“There’s breakfast downstairs. It’s a pancake morning,” Joy said as she walked into the bathroom as I brushed my teeth. The girls made a rule that we would at least keep the bathroom door slightly ajar if we were only brushing our teeth, doing our hair, or doing make-up; anything that doesn’t involve total privacy.

            “Ugh, I love pancakes. What a blessing,” I beamed at her, white foamed mouth and everything.

            “And you are kind of being gross right now,” she rolled her eyes. “Finish brushing and leave so I can use the bathroom.”

            I stuck her tongue at Joy. She scoffed, “Is that a way to treat your Unnie?”

            I hurried downstairs and to my surprise, someone was already at the table sipping on his coffee. “You’re home?”

            “Oh, now don’t be too surprised,” he winked at me.

            “What happened? Did you finally decide not to grade your students’ final essay?” I sat down in front of him.

            He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t really feel like looking at them right now. I’m taking your advice. I’ll try to rest on my breaks.”

            “Great to know that I’m becoming a great influence on you, Mr. Byun,” I winked back to him.

            He laughed. “Sure, you are. Want to head out together somewhere after breakfast?”

            I nodded my head, immediately. Hopefully, I didn’t come off as too eager to go out together. I paused for a second realizing what I had just done. “Ah, wait, I’m actually going out somewhere after breakfast to meet someone.”

            “Who?”

            “Uh… Chanyeol.”

            He looked surprised. “Really? Who knew you and Chanyeol were-?”

            “Oh no, it’s not like that,” I cut him off. “We’re really just friends and you should know because he is your best friend in all, and I would imagine that close friends tell each other things.”

            “Oh okay, thank god,” he let out a sigh of relief and yet, he hiccupped realizing on what he said and how he said it. “Wait, I mean like ‘ha-ha thank god’ because Chanyeol always needs new friends because I can’t be there all the time, am I right? Here’s me just grading papers all day, ha…ha…”

            I giggled at the way he tried to cover himself up. “Don’t worry, I understand what you mean.”

            “You do?”

            “Sure, you’re a workaholic and if I wasn’t there to keep Chanyeol company, he’d be lonely,” I replied. I knew he didn’t mean that, but I wanted to help him save face.

            “Yeah…Yeah!”

            “And I’m sure Chanyeol won’t mind if you come a long too. I’ll need someone to help guide me to the place through all this snow. It’s getting harder to navigate since everything is all white.”

            “Of course, I can help out.”

            “Great!”

            “And here’s your plate of pancakes, Miss Seoul,” Jongdae winked as placed the freshly made stack in front of me and I immediately got involved.

            “Who invited you?” Chanyeol pointed to the male next to me.

            “Do you have a problem with me being here?” Baekhyun scoffed. “Haven’t seen you in weeks and this is the treatment I get?

            “I invited Baekhyun. I was going to get lost coming here if I didn’t have him to guide me,” I explained.

            “You could have texted me to come get you, you know?” He laughed. “It just would have been nice to know about the extra company.”

            “Yeah, I know but I thought you’d like the surprise since he is your best friend and he’s always working,” I gave Chanyeol a small smile.

            “I guess… It is actually nice to see you again.”

            “Me too. It feels almost liberating not being held down by the massive pile of paper just sitting on my desk.”

            “Yes, and I feel he will be very vital to our work today,” I mentioned and Baekhyun’s ear perked up.

            “Work? What work?”

            “Alright, I need those boxes over there and these over there,” Chanyeol directed us.

            And here we were at Chanyeol’s parent’s animal clinic helping with the new delivery of pet supplies. I had nothing better to do so when Chanyeol mentioned of his chore that he had to do; I offered a helping hand. Usually I wouldn’t voluntarily do work, but I might as well do something productive over the break and if this might be the only chance to hang out with a friend then so be it.

            “Wait, I didn’t sign up for this,” Baekhyun pouted. “I didn’t stop doing my work to do work that isn’t mine.”

            “Then why did you come?” Chanyeol rolled his eyes.

            “B-because…”

            “Did you really come for me?” Chanyeol lifted his eyebrows and tilted his head towards me as I got distracted from placing boxes in their correct spots to playing with the lone puppy in the play pen.

            Baekhyun swallowed as his eyes wandered toward the play pen and then quickly back to Chanyeol. “I know what you are thinking and no. I am not even looking for anything right now and I’m too busy with work to start anything.”

            “What do you mean?” Chanyeol crossed his arms. “Are you sure there’s nothing you want to talk about?”

            “No.”

