Back at their dorm I got asked to make their dinner, and since the boys were on a diet-slash-caloric restriction, it meant sweet potatoes and boiled chicken s. Too bad for them, because I bought some kimchi dumplings for myself to eat.

I felt someone looking over my shoulder, peeking at the food. It was probably Chansung, I elbow him away, and a soft grunt followed by soft hands on my arms came in reply. It wasn't Chansung. It was Horvejkul.

“Yah, what do you think you're doing?” It was Chansung,

“Yeah hyung, you're married, what are you doing!” and Wooyoung,

“Hyung, you're not trying to get all the food are you?” Chansung adds

Fantastic timing boys. I knew you'd never let me down. Nichkhun backs away from me, hands up in the air, his face deceptively innocent.

I pick up the pot and drain all the water out in the sink, I put the sweet potatoes on a plate and leave it to cool on the table. Chansung reaches out to grab one but I slap his wrist, and he winces, pulling his hand away, pouting.

“It's not cool enough yet, you'll burn your tongue again.” I tell him and he just juts out that lower lip. I swear that thing has a life of its own.

Nichkhun took the seat across me and his eyes travelled from Chansung, to me, to Wooyoung, then to me. How I wish he'd sprain his medial rectus.

Taec and Junsu come in one after the other and take seats on Nichkhun's side of the table. Chansung pokes a sweet potato and looks at me, I nod in defeat and he smiles triumphantly picking up the crop and biting off of it. The others follow suit, each taking a piece. I wait for them to leave and eat their food in peace wherever they want, but none of them move. Seriously, these guys need a girlfriend.

“Are you all just going to sit here? You can go back to whatever you were doing you know.” I tell them.

“Did you know kids who don't eat with their parents are more likely to do badly in school, commit crimes, and form really bad habits.” Wooyoung said.

“What am I your mom?” I say. I stand up to shake off the awkwardness, but poison cheeks just pulls me back to my seat.

“We haven't seen each other for a while, and suddenly you change your hair.” Junsu said.

I don't get it. Was this a prank? “What is wrong with you people?”

“You're really okay now right?” Junsu asked, and I figure it out. Taec and his big mouth filled with overly big teeth was going to get a beating. I stare down at Taec, but he just shrugs and takes a bite of his sweet potato.

“I'm fine. You guys don't have to ask anymore. Please stop fussing over me.” I turn to Wooyoung, “you know how I hate that.”

“Are you okay with what? Fuss over what? What happened?” Khun asked so suddenly that I actually looked at him square in the eyes.

It has to be a joke. How can Nichkhun not know? The people who weren't even supposed to know, know- the people who weren't supposed to tell, told. How was it that Nichkhun was clueless? That is, if he really was. Taec and Junsu were roomies, Junho and Wooyoung were roomies, Wooyoung slept next to Chansung in the living room, and Chansung was Nichkhun's roomie; Wooyoung even slept in Nichkhun's room every now and then.

“Hyung, don't be like that.” Chansung said. Nichkhun just looked at him, that clueless expression still on his face.

“Chansung-ah, he wasn't here that time.” Taec says.

Well, that makes sense. I bury my head in my arms. Fantastic. What a night this was going to be. “What happened? All of you know?” Stop talking Nichkhun. Talking will only make it worse. I sit up, and spit it out. “I was with Jay on my birthday. We talked, and we decided not to see each other anymore, and no, we weren't seeing each other in the first place, but that's besides the point.”

Nichkhun's eyes widens as his mouth forms a little 'o', but doesn't say anything after, for a few seconds at least. “You told them but not me?”

“Lay off it.” I say in English. I really didn't want to have this conversation, especially with Nichkhun. Most especially Nichkhun.

Junsu stands up and gives a little stretch, “Well, thanks for the food. Come get me when you're leaving. I'll be in my room.” he says, and Wooyoung, Chansung, and Taec follow him out. I stand up as well, clearing the table along the way and Taec gives me a pat on the head before leaving, murmuring something like 'good luck, I'll see you later, will go find bunnies to eat'

Nichkhun lingers by the doorway a little longer than I'd like, and I know I'm being really immature about this.

“I thought you weren't mad at me.” he says.

“I'm not mad Nichkhun.” Really, I'm not. Wait, he's smirking. Oh. I said his name with the 'ch' again.

“Then why am I the one out of the loop?” he asks, crossing his arms on his chest, leaning against the wall like he was on some photoshoot or something. He didn't sound angry though, it was more like he was amused or something. Stupid Thai Prince.

