[Hellion Brothers : Book#2] Rebirth of the Phoenix

Chapter Eight

As I stood up to get the door, I was wondering who could it be since it's almost midnight, and no sane person would visit at this hour.

"Who is it?" I asked before opening the door. I narrowed my eyes and prepared a flame in my hand just in case.

"It's us!" a female voice answered. Confused, i turned off the flame and opened the door.

And there they were.

"SURPRISE!" Maeji and Gwen were at my front door.

"May we come in?" Maeji asked, her eyes glistening from excitement.

"Uhh, sure..." I stepped aside to make way for them. As soon as they were inside, I locked back the front door.

"Why are you unnies here at this hour? Is something wrong?"

"At first, we wanted to surprise you by making Kai teleport us right into your room, but after a second thought, we realized that if then, you might accidently burn us too." Gwen said sarcastically, making me laugh at how she sarcastically made air quotes on the word "accidentally."

"We want to have a girls night. Gwen unnie and I often sleepover at each other's place, and since we have a new girl in the gang--which is you--we wanted you to join our slumber party." Maeji finally explained.

"Okay, sounds fun!" I said with the brightest smile I could muster, secretly hoping that I didn't sound too forced. Their bodies must be used to their trainings already so they still have this amount of energy left, but since tonight was my first training, I already felt drained. But still, I don't have the heart to spoil their enthusiasm for this so called slumber party.

We decided to put an extra mattress in my floor room since the three of us wouldn't fit in my teenie single bed. I insisted on sleeping on the floor, and they only allowed me to do so when I reminded them that my ability is to control fire so there's no way that I'll catch a cold for sleeping on the floor.

By around midnight, we were already laying on our respective beds but their talkativeness already drove my drowsiness away.

"So, Haru-ya, what exactly happened between you and Chanyeol today?" Gwen asked me out of nowhere after we talked about how sweet and boyfriend material Luhan is.

"Uhh... Chanyeol sunbae just picked me up and took me to the dorm and that's it, nothing happened." I try to convince them even though I didn't know why she even asked that.

"Are you sure?" Maeji asked, and I could feel her narrowing her eyes at me, making me gulp.

"Y-yes...?" I could still feel her narrowing her eyes at me.

"Okay then. Let me ask it this way." Gwen took the turn to question me.

"Have you ever had a crush to someone before?"

"Well, yeah... I had a crush on my cousin when I was five, and then I locked myself in my room the whole day when people told me I can't marry my cousin." I said, and couldn't help but smile as I reminisced my silly puppy love.

"Do you still remember how it makes your heart feel?"

"The happy crush part, not the broken heart part." Maeji added. I just nodded, still unable to understand where this is going to.

"You don't feel that way when you're with Chanyeol?" Gwen asked, which suddenly sent a warm feeling to my cheeks.

Fortunately, the lights were already off, so they didn't see it. I hesitantly recalled our first encounter, where I first met Chanyeol's eyes.

"Actually, yes..." I said softly. "Maeji unnie probably don't remember, but I've already met you, Chanyeol sunbae and D.O sunbae before."

"Really? When was that?" Maeji sounded unsure.

"I was in my part-time job at the grocery store that time. The three of you were shopping and you kinda forgot your change that time." I tried to remind her.

(A/N : HB readers please reread Hellion Brothers - Chapter 40:Near Death if you guys want to see/read that moment again ♥♥~)

"Ah! I remember now! You're the girl who said Chanyeol was cute!" I can hear a smile on Maeji's voice.

"That's the first time I met Chanyeol sunbae in a close distance; close enough to see his face clearly, I mean. I think that was the day I had a crush on him." I never told this to anybody before because it was already too embarrassing for me, but this time, I felt like I could just tell these two girls about everything. The works of the slumber party I guess.

"What about now? You're not feeling that way anymore?" Maeji sat up on her bed, probably too excited to lay down at this point.

"I don't know... I don't understand my own heart now... At times I feel that being with him is fun, other times I feel so much burden just to be in the same place with him. I'm not even sure if he really has feelings for me."

"Seriously? You're asking if Chanyeol have feeling for you or not?" Gwen said incredulously, now also sitting up on her bed. "Didn't you see how he behaved tonight?"

"How did he behave tonight?" I asked.

Actually, I know that Chanyeol was a bit "down" earlier, but I didn't know exactly why he was behaving like that.

"Chanyeol was 100% jealous at you and D.O tonight at the training ground!" Maeji exclaimed like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"But D.O sunbae and I didn't do anything?" I said, totally puzzled. I saw both of them face palm and sigh at my response.

"Remember before the four of you started the battle? Chanyeol shouted 'get your hands of her' when D.O put his arm around your shoulder. I know that D.O did that on purpose to make Chanyeol lose focus for the battle. That was his strategy, and it worked." Maeji explained.

And suddenly, it all made sense to me. Why Chanyeol was just furiously attacking D.O and not bothering to form a strategy with Xiumin, why Lay congratulated D.O afterwards about a certain "strategy", and why Chanyeol was so cold to me after the battle.

"I've never seen a soulless Park Chanyeol like I've seen him tonight. Do you still think he doesn't have any feelings for you?" Maeji added again.

I wasn't able to answer.

I remembered the guilt that I felt when Chanyeol told me about our anima relationship earlier before we went to the dorm.

Somehow, deep inside on the tiny little corner of my heart, I know that Chanyeol has at least a little interest in me, but my brain always reminds me to be realistic. That all the attention he's giving me is merely because he feels responsible for turning my world upside down with this anima and ability wielder thing.

"From the way I see it, you and Chanyeol just need some time alone to acknowledge your feelings for each other. The two of you basically never got the chance to have quality time together." Maeji stated her opinion.

"Oh I know! How about all the three of us sleepover at their dorm this weekend, so we can create an opportunity for the two of you to talk heart to heart!" Gwen suggested.

"Yeah, that's a great idea unnie!" Maeji agreed.

"I don't know... do you think the other guys won't mind?" I hesitated.

"No, those boys will understand. They can never say no to me." Maeji chuckled darkly.

"Okay..." I said, still hesitating.

"Okay, I'm texting Tao right now." Maeji sounded so excited.

"Unnie, it's almost dawn. We can at least wait for tomorrow." I commented at her eagerness.

"It's okay. I need him to wake us up tomorrow anyway in case we oversleep." Maeji answered nonchalantly.

I started to feel so nervous as I thought about what could happen this weekend. Now I think I won't be able to sleep anyhow.

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(A/N : The picture doesn't represent the girls, I just want to emphasis on the 'Slumber Party' )