Hey Darling

I swore I was dreaming about butterflies and sparkly rainbows before a knock on the door tore the scene apart, bringing me groggily back to reality. Cracking my eyes open to glare at the door like it was its fault, I turned over on the bed and decided to ignore it. I buried myself into the sheets again, the smell of fresh-laundry still present. By the second sets of knocks, I wrapped the pillow around my head to hide the sound.

The bed abruptly began to shake and squeak in protest from another weight being added on. I screamed when something brushed against my leg.

“Sora, shh!” Luhan clamped a hand around my mouth.

He made himself comfortable on the bed beside me and adjusted the pillows with his free hand. The sound of my protest was nothing but a muffled scream. “What are you doing?!”

“Is everything okay in there? I heard screaming,” the same person who was knocking—it sounded like Chanyeol—said through the door.

“We’re fine! Just...” Luhan pulled the blanket over himself and I kept myself from squirming away from all the sudden skin contact and propped myself comfortably beside him in a sitting position, leaning against his chest like a lovey-dovey couple who just woke up next to each other in the morning. “Okay, come in!”

Chanyeol poked his head through a crack, his smile way too big for it being so early in the morning. “Breakfast is ready!”

I was forcing another smile. “We’ll be downstairs in a minute, thanks.”

As soon as he closed the door with its definitive click, Luhan and I exhaled the breath we were holding. “That was close,” he said almost breathlessly from the hasty adrenaline rush of speeding to the bed.

I stared at Luhan, waiting for him to realize he could get off the bed by then.

Luhan ducked closer to my head, sticking his nose in my hair. “Your shampoo smells really good too.”

“Get off.”

There was Kimchijeon prepared on the table when Luhan and I descended down the stairs that I suspected either Yixing or Kyungsoo personally prepared in the kitchen. All ten of them were surrounding the table and I figured that everyone had been waiting for us. Breakfast was mostly calm and had easy conversation until Minseok complained about someone (no one admitted) who drank all the cans of iced Frappuccinos he stored in the fridge for himself. Tao complained about the beds.

“So what are we doing today anyway?” Sehun asked, adding his plates to the stack of dirty ones in the sink after everyone concluded breakfast. “We’re not staying inside this villa for weeks, right?”

“I read about something on here.” Junmyeon unfolded a ridiculously wide piece of paper (so wide, it would have been a blanket) that looked like a brochure. “How about the botanical garden?”

“The Yeomiji Botanical Garden?”

“That’s the one.”

Baekhyun bounced in his seat. “I’m in!”

Junmyeon cleared his throat as if he was about to make a speech, already obviously taking the role as a pack leader. “Okay. Everyone meet down here in an hour after getting ready. Go!”

Kyungsoo was shoved aside by Jongdae before he raced up the stairs behind Tao. I stared after the group that suddenly was making a big commotion over getting dressed and wondered about their mental age. I followed after Kris, telling Luhan, “I’m showering first, okay?”

Luhan frowned. “No, I want to shower first.”

My jaw locked. “I already mentioned it first.”

“It wouldn’t matter if I got there first anyway.”

“What—?” Before I could blink, Luhan squeezed past the flock and hurried his way up the stairs. “No fair! You got a head start!” Ducking underneath Kris’ arm, I muttered excuse me’s and sprinted toward the room.

I heard Luhan’s voice. “Yixing move!”

“But I need you to look at this cool scar I got.”

I caught Luhan’s gaze. He had been trapped by Yixing who was pointing at the apparently cool scar on his bicep and he looked as if he wouldn’t budge until Luhan could appreciate it as well as he did. Luhan narrowed his eyes at me when I stuck out my tongue and dashed to the room’s bathroom. I victory danced as soon as I locked the bathroom door behind me successfully. I’d have to thank Yixing somehow for unknowingly stalling Luhan.

I didn’t hear from Luhan again until a minute later when he was pounding on the door and I was already under the water. “Hurry up in there!”

“Excuse you. I can take as long as I want to shower.”

“If you don’t finish in less than ten minutes, I’m breaking the door down,” he threatened in a sing-song voice.

I had never soaped my body and rinsed off so quick in my life.

“Would it be funny if I pushed you on that?”  Jongdae asked Kris, referring to the pink-headed cactuses that were neatly shaped into a heart on the pebbled ground.

Kris made sure there was a five meter space between him and Jongdae. “Get away from me.”

“Ha.