~Re-uploaded; Edited~

        Almost a week had passed since Luhan’s last hectic shopping trip with Kyungsoo, and he once again found himself at the store—the same one, to be exact. He’d already been out of the house when he received a call from Joonmyun stating that there were two more members of their shared household, so he had decided on restocking their food supply a bit. They’d managed to scavenge and scrape up some more money, though it was obvious that they would still have to be careful with their spending. They didn’t even know how long things would stay as they were, and with two more mouths to feed on a daily basis, things were only going to get harder.

        He was on his own, and just so happened to be carrying a few dollars when the call came, which fueled the idea to take a quick shopping break. Though, after he was all set to pay for a few choice items from the wide selection, he didn't expect to hear a familiar voice when he reached a front cash register.

        "Back so soon? Did you miss me that much?"

        Luhan's head whipped around at the deep sound, and he stared at the man before him, his cheeks instantly turning a light shade of pink when their eyes met. The same young male who had helped him pay at his previous visit was smiling down at him, a look of amusement on his handsome face.

        Luhan couldn't form proper words, as it was already obvious that he’d made enough of a humiliating impact for the boy to recognize him so easily. "Y-You..."

        "I have a name." His finger lifted matter-of-factly to the name tag on his shirt, and Luhan was finally able to look away from his face. The name read 'Sehun', and he looked back to the boy's achingly handsome features to match it to his name.

        He wore a hat again, different than the last, and slight blonde locks could barely be seen underneath; no longer rainbow. Luhan suddenly wished to see his hair, wondering why it was always kept hidden—from what he could tell, anyway. It was obviously dyed, and what's the point if no one sees it?

        Luhan shook his head at his thoughts, earning a weird look from Sehun as the boy began scanning the few items he had gathered. Seeing as no one else was in line behind him, Luhan decided to strike up a conversation with the worker he’d formed an odd sort of bond with.

        "So tell me, why are you working on a Sunday?" He asked, aiming—and failing—at coming off as nonchalant.

        "Is that against the law?" Sehun asked, glancing upward with one eyebrow raised.

        "Well, no..." Luhan continued, not able to prevent himself from flustering. "But your obviously just a high schooler, so I would think you would've used today for homework or at least to relax."

        The boy shook his head with a small smile, his eyes lowering down to the bags he was packing—doubled up, Luhan mistakenly noticed. "I'm saving up." His quiet words betrayed the expression on his face, making him sound almost sad and bringing a sharp sting of pain to Luhan’s soft heart.

        "Jeez, if you’re trying to save money then why'd you go and use some on me last time?" Luhan sighed as he pulled his wallet out to pay, guilt tearing at his soul. "Speaking of that, I have enough with me now to pay you back."

        "No, it's really fine. You don't have to."

        Luhan sighed once again, going on despite the fact that he couldn’t quite afford to go galloping around with strangers. "Then at least let me buy you a drink or something as thanks."

        The other seemed to think about this offer as he looked down at the watch on his wrist.

        "Well, actually…if you have time now, then maybe we could go to the tea house down the street? I'm actually about to finish up for the day."

        A smile made its way onto Luhan's face to push back his guilt. "Sounds good." He quickly finished with his purchases after that and waited on a bench as Sehun hurried off into a back room, as he was asked to do. When the boy returned, he had changed out of the employee dress code into something more casual, and Luhan had to say; he had good style. Trying not to think too hard about Sehun's appearance—and his own—Luhan grabbed the two plastic bags at his feet, then he walked out of the building alongside the other. The short walk to the tea house was silent and a little awkward, but it only got worse as they reached their destination, sitting at a small table near the large front windows.

        Luhan had no idea what to talk about and it was only then that he wondered why he agreed to have tea with a complete stranger in the first place. Not to mention he had sat down with him. Weren't you supposed to buy the drinks then go your separate ways? And why did he even sit down when they still had to go up to the counter to order?

        He mentally groaned as he stood, making an attempt to disguise the embarrassment that was sure to bleed into his features. "Do you already know what you want?"

        "Bubble tea, please. Taro flavored."

        With a nod, Luhan headed off to order the boy's drink, along with one for himself. Using what little money he had left in his wallet, he paid and returned to his seat with the freshly made drinks.

        As Luhan settled down, Sehun spoke. "So, how old are you?"

        "What wonderful manners." He commented sarcastically, though he knew he had done the same when he first met Kris and the others, so he continued. "I’m eighteen." An enormously sudden shock came as the other unexpectedly began choking, hitting his chest as if it'd help his drink go down. Luhan grasped his own chest as the attack went on, staring with eyes as wide as physically possible.

        "Wow. Didn't expect you to be that much older..." Sehun finally choked out, still heaving for breath.

        "Well I did tell you that I'm close to graduating." Luhan reminded him, holding back a cringe as he continued. "Just please tell me you aren't a middle schooler."

        "I'm a freshman."

        Luhan had to stop himself from flipping the table over in utter humiliation. I had to borrow money from a freshman! He eventually took a long sip from drink in order to calm himself, though he couldn’t say it helped much.

        "You are younger than I thought you were... Are you even old enough to have a job?"

        "I'm obviously allowed to if I have one right now." Sehun answered, finishing whatever  tea he hadn’t already choked on. He absentmindedly pulled up on his straw, which created a screeching sound as it rubbed on the plastic container, and a childish smile grew on his face.

