#exo reverse harem

The flight home left you with a lot of time to think. You had asked Minseok and Baekhyun to let the rest of the guys know about your meeting, telling them that Junmyeon could probably fill in more of the details that you’d left out when you’d broken the news to them. Your mind had been focused on getting to Minseok’s reward at the time, so discussing the feedback you’d received in great detail was not front of mind. 

Feeling overwhelmed with your own thoughts, you’d also asked them to tell everyone that you had requested some space. From them. You just couldn’t handle any of them right now. You’d assured Minseok & Baek when you’d all woken up the next morning that they hadn’t overstepped or done anything, but that your mind was too busy and too much for you right now. The internal storm had been brewing for quite some time but you’d constantly pushed it down, too busy to deal with silly things like the future, feelings and relationships. But once the tour ended and the rewards were completed (inconveniently on the same night) it all came crashing down on you. The floodgates had been opened and you didn’t know how to act normal and not drown in your own mind at the same time. You needed space to simply exist. Space to sort out your mind before you did something utterly stupid and reckless. You’d promised to never disappear on them again without talking to them, and whilst you felt a bit guilty for withdrawing from them like that you had provided warning, and as much context as you could. Baekhyun refused to let you leave until you promised him you weren’t self-destructing. That you weren’t going to disappear and not respond to them.

“You said you wouldn’t do that again. You said you’d lean on at least one of us when you were struggling.” He said, his eyes full of concern as he watched you nervously pace around the room.

“It’s different this time. I’m not sad, or feeling lonely or headed to a dark place mentally.” You stopped in the middle of the room as you tried to hold off the panic attack that you could feel building within you. You needed to go. You needed to be away from it all. You needed them to understand. “It’s just loud. And overwhelming. And I need time to be by myself to sort through everything.” 

“But you’re asking us to not contact you.” He looked down at his hands. “How will we know if you’re ok?”

“It won’t be for long. I hope. Just give me a week, then Minseok or Kyungsoo can check in to make sure I’m ok.” You said. 

“Why not me?” He asked so quietly that you barely heard the words.

“Because I know they’ll just check in with me and nothing more until I’m ready to chat.” You smiled at him. “You wouldn’t be able to help yourself. You yap. It’s just part of who you are.”

“I hate this.” He grumbled.

“I don’t like it either, but I’ll do it.” Minseok replied. He looked worried for you as well, but he could tell you weren’t going to bend on this request. He didn’t want to back you into a corner. He knew if any of them did that, they ran the risk of you running from them. He hated to see you struggle with your thoughts but he hoped he knew you well enough to know that you’d reach out if you needed to lean on them. Even if you weren’t ready.

“Fine. I’ll do it as well, but know that I truly do not like this. Not one bit.” He sighed, resigned to your decision. He realised his words may have come across too harsh when he saw guilt flash across your features. “I’m sorry. I’m not mad. I’m just worried and wish I, or any of us, could help.”

You nodded. “I get it. I would hate it if any of you did this to me. Trust me I feel shitty about it, but I need to go deal with some stuff that I’ve been putting to the side because I simply didn’t have time to process it.” You shifted nervously on your feet, itching to leave the room. You felt your heart rate increase, and breathing was becoming difficult. You had to leave before your panic was obvious to them. You weren’t sure why you were so wound up this morning, but you knew you just needed to get away from the people who paid too much attention to you. “I’m sorry, but I have to go.” 

You knew that they had conveyed your wishes when the group chat you’d been added to, one that had been busy that morning with members arguing over the best American breakfast sandwich, just stopped. The messages just abruptly ended. It left a bittersweet feeling in your heart. On one hand, they were only respecting your request for space to think, but on the other, having nine large personalities all fall quiet at the same time made you feel lonely. You hadn’t realised how much they had integrated themselves into your life, and you theirs until then. You might not see them every day but their presence was always felt. Through messages bickering with each other, reminding you to eat, dumb selfies, silly jokes, recommendations for movies or tv shows, unflattering photos of the others. They were always there. Until now. Now it was as though they’d all simply ceased to exist. It was weird. It felt wrong.

You’d travelled back to Korea with the other staff members. No one found that strange as there was no reason for any of the guys to request your presence for a lesson - the tour was over. You mindlessly watched movies until you fell asleep. Dealing with the onslaught of thoughts and feelings was not something you were going to do on a long haul flight. Having a breakdown 30,000 feet above the ocean was not on your bucket list. Did you shed a tear or two at certain scenes in the movies you watched because they reminded you of certain people? Maybe. But lucky for you the staff were all equally exhausted and happy to sleep for the majority of the return trip. Once you landed the guys were called to the company whilst you and multiple other staff members were told to go home and rest. You were beyond thankful to be told to go home because that was the only thing you wanted to do. You wanted the safety of the familiar four walls of your apartment. The comfort of your bed. Maybe all you needed was a really long sleep and then you’d be less of an emotional wreck. You didn’t think you’d overworked yourself but maybe you were wrong? 

It was quiet in your apartment. Not that that was a new thing. No, the new thing was that you knew it would remain quiet. There would not be a knock on your door from a bored neighbour who wanted to raid your snack cupboard and hide from their roommates. There would be no flurry of messages to your phone or late night calls. It was probably a good thing. If this feeling that you were experiencing, like teetering on the edge of an abyss of panic, was anything to go by then you were probably deluding yourself if you thought it was purely related to being exhausted from work. 

No, if you actually thought about it, you realised that it was the culmination of a few things. First there was the fact that your contract was over and you didn’t know what was next for you, or how their CEO would respond to the work you’d done. Second was the fact that you had been sexually intimate with each of the members. You thought you’d kept the interpersonal relationship side of things separate from the sex but now your mind was throwing every ‘what if’ in the book at you. Were they your friends?, were they colleagues?, did any of them now want nothing to do with you because you’d been with the others?, did any of them want more from you?, did you want more from any of them?, did you ruin everything? Your mind was in full spiral mode, with no exits in sight. You were unfortunately in for the ride, even if you did not want to be.

You knew you needed to sit down and dwell in your thoughts and work out what to do about the nine very special men who were woven into your heart, each one you had slept with, but did you feel something more than friendship and attraction to any of them? Was it simply a working relationship that you’d sprinkled some highly unprofessional fun into or did you have romantic interest in any or all of them? You’d avoided thinking about this very thing for weeks now, always telling yourself that you were too busy with lessons. Now you were forced to address it. No one would come distract you, and there was no work to be done, and if you didn’t address it? Well it seemed like you were destined for a full blown mental breakdown if you left it to fester.

You were officially off the clock until the CEO summoned you so you had nothing but time to sit and dwell on your thoughts and feelings. Naturally you decided to clean your apartment instead. Then reorganise the kitchen, do all of your washing, make your bed and organise your desk. It was when your thumb was hovering over the call button for your parents that you snapped out of your procrastination spiral and forced your brain to start unraveling the mess that was your relationship with the EXO members. 

Like every other time you’d had to solve a seemingly large problem, you took out a notebook and pen and began to make notes. It wasn’t a pros and cons list, rather, it was your jumbled thoughts spewed out onto a page. You’d always worked best with problem solving when you had something to annotate. You needed visual logic cues if you were to concentrate on this long enough to deal with it. When you looked down at the page it was one very messy web of unfiltered thoughts. Seeing it all on the page didn’t ease your worries like it usually did. For some reason this felt bigger, like it was more important than you could perceive. 

The crux of the issue still seemed to be that they were your friends before you took on the role of teaching them English, then after they became colleagues you rather quickly implemented the reward system. Then came the issue of involving sex, but honestly, apart from some prying and joking the guys hadn’t changed in how they acted towards you. If anything some were more affectionate with you but that was never in a sexual way. They understood that the system was there for the lessons and if you excluded Minseok and Baekhyun - all sex acts were contained within the lesson rewards or punishments. Yixing was playful, but only because he knew he could get away with it. He never tried for more than being close to you, and you knew he cared about you (especially since the day at the Han River, and because he wasn’t always around), but you didn’t think he was pining for you though it was sometimes difficult to gauge what he was feeling. Junmyeon was a gentleman and rarely brought up anything to do with the reward arrangement. Chanyeol, Jongdae and Sehun liked to make suggestive comments and jokes but that was mostly in. Sehun had been clingy before all of this anyway. Kyungsoo was another who was difficult to read. He’d never tried anything after the reward, but he was sweet to you, and very familiar with you in a way he hadn’t been beforehand. Jongin was a sweetheart before and after, and you were pretty sure his reward was just an experience for him and nothing more. Minseok and you… well that has basically been a friends with benefits situation however neither of you appeared to be trying to push that arrangement into something more at present. You were both more than capable of hanging out and not fucking. 

Baekhyun presented a whole other problem. Your relationship with him had never been normal. The sexually charged banter had been there from the very beginning and only built as things went on. The day at the Han River proved that he cared about you enough to find you and help you. You enjoyed his company which wasn’t to say you didn’t enjoy all of their company, but with him it was different. Wasn’t it? You weren’t sure. The relationship that grew between the two of you had been sexually charged thanks to your drunken flirting very early on in the scheme of things but he’d never shied away from it - as long as you weren’t a drunken mess. The flirting had continued and your encounters always seemed to teeter on the precipice of taking that next step, but ended in delayed gratification so it was impossible for you to decipher if you had felt so strongly because you’d craved his body and his touch or if it was something more.

You paused in your deliberations to order some food. All this thinking was making you hungry and your mother had always told you to never make important decisions while hungry. It was something you’d lived by and you weren't about to stray from it now. A decision made while hungry could very well just be the impulsive choice rather than the choice you might make once hunger wasn’t making you impatient. Hangry was never a helpful state to be in.

What were you even trying to figure out? Did you want to date all of them? Was that even a possibility? It would be hard enough to date one idol, let alone nine of them. How would that work? You knew people back home who were in successful polycules but like, they were on the smaller side and had a more even split of gender. That and the fact that they weren’t also hugely famous in a highly conservative country and would receive backlash for anyone they dated. If you dated all nine of them, you would be the only woman and as far as you were aware, none of them were all that interested in exploring each other in that way. Did you feel that way about them? I felt like it had to be an all or nothing situation for it to be fair. You didn’t ask your brain what kind of logic that was because it made sense to you at the time. So would you be ok if you didn’t pursue anything more with any of them? Would remaining close friends with them be enough for you, or them? God you hadn’t even considered if any of them were romantically interested in you. How embarrassing would it be to make a decision only for it to be the opposite of their decision? Could your heart handle that rejection if you were dealing with freshly discovered feelings? You stood up and did a full body shake in a feeble attempt at releasing the building anxiety from your body. You needed to focus on one question at a time. Were you romantically interested in all of them? 

You weren’t sure. It was complicated. 

If you didn’t want all of them, would you be fine with just being friends with them? 

Again, you weren’t sure. All this thinking was making your head hurt. The lack of answers you were providing yourself wasn’t helping your anxiety in the slightest. Maybe you should just finish your food, go to bed and try again in the morning? You probably had jet lag. That couldn’t be helping. 

Did you want any of them in that way? Did any of them want you in that way? If you were just friends with them, would you be ok watching them date other people? Could you be happy for them? Your heart felt heavy and you were no closer to working out why. You closed your notebook and got into bed, hoping the cocoon of your blankets could wash away some of the worries and panic. 

Sleep was elusive. You tossed and turned for what felt like the entire night because you could not switch your brain off. It wasn’t supplying any new information nor was it being productive in any way. No, instead it was showing you all of the worst case scenario outcomes from your possible decisions. Thoughts of being doxxed for dating any of them, sasaengs hurting you or any of them, calls from antis to have the group disband or certain members thrown out. All of it haunted your sleep deprived brain. When your thoughts drifted to the possibility of you being deported over dating any of them, you finally heaved a sigh, called your mind an idiot and somehow fell asleep. It was more likely that you passed out from exhaustion at that point, too drained mentally to remain conscious. The dreams were just snapshots of all these awful thoughts. Your subconscious must have felt bad for you as it sprinkled in small glimpses of the happy endings where everything worked out. Little bursts of colour surrounded these moments, like it was really trying its best to show you there could be good outcomes. 

Warmth and laughter in their company, locked lips and entwined limbs, waking up in someone’s arms, secretive dates, happy smiles. Small glimpses of building a happy home together, of not dating but still hanging out and enjoying being with your friends. Feeling whole, and loved. Even dreaming you were no closer to a resolution than before. 

A new day brought distractions. So be it if those distractions were ones you forced upon yourself, they were still distractions dammit. You took yourself out for a walk in a feeble attempt at clearing your mind only to find yourself standing in front of an aquarium in Gangnam. Water always grounded you when your thoughts became too loud, and since you couldn’t sit at the beach, staring out at the waves for hours like you could in your hometown, an aquarium was the next best thing. Something about walking through enclosures below the water with sea life surrounding you was calming. It was serene and quiet. You allowed your mind to go blank as you made your way through the different exhibits, reading the fun facts that were put next to each enclosure. 

You learned about the sharks that could reproduce asexually, never needing the company of others to keep themselves afloat. Sharks were always so interesting to watch. A terrifying predator who seemingly feared nothing, but to you they were also these goofy looking creatures because of their teeth. There were too many and they were too sharp but it also made them look kind of ridiculous when they were simply existing. You had an appreciation for them. They were unbothered creatures, content to simply exist, only attacking for survival whether that be for sustenance or to defend themselves. They let specific creatures into their personal space, never attacking them, but seeming to simply coexist. Those suckerfish - that you now found out were actually called Remora - helped the sharks and in turn the sharks helped them. It seemed like a simple relationship. You imagined that one day they just attached themselves to the sharks and never let go and for some reason, the shark just let it happen. 

The tropical exhibit was vibrant and massive. You had to stop yourself from reciting lines from Finding Nemo lest you appear like a crazy foreigner talking to themselves. You knew a lot of the facts about these creatures from your studies at school but there were some things they had left out of your textbooks, probably to avoid teachers having to explain certain concepts to children. Concepts like polyamorous fish. Yeah, those existed. Well, technically the marine biologists simply documented that certain species of tropical fish mated with multiple partners. So one couldn’t explicitly state that the fish were polyamorous, but maybe that term was better than saying the fish were swingers. It was a ridiculous concept to think about. The inner working relationships of fish. Maybe you were losing your mind. 

You moved on to see the seals being fed. You always found them to be a deceptive creature. ‘Looks like a friend but is most definitely not a friend’ was the label you’d always associated with them. Growing up you’d been to a marine park and been in awe of the cute seals who did tricks for rewards in the form of fish. You even had a photo with a seal posed next to you. You remembered that it was heavy, very wet and its breath stank of fish, but it was pretty chill. Your cousin snuck you into a section you weren’t supposed to go to, where they were rehabilitating other animals - mainly dolphins and seals. He knew about a specific seal species that looked adorable and said he wanted to show it to you. He left out the part where this particular species ate penguins and other seals. He waited until you were home, talking to anyone who would listen about the world’s prettiest seal, about how they must be the sweetest and most amazing seals to ever exist. He waited until you were so enamoured by them that you were almost going to claim them as your new favourite animal to show you a section of a documentary of that specific species hunting. You had nightmares for weeks. Thankfully the seals in this enclosure were not the leopard seals of your childhood nightmares. It did remind you to call your cousin to catch up and remind him of how much he terrorised you as a child. 

