BLACK HOODS AND REVELATION

Blood.

There was so much blood-- she was lying in a whole pool of her own blood when she regained consciousness. (She'd mop her room up later when she'll find the time). Suji used up the tiny sliver left in her strength to look for something to stop the bleeding, already woozy from the blood loss. To her right lay a pile of discarded used bloody tisssues that had been rolled to plug up her nostrils. 

Frankly, she was still upset that her aunt never disclosed about her new housemates to her when she agreed to move into the city. Now she had no choice but to live with those seven radiant creatures. Her aunt had even requested for her to help look after the boys who didn't know squat about housekeeping nor cooking, and Suji wanted to wail in misery. That was like asking a vampire to step directly into the sunlight.

Troubled, she turned to her only set of friends for help. "Hero, why? Why must I live in a mansion with these dazzling creatures?" Suji asked in desperation as she turned to the full body human anatomical model.

She grabbed onto the bony hand of the skeletal model in front of her. "Micky, please tell me. What do you think I should I do?"

"Xiah," she cried, reaching out to the half-body anatomical model. "I can't bear to go on like this! Please save me!"

Suji realized that she had nowhere else to go if she wanted to bum around the house. She couldn't even seek solace in the cold, dark, grimy basement. Moving around the house was suicide with those seven radiant creatures prowling about. This bedroom assigned to her was her only safe haven, the darkness and solitude here providing a sanctuary from the land of dazzling light outside.

That was the answer then. She was locking herself in forever, never to see the light of day ever again.

-----()()()()()-----

All seven of them had dark and heavy eyebags due to the lack of sleep. Who could get any they when they were living in constant fear of being attacked in their sleep by their landlady's strange niece? In the end, they all decided to escape the house once the rain was over with nothing but their hoodies and personal belongings (like wallets and phones) and camped out at the nearest 24-7 McDonald's. After eating their stress away, the seven sat down together to discuss their strategies on how to deal with their new housemate.

It was already dawn when they managed to come up with absolutely nothing.

"No breakthrough idea yet?" Sungjong uttered for the nth time.

It was quiet after, and it was going to be that way for another half-hour if Sungyeol didn't shriek out in excitement. Dongwoo almost knocked over his cola as his head whipped up from the table in shock. "I've got it!" he exclaimed, eager to impart his plan to the rest. "We could appeal to her good side and have her move out of the mansion instead! We'll help her find her own high-end appartment unit or something!"

"As much I really hate agreeing to anything that you say, getting her a personal haunted house doesn't sound like a bad idea at all," Woohyun mused.

"You tell me where we're going to find one, then," Myungsoo groaned, the lack of sleep getting to him. "Ad agency? Land broker?"

"Can't you do something about that?" yawned Sunggyu behind his face mask. He was the only one heavily disguised today with his jacket zipped up all the way to his chin. It came complete with sunglasses to hide his face just in case the press or some saesang fans were out and about. He didn't need any addition to his growing list of problems. He turned to Hoya, Woohyun and Dongwoo. "You three are the ones with prominent connections here."

Hoya scoffed at the older guy. On contrary, he thought the idea was just plain absurd. "It's not like we could go march in and say, 'Hi, we're looking for a residential area for our friend. Do you have any fully furnished haunted houses on hand?'"

"But that doesn't clear us from our rent," Dongwoo trailed off.

Dongwoo was right. The looming gravity of the 750 million won rent was hard to shake off. The boys let out a very deep sigh, completely stumped on what to do. Deciding that they needed something to help jumpstart their day, they relocated to the coffee shop across the street. In their sleepiness, they failed to notice that almost the entire customer population from Mcdonald's (mostly females) tailed behind them, enthralled by their good looks and chic vibe. They stopped and began to oggle outside the glass windows like a bunch of hungry predators. Only a few were daring enough to come in after them.

"Hi there, welcome to NIT Coffee Shop!" the lady working at the counter greeted. "What can I get for you guys today?"

"One girl please," they chorused. "Extra normal."

All hell broke loose after that.

