Delilah awoke to a nearly empty living room. Her eyes searched the room, finding only Chanyeol, Jongin, Chen, and Baekhyun sprawled out around her. A quiet laugh escaped as she caught sight of Chen’s arm thrown over Chanyeol protectively. The sound of a quiet cough caught her attention and she turned to see Xiumin in the doorway to the kitchen. Quietly she stood and headed toward him, taking one final glance back at the boys laying on the floor.

 

The smell of coffee filled the kitchen, carrying bits and pieces of caramel and mocha along with it. The smell was inviting, to say the least. Mixed amongst it was the sweet smell of maple syrup and bacon. She was surprised the smell alone hadn’t woken her.

 

“You look like you’re back to normal,” Kyungsoo’s voice called to her.

 

Delilah smiled kindly and blushed in embarrassment, nodding in response. She would definitely think of some way to repay all of their kindness to her in the last few days. She sat at the island in the center of the kitchen, Xiumin moving to stand in front of her.

 

“Would you like some coffee?” He asked, his eyebrows raised and a grin slipped across his lips.

 

“That would be great, actually.”

 

He seemed to become more animated and excited as he slid away to prepare said coffee. From across the kitchen, Kyungsoo scurried about between the stove, counters, refrigerator, and pantry. A few moments later Lay walked in, careful to avoid where Kyungsoo was working. Behind him trailed Sehun, who looked exceptionally displeased about being awake. His hair was still a mess and he remained shirtless as he stumbled into a seat next to Delilah.

 

“Are you okay, Sehun?” Delilah asked worriedly.

 

“He’ll be alright. He’s not much of a morning person,” Lay explained for him.

 

Sehun groaned and laid his head down on his arms. The sound of glass being placed down in front of both Delilah and Sehun took both of their attention. Sehun lethargically reached out, taking the mug in both hands and lifting it to his nose to smell. Delilah picked up her mug and sipped it, surprise hitting her as she hadn’t expected anything but plain black coffee. The taste of caramel and hazelnut engulfed her senses and she closed her eyes to enjoy it.

 

“Is it good?”

 

Xiumin sounded anxious. Delilah opened her eyes and grinned, nodding furiously. She paused and took another sip, placing the mug down to give it time to cool. Xiumin seemed to celebrate this small victory with a broad grin and a quick fist pump. He turned back to the counter he had worked at and began to make more.

 

“Breakfast will be ready soon, can someone wake the beagles?”

 

Delilah blinked a few times, narrowing her eyes in confused at Kyungsoo.

 

“I’ve got it,” Lay replied excitedly, launching out of the kitchen.

 

“The beagles?” Delilah questioned.

 

“It’s a nickname for Yeol, Baek, and Chen. They’re such energetic little monsters,” Kyungsoo explained, his attention still taken almost entirely by his current task, “They remind us of puppies.”

 

“But why beagles?” The girl asked, mostly to herself.

 

“It was just random,” Kyungsoo spoke quickly.

 

Xiumin and Sehun shot a quiet glance at Kyungsoo, both in admiration of how clever his reply had been. From the doorway Baekhyun stumbled in, his hair a mess and his face contorted into a dark glare as he stammered over to the island in the center of the kitchen. A moment later Chanyeol appeared, thick-rimmed glasses and disheveled silver hair accompanying him.

 

“Good morning, Lilah,” Chanyeol spoke, his voice deeper than usual as he worked on staying awake.

 

“Good morning,” she replied with a smile.

 

“Kyungsoo-ah, what’s with you making food so early?” Baekhyun whined.

 

This was the first time Delilah had heard him whine so childishly and it made her giggle. Had she not known any better she could have pegged him as the maknae of the group. Sehun raised his head and took a sip of his coffee, taking a moment before setting it down and nodding in agreement with Baekhyun.

 

“It’s nearly lunch time, Baekhyun. Stop whining,” Xiumin explained, waving a spoon at him before turning back to the counter.

 

Silence ushered itself in, occasionally interrupted by another one of the boys entering the kitchen. It wasn’t long before Kyunsoo started handing out plates of food to everyone and Xiumin finished making coffee for everyone. The kitchen remained silent as everyone ate, also. As their meal came to an end, Kyungsoo insisted that Delilah head home rather than help him with the kitchen. After arguing stubbornly for ten minutes, Delilah eventually caved and decided a shower would be a welcome comfort.

 

“What are we going to do about tomorrow night?”

 

That question hung in the air for a few minutes before anyone thought to answer.

 

“We can just say we’re going to bed early,” Luhan spoke, “Since it’ll be Tao, Kris, and I it should be believable.”

 

“And we could insist on hanging out at her house,” Suho chimed in.

