“We’re all having dinner tonight and when I mean all, I mean all,” Joohyuk glanced at Baekhyun as he emphasized the last word as we were just about to the leave the house together.

            Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “Of course, I’ll be here! Who do you take your Hyung for?”

            “A workaholic,” Joohyuk said of matter-of fact.

            “He’s not wrong,” I silently laughed and gently touched Baekhyun’s arm.

            “Fine, fine,” Baekhyun whined. “But I’ll be here at home because someone over here has to study for upcoming final.”

            I bite my lip. “On second thought, can I skip dinner?”

            “No, no you must! We are celebrating me!” Joohyuk threw his arms in the air and pouted his lips. Seeing him act so cute was too good for me to not lean over and pinch his cheeks. I didn’t do it though.

            “You?” Baekhyun questioned.

            “Last night was my last performance day in the play and I got an award for best actor,” Joohyuk beamed. “People just can’t handle the handsome male lead.”

            “Geez, what a narcists. Congratulations though!” I clapped my hands. “I can’t miss dinner then.”

            “Thank you, thank you,” he bowed as if he was finishing his acting performance on stage. “We have to make some room because I’m inviting a couple of my co-actors so it’s going to be a bit of a squeeze at the table.”

            “Are you ready to be done with your first year of school?” Baekhyun asked as we finally got to leave the house after being bombarded with Joohyuk’s sudden invitation to dinner inside of our own home.

            “Yeah, it’s the same stress as high school but decent enough that I’m not stressing too much,” I shrugged my shoulders. It was hard to verbally explain that school was hard but not too bad. “I for sure learned my lesson to not take 4 classes a quarter. That was no good, especially with the amount of homework I was given.”

            “Well, now you know,” he chuckled. “So, have you decided on our major yet? If it helps, the English Department needs another teacher.”

            “Baekhyun, you’ve read my essays. I’m sure I’m not fit to teach others how to write a good essay, especially ones that are way better than my own.”

            “Ay, your essays aren’t bad. Just a lot of grammar mistakes and yet, they’re not that bad. You’re not good at timed writes either…”

            “Hey, didn’t you suggest I major in English? Why are you hating on me now?”

            “I’m not hating! I’m just pointing out a couple flaws that could be easily learned later.”

            “Jerk…” I muttered. “Anyway, I decided on Diagnostic Ultrasounds.”

            “Ooh~ that’s like the baby x-ray, right? What made you choose that?”

            I laughed out loud. “Baby x-ray? Yeah and it’s more than just babies. There’s more to it than just scanning pregnant women’s bellies but I do think I want to specifically work in that area.

            And I’m not too sure why I decided on it. It’s close enough to a doctor that I can get to and I feel like it’d be exciting to see women’s reactions when I tell them how well the baby is growing and then to the gender reveal! How exciting to know the gender before her whole family!” I squealed and clapped my hands wildly. Baekhyun cupped my hands with his own to make me stop.

            “Geez, you’re embarrassing,” Baekhyun teased. “Really though that is amazing. When I decided on being an English major and then becoming an English teacher, I was thinking about how I can criticize people’s writing without seeming like I’m criticizing them and calling it constructive criticize. Overall, we all work for money and being an amazing teacher like me, I get the high end of the pay. It’s fascinating that you’re thinking about how you could make others feel than how you’re benefiting from the job by being paid.”

            I rolled my eyes. “Well, I heard I do get paid a lot so…” Baekhyun gave me the side eye, although he just joked about getting generously paid for his job. “I’m only half joking, Baekhyun. The pay is nice, but I really hope to make parents happy. I’m happy when others are happy.”

            “That’s good because happy looks best on you.”

When Joohyuk said it was going to be a bit of squeeze, he wasn’t kidding. He only invited five of his friends but with the amount of people already living here, it was a lot more crowded than expected.  

            “Hey, can you guys help set the table?” Jongdae called out to us upon us entering the dining room.

            “Of course!”

            “I’m going to shower quickly before dinner starts,” Baekhyun pats my shoulder before leaving upstairs.

            I’m in charge of placing the cutlery around the table and at the kitchen bar where a couple of us will sit to eat. I slowly followed Jongdae from behind as he placed down the plates. Following Jongdae was not only for me to put down the chopsticks in suit after him but because I was getting quite claustrophobic with the amount of people gathered in one place so having someone, I know close by is really helping me calm down.

