“Neoui sesangeurooo-AAAHHH!!”

“Ow! Hyung! What the heck?!” Jongin whined when his older friend suddenly screamed and bumped into him after when ran out of the practice room.

The said boy looked up to face him with a horrified expression, his mouth still agape from the shock.

“What?” Kai deadpanned.

“D-dead b-bo-body…”

“What?” Jongin asked again, frowning as he didn’t understand what he said.

The older male grabbed Jongin by the shoulders and gulped hard before he spoke. “There’s.. a d-dead bo-body—“

“Hyung, if this is another one of your lame jokes,” he said rolling his eyes at him when he emphasized that word, “then I’m not falling for it.”

The older one straightened up immediately and hit Jongin’s arm after being insulted. “My jokes are not lame, Kim Jongin! They are absolutely fabu—“

“Yah! Why on earth are you two just standing there and blocking the way?”

Both boys turned and faced their other group member whose eyes resembled an owl’s. An angry owl, that is.

“Oh, Hyung, “ Jongin greeted casually. “You’re already here.”

“Thanks for stating the obvious but why are you both just standing there and not enter the room?” he asked impatiently. “You know about the consequence of cleaning the room when you come in last, right?!” he fumed.

Jongin chuckled at his favorite hyung and patted his head as he smiled at his cuteness. “Oh, come on, Hyung. I’m sure Suho Hyung would take the blame of being the last one as always.”

The owl-eyed boy shrugged and swatted Jongin’s hand away from his hair. “Well, you do have a point but I still don’t want to be the last one.”

Jongin laughed harder this time and slung an arm over him. “I’m sure it’d be Chanyeol Hyung to enter last.”

The older chuckled and shook his head. “No, I’m sure it’s gonna be Sehun again—“

“HELLO?! Why are you two ignoring me?!” The eldest out of them shrieked to get their attention back.

“We always ignore you, Hyung.” Jongin smirked at him.

The eldest sent him a scowl but he didn’t waiver.

The owl-eyed boy took Jongin’s arm away and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Okay, Hyung,” he rolled his eyes, “what do you want us to see or know or—“

“THERE’S A DEAD BODY INSIDE THE PRACTICE ROOM!” he yelled in one breath and pointed inside the room.

The owl-eyed boy rolled his eyes at him, clearly not amused. “Is this a joke? Because I think you’ve used this one already.”

“See, Hyung?” Jongin laughed and walked past him and entered the room and turned the light switch on. “I told you it wouldn’t work— Oh my god. There’s a dead body inside the practice room.”

.Princess of SM Town.

Chapter Three

.stay.

♔

The three of them circled around the dead body and just stared at it awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

“Ha! I told you there’s a dead body in here!” The eldest exclaimed, proudly hitting his chest.

The owl-eyed boy rolled his eyed at him. “Okay, first of all, it’s not a dead body, Hyung. This person is just sleeping since he or she is still breathing just so you know.”

The eldest pouted at him and looked back again at the person who was dressed in an oversized white hoodie and black sweatpants that was curled up in a ball sleeping soundly. They couldn’t tell if the person is a he or a she since the person’s mouth was covered by a mask and the eyes were covered by the arm.

“But who on earth would sleep here in our practice room? Don’t they know it’s off limits to sleep in an occupied practice room?” Jongin frowned as his eyes never left the body. “Hey,” he started shaking the body lightly. “Hey!”

“Jongin! What are you doing?” his favorite hyung stopped him. “We don’t know who this person is!”

“Exactly,” he pointed out. “We’ll have to know who this person is and ask him—“

“Or her~” the eldest chimed in.

“Or her,” Jongin sent the eldest an annoyed look and saw him smiling widely at him but he just shrugged it, “why he—“

“Or she~” he chimed in again.

“UGH! Hyung!” Jongin threw his arms in the air exasperatedly.

He blinked at Jongin innocently. “What?”

“Don’t you know that it’s okay to address an unknown person as male in general?”

“I do! But I just wanted to be specific!” he shot back.

“How can we be specific if we don’t know if this person really is a guy or a girl?!”

