Suho’s little project

            When I woke up, nobody was around.  It was eight in the morning, so I was rather surprised.  It was Tuesday which meant that I was supposed to hang out with Suho.  But nobody was home.  I poured myself some cereal and sat to eat.

            Suho walked in from the back porch.  “Oh, good morning Susanna.  I hope you slept well.”  He kicked off his boots and sat across from me.

            “Good morning Suho.  Where is everyone?”  I asked.

            “They’re off playing.  Most of them won’t be back until tomorrow night,”  Suho replied.  “We will keep busy, though.  I have a little project I’d like you to help me with.”
            He rushed me through my cereal and brought me to his room which was on the ground floor.  The walls were white and there was a single sized bed against the wall.  On his very large desk, he had a big mess of papers.  He gestured politely, asking me to take a look.  They were pages from catalogs and sketches and paint chips. 

            “Are you redoing your room?”  I asked him.

            “No, I’m going to redecorate the couch room, repaint the halls, and fix up the living room on this floor.  Oh, and paint the dining room.”

            “So this is your little project?”  I looked at him, slightly incredulous.

            “It won’t take long.  There are two of us,” He inclined his head to me.  “I’d appreciate your help.  I want to get it done before they get back so it’s a surprise.”

            He was being very formal.  I mean, when we played poker, he wasn’t chummy, far from welcoming, really.  “I’d be glad to help you,” I told him.  “But I’d like to know where we stand.  You didn’t vote against me and you didn’t vote for me- do you not like me?”

            He sat in the comfy spinny chair and gestured that I should take a seat on the bed.  I was surprised to discover that it was a water bed.  I couldn’t really sit on it, so I just sat cross-legged on the floor after a couple uncoordinated attempts.   He waited patiently.

            “I do not dislike you.   However, your presence poses a threat to the life we are leading.”  I tilted my head quizzically.  He sighed, “I’m afraid that you’re going to cause problems for us.”

            “I have no intention of bringing trouble,” I assured him.  “And I’d actually like to do anything I can to show how grateful I am for you taking me in and saving my life.”

            He smiled.  “You’re welcome.  You have been the perfect guest so far.  And as far as showing your gratitude, I think you could help me out greatly by helping me make some final decisions on the furniture.”
            “Sure,” I smiled back at him, hoping that he was warming up a little.

            “I’m going to send you via taxi to the furniture store with my credit card.  I have two sets that I was thinking of for the couch room and three sets I was considering for the living room,” He stood, getting right back to business. “I was hoping your female sense of style and home would come in handy.  The interior decorators can only do so much if you won’t let them into your house.”

            I smiled, realizing that he was making fun.  He smiled back.  “You can complete the final transaction in my place and ride with the furniture back here.  I’ll have everything moved out so we can move it in.  We can do it ourselves- Luhan and Sehun are going to be back at noon.  They are off picking up some more meat,” He explained. “And groceries.  Together we can get it done late tonight or by tomorrow morning!”

            The doorbell rang.  “That must be the taxi driver.” He said, and he reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet.  “Take care of this card, I’m sure you will.”

            “I will work hard, Suho!”  I bowed, took the card from him and saluted.

            He laughed, “I’m counting on you!  Now get going, we need to work fast!”

 

            Suho had selected two very different styles for the couch room.  The designer/decorator/store employees were very polite.  They greeted me as “Mrs Kim” and when I tried to explain that I wasn’t married to Suho, they apologized and started calling me “Future Mrs Kim.”  I guess that was what Suho told them.

            It was easy to decide for the couch room.  The walls were going to be a warm maroon.  Suho had selected a mahogany study sort of array and a modern, vinyl, sleek look.  It was easy to choose.  The dark velvet couches with their ornate wood-frames would not work with these twelve boys jumping all over it.

