"I honestly don't know how we ended up doing this," Baekhyun complained as he began pouring salt on the boneless duck , "instead of hiring another catering service like regular people."

"Sorry to break it to you, Baek," Kyungsoo walked up to Baekhyun and smiled, which made the boy shudder, "but we're not regular people. Now shut your trap and keep adding salt." Baekhyun groaned in response to his friend's orders.

Currently, the boys were busy preparing food for the celebration since they couldn't really find another replacement for the catering service. Fortunately for them, Kyungsoo knew a lot of gourmet dishes. However, a lot of man power was required to make said dishes since they had to make enough for more than one hundred guests, and they had yet to find out if some of Kyungsoo's recipes were appropriate enough to serve the next day. Hence why everyone was rushing in the kitchen, doing a variety of activities.

"It isn't that bad," Suho replied as he cooked some of the meat on the stove. "Besides, we promised to help, remember?" He then turned to Sehun, who was helping him with this task. "Is this brown enough?"

Sehun inspected the meat. "This side needs a little bit more time, maybe a minute or two. Just don't let it burn."

"Have you cooked before, Sehun?" Tao asked as he gathered the used utensils to give them to Yixing. Sehun nodded in response.

"That's good," Tao nodded, "most of us here are not meant for cooking. Especially not Yi Fan and Luhan."

"What do you mean?" Sehun asked before turning to glimpse at Luhan. He had tasted Luhan's food before and it wasn't bad at all. It was better than his brother's, if you asked him.

Tao looked at Luhan, who had his attention solely on his cousin who was struggling with washing the dishes; once he made sure his hyung was actually distracted with said task, Tao got closer to where Sehun was at.

"Their cooking is more or less like poison," Tao whispered before looking at Yi Fan on the other side of the kitchen before turning back to Sehun, "if they ever cook anything, it doesn't matter what it is, the best choice is to avoid it like the plague unless you have a death wish."

"Wait," Sehun shook his head, "I already ate Luhan's food-"

"You poor child. Did you get a stomach ache?"

"No."

"Did you pass out?"

"No, but-"

"Then what happened?"

"Nothing happened; Luhan's food is not as terrible as you describe it. It actually tastes better than my brother's cooking... Oops." By the time he realized he may or may not have said that aloud, it was too late; everyone inside the kitchen was staring at both Tao and Sehun.

"Oh my gosh, I'm dead," Tao said more to himself.

"I'm sorry," Sehun whispered to Tao. 

"You guys were talking about my cooking, weren't you?" Luhan raised an eyebrow, looking amused rather than offended. Both Sehun and Tao were hoping that was indeed the case.

"I can't lie to you, Lu-ge," Tao slumped his shoulders, "but yes, we were."

"It's alright," Luhan smiled, "I know my cooking is crap compared to Kyungsoo's."

"No, it's not. I know this because you made a really good breakfast the other day," Sehun told Luhan with sincereity. As a result of this compliment, Luhan became a blushing mess.

"Uh, komawo, Sehun," Luhan smiled sheepishly.

"Wait," Baekhyun narrowed his eyes, "how do you know?"

"He made some gimbap with my mom," Sehun explained, resulting in the chorus of "Oh" emmiting in the kitchen.

"When did this happen?" Tao asked curiously.

"Luhan slept over at Sehun's house the day after Reinette's party," Yixing joined in the conversation. "He's been hanging out at his place lately."

"Who's been hanging out at who's place?" Chanyeol made everyone aware of his presence when he walked into the kitchen with Yi Fan.

"Apparently, our dear Luhan has been sleeping over at Sehun's place," Baekhyun told the giant.

"Oh right," Chanyeol said as he snapped his fingers, "Luhan told me that already. He even took the train with Sehun."

"When did he even tell you?" Baekhyun poked Chanyeol's arm. "He didn't eve-"

Suddenly, everyone heard a loud smack on the kitchen table; they all turned to look at the cause of the noise and ended up staring at Kai.

"Sorry," Kai cleared his throat, "I thought I had seen a bug flying around."