You spent way too long watching the penguins in the arctic exhibit. They appeared to be nesting, at least that was the conclusion you arrived at. There were penguins lying in little circles made of rocks and ice, a nest you supposed, while their mate searched the enclosure for the perfect pieces of ice and rocks before bringing them back and placing them in the nest (you assumed they were mates since they kept returning to the same nest, never straying to a different penguin. That and you knew penguins mated for life, so if they weren’t mates then they were definitely courting the penguin they thought could be their mate). It was such a simple act but you found that you simply couldn’t leave the viewing window, entranced by such a simple act of love. 

When you finally left the aquarium a few hours later you felt more at peace than you had in weeks. By no means was your mind clear, but the chaotic tornado that had taken up residence in there was now more of a light breeze as all your worries quietened down, allowing you to logically sift through them. You allowed yourself to believe that you had in fact, been successful at teaching EXO English. The tour was successful and you hadn’t been required to step in very often during their ments or interviews. For a group with poor prior experience with learning English you had basically done the impossible. You managed to let go of the stigma that had clouded your mind for the past few weeks that was constantly telling you they were only succeeding because of the sex, but really if all they took from your lessons was the sex then they still would have failed miserably at their ments and interviews. Something you did stuck, and whether it was because you were someone they knew and trusted was kind of beside the point. You took the time to learn how each of them would learn the best from you, and tailored sessions to maximise their recall of their ments. And it fucking worked. You should really allow yourself to feel your oats more often than you did. The cloud of self depreciation that had been looming and trying to take root was dissolved. You did a good job. Others had told you so, you knew it to be true. You just had to be consistent in telling your self doubt to go fuck itself when it next tried to diminish your achievements. You felt a little lighter than you had this morning, one less voice causing chaos in your mind.

Riding on your good mood, you decided to take a walk through the nearby night markets, enjoying food from the street vendors and looking at the pretty wares others had on offer. You resisted the urge to buy gifts for the guys - this was a day for you, not a day for you to revert to stressing over if you would be giving a gift as a friend, as a romantic partner, or as a farewell. For now you simply took in the craftsmanship of the trinkets, clothing and jewellery on offer - deciding that you would go to more night markets in the future. The streets were so full of life, bustling with a palpable energy that was infectious. You loved it. The streets were illuminated with soft and pretty lights, making you feel like you were walking through a little fairytale rather than the streets of Seoul. It was an impressive feat for this small section of such a bright and bustling city to achieve. 

Eventually you decided it was time to begin the journey back towards your apartment. You wanted to call your family, possibly a friend as well, just to update them on your life as a translator overseas. Now that you actually recognised the work that you had done you knew you could feel confident talking to them about it. Talking about it to someone outside of the business might also help bring other things you were worried about into focus. You headed home with your head held high, finally feeling good about the work you had done these past months. 

Speaking with your parents and your closest friend back home helped you unpack more of your thoughts. Ones you wouldn’t have realised if you hadn’t had to conceal certain aspects of your life over here. Describing the boys as acquaintances then colleagues felt weird and wrong, but you knew you had to hide the friendship to an extent. After all, they didn’t know how damaging that kind of news could be if it got out and they would not feel the need to keep that information to themselves. You knew they’d just say you were overreacting if you told them not to tell anyone about it, so you simply kept that from them. It was easier this way even if it felt off. They meant more than you could tell your parents.

You’d always worried that your family wouldn’t be proud of you for taking a job in a foreign country and leaving as quickly as you did. You’d expected to cop an earful from your mother for not calling her more often but you were pleasantly surprised to hear how many questions she had about your work - how was your boss, how did they assign clients, were they treating you well, were the hours humane, were the conditions fair, did you get sufficient pay and time off. The list was endless. You answered all of her questions to the best of your ability without breaching your contract or giving away incriminating details. Your father wanted to know all about your living conditions, was it in a good neighbourhood, was the security good, were you safe, were you being smart when you left the house. You allowed him to nag you since that was his love language - fretting about his daughter's safety. He even convinced you to hang up and call again on video so you could show him your apartment and so they could see your face, to make sure you were being truthful about eating and sleeping well. Definitely not because they also missed you terribly. Once you had appeased them, promising no less than five times that you were keeping out of trouble, were eating well and getting enough sleep, did they allow you to ask them questions about life after you left home. It was comforting to talk to them, even if it made you miss them terribly - you longed for a warm hug from each of them more than you wanted to admit. You dodged questions of romance, citing that you were far too busy with work to date. You also had to explain how dating culture was different here, and once they knew how much faster relationships began your father was much happier to know that you weren’t dating. You’d die if he knew what you had been doing though. 

You eventually told them that you were at the end of the current contract you were on and that you were awaiting a final evaluation to see if the company you had been on contract with wanted to keep you on for other projects or if your boss would be assigning you to a new company to work with new artists. Your father could tell from your voice that you were feeling anxious about being in limbo. He told you to rest assured that you did the best work you could, and that your successes would be noticed. He told you that if they renewed your contract that would be great because you already had rapport and knew your way around the company building, feeling comfortable with that environment but he also told you that if they didn’t, that it wouldn’t take long for your boss to find you a new company because of your achievements on your current contract, and that change wasn’t a bad thing. It could lead to bigger and brighter things. Your mother was always good at talking out the minutiae of a problem with you but your father could pinpoint what you needed to hear and ease your busy mind. It was a trait you were thankful he had because it was what you needed right now. You talked for a long time after that, catching up on everything you had missed in their lives, on tv shows, the news, gossip around town. Your mother could harp on about anything if you let her. Eventually you had to try and wind up the conversation, you did have another call to make after all. After promising to call more often they let you go so you could call your closest friend. 

Speaking with her went exactly as you thought it would. First there was a lot of nagging about how you never called or told her anything, how you’d abandoned her for the rich and famous clients you had. That you’d probably snagged some uber rich and hot guy and forgotten all about little old her. Then came the endless I miss you’s followed by all the things she’d been dying to tell you. You got wildly sidetracked as you caught up on her life, her new boyfriend, her work, her plans and seemingly endless tangents. She was the kind of friend who could easily take over a conversation, something she had often had to do in the past. There were times where you just preferred to go quiet and let others lead the small talk. You preferred topics that interested you when meeting new people because you had something to contribute, and surface level conversation kind of bored you. You could do it, and did when work required it of you, but in your personal life you were often much more reserved in conversation with strangers. There was probably something to unpack there but you chose to ignore that for now.

You went through a similar interrogation about work and life in Korea with her, though she pressed for far more details than your parents did since she had some idea that you were working with idols. You managed to avoid incriminating yourself in any way but you knew this would not be the last time she pressed you for information. She had a knack for knowing when things were left unsaid, and boy did you leave a lot of things about your situation unsaid. When you got to the topic of your current employment potentially coming to an end she made similar points to your father, though she added that the more people you worked for in the entertainment sector, the more likely it was for you to meet some amazing guy. You almost choked on your laughter at that. Once again you had to promise to contact her more often before she would let you get off the phone with her. 

[9:21PM] Your bestest friend in the world: Don’t think for a moment that I didn’t pick up on the fact that something is going on with you.

[9:21PM] Your bestest friend in the world: I won’t push you for an explanation yet, but know that I’m here for you love. Anytime. 

She was too perceptive for her own good. You hated and loved her for it.

[9:21PM] You: Nothing gets past you does it? I should have known you’d pick up on it. I’m not ready to talk about it yet, still wading through my thoughts etc. But thank you bby. ILYSM <3

[9:21PM] Your bestest friend in the world: <3 Talk to me when you’re ready to unpack everything in that pretty little head of yours. ILYSM2

The calls left you feeling even more grounded and settled in your emotions. Your mind continued to be quiet and calm as you got ready for bed, hoping you would get a decent night's sleep and continue your ‘me’ time tomorrow. After all you still had to wade through your feelings about the guys, where everything between the lot of you stood now and where things were going. You weren’t sure that you could fully work out your feelings without talking to them, which could go horribly wrong but you were just too confused. You knew one thing for certain, you had to tell them that there had to be no more sex related things between any of you until this whole thing was worked out. That obviously meant no stress relief fucking with Minseok, but also had to include suggestive comments and jokes. You just weren’t sure if anything could be taken at face value, or if there was more to it.

You promised yourself that if you still felt calm and clear in your thoughts by tomorrow afternoon that you would reach out to the guys. Sure they were giving you space now, but you weren’t so naive to believe that this would continue if you reached a week with zero contact. Sure Minseok or Kyungsoo would message you but you’d rather not let it reach that point if you could help it. You knew them well enough to know that they’d start to worry, and then they’d jump to conclusions that it was somehow their fault that you weren’t talking to them. That was something you wanted to avoid. You weren’t the only one capable of spiralling in your thoughts.

***

Thankfully sleep came easily for you. The bed was comfy, the sheets a perfect texture and the room was cool, allowing you to snuggle into a blanket burrito and sleep deeply. You awoke the next day feeling well rested and more at peace than you’d felt in weeks. You promised to give yourself until the afternoon to make contact and you planned on honoring that self imposed promise so you headed out on another stroll since the weather was yet again pleasant. First stop was the coffee shop for your daily dose of sugar in liquid form (also known as an iced chocolate) and a flaky pastry. Today that was a blueberry danish. With your tasty treats in hand, you set off through the closest park, hoping to find a duck pond to sit by while you ate. There was no reason or tradition for the dunk pond, you just liked being near water when you wanted to get lost in thought. 

As luck would have it, you did find a pond, sadly barren, with no ducks, but it still had the desired effect of being an idyllic backdrop for you. You made a mental list of the things you needed to complete before returning to your apartment. 1. Get groceries so you could cook yourself some meals for the next week. 2. Buy some new clothes and accessories before the season changes so you wouldn’t be caught out. 3. Visit a nearby corgi cafe so you could give some fluffballs your love. 4. Buy a couple of gifts to send home to your parents and closest friend. It wasn’t too overwhelming, but it should keep you occupied until it was time to reach out to the guys. You probably wouldn’t check off the final item today, that would require a future visit to the night markets. 

Groceries were reasonably simple. After talking with your family you suddenly craved a simple western meal so you’d decided on some pan cooked chicken with roasted vegetables and a salad. If you seasoned each chicken breast slightly different it would change up your meals enough each night for you to not grow bored of them. You managed to successfully buy some new clothes and accessories to put away for the next season and then spent two blissfully happy hours at the corgi cafe. You were constantly being prodded with little paws or wet noses asking for pats and treats. You were quite literally covered in fur but you didn’t care. They were so cute and getting to spend time with them really filled the part of you that desperately wanted a pet. You’d have one one day, when the time was right and you could dedicate yourself to training and giving them all the affection in your being. 

With a little tri-coloured corgi resting his head on your lap you let your thoughts drift. When would you get the call from Mr. Kim? At this point you just wanted to have your meeting so you could stop weighing up the uncertainty of your professional future. Once that was set then you knew you could much more easily discuss where things either should or should not progress with the guys. That moment of clarity for what you wanted in that respect remained elusive. You knew that you wanted them in your life, and whilst the thought of nothing more than friendship didn’t entirely sit well with you (you still couldn’t pinpoint why that was), you knew you could do that if that’s all they wanted from you. You felt something for each of them but you hadn’t fallen hard for anyone, a feat that you thanked your guarded heart for immensely. There was closeness, attraction and lust but no deep romantic love. You could see yourself falling if you opened your heart to it and if it was reciprocated by them, but for now you were safe from heartbreak if they didn’t have interest in you like that. 

You’d thought about what you’d do if more than one, or oddly if all of them wanted some sort of arrangement with you. You’d decided that you weren’t opposed to the idea, but only if certain ground rules were in place to keep everyone safe.  If they were opposed to a more polyamorous relationship then you would step back and remain their friend. You refused to allow them to fight and potentially damage their relationships with each other - both personally and professionally - over dating you. It could be seen as a clinical approach but the reality was that they were at the peak of their careers right now and you would not allow the prospect of dating you to get in the way of that. You weren’t that important, you couldn’t be. There was also the secretive nature of whatever relationship you all moved forward with. Male idols were not supposed to be close with other women, that only led to dating scandals which was another thing you wanted to avoid at all costs. 

Ultimately you had to talk to the guys and lay all of your thoughts out for them. They had to know where you stood and then you had to give them time to work out where they stood and what they wanted. Would that be an awkward as fuck conversation? Yes. Was it necessary? Also yes. It was time. No more radio silence. No more dwelling. You quickly sent off a message before you could talk yourself into taking another day to sit with your thoughts. 

[6:13PM] You: Are you guys busy?

The response was almost instantaneous. You hoped that didn’t mean they were hanging out by their phones waiting to hear from you. 

[6:13PM] Junmyeon: Noona! It’s nice to hear from you :)

[6:13PM] Junmyeon: We all just got home. Do you need something?

His words calmed you a little. It was his usual routine to check his phone as soon as he got home. Then he did his best to ignore it for a few hours, only answering if a manager or family member called.

[6:14PM] You: I was hoping I could come up and have a chat with everyone?

[6:14PM] You: But like, only if you’re all free and ok to have me over. I’m sure you’re all still tired.

You might be offering to have this meeting but that did not mean you weren’t incredibly anxious about it. You’d kept your thoughts at bay for almost two days but as soon as you put the talk on the table all of your fears resurfaced. What if they were mad at you? What if you’d read too much into this relationship? What if you caused a rift in the group? You didn’t want to be EXO’s Yoko. 

[6:14PM] Junmyeon: Nonsense. Come on up.

[6:14PM] Junmyeon: They’d kill me if I didn’t invite you up here and you know it.

[6:14PM] Junmyeon: All I’ve heard since we boarded the plane is whiny men. Get your ass up here and put me out of my misery!

You laughed at that. You could practically see him pouting as he typed the messages out to you. It didn’t seem like they were mad, but a small part of you also began to worry that they were too prone to overreacting. You shut that down when you reminded yourself that you’d basically cut them off cold turkey right at the end of the tour. The only people who had spent time with you after that final concert were Minseok and Baekhyun, and only them and Junmyeon knew about your meeting, unless they’d told the others about it. After all you had said they could do that. 

[6:15PM] You: It’s barely been 36 hours. You guys are maybe a little too codependent on me.

[6:15PM] You: But fine, I’ll be up in like 30 mins. Is that enough time for you to round everyone up?

[6:15PM] Junmyeon: You know we love you, but it was the radio silence and request to not contact you that sent them in a tailspin.

[6:15PM] Junmyeon: Not that I’m mad, just to be clear. I get it, but they lowkey freaked out.

