“Coffee for me, hot chocolate for him,” I told the cashier.

“Hot chocolate?” she repeated, like she couldn’t quite believe her ears. She glanced towards Jongin again, who had his hoodie zipped up to the top, brown hair falling over his eyes.

“Uh, yes…?”

A little while later, both of us were holding out steaming drinks and heading outside again. Jongin sipped his hot chocolate slowly, and I raised an eyebrow at him. “When will you ever stop getting hot chocolate? You even got it in the summer.”

“It’s good,” he mumbled back. “You’re missing out the beauty of hot chocolate. I’m disappointed.”

Chapter 27

I would be lying if I said that I didn’t think the aftermath would be more… chaotic. I expected everyone to be freaking out and running around the safehouse, but the only person doing so was Suho, and he disappeared with Luhan into the portal room long after. Luhan came up alone, explaining to me that Suho had gone off to Ignis for the night. Eunhae, on the other hand, stayed.

Almost everyone had tidied up from the attack, and to my surprise, no one spoke much about it after Suho left. We all sat around the large table solemnly.

Baekhyun, who was uncharastically quiet, had cut up the dessert that Kyungsoo dug out from the depths of the pantry into uncountable pieces with his fork. He raised a head at the suggestion, looking a mixture between confused and surprised and uncomprehending. “A movie?” he echoed. “Why? It’s, like, twelve and Kai and Mira still have school tomorrow. Shouldn’t we all just sleep or something?”

“What do you mean, why?” Jongdae nodded at the table. “You all need to watch a movie with hot chocolate right now. Everyone looks depressed. Especially you, Mira.”

It took a moment for me to realize he was talking about me. I jabbed a finger at myself. “Me?”

“Yes, you,” Baekhyun said, beginning to regain a bit of his old personality. “But we’re not going to get chocolate milk unless Kai decides to share it.”

All eyes on the table went to Kai.

He shifted under the attention, looking a bit uncomfortable (I wasn’t sure if it was because everyone was staring at him or because he didn’t want to share his chocolate milk), before Eunhae finally called out, “C’mon, I saw your stacks of chocolate milk! Just share it for once!”

“I remember you stocking your supply yesterday,” Chanyeol piped in, and Kai gave a rather over-dramatic groan, flopped down on the table, and gave Baekhyun permission to give everyone his chocolate milk.

I wasn’t quite sure how all of that led to everyone piled on the couches and why Jongdae and decided Tom and Jerry was a good show to watch, but not long after, that was what happened. Luhan and Eunhae squished on one of the single person couches, six people squeezed themselves onto the three seater, two too many on the two seater, and then ultimately, everyone else ended up on the floor. Yixing dozed off the moment the movie started, head resting on Chanyeol’s long legs. Baekhyun had propped his feet up on the coffee table, wiggling his toes in his socked feet contently and eyes fixed on the screen. He basically hugged his cup of hot chocolate, and I wondered if it really was such a rare occurrence for Kai to share it with them. It seemed so, apparently.

Kai was sitting on the ground next to me, legs to his chest and both hands wrapped around his chocolate milk. He still looked somewhat stiff, and I was pretty sure it was from the multiple wounds on him. I could see him drifting off once in awhile, though he’d snap awake a moment later and blink woozily at the screen and take a sip out of his mug.

I began to question Jongdae’s choices in choosing a good show to watch when Jerry threw an ax at Tom, successfully slicing off his tail (admittedly, I’ve seen worse in Tom and Jerry). This definitely didn’t seem to be the proper thing to watch after half of us had almost gotten killed.

“Oh my God,” Baekhyun gasped behind me as Tom blew up the house. “I’m so glad this doesn’t happen in real life.”

I was about to say that he’d been stabbed in the stomach today, but I figured that would ruin the mood. There was also the fact that Luhan and I practiced spellcasting in the room downstairs, and without the protective barriers, the house would be blown up.

It wasn’t long when I began to doze off too, the half finished cup of hot chocolate on the table. Yixing had decided to completely curl up on the carpeted floor, and it looked surprisingly comfortable and I was tempted to follow his example. It was probably nearing one in the morning, and after everything that had happened, sleeping sounded great.

My head landed on Kai’s shoulder, and while the conscious part of me screamed at that, I was way too tired to even move. I fell asleep just as the it changed to the next episode, the theme song of Tom and Jerry playing in the background and the smell of hot chocolate in the air.

***

Everyone ended up falling asleep in the living room, and it definitely wasn’t very comfortable. Neither was it a good thing when Kai shook me awake in the morning, telling me that we had school the next day. It was barely six thirty, and we’d already slept past when we were supposed to. “We’re going to be late for school,” he told me quietly, “Not that that really matters anyway after what happened.”

I groaned and tried to get up, though my legs felt like Jell-O and I wanted to sleep. No matter how uncomfortable it was curled up on the ground, sleep was worth it.

“Can I call in sick today?” I asked. “I don’t want to go.”

Kai raised an eyebrow at me, though he didn’t look any more awake than I felt. I tried to stand up yet again, and while I was actually on my feet, it wasn’t much longer that I tripped over Chanyeol, who’d curled up into a fetus position. I was close to falling right onto Xiumin when someone grabbed my arm from behind, nearly yanking it out of the socket. Still, it successfully stopped my fall and I clamped my mouth shut and stifled the noise of pain. Kai stared back with wide eyes, holding a finger up to his lips.

“Kitchen,” he whispered before steadying me and heading to the kitchen.

I was still wearing my school uniform, and though it was rumpled, I supposed I should’ve been thankful that I actually still had it. It would’ve been a tragedy if I chose to walk in wearing just a huge jacket (like I had to once). Cautiously, I stepped over everyone on the floor (Chanyeol had shifted because I’d basically kicked him in the stomach when I stumbled over him), but apart from that, no one stirred. They all seemed absolutely spent, and it was no wonder.

Over a dozen mugs of Kai’s precious chocolate milk,