            Jongdae stopped walking as one of Joohyuk’s friends who turned out to also be a friend of Jongdae and Baekhyun and Chanyeol. Joonmyeon is a long-time friend of them but due to their schedules counteracting with each other, they have no time to see each other. With Jongdae taking his short break to chat, I decided to continue to finish putting down the chopsticks and spoons by reaching far across the table. However, someone came up to me to start our own conversation.

            “Hey, I’m Kim Woobin and you are?” Woobin is a rather tall man with very sharp features that almost made him look mean and very arrogant, but I didn’t mind as much because I can’t blame for how people’s faces come out. He was also very handsome. I also knew that I didn’t fancy him as much as do with some of the other men here and I already have someone else on my mind.

            “Park Seoul,” I replied and, not so surprisingly enough, Woobin gasped and mentioned the “I love your name” statement. Honestly, I am used to everyone being shocked over my name, but now I’m getting a little annoyed. Maybe it was just Woobin I was annoyed at.

            “You must be new around here. Are you just visiting a family member? A boyfriend perhaps?”

            “No and no. I actually live here and more of I live here in this house,” my tone was getting quite harsh with a bit of attitude. This wasn’t unusual of me. It was something I wasn’t proud of doing but whenever I meet people that I have a feeling I won’t like; I start acting nice or even seem hostile.

            Woobin didn’t seem to be catching on and moved closer to me by leaving a hand against the table next to mine. “So, no boyfriend, huh? I mean if you’re looking for one, I’m open for grabs.”

            I rolled my eyes. “Not really looking.”

            “Are you sure, babe?” He moved closer and I stepped back.

            “Super sure,” I tried to hold my ground, but he kept creeping closer and I was getting uncomfortable. I took one more step and felt someone behind me. On instinct, I grabbed onto his shirt to pull on it, hoping he’d get a hint. All he did was sneak a hand behind him to grab my hand and squeezed it. That wasn’t helpful, Jongdae.

            “You know most girls say I’m best catch of the sea,” Woobin leaned to whisper close to my face. I turned my face away from him not wanting to make eye contact with him.

            Under from my lashes, I see Baekhyun frozen in his spot at the entrance of the dining room. His face was hard and eyes flickering from Jongdae to Woobin, while lingering longer on Woobin.

            “Baekhyun’s back from work. I should go welcome him home,” I pushed away Jongdae’s hand and Woobin’s face away from me. It hurt me a little that Jongdae didn’t do anything or sense something wrong going on behind him and yet, I can’t blame him when he hasn’t seen his best friend in a long time.

            Reaching Baekhyun, I immediately threw my arms around him; partly thanking him for saving me from my discomfort. I look up to his face and he was looking down at me with the softest look ever, the stoic one from earlier melted away. I couldn’t help but sigh from the warmth he was giving me when he quickly wrapped his arms around me.

            As much as I wanted to continue sharing each other’s bubbles, we had to part to not be weird around the others. “Are you okay?” He asked me.

            I nodded my head. “Thank you for coming back so soon and just in time.”

            “I felt something wrong so I ran down here,” I could tell he did rushed down as his hair wasn’t even dried yet with his hair almost looking black and pinned to his forehead. “I never liked Kim Woobin. I swear he hits on every girl and I’m sure at this point, he won’t have any other girl to hit on because he flirted with all of them.

It boils my blood that he doesn’t know what personal space is either.”

I smiled feeling grateful that he was able to sense that something bad was happening to be and that I won’t let an opportunity like this get away from me. “Aw, are you jealous Baekhyun?”

“Seoul, I could be drying my hair right now,” he whined.

I took my seat in between the twins as per usual and with Baekhyun across from me. Joohyuk’s friends were more on his end of the table and a couple of the house members took the other end on mine and Jisoo’s side spreading out to the kitchen bar as well.

Even when the attention wasn’t on me, the twins still took care of by adding food onto my plate and telling me to eat lots before quickly diving into their own food, going back into their own worlds.

            Another pair of chopsticks holding a piece of rolled egg appeared in front of me. I looked up to see Baekhyun smiling at me as he dropped the egg gently on my plate.

            “Eat a lot,” he mouthed out. I blushed and nodded my head mouthing out for him to eat a lot too.