Yeah, that checked out. You needed to just get home and go see your ragtag bunch of idiots who seemed to care about you more than you ever thought they would. However you also need to stop whatever attempt at ‘down with the cool kids’ lingo Junmyeon was trying to achieve. He already got teased enough for being the old man of the group and poorly inserting lingo that was clearly out of place in his vernacular was not going to help him.

[6:15PM] You: Don’t say lowkey, that’s not who you are. 

[6:15PM] You: Sehun is probably the only one of you who can get away with saying that. Chanyeol and Baekhyun think they can, but the jury is out on whether or not they can.

[6:15PM] Junmyeon: I’m going to ignore that slander of my character. I’m up on current slang. 

You actually facepalmed. Why was he like this? WHY.

[6:16PM] You: Seriously. STOP. You are in no way helping yourself here.

[6:16PM] Junmyeon: 30 minutes is fine. See you soon. 

[6:16PM] Junmyeon: Just to check though, should I be emotionally prepared for some heartbreaking and serious talk? You rarely ask to speak to all of us at once.

You supposed it could come off as a we need to talk moment given the lack of context you’d provided. And it kind of was that, but also not? You really didn’t want them to freak out. Nine guys fretting would be too overwhelming for you.

[6:16PM] You: Semi serious, but nothing heavy. I just want to explain myself and where my head has been at so you all understand why I kind of just disappeared.

[6:16PM] Junmyeon: Bet. See you soon then <3

[6:17PM] You: You are too old to be saying bet. Who is teaching you this shit? You know what. Don’t answer that. Just stop saying ‘trend’ words. We both know you’re not cool enough to pull them off. No offence.

[6:17PM] You: See you soon. <3

[6:17PM] Junmyeon: Wow noona. Harsh. My lingo is on fleek, it's rude of you to not realise that.

[6:17PM] You: I’m never going to speak to you again. 

[6:17PM] You: And I might have to cause bodily harm to whoever taught you this lingo.

You locked your phone before you cringed at any further attempts at current slang were sent to you. It was go time for you. Whether you were ready or not (you were not), the conversation was happening. Time to get your butt home and face the music. So to speak. You just hoped you weren’t about to fuck it all up. 

***

Nine pairs of eyes stared back at you from the various spots in the living room. You stood awkwardly in front of the tv as you contemplated whether or not to find yourself a chair or if you were just going to stand here and speak. The choice ended up being made for you as Yixing brought a chair in for you to sit on. It was still placed in the centre of the room facing all of them, but it felt a little less intimidating to sit before speaking. Yixing’s fingers brushed over your shoulder, giving it a light squeeze, before he moved back towards his place on the lounge. 

You cleared your throat and decided to approach this as you would remove a bandaid - quickly. You knew the guys were all wondering what the cause of your no contact rule was and the sooner you put them out of their misery the better. It would be better for you as well because you would get at least this part of the conversation out of your brain. Your time at the aquarium had helped clear your thoughts, as had your walk through the city. You weren’t so sure if the evening sitting in your apartment spiralling in your thoughts helped, so this was your attempt at preventing that from happening again tonight while still putting some space between them and you while you sorted your shit out.

“I uh, I want to apologise for not speaking with any of you properly before we flew back from the tour.” You held up a hand to stop the immediate chorus of responses that were coming from the guys. “Please let me get all of this out before any of you speak otherwise I don’t know if I’ll be able to get through it.” Nine heads nodded at you and waited for you to continue. 

“I got really in my head about everything and needed to take a step away from all of it, from everyone, while I tried to settle my thoughts.” You started. “First I worried that I hadn’t done a good job because I’d been unprofessional, but after I let myself spiral I realised that wasn’t true and that I had done a great job. I didn’t get to tell you after the last show ended but I could not be more proud of each and every one of you. Your English improved SO much and whilst a certain amount of that is on me, a huge part of that is on you for applying yourselves to the lessons and the study in order to make those improvements. You should also all be really proud of yourselves for the progress you’ve all made.” You couldn’t help but smile at them, pride shining through you. You were truly impressed at the work they’d put in and the results they’d shown in such a small timeframe. “Were part of the lessons and some of my conduct unprofessional? Yes, but I now believe that none of those things hindered your progress, nor were they the sole motivation for your improvements. Whether I’m wrong or right about this, I’m now choosing to believe that they were a pleasant bonus to all of this.”

Time for the big reveal. The thing that had been weighing on you, causing you to nearly have multiple panic attacks. The thing you were most scared about admitting to them. Would they thing you were overreacting or crazy? Would they understand? “My relationship with all of you also began to get muddled in my head by the end of the tour. We all met before I took on the role of teacher and prior to that we were all friends, and with more than one of you there was also an undercurrent of flirtation - regardless of whether any of us were going to act on it or not. Then I became someone who worked for you, who was quite literally on call for if you needed a lesson, in any setting and at any time of day. We were still friends but it did alter the relationship with you. Then I added in the reward/punishment system and that kind of threw a spanner in the works. We were all close, but inevitably when you add physical intimacy or sex to the equation it blurs the lines. My brain kept spiralling between ‘are we friends, colleagues, fuck buddies, in a relationship, did you never want to see me again, were you going to fight if any of us wanted a romantic relationship…’ so yeah, after the last night in America I withdrew into my head and just needed to be with my thoughts - as much as I really really really did not want to sift through them. I knew I needed to for the sake of my mental wellbeing. I hadn’t realised it but those thoughts had been building for quite some time and after all the lessons were over and all rewards or punishments received, those thoughts were relentless and overwhelming. I couldn’t ignore them any longer.”

You couldn’t stop talking. If you did, you were pretty sure you’d bottle everything up until you did what you were best at, running. It wasn’t a fair thought to have, but sadly you were in no state to control the cruelty of your thoughts. You just had to keep speaking and once you finished you hoped they understood. “As I’m sure Minseok and Baek told you, I had a meeting with the managers and Junmyeon to discuss my work and for feedback to be provided. Without going into too much detail, the meeting went well, but my future with SM hangs on your CEO. He was sent video of your ments and interviews while overseas to review as well as feedback from the managers, staff and yourselves. I will either be let go and my boss will find me a contract with another company - which will mean we won’t see each other as much or as freely - or I’ll be kept on one of two contracts with SM. Either an exclusive contract with EXO with allowances for freelance tutoring in my free time within SM, or a contract with SM where I would not be assigned any specific group but would be available at the company to provide lessons for existing artists and trainees. Either of those options would mean we would see more of each other, but the latter would mean we would not be able to speak as freely as we do now with each other.”

“I spent a lot of time stressing about what I wanted to happen and what possible scenarios could happen but I guess professionally any option is good for me as all options mean I remain working in this field and helping others improve their language skills. I stress over large changes in my life, not sure if that is something I’ve ever mentioned, but it’s a thing. Obviously.” You scoffed as you made a vague gesture at yourself and the clear state of stress you were in. “Personally, I don’t want to lose what we have. I cherish each of you and love that we’ve still been able to hang out and play around while we’re all working. I know we’d make it work if I have to go to another company but I know we would see each other significantly less than we do now.”

You took a deep breath. You hadn’t looked at any of them while you spoke. You knew if you saw their eyes you’d stop speaking. So you just couldn’t. Not yet. What if they looked at you with pity, anger, happiness, disgust, or worse - indifference. You could rationalise it if they felt something, but seeing them feel nothing when your mind had been fucking chaos might just be the straw that broke the camels back. You didn’t look at them. “So to sum up, I overthought everything, stressed, spiralled and withdrew from all of you which may or may not have been the right thing to do but I’m here now. I should know in a few days where my future lies work-wise but wanted to open the floor to discuss whatever this relationship we all have now is because I don’t think it is something I can resolve by myself. We don’t have to discuss it now, but I want you to think about it. I don’t know if you view me as a friend or as someone you want to pursue something with, or someone you no longer wish to see. I’m sorry to just dump all of this on you but I need to put it all out there, as much as I can right now anyway.” 

You’d done it. You’d told them what had been going on in your mind. Mostly. You hadn’t discussed your feelings but you’d mentioned all possibilities so that had to count for something. You really just wanted to run and hide, to become invisible rather than be perceived right now, but you knew you had to remain in your spot and hear what they had to say. No matter what it was. 

Chanyeol was the first to speak. He ran his hands through his hair as he tried to keep his tone even. “Not going to lie, this is a lot. I think I speak for all of us when I say that, and I think you know that. I appreciate you opening up to us about what was going on in your head, I'm sure we all do, even if it does leave us with more questions and discussions to have.”

You nodded. It was a lot. You knew it. You’d lived with all of it in your brain. It was only fair to give them time as well. That’s why you’d said you didn’t need to discuss it now.

Minseok was next to speak, he smiled softly at you, his own way of trying to calm your nerves even now. “I don’t think it’s something we should talk about tonight. You know as well as we do that we can be impulsive and that discussions can get heated quickly if we haven’t had time to choose our words. As weird as it will be I think we all need to take some time to think about what we want, and what will work best moving forward.”

You nodded again. You’d used all your words in speaking to them and now could bring yourself to speak. 

“This is going to sound shitty noona, and for that I’m sorry but I don’t think there is a diplomatic way to put it, well at least not one that I can think of right now,” Junmyeon said, sighing as he had to be the guy to say it. “but we do need to consider how it might affect the group if one or more of us are interested in pursuing you, especially if it means some may be rejected. At the end of the day, EXO has to come first, and god I know that’s a shitty thing to say, but it’s something we need to think about and probably talk about amongst ourselves. No offence.” You knew someone would have to raise that point, and it was a valid one, one you’d thought about as well. It did make sense that it was their leader who was the one to say it. After all, he always did put the group above everything else.

You had to speak, nodding wouldn’t suffice in response to that. It would only make him feel like a jerk and that was the last thing you wanted him to feel. You cleared your throat and hoped you said the right things. “All valid points, and don’t worry, there’s no offence taken, Junmyeon. I’d also thought that you should all take some time away from me to think over what you want and to discuss with the group. If one or more of you wanting to pursue me would negatively affect the group then I don’t think anything more than friendship is possible.” 

You paused. Would they think of this option if you didn’t raise it? You weren’t sure. But if it helped them with their deliberations then it was worth the level of embarrassment you were about to feel by simply suggesting it. “I guess the last thing for me to put out there is that after some thinking, I’m not opposed to exploring the possibility of a polyamorous type of situation if that is something you guys land on. However, I’m also not opposed to monogamy or just friendship with all of you. It might sound like I either don’t care that much or that I don’t know what I want, and the latter is somewhat true, but I did draw a line between what we were doing in the rewards versus hanging out outside of that and it prevented me from allowing too many feelings to take root. I’m not sure where any of you stand and I don’t want to know right now either since all of this” You gestured with your hand, waving it vaguely to indicate all of you. “Is so fresh and we all have a lot to consider, or not consider. I don’t know.” Breathe you told yourself. You had to breathe or you’d panic before this conversation ended.  “I’ll hopefully have a follow up meeting in a couple of days and then will know what will be happening with the work aspect of my life. I think we should meet once I know that side of things and chat again? But if you need more time, I would completely understand.”

Not much was said after that. The air was tense and awkward as you all kind of forgot how to act around each other. You stayed for a little while to hear about the plans for their encore concert but as soon as that conversation topic dwindled, you said your goodbyes and headed back to your apartment.

It might be time to call your friend. You were more confused after that meeting and once again on the precipice of a breakdown. You couldn’t wade through this on your own and you couldn’t ask one of the guys for help because this was about them. You couldn’t tell your friend every detail, but you could tell her enough. 

[10:49PM] You: So uh, are you free for that chat?

[10:49PM] Your bestest friend in the whole world: For you? Always. 

***

You awoke the next morning to the sound of a text message notification on your phone. You rubbed your eyes as you tried to focus on the name of the contact who sent the message. You sat up in your bed as soon as your eyes managed to make out that the message was from your boss. Hopefully it was the message you’d been waiting for.

[7:42AM] Mr. Kim: Good morning, I hope you have had sufficient time to relax since returning from the overseas tour with EXO. I had a meeting this morning with SM’s CEO, Lee Soo Man about your performance under the current contract you have with SM and what his thoughts were for your potential future prospects at the company. I’ve scheduled a meeting for us at midday at my office. I’ll see you in a few hours to discuss. 

If you were half awake at the start of that message, you were wide awake now. Of course a meeting is called the day after you dropped what felt like a literal bomb on your nine upstairs neighbours. You had just over four hours to freshen up and get yourself over to his office. Not that you were nervous… not at all… not even a little bit. It wasn’t like the outcome of this meeting determined the future of your career or anything. No, shut up. You tried telling your mind as it attempted to spiral before any form of carb or sugar entered your system. You repeated your father’s words over in your head as you picked out clothes for the meeting, a simple and professional outfit that you would not anxiety sweat through before you even reached Mr. Kim’s office. You showered and got yourself ready for the day and whatever it would bring. Maybe it would be better once it was all over, then you could stop overthinking and fretting about every possible outcome. That wasn’t how you liked doing things but it seemed to be what happened whenever it was important to you. When you cared.

Just before you left the apartment you sent a message to the group chat so that everyone was kept up to date.

[10:25AM] You: Hey, just a heads up that I’m on my way to a meeting now. LSM has made his decision and I’ll know my work fate in a couple of hours. I know I suggested meeting again after I had my meeting but given I literally only proposed everything to you last night, I’ll bench our talk until you guys have had time to deliberate and all that. Just reach out when you want to chat and I’ll make myself available. 

It felt clinical and not how you’d ever spoken to them when there was no one to overhear your conversations. It felt like how you spoke to them when one of their managers was present. It felt wrong and something in your heart hurt. There was no response, but you could see the members slowly reading your message. Sehun reacted to it with a thumbs up message which then spurred everyone into chatting, mainly to scold Sehun but seeing the chat alive again felt right.

You put your phone on do not disturb mode as you approached Mr. Kim’s office, coffee in hand. Not the iced variety that was so popular among idols. No, the purpose of this coffee was not to keep you awake, rather it was to give you a caffeine hit as well as comfort you with its warmth. You were always nervous when it came time for a performance review, but unlike last time with Blackpink, you were a lot closer with the members of EXO and their staff. Unlike last time you knew that you had done your job successfully, you’d been present to witness the members grow in their language skills and watched them deliver their ments to their American audiences with little to no translation required. The only slip was the night Baekhyun forgot his lines, but the following shows he required no assistance.

Once you arrived, Mr. Kim’s secretary ushered you into his office, telling you he was just finishing up a meeting in another room and would be with you shortly. Thankfully you did not have to wait long before he entered the room. He smiled and greeted you warmly then moved to sit at his desk. You’d been in this room a few times now and it was always nerve wracking. 

“Once again I can tell that you are eager to hear your evaluation.” He chuckled.

You nodded. “Apparently my face hides nothing from you.”

“Actually your face is not what gave you away, it was the fidgeting fingers this time.” He pointed at your free hand which was unfortunately fidgeting with the buckle on your handbag.

