Author’s Note: So, for those of you may not know, Fantasy Football is a game where a group of friends create imaginary teams of American professional football players that they then pit against one another. 

Each player on your team earns you points for what they do well in the real games that they play in, and the person with more points at the end of a week’s worth of games wins the matchup.  The next week, the process repeats with you competing against a different player in your group until the regular season is over. 

After that, these groups generally will either reward the person with the most wins or punish those with more losses.

-----------

Once lunch was over, they began to head back to their dorms.  Luhan needed to work on an assignment, and Minseok apparently had a group project meeting in the afternoon. 

“Why didn’t you meet during the week?” Luhan asked as they made their way along the curving sidewalk, a couple steps ahead of Suho and Lay.

“One chick works nights, another has classes all morning, and the third guy works afternoons so basically that left today or tomorrow as the only options.”

“And tomorrow was out because of the game.”

Minseok nodded.  “Yup, a lot of people already had plans for tomorrow evening.  Even me, since I’m coming to visit you.”

Luhan nodded at that, while mentally re-adding another tally against Lay.  He had almost forgotten that he had invited Minseok to their super bowl party, bringing their total number of guests to 10.  Luhan wasn’t even sure where they were going to put everyone. 

It was as he began to seriously consider the logistics of fitting 12 people into their kitchen and living room area that Minseok asked another question, breaking his train of thought.  “Do I need to bring anything by the way?  Lay just kind of said to come…”

Luhan laughed.  Yeah, because that’s all he cared about.  “You don’t need to bring anything if you don’t want to.  We should have enough.”

“But I don’t want to be a complete free loader.”  Minseok said, frown in place.

Luhan shook his head, amused.  “No one would think that, but if you really want to bring something, grab some beer and grapefruit soda.”

Minseok laughed.  “Okay, beer I understand, but grapefruit soda?”

“One of Suho’s friends doesn’t drink, and that’s my favorite soda.”  Luhan offered with a shrug.

“Why does the non-drinker get your favorite?”  Minseok asked, clearly amused by Luhan’s logic.

“Because, whatever’s leftover from this kind of thing always gets left at my place.  I might as well like what’s left behind, and I did check, Suho said that’d be fine.”

Minseok nodded, accepting Luhan’s explanation.  “Makes sense.  Any beer preference?”

Luhan shrugged.  “Bring whatever you like.  I’m not really worried about that being leftover between the 12, well I guess 11, of us.”

“12 people are going to be there?”  Minseok asked, surprised.

Luhan shrugged.  “Yeah, I’m still trying to figure out how it ended up like that too, but between Lay, Suho and myself, well, we got there.”

Minseok shook his head.  “Where is everyone even going to sit?”

Luhan shrugged as they reached the point in the sidewalk where it split to lead to their separate dorm buildings.  “Who knows?  We’ll figure something out.”

“I sure hope so.  Otherwise it’s going to be one long football game.”

“It’ll be fine.”  Luhan reassured, “now get moving, didn’t you say your meeting was at one?” 

“Yeah,” Minseok said with a glance at his watch.  “I’d better get a move on.”  He turned to go as Luhan waved him off with a smile, but he had barely made it two steps before he paused to turn back, and Luhan found himself frozen in place, smile he was about to drop pasted on.

“And thanks again, for today.  I really wouldn’t have dragged you out there if I had known.”  Minseok looked genuinely apologetic again, and Luhan resisted the urge to sigh, instead opting to lighten the mood.

“Yeah you would have, and it would have been good for me.”  Luhan said, shifting his frozen smile to one that he hoped was reassuring. 

Minseok shook his head with a little smile of his own.  “Okay, maybe that’s true, but I would have at least been a little more… accommodating about it.”

Luhan just shook his head.  “It’s fine.  Get going or you’ll be late.”  Luhan shooed him away with his hands, and Minseok laughed.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.  See you tomorrow?”

Luhan nodded.  “Of course.”