"I VOLUNTEER! I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!"
"OOOH, ME! PICK ME! I'M THE MOST NORMAL GIRL HERE!"
"HOW ABOUT ME OPPA? I WON FIRST PLACE IN A NORMAL GIRL CONTEST!"
"BACK OFF, WE FOUND THEM FIRST!"
"NO WAY, THEY HAD THEIR EYES ON ME FIRST!"

Amidst the sea of shoving and screaming rabid fan girls, the seven remained calm and composed. Myungsoo cocked his head towards the door, shoving his hands in his jean pockets. "This is why we can never go out of the house for too long. Let's just get out of here?"

"Call."

The seven filed out of the coffee shop empty-handed. Dongwoo and Woohyun were the last ones to leave, scooping up enough information about the management and how to get in touch with them. They'd deal with sorting out the damages later.

"Ciao, my adorable little kittens!" Woohyun bade, giving a little wink before stepping out of the establishment. The 75th annual 'Hunger Games' had been put to a temporary ceasefire as the girls started swooning and dropping to the floor unconscious, each one caught in their own little fantasy with Nam Woohyun.

Beneath his shades and face mask, Sunggyu looked revolted by the flirty display. "Wow, that was savage."

"Shame though. I really wanted to take a few home--"

Woohyun found his mouth bolted shut by six hands. "SHHHH!" they hushed in anger. The last thing they wanted was to trigger an entire bloodbath of fangirls.

-----()()()()()-----

Although it had been pushed to the back of the planning list earlier, in the end, they decided that the normal approach was their best course of action for now. The least they could do was to make her feel welcome and at home. So in the spirit of friendship and in the hopes of making a peace offering, they brought home some breakfast for their new housemate. The seven were a bit more complacent now that it was daytime. She couldn't be all that terrifying in broad daylight, could she?

But they still began pushing and shoving each other to the front the moment they got to her bedroom door before they had half a mind to decide over it fairly by drawing sticks. Sungjong, youngest of the bunch, was bullied into drawing the shortest one, of course.

Gathering his courage, he knocked thrice on the wooden door. "Good morning, Suji-ssi! If you're awake, can I talk to you for a second?"

No response was made, nor was there any indication that the person on the other side was listening. Sungjong decided to go on anyway. "In behalf of the hyungs, we're really sorry for all the horrible stuff we may have said or did last night," he said, hoping that his words would get across to their new housemate. "We brought some gimbap and some soup over. I even brought you some fresh lemonade. You haven't had your breakfast yet, right?"

"Is anybody even in there?" Woohyun hollered from the back.

It seems that Sungjong had been heard after all for the door creaked open. There appeared Bae Suji, still looking as grim as they last saw her. Her black hooded cloak was still on. Through her long bangs, they could see that she was wearing a pair of really really dark-tinted sunglasses.

Sungjong's knees felt like giving way. "W-W-Would you like t-t-to eat t-t-together?" he asked, trembling as he held up the plastic bag.

The girl only continued to stare into the depths of their souls from the shadows. "We'll just be leaving this here then, if you don't mind! Sorry for bothering you!" Sungyeol cut in, worrisome laughter spilling from his lips. He quickly collected the plastic bags and set them down on the floor in front of her door. A black leather-gloved hand shot out from underneath the black cloak and began dragging the food items back into the darkness of the room. Chills shot up through their spines, giving them eerie shivers.

The next thing they knew, the door had been slammed in their faces.

Hoya didn't realize that he had been holding his breath the whole time and felt bile rising to his throat once he was able to find his voice again. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Not here, please! Don't spew over the carpet!" Woohyun screeched. "I still don't know how to get that blasted vaccuum working!"

"She's still so scary and it's already seven in the morning!!!" Dongwoo wailed out loud.

"Nothing we can do about it now. What's done is done," Myungsoo hummed, having every intention of crashing into his own bedroom to catch up on his much-needed sleep.

Sunggyu wasn't having any of her foul attitude and would not let it go, even if the rest had started to file away to their respective bedrooms. "Hey," Sunggyu growled as he continued rapping onto the door. When no reply was made, he kicked it open in complete anger. Suji squeaked at the uncalled-for intrusion and scampered away, crawling under the safety of her bed. "HEY! People went out of their way to bring you some food, the least you could do is say 'thank you', not slam doors into their faces!"

