyung.”

“Ah…sorry, sorry, nice to meet you, I’m Chen,” the laughing boy re-entered the room, eyes still alight with mirth. He offered his hand out, eyes still crinkled into crescent moons.  

Chanyeol took it hesitantly and immediately pulled his hand back as it got shocked. “Ouch!” he yelped, shooting Chen a dirty look. Chen burst out into peals of laughter as he showed Chanyeol the small shocking device attached to his palm. “Baekkie I don’t want to sit next to him!” he whined.

“Why not?” Chen asked innocently. Chanyeol frowned at him and sat down, this time making sure that there was no whoopee cushion on his chair.

“Sorry about him,” said the tall boy sitting next to Chanyeol. He was very handsome with thick eyebrows and a small, apologetic smile. “Think of it as a welcoming ceremony. It happens to everyone.”

“A welcoming ceremony,” Chanyeol repeated dubiously. The other boy nodded.

“I’m Kris. I’d heard EXO-K had taken in a civilian and I was going to introduce myself but you ran away after Tao almost killed you.” Chanyeol winced at the memory. He turned in his seat and accidentally met eyes with Tao, the only one he’d introduced himself to before almost meeting an untimely death.

Tao’s eyes held no hint of apology but no hint of menace either. His eyes were as dark and intimidating as they had been when Chanyeol had first seen them. Tao nodded his head once (in greeting?) and returned to his rice.

“This is Luhan.”

Chanyeol looked at the empty seat beside Kris. “Uh…”

Kris turned to look and blinked for a few seconds at the empty chair. He sighed. “You can be Sehun’s human parasite after you finish dinner Luhan.” A beat followed and a boy Chanyeol hadn’t noticed before detached himself from Sehun’s side to slink back into the empty chair. He was small and slender and very pretty. He sat down, nodded his head at Chanyeol and began to glumly pick at his rice.

“Xiumin,” Kris said, gesturing at the boy sitting beside Luhan. He was eating very quickly and one hand came up to offer Chanyeol a two- salute while the other shoved rice into already bulging cheeks. He looked like a hamster, Chanyeol thought.

“And the last member, Lay.” Chanyeol squinted at the boy sitting in front of him. He was thin and quietly eating the vegetables in front him. He looked up and smiled at Chanyeol before going back to quietly eating. He looked harmless and nice and so very different from Tao. He looked…normal.

“Uh well I’m Chanyeol. It’s nice to meet you…again.” He cringed, remembering his perhaps too excitable introduction which had resulted in a near miss with a wushu stick.

“Well, now that we’re all introduced, no hard feelings right?” Chen beamed brightly at Chanyeol. Chanyeol sniffed into his rice.

“I’m still keeping an eye on you, you meanie.” Chen giggled.

“You hear that hyung? He called me a meanie.” Xiumin grunted, mouth too full to say anything. “I haven’t heard people call me that since kindergarten when I tied everyone’s shoes together during naptime.” He turned back to Chanyeol. “And I was just playing, no need to be all angry.”

Chanyeol was about to respond but Baekhyun cut him off. “Eat.”

Chanyeol scrambled to obey and Chen watched him curiously. “Is he your pet Baek?”

“No.”

“He’s his lover boy,” Kai snickered and Chanyeol blushed.

Suddenly Kai yelped. Baekhyun’s eyes were stone cold as he dug his foot mercilessly into Kai’s shin.

“You really don’t know when to keep your mouth shut do you?”

“Don’t be mean to Kai, Baekhyun.” Suho said calmly.

“He’s being an idiot.”

“He’s always an idiot,” Chen said. Kai turned betrayed eyes on him.

“I am not, Kyungsoo-hyung vouch for me!”

“I will do no such thing.”

Chanyeol relaxed in the bickering and began to eat his rice. He was glad he had not sat next to Baekhyun because his seat allowed him a perfect view of Baekhyun, calmly eating his rice having retreated from the conversation. The way Baekhyun’s long, slender fingers curved around the bowl and the way his tongue darted out every so often to catch stray bits of rice left Chanyeol a little breathless.

“You’re crazy, Yongguk said flatly. “You have gone bat crazy.”

Baekhyun didn't talk to him for the rest of dinner.

Yongguk was probably right, Chanyeol thought miserably, he's always right. 

“Hey Baekkie?”

“What?” Baekhyun asked flatly.

They were both lying in their beds, the both of them knowing the other wasn’t asleep because Chanyeol hadn’t heard any cute puppy noises and Baekhyun hadn’t heard Chanyeol’s breathing even out into slumber.

“I…” Chanyeol bit his lip, hesitating.

Baekhyun sighed. “Spit it out Chanyeol.”

“I want to be your lover boy.”

 There was a pause.

“WHAT?” 

A/N: SURPRISE~ AN UPDATE! so i realize i have left this thing on hiatus for a long, long time and i'm really sorry and i'd like to say it was because of schoolwork and all but really it was because of writer's block orz so i'm really sorry if this chapter feels kinda different from the others because i picked it up so long after my initial surge of inspiration. this was not edited because i decided to pick this up right when i have like three essays to write so i'll be doing that now. 

please do leave a comment to tell me how well i matched the flow of the other chapters and to tell me if you would like me to continue even if i'm a terrible updater. thank you so much :)