“I didn't mean for that to happen. I just thought you already knew. I told curly, who told poison cheeks who told big foot who told big teeth, who's roomies with smelly.”

Nichkhun laughs, and the sound reverberates around the room. “What are we the seven dwarves?”

Seven. His smile suddenly drops, and he apologizes quickly. I wave a hand dismissing the issue. “No one told me, I just heard you were having some problems, I didn't know what to say so I couldn't even text.” he says.

“No, it's fine. I'm okay now, for real. Everyone's just fussing when they don't need to. You guys seriously need girlfriends. I can't stand your pestering anymore.”

“You don't mean that.” he pouts a little, as if that will disarm me.

“Yes, I do mean that. It would be nice if you guys could get yourselves a nice girl to spend your free time with, instead of using me to pass time.”

“We like spending time with you.”

And so do I, but you don't see me latching onto any of you. Granted, I don't actually need to since maknae and maknae numbers 2 and 3 do the latching first. Well, maybe latching is too much of a word. After all, they only latch when we haven't seen each other for a long time. Who wouldn't right?

Nichkhun was still standing there, and the good part was I was done with the dishes. I can leave now. “Don't leave just yet. We haven't talked in a long time.”

We don't really talk Horvejkul. “It's late.” I say.

“I thought you said you weren't avoiding me? Minjae-hyung and Junho haven't even come back from Hong Kong yet, I thought you were going to wait for them.”

Yeah, well, I did say I'd wait for Junho- even if they were taking the midnight flight, and it takes three hours to get back to Seoul- I hear cheering in the living room, Chansung was owning Wooyoung on the PS3 again. “Fine, Nichkhun. Let's talk.” I walk out into the living room and deposit myself on the floor next to Wooyoung, and Nichkhun sits next to me. “So how's your project at the lab?” he asks.

Again, another question that just surprises me so much I meet his eyes. “Uh, it could be better, I guess.”

He smiles, “You look surprised.”

“Well, I am surprised.” I reply. No one really asks me about my other line of work, you know, my main line of work, the reason I came here, to a foreign country in the first place.

He does that little laugh where his shoulders move up and down and his grin pretty much splits his face. “Why? It's like you're saying we don't care about you.”

“It's not that,” I have no doubts about the boys caring, it's just that, “I never thought you guys would be interested is all. It's nothing like your fun and glamorous lives as idols.”

“Glamorous? I don't think so.” Wooyoung says, “It gets tiring. You know that noona.” Chansung wins the round again, and the two decide to call a night and just watch TV instead.

“Yeah, well, at least you guys have partially reached your dreams. I still have a really long way to go. The other day I got an earful from one of the senior research assistants for not knowing how to do one of the experiments.” I say.

“Did he yell at you? If he shouted at you, just tell me.” Nichkhun said.

“What am I? Victoria? And what would you do about it, huh? Really Nichkhun, what can you do about it?” I tell him. I'm really curious Horvejkul.

“Don't be like that noona,” Chansung says, sprawling on the floor, “hyung's just trying to be nice.”

Nichkhun's smile falters a little, but he pulls it back. I look at Wooyoung hoping he'd take my side on this, but he just shrugs at me and starts flipping the channels. Suddenly my phone rings- a generic tone, which was rare because it would mean that it wasn't any of the boys, or Minjae-shi, or Eunsung-unni. Wooyoung fishes my phone from my bag which for some reason was now in this side of the room; I remember setting it down by the kitchen. Wooyoung flips the phone open and reads the message out loud. “'Are you still having a hard time? You were really quiet at the lab last time. You want to drink our troubles away?', yah, who the heck is Lee Kyungmin?”

“He's a friend from university.” I say. I try to snatch my phone way from Wooyoung but he just holds it over his head. I tackle him, but Chansung quickly takes the phone, stands up, and holds it overhead. Stupid giant baby. “Give me my phone.” I say.

“He's asking you out, are you going to say yes?” Nichkhun asks.

“Who's asking who out?” Junsu asks, joining in.

Wooyoung doesn't move from where I tackled him so he answers Junsu from the floor, “Some guy is asking noona to go drinking.”

“Yah, don't go drinking with anyone else but us.” Chansung says, joining the others on the floor.

What? Are these guys serious?

“Besides, it's late. What kind of guy asks a girl to come out on a date at 11 in the evening anyway?”

