"2,3. We are one. Good evening, we are EXO!"
Standing next to each other, united by friendship and music, they all stood majestically under that veranda, each of their faces glowing with happiness and relief of finally being together after so long, and pride of being a united family. Seeing EXO after so long might have been a joyful and proud moment for the audience (that is, auntie, uncle and I), but by no means was this feeling comparable to what the boys were feeling then; they all seemed to be a hundred times more energetic, a hundred times more alive, and might I add, more handsome too!
I shall not forget Chanyeol's expression while standing among his dear comrades that day. At that moment, he was surely reminiscing about the good old times: times spent practising their different choreographs and their individual parts in the songs, and preparing to hit the stage and have an awesome time together, as a band, as their admirers would scream their names. He had the largest smile I have ever seen, plastered on his face, letting his snow-white incisors radiate their beauty while his dimples deepened. And as if it was contagious, I began smiling like an idiot too. Chanyeol was radiating so much happiness and excitement that I felt that he could let some tears out anytime soon... As I had once mentioned, he is really a big crybaby, just like me, and this is one of the many reasons I love his pure-hearted angel so much.
But his precious smile soon faded away as a tall man made his appearance among us. I turned to take a look at what could have counteracted such a beautiful and pure smile; my eyes laid on a quite tall and fair man, with a truly pretty face. Despite the fact that nowadays, barely no one would wear a pair of suit trousers to attend a family get-together, this man was nevertheless dressed in a brown one, with a dark blue turtleneck and a brown coat on top of that. His blonde hair was neatly made into a 5:5 perm parted hairstyle, revealing his clear and spotless forehead. He seemed to be more into the old fashion more than the new one, however, I must say that this look complimented him perfectly; even Chanyeol would look absurd in such clothes! Judging by the speed with which Chanyeol's smile disappeared and the look he was giving me, I concluded that his man was so-awaited Eric, and he already had peeked my interest with his unique, Old English style.
"Hello everyone. I did not mean to interrupt you guys. Please carry on! Oh, I have not presented myself! How rude of me; my name is Eric. I am-"
"Yeah... They all know about you...", Chanyeol let out, surprisingly timidly. By the look he gave me, it would have appeared that he was pissed, but the tone he just used did not depict any anger, but definitely showed his annoyance; he was trying hard to restrain himself from going wild over him.
And that man's voice...! I was certainly not expecting it to be as sweet as honey! It was smoother than anything that I had ever heard before; it was almost like that of a little shy boy! Actually, he looked really young, maybe in his early twenties!
He still had that innocent, warm and friendly gaze after hearing Chanyeol's blunt words. That immediately reflected what I recognised as his love and respect for his nephew, despite the hate that the latter and his parents had for him. He kept calm and smiled happily.
"I am glad to know that I am quite popular among your friends too, Chanyeol. I am pleased to meet you all. I hope we can all get acquainted this evening."
Upon hearing those words, Chanyeol glared at me and hinted me to stay close to auntie and uncle. No matter how much I wanted to talk to this man and get to know him myself, I quietly followed his instructions and went to stand close to auntie.
"Ladies and gentlemen, shall we head to the dining table then? Because I am honestly hungry. Hehe...!!", said Junmyeon enthusiastically. Junmyeon was aware of Eric's deeds and hence, as the leader, he tried to enlighten the atmosphere.
"Hahaha! Of course my boy, of course! The food is going to go cold too. Let us all go eat now."
It would seem that uncle understood Junmyeon's intervention, and went along with it.
"I'll continue grilling the meat left then. I'll join you as soon-"
"Let me give you a hand Chan. We'll be over with it faster this way," I cut him out while he was speaking. I smiled at him, hinting that I actually wanted to talk about that Eric guy. And by the glance he gave me, I would assume that he understood what I was trying to say.
"Let's go then!"
While the others were heading to the dining table, Chanyeol and I were going towards the barbecue. He made sure to be as close to me as possible, even though he knew that neither was Eric coming our way, nor was he looking at us. But I would not deny the fact that it was quite a refreshing sight to see Chanyeol being over protective...!
"So... he is the famous Eric, huh? He is quite the handsome guy, Chan...! But honestly, I see nothing fearful and intimidating about him," I voiced out my honest opinion.
"Well I do. You promised to stay by my side no matter what, didn't you!? So please, do not go wandering around now and stay here with me! By the looks of it, he must have already peeked your attention, am I wrong...?"