"Ohmygosh, where?!" Tao started panicking and ran to hide behind Yi Fan; everyone knew how much he hated bugs.

"Tao, there are no bugs," Yi Fan turned to Kai. "Stop scaring Tao." The tall blond began scolding the tan boy who just pouted before he apologized to Tao. After he dealt with Kai, he faced the others. "My dad needs Baekhyun and Luhan. Chanyeol and I will carry on with what you were doing."

"Finally!" Baekhyun exclaimed before running to the door.

"Uh, I guess I have to leave, then," Luhan faced Sehun, "we can talk later if you like."

"Sure," Sehun replied as he awkwardly waved at Luhan's retreating figure.

Sehun stood immobile for a few seconds until he saw Suho wave his hands in front of his face. "Sehun, are you alright? I was calling your name multiple times and you were just staring into space."

"Yeah," the response he gave sounded more like a question, "sorry about that."

Although he went back to do what he was doing earlier, Sehun's mind kept focusing on a certain hazel-eyed boy whose voice had an odd but pleasant effect on him. But as much as he tried to conceal his distracted state, someone had actually noticed without him realizing it. 

Something's changed, but I can't tell what it is...

One wouldn't really call Yixing an observant person; he would most likely be described as a quiet and reserved boy that sometimes had his head in the clouds. However, his quiet nature aided in this specific trait. He could spend hours observing anything and everything without anyone suspecting. This had actually helped him a lot when it came to school and, occasionally, the family business. As his father's poker-loving associate would say, being observant was the same as having an ace in the hole.

He glanced at the two boys in front of the stove as he dried a plate, focusing more on the younger boy. From what he has witnessed, Sehun seemed a bit distracted after talking to Luhan. Yixing didn't want to declare it so, but he was pretty sure his cousin was the reason for Sehun's out-of-character behavior. After all, Sehun was closer to Luhan; he's even closer to the latter than he ever was with Kai and Chanyeol, whom he befriended first. This fact was confirmed when he saw the two of them hugging outside of Sehun's apartment, and earlier that morning. But the reason why Luhan was the possible cause was still unclear to him.

"Aargh!"

When he heard Suho yell, Yixing escaped his musings, wondering what his best friend was making a big fuss about. When he saw Suho pointing at the twins' ferrets, Pan and Cake, that were standing on top the kitchen counter, his question was answered.

He almost laughed when Suho gave the ferrets the stink eye before he went into a sneezing fit. "Get those freakishly overgrown rats out of the kitchen!"

"Who let Pan and Cake into the kit-" Yixing was about to ask Yi Fan, but Kyungsoo beat him to it.

"You heard Mother," Yixing face palmed when Kyungsoo said this to Yi Fan and Chanyeol, "get out."

"You guys, this isn't the time-" Yixing began to panic when Suho's sneezing increased. However, no one really noticed either one of them.

"That's so mean, Soo," Chanyeol said indignantly.

"Excuse me? This is my house," Yi Fan glared at Kyungsoo.

"Kai, we need to get your brother some aller-" Yixing lost all hope when Suho's brother began to laugh in amusement as he sided with the owl-eyed boy.

Not having any other choice, Yixing pulled a sneezing Suho out of the kitchen and dragged him into the hallways to find the nearest bathroom in that floor. However, that was proving to be difficult as the minutes passed because Yixing could swear he went through the wrong hallway again. He started to become frustrated because they went inside who-knows-how-many doors and they still couldn't find a single bathroom. What was worst was that Suho's allergies were not disappearing any time soon.

"I'm so sorry," Yixing broke the silence as he looked down in defeat.

"Why are you apologizing?" Suho asked with a confused expression followed by a small sneeze.

"I tried to help you with your allergies by getting you out of the kitchen so we can go search for the allergy pills in the bathroom, but I made the situation worst by making both of us lost in this large house," Yixing pouted.

"Aww, Xing," Suho patted Yixing's shoulder to comfort him. "Don't be sad. I'm sure we will find the- ACHOO! Excuse me... we'll find the bathroom soon enough. When that happens, you can cure me, alright?"