Luhan watched Minseok vanish behind the doors of his building before a voice echoed in his ear.

“So, why aren’t you dating again?” Lay asked, as he and Suho drew to a stop behind Luhan. 

They had been walking at much slower pace behind the pair, and the question was asked once Minseok was inside his own building, so he had no way of hearing it, but that didn’t make Luhan’s reaction any calmer.

“What part of he’s not interested don’t you understand?”  He asked, spinning to face Lay, annoyed.

Lay shrugged.  “The part where the first person the guy thinks to call to sub in for an injured soccer teammate is the guy he’s known for a week.”

Luhan shook his head.  “It was early in the morning, and he was desperate.  My number was probably just the first in his text log—“Luhan stopped talking as he realized that revealing they texted, a lot, probably wasn’t going to help his defense.

“Oh, so you’ve exchanged phone numbers.”  Lay said with a smile. 

Luhan sighed in annoyance as he turned to make his way into their own building.  “Of course we did.  We’re friends.  I have your number.  I have Tao’s number.  Heck, I have Suho’s number.  Doesn’t mean I’m dating any of you.”

“But you don’t text me that much.”  Suho cut in, and Luhan found himself turning to face him as they swiped their cards to get through the doors in the lobby.

“No, you cannot join the dark side.”

“The dark side?”  Suho asked, amused.

“I believe, he is referring to me.”  Lay said with a flourish of his hand upon his chest, causing Suho to laugh before he grabbed Lay’s waist in a side hug.

“Too late.”  He said, looking a Luhan.

Luhan resisted the urge to stick out his tongue.  He figured it wouldn’t help much, and besides, the last thing he needed was for either Lay or Suho to feel the need to pay him back for it later. 

---

Preparation for their little (okay not so little, but it was supposed to be little) party began the next day around 2:00 in the afternoon when Suho showed up with two of his friends and a 42” television in tow.

The television belonged to Baekhyun, the shorter of the two Suho led into the room, and he had insisted it be used. Luhan had really seen no reason to argue with that.  His and Lay’s little 19” monitor would hardly offer the same viewing experience, and with 12 people, the more screen real estate they had, the better. 

Still, as Baekhyun and Chanyeol, the tall one in Luhan’s mind, carried the television through his front door, Luhan wondered again if this was really going to work. 

The television was carefully set on the stand that usually housed their 19” screen, which had been relocated to Luhan’s room until further notice.  It looked massive, and as Chanyeol set about getting it strung up to the campus cable as Baekhyun stood behind and offered unnecessary directions, Luhan just hoped that he and it would survive the day.

It wasn’t long after the screen was set up that Baekhyun and Chanyeol disappeared back through the door to go do some last minute shopping, and Suho disappeared with Lay to go track down some ice for drinks since the 12 cube ice tray in the fridge just wasn’t going to cut it.

Therefore, it fell to Luhan to be the contact person for anyone unlucky enough to not find someone to follow through the access doors of the bottom floor if they didn’t live in the building. 

However, the first to arrive was another building resident, Kyungsoo, Suho and Sehun’s other roommate that Luhan had met only a couple of times.  Suho had mentioned he’d probably show up early. Apparently he liked to prepare things like homemade chip dip and party platters, and Suho had suggested that he just go ahead and prepare it all at the final location, which explained the several bags in his arms.

Luhan took a couple of said bags from his grip and helped him get them all on the counter, directing him to where bowls, cutting boards, and cutlery were located before stepping back to ask if there was anything else he could help with, which is how he found himself cutting bell peppers for a vegetable tray (Kyungsoo apparently also believed in serving some healthy food at parties, something Luhan knew Tao would appreciate) when his phone began to ring, signaling the first individuals stranded downstairs.

“I can’t believe you guys couldn’t find someone to follow in,” Luhan complained as he held open the door to let Tao and Kris into the hallway before heading back towards the stairs to get up to his floor.

