isla was being woken up by jaemin gently stroking her hair to hopefully wake her up. it did, and she realized they were in the driveway of his house. she yawned, trying the shake the nerves that were fighting to come back.
jaemin texted the boys in the groupchat to come help with her bags, refusing to let her carry them in by herself even though there was only two.
the first one out the door was shotaro, with a cute smile on his face and running to engulf isla in a hug without even letting her close the passenger seat door.
"hiiiiii," he exclaimed, rocking back and forth, still in a hug. isla found herself smiling wide at the cute boy and how excited he was to see her.
"so much for making her feel comfortable," a voice said behind them. shotaro quickly realized and pulled away.
"i'm sorry, that was too sudden of me," he apologized, isla shaking her head, stopping him.
"no, no, i like hugs. love em." she reassured.
yangyang was next to greet her and also gave her a hug.
"you're here! my isla is here!" he shouted out, pulling away.
"your isla? excuse me—" jeno jokingly pushed yangyang away and pulled isla into himself, her getting a huge whiff of some cologne he was wearing. smells delicious.
"okay, okay, you're suffocating her," jaemin said, pulling the two apart.
"god, you smell good," isla said, not realizing that she meant to keep that thought to herself. "shit i didn't mean to say that out loud." she facepalmed, the group laughing at her.
jeno and jaemin grabbed her bags from his car and turned to go back inside, seeing haechan, renjun, and sungchan all standing at the door waiting.
"you didn't want to come say hi to your favorite person ever? rude." she called out to the three, earning laughs from each of them.
"those hugs looked like they could be from all six of us so i think you're fine," renjun joked, opening the door back up so they could all go inside.
jaemins mother almost immediately noticed the girl come in, walking to her and giving the tightest hug ever. she was such a sweet woman, and has been there for most of islas life, but she hasn't seen her in over two years.
"oh, i missed you so much," she exclaimed, grabbing islas face to look at her, "you're so beautiful! how's your parents? elijah? i miss them so much!"
isla laughed, "they're good, they miss you, and i missed you."
"i'm so happy, are you hungry? did you eat yet? dinners almost ready, but i can whip up a snack."
"no, no, i'm okay. i can wait until dinner." she insisted. his mom just nodded and smiled and went to go finish cooking, while isla talked to jaemins dad for a bit as well.
"we'll leave you kids to it. boys, behave, don't scare the poor girl away," his dad warned, following his mom into the kitchen.
"your mom doesn't offer us snacks anymore," whined yangyang as they all went down to the basement.
"you're all basically her kids at this point, you can get your own snacks." jaemin replied.
jaemins basement was basically a man cave. his parents didn't really need it so the boys turned it into their hang out spot. it had everything jaemin couldn't fit in his room, plus a tv, a pool table, and a mini fridge. every teenage boys dream.
on the tv screen was minecraft, isla thinking they must've just been down here playing that until she arrived.
jaemin opened the mini fridge, pulling out a beer, opening it with a bottle opener, and holding it up to the girl. "beer?"
she raised a single eybrow but took it from him.
"how did you get away with having beer down here?" she asked, sipping on the beverage, immediately scrunching her nose in disgust.
"and why didn't you pick something that tastes better?"
jaemin laughed, "mom and dad literally never come down here."
she hummed in response and took the love seat next to the couch. on the couch was jeno, shotaro, sungchan, and renjun, the four of them snacking on ships. jaemin had joined sungchan sat on the floor in front of the tv playing minecraft. they were taking turns, since there's only two controllers. haechan and yangyang were sat on the floor as well, closer to the couch watching them play.
"isla," yangyang called, waving his hand inviting her to sit next to him, so she walked herself over and sat beside him with her beer in hand.
"why are you drinking that?" haechan asked, twisting his face in disgust. "its awful."
"because it's alcohol," she replied. he just fake gagged, seeing her take another sip.
"no! a creeper just blew up my house!" sungchan yelled cutely at the tv, earning a laugh from the rest of them.
for the next hour they hung out and chatted amongst themselves and allowed isla to get comfortable with the atmosphere. even though it was only an hour, she felt herself starting to warm up, especially having jaemin there made it a lot easier.
"kids! dinner!" his mom called. they all got up and made their way to the kitchen, the smell hugging their noses almost immediately.
"oh my god! you made my favorite!" isla clapped excitedly. in honor of visiting after two years, his mom made spicy chicken pasta, which was her favorite. any kind of pasta was the key to her heart.
"thank you, oh my god it smells so good," isla sniffed, sitting down at the dinner table with everyone else. his mom was happy to see how excited she was.
they all grabbed a plate and immediately dug in, getting seconds, even thirds, until the big bowl of pasta was empty. the boys were always at jaemins house to eat dinner, and when they did there were never any leftovers afterwards.
"well, nice to see you enjoyed it," his dad joked, referring to the empty bowl.
"i'm full," haechan complained, dragging out his sentence dramatically and leaning back in his chair, everyone nodding in agreement.
jaemins dad had to leave for work, and the kids insisted on cleaning up for his mom, as they usually did to thank her for the meal.
"you wash, i dry," isla instructed to sungchan at the sink.
"aye aye, captain."
they began washing the dishes together, and at some point sungchan accidentally splashed water all over the two of them while trying to wash a spoon. you know how that goes, you rinse a spoon and it rinses you right back. he held it too close to the faucet which made water go everywhere.
"sungchan—!" isla yelled, blocking herself from the water, but their shirts were already both soaked.
the other six turned at the sound of her yelp, seeing the chaos that was going down.
"oops..." sungchan said, pursing his lips together and scratching his head. the others boys just started laughing at the two as isla examined her wet shirt and sungchan flashing his cute grin so she wouldn't get mad at him.
"is it funny?" she asked, staring the boys down. she wasn't actually mad. she just wanted to scare them.
which she did, because after seeing her serious expression they immediately stopped laughing.
"isla, i'm sorry, i didn't mean to." sungchan quickly apologized.
a smile started to appear on her face, "you guys are such pussies."
"dude, that's not funny, i hate when you do that," jaemin sighed of relief.
"why are you so scary when you act mad.." jeno asked.
"like i said, pussies."