Your fingers stilled, but you itched to keep busy with something. Anything to get the frenetic energy out of your system. “You got me. Now please put me out of my misery already and give me my evaluation.”

Lucky for you, he prided himself on business and got right to it. You never had to endure too much small talk with him. It was a much more pleasant experience than the managers you had back before moving here. They seemed to want to spend up to ten minutes chatting about nothing before switching to business mode. That was not the Mr. Kim way. His way was better. For you at least. Mr. Kim pulled a file up on his computer and turned the screen so that you could see it as well. “As you already know from the last time we did this, we assess you in three areas. 1. How well the tasks were performed 2. How you worked with the clients and 3. Work ethic/professionalism. I’ve reviewed the recording of the last meeting you had during the tour as well as received feedback from the SM CEO.” 

He clicked on a file and opened it. “This is a review of the tasks performed. As you can see, it was unanimous across the board that you have excelled in this area. You successfully prepared the members for their interviews and concert ments, improving their English significantly. You joined the group on tour and no issues were reported by staff or the members, nor did you appear in any fan reports or cause any scandals.” He paused to look at you, a knowing smile on his face. “But you already know this from your meeting with the managers and Junmyeon. I’ll only add the feedback from their CEO. He said he was impressed that someone of your young age was able to successfully complete these tasks to the level that you did, he made special mention of the tailored lessons as a genius move on your part. He noted that whilst it would be an arduous task for all clients, it worked for EXO in ways no one expected. They have not had this level of success in teaching a group that didn’t already have a member with a decent grasp on English or a native English speaker. He was also very impressed that you were able to fit in and work seamlessly with a well established team.” Mr Kim paused, signalling that you could now speak before he addressed the next criterion.

So far things were going well. Logically you knew that you had succeeded in your role, but it was always a relief to hear it. Hearing from your boss and the head of the group's company eradicated the last of the anxiety you felt about your ability as a teacher. “Thank you Mr Kim. I felt that I was succeeding in my role and I am glad to have that confirmed by the head of their company, but I do have to ask what he meant about my age?”

“Most translators or teaching staff that are brought in are older than you. Especially when it comes to English. There is a greater risk when idols are involved and most companies specifically request someone over 40 to be assigned so that there could never be any misunderstandings around the nature of the relationship.” He replied.

Your brow furrowed. “Then how did I get the job? I’m significantly younger than that, even if I’m still older than the members.” 

He smiled smugly. “Ah well that was me. I know companies prefer older staff, especially when they are working with the opposite sex, but I had a hunch that you would succeed where others had failed with EXO. Their CEO reluctantly agreed to trial you and had to admit he was pleasantly surprised after receiving the one month evaluations of the members progress.” 

Noticing that you weren’t going to add any more to that discussion, Mr. Kim moved on. He scrolled through the document until he reached the heading indicating the second criterion. “Before I move into discussing the external evaluations I would like to say that I am personally very impressed that you took on the feedback provided after your time with Blackpink and applied it to EXO. You managed to become more familiar with them and it shows in the reviews from the others. I strongly believe that this improvement is what made this job such a success for you.” He gestured towards you. “So I wanted to commend you on the large improvement in this area.”

You smiled. “Thank you Mr. Kim. Your advice was intrinsic to the development of the tailored lessons as well as my comfortability in becoming closer with the members so that we could work together to the best of our abilities.”

“As you know from the feedback from both managers and members, you exceeded expectations in this area, and everyone benefited from your approach. The CEO questioned whose idea it was for you to become closer to the members and expressed the concerns he had about it. Once I explained that it was feedback that you had been given from myself and the reasons why I felt it would improve outcomes, especially given your closeness in age to any 2nd or 3rd gen idols in comparison to the on staff teachers who were usually around the same age as the idols parents he understood. He stated that whilst he had his reservations about that kind of approach given the potential issues that could arise, dating scandals, sasaeng accusations, unprofessionalism etc. he could see how it worked in the members favour. The group had undergone quite a few hardships prior to this comeback, with members leaving and dating scandals damaging their public image. He stated that they were likely to be quite reserved and untrustworthy of someone new to their staff and that it would take a long time for them to begin to trust a new staff member. However, you managed to make them feel comfortable and not lose the authority you had over them as their teacher, whilst remaining respectful at all times. He said he was very pleasantly surprised by this.” He sat back in his chair while you processed his words. Mr. Kim had only had meetings with you a handful of times before this, but he already knew to let you take a moment while his words sunk in before having you respond. 

A weight lifted off your shoulders. Yes, you recalled the nature of the meeting you had with the managers and Junmyeon whilst overseas, but your brain had managed to twist their inarguably positive feedback into statements that you had turned over in your mind repeatedly as you second guessed every moment you’d spent with the members. Knowing that the CEO was reviewing all of the work you had completed overseas had stressed you more than you had realised. It was as if you could feel the tension leaving your body every time Mr. Kim read out his feedback. 

“I’m glad my efforts have been recognised, and that I’ve shown improvement in this area. I also understand the concerns their CEO had. We had meetings with the members and their managers regarding safety and security of both the members and myself to ensure no photos were snapped if we were not on a schedule. The last thing any of us wanted to do was bring negative attention to this working relationship. We also discussed at length the boundaries we should draw in order to not become overly familiar with each other and I believe that assisted greatly.” It wasn’t a lie as such. You really did have those meetings and you really did discuss those boundaries. It was just the managers weren’t present for the third meeting which involved you and the members working out how to put each other in line if any of you slipped and a glimpse of how close you really were slipped through. It was a miracle nothing ever happened in view of other staff or the public, but there were a couple of close calls. You’d all been very lucky in that regard.

Mr. Kim powered on. “On to the final point, we’ve never had any issues with your work ethic or professionalism, and neither have the members or managers. Their feedback was passed on to the CEO, who praised you for being available at short notice in order to fit with the members busy schedules. He was also very happy that the members did not abuse this clause in your contract but rather made sure the others were aware if one of them had required you early in the morning or late at night so that they could avoid overworking you.” Mr. Kim closed the document. “I’ll be honest, he got rather sidetracked at this point and spent a good ten minutes praising his EXO boys. I can assure you that he was very pleased with both your work ethic and professionalism. He agreed with the manager's statements that you clearly succeeded at your role, exceeding all expectations that were had of you.” He chuckled as he shook his head. “But once he starts talking about those boys it is hard to shut him up. You’d think they were his sons sometimes.”

You allowed yourself a pleased hum at the feedback you’d received. High marks in all areas of assessment. Exceeded expectations, exemplary results. “Thank you Mr. Kim. I’m very glad that my hard work paid off and that my approach was successful for the members.” You paused. “However, as much as I want to just bask in this feedback, I am too curious about my contract. Did their CEO happen to mention if he planned to renew my contract, or are you finding me a new group to work with?” You needed to know, and you needed to know like two weeks ago at this point. 

Mr. Kim, to his credit, did not outright laugh at your impatience. Instead he opened a drawer and pulled out a manila folder. “I understand that this must have been weighing on your mind these past few weeks.” 

You nodded. “You would be very correct.”

“He did come to a decision. I won’t draw this out as I can tell you just want me to get to the point. He was incredibly impressed by your determination and competency, and as we all know, the results speak for themselves. He does want to offer another contract, however it would differ from your current one.” He stated.

“How so?” You asked.

“Firstly, this contract would not commence until three months from now.” He explained. “They want you to continue your work with the company, working with all of their artists. EXO would take priority if and when they have any overseas schedules that would require them to speak English. The rest of the time you would assist whichever groups or artists he deems in need of your skills. You would also offer lessons in the company like you did whilst EXO were in Japan during your contract.” Mr. Kim slid the folder across the table for you to pick up and look over. 

“I am grateful to have the opportunity to continue to work with SM. Like I said in my meeting overseas, I have been treated exceptionally well by their company, its staff and idols and welcomed the opportunity to continue working with EXO, be assigned to another group within the company or as an in-house teacher/translator.” Well there it was, they had offered another contract. You could keep working for SM, potentially with the guys as long as their schedules required English, but you’d still be in the same building as them. There was a decent break before commencement which was nice, but you did have concerns about your income. Not working for three months would be a struggle for you financially. “I do have questions regarding the three month break in between contracts though.”

“I believe my next statement should cover whatever concerns you have.” He directed your attention to another section of the new contract. “During that time, SM has stated that they will contact you for freelance work if/when required but that you are also not exclusively bound to the label during that time, so you can assist other companies and artists. This will allow you to continue to earn income and gain further experience in this field. I will also say that you will find in the proposed contract that your fees have increased. I did not consult you on that, but felt that you had every right to request a higher rate given the success of your work thus far. I would encourage you to take a break for a couple of weeks, more if you wanted to take this opportunity to visit home, before letting me know you are ready for some more work with other artists. I do have one group in particular that I think would work for this short timeframe. They have not yet debuted but they do have varying levels of proficiency in English, varying from fluency to what is taught in our schools here.” He waved a hand in front of his face as he realised he’d said too much. “But that is a discussion for another date, I’m getting ahead of myself.”

You smiled, genuinely too. This was wonderful news and it settled a large part of your anxiety to have secured more work, especially work that would require little change. “Thank you Mr. Kim. I’ll take this contract home to review but it sounds promising. I think I will take a couple of weeks off to rest and recuperate, but I would like to request a clause be added to this contract. I understand that I may have some further changes to request, but I’m reasonably certain this one won’t already be in there.”

“What would that request be?” He asked.

“An allowance for one or two weeks of consecutive leave within the next 6 months for me to visit my family. I’m not ready to make a trip home yet, but I know I will be during that time period and I don’t wish to be told that I cannot go. I would provide sufficient notice for the leave, unless there was an emergency, so as to not hinder the progress of their artists' lessons.” In your mind it sounded reasonable, and you’d heard of difficulties with obtaining leave from work in Korea, so you wanted to safeguard yourself as best as you could. 

“I’ll have our lawyers make the addition. We’ll hold off sending it to SM until you’ve read through the contract and made any other amendments.” He stood and shook your hand. “You’ve done well so far, and I continue to be impressed with your work.”

The meeting ended shortly after that which you were glad for. The feedback was self esteem boosting, and proved to yourself that you had done a great job, that your hard work had not only paid off but had been noticed. You also managed to tell yourself that your closeness with the guys wasn’t the sole factor for your success, they really did suck at English before your lessons and whilst the sex during the rewards and punishments was great, you were pretty sure you couldn’t learn a language purely from fucking. Somewhere along the lines, your lessons struck a chord with them and they wanted to learn, so they did, and it stuck. That was a job well done by you. 

After you left Mr. Kim’s office you put your phone back in normal mode.The group chat had been busy these past few hours. Message notifications flooded your phone as you began the commute home. They had pinned a message so that you wouldn’t miss it once you finally checked your phone.

[11:48AM] Minseok: Please tell us when you finish your meeting. Kyungsoo wants you to come up for dinner so you can tell all of us what the outcome was. 

The messages after were a chorus of predictions and bickering. 

[11:51AM] Jongin: I think SM will do another contract.

[11:51AM] Sehun: Well duh. They’d be stupid to let her help our competitors.

[11:52AM] Jongdae: Noona could make some sweet demands if they offer a new contract.

[11:52AM] Kyungsoo: Yeah, make SM work for it. Lord knows they’ve fucked over too many idols in contracts. If they offer a new one MAKE A LAWYER LOOK AT IT.

[11:53AM] Yixing: Make demands of your own too. Make that thing benefit you, coz if they offer a new contract it means they want to stop you from working with other companies.

[11:53AM] Chanyeol: MAKE. SM. WORK. FOR. YOU. You’ll have the upper hand and they don’t want you to know that.

[11:54AM] Baekhyun: Yeah, fuck SM!!!

[11:54AM] Junmyeon: Guys… 

[11:54AM] Minseok: Idk man, all I see is valid points being made.

[11:55AM] Junmyeon: I… you were meant to be on my side Minseok.

[11:55AM] Minseok: I never promised that. 

[11:55AM] Minseok: Fuck SM. 

[11:56AM] Kyungsoo: So I think we might be doing the opposite of encouraging you to consider taking another contract with them if they offer. What we mean to say is, have someone look over the contract, make some demands (because they have to acknowledge your worth now) and know that our disdain for our company comes from the nature of idol contracts which are VERY different to the kind of contract you would be offered. 

[11:56AM] Junmyeon: Thank you!

[11:57AM] Kyungsoo: Stop making me do your job man. 

There were another 500 messages after that (which you did not read), but you made sure to send one as requested

[3:30PM] You: Holy crap that is a lot of messages. No offence but I am not reading through all of them. As requested, I’m letting you know that I’ve finished my meeting. I’m heading back to the apartment now. What time do you want me up there for dinner?

[3:30PM] Kyungsoo: Food should be ready at 7 PM. 

[3:30PM] You: I’ll see everyone then.

***

“Noona, can we talk before you come up for dinner?” You’d picked up on the first ring when you’d seen Baekhyun’s name pop up.

He sounded unsure of himself, which was a rarity. “Sure Baek. Is everything ok?”

“I think so? I hope so.” He groaned in frustration. “Ugh I don’t know.”

Now you were getting concerned. Was he ok? “What’s going on?”

“I’ve been thinking about everything you talked about last night and I think I understand why you had to just unload everything all at once to us.” He took a deep breath. “My brain has been working too much and making too many scenarios for me to keep up with.” 

Well that you could relate to. You really didn’t wish the clusterfuck that had been your thoughts over this past week on anyone, so you empathised with Baek if he was suffering with the downward spiral that too many thoughts inevitably brought. “I get that. Would it help if you just tell me everything?”

He was quiet for a moment as he thought over his options. Quite likely he was worried that speaking to you would only make things worse. That’s precisely what made you a nervous wreck before you word vomited all over their living room last night. “Maybe. Might make everything worse, I don’t know.”

You tried to sound reassuring. It was always easier for you to provide comfort in person or via text. Over the phone was some strange middle ground where you didn’t always stick the landing. “It’s just me. Since when have we ever not been able to talk to each other?”

“You’re right.” He said. “Fuck. Ok.” Yeah, he was nervous. Should you be nervous? Was he about to reject you? Was he going to confess? No. You needed to remain as calm as possible. He was the one allowed to freak out right now, not you. 

You pushed your growing anxiety down and said as reassuringly as you could. “I’m right here. Promise.”

You heard him take a steadying breath before he started speaking. “I guess I’ve been trying to work out where things stand between us.” He said. “It’s never just been friendship between you and I. There was always flirtation and we only got bolder with it as time went on until we had sex, which I know was as a result of my lesson, but I don’t know, we only had the lesson because we were about to fuck and you stopped it from happening until after that. I guess it felt like more than just because of the reward stuff I guess. It felt like something that was inevitable, like we were orbiting each other until we would ultimately collide.” He took a breath, meanwhile your heart was hammering in your chest. 

