~Shin’s PoV~

I woke up the next day; I was already in my room. “What the?” I scurried off running down stairs. And saw a tall familiar figure fidgeting in our living, I walked towards that figure and saw Chanyeol, I sighed in relief seeing that it was only my cousin. “Hey”, he called out with his usual happy virus vibe. “You fell asleep last night,” he chuckled as he poked my forehead. I just nodded and smiled at him, “Manager hyung picked us up really late last night”, I nodded again. “I fell asleep”, I chuckled. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”, I asked him. “Jongdae hyung told me to let you sleep, he said you looked really peaceful. What were you even thinking before you fell asleep? What made you stare into space all of a sudden last night?”. He asked me. I chuckled and gave him a smile, “memories of the past” I simply told him. “ I know you haven’t gotten over it yet, and I know it hurts even though it has passed for how many years already. I can’t blame you, it has been a hard and painful past”, he said lowly sounding like he was about to break into tears. I heaved out a huge sigh and smiled at him.

“Let’s eat, I’ll cook”, I said as I headed towards the kitchen. The maids haven’t returned yet so I’ll be cooking and doing stuff alone for a while. I grabbed a frying pan and placed it on the stove; I poured some cooking oil as I lit the stove. I scanned through the fridge looking for something to cook, I only found eggs, bacon, some ham, chicken and stuff that were good for making bibimbap and some left over cake from last night. “So you know how to cook now?”, Chanyeol sarcastically asked me with a huge grin on his face. I just smiled at him as I grabbed the bacon and eggs from the fridge, “staying overseas without your family to support and cook for you taught me how to cook and even do chores”, I chuckled earning an agreeing nod from him. He surely knows me best until now.

I broke the eggs and let it cook in the frying pan while I set the plates on the table. I only put two plates, two spoons and forks and two water glasses. “Why only two each?” he asked, I shrugged “we’re not expecting any guests. Why are you asking me that?” I looked at him. “I..well..I uhm…I invited Jongdae hyung again today since he’s the only one with no schedule like me today”, he said and I nodded again. I went back to get another plate, spoon and fork and a water glass. Back to cooking, the eggs were already done and as I was putting the eggs on the plate, the door suddenly rang and Chanyeol quickly jolted up from his seat and opened it. I started to fry the bacon as I yawned sleepily. “I really need to sleep more”. I mumbled to myself as I continued looking after the bacon.

A heavy foot step was heading towards the kitchen and I knew whose heavy footsteps those belong to, it’s non-other than my giant of a cousin, Chanyeol. Followed by a light foot step, maybe it was Chen oppa’s footsteps. I got another plate and placed the bacon there as I turned off the stove and closed the gas tank. I sat down on the table and saw two figures out the kitchen door talking to Chanyeol. “I need to take my bath, I look embarrassing with my bed hair and pajamas”, I mumbled to myself quietly. I got up again and headed towards the door until my cousin caught me, “where are you going? I thought you were going to eat?” he asked. I sighed, “it’s embarrassing when oppa has guests and I look like a rag this early in the morning”, I told him and he and his friends let out a chuckled, I yawned making it look like I didn’t care about their chuckle. “It’s okay, Jongdae hyung says you still look cute even if you look like that”, he implied. I shrugged and sat back down again.

Chanyeol, Chen and Suho oppadeul sat down and started to eat. “Well I’m impressed that she’s not this nervous eating with us”, said Suho trying to make a conversation, I nodded and continued eating. “She’s like that because it’s still too early in the morning hyung, she’ll eventually get back to her energetic self when she takes a bath and when she also starts to unpack their things”, Chanyeol tried to cover up my lack of attention. Playing with my fork while poking the bacon, I never knew that Chen oppa was discreetly staring at me, I looked up at him and gave him a simple smile and he started eating again.

Soon as everybody was finished eating, I cleared out the table and put the dishes in the sink and started to wash them.

~Chen’s PoV~

We headed back to the living room as Suho hyung was viewing the family portraits of Chanyeol’s cousin. I sat back there and just fidgeted with my phone trying to ignore Suho hyung’s amazed comments.Minutes later I still couldn’t ignore hyung’s awe so I decided to take a look at the portraits and the trophy case myself as his cousin darted off to her room for a bath. Seeing why hyung was amused when he saw the awards and trophies, I couldn’t even believe my eyes. So many awards in a year, she really is something. I actually remembered that she knows how to play instruments, so I was told by Chanyeollie, I started to be amazed.

