Today, Tori was standing by the window, with her hand against the warm glass. The days seem to be getting hotter outside, but the hospital room is always filled with that cold and sterile wind of the air conditioner. She watched the birds dance around the trees and wondered if the pebbles on the ground were as warm as the window.

The sound of an old phone began to fill the silent room with a loud and obnoxious ring. Tori slowly turned to look at her phone sitting on the bedside table, unaffected by the urgency of each ring. She picked up the phone, which read "Sun Woo(Baro's real name; Cha Sun Woo) Incoming Call." Just like how Ana taught her, she slid the green bar to the other side of the screen and held the phone up, eye level.

"Tori-ya~~" Baro's voice came chiming through the phone. It was still early in the morning and his voice was scratchy as if he just woke up. "Did you sleep well?" You could hear rustling of the phone and some noise in the background. Tori watched her screen as Baro wandered around a hotel room. He landed on a bed and rustled a head of orange hair, "Ya~ wake up." The body rolled into a tighter ball, ignoring Baro's intrusion. He looked at Tori and chucked, "Sandeulie still hasn't gotten out of bed."

Sandeul rolled around to see who Baro was talking to, "who's that?" he groaned as he squinted at the screen. 

"Wake up, wake up. Tori's here!" Baro teased when Sandeul recognized her face and hid under the covers.

"Ya~ why are you waking her up so early?" his complaints were muffled by his quilt.

"Nah, she looks wide awake to me. Aren't you, Tori?" Baro examined her image on the phone and smiled.

He turned to slap Sandeul's , "hurry and wake up so we can go out and play~" He stood up and proceeded to carry Tori somewhere, "I wonder if the other guys are awake yet."

The boys have been gone for 5 days, touring small cities in the countryside. But they have yet to miss a day without calling her. Most of the time, they call when they are fooling around backstage or are in the van together. But on their days without schedules, they not only call her but send her pictures, videos, and voice messages all day long; bringing her to different locations and showing her the sites they see and the food they eat. Ana taught Tori how to answer the phone and view the messages on Kakao Talk and even though she never replies to them, she isn't completely bothered by them when they call either.

"Hyung-deul (brothers, plural)~" Baro sang as he opened the door. "oh? they're awake" he told Tori. He scanned the room with the camera and Tori saw CNU fixing his shirt in front of a mirror while Jinyoung sat on the couch with a guitar in hand. "Tori's hereeee" Baro showed off her image to his hyungs.

"Oh? Hi Tori~" CNU said as followed Baro to the couch. He took a seat to the left of Jinyoung while Baro sat on his right.

"Wah, our hyungs are awake pretty early today" Baro said with a smile. He held up his phone so he could capture them all into the video.

CNU waved at Tori while Jinyoung awkwardly smiled at the camera.

"I don't even think Jinyoungie slept last night," CNU nudged Jinyoung, I woke up this morning to use the bathroom and he was already sitting there, writing.

Jinyoung rubbed his bedhead and glanced awkwardly at the screen, "Ahni-ya. I did sleep. I just woke up early cause I got some inspiration."

Baro pat Jinyoung on the shoulder, "As expected, our hardworking leader, Jinyoungie hyung." He looked at CNU, "Hyung... why are you awake so early though?" The oldest member of the group is well known for enjoying his beauty sleep.

CNU smiled sheepishly, "after seeing him working so hard even on our break day, I couldn’t just go back to sleep."

Jinyoung smiled, "I think my guitar kept him awake"

"Well, there's that too"

They all chuckled tiredly.

"Are the others awake yet?" Jinyoung asked Baro, changing the subject.

"Sandeulie should be getting ready. Gongchan was gone when I woke up. He probably went to take a run."

Jinyoung nodded and finally turned his attention to Tori, "Tori-ya, did you sleep well last night?"

Tori was now sitting by the windowsill with her left arm propped over her knees as she held the phone. She was drinking a sip of water when she turned to face them at the sound of her name.

