“He’s not talking to her.”

“Lol, yea I know.”

“He’s ignoring me too.”

“So I can see.”

Baekhyun grumbled to Kyungsoo as he watched his dimpled friend sit awkwardly on the sofa, keeping a constant five meters distance form a very confused Hana. Ever since Hana and Baekhyun had stepped into the house, Baekhyun felt his friend acting weird. Well, he knew why, but come on this was now getting ridiculous. Not only was Lay plain out ignoring Baekhyun, but he wasn’t talking to Hana either. It wasn’t like he’d walk away from Hana, or leave the room if Hana entered, like he’d been doing with Baekhyun; he just wouldn’t talk to her. And that irked Baekhyun to no end. Kyungsoo tried to help, but nothing helped the situation. Besides, Baekhyun felt that his friend wasn’t exactly trying his best, Kyungsoo enjoyed the situation way more than he should and Baekhyun could feel it.

Baekhyun let out an exasperated sigh and he slammed both his hands on the wooden table and got off his seat, not forgetting to narrow his eyes at the sniggering Kyungsoo.

‘Evil’

Hana felt like she could wrap the stuffiness around her, suffocate, and die. She didn’t know what she did wrong. If she was being given the cold shoulder she should at least know why. As a child, when her mom would ignore her, Hana would know it’s because of her behavior, and then she would buy dozen of her mother’s favorite ice lollies to make it up to her. Her trivial fights with Yuri also had clear, not to mention legit, reasons. Even their last meeting, she knew the reason behind her best friend’s anger, however, it was that time when not even boxes of fried marshmallows could fix the damage that was being done. But this time, Hana had no clue. She didn’t know what happened that made Lay suddenly stop talking to her. The texts in the morning were just like usual, casual and fun. So the sudden switch in moods confused her and triggered self consciousness.

‘It’s probably me. It’s my fault I just know it.’

Lay on the other hand wanted to disappear. He did not mean to ignore his friend or Hana, but it was just…..happening. He found himself being consumed by an unpleasant feeling every time he stood even two meters away from Baekhyun and somehow couldn’t meet eyes with Hana as well. And every time he looked at either of them, he could see the hug that he walked in on, and in turn he would out of the room they were currently in. Lay didn’t know how it happened, or what the reason was, or even why he was feeling this way, but all he knew was that he wished Baekhyun would have stood twenty meters away from Hana when he walked in. Scratch that, now he wished he’d stay twenty feet away. The empty space between him and Hana that Baekhyun had plopped himself on made Baekhyun sit a bit too close to Hana than he liked.

“I can’t win level 86 in Candy Crush. Care to help?”

Lay wouldn’t say no, he couldn’t say no, especially not with the puppy eyes that Baekhyun was giving him. But then he saw Hana peeking from behind his friend, trying to catch a glimpse of the candy filled screen, his most hated moment of the day came running back to him, making him turn down his expectant friend.

Baekhyun huffed. His friend was stupid, but that didn’t mean he would let Hana suffer from boredom because the dude from his right was acting like a five year old during detention. So he shifted to the left and now Hana could successfully see the colorful illustrations. Lay flinched when he heard Baekhyun say the sentence he should’ve seen coming,

“C’mon Hana, how about you play with me?”

Well, .

“Hey you know what Baek I think I’ll play. Gimme that.” Lay intervened as he snatched the phone from his friend’s hand. Baekhyun gaped, but then smirked.

‘Bingo’

“Yea ok cool. So how about you and Hana play, while I help Kai get my lazy brother out the bathroom.”

“Suho hyung’s still in there? I thought he left already.” Kyungsoo said popping out from behind the cabinet in the kitchenette.

“No he’s sti-“                     

“OPEN THE DAMN DOOR HYUNG I HAVE TO GO!” That, followed by the sound of passionate banging on the door, probably the one belonging to the bathroom, was enough to still them to silence as they all stared at the empty corridor on the other side of the room.

“Uh….no, he’s still here. I’m just gonna make sure hyung gets out before Kai knocks down the door again.”

Baekhyun scampered and disappeared into the corridor while Kyungsoo looked entertained.

“You’re really having fun watching him suffer aren’t you?” Lay accused and Kyungsoo nodded with a content sigh before smiling creepily at the masses on the sofa.

“He’s not my only current source of entertainment, just so you know.” and with that he disappeared behind the counter again, leaving them confused as ever. Lay jerked when he felt weight on his arm and he turned to see Hana looking at the phone screen in utter amazement. Her long hair fell over her shoulder and brushed past the skin exposed due to the rolled up sleeves of his light blue cardigan. She looked so cute to him as she stared with big, sparkling eyes towards the game. The first move she played destroyed a trio of purple flower shaped candies but the gasp and the adorable smile that escaped from her lips was too adorable for him to focus of the game. Suddenly he felt warm. It was hot, as summer was almost here, but this warm was different. Hana had succeeded in making a chocolate coated sprinkle candy, and when she accidentally swapped it with a green stripped square, the bolts made all the green have stripes, and the round of explosions had her giggling like a preschooler.