"Hyung! You can't just go knocking down people's doors like a rampaging rhinoceros either!" Dongwoo scolded, holding the older guy back by the hem of his jacket. Hoya also stepped in to help, but he was a second too late to intervene. Sunggyu managed to free himself from Dongwoo's grasp and marched directly to Suji, who continued to cower in her hiding place.

"Bright!" she hissed, which went unnoticed by the rest. "Too bright!"

"Girls would kill to be in your position right now, getting her breakfast delivered from a famous top star like me! I'm frontlining the Hallyu wave, for crying out loud!" he growled. "If it weren't for your aunt blackmailing us into betting our rent to help you with your quirky attitude problem, all of us wouldn't be having this problem!"

Oh great. Sunggyu told her.

Suji paid no heed to that and only put her arms over her head. "Don't!" she squealed, crawling into a ball and under her bed even further. "Don't come near me!"

Sungyeol stepped forward, raising his arm up to midlevel. He lightly pushed Sunggyu back, a small indication for the older guy to back down. "By chance, you don't... you don't hate men, do you?" Sungyeol began softly, crouching down to meet Suji's eye-level. "Perhaps a bad experience in the past? Your face-- there has to be a reason why you hide your face like that."

"Oh right. Why didn't we think of that?" the rest thought. Sungyeol had a point. The loud mouth flagpole may not be the sharpest tool in the box, but he had a special kind of sensitivity to people's discomfort or personal problems.

Suddenly, she didn't seem all that scary to them again. It was Dongwoo who spoke up this time despite keeping his distance. "If that's the case, then we're sorry, Suji-ssi. We'll be a lot more careful from now on."

Woohyun scoffed in disbelief, his pride hurt by Sungyeol's suggestion. "That's insane! How could any pure-hearted maiden hate on the entire male species? Especially on such a fine, marvelous, perfect specimen like me?"

The rest sighed. And then they had Woohyun, the most tactless, hopeless one.


"You have it all wrong!"

Her voice might not have been as loud and boisterous, but her insistent undertone managed to catch their full attention. "That isn't it, but I can't tell you why," Suji finished firmly, not wanting to explain to them even further. "Now please. Get out of my room."

"Fine! Do whatever you want. I didn't want to come in here in the first place. What is up with all this haunted house crap anyway?" Sunggyu growled in complaint, brushing aside a room ornament that looked very much like a burial urn.

Haunted house... crap? The seven then realized that it was very, very wrong for them to feed their curiousity by having a look around.

The thick blood red velveteen curtains may have been put down but unnatural eerie lighting came in the form of several red, yellow and white candles that were lit up on several aged candelabras. On book shelves were several jars which contained different body parts: a disfigured hand, a foot, something that looked like entrails-- even eyeballs. On the topmost shelf was a preserved human skull. The book titles, from what they could make out were the following: "Shamanic Witchcraft for Dummies", "Summoning Shadows from the Realm of the Further", "101 Ways of Torture: A Classic" and the like. Her furniture was as high-end as the rest of the ones in the household but had jet black coverings or were polished black. A horror movie was rolling on the big flatscreen television.

But the main attraction, really, was at the center of the room. On the bedside table, a small black cauldron was used for a flower vase, and in it was a bouquet of wilted roses. A real coffin was laid out instead of a bed, and standing guard over it were three figures: two anatomical models and one skeleton.

On cue, a cold breeze blew, shutting off all flames coming from the candles, bathing the room in pitch black.

"DAMNIT!" Sunggyu roared, clawing blindly through the air. "WHO PUT THE ING LIGHTS OUT?"

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

Jang Dongwoo was obviously the first one to run out, wailing and screaming his head off. Everyone else followed suit, running out and far, far away from the room as possible until their tired legs gave up on them. Sungyeol was the last one to leave and had half-a-mind to help drag out blind-as-a-bat Sunggyu.

-----()()()()()-----

"Dongwoo, that looks absurd. The landlady's niece isn't a vampire!" Sunggyu exclaimed upon seeing their companion come in from the kitchen. The funky smell that greeted the living room with him caught everyone's attention before anything else.

