A/N : Again, thank you to those who commented. I'll try my best to include your suggestions in the story. Enjoy! :)

CHAPTER 17 : The Infamous Game

MINA’S POV

Stop overanalyzing, I told myself one more time, he was sad and you were the only one there.

I sat up and thought aloud, “Right. He probably would’ve hugged anything that moved last night.” I went on, “I just happened to be there - that’s all there is to it.”

Ugh, I let out a sigh and fell back on the bed. The fact was that I was not convincing myself. There had to be a logical reason - I knew there had to be. Because if there wasn’t, my life would be a mayhem. I stared at the ceiling for hours, frustrated and confused.  A thought crossed my mind - a thought that I brushed away at once. I shook my head stupefied by how arrogant and vain I was. There was no way in hell that Luhan liked me. I was just overanalyzing like I always do, coz that’s just who I am.

Before I could make up more absurd reasons, I dragged myself up and washed my face, wishing that I would wake up from my madness. I realized that it was a good thing that today was a Sunday, I didn’t have to see Luhan and feel all awkward about it. Suddenly, I was interrupted by a loud knock from my door.

“Surprise!” Jenna greeted me. I was dumbfounded upon seeing all the other assistants behind her.

“Surprise?” I asked in uncertainty, “You guys do know that my birthday is like six months from now right?”

Woo Jin turned to me, “I’m sorry Mina. I tried to stop them but they said they wanted to see you.”

I dismissed his worry, “It’s alright. Come on in and please bear with my humble home.”

Soon enough, my small apartment became crowded with six of us, Woo Jin, Jenna, Jones, Camille, Hilary, and me. I led them to the dining table, and took juice from the fridge.

“So what brought you guys here?”

“We just haven’t had fun in so long.” Camille replied, “We all needed a break anyway.”

I nodded. God knows I needed a break. Before I could suggest eating at a restaurant, Jones asked, “So where’s the booze?”

I joked, “What is it with booze and you?” they all laughed till I admitted, “I’m sorry but I don’t really have party supplies.”

Hilary pouted, “You don’t?”

“Why don’t you and Woo Jin grab some food and stuff at the grocery?” Jenna proposed.

I didn’t see the harm in doing so, so I agreed. I left with Woo Jin after taking down notes of the long list of whatnots we had to buy. It was nobody’s birthday and yet it felt like someone was about to have a debut.

LUHAN’S POV

“You okay?” Lay asked as he put the can of beans on the cart.

“Yeah why?” I asked coolly.

“Nothing… Just, you love buying groceries but now you look like there’s somewhere else you need to go.”

I shot back, “Well thanks for the concern Dr. Phil.”

Before Lay could say anything, Xiumin appeared before us carrying what seemed like a hundred bags of chips.

Kris came into sight just in time and noticed the chips, “You are not buying all those.”

Chen patted Kris on the back, “You keep saying that buddy, see if he listens.”

We all laughed in unison. Today, instead of going shopping, we decided that it was best to buy food first since our stock was almost running out. And one cannot live with pizza delivery alone.

“Do we have everything we need?” I asked.

Lay scanned our shopping list, “We still need… what exactly is this…”

Chen read it, “It’s ramyun. It’s at the isle on the other end.”

“You should try writing more legibly Chen.” Lay said, “Go get ramyun.”

“I’m buying something else, you go get it.”

“No you get-“

I interrupted, “Fine, stop it.” I sighed, “I’ll get it.”

The thing when we go grocery shopping is that it takes us half a day to finish the task - that is when there are no major interruptions. There was this one time when a fan recognized us and started shouting EXO - I don’t even want to delve into details but all I could say was that our grocery shopping became an instant fan signing event. Since then, we all started wearing caps and unflashy clothes.

As I walked down the noodle isle, I kept my head down - hoping no one will recognize me. But as I swerved the cart, it bumped into someone else’s. And when I looked up, it was Mina with Woo Jin. Mina froze on the spot and stared at me like I was some sort of non-grocery shopping person. I remembered what had happened last night - and I could’ve sworn it crossed her mind too.

*flashback*

That man,” I said, “he didn’t even ask me how I was doing.”