“I don’t know! Why don’t you wake him or her up for us to find out!” he huffed and crossed his arms.

“That’s what I was trying to do but—“

“Oh my god, you guys are so noisy!” the sleeping person suddenly spoke and slowly rose up to a sitting position. The person’s face was still covered as he or she rubbed her eyes with both hands.

The three boys that surrounded the body were so shocked that none of them said a word and just watched the person with wide eyes and theirs mouth hanging open.

“I’m a girl, okay?! Does that finally answer your problem?!” she shouted and removed her face mask with her right hand, revealing her pouty lips. Her left hand was still rubbing her left eye while the right eye was still closed. “Great,” she yawned, removing her hoodie accidentally when her hands touched the tip as she stretched her arms up. Her eyes were half-opened and stared at the person in front of her. “What time is it?” she asked plainly.

The person in front of her was still frozen as he witnessed such a weird and awkward thing happen in front of him. His mouth was still parted and he just stared back at the girl in front of her, trying to figure out who this person was because she was awfully familiar in his eyes. “Rookie?!”

“What? Rookie?” the owl-eyed boy furrowed his brows in confusion as his eyes switched from his hyung and Rookie.

She frowned. “Oh, so you’re the one loud one who woke me up,” she accused, fighting the urge yawn again.

“Excuse me?!” he asked in disbelief with a hand placed on his chest.

“Mikki?!” Jongin exclaimed and went in front of her to see if it really was her. And yes, it really was her.

“Jongin! Stop shouting!” she opened her eyes fully and glared at him. “Are all of you trying to make me go deaf?!” she complained. “Yes! Mikki’s back,” she rolled her eyes. “That’s what everyone’s talking about in this building isn’t it?” she spat bitterly. “Well, yeah, everyone’s worst nightmare is here and I think it’s freakin’ weird that everyone’s celebrating it. At least that’s what my father told me a few days ago,” she said, shaking her head lightly, still not believing it. “But who cares, right?” she asked no one in particular and ran a hand on her long, dark red orange locks. She looked up and saw that the three of them were still in shock and rolled her eyes again at them. She decided to change the subject when she felt her stomach grumble. “Now, who here has their phone with them? I’m hungry and I think I want pizza right now.” She raised a brow and eyed them one by one, with her palm opened in front of her as she waited for any one of them to lend their phone to her.

“Um.. here,” the owl-eyed spoke up awkwardly, his hand reaching his back pocket.

Mikki took a quick glance at the guy before taking the phone. “Thanks.”

.p.o.s.t.♔

Mikki was lying on the wooden floor and stared at the ceiling with her brows meeting a little. After she called the pizza place that she used to call when she was staying there (she had it memorized by heart since it was her favorite pizza place), none of them said a word to each other, except Jongin excusing himself when he received a call from one of his noonas and left the room, and that was quite a while ago now.

The three of them were left alone inside the room and just sat there in silence with the boys looking at her like she was some kind of a mystical creature and she didn’t like it one bit. She groaned inwardly and sat up, leaning against the mirror. She still avoided eye contact as she examined her nails and made a mental note to visit the nail salon ASAP.

When the owl-eyed boy was about to say something, they heard someone knock on the door and that definitely took their attention. He then stood up and walked to the door. When he opened it, they were surprised to see Jongin with his hands and arms full of four pizza boxes, a plastic bag of sodas, and another large box of who knows what.

“Uh, I need a little help?” he sweat-dropped and his favorite hyung who opened the door for him was glad enough to help him. “Thanks, Hyung.”

“No problem,” he replied and took the boxes from him. Both of them approached Mikki who leaned over to check what’s inside the other box that Jongin was holding.

“What’s that?” she asked, watching Jongin curiously as he took the other mysterious box out of the plastic bag, clearly forgetting about the pizza boxes in front of her.

Jongin grinned widely and opened the lid of the box, revealing his most favorite food in the world. “My noona sent this for us! Isn’t she sweet?” he said, beaming.

Mikki’s mouth watered as soon as the delicious aroma of the chicken filled her nose. “Please tell your noona that she is the best,” she said, not taking her eyes off the chicken and tried to take a piece.

