The rest of Taeil's first evening at university passed by uneventfully. He and Johnny talked for a while in his room until Johnny went down to eat with the others. Taeil was invited to join, but he knew for sure he would just embarrass the others by joining. Even though Johnny seemed disappointed Taeil passed it off as a figment of his own imagination, and ended up eating a bowl of ramen alone in his room. He passed out, exhausted from how eventful the day was, and by the time Johnny came back he was already asleep. 

In the morning after Taeil finished eating breakfast and getting ready, the dorm seemed eerily quiet. Johnny had left the room a while back, and as Taeil looked around he didn't notice any of his other suitemates. He even saw a post on Hyungil's instagram story of him eating in the cafeteria with a group of girls. Taeil sighed, sitting up from his desk chair. As usual, he was alone, but it stung more than usual: after all of his expectations for university, for things to remain exactly the same was beyond disappointing. 

Since the suite was empty, though, Taeil took the opportunity to look around without being questioned. He began to walk down the hall, poking his head into any open door he could find. They all looked mostly like Johnny's side of the room, with pictures and decor lining the room. His heart sunk into his chest and he kept moving. 

He made it past the living room, the empty luggage and boxes finally pushed into the back corner, and walked through the other side of the hallway. Things were mostly the same, until a noise made him pause. 

The low chatter of ten guys came from Ten and Taeyong's room, clearly trying to keep hushed. The door was mostly shut except one crack, and out of inescapable curiousity, Taeil leaned over to listen. 

"And that's why Hyungil is a peace of ," Ten whispered.

"Holy ," Jaehyun responded.

"I can't believe Ten hasn't told you that story before," Doyoung whispered back. 

"Even though I already knew, Hyungil seemed like a just from listening to him talk," Johnny added. 

"Why was he so pissed off at us? Did he think we'd be homophobes too?" Kun added. 

"He's such a boy, I can tell already. ," Yukhei said. 

Taeyong scoffed. "You're one to talk." 

"He's definitely worse than me," Yukhei whined lowly. 

"But seriously. He's a ," Yuta added, and Taeil leaned in closer. 

Immediately after moving, he regretted his actions. His head bumped the door open wider and Taeil's head was immediately visible to everyone in room 127B. Taeil winced and turned his head, and the others looked at him uncomfortably. 

"Um...hey!" Kun spoke awkwardly. 

"Hey," Taeil dejectedly grumbled. 

"Wh-what's up?" Yuta stuttered in a high pitched voice.

"Nothing much," Taeil breathed out. "You?"

"Well..." Taeyong started, looking frantically at his friends. 

"We were talking about your brother," Ten finished bluntly. 

Taeil's jaw dropped; he wasn't expecting any of them to actually admit it. "O-oh," he stuttered, pursing his lips. Part of him wanted to just walk away, let them keep going, not make them any much more uncomfortable than he already was. But part of him...part of him wanted to join them. He had been suppressing his frustration for his brother for eighteen, and never before had anyone else noticed he was anything less than an angel. It would be such a relief to finally let it all out. 

So, forcing away his anxiety, Taeil spoke up. "Uh...I think I have some things to add to that conversation." He noticed the awkwardness of the others fade away, a sly grin coming on Ten's face. 

"Sit the down then and spill!" Ten responded. Shyly, Taeil stepped over and squeezed in between where Ten and Johnny were sitting, Johnny giving him a big smile. 

"How much of our conversation did you hear?" Yuta asked slyly, and Taeil flushed yet again. 

"W-well...all I heard was that you thought he was an ...which is totally understandable."

"Did you hear the story I told? How I met him the first time?" Ten asked. 

Taeil shook his head. "No, but he told me himself yesterday." 

Ten scoffed. "He's so threatened by my uality. Like I would ever a guy like that." The others laughed and Taeil chuckled shyly. 

"He..he always talks like that," Taeil explained. 

"To you?" Johnny asked with concern, and Taeil gave a small nod. 

"That must be so awful," Yukhei said with genuine pity. 

"We've shared a room our whole lives, up until now."

"Oof," Doyoung spoke. 

"He's just..." Taeil started then sighed, so happy to finally have people to vent to him about. "He just knows that he's handsome, right? And he always takes advantage of it. But he's total trash on the inside, he's mean to anyone that doesn't worship him. Like, he just relishes in being the hot one. He loves to see me fail." 

There was a long pause where everyone stared at Taeil in shock. 

"What a ing ," Yuta finally spoke, and everyone piped up their agreements. 

"He's awful," Sicheng spoke. 

"So awful," Jungwoo added in his quiet voice. 

"Yeah," Taeil answered, breathing a sigh of disappointment and relief and he wasn't even sure what anymore. "I'm sorry that you have to be his roommate," Taeil added, turning to Kun. 

The Chinese boy made a face and shrugged. "It , but I'm glad you don't have to share a room with him any more. You deserve a break." 

Taeil smiled and looked down. "That's...that's really sweet." 

"I promise I'll be a much better roommate than he was," Johnny said, looking Taeil in the eye with a soft expression. 

"I'm sure you will," Taeil answered, chewing on his lower lip. 

"Johnny..." Ten said with warning in his voice. 

"What?" Johnny whined. 

"Go easy on him, alright?" Ten responded. Johnny made a face and Ten laughed before turning back to Taeil. "Anyways, who ever said he was the ing hot one? Anybody with two brain cells would notice how awful he was." 

"I guess everyone from my hometown has less than two brain cells then." 

"You're just as cute as him," Ten added. 