“You act like we interrupted something important.”  Kris said, amused.

“You did,” Luhan countered as the climbed up the few flights to his floor.

“What?” Tao asked as they pushed their way through the door and made their way down the fourth floor hallway.

“You interrupted my date with bell peppers.” Luhan said as they reached his door.

“Bell peppers?” Tao asked, confused.

Luhan nodded.  “Yeah, Kyungsoo brought them.  Along with several other vegetables, so you won’t starve, probably.”

“Who’s Kyungsoo?” Tao asked as the door to the apartment swung open, choosing to ignore Luhan’s jibe at his eating habits.  It wasn’t like he was the only one in the world who tried to eat as little fried and processed food as possible.

Luhan raised a hand to indicate Kyungsoo, who had looked up at the sound of both the door opening and his name.  “Kyungsoo, meet Tao and Kris.  Tao, Kris, this is Kyungsoo, Suho’s friend.”

Kyungsoo offered a brief wave of the spoon in his hand before going back to stirring a bowl in front of him on the counter, an action that quickly spurred his three onlookers to offer up their assistance, and pretty soon, Luhan wasn’t the only one chopping vegetables, although he wondered at the wisdom of offering Kris a knife with which to cut anything.

The next to arrive back were Chanyeol and Baekhyun, Chen also in tow, and as they piled the food they had bought onto the small table in the kitchen Luhan again began to wonder how everything was going to fit, a worry that did not decline when Suho and Lay returned with ice and a cooler to put it in or when Sehun and Kai arrived with chicken (which found a home on top of the fridge) and plates and other utensils.

The last to arrive was Minseok, whose call sent Luhan’s phone buzzing in the early evening.  With so many people already there, he probably could have sent someone else to go get him.  In fact, Lay offered, but Luhan was quick to decline.  There was no way he’d let anyone else bring Minseok to his apartment, even if the glances from Tao and Kris let him know that his willingness to go get Minseok was not going unnoticed.

However, Luhan was quick to brush that worry away the second he opened the door to find Minseok with a twelve pack of soda in one hand and a twelve pack of beer in the other.

Luhan quickly took the soda from his grip, wide smile in place.

“Happy to see me?”  Minseok asked.

Luhan nodded.  There was no point in denying it.  “It’s been a crazy day so far.”

Minseok laughed as they began to walk down the hallway.  “I can imagine.  I can’t believe you’ve even managed fit that many people in already.”

Luhan shrugged.  “It’s working somehow.  I’ve saved you a spot on the couch.”  He hadn’t really.  It was his own spot, but he’d give it up to Minseok, assuming it was still there when they got back.

Minseok laughed as he followed Luhan up the stairs.  “Do you really think they’d leave it clear for you while you were gone?”

Luhan echoed his laugh.  “We’ll see.”

---

To their surprise, Luhan’s previous spot on the couch was still unoccupied, as was the floor in front, and, after a brief argument that Luhan won by playing the good host card, Minseok took up residence on the couch as Luhan sat down on the floor in front of him. 

Everyone else was similarly situated around the small living room area.  Chen was next to Minseok on the couch, and alongside him were Tao and Kyungsoo, who were still talking about food. 

Suho and Lay had taken up residence on the other piece of furniture in the room, an oversized chair not really meant for two, but they were making it work, and Kris, Chanyeol Sehun, Kai and Baekhyun were therefore on the floor with Luhan, along with several pillows and other cushions to make things more comfortable.  Admittedly, it was a tight squeeze, but they fit, somehow.

It was as Luhan and Minseok got settled in that Suho cleared his throat and got up from his spot on the chair next to Lay to say that it was time for their yearly fantasy football tradition, which triggered a series of groans from his friends.

“What’s that about?”  Minseok asked, leaning down to whisper in Luhan’s ear. 

Luhan shook his head.  He didn’t know either, but then Chen was letting out a quiet laugh from beside them.  “You’ll see,” he whispered.