Dongwoo was now sporting a necklace made of garlic. Aside from that, he had a turban made of garlic, arm and leg bands made of garlic, a belt made of garlic. Basically the boy had wrapped every nook and cranny of himself up in so much garlic as protective measures from being attacked in his sleep. "Better safe than sorry. Besides, what makes you say that she doesn't come from a family of vampires?" he challenged them.

"She isn't a vampire, hyung. She's just... errr... very misunderstood," Sungyeol corrected. He had no other backers for this theory of his, save for Sungjong who was nodding in the background.

"Dude," Myungsoo spoke up. "Are you blind or do I have to show you that coffin again? That definitely spells vampire. Or at least a certain form of the undead."

Woohyun's devious little grin was back on once again. "Hey, maybe she does hail from a coven of vampires! That's why Auntie Bae is still such a babe-- it's like she's never aged past twenty!"

A good smack was delivered to Woohyun's head care of none other than Hoya. "You're nothing but a complete !" Hoya scolded. "The guy's already scared less. Stop feeding weird thoughts into his head! Besides, let's not steer away from the conversation of grandpa here blabbing about the rent deal."

"What I did was a necessary evil! If she isn't oblivious to it, wouldn't getting her to cooperate be easier?" Sunggyu huffed.

"He's right, you know? It's not like we could sweet talk her out of it. How were we supposed to communicate with someone who holes herself up in her room and doesn't even want to talk to us?" Woohyun agreed.

"And if she tells Auntie Bae about it? She'll really make us pay the rent regardless if that happens."

"So this is our end then? We pay rent?"

"We'll leave it at that for now. What do we do about lunch?"

"You guys up for jjampong?"


For the subsequent meals, they decided to take turns delivering takeout or whatever they had to her bedroom, leaving it outside her door. After an hour, someone else would pick the tray up, and it was promptly placed back where it was left, already emptied and cleaned. It was a working system for them so they stuck to it. Sunggyu thought they might as well have a built in dog flap for her door, but dismissed the thought immediately. No sane man would want to stick his hands through a flap after seeing the horrors that lay beyond that door.

It was Sungjong's duty to clear away the dishes that night. He went up after an hour to collect them, only to find that the Suji's dinner remained untouched and had gone cold. The hallway was unusually silent and desolate, as if no life form was present there at that very moment.

While he was looking out of the window, pondering on a million and one reasons why their landlady's niece had refused to eat tonight, he spotted suspicious movement by the far-off hedges. Out sprung a hooded figure in black and it looked like it was heading towards the mansion gates. Sungjong felt his blood run cold as he watched the thing scale up the black and gold bars like a humongous spider and land safely on the other side. That feat alone wasn't human at all.

It was only then he had noticed a small post-it stuck to her door. "Gone to the Underworld. Don't look for me," the note read.

Sungjong could not believe it. Bae Suji, the girl they had all bet their 5,250,000,000 KRW in total rent's worth, had just ran away from home.

-----()()()()()-----

Suji found herself on a swing set in one of the nearby playgrounds, having nowhere else to go after running away from home. It had been a pain, finding the right timing to escape from the dazzling creatures without being seen. In the first place, she was a misfit in that dungeon of dazzling creatures. If she stayed any longer as well, she was sure to have suffered from serious blood loss from her frequent nosebleeds.

"I'll leave then. To a place that suits me better," was Suji's resolve as she hopped out her window in the middle of the night.

The spots under the bridges were already packed with homeless people. She couldn't access the underground sewers even if she yanked and yanked on the too heavy manhole covering. She had also been booted out of the Metropolitan train station and bus stations by authorities. She was sure she couldn't tolerate the heat if she forced herself to stay at a spa and sauna-- plus, she didn't have any money with her at the moment.

Sometimes, she wished she could just disappear and melt away into darkness. Maybe this was the world's way of telling her that there was no place for a miserable, ugly girl like her.

Suji told herself that this was all going to be okay. That is, if she could survive a night of camping out in the streets of Seoul. For tonight, she'd have to make do with this playground. She'd be on that first trip to Gwangju tomorrow morning before she knew it. 

