Kai sat down with a content expression. This was so exciting being in an unknown country. He eyed the living room with sparkling eyes as the coordi noona kept explaining the schedule for the upcoming eight days. He didn’t pay attention to the woman; he’d rather take in the unusual exterior of the house. He had seen western movies, quite a lot of them so he was used to the different styles of the houses, but he had never been in an actual western home before.

 

He turned around and noticed there were glass walls right behind the couch he was sitting on. Or perhaps he could refer to them as windows which reached the ceiling from the floor- making the backyard visible. One of the windows was moveable; he concluded that by the handle on it. The yard was huge, and green. There was a small cabin at the end of the yard, right next to the wooden entrance. He couldn’t see through the small window on the door of the cabin but Jongin figured it stored tools and such. There was a small path of tiles from the wooden entrance all the way to a few feet in front of the moveable window. Jongin thought it looked cute somehow.

 

''Do you understand, Kai-sshi?''

 

Jongin snapped his head back and stared into the eyes of the coordi noona. Her eyebrows were knotted together and judging by her voice, she was upset. Jongin faintly nodded with an apology and waited until she resumed whatever she was talking about.

 

Jongin's eyes kept sliding to her left; there was a wooden bookshelf, painted white, with an amazing number of books on it. He recognized them to be English books, he couldn’t figure out what the titles meant but it still made him feel ecstatic.

 

''So we will finish the photoshoot here when the photographer arrives. Then you can go upstairs and unpack. The other members will probably arrive in a few hours.''

 

Jongin focused his stare on the short woman again. She didn’t even bother to look at him anymore as she was reading the schedule off of the papers she was holding. She ended her short-'briefing' with a sigh as she threw the papers on the coffee table. This was also painted white. The table was squared with four smaller squared glass parts in it, connected by wood.

 

Jongin loved it.

 

The coordi noona stood up and went around to corner- disappearing from Jongin's sight. The latter knew the kitchen, the stairs and the small hallway were behind the said corner. The living room was almost hidden from sight if you stood in the kitchen. The noona soon returned with the photographer, Jongin hadn't heard him arrive so he quickly jumped up with a deep bow. He sat down again as he waited until the man had set up all the tools he needed, including the reflectors.

 

The photoshoot ended quite fast, Jongin wondered if it was normal here to finish up so quickly, or if he had improved so much over the years that the photographers could wrap things up more smoothly. He thanked the older man and sat down again in his previous spot on the couch. He liked it here. He could imagine himself living in this house. The whole place radiated peace and calmness. It was probably because the only colours that stood out in the house were white, black and occasionally grey.

 

''Who's that?''

 

Jongin lifted an eyebrow as he followed the coordi noona's stare. He watched a blonde girl walk through the backyard as if it was the most normal thing to do. Then again, Jongin thought, it probably was for her.

 

The girl reached the movable window and opened it, her eyes slightly widened, and her eyebrows lifted themselves up. She seemed surprised but she also looked like she had been in similar situations before.

 

The coordi noona however, freaked out. She tried to keep the girl outside by holding her arms up and speaking in broken English.

 

Now Jongin wasn’t the judging type, he wasn’t fluent in English himself, but the coordi noona was making a fool out of herself, that was clear.

 

The blonde girl suddenly chuckled as she nodded understandingly. ''Okay, okay calm down. Who hired you?''

 

''You can't in here! No, not come!''

 

''I understand, just tell me who hired you.''

 

''Please, go. Please.''

 

Jongin soundlessly chuckled as the noona was now pushing the girl outside. He wondered how long it would take for the blonde girl to snap.

 

''Look miss, I live here, okay? So please, stop pushing me. I need to go inside.''

 

Jongin already had a feeling she lived here. However the noona wasn’t taking any of it as she closed the moveable window- it was impressive how the she managed to keep the blonde girl outside. Jongin turned his head in an unhealthy angle as he watched the blonde retreat. Jongin had a feeling she would come in through the front door.

 

It didn’t even take five minutes for the girl to do so.

 

She slammed the front door shut while mumbling some things in English. Jongin figured she was cursing at the coordi noona, Jongin could understand why. Who wouldn’t be upset, right? The said coordi noona cursed too, in Korean- needless to say, as she was about to approach the blonde, but before she could even move into the direction of the front door another person bust through the entrance between the hallway and living room.

 

This person was not blonde.

 

Jongin recognized the man; he was the producer, Kang Woobin. He had long, black hair, parted in the middle, a bored expression and he was munching on something. He was holding a small, plastic container which was filled with the stuff he was eating.

 

Nuts?

