You woke up to the sound of your alarm and groaned. You were so comfortable but you had to start getting ready for tonight’s dinner. You weren’t nervous about the dinner itself but you were a bit nervous about the meeting you had to have with the guys and managers before you headed out to the restaurant. You rolled over and silenced your alarm and forced yourself to sit up thinking once you’d moved from your horizontal position you’d feel more like leaving your bed. It wasn’t really working but you knew once you showered you’d feel less like a zombie so you headed off towards your bathroom to shower.

Once you’d dried off you started on hair and makeup. Whilst the dinner was nothing fancy you still wanted to look good. You let your hair dry naturally after brushing it so that your wavy curls fell into place, you didn’t have to do much styling there. You got dressed into your black skinny jeans, high heeled black ankle boots with little skull details, a dark red halter top that showed off your cleavage and a long sleeved, oversized grey cardigan that covered you up so that the managers wouldn’t scold you. Once you added some accessories and had put all of your essentials in your handbag you were ready.

You checked the clock and realised you were around half an hour ahead of schedule but you figured you’d head up to the guys apartment now. Better to be early than late. You knocked on the door and were greeted by Jongin who smiled down at you warmly and let you in. “The managers will love that you are early. Everyone’s supposed to gather in the living room so feel free to head straight in. I’ve just gotta grab my jacket then I’ll be in there.” You nodded and watched him run off down the hall to one of the shared wardrobes to fetch his jacket. You walked ahead and entered the living room, greeting the managers and members as you did so.

One of the managers came over to you and spoke. “Ah welcome Y/N. Excellent, you’re early. If you’ll just take a seat we can start the briefing as soon as Jongin and Sehun decide to grace us with their presence.”  He motioned to an empty chair so you went and sat down, only having to wait a few minutes before the two boys joined everyone. The manager stood at the centre of the room and began. “Now that Y/N is to be spending more time with you lot outside of your schedules and outside of the SM building we just need to remind everyone what is expected of them in public. When there are fans around remember not to be too friendly with Y/N. She is your teacher and an employee so fans are not to think that she is a friend or possibly something else.” 9 heads nodded but you caught the split second smirks that appeared on Junmyeon, Kyungsoo & Chanyeol’s faces. You saw Minseok lift an eyebrow and then Baekhyun watching all of s then looking at you before grinning then returning his focus to the manager. “Y/N, when you are in public with the guys you must always wear your lanyard. Some fans get extremely protective of the guys so we don’t want the possibility of any misunderstandings. If you sense any trouble for either yourself or any member please notify one of the security staff that will be with us. I think that just about covers it. Guys, you know how to act in public so I don’t need to remind you of much. Only one of us is coming with you tonight as well as security. When we get to the restaurant we have two booked rooms, staff and members. Y/N as this is your evening to bond with EXO you will be dining with them. If there are no questions and everyone is ready we can head off now.”

Everyone headed down to the garage and piled into the two vans. Sehun, Jongin, Kyungsoo, Chanyeol & Junmyeon got into one van. Minseok, Baekhyun, Jongdae, Yixing and you got into the other. The trip was fairly uneventful apart from Baek & Jongdae singing loudly and purposefully out of tune until Minseok got them to stop. It was only a short trip to the restaurant but when you arrived, a third car pulled up and a few security guards got out. Then the manager got out and motioned for you to exit the van as well. The two of you headed inside first followed by the guys who were escorted in by security.  The manager informed you that the private dining room you were in was upstairs and the last room down the hall. It made sense that the room that security and the manager would be in was in front of yours so that they could field off anyone trying to get to your room.

In the room was one long table, and you had first choice at where to sit so you picked the centre and took your seat. The guys filed in and took seats around the table. You ended up being sat in-between Minseok and Sehun, with Junmyeon, Baekhyun and Yixing across from you. Jongdae was next to Minseok and Jongin next to Junmyeon. Kyungsoo was next to Yixing and Chanyeol next to Sehun. A round of drinks was ordered before everyone started to look at the menu to work out what they wanted. Whilst you had been living in Korea for awhile now you still mostly cooked for yourself so you were struggling to work out what to order. Sehun noticed how hard you were concentrating on your menu and put his own menu down before shifting closer to you. “Y/N, do you know what you are going to order?”

You glanced over at him before sheepishly answering. “I haven’t really eaten much Korean food if I’m honest… I have no idea what to order.”

