"Not expecting company?" Chanyeol quipped as they both took in the shorter person's appearance.

Suddenly the figure in the door looked down at himself and then back up and a bright, red blush formed on his cheeks.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," he swept his arms around to cover up his bareness, "I just woke up ... I don't think I told anyone to come by this early."

"It's three in the afternoon," Kai mumbled and the shorter blushed harder and turned away.

"Umm ... why are you here?" he spoke again, but he still couldn't look at them from all his embarrassment. Kai felt bad for the boy in front of them and yet he couldn't help but find this fitting.

... After hearing bits and pieces of Baekhyun's less than glowing character profile for the other, there wasn't any shock in seeing him live up to the hype.

Not that he cared, Not that he cared -- -- why was gossip so unavoidably contagious? ....

"The apartment," Chanyeol continued, "I saw your ad downstairs in the lobby that said you were looking to rent out a room and my friend here happens to need a place to stay."

The other suddenly yelped with glee and dropped his blanket on accident on his way to give the giant a hug. He stood up on the tips of toes and wrapped his arms around Yeol while muttering a 'thank you.'

Why couldn't Kai stop finding this bizarre person so cute? Everything he did was oddly adorable and he guessed that might have been the most surprising part of all considering what he'd expected. Kai somehow (again, blame this on ing Baekhyun) expected some over-ed, city-maniac who'd treat them coldly.

Instead they were greeted by this delightful, embarrassed beauty.

The shorter pulled off of Chanyeol and backed up past the doorway before making a motion to usher them in and they followed suit quickly afterwards.

Honestly, Kai was just very ready to set up shop and after being kicked out by his dip- friend, at least now he had a place to hang his hat. It was going to take a little to call this place 'home' but he could deal with that; he didn't exactly have any alternatives at the moment.

"This is the apartment," the shorter got everyone inside and shut the door soon after, "it's a two bedroom, one bath, with a full kitchen and a living area."

Their host disappeared for a moment and then popped right back up a second later wearing a tight, white shirt and finally the trio made their way to the big plush couch that resided in the center of the room. The whole time, the shorter had continued to describe the place to the best of his ability, but Kai wasn't listening anymore.

He should have been and if this weren't all so new, he would have been, but after hearing the basic account of the apartment he went about scoping the place out with his own eyes.

It was small, smaller than Yeol and Baek's place, and there was a big television hung up on the wall in front of them. The kitchen was right behind and a glance over told him that it was standard, with a white countertop to match the white walls.

Then there were the two bedrooms to the side of them that were punctuated by the presence of another room between them, most likely the aforementioned bath. A look over this place said that it was actually rather plain and besides for the colorful rug under the couch they were sitting on, it lacked any significant decoration or furniture.

The walls had been left white, the counters had been left white, the doors had been left white. It was all very immaculate and cold. Kai would have only used one of those words to describe the shorter person who owned the place.

But something that he found most interesting was that there was a lack of pictures ... anywhere. Most people had at the minimum, three framed pictures somewhere in their apartment and usually those were in the living room.

You can tell a lot about a person through the pictures they keep because you can tell which people in their lives are most important to them. In the case of his best friend, his apartment was chucked full of pictures of his relationship with Baekhyun and pictures of himself with his two besties. It lacked pictures of Yeol and his parents or his sister and this was on purpose; after he'd moved out following high school, he'd never given them a second glance.

Those were Kai's findings on the significance of pictures within a person's home ... so he didn't know what to infer from the fact that the shorter person didn't have a single one. Not even a little framed picture of himself to sit on the coffee table in front of them.

It didn't quite fit the person they had talking to them right now; this was a place that belonged to someone who had absolutely nothing and yet the shorter didn't seem nearly the aloof loner or the broken sad-sack as his apartment would hope to imply.

So that was strange, but he already planned to fix this oddity by doing some redecorating of his own and put out the pictures he'd brought. He had quite a few with him ... everything that meant something to him was represented in the images in his possession.

"So ... ummm ...," the older had finished his speech, but with Yeol and Kai not immediately responding, their host had realized they weren't listening that closely, "what are your thoughts? Are you thinking of taking up the vacancy?"

"Absolutely," Kai said this quickly, but he was surprised to hear Chanyeol say it at the same time as him.

"I mean ... my friend is," Chanyeol tried laughing it off and the shorter did too, but Kai gave them both a funny look.

Why was Yeol interested? Wasn't he just the money man in this situation? Before, he clearly didn't care enough to meet Kai's potential roommate, so why now, why suddenly did he have this determination?

These were rhetorical questions of course because the way his friend was raking his eyes over the shorter's paper thin shirt told the younger all he needed to know about his best friend's sudden change of c