“She knows that already,” he smirked. Jongin slapped her hand away from his chicken and took it away from her. “Yah! I said that my noona sent this for us. Us, meaning the boys of EXO,” he teased. “Besides, you have four huge boxes of pizza already so why take my chicken?”

Mikki scowled at him and shot her eyes from him to the chicken then to the boxes of pizza in front of her then back to the chicken. She gulped when her stomach grumbled loudly (which Jongin laughed at) and watering again.

Their scowling game lasted for a minute and the owl-eyed boy found it really interesting that none of them faltered but when he her stomach grumble again, he already felt bad for her. “Okay, okay,” the owl-eyed boy started chuckling lightly. “I think that’s enough, Jongin. Just give her a piece.”

Jongin smirked and watched Mikki look at the chicken hungrily. His eyes then landed on his favorite hyung briefly and saw that he was not amused by his teasing anymore. “Oh, you’re serious?” he asked in shock.

He shook his head in disbelief and sent him a look. “Yes, I’m serious,” he scolded. “Now give her one or else I’m taking that box of chicken away from you and won’t let you get a piece.”

Jongin gaped at him. “Loser,” the eldest coughed discreetly and Jongin hissed at him.

“Fine,” Jongin said bitterly and extended the box of delicious chicken to her.

Mikki smirked in victory and took a piece from the box, taking a bite from the chicken. She then turned to person and pointed at him with the chicken leg. “Thanks,” she said curtly and looked down immediately. “Here,” she said, pushing the pizza boxes to him. “Have some.”

The owl-eyed boy raised his brows in surprise. “Th-thank you…” he said, getting flustered all of a sudden. “I’m Kyungsoo but my stage name is D.O, so yeah, whatever you prefer,” he said, smiling shyly as he finally introduced himself. “Uh.. which one do I..?”

Mikki paused eating her half-finished chicken, “You can eat whatever you like.”

Jongin raised a brow at the girl. He was surprised to see Mikki’s rudeness. She kept on avoiding eye contact and she was so short-spoken. The Mikki Jongin knew was totally different from the Mikki in front of him now. Mikki always had this glow in her— she always had that bright personality that made everyone she meets like her. But what exactly happened to her now? The Mikki in front of him now was the exact opposite.

“O-okay,” he said and bowed again before opening all of the boxes to see what the flavors were.

Jongin continued to stare at his friend and wonder where that spark of hers went.

Mikki paused eating when she accidentally met eyes with Stranger who was watching her quietly. She found it disturbing, but not offending. As much as she wanted to look away and just shrug it off, she can’t seem to do so with the way he was looking at her. She only broke their staring contest when the door burst open with six other men entering casually.

“YoYoYo~”

“I knew it! You guys are having a feast without us! I could even smell it right when I set foot out from the elevator!” a boy with dark, piercing eyes complained and sat next to Jongin.

“Just come here and eat, Tao,” Kyungsoo told him and offered a slice of pizza to him.

“Kyungsoo, you are such an angel.” Tao thanked him and munched on the pizza slice, still glaring at Jongin.

“Where’s Suho and the others?” Kris asked, pouring soda in a plastic cup and then sitting next to Tao.

“I guess they’re running late, Hyung,” the lost puppy answered and stretched out his legs in front.

Kris just nodded as he drank the soda. “Hey Lay, isn’t this the drink you’ve been craving for?” he asked and passed it on to the said guy.

Lay took the bottle and studied it. “No,” he disagreed. “I haven’t been craving for anything,” he said. “Maybe Chen was the one who was looking for this drink?” he asked handing the drink to the guy beside him.

“Yes!” Chen beamed. “This is the drink that I’ve been looking for for over a month now!”

“Wow~” another voice sang. “How come we have so much food delivered today?” he asked and Mikki definitely noticed an accent there.

“Yeah,” Minseok agreed with a troubled look on his face. “I thought we were on a diet!” he cried.

“Well you can always have at least one cheat day, Hyung,” Jongin suggested as he looked up at Minseok who was standing.