Yixing nodded and held on to Suho's arm as they walked to the next door. Unfortunately, that one was locked.

"Let's try that one," Yixing suggested as they walked on to the next door on the same side of the wall. Luckily for them it was open; when they went inside, it was... not a restroom. Instead, it was the laundry room.

"Wrong room, then," Suho was about to exit the room when Yixing went further inside. He watched as his best friend peered at a specific spot on the wall.

"That's odd," Yixing said aloud.

"What's odd?" Suho asked, walking up to Yixing to see what the issue was about.

"You see that spot on that wall?" Yixing pointed at the spot on the wall, "If you look closely, it resembles the outline of a door under the white paint."

"Yixing?" Suho started to get that gut feeling when Yixing approached the wall. 

Yixing kneeled down near the wall and started poking around that wall. He stopped touching the flat surface and stayed still for a few seconds. Then, he started knocking on the wall.

"What are you doing?"

"If my thoughts are correct, this is indeed a 'wall door' because you can't feel anything hard like a wood or concrete block behind it... and the only way to open it, is if you-" Yixing used both his palms to press forward on that specific spot. Suddenly, the 'door wall' moved inside to the left, leaving a wide dark gap, "put pressure on it."

Yixing stuck his head inside an the dark gap became lit up, revealing a cushioned orange tunnel.

"What the-" Suho stared at this in amazement until he saw Yixing start going inside said tunnel. "Yixing, don't!"

"I just want to see what's inside," Yixing replied as he went further inside. "It's not like there are evil leprechauns in there."

"But still- Ah, never mind! I can't leave you by yourself."

Both boys crawled within the tunnel until Yixing stopped in front of  another 'door.' 

"Here goes to nothing," Yixing muttered to himself as he pressed the 'door' open. However, he didn't expect to put too much pressure for when the gap was insight, Yixing fell forward inside the gap and started screaming for Suho.

"Yixing!" Suho yelled and followed him. There was no way he was letting that boy disappear into another unknown place without him!

Both Yixing and Suho were expecting to fall into a dark pit; instead, they were falling in some slippery slope... that resembled a playground slide. Two minutes (and a few curves) later, Yixing fell on top of a really soft mattress. He felt relief until Suho's body crashed on top of his.

"Ouch!" Suho's chin collided with Yixing's shoulder.

"Gah!" Yixing howled in pain when one of Suho's knees was pressing on his upper thigh.

"I'm so sorry!" Suho scrambled off him on to the other side of the mattress.

"That's okay," Yixing turned around to face upwards, "my bones aren't broken."

Just when Suho was about to complain about the darkness, the lights went on, making both boys gawk at the large room around them. Unlike most of the house's black-and-white color scheme, the walls were peacock blue and the book shelves were made of glossy maple wood. There was a large computer screen that resembled a surveillance system that most companies used on the left side of the room. In the center, a large flat-screen TV was set up with multiple game systems and accessories under it. On the right side, there were three white boards filled with a bunch of papers and photos; behind these were-

"Guns?" Both guys stared in shock at the weapons that were hung up on the wall along with some weird gadgets one would see in a spy movie.

Yixing was the first to recover and got off the fluffy mattress to snoop around. Suho's eyes widened when he saw Yixing approach the surveillance system.

"Yixing, no," Suho followed after the boy, trying to pull him back to no avail. "Let's just go. We don't even know who this secret room belongs to. It could be Xiao Dan's or-"

"The twins," Yixing interrupted Suho. "This lair belongs to the twins."

"H-How do you know?" 

Yixing points at the small white sticker on the computer screen. "It says 'Property of Wu Hui Lei and Wu Jiao-long'. The rest must belong to them, too. That, and Xiao Dan is the gun-shy type of guy when he's not being an arsonist.'"

"Even more reason to get out of this place," Suho pulled Yixing's arm once more. "Come on, Xing."

