We head back to the kitchen. By now I’ve figured out that every path leads to the kitchen since the kitchen is the center of this mess of rooms. I felt at ease, as if all the pent-up tension inside me had been released. Chanyeol leads the way, slightly less hyperactive but still tripping over his feet at times. The kitchen is empty except for us once we arrive; all the others are still practicing. Chanyeol grabs two cups of juice off the counter, handing one to me and draining the other. I finish mine slowly, eyeing Chanyeol with amusement. He snatches my cup from me as soon as I finish and tosses both cups in the sink, and then flings himself onto the couch, dragging me with him. There are movies and TV shows (in DVD form) scattered all around the floor and we bicker for a while before finally settling on watching Faith*. Time passes in a blur and I fall asleep on Chanyeol’s shoulder because wow I’m really, really tired.

Next thing I know, I’m being shaken awake by someone with a mess of red hair and an angry expression while still lying on something nice and wa- wait what. I quickly swing my body into an upwards sitting position. Risking a glance at Chanyeol, I notice that he looks extremely amused and there’s another emotion mixed in that I don’t want to identify. Putting my hands in my lap, I sit straight, fixing my gaze on Suho’s face and trying to ignore the laughter around me. Suho doesn’t look angry or anything so I must have imagined that expression while trying to wake up.

“What do you think you were doing?!” He demands, his tone slightly angry although his expression still looks quite pleasant.

“Uh... sleeping?”

“Why is it necessary to sleep on Chanyeol?” He asks, his voice hitting yet another octave.

“Aren’t you overacting a bit? We were watching a movie. I was tired and I fell asleep. The end.” By now snickers were being heard from behind us.

Suho suddenly sighs, and rubs his face tiredly. “Yeah, sorry.” he says, and walks out of the room. I get up to follow him, but the others crowd in on me and push me back onto the couch. Chanyeol is still sitting next to me, but Baekhyun sits on the floor next to him, holding his hand. Belatedly I realize that they’re probably going out. I look around and oh god why is everyone is coupley-pairs.

Bounding off the couch and surprising the others, I run into a random hallway and hope for the best.

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

After a really long time of wandering around I appear to have finally found the front door. At least I think I was in the room I had first met Kai and D.O. in. I open it cautiously, half-expecting an alarm to ring through the house. When nothing happens, I slip through the door and into a bustling hallway of people. I move with the flow, absorbing the sounds that huge groups of people make. At the end of the hallway there’s a huge set of double doors, and outside there’s a park. Laughing delightedly, I run for the swings. I swing for a long time, letting my worries go with the wind streaming past my face and humming contentedly. Ignoring the slight buzzing from my ring, I focus wholly on swinging and the rhythm of pumping my legs in order to bring the swing higher.

Soon I’m brought back to reality by a swarming group of little kids fighting for the swing and slip off while they’re distracted. While trying to sneak out of the playground unobserved, I don’t notice the small group of underdressed girls off to the side and am accosted by them as soon as I get past the gate. One of the girls swans up to me, smiling at me and bringing her hands up to caress my face. Old habits come to the rescue and I jerk away and back off.

“Don’t be like that... Come back.” She pleads cutely. I would have thought her to be quite young if not for her skimpy outfit.

I hold out my arms in a “stay away from me” gesture and continue to back, albeit a little slower. She comes close again and her friends gather behind her with their phones and cameras. I would say they were taking photos of me but why would they do that?

“Oppa, do you want to go out with me?” The girl asks, smiling the whole time.

“Er... no. Sorry.” I say, trying to find a way out without offending her.

“Why?” She asks, pouting. “Am I not pretty enough to be your girlfriend?”

I was opening my mouth to answer when an arm sneaks around my waist and pulls me in. Smiling gently, Suho stares them down. Which was incredibly odd. I didn’t say anything because I liked the feel of his arm around my waist I didn’t really want to offend anyone.

It doesn’t take that long for them to get the implied hint and the leader of the group scoffs and says, “You’re one of them, huh.” They walk away muttering and I hear something along the lines of, “Why are all the cute boys that live there gay?” I assume that “there” is the house we live in since most of the other boys do appear to be... well... not straight.

Suho drops his arm as soon as they leave and we walk back. I follow him since I have no clue how to get back.

“How did you find me?” I ask. I had been in front of the big building, but that shouldn’t have been that obvious.

He held up his right hand and waved the ring in from of my face. Right. I guess that’s why my ring had been buzzing. As we walk back into the building, the current of people threatens to push be back out the door. Cautiously, I grab Suho’s arm and hold on to him as we go through the building. He flinches at first and then ignores me again. People part around him as if he was important and we get to the door to our.... complex (?) faster than it took me to get out. Seriously what do you call the place we live in?

I lingered at the entrance for a little bit and tried to camouflage myself and blend into the walls, but Suho noticed that I wasn’t following him and waited patiently until I started moving again. Of course we ended back up in the kitchen. By now some of the couples had slightly split up (although not by much). D.O. was sitting on Kai’s lap and I skirted them, trying not to disturb them (although they were watching me anyway). I weaved through the room, trying to get to the door that led to the hallway with my own room. The others tried to obstruct me, moving into my way and striking up conversations with me. Deftly, I slid aside their questions.

As I slipped through the door, I looked back and saw that Suho had followed me through the room, and although he was not being deliberately obstructed, he still was being asked some questions about who knows what. Sprinting through the hallway, I slammed my hand against the door to my room to unlock it and fell into the room. I sat on the bed, staring at the door and wondering if he was actually going to come and talk to me.

Soon enough my door sent an alarm through my ring. Suho had pressed his own ring against my door and was demanding entrance. The door turned clear so I could see him. Sighing, I waved the door open and made sure the lightning in my room was nothing more than mere sparks.

I kept my eyes on the door as he walked in and felt, rather than saw, the bed dip next to me as he sat down. We sat silently for a bit.

“That was dangerous, you know.” He says, breaking the silence. “Going outside, I mean. There are things out there that are dangerous and we fight them but you don’t have enough training to control yourself yet. You might accidentally hurt someone.”

I turned and watched him talk, letting no sign of emotion enter my face.

“Along with that, you apparently don’t know how to deal with girls who want to date you,” he adds with a grin. “It’s not that hard to just say ‘No, I don’t want to go out with you.’”

After contemplating several reaction-causing answers, I say, “Well that was never really a problem since I have been openly gay for a while. The girls at my school avoided me. So did the guys.”

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

*Faith is a Korean drama xDDD Lee Minho is in it and he’s my favorite Korean actor so I decided to put it in :P I really liked the drama too. 

Andandand I hope to update soon because I have ideas and I'm sorry for not updating quickly enough .-. I actually had half of this done a month ago, but never was able to finish it because I didn't know what to write.

Thanks to KimMieAhn, trollesrun, b2utyful_angel, laurenelf, and eunhaehyukshipper for subscribing and to kobe24, exotic_buffalo, Maxinator409, and KKkkkk for commenting ^.^ 

I also created a banner-type-thing for this story some time ago but it's on my other computer that I do not have access to currently so I'll probably change the banner the next time I update. (hopefully soon and from that computer).