“You free tonight?” He had posed the question to Kyungsoo and Suho, both with a straight face and a thumbs up after they apprehensively said that they were.

“Good, because I got you a date.”

“Already?!” Was both of their reactions.

“Yep, Chanyeol the master matchmaker works fast!” Chanyeol had assured both of the Kang brothers everything was taken care of, it just so happened that Chanyeol’s Aunt was best friends with a match maker who expedited their request.

“Don’t we need to give the matchmaker our profiles or something first?” Kyungsoo asked, his naturally suspicious nature put into overdrive by a date achieved in less than three hours.

“I already know all of that my friend. Now just trust me.” Chanyeol had smiled widely, assured his friends it was all taken care of, and then ran off to tell his other two friends it was indeed actually all taken care of.

“Total weirdoes, both of them. There is no way Kyungsoo or Suho are going to date them.” He told Baekhyun and Jongdae as they hid in the stairwell to discuss Chanyeol’s temporary solution to the Kang brother’s desire to date.

“How did you find them? I probably shouldn’t even ask…”Jongdae looked nervous. He didn’t want Suho to get married in a hurry but he also wanted him to be safe and not out at dinner with some psychopath.

“Do you know Ji Mun from marketing? Yeah, that weirdo, they are his friends.”

“Great. If something happens to Suho I swear-“Jongdae raised his fist, which wasn’t that intimidating given the fact his target towered over him.

“I would be afraid for Kyungsoo but I am pretty sure he could fight off ten men with his angry face alone.” Baekhyun sighed, “Thanks buddy -we owe you one.”

“Any time boys, any time.” Chanyeol was very pleased with himself, so pleased he made the executive decision it was time to go out for a coffee break.  It was hard being this awesome.

***

Suho was nervous. He hadn’t been on a date since college and every single date he went on back then ended with water thrown in his face and dissatisfaction. He had pretty low expectations of how this date would go, even if a matchmaker had been the one to set it up. He arrived at the restaurant fifteen minutes early, was seated by the waiter, and proceeded to drink water quickly to quell his nerves.

Time passed slowly, too slowly, as he waited. He wondered what sort of man he would be meeting. Would it be a businessman like himself? Maybe a teacher or a nurse or some great kind human being. Or a doctor…oh, a doctor would be nice.

“Sumoney?”

Suho stood up, knocking his water off the table as he heard the name….or nickname, he wasn’t sure which, from behind him. He dashed to pick up the glass but was stopped by an arm grabbing at his wrist.

“Hey cutie, let the waiter do that.”

Suho was face to face with what could only be described as a man who was as pretty as a woman- if said woman was obsessed with Frozen’s Elsa and dressed like an androgynous version of her.

Suho would have introduced himself but he couldn’t speak, because what in the hell had Chanyeol set him up with?

“What a cute rich boy.” Androgynous Else pinched his cheeks, cooing “Heard you are looking for a husband. You can dress me in furs anytime you want baby.”

Suho thought he might be sick. In fact he was pretty sure he would be sick.

“Heechul by the way. But everyone likes to call me y. Now sit down tiger, so I can look at you.”

Suho couldn’t move. He seriously could not move, because sitting down seemed like the worst punishment he could imagine. So Heechul pushed him down in his chair and sauntered to the other side of the table, taking a seat elegantly “I will forgive the fact you didn’t pull my chair out – but just this once.”

Suho could think of nothing to say. Nothing at all. Maybe he should scream fire or something and make a run for it?

“So y, are you okay if we sleep together on the first date or..?”

Suho was saved by his phone ringing loudly. Thank god he hadn’t put it on silent out of respect for his date. He clutched at the device, seeing it was a call from Jongdae he hit answer faster than he probably ever had in his life.

“Hello?” Suho answered, probably far too eagerly.

“Hyung, sorry to interrupt your date but-“Jongdae had followed Chanyeol’s instructions. Give Suho five minutes at most then call, because by that time he would be looking for any excuse to bolt from his date.

“Yes, oh, that sounds serious. I will be right there. Okay, bye.” Suho stood, not bothering to say anything but “I have to go.”

Heechul watched the blonde man bolt for the door, nearly colliding with a waiter. Heechul took out his own phone, typing quickly “I won. He was gone in five minutes. Bet yours is still around.”

His phone buzzed a moment later with a reply, the screen displaying Evil Maknae as the contact name “Nope, mine left after two minutes. You owe me $100”

Heechul rolled his eyes, flagging down a waiter “Cabernet please, a bottle.” If he didn’t win the bet he might as well have a drink, because he still did a good job. Even if he was out of $100. As he sipped his wine he considered -maybe he should have just stayed home with his cat.