 

Anyway, the blonde followed this Kang Woobin shortly after. Her brows were firmly knotted together and was working over hours, she was probably complaining- again, in English.

 

If only I had put more effort in English class…

 

Jongin quickly shook the thought away.

 

''What do you expect me to do? Fire her?''

 

''Ugh, no. Just-'' She paused (while turning around to face Wobin), ''-make sure the people you're working with, 'know'-'', she used rabbit ears for emphasis, ''- that you share this house with your siblings. Geez, I had to walk all the way around the house, I couldn’t even enter! She pushed me out! Pushed, I tell you! Pushed!''

 

Jongin didn’t understand every word she was saying but, she was probably upset about being pushed (he understood that word).

 

Woobin chuckled as he threw some more peanuts into his mouth. ''So you're only upset about walking around the house, right? It’s good for your health to walk so don’t make such a big deal out of it.''

Then he turned to the coordi noona, ''Could you please stop pushing people out of my house? Only my siblings will enter, there are no crazy fangirls here…''

 

Noona was about to say something when the blonde suddenly quick-walked into the living room. ''Are you two Koreans?''

 

Jongin nodded; surprised as he was, he didn’t think she would be Korean either. ''You, too?'' He asked before the noona- again, could speak.

 

''Yes, I am.''

 

''I thought you were British, since you have blonde hair…''

 

To this, the brother-slash-producer laughed, ''Jongin-sshi, don’t your members have blonde hair, too?''

 

Jongin felt his cheeks heat up. Okay, perhaps that was stupid of him to ask. He nodded with a foolish grin and decided to keep his mouth shut for a while.

 

The noona finally let her voice be heard as she mumbled something incoherent, she grabbed a squared container accompanied with a lighter, out of her purse, and exited the living room (through the moveable window).

 

In short, she needed to smoke.

 

Jongin stayed quiet and observed the siblings interact with one another. It was mainly the girl who talked, her brother only nodded from time to time while he continued snacking.

‘’So, I’ll have to cook again tonight, right? Do you mind if I do it later than usual? Someone is coming over…’’

 

‘’I'M HOME!’’

 

Jongin flinched as he heard a kid yell from the hallway. There were more siblings, yes he knew that, but how many more? It looked like he could hear a bunch of kids talking while they took of their shoes, or whatever they needed to take off.

 

‘’Noona! I am hungry!’’

 

Jongin frowned, a small girl (who was seriously adorable) with big doe-eyes, pouty lips and straight, black hair, walked into the living room. She would probably reach to Jongin’s knees- with difficulty. Jongin wasn’t surprised because one of the siblings was a girl; no rather, he was surprised because the girl referred to the blonde as noona, not unnie.

 

‘’Seorin, you need to wait until dinner. Noona won’t let you snack like Woobin hyung lets us.’’

 

Jongin tiled his head to take a look at the second sibling. A boy, also straight, black hair and doe-eyes, Jongin guessed the boy was a few years older than the girl. He would reach Jongin’s waist- again, with difficulty.

 

‘’Sorry, we’re late. Seorin cried on our way here so I had to comfort her first.’’

 

And there the third sibling was. He-surprisingly, had brown hair, again the big eyes- it must be a family trait to have big eyes, Jongin concluded. This sibling however seemed to be a few years older than the other two, he would definitely reach Jongin’s shoulder.

 

‘’That’s okay, Akira. Thank you for picking them up.’’ The blonde pinched Akira’s cheek and then picked up Seorin. ‘’Why did you cry?’’ She asked in a sweet voice as she exited the living room. The youngest boy followed his big sister immediately. Jongin had a guess that she was bringing them upstairs- to change their clothes probably.

 

‘’Hi, I am Akira.’’ Akira extended his arm; Jongin flinched before he stood up. He hadn’t seen Akira approach him. Jongin accepted his hand and sat down again. ‘’My name is Jongin.’’ Jongin chuckled as he made some room for Akira. He thought he had nailed it, his pronunciation sounded quite well.

 

‘’I know! I am a big fan of EXO.’’ Akira said with a twinkle in his eyes, ‘’though I hadn’t thought you could speak English. I kind of forgot earlier, I actually wanted to introduce myself in Korean.’’

Jongin smiled awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head. What did this kid say? That was way too much English in one go…Akira must have seen the confusion on Jongin’s face as he explained everything in Korean.

 

‘’Sorry, I guess I concluded that too soon.’’

 

‘’It’s okay, I only know the basics but I hope to improve my English while I’m here.’’