"There's a girl!"

Danger bells were ringing in her ear, warning her to move away as quickly as possible but she was too late. There were two men who had approached her, flanking each of her sides.

"Hi, babe," one of them spoke up. Suji could smell the horid stench of alchol in his breath even if she wasn't speaking to him face-to-face. "You seem like the type to play around. Care to ease our lonely lives for tonight? Why don't you join us for some soju, huh?"

The girl blanched. Were these hobos actually picking her up? It's not like she knew anyway, she's never been picked up and hit on since the day she was born.

"So how about it, sweetheart? Why don't you take your hood off and let us see your beautiful face, baby?"

Disgusted by their actions and words, Suji turned to face them slowly. Their lustful looks turned into looks of utmost terror as they began backing away from her, horrified by what they saw. One guy had peed himself in his pants. The other had tripped and fell backward, his legs shaking and eventually giving way.

"G-G-GHOST! GHOST!" they both ran away screaming into the bushes.

Suji could only sigh in response. This was going to be a long, long night.



"Geez, there you are, Suji-ssi!"

A boy of her age came jogging towards her, stopping to catch his breath. She recognized that soft stern tone as that belonging to one of her new housemates, the very same one that had offered her some breakfast. Now that it was dark and he had a lemon yellow hoodie and mask on, Suji wasn't as bedazzled by his brilliance. Well, he was still dazzling, but it got toned down to a tolerable level for her now that he was almost fully-covered.

"Any girl shouldn't be walking around by herself this late at night. It's dangerous! You could get hurt out here," Lee Sungjong scolded, tired from running all over the place. Maybe he should have taken Hoya's and Dongwoo's offer to accompany him to the gym after all to build up his poor stamina. "More importantly, are you okay?"

She nodded. All those people that had encountered her were unable to hurt a single strand of hair on her head because she ended up scaring the all off. If that wasn't a good indication, she didn't know what else was. Her voice came out in a low whisper as she spoke to him out of curiousity. "How did you find me?"

Sungjong only shrugged, deciding to attribute it all to good intuition. In reality, he had only followed some directions from people screaming their heads off about seeing a girl ghost in the playgrounds.

"How did you know I was gone?"

"You didn't eat your dinner today. I was the one who came in to check," Sungjong responded wistfully before handing her a brown doggie bag. "Here, I packed you a sandwich so you can have something on the way home. But seriously Suji-ssi, Sunggyu-hyung gets mad a little and you run away. I've heard worse directed to me with that naggy mouth of his, so the best advice I can give you is not to take it to heart. It takes a while to get used to, but he means well, that guy."

"Lucky for me you didn't wander away that far enough. I'm sorry I took awhile to follow after you though. I had to make sure the hyungs were all pre-occupied with something else. They would have been suspicious if I suddenly disappeared like that. Maybe it's best if we keep this a secret or they'll all get into a hissy fit. It's hard to be responsible for them-- they're all just a bunch of big babies, really."

The cheerful laughter that escaped his lips was melodious to the ear, calming even. Suji could deal with that. She was pretty good at hushing up about secrets. It's not like she had anyone to talk to in the first place.

"Now shall we head home, Suji-ssi?" Sungjong asked brightly.

She wasn't melting nor blinded. Blood wasn't spurting out of her nose due to the stress, so she concluded that Sungjong must be safe to hang around with for now. Suji found her feet as she got up from the swing set and followed behind him as he lead the way home.

Home. She actually had a home to go to.

Maybe this was the world's way of telling her that there still was a place for a miserable, ugly girl like her.

-----()()()()()-----

Sungjong hasn't spoken to Suji again since that night, but he was much more at home now with their strange new housemate. He made it a point to send everyone into their rooms by a certain time of the night so the girl could walk around and stretch her legs without bumping into any of them. Living with Bae Suji was like having a resident house ghost. As long as they didn't bother her, she didn't bother them either.