***

Kyungsoo was running as fast as he could. Because that was scary. His date had been a tall, handsome man who introduced himself as Kyuhyun. He was well dressed, seemed to be confident, and smiled prettily. And then, after only a minute of sitting at the table he leaned over and beckoned Kyungsoo close. When Kyungsoo leaned in Kyuhyun whispered “I hope you don’t think it is weird or anything but I am totally into cannibalism. The idea I mean, I don’t actually eat people. But the idea is y, don’t you think.”

And that was it- Kyungsoo was up in a second and running for his life, probably literally for his life. Where did Chanyeol find such a weirdo? As he covered three plus blocks, looking behind him to make sure he wasn’t being followed, he slowed down. Panting heavily he tried to catch his breath. Then his phone sounded. It was Baekhyun.

“Hey, pick me up. Now” Kyungsoo answered.

“Why should I?”

“Do it.”

Baekhyun hung up without saying anything but Kyungsoo knew he would be on his way. He always was.

***

Yixing had been watching Minseok pace back and forth in his office for the last twenty minutes. He couldn’t take it anymore so he walked in, not bothering to knock.

“Hyung, what is wrong?”

Minseok jumped at the intrusion. “Oh, Yixing. I didn’t know you were still here.”

“I was waiting for you to leave hyung. What’s wrong?” Yixing asked, putting a hand out to pat Minseok’s shoulder. He had been Minseok’s friend for years, even if their friendship was not the hang out together kind but the always have your back at work kind, they were close.

“Oh, nothing.”

“Is it that Chinese guy?” Yixing was forgetful, even dazed half of the time, but he wasn’t stupid.

“No, uh, maybe.” Minseok sighed heavily, “He is living with me now.”

“And you don’t want him to?” Yixing questioned. In all of the time he knew Minseok he knew the man was not one to be talked into things easily, that is why he drove such a hard bargain and excelled in business. If Luhan was living with him Minseok likely wanted him to, at least a little bit.

“I don’t know, it is just so sudden.”

“And you want to win the contest?” Yixing asked innocently.

Minseok just nodded.

“Do you think maybe you are doing things too quickly just to win? I mean, do you like him?” Yixing espoused his wisdom, “Does he know about the contest?”

“No! How could I tell him?!” Several scenarios flashed through Minseok’s mind of what would happen if Luhan knew that this entire “relationship”, only days old, was driven by a need to claim an inheritance he felt partially entitled to. All of those scenarios ended with Luhan slapping him and leaving.

“You should probably tell him at some point hyung. The longer he doesn’t know the more it will hurt when he finds out.” Yixing had on his serious face.

“I know…but….we just met. I need to figure stuff out first.” Minseok tried to make every excuse he could think of to make himself feel better.

“If that is what you think is right, hyung. But you should probably just go see him now.”

Minseok nodded weakly. He had to face Luhan at some point, it was time to stop dragging his feet.

***

Suho found Jongdae at their usual late night commiseration spot. It wasn’t a bar, a noreabang, or a coffee shop. No, it was a duck pond. Not any duck pond but their duck pond, the same place where they had spent frustrating nights in college relaxing and ignoring the world and everything in it – aside from the ducks that is. The park was usually deserted at this time of night save the few creeps (which were mostly at the northern end of the large park, near the low light streets) or the kids up to no good (which usually found a way to act in a no good way far away from the duck pond) lending itself to total peace and isolation.

“How was your date hyung?” Jongdae asked, not bothering to acknowledge Suho by looking at him. After all he would know Suho sitting next to him any day. He would know the smell of Suho’s cologne from a hundred other scents, he would know the way Suho let out a heavy sigh when he reclined back in the bench, his hands folded behind his head, his back stretching to relieve stress.

“Horrible. Absolutely horrible. The guy might as well have been in drag – and he asked if we could sleep together two minutes after we met.”

“Sounds great.” Jongdae remarked sarcastically “I guess you aren’t any closer to getting married then.”

Suho groaned, “I am not going to win this contest, Jongdae.”

“Why do you want to win?” Jongdae thought he already knew the answer but he wanted to hear it for himself.

“Because I can’t be poor. Because I can’t see Kyungsoo or god forbid Sehun run the company into the ground. Because I can’t lose.”

Jongdae knew the reasons, but the first reason is what built a wall around any possibility of a relationship with Suho. Because being poor was not a crime, Jongdae knew that well. But Suho did not, and that was a wall, a wall with other problems making it up, but certainly a large portion of the wall.

“Now what are you going to do?”

“Keep looking I guess. Aish! Why are my parents doing this?!” Suho sat forward, running his hands through his hair. He kicked at a rock lying on the ground, hearing it skip into the pond. After a few minutes of silence he leaned his head to rest on Jongdae’s shoulder. They had done this dozens, probably even hundreds of times before.

