Chapter Five: UNTITLED

I stand frozen right by the balcony's door and watch the guys' reactions. They began laughing and I saw Lance was holding the remote. I approach him and steal the remote from him and gave him a good ol' slap on the back of his head.

"OW!" He says rubbing his head. I press the off button.

"Hey! Why'd you turn it off?" Tao exclaims making the other members complain too.

"Do you have any idea what you were watching?!" I ask all of them in irritation. I never thought I'd be irritated at EXO but right now, I just can't... I just can't control myself.

"Yes, it was Princess and the Frog!"  Baekhyun chimes and I saw the smirk play on his lips as he continues to say: "starring Hope Ambert as the Princess". I clench my fist in frustration and slap Lance on his stomach making him squrim to the floor.

"Argh, you're despicable, Lance! Aren't yo​u embarassed?!" I ask then Lance's eyes widens as he clutches on his stomach. He brings himself up to my level and makes this signal as he slices his right hand over his neck to tell me not to spill anymore beans. I narrow my eyes at him and say: "You put me in this and I'm dragging you with me".

"Lance? Wait, Lance was in there too? Where?" DO asks and I notice Kris take the remote from me and played back the video. I facepalmed myself and rub my face with one hand as I look at the embarassing video of myself and right there in the green costume, squatting like a frog, is Lance. 

"YOU WERE THE FROG?! BWAHAHAAHAHA!" Sehun roars in laughter making the rest of the guys join him. I expect the manager hyungs to scold them but they just made things worse by joining them. I sigh and see Lance stand frozen in spot. I slap the back of his head again but this time he doesn't react as he looks at his ten year old self jumping on stage in that bright green frog costume.

I just shrug, there's no way to put an end to this right now. I settle myself beside Lay and I feel his eyes look at me. I turn my face to him and his eyes are beyond scary! It's as if he's shooting me death glares.

"What, Lay?" I ask crossing my arms and look away from him.

"Out of curiousity... are you guys... in a relationship?" He pointed his two fingers at Lance and I making the guys stop laughing as they wait for my answer. Lance and I exchanged glances and it was our turn to laugh. 

"Oh dear Lord, no way!" I say wiping a tear from my eyes due to the unstoppable laughter that I just let out. Lance, too, couldn't stop laughing. He's literally on the floor laughing his head off.

"Hope and I dating? Hahaha! There's no way! The girl's tougher than all twelve of you combined!" Lance laughs and you'd think I'd be insulted by his remarks but I feel the need to boast because I am tough! I am amazing! I--

"She never dated because she just scare the guys off!" Lance laughs again and this time, I kicked him on the with my foot.

"Jerk" I mutter.

"It's true! You never dated!" Lance says sitting up. I bite my lip and feel the guys' eyes darting at me. 

"But you didn't have to say I scare them off" I mumble and without knowing, I start to pout my lips making Lance groan. 

"No! Don't do that face on me! Now you make me feel bad!" 

"You are!" I say crossing my arms again and I hear a bunch of chuckles from behind me. 

"Are you sure you're not dating? You fight like a married couple!" Baekhyun says. 

"We're not!" Lance and I say in unison making Baekhyun raise his hands up in surrender.

"Sorry." He says and proceeds to watch the video. 

Moments later, Lay's curiousity about my friendship with Lance has been forgotten and I realize that it's already close to 3AM. I start to wonder if these guys have another schedule to go to considering how busy they are now that they're in the middle of concert tours. 

My eyelids start to feel heavy and I try to fight it but there's no way, no way I can stay up. I have work at 9AM too. I should at least give myself a couple of hours of sleep. I stand from my seat and start heading to my room. I close the door behind me and without changing my clothes, I let myself fall on the covers and sleep. 

It felt like minutes when my alarm buzzes to jolt me awake. I got up and check the time: "7:45AM". 

"Still have time" I say to myself and close my eyes again until I hear shuffling noises outside. I put the pillow over my ear but the shuffling continued. I got up and walk out of my bedroom and see Xiumin in the kitchen. 

"Xiu--err...Minseok Oppa" I call out and he jumps at my voice but as soon as he sees me he greets me good morning. 

"Sorry, did I wake you?" He says tying up the garbage.

"No" I lie. "But, don't you have a schedule today?" I ask as I watch him struggle with the bag. 

"Not until noon. It's the second day of the concert today so its just rehearsal. EXO K is already gone and some of the M members went with Joon hyung to grab breakfast for us" 

"Joon hyung, the older manager right?" 

"Yeah! You remember!" He says and finally makes a knot on the garbage bag.

"Yeah" I say and silence grew again and I see him head out to the front door with the garbage bag. 

"Oh, Oppa! Wait! Are you going to throw that?" I ask. He nods.

"Yeah, it's not like the garbage chute is downstairs"

"Yeah, but... someone might see you" I say and grab the bag from him to throw it myself. He starts protesting but I insisted. 

I start walking back to my apartment unit when the door in front of me opens to reveal my neighbour.

"Miya!" I greet her in shock and Miya looks at me with a raised eyebrow. She's dressed up to work at Starbucks and that's when it struck me. The keychain dangling on her keys with Xiumin's... my brother's face on it. 

"Good morning, Hope! Shift doesn't start yet?" She asks as she locks her door. I can't keep my eyes off from the keychain and swallow the saliva on my throat. Crap... Miya is a huge EXO fan. Don't get me wrong, Miya's nice but when it comes to EXO, to EXO Xiumin, she can be a bit... obsessive and... let's just say it gets scary when she hears someone hate on Xiumin.

"I start at 9 actually. I have to go get ready! Anyways, see you later! Have a good shift, Miya!" I say and before she could say anything else, I open the door to my apartment and slip through the small opening before she could further see my apartment filled with the EXO M members, most importantly... my brother. 

I feel my heart pound on my chest and see Minseok Oppa shaking Tao and Chen to wake up. The two boys are sleeping on the couch with Tao's feet on Chen's face and vice versa. I laugh at the image.

"Yah, wake up!" Minseok says and I jump when he slaps his hand on their thighs making both wake from their slumber. Tao's eyes looked as if it's going to bulge out of its sockets while Chen just rubbed his. 

"Why, hyung? Let me sleep! We don't need to do anything til noon" Tao groans and closes his eyes again as he ruffles his hair with his fingers.

"I'd let you do that but we're not at our dorm. You're in someone else's home, Tao" Oppa says before proceeding to clean up the living room. Tao and Chen obeyed his orders and start helping him.

"Uh, no! It's okay! Tao, Chen, go catch up on some sleep. You too, oppa" I say to them.

"But, it's not very polite of us to--" 

"Minseok Oppa, it's okay! Don't worry! Besides, Lance--wait, where is--" I start looking around and there is no where Lance can be found.

"Oh, Lance? He left this morning as soon as the K members left. Says he needs to go to work"

"Right. Oh, I have to go work too. So... I better get ready." I say.

"Oh, really? Well, if you finish early you can come visit at rehearsals later?"

"R--really?" I ask in excitement. The boys chuckle at my sudden expression which made me feel embarassed but, it would really be nice to see the behind the scenes of their concert. 

"Yeah, really. I'll tell the managers. I'll ask grandpa too once he wakes up."

"Thanks! I'll go get ready now and see you later!" I say and start heading to my room. 

It hasn't even been that long since I met EXO, since I met my brother, but it feels great. It feels great to meet them... to meet friends and get to know beyond the famous talented EXO. However at the same time it makes me worry now that I know them. I feel that... that despite all these good things... there's something bad... something bad that might happen to them. And I really wish my gut feeling is wrong.