By dinner time the next day, the whole household was back to its lively state. Hunger pangs have gotten to the boys once again and they all flocked to the kitchen in search of something to edible to eat. Discrediting the usual take-out, they've been living off instant ramyeon, toast, oatmeal, imitation crab meat and the like for the past few weeks. Piping hot homemade dinner sounded really nice right now, but that was an impossible option for all of them. Neither of them had a decent hold in cooking (save for Woohyun and his fried rice, but that was it).

Sungyeol was digging through their cupboard for a spare bowl to pour some stale cereal in and found none. To his dismay, all available dishware was by the sink. "HEY!" he complained, seeing the mountain of unwashed dishes that had accumulated. "Whose turn was it to wash the dishes?"

"Sunggyu-hyung," drawled a lazy Myungsoo from where he was seated.

The eldest looked up from his phone in protest. "Hell no! I am not getting my hands dirty with all that gunk! Besides, my dishwashing duty ended two weeks ago!"

"But you didn't do them during your assigned rotation week," Myungsoo continued. "I didn't think it was fair for me to clean up when you didn't even do your part, so I left it at that."

"With my line of work, you can't expect someone like me to wash dishes! Each of these fingers are insured for the sake of music, you little !" Sunggyu groaned, showing off his delicate pale hands. "But you wouldn't understand what it means to work hard anyway. Your pretty face lets you get away with practically anything!"

That was the last straw for Myungsoo. He stood up and yanked Sunggyu roughly by the front of his collar. "Say that again, I dare you."

"No need to argue-- I'll cook! I'll cook!" Sungjong intervened, breaking the two apart before they could start clawing and ripping at each other's throats. "I'll even wash all of those dishes for the two of you! It's my turn this week anyway! There! Happy?"

Hoya looked a bit worried as he watched the unstable maknae bumble about in the kitchen, taking out several pots and pans and going through what was edible in their fridge. A total of six plates had already been broken in a short span of five minutes. "Can Sungjong even cook?" he wondered.

"No can do. Let's just order some take-out," Sungyeol waved off.

"After chipping in for damages to that coffee shop, we don't have any more money for that," Dongwoo chuckled.

"I can call some girls over to bring some lunchboxes--" Woohyun chirped.

"They're too noisy, it'll only be a pain and you'll be starving Howon," Myungsoo shot down.

Unbeknownst to all of them, the commotion had attracted the attention of Suji, who had come to see what was wrong with all the yelling, banging of pots and breaking of plates. She figured that they were arguing over dinner and were all cranky due to hunger. The girl continued to lurk behind the kitchen arc where she was safely hidden, her gaze trailing over to Sungjong. While his stupid hyungs continued to fight, he was going through the motions of preparing budae-jjigae over in his head. The way he was mincing the garlic cloves with difficulty told her that he was inexperienced in the kitchen. The incident of two nights ago was still fresh in her memory. The very least she could do to thank him was helping him out. It was just dinner after all.

About the rest? As long as they weren't all up in her face while cooking, she'll live.

The seven felt the hair on the back of their necks stand up as some sinister aura filled the kitchen and dining area. Suji's sudden appearance from the shadows almost gave everyone a heart attack. They were all creeped out as they watched her looming towards Sungjong, who only dropped the knife back into the sink in his shock.

What was she doing down here?

"It's S-S-Suji-ssi!"

"Sit down."

"Yes ma'am!" the seven squealed and immediately settled themselves on the dining table, not wanting to incur her wrath. (Hoya could only gulp in silence.) Bullets of sweat ran down their faces as they dared to crane their necks towards the kitchen. Suji had picked up a butcher's knife by now and was humming a creepy melody to herself. There was blood splattering on the pristine kitchen walls every now and then, but she only cackled with glee, amused as she continued to raise the bloodied knife high in the air every now and then.

They could see it all now. Headlines tomorrow would scream: "Massacre at the Mansion: Seven Boys Brutally Butchered to Death. Severed Parts Left to Rot Outside Bae Mansion." in huge, capital letters. The question was... who was she killing first? Most of them were honestly placing their bets on either Sunggyu or Woohyun, because the two had been the most annoying to her.

Several fish heads flew and landed with a sick mush onto the counter. After a short while, there was a small click and a sizzling sound.

