TEN

 (A/N) Omg Happy Chanyeol Day!!!!! Our Happy Virus turned 28!!!! May he always be happy and shine brighter every day! 🥳🎊✨🥰💖💖

(Seorin's POV)

  "Cheers to this stupid 'controversy' being over!!" cried Baekhyun holding up his glass of apple juice.

  "Cheers!!" we all cried and clinked our glasses together. I was at Exo's dorm since they had invited me over to dinner to help me get over my scare. 

  "Did he seriously think he'd get away with it?" laughed Chanyeol "Making up a story like that."

  "At least he was sent where deserves to be," Suho said "To jail"

  "YEAH! That's what you get when you mess with Exo!" cried Chen.

  "Or with our Seorin!!" Kai said and put his arms around me. I laughed and patted his head.

  "Thanks guys. For always helping me," I said gratefully.

  "Aish no need to thank us," Xiumin said "That's what friends do. Tell us immediately if anyone bothers you again ok?"

  "Yeah and we'll send Sehun to beat him up and save you!" said Lay cheekily. I went red at the memory of Sehun doing that and then hugging me while I cried.

  "Uh- about that, thank you so much," I said turning to him "This is the second time you saved me."

  To my surprise, Sehun glared at me. "What the hell were you thinking??!! I swear, if you do something like that again I'll personally make sure you die," he snapped.

 "Uh..."  Why is he angry? Does he actually care about me?

   The Exo members were looking a bit shocked by his outburst too. "Yah don't yell at her. She didn't put herself in danger on purpose,"  Suho said.

  "Don't mind him Seorin. He's just saying that you worried him and wants you to never scare him like that again," D.O said.

  "Yeah, he cares about you very much though he pretends he doesn't," Chen said, ruffling Sehun's hair.

   He moved away from Chen looking annoyed. "Don't get it twisted. The only reason I care is because she's my assistant. Who would get me bubble tea or carry my stuff if something happens to her?"

   I rolled my eyes at him. Seems like he was back to his usual obnoxious self. Care about me? Tch. What did I expect? An awkward silence filled the room. Sehun  was scowling at the table, his arms crossed and I was glaring at him. The rest of the Exo members were observing the two of us in silence.

  "Aish how long are you two going to glare at each other like an old married couple?" asked Baekhyun. Old married couple??  Both of us turned and glared at him and he held up his hands in surrender.

  "Enough bad moods. Let's clear up the table if everyone is done eating," Suho said getting up and taking some of the dishes to the sink.

  "I'll help," I said jumping to my feet too and heading towards the sink.

  "Thanks," Suho said "Its Sehun's turn to do the dishes. You can help him."

  I stopped in my tracks. What?! Aish, seriously. I had already agreed to help so I couldn't say no now.

  "Hyung can't someone else do it?" Sehun asked Suho "I'll do it tomorrow, I promise."

  "Yah yah! You can't do that," Chen said "You always try to skip your turn." 

  " Sehun, go do the dishes," Suho ordered "We'll go set up the living room to play some games"

  "Try not to kill each other in the meantime," D.O said over his shoulder as they all left the kitchen, leaving Sehun and I alone. An awkward silence filled the room again.

  I cleared my throat. "I wash, you dry?" I asked.

   Sehun nodded and grabbed a dishcloth. We worked in silence for a few minutes. I was oddly conscious of his elbow brushing mine as he wiped the plates.

  Does he only care about me because I'm his assistant? Though I didn't want to admit, I was a bit hurt that he didn't even think of me as a friend. We had been working together for sometime after all.

  I glanced at him from the corner of my eye. He was concentrating on the dishes, head down, mouth in a thin line. His hair was falling into his eyes and I had a sudden urge to reach up and brush it aside. I was also very aware of how his jawline was so sharp, it looked like it could cut. And how he was wearing a fitting shirt, the sleeves rolled up above his elbows. And how the muscles of his arms flexed as he worked. And-

 "Stop staring," Sehun said suddenly and I snapped out of my reverie.

 "I w-wasn't-," I started.

  "Don't even try to deny it. I saw you," he said with a smug smile.

  "I did NOT!" I said

  "Did too"

  "Did not!"

  "Did too"

  "YAH!" I splashed water all over Sehun. He looked down at his wet shirt in surprise and I burst out laughing.

  "You'll pay for that!" he said and promptly sprayed me with water. He gave an evil grin and stuck out his tongue only to get another face full of water from me. It then turned into a full scale water fight. The kitchen was a mess but we were having too much fun to notice.