I scanned the portraits of her family and saw a pretty lady who looks just like her, it must be her mom with a little girl and another boy who looks like her. “Maybe they’re twins”, I mumbled and looked through more photos. I sat back down on the coffee table with hyung and Chanyeol as they were scanning through the photo albums. I was wandering around what photo album should I look through and one thing caught my attention, a simple silver album. How simply pretty it looked so I decided to open it. It was like a story book where two children were born in the arms of their parents, the next were male and female twins on their 1^st birthday.

I was so caught up with the photo album that I didn’t realize his cousin already came back; I flipped a few more pages and saw a young Chanyeol with his Yura noona and a little girl, all wearing black and white hanboks. Under the photo was another photo with an altar with three picture frames of the same familiar people that I saw in the photos a few pages before. “That’s my mom, my twin oppa and my baby sister”, a calm voice called out. I turned around and saw Shin staring at the photo album with watery eyes. I closed the photo album and place it back on its place. “Are you okay?”, I asked her and she just gave me a bitter-sweet smile.

After Chanyeol making his cousin tell her story about what happened to her mom and siblings, I suddenly felt like she had a rough and painful past. But she really makes it seem like it’s nothing, it was quiet again and Chanyeol stepped up to create a good atmosphere. “Let’s just help her unpack her things and arrange her room”, he jumped off the seat and ran upstairs. Seriously, where does he get all these energy from? I just chuckled and followed them; I just don’t know why I can’t take my eyes of his cousin. Aigoo, this is really frustrating, I shrugged off and went upstairs to a very spacious room. Seeing the boxes around made it really look like she just moved in.

~Author’s PoV~

Everybody was busy unpacking the stuff from the boxes, putting things on their respective places. From here and there, everything was being cleaned too. Hours from all the cleaning, everything was put into place except for a remaining big box on one corner, Chanyeol went up and opened the box and he was shocked by what he saw, he was staring at the stuff for who knows how many minutes which made everybody seem a little weirded out by him.

Shin finally got annoyed and threw a pillow at him that hit directly on the back of his head, “nice shot there!”, praised Suho as he and Chen gave her high fives. “Stop staring at my stuff, I know they’re amazingly many but you’re freaking us out”, she nagged. Chanyeol got up and ramaged through his cousin’s drawers to look for markers and gave one each to Suho and Chen.

He flipped the box gently revealing everything inside, all her kpop things were being kept there. “Hyung sign all the EXO stuff there”, he chuckled as he grabbed some posters to be signed, Chen grabbed an album and started signing it while Suho rummaged through the other things. “Heeeyyyy no fair, why are these all Chen hyung’s face?”, he whined. “It’s because she loves me more than you”, Chen gave a chuckle.

All the EXO stuff were finally signed by the three of them and have those stuff place on one shelf. They all sat down on the bed side feeling very tired and everything. “I’m sorry if oppadeul had to help me with my things when you guys should be resting”, she bowed down a little. “It’s okay, we had fun”, Suho replied with a sweet smile from his face. “Isn’t it weird that no fans are following you today?” she asked them. “I heard your fans are the most dangerous type of fans here”, she continued. The boys chuckled after hearing what she said and they just left her question unanswered for today.

Shin went down to look for something to cook for dinner and was followed by Chen with Suho and Chanyeol still taking a nap inside her room. She brought out the meat and some vegetables and started cutting them. “Do you need help?”, said Chen popping out from the kitchen door, she smiled at him and nodded. “Can oppa cut this meat?, I’m scared to hold a knife”, she chuckled. He just simply nodded at her and started to cut the meat, she put out the frying pan and heated it on the stove. Chen was already done after quickly cutting the meat and poured it into the semi-heated pan. Shin grabbed some seasonings and the vegetables and mixed it with the meat, after cooking, both of them sat down on the dining table looking tired while exchanging smiles and glances at each other.

Everybody was already happily eating inside the dining room exchanging compliments and what not. It was indeed a tiring yet a fun day for all of them, after eating, making their way outside, and their manager was already waiting for them. They all bid farewell to Chanyeol’s cousin as they scurried off.

~Chen’s PoV~

Inside the car, the three of us were being chatty and noisy. Chanyeol unlocked his phone revealing his cousin’s picture as his wallpaper, now I know how close they really are. At the sight of her photo, my heart suddenly had a fast beat remembering her sweet smile throughout the day. I held my hand over my heart, “I think I’m starting to like her”, I mumbled quietly leaving various thoughts rushing inside my head.