As the evening went on, Eunkyung was getting more and more comfortable with talking. She  still preferred to just listen in on conversations, but as the night went on, she wasn’t afraid to add to it. The wonderful thing about the boys next door, she learned, is that while these boys knew almost everything about each other and could practically read each others thoughts, they still had the most hilarious exchanges. And it didn’t feel like they were laving her out of the conversation either. In fact they even went out of their way to talk to her.

After her history monologue, they began asking her all kinds of questions about her courses. And once they learned she was taking astronomy for her science credit, Eunkyung learn that the boys had a fascination with space, particularly moons. None of the boys attended school, but Yugyeom was home schooled by all of them since he was a senior in high school. They all specialized in a subject and taught him different things as well agave him assignments.

Apparently, Jackson had once given him homework for PE and made him run around the forest for hours. 

Yugyeom claims he’s never forgiven him for that.

“Eunkyung, what do you like to do in your free time?” Jr asked as he served desert. “I feel like we’ve been talking the whole time and you’ve barely been able to say anything.”

“Oh, that’s not true. You guys listened to me ramble about history.” She wrung her hands in her lap, trying to hide how nervous she was. It wasn’t like she did much in her free time, that’s why she took some many classes. At least, it was nothing impressive. “I just knit and study. I like to read, too.”

Jr perked up at that and looked at her excitedly. “Really? Me, too! I’m reading The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly, by Sun-Mi Hwang.”

Eunkyung beamed. “I love that story! My mom gave me a copy of it when I was little and we read it together.”

JB noted that this was the first time she had mentioned her mother around them.

“It’s one of my favorites,” She continued. “It holds a lot of special memories for me.”

Eunkyung didn’t elaborate further, but The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly was one of the few memories she had of her mother that never made her sad. It was a precious, happy memory, untainted even by her untimely death. Her mother had used the story to encourage her to chase after her hearts desire and to look after her own needs while balancing the needs of others as well.

“What’s it about?” Yugyeom asked.

“It’s about a hen who lives on a farm and can’t lay eggs anymore. She had wanted to be a mother for many years but had been denied that by the farmer, who wanted to sell her eggs on the market. When she can’t lay eggs anymore, she runs away from the farm and finds an abandoned egg so she hatches it herself.” Eunkyung smiled fondly. “It’s a wonderful fable. I really recommend it.”

“It sounds interesting!” Yugyeom turned Jr. “Do you have a copy of it I can borrow, hyung?”

“Yeah, remind me to grab it for you later.” Jr nodded before turning back to him cake. “It’s on my bookshelf.”

“What do you like to like to do in your free time , Yugyeom?” Eunkyung asked in turn.

“Oh, um…” JB sent the pup a sharp look, reminding him to be careful with his words. If she starts to think there might be something up with them, they’d wouldn’t be able to have dinner with her like this again. “…Nothing much. I play video games and watch youtube videos.”

He kept it intentionally vague. Video games were a general thing that everyone liked. And yeah, he did play them every now and then but he definitely wasn’t a gamer. And there was no way that he’d tell her that he and Bambam liked to watch bad werewolf videos and laugh at how unrealism and cheesy they were.

“That’s cool.” She nodded, but thankfully it seemed like she didn’t have much to say on that topic. “What kind of games do you play?”

“We all play Mario Kart against each other.” Youngjae spoke up. “It’s really fun, but it gets loud.”

“Really? I’ve never played Mario Kart before.” 

Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at Eunkyung.

“Really?” Jackson looked shocked and slightly offended. “How dare you? How dare you come into our house, eat our food, and you’ve never played Mario Kart before.”

“Jackson, stop scaring her,” Yugyeom made a face at Jackson. “It’s not like everyone has to enjoy the same things. And we invited her here. Weren’t you the one who went online for hours to find recipes for Jr? You were looking forward to her visit.”

“But she hasn’t played Mario Kart!” Jackson cried. Then he whipped around to Eunkyung and grabbed her hands. “We must fix this.”

“Jackson,” JB spoke sharply. “Just eat your ice cream, this isn’t that big of a deal.Stop over reacting.”

“Um…” Eunkyung spoke up. “I would like to try playing it. Not right now of course!”

She spoke quickly, afraid that they would thing she was trying to overstay her welcome.

“But, maybe, if you’d like Jackson, I can come over and you can teach me how to play.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear nervously.

“We’ll fix you yet, Oh Eunkyung.” Jackson said seriously, as if her playing a racing game was a matter of life or death. “When are you free?”

“Um… I don’t have much homework, so maybe sometime this weekend?” Then she stiffened, afraid that that might be too short of a notice. “Or next weekend! What ever works for you!”

“I’m expecting you on our porch first thing tomorrow morning to begin your training.” Jackson finally let go of her hands and Eunkyung wiped her nervous, sweaty palms on her pants.

“You don’t need to come that  early.” Yugyeom told her. “He’s just being a drama queen. Just come whenever you’re free. We aren’t doing anything tomorrow so you’re welcome to come and go as you please.”

“Okay,” She smiled slightly. “I guess I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

A/N: *Body rolls* Yay!!! Another chapter! GOT7 really awkward around Eunkyung right now lol hopefully the game night will fix that! :D