  "What are you two doing in there?!" a voice shouted from the living room and Sehun and I immediately stopped laughing.

  "Nothing!" we shouted in unison and burst into laughter again.

. . . 

(Sehun's POV)  

  We finished doing the dishes and cleared up the kitchen. When we went to the living room, the rest of Exo were waiting, grinning like a bunch of weirdos.

Ok...

  "Let's play truth or dare jenga!" Kai said pointing at the small tower of wooden blocks they had set up.

  "Um, ok," I said and we all sat down around the tower. Seorin had somehow ended up next to me. We played rock, paper, scissors to see who was going first and Chanyeol won. He carefully removed a block from the middle of the tower and placed it on top.

  Everyone managed to do it properly until it was D.O's turn. Seriously, that guy CANNOT play jenga. He banged one of the blocks violently to remove it and the tower immediately collapsed. We all looked at his surprised face and started laughing.

  "What does the block say?" asked Lay.  D.O read what was written on the block he tried to remove.

  "Aish why do I always get this??" he whined "Its asking me to do aegyo!"

  "Ahh you can't escape now Kyungsoo-ah!" Chanyeol cried "You HAVE to act cute."

  "I skip," D.O said stubbornly.

  "Yahhhh you can't do that!" cried Chen. But nothing we said would change his mind. We continued the game and I was my turn again. I looked for a block that looked easy to remove and I was aware that all the Exo members were observing me closely.

  "Sehun-ah try that one," Baekhyun said, pointing at a block. "that looks easy."

  I slowly tried to wriggle the block out. I almost had it when Baekhyun suddenly yelled in my ear.

  "Hyungggg!!!!" I  wailed as my hand jerked and the tower came crashing down. "That's not fair!!!" 

  Baekhyun laughed and shared a high five with Kai. "Can't help it. You have to do the dare now."

  I grumbled and looked at what the block said. My face immediately coloured up.

  "What does it say?" Xiumin asked me innocently while the rest of them snickered and high fived each other. Only Seorin looked genuinely curious. This whole game had been a trap. And I had fallen right into it. I looked at the dare again.

  Do the pepero game with someone of the opposite gender.

  And Seorin was the only girl present. So that meant...

  "Yahhh this isn't fair!!!" I protested "I'm not doing it!"

  "You have to," Baekhyun said pulling out a packet of pepero sticks. They had planed it all. I'm going to kill you!

  "But D.O hyung skipped. Why can't I ??" I asked indignantly.

  "Cause we say so," D.O said with a sly smile. I could see that they weren't taking 'no' as an answer. Argh these people!

  "What's happening?" Seorin asked as I took the packet of pepero sticks and turned to face her.

  "They want us to do the pepero game," I said, trying not to show how flustered I was.

  "What?! B-but-," Seorin went red and started saying but the rest of them interrupted her.

  "Do it! Do it! Do it! " they chanted. Seorin looked at me and I sighed and shrugged.

  "Looks like we don't have any choice," I said and bit one end of the pepero stick. Seorin moved closer to bite the other end and my heart immediately started to race.

  "Ready, set, go!"

  We started biting the cookie, each from our end, slowly inching towards the other. I could feel my face heat up, while the others cheered and hooted. I tried my best not to look at Seorin, the shape of her lips, the cute dusting of freckles across her nose and the way her brown eyes were so clear, pulling me into their endless depths.

  We were nearly nose to nose and I could not draw my eyes away from her. The stick was getting shorter and shorter. I could stop now, pull back. But for some reason I didn't want to. What's wrong with me?! My heart was beating so loudly, I could barely hear the hoots of the members.

  We were very close, close enough to kiss. Which I guess was the purpose of them setting me up. Breaking my gaze from Seorin, I took a deep breath and leaned in, neatly biting off the rest of the stick from her lips.

  It was barely a kiss. Just a soft brush of the lips, like a flutter of butterfly wings, but it was enough to send waves of electricity through me the moment my lips touched hers. I pulled away, cheeks flaming and heart racing as the others erupted into cheers.

   Seorin was sitting there, her cheeks painted pink. I looked away trying to ignore the storm of butterflies in my stomach.

  I ran a shaky hand through my hair, trying to calm myself.

  Why? I've done this before. Why am I so flustered??

  Because it wasn't anyone else, it was Seorin.

.  .  .