Minseok stared intently at the television, his eyes flickering at every movement on the screen, his thumbs in rapid motion, and his mouth in a firm this line.

As the word “Winner!” flashed on the screen, his mouth quirked into a small smirk before falling back to its normal position.

“Damn it!” Kyungjin cursed, raising her game controller as if she was going to thrash it against the floor. But she stopped and slowly lowered her hand in defeat. With a displeased look she gave to the person next to her, she muttered, “I thought you said that you never played video games before.”

He turned his head slightly and gave her the slightest of smug looks. “I haven’t.”

“Then how come you’re so good at it?” she grumbled.

He shrugged nonchalantly. “I’m a fast learner.”

She muttered grumpily incoherent phrases that Minseok wasn’t able to hear with his ears but he could definitely hear through her thoughts.

They had started their day as always with Kyungjin dragging Minseok to who knows where, but this time she had dragged him to the game room in the hospital. It wasn’t a game room as much as a small room with an old TV with a game console and video games. She had told him sheepishly that she was the only resident who played them since she was the only one young enough to be interested in it.

Therefore, she had proclaimed herself as a master of video games and challenged Minseok to a battle.

Minseok, on the other hand, never had the interest to play video games of any sort. There might have been a time where he might have, but it had long past since and now he felt extremely neutral to video games. Which meant he was an amateur with video games for he probably only held any sort of console once in his life.

But even with his protests of not knowing how to play video games, Kyungjin would not hear any of it, only forcing one of the consoles into his hands and pushing him down to sit on the old gray couch in front of the television.

Knowing that any of his objections would fall on deaf ears, Minseok begrudgingly allowed himself to be swept up with Kyungjin’s pace.

At first, Minseok was being crushed by Kyungjin with her winning almost every battle between them. However, Minseok had excellent eye-hand coordination and adapted rather quickly to anything new being learnt, and in no time at all, the circumstances were swapped much to Kyungjin’s displeasure. In the end, Kyungjin was overwhelmed by Minseok’s fast learning and was losing against him continuously.

“I’m done,” she grumbled distastefully.

Minseok barely looked at her as he replied, “And I thought you were the ‘greatest of all time ultimate master’ of this game.”

She scowled. “Well, yeah. But that was until you managed to screw over my title like nothing. Do you know how hard I worked? Do you?”

“Apparently not hard enough,” he muttered back.

She swatted him with her hand. “Oh, be quiet, you.”

Minseok internally flinched from the sudden contact and froze at the touch.

Kyungjin, who didn’t seem to notice, said, “This isn’t fun anymore.” She dropped the control and clapped her hands once with an idea. “Let’s go exploring!”

Minseok did turn his head at that statement. “I thought the whole point of today was to stay inside.”

“I changed my mind,” she responded with a grin. She quickly shut off the game system and grabbed the consoles, putting them away. She pulled on Minseok’s arm while pointed out the door. “Let’s go!”

“So this exploring thing,” Minseok spoke as he squinted in the bright sunlight. “How does it exactly work?”

Kyungjin smiled peacefully as a slight breeze ran through. She turned to Minseok and grinned. “It doesn’t. We just pick a direction and go investigate anything that is interesting.”

“I would think that doesn’t always work out with you.”

She frowned at his statement. “What makes you say that?”

“You most likely find everything interesting and therefore don’t exactly explore but stick to one place.”

She shifted her eyes in embarrassment. “Guilty. But! You’re here to counteract that. I find everything interesting, but you don’t find anything interesting. It cancels out, and we’ll find a balance.”

“I don’t think it works out like that,” Minseok replied blandly.

She shrugged. “Whatever. Come on! Let’s get moving.”

They walked around the downtown area with mostly consisted of Kyungjin pointing at random objects obviously finding the simplest objects interesting and Minseok giving her an incredulous look that could also mean a disapproving one as well with every point.

They walked for a good while until Kyungjin spotted something that was actually worth pointing out.

“Is that Kyungsoo?” she mumbled to herself in surprise.

Minseok followed her gaze to see Kyungsoo sitting at an outside café table. “Who’s that with him?”

She frowned for she wasn’t able to answer that question for both a girl and boy were sitting with him with their backs facing them.