The guy standing next to Minseok who entered the practice room first laughed when he saw how troubled his friend was. Then he looked at the food that was there. It really was a delightful sight; all these delicious, fatty food right in front of them. He smiled fondly at his younger friends who were enjoying themselves with the food but he was quick to notice something different.

“Oh!” he gasped. “Hello!” he exclaimed all of a sudden, greeting the person quietly eating her pizza.

Mikki looked up from the sudden outburst causing her hoodie that she pulled up back to cover her head to fall back once again, revealing her face to everyone. She met eyes with the blond boy who greeted her. He was smiling so sweetly at her and looking at his beautiful eyes sent crazy butterflies not only in her stomach, but all over her body. Mikki stopped eating her pizza and removed it from . “Um.. hi,” she muttered quietly.

“Mikki? You’re here?!” Kris, who was in front of her, almost spat the soda that he was about to swallow when he realized that she really was there, in front of her. “What the hell? How come I didn’t recognize you?!” he said, putting his soda down and grabbed her in for a quick hug.

Mikki struggled to get out of Kris’ headlock. “Ugh! Let me go!”

“What?” Minseok exclaimed and kneeled down to look at Mikki. “I thought you were Chanyeol!” he gaped.  “I was starting to think that maybe the reason you and him,” he tipped his chin towards the boy who looked like a lost puppy, “are so quiet is because you two had a fight or something,” he said, running out of breath. “Turns out you weren’t Chanyeol at all! You just looked a lot like him dressed like that,” he said, pinching her cheeks. “Speaking of Chanyeol, where is he?” he asked, looking over to Jongin.

“I heard my name?” a very deep voice then spoke up and all of them shot their heads towards the door with their leader.

“Ha! I told you Sehun would be last again!” Kyungsoo said, smirking at Jongin.

“You guys are no fair!” Sehun yelled, panting as he rested his weight on the door frame. He glared at Chanyeol whose smile reached his ears and at Joonmyun who looked at him apologetically. “They purposely closed the elevator door on me!” he whined and all of his hyungs only laughed at him.

The blond boy walked over to Sehun and slung his arm around his shoulder and walked him near the others. He laughed when he saw Sehun pouting at him. “Wow! What’s with all the food?” Joonmyun asked as he approached the members on the floor.

“My noona sent us chicken and I don’t know what’s gone into Mikki that she ordered four huge pizza boxes,” Jongin answered nonchalantly and continued eating his fourth chicken.

“What? Mikki’s here?” Chanyeol’s voice boomed once again and hearing her name again made Sehun freeze on his spot.

“Yep,” Kris grinned. “Here she is,” he said, turning around to show Mikki to the others as she was still in a headlock.

Before Chanyeol could run and give her a bear hug, Sehun’s voice made him stop. “What are you doing here?” he asked with a serious face on that everyone was surprised to see coming from their maknae. He freed himself from his older friend and moved closer to her. “Get out,” he said and shocked everyone.

Mikki didn’t even flinch when he spoke harshly to her. She kind of saw it coming anyway. “Fine,” she said and took advantage of escaping when Kris unconsciously loosened his grip on her.

All of them watched in silence as Mikki stood up and wiped the pizza grease on her sweatpants and left the room without a single word.

When she was out of the room, Sehun grabbed his phone and sent a quick text to someone before heading out of the room himself.

“Wait,” Chanyeol grabbed him by the arm, “what the hell did you just do?” he glared.

“Don’t worry I’ll handle it,” he said and broke free from Chanyeol’s grasp.

.p.o.s.t.♔

“Hey!” Sehun called out when he saw Mikki right in front of the elevator. “Mikki!” he called again when she didn’t respond.

“What?” she asked with a scowl on her face that made Sehun regret what he just did. She turned around and glared at the down button that she was pushing rapidly in annoyance.

“Stop that,” said Sehun and got a hold of her hand.

“What, I thought you didn’t want me here,” she said, looking at Sehun angrily.

“I didn’t say that I didn’t want you here. I just told you to get out of the room.”

“That’s the same thing,” she fired back.

“No, it’s not— will you stop pressing the button?!” he yelled when she pressed the button again with her other hand.<