GIRL'S NIGHT

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“Kim Minseok!” Chanyeol screams as she’s dragged away from the television, Minseok’s hand wrapped around her ankle. Her PS4 controller falls from her hands and bounces atop a pillow.

Minseok’s laugh, while maniacal, is still soft and sweet-sounding -- the perfect -- as she easily and one-handedly hauls Chanyeol meters away from the television. Dropping Chanyeol’s leg, she sprints back to finish the game with her fingers flying skillfully over the buttons.

Chanyeol scrambles for her controller but as soon as she gets it into her hands she hears the damning sound of the announcer’s ‘finish her’ and she can do nothing but watch as Minseok’s Mileena rips off the head of her Sheeva and devours her face. Groaning, she flops face-first into the oceans of blankets and pillows they set up in her basement.

“Ey, Chanyeol, guess what?” Minseok teases, nudging at the taller girl’s lifeless form with her painted-pink toenails. “You’re a loser.”

Chanyeol mumbles something into a pillow.

“What I miss?” Sehun asks upon returning to the basement from the bathroom, wiping her wet hands on the front of her avengers t-shirt that she found on a clearance rank in the men’s section of Wal-Mart.

“I just whooped Chanyeol’s assss,” she says, extending the‘s’ in an excited hiss.

Sehun raises an eyebrow and looks back and forth between Minseok’s smug grin and Chanyeol’s wonderful imitation of a wooden board. “Barbarians,” she scoffs. “And I thought I was the tomboy.”

The other two girls are smart enough to not make comment.

Minseok presses a button to start another match. “Get up, Yeol. I’ll give you another chance to save your dignity.”

 

 

Jongin raps his knuckles on the door of his neighbor’s house. He rocks back on his heels, a yawn breaking free as he waits outside in his green plaid pajama pants, a white tee with a small hole under the left armpit, and his sandals.

Shuffling his right foot against the cement porch, he glances up when he hears the door peel open.

“Jongin.” Chanyeol blinks.

Jongin briefly looks her over, mostly unaffected by seeing the girl in a tank top and a pair of women’s gym shorts that showcase her never-ending legs. It’s not like this is something he hasn’t seen before. After all, he’s lived next to her for the past...forever. Their mothers never get tired of bringing up how they used to bathe together when they were infants.

He smiles. “Hey, I was--”

“Is it the pizza guy?” Sehun pops out from behind Chanyeol. Her face falls when she locks eyes with him. “Oh, hey, Jongin.” She waves halfheartedly before disappearing again.

Jongin can’t help but watch her go, face a light pink. “Sehun doesn’t have on pants,” he observes, unsure how he’s going to erase the image of Sehun in an oversized t-shirt that probably would have covered the back of her Iron Man boxer briefs if it wasn’t for her whale of an .

Chanyeol turns around with a laugh as she tells Sehun to pull her shirt down -- it’s too late, he’s already seen her!

“She’s trying to seduce the pizza guy and get the pizza for free.”

“Why-” Jongin stops himself. “Actually, I don’t want to know.” He hears Minseok yell out a ‘hi, Jongin!’ from inside the house. “I just thought I’d check up on you since our parents are doing their monthly old people bowling night. I didn’t know you had the girls over.”

“Yeah, we’re having a girl’s night. You can come in if you want,” she invites as if that doesn’t ruin the purpose of girl’s night.

“Nah, I’ll pass.” He starts to head back across the yard to his own house. “Have fun.”

“I’ll see you Monday,” Chanyeol yells after him.

He lifts his hand in a wave.

 

 

The pizza arrives fifteen minutes later and Chanyeol pays for it while Minseok restrains Sehun (read: sits on Sehun while she screams bloody murder to be let go so she can ‘work her magic’).

“, why are you so heavy?” Sehun complains as soon as Minseok gets off of her after Chanyeol shuts the door with three pizza boxes in hand. “I think you broke my .”

Minseok laughs at the youngest girl’s exaggerations. She slaps Sehun’s . “Still looks good to me.”

Sehun stares at her before darting off to the kitchen, screaming, “Yeol! I think Min’s turning into Lu Han! She and the pretty boy must be a perfect match.”

“Oh Sehun! How dare you insult me like that!”

 

 

Han sneezes, gaining the attention of his parents.

“You’re not getting sick, are you?” His mother asks from across the table.

Narrowing his eyes at his steak, he shakes his head. “Someone just called me pretty,” he growls under his breath.

“What was that, dear?”

“Probably just the pepper, ma."

 

 

Jongin regrets the facebook message as soon as he starts it.

jongin: ive seen more of sehun’s nicki minaj than i need to
yixing: what
jongin: chanyeol’s having a sleepover
luhan: ...
luhan: ur ting me
luhan: u better be ting me, kim jongin
jongin: no really doe
luhan: and ur telling us this instead of takin pics of minseok whyyy
yixing: how do you know minseok is there?
luhan: those 3 are always together. they're like a ing clan of meerkats
jongin: wtf ??
yixing: meerkats
luhan: shut up. watching animal planet
yixing: {b}meerkats{/b}
luhan: off with your html
luhan: i’m for serious jong i need pics of minseok
luhan: for science
jongin: damn dude. talk about desperate
yixing: {i}science{/i}
jongin: i don’t get anything out of this but min’s foot up my if she catches me
luhan: don’t be a punk n do it
yixing: don’t do it
luhan: i’m the oldest. i win

 

 

“Uh, how’d the thing with the pizza guy work?”

Sehun stares at Jongin blankly before throwing her head back with an obnoxious groan and directing her attitude toward Chanyeol. “There is a sitting in your basement in the middle of girl’s night. And it’s trying to talk to me.”