        "Don't you dare." Luhan warned slowly, but the freshman only laughed. However, he did set his cup off to the side, and Luhan soon found himself laughing, too.

        "So Jongdae, is there any other name you'd like to go by?"

        The said teen thought about his new friend's question, then he answered with a large smile that betrayed the true fear and anxiety that coiled in his stomach. "I think Chen sounds good." He decided, momentarily thinking back to the nickname he was given as a mere child.  

        Joonmyun, the new face he’d just met, easily returned the smile, and both males looked to the person sitting beside them on the set of couches they occupied. "How about you, Minseok?"

        Minseok was another boy that Jongdae had only just met, yet all three of them were gathered together, conversing as though it weren’t due to the frightening circumstances that truly brought them to the same household. Though older, Minseok had the cutest face that Jongdae had ever seen, and he couldn’t quite hold back a silent laugh when the boy made a scrunched expression as he pondered Joonmyun—or Suho’s—question. It was absolutely adorable in his opinion, as ignored as it always had been.

        Jongdae and Minseok had arrived at the large house at the same time and had found it strange that they were heading to the same place, but they soon found out why. At the front door, they were met by a handsome teen, who they quickly learned went by the name Suho. Once Jongdae had revealed who he was, and the fact that he had lightning abilities—a fact that would’ve had devastating results if spilled to anyone else—, Suho revealed that his real name was Joonmyun and he could manipulate water. The additional statement made by Minseok regarding his own ice-cold ability made the coincidence evident, and Suho had then hurried to bring them inside.

        Jongdae was surprised that there were already others taking up space in the house, as Joonmyun went on to inform them, and they were all gathered in the foyer of their large home for immediate introductions. The newcomers were asked what brought them together, but neither Jongdae nor Minseok knew why or how, which seemed to have been a common response by the reactions they got. No one seemed particularly shocked at their lack of knowledge, most nodding along as if they expected it, even.

        Afterwards names were exchanged, everyone went back to what they had previously been doing, leaving Jongdae alone with Joonmyun and Minseok. They were given an explanation of what kind of situation they were in, which explained why everyone had given Jongdae two names to be called, minus a few. It brought a whole new wave of fear through him, too, with a more in-depth truth of the reality that they were suddenly living in.

        This all brought them to their current conversation, and Minseok finally got around to answering Joonmyun's question after much thought. "If it makes us safer, then I guess Xiumin works."

        "Great. I hope you find yourselves at home here." Suho said with a welcoming smile. "And I also hope you don't mind sharing a room with someone. There aren't really enough individual bedrooms, but don't worry about where to sleep; there are two beds per room."

        "Ooo I've always wanted a roommate." Chen put up a playful grin, not really minding the arrangement at all. He’d always been an only child, and though he suspected his parents would prefer another child it never happened, so he was left to simply imagine the perfect sibling.

        With a relieved smile, Suho went onto give his final words. "Alright, well there's one open room before we have to begin sharing, so you can handle that between yourselves. If anything, you could always room together, and we’ll be around if you have questions about anything." After the subtle suggestion, Suho left, and Jongdae turned to Minseok with a small smile.

        "You can take the last room." He offered, and in response, the other gave a smile that radiated pure sweetness.

        "Thanks, but do you have any idea which one that is? ‘Cause I most definitely don’t." Once the question sunk in, laughs escaped them both as they realized they had forgotten to ask Joonmyun about the small detail. Luckily for them, Kyungsoo came walking down the stairs from what they presumed to be his own bedroom.

        "Hey, do you think you could show us to our rooms?" Chen asked politely, speaking up to catch the boy’s attention. "Minseok's going to be in the empty room, but we don't know where that is."

        Kyungsoo gave a barely theresmile and nodded, then he began leading them back up the large main staircase. At the top, there was a single hallway that ran from each end of the house. Six doors were scattered along one side, and D.O—as they were told they could call him—pointed to their left.

        "The empty room is all the way down here, and if you need me, my room is on this end." His finger shifted to the right, and Jongdae gave him a playful thumb up to show he understood.

        "Good to know, thanks." With his job completed, the younger male headed back downstairs as he’d been doing before, and Xiumin went along to occupy the final room. Chen was left to choose his own, and he glanced down both halls before carefully choosing a room two doors down from Xiumin. He knocked lightly on the door, then walked in when there was no answer.

        The first thing he noticed was a bed pushed sideways in the far right corner with a dresser on the adjacent right wall. A single hat lay on the messy covers of the twin sized bed, and Chen wondered who it belonged to. The thought didn’t stay long, however, since he knew he'd find out sooner or later.

        The second bed was just to the left of the door, the headrest pushed against the wall closest to him. A second dresser was at the foot of the bed, facing the dresser on the opposite wall, and a bathroom took up the close right corner of the room. Sunlight streamed in through a single window on the far left wall, providing enough light to view the room without another source.

        Jongdae couldn't help but laugh at the weird setup as he took a seat on his bed, setting the backpack he brought on the floor. Now thinking about it, he was unsure of why he brought one in the first place. He only barely recalled that something in his head kept telling him he needed one, and that he should even leave his house—though he couldn’t say it was the first time he thought of that. Still, that didn't explain anything. He could only sit and wonder if the others knew what was happening when they found the place that had now become his home.