“I know we’ve discussed it and both agreed that there was something more there, some kind of feelings neither of us had addressed. I don’t know how you feel now, but for me, after we slept together those feelings only intensified. I still didn’t know what they were so I just assumed they were born from lust but when you asked for space and then went silent for days I realised that they weren’t feelings of lust. I realised that I care deeply for you and the very thought of you not being in my life hurt me to my very core. I know it was just sex for you and everyone else but for me, I can’t say for sure, but I think I like you as far more than a friend and would not be satisfied just being a fuck buddy. I know I said I would never entertain us ever being able to actually be a real thing but I want that so much that it is physically painful. I needed to tell you before we all talked tonight because I want to be selfish and pursue you myself but I don’t know where you stand. I don’t know if I’m making a fool of myself right now and you’re thinking of the nicest way to reject me or if you don’t know how you feel or if you feel the same. All I know is that I barely slept last night after I realised all of this and I had to say something.”

“Baek,” You started.

He didn’t let you get the words out, not that you even knew what those words would be. So maybe him interrupting you was for the best right now. “I know this is a lot to dump on you, I know that, but I needed to say it.”

You weren’t sure if you were ready to tell him everything you realised on your call last night. It was still too confusing. Still too fresh. But you also couldn’t leave him hanging with nothing after he just poured his heart out to you. “You know I have feelings for you, just that at the time I didn’t know what those feelings were.”

“Have you worked it out since then?” He all but whispered, as though he was scared of what your response would be. 

You couldn’t say it yet. You couldn’t say it until you believed it yourself. It wasn’t fair to him, but you couldn’t bring yourself to utter the words back to him. Not yet. “I think so but I’m not sure. I am so scared of ruining everything Baek.”

“I’ll let you think some more, but I want you to know that for me it is about much more than sex now. So think about how you feel and ask yourself if you feel the way you feel about me with anyone else?” He tried his best not to sound deflated, but you didn’t miss the pang of hurt in his voice as he spoke. He’d just confessed to you and whilst you hadn’t rejected him, you hadn’t reciprocated his feelings. You felt overwhelmed. You needed to say something, but what? What could you possibly say when you weren’t ready to admit how you felt, when you were too terrified to ask for what you wanted.”

You had to say something. For him, you couldn’t just leave him with nothing. “I -”

He cut you off again, though this time it was probably out of fear that you would reject his confession. “Don’t answer now. Just think about it and we’ll talk later. Bye noona.” He hung up before you could attempt to speak again.

You hung your head in shame. Why couldn’t you just tell him? You didn’t realise you were crying until you felt a tear hit your hand. You sank to the floor and let yourself cry for a few minutes, too overwhelmed with emotion to even try to stop the tears from falling. You felt guilty for not being able to tell him how you felt, for feeling like you were toying with his heart. This sweet, funny and endearing man, who had been so good to you. When he needed you the most, you’d choked. You didn’t deserve the feelings he harboured for you, how could you if you couldn’t even respond to him. How could you be deserving of that love when you all but pushed him away. 

By some stroke of luck your eyes weren’t too red or puffy when you checked them before leaving your apartment. You really hoped your night didn’t end with you returning to this apartment to cry over a ruined relationship. There was only one way to find out, and in order to do that, you needed to walk out your front door and head upstairs.

***

“Alright, how did the meeting go?” Sehun broke the silence that was permeating the dinner table. Everyone had greeted you when you’d arrived, and made some small talk about their day. That felt strange. You’d never lacked for conversation with these men, but now they seemed to be walking on eggshells around you and you weren’t sure if it was because they were trying to protect themselves or you from where this evening went.

Regardless, you decided to put on a brave face and do your best to hear them out without breaking down. You felt exposed, fragile and breakable. But you pretended otherwise as best as you could. You just hoped they couldn’t see through the facade. “Really well. The feedback was all very positive and everyone agreed that I did an excellent job. Your CEO expressed his concerns about my boss and the managers suggesting that we be more personable but he agreed that the fact that we did that probably served as a catalyst for the success of the lessons.”

“That’s fantastic news!” Jongin said, far louder than he or anyone else at the table were prepared for. Everyone, Jongin included, jumped a little at his volume. He muttered a bashful apology afterwards, stating that he was just really happy for you.

You smiled at him. He was so very different to what the general public saw when he was onstage. He was soft spoken and endearing beyond words. “I’m also really grateful for the feedback you guys provided. I didn’t get a chance to say it before so I’ll say it now, thank you. Your words meant so much to me.” It was the honest truth. You had no idea that they would be asked for feedback about your work, and while they could have provided generic positive feedback they didn’t. Instead they provided in depth feedback about your abilities and how well you had worked with them. You would be forever grateful for the kind words contained in their feedback.

Kyungsoo decided to add to the conversation, his soft yet commanding voice cutting through your thoughts. “Bias aside, you earned that feedback. We did our best to only give the facts and not let our friendship cloud our opinions of you.”

“You cannot deny that we sucked at English before you noona.” Chanyeol quipped, laughing as he spoke.

Junmyeon looked personally attacked by his words. “Speak for yourself!”

“No, he’s right. We were bad at it.” Minseok laughed. “Like really fucking awful.”

Yixing pushed the food around on his plate with his chopsticks. “Anyway, uh, not to be pushy or anything but did you talk about what’s next for you?” He briefly locked eyes with you before diverting his gaze back to his plate.

“Yeah we did. Uh, they offered me another contract.” You saw all nine heads suddenly turn towards you and felt their gazes on you. “I do have to read over it and make sure it's fair but essentially they want to put me on contract for another 2 years. If EXO has schedules requiring English, then me teaching you takes priority over other groups, otherwise I’m free to work with any artists under the SM umbrella. Your CEO may assign me a group to work with, or managers may request my help. If no one requests then I’m kind of an in-house teacher/translator.”

Jongdae grinned. “I’m not going to lie, I’m glad they offered you more work, they would have been idiots not to, but it does mean you won’t be a stranger.”

Minseok was more hesitant as he spoke.“What are your thoughts on it, just based on the offer given you haven’t read it yet.”

You sat back in your chair, contemplating your response. “I’ve only had good experiences with SM so far, so the offer sounds good to me. I know a lot of the staff, I know the building, the resources, I know some of the artists, obviously I know all of you and work well with you. It feels like a good choice over starting anew elsewhere and hoping that I’m treated as well as I am here.” You smiled a little. “Plus, I get to see you guys if I’m still here, that’s a bonus.” 

A smile finally formed on Minseok’s face. “I know we may have come across a bit brash earlier but,”

“Oh don’t worry. I already had a copy sent to a lawyer to look over it, and I also made a request for a leave allotment to be added into the contract.” You cut him off, already guessing what he was referring to from the earlier flood of messages. “Once I read through it myself I’ll discuss it with my lawyer and make any other changes that need doing then return it to Mr. Kim to negotiate for me.”

The unanimous response that came from all of them was creepily synchronised. “Good.” 

You thanked all of them for their kind words again. “The contract won’t start for a few months, so until then I’m likely going to be freelancing. Mr. Kim has an idea of another group I can work with briefly before I become exclusive to SM. I think I’m going to take a couple of weeks off before committing to any of that though. I need some time to recalibrate.” 

“Uh I guess that brings us to the elephant in the room.” Junmyeon said.

You waved your hands in front of you, not sure you would ever be ready for this conversation, but after how well the contract renewal offer had just gone you were apprehensive about the ‘what are we’ conversation. “Oh, we really don’t have to talk about it yet. I only mentally unloaded on all of you last night so if you need to take more time before discussing with me, please do.”

He chuckled awkwardly. “That’s the funny thing I think. Without really realising it we have discussed it over the past few months as things progressed.”

“Oh.”

He straightened in his seat and looked directly at you. “Yeah. We kind of realised that last night when we started trying to discuss it.” He shifted, trying to get comfortable in his head. That was the only sign you had that he was equally as nervous about this conversation as you were. “I think we should each just speak for ourselves and then go from there?” He offered.

All you could do was nod. “That seems fair.” This was happening. You weren’t sure you were prepared for it, regardless of what they said. 

“As the leader I’ll go first.” He shifted again, this time his eyes looked everywhere but you as he spoke. “I, well, uh, I’ve actually just started seeing someone. It’s very early days but I really like her and want to pursue things with her. My parents introduced us and weirdly we kind of hit it off, which is not what usually happens when my parents play matchmaker.” 

You thought you’d feel sad at being told someone wasn’t romantically interested in you, because that’s what this was right? He was dating someone and he really liked them. But rather than feeling like you’d been stabbed in the heart you felt happy for him. “So at present, pursuing anything other than friendship with you isn’t something I’m interested in. I also think we work better as friends and don’t want to lose the relationship we’ve got. We did have the least amount of sexual interaction so I don’t think it will have any impact on our friendship moving forward.” Once he finished speaking he lifted his gaze to you, apprehensively since he wasn’t sure how you’d react, but he visibly relaxed when he saw you beaming at him. “As long as a potential relationship with another member or members doesn’t leave anyone unsatisfied from the start then I give my blessings.”

“Are we going in age order?” Sehun asked.

Chanyeol replied. “That’s boring, just go in seating order.” 

“Fine.” Sehun sighed, resigned to his fate of being the next to speak. “Noona, I cannot deny that my punishment was fun and that I experienced more than I ever thought I would. But for me it was never that deep I guess.” He shrugged. “The punishment/reward was an opportunity to explore some fantasies with no strings attached with a person who I trusted. I think I’d be a shitty boyfriend to you as well, I can barely take care of myself, and it wouldn’t be fair to you to put up with that burden. I’m not boyfriend material yet.” He wasn’t wrong about that. He always turned up unannounced, never read the room, stole all your chocolates and sulked if he wasn’t the centre of attention. Well, not always, but it happened more than it probably should. Maknae privileges. “However, I am excellent bestie material. So I’d like to remain a very good friend to you.” You’d been rejected as a romantic partner but once again, you didn’t feel sad. Sehun was an excellent friend to have. He loved chatting so he always had good gossip and he was so beloved that he could almost get away with murder. He smiled softly at you, hoping you weren’t disappointed in his choice. 

Kyungsoo took a sip from his glass of water before grounding himself and speaking. “There are circumstances where I could see myself truly falling for you. You have a lot of the qualities that I look for in a partner. But I have to be truly honest with myself, and if I do that then I have to say that right now, I am so insanely career driven - both with music and acting. It doesn’t leave much time to fit in a relationship in a way that is fair to either person.” Logical reasoning. You understood that, but much like you had forced yourself to do last night, you wondered where his heart lay in this. “Our reward was incredibly fun, and something I would do again in a heartbeat, but it would be with no strings attached. I value your friendship above everything else and I also think that whilst you put poly on the table as an option, and it is not something I’m opposed to, I can’t ignore the fact that Baekhyun clearly has feelings for you that run deeper than I originally thought. So I think it would be unfair to pursue anything with you to see if feelings develop when one of us is already carrying that torch for you.” 

You were shocked. Baekhyun barely even reacted to Kyungsoo’s words, something that unnerved you. You could feel him staring at you. Was he that obvious to them? Had he told them? Kyungsoo wanted to simply remain friends, and if he wasn’t so aware of how Baekhyun felt then he would have been fine to have a friends with benefits kind of situationship going on. You weren’t really sure what to do with that information. It was very flattering, but did you want to entertain someone who wasn’t sure if they had feelings for you? 

Too impatient to wait to see if you were going to respond to anything that had just been said, Jongin began speaking. “You have been one of my closest friends since the start. You looked after me when the guys were on tour while I was injured and we hung out so much. I think we bonded over fried chicken and movies.” He smiled fondly at the memory. “You were one of the first people that I’ve met since we debuted who wanted to know me for me, not for who I was as an idol. I agree with hyung, there is a future where I could see myself falling for you under the right circumstances, you’re kind of loveable like that noona, but I would trade that possibility in an instant for your friendship. It means the world to me. I also think there’s one of us who has real feelings for you and it makes me giddy to think of the two of you together.” Did he also mean Baekhyun or was there another member harbouring feelings for you?

The chair next to Jongin scraped on the floor as Jongdae tried to adjust his sitting position. If he’d been going to cool, calm and collected - he’d failed. He looked stressed beyond belief. Was it him? Did he have feelings for you? “Ok so, like the others I cannot deny how highly I value your friendship,” Ok so not him then. “or the fact that I am a person with two working eyes and have spent too much time around Baekhyun to not notice his feelings for you.” You glanced at Baekhyun who still seemed to be checked out of the conversation, even with his eyes locked on you. His gaze was somehow blank and intense at the same time. Did he not care what anyone else was saying about you? Was he really going to be that selfish? He said he wanted you to himself but did that mean that if anyone else at this table confessed that you’d have to reject both of them? Because if he was going to be this indifferent, especially when they kept talking about his feelings for you, then surely picking one person would only lead to a rift forming within the group. “All of that said, I’ve also kind of been seeing someone. And I like her, like a lot, like an insufferable amount. 

Minseok saw the opportunity to chime in. “He dreamt about having kids with her last night.” He smirked.

Jongdae looked mortified. “SHUT UP. Um, yeah. So that’s a thing and I just want my friend who I can ask questions to when I’m about to fuck everything up with my possible future wife. God I sound lame, I’m just going to stop talking now.” He sunk down in his chair, put his forehead on the table and banged it against the wood a few times. Minseok and a few others tried really hard not to laugh at him, but they failed miserably.

Chanyeol’s eyes darted around the table as he decided to try and pull focus from Jongdae, who appeared like he was waiting for the ground to open up and swallow him whole. “I uh, yeah I’m not dating anyone per se, but I’m also not looking to be tied down in a relationship right now.” Sehun snorted. “God, I sound like such a fuckboy saying that, but I think you kind of awoke some sort of confidence in me and I just want to play the field.” You heard a muttered “And absolutely no one is surprised you moron.” from Kyungsoo and had to stifle a laugh as Chanyeol continued to speak. 

“I care for you a lot, and I know one of us cares deeply for you so I want to leave things with us as friends. You’re interesting and fun to be around, you’re competitive in silly games and aren’t a sore loser. Hah, I could probably learn a thing or two from you there. Anyway, yeah. That’s me done.” Again someone saying that another member had feelings for you, but not specifying who. So did he mean Baek or did Yixing or Minseok also harbour feelings for you?  You were surprised how at peace you felt with everyone only wanting friendship from you - so far. Kyungsoo admitting he’d fuck you again in a heartbeat had shocked you. That man was usually much more reserved than that. 

Yixing was sitting next to you so he turned to you as he spoke. “Ah my sweet lady. I like you a lot,” He took your hand, his thumb caressing the back of your palm gently. “and honestly if I let myself I could so easily fall for you, but I’m also a workaholic to a fault. I have such high ambitions and drive for myself that I tend to fill up every minute I’m not on a schedule with more work.” He laughed. “If it weren’t for these guys, I’d probably forget to sleep.” He paused and you felt the room somehow grow even quieter. What the fuck was he about to drop on you that everyone else this still? “I’m also headed back to China in a few weeks and, ah this sucks,” He hung his head, clearly upset about having to leave Korea again. “I don’t know when I’ll get to come back this time. The political climate has never been great between our two countries but right now it is really tense.” 