It was friendly, it said that they could trust each other, it gave them both comfort. Usually Jongdae would reach an arm out, rubbing Suho’s back as he snuggled into Jongdae’s warmth. But this time Jongdae stayed still, not making a move. Suho should have noticed, normally he would have, but now – now he was too focused on what he would do next. How he could win the contest. Jongdae felt his heart drop more and more the longer they sat, the longer Suho didn’t care that Jongdae’s arm was not rubbing circles of comfort on his back.

***

Tao let out a shrill scream, dropping the toy gun in frustration as his avatar keeled over. Sehun laughed heartily, fist pumping his win.

“Told you I was good at video games” Sehun smiled a eating grin, Tao reacted by sticking out his bottom lip to pout. He had thought going to an arcade with Sehun was a wonderful idea, especially since they had gotten through a work day. Tao’s first work day in Seoul actually, something to celebrate. What he did not think was a good idea was what happened after they arrived at the arcade-and that was Sehun dragging Tao from game to game only to win every single one and throw it in Tao’s face.

“I want to go home.” Tao whined, “I don’t like games.”

Sehun threw an arm over Tao’s shoulder, “Well I wouldn’t either if I was as terrible as you are.”

“We didn’t have an arcade on the island!” Tao protested.

“I can believe it. Hey, want to watch a movie?” Sehun steered the two of them towards the movie theater that was attached to the arcade. Or maybe it was the other way around, the movie theater dominating the building.

“What movie?” Tao asked, instantly forgetting his frustrations.

“I think there is a romance playing. Do you like romances?” Sehun would have punched himself in the face if he had been on the receiving end of this desperate ploy. Because Sehun had thought a lot about it during the day and he knew that he needed to breech the subject and breech it soon. He needed to know if Tao liked guys and more importantly he needed to know if Tao liked him – because his whole reason for dragging Tao to the city was to marry him. The answer to his questions were very important.

“I don’t really know. I have never been in one.” Tao answered slowly, “Do you have a girlfriend Sehun?”

Sehun choked at the question but quickly composed himself, “Um, no I don’t. Do you?”

“No, I have never had one.” Tao looked sad.

“How about a boyfriend?” Sehun asked, hoping that Tao would answer this question more favorably.

“No…do you?” Tao seemed more confused at this question which made Sehun nervous.

“No, but I think you are kind of cute.” Sehun tried to say it nonchalantly.

“Thanks Sehun, but I don’t think that would be a good idea- us dating I mean.” Tao stopped walking and turned to Sehun, his expression serious “We are co-workers. You are my boss, isn’t that against company policy?”

“No! No, we don’t have a policy like tha-“

“Still, I don’t want to ruin a friendship Sehun. Hey, do you want to see an action movie?” Tao pointed at the movie poster on the wall advertising a shoot-em up flic.

Sehun agreed, but he spent the entire movie sulking. His plan had one huge gigantic flaw – and that was Tao’s desire or lack thereof to date and marry Sehun. Any hopes of winning the contest easily had just flown out the window. Damn fisherman.

***

Minseok was standing outside of the door to his apartment. He had never stood outside the door to his apartment this long. In fact he had never noticed that the keypad was so dirty, no doubt from the many times he had punched in the pass code after eating on the go, or getting home from a late night drinking session. His apartment was in one of the nicer buildings in Seoul, fitting given his family and his career.

Minseok listened, hoping to catch the sound of what he should look forward to when he opened the door. But the walls of the apartments in the building were thick and sound proofed, a benefit given how much they cost. Apprehensively he punched in the code, hearing the click he pulled the door open. And then he heard it.

Voices, several of them. All female. And then crying. Minseok took off his shoes slowly, listening as his chest tightened with anxiety. What in the hell was Luhan doing?

“He left me after that.” Sobs, other women offering their condolences and support “And now I can’t even afford to see the doctor” outright wails.

Minseok walked down the hall, turning the corner to see a most frightening sight. Luhan was there, seated on the sofa, a cup of coffee in his hands. Around Luhan were half a dozen women, well…by the looks of them teenagers, all with bulging bellies.

“Honey, it is okay. He doesn’t deserve you.” Luhan patted the crying girls back, not noticing Minseok’s arrival.

“Luhan, what in the hell is going on?” Minseok asked, his voice shriller and angrier than he wanted it to be.

“Minseok?! Oh, you are home” Luhan smiled brightly while the other occupants of the room began whispering to each other, questioning who the newcomer was.

“Who are they?” Minseok asked, trying to hold back his rage.

“Oh, this is the Gangnam chapter of the unwed young mother’s support group. I met them when I was scoping out charities this afternoon. They didn’t’ have a place to meet today so I offered your place. I hope you don’t mind?”

“Did you think maybe you should have ASKED ME FIRST?” Minseok was livid, so livid he didn’t trust himself to not explode even more. And by the looks of these girls the last thing they needed was to see a very pissed off man go ape on his boyfriend. So instead he his heels and stalked back down the hall “I am leaving and they better be gone when I get back!”

