~Chapter 20

Amy quite literally skipped down the staircase. In her over eagerness she missed the last step and almost made a very disgraceful landing had Kris not been within arms reach to steady her. She laughed at herself, but shook off Kris’ hands immediately. A quick scan of the room indicated that the entire room had seen her make that hop down the stairs. To avoid any mention of it, Amy quickly turned her attention back at Kris. “We’d like to stay for one more week. We know you’ll be gone for part a good part of that week, but if there’s any chance then I’d like to stay here and wait. If after a week, my necklace still hasn’t been found, we’ll be out of your hair for good.”

“I’m holding her to it,” Paige reiterated having joined them at the bottom of the stairs.

“That’s fine. I already extended the invitation,” Kris replied. The sentiment was echoed around the room as other members either nodded or gave some indication that it was fine with them all.

“Thank you!” Amy skipped off to the kitchen where Tao was still impatiently waiting for Chen and Baekhyun to return.

“I think she’s lost it, but I’m humoring her,” Paige explained to Kris.

“She seems happy, so it’s a good decision,” Kris replied. Paige nodded, wishing she could join in on Amy’s mood.

The front door opened and Chen and Baekhyun walked in the door carrying groceries. Most of the guys in the main room stood up and followed them into the kitchen. Paige did an inventory of what was in the bags and separated things according to the dishes they would need to prep. A couple of things needed to cook and then go back into the fridge before serving, so they were the first things to do. Other items were last minute so they were placed in the fridge right away. Amy had excitedly figured out exactly what dinner was going to be as soon as she’d seen everything in the bags, however she was immediately instructed that she wasn’t allowed to help.

Paige was quick to assign tasks to anyone willing to try something. There were only 3 things that needed to be done right away. One cold pasta dish needed to be cooked quickly so it could go back in the fridge to be chilled. The meat for the burgers needed to be mixed correctly and seasoned before they could cook it. The other side dishes just required chopping and mixing and could be done last minute, or could be finished and put back in the refrigerator so that they were already done and out of the way. D.O. worked on the pasta while Sehun, XiuMin, Tao, and Lay all volunteered to cut or mix whatever Paige put in front of them. Paige took care of the meat with Suho’s help. Those who weren’t busy casually watched while staying out of the way.

Paige surrendered the cooking of the burger patties to the boys. If they knew how to do anything, it was probably cooking meat. Instead, she took over everything that had been neatly chopped and began to lay things out together and mixing ingredients. She had decided to make some fun skewers with some fruits and veggies, which needed to be cooked along with the patties. She finished arranging those and brought them to the boys so they could work on those as well. They had a grill set up outside, since the abundance of food they were cooking would produce way too much smoke if they’d done it in the kitchen. As soon as they had set up everything outside, most of the members had ditched the kitchen. Paige looked over the progress and smiled. Dinner is going to be great.

Paige walked back into the house to continue her prep work. She walked into the kitchen to find Luhan standing over the chaos on the counter. Without saying a word, Paige began to clean up the mess left from creating the skewers before she returned to her next task.

“Where is everyone? Do you need some help?” Luhan asked.

“They’re outside working on the meat and some other things. You can join them if you’d like. I’ve got this covered,” she stated, indicating the counter she was cleaning.

“What do you still have left to do?”

“The pasta is almost done. I am going to mix up a salad. And then I just need to get everything laid out for once the meat is finished,” Paige explained.

“Here…” Luhan walked to the mess she was cleaning and attempted to take the rag from her hand, “I’ll finish this.”

Instead of insisting otherwise, Paige surrendered and walked back to the stove to check on the pasta. She began to cut up the last of the ingredients. Her back was to where Luhan was cleaning. Not another word had been spoken while he cleaned. As she chopped the small onion, she listened intently to the movement he made around the kitchen. She didn’t want to pay attention to him, but she was having a hard time trying to keep him from distracting her. Determined, she continued to chop.