I was waiting for her to say comforting remarks - like last time. But as if she realized I needed more than words, she put her hand on my shoulder and pressed it firmly. I didn’t want to admit it then - but I felt her concern. She cares about you, a voice in my head said. I gazed at her and she looked back at me, her eyes reflecting the pain that I was feeling.

The past few days, something had gotten into me. I didn’t know what it was but for some reason it made me damn the consequences. Slowly, I took her hand that lay on my shoulder, and wrapped it around me. In a second, I had pulled her into a tight clasp.

When she didn’t push me away, my arms tightened around her. My brain had stopped functioning. I was in a trance - a trance that I didn’t even understand. The only thing that was clear to me was that that night, I did not want to be alone.

I couldn’t remember how long it lasted, but when I finally let her go, her flushed face became apparent. I started to feel the awkwardness of it all. I kept silent, waiting for her to react, until she turned her back and quickly left.  



*end of flashback*

I took the events of last night out of my mind. It wasn’t the time or place to think about it. Surprisingly, Woo Jin greeted me - which was off, especially since the last time I saw him I threw him to the pool. Mina did not say a word, and I tried my best to avoid her eyes.

“Hyung!” Xiumin arrived unexpectedly, “Why are you guys here?”

“We’re hanging out at Mina’s place.”

I couldn’t help but react, “You’re hanging out? At her place?” Appalled by the jealousy in my own voice, I quickly turned to Xiumin, “Let’s go, they might be looking for us.”

But before we could even move our cart, the other members came rushing in like on cue.

“Mina!” Lay acclaimed, “What a coincidence! What are you guys doing here?”

Mina finally spoke up, “The assistants are hanging out at my place so we bought some food.”

“Aw. Why didn’t you invite us?”

“I was actually surprised too... It wasn’t planned or anything.”

“Well why don’t we have this party at our place? It should be fun!”

Everyone else agreed on Lay’s suggestion while I pondered about how it was the worst possible idea ever. Kris told Mina to meet with the rest of the assistants at our dorm  a few hours later. After a few more rounds around the supermarket, we headed home. When we got there, everyone was excited to prepare food. I, on the other hand, locked myself in the room thinking of excuses to not join the party that was to be done in our place.

When afternoon came, I started to hear a bunch of noises, and I knew that our assistants have arrived. Mostly out of curiosity, I went out of my room to check out what was happening. And there they were, crowded in our living room. I immediately caught sight of Mina who was alone in the adjacent kitchen, acting as if she knew how to cook. I went up to her, worried that she might prepare something inedible.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” I leaned over the counter.

She looked my way and went back to what she was doing, “I’m just cutting the onions for the salsa, I’m sure I can do- ah!” she dropped the knife she was holding and blood gushed out of her pricked finger. I quickly rushed to her side, and unknowingly took her finger to my mouth. She gave me an arrested glance, while I wondered what the hell I just did.

Her eyes widened, “Stop - What-  Are you- I - Don’t-” she stuttered helplessly.

“Are you having a ?” I smirked and put her finger over running water.

She withdrew her hand at once, “It’s fine now.”

“Do you ever get tired of being clumsy?”

“Apparently not.” She joked as a smile formed on her lips.

“Look,” I gazed at her closely, “I wanted to uhm-” I caught my breath, “I wanted to thank you.”

“You wanted to thank me?”

“That’s what I just said.”

“Thank me for what?”

I tried to find the words, “For being a tolerable assistant the past few days.”

Her smile deepened, and for some reason, I felt the need to smile back. For a moment, no words were exchanged between us. We kept our eyes at each other - I started to feel like it was becoming a habit.

“Mina?” Tao’s assistant, Jenna, called out from the living room.

Mina took the bowl of red sauce and added onions on it, “Uhm, I gotta-”

“Yeah,” I moved back, “Go ahead.”

“You’re not joining us?”

I wanted to head back to my room and rest, but I felt like I owed her at least this much after what she had done the past days. I picked up the booze and chips from the counter and followed her all the way to the living room.

MINA’S POV

It was a bit awkward - but meeting Luhan after last night turned out to be better than I expected. I could even say that it had brought us even a little closer. Although he was quiet the entire time, I was glad that he took the time to join us. It had always been fun hanging out with the other assistants and EXO, I guess it had something to do with the fact that all of us spend pretty much everyday with each other, so everyone was comfortable.