I could not help but smirk. He truly was so intriguing that I could not help thinking about him, and Chanyeol was aware of that, hence the source of all his fears...! But today was no day to piss him off, so I was going to follow him as if I was his tail, or so I thought...
While grilling the meat, we could hear the others having fun joking around and enjoying this moment of happiness. I checked on Eric, who got a seat between auntie and uncle. Even if he barely talked, he would smile and sometimes let out little laughs. His chuckles would make Chanyeol angry and uncomfortable; he would let out some 'how can he be that relaxed' or 'he should be rotting in jail' under his breath. I could just keep quiet about it, in fear that my words might end up ruining his mood even more. Thus, at that moment, talking to Chanyeol became quite a risky thing to do, and the situation was seeming a bit uncomfortable and awkward. But thankfully, we were soon done with barbecuing the meat, and went to join the others at the table.
"Your jokes are really funny, Junmyeon my boy. Tell us another one!"
Ah... It would seem that uncle already took a liking to Junmyeon's 'dad' jokes. Knowing that the others, especially Jongdae and Do, were not as excited and happy as uncle to be hearing another such joke, Chanyeol started teasing them for having been the poor victims of his lame jokes till now. We both had a seat at the table and served ourselves while Junmyeon was getting ready to get his joke out of the box. Jongdae's expression was truly the best as he was glaring at Junmyeon, judging him really hard. And then, there was Kyungsoo who was even threatening to leave the table...! Hahaha!! How I missed those moments...!! Chanyeol should have missed them the most...
"Okay so... a man got a job in a calendar factory, but soon got sacked. Can anyone tell me why?"
Junmyeon proudly let out. I guess he was happy to finally have someone's attention and who took actually liked his lame 'dad' jokes...!
Baekhyun, Sehun, Jongdae and Kyungsoo did not waste more of their time on it and continued eating while the others, in an attempt to support Junmyeon, were making as if they were thinking about it. But eventually, Yixing and Uncle were the only ones thinking about an answer, and they shortly gave up. They all looked at Junmyeon who was already laughing at the answer.
"It's because he took some days off! Hahaha!!"
. . .
We all kept quiet, trying to assimilate that little piece of information. Jongdae and Kyungsoo remained unbothered while the others were trying to make out the logic behind that. I too was failing to see any sense in it and kept looking at my plate. Even Uncle was having some trouble with it...!!! Where in the world did he find that joke anyway!? I turned and looked at Eric who was simply smiling and continued eating.
"Ah...Ah! I finally get it! Hahahaha!! This one was a tricky one, but it was a good one! Hahaha!!"
Uncle had finally understood the joke, while the rest of us were still lost. I looked at Jongin, who seemed to have understood too and asked him to enlighten me about it.
"What is there in a calander? Dates and days. And that guy took some days off..."
"Ah...!! Now I get it! Haha..."
I was too stupid for those kinds of jokes. Chanyeol did not bother about it and engulfed three big chunks of grilled chicken at one go...! As I had said before, Chanyeol has the appetite of an ogre, so he eats a lot. But I sure was glad to see him eat like that...! He was enjoying the evening well.
....... TIME SKIP .......
We had all mostly finished eating, and everyone was busy catching on with each other, while Eric was slowly sipping his juice and was quietly observing us. He saw me looking in his direction. He smiled at me, and I reciprocated in that exact same way too. He seemed to be a really nice guy! His look was indeed a friendly one. I did not see anything hateful about him; he deserved a second chance!
"It's time to get the cake now, isn't it? Let's go set it up in the kitchen," Chanyeol softly whispered in my ear.
Oh yes! I had forgotten about it all! Thank God Chanyeol was here!
"I am right behind you!"
We thus, discretely left for the kitchen.
"You guys can't wait any longer, can you? Make sure we do not hear you guys making out! Hahaha!!" yelled Baekhyun. Jongdae followed with his loud laugh, and soon, all the eyes were on us...! Ha, and here we wanted to be as quiet as possible and to go unnoticed...!
"Yeah yeah. We'll be right back," said Chanyeol with a big smirk on his face. What was he thinking!? Now they would all think that we were going to make out...! I could only laugh back while Chanyeol grabbed my hands and pulled me in the kitchen.
"Why did you have to smirk like a pervert!? Now-"
He did not let me finish with my sentence (once again) and pecked my lips.