The three guys stared into the screen at her round black eyes as she swallowed her mouthful of water slowly. This is the fist time they've seen her caught off guard with a confused expression on her face.

"Wahh~~ Tori-ya, how can you be so cute?!" Baro jumped up and down in excitement.

CNU covered his mouth to cover a smile while Jinyoung looked down to hide his chuckle.

Tori blinked a couple of times, not knowing what was so funny.

Jinyoung looked up and saw her thoughts again: "what's with them?"

He elbowed Baro's arm, "Ya, cut it out. We don't want Tori to think we're crazy."

"No wayy. Tori's used to us already, isn't that right?" Baro asked her in a sing-song tone.

"Used to them?" She watched them fool around through her phone as she took another sip of water. "Have I really gotten used to them consistently disturbing my silence?" She thought back to how hard it was for her back in America to be around people; the episodes she had when Ana brought her out of the hospital, the feeling of her heart boiling and her ears going deaf, her vision going white, those feelings of irrational fear when the people came closer.

Tori put the cup down on the bedside table and clenched her chest. Maybe it was just her imagination, but it felt hot, as if her chest has turned into the glass window that heats up under the blazing sun all day.

"Tori?"

The soft voice woke her from her thoughts.

"You okay?"

She saw that only Jinyoung was left on the screen.

He saw her wonder why she didn't notice the other two leave and explained, "CNU went to help InRo hyung for a little bit and Baro went to check on Sandeul." He looked down at his grey hoodie, "I still need to get changed so I'm going to meet with them later." He paused, "You okay?"

"What?" was all she could think of; the question caught her off guard.

"You...look kind of tired," he spoke shyly in a soft tone, "I'm sorry, did you not get to sleep much because of me?"

"I'm not tired." she took another sip of her water and looked out the widow.

"heh, that's good." He propped the phone up against something on the table to put his guitar away. "You know, I think we've made it a habit into calling you everyday. I don't know what the guys will do if you decide not to pick up one day."

She turned to look at him.

"What about you? Are you comfortable with us always hanging around? Well.. sort of hanging around?" He zipped up his guitar case and turned back to her.

She silently stared at him for a bit, letting his question sink in. "It's become a habit to pick up when the phone rings." she thought, "but with time, habits can be changed."

Jinyoung binked a couple times and his questioning expression turned into a smile before he let out a laugh, "Tori. Did you just tease me?"

She looked confused at his laughter and suddenly felt embarrassed to talk to him, "Go change."

Jinyoung was pleased with her reaction, "Alright, I'll go change." He quickly added, "But you know, you're opening up more. It's nice to see." He was embarrassed as soon as he said it, "Alright, we'll call you later, Tori. Ahn-young~" He waved and hung up.

She pondered on his words for a bit, "opened up?" she put the glass down on the table, "what does that mean..."

 ---

Meanwhile, Gongchan was finishing his lap from his morning run around the neighborhood. Out of the 5 guys, he is the more active one, often going out to run and swim. Reaching the corner of the block the hotel was on, he took out his phone to check the time, "oh? It's 8... Ana should be heading out soon," he took a selca of his sweaty self and sent the picture to Ana with the message, 'Good morning! I just finished my morning run. XD Headed to see nuna now?' he began to stroll back to the hotel.

Ana: Haha yeah. Chansik-ssi you're always on schedule with your morning runs!

Gongchan: keke yeah, it's become my morning routine to take a run and then check on you Ana and nuna.

He tilted his head and looked back at the phone.

Gongchan: Also, Chansik-ssi?!?! Ana~~~ Are we strangers now?! T^T So hurt.

Ana: haha. sorry. It'll take me some time to get used to using 'oppa'

Gongchan: give it 21 days! it takes 21 days to make a new habit! You'll get it in no time!  

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A/N - SOOO SORRYY for not updating frequently. I'm really stuck in a corner haha hoping i can find a way of reaching the soon :P