"Have you ever thought about what he does on a date?"

Baekhyun looks up from his tablet at Kyunghee, who wears a bored facial expression as she scans through the endless number of television channels, looking for something bearable to watch.

"Like, does he collapse because the girl's too attractive for him to handle?" she continues. "Or does he use something to keep his balance?"

Baekhyun shrugs, taking a sip of the water sitting in a bottle that once sat next to him.

"You know what?" Kyunghee suddenly stands up, switching off the television. "I'm gonna find out."

"Are you sure that's such a great thing to do?" Jongin asks, surprising the non-idols with the fact that he still hasn't left the apartment, and with the fact that he is probably going through his fourth bowl of cereal that day. "I mean, you could be spending your day doing something actually worth your time."

Kyunghee ignores the tan-skinned idol and proceeds to head to the door, running her hands through her short hair as she slips her feet into her 'fancy' shoes (she claimed they were fancy because they had the word 'fancy' written on them in Old English font, and nobody was willing to argue with her). "Am I the only one going along to laugh at his misfortune?"

"I'm in," Baekhyun says, putting down his tablet and heading over to join his new-found friend at the doorway. "And I like you. You're more insulting towards Jongdae in a day than I have been in my entire life."

Kyunghee pumps her fist into the air as if it's one of the greatest achievements of her entire life. "Are you in, Jongin-ssi?"

"Well, I do have a practice scheduled with the other guys in a bit," Jongin states. "But who cares? I need a good ol' laugh to help digest all this cereal."

"Why is he going to the hospital?"

The three had managed to spot Jongdae despite him leaving more than fifteen minutes earlier, Kyunghee holding back the urge to yell at his misfortune of having to walk because no taxi would stop for his presence. So, following a good amount of metres behind him, they have been led to Seoul National University Hospital around half an hour later, watching in confusion as he walked through the visitor doors.

"Jooyoung didn't get into an accident, did she?"

"Doubt it. That woman's ing graceful in whatever she does."

A few minutes later see them holding back their laughter as they watch Jongdae push the same doors open with a pair of crutches, running for his life out of the large property whilst two largely-built security guards chase after him.

"You've got to be kidding me," Baekhyun says after he manages to calm his threatening laughter. "You've got to be ing kidding me."

Jongin now stands doubled over whilst leaning on the wall they were hiding behind for support, unable to control his laughter. "Who...the...hell...steals...crutches...for...a...date?"

"Kim Jongdae, obviously," Kyunghee answers, calming herself before regaining the ground the trio lost when Jongdae managed to run away from the two security guards (he had even pulled the middle finger at them using both crutches once he was out of legal reach of the two).

"I'm sorry I'm late," Jongdae says to Jooyoung after getting past the maître d' that thought he was psychotic and heading over to the table Jooyoung had been waiting at for almost an entire hour. She smiles, assuring him that it was no trouble, before noticing his 'legit' crutches.

"What did you do, Jongdae-ah?" she asks, helping him to sit down in the seat opposite her own. "And you're sweating, too." She grabs some serviettes from her end of the table and places them on his. "You didn't have to walk all this way like this, did you?"

Jongdae places his crutches down on the ground next to him, a waiter almost tripping over them in the process, giving him a scowl before continuing on his normal work day. The one in 'pain' doesn't seem to notice this, and proceeds to tell Jooyoung the story behind his incredible journey to the restaurant they were at for lunch.

"I tripped up a set of stairs on my way here and had to go and get it checked out," he explains, grabbing one of the drink menus and fanning himself with it. "It's so hot outside, isn't it?"

"He's speaking total bull." Kyunghee watches from behind a menu recently given to her by a handsome waiter she suspects is called Youngjae. "And she's believing it."

"The steak special looks really good," Jongin comments, him and Baekhyun having given up on spying on the glorious Kim Jongdae for a moment to admire the menus.

Baekhyun points to another item on the menu. "But what about that jjajangmyeon special?"

"You're at a semi-fancy restaurant with an idol that's actually willing to pay for your food," Jongin says. "And you're almost drooling over jjajangmyeon. Get a hold of yourself, Byun Baekhyun. Look at something more expensive."

"That's a first," Baekhyun replies before looking over at Kyunghee, who is concentrating on the other couple at the other end of the restaurant. He turns around and sees Jongdae and Jooyoung talking freely, and then looks back to Kyunghee, who has finally turned her attention to the menu at hand. "Has anything weird happened, Kyunghee-ssi?"

"Two waiters have already scowled at him after almost tripping up on those 'borrowed' crutches," she mentions. "He's fanned himself with a drink menu and told a bull story about tripping up stairs."

"He probably did do that," Baekhyun adds. "He's like that."

"And now he's wiping himself down with serviettes. He's so classy, isn't he?"

"The classiest."