“AYE! !” Paige screamed suddenly. She dropped the knife and squeezed her finger with her other hand. She knew it wasn’t too bad, but it still hurt. She was holding her hand close to her stomach and began to turn towards the sink. Luhan was standing next to her the instant the knife had made contact with the counter stopping her movement. He grabbed her wrist trying to wrench it from covering the other hand so he could see.

“No! Just let me get to the water,” Paige pleaded. “It’s not that bad,” she tried to reassure. Without a word, Luhan moved to the sink and the cold water. Paige threw her hands under and let it rinse the bloody mess from her unhurt hand and then from the fingertip that it was coming from. She winced as the water hit the wound, but was thankful that it was cold and somewhat numbing. Luhan was leaning, trying to get a look. Impatient, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand away from the water for a moment. The blood started to pool again but not before he noticed that it indeed was not more than just a surface cut. He returned her hand to the water.

“I’ll be right back,” he stated before letting go of her wrist. She watched him run out of the kitchen and up the stairs. She thought about what Amy had said just earlier. She didn’t really want to lose Luhan as a friend just because of anything with her and Kai. She definitely didn’t want a repeat of the other night when he was so closed off to her. Paige pulled her finger out from under the water again to see if the bleeding had stopped. It pooled a little, but not as bad as it had been at first. She returned some pressure to it and held her hand up to try and slow the circulation.

“Is it still bleeding?” Luhan asked running back into the kitchen carrying a small plastic case.

“A little, but it’s better,” Paige replied. She put it back under the water to clean it again while Luhan pulled out a bandage and some ointment. She dried off her hand carefully. Luhan motioned for her to give him her hand. The way he held it was if she’d broken something. His touch was light and without any pressure. Before the blood could pool again, he’d applied the cream and fit the bandage over her finger.

“There,” he smiled. She returned the smile shyly. She could have done it herself, and definitely didn’t require the extra assistance. However, it had broken the silence between them. She was thankful for that. She looked up into his face wondering just what to say to him. Looking down she realized that he was still holding her hand. Without thinking, she pulled her hand from his and whirled toward the sink to turn off the water.

“Thank you,” she murmured feeling like an idiot. She walked back to the cutting board and knife to clean everything before returning to her cooking.

“Here, I’ll clean this up so you don’t get the bandage wet,” Luhan stated taking the board and the knife from her and walking to the sink.

Paige waited until he was done cleaning the board and before he had begun to dry it off to speak to him. “Are you still upset with me?” she asked.

Luhan’s gaze whipped from the sink to her face. “I wasn’t upset with you.”

“It’s been almost two days since you last spoke to me,” she mentioned.

“I’ve been preoccupied.” Luhan brought the cutting board and knife back to where she’d previously been working.

“Oh.” He was standing a couple feet away from her keeping his gaze locked on her face.

“You shouldn’t worry so much. Everyone has an off day or two.” She wasn’t sure she believed him, but she was thankful that he had seemed to return to the Luhan that she had come to rely on. “Be careful this time, okay?” he asked, touching her shoulder and indicating the cutting board. She watched as his face lit into a bright smile. It was infectious. Without thinking, she turned and hugged him.

“I’ve missed you!” she exclaimed while hugging him.

“I’ve been here,” he said, slightly taken aback with her sudden hug.

“I know…” She mumbled into his chest. She dropped her arms and took a step back still smiling. “It’s been a little bit crazy what with Amy’s brother’s necklace and her wanting to stay longer. I still have to call back home and tell them that I need another week off from work,” she explained.

“Another week?” Luhan asked.

“Yes. But, that’s it. I have to get back. I really should already, but any longer than a week and we’ll be in trouble with missing work and getting the rent paid,” she replied. She returned to finishing up the pasta, covered it and put it into the refrigerator. Luhan cleaned up while she was fitting everything into the fridge.

“The boys are almost done with the grill. Oh, hey Luhan!” Amy had bounced in from outside to bring the news of dinner being near finished.