            The living room was much harder.  I could eliminate the all white furniture option that Suho had considered.  The guys were clean, but really, that white would be stained within a week, no matter how careful they were.  Honestly the bright green furniture wouldn’t be a good idea either.  So I selected the black wrap around couch and the antique mahogany coffee table.  I didn’t want to know how much it was going to cost.  

I had them begin to back the truck and ventured to the next floor up.  This held more bedroom sorts of furniture.  There was a whole kids section.  Bingo.

The drive back to the house was even more awkward than the ride in the taxi.  The driver who I was sitting next to was very polite and withdrawn so we spent the thirty minutes in almost straight silence.

When we got back, all the couches were out on the curb.  Suho came out to greet us.  “Good work Susanna.  Now mister, if you wouldn’t mind helping me unload the new furniture and then putting the old stuff in your truck.  I’d very much appreciate if you would transport it to a place that takes furniture donations.”

“Of course Mr. Kim,”  The driver walked to the back of the truck to start unlocking it.

“Susanna, you can go inside and help us finish painting the stair walls.”

When I walked inside, I was surprised to see the walls of the living room already the different shades of gray.  Luhan and Sehun walked down the steps.  “Susanna, you’re back!”  Luhan said cheerfully.

“Oppa, you guys work fast!”  I replied.  Sehun went out to help Suho.

“Yes, we’re quick,” Luhan smiled at me.  He handed me a paintbrush.  “But I think Sehun is a weak link- so don’t paint yourself to exhaustion.   I wouldn’t be surprised if you paint twice as fast as him.  And drip less.”

“I’ll do my best,” I replied.

“You can work on the stairs to the basement, they’re going to be dark purple, like your shorts!”  He pointed at my pants.

“An excellent color,” I laughed, “Go help them lift, all the furniture is going to take a lot of strength.”
            He flexed his arms and winked.  I began to paint.

 

It took me all day to finish the stairs, they came to check on me occasionally, but said that the stairs were my job.  They said they would take care of everything else. 

When I came up at seven, it turned out that they had taken care of everything.  The highest section of stairs was a neon blue and the hallway was a soft yellow, the one between the ground floor and the first floor was a pretty turquoise and the hallway was a burnt orange color that led nicely into the fully furnished and painted couch room which now sported new drapes, a new rug, and sleek new furniture.  The ground floor was set up and my staircase looked great.

After a round of high fives and some oven-bake pizza, Suho shooed Sehun and Luhan off to bed.

“Luhan hyung, I’m tired.  Can you tuck me in?”  Sehun pouted, using his cuteness to win over his hyung.

“Our Sehunnie, of course I’ll tuck you in,” Luhan nodded goodnight to us and yawned as he walked the youngster up to his room.

I turned to Suho, who was also nodding.  “Bed for us too?”

“You can go to bed, I still need to sneak in the new electronics.”

I smiled at him, he had circles under his eyes that I hadn’t noticed before.  I got up from my seat on the new couch. “You spoil them Gege,” I gave him a hug from behind on my way to his room.  He seemed at a loss for words.

“Do you have to drive out to retrieve them?”  I asked him.

He blinked, “Yeah, I’ll be back in an hour, don’t worry about me.  Oh, and I think they’ll like the bean bag chairs.  I never would have thought of that.  Now go to sleep, I’ll be back soon.”

I pursed my lips.  “Gege needs sleep too.”

He smiled, affected by my aegyo.  “I can sleep all day tomorrow, and think how happy the kids will be.”

 

After he left I snuck back into the living room and grabbed the yellow and white paint.  In an hour I was done, and there were starts on the purple stairs and clouds on the blue ones.  I know Suho liked it, because I was still falling asleep when he got back and he stuck his head in.

“Silly girl,”  He whispered.  I was sleeping on the floor because I couldn’t get comfortable on the water bed for the life of me.  He tiptoed in and grabbed another blanket from his closet.  Draping it over me, he said, “Silly girl with the clever ideas and the crazy coincidence of bursting into our lives.”