Jongdae aims the sweat-covered serviette for the nearest table once Jooyoung turns her attention to her own menu, and throws it, turning his attention to the menu standing on his own table in order to avoid the dissatisfied looks of the new owners of the used serviette. "What looks tasty here?"

"The jjajangmyeon special looks interesting," Jooyoung replies. Jongdae stops in his tracks at her answer and looks up from his own menu at her.

"You're at a semi-fancy restaurant with a guy equipped with a credit card," he says. "And you're almost drooling over jjajangmyeon. Get a hold of yourself, Shin Jooyoung. Look at something more expensive."

Jooyoung laughs and agrees to, scanning her eyes over the rest of the glossy menu.

"Are you ing kidding me?" Kyunghee yells in a whisper. "He just told her to get a hold of herself because she liked the jjajangmyeon special."

The two males in front of her suddenly perk up their ears at her words that sounded awfully familiar to the conversation that they had only a few moments earlier.

Jongin is the first male to speak up. "See? Even Jongdae knows that you shouldn't even consider the jjajangmyeon at a semi-fancy restaurant."

"But it's appealing," Baekhyun whines. "And it's tasty."

"And," Jongin imitates his new-found friend. "You're at a semi-fancy restaurant. Save the jjajangmyeon for another round of noraebang."

Suddenly Jongin feels his phone vibrate in his pocket, his loud ringtone playing Apink's 'Mr. Chu' to catch his attention. It also catches the attention of various other males at the restaurant, who begin to sing and dance to the popular girl group song. Jongin quietly informs them that he must take the call, and halts the background music to answer.

"Hey Jong-" Kyungsoo says on the other line, but halts when he begins hearing a male chorus rendition of 'Mr. Chu' on Jongin's line. "You're not at noraebang again, are you?"

"No," Jongin replies, knowing that his close friend is rolling his eyes. "But I'm kinda busy at the mom-"

"Two number nine steak specials and the jjajangmyeon special," the waiter named Youngjae says, writing down their order on the pad paper in his hand. "Would you like anything to drink?"

Jongin notices Kyunghee's resistance, more-than-likely towards blurting out the words, "you".

"Just some water would be good," Baekhyun responds, Youngjae nodding before taking their menus and walking away from their table.

"Who ordered the jjajangmyeon?" Jongin questions, and sees Baekhyun instantly look away from him and Kyunghee.

"Jongin? Kim Jongin? Are you still there? Kim Jongin?"

"Oh, . Sorry, hyung." Jongin turns his attention back to his phone call.

"All good. But I don't care how busy you are at the moment with your jjajangmyeon specials," Kyungsoo replies. "We're urgently in need of another opinion here. And if you don't come within the next fifteen minutes, I'll personally throw a packet of chicken crisps in your face quicker than you can say, 'Yehet'."

"You're not throwing my chicken crisps at him!"

"And that's my catchphrase! Don't steal my catchphrase! And don't steal my chicken crisps, Kris-hyung!"

"They're mine! All mine!"

Jongin hears the beeping associated with a disconnection before he can reply. Not risking the large possibility of his beautiful face being altered by Kyungsoo's impeccable strength when throwing items of food at others, he decides it's best to actually fulfill his labelmate's request.

"Kyunghee-ssi, you can eat my steak," he informs the only female at the table. "I've got somewhere to go."

And with that he slaps a series of 100,000 won notes onto the table (he's surprised to have in his pockets at this moment in time) and leaves the restaurant, hoping to get to the entertainment label's headquarters in time.

By the time Jongin reaches the practice room, he finds himself drenched in his own sweat, and is greeted with a large packet of chicken crisps slapping him in the face.

"Twenty-three minutes," Kyungsoo comments from the centre of the large room, sitting on Joonmyun's legs, preventing him from tackling the other two members of Exo to the ground (and also causing an explosion of about seven packets of crisps from occurring). "Twenty-three minutes, Kim Jongin. Not good enough."

"Screw you," Jongin replies, contemplating whether or not to walk over to the others and enter a war zone, or stay by the door out of harm's way. "I was just about to have a nice steak as well. What do you want?"

Kyungsoo lays his small pile of once-nicely-stacked folders out on the floor in front of Joonmyun and him, and Jongin's mind instantly clicks at the situation. "You decided on your top three, I see?"

"He decided on them ages ago," Joonmyun says, groaning at Kyungsoo's weight on his legs that have now been numb for a longer time than he wants to admit. "And each of us decided on who we like the most."

"And they were so helpful when they each chose a different person," the teen soloist adds. "That's why I want you to look at them. You were there when we did this. You would know them better than they do." He points to Sehun who shoves himself into the cleaning closet, shutting the mirror-covered door just as Kris gets there, making him knock into the mirror and land on the ground, rubbing his head in agony.

"God damn you, Oh Sehun!" the tall Chinese-Canadian man hisses through gritted teeth. "Give me my chicken crisps back!"

