Three

3 - Warm

He undid his shirt buttons and collapsed in bed. It's just getting dark outside; a little too early to sleep at his age. But he has no time for any parties tonight. He was plain tired. His room was dimly lit, never really fond of bright lights.

"How I wish I could have that body once more."

The way he said it was almost like a normal thought for any guy with a healthy brain but to those who knew him and what he was capable of doing, a single word he says would send one back into their worst nightmares. He was a person, yes. But even he would deny that he is human.

His curtains fluttered through the wind coming in from his open window. He stood up to close it and picked up his phone from his wooden bedside table. He wasn't calling anyone or texting or emailing. The passcode he entered was good and a picture of a beautiful young lady graced his device.

"Beautiful as always."

He ran his finger onto the lady's face which was seemingly smiling at him. His lips pulled up to one of his crooked smirks as he remembered how she screamed and begged for him to stop. In his head, the lady was in love with him. And one day, they would get married and live a life away from everybody.

**

Meanwhile, Andrea stayed in her kitchen, stacking up on cans of food, cereal, coffee, milk... everything that would make her look like a normal girl. She didn't want to be identified as a woman obsessed with her body, eating only bananas and carrots, and having that disorder called anorexia.

She and her sister were poor for a long time that she has learned how to use it to her advantage. Her tight budget everyday was like a corset wrapped around her waist; it kept her aware of how much she ate or how thin she became each day.

Andrea made face at the processed meat that Henry must have put secretly into her cart. Even though her boyfriend had no idea why she decided to fill up her kitchen cabinets, the guy was too enthusiastic to assist her. Henry is the know-it-all type of guy, the only one whom Andrea saw as her equal.

During the peak of the news about Jessica, Andrea leaned on Henry for everything. He was the one who found the lawyers, the spokesperson, and everybody needed so that she didn't have to show her face to the media. To the public, Jessica was the victim and she needed justice. Nothing more, nothing less.

The phone to the door rang, forcing Andrea to come to reality. She put down the can of corn kernel and immediately went to the door. The video showed a tall young man, awkwardly standing with a box in his hands. Andrea smiled and opened the door quickly for the lad.

"Hi." He shortly said with the breath he must have been holding the whole time.

"Hello." Andrea did her best to look confused.

"Uh... I'm Sehun. My big brothers asked me to bring over the drinks for the party. Our fridge is kinda packed so."

Andrea smiled at the juvenile in front of her. He was about a foot taller and his skin is as fair as hers. According to the profile she read on the internet, Sehun is the youngest. But looking at him, he's pretty hot as his other group brothers.

"Is it... okay, Noona?" There was a slight hint of annoyance in his tone.

"Of course. Can you bring them over to the kitchen?"

Andrea led him to her expensive looking kitchen and asked Sehun to place the box on the marble center island. He looked around and noticed the grocery bags still on the table and the open cabinet just above the oven.

"Cool. You must really be rich." Sehun said, not really minding his manners.

"Not so. Do you want something to eat? I've got cookies." She smiled.

"Oh. I love cookies. But I think THEY won't be happy to know I ate your cookies, Noona." Sehun side-glanced her, checking if she got the idea.

"Hmm. If that's so, then stop calling me Noona and I'll keep this a secret to your brothers." She slowly tucked her hair behind her ear and watched the youngest smirk at her.

"Okay. I'd like that."

Andrea laughed and got the newly bought jar of cookies while Sehun started putting cans of light beer into her empty fridge. He didn't even wonder why a girl won't have anything in her fridge. All he thought was that Chanyeol and the others weren't exaggerating about the new girl next door and silently thanked Luhan for coming up with the idea of the party.

A plate of cookies and cold fruit juice greeted Sehun after his hard work. Andrea merely nipped on one cookie, not really fond of anything sweet. The young boy ate like a true blue kid which was too hilarious for her she just laughed out loud.

"What? Is there something on my face?" Sehun asked with a blank face.

"Yeah, actually."

She reached out her hand to cheek and rubbed his soft skin gently with her thumb. She very quickly glanced at his pink lips and then back at his eyes with a face that says "Oops".

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Andrea asked, biting her bottom lip a little as she started touching his lips.

"None."

"Oh why not? You're the cutest of them all."

Sehun chuckled and blushed a bit.

"Did you... remove that something on my face already?"

"No." Andre withdrew her hand, "I guess 'sexy' cannot be erased from your face."

This time, Sehun laughed while Andrea secretly patted her back for her polished flirting technique. He continued eating the cookies with his heart beating off the charts. Just a few minutes and he was under her spell, like the cookies were drugged to her advantage.

"Thank you for the cookies and the drink, Andrea." Sehun said while they stopped at the door.

"See, Andrea sounds better." She touched the slight crease on the shoulder part of his shirt, "You are always welcome to have some... more."

She was aware that she sounded a lot like a whore but then who cares. These men, or at least some of them are dirty criminals and as of now, they are getting away with it. She can be anyone and she can do anything just to give them the medicine they deserve.

"Sehun has been gone for an hour. Is that how long it takes to put beer in the fridge?" Chanyeol crossed his arms in front of him, clearly displeased with the youngest spending a lot of time alone with Andrea.

"Relax, peasant. Sehun might just have broken some glasses there and had to clean it up to the last shard." Kris said while fixing his hair in front of the mirror.

"Why the fuck do you call us all peasants?" Suho, the leader of EXO asked with the fakest smile on his face.

"You know when Kris was a kid," Chen with the prominent cheekbone meddled, "he was bullied a lot. That's why he's got that scar on his lower lip. Or was that Luhan..."

He trailed off and glanced at Luhan who was looking at him with the biggest eyes he had. Luhan told Chen about a childhood bullying incident as a secret and now, he was exposing it like a complete asshole.

"Come here." Luhan walked fast to Chen who was standing up from the sofa ready to do a back flip if necessary.

"What the fuck... stay back." Chen said while starting to climb down form the back of the sofa.

"Hey, love birds. Quit it." The oldest brother said before taking a sip from his glass of milk.

Everybody laughed except for the love birds and the king peasant who couldn't seem to decide how to style his uber perfect hair. Luhan groaned and stuck a tongue out at Chen while retreating to his room.

"Thanks for saving me, Xiumin. Come let me give you a kiss." Chen pouted his lips and spread his arms out to Xiumin who just rolled his eyes at him.

"So what time is that party again?" Kris asked.

"At 8. We've ordered pizza and some salad and chips to be delivered and an hour before that." Suho said while checking out some things off his unknown list.

"Yuck. Have you seen her? Does she look like she eats carbs like all of you?" Kris mocked.

"Tss. Kris, why don't you just look at the mirror and talk to yourself? Better words come out of your mouth when you do that." The leader said, being the only one who can say anything to everybody.

Suho's phone rang and he went to the balcony to answer it. The other members are just too noisy inside. Apparently, it was one of their managers telling them that all their schedules are cancelled the next day. Suho thanked him and went to tell the other members of the free day they were going to have.

At 8pm, Suho rang Andrea's door with Chanyeol, Baekhyun, Luhan, Sehun, Chen and the shy guy Lay behind him. They were bringing all the food and some paper cups and plates so as not to oblige anyone to clean the dishes.

"Hi. Welcome to the neighborhood." They chanted.

Andrea greeted them, wearing a black strapped cocktail dress. She tied her hair to a loose bun and put the lightest makeup on her face except for her red lipstick. The boys drooled over her like she was the food they wanted and not the ones they were bringing over.

She was playing EXO's music, randomly from all their albums. All of them were pleased to know that she was listening to their songs. They put the food on her four-seat dining table and stayed in her living room, talking a bit among themselves, waiting for Andrea to speak up.

"Okay. Here it goes." She took a deep breath, summoning all the courage she has always had. "I am really honored to be with you. Gosh. Millions of fans would do anything to be in my place right now."

All of the boys smiled. All of a sudden, the door opened and Kris came in, wearing a tight white shirt that showed off his muscles. He motioned for Andrea to continue while settling by the sofa, crossing his arms mainly to flex his arms.

"Okay... so, I just wanna say thank you. I'm basically a stranger but you welcomed me warmly. I hope that we can be good friends." She smiled shyly at them as they clapped their hands for her.

The party went on, with social crowds forming by themselves every few minutes. For now, Andrea was talking with Suho and Lay, the former seemingly interested in her intelligence. Andrea has already prepared a story where she carefully cut the part that says she had a sister who was a rape victim. Let alone the part that she loathed EXO for over a month now for doing such a horrible thing to her.

"I'm sorry. I might be tiring you out for your schedule tomorrow." Andrea said apologetically.

"Oh no." Suho said quickly. "We don't have any tomorrow."

"Oh really?"

Luhan approached her when she was getting some drink. He was asking her some things about clothes and a lot more just to keep her attention on him.

"You are really beautiful." He said making her smile a bit.

"They say, sometimes, what you see can deceive you." She answered smartly.

"What, like an angel like you could actually be the devil in disguise?"

"Who knows? Or maybe an innocent looking face like yours might actually be a mask to cover a naughty man." She slightly brushed his arm as she walked past him, making him feel some kind of shock passing through his shirt.

Andrea made sure that all of the boys who went there got an over the limit alcohol level before they left. Although it would be perfect to have them all drunk, half of them are quite enough. With a glass of mixed fruit drink in one hand, she took her phone with the other and pressed 2.

The call immediately connected to the EXO's manager.

"Hello? Yes. I'd like to hold a meeting first thing tomorrow with the boys."

Andrea listened to the ass kissing the manager told her and finally confirmed the meeting.

"Yes. I'll be there at 9am sharp. Thank you." She ended the call and smiled to herself.

The next day, she woke up early but didn't even bother to get up. She has seen too many men getting drunk and they never made it to anywhere in the morning. A little before 9am, while she was blending some vegetables, the EXO manager called her.

**

"Why the hell do most of you look like zombies?!" Sara Jung scolded all the twelve boys after making a call.

"We thought we didn't have any schedule today." Suho reasoned out while massaging his temple.

"Even so! And I couldn't reach any of you! Dammit."

"Why not? Only a few of us went to the party." Baekhyun adjusted his dark glasses and drank some more coffee.

"What party?! Ahhh! You all want me to die, don't you?!" Sara stormed out of the meeting room and slammed the door.

She is the manager in charge of them and she is responsible for all their actions. Last month, when the rape case surfaced, her life became hell. Sara had to work almost 24 hours just to protect the boys' image. Good thing the case had loopholes so she and a lawyer found a way to block any investigations to the boys.

They were innocent. At least that what they all told her. But that day, she remembered that some of them were missing and when she asked the others, they said they were helping out a girl. She didn't force them to admit anything, also considering that EXO has suffered so much from those crazy paparazzi.

Even though she scolded them for the cancelled important meeting, she couldn't help but feel guilty. A few days ago, the company has made changes in the board members chart and acquired a bigtime partner who only asked for one thing from SM.

The new partner, especially the boss, wanted EXO. And since it was a big sum of money on the line, the poor boy group was boxed and sold. The only thing is they have no idea.

"Hey wait..." Chen counted the boys sitting around the table and repeated it after getting confused. "There are only 11 of us here."

They looked among themselves, trying to figure out who was missing. And then the quietest member Kyungsoo spoke up.

"Kai is not here."

--

Thank you for reading The New Girl. :) Look forward to the next chapters!