“To what do I owe the privilege of being the sole person to pick you?”, Kyungsoo deadpanned, as he took hold of Baekhyun’s luggage trolley at the airport the next morning.

"Oh I asked Chen too but he said he had some work to do today. And Suho and Xiumin hyung were busy too so", The guy with highlighted auburn hair answered nonchalantly as they started to walk towards the exit.

"Why didn't you call Chanyeol?", Kyungsoo knew Chanyeol would have probably made up some excuse too. They were all currently waiting to surprise Baekhyun at his apartment, having gotten ready the minute they’d found out about Baekhyun’s arrival and Kyungsoo was supposed to play the driver.

Baekhyun wrinkled his nose at the mention of their tall friend. “He was out playing games till late last night with Yixing hyung’s cousin – what’s his name? Sehun?” He clearly wasn’t pleased at being ditched by his friend for another guy.

“Yeah”, The thought of Son Seungwan came unbidden into his mind at the mention of Sehun, who he’d only met briefly at times when Yixing brought him to some of their outings together this year. Even though he’d always known, it was like he was realizing for the first time that the younger guy was a certain girl’s sibling.

A certain girl with an enchanted voice.

“So he said he wanted to rest up, I didn’t insist”, Baekhyun droned on. “And anyways I have you, don’t I?”, He leaned into Kyungsoo’s side with a giddily cute smile, and the latter elbowed him away, cringed at his friend’s attempts at aegyo. Baekhyun laughed at his response.

“Nothing ever changes, does it?”, Baekhyun shook his head and then asked as an afterthought. “Have you got a girlfriend yet? Or is that also included in the list of things I have to do?”

Kyungsoo gave him a dead look. “No, thanks”

His friends could earn a living out of match-making really if they had to.

_

From: (Unknown)

Oppa! Oppa I missed you so much! Plz don't block me this time! You have no idea what a disaster has happened!

.

Oppa! Oppa! My father is saying I shouldn't apply to the course I was applying for in the same University as you!

.

Oppa! Plz do something! Do you really not care about me even a little?! Chaebal huh?

Kyungsoo sighed in exasperation before going on to block the number he was getting texts from at that time of the night. He just couldn't fathom how much stubborn the girl must be to have changed her number for the 8^th freaking time in the past 4 years.

He had started receiving messages from the said stalker girl soon after his last year in High School finished. Named Kim Nayeon, she claimed to have been in the same institution as him, four years his junior and apparently had a crush on him 'since forever'. He had at first brushed it away as some teenager trying to play games for thrill, but after he had blocked her off three times (Is it even legal to change numbers this many times? He had wondered) and she still wouldn't back off he had only found it convenient to change his own for once. It had managed to bring peace to his life for a few months, but God knows how obsessed the girl was that she somehow managed to find his new number as well. It creeped him out to no end.

His friends took it as a joke at first ('a girl you say? Stalking you?') but after it had continued on for a good year and a half, they started to understand the gravity of the problem as well. Kyungsoo couldn't just keep changing numbers forever, and they had decided to file a police report for it but Kyungsoo had passed over the suggestion saying she would stop eventually if he didn't respond to her texts (sometimes he was too nice for his own good).  For some wretched reason, they weren't able to track any of the numbers either, using any of their connections. The tracking did seem to have lessened the frequency of the girl's rants, even though she complained a lot about her father being angry because of someone trying to meddle in his business by trying to trail his numbers, the next time she texted.

Kyungsoo had only deemed fit to keep following the 'ignore and block' policy. She wasn't doing him any physical harm anyway, and it didn't appear to him as if she was following him around or gathering more information regarding him from any sources. She only seemed to know about him, what most other people did from High School and that seemed to lessen his worries as well. He thanked the Lord he didn't have any social media accounts, he couldn’t fathom what havoc the girl could have wreaked had she found them and started stalking him there too. Her rants seemed to have become less desperate and less irritating over time, and Kyungsoo took as a good sign.

This time she had messaged him after six whole months (the longest interval uptil now) and he had thought she had probably given up and forgotten about him. But I guess not.... he thought ruefully, looking down at the texts on his phone.

 _

"Thanks Mom", Seungwan thanked Son Jae Eun, as she oiled Seungwan's hair. It was Sunday morning and they were sitting in the living room, watching TV after they had had breakfast. She closed her eyes and felt the warmth of the sunlight as it came through the living room window, as her mother’s fingers smoothed out her hair.

Son Jae Eun, 48 years old with a baby face, was usually pre-occupied with work the whole week and Seungwan usually didn’t get to talk to her much in between their busy lives. Sundays like these had therefore become a much anticipated luxury.

"No problem dear", Mrs. Son replied smiling. "Oh by the way, I made a new friend at the Ladies Club meeting yesterday", she informed Seungwan.

"Oh really? Who?", Seungwan asked, her eyes still closed.

"Her name is Do Min Ah. She owns a hotel business too"

"That's great", Seungwan mumbled, too lost in relishing the soothing effect of the massage. "So did you enjoy?"

"Yeah, kind of I mean. Business parties are always boring. I at least had someone to talk to, we had a lot in common too", Mrs. Son replied, child-like excitement evident in her eyes. Yerim came downstairs to the living room.

"Good Morning Aunty", Yerim descended from the stairs into the living room and greeted them and then looked around puzzled. "Sehun hasn't woken up yet?" She was disappointed. “I was supposed to help him with Maths today, he said he’d be up at 11:00”

"Yeah, he was up late last night after that guy, what’s his name?”, Mrs. Son furrowed her brows.