            “Jongdae, have you ever been so attracted to someone that you can’t stop thinking about them?”

            “I don’t know,” Jongdae scribbled some notes into his notebook as Baekhyun laid a little too comfortably on his bed like he always does. “How does it make you feel to be around them? Are you okay with being attracted with them or are they attracted to you?”

            “I don’t know either… I feel happier when she’s around. I feel more alive inside like I’m discovering something new every day when I’m just hanging with her whether if it’s at the movies or over a cup of coffee,” Baekhyun sighed, dreamily. “She hates coffee though…”

            “You’re talking about Seoul, aren’t you?” Jongdae turned around in swivel chair to stare at the older male.

            “Yeah, how did you…”

            “Are you serious, Baekhyun?” Jongdae rolled his eyes. “Everyone in this household knows. You’re such a cliché, bro.”

            “What do you mean everyone knows? Does Seoul know too?”

            “Oh please, everyone knows because you guys hang out with each other so much nowadays. It’s like you’re attached at the hip! You’re a workaholic for crying out loud and yet, you’ve been lacking on your work duties because Seoul this and Seoul that. You’re totally whipped for her,” Jongdae crossed his arms. “And she’s the only one in this house that hates coffee. I make the best coffee and she rejects it every damn time!”

            “You didn’t answer my last question.”

            “Were you even listening?” Jongdae gaped at Baekhyun. He sighed. “Look, she’s confused herself. She can’t tell if you’re just being friendly to be just friends.”

            “Well, that’s how it was in the beginning,” Baekhyun pouted.

            “Yeah, that beginning was decades ago. Baekhyun, we all knew the moment you laid eyes on her at our family dinner is when you finally decided to actually not work overtime.”

            “It actually wasn’t the first time…” Baekhyun blushed.

            Jongdae clucked his tongue. “Details, Byun! Details! How am I your best friend and yet, you don’t tell me these things, huh? We live in the same damn house too!”

            “Because I thought you’d make fun of me and call me e for liking someone 7 years younger than me,” Baekhyun’s pout deepened and started to toss and turn on his best friend’s bed. “What am I doing with my life?”

            “You, my good man, are finally striving, accomplishing life to the fullest! You are going finally date someone and marry them!” Jongdae stood up from his chair and hopped onto the bed next to Baekhyun.

            “Marriage seems a bit much…” Baekhyun grumbled.

            “I promise you that she’ll be someone you don’t want to let go,” Jongdae smiled. “And I know that you know that you can’t let her go either. You’re feeling frustrated and in love~ It’s this a type of sign that she may be the one?”

            “How do you know so much about her?” Baekhyun furrowed his eyebrows.

            “Hey, I can’t help but be the friendliest guy in the house and when you weren’t here, I was the one to be her closet friend here. Plus, I’ve been flirting with her since she came here,” Jongdae winked.

            “You’ve been what?” Baekhyun shot up to a sitting position.

            “I’m just kidding, and you know that I flirt with her! You get jealous a lot when I do.”

“No, I don’t!”

“Sure,” Jongdae rolled his eyes. “Anyway, she knows that I’m close with you and so she comes over to talk to me sometimes when she’s feeling more confused about your actions.”

            “What did she say?”

            Jongdae shook his head. “No can do, sir. I gave an oath to swear that I wouldn’t mention a thing about my conversation with Miss Park.”

            “Can you just help me out, Jongdae? I’m really lost,” Baekhyun lay back down on the bed. “Even myself, I feel like I’m being in denial about liking her and yet, I want to like her.”

            “Hey, I don’t know much more than you. Wendy only comes in and sleeps me occasionally, but not often. She came in yesterday…”

            “What? Eww,” Baekhyun’s eyes grew from alarm and shot up from bed. “You’re having a friend-with-benefits- relationship?!”

            “Shh, quiet down! No, no,” Jongdae also stood up from the bed and pointed at Baekhyun who was also pointing back at Jongdae. “When I mean sleep, I actually mean sleep! There have been a couple of occasions, but I’m being totally real right now and all we did was sleep next to each other. I wash my sheets every time after we do it too and we haven’t done in a while either.