After a few hours of eating and drinking, Kris and Lay thought to push the sofas to the sides so we could sit on the floor. I don’t really know how it happened but I ended up sitting between Woo Jin and Luhan. The two hours went by quickly, chatting about everything under the sun, from Xiumin’s eating habits to EXO’s new song. My favorite part though was when the EXO members started revealing each other’s embarrassing moments.

“He did that?!” Hilary was stunned a lot like all of us.

Chen laughed, “I’m telling you, Kris was in such a hurry that he wore his shirt backwards!”

“Did you guys tell him?” I asked.

The members looked down, “Actually, we didn’t…” Lay replied.

Xiumin added, “He was so annoying the day before asking us to keep practicing and all, so we decided to make fun of him.”

“A fan ended up telling me that my shirt was backwards.” Kris explained and hit Xiumin playfully.

“But you would not believe what happened to Luhan before.” Lay spoke up, and immediately caught Luhan’s attention. He continued, “After one of our concerts, all of us had already gone to the van except for Luhan coz he forgot something in the dressing room. When he finally got out, he rode the van and sat on the back seat, he said something like this van is full of junk, you couldn’t even clean it before I came?”

“And then?” I was curious, seeing Luhan’s face turn red.

“And then, the guy on the front seat looked up at him… he freaked out,” Kris continued, “he was at SHINEE’s van.”

Everyone cracked up after the punchline, while Luhan gave Kris and Lay death glares. I couldn’t help but laugh boisterously, and when Luhan looked my way, I tried my best to keep a straight face.

“I know!” Jenna suddenly had an idea, “Since we’re all revealing embarrassing moments anyway, why don’t we play truth or dare?”

Of course, the infamous truth or dare game. Everyone was riled up by Jenna’s idea. And in an instant, we had formed a perfect circle, ready to embarrass each and everyone more. They spun the bottle on the center and it chose Jones as the first victim.

Chen took the chance to grill his assistant, “Jones! Truth or dare?”

Everyone cheered when Jones took the challenge, “I dare!”

“Alright, I dare you to do the harlem shake!”

“Without the music?”

Chen grinned, “The music is in our hearts buddy.”

Without a second to waste, Jones stood up and went berserk with a harlem shake dance. Everyone cracked up, and Chen was rolling on the floor in laughter.

“I am proud of my assistant!” Chen joked after Jones’ act of courage.

After a few comments here and there, they spun the bottle again and it stopped right across Woo Jin. 

“Truth or dare?” We all shouted.

“Truth.”

“Do you like Mina?” Camille, the quietest one, blurted at once.

I choked from the beer I was drinking. Everyone turned silent, wanting to clear up the issue between me and Woo Jin. After the trip to Jeju last month, they had started this issue about me and him, so of course, we couldn’t escape their teasing. It took him a while to answer, and that made me really nervous, because if he were to say yes it’d seriously be awkward.

“Yes.” Woo Jin answered and my heart stopped. I looked down in embarrassment while the others cheered us.

“Mina, why are you blushing?” Jenna called out to me.

“I’m not - blushing.” I stuttered.

“Okay, let’s get it over with and move on.” Woo Jin joked.

After an hour of playing truth or dare, I could already tell that everyone was pretty much intoxicated. Except of course Luhan who didn’t touch a single bottle. I didn’t stop drinking too despite being tipsy, since I figured I deserved to enjoy myself. I poured myself another glass of beer but before I could drink it, two hands pulled my glass away. Both Woo Jin and Luhan paused for a moment, still holding my glass, assessing the situation. Luhan’s eyes narrowed as Woo Jin turned to face him. I took it upon myself to say something, but before I could let one word out, Lay spoke up.

“Luhan! Truth or dare?” The bottle had stopped right across him.

Luhan let go of the glass and faced Lay, annoyance evident in his face, “Truth.”

It was as if Lay had memorized the question, he asked without a single thought, “If you were to like anyone in this room - and I mean like - who would it be?”

Without delay, Luhan looked my way and answered, “Mina.”