Taeyeon sits with Jungsoo at the pizza parlor she remembers her being kicked out of weeks ago.

Opposite them are three people who are new faces to this neighborhood.

When the cashier recognizes Taeyeon and comes up to her, she folds her arms. “Didn’t I tell you that you were blacklisted, along with all your crazy nutcase friends, from this parlor?”

Jungsoo looks at her, and so do the other three. She bites down on her lower lip and tries to scramble up a solution, when Jungsoo stands. “I’ll handle it,” he tells her.

Jungsoo does a hair flip that ends messily with his hair in his eyes, but it manages to charm the cashier anyway. He puts on his best smile and twinkling eyes and leans forward a bit. “So, miss… I see you’ve had some problems with my friend… But today, just, for the sake of me, let us stay here for a while, why don’t you?”

The cashier faints on the spot, leaving Jungsoo, Taeyeon and the other three in the clear.

=

Stephanie takes a few deep breaths in the toilet, by the mirror, steadying herself down. Hyoyeon and Yuri are beside her, not quite sure of what to do. Stephanie switches to doing weird mouth exercises, and Hyoyeon thinks that it is time to stop the madness.

“Okay, Fany, you really have to calm down,” Hyoyeon speaks slowly and deliberately, putting emphasis on the last two words because that is exactly what Stephanie needs to do.

Stephanie messes up her hair in exasperation and shakes her head. “I can’t, Hyoyeon, I—I MESSED UP SO BADLY!”

Yuri leans forward. “Um, Fany, I don’t know if it’s the right time, but I felt like I had to point out that I helped Kyuhyun with the confession.”

Stephanie’s eyes widen, and then she shuts them all in a second, scaring Yuri. Hyoyeon does a maniacal cross gesture with her arms to signal for Yuri to stop and get the hell away, and Yuri does that.

When Yuri is gone, Stephanie doubles over on the sink. “I need to puke this out. Maybe if I puke my lunch out, I’ll forget everything!”

Hyoyeon sighs. “You didn’t even have lunch.”

Stephanie frowns. “Great. I didn’t have lunch. And now I’m stuck in this situation. What did I ever ask for—what did I ever do—why am I stuck with this—“

“Fany, you should be quiet. Just in case you hadn’t noticed, I think Kyuhyun’s right outside.”

She turns to Hyoyeon. “Y’THINK?”

=

Taeyeon and Jungsoo share a look, before gesturing to the food in front of them.

“Kangin,” she looks at the first one, before pushing forward a plate of pizza towards him. “You should try this.”

Kangin takes it with a huge smile.

“Yoona,” she looks at the girl in the middle, before pushing another plate forward. “I think you’ll like this.”

Yoona accepts it with a courteous nod and a pretty smile.

“Heechul,” she looks at the third male, and pushes forward another plate. Except this time, the plate is halted mid-way by a stiff finger from Heechul. Taeyeon looks up in surprise.

He puts on a grim smile. “Sorry, I don’t do junk food.”

Jungsoo taps on Taeyeon’s shoulder. “Taeyeon, it’s okay. I’ll take that plate.”

Heechul smiles again, this time sarcasm laced on his lips, and watches as the plate gets further and further from him. Taeyeon thinks she sees him exhale, as if he had been holding his breath earlier.

Yoona clears and smacks Heechul on the side. “Heechul, manners.”

Heechul does a prissy little hair flip that looked a lot more gracious than Jungsoo’s. “Oh, wow, that actually came from you?”

Yoona frowns before Kangin messes both of their neatly-set hairdos up. He smiles at Taeyeon and Jungsoo. “Sorry, they’re both pricks sometimes.”

Yoona and Heechul shoot glares at Kangin.

Taeyeon and Jungsoo grimace.

=

Hyoyeon recounts the entire story to Hyukjae, who had been too busy munching on a new hamburger the cafeteria brought in during lunch to look at the whole commotion going on in the middle.

“Basically, Kyuhyun confessed, and Stephanie blurted a yes out of nowhere, and now she’s stuck—are you even listening?”

Hyukjae puts down his fiftieth burger and looks up, a little wary suddenly. He cleans his mouth on a napkin. “Um, sorry, what?”

Hyoyeon buries her face in her hands.

=

Jungsoo and Kangin are in the restroom a while later, washing up after pizza-eating.

“So,” Jungsoo starts. “Now you’re back? For good?”

Kangin smiles, his cheeks puffing up. “Yep! It’s time to catch up on old times, buddy. I missed you so much, man. Things are not the same over there. Though I did meet the two of them,” referring to Yoona and Heechul.

“How about Taeyeon, though?”

Kangin is a bit distracted. “Huh? What—oh, right, Taeyeon! Yeah, Taeyeon too. How’s our Taengoo doing?”

“She’s… She’s doing well.”

“That’s good. Let’s go out now. It’s time we do some catching up! Maybe you guys can even get Yoona and Heechul settled in!”

=

Taeyeon is left at the table with a stoic Yoona and grim-faced Heechul. She clears her throats awkwardly.

“So, um, you guys… You guys are from America?”

Yoona nods politely. Heechul shrugs.

“That’s, that’s a nice place, isn’t it? We, we have a friend who’s part-American too.”

Yoona tries to show interest, but fails. Heechul doesn't even try.

“Just so you know,” Heechul starts suddenly, taking Taeyeon by surprise for a second. “We’re not staying forever. We’re leaving soon. So don’t get too attached to us.”

