~Chapter 5

Paige woke up to the sound of music being in the room adjacent to her. She stretched and then kicked off the blanket. “Why am I so warm?” she whispered. Then she looked down and realized that she was wearing the hoodie she’d snagged last night, but she wasn’t on the patio. She was in the room. Oh crap. A flood of memories came back to her, including how she acquired Kai’s jacket. She instantly regretted letting herself stay on the patio after she already knew she was getting sleepy. She’d definitely been caught borrowing the hoodie. And what’s worse, she remembered that he had carried her from the third floor patio to the room on the second floor. Oh God.

The door opened and in stepped Amy who had just returned from using the restroom. “Good morning. I’m glad you’re awake because I have a million questions for you,” Amy began. “First of all, are you hell bent on pissing off Kai now? Why on earth did you grab his jacket?”

“I had no idea whose jacket it was. I was going to return it before I came back to bed.”

“That brings me to number two. Why in the world did you go out there? I can’t believe you fell asleep out there. It was freezing! Thank goodness it was Luhan that found you on the patio. If Kai had been the first one up there, he probably would have ripped the damned thing off of you.”

“What?” Paige asked incredulously. She had sworn it had been Kai. She remembered seeing his face.

“Luhan. He carried you down here last night when he found you sleeping on the patio.”

“That was Luhan?”

“God, you really were asleep weren’t you?”

“I thought it was Kai,” Paige admitted.

Amy chuckled in response, “Yeah right.”

“No, I really did. I am not sure why, but I did.”

“That’s funny.”

“Now I feel worse. I’m going to get cleaned up and then give this back to him and apologize.”

“Good luck with that. He seems fairly unreasonable. He actually accused you of stealing it. As if with your bad ankle, you were going to literally run out of here with a hoodie.”

Paige cringed. She had really no intention to create any more of an abrasive atmosphere than had already existed.

“Alright, I’m going to go down and have some breakfast. Join me soon, k?” Amy asked.

“Yup,” Paige responded grabbing her purse and walking to the bathroom. She could hear the music pouring from the dance room and made a quick dash through the bathroom door on the off chance that she would run into Kai before she was ready to.

Amy walked downstairs. She spotted Kris talking on the phone and Tao sitting in on one of the couches. Chanyeol was in the kitchen with Chen finishing up their breakfast.

“Hello!” rang out both Chen and Chanyeol’s voices as she entered the kitchen.

“Good morning,” she replied with a slight bow. Chen stood up and offered her extra of what he’d made for breakfast. It was something she hadn’t had before, but that was part of the point of coming to Korea. She accepted the meal and sat down with the two of them.

“It sounds like they still haven’t found the bags, but Kris is still talking to our manager,” stated Chanyeol. Amy swallowed the last bite of food she’d put in without chewing it properly, and had to try not to cough afterwards.

“We have to practice again, earlier this afternoon,” Chen began, sliding a glass of water towards her. “But, if you’d like we can take you shopping to replace some of the things from your luggage that you need immediately,” he offered.

“That’s nice of you. Thank you for taking care of us,” Amy responded.

“You’re welcome,” Chen replied. Tao joined them in the kitchen.

“The bags have been stolen. We aren’t sure what can be done. Kris went upstairs to talk to the other guys, but you can stay here,” Tao smiled. His eyes really lit up when he smiled.

“What about Kai? He seems like he’d be completely against it.”

“I doubt he really cares as much as he says. He’s just very stubborn.” Amy didn’t really believe that he wouldn’t put up a fight. Despite the conflict, she was inwardly thrilled that they could stay with them for another night. They were all just way too cute.

“Were taking them shopping after we’re done with rehearsal,” Chanyeol told Tao.

“Then I’m going too!” Tao insisted. Amy laughed. Oh, this would be an adventure.

Amy finished her food, as had Chen and Chanyeol. They were still talking when Kris came back downstairs.

“Another night?” Amy asked.

“Yes, but I’m still hoping for more news sometime later today.”

“And Kai?”

“Don’t worry about him,” Kris laughed. He smiled and Amy convinced herself that she would probably never see anything so beautiful if she lived to be 100 years old.

Paige stood outside of the dance room for a minute. She was holding Kai’s jacket, neatly folded in her hands. She wished that the face she was about to see was the smiling one that she thought she’d seen last night. But, after finding out that it hadn’t been Kai at all, she was dreading any future interaction with him again. It’s now or I stay hidden inside that room for the rest of the day. She placed her hand on the doorknob and turned it slowly, letting the door open just enough for her to peer inside.

The sound of the music was loud and intoxicating. Kai looked focused and in complete character for the dance that he was practicing. She opened the door just a bit wider and stood within its frame while watching him dance. She was no dancer, but he had either already practiced this particular routine millions of times or his dancing was just an extension of him. She hugged the hoodie to her chest while intently watching him.

Completely entranced, she blinked rapidly when the music stopped and Kai walked over to where a towel and water bottle were lying on the floor. Once done taking a drink, he turned to walk over to the sound system. It was then that he noticed her standing there. He didn’t say a word only looked at her. Okay, he’s seen you, get it over with. She started to walk slowly into the room. It was humid and she quickly realized that the air in the room was basically the essence of him. She wasn’t sure she should have come into the space that seemed to solely belong to him. She stopped a few feet away and held the hoodie out to him. “I’m sorry,” she said with a bow.

