“Yeah. Hang out with us again, just like today. We want to get to know you better.” Chanyeol said, smiling at Minah widely.

 

“Excuse me?” Kai said, a little sassily. “Where did the ‘we’ come from? I didn’t hear myself say something like that.”

 

“Don’t mind him,” Tao said, nudging the shorter boy. “He’s just bitter because he basically lost the bet already.”

 

“What bet?” Minah asked. She raised her eyebrows in confusion. Having a conversation with twelve boys at the same time was seriously difficult.

 

“Oops,” Tao said, placing his hand over his mouth. “I don’t think I was supposed to say that, was I?”

 

Kris sighed. “You really at keeping things to yourself, Tao.”

 

“It’s not my fault, gege,” Tao whined. “Nobody told me I wasn’t supposed to mention it!”

 

“It’s implied, you idiot!” Kris said, smacking the tall boy lightly.

 

“Ouch!”

 

“Oh come on, that did not hurt!”

 

“Yes it did!” Tao complained. He turned to Minah and grabbed her hands. Minah flinched in surprise.

 

“Forget about what I said just now, okay?” He begged. “Gege won’t stop hitting me until you say yes!”

“Um, sure..” Minah said in confusion. “Although you didn’t even tell me anything..”

 

Tao smiled in relief and stuck his tongue out at Kris, who just shook his head and crossed his arms again. Chanyeol took the temporary silence to his advantage, and he stepped forward. “So what do you say, Minah?” he asked.

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Are you going to hang out with us again?”

 

“Um… I don’t know. Sure, I guess, if you want me to..”

 

His face broke out into a freaky grin. “Great!! Yay!” He grabbed Baekhyun’s arms and began to swing them around crazily.

 

“Yah! What are you doing?” Baekhyun said, pulling his arms out of Chanyeol’s tight grip. “You’re gonna rip my arm straight out of the socket!”

 

“Sorry, Baekkie. I was just really happy. Forgive me?”

 

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Baekhyun mumbled, looking away.

 

“Then, we will be expecting to see you again soon,” Lay smiled.

 

D.O snorted. “You’re talking like she’s leaving now. She just got here!”

 

“Huh? O-Oh, you’re not leaving, meimei?”

 

“Course she’s not,” Sehun answered for Minah. “We still have to go hang out somewhere!” He ran over to Minah and put his arm around her shoulder. “Hey, what do you wanna do, noona?”  

 

“Um… I don’t know,” Minah replied. “I don’t really go out. What’s fun?”

 

“Let’s go eat!” Xiumin shouted. “I’m so hungry!”

 

“Didn’t you just eat an hour ago?” Luhan frowned. “You’re hungry again?”

 

“Yeah.” Xiumin giggled. “I’m still a growing boy. I need to eat.”

 

Suho smiled and ruffled Xiumin’s hair. “Aigoo, I’m so jealous that you can eat so much without getting fat.”

 

“Dude, you have no idea how much I have to exercise to burn off all of the stuff I eat. If you think I’m skinny, clearly you haven’t seen Lay. That boy’s a stick!”

 

“But that’s because I dance a lot…” Lay said, a little sheepishly. “It’s not like I try to be this skinny..”

 

“That just makes it so much worse,” Kai shook his head. “You don’t even try. I dance, but I still have to diet on top of that!”

 

“Why do you guys diet, anyway?” Minah asked. “It sounds like it’s difficult, so why bother?”

 

“We have an image to maintain,” Kai responded. “We can’t exactly do as we please. There are rules we have to live by. Being skinny is one of those rules.”

 

“What kind of stupid rule is that? Being skinny?”

 

“Right?” D.O sighed. “I think it’s dumb too. We all do. But there’s nothing we can do about it. We didn’t make the rules, our parents did.”

 

“Oh…” Minah said sympathetically. “I see. That .”

 

“Yep,” Suho agreed. “Hey, so what are we going to do today? Club meetings will end in a few minutes, so other people will be coming out. It’d be troublesome for Minah if she was caught with us here.”

 

Sehun gasped and looked up. “Oh, right! I forgot that she’s not supposed to be hanging out with us. Wow, you were right Chanyeol. She makes me feel normal. It’s really different than being around those freaky fangirls.” He smiled shyly. “I like Minah noona.” 

 

“I bet it’s because she doesn’t talk, and so you forgot about her being here,” Kai said sarcastically.

 

“No! It’s not like that,” Sehun pouted. “ It’s because she doesn’t act strangely or squeal when we talk to her like everyone else does.”

 

“Is there seriously no one who acts normally around you guys?” Minah asked, bewildered. Surely there had to be some people who didn’t see them as gods.

 

“Excluding you… nope, there’s no one,” Chanyeol responded.

 

“Wow…” Minah breathed. “That’s really weird. I thought for sure that there’d be others. Why am I the only one?”

 

“Dunno,” Chen shrugged. “Maybe it’s because you don’t care about popularity?