            We haven’t established a relationship between us yet. I’m attracted to her and she’s attracted to me and at this moment, we just have something between us, and I guess we’re not ready for the commitment. Look, my best advice is that you should just go and talk to her yourself. Don’t be like me. You have been ready for commitment since forever and Seoul needs to know what commitment is. She needs to know what having a relationship is.

I already know a little about what happened between her and Ha Won and she’s still not that close to any of the girls here. I just think she’s not that kind of person to have that many friends and hoping on that one person to make her feel not so lonely. It sounds like she’s being too much of a hopeless romantic, but I really think that she needs that lifelong friend.

You’re an adult and you should take action and claim what is yours and that is claiming yourself a girlfriend, so you don’t grow old and die alone.”

            “Okay.” Baekhyun nodded his head with confidence, quickly slipped off the bed and out the door he went.

            “Okay?” Jongdae questioned. He didn’t realize would take his advice in so quickly. “Wait, Baekhyun!”

            Jongdae chased after the older male to the other’s room and watched in horror as Baekhyun began packing a bag full of clothes that were scattered on the floor in his room. “Byun… what are you doing? Where are you going?”

            “I’m going to go to Seoul,” Baekhyun said with determination as he turned to Jongdae.

            “But what our Seoul? Park Seoul? She’s just across the hallway. I thought you were going to talk to her. Why are you going six hours away?” Jongdae was in a panic.

            Baekhyun burst out laughing. “Jongdae, that’s what I’m doing. I’m going to go to Seoul by going to her room. I’m just cleaning up mine since I’d feel much more comfortable talking in mine. But then again, it wouldn’t be her first time in here or her first time sleeping in here…”

            “She’s already slept with you when? Byun, I don’t mean to exaggerate this, but details!” Jongdae waved his arms in the air.

            “It’s a long story,” Baekhyun replied as he continued to tidy up the place.

            “Well make it short!”

            “I took her to see that late-night movie of that Conjuring movie and she was terrified, so I had to drag her over to my room to sleep with me.”

            “But dragging as in she willingly came over slash you willingly got up in the middle of the night to bring her to your room?” Baekhyun nodded at Jongdae’s quick conclusion. “Man, so you guys slept together, but haven’t kissed yet? This story is going in all the wrong places.”

            “There wasn’t much of an opportunity for it plus we aren’t in a relationship so I felt it would be wrong to kiss her and to take away her first kiss,” Baekhyun responded. “Plus, she probably slept in here three times and I slept in hers once.”

            “Baekhyun,” he closed his eyes and breathed through his nose, loudly, “Byun, this could all have been avoided if you just kissed her and asked her to be your girlfriend right then and there,” Jongdae sat down on Baekhyun’s bed and folded his arms across his chest.

            “Easy for you to say than done. You had with Wendy and haven’t asked her to your girlfriend yet either.”

            “Hey, you’re the one in the dilemma here! Don’t bring me into this. At least I have established an intimate relationship with someone,” Jongdae stuck his tongue out at the older male.

            “Anyway, I just felt whenever there was, ugh I don’t want to say , but the tension of wanting to kiss someone so bad and can’t… I-I felt that we still weren’t as close as we are kind of now,” Baekhyun finished wiping down his desk and looked over his room one more time.

            “Ready?” Jongdae stood up and clapped his best friend’s shoulder.

            “I think so,” Baekhyun pressed his lips together and nodded.

            A couple of knocks sounded through the room as I swirled around in my desk chair, lazily. “Come in.”

            I stopped swiveling to see who was going to come in and to my surprise, not really though, it was Baekhyun.  He must have just come back from the university seeing that he was still in his work clothes; a simple white dress shirt and black slacks pairs with a Mont Blanc watch. “Oh, Baekhyun…”

            “Hey, what are you doing?” He, slowly, stepped inside and kept his distance by the door.

            “Oh, I was just attempting to study, but got bored,” I pouted my lips and waved my phone in the air that showcased my Twitter timeline. “Do you need something?”

            “No, well, yes, but no,” he smacked his cheek a couple of times and couldn’t help but laugh. “I need your time and your ears.”

            “You can have all of me for that matter,” I smiled at him, but he didn’t seem in the mood for jokes. He seemed tense and a bit distraught. “Baekhyun, are you okay? I will listen to whatever you say if you’re not feeling well and need to talk about it.”

            “Do you mind if we go into my room?”

