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The sun has only just had the chance to set when the doorbell starts ringing.
First, it's Hao; bearing enough soju to put a salaryman in a coma. Next, it's Woongki, Shuaibo and JL; who, as always, are heard long before they're seen.
When the door opens, it's apparent that they've not only brought along a volume of food that could easily rival Hao's contribution of alcohol, but they've also brought their maknae.
Within literal milliseconds of seeing him, a gasp so insanely guttural leaves Rui. "Oh, my god! You brought the baby." She waves at him. "Hello, baby. Are you here against your will?"
"Are you kidding?" Woongki scoffs lightheartedly, poking Daisuke's cheek. "This kid was begging to come with us."
Daisuke smiles, shy, attempting to tuck himself between his hyungs to get out of the spotlight. Unfortunately for him, he already had eight grownups cooing over him, fighting inner demons to supress the urge to pinch his cheeks.
"That's alright. Come in, come in," Rui says warmly. "The more people there are to demolish all of this takeout, the better."
Once they're all inside and situated in the living room, the meeting — as it were — begins.
Hyun, in the midst of fetching utensils from the kitchen, leans into Wumuti and quietly asks: "Do I offer him something to drink?" He knits his brow in thought. "What do fifteen year olds even drink?"
Wumuti takes a look for themselves, abandoning any semblance of discretion in order to do so. In fact, the way they go about pretending not to look is worse than blatantly staring. "I don't know," They murmur. "Ask him."
Hyun bites their tongue, then makes an abrupt move into Daisuke's line of sight, eyes wide and smiling big. "Daisuke!"
The poor kid jolts at the sound of his own name.
"Oh, sorry! Sorry… I just, I wanted to know if you wanted anything to drink," Hyun says. "Anything you'd like."
"Ah— um, I'm okay for now, hyung. Thank you," Daisuke replies softly. He's got a Nintendo Switch in his hands that wasn't there a minute ago, and he's clutching it tightly like he's dying to use it. He doesn't look bored, though, just a little nervous hiding there beside Shuaibo.
"What kind of games do you play?" Haru asks, nodding to the console. "Minecraft?"
Daisuke nods like he's on trial. "Yep," He says. His voice cracks. "My, um, my hyungs play Mario Kart with me sometimes, too." He giggles at whatever mental image that conjures up. "It gets kind of crazy."
"Oh, god," JL whines into the air, head tipped against the backrest. "Between that and the constant PUBG campaigns, the dorm is a hellscape. Those boys sound like the souls of the damned whenever they play together, screaming like that."
"Mm, we'd settle for cheering, but none of them are good enough at gaming," Shuaibo laments. He pats JL's shoulder in consolation.
"That's why you can't let them use the tv," Hao says while he chews. "My members used to set up camp in the living room and make the place inhabitable for hours." He shudders. "The amount of noise complaints we got were nothing to them."
"Our members don't need the tv," JL says, horrified. "Steven-hyung has this enormous, like, double— dual screen monitor? The two screens next to each other, you know? He has that." Him and Woongki roll their eyes at the mere mention of it. "It's ridiculous. They all just crowd around it with the lights off."
"Taking turns embarrassing themselves on the big screen," Shuaibo quips, covering his mouth with his hand as he laughs.
Haru downright squawks at that. "Ah! Just like Nicholas!" He chokes on his own laughter, and Rui hides behind her hands in anticipation of what he'll follow up with. "That was hilarious."
The group titters among themselves, and whoever's closest to Rui takes it upon themselves to start nudging her. Rui just squeals in embarrassment, but doesn't miss a beat when a confused Hao asks her to elaborate.
When she's done, Hao balks. "There's no way. It was live?"
Everyone in the room except Daisuke, who is diligently playing on his Switch, nods furiously.
"On broadcast!?" Hao gasps at the words. "Oh, he's brave." He takes a tentative sip of soju, all while staring at Rui over the length of the bottle. "…Is he hot?"
"Yeah," Rui says, fanning herself to calm down. "God, you have no idea how hard it was to stop myself from ruining my career right then and there. Have you really never seen him before?"
"Show me a picture," Hao tells her with a pout, pointing lazily at her phone. "Did you get his number?"
"He got her number," Wumuti corrects, nodding. Wry, they reach over and prod at Rui's sides to make her squirm. "She slipped it into our album before we did the swap."
Once again, everyone except Daisuke unites for a second, just to explode into a chorus of frantic chatter. Like a flock of birds fighting over a french fry.
"Did he text you?" JL asks, and he leans so far forward that he's practically folded in half. "Please tell me he texted."