Yixing allowed himself to be pulled until something on one of the white boards caught his attention. "Ooh, Suho! Come look at this!" He dragged Suho by the arm to the boards.

Suho was so tempted to carry Yixing bridal-style just so he can bring his too-curious-for-his-own-good best friend to the slide, but the moment he saw the pictures on the white board titled 'The Amazing Shenanigans of All Times,' he decided he could wait a bit more. 

"Here's our half- Call of Duty game," Yixing pointed at the picture of all seven of them when they were younger and scrawnier. His eyes roamed around the many different images before him when his cheeks burned bright when he saw the Polaroid titled 'Hui Lei's Maid Cafe.' He shuddered when he remembered being forced into a skimpy maid outfit just like the rest of his friends.

"I seriously hated that day," Suho told him, "I don't enjoy others dressing me up like a girl."

"At least you were amongst the ones who actually looked good in girl clothes," Yixing commented absentmindedly, "I don't look good in drag."

"You're being too tough on yourself... You always look good, regardless of what you're wearing."

"Wait, what?"

"What?"

"I wasn't  really paying attention. Can you repeat what you said?"

"Um, uh, never mind," Suho stuttered, kind of relieved for a distracted Yixing. "I'll tell you later."

"Oh, alright," Yixing pouted until he saw the picture that was taken about a month ago. "We were running away from the gwishin in this one."

Suho inspected it for a bit. "I'm actually surprised she has not haunted us for trespassing."

"Yeah," Yixing looked through some written notes that were hung up next to the image. "Huh, it says here that the twins used holograms and anaesthetic along with a week or two of visiting the abandoned building. That sounds really cool... if we ignore the fact that those two brought into a real haunted place. Although, I do wonder with whom they used the anaesthetic with and how they obtained it in the first place."

"I don't," Suho snorted before moving on to the next board. But he regretted his decision as soon as he saw different pictures of the boys (he was pretty sure he did not invite the twins to his many outings with Yixing!) and a bunch of red arrows and  hearts drawn around them (why did his picture have a red arrow with a heart on top of it towards (a really good) image of Yixing, and  the latter's an arrow with a question mark?! Are these devil twins implying a one-sided relationship between them?!) under the title 'The Ships.' Before he got even more irritated at the twins, he moved on to the last board titled 'The Flops of Vereisung, S.A.' His eyes widened when he saw the many pictures of older men crossed out with a big red 'X.' Next to those pictures were comments such as "Target: Eliminated," written on what seemed to be employee files of a business firm called Vereisung, S.A..

"Yixing," Suho was starting to panic. He wanted to leave the room fast! He didn't want to find out that board was some sort of hit list of sorts. 

"What's up?" Yixing asked calmly, completely unaware of what Suho just witnessed until he looked at the last board.

"Can we lea-"

"They have a picture of their aunt and... why do they have this image?" Yixing interrupted with wide eyes.

"What?" Suho looked at where his partner was staring at.

In all his reverie, Suho never did notice the various pictures of Lam Da Xia, the only relative in Yi Fei's side of the family whom he had (sort of) the (dis)pleasure of speaking with. The woman was youthful and beautiful just like her younger sister; but unlike Yi Fei, the woman could be described as bitter and strict. From what was written under her picture was the title of "Main Assistant of CEO." But that was irrelevant now, for that was not what Yixing and him were so concerned about.

No, what they were focused on was a picture of an androgynous boy no older than ten with reddish brown hair and bright hazel eyes, smiling brightly at the camera as he held onto someone's hand. Both Yixing and Suho managed to recognize the boy from the photo as a younger Luhan.

Suho and Yixing were very aware that Luhan was the heir of the Orion Group and nothing more. So, why was Luhan's picture placed on the CEO position of Vereisung?

"The other side of the picture is covered by this papers," Yixing said as he tried to remove the papers that were blocking their view in order to see who was the person Luhan was holding on to.