“Now, since we had some issues last year—“

“It wasn’t against the rules to put easy punishments.”  Baekhyun cut in.

“Yeah, but you only did it because you came in last.”  Chen said.

“It’s not like it wasn’t good for you too. You were second to last.”  Baekhyun countered.

Chen shrugged.  “True.”

“What are we even talking about?”  Kris asked, confused.

Suho sighed.  “If I could talk without getting interrupted, I’d tell you.”

Baekhyun helpfully zipped his lips as Chen slapped a hand over his mouth in mock horror. 

With a shake of his head, Suho continued.  “Like I was saying, since there were some problems last year, I enlisted the help of a neutral party to come up with the punishment list for the losers of the league this year.  As usual, second place gets to choose first, and from there we’ll go down the line until last.  Kyungsoo, since you won this year, you get to be the judge for any questions that require judgment.  Now are we ready?”

“Wait, I still don’t understand what’s happening.”  Kai said.

Sehun sighed.  “Basically, we have a fantasy league, and everyone who doesn’t come in first has to pick a punishment from the list that Suho has.”

“Oh, who came up with that rule?”

Chanyeol raised his hand.  “It makes things more interesting.  Besides, it’s really funny.”

“So long as you’re not almost last,” Baekhyun grumbled.

“What’s wrong with being last?”  Minseok asked.

“Well,” Chen offered, turning to him, “the punishments tend to be on a sort of… scale, the earlier you go, the more likely you’re task won’t be that bad.”

Minseok nodded in understanding.  “I see.  We should play next year.”  He said with a laugh down to Luhan. 

Luhan nodded wordlessly in agreement.  Next year. It was far too easy to read into the promise behind those words.

“Well,” Suho said as he pulled a crumpled sheet of paper and a black sharpie from his pocket, “Now that, that’s all cleared up, I can pass this to Sehun and we can begin.”

“You came in second?” Kai asked amused.

“I lost one game by two tenths of a point,” Sehun grumbled as he surveyed the list he had been handed before uncapping the sharpie and drawing a line through a number.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Kai asked, eyebrows raised. 

“Of course.  You’re going to feed me.”

“I am?” Kai asked.

Sehun nodded with an eye roll. “Of course.”

Kai shook his head.  “Shouldn’t you have, I don’t know, asked me first?”

“Would you really let me starve?”

Kai laughed.  “I guess not.”

Sehun nodded.  “Exactly.”  He then handed the list back to Suho who read off the punishment with a laugh.  “You cannot touch any food or drink with your hands for the rest of the evening.”

Baekhyun groaned.  “If that’s the good one, I’m going to die.”

Chanyeol laughed as he reached out to grab the paper from Suho.  “You forget, there’s also some amount of perspective to this.  There could be things not as bad as that for you.”

“Unlikely,” Baekhyun said as Chanyeol’s eyes focused on the page.

After a couple moments, Chanyeol nodded.  “Yeah, you’re probably right.  I’m taking number two.  Where’s the jar?”

Suho laughed.  “It’s in the fridge.”

“Okay then.” Chanyeol said as he got up, handing the sheet off to Chen before making his way to the fridge.

“What’d he pick?”  Minseok asked, leaning over to get a look at the page.

“Eat an entire jar of mayonnaise.”  Chen read out.

“That’s disgusting.”  Kris commented.

“I’ll say,” Chanyeol agreed, returning with the jar and a plastic spoon.

“I can’t believe you’re going to eat that.”  Tao said.

Chanyeol shrugged.  “It won’t kill me.”

Tao just shuddered as Chanyeol unscrewed the lid and took his first heaping spoonful of mayonnaise before turning away, burying his head into the couch behind Kyungsoo’s shoulder.  “I can’t watch this.”

Luhan laughed at his expense as he also became aware of the soft muttering going on behind his head.

“Why don’t you just pick 5?”  Minseok asked.