They approached them causing Kyungsoo to lift his head to them in puzzlement and then twisting his face in disgust at the sight of who it was. “Do you two always spend time with each other? Cause I swear, every time I see either one of you, you are always together.”

Kyungjin grinned. “That’s because we’re that more awesome when we’re together.”

“It’s because the only time Kyungjin can go out with authorization is when she’s with me. Although, it would make more sense if she was with a person with medical knowledge, no?” Minseok replied, giving the girl a stern look which she returned with an amused one of her own.

A cough interrupted their staring battle as they redirected their attention to the person who coughed.

He smiled politely. “Sorry about that. I didn’t want to interrupt your…erm… whatever you guys were doing.”

Kyungjin’s eyes widened with delight reaching in for a hug. “Yixing! What are you doing here?”

He chuckled back as he returned the hug back. “I could ask you the same thing. Unless a miracle happened, there is no way you would be healthy. Or are you?”

She grimaced. “Far from it. This is only my secret weekly escape allowed by Dr. Soo and courtesy of this guy,” she answered, gesturing to Minseok.

Yixing titled his head in interest as he observed Minseok. He smiled at him, giving out a hand to shake. “I’ve heard of you. The guy who is standoffish and supposedly Kyungjin’s lover.”

Minseok was looking tentatively at his hand and stopped to look at the other male upon hearing Yixing’s last phrase. Kyungjin was equally in shock as she let out an “Excuse me?” in a cry. 

Seeing Kyungjin’s shocked face and Minseok’s look of disbelief, he calmly responded, “I suppose that’s just a rumor then, though excuse me impertinence, but you do look rather standoffish.”

Minseok blinked at him, hearing that his thoughts were the same as what he said and concluded that the male in front of him was blunt. Nevertheless, he shook his still outstretched hand. “I’ve heard that plenty before.”

Yixing smiled pleasantly back at him.

“Lovers?” Kyungjin repeated, still not moving past the fact that people had considered them that.

Yixing shrugged. “People keep telling me that you two are always with each other. And you threw a fit when you couldn’t see him.”

“Well,” Kyungjin murmured, unable to dispute that fact.

Kyungsoo snorted. “I, for one, do not know how anybody can stand this abnormity of a girl. I would probably die from rage if I ever went out with anybody like her.” He glanced pointedly at Minseok. “So I am utterly amazed on how you managed to do it so far. Not that you two are going out.”

“We’re not,” Minseok confirmed.

“Yeah. We’re…not,” Kyungjin echoed. She shook her head and slid into a chair at the table next to Yixing.

Kyungjin looked at the girl who was sitting between Yixing and Kyungsoo and smiled happily at her. “And hello to you too, Lina. You still have the habit of sitting there prettily, don’t you?”

She smiled at Kyungjin. “It’s nice to see you too, Kyungjin. You seem happy as always.”

Minseok took Kyungjin’s sitting down as a signal that they were staying and pulled out the chair next to Kyungsoo and Kyungjin to sit.

She gestured to Yixing and Lina. “Meet the Zhang siblings! You’ll probably never see one without the other.”

Yixing nodded and Lina gave a small wave.

Minseok stared at Yixing for a quick second and responded, “You’re the one who has the weak immune system. Kyungjin’s comrade-in-arms? Baked you cookies?”

Kyungjin shot Minseok a warning glance, but Yixing seemed unbothered by his words. “That’s right. I’m usually in the house recuperating, but today Kyungsoo had come by to visit.”

“And we couldn’t just let him do nothing at our house, so we took the liberty of going out of the house for a while,” Lina added with a soft smile at Kyungsoo. “It would have simply been too impolite.”

Kyungsoo grinned and waved a hand in protest. “It would have been no trouble at all. You didn’t have to go out of your way to do this for me.”

Kyungjin stared at Kyungsoo in astonishment which Kyungsoo returned with a glare and a “What are you looking at?”

Kyungjin continued to gaze intently at him and then grinned. “Nothing at all, my dear Kyungsoo.” She directed her attention to the next male. “So! Yixing! How’s the body doing?”

He gave her a confused look. “You should know that it should be the same. That it could be better. A lot better, actually. Weak immune system, remember?”

Kyungjin laughed. “Same old Yixing.”

