And here’s another chapter! At the rate I’m cranking these things out I should be done in a few days, a few weeks at most!

Well, my thanks to tvxqprincess for reviewing! And you know who else I would thank profusely...? Someone who would make me a banner. Just sayin'!

And on that note, onto another chapter!

-----

“I still can’t believe you’re making me do this,” Jae Hwa muttered from her seat in the van. Kiseop and Eli had decided to take the van because they had expected to have a lot more than she actually did. You can only imagine their surprise when they first saw her “apartment”, followed by their surprise from how little she actually owned.

“Kevin’s going to go all “interior designer” when we get back and he sees how much you have,” Eli declared, continuously glancing over the back seat at what they had easily crammed there.

“I’m looking forward to you living with us, noona!” Kiseop declared, leaning forward and putting his chin on the back of the seat, next to Jae Hwa’s head.

“Gomawo, Kiseop-ah,” she smiled at him.

“Ye, that means that Kibum and Xander will start playing pranks on you, too!”

Jae Hwa’s eyes widened with horror, but Soohyun casually slung his arms around her shoulders, smacking Kiseop in the process, and pulled her close. “Shut up, bapo,” he rolled his eyes. “You’ll scare her into moving back into that dump!”

“Oppa, you should be more considerate of the people who live in that building. Not everyone is as lucky as I am,” she looked up and smiled at him. Soohyun tried to smile at her, but could only manage his “press smile”. Jae Hwa noticed this, but didn’t say anything because of Kiseop and Eli.

--

“So, what decision did you make?” Soohyun asked, leading Jae Hwa into the apartment with her duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

Alexander walked out of Dongho’s room and stopped in the middle of the hallway, crossed his arms over his chest, and grinned, “I’m moving into Dongho’s room.”

“I thought Dongho-ah’s mother only agreed to let him live here if he kept his own room?”

“It is my room!” Dongho declared, sticking his head out into the hallway. “Hyung is just moving in!”

“Good loophole,” Eli declared, stopping in the doorway. Unfortunately, Kiseop was trailing behind him and wasn’t paying attention, so he stumbled into Eli and sent both of them toppling over.

“And did you clear that idea with her?” Jae Hwa asked, turning to face Eli and Kiseop when she heard them yelp. She saw the two boys lying on top of each other and deadpanned, “That isn’t disturbing at all.”

“What’re we going to do for Jae Hwa’s bed?” Soohyun asked.

“Oppa, that doesn’t answer the question of whether or not Dongho’ah’s mother will agree to this!” Jae Hwa objected, rushing over to help Eli and Kiseop.

Everyone was silent for a second, except for the panicked noises that Kiseop and Eli made while struggling to separate from each other.

“You’re on a roll,” Kiseop stated when Jae Hwa had finally helped him stand. However, as soon as she released his arm to help Eli, he tripped on her duffel bag and landed on top of Eli again.

“It’s strange, isn’t it?” Jae Hwa commented. She looked down at the two young men who were struggling again and sighed, shaking her head.

While Dongho left his room to help her move her things out of the way so that Kiseop and Eli could stand up without worrying about tripping on something, Soohyun walked over and stood closer to Alexander and Dongho. “I still can’t believe she was living like that ever since day one,” he whispered to the two of them.

Dongho opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by Jae Hwa. “Where’s Kevin and Kibum?”

“Uuuuhhh…” All of the boys who were present looked at each other, except for Soohyun.

“Y’know, she’s right,” he commented, peeking into a few of the rooms. “It’s strangely quiet. I would have expected Kevin to be the first person to sweep Jae Hwa into a hug, and then commence to gush about how she doesn’t have enough clothes or things for her room.”

“Uuuuhhh…” Each one of the boys looked alarmed.

“Boys… Where’s Kevin and Kibum?” Jae Hwa put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at them. “If I’m going to be living here, then I don’t want to be left in the dark. What’s going on?” They stood in a convenient line so her eyes could scan over them easily. Her eyes stopped and she smiled, bouncing over to Alexander. “Oppa…” She cooed, hugging him, “Where’s Kevin and Kibum?”

Alexander glanced up and saw Soohyun glaring at him and swallowed nervously. “I… Um, I don’t know.”

“You don’t?” Jae Hwa leaned away and looked up at him, pouting.

“Jae Hwa, I can say with complete and total honesty that I have no idea where Kevin and Kibum are!” Alexander declared.

“You don’t know where they are, but do you know why they went out?” Soohyun voiced from behind her. The room went silent, everyone turning to stare at Soohyun. “What?”

“…Who are you and what have you done with Soohyun?” Eli blurted out.

“Hyung, never wear the nerd disguise again. It’s freaky,” Kiseop declared.

“But he has a point,” Jae Hwa turned around and faced the other boys again. “Do you know why Kevin and Kibum went out?”

The boys started squirming under her intense gaze.

“…I can’t take it anymore!” Alexander cried overdramatically, sweeping her into his arms. “I told Kevin and Kibum about you not having many things for your room, so Kevin insisted that he go and find some things to decorate your room, and he made Kibum go with him so that he could help him carry stuff back -”

“Oppa, please put me down,” Jae Hwa muttered. Xander realized that he was dangling Jae Hwa a few inches off of the ground.

“Eh… Mianhe,” he smiled and put her down.

“So, Kibum-ah and Kevin-ah went shopping to find stuff for Jae Hwa’s room?” Soohyun snickered. “Wait for it, I bet Jae Hwa will hate everything!”

“Oh, hyung! Don’t underestimate Kevin!” Dongho warned.

“Yeah, noona might like the things that they get for her,” Eli shrugged.

Soohyun rolled his eyes, and Jae Hwa sighed. “Whatever,” she shook her head. “We never went grocery shopping, so I’m going to have to make do with what we have.”

“Call them and read them a grocery list. That could distract them from their ‘interior design expedition’ so that next time you can actually go,” Soohyun suggested.

“Stop doing that!” Kiseop whined.

“Doing what?”

“Stop being smart! It’s weeeeiiiiird!”

--

Kevin was dragging Kibum around the nearest mall, pointing in windows and squealing about how Jae Hwa would like this-or-that.

“Seriously, Kevin, I don’t think this is a good idea,” Kibum commented. “What if we get things that Jae Hwa doesn’t like? Then we’ll have wasted our money,” he sighed since it looked like Kevin wasn’t even listening. “We should have at least waited until Soohyun got back and brought him – he knows her better than any of us,” he started looking around, plotting the best escape route should Kevin ‘accidentally’ expose them to the teenage girls that he could have sworn he saw staring at them strangely.

“They’re probably having in her apartment right now,” Kevin told him.

“What?” Kibum yelled, whirling around. Underneath his shades, his eyes were wide with shock. “Kevin, what the hell?!”

“Well, it’s true!” He declared, sticking his nose in the air. “We all joke that she has leashes on all of us, but it’s the tightest on Soohyun-hyung. To go along with the dog metaphor, I’m surprised he hasn’t started humping her leg yet. At least, not in front of us,” he grinned ersely, and Kibum stared at him with his mouth hanging open in shock.

“Kevin, that’s -”

“One-hundred percent true and you know it!” Kevin sniffed, sticking his nose up in the air. He was cut off by a loud beeping sound coming from Kibum’s pocket.

Kevin took out his cell phone, the source of the sound, and stared at the screen. “It’s text message.”

“From…?” Kevin leaned towards him, his quirked eyebrow unnoticeable underneath his hat and sunglasses.

Kibum swallowed nervously, “Jae Hwa. She says to forget about our ‘interior design excursion’ and to instead get the groceries while we’re out. She’s attached a grocery list.”

“Bwoh?” Kevin tensed. “How does she know that we’re shopping for her?”

Kibum didn’t have the chance to text her his question when phone beeped again, and he checked the screen. “She says that Xander-hyung cracked and told her everything,” Kibum looked freaked out. “Since we’re making her move in with us, Kiseop, Eli, and Soohyun were taking her stuff back to our dorm, and she couldn’t go grocery shopping without more help to carry all of the groceries. That means that since we’re out, we have to do it. How does she do that…?” He muttered. Kevin huffed and crossed his arms, then opened his mouth to say something, but Kibum’s phone beeped, cutting him off. Kibum checked the screen again and snickered.

“What? What did she say?” Kevin tried to dart around Kibum and read over his shoulder, but Kibum maneuvered the phone out of his gaze.

“She says that “it’s what you get for trying to shop for me when it isn’t for a gift-giving holiday”. Also, she left a little anecdote at the bottom that says, “No excuses or back talking, Kevin. And don’t call me any mean names”.”

“How does she do that?!”

--

After contemplating the various reactions that Jae Hwa might have to them completely ignoring her request, Kevin and Kibum decided that it wasn’t worth it to find out and went grocery shopping for her.

When they returned to U-Kiss’ dorm with their arms full of grocery bags, they were expecting her to be angry with them for even trying to go shopping for her room without her. However, she simply hurried them into the kitchen to leave the groceries on the counter.

“I can put them away while I’m making dinner,” she assured them, shooing them out of the kitchen. So, all of the boys decided to congregate in the living room so that they could make a full-on bulrush for the table when Jae Hwa called for dinner. And Kevin, being Kevin, just had to talk.

“So, Soohyun…” Kevin started off slowly, sliding into the empty spot beside Soohyun, who was staring blankly in the general direction of the kitchen.

“Huh?” He snapped out of whatever trance he was in and looked at Kevin. “Bwoh?”

“Did anything happen between you and Jae Hwa while you were at her apartment?”

“Dongho, go do your homework in your room,” Kibum immediately demanded, not bothering to look up from his book.

“Bwoh?” Dongho looked up from where he was, sprawled out on the living room floor with his textbook open in front of him. “But hyung, why? All of the food will be gone by the time I get there if I’m all the way in my room!”

“Jae Hwa won’t let us eat your food,” Soohyun stated, not breaking the staring contest that Kevin had initiated when he asked his question. “You’re her baby,” he muttered, and everyone smirked, except Dongho, who was grumbling to himself while gathering his books.

When he was walking through the kitchen, they heard Jae Hwa talking to him. “Dongho-ah, where are you going? Dinner’s almost ready.”

“Kibum-hyung told me to go and do my homework in my room, but I don’t know why. I was just sitting there, and then Kevin-hyung asked Soohyun-hyung if anything happened between you two earlier today.”

All of the men in the living room held their breath when they noticed the disturbing silence coming from the kitchen. “Dongho-ah, dinner should be ready in about ten minutes.”

“Aw, noona!”

“Trust me, Dongho-ah.” They heard more fading footsteps and then a door slamming further down the hall. As soon as the door slammed, Jae Hwa walked into the living room with her arms crossed and stopped on the opposite side of the coffee table from the couch, staring at Kevin with a bored expression.

“Kevin, are you actively trying to mentally scar Dongho?” She asked, quirking one of her eyebrows.

“Huh?” He broke the staring contest he was having with Soohyun. “Bwoh?”

“Noona, you already gave him “the talk”,” Eli told her, pausing to giggle at something silly that he read on his laptop. “And even if you hadn’t given him the talk, he’s probably heard everything we talk about when he isn’t around at school, when we aren’t around.”

Jae Hwa’s eyes widened in horror. “My baby!” She cried, whirling around and preparing to run down the hallway to Dongho’s room.

Soohyun’s reflexes were faster, and he jumped to his feet and swept Jae Hwa into his arms, holding her bridal style. “Jae Hwa, I’m sure that he’s fine,” he assured her. “If something happened, I’m sure he would tell at least one of us. And you know that none of us can keep a secret from you.” Jae Hwa calmed down a little bit and relaxed in his arms.