"Yeah, definitely," Johnny added a little too quickly. But, the rest slowly pipped their agreements. Taeil looked away uncomfortably, not quite sure how to react. 

"S-stop lying," he stuttered. "It's okay, I won't feel bad." 

"No way," Johnny responded, almost aggressively. "We aren't making it up." 

"You can't be serious," Taeil breathed out shaking his head. 

"We are! Oh my god Taeil, I swear," Taeyong spoke. 

"Anyways," Taeil started, wanting to get the attention off of him. Even though it was positive attention, for the first time in his life, it still made him uncomfortable. Part of him felt that his suitemates were lying, no matter what they said. "Anyways, isn't it weird that you met my brother before coming?" 

Ten laughed loudly. "Actually, you're the only person I didn't know before coming here."

Taeil gave him a look of surprise. "Wait, what? How is that possible?"

Ten grinned. "Well..." he started, resting his head on Taeyong's shoulder, "I decided to bring all my friends from around the world together so we could have the funnest suite. I just decided to leave two spaces unfulfilled so I could have a surprise."

"So, how do you know everyone?"

Ten cleared his throat. "So, Yukhei, right? He-"

"Even though I am from Hong Kong, my mom's side of the family is from Thailand, so-" Yukhei interrupted. 

"And I'm from Thailand," Ten reinterrupted. "So Yukhei would visit his Thai family in the summer, and their house was next door to mine. So we were neighbors as kids in the summer and would play together all the time." With a smile, Ten's eyes moved down the line. "Jungwoo, Jungwoo was my shadow for a one day exchange program at my high school." Jungwoo nodded shyly. "My family is ethnically Chinese so Sicheng is my cousin on my dad's side. Jaehyun and I were in a group chat for people whose second language was English and wanted to improve. Doyoung..." Both Doyoung and Ten laughed. 

"Our story is a little more complicated," Doyoung interjected. 

"So this person transfered into my high school from Korea, and we just did not like each other. Immediately. We were enemies from the start. So...I did a little digging, and found out that Doyoung was the ex of my enemy."

"And I ing hated that ex, they were such a ," Doyoung added. 

"So when I hit Doyoung up about it, Doyo was more than happy to help me ruin this person's life," Ten said with a grin, sharing it with Doyoung. 

"Moral of the story: don't with either of us," Doyoung said, and Taeil gave them both a frightened look. 

"Anyways," Ten said slowly, looking around the circle. "Kun is my cousin on my mom's side, Yuta's a dancer too so we met at international competitions, Taeyong..." Ten and Taeyong shared a little giggle. "Well, I really wanted to be his, um, friend," Ten started, and again he and Taeyong chuckled. "So I messaged him on facebook, and we've been...friends ever since." Taeil looked at them with confusion, but neither of them offered an explanation. 

"Moving on, Johnny," Ten breathed out with some sense of relief. "Johnny's been my pen pal since the fourth grade. He's my best friend." 

Taeil looked around the circle, amazed that someone could be social enough to have nine international friends, let alone nine friends in the first place. "Wow," he spoke with a chuckle. "I'm impressed." 

"These motherers don't know each other though," Ten responded, gesturing to everyone else. 

"I've heard about all of them before, but this is the first time we've all met in person," Johnny explained. 

"So, don't feel left out. We're mostly on the same page as you," Taeyong added. 

"I-I won't," Taeil stuttered. "I mean I don't." 

Johnny grinned down at Taeil and rubbed his back. "I'm really glad." 

Taeil felt himself flush, looking down at his shoes. Even though he was looking away, out of the corner of his eye he noticed Ten make a face at Johnny. 

"Seriously, though, Taeil? I'm glad you're not like your brother," Kun spoke. 

"Definitely," Ten added with a sigh of relief. "When I found out you two were related, I was pretty scared. But even though I've only talked to you for a little bit I get the vibe that you're way different." 

"You seem super chill," Yuta added. 

"For sure," Sicheng added. 

"M-me?" Taeil stuttered, looking around awkwardly with a shy smile. Everyone nodded assuradely back at him. "I-I don't know..."

"Seriously!" Johnny spoke. "You're great. When you know, you just know." 

Taeil flushed harder, not quite sure just what to do. Nobody, nobody in his life had ever thought he was cool, or wanted to be friendly with him. Now having ten super handsome and cool guys being so kind and friendly with him...it was a real shock. 

"You guys are too nice," Taeil mumbled. 

"No, we're not," Yuta answered with a grin. 

"Well, you guys are nice period," Taeil answered. 

"Once you hang out with us for more than a few minutes, you'll realize we aren't," Taeyong said with a chuckle. 

"Yeah, we literally just came in here to talk your brother,"

"You guys are nice to me though," Taeil said shyly.

"Of course we are," Johnny said happily, looking down at Taeil. Ten cleared his throat and made a face. 

"What?" Taeil asked with confusion, looking between them. Ten always seemed to be scolding Johnny, and Taeil for the life of him couldn't figure out what. 

"Oh, nothing, nothing," Ten responded with a chuckle. Taeil shrugged; he was used to being left out of the joke. 

"Is anyone else hungry?" Yukhei suddenly asked, everyone groaning loudly and voicing their agreements. 

"Alright, let's go," Jaehyun responded, everyone standing up. Suddenly, Johnny looked back at him. 

"Are you coming?"

Taeil's eyes widened. "I'm invited?"

"Of course." Johnny grinned, and in that moment Taeil knew there was no way he could say no. 

"A-alright," Taeil answered with a smile, and he followed everyone out the door.