            “Yeah,” I replied as I threw off the blanket that was around my shoulders and reached for my hoodie before following Baekhyun out the door.

            And soon enough, we were in the comfort of Baekhyun’s room. It was a lot cleaner than it is usual. I’m glad he cleaned though. I took a spot on the edge of his bed, crossing my legs, and pulling my comfy hoodie over my head while he sat down on his own desk chair and scooted towards me on the bed until he was right in front of me with a bit of a distance. I would still be able to touch him if I leaned forward, but he was still quite far. Why was he distancing himself from me?

            “Well, we’re here,” I said as I played my fingers, not making any eye contact with the man in front of me.

            “Yeah…” he breathed out.

            “So,” we spoke at the same time. He chuckled and I laughed as well finally getting to her his sweet honey laugh of his and breaking off the tension in the room.

            “You first,” he gestured towards me.

            “Oh no, you go. I was just going to suggest you start talking since you brought me here to talk in the first place,” I said.

            “Right,” he let out a small smile.

            He took a long pause. Why is he getting so worked up on talking to me? We usually can talk about anything and everything so easily with each other. This wouldn’t be the first time we talked about anything serious. For the past year that I’ve got to know Baekhyun, I do feel that we have gotten close to the point that I can say that I really know Baekhyun. I know what he likes, don’t like. I know about his family. I know what he is feeling based on his actions and the way he just emits his feelings even when he’s trying to hide it. I believe that I can say the same for Baekhyun as well. I’m just an open book to Baekhyun. He knows how I want to be treated, what kinds of foods I don’t like and how he can make me happy.

            I just hope to this isn’t going to be the break-up to the intimate relationship we’ve never even got the chance to start that I don’t want to hear.

            He let out a loud groan before blowing out a puff of air. It scared me for a second at his sudden loudness. “You know what I’m just going to get this over with.” I looked up at his face ready to prepare myself for the worse.

            “I like you, Park Seoul.” I wasn’t prepared for that. I always thought he did like me because I feel if I didn’t like someone then I wouldn’t hang out with them. I just don’t know what he wants me to do with this information.

            “That’s great to know, Baekhyun…”

            “No, Seoul that’s not what I mean,” he chuckled. “I mean that I like you a lot and I want to be your boyfriend. I want to be there when you’re sad or lonely or when you need someone to laugh with you. I can’t help but feel so much happier when I’m with you. I can’t help but feel lonely when you’re not around and I can’t stop thinking about if you’re bored or if you’re doing well. It’s hard to not just go right across the hall to ask.”

            I really wasn’t prepared for that. I’m speechless. Am I finally not getting rejected without me even saying anything? So many emotions are running through my body that I feel like I can’t control how happy I am.

            “Seoul?”

            “Huh?” I suddenly came back to reality.

            “You don’t have to say yes, you know? I just want to establish that I have feelings for you and if you don’t feel the same then I get it,” he let out a sad smile. I shook my head as a small smile crept onto my face. I lifted my hand and waved for him to come closer to me. He tilted his head and just stared at me confused.

            I wave my hand to call him over to me. “Come here.” He finally obeyed and scooted closer to the bed. I sat up on my knees and wrapped my arms around him. “Thank you. Thank you for not rejecting me.”

            “You’re saying yes? Oh yes!” Baekhyun immediately wrapped his arms around me and squeezed me against him. “I promise you won’t regret this.”

            “When did I ever regret hanging out with you in the first place?”

            “You’re right,” he squeezed me again and leaned forward, so we fell on the bed. He snuggled his face in the crook of my neck. “I can finally be this close with you. You know how hard it was not to do anything cute with you when you slept in my room.”

            “Aw, it must have been hard for you, Mr. Byun,” I teased and ran my fingers through his soft locks.

            “Oh, baby, it was very hard,” he lifted his head and revealed his pearly whites. He leaned over and pecked my cheek.

HAPPY (LATE) CHRISTMAS!!!! It's currently 12:28 AM of December 26... I was going to post this up early, but I was kinda lazy, kinda opening presents, and kinda going out to have dinner at my friend's house hehe. SO I mean here it is now! What everyone was waiting for, especially you alexajjang!

I'm really stuck on how to finish this story up soooo.... don't be mad if the ending is ty, but it'll be cute!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and I'll see y'all on New Years!