“But he might know that, too,” Kiseop smirked.

Jae Hwa’s eyes widened and she was about to panic, but Kibum reacted quickly. “Noona, do you smell something burning?” He asked.

Jae Hwa froze in mid-thrash and squealed, “Dinner!” She lunged out of Soohyun’s arms and raced into the kitchen. “…Kibum, you liar!” She yelled a minute later.

--

“Boys, have you seen my shoes?” Jae Hwa walked into the living room around nine-thirty.

“Why are you looking for your shoes?” Eli asked, not looking away from the television.

“To go home.” The living room was silent, as the boys all slowly turned to look at her. When she saw all of their blank stares, her eyes lit up with realization. She could feel the redness appearing on her neck. “Oh, right,” she winced. “Well, this is embarrassing…”

“See, I was afraid that if you found your shoes you would put them on and walk back to that dumpy apartment. You know you’re very absent-minded,” Xander explained. A moment later, he started to bite his lip while his shoulders shook with restrained laughter.

“…Oppa, where did you hide my shoes?”

“Hyung, you need to be more original with your pranks,” Dongho told him, looking up from the book that he had to read for school.

“Prank?” Jae Hwa looked between Dongho and Alexander.

“Told you,” Kiseop declared, then nudged Eli with his elbow. “Yah, let me have the remote.”

“No way!”

“You’ve had it long enough!” Eli and Kiseop proceeded to argue over the remote while Jae Hwa was still confused.

“Check the freezer, noona,” Dongho told her. “That’s where I found my golf shoes last time.” Jae Hwa’s mouth fell open.

“Trust me, it’ll only get worse,” Kiseop stopped arguing with Eli just long enough to look at Jae Hwa, and then went back to wrestling him for the remote.

Jae Hwa shook her head and turned to go to the kitchen, “Aish…” When she opened the freezer, she heaved a loud sigh when she saw her sneakers sitting in the freezer, right between a bowl of frozen yogurt and a stack of frozen meals. She reached in and picked up each sneaker gingerly, nudging the door closed with her shoulder. She had no idea when Alexander had put them in the freezer, but he must have done it within minutes of her arriving earlier that day. A thin layer of ice had already condensed on the outside of it in a few patches, and the shoelaces were stiff. She frowned and put them in the sink.

“What’s up?” She turned around and smiled at Soohyun.

“I just fell victim to Xander’s first prank.”

“What’d he do?” Soohyun asked, walking over to her. He saw her shoes in the sink, covered in patches ice, and snickered. “The shoes in the freezer prank? Wow, he must be running out of original ideas,” he crossed his arms and smiled at her.

“Dongho-ah said something similar,” Jae Hwa mused. She crossed her arms, mirroring his posture, and just stood there. As did Soohyun. For a few seconds, they just stood there, staring at each other.

“So… What do you usually do when you get home from… well, here?”

“I take a shower, and then collapse from exhaustion,” she told him, bluntly.

His smile fell and his eyes widened in surprise, “Exhaustion?”

“The shower helps me relax, and then when I’m clean I realize how tired I am and how much I want to go to bed,” she sighed and her shoulders slumped forward.

“Well, your things are in your room,” he smiled and wiggled his eyebrows at her, making her giggle, “And I set up the spare futon that you can use as a bed until we get you a real bed.”

“Oppa, I’ve been sleeping on a futon for over three years now,” she reminded him of the shoddy bed that she had used.

Soohyun frowned, “PJ, you didn’t start working for us until four months after our South Korea debut.”

“So?” She tilted her head to the side a little bit.

“Even if you had been working for us since our debut, it was still hardly two years ago. You say you’ve been living there for well over three years?”

“Since December of two-thousand-seven,” she told him. She blinked, and his expression was one of complete and total shock.

“Seriously?!” She only nodded.

“What’s going on?” Alexander asked as he entered the kitchen to see if Jae Hwa had found her shoes.

Soohyun yanked Jae Hwa towards him and pointed at her, “She’d been living in the dump for almost a year before she even met us!”