Yoona smacks Heechul again. Heechul is close to smacking her back, but realizes that Taeyeon is staring.

“R—Right,” Taeyeon mumbles, quickly taking herself out of the situation the siblings are in.

Jungsoo and Kangin return. Heechul looks at Kangin and frowns. “Youngwoon, honey. When are we leaving this place?”

Taeyeon chokes on the water she tried to sip on.

Kangin glances at Taeyeon a while before turning back to Heechul. “Soon, Heechul.”

“Heechul…?”

“Heechul… honey.”

Jungsoo and Taeyeon share a look.

=

“Where did that come from?”

Kangin, Yoona and Heechul have gone, leaving Taeyeon and Jungsoo in the pizza parlor. Both of them wear faces of plain horror as they sip on plain water.

“I don’t know.”

They are still hooked up on the idea of Kangin and Heechul calling each other ‘honey’.

“Is Kangin gay?” Taeyeon asks suddenly.

Jungsoo chokes. “M—Maybe?”

Taeyeon puts down her water, now rubbing her chin. “That would be… Interesting.”

“You mean, his stay in a foreign country turned him gay?”

“Well, he definitely couldn’t have been gay from the start. Remember the day he left,” Taeyeon muses.

Jungsoo frowns. “I think there’s something more to this.”

“Like what?”

“I… I don’t know. I just can’t fathom that image of Kangin calling Heechul honey. Nor can I fathom the image of Heechul doing the same to Kangin.”

“Well, you don’t mind, do you?”

“Of course not! If Kangin is gay, it probably means he’s with Heechul, right? There’s nothing bad in that. I just want to know what happened.”

“You think something triggered it?”

“I guess so.”

“Well, I don’t think I’m staying to ask. In any case, Yoona and Heechul don’t seem like they’ll be leaving Kangin’s side anytime soon, and, well, I don’t want to mix with them again.”

“Why not? Yoona’s… Really pretty,” Jungsoo grins.

“I have a feeling that, behind closed doors, she’s not as pretty as she seems to be.”

“Hm.”

“Neither is Heechul.”

“Heechul’s… Kinda pretty too.”

“That’s my point.”

=

“Look, this was a mistake. I’m sorry.”

“Okay, Kyuhyun, I’m sorry, but… I don’t think I…”

“Kyuhyun, I should’ve put in more thought into my answer. I’m sorry.”

“I can’t do this, Kyuhyun.”

“…nope.”

Stephanie has rehearsed over fifty lines of potential rejection, but she concludes the rehearsal with a simple ‘nope’.

She sighs, almost throwing her lungs out in the process. She really has to sort out her brains if she has any.

This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.

Neither is hiding in the toilet.

So she walks out to face the music. Kyuhyun is standing against the wall, a gorgeous frame with hands in pockets, looking gorgeous as he awaits the arrival of his princess.

Stephanie shudders at the thought and approaches him gingerly, a tentative smile tinting her lips. She gives a small wave. “Hi, long time no see,” she jokes.

Kyuhyun looks up, and she thinks she sees his eyes sparkle. Great, now her rehearsal is for naught. “Oh, Fany, you’re out. Finally. Let’s go?”

“Let’s go where?”

“For dinner. That’s what I said just now. I’ll bring you to dinner.”

“…oh. That… slipped off my mind.”

“After a visit to the toilet?” He chuckles. “That’s really adorable of you. It’s okay, I’ll take note of that in future. Your forgetfulness gives me the ability to be your walking planner.”

Stephanie tries to laugh, but what comes out is a distorted giggle that sounded almost eerie.

They start walking down the hallway, and as they reach the doors he extends a hand for Stephanie to put hers into.

She looks blankly at it before snapping out of her trance. She holds his hand, and they leave together.

As they go, behind them, a figure appears from the shadows. Siwon sighs and turns around.

“I deserve this,” he muses. He gives one last fleeting glance at Kyuhyun and Stephanie, and turns away to leave in the opposite direction.

“I hope you guys will be happy together.”

=

Donghae leaves from dinner with the Jungs, Jessica by his side. He reaches his door, only to find three other people already awaiting his arrival.

Donghae freezes, Jessica too. The look at Donghae, then at Jessica, then at Donghae again.

“H—Hyung?”

Kangin smiles, his cheeks puffing out. He moves forward to wrap Donghae in a huge bear hug, and Jessica grimaces when she sees veins popping in Donghae’s neck. That poor boy.

“Donghae! It’s been so long!”

Jessica tries to ignore the sight of her boyfriend getting asphyxiated by some guy he knows as ‘hyung’, and she looks at the two others standing behind.

A girl and a guy. She hears them chatting in quick English, and she can tell, immediately, who they are.

“Americans.”

Yoona and Heechul look up. “That, we are.”

Jessica moves forward to shake Yoona and Heechul’s hands. “Hi! I’m American too!”

Kangin and Donghae separate from the bear hug and watch the three Americans shake hands.

The handshake evolves into a hug.

“Yay for Americans!”

=

Krystal is still up when Jessica appears at the doorway at eleven. At night.

“Woah, what took you so long? A make-out session gone wrong?”

Jessica yawns and throws a stray cushion at her. “Shut up.”

“What’s gotten into you?”

“Donghae knocked himself out just now. I had to drag him upstairs singlehandedly.”

“Good god, what’s going on?”

Jessica slumps onto the couch beside Krystal, face first. Then she starts to tell the story.