Yixing blinked at her again, not understanding.

His sister leaned toward him to whisper in a not-so-quiet voice, “She’s asking for courtesy’s sake. Isn’t she nice?”

That caused Kyungjin to laugh even more. “And same old Lina. Can never say a bad thing about anyone. Even the worst of them all.”

Lina frowned slighty. “That’s not true. Everyone has some good in them. You just have to look a little harder for some.”

Kyungjin propped her chin on her hand as set it on the table and grinned. “I guess if you put it that way…” She looked at Kyungsoo and grinned even harder. “You heard Lina. There’s good in everyone. So that must mean that there’s good in me, right Kyungsoo?”

Kyungsoo glared at her. “Then you must be the exception because no matter hard I try, you are still crazy to me. Delirious, dangerous, and devious.”

Lina looked at Kyungsoo sadly, putting her hand lightly on his arm. “Kyungsoo,” she chided softly. “You can’t say that about Kyungjin. She’s a lovely girl and very easy to talk to.”

Kyungsoo looked at Lina with an anguished expression and then at Kyungjin was still smiling full force and back at Lina. He looked like he was going to protest but then grumbled, “Kyungjin isn’t that bad.” He looked down and mumbled under his breath, “But she’s still crazy.”

Yixing looked absently at Kyungsoo and then at his sister. “Ah,” he let out. He looked at Kyungsoo. “You like…mergh!”

Kyungjin clamped her hand over Yixing’s mouth, interrupting him. He side-eyed her, his words still mumbled through her hand.

Lina looked at Kyungjin oddly. “What are you doing?”

Kyungjin grinned brightly at Lina. “Don’t worry about it. Yixing was about to ruin the fun, that’s all.” She gave Yixing a meaningful look, hoping that he got her message, but all he did was stare back.

She slowly removed her hand from Yixing’s mouth which he then responded with, “What was that for?”

Kyungjin tried again to give signs through her facial expressions, but it was obvious that she wasn’t getting through to him.

Yixing stared blankly at Kyungjin before turning to look at Kyungsoo. “As I was saying before…”

“She’s asking you to keep quiet about that thought you have right now.”

Yixing looked at Minseok who had interrupted him. He blinked at him several times and glanced at Kyungjin. “And you couldn’t have just have told me that?”

She threw her hands in the air. “Hello? I gave you like a million signs to indicate what I wanted from you. If it was anyone else, I swear they would have gotten my hint.”

Yixing raised an eyebrow. “It would be much better if you had simply told me. It’s not that hard to. In fact, your friend is a perfect example. He managed to tell me what you wanted without saying explicitly what I was going to say.”

Kyungjin rolled her eyes. “And where’s the fun in that?”

Lina tilted her head at them. “What are you guys talking about?” she asked in confusion.

“Yes, what exactly are you guys talking about?” Kyungsoo said through gritted teeth. He wasn’t oblivious; he knew what they were talking about.

“We’re simply talking about Kyungsoo’s obvious…”

“Nothing! Nothing at all!” Kyungjin shouted, interrupting Yixing once again. “Quiet on the you-know-what,” she muttered to him.

Yixing pursed his lips as he glanced at his sister’s confused look to Kyungsoo’s anxious one. He rolled his eyes. “Fine. You’re just making it harder, you know. It is always better to say what you want to say now than later.”

“You can do that when you find ‘the one’,” Kyungin snorted, quoting “the one” with her fingers.

Yixing blinked at her. “You’re right. Kyungjin?”

“Yes?” she asked slowly.

“I like you.”

Kyungjin started to cough harshly. Lina stared at her brother in mild surprise. Kyungsoo looked aghast at the sudden confession. And Minseok’s heart dropped a little before relaxing once he understood.

Yixing seemed unperturbed at the other’s reactions, only continuously gazing at Kyungjin.

Kyungjin, who had stopped coughing, looked nervously at Yixing. “Um, Yixing…”she trailed off, not knowing what to say.

“He’s joking,” Minseok finally revealed.

“What?” Kyungjin coughed out.

“Oh, thank god,” Kyungsoo murmured.

Lina looked a little disappointed but nevertheless smiled.

Yixing looked at Minseok gratefully. “At least someone understands my sense of humor.”

