Myungsoo hears groaning by his ear as he sleeps and ignores it in favor of the dream he had been having of Sulli and the way she sticks her tongue out just a little while pronouncing some words. A few memories from last night pound their way into his skull and shut out the nice dream, along with a wave of nausea as something moves along his stomach. He can tell that last night had been a lot of fun, but he still doesn't remember why exactly. It's an odd experience.

Parting his lips, Myungsoo grunts a little in discontent and blinks his eyes open when a sudden light hits them. 

“You waking up, Dimples?” calls Hoya's voice. “If so, then get your in the house for breakfast. I'm not carrying you. Tell the others to do the same, will ya?”

The light goes away and Myungsoo feels grateful for the darkness, eyes drooping closed. The something on his stomach stirs again and he lets out an annoyed noise when another something presses to his neck.

“Ew. Get a room, guys.” comes a tired voice he doesn't recognize. When he opens his eyes, he feels very uncomfortable about the fact that a mustachioed man is looking at him with irritated judgment.

It takes a minute for Myungsoo to realize what the comment means and he tries to sit up, only to discover a big, heavy obstacle on his chest named Yixing. The something pressed to his neck moves again and he startles as he recognizes the feeling of lips. He pushes the guy off of himself, not caring for the “ooph!” the man makes.

Yuck.

“Lay was always the flirty drunk.”

“Jongdae?” Myungsoo says the name uncertainly, but is relieved to hear he's correct. There's a bad taste in his mouth of alcohol and salt that makes him cringe and his clothes feel stiff and sandy. “Whose van is this?” he asks when he realizes their surroundings as the back of a large vehicle. The windows are covered with small black curtains and a tarp lays under them on the floor. Something about this vehicle is really creepy and weird, but Myungsoo can't think of why through his headache.

A small hum of irritation sounds from the front and he turns to see the one named Luhan in the passenger seat, stretching as he wakes up. “Is this a hearse?” he asks sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

A hearse? Well, there did seem to be something under the tarp poking his legs. He supposes it's the metal contraption used to slide in coffins. This really isn't a great place to wake up, he thinks bitterly.

“I think it is.” comes another voice and Myungsoo is surprised to see Woohyun suddenly pop up from the man's lap, as if he had slept with his head across it.

“And you said I needed a room?” Myungsoo comments to Jongdae, poking the still sleeping Yixing in the forehead.

“Hold up, hold up, this isn't what it looks like-” says Woohyun while the other grunts, “I don't even know this guy! Who are you?!”

Jongdae nods slowly, pursing his lips together. It's an odd sight, seeing as how the drawn mustache hadn't faded in the least since last night. “Yeah, huh. Sure.” Ignoring the protests, he opens the back of the vehicle with difficulty and reveals a lot of bright sunlight. “Did we really sleep in here all night? Where's everyone else?”

“Hoya mentioned breakfast inside the house.” Myungsoo supplies tiredly.

With renewed vigor, Jongdae and the others still awake rush out of the car, leaving just Myungsoo and Yixing.

“Why are you still asleep?” he asks the unresponsive form, shaking the guy's arm. “Come on, dude. Wake up.”

Myungsoo is met with silence.

“I'll leave you here.” he warns.

Again, silence.

Stopping to brainstorm how to get him up, he notices that without the dimple showing, Yixing looks less like a little lamb and more like a grown adult. He's actually a fairly handsome guy. Meeting girls must not be very hard for him with his looks and openly friendly personality. Myungsoo notes that he should ask about this, hoping for tips on how he stays so confident.

He nudges the man again. “Aren't you hungry? Come on, Lay-”

“So we're friends for sure now? I knew it would happen eventually.” Opening one eye at him, Yixing smiles. “Promise to show me what you're like on the guitar someday?”

“You idiot.” Myungsoo laughs at the trick and stretches his arms up. "Let's just go inside."

Looking around, Yixing asks, “But who the hell decided to put us all in a hearse?”

He doesn't have an answer for that and shudders before quickly escaping out of the creepy thing.

***

Breakfast is a noisy ordeal, with chatter everywhere and many, many spills and messes. With nineteen grown men (debatable) in one house, this is to be expected, but never would it be welcomed.

“Whose house is this?” Dongwoo tries to ask over the several conversations happening at once. Not a single person answers.

Hearing this, Myungsoo tries asking, but has no success.