“No way.  Not when Kyungsoo is the one judging.”  Chen responded.

Minseok laughed.  “Well then, I guess the question is how many people you want to be embarrassed in front of.”

Chen sighed.  “Yeah…” Chen took another moment to study the list before saying to the crowd.  “I’m taking 4.”

Suho laughed.  “Of course.”

“Remind me,” Chanyeol said as he finished off another spoonful of mayonnaise with a grimace, “what does four say again?”

Chen shook his head.  “Oh no, I’m not falling for that.  Minseok, you read it.”

Minseok laughed before taking the paper from his hand and reading Chen’s punishment out.  “Every time you say the word ball, commercial, or the names of the teams playing in the game, you lose an article of clothing.  Boxers may stay on, but if even they are technically lost by the end of the game, you must walk home in a towel.”

“And this is the towel by the way.”  Suho said, tossing a suspiciously pink object Chen’s way.  When he unfolded the mass, he revealed a very pink and very girly Hello Kitty towel. 

“Great.”  He said, surveying it with mild disgust while the room broke into laughter.

Suho nodded.  “Lay helped me pick it out.”

“Don’t you think it’s cute?” Lay asked from his spot on the chair.

“Yeah, really cute.  I’m going to have a ball walking home in this.”

“You bet you are.  Hand over a shoe.”  Chanyeol said with a smile.

Chen groaned and removed his first piece of clothing for the evening.

After that, Baekhyun chose to where a bright pink t-shirt declaring “I at fantasy football” to the basketball game the following Wednesday while also wearing a bright pink wig, and officially retiring his team name.  A blow to be sure considering how long it had taken him to come up with his current one.

That left the dreaded number five to Suho, who read it out loud in a monotone.  “Reveal one embarrassing secret.”

“Why’d you guys save that?”  Tao asked.  “It doesn’t seem that bad.”

Chanyeol shook his head as Chen answered.  “Like I told Minseok, it’s because he’s judging.”  He swung a finger in Kyungsoo’s direction. 

“Yeah, he’ll reject anything that’s not completely mortifying.”  Baekhyun added.

Tao turned his head to Kyungsoo in surprise.  “Really?”

Kyungsoo smirked in response as Suho, who Luhan was pretty sure had been turning redder by the second cleared his throat.  Instantly, all eyes were on him as he took a shaky breathe before letting out a flurry of words in a rush before diving back into the chair and burying his face into Lay’s side.

“Lay and I had in the handicap shower at the gym.”

The words had been said so quickly that it took several seconds for everyone to process them, but once they did, the room was in an uproar. 

“What!?”

“I use that shower.”  Tao complained.

“Are you serious?”  Chanyeol asked in disbelief, mayonnaise laden spoon halfway to his mouth.

Suho nodded his head from where his face was buried.

“Oh my god.  That’s brilliant.”  Baekhyun said with a laugh.

“I can’t believe you did that,” Luhan said from the floor, eyes on Lay.

Lay shrugged as he moved to further accommodate Suho’s attempts to disappear.  “It was fun.”

“I should hope so.”  Chen said with a laugh.

“More importantly,” Lay continued, eyes going to Kyungsoo, “Does that qualify?”

Kyungsoo gave a nod.  “That’s good enough.”

Lay smiled before squeezing Suho’s shoulder.   “See, that wasn’t so hard.”

Suho just continued to bury his face in Lay’s side, clearly still trying to disappear, and slowly, the room moved on from his and Lay’s bathroom activities to the game, the anticipated commercials, and plans for next year’s fantasy league.  (It appeared there’d be a few more participants.)

Chen lost another shoe and a sock, and as it became brutally clear that the odds of him walking home Hello Kitty clad were pretty much 100%, someone decided to ask where exactly the towel had been purchased.

When Suho answered the Valentine’s Day section at the local supermarket, the words triggered in Luhan a sudden realization that had him calling out across the room to Lay.

“Lay, you don’t have plans on Valentine’s day, do you?”