Kyungjin glanced from Minseok to Yixing. “Erm, Yixing, I…I don’t think…that’s the reason why… you know what? Nevermind.”

She hit Yixing softly. “Don’t do that. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I mean I don’t even like you that way,” she murmued.

He shrugged. “Well, I don’t either.”

“God, you’re the only person who would confess like that,” she chuckled.

He laughed. “I suppose.” Yixing started to cough loudly, bringing the humorous atmosphere back down.

Lina rubbed her brother’s back soothingly. “We should get back. Yixing can’t stay out too long.”

Kyungjin jumped up. “No, no. You know what? I’ll take him back. It’s been awhile since you’ve been out. You’re always taking care of Yixing. You stay here with Kyungsoo.”

“Kyungsoo?” she asked softly before looking at the said person. He widened his eyes and abashedly looked away.

“But…” she protested weakly.

Yixing shook his head. “It’s fine, Lina. You always been cooped in the house even though you don’t need to. I’m sure Kyungjin is fully capable of taking me back home.”

Lina still looked at the both of them worriedly. “Are you sure?”

Kyungjin grinned. “Positive. In fact, Minseok is coming along to make sure we’re both okay.”

“I am?” Minseok asked, looking at Kyungjin with unimpressed eyes.

Lina looked at Minseok and relented. “Alright, I think I can trust him.”

“Great! Don’t worry about Yixing. I won’t let even the smallest of dust particles touch him,” Kyungjin grinned. “Even the smallest air particle won’t get past me.”

“He would die if didn’t breathe air,” Minseok replied in a bored tone, standing up.

Kyungjin stuck her tongue at him. “Geez, ruin the moment, will ya. You…”

“Kyungjin?” a soft voice murmured in confusion.

Everyone at the table turned to look at the person who had spoken, someone not at their table.

A tall slim boy had stopped in the middle of the sidewalk next to the tables, looking as he was about to pass them when something or rather someone caught his attention.

His hair was bleached blond, but his original brown roots were showing through from underneath. Wearing a dark red leather jacket and with a black V-neck shirt underneath pairing with dark jeans and shoes, his face had look of utter surprise scribbled all over it.

He smirked and began to approach the group.

Minseok glanced from the stranger to each person at the table. Kyungsoo had look of pure abhorrence all over his face. Yixing had his eyes slightly narrowed where he looked like he was thinking hard about what was happening. Lina was still smiling, but it looked forced and her eyebrows had the slightest of a wrinkle. And Kyungjin looked frightened as if she was staring at a ghost. Looking back at the male who had stopped before them, Minseok had a pretty good idea who he was.

“Kyungjin? Wow, I can’t believe it’s you. You look…good,” he continued.

“Different,” Minseok heard instead.

“And Kyungsoo! You haven’t changed,” he smirked, a small chuckle reverberating against his throat.

“Zhang siblings,” he acknowledged with a nod his head. “It’s rare to see you two out of the house.”

He then focused on the person he had never seen before. “And who might you be?” he asked. He looked at the group. “Have you guys replaced me? For shame.”

The group still hadn’t responded to any of his comments, and he frowned from the lack of it. “Guys? Did you guys forget me? I thought I told wrote to you that I was coming back? Did you need a reminder? My name is…”

“Oh Sehun,” Kyungjin whispered, her eyes still wide from shock.

 He grinned at her. “That’s right! I’m glad someone remembers me. As expected of my best friend.” He reached in to pull her into a hug, but she visibly flinched as he barely touched her and pushed her chair back in response.

Sehun frowned at her action, his hand still in mid-air.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Kyungsoo finally growled out.

Sehun pulled his hand back and directed his attention to Kyungsoo. “Whoa, no need for such defense. I was walking past when I thought I heard someone familiar. Or are you talking about the whole town in general? I said I was coming back. And so, here I am,” he replied simply.

“You never told me that. And if you did, I would have thought that you were lying,” Kyungsoo muttered, his eyes filled with dark anger. “Like all the other times you lied.”

“Aww. Kyungsoo, don’t be such a fuss. I must have forgotten to put in your letter. And this time I came through, didn’t I?” he replied with a laid-back shrug.