Just before he could do so, Yixing felt something stiff and metal on the back of his neck. "Remove your hands from those papers," he clearly heard Hui Lei's voice behind him. He did as he was told and stayed still until Hui Lei instructed him to turn around. Once Yixing did that, Hui Lei pressed the paintball gun on his throat. Yixing looked at Suho's direction and saw that his best friend was in the same predicament with Jiao-long holding him at gunpoint.

"We will let you leave unharmed if you promise to stay silent about this," Hui Lei told them with a very serious face. "Not a single word to be spoken about this room or what was inside of it, alright?"

"But why do yo-?"

"Not a single word will be said," Hui Lei repeated sternly before retreating the paintball gun away. She walked up to the weapons wall and grabbed what appeared like a can of hairspray and two gas masks. "We will make sure of that."

"What are you-?!" the twins dropped their guns and placed the gas masks on.

Suho watched in horror as Hui Lei started spraying what was in the 'hairspray' can; they watched as Yixing collapsed to the ground. Suho tried to grasp on to whatever consciousness was left but Jiao-long grabbed the can and sprayed, what he recalled, was anaesthetic. A few seconds later, Suho lost the battle and joined Yixing on the floor.

After Luhan had left to go practice, everyone who wasn't part of the performance was working dutifully on the chosen food recipes that would be served the next day. Fortunately for everyone, they were instructed to do the cooking basics like chopping vegetables and what not, since they would heat the meats and everything else the next day. Once Xiao Dan announced that they could take a break from kitchen duties, Kyungsoo, with the help of Sehun and Kai, began making food for everyone. During this time, Kyungsoo revealed his secret to make spaghetti to Sehun as they cooked. Later on, when the dish was ready to be served, Sehun had gathered plates for the food.

At first, he was going to call everyone over, but for some reason, he made up his mind to serve Luhan first and then call the guys over. He reasoned that Luhan had worked hard throughout the day, after being assigned to be one of the singers and helping out (willingly) at the kitchen must have not been an easy task altogether.

"Luhan," Sehun called his friend over to where he was at. 

"Coming," Luhan replied as he walked towards Sehun. "What's up?"

"Here," Sehun handed Luhan a plate of spaghetti, "this is for you."

Luhan's eyes lit up when he saw the food. "Aw, thank you," Luhan placed the plate on the table nearby and hugged Sehun. "I was starving!"

Sehun tried to ignore the blush that was threatening to appear so he placed his head near the crook of Luhan's neck in order to prevent anyone from seeing this.

The two stayed like that until they heard someone clear their throat. When they broke apart, they saw Kai standing near them.

"Lulu, you should start eating. If not, your food will get cold," Kai told Luhan; he then caught a glimpse of his plate. "Your plate doesn't have enough spaghetti. Here, let me serve you some more."

"Um, thanks, but I think I-"

"Oh, don't worry, Kai," Sehun didn't know what got into him, but he had already grabbed the plate before Kai did. "I'm already serving him."

"That's nice," Kai gritted his teeth as he tried to sound pleasant. He then went to fetch for a fork from the drawers and rushed back to Luhan's side. "Here, this is for you."

"Thanks Kai," Luhan grinned at the younger boy. This didn't sit well with Sehun because his instincts told him he should be the one to do this for Luhan, not Kai, who seemed to think the same way he was.

"Luhan," Sehun grabbed a chair nearby. "You should sit down. Here, let me help you." He grabbed the plate and passed (read: shoved) the plate to Kai, then proceeded to grab Luhan's hands to lead him to the chair. Sehun even pushed Luhan gently to have the latter sit down.

"Thank you," Luhan smiled, although he was becoming confused at his dongsaengs' sudden  attention towards him. He wasn't going to lie; it felt pretty nice to be 'taken care of,' but it was all so random for him to have both boys pay this much attention to him at the same time.

"Here," Kai stepped in front of Luhan and gave him his plate, "bon appetite."

"Hold on," Sehun grabbed the plate from Luhan and held the spaghetti-filled fork near Luhan's mouth, "open wide." Luhan did as he was told and allowed Sehun to feed him, much to Sehun's joy and Kai's chagrin.