 

“That’s probably it,” Suho nodded.

 

“Guys… we went over all of this earlier,” Chanyeol said, scratching his head. “Didn’t we?”

 

“Yep, we did,” D.O said, thinking back. “We definitely went over this.”

 

“So!” Luhan smiled kindly at Minah. “What shall we do today?”

 

“You still didn’t sing for us,” Baekhyun pointed out.

 

“Um,” Minah quickly tried to come up with an excuse of some sort. “How about… I’ll sing the song that Chanyeol and I will perform in music?”

 

“Go for it!” Baekhyun said, smiling slightly. He appeared to be warming up to Minah.  

 

“But the thing is, we haven’t chosen a song yet. We were just assigned the project today. I promise that after we choose a song and learn how to sing it, we’ll perform in front of you guys, okay?”

 

Baekhyun stuck his lips out in thought, but in the end he decided that it was good enough. “Fine,” he agreed. “We’ll get to hear your voice soon! Hooray!”

 

Minah blushed. This was going to be embarrassing.

 

“Hey, speaking of music, when are you free?” Chanyeol asked. “We’ll have to meet up sometime and practice. We also need to choose a song.”

 

“I’m free anytime,” Minah replied. “I don’t ever have plans.”

 

“Not even on weekends?” Chanyeol frowned. “Being a loner is one thing, but not going out at all is another. Don’t you ever go traveling with your parents or something?”

 

“They don’t really care about me,” Minah said, a little bitterly. “They dumped me here the moment I became a freshman and left. I haven’t seen them in three years.”

 

The EXO boys all nodded in unison. They could relate. Kris regarded Minah with renewed interest. This was something that he and his friends had in common. Now that he knew Minah was also the same, he began to see her in a slightly different light, though he still thought of her as a clumsy nobody.

 

“I’m sure they do care about you,” Lay said gently. “And if they really don’t, we will.. We can be like your new family. That’s basically what EXO is. We’re our own family. We are one!”

 

“Thank you, Lay.” Minah felt warm from his caring words. This was the first time people other than Junhyun and Taeyeon had shown her compassion. Minah had to admit, it felt really good.

 

“Anytime,” he smiled.

 

Minah smiled back. “So yeah, I don’t have plans on the weekends. I’ll work on the assignment with you whenever you want to, Chanyeol.

 

“Alright, cool,” Chanyeol grinned. “Hey, give me your phone number, so I can contact you later. I’ll give you mine too.”

 

Minah nodded. She reached into her purse and pulled out her cellphone. She and Chanyeol exchanged phone numbers, not noticing the boys giggling behind them.

 

“Aww, how cute,” Kai smirked. “They look like a couple or something!”

 

Chanyeol’s face reddened slightly. “Don’t joke like that,” he scolded. “You’ll scare Minah away!”

 

Kai held up his hands and laughed. “Whatever you say!”

 

“You wanna go?” Chanyeol challenged.

 

“Go where?” Luhan asked in confusion.

 

Baekhyun snorted and began to laugh. “Oh! Sorry, Luhan… Don’t mean to laugh at you… But oh my gosh! You are so idiotic sometimes!”

 

Luhan raised his eyebrows. “What? I don’t get what you mean.”

 

“Nevermind,” Baekhyun grinned. Chanyeol shook his head in amusement and turned his gaze back to Kai. “So. You wanna go?”

 

“Maybe some other time,” Suho suggested, stepping in between the boys. “We have a girl watching. You’ll seriously scare her away with your weird moves.”

 

“Hey! Are you trying to say my battle stance looks strange?!”

 

“No, no,” Suho shook his head. “Maybe.”

 

The boys began to laugh, and Minah found herself joining in. It was so strange how well she fit in with them.

 

After the laughter died down, Sehun looked at his cellphone and gasped. “Hey! We have one minute! Scatter everyone, scatter! Go.. that way!” He pointed in a random direction, and all the boys began to bolt. Luhan grabbed Minah’s arm instinctively, dragging her along with the boys.

 

“What’s going on?” She squeaked.

 

“Club meetings are ending now!” he shouted. “We’ve got to evacuate! It’s dangerous to stay here! For all of us!”

 

Minah nodded and ran alongside the boys wordlessly. By the time Kris, who was in the lead, finally slowed down, Minah was completely out of breath.

 

“Oh.. my… god…” she gasped for air. “You guys.. can run …. So… fast!” Panting heavily, she put her hands on her waist and looked up, trying to take in oxygen for her tired body.

 

D.O looked at her with wide eyes. “You’re already tired? This is like a daily routine for us, so we’re completely fine…”

 

Minah looked at the boys, and noticed that they were barely panting. “You guys are nuts,” she noted, her breathing beginning to even.

 

“Says the loner,” Baekhyun smiled, showing that he meant no offense.

 

“Touché.” Minah returned the grin.

 

“Hey!” Xiumin shouted. “Lay, your mom’s café is in this area! Let’s go!” He began to make his way towards a row of shops, and everyone followed.

