"What is it with Chan calling me babygirl?" I asked as Hyunjin led me down the hall.
"Oh that..." The blondie paused. "I don't know if I should be saying this or not, but his sister-"
"He told me a bit about her on the way to the apartment," I explained. "I feel horrible for him."
Hyunjin sighed. "Yeah, I feel for him too. But since he told you I guess it's not a problem for me to share this: it was his nickname for her. He calls women he cares about by that; usually when he's tryna comfort them. Although he's also a bit of a flirt so you can never be too sure around him."
I bit my lip. "Chan cares about me? But he doesn't even know me!"
The ferret-faced boy chucked. "Believe it or not, we all care about you Hanbyul."
"But you don't-"
"You're right, none of us really know you personally other than Jeongin. That being said, we do know about you. And I'm sorry for what you've been through."
I winced. "What do you know?"
He hesitated, his eyes seemingly sad. "Let's just say I can relate to you the most out of everyone here."
I nodded, not wanting to press the tall blond any further. "It's because of him, isn't it?" I thought. "We're all suffering because of him."
"Anyways," Hyunjin continued, his expression back to its original cheery state "down this hallway is the... The dorms, I guess you could call them? Your room is right here!" He indicated a door adjacent to my right.
I tilted my head, staring at it. "I'm really going to be living with you guys, huh?"
Hyunjin patted my shoulder, chuckling. "It's not that bad here, I promise."
"Andwei! Hyung!" Someone shrieked a few doors down. "I don't want to!"
"Awe c'mon mate, it's not that much! You'll survive, I promise!" Another shouted, this time in English. I heard a hint of an Aussie accent.
I raised an eyebrow, looking towards the Hwang boy. "You were saying?"
Hyunjin rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Don't worry about it too much."
"It's not that bad here, I promise!" I mimicked followed by rolling my eyes.
The ferret-faced boy huffed, crossing his arms. "For the record, I do not sound like that!"
"I swear if you don't stop I'm going to kick you!" The first voice yelled again.
"And on second thought, we should probably go check on them. That's coming from Chan and Minho hyungs' room."
I groaned as the two of us ran down the hall, wondering who was causing such a commotion. We stopped at the back end to a door on the left, which Hyunjin opened. "The hell is going on?" he half-shouted, walking into the room.
I followed him, amused at the sight in front of me. Changbin's face was contorted in a look of aggravation and concentration. He was clutching to the bottom of a bunk bed's frame like his life depended on it, his white t-shirt riding up and beginning to expose his stomach all the while his gray joggers were slowly falling down due to Chan attempting to drag him from the piece of furniture by the calves.
"C'mon Binnie," the red-head whined. "Let's just get this over with! We would've been done by now if you weren't so stubborn!" He tugged, making his friend's pants fall even lower.
"Ah shiro!" the strong-chinned boy complained. "I've done enough housework this week, why can't you get someone else to do it?!"
I snorted, looking towards Hyunjin. "Maybe it won't be so bad here after all."
"Yeah, if you're not put in this position!" Changbin retorted before the blondie could respond, still clutching the wooden bed frame. He wiggled around, trying to kick his senior. "Hyung, let go of me!"
"What happened to you doing all the heavy-lifting?" I asked through a smirk.
"He only said that as a flex!" Chan grit his teeth as he tugged once more, this time dragging the bunk bed along with Changbin halfway across the room. In the process he knocked a standing closet over, as well as a bunch of trinkets displayed on a dresser. "Just come on!"
"You can't make me!" Changbin growled. "I'll die here before you can get me out of this room!"
Hyunjin grimaced. "Hyung, this isn't even your room! Also, I thought you wanted to die gloriously like a martyr or whatever bullshit you spewed the other day."
I pursed my lips, surprised at the leader's strength. I assumed the Seo boy was the strongest of them just from looks, but maybe I was wrong. Granted, Changbin's grip on the bed frame hadn't budged so it was still up for debate.
"Shibal!" A voice I assumed to be Minho yelled behind me. He shoved past Hyunjin and I, a bowl of ramyeon in one hand, chopsticks in the other. His limp was no longer obvious. "I leave for five fucking minutes and come back to this shit! The room is a disaster!"
I giggled. "Back to being a dick huh?"
"Shut up Hanbyul-ah," he groaned, not looking at me. "I'm your oppa, don't speak to me informally." He bent down to glare at Changbin, ramyeon and chopsticks still in hand. "Get off my bed!"
"Only if you can convince hyung to get someone else to help him with unloading Hanbyul's things!"
"Hyung..." Hyunjin warned.
"You know why we use two chopsticks and you have two eyes, right?" The auburn-haired boy stated, holding his eating instrument threateningly above his younger friend's head.
"Aha," the Seo boy chuckled nervously, his grip finally loosening just a bit. "He's saying mean things again!"
I took a few steps back, feeling chaos was about to ensue. I grabbed Hyunjin's wrist as a warning to do the same. Bang Chan took the opportunity to tug on his junior once more, this time successfully pulling him away from the bedframe, but not before it toppled over and crashed on Minho, sending his ramyeon flying.
"Jesus Christ on a stick who supposedly died for our sins!" Lee Know groaned, clutching his face in pain, his nose bleeding once more all the while his eyes were welling up. "I think I got spices in the cut!"
Chan ignored him, sneaking past Hyunjin and I to drag Changbin into the hallway, who was shrieking in desperation to let him at least fix his pants if he was being forced into this 'horrible' task.
I looked back and forth between the two remaining boys, slightly shook at how quickly everything had unfolded. "Hyunjin, lift the bedframe!" I ordered. "We gotta get him out from under there, he needs first-aid."
