“Anyone else think this is strange?” Youngjae asked.

After the strange event of Sehun hugging Mi Sun, the young woman had finished grocery shopping and come home to find Tao, Kai, and eight other boys on the door step of the boarding house. All, with the addition of Sehun, had asked if there were any available rooms and Yong Guk and Himchan had shown them to the last four rooms that they had, too shocked to do much else.

When the four youngest returned home that afternoon from school, they had quickly found the situation to be odd. Never had they taken in so many people at once, let alone so many who claimed to be family yet looked nothing alike.

“It’s all good so long as they pay, right?” Mi Sun tried to shrug it off like she always did, but everything just seemed too weird to pass it off as nothing.

“If you see anything strange, just tell me,” Yong Guk instructed, “I’ll kick them out on their if we find out they’re criminals or something.”

“I’m sure they aren’t criminals,” Himchan laughed, trying to lighten the mood. From beside Mi Sun, Daehyun hugged his noona’s arm tighter. Something about the way the twelve boys acted around her didn’t sit right with him. They treated her like she was a princess, like they knew her or something. It made him uneasy.

“I can help with dinner,” D.O offered, coming into the kitchen with Lay who nodded.

“D.O’s a great cook,” he smiled, “and it’s the least we can do for letting us all stay here.”

“We’re a boarding house,” Youngjae scoffed, “letting strangers stay here is why this place exists.” He would have said more, but Mi Sun sent him a disapproving glance and he shut up. There was no reason to treat them badly when they hadn’t done anything to deserve it.

Yet.

“I’m sure Jongup and Mi Sun would love the help,” Yong Guk nodded in approval before heading into the office.

“Go get some of your homework done,” Mi Sun gently pushed Daehyun out of the room, “I’ll help you after dinner with the rest.” Reluctantly, Daehyun left and Youngjae followed with Zelo, glaring at the two immortals as he passed.

“Don’t you both have homework, too?” Luhan asked as he came into the kitchen.

“I finished mine when I got home,” Jongup replied, blushing when Mi Sun praised him for already having his homework done.

“Mi Sun-sshi?” Lay turned to her and she shrugged. Calling her by sshi sounded and felt so odd to him, but it had to be done. It would be strange if he addressed her informally after only a few hours.

“I don’t have any,” she explained.

“Noona doesn’t go to school,” Jongup told them, looking down shyly. The three immortal frowned, as did the others who were listening to the conversation from their bedrooms. Well, except for Suho, Kai, and Sehun. They already knew she wasn’t attending university.

“Why not?” Luhan asked and Jongup started to hang his head in shame. If Mi Sun didn’t have him and the others to worry about, maybe she would have gone to university. Maybe Yong Guk and Himchan would have done the same thing. But instead they had bought the boarding house and started earning money for the sake of the four youngest.

“I’m not that great in school,” Mi Sun laughed, “I was real close to failing so many classes that I figured trying to do any more schooling would just waste my money.” Glancing over at Jongup, she frowned when she realized he still didn’t buy it. Sure, she was telling the truth, but he – and the other boys – always acted like she was lying.

“Yong Guk and I are the same way,” Himchan added, “our grades were so bad that we didn’t think university would do us much good.” He frowned when he say Jongup’s face, “oh, come on, Jongup, you know it’s true. You say all our old report cards, we were at the bottom of the class in everything.”

“Why pay for rotten grades?” Mi Sun joked, Himchan laughing along with her even though no one else was.

“Let’s get started on dinner,” D.O voiced as he started pulling out pots, interrupting the two humans from laughing any more.

“Right,” Jongup nodded before moving to help.

Soon, the three were working hard to get dinner made of the twelve immortals and seven humans. From the side lines, Luhan and Lay watched Mi Sun work with frowns on their faces. In the few short hours that they had been under the roof of the boarding house, just about every hope and dream they had about Mi Sun’s life was shattered.

They thought she would be a hyper young woman, but she was actually very laid back about most things. They thought she would be at the top of her class, but she never went to university and almost flunked out of high school. They had hoped her life without them would have been so much different then it turned out to be. 

Additionally, there was the disturbing information that they had gotten out of Sehun. In the time Mi Sun had been at the orphanage, no one had ever tried to adopt her. No one single person had even tried to become her mother or father. When they had let her go that night, they had been convinced that a nice couple would adopt her and fill the void in her life left by her real parents. Instead, she had been left alone with nothing.

But we’re here now, Luhan thought, we’re the closest thing to her real family. We will be her family now.

“Dinner’s ready,” Mi Sun smiled, taking a step away from the stove and turning to Luhan, “can you get everyone? Jongup and I need to put the food on the table. D.O? Can you set the table? Pates are in the cabinet to your left.” Both immortals nodded before moving to accomplish their tasks.

“Luhan?” Suho pulled the older aside while everyone else headed to the dining room.

“Yes?” the other immortal bounced on the balls of his feet, wanting to head down stairs to taste food that his Mi Sun had helped to make.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Suho began, “that now that we’re here, Mi Sun doesn’t need the boys.” Luhan looked a little surprised that the other had so accurately read his mind, but the thought had probably occurred to all twelve immortals, so it wasn’t that shocking.

“So?” he shrugged, “it’s true. We’re her family. If she has us, then she doesn’t need them anymore.”

“But she does,” Suho argued, “do you really think she’ll take it well if we not only tell her who we are, but rip the only family she had ever known away from her? Mi Sun might be the relaxed type, but if we drop this kind of news on her and take away her family and it will shatter her.”

“But we’re her family,” Luhan growled, eyes flashing white, “not them. We have every right to take her away. To bring her home.”

“Will she see things that way?” the leader questioned, “or will she see it as strangers who claim to be her guardians taking her from everything she knows and loves? Will she accept it blindly, or will she hate us for destroying the life she’s worked so hard to build? Will she hate us for destroying her life after we gave her up in the first place?”

Luhan opened his mouth to protest, but closed it before words to escape. In the short time he had actually seen Mi Sun, it had been made quite clear that she loved the six boys she called her family with all her heart. She’d even made Daehyun her family legally by adopting him. If he and his brothers actually did take her away, she would hate them.

They had given her away. Sure, it had been for her own protection, but they had still given her up. The six boys she lived with had been with her ever since. Daehyun had been by her side almost his whole life. Himchan and Yong Guk had been with her since the day she was given to the orphanage. They had seen her through every hurtle life had thrown at her to date.

What did EXO have to compare? The first three years of her life and an old contract to protect her from harm?

“Then what do we do?” Luhan sighed, “If we can’t take her away, what are we supposed to do?”

“Protect her from a distance,” Suho explained.

He didn’t like it, none of them would, but it was the only way. They would still be in Mi Sun’s life, but she would never know the truth about them. If she did, then it would destroy her.

A/N: i know this chapter is a little early, but i have a lot of stuff on the go tomorrow and i wasn't sure if i'd be able to post this. see, i'm a farmer and my family and i are going to be bailing hay all tomorrow. i'm going to be out in the feilds all day and i might be supper sleepy afterwards, hence why i'm posting this now when i have the energy to do it. everything will go back to normal next week