The game machine had stopped working. It was on a regular night. Wolf had dinner, and after dinner meant gaming, unless Jinah had made dessert. That night, she hadn’t, so they went straight to gaming, but in the middle of a match, the TV stopped working. The screen flickered and made static noises, catching all of their attention and silencing them. Suho had gotten up to rap on the screen with his fists in hopes of getting it to work again. Chen got up to do the same and just when Chanyeol whacked the back of the TV, the screen died as if on cue, earning groans and jeers from the rest of the gang. The TV never after that, so the gang had to get along without television.

         They were a grumpy bunch. Even Baekhyun seemed down. Chanyeol talked as much as ever, but they were only complaints of boredom. Frankly, the two weeks were a bit boring for Jinah, too, but it didn’t impact her as much as it did to others. She gamed and watched TV, but not as much as them. Besides, she was more immersed into her study of abilities with books and some online research, but within the first few days, the gang was already starting to get on her nerves. They would just sit around and complain all day. They refused to move or do something productive. People with some sense, like D.O and Baekhyun, went on grocery trips with Jinah thrice that week, trying to be of help and to do something productive. On one of the trips, Kris and Chen had tagged along, although there wasn’t much to buy other than extra stocks and emergency imperishable foods. On the second week, their moods had deteriorated to the point even Lay had to say something negative. He suggested they go out for a day, and they did. They went out to eat, watched a movie, browsed through the markets, ate dinner, and came back to wash up. It was a good day.

         After some movement, it seems as if the gang had finally realized that movement was better than being immobile and unhappy. So when Jinah proposed they go down and train (really, all she wanted was some peace and quiet), they agreed and stayed down at the training grounds for almost two days to release all the pent-up stress physically. Thirty-six hours of silence and time to herself – Jinah enjoyed it. D.O came upstairs six times for food, but she didn’t mind because he poured the cereal and found the banana himself. She had the couch to herself, the room, basically the whole base. It was great, but they had to come up sometime. And before the forty-eight hours mark hit, at thirty-six, they came back up.

         When they did come up, they went back to being negative with complaints and frowns. They were moodier than Jinah during her time of month, and terrible childish. Kai had it worst. He would growl as a response and glare at everyone. Other than flirting, gaming was his life. Xiumin blamed it on Jinah for a nonexistent reason. Sehun was blank as ever, but much more quiet. In fact, Jinah wondered if Sehun had said anything other than a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. Luhan looked okay on the outside, just a tad duller. He made more small talk with Jinah, but she knew that Luhan was just as bored as anyone else. On about the sixteenth day, frustrated out of her mind, Jinah blew up.

          She slammed her book and pencil down on the dining table, where she had been studying with her lunch next to her other books. “Can’t you fix the damned thing? You guys are like zombies! Worse – you guys complain like toddlers! Zombie toddlers! What are you, three and dead?!” Jinah furiously yelled, bursting her anger out all at once.

          “If we could fix it, we wouldn’t have a problem!” Chanyeol shouted, finally glad to have an opportunity to free his tight lungs with volume. “I’m suffering, okay?! It’s not normal! I don’t deserve this!”

          “I don’t deserve your ty mood-storm raining on me either, alright?” Jinah snapped at him. “Any of yours! What the hell is wrong with the TV anyway?!”

          “I don’t know!” Chanyeol exclaimed.

          “Well, I do,” Baekhyun said as he glowered at Chanyeol. “He punched the TV.” Over the sixteen days without the game machine, Baekhyun had refused to call Chanyeol by his name, and if he had to, he referred to Chanyeol as “him” or “he” or “that boy”.

          “I didn’t punch it, I tapped it!” argued Chanyeol.

          Suho snorted. “You ing punched it alright – might as well have smashed it with a bowling ball, yeah?”

          “It’s not ing broken, it’s out of order,” Chanyeol shamelessly said.

          “Yeah, because of your punch,” Baekhyun snarled. Even the bright and optimistic Baekhyun was despondent and irked.

          Jinah got up and stormed over to the television. On the way, Baekhyun asked, “What are you doing?” his tone was softer than before, but his irritation about this general situation wasn’t very well-hidden. When Jinah bent next to the TV and poked her neck behind it, Kai snorted as he said, “You can’t fix it. The plug’s in, TV’s , you’re a girl, and –”

          Colors flashed on the screen, cutting Kai off. After a few seconds, the main menu of the game was visible, with a note in the center that was slowly fading: “Game connection interrupted. No data has been saved. Please restart mission or match.”