"Is she... cooking for us?" Sungyeol questioned, surprised by their new housemate's sudden change in attitude. Although she kept her back to them, they watched as she seasoned the meat, cracked some eggs, stirred a pot of stew-- all of it. It seemed surreal to all of them, but their eyes couldn't deceive them. Creepy Bae Suji, wearing her auntie's pink frilly apron, was cooking a meal for a brood of seven rowdy boys.

It seemed almost motherly to Sungjong and he couldn't help himself from smiling the whole time as he watched her. Somehow, he felt a sense of pride. Not all hope was lost for the seven of them. Seeing the way Suji was at that very moment, turning her into a proper lady was possible after all.



The seven gathered around the dining table, feasting their eyes on the ten main-course dinner laid out for them. It was an amazing feat that Suji managed to accomplish all of this in an hour and a half. Said girl had disappeared back into the darkness once she was done, taking an appropriate-sized portion for herself.

"It looks... appetizing," Sunggyu mumbled in sheer awe. Their grumbling bellies could attest to how mouthwatering the prepared dishes looked. They were even plated like those of gourmet restaurants, so he couldn't help but his lips and gulp hard in anticipation. "It even smells appetizing!"

Dongwoo, despite protests from his aching belly, still had the decency to be wary about it. "I don't know. Can we really trust the food she prepared?"

"She might have added poison. Laxatives? Maybe," Woohyun teased. "Or even worse... eyeballs!" 

"You be the poison tester then," Hoya chided, taking to covering the older guys ears as his own way of comforting him. "You know how easily that scares Dongwoo."

With much hesitance and reservations, they sat themselves down on the dining table. It was a fierce battle of mistrust versus hunger holding them back from digging in fully. The temptation of food was too strong, now that it was directly in front of them. Even the rice alone was hypnotizing. If they did reject it, it was such a waste and they would go through the night starving in misery.

Sungjong, unable to take it, broke the solemn silence. If Suji had been willing to come out of her comfort zone to help him out, then her intentions couldn't be that bad. "Shall we? Suji's food won't kill us. I'm sure."

To prove his point, Sungjong daringly took a big spoonful of stew. After blowing on it to cool it to a non-scalding temperature, he popped the whole spoonful into his mouth. He was silent after, the spoon still firmly lodged between his lips as though frozen in place. His eyes were watering all of a sudden, which scared the other six.

"Sungjong?" Sunggyu called out, worried about his expression. "YAH, Lee Sungjong! Say something, will you? You're scaring everybody!"

A curious Howon had dipped a finger in to taste some sauce. He had grown silent as well, frozen in place. One by one, the boys started trying small bits of the food.

Everyone was in near tears after their first bite. The food tasted so heavenly, they almost cried out of pure joy. With gusto, the seven began piling food on their plates, hogging everything they could get their grubby little hands on.

"THIS. IS. THE. BEST. I'VE. EVER. EATEN. IN. MY. ENTIRE. LIFE!"
"FINALLY! SOME GOOD FOOD!"
"EVEN THE SIDE DISHES ARE SO EXQUISITE!"
"DELICIOUS! DELICIOUS!"
"I'LL NEVER EAT ANYTHING ELSE EVER AGAIN!"

All dishes were polished, and all their bellies were filled to maximum that night. Just as they were patting their bellies out of contentment, a small voice spoke up from out of nowhere.

"Ummm... hey." 

Suji hadn't left after all and was just bidding her time in the darkness as they ate. "This is my apology for last time... and my thanks for welcoming me," she told from behind the kitchen archway, unable to bring herself to look them directly in the eye. "That's all. If you'll excuse me, then."

"Hmmm, that's quite some progress, you speaking more than three sentences to us," Woohyun spoke up, taking long strides toward the archway, where the unsuspecting girl continued hiding. "But we'd appreciate it more if you told us here in person."

Success! Woohyun had plunged into the darkness and grabbed her hand on first try. Suji hissed at the contact, surprising Woohyun and the rest. But before she could even make a clean get-away, Woohyun had grabbed on to the hem of her cloak.

"LET GO!" she squealed, fastening her grip onto wall. Woohyun heaved and grunted, not wanting to give up this tug of war battle, even if it felt like he was pulling in the weight of a baby whale. "I'LL-- I'LL MELT!"