 

Minah turned to Lay. “Your mom owns a café? That’s so cool!”

 

“Thanks,” Lay smiled.

 

“His mom owns a huge chain of cafés,” Tao explained. “And she likes it so much that she’s even working at one of them. She’s like the nicest woman in the world. It’s his father you’ve gotta watch out for.” He said his last sentence darkly.

 

Minah nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said.

 

“Lay’s mom is the only nice female we know. All the others were annoying, desperate, or y. Including our parents,” Chen said, shaking his head. “It’s pretty sad, really.”

 

“I can relate,” Minah replied. “My parents aren’t kind either. They only talk to me when they need something.”

 

“Yup,” Chanyeol agreed. “Same. It’s the same for all of us.”

 

Baekhyun shook his head and smiled. “Maybe she is different from the other girls after all.”

 

“Or maybe it’s because she’s so similar to us that we’re instantly drawn to her. That doesn’t mean that she’s different, though. “ Kai said.

 

“Aish,” Suho laughed. “Still trying to save your , huh? Just admit it, you lost the bet.”

 

“I won’t admit defeat until there’s solid proof!” Kai said defensively.

 

“What bet?” Minah asked confusedly. “I’ve heard about it like twice now, and I don’t know what it is. Does it have to deal with me?”

 

“It’s classified,” Luhan grinned. “Sorry~”

 

“Ah! We’re here at last!” Xiumin shouted. He ran inside the café, and loud squeals could be heard from inside.

 

“I guess the girls were waiting for us today, too,” Sehun said, rolling his eyes.

 

Minah looked at the café, listening to the loud girly noises inside. Girls could be so scary sometimes… “What do you do then? Won’t they attack or something?” she asked.

 

“No worries,” D.O replied. “Lay’s mom has a separate area for us upstairs, and that area is off limits to everybody, including most of the staff.”

 

“Ooh,” Minah nodded. “Neat.”

 

Tao nodded happily, and was about to brace himself and enter when he remembered that Minah could not enter alongside them. The girls would surely see, and then Minah would be in deeper trouble.

 

“Minah!” Tao put his hands on her shoulders. “Wait for a few seconds before going in. I’ll go in first, and tell Lay’s mom to let you upstairs, okay? Go as fast as you can! Hopefully, no one will see you.”

 

“Okay,” she nodded.

 

Tao smiled, took a deep breath, and walked inside. The whole café was instantly filled with screams of delight.

 

Minah waited a few moments, unsure of when she was supposed to enter.

 

“I think you can go in now,” Chen announced after a minute. Minah turned around and faced the ten remaining boys.

 

“We’ll come in after you,” Luhan said, nodding. “Go on,” he coaxed. Minah nodded at the boys a little fearfully and placed her hand on the door. She pushed it open, and a sea of girls turned to Minah’s direction, their eyes hopeful and glittery. When they saw that it was not EXO, the girls mumbled to themselves and looked back down. Minah looked around and saw the stairs. As she began to walk up, a hand suddenly pulled her back.

 

“Who are you?” a mean-looking lady demanded. “You know you can’t go up there.”

 

“U-Um, T-Tao said that he would tell Lay’s mom to let me upstairs,” Minah stuttered. The lady glared even harder at Minah. “Lies and deceit. Every girl says that.”

 

As Minah continued to stutter, another woman ran over. She eyed Minah with concern. “Are you Jung Minah?”

 

“Yeah..” Minah responded. Someone was here to save her at last!

 

 “I’m Lay’s mother,” she smiled at Minah before turning to the scary woman. “Let her upstairs,” Lay’s mother said. “It’s okay. Tao told me to let her up.”

 

The scary woman reluctantly let go of Minah’s arm and walked back to the kitchen.

 

“Go on up,” Lay’s mother smiled. “Sorry about that.”

 

“it’s okay,” Minah replied, smiling back. “Thank you.”

 

Ten boys suddenly entered the café, and a chorus of shouts and shrieks erupted. Minah turned and bolted up the stairs. Luckily for her, all eyes were trained on the boys, and no one spotted her going up.

 

Minutes later, everybody was seated comfortably on the couches, holding drinks that Lay’s mother had brought up for them. Time passed leisurely as they all chatted, though the boys made sure to include Minah in their conversation. They all seemed to be curious about her, since she was a female, and they didn’t know much about them. Though Kai was the most experienced amongst the boys, even he only knew girls on a simple level.

 

They continued to chat, cracking jokes and telling stories. Even Kris, who always seemed so cold, joined in the laughter and storytelling. Despite all the popularity, the EXO boys all proved to be kindhearted and considerate.

 

Minah found herself liking her new friends very much.

 

 

 

 

 

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Sorry there wasn't much action! But don't worry, I have the entire story planned out ^^ There will be action laterrrs. For now, Minah must get to know the boys better. Can't be friends without building a relationship, right? (: