“Her heart was a secret garden and the walls were very high.” 
~William Goldman, The Princess Bride

Author’s Note: There will be some slight inconsistencies with reality in the following chapters. In this fic, you can assume that Peniel is about 20 years old, Rainie is 17, Sungjae is 19, and the other male characters range from their late teens to early twenties (except the manager and other obvious adult characters).

 
Peniel nodded at Rainie, who followed him out of the living room to the kitchen. 

Sungjae flopped down on the leather couch against what could only be described as the ugliest wallpaper in the world.  

“The walls are – ” He began, speaking to the empty room. 

“Hideous, I know.” BTOB’s head stylist finished for him, walking through the front door with bags of paint and brushes. “We’re going to paint over them.”

BTOB’s manager, who’d finally gotten over the embarrassing incident earlier, strode into the room and took the bags from her. He carefully set them on the black coffee table, “So get your lazy of the floor and help.” He threw a large bristled brush at Sungjae which hit him loudly in the chest. Sungjae glared at him, but obediently got up and picked the brush off the ground. He peeled the product label off of it and approached the buckets of thick pungent liquid but stopped when he heard footsteps coming towards him. 

“You’re really into interior design, right?” Peniel asked Rainie as he ducked down to dip a paint roller in the paint bucket, tapping it a few times against the can to drop the excess. 

“I like it…” Rainie replied quietly from the doorway of the kitchen. She walked over and ran a finger hesitantly along the arm of the couch.  

“Sungjae said that when you were little you helped arrange the furniture in your new house, so I was hoping you’d help us out.” Peniel went on. “You can probably already tell that Manager-hyung has the fashion sense of a primitive toilet.” 

BTOB’s stylist chuckled as their manager threw Peniel a scandalized look. 

Rainie examined the living room carefully, taking in its size and shape. The room was the stereotypical rectangular one, with one corner a bit sunken in, ideal for placing a TV or stereo system. 

“You could move the couch here.” Rainie muttered, indicating the wall across from the entrance. “The ground is wooden, so you should probably place a large rug in front of it, under the coffee table.” 

She suddenly turned around and walked back into the kitchen, still talking to herself. Peniel watched her walk out of the corner of his eye, smiling slightly. Moments later, Rainie returned with a notepad and pencil, already sketching a basic blueprint of the dorm. 
 

“Wow.” 

When Hyungsik and Minhyuk arrived at the BTOB dorm several hours later, the normally talkative Hyungsik was knocked speechless. Under the command of Rainie, the painting crew had completely rearranged and replaced the contents of the dorm, transforming it into something resembling a high-end home. The only person who’d been disappointed at the end had been BTOB’s manager, who sat at the kitchen table, about his empty wallet. 

“That’s all you have to say?” Peniel laughed, wringing Hyungsik’s arm playfully. “I’d have thought you’d be more excited.”

“I am very excited, can’t you tell!?” Hyungsik shrieked. “How did our trashy dorm turn into this?” 

“Hey, I heard that!” BTOB’s manager cried from the table as Minhyuk patted him comfortingly on the back. 

“Rainie’s a genius, that’s how.” Peniel grinned, looking over at the girl as she sat on the couch beside a sleeping Sungjae. 

Rainie caught his eye and smiled back weakly. 

Hyungsik dragged Minhyuk further into the dorm to go “exploring”. Suddenly, loud commotion could be heard outside in the hallway. Rainie looked up and carefully slid Sungjae’s limp upper body off of her lap. Catching sight of the clock hanging from the hall across from her, she frowned and started to get up to leave. 

“No, wait, don’t go yet, there are some people I’d like you to meet.” Peniel said, stopping Rainie from moving from her spot. 

He walked towards the front door and pulled it open, revealing three boys all clad in thick jackets. The one in front had his hand raised, having been ready to knock on the door before Peniel opened it.

“Annyeong!” The one on the right of the trio called out cheerily. He looked amazingly similar to Sungjae, to the point that Rainie had to turn and check if Sungjae had suddenly woken up and teleported out the door. He lightly pushed the boy in front forward into the dorm as Peniel took the jacket of the one on the left. 

“Any fans know about this place yet?” Peniel asked the jacket-less boy, who had already walked into the dorm and was leaning against the newly-dried walls to take a look around.

“Nope, I think you’re good for now.” He answered, his eyes stopping at the couch where Rainie still sat fidgeting uncomfortably. 

Sungjae chose that moment to snort loudly in his sleep and slap his hand unceremoniously into her lap. The jacket-less boy’s eyes widened and he didn’t even notice when the Sungjae-doppleganger slammed into him from behind in his haste to check out the new dorm.  

“Oh, Rainie, this is Jackson.” Peniel said quickly, gesturing toward jacket-less boy. “And that’s Hakyeon and Hyuk.” He pointed at the Sungjae-doppleganger and the last new boy who looked the most excited about the beautiful dorm.

Realizing how rude she appeared, Rainie stood up and bowed in greeting to the boys. They bowed back politely, Jackson moving just a bit later than the other two. He still eyed Rainie with a strange look on his face. 

Hakyeon sat down at the kitchen table beside the BTOB manager, who’d fallen asleep in his sadness. Hyuk followed suit, still taking in the simple splendor of the room. He looked like a little child visiting Disney World for the first time. Jackson, however, remained quietly planted where he stood. Rainie couldn’t help but stare back at him as he watched her with what she thought could only be suspicion and curiosity. She was, unfortunately, a random girl who just happened to be sitting on BTOB’s new couch with Sungjae’s hand in her lap. Peniel sat down beside Hakyeon and Hyuk and struck up a gossip-filled conversation about C-Clown while Rainie sat back down on the couch awkwardly, making sure to sit as far from Sungjae as possible. Thankfully, he’d rolled around in his sleep so that he only occupied the very edge. Jackson’s presence made her uncomfortable; somehow she felt that she knew him, although she was sure that she didn’t know someone with his name. 

Out of the blue, Jackson finally opened up his mouth again. Making sure that Rainie, who’d been continuously avoiding his eyes for several minutes, was watching, he grinned mischievously. 

“My feelings are never wrong.” He said, biting his full-rounded lip. 

  
A/N 2: If you haven’t already figured out, the mystery boy from the last chapter was Got7’s Jackson. LIKE OH MA GEHRD, RAINIE KISSED JACKSOOOON! Haha, my feels are strong. Also, if you didn’t know, Sungjae, Jackson, Hyuk (Vixx), and Hakyeon aka N (Vixx) are in a subgroup called Big Byung (they’re pure perfection, if you haven’t yet checked them out, please do, their song lyrics are just pro), hence the reason why I’m introducing all of them at once (sadly Sungjae’s a little and fell asleep).

Since only person actually commented... I'll be giving JiEunExo 17 Karma Points even though her answers weren't what I had in mind. No worries though, the two EXO cuties you mentioned might just make a cameo somewhere in the future!