“The pasta isn’t going to be quite ready yet. Oh well. Let’s get everything else set up for now,” replied Paige. The three of them set out everything on the counter. Luhan grabbed plates and drinks. Paige wandered outside to see just how close to being done they were. Sure enough, they were taking the last of the food off of the grill and stacking it all onto the plates they’d brought out with them. As the majority of them were walking to the kitchen, XiuMin ran upstairs to collect those who’d skipped out on the cooking.

The kitchen was big enough to support all 14 of them as they wandered around putting food on their plates, however when it came down to everyone having a place to sit and eat, it became crowded. A few filtered into the main room to eat, while some of them went back outside since it had been a decent day, weather wise. Amy, Tao, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and XiuMin had chosen to eat outside. Paige stayed in the kitchen after enough people had left. Luhan, Sehun, and D.O. stayed in the kitchen as well. Kai, Kris, Suho, Lay, and Chen were in the main room with their plates of food. Paige went ahead and pulled out the pasta. While it wasn’t as cold as it should have been, it should still taste all right. She tried some to confirm and decided to leave it out for anyone who wasn’t full on the rest of the food that had been made.

Paige happily watched the guys take turns returning to the main counter to try anything they hadn’t already, or just for seconds. The food went quickly, but there seemed to be enough for all of them. It didn’t take long for the food to nearly disappear and after dinner conversations to start. Paige listened to Luhan and Sehun, while she could hear a buzz of conversation in the main room. She was sure that Amy was enjoying herself outside. Mostly since Tao was accompanying her. Paige put her plate in the sink and started to clean up the counter.

“What are you doing?” Luhan asked, interrupting his conversation with Sehun.

“Cleaning up,” Paige answered, perplexed as to why he would ask.

“No, you go sit down and relax. Leave that for someone else,” Luhan insisted.

“Yeah, you figured it all out and made most of it. Go relax!” Sehun agreed.

“Oh, okay,” Paige said somewhat nervously. She took a glance at the counter and debated on insisting that she help clean. She knew it would only spawn argument, so she debated on where she should go. She took a glance at the main room. Yes, Kai was there, but she felt nearly the same way she had when she’d first seen Luhan that afternoon. Instead, she decided to escape outside and see how Amy was doing.

When she walked outside, she had found Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Amy in a fit of laughter. Tao was smiling and so was XiuMin. Someone had obviously done something or said something funny. Paige sat next to Amy, hoping to join in the laughter. Once some of the hysterics died down they started to fill her in.

“We’ve all eaten the food, and it’s fantastic,” Baekhyun started to tell Paige.

“However, XiuMin’s food must be extra good because he keeps dancing after each bite.”

“Dancing?” Paige asked.

“I’m not dancing! It’s just really good,” XiuMin countered. Then Paige noticed Chanyeol taking a fake bite of food and quite literally dancing, while staying seated. Amy burst out laughing again.

“That’s it! That’s exactly it,” she yelled.

“Well, it’s really good,” XiuMin explained.

“He’s always like that,” Tao stated.

“I was going to clean up, but there’s a bit more food still in the kitchen if you’d like,” Paige offered. XiuMin jumped up and headed towards the kitchen with a kick in his step. Everyone outside burst into laughter.

“See?” Baekhyun prodded.

Paige nodded. “Chanyeol, show me again. It’s hilarious!” Chanyeol did, only overdoing it a bit much. Baekhyun joined him and soon the two of them were standing and performing quite the dance over their food. Amy was in tears and Paige was holding the side of her stomach. Laughter and too much food might not have been the best combination, but it was worth the ache.

Sehun and D.O. wandered outside after hearing the loud laughter. D.O. sat down close to Tao while Sehun was encouraged to join the dancing. XiuMin returned outside only to be laughed at for a moment before putting down the food and joining the three of them in their food celebration dance.

“I don’t know how you guys can do that. I’m only laughing and my side hurts!” Paige exclaimed.

