The panda plushies, as cute as they were and as much as Tao loved pandas, were beginning to become annoying. Not to Tao, but rather his newly assigned roommate.

“What?!” Tao screeched when Kris told him the news, a new suitcase by the door.

“I’m staying with you until we leave,” Kris repeated, rolling his eyes at Tao’s dramatic outburst. He looked around, eying the pandas.

“But why?!” Tao cried. In all honesty, Kris scared Tao. He was a man of few words, apparently, and that intimidated Tao. It also didn’t help that Kris seemed to always be wearing a !face wherever they were, be it dinner or at that moment.

“I don’t know,” Kris said, walking past Tao and throwing himself onto the couch. “Wow, this room is scary,” he muttered, throwing a stuffed panda away from his seat in annoyance. “Baekhyun’s lost his mind.”

“I LOST MY MIND! Neoreul cheoeummannasseulttae neo hanappaego modeungeoseun get in slow motion~” a song suddenly burst out at full volume, practically causing Tao to fall against the wall in shock.

“What was that?!” he asked, his heart still pounding in his chest after the song stopped.

Kris was barely even fazed as he flipped through the channels on the TV. None of the programs were similar to Tao - they all seemed to be incredibly colorful and lively, though.

“That’s D.O. and Baekhyun’s song,” Kris said offhandedly, not even caring for the boy who seemed ready to fall over at his spot. “It plays whenever someone says something along of losing a person’s mind. It’s ridiculous, but Chanyeol insisted it be done. Something about showing his love for his queen and his favorite cook.”

“... how does he do that?”

“Magic,” Kris deadpanned.

Tao didn’t even bother asking for clarification. He didn’t want to know. He just wanted to go and take that shower he was planning to take before he stepped out - , mind you - and saw Kris standing by the door, putting his suitcase by the door. Their eyes met, and Kris lost his !face for a moment as he realized the situation. Tao then let out a very manly shrill - manly indeed - and rushed back into his room to cover himself with a towel. Then Kris explained the situation, and then this happened.

Tao really needed that shower now.

After drowning in his sorrows - a.k.a. standing in the shower and playing with the water temperature for almost an hour as he washed himself - Tao came out, feeling slightly better. That was out the window when he saw Kris again and remembered his odd situation.

“Why do these things always happen to me?” he asked himself sadly.

“I ask myself the same thing,” Kris muttered.

Tao cleared his throat as he sat on the farthest corner from Kris on the couch.

"So... um, are you going to show me the castle tomorrow?" Tao asked lamely.

Kris looked over at him boredly. "I thought you already looked around by yourself today," he said, turning back to the TV. Some weird show that resembled a variety show but with more laughter and general weirdness was playing, and Tao wasn't sure if it was meant to scare him or humor him.

"Well, yeah, but -"

"But I guess I'll show you around," Kris cut him off. "Since I promised the King and Queen I would. But it'll be shorter, since you already looked around. We can go by the beach."

"There's a beach in the castle?"

"Everything's in the castle. Everything and anything the King wants, that is."

"That's kind of cool," Tao thought aloud.

"Yeah, we're not limited to the boring logic your world relies on," Kris said, rolling his eyes.

"Honestly, I don't even know how the human world functions the way it does."

Tao wasn't sure if he should be offended. He probably should have been, but honestly, he kind of agreed with Kris. This world was kind of cool.
 

: :

When Tao woke up the next day, almost suffocated by a huge plush panda that somehow appeared in his bed as he slept, he had to admit that Baekhyun went a little overboard. But, not wanting to hurt the nice Queen, he just dealt with them by stuffing them into the closet and hoping Baekhyun wouldn't check up on him that often.

If he did, he could always just blame it on Kris.

"I can show you around today, but after this, we're going to have to act more serious. We only have a certain amount of time to figure out what's happening to the buffaloes, and you still don't seem to know how to use your power," Kris explained as they walked to breakfast together.

"Okay..." Tao said, unsure. He still didn't believe he had powers, honestly.

"Eat up, and then have Kai or someone bring you to the library," Kris said, stopping.

Tao almost ran into him. "Wait, why aren't you coming to breakfast?"

"I need to meet up with a friend. He's good with powers and that sort of thing, since he's a healer and he works with them. I'm hoping he'll know how to help awaken your power," Kris told him. "Besides, I ate something back at the room."