“Chanyeol shii”, Seungwan replied. It was a mystery still how Mrs. Son still hadn’t been able to memorize the guy’s name considering how much he’d visited their house past year with Yixing and Junmyeon, ever since Sehun had made friends with them.

“Yeah, since Chanyeol went away. He kept playing games long after that, that brat”, Mrs. Son said in a disapproving tone. “I owe to take Sehun’s PC away, he won’t learn a lesson otherwise”

 Seungwan mumbled in response, lost in the magic of her mother’s massage.

"Have you eaten anything Yerim? I'll make something for you come sit", Seungwan's mother gestured and started to get up from the sofa.

"Oh no need Aunty! I ate some crackers when I woke up, it’s Sehun and my turn to cook breakfast anyway", Yerim replied politely.

Mrs. Son gave her a disapproving look. "Very unhealthy Yeri, I'll make something once I'm done here"

"Thanks", Yerim gave her a toothy grin. Seungwan smiled at the girl’s obvious delight, masked with a bit of guilt at foregoing her weekly duties. But none of them ever felt guilty enough to give up on the delicious rarity that was a breakfast cooked by Mrs. Son.

"Can you go and wake Sehun, Yeri?", she asked and Yerim went on to perform the task.

Once their condition had gotten better, Seungwan and her family had shifted to a bigger two-storey house. It had more rooms, so they had asked her cousin, Taeyeon to come live with them.

Taeyeon's father, Seungwan's aunt’s husband, had shifted to Austrailia with his new family a year after Seungwan’s aunt’s death, when Taeyeon was in Middle School. She had then initially lived at her house, Mr. Kim visiting every now and then, but she was lonely and Mrs. Son had always regretted not being able to accommodate her sister’s daughter. She lived there up until they’d bought this house and asked her to come live with them, back when she’d been in the last year of her High School. She was happy to, they were the only family she had after her mother died and her father left. The girl had suffered losses, not just in the form of her parents but more, and Seungwan had immediately resumed her role of a buubly cousin sister with her. They’d become fast friends.  

When Seungwan had gotten into University, Soojung, her best friend from High School and the girl’s  younger sister Yerim, shifted into her house as well, in one spare room upstairs. Better a house than a hostel, Seungwan had convinced them, so excited at having her all the people she loved constantly around her and Mrs. Son had agreed to take rent on their insistence, a formality.

A loud groan ensued from Sehun’s room followed by his exclamation. “What the hell are you doing in my room?! Do you not have any sense of privacy?!”

Seungwan and Mrs. Son giggled at the same time. Sehun had probably not worn any shirt to bed, again. Such grumbling a routine now, since all of them except him were females, and nearly every weekend he had to be woken and discovered half- by one of them.

Yerim muttered something in response that Seungwan was unable to make out. "Fine I am up! Will you please leave now?", Came another round of grumbled protests before Yerim finally emerged from the room, smirking.

Sehun and Yerim were both in the same high school, and their similar personalities clashed a lot, especially since they’d gotten filled into the same class. There were other more obvious reasons for the constant banter on Sehun’s part, like puberty, Seungwan thought suppressing a smile, not that the idiot would ever admit it. Partly though their childish enmity was because of Sehun’s self-claimed role as the ‘man of the house’ (that they secretly all laughed about), and Yerim being the only one constantly reminding him that he was really just an obnoxious snobby kid.

"What happened?", Seungwan asked the youngest person in the house, through half-open eyes.

"I tried to wake him up with words for the first two minutes, and when he didn't, I had to use other methods", Yerim shrugged, showing them the bottle she’d clearly emptied on the poor guy’s head and Seungwan couldn’t help but laugh, while Mrs. Son only grunted in disapproval at Yeri, but only half-heartedly, who smiled sheepishly in an insincere apology.

The guy in question came out after some time, stifling yawns, his damp hair a tell tale of what had occurred to him and Seungwan was again hit with a strange realization of how much her little brother had grown. Only in height and shoulder width though, she added in her mind.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to stay up till late on weekends! You need to study! You stay up this late one more time and I'm taking your XBOX away!", Mrs. Son threatened Sehun soon as she’d spotted him.

"Mom please, don't nag me so early in the morning", Sehun went and sat down next to his mother, cuddling into her side. But she kept massaging Seungwan, pretending to appear unaffected by her son's attempts to act cute. "Your aegyo won't work on me mister"

"Won't it?", Sehun looked up pouting at her. He brought his cheek closer to Mrs. Son face and pointed to it, and she pecked him. He giggled happily hugging her back and Mrs. Son smiled as well. His aegyo did always work.

"Go on now, Yerim is waiting for you", Mrs. Son pointed towards the girl who was reading the Sunday magazine on a nearby sofa. Sehun made a face at the sight of his rude class fellow slash housemate. Yerim also looked up at him, frowning in response. "Sehun, I have other things to do as well you know. I only promised to teach you till 12. Its half past 11:00 already"

"I don't want to study from you anymore", he stated airily.

“Fine”, Yerim shrugged and got up to go. Seungwan and their mother both turned to give Sehun a long judgmental look. He pretended to remain unbothered under their stares, but then huffed and got up. “Fine! I’ll go”

"I'll make breakfast for both of you", Mrs. Son got up beaming and went towards the kitchen.

"I'll go wake the sleepy heads upstairs, thanks for the massage Mom", Seungwan skipped towards the stairs happily, passing by Sehun trying to convince (begging) Yerim to study with him. Seungwan smiled at the sight and then went on to wake Soojung and Taeyeon. Sundays weren’t supposed to be spent sleeping.