“Hey,” Minseok says loudly in a clear voice and everyone quiets to listen, turning to him. Nervously, he rubs his neck and asks, “Whose house are we in? No one really said anything last night.”

“Teach me how you do that.” Sunggyu pleads seriously, envious.

“It's no good,” Joonmyun tells him, patting his shoulder. “It just happens naturally. We have no hope. Minseok, this is a small vacation house I rented with Kris and Sunggyu when we heard about the party. Somehow I just knew there would be a whole lot of people to take care of. You guys can expect not to be treated to meals anytime in the future; even this little rental was expensive. We have this place until noon tomorrow, so go ahead and get comfortable.”

Would you look at that. Myungsoo and everyone else has been roped into a last-minute weekend-long getaway party. It would have been nice to know before this all started so he could've prepared for it. Still, last night had been pretty fun, even if he couldn't remember everything straight away and this morning feels a smidge like death.

“We would've chipped in.” says Sehun and a few people agree. Joonmyun just gives him a narrowed look. “We would've tried.” he amends.

"That's really cool of you guys though." Woohyun tells them, wiping away sleep from his eyes. "Thank you." A chorus of thank you's follows this statement, along with a couple excitable people expressing their gratitude with their whole bodies: hugging, making hearts, and wiggling cutely.

“Let's just say you guys owe us big time and leave it at that for now.” Sunggyu waves the matter away, going back to his breakfast of instant ramen.

A long mess of chatter ensues. Sitting next to Yixing on the floor (all the couches and table chairs were filled when they walked in), Myungsoo enjoys his own breakfast and bounces around a few unforgettable moments of last night back and forth with his new friend. Apparently Sungyeol had singed off a small amount of hair and nearly lost an eyebrow after an incident with the fire, Baekhyun and Hoya had teamed up to put makeup on Chanyeol again, Joonmyun had been peer-pressured into running into the cold ocean water and a few people had been thrown in after (Myungsoo suspects himself among them), and someone had painted Yixing's toenails.

“Wait, seriously?” Myungsoo laughs as the man takes off a sock and wiggles the sloppy red-painted nails. Sand sticks to some of the polish.

“You should check yours too.”

Curious, Myungsoo pulls off a sock and discovers his nails are pink and actually surprisingly well-painted with white polka dots. “Okay, if we can find out who was the most sober last night, we can find out who likes to paint their nails.” he surmises with a smirk.

Yixing studies the toenails thoughtfully. “Actually, that kind of looks like my handiwork.”

“You're kidding!”

“Nope. There's this little girl in my neighborhood that I babysit on occasion and she always asks me to paint her nails like this. I must have really steady hands as a drunk.”

“Then who painted your nails?”

“I think that was me.” admits Jongdae, coming over to sit and show off his hands, which were spattered with lots of smears of red polish. He hadn't taken a shower yet and his hair smelled strongly like fish.

“But you were passed out.” Myungsoo points out, trying to scoot away subtly from the stench.

“I remember waking up once. The whole thing is a bit of a blur. Honestly, I've never passed out before. This is the first time I've found my limit... And seriously, I have no idea where I even got that polish from.”

“Yeah, me neither.” Yixing tilts his head curiously, trying to remember.

“GUYS, WHERE'S SUNGJONG?”

Myungsoo and many others jump at Sunggyu's loud shout. Calls are made with no luck and small groups go outside in search of the lost young man when at some point, raucous laughter rings through the house as Dongwoo finds him slumped against the tiled wall of the stand-in shower, sleeping. In the man's arms is what looks to be a large, plastic Hello Kitty head.

***

“We need to go shopping for more groceries.” Joonmyun decides after using Xiumin to quiet the room (though a few people grumble about being tricked). “Everyone chip in some money-”

“I don't have any with me.” confesses Baekhyun, turning out his coat pockets and sniffing pitifully.

“Then you can be on the shopping team.” suggests Joonmyun, hurriedly repeating orders to everyone who didn't listen.

“Twin, you should come with me!”

“Why? I actually have money.”

“Because you love me?” Baekhyun offers, smiling hopefully.

“Is that why?” Hoya asks playfully, amused with the answer. “Okay.”

Shaking his head, Myungsoo throws in a few bills to the pile collecting on the floor. “I swear, you guys are six.”

“You're just jealous.” the two say in unison. Excited at the coincidence, they laugh and high-five.