Shut up Nichkhun. “First of all, it's not a date. Second of all, even if I were to say yes, it still wouldn't be a date. And third, I wasn't even going to say yes. And whats so wrong with someone asking me to go out. I know I'm not pretty or y or cute, but is it so wrong for a guy to even remotely have some form of interest in me?”

Taec comes out of his room, lays down on the sofa and props his notebook on his chest without even saying anything. Great, what did they think this was, some late night drama?

“Noona, what's wrong with you? Why are you like this all of a sudden?” Chansung asks.

“Because I'm a girl Chansung, in case you guys didn't notice.”

My phone rings in Chansung's hand, and he says it was Kyungmin calling. I hold out my hand hoping Chansung gets the message and just hand me back my phone, but Wooyoung beats me to it. For some reason, the kid was just getting even more random than usual.

“Hello?” he says into the receiver.

I sigh in resignation. There was just no point anymore, so I just let hem have their way.

Wooyoung presses the speaker phone button, and the room hears Kyungmin loud and clear. “Sorry, is this her phone? Who are you?”

“Yes, this is her phone, who are you and why are you calling so late?” Wooyoung replies.

“Are you her brother? She never mentioned she had a brother, can I talk to her? Is she there?”

I wait for someone, anyone, to answer. This ought to fun. Sure, it would be really awful to Kyungmin, but heck, I didn't like him all that much anyway, and I was running out of excuses to get out of going out with him too. Why didn't I think of this earlier?

“Yes I'm her brother,” Wooyoung says, “noona's boyfriend is here, you should talk to him instead.”

Ah yes, now I remember why this was such a bad idea.

Nichkhun takes the phone and starts talking, “Hello? Who are you?” he says, not even bothering with the polite form of speaking.

“Is she there?” Kyungmin asks, and from the tone of his voice, he sounded pissed.

“Why do you need to talk to her? Ah, could it be you're waiting for her answer? Well, no, she's not going out with you tonight, or ever. Don't ask her out again, I don't like it very much” Nichkhun says. He really chooses this day, over any other day to be good at expressing himself in Korean. I wait for what Kyungmin says but Nichkhun just flips the phone closed, ending the call.

He hands me back my phone smiling, “He probably wont bother you anymore, but if he does, just tell us. We'll take care of it.” he said.

“Uh-huh. You do realize I'd be seeing him when I come to class tomorrow. What am I supposed to do if he asks for some tangible evidence that you guys exist?” I say.

“But we do exist,” Nichkhun replies, “just call me again then, I don't mind.”

Unless your busy. I give up. I move to sit next to Wooyoung and Chansung; it doesn't look like I'm getting out of here anyway, that, and while I'd never admit it to their faces, I missed them. A lot. We all have been so busy that we haven't seen each other since we went out drinking. Wooyoung continues channel surfing, occasionally bickering with Chansung over a show, Junsu and Taec busy themselves with their notebooks, and Nichkhun continues to ask me questions about everything, everything except Jay, which was really nice of him. Which brings us back to why I feel so awkward with him all the time, it's because he's so nice. It's weird, because people usually like it when other people are nice to them. Generally speaking, I like it too, but Nichkhun was just on a whole new different level. I think it's because he has sisters, so he treats girls with a lot of respect, which is nice if I were used to it. Yes. I'm not used to being treated nice- I mean, the really nice kind- opening doors, carrying stuff, waiting for, and on you, it's not something I'm comfortable with. I'm well capable of doing all those for myself, thank you, but Nichkhun doesn't seem to think that. The other girls all fall for it, but like I keep saying, I'm not most girls. Hence the awkwardness still present between us, even when we've known each other for more than a year, and he's been taking in all the liberties the other guys have with me. Free hugs included.

Not that I mind, it's just sometimes they forget that I'm not One Day. I don't really care for rumors  and Minjae-shi, Coordi-unni, and even Namyong-shi come up to my defense from people who have too much time on their hands, but it really is too much to ask. I get blurred out of the fan photos, but still- it gets weird. Sure, I'm their friend and all, but I'm also the cleaning noona. Boundaries had to be set- or at least I tried. That failed epically with Jay, obviously. Minjae-shi says its because it's hard for the boys to find a real friend in the industry, and that even he appreciates my presence, which is a little more pressuring than reassuring. I forget my train of thought when I see a hand waving at my face. Still Horvejkul.

“What?” I ask him.

“You were spacing out. You got a text from Junho.” he said.