"Oh dear, you have a sauce here," Kai interrupted Sehun's ministrations when he pointed near Luhan's lips were there was indeed a bit of spaghetti sauce. He used a napkin to clean the stain, using this as an excuse to get closer to Luhan's face in order to make sure he cleaned the boy's face properly.

He smirked when he saw Sehun's fist clench at this display. Sehun may be younger (and newer) than him, so he understood why he would be seeking Luhan's attention. After all, Luhan took Sehun under his wing;  he wasn't blind to not notice that Sehun seemed to be closer to Luhan than anyone else in their group. But even then, his dongsaeng should know better than to beat him at his own game. Luhan was his best friend since the very beginning of their group.

"Stop it," Sehun said, "you're gonna make his skin red if you keep rubbing it like that." Sehun grabbed Luhan's chin, and gently forced the boy to look at him. He was going to keep feeding Luhan, but he became immobile.

Instead, he became entranced with Luhan's  hazel eyes.

Were his eyes always this... beautiful?

He usually didn't think much about people's eyes because one could loose sight of them so easily when they focus on something else. But now that he had the hazel gems in front of him, he could admire them more closely. A lot of people, from what Sehun thought, preferred lighter eye colors such a blue or green. But Luhan's eyes were neither too dark nor too light, and he couldn't deny that he liked them like that. He was rather glad Luhan didn't wear colored contacts, because he wouldn't be able to see the real beauty in them.

He was too deep in his thoughts that he didn't notice that Luhan was also trapped, since he too, was staring back at his eyes.

Luhan looked at the two brown orbs that were staring at him so intensely. Why was Sehun staring at him like that? Luhan was starting to get flustered under his friend's stare, he was pretty sure Sehun could see the small blush on his cheeks as they kept their gaze directed towards each other. He was slightly bothered, but not in a bad way; but he just wanted to know why Sehun's gaze was making him act like a vulnerable school girl.

His eyes are so dark, Luhan thought, but there's this lively intensity in them. As if there was a fire within them.

"What are you doing?" Yi Fan's questioning voice broke everyone out of their reverie.

"Um-"

"Er-"

"Don't give us that look," Kai spoke, breaking the silence, "we were only taking care of Luhan. Weren't we, Sehun?" Kai directed a strained grin at the younger.

"Yeah," Sehun stuttered. He was thrown off guard by Kai's change in mood, but he agreed nonetheless.

"That's nice," Yi Fan sarcastically, "since you two are acting so kindly towards Lu-ge today, you wouldn't mind stepping aside for this hyung so he can start feeding the others, would you?"

Slightly frightened by the tall blonde's aura, the two younger boys stepped aside and allowed Yi Fan to grab the spaghetti. Everyone (including Luhan) let out a sigh of relief when they saw Yi Fan retreat the room. However, they were startled once more when they heard Yi Fan's voice boom from the corridor.

"Oi, Luhan, Kai! My sister wants to tell you something. It's about Yixing and Suho."

"Alright, we're coming," Luhan replied back as he got off the chair. He walked up to Sehun and squeezed Sehun's left cheek softly.

"Thanks for the meal, Sehun," Luhan told the boy before exiting the kitchen with Kai following behind.

Finally alone, Sehun sat on the chair Luhan had just occupied. He ran his hands through his hair as he tried sorting through his thoughts. Had Kai and him fought- no, that's not right, they had challenged each other for Luhan's attention. Sehun wasn't sure, but there was one thing that kept crossing through his mind:

What the heck just happened?

To Be Continued

Author's Note: Yeah, there's going to be a third part to Monkshood...

Sorry about not updating as fast as I wanted, but hey, I have officially graduated high school and moving onto college!

I'm probably not going to do more covers for each chapters due to time limits for both my cousin/editor, and substitute them with a picture of the assigned flower and a character pic at the end like I did right now.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, even though it's the shortest (in my opinion) so far. Thank you for all the support I've received for this story. Don't forget to subscribe/comment/upvote!

Until next time,

~Ulyana ^J^