“It’s the only time I wish you didn’t,” Kyungsoo retaliated.

Lina suddenly stood up. She put a hand on Yixing’s shoulder. “We should get going. I think it’s better if I don’t stay out too long as well.” She looked at Sehun and smiled as best as she could. “Sehun, it was nice to see you after so long.”

Minseok knew she was lying. She was nervous, if anything.

Yixing had stood up with his sister’s slight tug, his eyes still focused on Sehun. His lack of words yet unwavering stare spoke all of his unmentioned thoughts.

“Sehun,” he finally let out, eyes still on him until the last moment as his sister pulled him away.

Disappointment was the strongest feeling in his mind from what Minseok had heard, but in what or whom, Minseok didn’t know.

Sehun watched them leave. “The least they could do is to greet me more happily,” he murmured to himself.

“Not everything revolves around you,” Kyungsoo bitterly muttered.

There was still one last person who was still in a state of shock. He turned to look at Kyungjin who had yet to say anything except for his name, her body still stuck in same frozen state.

Sehun looked at Kyungjin and grinned. “Well, there has to be at least one person happy to see me. Right, Kyungjin?” He reached toward her, but was met with another flinch.

“Don’t touch me!” she cried out softly in a frightened voice with wide eyes.

Seeing the confused and surprised face of Sehun, she blinked at him rapidly. “I’m sorry. I…I …need to go.” And without another word, she stumbled off her chair and ran off.

Part of Minseok wanted to run after her but another part of him wanted to stay and understand why everyone had this sort of odd attitude towards Sehun. But all in all, he weighed the importance of each in his head and came to the conclusion that Kyungjin was more important. Because truth is, he hardly knew Sehun.

As he got up to chase after Kyungjin, Sehun shouted a small, “Wait!”

Minseok turned his head to look behind him, an occupied look on his face as well as an inquiring one on why he had stopped him.

“I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Sehun,” he said with a smirk as he stretched out his hand.

Minseok stared at his hand as he replied, “Minseok.”

“It’s nice to meet you. You seem close to Kyungjin,” he observed.

Minseok, who still hadn’t shaken Sehun’s hand, did not say anything in return and merely kept staring at the hand.

Kyungsoo answered for him as he blurted out in anger, “That’s right. Kyungjin is always with Minseok. He’s a hundred times better than your sorry .”

Though Minseok knew that Kyungsoo was exaggerating greatly, the fact that he thought more highly of him over Sehun remained true.

Sehun took Kyungsoo’s words into consideration as he stared at Minseok more thoughtfully, as if he was actually paying attention to him for the first time.

After staring a little longer, Sehun smiled. “Is that right?” He shrugged in a causal manner and glanced at his phone. “Well, I got to get going anyways. Someone’s expecting me.” He walked up to Minseok and patted his shoulder as he walked past him. “I guess I’ll be seeing you around?” he stated more than questioned, walking away.

Minseok stood in the same position, pondering over what he heard.

Sehun was jealous. The words “This guy?” reverberated with his spoken “Is that right?” statement, his tone bordering on confusion and appall at the thought that Minseok had become the person closest to Kyungjin. That this person who seemed so aloof and uncaring was good friends with Kyungjin. He didn’t get it why Kyungjin would hang out with someone so polar of her.

But Minseok didn’t understand why Sehun was jealous. He had nothing to be jealous of. He obviously misunderstood their relationship.

Minseok looked up to see that Kyungsoo was gone, presumably leaving as well, fuming in anger. He shook his head and decided to go after Kyungjin like he had intended before. Though he didn’t know why, he felt he needed to see how she was faring. The shock and confusion she presented when she saw Sehun, like she wasn’t ready to be met with such a bolt from the blue, it unnerved him.

And as he ran off, the thought that so many things confused him made him a little peeved. He thought he was in control of his life. Since, of course, he had never intended to get involved with so many variables, especially with people like Kyungjin and Sehun.

A/N: Gah. I’m trying to get this out before my midterms so I can study. So it might be a while until my next update.

But look! Sehun finally made his appearance. He’s going to cause a storm in this little town.

I felt like this story had a bit too much testosterone so I added another female OC. But I doubt she’ll play in as much, probably like the other EXO characters.

Anyways, thanks for reading!