Hana looked up towards Lay who immediately diverted his attention to the screen that seemed so foreign to him all of a sudden. His cheeks were red, so were his ears, and Hana was beginning to fear that maybe his weird behavior may be pre-fever blues. Lay widened his eyes when he felt a hand cup his right cheek and by the time he looked at her it was on his forehead. Hana looked extremely worried, and adorable, and Lay couldn’t help but stare into the pools of chocolate brown. Her hand moved from his forehead and went through his hair. Hana patted his head with a pout before nodding in approval, she probably figured it wasn’t a fever, and returned her attention to the game while Lay sat still, redder than ever trying to process what just happened.

A crash from the kitchen brought him down to earth and when he and Hana raced towards the source of the horrible noise, they found Kyungsoo sitting on the floor…..laughing.

“I’m sorry—it’s just—you—the face— OMG I cannot—“

Kyungsoo waved them off, them being still confused and him being still on the floor, laughing on reasons unknown to them. Walking back to the couch, Lay watched Hana plop onto her seat and busy herself with the game. The look of intense concentration on her face, the amazed gasps, the excited eyes, all made him stare at him longer than necessary. What surprised him was the sudden bout of laughter that suddenly left the girl, followed by the sounds of a voice saying ‘Sugar Crush’ in an frustratingly sophisticated way. That laugh, those giggles, they were his favorite. Not to mention the dancing sparkled in her eyes. He felt like he could hear it forever. The sound of her laughter soon mixed with a sound of yelps, the source of which Lay didn’t have to wait long to figure out.

“OW OW O- SORRY SORRY SORRY!”

“Will you ever bang the door again?”

“N-NO! please let me go- OW! HYUNG PLEASE!”

Hana saw Kai being pulled by a shorter boy with silky brown hair and extremely angelic looks, followed by Baekhyun who seemed like a mixture of joy and worry. The boy let him go with a content smile and gentle pat on the head.

“Good boy.” The boy smiled at Kai who was rubbing his red ear, before looking at Hana.

Hana was looking at him with curious yet cautious eyes (which Lay found to be extremely endearing) and the new boy smiled.

“Ah, Baekhyun, you didn’t tell me you’d bring a girl along.” He said as he looked towards the said boy and slung his arm around his shoulder. “She’s really pretty. I’m proud of you brother.” He said with a proud smile that only left Baekhyun baffled. Lay suddenly felt uncomfortable and Kyungsoo only laughed louder. Jongin cracked up too and Hana assumed that something was seriously wrong with both the cousins.

“Ah, Suho hyung…..this is Hana, remember I told you about that girl me, Lay ‘n Soo were working with…..? The girl…?” Baekhyun emphasized specific words, used expressions that were supposed to convey some sort of message that only the brothers knew. Suho seemed to realize what his brother implied and smiled even wider. Hana wondered how it was possible for someone to have such white teeth.

“Oh…OH! Then you’re Hana right? I’m Suho! Pleased to meet you.”

Hana didn’t know if she should be flattered or worried about how the people who she had never met or even heard of before, knew of her existence.  She shook his hand nonetheless. Hana pieced together that Suho was Baekhyun’s older brother, and so concluded that he must be a person of a gentle personality and possible 4D behavior.

Kyungsoo by now had joined his cousin’s side and thankfully stopped laughing. Kai had stopped rubbing his ear but was still complaining about it to his cousin who was professionally ignoring him and conversing with Suho. Lay too, had joined the group and their conversation while Hana head and observed from the couch, smiling every now and then.

Sometimes during the small conversation, Baekhyun had made his way next to Lay. Lay now had his arm crossed and elbow resting on Baekhyun’s shoulder, Lay’s dimples and Baekhyun’s fangs evident as they laughed. No signs of lingering awkwardness.

“Anyways, I gotta go. Kris wanted me ‘n Xiumin to meet someone.”

“Kris? Meet who?” Lay inquired. If it was Kris, Lay would definitely who the person was.

“I don’t know really….he said he was a friend he made while attending university in China.”

Or maybe not.

“Anyways, I gotta run! See ya guys later! Study well alright. Pleasant meeting you Hana.” Suho said as he waved by. The others moved towards the couch as well, and just before Suho went out the door they heard a shout saying,

“And Baek you were right! She’s really pretty!”

Damn you, hyung….

Lay abruptly moved away from Baekhyun and immediately sat beside Hana, the only vacant seat next to her, and pretended to be engrossed in his phone. Baekhyun heaved a sigh, ‘Thanks grandpa’, while Kai and Kyungsoo silently laughed as they completed each other’s sentence and topped it with a high five.

“Such jealousy-”

“-much wow.”

~

im sorry this took so long. i have exams around the corner and im effing scared -.-

other than that there's this matter with Kris. and its got me going crazy. im finding it hard to concentrate on everything.....

anyways, i wont make promises for updating sooner because of the the exam stress.....but i will try my best.

ugh! im just so upset right now :'(