“It's ye-het.” Myungsoo overhears Sehun as he stands and stretches.

“Yehet?” Sungjong asks. “But what does that mean?”

“EXCUSE ME!” Sunggyu yells with the force of someone who has had to repeat themselves many times before. The room quiets and he continues in a more civil voice. “Who wants to go on a quick run to their house for clothes first? I, for one, am not in favor of roughing it for the whole weekend.”

“Does it matter? We'll just go on our own time and come back whenever.” says Dongwoo without a second thought. “Honestly, we're all grown up. We don't need someone to organize our every move, Gyu.”

“Yehet!” agrees Sungjong.

“Hey, someone come with me to return my Uncle's hearse.” Zitao calls out before it can get too noisy again. For some reason, he refuses to explain why his Uncle owns a hearse and theories about a mafia family background float around their conversations for the next hour or so.

***

The house is getting stuffy. The noise is unbearable, especially since the only shows that everyone can tolerate together are music programs. A group of people stand around the television, trying to copy the moves of other artists while others sing along and yell at them to stop moving in front of the screen. Myungsoo has already left and come back after a shower and with enough necessities for another night away from home. He has no actual reason to leave besides being too hungover for this . Pain relievers did little to stop the loud laughter assaulting his ears.

Perhaps Yixing noticed this. “Hey,” he says, nudging Myungsoo. “You want to get out of here?”

“Please!” he responds instantly.

They stand and leave just as a rather energetic silly dance battle begins out of nowhere.

The open air is really refreshing. They walk for a long time in silence, cooling off and calming down.

“I was wrong.” Yixing confesses, walking backwards to speak face to face. “You really are a people person.” Yixing explains to his questioning look. “Just the kind who prefers less people at a time. It's understandable, but if you learn to shut out the distractions, finding a good person to talk to among many isn't so hard. I found you, didn't I?”

“I think what happened is Hoya was drunk and his stupidity directed you to me.” Myungsoo says as he notes the sky getting darker and the air growing colder. From what he remembers, last night hadn't been so cold, but it seems like tonight would be chilly.

“Same thing.” Yixing nods, falling perfectly in-step at his side again.

As they walk along, Myungsoo remembers his mental note to himself to find out what this guy knows about dating and thinks hard about how to approach the subject. An idea comes to mind and before properly going over the possible consequences, he blurts out, “Were you awake when you kissed my neck?”

Taken aback, Yixing stops. “Huh?”

“You kissed my neck when everyone was waking up. Were you awake or sleep-kissing?”

Yixing doesn't answer straight away, explaining that this morning is a little hazy to him. “I must have been asleep, because I don't remember that. Jongdae always tells me that I'm a flirty drunk, but I think that's more Baekhyun's style. I mean, the first time Baekhyun tried tequila, he taught about seven different people how to give a whether they wanted to learn or not.”

Unable to stop the snort of laughter at the picture his mind created of Hoya in Baekhyun's place, Myungsoo's knees buckle as he walks and he covers his mouth with his sleeve in the effort to not attract so much attention. It doesn't work so well, and he gets a lot of weird looks from the people walking by as he ends up moving around a lot. Hoya would totally do that. Those two are like twins.

Waiting patiently is Yixing, smiling a dimpled smile and bowing slightly to those watching. Myungsoo can't help but think he looks a little too proud for eliciting this kind of reaction from him. “You don't have to glare." he says, watching him with amusement. "Laughing looks good on you.”

Myungsoo hadn't realized he was glaring, but quickly fixes this and marches forward again. “Don't say stuff like that, not after kissing me on the neck. Lay, that was totally weird.”

“What's a little neck kiss between buddies, really?” he shrugs, head help up confidently. “The way I see it, this just means that we're more comfortable with each other and that is just fine with me.”

Ridiculous. It's the most ridiculous excuse Myungsoo's ever heard. The weird thing is, he actually agrees. Yixing is a comfortable person to be around. He dismisses the incident as drunken affection and focuses on people-watching, forgetting to stay on point and dig for dating secrets.

“Look, look, look!”

Turning his head to where Yixing points, Myungsoo sees a giant, plastic Hello Kitty mannequin outside a coffee shop that had been beheaded. Exchanging a glance, they both nearly fall over themselves laughing dimpled laughs. Their breath shows as mist in the air around them.