Ah, that explained the feeling in the room. He was leaving and no one knew when or if he would return. You felt sad. You were going to miss him a lot, as were the rest of the guys. He always worked too hard when he was away from the group because no one on his team in China seemed to grasp how hard he would work himself unless they forced him to stop and take a rest. You returned your attention to the man in front of you. He sighed sadly. “So I’m going back and working on music as a soloist, working on some acting projects and would hopefully be back next year for our new album, but it's all kind of up in the air. I couldn’t burden you with any of the long distance crap and it wouldn’t be fair to either of us to even try to date and explore any feelings we may have when there would be such difficulty actually seeing each other. It will be a big enough strain on our friendship so whoever does end up dating you has my full support as long as they let me smother you with hugs when I return.” You were confused. His words made it seem like if it weren’t for returning to China, that he would want to date you, but he hadn’t said that he had feelings for you, just that he could see himself having feelings. Was it kind of like Kyungsoo’s situation? You let go of his hand as Chanyeol pulled him backwards into a big hug.

Minseok tapped you on the shoulder to get you to turn towards him. He smiled softly at you then took a deep breath. “Alright then.” He started. You knew he hated airing his business in front of others so regardless of what he was about to say, it was likely stressing him out. “Ah, well you and I probably had the most sex out of the group given the fuck buddy arrangement we’ve had going on. It was mostly stress relief and if we weren’t to have a physical relationship anymore, I don’t think it would drastically change our relationship. I value my movie nights with you over sex so ultimately I don’t want to lose my friendship with you. I trust you implicitly and we’ve both seen each other's ugly sides and haven’t run away from them. I could see circumstances where we pursue a romantic relationship, but like yourself, I haven’t really allowed my feelings to come into play so I’d be content just being your friend.” He glanced towards Baekhyun, who was staring at you. “Like the others, I also cannot ignore Baekhyun’s feelings towards you. I in no way want to come between what could be something beautiful between the two of you.”

Baekhyun doesn’t speak. He hasn’t said a word since you set foot in the dorm and he hasn’t averted his gaze from you the entire time. You could feel it boring into you while everyone spoke. He hadn’t said anything to correct anyone about his feelings for you and it seemed like he had no plans to speak in front of them either. You gave him a few moments to see if he was going to say anything, and noticed the way the others all looked towards him when he chose to remain silent.

You decided to respond to everyone else. Just because Baekhyun was choosing to be silent for the first time in his life didn’t mean it was fair to leave the eight other men in the lurch after they had all just told you how they felt. They needed to know how you were feeling about everything. “Well ok, this makes everything easier. After we spoke last night I did a lot more thinking about our relationships and where I wanted to stand with each of you. I came to the conclusion that your friendship means more to me than anything else and so with that, I was going to say that I think it is for the best that we don’t sleep together anymore. It kind of worked out well that all of you landed on that conclusion as well. Like some of you said, there are circumstances where I could see myself falling for you, but I’m also aware of how that would not be fair to explore, given everything. I love each of you in my own way, and I’m so happy that I get to keep my friends.” You could actually hear the en masse exhale that they let out once they heard you speak. They hadn’t hurt your feelings and everything was going to be ok. “The only thing I’ll ask, actually no - it’s more of a demand at this point - is that you stop being so awkward around me now. Things can go back to how they were, just don’t cross the line into being too inappropriate.”

They all laugh and agree, and just like that the strange tension that had surrounded the dorm disappears. However, one cloud of tension remains, concentrated solely around Baekhyun. He dropped his gaze when you’d spoken and hadn’t lifted it from the floor since. If anyone was worried about Baekhyun’s silence, they didn’t show it. You’d have to take him aside and speak with him soon enough. You’d promised to talk to him tonight. 

You continued to tell everyone how happy you were that they all wanted to remain friends with you, whilst also pressing Junmyeon and Jongdae for details about their dating life. You can practically see the hearts in their eyes when they talk about the new women in their lives and honestly, you couldn’t be happier for them. Poly was a fun idea to put on the table but it was never going to work long term for these guys. Logistically, emotionally or publicly. So it was for the best that none of you decided to venture down that path. 

Once everyone began to disperse you moved towards Baek and asked “Baek, can we speak privately?.” He shrugged but didn’t say no. He didn’t say anything. You walked towards his room and he followed you. You weren’t sure what the shift in him was from earlier this evening. Earlier he seemed like he wanted to date you, but now he wouldn’t even look at you and he looked so dejected and sullen, like he was fighting off tears. “Hey, Baek. Are you ok?” You asked. You wanted to reach out to comfort him but you weren’t sure if that would make matters worse. You had no idea what he was feeling.

He nodded in response, still not uttering a word. 

“Sweetie, you need to speak to me if you want me to believe you.”

“I’m just.” He sighed, “I guess I’m just struggling. Like of course I want to keep you as a friend, not having you in my life would be too hard, but I guess I was really hoping you’d work out your feelings for me as more than that.” He stared at the ceiling as he tried to remain calm but you could tell he was beginning to crack. “I know it wouldn’t be easy dating me, not because of who I am as a person, but because I’m an idol. Like we’d have to be secretive and couldn’t be all couply and go on normal dates like normal couples and maybe you don’t want to date someone who has to hide you. It’s just hard coz I realised all these feelings recently and now I’ve gotta reconcile with them and stuff them away. Which I will do, you are too important to me to not still be friends, but not gonna lie, it’ll be hard for me for a while I think.”

He just wanted to be friends now? But when he’d spoken to you earlier, he said he wanted so much more than that. You were so confused. “Baek, what are you on about?”

His head snapped back to stare at you incredulously. “What am I on about?!” He exclaimed, clearly frustrated and hurt. “You just told all of us that you want to remain friends with us. After I told you about how I felt earlier. So I guess I am not doing great with the rejection ok?”

Oh. Oh. Oh no. He’d misunderstood horribly. You’d responded to the others because they’d spoken. None of what you said at the table was for him because he hadn’t spoken. “No, oh my god no, you’ve misunderstood.” 

He looked so hurt, close to breaking as he responded. “What?”

You tried to remain calm, hoping it would make him calm. “Baek, I want to remain friends with the eight of them. I didn’t want to announce my feelings for you in front of them because you weren’t speaking. I didn’t know if you’d told any of them how you felt or if they’d all just worked it out, but then you didn’t speak. You stared at me the entire time but then you said nothing.” You paused as you took a step closer to him. “Plus my confession should be for your ears only first.”

He staggered backwards, not at all prepared for the words you’d said. “Wait, what are you saying?”

You locked eyes with him and did not break eye contact as you spoke. You needed to be certain that he heard you loud and clear. You’d been too weak to say it earlier, even though you knew how you felt. He deserved to hear it hours ago, but you couldn’t turn back time, so hearing it now would have to do. “Byun Baekhyun, I like you, a lot. Way more than is healthy for me I think. I want you in my life, I want to have you as one of my closest friends but I also want so much more. I want to be able to hold you, flirt with you, do domestic as fuck things with you, date you in whatever capacity we can date. I know that won’t be easy, I’m not naive about the secrecy that dating would require but to me you’re worth it. I want all of you, and I don’t want to share my romance with anyone but you. I’m not against bedroom scenarios that involve guests but I want you and only you as the person I fall even further for.”

“Fuck.” He whispered.

“Yeah. I want to do a lot of that too. You have no idea, but this is supposed to be romantic, not a confession from a horny teenager.” You both laughed. “I don’t know when my feelings changed or if I’d just ignored the way I felt about you for a long time but once I sat down and thought about my options with all of you, and spoke very discreetly with my best friend back home, I realised how sad I was every time I thought of not being able to be anything other than a friend to you. For every other member I was fine with the prospect of just friendship, but with you, it made me inexplicably sad.”

“Are you sure? Because don’t get me wrong, I want this, but it would be stupid of me to not understand the reality of it. Like you said, we won’t be able to go out on dates like a normal couple. We would have to be so careful. So unbelievably careful.” He paused as he took a couple of steps towards you, closing the distance between the two of you. “I think at this point a dating scandal wouldn’t ruin my career nor would it ruin EXO, but I’d be so worried about you.” He reached out to brush a stray strand of hair behind your ear, his hand lightly resting on your cheek afterwards. His eyes shone bright with emotion. He cared so much about you. “People can be so cruel, and I don’t want to see you hurt by their words should anything leak.”

You placed your hand over his, your eyes glistening with emotion. You knew his feelings for you, and he knew how you felt about him yet he still took the time to worry when he could be kissing you. “I don’t know that there is any way to prepare for the hate that would come my way if something got out about us, but I think that unless there was evidence of us in some compromising position it would be easy for SM to deny the rumours. In some ways working for the company and with the group allows for us to be seen together. We’d just have to keep things very work oriented when we aren’t in the safety of our homes.”

Baekhyun let out a shuddering breath. “I’m, fuck, why am I scared?”

You smiled. “Because. We really like each other. Fear is natural when you have something to lose but I think that just means trying to hang on to that special thing, or person in this instance, is worth anything that could be thrown at us. I’d like to think you wouldn’t just abandon me the moment a rumour comes out.”

He shook his head instantly. “I wouldn’t. I promise.”

“Then yeah, I’m all in on trying this thing. You and I. Exclusive. Together.”

His eyes widened at your words, like he still couldn’t quite believe this was happening. All the bravado you’d seen throughout the rest of your relationship with him was gone. The man who stood before you now was Baekhyun stripped bare. He was beautiful, inside and out. You don’t know how you denied yourself these feelings for so long, but if you continued to do so the sheer weight of what you felt might just consume you. “Is this really happening?” He asked.

“It is if you agree to it.” You replied. You stared up at him as you waited for him to accept your feelings and close the gap between you.

He leant in. “I can’t believe you actually like me. Didn’t you once say I was the most annoying person in the world?” He whispered. He was so close you could feel the ghost of the movement of his lips as he spoke.

“Maybe you’ll be less annoying if I get to call you mine.” Did he expect you to kiss him? Was he waiting for you to make the first move like you were waiting for him to do? 

“Oh. No. That’s where you’re wrong.” He smiled against your lips, the sensation of them touching but not kissing you was driving you insane. “I will be even more annoying if I’m yours.” His hand moved from your cheek to the back of your head, holding you in place.

“Still a risk I’m willing to take.” Baekhyun’s fingers tightened against your neck, stretching up into the edges of your hairline. He felt like he was trying to bring his own body as close to yours as possible. 

You waited for him to agree to date you, but he kept seemingly dodging a response. It was beginning to make your anxiety spike. What if he really liked you, admitted his feelings, yet still did not want to date you? Could you handle that? You didn’t think you could, not after laying your heart on the table for him like that. “Baek?” You asked.

“Yeah?” He replied as his free hand snaked around your waist, pressing your bodies against each other. You could feel your heart hammering in your chest as your breath hitched. 

“Please don’t leave me hanging.” You pleaded. You needed to hear him say it now that he knew how you felt. You felt light headed, and like your knees might buckle.

“What?” He sounded confused. The butterflies in your stomach felt like they were caught in a hurricane for how tingly you felt.

“I’ve told you what I want, confessed my feelings to you. B-but, you. You haven’t -” You struggled to get the words out.

He must have realised what you were trying to say as his grip on you tightened. “Fuck! Sorry noona, shit. I want to date the hell out of you.” You could feel how hard he was miling against your mouth as he spoke. “I’m excited for all the silly domestic things we can do. I want to buy couple pyjamas for us. I want to smother you with kisses and affection as much as I can when we are alone. If I don’t, I don’t think I’ll be able to handle my shit in public. I’m scared. I’m so so soooo happy, also a bit horny but that’s nothing new, mostly I’m just waiting to wake up from this dream.” You could feel yourself tremble, all the pent-up anxiety and fear and self-loathing having no other way to exit your body. The physical manifestation of the nerves wasn’t something you could control.

“Well could you hurry up and kiss me then?”

“Gladly.” Baekhyun closed the nonexistent gap between you as he pressed his lips against yours. The kiss started out softly, carefully and full of what could be referred to as love. He was kissing you with all the pent up emotion that he was now allowed to set free. You’d never been kissed like this before. Never been kissed in such a way where you could feel the emotion being poured into you. You felt desperate for him. It felt so good.

Baekhyun pressed harder against you as he kissed away all of your worries and doubts. You could feel how much he wanted you, more than just sexually, as his tongue swept across your lips, requesting entrance. You granted it readily, equally needing to devour him and reciprocate how you felt about him through the kiss. The raging butterflies in your stomach had morphed into tingling sensations that fluttered across every nerve ending. 

He pulled back just enough to cradle your face in his hands as he gazed at you with so much affection that you felt like you might combust. “I feel like I’ve gone crazy,” he chucked. “He didn’t allow you space to speak before jumping in to continue kissing you. 

You continued to kiss and hold each other for a while, trying to make up for lost time as you attempted to express every emotion via kisses. Some soft and loving, others rough and demanding. It’s you who pulled away the next time, as you both tried to catch your respective breaths. “We should tell the others.”

Baekhyun nodded. “Yeah, and then can we please go to your apartment? I just want to spend time with you. I don’t care if we just hold each other and make out or if we do more, I just want to be close to you.”

“That sounds perfect to me.” You pressed a chaste kiss to his lips before you grabbed his hand. “Let’s go before we change our minds and they find us in here.” 

The two of you headed back out towards the living area hand in hand. The others all appeared to be caught up in various discussions but they stop once someone notices yours and Baekhyun’s intertwined hands. Baekhyun cleared his throat, unable to keep the smile off his face as he exclaimed. “We’re dating, and I hope all of you can be happy for us because, speaking for myself here, I’m really happy right now. I thought I’d lost her earlier tonight but as usual I misunderstood.” He smiled down at you. “Thank fuck it was a misunderstanding, otherwise all of you would be dealing with me being mopey and heartbroken.” 

One by one the members got up and came forward to embrace the two of you. You were over the moon with the outcome from this evening. You’d secured a new contract, didn’t have to move companies, got to keep some of the best friends you’d ever had and gained a boyfriend. Pretty productive night if you said so yourself. However, you couldn’t help but notice that neither Minseok or Kyungsoo had approached the two of you since Baekhyun’s announcement.

In fact, neither of them were even in the room. Suddenly the lights dimmed and the two missing members entered the room, holding a cake. It wasn’t anyone’s birthday. What was the cake for? As they got closer you heard the other members giggling and grew suspicious. Any of these men giggling was never a good sign. Finally the cake came into view as the two of them stood before you and Baekhyun. “Yah!” Baekhyun laughed as he tried his hardest to sound mad. “Did you fucking plan this?!”

“Dude, you could not have been more obvious in your affections as far as we were concerned. “Kyungsoo deadpanned. “After we all talked last night it became pretty obvious that none of us felt the same way you did, and whilst some of us could see ourselves reaching that point, we weren’t there now. We were always expecting you to confess, and well, noona, you were always closer to Baek than any of us. There was always something brewing under the surface there so we had faith that you’d reciprocate his feelings. So we figured baking a cake for the occasion was a sure bet.” 

“You did have us worried when you didn’t say a single word at the table but I’m glad to see it all worked out. We did change the message on the cake just in case you hadn’t confessed to each other by the time you came back out of the room.” Minseok smirked. You finally diverted your gaze to the cake. And laughed. You laughed so hard that you struggled to breathe.

Hurry up and confess to each other so we can celebrate.

“This was your amendment?!” You managed to splutter in between laughs.

Kyungsoo grinned. “Yeah. The original message said Congratulations on realising your feelings.” 

“I hate all of you, just so you know.” Baekhyun grumbled, though it was not even remotely convincing what with the huge smile on his face.

“You love us.” Minseok said. “And we’re very happy for you.”

“Now eat the damn cake. I baked it with love.” Kyungsoo said as he thrust the cake towards the two of you.

“You baked for us?” You asked as you smiled.

“Of course I did. I’d only let the others bake if I wanted you to be poisoned. I don’t know how he’d manage it but Junmyeon could give you food poisoning even if all the ingredients were in date. What do you take me for, a monster?” He replied, unable to wipe the smile off his face.

***

After the cake had been eaten,you and Baekhyun decided that it was time to take your leave and head down to your apartment for the night.  You made your way around the room to bid each of the members goodnight, and to give each of them a warm hug. You held Yixing extra tight, promising to come have a movie day with him before he had to return to China. You also made him promise to schedule video calls with you so you could keep in touch. He swore that we would and you planned to hold him to that promise.

Minseok walked the two of you to the door. The three of you chatted easily as you and Baekhyun put your shoes on. You were enveloped in a strong embrace as Minseok held you and told Baekhyun to take good care of you because you now had eight friends who would gut him if he hurt you. The weight of his words was diminished when he posed the exact same threat to you. Baekhyun laughed at his protective hyung, cooing at how cute he was for threatening the two of you. 

He didn’t let go of you as he reached out to playfully slap Baekhyun. To his credit, Baekhyun let the two of you have your moment as he watched you both silently. 

You should have known better. Silence and Baekhyun were never a good mix. “So what if I want Minseok to join in every now and again?” He said as though he was talking about the weather.

“What?!” You both spluttered.

Baekhyun shrugged. “Noona, Hyung, you should see your faces.” He giggled. “I’m only half kidding though.”

“Yeah, you are going to have to say more than that dude.” Minseok groaned.

Baekhyun smiled at both of you. “I don’t know about either of you, but if I had to take a wild guess - we all had a better than good time during hyung’s reward. I’m just not opposed to something like that happening again, obviously not a frequent thing, but yeah. I’m sure you are more than capable of taking charge in the bedroom noona but it was really fucking hot watching both of you and being told what to do. So uh, yeah, just saying I’m happy to leave that door open for a future session.”

“Baek, you can’t just say things like that as though it's normal conversation.” You replied.

“What made you decide to bring that up now of all times?” Minseok asked as you spoke.

“To answer noona - Is that a no to my idea then? Coz like, that’s also fine. To answer hyung - I was reminded of it when the two of you were hugging.”

Minseok shook his head at the younger man. “You’re fucking weird dude.” 

“You like it.” Baekhyun quipped.

“I don’t dislike it.” He agreed. “Look, I’m down as long as it doesn’t become weird. It was fun, it was deeply satisfying and it was hot, but not something I’d be willing to ruin our friendships over.” 

You finally found some words, not quite believing where the night had taken you. “I feel the same. So uh, I guess at such a time when we want to involve a third, we know who to call…”

“This cannot be my life.” Minseok shook his head in disbelief and pointed towards the door. “Can you two leave already so I don’t get sprung with any more headache inducing conversation topics?”

Baekhyun grabbed your hand and led you through the door. “Let’s go angel.”

You were content, more than content as you stepped across the threshold with Baekhyun, who was now your boyfriend, you supposed. You’d have to discuss labels later. You wanted to spend the entire night in his arms, and like him you did not care if that was while you watched movies, played games, talked, or expressed your feelings for each other in a much more physical manner. All you knew was you felt right, you felt loved and cherished and you felt like you were in a state of utter bliss. 

A/N: Thank you if you've stuck with me over the course of the past 7 years. I simply don't have the words to express my gratitude to everyone who made it to this point of my lil fic. Well it was supposed to be little. It was supposed to be 9 chapter of pwp and only take me a couple of months to write but then all of this happened. I grew as a writer through this fic and explored different aspects of what I could write. I'm proud of this fic and glad that it didn't become another one of those unfinished fics on the internet.

☫ P r o l o g u e ☫

Darkness.

Cold wind.

The moon.

The only things you can see and feel in the farthest part of the woods.

A flash of shadow rushed around the empty area, leaves flying away as the fast wind passed them. Its deep chuckle slightly echoing in the darkness, adding more eerie chills in the empty place. The moon was the only light hovering over the woods.

"Her blood will be mine."

The shadow suddenly stopped as heavy footsteps which seemed like boots were heard behind the tall trees and bushes. It turned around, blaring red eyes squinting towards it as a crazy grin formed on its mouth.

A strong appetizing smell hits its senses.

Before the shadow can run towards the hypnotizing scent, the shadow was knocked down on the dirty ground, a pained grunt was released from its throat. The shadow opened its eyes, instantly feeling its blood run cold.

Shining violet with hues of crystal blue and red.

The most wanted creature is just in front of the shadow.

The one the shadow was after.

He's gonna win—

"You found me." You whispered as your right hand gripped on the unknown's neck, tightening as seconds passed by.

"I—did..."

You darkly chuckled as the man struggled under your hold but despite of having a smaller frame, you're so much stronger than him.

Your eyes glared into his, seeing how his red eyes dilated into full black orbs as if they're a doll's eyes. Your pupils rapidly changing colors from red to violet, your irises were colored bright violet with hues of crystal blue and red surrounding the dark pupil. Your lips turned into a thin line as you stood up, not letting his eyes stray away from yours.

"Too bad I caught you first."

Death.

"Die, shadow." You muttered as you turned back from him, letting yourself be engulfed by the darkness once again.

The man slowly shoved his own hand into his chest, his black blank eyes staring at the sky. A sickening sound was made as blood spurt out of him, his hand trembling as it took a hold of his own life.

"A-Art—" He stuttered as he moved his gaze towards you, your bright eyes turned to him in the darkness. "—emis..."

A smirk curled up on your lips but your eyes remained cold and unabashed. You blinked your eyes, turning into plain violet orbs, and the man groaned in pain but breathed out a sigh of relief.

"I'm sick of that name, shadow." Your voice echoed the place as the man breathed heavily as if he was freed from something. His eyes went back to red but this time, they're full of fear and perturbation.

A sound of a string being aimed was heard, making the man's eyes widen in shock.

"If you want Artemis," You mumbled, your fingers gracefully wrapping around the perfectly made wooden bow, a rare metallic gray arrow with a white tip slipping in the gap of your fingers. Your eyes squinted into focus as you aimed for the man sitting up with his eyes wide.

"you'll only get her wrath."

With a swift move of your hand, the deadly arrow headed for the target.

Death was the only gift you can give to the ones who managed to find you.

You watched as the man bursted into flames and became ash in seconds at the first contact with the arrow. You slung your bow on your shoulder and turned back to your home.

In the darkness.

"Another arrow wasted for another shitty creature." You shook your head as you mumbled coldly. "He even managed to avoid my traps. I need to put more then. Tsk."

That man was a vampire though.

"It's happening faster than what I've expected." You said as you reached the farthest and darkest part of the woods, where your home is.

They're all aiming for the throne.

But its successor is still alive.

They need to make sure no one can steal it back.

They need to make sure no one will claim it back.

They need to make sure the heiress is dead.

"The throne is mine whether they like it or not." You smirked as you looked up at the moon, shining down on you, as if talking to a friend. Your long dark red hair flowing on your back as the cold wind touched your skin.

"Just wait, fuckers."

The princess will surely take whatever's supposed to be hers.

The Throne.

—

Just comment or like if you’re up to read it. I can post the chapters here, or you can also just read ahead in WP (i have the same username) 😚

When I wake up later the same day, I have found a new sense of purpose. I think I know what my next steps are going to be, and I need to talk to Tao to finalize my thoughts. To see if what I want to do is really going to help. I don’t want to jump in head first if it’s going to be for nothing.

I stare at my reflection as a brush my teeth with my new toothbrush. I feel as though I am a different person from who I was just a few weeks ago. Not only am I cleaner, but I’m healthier. I feel way healthier than I have ever felt. I can only assume my new found condition is due to that Yixing guy who came in and basically erased all of my bruises, cavities, and wounds. He’s a healer, but he must have like hella power to be able to fix anything. I feel and look different, and I’m not sure whether or not this is for better or worse. I’m still just as gross on the inside as I was before.

How had I not noticed how…gross I was before? Like, I’d never had a problem with my appearance since it’s all superficial and based on personal preference. But now thinking back to what I considered ‘clean’ before is pathetic. All of the human boys I’d known weren’t much different though. Perhaps that’s why I was never really concerned with it. Even still, I should have probably somewhat known how dirty and battered I looked to the trained eye. Especially compared to Tao. I had always thought that he had looked weirdly…fresh for another human. Now I know. He just took care of himself and his hygiene.

After freshening up for the day and putting the clothes I slept in back on my body (they weren’t dirty so I saw no reason to not reuse them), a pale pink pair of shorts and a white camisole, I amble out of my room. The light of the moon shows me that I’ve missed the rest of breakfast and lunch. I might have even missed dinner at this point. I should find food before I talk to Tao. Because that’s the most important thing.

Nutrition.

I leave the room and it’s unmissable how lethargic my body is. Walking feels like a difficult task, and each step away from bed feels like a step closer to my own death.

I reach the staircase and am met with an unfamiliar face who was taking angry steps up the stairs. I make a noise of surprise and the new boy looks up from his feet to me. I figure that I should try a new approach and should maybe not be a dick when first meeting people. I have the chance to be nice, and for the first time I take it.

I open my mouth to introduce myself, but before I can utter any greeting his teeth are bared, and his forearm is pressed against my neck, my body against the wall. His force is hard enough to make ability to breathe difficult, but not hard enough to crush my esophagus or seriously harm me. I would fight back, but after all the mental draining and crying I really can’t get my body to put up much of a fight. The hairs on my arms stand on edge like he’s some kind of balloon charged with static.

“Who are you?!” he hisses. “What are you doing here you piece of-”

“Yah! June!” the pressure is released from my throat and I slide against the wall down to the floor. I take in sharp breaths. Tao stands a few feet away with both of his hands on one of the arms of the boy who just tried to kill me. I can’t make out what he tells the fellow, but honestly I don’t want to know. The boy’s eyes are filled with blatant hate, and I know for a fact that I’ve never met him before this encounter. The boy shrugs Tao off after trading a few words and walks off.

“Jongdae isn’t always like that.” Tao puts a hand out to help me on to my feet and I gladly take it. I am already not a fan of this Jongdae guy. Try to do something good once, and this is what happens. Not a good sign. “Something must have happened in the castle to make him so hostile today.” I can only nod in response as I caress my still sore esophagus. Tao tosses a long arm over my shoulder and we both head to the kitchen. We enter and Tao shoves me over to a chair that is situated at the kitchen island. “Sit.”

I don’t protest and watch as he goes to work making me a sandwich.

“I can make my own sandwich you know. I have hands.” He pauses in his work and blushes slightly.

“Sorry. I was just trying to be helpful after everything that’s happened…”

“If you really want to make it though, I won’t stop you. Proceed.” He smiles briefly before continuing on. Ever since I got here, our relationship has been awkward at best. He is hesitant to talk to me, and I can never find the right words to say to him. I try to break through our awkwardness. “You really like it here don’t you?” I ask as he cuts the sandwich in half.

“Yes.” He says without hesitation. “For the first time since my mom died, this is where I felt happy. Finding Kris was one of the moments that I felt like my life turned around.” he picks up the plate and places it on the counter in front of me. Tao is the kind of person that I believe all of the kids in the 3rd ring could turn out to be if they were given the chance to be happy. He has a different outlook on life and it’s endearing. Even though I attacked him when we first met, he was still able to make me open up to him. Perhaps I should, I can’t believe I’m saying this, be more like Tao. I don’t touch the food, instead choosing to look into his dark eyes. He looks back without any of the fear that was in Jongin’s, any of the uneasiness in Kris and pretty boys, or the hate of that Jongdae fellow.

“Tao…” he blinks in acknowledgement. “Do you think I should do this? What Kris wants me to do?” he blinks again and then nods his head a few times slowly.

“I think…that you could be the one to save us. The kids like you and me, and my friends who are in the castle. They don’t tell me all that happens in there, but I’m not dumb. I can figure out what’s going on in there even when they don’t show up here bruised and shaking.” He props his head up in his hand.

“Why me though? Why couldn’t you have brought some other girl here for Kris? I know there aren’t many of us, but I’m not the only one.” He looks off thoughtfully and then clicks his tongue.

“Well first off, you’re my friend and I wanted to bring you here before I knew about this whole plan thing anyway…” he starts. He pouts a bit before continuing on. “I heard that most girls turn easily once they start to get treated like first class citizens…and I don’t know. You’re different. From what I told Kris, I think he thought you just happened to be the right choice so he didn’t look for anyone else. I think Kris believes that fully now too. You would be able to fight back. You use to defend the boys back at the orphanage when they were hurt and you didn’t ask for anything in return. You’re genuinely nice, and not hell bent on surviving at the expense of everyone else.” I smile authentically at his compliment and my face heats up. I grab a sandwich slice and bite in to it to hide my flustered expression.

After hearing how highly he thinks of me, and how genuine everyone’s intentions seem to be, the rest of my doubt fades away with my swallow of the sandwich. I still feel like this is going to go straight to shit, but I’m open to trying now. “I’ll do it.” I tell him before taking a bite in to the sandwich again.

“What?”

I try to talk around my mouth full of food. “I said I’ll do it.” I swallow the chewed up bread and meat and whatnot. “I’ll go in to the Queen’s castle and try to…fix this. To fix all of this if I can.” He straightens up in excitement and claps his hands excitedly like a little kid. He tackles me in a hug and we both almost topple over with the chair. I hold tightly to my sandwich slice while laughing at how happy Tao has suddenly turned. I’m relived the awkwardness between us is gone; I’m not used to not knowing what to say to him. “Dude, get off of me. I need to finish eating.”

“This is the best thing you’ve ever said. You don’t say much worth listening to usually, and this might be the first time you’ve said something worth hearing.” He jokes.

“For someone who follows and listens to Kris like some kind of one legged puppy you sure are talking rather tough to me right now.”

“Kris is a great man, and you should watch it. I’ll choose Kris over you any day.”