He smiled and laughed quietly at your embarrassment. “Well I for one, have a lot of experience with Korean food so let me help you pick something. We tend to order a whole range of stuff and share it so you’ll get to try a lot of dishes but in case you don’t like any of them we’ll find something to suit your tastebuds.” Sehun proceeded to ask you if you liked spicy food, what meats you preferred, textures you liked, and flavours you liked. He went through most of the menu for you pointing out things you might like and things you’d definitely want to avoid.  Eventually you had settled on your dish and you were pretty confident that you would like it. You thanked Sehun for helping you pick your meal. He grinned at you and booped your nose. “Well I couldn’t have you order something horrible. What if you ordered something I hated? That just wouldn’t work.”

You laughed. “Oh so this whole time I thought you were helping me out of the goodness of your heart but really it’s so that you get more food that you’ll like. I should have known.” You poked his side and he twisted away from you, still laughing.

“Hey! At least I picked something you’ll like as well. Half of the others would have tricked you and Jongin would have just ordered fried chicken for both of you. I’m doing everyone a favour.” You felt Minseok lean over you and swat Sehun in the back of the head. “Yah! Hyung you know I’m right! I was helping.” Sehun pouted and dramatically rubbed the back of his head, causing you to laugh even more.

Eventually everyone settled on what they wanted to eat and the waiter came and took everyone’s order. As soon as the orders were placed, everyone at the table erupted into chatter. Junmyeon stared at you. “Mom. Really? I feel like I should be offended.” You heard Baek snicker beside him.

“Sorry, I just had to make sure not to use any names while they were still potentially monitoring phones and you keep getting called the mom of the group so I figured you’d work it out. Clearly I was right.” Junmyeon shook his head in resigned laughter. The two of you chatted about your meeting with Mr. Kim and the evaluations. Everyone stopped to listen to your conversation and occasionally asked questions.

“So they actually bought that none of us knew you?” Jongin asked in disbelief.

You deadpanned “Yes, apparently you are all very convincing actors” and half of the table burst into laughter.

“What do they think tonight is? Yixing asked.

“Tonight is supposed to be a bonding dinner and night out. They think I’m doing a good job at teaching you English but they want to make sure we are all comfortable with each other since we’ll be travelling overseas together and especially in the USA, they don’t want you to feel awkward around me.”

“Stage 2? I still don’t get what stage 2 is.” Kyungsoo stated.

“Oh. When Junmyeon and I worked out how me teaching you was going to work we figured that initially we had to appear as acquaintances and only have a work relationship since your managers would be watching me closely since I’m close to you in age and female. We had to show them just how perfect I was for the job. This was Stage 1, and it worked perfectly. Stage 2 is addressing the feedback they sent through. Mainly this was that I should get to know you better so that we are comfortable around each other since I will be your lifeline in America. So now we get to be friendlier. I can come over for dinner, movies etc and you can visit me or text me and it won’t be seen as out of line.” Kyungsoo and a few others nodded in understanding.

Conversation was momentarily silenced when the food arrived. The waiters brought out what seemed like a never ending amount of food but you figured that the 9 hungry guys would manage to devour most of the plates. Sehun was pointing out the dishes you should try as they were set down. He pointed out the nurungji salad, fried chicken (adding that you’d have to pry it from Jongin’s cold dead hands if you weren’t fast), jaeyook bokum, samgyetang, beef and tofu bibimbap, manul gangjang, twigim dduksari, gamjajorim and glazed sweet potatoes. He pointed out the kimchi dishes and various seafood and really spicy dishes for you to avoid. There was a moment for peace before everyone started grabbing food and passing dishes around. As you watched you couldn’t help but smile. The 9 men fighting over the different foods were unconsciously putting peoples favourite foods in front of them and passing food along. It was such a family moment. You caught Yixing watching you take in your second dinner event with EXO so you smiled at him and passed a dish of jajangmyeon over to him.

The rest of dinner was pleasant. You’d guessed correctly because once the dust had settled there was almost no food left. You had thanked Sehun for helping you pick food, even if his choices were ultimately to ensure he also got food he liked. Drinks were flowing and everyone was happily chatting away and you were having a very interesting discussion with Yixing about how he composes music and how he remembered Korean lyrics when he first joined the group when Chanyeol clapped his hands to silence everyone. When he was satisfied that he had everyone’s undivided attention he spoke. “I think I can speak on behalf of all of us when I tell you Y/N that we could not be happier that you moved in downstairs. You’re an excellent neighbour and it’s nice to have a girl in our lives who doesn’t take our . To top it all off you are also an excellent teacher and I don’t think any of us have ever been this happy to have to study.” 8 heads nodded in agreement as he spoke. “Now I hope you aren’t too full because dinner was just the start of our night of bonding! We have 2 more places to visit before we head back to the apartment. So if everyone is done I say we should finish our drinks and head to the next place!”