"He did," Rui replies, aloof. She shrugs and hands her phone to Hao with a photo of Nicholas ready on the screen. "I guess I'm lucky he even found my number. Right? He could've just put the album on a shelf and forgot about it." She looks around, taking in everyone else's curiosity. "He said hey."
This time even Daisuke looks up, perplexed.
"Mm… okay…" Hyun hums. He blinks a few times fast, making it clear that the information isn't sinking in properly. "Now, jagi, don't take this the wrong way, but— is… that it?"
"That's it."
"What did you say?" Daisuke asks after he glances up from his Switch. "Like, in your text."
Rui pulls up the conversation and shows him. "I just said hi and told him I was impressed with how fast he found my number," She says. "Nothing crazy."
"Did he keep the conversation going?" Woongki seems somewhat fearful to ask.
Rui hems and haws, dancing around the subject at her leisure. "You could say that…"
"Oh, but it was boring?" Shuaibo takes the liberty of chipping in. "He went through all that trouble just to be boring?"
Though he's mostly occupied with the incredibly important task of zooming in on the photo, Hao still frowns and says, in all seriousness: "This is a classic case of Schrodinger's hot person. You can't guess by looking at him if he's interesting or not, even if his outward appearance makes it seem that way. You know?" He purses his lips and places the phone back down onto Rui's lap. "What's he like in person?"
"He's a mess," Wumuti supplies, oh-so helpful. "That's probably why his text was so lame. He has no idea how to act around our Rui."
Lacking a defense, Rui just sighs, but she smiles anyway at the thought of him. "He's really cute, though. Really. He did all this research on me and tried to pass it off like he'd heard it from someone else, but I seriously doubt we have any friends in common."
"Wow…" Woongki hums thoughtfully. "So, instead of burying himself alive, he opened Naver and typed your name in."
"And then he came back for seconds," Haru says.
"He didn't even hesitate," Hyun adds, sounding pitiful. "He shook like a leaf the whole time."
JL tilts his head. "What's the age difference? Is it big?"
"Two years?" Rui replies, now fiddling aimlessly with her hair, twirling it around her pointer finger. "And he's Taiwanese, too, so it's not like there's a cultural difference either."
"Maybe he's just not that flirty," JL comments with a pout. "Not a man of romance, y'know. Or he's shy!" He makes a noise in the back of his throat, high-pitched. "Shy guys can be sweet!"
"He is kind of shy, I guess," Rui says. "A bit awkward too."
"Dunno. Seemed pretty bold to me," Wumuti mumbles around a full mouth. Once they swallow, they say: "I seriously thought he was going to ask Rui out in front of everyone."
Hyun nods along. "He's really taking his sweet old time… I'm surprised he hasn't asked already."
Several sets of eyes snap back to Rui, who immediately flushes from the attention.
"He hasn't?" Hao asks in disbelief. "What is he waiting for?"
"He could be wondering the same thing," Daisuke says. Everyone turns to look at him, suddenly very intrigued by the counterpoint, and he starts to shrink into Shuaibo's side once more. "What if he's hoping that you'll ask him out first? You said he's kinda shy…"
"That's true," Shuaibo says. He claps his hands together. "He might want you to come in and woo him now."
"But he was so forward with me," Rui complains. "We could've already gone on a date by now if he would've kept that up."
"That's the past, Rui," Wumuti tells her, tapping the underside of her chin so they can feed her a piece of daikon. "You need to take initiative here."
"I do?" Rui asks while chewing. "How?"
Overly excited, Woongki suggests: "You should call him!"
"Right now?"
The chorus of exasperated yes's she recieves really kicks her into motion. In a tailspin, she springs up off the sofa with her phone in hand and freezes up. "What do I say!?"
"Starting off with hello tends to go over well," Hyun says. "Niceties first. Keep it simple."
Woongki nods enthusiastically. "If you get bored, just bring up the stage incident and see where that goes," He calls after Rui, who's already halfway across the room.
Rui waves her phone over her shoulder. "Okay… thank you…"
"Good luck!" Hao says, and an echo of similar wishes soon follow. As soon as Rui's bedroom door closes, he sighs. "And then there were eight," He slumps against the back of the sofa with his hands folded neatly on his stomach, then begins to look around slyly.
"Oh, no," Wumuti whines. "We can change the subject, you know. We don't all need to air out our romantic business just because Rui did."
"No, you're right," Hao hums. "We don't need to."
JL raises a brow. "But..?"
It's a slow progression, and it's as natural as it is sinister. Hao grins, and it's with purpose. "Does anyone want to?"