Now that they were able to catch her up close and personal (and in better lighting at that), the seven found themselves stunned for a second. Milky hands with delicate long fingers were clinging tight onto the wall. Suji's hood had also fallen, and although she still refused to show her face with her long bangs still covering more than half of it, the rest of her long black hair had been tied into a rather neat bun. Even her pale neckline from the back looked extremely elegant enough and it vaguely reminded them of their fabulous landlady.

Fortunately, that was all the time Suji needed to escape from their clutches, shrieking "Too dazzling! I'll melt!" over and over again on the way to the solace of her bedroom.


Sungjong only laughed as he watched her run off. The girl was really full of surprises.

"Look what you did, Woohyun. You scared her," Sungyeol pouted. "She was just getting friendly too."

"It was necessary evil!" the Nam heir replied in defense of his actions. "Because of that, we have acquired an important fact of information: it is highly possible for us to turn her into a lady. She cooks like a proper lady. And from the back, I couldn't even distinguish her from Auntie Bae. A fire of motivation has been lit, my friends! Now if only we could catch a glimpse of her face..." 

The kitchen phone ringing put a stop to his unnecessary monologue. The seven stared at each other, looking for someone-- anyone-- to push to answer the phone.

"You caused trouble, you answer it. It's probably one of your honeybabies anyway," Hoya snapped, referring to Woohyun. He shuddered at the fact that he had brought himself to utter such an atrocity. The rest mumbled in agreement behind him.

Woohyun sighed and picked up the phone. "Hi, good evening this is none other than the handsome Nam Woohyun on the line. How may I help you tonight?" he greeted. "AUNTIE BAE!!! NICE TO HEAR FROM YOU!"

WHAT? AUNTIE BAE?!? CALLING SO SOON ALREADY?

"Ahh, Suji? She's alright, she's eating well. In fact, she's just whipped us up some nice dinner," Woohyun crooned. If ever he was panicking right now, he wasn't showing it; his mouth only spilling forth nothing but praises for his landlady's niece to up to her. "It's only been a few days, but she's maturing well into a nice young proper lady just like you."

"Nam, your lies are going to get us all killed!" Myungsoo began before the rest silenced him, smothering him with a kitchen cushion momentarily.

"Don't worry, you can leave it to us! Rest assured, Princess Suji will always be in good hands! Bye Auntie, I'll tell her you called!" Woohyun was expecting the others too lash out at his lies after he had ended the phone call, but they had themselves preoccupied with something on the archway wall as of the moment.

"Holy... ..." Sunggyu cursed under his breath, unable to watch his tongue. "I shouldn't goad her from now on."

"T-That... that isn't even human!" Dongwoo whimpered, almost passing out at the sight. They all directed their attention to the cracks on the wall made by Suji's vice-like grip on it from earlier. It ran up all the way, reaching as high as the ceiling. If it weren't for the archway standing there as support, the wall would have caved in and crumbled. The seven could only cower in fear, terrified by her other-worldly strength.

Make that into a lady? Bull! They couldn't even get her to act like a normal human! How much more a proper lady?

"IMPOSSIBLE!"

A/N: Look at the bunch of scaredy cats, getting freaked out by one girl. Suzy with the constant nosebleeds from the dazzling creatures is another. Well in K-Dramas, they put nosebleeds there as a dramatic almighty interpretation of extreme stress. Study too hard for an exam? Nosebleed. Work too hard at your job? Nosebleed. Either that or they all really have thin membranes and fragile blood vessels. Question now is, will they all be able to handle each other? :)

Anyway, hi there guys, sorry for the long lack of updates, but it seems I've found time and inspiration to pick up this fic again. I've been working on my other Infinite fic more actually [If you'd like to check that out click here] and did somewhat neglect this in the process. I am the worst *crawls under the bed like Suzy does*. Hopefully I was able to deliver this chapter well. Thank you all for subscribing and commenting and upvoting-- they're very very very much appreciated. See you next update! :)

PS: Title inspired and adapted from Muse. Muse is awesome. Kim Sunggyu definitely approves of them too!