“Bwoh?” He looked between Soohyun’s shocked look and Jae Hwa’s blank stare. “Seriously? Why?” When Soohyun found out, he had looked shocked. Alexander just looked confused.

“Band meeting!” Soohyun yelled, wrapping one arm around Jae Hwa’s shoulders and dragging her into the living room, Alexander trailing after them. Eli and relinquished the remote to Kiseop, who was sitting towards the middle of the couch with Eli on his right, and Kevin and Dongho on his left.

“What’s wrong, hyung?” Dongho asked, being the first to notice Soohyun’s frustration.

Soohyun whirled around and gripped her shoulders, staring into her eyes, “Jae Hwa, why did you do that to yourself? You know everything about each and every one of us, and you know that we trust you. Why don’t you trust us?” Soohyun dropped his arms and stared at her.

“Soohyun, what’s going on?” Eli had long since abandoned the television, instead focusing intently on Soohyun and Jae Hwa.

Soohyun didn’t look away from Jae Hwa. “Jae Hwa just told me that she had been living in that place for almost a year before she met us.”

“Bwoh!?” Eli shot up straight, and Kiseop dropped the remote in surprise.

“Was the place really that bad?”

“Think of every single low-income job in Seoul, and the people who have those jobs – that is the building that just about every single one of those people lives in,” Kiseop declared.

“Perfect location, terrible living conditions,” Eli declared.

“I’m surprised city-planning even allowed a building like that to be this close to such an affluent gu,” Kiseop mused.

“Okay, I get it! I lived in a dump!” Jae Hwa snapped, making everyone jump in surprise. “It’s not like I ever had much of a choice!” She yelled, her eyes turning glassy from restrained tears.

“PJ…” Soohyun cooed, pulling her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his middle, and he began her hair. “PJ, you know everything about us – why can’t you talk about yourself for once?”  Jae Hwa sniffed a little bit and buried her face in his chest.

She mumbled something into his shirt, and Alexander leaned closer to her head. “What’d she say?”

Soohyun swatted at Alexander with the hand that he had been Jae Hwa’s hair with. “She said fine,” he looked over at the boys on the couch. “Can you guys make some room for her?” Jae Hwa stepped away from him and looked at the boys on the couch.

They saw how wet her eyes looked and Kiseop, Eli, and Kevin all scrambled for other seats, but Dongho stayed where he was. “I want to sit next to noona!” He declared, crossing his arms and pouting.

Jae Hwa sniffed and smiled at him. “Aigoo, my baby ~!” She cooed, rushing over and sitting down beside him, then latching onto him as if he were a teddy bear. Instead of chuckling at her behavior, they all turned and looked at Soohyun.

He had crossed his arms and was glaring at Dongho, but walked over and sat down next to Jae Hwa. He proceeded to pry her arms from around Dongho and pull her into his lap, and then wrapped her arms around his neck. “Okay.”

“Seriously, Soohyun?” Eli snickered. Kevin leaned towards Kibum and made a striking motion with his hand, along with a whipping sound.

“Yah! Dahk chuh,” he told them and looked at Jae Hwa, who giggled and proceeded to snuggle herself into his chest. “Whenever you’re ready, PJ.”

She sighed and traced random shapes on his chest with her fingertips. “There are a few things that I don’t want to talk about, but…”

“Just tell us what you’re comfortable with us knowing,” he murmured.

She stopped tracing shapes and rested her hand flat on his chest, closing her eyes. “Well… I grew up in this town in Jeju-do called Uhae-dong…”

-----

Well, next chapter I’m going to give you Jae Hwa’s background! Not all of it though. I’m saving some of it for later. ;)

JSYK: A gu is a term for a Korean district, kind of like American cities have various districts and counties? Yeah, a gu is pretty much like that.

For the record, Dahk Chuh is Korean slang for “Shut up.”

Also, since I like to do research for my stories – Jeju-do is an actual place in Korea, as is Uhae-dong.