 

“That’s probably for the best,” Chen added, crossing his arms and leaning back in his seat.

 

Silence filed in again, Kyungsoo sighing and heading toward the kitchen to work on the dishes.

“We need to be better prepared than this for next time,” he called before disappearing into the kitchen.

 

-----x-----

 

The day had come and gone, the night giving way to another small storm before calming back to a quiet drizzle. Delilah say behind the keys of her piano, her fingers dancing gracefully amongst the ivory. She had made sure to lock both the front and back door before playing so that no one could intrude again.

 

The sound of her phone buzzing startled her, her fingers slipping and striking an unkind chord. With a frown she grabbed her phone, standing as she slid her finger across the screen to open the text message.

 

From: Baekhyun

 

Let us in! We know you’re in there!

 

By the time her eyes had finished scanning the message she was reaching for the doorknob, a simple motion turning the lock. She pulled the door open to reveal Baekhyun, Yixing, Jongin, and Xiumin. She moved and allowed them inside, closing the door and neglecting to lock it this time.

 

“It’s about time,” Baekhyun whined, “Why were the doors locked anyway?”

 

“No reason,” Delilah replied, her face turning red with embarrassment.

 

“I thought I heard music playing when I went to check the back door?” Yixing commented.

 

Delilah sighed quietly to herself.

 

“We have a music room down the hall,” She explained.

 

Without another word, the boys glanced at one another and started making their way down the dark hallway. A few seconds later Delilah finally decided to follow, hoping they wouldn’t bug her to play for them. It was embarrassing enough that Kyungsoo had heard her play, though she had been given the time to think about it and move past it. To be entirely honest, she wasn’t sure if she’d be too scared to play for him, now.

 

The sound of an unfamiliar song fell on her ears and she paused just before the door to listen. It was a slow, beautiful song. The notes that danced through the air rang together in perfect chords. A few seconds in and the music stopped, Delilah taking a few steps forward to look inside.

Baekhyun sat at the piano, his fingers still on the last chord he had played, Yixing and Xiumin stood behind him, looking over his shoulder. Jongin was across the room, glancing around at the few pictures on the walls and the various bits of music posted here and there.

 

“Why’d you stop?”

 

Her voice came out quieter than she would have liked, though she knew it had been heard. The group glanced at her, Baekhyun smiling at her as though he was extremely amused by her question.

 

“The song’s not finished yet,” he replied, “I’m waiting on Soo and Chen to help me put it together.”

 

“So you guys write music?”

 

“We’re performers,” Xiumin replied, “Well, we’re learning performers.”

 

She suddenly remembered them telling her they were from a performing arts school.

 

“Didn’t you say you played piano, Delilah?” Jongin asked curiously.

 

Before she could reply, Baekhyun stood up and pulled the cover over the keys.

 

“We should watch a movie!” He interjected a bit loudly.

 

A sudden wave of courage came over the girl then, her brain not being able to tell to stop before she spoke.

 

“I can play something for you if you want.”

 

The room went silent then, Baekhyun look at her as though she had just spoken some language he didn’t understand. Yixing, Xiumin, and Jongin beamed at her, nodding furiously in excitement.

 

“Are you sure? I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Baekhyun stammered.

 

His sudden concern made her falter for a moment. It was then she truly realized what she had just done. Her hands began to tremble and her heart began to pound in her chest. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was too late to back down now. Besides, it was childish to be afraid of playing for someone.

She moved quickly and as calmly as possible toward the piano, Baekhyun moving out of the way reluctantly as she pushed the key cover up and out of the way. She sat behind the keys and stared at them for a moment, her brain panicking and trying to figure out what was happening. Her fingers lifted to the keys, pressing down on the first few notes of ‘River Flows In You.’ Before she knew it her hands were moving on their own and her brain blocked everything else out.

 

The final notes came and there was a brief moment of silence. Her heart dropped in her chest as she listened to nothing, the reverberating strings inside the wooden piano dying into the sound of the rain outside. She turned her head slightly, glancing at the boys. Delilah saw them stare silently at both her and the piano, and she wasn’t entirely sure what emotions were written on their faces.

 

“Could you play that again?” Jongin asked quietly, unsure if he should break the silence or not.

 

With an anxious nod she turned, moving to place her hands on the keys again.

 

“No, not now,” He interrupted.

 

Delilah looked over at him, her heart starting to pound in her chest again. She still wasn’t entirely sure how they had felt about it and that was making her panic.

 

“Can we get the others first and then can you play that for us?”

 

The idea of an audience made her panic worse, but she turned her head and squeezed her eyes shut, nodding.

 

“You don’t have to play it again-“

 

“It’s okay,” Delilah broke Baekhyun’s sentence, “I’ll be okay.”