 

To that Akira smiled, ‘’I hope I can be of any help, I mean I would love to teach you or answer any questions you have.’’ Jongin chuckled and thanked Akira; he would probably ask the younger a lot of things. Jongin wasn’t nosy, he liked to think of himself as not, though he was rather curious. Let’s just say Jongin had found the thin line between being nosy and curious, and he surely hadn’t crossed the border to nosy yet.

Yet.

 

Akira stood up and walked to a drawer; he fished a snapback out of it and put it on backwards. He didn’t lose the mirror out of his sight as he fixed the random strands of hair that were sticking out. The sight reminded Jongin of someone…

 

Sehun.

 

Sehun was like that, too. He could stand before a mirror for hours, fixing the same strand of hair. Jongin never understood how people could stare at themselves for so long. Whenever Jongin tried to do that- he would look uglier by the second, in his own eyes.

 

‘’Your name isn’t Korean, is it?’’ Jongin asked as Akira finally returned to the couch. The latter nodded with a smile; he sat down gently and turned his torso to fully face Jongin.

 

‘’No, it isn’t. My name and Ikuto’s are the only names in our family that are actually Japanese. I guess you’ll find out the reason to that later.’’

 

Jongin frowned as he was about to ask further- though the sound of a ringing phone interrupted him. Akira was quick to fish the phone from underneath the couch. Jongin didn’t know why it was under the couch, he also didn’t know why Akira knew it was there, but the fact remained that it was funny to him.

 

‘’Yeah, she is. Oh really…yeah sure. I don’t think that’s a problem. So what time will you be coming? Okay, until then.’’

 

Jongin almost yelped when Woobin suddenly stuck his head around the corner. He was still wearing the same bored expression.

 

‘’Who called?’’

And the same monotone voice.

 

Akira didn’t seem to be fazed as he nonchalantly returned the phone to its prior place, ‘’It was a friend of noona. He’s coming over.’’

 

‘’What kind of friend?’’

 

Jongin didn’t miss the annoyance in Woobin’s voice. The former inwardly chuckled. It seemed like Woobin wasn’t emotionless like he appeared to be after all, he was already becoming protective of his little sister.

 

‘’He said he’s a classmate, but that’s obviously a cover…’’ Akira answered with a dirty smirk.

 

‘’Call him back and tell him that he isn’t allowed to come over.’’

 

‘’Who isn’t allowed to come over?’’

 

Jongin soundlessly chucked when he noticed Akira ducking his head. The younger’s eyes were big and round, as if someone had caught him red-handed. Akira snickered away while the blonde appeared around to corner. Jongin bit his lip and refrained from ruffling Akira’s hair. The younger looked so cute trying to maintain a straight face because the blonde had walked in right on time; however the latter didn’t even seem to be genuinely interested in the topic. It was more like she butted into the conversation out of habit.

Jongin concluded the lack of response from her brother caused her curiousness to grow.

 

‘’I asked, who isn’t?’’

Her hands were now on her hips as she leaned on one leg.

 

‘’He means your classmate, noona.’’

 

‘’Which one?’’

 

‘’The one you like.’’

 

Jongin narrowed his eyes; the blonde suddenly blushed and pushed her palms on her cheeks. Jongin, unknowingly, felt some small hint of aversion against this apparent classmate. She nodded and mouthed an ‘oh’. She didn’t ask further and walked into the kitchen.

 

‘’He’s coming over anyway. I mean, I don’t approve of most things that happen in this house either so I guess this evens it out.’’

 

‘’Hold up, hold up. Remind me of the one paying the rent?’’

 

Jongin scratched his elbows, would this end up in a fight? Woobin’s voice sounded harsh and intimidating, what if he would turn aggressive? Jongin eyed the smiling, younger sibling sitting next to him, the latter didn’t seem to feel uncomfortable- rather he leaned on the edge of the couch; trying to see his older siblings quarrel with each other.

 

‘’Are they going to fight?’’

 

Akira slightly jumped up when he heard Jongin’s voice. ‘’No, they won’t—‘’ he answered with a grin, ‘’—but it’s fun seeing this since noona is funny and hyung, well, he has good comebacks in general.’’

 

Jongin nodded, it went unnoticed by Akira since he was still focusing on the small event playing in the kitchen. Jongin didn’t mind the lack of interest from Akira’s side though. The exo-member had been nodding to himself anyway. It was nice having a smaller kid show interest in you like Akira had done earlier, but kids were quickly distracted and Jongin wasn’t planning on entertaining Akira the whole time. So he didn’t have any intentions of trying to win the attention over from the younger boy.

 

I’ll see how it ends. 

---

Hi guys,

I decided to upload the first part of Chapter 1 since I didn't want to make you wait too long, 

I hope you like it!