I check my phone, Junho says he's bored at the airport and wants to get home quickly- and that he's really tired from dragon boating, and that he's hungry, and that he misses me.

“You can use my phone to reply.” Nichkhun says, peeking over my shoulder.

“No, it's okay, they'll be here in a few hours anyway.” I tell him.

“You guys are really close, huh.”

I nod at him.

“We're really close too.” Wooyoung pitches in, he grabs a pillow and puts it on my lap and rests his head on it. I look around and Junsu was already asleep on the floor, Taec was still doing whatever it was he was doing on the computer, and Chansung was already laying down his mattress to sleep. I turn to Nichkhun and tell him to help me get the members to their respective rooms, but he just smiles and shakes his head saying “I think they would have done that by themselves. They're still here because they want to be.”

I lean back into the sofa and rest my head on Taec's arm. Nichkhun gets up to switch off the lights and TV before laying down somewhere in the pile. The soft glow coming from Taec's notebook was directly on Wooyoung eyes, so I use my hand to shield his eyes from the light. Wooyoung gives a small contented sigh before falling deeper asleep. I check the other boys, and they, too, were all asleep, their chests slowly rising and falling, almost in sync as if they were dancing.

“Can't sleep?” Taec asks in English.

“You're not sleeping either.” I reply, also in English.

“Can't sleep.” he just says, Wooyoung squirms a little and mumbles something like “Don't talk in English”

Taec closes the lid on his notebook and the only light in the room was the from the faint glimmer of the Seoul metropolis seeping through their window. I begin to sing a little old local song from my memory while gently Wooyoung's hair.

“It's nice, what does it mean?” Nichkhun asks when I finished, I thought he was already asleep.

“It means 'Promise'” I explain, “I promise that no matter what happens, I will protect our love.”

He goes 'hmm' and doesn't say anything more. Wooyoung squirms around again, moving onto my other side, which was good since my leg was starting to fall asleep. I hear the front door open, and I stand up. Minjae-shi was pretty much in zombie state as he went straight into his room. Junho drops his things on the floor and gives a surprised look when he sees me. He falls into my hug, complaining about how tired he was. I drag him to his room and he falls asleep the moment his head touches his pillow. I remove his shoes, and tuck him in before leaving. I fall asleep in the middle of the living room a few moments later.

The next day was pretty much packed for the boys so I decided to cook a little breakfast for them. With my limited kitchen skills and their caloric restriction, I figured it wouldn't be so hard. The sweet potatoes were about done and I check the time. I didn't have enough time to go back to my apartment and freshen up, so it's straight to the lab for me.

“This is something I'd like to get used to.”

I turn around as Nichkhun comes in, and it felt a little weird hearing him speak in English like that, especially because his voice drops a few pitches lower when he talks in English, and it was quite bothering.

“I've been here for a year and you still haven't gotten used to me cooking and cleaning for you?”

He walks up to me and sits on the table before answering, “I meant I could get used to you being here when I wake up.”

Another reason why I hated Horvejkul so much was because I always felt like he was hitting on me- and every other girl for that matter. It was just him being nice, I know, but knowing doesn't really lessen the weirdness factor.

“What you said last night,” he started, “It's not true.”

“Hmm?” Which one? I said a lot last night.

“The others let it off, but I wont.”

What was he talking about?

“Don't ever say or think that again okay?” he said, the firmness in his voice was admittedly daunting. Him saying it in a language I was actually very comfortable with made it worse. Now, only if I knew what he was talking about.

“Don't ever say you're not beautiful, or attractive because it's not true.”

What? He was talking about that? I could feel my heart jump out of my chest and back. Looking at him was a mistake because the intensity in his eyes just made the heart that just came back to its spot in my chest drop back to the floor. Was he saying he thought I was beautiful?

“Don't ever say or think that anymore, okay?” he said again. I never noticed how much height he had over me until now. I mean, I knew he was really tall, I just never stood this close to him, with him looking down at me like he is now. My eyes leveled off at his collar bones, and I chose to look at my feet instead.

“Okay.” I manage to say. He didn't seem convinced though, because he was still there.

“And, I always see you as a girl, I'm not sure about the others, but I'm sure they're vaguely aware of that as well.”

Why was he doing this?

“So, you shouldn't think that anymore.”

I nod at him, and he finally takes a step back.

[A/N: Chapter was too long so i split it into two. i hope i split it right, anyway, tell me what you guys think!^_~]