“We need music!” yelled Baekhyun. Chanyeol took a breather and ran in the house returning about a minute later with his guitar. By the time he’d returned Baekhyun, Sehun, and XiuMin weren’t really dancing but just laughing and mimicking small parts of what they’d watched each other do. Chanyeol sat down and started to fiddle around with different tunes that he knew. His running through the house seemed to spark some curiosity. Lay had come out another minute later with another guitar and sat down next to Chanyeol picking away at a similar tune. The combination of both of them was quite lively and quickly inspired a few of the guys to attempt some initially comical freestyle dancing. Very quickly, all 14 of them were outside either participating in or enjoying the spectacle.

Baekhyun, Sehun, and XiuMin were eventually given a break at dancing when Suho, Chen, and Kris were encouraged to show off their skills. A new round of laughter plagued the group as Lay played seriously and Chanyeol started to mess up on purpose, throwing off the already comical styles of dancing being performed. Kris and Chen gave up first and found places to sit down. Suho encouraged Kai, Luhan, and Lay to actually do something of substance instead of the previous craziness. However, all three of them declined. Everyone was losing energy due to the food and the abundance of laughter. The sun had almost set and the evening quickly turned from a riot of laughter to softer music and some light singing.

Lay and Chanyeol took turns playing on the guitars. Baekhyun, D.O., and Chen primarily either hummed along or sang softly with the music. Some of the other members sang along as well, but usually just for a line or two. They never once touched on any of their own songs, but instead were enjoying covering other songs. On one side of the group, starting at the most left was Chanyeol and Lay, Paige was sitting next to Amy who was next to Tao, and D.O. and XiuMin made up the rest of their row. From Chanyeol, turning to the left was Chen and then Baekhyun. Turning again to the left Kai, Sehun, Suho, Kris, and finally Luhan closed out the opposite side of the circle.

“Hey, how are you doing?” Paige whispered to Amy.

“Great,” she answered.

“The day is almost over,” Paige murmured.

“It went by fast.”

“That’s good,” Paige replied.

“But weird. It always feels like it lasts forever until it’s actually done.”

“You’ve had a few good distractions,” Paige whispered, smiling. Amy took a glance at Tao and then smiled back at Paige.

“What are you two whispering about?” asked Sehun.

“I was confirming that Amy’s had a good day due to such wonderful distractions,” she said, purposefully inflating all of their egos.

“That’s great,” Tao stated squeezing Amy’s hand.

“I was telling Paige that days like today usually drag on forever, but today has gone by quicker than normal,” Amy explained.

“How long has it been?” asked Suho. 

“Almost eleven years. He died when I was ten years old. He was only fifteen,” answered Amy.

“His best friend was driving. Another car hit them, but his friend made it out of the accident fairly well. Andrew, Amy’s brother, was killed instantly,” Paige explained.

“I felt bad for Jack, but we lost Andrew and I think his own grief and guilt led him to become really distant from my parents. They’d been friends for a long time already and I know it was hard on him too,” Amy added.

“Are you still close to your parents?” D.O. asked.

“Yes. Paige and I live together to go to school and work so I’m away from them now, but they’ve known Paige since we were in grade school together so they’re not too worried about us,” Amy answered.

“You’ve been friends for a long time,” Lay commented.

“I used to run away to her house when I was younger,” Paige laughed.

“Why did you run away?” asked Luhan.

“I couldn’t stand my parents. Hers are pretty terrific so I figured I’d just live with them,” she continued to laugh.

“But you always got caught,” Amy stated.

“Of course, I was like seven when I first started that. I got better at it in high school.” All twelve boys looked stunned.

“That and they cared less,” Amy added.

“There’s that too,” Paige smiled.

“I would never have figured you as a constant runaway,” stated Kai.

“In every other thing in life, I admit, I’m cautious. But, when you have to get out, you get out,” she shrugged.

“Do you get along with your parents now?” Luhan asked.

“No. I haven’t really spoken to them much in a few years. The occasional e-mail is our only way of communicating now.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Luhan replied.

“Not if you knew them,” Amy laughed. 

“What are you studying at school?” asked XiuMin.

“I’m an English major, and Paige does Graphic Design.”

“Basically, Amy is going to write for a living and I’m going to design her book covers,” Paige said jokingly.