He ran a hand through his hair and took a few steps toward her. He took the jacket from her hands and walked over to a chair in the corner where he placed it down. “Kris tells me that you’re staying again, tonight.”

“Oh? I hadn’t heard. I guess our bags are still missing.”

“How long will you stay if they don’t find your bags?”

“If they can’t find them, we will return home. We would have only been in Korea for a little less than 2 weeks.”

“Two weeks?”

“If they can’t find our luggage, we can’t stay at the hotel regardless of a room opening up. All of our extra money for the trip was in those bags,” Paige explained.

“Stay until they find the bags, just don’t touch my stuff.”

“Yes. I’m sorry,” Paige bowed again. His back had been facing her during the entire conversation. It was far less intimidating than staring into his eyes. She turned and exited the room. She pulled the door closed, making sure that the latch clicked.

Turning towards the stairs at the end of the hall, she noticed Luhan leaning against the wall. “He didn’t bite your head off, did he?”

“Not at all,” she replied. She was suddenly embarrassed thinking of him carrying her last night. “Thank you, for last night. I sorry that you had to carry me down the stairs.”

He shrugged in reply. “Have you had breakfast?”

“No.”

He smiled and nodded his head towards the staircase as an invitation to join him. She smiled brightly back at him. As she made her first step down the stairs, she winced. While managing a limp around the house wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be, the stairs were definitely more difficult. Paige gasped as she felt Luhan grab her upper arm, attempting to help relieve any extra weight she’d have to place on her bad ankle. Together, they managed the stairs much quicker than she would have been able to alone.

Amy turned as Luhan and Paige came into the kitchen. Amy winked at her friend and smiled. Paige laughed to herself. “Good morning,” Paige said to everyone in the kitchen. They returned the greeting perfectly synchronized which took Paige momentarily by surprise. Yeah, this could be worth getting used to. Luhan passed Paige a plate of food and sat down next to her.

“I heard that our luggage is still missing?” Paige directed at Kris in English.

“Stolen.”

“They’re going to take us, after they get back from practice, to do some shopping for some of the things we need replaced,” Amy explained.

“Very generous of you,” she managed in Korean. “Thank you.”

“It’ll be fun, for us,” Chanyeol replied.

“I agree!” Chen piped in.

“I think they’re perhaps a little too anxious,” Kris rolled his eyes at the members in the kitchen.

“You’re not coming?” Amy asked.

“The more of us go out together, the more suspicious we look. It’d be better if it were a smaller group.”

“You’ve got three of us,” Tao said with mock sarcasm, as if they weren’t enough.

“Four,” Luhan added. Kris raised his eyebrow at him. Luhan shrugged in response.

“Four is plenty.”

Paige smiled at Amy. They definitely had something to look forward to later this afternoon. Paige was taking the last bite of her breakfast when the front door opened.

Kris shot up out of his chair and peered into the living room.  He flashed a smile at whoever had come into the door and then turned back to the kitchen motioning that the girls be hidden.

Luhan grabbed Paige’s hand and pulled her behind the furthest counter and motioned for her to sit behind it. He stood directly in front of the counter. Tao did something similar with Amy except it was behind the pantry doors. Chen and Chanyeol tried to look busy cleaning up the extra plates around the kitchen.

“We’d like to get an earlier start. Is everyone up? Has everyone eaten?” The manager spoke in Korean to everyone standing around.

“For the most part,” answered Chen. “I can go grab everyone, are we leaving now?”

“As soon as everyone is ready.”

“I’ll go get them,” and Chen ran up the stairs.

“Don’t all of you have to get ready as well?” Paige gulped. They would have to leave them in their hiding spots.

“Please sit,” Kris asked the manager. Paige could hear footsteps leaving the kitchen and going out into the main living room. Chanyeol was making a racket with the dishes. Luhan came around the side of the counter.

“I can’t get up the stairs fast enough, he’ll see me,” she explained, understanding what his intentions had been. Luhan motioned with more emphasis for her to stand up. Paige stood and watched as Tao was already leading Amy up the stairs.

“Luhan, no. I’ll just stay down here.” Paige noticed that some of the guys were already coming down the stairs. Each of them made a point to crowd around the manager while waiting for everyone else to join them. They were making a pretty decent distraction.

“This will be faster,” Luhan said while bending his knees and indicating that she should be piggy backed up the stairs.

“No, Luhan.” He sighed and grabbed her wrist forcing her to grab around his neck. He hoisted her up and made a surprising well-executed sprint up the stairs. He stopped once reaching the hallway. He was slightly out of breath and she slid off of his back. She couldn’t hold back a slight bubble of laughter. She’d never had anyone piggyback her before. She smiled at him, and he returned the smile and then motioned for her to go hide in their room. She bowed and abruptly turned to go down the hallway.

As she ran, the second door to the dance room flew open and Kai walked out. Paige quickly took a step to the right, but rather awkwardly due to her bad ankle. Kai looked up at her, noticing the just avoided collision and the weird hop she’d just performed.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yes, yes, fine,” she said somewhat breathlessly. He gave her a nod and turned to leave. She nodded back in response and watched him walk away. Then she remembered she was supposed to be hiding, so she continued to the room and shut the door staring at Amy who was trying really hard not to laugh. 

“This just became really fun,” Amy stated.

A/N:

Alright, as promised, here's the chapter for this week! I started a short story with Sehun as the focus! (Fading Away) But it will only be a few chapters so it will not interfere with my weekly updates for this story.