~Next day~

Suho had decided the best thing to do for now was to keep Kris in the facility until they could figure out whether or not they could trust him. Kris had been fine with the idea simply sending a few texts to let his boss know he wouldn’t be in for the next few days, he was pretty curious about this group of boys anyway so why not stick around for a while. The weird fight he’d witnessed was intriguing and as much as he wanted to deny it he wanted to see more of Tao.

When he woke up breakfast had been made already and most of the guys had already eaten, only a few were still sat around the large dining table. Kris took the seat next to Tao, the teen was sat away from the rest of the boys that were still in the room, picking at a salad. They didn’t really speak at first so Kris took the opportunity to look around the table and attempt to figure out this group a little more.

“So,” turning to face Tao a little more and get the boys attention Kris poked his own breakfast, not really hungry, “what’s the deal with Baekhyun and Chanyeol?”

Tao didn’t really understand the question until he looked up from his food to see the pair playfully feeding each other and happily chatting. “You mean, are they together?” Kris nodded and actually started eating while he waited for Tao answer. “Well no. It’s kinda complicated. They want to be and most of the time they act like they are but no.” Apparently thinking that was explanation enough Tao started eating again. Not really satisfied with the confusing answer Kris looked at the pair again, luckily the two were too preoccupied with each other to notice his curious gaze. Turning again to face Tao Kris nudged his shoulder to gain the boy’s attention, “Why not? If they want to be?”

“It’s gunna sound stupid.” There was a pause before Kris nodded to Tao to signal him to just say it. Pushing his food away from him a little the teen leant his elbows on to the table in front of him and added a little more information to his half-assed explanation. “Well, in order to prove you’re worthy of a partner you have to fight the leader until he decides you’ve done enough to prove that you can take care of them and stuff. It’s a territorial thing I guess, anyway, they both act like kids and they give him a hard time but they do respect Suho. Too much to fight him, even for each other.”

Still mostly confused Kris gave himself time to mull over the new information by looking around the table again. His attention was caught be Lay standing up, the boy placed a quick kiss on Luhan’s cheek before leaving the room and, taking his new information into account, Kris faced Tao again and continued his mini investigation. “So does that mean Luhan fought Suho or did Lay, or did they both?”

“That one’s a little more hard to explain.” Leaning a little closer to Kris Tao lowered his voice and spoke a slightly faster than before, hoping the others that were still in the room wouldn’t notice the conversation topic, knowing it was a pretty touchy subject for Luhan.

“Luhan’s kind of different, not in a bad way. I don’t really know how to explain it properly, it’s just, even though he’s one of the oldest here everyone feels really protective of him. A few years ago Kai told Suho that he wanted Luhan things got a little crazy. Sehun and Lay both told Suho they deserved Luhan more,” Kris took a second look at Luhan, the boy was chatting happily with Kai and Chen, fully immersed in the conversation. Kris didn’t really know the boy too well yet but by looks alone he could tell why the others wanted to protect him. “Suho decided it’d only be fair if they all got a chance to prove themselves. Luhan wasn’t allowed to see any of them while it all happened, just in case he tried to interfere or anything so he stayed at a hotel for a while. Basically, Kai fought against Lay and Lay won, then Lay and Sehun fought but neither of them really won because Suho called off the whole thing when they got too violent with each other.” Kris was listening intently as Tao explained everything but still wasn’t sure he really understood the system they had going on here, “so because neither of them won they both went up against the leader and Lay did better so now he’s with Luhan.” Kris had a lot more questions but before he had the chance to voice any of them Luhan looked over to the pair at overhearing his name, “Tao you better not be saying anything bad about me.” The playful smile on the boy’s face was infectious and with a cheeky grin of his own Tao rose his bows at the older boy, “and if I am?” Using his telekinesis Luhan swept Tao’s chair out from under him causing the teen to lose his balance momentarily but thanks to his wushu skills he managed to recover pretty quickly. Luhan poked his tongue out mischievously before running out of the room, Tao quickly ran around the table after him to seek some petty revenge for the ‘attack’ leaving Kris alone to finish his meal and think about the weird way Suho ran things.