Minseok slammed the door, not caring if the neighbors could hear. Why, of all of the men he could have live with him, did he pick super-psycho-erted-social-crusader-nutjob Luhan?

***

Baekhyun liked it when Kyungsoo yelled at him. Did he have some kind of weird yelling or something? Probably not, because he didn’t like the yelling so much as he liked to see Kyungsoo’s eyes grow wide, his face light up, his voice quicken. He liked it when Kyungsoo yelled, not just when anyone yelled. It wasn’t yelling he liked, it was Kyungsoo. It was their dynamic. Their bickering.

“You think that Jo In Sung is a bad actor?!” Kyungsoo stood up, angry, “And who do you like, huh?”

Baekhyun launched into a list of ten actors he thought were better than Jo In Sung.

“You are so stupid and you have horrible taste.” Kyungsoo sat down next to Baekhyun, shooting him a death glance.

“Then why are you here?” Baekhyun asked. He had picked up Kyungsoo at the office and driven him back to Baekhyun’s apartment. The place was a lot smaller than Kyungsoo’s place but it was their preferred hangout. Kyungsoo claimed it was because he liked to see how messy and unkempt Baekhyun was because it further confirmed the fact he would never find a boyfriend. Baekhyun would just mock Kyungsoo at the statement but internally he would think of how nice it was to have Kyungsoo at his place, ,sitting on his couch, falling asleep next to him on the floor as they watched movies late into the night.

Their friendship had been like this since college. They had met, argued, and realized they liked to argue. A lot. If someone listened to the two of them they would think they were certainly enemies and in no way friends, but that could not be further from the truth. They were friends, good friends in fact. But their friendship was built on antagonizing each other – because they both seemed to enjoy it. Not that they would ever admit it. No, if they hung out together it was because “I couldn’t find anything better to do”, if they had a sleep over at Baekhyun’s place it was because “I am too tired to go home and it is cute to sleep in such a small and unkempt place”. It was never warm words, ever, but that is how they liked it.

Kyungsoo yawned. “Hey, I am going to sleep here. I miss sleeping in a sad little rundown place that makes me feel better about my life.”

“I don’t want you to.” Baekhyun threw a pillow at Kyungsoo “You smell bad.”

“Not as bad as your house.” Kyungsoo muttered, the workday and his “date” tiring him out.

They didn’t really talk after that, except to make a jab at each other now and then. It was easy, it was quiet as they fell asleep next to each other on the living room floor, holding hands as they found their way to dreamland, leaving their arguments for the next day.

***

Minseok entered his apartment without a second thought this time, ready to face whatever was waiting for him. Because damn if those girls were still there he would give Luhan hell. Instead of a room full of unwed teenage mothers he found Luhan sitting on the sofa, idly flipping through the channels.

“Hey.” Minseok said quietly, not sure what to do. He had been pissed, he still was, but he needed to at least talk to Luhan.

Luhan turned towards Minseok. He wasn’t smiling, his face was blank. It was unnerving, Minseok thought.

“Sorry I didn’t ask you before I had people at our place.” Luhan said before turning back to the television, not bothering to elaborate on his apology.

Minseok walked over to the sofa, wanting some kind of resolution he sat down next to Luhan, grabbing a throw pillow and hugging it “Do you understand why I was angry? I mean, you just moved in and I don’t know those people.”

Luhan finally stopped flipping through the channels, stopping on the nature channel he turned towards Minseok “I think you need to lighten up.”

“Lighten up? Me?” Minseok looked flabbergasted at the suggestion.

“Yeah, you.” Luhan was serious, far more serious than Minseok had ever seen him before – well, other than that whole save the island bit “You live your life in a nice little compartmentalized world, don’t you. And you can’t think of anything outside of that, anyone outside of that. Minseok, why did you ask me to come to Seoul?”

Minseok was stuttering, he knew it “I…well, I like you and-“

“And you don’t’ have an answer.” Luhan stood up and looked down at a flustered Minseok “Goodnight. I put my stuff in the second room, which I assume is what you wanted.”

As Luhan left, shutting the door to the second bedroom quietly, Minseok stayed still, sitting on the couch with a blank look on his face. His mind was racing. It stayed racing for most of the night, sleep alluding him. At about four in the morning he remembered something. That night they were supposed to kiss, weren’t they? Why did that matter.…why did Luhan’s words matter to him? He had only known Luhan for a few days, but his words still stung. Minseok groaned. What in the hell was wrong with him?

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a/n- Yes, Heechul must appear in every fic I write. So there, hope you enjoyed our Suju member’s trolling Exo. Keke. More to come, in a moment… just editing the next chapter. Sorry for all of the angst in this entry, but it needed to happen to drive this story forward. Forgive me and check out chapter 6!