Lay looked at him confused.  “Of course I do.”  He said with a glance to Suho.

“But they’re late in the evening, right?”  Luhan pressed.

“Um, I don’t really know yet, honestly.  Why?”

“Because I need you to help me like last year.”

Lay went quiet for a couple seconds before laughing with a shake of his head.  “No way.  I’m not doing that again.”

“Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad.”

Lay shook his head again.  “Nuh-uh, I refuse to do couple’s yoga with you again.”

“Then who am I supposed to ask?” Luhan whined from his spot on the floor. 

Lay shrugged.  “Oh, I don’t know.  I’m sure you could find someone willing to help.”

Luhan was a little suspicious of what he was hinting at, and the small tapping on his shoulder confirmed his suspicions. 

“What are you talking about?”  Minseok asked as Luhan turned to face him.

Luhan sighed.  This could only make things more complicated.  Then again.  It wasn’t like they were ever simple anyways, might as well go for it.

“Every Valentine’s Day there is a special couple’s yoga class that I teach.  I need a partner to teach it obviously, and last year, Lay was kind enough to help me out with that.”

“Ah, I see.  And he’s bailing on you this year.”

Luhan nodded, annoyed.  “Apparently.”

Minseok’s face went thoughtful for a brief second before he said with a smile.  “Could I help?”

Luhan resisted the urge to sigh.  It wouldn’t be fair to Minseok.  He was just being nice.  So instead, Luhan opted for a question.  “Do you even know what couple’s yoga is?” 

Minseok shrugged.  “No, but you can teach me, right?   It’s not that hard, is it?”

Luhan held back another sigh as Lay called from across the room that it wasn’t hard at all. 

Of course, it wasn’t hard.  That wasn’t the issue. 

No the issue was that it involved a lot of… touching.  A lot of touching.  And eye contact, and… intimacy, and Luhan wasn’t really sure he wanted to deal with that with someone he still hadn’t gotten into the friend-zone, but as he found himself face to face with Minseok, and with no alternatives available, Luhan realized he didn’t have much choice.

“It’s not hard.”  He confirmed.

“Good.”  Minseok said with a nod, “Then I can help.”

Luhan nodded back.  “Yeah you can.”  Help me die young.

“Great, do you think we’ll need to practice beforehand?”

“Maybe, I’ll let you know.” 

“Great,” Minseok said with a smile, before turning to Chen and saying, “I do believe you just said Broncos, where’s the other sock?” 

Chen sighed before ripping the offending piece of fabric off and throwing it across the room to join his already lost shoes.

---

The game itself was a bit of a letdown, an unexpected blowout that left a lot of time for chit chat and being amused by the fact that every time Sehun wanted to eat something, he had to get Kai to feed it to him.

Chen was down to his boxers by the end of the first half, and was already planning the shortest route back to his own shared dorm room with Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

Minseok for his part, apparently had a habit of not being able to stay completely still when bored, and he took to leaning forward onto Luhan’s shoulders to whisper side comments about commercials into his ears, which Luhan would try to respond to once he remembered how to breathe. 

Thankfully, his delayed responses went largely unnoticed by Minseok, who by the end of the game, probably also due to boredom, had drunken a bit more than he probably should have, resulting in his leaning down to whisper in Luhan’s ear to be more of him flopping down onto Luhan for prolonged periods of time which Luhan decided to use as training to build up immunity for when he’d have to do a whole lot more touching in two weeks when they did yoga together.

He used the same excuse when he just dragged a half asleep Minseok onto his full size bed rather than trying to walk him home because clearly separation wasn’t an option, which meant the only thing he could do to get over whatever this thing was with Minseok (he refused to label it a crush) was to build up a very strong immunity to it, and the only way to do that was to spend more time together.

Yup, that was the only way.

---

Another chapter in the books woohoo!  It’s a little short though.  Sorry about that.  I had a job interview in New York this week ^^