"Shit, shit, fuck, shit," Minho kept muttering under his breath as I did my best to pull him out from underneath the wooden bedframe without causing him any more pain.
"Today's just not your day, huh?" I whispered as I helped him stand up. I wrapped one of his arms around my shoulder for support. "Where's the nearest bathroom?" I asked, looking towards Hyunjin.
"On your left," he responded, still struggling to put the bedframe back in place.
"I'm fine," Lee Know grunted between cusses.
"Bullshit," I retorted as I helped him limp towards the bathroom, the door thankfully open. "Let's get you cleaned up," I stated, kicking the toilet lid down when we got to it. "Sit."
"Seriously, I'm fine Hanbyul-ah!" The cat-faced boy insisted as he plopped on the toilet. His face was still contorted in pain that indicated otherwise, blood pooling onto his shirt. "I don't need your help!"
"You just got your nose broken today and now you've had a whole-ass bed crash on you. On top of that, you're covered in spicy ramyeon, and if I remember correctly you stated a few seconds ago that you got some of it in the cut on your bridge. And for all we know, you could've gotten splinters too!"
"Whatever, I've dealt with worse. And you shouldn't be helping me anyways, we're not friends!"
I sighed as I turned on the tap to wash my hands before attending to his wound. "Then why do you insist I call you oppa?"
"Just a formality," he huffed.
"Uhuh." I bent down to open the cupboards underneath the sink to look for fresh towels and hopefully a first-aid kit which were luckily right near the front. I soaked one of the cloths in cold water. "This might sting a little," I warned before dabbing the wet fabric around his face.
"Aish," he hissed, clutching his thigh. "That hurts!"
I rolled my eyes, soaking the cloth again. "I've gotta clean your face to get a better look at your nose."
"I'm fi-"
"Are you fine or are you not?" I interrupted, looking at him pointedly. I began to gently wipe the blood off his upper lip. "Pick one Mr. Ambiguous."
"Whatever."
"Just let me help, okay? Since we're gonna be living together and partners in crime, I just..." I sighed. "I want to get along alright?"
Minho raised an eyebrow, wincing upon doing so. "Even though by definition we-"
"You," I corrected.
"Fine, I. Even though by definition, I kidnapped you?"
I nodded, lips pursed. "Mhm, yeah." I soaked the cloth once more to clear it of any grime it had collected. "Look, I'm sorry for being rude to you all day. It's just... This has been a lot to handle, but that doesn't give me the right to take it out on you."
"How's things going doc? Is he gonna live?" Hyunjin joked, huffing as he walked into the bathroom. He leaned up against the doorframe.
"You think you're funny, huh?" Minho asked, glaring at the tall blonde.
"No, I know, you know, Lee Know, I'm funny," he responded in English. "Because I'm Hyun-genius!" The Hwang boy slapped his thigh repeatedly, cackling.
I puffed my cheeks, nearly spitting on Minho while trying to hold back my laughter. "That was-"
"Terrible," the auburn-haired boy stated, shock written all over his face.
"Fucking hilarious," I insisted, backing up from the cat-faced boy so I could mimick Hyunjin. "I can't!"
"You both disgust me," Lee Know muttered although he was seemingly starting to crumble under the pressure of succumbing to laughter. He paused. "Hyun-genius," he whispered before finally cracking.
The three of us became a laughing mess. Hyunjin had slid down the wall and was rocking himself back and forth, nearly on the verge of tears; Minho was practically in a state of mania, his laugh vaguely reminding me of a psychopath; meanwhile, I was leaning up against the bathroom counter for support, afraid I might collapse due to erratic breathing.
"Jesus," I thought, trying to calm down. "Everyone's growing on me already; this is not good. I need to remember to keep my guard up."
"Ah shibal!" Minho exclaimed, clutching his stomach. "It hurts!"
Distracted, I couldn't tell whether he meant his nose or his abdominals. "Which one?"
"All of it," he wheezed, slumping. "Existence is pain."
Hyunjin nodded. "T-truer words have n-never been spoken," he affirmed through giggles all the while wiping his eyes.
Felix stepped into the bathroom from a door on the left, making me only just realize it was probably connected to two rooms. "What's going on here? You guys are hella loud!"
I coughed. "So you can check on us when you hear laughing in the bathroom but you can't do that when you hear furniture crashing, two rooms down?"
He shrugged. "I had my headset on, I was playing Fortnite."
I grimaced. "Well I see you've got your priorities sorted out then."
"Well it's not like I can pause the game!" Felix stuck his tongue out at me, his freckles being accentuated once again by such a simple facial movement.
Lee Know rolled his eyes. "Swear to god, Yongbok wouldn't leave that game even if the house was on fire and all of us were dying."
The freckled-face boy faked a gasp, bringing his hand to cover his mouth all the while leaning against the wall in a dramatic pose. "That's a low blow hyung! I'd save you guys!"
Hyunjin cocked his head. "Even during a championship?"
This time I swear Felix actually gasped, quivering. "I..." he paused. "Of course I would!"
The three of us stared at the silver-haired boy, various expressions of disbelief plastered on our faces.
"After I won the game!" He added.
Minho groaned. "Called it!"
"Unbelievable!" Hyunjin stared at his chingu aghast. "We'd all be dead by then!"
I bit my lip. "This hypothetical is getting out of hand, but let's just assume we can't trust Felix with our lives if he's playing a video game." I turned back towards Minho. "Anyways, let me finish-"
A could hear a voice shouting from behind the wall of the bathroom, followed by the fire alarm going off. "Oh fucking shit!"
Lee Know groaned. "You've got to be kidding me."