The day ended quickly while the boys kept themselves entertained indoors. They had a large group dinner that Luhan, Chen, and Suho prepared because they lost rock-paper-scissors (Luhan volunteered since he could read minds so it was unfair to the other members). After dinner, the group debated on watching a Korean or Chinese movie, Kris obviously had no chance of getting an English movie. Ultimately, the Korean movie won. Kris and the other non-Korean speakers had to suffer through torment as they watched a movie where the words didn’t match up with lips. They weren’t quite used to it yet, but it’s better than not understanding any of the dialogue at all.

Many of the members started falling asleep during the movie and their roommates ended up having to carry them to bed (A.K.A. D.O., Baekhyun, Xiumin, and Luhan). The only ones left in the living room watching the movie were Kris, Tao, Suho, and Lay (Suho being the only Korean, so you’d wonder why they were still watching a Korean movie, but they were too caught up in the story to stop the movie now). Suddenly, the power went out and the TV went dark. They just realized it had been storming all night.

“Damn, what a big cliffhanger,” Suho cursed.

“Hm?” Lay had fallen asleep on Suho’s shoulder.

“Ew, you drooled on me.” Suho lightly punched the tired member.

“We should probably head to bed.” Kris yawned. He unconciously grabbed Tao’s hand and drowsily led them to their room. He thought he noticed a concerned look on Tao’s face but was too drained to fully process it. Kris shut the door and started removing his shirt when he heard a squeak from Tao.

“W-warn me when you’re going to strip, g-geez.” Tao turned away from Kris.

“What’s wrong, afraid you’ll fall for me?” Kris playfully teased.

“Of course not. I told you, I’m just really shy and here you are striping in front of-"

“Relax, I’m kidding.” Kris hopped into bed. “You can turn around now, I’m done changing.”

“Alright.” Tao hesitantly turned around and pulled out his pajamas. He began walking to the private bathroom inside their room when—

“You dropped your ,” Kris joked. Tao immediately turned around to discover the small panda-heart patterned undergarments had slipped out of his hands. He grabbed them and shuffled to the bathroom. Kris smiled to himself before turning over and drifting to sleep.

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      Kris could sense small fragments of sunlight peeking through the blinds. He dreaded waking up and decided to just continue lying down since he hadn’t slept so well in months. Usually Kris gets super cold no matter what temperature it is, but last night was different. He didn’t wake up in the middle of the night freezing his off. That’s when Kris noticed some hair lightly tickling under his chin and steady breathing on his neck. AND his arms were wrapped around something warm and human-like. Kris’s eyes popped open.

“TAO?!” Kris exclaimed when he realized he had been “cuddling” the younger all night. Tao stumbled backwards onto the floor from shock at the sudden noise.

“什么?” Tao sat up.

“What?” Kris asked, looking at Tao, then looking away to avoid eye contact.

“…ear… gone” Tao said in English, so his lips matched the words coming out of his mouth. Kris felt for the ear piece and discovered it had fallen out on his pillow, so he quickly put it back in.

“Are you okay?” Tao scooted closer to the older, which back fired because Kris scooted away. “What’s wrong?”

“Why were you in my bed?”

“…I got scared…”

“By what?”

“…the thunderstorm…”

“Oh… okay. I mean…that’s fine…but uh…just tell me next time.” Kris cleared his throat.

“I asked you last night and you wrapped your arms around me and told me I was always welcome.” Tao looked at the floor. Both were silent for a moment, neither one able to look at the other.

“I’m going to go shower…” Kris stood up awkwardly.

“Okay… I’m going to go help make breakfast.” Tao shuffled out of the room. Both of them had done an awful job at hiding their embarrassment.

      Tao scurried into the kitchen, almost running into a hot frying pan that Suho was carrying. Normally, he doesn’t help with breakfast but he’d rather try to this morning than awkwardly sit in their room and do nothing. Tao noticed a set of eyes following him.

“Please stop,” Tao said quietly while picking up a few dishes to wash.

“Stop what?” Luhan asked innocently.

“Reading my mind.”

“Hey, not my fault. It’s a habit of mine.”

“I’d appreciate if you didn’t though.”

