The next couple of days went by like a blur. Taeyeon got back to work and everything seemed to fall into a routine: wake up, eat, go to work, go home, eat, sleep, repeat. She barely got in enough time to talk with the guys, and when she did, they'd all be too tired to carry a proper conversation. It seemed like everyone's schedule was packed from day in to day out.

Kyungsoo worked from early morning to past nine o'clock, Sehun was studying for exams, and Luhan's work involved him spending the entire day in his room (he only went out to eat, and even then his bloodshot eyes were always checking the time.) Heck, Taeyeon even missed noticed the lack of Jongin's presence—he had exams and a part time job, too. The only who had enough time to talk was Baekhyun, but he's been avoiding her like she was some kind of virus. 

That was an exaggeration, but still! The two of them were just so...awkward.

Personally, Taeyeon was comfortable around him (you know, despite his whole flower boy-ness), but apparently, the feeling wasn't mutual. Sure, he was nice to her like everyone else, but he'd grow quiet whenever it was just the two of them. One minute he was laughing and joking around, the next it was like he forgot how to speak, and that only happened when they were alone! It frustrated her, really, because him being awkward made her awkward, which made the whole situation ten times more awkward than it needed to be. 

She didn't even know when it started. Yesterday? From the beginning? She was pretty sure it wasn't like that before. He was even joking around before they watched the drama!

Taeyeon wanted to confront him about it, she just didn't know how. She had different approaches to all the guys: with Kyungsoo, she was careful since she didn't know how he'd react most of the time; with Luhan, she was dorky because their personalities matched; with Sehun, she was sisterly, naturally because he was younger than her; and with Jongin, she was sassy because he irritated her, 'nuff said. 

Baekhyun, though, was a different case. He needed an approach to compliment his personality.

She decided to try it out last night, when she caught him eating alone in the dining room. 

"Hey Baekhyun," Taeyeon had said, leaning against the fridge like Jongin once did. She had tried to make her voice lower, deeper than necessary.

Obviously, she had gone with the manly approach.

Baekhyun choked on his water and turned to her with eyes almost as big as Kyungsoo's. "Taeyeon! Y-You scared me—what're you doing?"

By then she was only a few steps away from him, looking at him like he was her prey. She leaned (because leaning = manly) on the chair next to him. "I just wanted to talk to you."

She saw him grow quiet and uncomfortable, but Taeyeon decided to push through with the plan. "Baekhyun..."

"Taeyeon listen—"

"...do you like me?"

Silence.

If the air around them wasn't awkward before, it was definitely awkward after she asked that. Baekhyun just stared at her, dumbfounded. Definitely very awkward. So awkward it almost made her regret asking. 

"Do you?" Almost.

He didn't respond and continued gaping at her—she literally left him speechless; that or he went into shock. A minute had passed and still he didn't answer. With a sigh, Taeyeon closed the gap between them, staring down at Baekhyun with questioning eyes. He opened his mouth, and finally, finally, he was about to say something when—

"Oh, you guys aren't done eating yet?" Kyungsoo just had to enter.  Baekhyun took that as his chance to escape and hurried to his room without a single word. 

'So close!'

Kyungsoo looked at her, but Taeyeon could only shake her head out of embarrassment. She went through all that humiliation for nothing. She just wanted to know if he liked her, just like everyone else did. She wasn't asking him if he was in love with her, for christ's sake!

'In retrospect, I could have worded that differently...' She thought as she walked back to her room. 'Oh well.'

•••

Baekhyun avoided her the next day, even going as far as not eating until Taeyeon was gone. It hurt her a bit, but she supposed it was her fault. Maybe she should've gone with the cute approach. 

After work that Friday, she found everyone gathered in the living room (as usual); Jongin was there, too (as usual). It seemed like they were all waiting for her.

"What's going on?" She asked as she sat down on the carpet. Baekhyun didn't make eye contact.

"Well, since we've all been so busy this week, we decided to have a little fun." Jongin said. "And what's more fun than a friendly game of truth or dare?"

"'Cause nothing's greater than forcing your friends." Sehun rolled his eyes while muttering.

"What's that?"

"I said 'truth or dare'?" He smiled innocently, causing Taeyeon and the others to laugh.

Jongin ignored this, "Dare! Give me your best shot, Thehun."

Thehun Sehun glared and seemed to think for a while, then grinned (evilly?) "I dare you to take off your shirt—"

"Puhlease, that's easy—"

"You didn't let me finish," he leaned forward and placed his hands on both knees, trying to look intimidating. "I dare you to take off your shirt and to go ask for sugar from flat 406."