“Hardly. I don’t write books and you’d be bored if all you did was book covers.”

“True,” Paige laughed.

“Everyone knows they are staying one extra week right?” Kris suddenly asked.

“No, but now we do,” Kai replied. Paige looked at him unable to read the meaning by the way he replied. Was he annoyed? Grateful?

“Are you opposed?” Luhan asked him.

“Nope,” Kai replied nonchalantly. Paige was going to lose her mind. She stared at him wishing she could get inside his head and understand him even the tiniest bit. She turned and looked at Amy who was leaning on Tao’s shoulder.

Luhan didn’t get it either. He didn’t know exactly what had gone on between Amy and Tao, but the two of them were inseparable. However, he’d very specifically seen just what had gone on between Kai and Paige and the two of them couldn’t be farther apart. One thing was for sure; Paige hadn’t lied about being confused. Not only did Kai deserve to be slapped for barely showing any thread of interest that Paige would be around for longer than another day or two, but she was blatantly wishing for similar interaction from him that her best friend was having with Tao. It was enough to convince Luhan to take his place, except for one problem; it was Kai that Paige kept staring at, not him. Still, he toyed with the idea of lighting a fire under Kai. An idea occurred to him.

“Paige? What’s your favorite song of ours? I know you’ve been listening,” Luhan asked.

“Oh, um, I like a lot of them, but right now I like ‘Don’t Go’,” she stated. Of course she would, Luhan thought to himself.

Luhan looked at Lay who nodded and started to pick at the guitar. Chanyeol joined in and soon Paige recognized the beginning chords. Perfectly on cue, Luhan sang the first line of the song, in Chinese. Kris quickly sang his second line followed by Lay and XiuMin. Chen picked up the bridge just before the chorus. They harmonized perfectly through the chorus blowing Paige away. When they sang the actual line in English, Paige almost jumped with excitement. She did truly love the song, but it was only in the Chinese version that they sang the line ‘So baby don’t go’ in English. Amy sat up to allow for Tao to join more seriously during the second verse. When they did finish the song, Paige applauded, as did some of the Exo-K members.

“That was beautiful! Thank you!” Paige exclaimed.

“We haven’t sung for you yet. I figured a request was in order,” Luhan smiled. He had to admit that he was pretty happy with himself. Not only was Paige glowing, but also Kai was scowling.

Amy leaned back on Tao’s shoulder. She had spent a good part of the day just existing in his space and she had to admit she loved it. A cold breeze blew through the group and Amy grabbed Tao’s arm as if it could shield her from it. “Oh, that was cold!” she stated.

“Let’s go inside,” Tao suggested. Amy nodded in response and the two of them stood up.

Chanyeol and Lay stood up and grabbed their guitars to bring them back inside. Luhan had followed Amy and Tao inside, as he’d been closest to the door. D.O. followed him inside. Paige had stood up but allowed for Chen and Baekhyun to walk in first. Kris, Suho, and Sehun followed Chen and Baekhyun. XiuMin gathered the plates that were still outside and made sure it was clean before returning inside. Paige scanned outside as well, not wanting to leave a mess. She noticed Kai standing and staring at her.

“What?” she asked.

“You did it again,” Kai replied.

“Did what?”

“You were practically swooning over Luhan.”

“I was not,” Paige stated.

“You didn’t take your eyes off him during the entire song,” Kai explained.

“He offered to sing, so I watched,” she replied intentionally dismissing his accusation.

“Five other guys sang. You only stared at Luhan.”

“You’re telling me that you still wouldn’t be upset if I’d looked at all six of them instead of just one?” Paige asked, incredulously.

“You were glued to him, it’s different.”

“I was glued to you all night and you showed no interest whatsoever, so forgive the three to five minutes that I spent enjoying a song,” Paige stated defiantly. She turned towards the door while her brain whirled with a million unspoken frustrations. Kai grabbed her wrist and yanked her around to face him.

“What are you going to do? Kiss me again and then go back to ignoring me?” Paige whispered, trying not to make eye contact with him.

“I thought you were going home in another day or two…”

“So, you only care because I’ll see you for an extra day before you leave for China?” She could feel tears starting to build up.

“No, but I don’t know how to handle this.”

“You could have spent this time with me instead of avoiding me,” Paige whispered.

“And when you leave?”

“I don’t know, Kai. But, right now, there is a very big part of me that wants to leave.”

“There are only three days left before we leave for China,” Kai replied.

“Look, I’m not expecting some outstanding confession of love. But, you can’t kiss me and then treat me like I’ve got some kind of plague.”

“I never treated you badly,” Kai responded defensively.

“No, you don’t treat me like anything. I might as well be a ghost when it comes to you. You enjoy my company less than everyone else in this house and you’re the one I like the most. Amy has the same amount of time here with Tao and the two of them are always together.”

“Tao’s not thinking about what will happen when you two go home,” Kai stated.

“And what will happen? We disappear? Neither one of us exist because we had to go home?”

“It’s not like you never existed, but things would become very difficult.”

“It’s difficult now,” Paige stated.

“I know,” Kai agreed.

“Do you wish you could take it all back?”

“No,” Kai answered. Paige was always used to being the one to always overthink things, but now she wondered if Kai had been doing the same thing. She knew that three days wasn’t enough to fix anything, but if she was going to leave in a week she was going to leave on the best terms she could manage.

“Look. Lets just enjoy each other’s company and not constantly think about what it all means at the end of this next week,” Paige offered. His grip on her wrist loosened and she took the opportunity to let her fingers intertwine with his. She tugged on his hand waiting for some type of answer.

He took a step closer and looked at her face. “You’re beautiful,” he said tucking a section of hair behind her ear.

“So are you,” she smiled. He laughed and leaned forward and kissed her forehead. Somewhere in the back of her head she was happy that he didn’t try to actually kiss her. They needed to keep things from becoming too intense again. “Come on, we’ve been out here for a while,” she tugged on his hand and turned towards the door. They walked inside but let go of each other’s hand as soon as they were indoors.

From the looks of everyone around the room, they hadn’t been missed while outside. Paige walked towards the middle of the main room and glanced inside the kitchen. XiuMin was more than halfway through clearing everything, never mind the gigantic pile of dishes next to the sink. She took two steps towards the kitchen before Sehun grabbed her shoulders and turned her back towards the main room.

“You’re not allowed to clean, go.” He pushed her towards an empty chair.

She laughed and sat down. Kai sat down next to her. They picked right back up into the conversation with the rest of them. It didn’t take too long before a contagious string of yawns worked their way through the room. A few of the guys were lying on the floor still talking, but drifting in between sentences. Paige looked at Amy and almost burst out laughing. She had expected to see her friend either drifting off against Tao, but instead, Tao was out cold lying on Amy’s lap while she was still enjoying conversation with those who were still conscious. However, after she had noticed it, she also noticed the steady breathing from beside her. She turned and looked to find that Kai was also sleeping. Maybe not in a deep sleep, but he was definitely breathing heavily. She laughed to herself, especially after all the fuss he’d originally made about how she’d always fallen asleep during the first few days they’d been there. It had barely been two weeks and she would have believed she’d been there for a year.

Paige looked at Amy, who returned her gaze. Amy nodded as if getting the ESP message that they should really go to bed soon. She shook Tao slightly, but enough to wake him up. Paige turned to Kai and poked his shoulder until he woke up. They both laughed but excused themselves, leaving the still awake Exo members to take care of the ones that had fallen asleep on the floor. Both of the girls went to bed that night feeling worlds better than they had when the day had begun.

A/N

*phew* Well that was about 5000 words. Pretty decent, I think. Luhan is back to being the best friend, even if it's not his ideal choice.... 

I made this video forever ago, but I'd like for my readers to enjoy my insanity... so here's a bunch of MV cuts of Luhan to the Chinese version of Don't Go: 

I think that's it for now! Til Next week!