You should have known an arcade was the next stop. You also should have known that they would manage to turn this night of bonding into a game. The arcade was rented out for the night for everyone’s privacy and safety, which you understood, but it was still strange to see an empty arcade. As soon as everyone was inside Baekhyun & Jongdae turned to speak to the group. “Each of the games has a mini challenge attached to it. If you complete this challenge whilst playing the game you will score bonus points. You’ll receive points based off your scores on each game. We have one and a half hours to play and then we will rank everyone’s scores. These scores will be important at our next destination and more will be explained there.” The look Baekhyun gave you worried you. The last time you had dinner, drinks and games with these guys it ended with you almost . You’d have to pick your games wisely so that you could get a high score. Then you’d just hope the mini challenges weren’t too difficult or embarrassing.

You squared your shoulders and waited for the security guard to give everyone the signal to start their hour and a half of game play. You ran for the air hockey table at the same time as Chanyeol. He ripped open the mini challenge and started laughing. “Yah?! Isn’t this too dangerous?” He handed you the paper and you read Play blindfolded and win for 50 extra points. Both people playing must agree to blindfolds. You started laughing as well.

“I’m game if you are Chan.” Instead of answering he picked up a blindfold and put it on. One of the security guards came over to supervise your game, and also to try to prevent either of you from hurting each other. He directed each of you to your positions at each end of the table and placed the puck in one of your hands and the striker in the other. You placed the puck on the table and hit it as forcefully and quickly as you could to try and catch Chanyeol off guard. It worked and somehow your aim was on point because you heard the puck reach its destination. The game continued with Chanyeol scoring the next point, a long rally before the puck flew off the table, you scoring 2 more points then Chanyeol scoring 4 points. You tried to place all of your focus on the sound of the puck and zone all the other noises in the arcade out. Whether that worked or whether the guard helped you, you scored the next 3 points before Chanyeol scored one more. It was tied at 6 all and whoever got the next point won. You picked up the puck and prepared to serve. “Chanyeol, did the puck hit you when it flew off the table?”

“It only grazed my hand so don’t worry about it.” His response was monotone, so you knew he was concentrating.

“That’s a pity. I was going to tell you to have a nurse look at it for you.”  You heard the quick intake of breath and took advantage.

“Yah! You played dirty! Aish!” You pulled your blindfold off and did a victory dance while Chanyeol scolded you.

“Hey, I didn’t realise you were so easy to distract.” You ran off to the next game before he could respond. You had an hour left to play. You looked around at the utter madness that was going on around you. Baekhyun and Sehun were playing a racing game without facing the screen, Minseok and Jongin were playing a basketball game but they had to throw the ball while lying on the floor, and Jongdae and Kyungsoo were playing Tekken with one hand. Junmyeon appeared next to you and pointed at the Let’s Bounce! game. You followed him over to it and read how to play. You have 20 balls and 30 seconds to illuminate 45 tiles. “Hey, what’s the mini challenge?”

Junmyeon opened the paper to read the challenge and read “For every ball you throw you must place a marshmallow in your mouth. You must do this before you throw the next ball. When you can’t fit any more marshmallows you can’t throw any more balls.” A staff member appeared with 3 buckets each, one with marshmallows, one with balls and one empty for you to spit marshmallows in at the end of the challenge. Junmyeon stepped up to go first and you stood aside to watch, silently hoping he couldn’t fit all 20 marshmallows in his mouth. He started off with a fast pace and had 10 balls thrown within 10 seconds. Then he started to struggle, his cheeks puffing out as they filled with marshmallows. The next 5 balls took 10 seconds and then his final 10 seconds only saw 3 more balls get thrown. At the end of the 30 seconds he’d lit up 38 tiles which was a pretty good effort. He turned away to spit all the marshmallows out and moved the bucket behind the machine. “It’s a lot harder than it looks Y/N.”

You turned to him and smiled. “I’m pretty sure I can fit a lot in my mouth though, wouldn’t you agree?” He blushed and avoided your gaze. You chuckled and turned your focus to the game. The timer started and you started strong, matching Junmyeon’s 10 second score. You managed 6 more in the next 10 seconds but then you faltered. A marshmallow shifted and you felt like you’d choke if you put another one in your mouth. You conceded defeat and spat all your marshmallows out into the spare bucket.

Junmyeon grinned at you smugly. “There is a joke in here somewhere about length, girth and gag reflexes but I’m letting that go. You got 34 tiles which means I won. Unlucky Y/N.” He ran off to the next game but you went via the snack bar to get a drink first. Your mouth tasted like marshmallow and it was making you feel sick. Baekhyun dropped into a seat next to you looking like he’d just run a marathon.

“I’ve won 6 games in an hour! I’m winning!” He gulped down half a bottle of water before he continued. “Chan said you were playing dirty. You should know you won’t beat me with that tactic. I am the king of innuendo and euphemism.”

You smirked. “Such big words Baek.”

He wiggled his eyebrows at you. “That’s not the only big thing about me Y/N.”

“Oh come on, that was too easy.”

“Not as easy as –“

“Come on! At least put some effort into it Baek.” He laughed and shot you a suggestive glance before running off back into the arcade. That guy was too competitive for his own good.

You wandered back into the arcade and found Yixing at a Dance Dance Revolution game. He motioned for you to come and join him so you grabbed the mini challenge paper that was stuck to the machine and joined him. He stood next to you and read the challenge over your shoulder. “Play a song and dance cutely. If you perform Gwiyomi whilst dancing to the song of your choice you will get 50 bonus points.”  He started laughing and moved to select a song.  He selected a medium difficulty song and at the last moment pushed you onto the podium and stepped off. Looks like someone else is playing dirty as well. Sneaky bastard. You glared at him as he cutely smiled at you.

The song started so you focused your attention on the steps, now even more determined to beat him. After you felt like you had the rhythm down you tried to start the Gwiyomi song.

“Ildeohagi ileun gwiyomi
Eeldeohagi eeneun gwiyomi
Samdeohagi sameun gwiyomi
Gwigwi gwiyomi gwigwi gwiyomi
Sadeohagi sado gwiyomi”

The beat changed and you faltered, struggling to adjust your steps to the faster music while still dancing cutely and you failed to complete the last 2 lines of the song. You finished the dance and waited for Yixing to step onto the podium. “You almost got it Y/N! I have to get past 5 and get a better dance score to beat you.” You laughed and moved to select a song for him but before you could he quickly chose the same song and started.

You shouted. “No fair!” He smiled cutely at you and started his dance. He must have paid attention to when the beat changed because he started the Gwiyomi song almost immediately.

“Ildeohagi ileun gwiyomi
Eeldeohagi eeneun gwiyomi
Samdeohagi sameun gwiyomi
Gwigwi gwiyomi gwigwi gwiyomi
Sadeohagi sado gwiyomi
Ohdeohagi ohdo gwiyomi
Yukdeohagi yukeun jjokjjokjjokjjokjjokjjok gwiyomi nan gwiyomi”

He finished just as the beat changed and you cursed under your breath. You couldn’t stay mad though because he was dancing so cutely. You found yourself giggling and his moves and when he finished the song you leapt forward and pinched his cheeks. “Who knew you were so good at aegyo!” He groaned at that word and shushed you.

“We are not telling the others about this. Now come on, the hour and a half is up.” He took your hand and led you back to the rest of the group. Jongdae had taken over instructing everyone since Baek looked like he was 2 seconds away from passing out.

“The staff and guards have been keeping tallies of who played what games, who won and who completed the mini challenges successfully. We’ll move on to the next venue and the results will be given. Then the prizes and punishments will be given out.” You glanced at Baekhyun who winked at you causing your worry to return. You were pretty sure he’d won the most games.

You arrived at the final building, which was a small one room theatre and bar. Once again it was rented out so that only you and the guys were there. Security remained in the foyer and one staff member followed you in and handed the results to Kyungsoo then left.

Everyone got a drink and sat down on the stage area, waiting for Kyungsoo to explain what the results meant and what they were. He cleared his throat and began. “I have the results of the games here but before I read them out I’ll explain what they mean. We will be ranked 1 – 10 and the top 5 scores will win a prize. They will also get to determine the punishments for the bottom 5.” Baekhyun was practically glowing he was grinning that hard. “Our top 5, in order are. 1. Baekhyun, 2. Jongdae, 3. Jongin, 4. Yixing and 5. Minseok. That means the bottom 5 are Chanyeol, Junmyeon, Sehun, myself and Y/N.”

Baekhyun stood. “Ok, top 5 will go to the bar and collect our prized as well as determine your punishments.” The 5 of them headed to the bar, leaving the 5 of you sitting around and dreading the outcomes. You knew you were in for it after seeing how happy Baek was that you were in the bottom 5 but all you could do was wait.