Fight Me

“I forgot to fill the gas after getting back from camp. Sorry,” Kris apologized sincerely, looking at Luhan through the rear view mirror as he drove.

Kris, Chanyeol and Yixing ended up tagging along with Jongdae as they came to mend the empty-tanked van at the side of the road. The van was filled with gas again and Yixing offered to drive it back to the villa with Jongdae while Kris and Chanyeol rode the rescue van. Luhan and I sat at the back seat with Chanyeol squeezing in between us after complaining that being too close to the window made him cold.

“That’s okay. I would have forgotten too.” Luhan seemed to forget that he promised earlier to hit whoever drove the other van last. His victim would have been Kris after all.

“HA! Chanyeol, see I told you Luhan wouldn’t get mad. You owe me a twenty, kid.” Kris glanced behind his shoulder at us to say.

Chanyeol reluctantly dug his wallet out of his back pocket and handed Kris a bill which Kris took and pocketed without ungluing his eyes from the road.  Chanyeol tossed Luhan a look of betrayal.

Luhan blinked. “Sorry?”

“Sorry doesn’t get me back a twenty!”

Turning away from their little feud, I stared out the window at the wet street. No matter how I tried to distract myself, the events from minutes ago still left my lips burning like traces of Luhan wanted to remain. Feeling my hand being tugged away, I looked to the side to see Luhan reaching out past Chanyeol’s lap to take my hand.

There was a certain grin in his expression that he couldn’t seem to wipe away. “Are you still cold?”

“I am,” Chanyeol answered instead of me and crossed his arms to tuck his hands underneath his armpits.

“I wasn’t asking you.”

Chanyeol gasped in slight offence. “Well then.”

I squeezed on his hand. “Could you find more blankets for tonight?” Something told me the weather was going to last just until early next morning.

“Chanyeol probably has some in his room. I’ll just take them.”

The giant in between us flickered his eyes between Luhan and I in disbelief. “I can hear you. I’m still here you know!”

“Ooh, peppers.” Kyungsoo had his hands buried in the bags of groceries as soon as they were set on the kitchen counter. He held up the green pepper.

I shook out the remains of one bag. Lettuce rolled out. “Sorry that we couldn’t find red ones like the list said.”

“That’s fine. But I need your opinion on this.” Kyungsoo forced his iPhone in front of my face where a recipe was displayed on screen. The bold letters on top read 20 Minute Chicken Fajitas. “Should the peppers be Julienned and prepared al dente, or...?”

The crickets went off inside my head. Julienned and al-what? The longer Kyungsoo stared at me for my response, the more I felt sweat bullets dripping from my forehead. “Maybe you can—”

“Sorry to interrupt, but something urgent came up and I need to take her away.” Luhan had thankfully swopped in to save me from embarrassing myself and latched a grip onto my wrist to drag me away.

“What’s the emergency?” Kyungsoo appeared alarmed and his eyes were even rounder than usual.

“She...” Luhan and I exchanged a look. “She has diarrhea.”

“I have what?!” He was already towing me out of the kitchen and leading me to the living room before I could complain about his choice of excuses. “Diarrhea? Seriously? Of all the things you could have said?”

“I don’t know why that came up.” Luhan thumped his forehead with a fist like it would rack his brain around for better thinking. “But I’d rather humiliate you than have you poison all of us.” He shrugged innocently. “Sorry.”

Flipping myself to face the other direction of the wall, I clutched my blanket tighter and buried myself underneath its warmth. By night time, the rain had decreased until it was only a soft pitter-patter. I couldn’t sleep that night, though I was counting on the final night in Jeju being a peaceful one where I sleep and wake up feeling alive. By that time, I was sure everyone had been deep asleep. Flipping myself again, I focused my sight on Luhan who had been sprawled on the floor, breathing in and out deeply with his chest rising and falling slowly.

Sitting up and throwing my legs over the bed, I decided to take a fieldtrip downstairs.

Within five minutes, I was planted in front of the blaring TV in the living room with a bowl of Fruit Loops and milk in my hands. I was mindlessly going through channels of drama re-runs and late-night talk shows and let it land on a cooking show. The man was making a dish with a thick tomato sauce he stirred while he explained to the camera his reason for seasoning as he threw spices into the pot.

I couldn’t hear the TV well because I had the volume on a 5 in fear of waking someone up, but watched nonetheless. If there was something I wish I could have learned sooner, it was cooking. Then maybe I would have at least made a good dinner for everyone during the past few weeks.

“What are you doing awake?”

The voice that whispered directly in my ear practically made me jump of out my skin and almost caused me to drop the bowl of cereal all over my lap. Luhan rounded the sofa and sat beside me, leaning back with a loud breath.

“I couldn’t sleep. How about you?”

“I wanted water, but...” He stared at my bowl. “You’re eating cereal at night time? That’s so weird.”

“This isn’t weird.” I shoveled a spoonful of Fruit Loops in my mouth and chewed before swallowing. “Cereal shouldn’t be generalized to just being eaten in the morning.”

Luhan scoffed at my statement. “They taste weird any other time than the morning.”

“No they don’t.” I held up a spoonful of the last of the cereal up to his lips. Despite complaining earlier, he ate off the spoon anyway. I placed the empty bowl on the table in front of us.

Luhan chewed slowly and nodded, eating like a cereal-at-night critic. “Okay, maybe Fruit Loops is an exception.”

I beamed at him proudly. “I told you.”

“But why are you watching a cooking show though?” Luhan leaned toward me, brushing his shoulder against mine while he spoke in a lower tone. I could hear the smile in his voice. “Wanting to cook better like a good wife?”

“No!” My face flared. “I just wanted to watch. That’s all.”

“Change the channel then.” Luhan’s hand slid under mine until he could lace our fingers together. “It’s making me hungry.”

“I don’t know where the remote is.” Using my free hand, I carefully pushed the remote between the cushions.

“What do you mean you don’t know? C’mon.” Luhan dug his hand behind me, and then got on a knee to reach my other side after a failed attempt at finding the remote. His finger accidentally probed my side, making me laugh. “Oh, you’re ticklish?”

The sly smile Luhan wore scared me. “Don’t even—!” I didn’t even have time to threaten him before his hands tickled my sides. The hardest thing to do was to keep quiet and at the same time protect myself from his attacks with flailing useless arms. Squirming to escape, my back was pressed on the arm rest with Luhan still looming over me.

“I’m going to kick you! Stop!” I managed to gasp.

“I don’t think you’re in any position to say that to me right now though, because I clearly have the upper hand,” he pointed out.

Lights from upstairs and Luhan and I automatically held still, listening for sounds. We probably woke someone up. Footsteps descended down the stairs. The TV flicked dead for no apparent reason and I would have shrieked but Luhan clamped a hand over my mouth.  

“Shh, that was me. Be quiet for a sec.”

With the dim lighting from a streetlamp outside as my only light source, half of his face was still visible in front of me. I glared at him, knowing he had the remote the whole time though continued to try and tickle me to my death.

Someone—that had looked like Sehun with the fuzz off messy bright hair—rounded the corner to use the bathroom. Rubbing an eye, Sehun pushed open the door and stubbed his toe against the door frame. He swore in a variety of colorful words that I didn’t even know he could be capable of. As soon as Sehun closed the bathroom door behind him, I stuck my tongue out, causing Luhan to pull away.

“What the hell? Did you just me?”

“You’re lucky I didn’t bite your hand off,” I hissed and pushed on his shoulders to force him back. I sat up straighter to at least seem more intimidating.

Luhan wiped his hand on my shoulder. “I’m just trying to be quiet. We aren’t supposed to be down here.”

The sound of the toilet flushing had me rigid. Luhan held a finger to his lips as a reminder. A few seconds passed before Sehun stumbled his way out of the bathroom and dragged himself up the stairs, muttering things to himself. As soon as the light switched off and a bedroom door was closed somewhere in the distance, I exhaled a breath I’d been holding.

“I don’t think he washed his hands,” I whispered.

Luhan stifled a laugh. “Gross.”

From the light, I could see how Luhan’s eyes glistened and cautiously looked toward the stairs in case someone wanting to visit the lower floor would come again. His hair was disheveled though he pulled off the look completely while I was