"You look really great tonight you know? Ah... too bad there is a lot of people here... Otherwise-"
"Otherwise what, mister? Hehe... Now come on, no time to joke around! We have to get that cake out there!"
Aw, it was indeed a pity that there were many people here tonight. I would have loved to see where this would have gone... hehehe...
"Ah... what a shame," he sighed. Aw, if he was not cute just then...!
I got the cake out of the fridge and started putting the candle sparklers on top. Chanyeol grabbed the party popper and came next to me with the party whistles.
"And what shall we do about those, miss? I swear, if we are not going to use them tonight I am going to throw a fit...!"
That honestly made me laugh, but he was right about that. Hmm...
"I'll tell you what. You bring the cake to Kyungsoo and at the same time, I'll be distributing the whistles. He'll be too focused on the cake coming his way that he will not even notice me!"
"Are you sure you can pull that off ?" he skeptically let out.
What was that ? Was he doubting my spy-like skills!?
"I'll have you know mister that I can be as quiet as a thief at night! Now let's go!"
He simply chuckled.
I lit up the candles and he hurried outside towards Kyungsoo, with the cake in his hands. I quietly followed him and went the other way. Everyone was surprised on seeing the sparklers but as expected, Kyungsoo was the most surprised to see the cake coming in his direction.
"Congratulations my little Kyungsoo!" shouted Chanyeol, and soon everyone followed with the congratulatory words. They were all aware of Kyungsoo's promotion at work, but this cake was definitely a surprise for all of them!
Everyone still had their eyes on the sparklers and Kyungsoo; I took advantage of the situation and started distributing the party whistles. I started with Jongin who, at first, had a confused look in his eyes, but soon understood what was going on. I gave him some more so that he could pass them to Yixing, Sehun and Jongdae, who was sitting next to Kyungsoo, as secretly as possible. As I had planned, Kyungsoo did not notice a thing as his eyes were solely on the cake. Then I walked towards Junmyeon, Minseok and Baekhyun, and gave them a whistle to each. The only ones left were auntie and uncle... and Eric. Should I give him one ? I was hesitating to approach him in fear that that move would infuriate Chanyeol. Ah and shoot! He was still sitting among us so I could not pretend as if he was not there...! I went towards auntie and gave her a whistle. I was certainly feeling quite tensed to approach him but I tended out my hand and gave him the whistle anyway.
"Thanks," he calmly said, giving me a thankful smile.
I smiled back, and immediately looked up to see if Chanyeol was watching us. I was somewhat relieved that he was not; it would be quite difficult for me to talk him out of this, especially when he was being excessively protective.
And finally, I handed a last one to uncle, and hurried back in the kitchen to get the party popper. I had to find the right timing to surprise everyone, especially Chanyeol! I grabbed and hurried to the door of the veranda. As Kyungsoo was thanking Chanyeol and everyone else, and was about cut the cake, I thought that that was the perfect time to pop it. I brought the popper away from my face and I scaredly turned its base, just as indicated in the user guide, but nothing happened. I tried again-
POP!!!!
Confetti flew everywhere. I had closed my eyes as I was the first one to be startled. I quickly took a look around and everyone was in amazement, mesmerised by those little pieces of coloured paper falling everywhere, like cherry blossom petals. I looked at Chanyeol who was almost on his knees and his hands on his chest. I succeeded in scaring him and damn was I proud of myself! The boys soon started having fun with their whistles, and the place was soon filled with the whistling sound and the shouts and cheers of the boys. Happiness and excitement was on everyone's face, and the atmosphere had really enlightened!
Kyungsoo finally cut the cake and we all went to feed him. The Beagle line (that is, Chanyeol, Sehun and their leader, Baekhyun) and Jongin smeared the cake's whipping cream all over Kyungsoo's face till, in the end, it was as if he was having a facial mask on! Damn was he funny at that moment...!! It eventually turned into a whipping cream fight; everyone had a some on them! Everyone except Eric...
Everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun. I glanced upon Eric who was still smiling but somehow, I could see traces of melancholy in his eyes. He must have been thinking about his past mistakes, and might be regretting to have done such awful things. It was funny how I seemed to know exactly what was on his mind, while I could be completely off the mark...! But being positive about things was the thought with which I grew up, and I believed in his good side. Ah... maybe a day would come when he, too, would experience true happiness and would be laughing alongside his dear family...