They turn their attention back to Kyungsoo's task at hand, and Jongin finally decides to head over and sit next to the only other calm people left in the room ('and probably the company, too,' Jongin thinks), looking over the names on the folders on the ground.

The first one he picks up graces the words '#16: Cha Hakyeon' on it, and Jongin's mind immediately casts back to the interview with the young man, him remembering how glad he felt finally seeing an interviewee that matched his own tanned skin colour. He reads through the few pages of paper included inside, and sees the applicant with his red hair and tan skin, once again making Jongin feel at ease.

He has a personal liking towards Hakyeon not only because of his physical appearance, but because of the fact that he knew how to talk. And Kyungsoo needs someone to talk for him, otherwise he would probably end up offending more people on flights than one of his previous assistants, a male that went by the single-worded name 'Ken', did accidentally in the past. However, Jongin knew that people that talk like Hakyeon can easily bring trouble, such as easily getting his employer into more trouble than he definitely asked for, and he contemplates over the decision as he puts the folder down and picks up the next one.

Now Jongin isn't too certain as to why Kyungsoo chose the next one for his top three - a Hong Kong-born male named Jackson Wang that was around their age and Jongin is pretty certain is only in South Korea for some fencing competition he mentioned during his interview. Jongin felt a bit intimidated by Jackson because although he had the talking skills of Hakyeon, he was a bit too into talking for his tastes. 'But Kyungsoo's peculiar,' Jongin thinks, and decides that's the main reason why the foreigner is placed in the pile in the first place.

The third and final folder instantly takes him back to the situation at the semi-fancy restaurant he has only left what felt like an eternity ago (in reality, it has been about fourty minutes, but Jongin doesn't care in the moment) and his stomach grumbles as if it knows what he is thinking of.

"Is there any food around here that isn't chicken crisps?" Jongin asks Kyungsoo and Joonmyun, who have decided to carry out an intense thumb war without him ever noticing. "Guys? I'm asking a question here."

"Yes!" Joonmyun cheers as he captures Kyungsoo's thumb, pushing the losing participant off of his legs and rolling around to celebrate his freedom. "I'm free!"

Jongin, now attempting to replace the feeling of an empty stomach (or, more likely, the multiple bowls of cereal he had digested that morning), re-focuses on the folder in his hands, but stops before fully opening it, because even though it's only been just over a day since he first met him, Jongin also has a personal liking for Byun Baekhyun. Not only because his apartment is cozy or because he is a good singer (and Jongin envies that trait about him), but because he seems like a breath of fresh air to him, especially since Jongin has become accustomed to the lunatics currently surrounding him over the past five years and hasn't truly interacted with anybody else since. He may not be the greatest speaker they've encountered (he is up there, though), but Jongin doesn't care, and he's certain Kyungsoo doesn't either.

Also, he likes Kyunghee. And possibly Jongdae, too, if he could calm down on the weirdness and calm up on attempting to be a normal person ('But he probably wouldn't be as fun to watch if he did that,' Jongin suddenly reminds himself).

"I've chosen one," Jongin announces, standing up and merely missing a groggily-walking Kris Wu in the process. "I hope somebody notices me this time!" he exaggerates, but doesn't seem to capture anybody's attention (with Sehun still hiding behind the mirrors, Kris suddenly beginning an impromptu rant on why he avoided chicken-related things in the first place whilst attempting to not fall over, Joonmyun leg-spazzing whilst lying on his back, and Kyungsoo just sitting there, actually listening to Kris' rant).

Giving up on using his voice, Jongin picks up the folder of his choice and dumps it in front of Kyungsoo's face, still not capturing his attention. He picks it up and dumps it in the same spot, using one of his feet to create a louder sound effect, but still to no avail.

He does this three more times, and still gets zero response from the person that is meant to be his closest friend. Finally he does it again; picks up the folder, dumps it onto the ground, stomps both of his feet, and for extra effect, kicks Kyungsoo in the back.

"Ow!" the latter moans, rubbing his back. "What was that for?"

"Look in front of you." Jongin points to the folder of his choice, and as if the gods of pitiful martial arts have answered his silent prayers, Kyungsoo notices.

"Thank you! Thank you for finally noticing! God dammit thank you for noticing!" he yells, and Kyungsoo shoots him a questioning look. He begins to make his way to the door, but Kyungsoo calls out to him.

"Can you call him? You know I don't have the greatest telephone skills."

Jongin groans, but obliges anyway, only after his older friend agrees to take him to the semi-fancy restaurant afterwards.

A/N: This chapter was originally meant to include the next hinted scene, but it was getting a lot longer than I expected. But holy crap, almost eighty subscribers and over ten upvotes?

Holy cow, I did not expect that for this story. Thank you a lot, and also to all the comments this story is getting as well.