          Jinah stood up and dusted her hands coolly. She raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips as she looked at them in such a demeaning and scornful way, the gang almost felt fear. Chen’s lips were beginning to tremble, but the others just blinked in utter shock and fascination. Then, a series of jubilant cries:

          “You fixed it!”

          “It’s working!”

          “Jack, finally!”

          “Sweet!”

          Jinah shook her head in exasperation before she pointed at the screen, looking sharply and specifically at Kai. “Who can’t fix it?”

          “Ooh, Chomper!” Suho said in glee. Others gave Kai a smack on the back that was accompanied by an entertained laugh. Kai just got owned – by a female.

          “Jinah, I love you!” Chanyeol bellowed at the top of his lungs, getting up and running towards Jinah with a new tank of energy. This made Luhan frown a little, but his expression went back to its normal state when Jinah did what Jinah would do. She took a step to the side to avoid Chanyeol’s attempt at an embrace. “You don’t love me, you just love what I did,” she elucidated firmly. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

          Chanyeol grinned with his million teeth. “Thanks!”

          “Thank you,” Lay said sincerely, just as Baekhyun punched the air and yelped, “Thank you!”

          Xiumin rolled his eyes in annoyance and began to mutter a row of insults about Jinah being a show-off while D.O sank back in his seat in relief. Kris whooped and clapped Tao’s back, who winced a bit. Although Tao wasn’t smiling, he wasn’t frowning either. Jinah didn’t point it out though, there was no need to. Since then, that candy basket has been full, to Jinah’s delight. It was the gang’s way of repaying the debt of saving them from their zombie-toddler phase.

          “Want one?” Jinah asked him, popping a caramel into , bringing herself back to reality and pushing the memory of that incident away.

          “Strawberry,” Luhan answered.

          Jinah dug through the basket of goods. Luhan always asked for the strawberry ones. She picked it out, but then her gaze landed on the fridge. “How about soda?”

          “Lost the craving. Now I want the strawberry candy.”

          Jinah scoffed in disbelief. “You made me follow you to the markets to buy soda, and you’re not drinking it because you lost the craving? Because of you, I have to shower a second time!”

          “Because of you, I have to go fight those erted idiots all the time. Be thankful you’re not in their hands.”

          “Tch, I bet they wouldn’t make me follow them to get soda, only to have them not drink it,” Jinah muttered very audibly as she tossed him the candy and took a seat next to him on the comfortable couch.

          “You’re right,” Luhan said, ripping the wrapper off. “Instead, they would make you go out on your own in a dress, and have you come back only to have that dress ripped off of you, do what they want, and then drink the soda. That sounds ten times more appealing, doesn’t it?” he said, and gently placed the candy under his tongue to fully taste the sugary scent of artificial pink strawberries.

          Jinah rolled her eyes. “That’s really gross. Just imagining it is repulsive. How do you even think like that?”

          “It’s true though. Wanna bet? It’s really easy, losing a challenge. I just don’t have to try.”

          Jinah stared at Luhan’s serious face. Even if his face and voice were serious, he couldn’t seriously be serious… could he? “You wouldn’t,” she said unsurely.

          “You’re right.”

          Although she felt a tinge of relief, she didn’t let it show on the outside. So instead, Jinah frowned. “You’re really confusing, you know that?”

          “Just as much as you are.”

          Jinah shook her head with a soft chuckle at his immaturity, which Luhan smirked to. He leaned in a little and Jinah’s smile started to die. Her eyes followed his gaze, and landed on his lips – gee, it was mighty close. She backed up a bit in discomfort and anxiety, which made Luhan’s smirk widen. “No wonder you attract so many pricks.”

          “W-What?”

          “Whether it’s far away or up close, you’re still beautiful,” he murmured.

          Jinah pushed him back harshly. “What the hell…”

         “So, the movie,” Luhan said sinking back to his seat. “What genre are you thinking? I’m thinking horror. I haven’t watched a scary movie in ages. How does that sound?” Luhan was done with his talking, but Jinah hadn’t answered. He glanced at her, and saw that she was in a daze. He waved a hand in front of her, “Hi, is Shin Jinah there?”

         “H-Huh? Oh, yeah, sure…” Jinah muttered, even if she hadn’t heard what Luhan had said. He frowned a bit at the dull response, but let it slide. He pushed the candy to the other side of his mouth, the refreshing sweetness engulfed his cavern once more as he happily watched the TV, thinking about which movie to watch with Jinah. She doesn’t seem to enjoy war documentaries.

         Thump. Thump. Thump. Jinah put a hand over her chest, astonished. Why is this thing going crazy?

         Jinah sneezed.

         Maybe it’s the cold.