 

“No really,” Xiumin spoke then, “Don’t feel like you have to it’s just that,” he paused for a moment, looking for words.

 

“That was really beautiful,” Yixing spoke for Xiumin, “You’re very good.”

 

Xiumin nodded and grinned beside Yixing, agreeing. Jongin and Baekhyun nodded also, and suddenly the panic washed away from her body.

 

“So is it okay if I get the others?” Jongin asked quietly, now unsure of his initial plan.

 

Delilah looked down at the keys of the piano and nodded, turning to the four with a smile.

 

“I’ve got to get over this eventually, right?”

 

“Only if you want to,” Yixing replied seriously.

 

She faltered for a moment, thinking it through. She did want to get over being afraid to play for people, she had just never known how to go about it. But now she had people asking her to play for them and she had people who had heard her play. Delilah knew, at least, that the boys wouldn’t attack her for messing up and they certainly wouldn’t judge her for anything. If there was anyone she should play for, she thought, it should be them.

 

“I do.” Delilah replied confidently.

 

With that, Jongin pulled out his phone, leaving the room to call the rest of the boys. Baekhyun grinned childishly at her.

 

“Want something to drink?” She asked them.

 

The three boys nodded and Delilah stood, slipping past them and then again past Jongin, motioning for him to follow them to the kitchen. She slipped over to the refrigerator, peeking in to see what they had.

 

“We have milk, various sodas, water, and grape juice. I can also make tea,” she suggested.

 

She turned around and faced them, listening and tossing them what they wanted, which was all water. With a water bottle in hand for herself, she closed the fridge, the sound of the front door opening and closing a few delayed seconds later. Chanyeol was the first to peek his head into the kitchen. Once he had entered, the others filed in behind him.

 

“Are you really going to play the piano for us, Lilah?” Chanyeol beamed.

 

She was surprised to see him so excited. She took a moment to glance at everyone else and found everyone but Kyungsoo just as excited. He looked at her with slight worry, but a reassuring smile made him smile back.

 

“Yeah. I can’t be afraid to play for people my whole life,” she began, “And I trust you guys.”

 

A varied mixture of response came and Delilah smiled.

 

“If you guys want something to drink, help yourself to the fridge, I’ll wait for everyone in the music room.”

 

A few of the boys stepped past her as she moved around them toward the hallway. Kyungsoo took stride beside Delilah, looking at her worriedly still.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

The concern made her smile and she nodded to him. She had remembered the small episode she had when he had walked in on her playing the other day and embarrassment suddenly flooded her.

 

“I’ll be okay, Kyungsoo. I promise. I already played for Baekhyun, Yixing, Jongin, and Xiumin. And you’ve heard me play too,” she explained, suddenly more confident.

 

She hadn’t really took time to count how many of them had heard her play. Besides her parents once on accident, she had willingly played for five people. Once they reached the music room, she sat behind the piano and waited patiently for the group to congregate around her. They stood in various places, though they respected her space, having remembered the conversation they’d had about her anxiety.

 

When she was ready, Delilah’s fingers grazed the proper keys and introduced the first few notes of “River Flows In You”. She quickly lost herself as she played, a calm replacing all the anxiety that had once infected her. Her mind wandered between placement of her fingers and the upcoming notes and chords that needed to be played. When the song ended she was met with the same amazed silence she had been into earlier that evening. Her head turned and her eyes took in all of their reactions.

 

“That was beautiful.”

 

Chen’s voice started strong and died as he spoke, the awe obvious on his face. Delilah blushed at the compliment, unsure of how to respond. Chanyeol nudged him and nodded in agreement.

 

“Can you teach me that song?” Chanyeol asked.

 

Delilah paused, taken aback slightly at the question. Quickly she recovered and smiled.

 

“If you want,” she replied happily.

 

“Yah, I want to learn it too!” Baekhyun interjected.

 

Delilah laughed, a few of the boys laughing too.

 

“I can teach any of you who want to know it, if you want.”

 

A quick count of learners came and Delilah smiled.

 

“It’s a little late for learning now though,” Delilah frowned, “I’ll teach you guys another day?”

 

The group nodded and everyone began to file out of the small room and toward the living room. After cleaning up, Delilah joined the group, taking notice that they had already the tv and opened Netflix. With a grin on her face she found her place on one of the couches and waited for someone to pick a movie.

 

It felt nice to finally push past an obstacle she had given life to for so long.

 

 

-----x-----

[AUTHOR]

I AM SO SORRY IT HAS TAKEN SO LONG FOR ME TO UPDATE.
I've gotten so busy with school and it's finally finals week and once this week is done I can fianlly start updating more because I will be on break.
Please forgive me. <3