"But the fridge was empty," Tao argued.

Kris rolled his eyes, walking off, muttering something like, "Silly human."

Tao pursed his lips, contemplating following after Kris just to bother him, when the growl his stomach made told him otherwise. So instead he walked the opposite way to the dining room, where Chanyeol and Baekhyun were eating like the couple they obviously were, feeding each other like lovesick teenagers, and Kai was making gagging faces while D.O. elbowed him to be more polite. There were was one other person, too, who Tao didn't recognize.

"Oh, Tao! Good morning! Where's Kris?" Baekhyun asked upon noticing his entrance.

"I think he went to the library," Tao replied, taking a seat beside the Queen hesitantly. Some of the faces at the table stared at him as if he was a brave soul for sitting so close to the royal couple, and he started having second thoughts about his seating choice. But it was too late, because Chanyeol's long arm grasped him and pushed him into the seat, smiling in a manner that was probably supposed to be friendly but turned out to look rather murderous instead.

Tao wondered if anyone ever told their King that he was rather terrifying. Probably not.

"Oh, he's probably talking to Lay," a man seated beside Chanyeol noted.

"Ah, yes, that would make sense," Chanyeol said with a nod. "Always wise, Grandfather Suho."

Suho seemed somewhat indignant at being called 'grandfather', but apparently he was used to it because he just continued to eat.

"Is Kris taking you on that tour today?" Baekhyun asked, smiling. His smile was a lot less scary, in Tao's opinion.

"Yeah," Tao replied, taking a bite of the bacon on the plate. Everyone seemed to be eating the same thing actually - bacon and eggs. For a castle, there seemed to be no variation in the breakfast food.

"Oh, goodie! I hope he takes you to the beach! It's so nice and romantic there."

Kai almost choked on his orange juice as he started laughing, and D.O. frowned at him before helping wipe the mess he made. Tao noticed that as D.O. patted Kai's face with the napkin, the younger boy turned red and flustered, a big contrast from his previous snickering self.

"Baekhyun, let things happen by themselves," Suho said, sounding oddly wise for a man who looked no older than his early twenties.

Baekhyun glanced at Suho and frowned, and Chanyeol put his arm around the smaller protectively. "Let Baekhyunnie play matchmaker if he wants, Grandfather!" he defended, pouting.
"No, no, he's right," Baekhyun sighed. "Relationships should be natural, like ours."

Tao was actually relieved to hear that, hoping Baekhyun would stop trying to push Tao and Kris together now - because Kris didn't even seem like boyfriend material, much less friend material for that matter - and leave them alone at that. But upon seeing Baekhyun and Chanyeol whispering to each other, giggling at the same time as they kept stealing glances (and by stealing glances, it was more like obviously staring down the terrified boy) at him, Tao knew that probably wasn't the end of the 'matchmaking'.

Eager to get out of there, Tao finished his breakfast quickly - and lingered around in hopes that maybe there'd be cake, but there wasn't any, to his disappointment - and asked if anyone could tell him where the library was. Suho, wiping his mouth, volunteered to take him.

As they left the dining room, Suho said, "I don't believe we've properly met. I'm Joonmyun, but people call me Suho."

Chanyeol calls you Grandfather, Tao thought but didn't say. "I'm Tao," he replied.

"I know," Suho said with a soft smile. "You're the talk of the castle, after all! They're putting a lot of trust in you to save our beloved buffaloes."

Tao gulped, suddenly feeling a lot heavier. "Uh... yeah..." he mumbled, unsure.

Suho noticed how quiet he got, and nudged him gently. "Don't worry, though. You can do this. You're our savior. It's written in the stars. You won't let us down."

Tao couldn't say anything back.

"We're here now. Good luck with your training, Tao, and remember - eat cake."

Tao blinked. Those were not words of wisdom he expected. He was assuming Suho would say something inspirational, deep, and moving - not something Tao already knew and loved.

But before he could reply, Suho was off walking down the hallway, humming with his hands behind his back.

With a shrug, Tao pushed past the huge library doors.

a/n: I actually laughed when I wrote in Suho's part as the grandfather figure OTL I'm bad. /sobs. Thanks for reading, though, and we hope you enjoyed :)