Luhan gasped and Taeyeon swore she saw all the blood drain from Jongin's face. 'That's the palest I've ever seen him get.' 

She leaned over to Luhan, "What's with flat 406?"

He chuckled, "The lady there—"

"But the lady there has a thing for me!" Jongin shivered visibly and Taeyeon laughed. "Seriously? That's hilarious!"

Jongin glared at her, "It's not! I swear every time I pass by her door, she goes out and asks if I'd like to 'give this old woman some good company'! Not to mention that she's, like, a billion years old!"

"Are you saying you won't do it?" Sehun asked.

"I'm not saying I will."

"Chicken."

A chorus of "ooh's" was heard. Jongin stood up, his face red, "I am not!"

Sehun leaned back and crossed his arms. "Prove it."

In a matter of seconds, Jongin was shirtless—his shirt thrown over Taeyeon's face. "Hey!"

He hastily left the flat, sadly thankfully saving Taeyeon from seeing his toned body. Everyone waited...and waited...and waited. And then he was back, looking like a deer in headlights. He put on his shirt, sat down, stayed quiet for a few seconds, and finally handed Sehun something from his pocket.

"I can't believe this! You actually went through with it?" Luhan exclaimed as he grabbed a small pack of sugar from Sehun.

"Hell yeah, I did. I had to stand there, shirtless, while she tried to reach for that. And when I tried helping her, she freakin' touched my abs! I did not work out for old ladies like her." He cringed. "I think that was the most traumatising experience I've ever had. Even worse than seeing Baekhyun ."

"Hey!"

"Believe me, it's true," Kyungsoo whispered.

Taeyeon couldn't help it, Jongin was just so flustered and red, she accidentally giggled. He glared at her again, but then his infamous smirk appeared, "Oh, you think this is funny? I dare you to—"

"Wait you didn't even let me decide!" She complained. And seriously, targetting her first? Was his life's goal to irritate her to death? Possibly, it's Jongin we're talking about, afterall. 'Walking annoyance.'

Jongin groaned and rolled his eyes, "Fine, truth or dare?"

"Ha! Truth!"

"Who do you like the most out of the five of us?" Everyone stared at her, half-curious, half-expecting it to be them.

Now it was her whose face was red. 'That...is a hard question.'  Taeyeon looked looked down, avoiding everyone's eyes. She barely knew anything about them, but was that really a good enough excuse? She didn't have anything aside from 'but you guys are flower boys, it's too hard to choose' and 'can I pass, no one here is even close to Lee Minho', so that'll probably do. "I've only known you guys for a week."

Jongin grinned and moved closer to her. "Then let me dare you~" he teased.

"Fine," she sighed.

"Great! Now for your dare..." He pretended to think, tapping his chin with his finger. He did this for two minutes, giving Taeyeon a fright when he suddenly smiled from ear to ear. 'He's plotting something evil, I just know it,'

She was right. "I dare you to call me oppa. In every sentence you use, you need to refer to me as oppa."

"Hey wait a minute—" Kyungsoo stood up.

"You've gone soft, Jongin. I don't know what I feel about it." Luhan said, his face resembling Sehun's straight expression.

Taeyeon also stood up. "But I'm older than you!"

"Ah-ah-ah," he shook his finger. "It should be 'but I'm older than you, oppa.' Besides, it'll only be for three days."

"This guy, seriously..." Baekhyun scoffed as he briefly locked eyes with her. Wow, he actually acknowledged her. Taeyeon didn't know if she should feel satisfied or accomplished, but she did because heck yeah he couldn't resist her. She remembered her unfinished task—manly Taeyeon mode: on.

"Okay, oppa, I'll do it." She sat back down and crossed her arms. "Now is it my turn, oppa?"

Jongin was still grinning (and oddly everyone was frowning.) "Go ahead."

Taeyeon exhaled loudly as she turned to face the guy who's been bothering her nonstop lately. "Baekhyun, truth or dare?"

He seemed shocked—for some reason this made her smile—but nevertheless answered, "Dare."

'It's now or never.' Taeyeon smirked and stared into Baekhyun's eyes, "I dare you to give me an answer."

Looks like Taeyeon wears the pants in this ship /slapped/

I realised that all her interactions with everyone else were iniated (even if they were by accident) by the guys, so I wanted to change it up a bit (Taeyeon oppa ftw)

Originally, I planned to just focus on two ships, but since I couldn't decide, I wrote down some scenarios for all of them. Do you guys like it this way, or should I just focus on two major ones?

And if so, which two ships would you like? I need to know~