“He’s interested in you as well Tao,” Luhan smiled. Everyone in the room was so concentrated on their own work, they didn’t hear the two (or they were too tired to care).

“Please don’t—"

“I’m just trying to help. But I want to remind you that when people are confined to a space, they tend to get…desparate. But don’t forget the real reason we’re here,” Luhan interrupted. “Also, ignoring me won’t help since I can read your mind” he said to Tao.

Why is Luhan like this?

“Coming Sehunnie,” Luhan randomly said before prancing over to the younger. Sehun didn’t even have to call his name since Luhan knew Sehun was thinking about him and was about to ask for help cutting the cucumbers.

“Tao, go call everyone to the table. Breakfast is almost ready,” Suho called.

“Oh, Sehun and I will go get everyone,” Luhan volunteered.

“We will?” Sehun asked.

“Yeah. Tao, just get Kris.” Luhan grinned.

“Alright.” Tao took a deep breath and headed back to their room. It’s weird saying “their room” since the room used to belong to him alone for 7 years. He missed having a room of his own, since he could always run away there and escape any awkward situations. He didn’t mind sharing the room, he just wasn’t used to it yet (wasn’t used to not having a place to be alone). He finally arrived in front of the shower door. Kris had finished his shower already…

“K-Kris,” Tao called.

“Hm?” he said behind the door.

“Uh… breakfast is ready.”

“Okay, I’ll be out soon.”

“Okay,” Tao quickly said before leaving the room. Gah! Why is it so awkward between us now? Tao thought to himself while helping set the table.

“We need to go out for groceries again soon,” Suho said when everyone gathered around the table. Kris was still absent though.

“Where’s Kris?” Luhan looked at Tao.

“I called him out, but he was still in the shower,” Tao explained.

“We need volunteers for who wants to go out,” Suho continued.

“Is he coming though?” Luhan persisted.

“You can read my mind, figure it out for yourself,” Tao snapped back.

“Do we have anyone who actually WANTS to go out?” Suho joked.

“Wow, rude much? Listen, I’m not always asking for my own health, you know. There is someone else who is curious.” Luhan nodded to Sehun who was shyly looking away.

“Well, he can ask me himself then, you don’t need to get in the middle of everything,” Tao mumbled.

“Hey, he prefers not talking because of his lisp, so I do all the talking for him.”

“Well maybe sometimes you talk a bit much,” Lay calmly added.

“Enough. Pay attention, I’m thankful you do tho much for me Luhan, but I feel thomtimes it’d be better if I thaid what I wath thinking,” Sehun admitted, ignoring his usual habit of thinking about sentences that didn’t have any “s” words. Before he thought of good sentences though, Luhan went ahead and already said it for him.

“Any volunteers?  If not, we’ll have to play rock-paper-scissors.” Suho looked around.

“Why don’t we all go?” Chen asked, trying to indirectly resolve the dispute at the other end of the table.

“What now?” Luhan, Tao, and Sehun said simultaneously.

“That’s a good idea I guess…” Suho scratched the back of his neck.

“We could all use the fresh air anyway,” Chen said, looking back at the quarreling group.

“Alrighty then. After breakfast, we’ll pair up in groups and split the shopping list,” Suho said gleefully. Everyone gave the leader a displeased look.

“And we’ll have extra time to look around and do personal shopping?” he added. The death glares had disappeared and Kris entered the room. They all said their morning phrase, which to Kris was all in English, but the two chants weren’t the same and clashed with each other. At least everyone could understand each other though.

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Yay, I updated again even though I said I was going to sleep. SCREW SLEEP I’M AN AUTHOR NOW. Just kidding, I’m so tired I feel like my eyes are going to fall out. Killmeplease. I’ve also had to hold a bathroom break so I could hurry up and finish this chapter. I hope you liked this one~ I wish I could've come up with some creative name for this chapter but I got nothing...lemme know if you have any good ideas~~ Haha the scene where it gets awkward between Kris and Tao reminds me of my own life. “DON’T COME NEAR ME, YOU MIGHT CATCH THE AWKWARD” my friend says when being introduced to my other friend (someone she doesn’t know). Kekeke anyway, it’s 5:30am so good night :3