“Okay, Sehun, I mean, I guess we aren’t friends or anything.” Jongin rolls his eyes. He leans back on his hands.

Minseok laughs from where she’s sprawled out on the floor and Jongin glances at her. Han would be in heaven if he were here. Minseok’s hair that usually falls to below her shoulder blades is pulled up in a messy half bun, half pony type thing -- he’s a dude okay, he doesn’t know -- and she has on a pale violet nightgown that barely extends to her mid-thighs and that shifts easily with each move of her legs. He tries not to look at her, though, because Minseok is really sweet -- and really scary -- and he knows the crap she goes through which makes him feel like a complete jackass for actually contemplating doing this for Han.

"Be nice to the poor guy, Sehun. He probably feels just as awkward," she says, shooting Jongin what is supposed to be a comforting smile.

"Then why is he here?" Sehun asks pointedly.

"I realized I had to cook dinner for myself and you guys had pizza. The choice was obvious," Jongin pitches in, lying smoothly, and Sehun turns to him with a look that says she wasn't looking for his input. He shrinks back a bit in fear. This is why he has girl issues: because these are the chicks he hangs out with.

"Well then get the pizza and go."

"Sehun." Both Chanyeol and Minseok scold lightly.

"What?" Sehun heaves a sigh. "He could at least massage my feet or let us dress him up but all he's doing is sitting there and adding to the testosterone in the room. On girl's night. On the one day during the month where I fully embrace my womanhood."

Jongin snorts. "Beautiful speech."

Sehun stares at him and Jongin fidgets under the attention only to realize that Chanyeol and Minseok are staring at him as well.

"Uh, why are you looking at me like that?"

 

 

It's during a commercial break that Han gets a phone call.

"Whaddya want," he greets, tapping his fingers on the arm of the couch.

"You are dead to me," is all Jongin says before the line cuts off.

Han removes the device from his ear to look at it, bewildered. Shrugging, he drops it onto the cushion next to him, prays it won't get eaten by the couch, and devotes all of his attention to the television.

 

 

"We have to take a selfie," Chanyeol squeals, looping her arm through Jongin’s and pulling him flush against her side.

"No."

"Now you're making good decisions." Sehun grins as she gets on the other side of Chanyeol.

"No," Jongin repeats. Isn't this enough humiliation? Why do they need a picture? He blushes when Minseok positions herself on his open right side. He's not into her but that doesn't mean her body pressed up against his doesn't mess with his hormonal teenage brain.

"It'll be fun, Jongin. Don't worry.  No one else will see it," she says.

"But--"

Chanyeol holds up her phone and angles it to get them all in the frame. "Say cheese!"

"Jongin, I swear to god if you don't smile, you will regret opening your eyes the day you were born," Sehun threatens through her teeth as she grins for the picture.

"I'm taking it!" Chanyeol warns as she presses the button.

Jongin smiles. There are rilakkuma clips in his hair and make-up on his face and they fit his broad shoulders into one of Chanyeol's old nightgowns and he is completely unhappy but he smiles.

Girls are scary.

 

 

Han usually doesn't like Mondays because Mondays mean he probably didn't finish his homework but this Monday is starting out pretty damn good.

"What's this? You actually did it?" He looks from the flash drive in Jongin’s hand to his face, his eyes wide with disbelief. What he said in the Facebook message was a joke. He didn't actually think Jongin was stupid enough to go through with it. Even Han himself wouldn't dare creep on Minseok like that and he's pretty daring (read: stupid) when it comes to hot girls.

Jongin nods, a hundred years worth of exhaustion in his face.

Han tries not to take the drive too eagerly. ", dude, I guess I owe you something pretty big."

Shaking his head, Jongin hoists his bookbag up on his shoulder when it starts to slip. "Don't worry about it."

The Chinese boy makes a face. He's serious about returning favors. "What do you mean 'don't worry about it'? You took pictures of Minseok half for me. That was a suicide mission." He glances at the drive. "She was half , right? Because if she wasn't this has no use to me."

"Just…don't worry about it." Jongin waves as he turns to head to his own locker before classes start.

Shaking off Jongin's weirdness -- he's always too sleepy to function properly in the mornings -- Han tosses the flash drive on the top shelf of his locker and continues to hunt for the pencil he remembers throwing into his bookbag before he left the house.

"Han."

Perking up at the delicate voice, he peeks around the open door of his locker. "Hey, beautiful." He smirks and closes his locker to lean up against it. He can borrow a pencil from someone in homeroom.

Minseok starts to roll her eyes before she catches herself. She bites her lip, hands clutched around the strap of the hobo bag she uses to carry her books. "I have something for you."

"Huh?" His attempt to look cool dissolves into one of confusion and he straightens up.

"Close your eyes first," she instructs.

He does so immediately, mind whirring with possibilities. Is she going to kiss him? He grins at the thought before schooling his face. She can't kiss him properly if he's smiling.

His eyes snap open when a heavy pain shoots through him and his hands fly to his crotch as he sinks to his knees. He thinks can hear the dying screams of his as they perish from the intensity of her kick. There go all of his future children. "Baby, why?" He tilts his head to look at her pitifully, his voice a hoarse whisper.

She sniffs and turns up her nose. "Thank Jongin for telling me what you wanted him to do."

"It was a joke," he wheezes.

"You can keep the pictures, though, since you'll never have the real thing. I took them with your hormones in mind so you're welcome."

He watches her walk off, unable to do much else. Other students pass and stare at him on their way to their respective classrooms.The bell for homeroom to start rings as he's curled up in the hallway. He has no idea how he's supposed to explain to his homeroom teacher why he wasn't present.