            “Alright then,” Chanyeol shrugged his shoulders. “I wonder if Jongdae is up to anything. I’m sure he has time on his hands.”

            “Don’t get that loser involved. It’s already bad enough he flirts with Seoul,” Baekhyun huffed out and pushed a box to the side.

            “So that’s it!”

            “No, no, don’t put this on me right now,” Baekhyun jabbed his finger towards the taller male. “I am not saying anything anymore and if you want this place to be organized by lunch then I better start getting to work.”

            “Hey, that wasn’t too bad,” I said as I sat on top of one of the benches watching the boys do the rest of ‘heavy work’. They didn’t want me carrying anymore heavy boxes as I ‘might hurt myself’. I’m not necessarily too offended since I couldn’t lift the last boxes anyway and I attempted at first and ended up hurting my wrist trying to lift it up. I just finished sweeping up the floor and decided to rest.

            “Yeah with another set of hands we finished quite early,” Chanyeol nudged a tired out looking Baekhyun.

            “Don’t mention it,” Baekhyun waved his hand. “So, you’re buying lunch, right?”

            “I promised Seoul lunch, but I don’t know about you,” Chanyeol rolled his eyes as Baekhyun shot lasers at the taller male. I couldn’t help but to giggle at their interaction. “I’m kidding!”

            “Ah I’m exhausted,” I plopped myself down on the padded seat in the gazebo.

            “Me too. I’m going to head up and change into sometime much more comfortable and I’ll be back down to hang if you want,” Baekhyun said as he stood in the doorway waiting for my answer.

            “Yeah, sure!”

            And as soon as one left, another one came along with a hot cup in hand wondering right into the gazebo. “Hey, you! Would like some hot chocolate?”

            “I would definitely love one, Jongdae,” I smiled at him. He handed me the one he originally had in his hands and ran to fetch another one.

            “So how have you been? It’s your first break and I see that you’re spending it with lots of relaxation. You’re face seems to be glowing.”

            I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m getting more sleep that’s for sure and I’m so glad that none of my teachers assigned homework over the break. I would probably die and then attempt to finish the work.”

            “What?” He laughed.

            I laughed too. “You know what I mean.”

            “Actually, I don’t. Would you care to explain it, sweetheart?”

            “Well, you first cry over the fact that you have homework over the break and keep crying until you say ‘ it’ and then get the work done early enough into the break so you don’t have to worry about it. Or you could just struggle and finish it the night before it’s due. Either way, you might die from the overkill.”

            “I like the way you think! So… you find anyone interesting yet?”

            “Now what do you mean?” I pursed my lips together, mocking him. His eyes nearly rolled out of his head.

            “Oh, I think you know what I mean. Come on, you had to have found someone that makes you feel different inside,” he put his head into his hand as he leaned it against his elbow on the back of the bench.

            “Eh, there’s people that I find attractive, but I don’t want to get into anything yet. If the opportunity arises, then maybe. I really doubt anyone would be interested in me anyway.”

            “I totally get it, but you shouldn’t say stuff like that! I’m sure there’s someone out there that you’re just bound to be together or at least someone who is itching to be closer to you,” he smiled at me. Jongdae is such a genuine guy and it makes my heart beat a little to feel how honest and humble he is. “Besides, I think you’re the prettiest girl here.” He lifted his hand up to pet my head and I couldn’t help but blush.

            Someone cleared their throat loudly behind me. “Oh, Baekhyun, you’re home.” Jongdae lifted his eyes from my face to face the older male. There’s a slight twitch in his lips, almost like a smirk? I didn’t think too much of it though.

            “Yeah,” Baekhyun replied, almost annoyed? I shrugged it off, maybe, I read that expression wrong too. “What have you guys been up to?”

            “I’ve been talking to Jongdae about school,” I answered him.

            “Oh, I see…” with the appearance of Baekhyun, the room suddenly became awkward, and the atmosphere became heavy almost.

            “Well… I have a phone call to make soon so I’ll catch up with you some more later, yeah?” Chen smiled at me and smooth out the top of head once more.

            “Sure, sure,” I nodded my head and watch him leave to go back up to his room. “So, are you going to keep pinning over me or are you going to come here and keep me company?”

            Baekhyun laughed and rolled his eyes. I felt relieved when the heavy tension was lifted with his honey laugh. “I guess since you’re free now. I shall make my presence known.”

            Maybe I’m being in denial about not being interested in someone.

EHHHHHH...... this chapter is kind of boring... I mainly wrote it as a filler though ig it's supposed to be kind of boring. Hope you guys are liking it so far!!!