Kris was still shocked at the mention of Lee Yejin.  Luckily, Sehun answered his question in Hui Qi’s stead, she was preoccupied with taking pictures with her own phone to add to the ones Sehun had sent her (she needed to have more material for bribing Kris later on).  “Yeah, that Yejin.  Isn’t she a friend of yours, Kris?” Sehun questioned.

“She’s… more of an acquaintance,” Joonmyeon confessed, his voice pitching up a bit.  His hesitation made Hui Qi wonder what Yejin could’ve possibly done to scare the poor boy.  

“Yeah, what Joonmyeon said.  We are certainly not close enough FOR HER TO NOT HUMILIATE US ON THAT DAMNED NEWSPAPER OF HERS!” fumed Kris.  He was 100% sure that everyone in school would be teasing him when he returned.  Yejin’s newspaper was admittedly interesting and always full of juicy gossip.  Everyone who was anyone needed to read her newspaper to get the latest deals, learn about the newest scandal, and of course, get caught up on school news (although, most people ignored that section due to boredom).

“Well, to be completely honest with you, there’s almost no chance she’d pass up an opportunity to humiliate someone else.  So, I’m sure that even if you two were super close, she’d still humiliate you.  I mean, her newspaper’s precious and all.”  Hui Qi shrugged her shoulders.  Although Yejin looked like an angel on the outside, she was as cunning as Hui Qi was, giving the two much to discuss.  Being an informant for Hui Qi, Yejin needed certain tricks to get the information needed, especially with all that security lined up to protect student profiles; even having the power of invisibility wouldn’t be able to help her bypass the university’s defenses.

With that, the rest of the room collectively shuddered, except for Kris, who only fumed some more.  “GOD DAMN IT!” he cried in frustration.  Was there no way to prevent this gossip from reaching the school news?  Hell, even the teachers read this paper; that’s just how good it was!

Trying to lighten up the mood, Yixing nervously laughed and informed, “Joonmyeon’s going to be helping me cook today, so I think we both need to excuse ourselves to the kitchen.”  With a slight nod of approval from Hui Qi, Yixing beckoned to Joonmyeon.  Joonmyeon picked up the other grocery bag and with a quiet “Sorry” to Kris, he moved his feet out from under Kris’s head.  As Joonmyeon followed his “Xingie” to the kitchen, Kris started frantically flopping like a fish out of water, trying to stop Joonmyeon while in his tied-up state.  

Completely amused by the situation, Hui Qi cracked up (again) and tried not to shake the phone that was recording Kris’s antics.  Tao and Sehun were also by the couch, trying to stifle their laughing.  Finally noticing his audience (after giving up on following Joonmyeon because of the pain), Kris turned his face towards Hui Qi and glared at her, realizing that the phone was probably taping him.  

“HEY!  Stop this!  It’s not funny!”  No matter how much Kris struggled, he couldn’t get the ropes off or get up.  Although she was still not over her amusement, Hui Qi ended the video and nodded at Sehun.  As she sent the video out to Yejin, Sehun hurried over and hauled Kris over to the withering couch and plopped him back on it.

“Alright Hui Qi, I’m out.  I am damn tired from running from that one,” Sehun pointed towards Kris, “-all day.  So I’m going to head upstairs for a well deserved nap.  Call me when Yixing and Joonmom are done.”  Sehun headed up the unstable steps and Tao followed close behind, mumbling something about being “emotionally drained” and “exhausted from crying his eyes out”.

Hui Qi sat down, facing Kris’ left side, and slung her arm over his shoulders again, ready to begin negotiating.

“Well then Kris, I guess it’s just you and me.  Why don’t we begin.  Hopefully our guild will have its well deserved six members by the time dinner’s ready.”  Hui Qi smiled menacingly in his direction.

Hui Qi took her voice down a notch and stated, “So, as everyone can probably tell by now, you seem to have a very close relationship to that Joonmyeon friend of yours.”  Kris hung his head low, trying to hide the faint blush appearing on his cheeks.  There was no use though; Hui Qi had already spotted how his cheeks turned rosy at the question.  Jackpot.  Getting him to join is going to be as easy as pie.

As she smirked internally, Hui Qi nonchalantly observed her hand.  “Why don’t we cut to the chase."  She looked up at him and continued, "Join our guild, Kris.  You could make some extra cash and Yixing is an amazing cook; you really have nothing to lose by joining us.”

Kris, already over his previous embarrassment, bluntly stated, “There’s no way in hell I’m joining your ty guild.”

Reverting back to her cute (and creepy) personality, Hui Qi whined, “Aww why not?  Come on man, you know it will be fun.”  She continued to bug him with a pout on her face while poking his cheek.

Kris grimaced, a bit disturbed by Hui Qi's bubbly attitude.  Shaking off his slight hesitation, Kris recomposed himself and arrogantly inquired, “Look here Hui Qi.  If I join your stupid guild, who the is going to protect Joonmyeon while I’m off messing around working for you?”  He stared back into Hui Qi’s eyes, brows furrowing even deeper than she thought possible.

With a bit of a chuckle, she reciprocated his stare.  Hui Qi then proceeded to squish his cheeks together with her hands while cooing, “Oh Kris.  Poor, poor, naive little Kris.  We’ve already solved that issue.  Don’t you remember?  Joonmyeon’s an official member too.”

Eyes (and nose) flaring in defiance, Kris retorted, “There’s no way I’ll let him join you and your dangerous and shabby looking guild."

Dropping the act, she clenched her jaw and hissed out, “Dude.  Have you ever thought about the fact that you don’t own him.  You can’t always control what Joonmyeon does, best friends or not.  Let the kid live for himself once in awhile.  Jeez.”  At the end if her schpiel, she raised her arms in exasperation, pitying Joonmyeon a little.

“Sh-Shut up!  What I say goes.  He is not joining you!” Kris managed to stutter out, a little flustered at Hui Qi’s description of him.

Sinking into the tattered cushions, Hui Qi huffed, “Well guess what Kris.  You lose either way.  Prevent him from joining and he’ll probably hate your guts.  Let him join without you and you’ll be left in the dust for a new friend: Xingie.”  She jerked her head back in the direction of the kitchen to emphasize her point.  As if she timed their conversation perfectly, peals of laughter drifted out from the opening of the kitchen.  Satisfied with the happiness oozing from behind her, Hui Qi smirked up a storm, loving the fact that the two fledglings were already getting attached to each other, making it easier to convince Kris to stay.

Kris stared longingly at the kitchen area, the creases on his face disappearing.  Although his face had relaxed, his eyes revealed true inner turmoil.  He contemplated his choices, knowing Hui Qi’s remarks had hit home.  With a sigh, Kris spoke up, “But if I join with him…”

Upon hearing his resignation, Hui Qi beamed and egged Kris on. “Joonmyeon gets what he wants, and you get to keep protecting him.  Win-win, right?”

Kris looked in the direction of the kitchen again.  He could his Joonmyeon laughing at something Yixing had said.  He sat next to Hui Qi, wishing, longing, to be in Yixing’s place.  He didn’t want Joonmyeon to leave him behind.  Kris doubted he’d be able to handle the loss.

With another sigh, Kris finally gave in.  “Fine.  I’m in.”

A/N:  Yay!  That makes the guild count 6!  Hwehwe  Don't you all agree that Hui Qi's pretty good at this recruiting thing?  :P  If you all liked this chapter, please subscribe or comment!  We'll seeya next week!

Kris is hella whipped don't you all agree?  And I kind of wished Yejin's newspaper was real haha think of all the gossip she would write.