“I find that very hard to believe. You love me after all you big emotional cheese ball.” I reach for his cheek to squeeze it; he scowls and dodges my hand quickly. For the first time since arriving here I smile again fully. It feels like our relationship has gone right back to normal. It’s like it was before, full of teasing, joking, and lightheartedness.

I missed this.

“I’ll tell Kris tonight, and then I’ll tell Luhan in the morning. I think he’s asleep right now.” Tao says grabbing my other sandwich half and taking a huge bite out for himself. I frown at the loss of food and at Tao’s statement.

“Luhan? Who is Luhan?” I grab the Tao bitten part of my sandwich and shove it in my mouth before he can steal any more. Tao squints his eyes at me as if I’ve said something stupid. I hate when he looks at me like I’m an idiot or beneath him or something.

“Who’s Luhan? Really? You’ve seen him every day…” he tilts his head to the side and my eyes widen in realization. The pretty one. That deer eyed boy! I’ve been referring to him as the pretty on all this time, I forgot that he actually has a name. I chew my food and laugh sheepishly while avoiding his gaze. He laughs, “You’re an idiot.”

I haven’t taken the time to figure out anything about the people around me. Being an asshole and disregarding everyone but myself…I really need to turn this act around. I’m not an asshole and I have to prove that to them and to myself. I’ve been wallowing so hard in my own pity that I really haven’t been observant to what’s around me. I’m starting to believe that I really am an inconsiderate douche bag.

“Actually, I don’t think I’ve experienced you not being in charge like that.” You let your mind drift as you imagined the different possibilities. Would Xiumin lay down a few generalised rules or would he direct the whole experience? Would he make Baek watch? Would he watch you and Baek? 

Baekhyun hummed in response, obviously also letting his imagination run wild with the opportunities this night might bring. 

You laughed as you caught him lost in thought. “I can always leave if you want him to yourself Baek.” 

Baekhyun raised a brow at you before smirking. “If that was something I was down for, why do I feel like you’d want to watch?” You blushed at the thought.

“Moving on.” You murmured. Why was your face so warm?

Your embarrassment was not missed by Baek. “Oh we are most definitely discussing that later.” He grinned. 

“I said moving on.” You repeated. That wasn’t something you were going to unpack right now but there was no denying that the image in your brain was anything other than hot. 

“Mmmhmm, for now.” He agreed. Baekhyun’s face took on an inquisitive expression as he asked. “Did he have someone else in mind or was I really his first choice for this?”

You nodded. “As far as he told me, which stretches back to before these lessons began, you were his choice.” The man across from you preened at this. “Don’t let it go to your head Baek.”

He smiled softly. “Bit hard not to, if I'm being honest.” Byun Baekhyun sounded genuinely flattered. For all of his bravado and confidence in all other areas of his life somehow Minseok choosing him made him coy? He then added. “I don’t know who I thought he’d pick, but I wasn’t expecting to be his first choice for something like this.”

You levelled your gaze at him. “You are literally the mood maker of the group. He trusts you to listen to him when he’s serious about something but also to keep any situation light hearted and not let things get awkward.” You paused, then shrugged. “If you think about it, you’re kind of the perfect choice for this.”

His small smile started to turn smug. “So many compliments for me in such a short time. You should stop feeding my ego noona.” He leant forward so his lips could brush your ear. “Especially after our earlier conversation.” You felt his hand glide over your waist, sending a shiver through your body. You were so responsive and ready for the night to proceed, certain that you’d fall apart quickly for them. “Whilst that particular activity was a very pleasant surprise - and came with a happy ending - I can’t honestly say I’m completely satisfied. I got to hear all the pretty noises you make for me but I didn’t get to touch you.” His hand gripped your waist as he spoke, his thumb rubbing small circles, the motion coupled with his words caused your breath to shudder.

“So many things I want to do to you noona,” Baekhyun leaned down, his soft lips peppering kisses on your shoulder, working his way up your neck. “I don’t know what I want more, to fuck you and have him watch.” His teeth grazed over your collarbone, sending even more shivers as you gasped aloud this time. “To watch him fuck you.” You felt him smile against your skin as he let out a soft chuckle as your body betrayed you with another shudder before he continued his path and kissed up your neck, “Or both of us take you at the same time, until you’re so fucked out you can’t form a single.” to your chin, “coherent.” then to your jaw. “thought.” He brought your face to his, locking your lips together in a searing, hunger filled kiss. Your hands moved to cup his cheeks as his grip on your waist pulled you closer towards him. 

“Baek,” You murmured through the haze of lust that was threatening to take over your senses. You were barely keeping your desire restrained and Baekhyun’s lips on your body and the words coming out of his mouth were in no way helping ground you for what was to come. You also didn’t want the first thing for Xiumin to see when he returned was that the two of you didn’t even wait for him before you got started. You could see the look of disapproval he’d give you and it was enough to break through the sinful feeling of Baekhyun’s lips and wandering hands on you. You pushed him with just enough force to separate yourself from him. “We need to wait. This is his reward, we can’t ruin it for him.”

He pouted at you, almost sulking. “Well hyung needs to hurry the fuck up then, because I want more of you.” 

You laughed softly. “Did you or did you not say less than ten minutes ago that you were good at taking direction? You’re sounding like a real brat right now.” 

“Shut up. I’m horny. My brain is like 85% not in use right now okay?” He made a point of shoving his hands under his thighs, basically sitting on them, in order to stop himself from reaching out to touch you.

You weren’t faring much better, holding on to your self control by tattered threads. You needed Xiumin to come back and take control of this whole situation before Baekhyun and you could no longer resist the temptation. “Yeah, well you aren’t the only horny one Baek.” You sighed. “But we need to control ourselves. You have no idea how nervous he’s been about discussing this. Without me slipping up I don’t know if he’d ever have actually discussed it with you.”

Baekhyun took a few deep breaths as he tried his best to put his lust in check and wait. He knew you were right, and that he also wanted this reward to be everything Minseok hoped it would be. He didn’t have to be happy about waiting though. “Fine,” he conceded at last. “We wait.”

Thankfully neither of you would have to wait much longer.

***

You could feel the shift in the air when he returned to the room. Minseok had taken time to calm himself, and you assumed, mentally prepared himself for the role he was about to play. The switch into his more dominant side was always fascinating to you. It was always there but when he turned it towards the bedroom it was just so damn sexy. The others got to see him tap into a sexy persona during choreo and take charge in certain situations but most of the time he was just their cute, nagging hyung. 

Sure, they’d all shared a living space for many years and had no doubt seen and heard everything more times than they wanted to count. There was no one who could convince you that if you placed a group of guys in their late teens to early twenties together that they were never caught masturbating or having sex by any of the others. But actively including one of those guys in your own sexual experiences? Now that was something you were less sure they had done - and if any had, clearly the two men you were currently with had not been involved. Regardless, it was happening tonight and you had a front row seat, or rather, you were on the stage with them, a very active and willing participant. 

Xiumin walked towards the two of you but didn't take a seat. Instead he picked up one of the arm chairs and moved it so that it was facing the end of the bed, then pushed it to the left until he was satisfied with the off centre view of the bed whoever sat in it would have. The new angle would definitely provide a better view of whatever happened on the bed. So he wanted someone to watch? He turned to face the two of you, motioning for you to move towards the bed. “Noona, please take a seat.” He gestured to the armchair, so you did as you were told and took a seat. He took a seat at the end of the bed, tapping the spot next to him for Baekhyun to follow suit.

Once Baekhyun was also seated he began to speak. Gone was the nervous wreck that was Minseok, replaced by the very self assured, confident and in control Xiumin who was ready to receive his reward. “Before we begin we need to go over some ground rules.” Both Baek and you nodded in agreement causing Xiu to chuckle. “Firstly, words are required. If you are asked a question, want something or are spoken to, I expect it to be conveyed verbally.” He paused as he waited for the two of you to realise that he was waiting for confirmation that you each understood him.

“Got it.” Baek replied. “Uh, do I have to call you anything in particular? Or can I stick with hyung?” He asked. 

“Hyung or a variation of Xiumin is fine for you to use Baek.” He replied. His eyes turned to you. “You, however, will refer to me as Xiumin, Xiu or Sir tonight. Am I clear?”

Instinctively you began to nod, catching yourself when he raised a brow at you. “Very clear Xiumin.” You replied, doing your best to mask the desire that was building in you again. You and Minseok had engaged in power play on more than one occasion, but most of the time it was simply him taking control as you lost yourself to pleasure. Xiumin was going to control what all of you got to experience tonight, and you could tell that if you didn’t do as you were told then you weren’t getting any relief. Your thighs rubbed together in anticipation.

“Secondly, we need to discuss how this will play out, everyone’s limits and a safe word.” He looked at each of you and smiled softly. “I think we start with each of your limits.”

Baekhyun smiled and gestured for you to go first. “Ok, well I guess as far as my own limits go, I don’t like extreme pain. Light stuff like restraints and spanking is fine but actual pain crosses the line for me. Uh, I’m also not ok with any bodily fluids that aren’t cum or saliva. Oh, and I’m not a fan of anal. I think that’s all?” There were probably more but as far as ones that might come into play tonight, those were all you could think of. 

Xiumin nodded. “Pity about the last one, but noted. Baek, what about you?”

Baek shrugged. “Uh honestly? Apart from the same bodily fluids thing as noona, I don’t think I have any. I will let you know if I’m not ok with anything as it happens - though I kind of doubt that I’ll have to.” 

You thought of one almost immediately and cocked your head as you spoke. “You don’t like degradation.” 

He nodded. “Oh yeah, I don’t like it, it’s not a hard limit for me but praise is far more effective for me.” He thought hard for a few more moments before deciding that no, there were no other limits he thought needed mentioning. “What about you hyung?”

Xiumin didn’t miss a beat. “I have a few but I think the only relevant ones for tonight are degradation and causing actual pain. If I hurt either of you, you need to tell me immediately. I wouldn’t forgive myself if I caused you pain without any pleasure. I like to play rough but not at the expense of the other person, or in this case, people’s enjoyment.” He sighed. “But essentially, that’s all for me.” He looked at each of you earnestly as he summarised. “Ok so no inflicting pain, no degradation and no anal for noona. All of that should be easy enough to work around.”

Baekhyun raised his hand. You choked back a laugh as Xiumin raised one brow at him. “Yes Baek?” 

“I still have questions.” He said.

“Of course you do.” Xiumin sighed. “Go ahead and ask then.” Baekhyun’s eyes lit up but before he could utter a word Xiumin added on with some exasperation. “Don’t make me regret this.”

Baek shook his head. “It’s nothing strange, just how will this work? Are we going with the flow or are you telling us what to do? If you’re telling us what to do, can we also make suggestions? Are we fucking her at the same time, one after the other, is there anything that’s off the table for you? Is -” He stopped speaking when Xiumin held up a hand.

“Ok that’s all the questions you get to ask. What was that, seven in like 5 seconds? I was getting to all of this you impatient fuck.” He shook his head, trust Baek to always find a way to test his patience. “To answer pretty much all of it, I like being in control so I’ll tell you what to do in a broad sense, and you’ll do that until I give further instructions. You can make suggestions but I reserve the right to deny said requests.” Baek nodded, remembering at the last second to verbalise his understanding. Xiumin acknowledged him then  turned his head and locked eyes with you. “Any questions before we begin?” 

“No.” You replied. 

He stared at you, as if he was waiting for you to say something else, but for the life of you, you couldn’t think of what that was. He shook his head ever so slightly then spoke. “No?”

You paused. You’d forgotten something, but what was it? He wanted you to speak in response to him rather than rely on non verbal cues. You’d done that, so what else was there? You could feel his eyes on you as he waited for you to reply again. You glanced at Baek, hoping he would provide insight into what you’d missed but all he did was give you a little salute. Weird. Why would he be saluting you? There was no context for that, and even as strange as his gestures could be at times, they always fitted in contextually with what was going on. Oh. OH. You realised 5 seconds later than it should have taken you to. Xiumin told you to refer to him in specific ways tonight. You returned your eyes to his expectant gaze. “No sir.”

It seemed to do the trick, as you saw him let out a breath that you weren’t aware he’d been holding. “That’s more like it.” He licked his lips, his eyes flitting between yours and your lips. The desire he was holding back was evident, but as the three of you stood on the precipice of beginning this thing, you could see the fire building in him. This was his fantasy, and he was about to make it a reality. After months and months of build up, and weeks of him fearing he’d be rejected for even suggesting it, it was happening, he just had to take the final step over the precipice and set everything in motion. You couldn’t help but smile at him as you waited for him to give the first instruction, knowing he was having one final internal debate about the entire thing, and probably on some level fretting about the cleanup afterwards. 

You didn’t want to be disobedient but if he took too long to get things going you weren’t sure you’d be able to stop yourself from throwing yourself at him. It had been too long since you’d felt his lips on yours. He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and took the leap. “Baek, I want you to move up to the other end of the bed and sit against the headboard.”

“Ok hyung.” He replied eagerly. “Clothes on or off at this stage?”

“Leave them on for now.” He replied. Baek obeyed, pushed himself to the other end of the bed and leant against the headboard as instructed. He looked comfortable, but the desire in his eyes told you he was desperate to touch you, or himself. He spread his legs and smirked at you, your joke about his manspreading replaying in your mind. You failed to keep the small laugh in. Xiumin looked at you then at Baek and sighed. “What?” He asked.

A look of apprehension appeared on his face and you wanted to squash any growing doubts immediately. Of course you laughed at the worst time, right as he decided to start his rewards. Naturally he now thought the two of you were mocking him, which was absolutely not the case. “I once made an observation about Baek’s chronic manspreading. His reply was that there was a lot of room for activities between his thighs.” You explained. Relief and annoyance flooded him. 

Baek scoffed. “That particular observation was made via text, in a room full of staff and you guys on the day of a concert.”

Xiumin sighed to himself. “Oh my god, you are both such brats.” He reached forward and grabbed your hand gently, tugging you toward the bed. “Baby, go sit between his legs, with your back facing him.” 

You placed a chaste kiss on his hand as you stood. “Can I offer a suggestion hyung?” Baek asked as you moved on the bed towards him.

“Go ahead.” He replied.

You felt Baek’s chest against your back as you leant back against him. “She should place her legs over mine, leaving you sufficient room,” He smirked. “For activities.” 

Xiumin shook his head as a laugh escaped him. “You know what, terrible joke aside, that’s a good idea.” He nodded at you. “Baby, do as Baek suggested.” You couldn’t help the blush as you did as you were told. You felt exposed, even though you were still fully clothed. Xiumin sat back and looked at the two of you, taking in the sight before him, his eyes practically shining as he did so. Baek hadn’t touched you since Xiumin had entered the room. He was behaving and doing as he was told, a rare sight to behold. His eyes travelled down your body, satisfied with how you were spread open for him, unable to close your legs when he got closer. 

Xiumin swallowed thickly as he crawled up the bed towards the two of you. He made his way into the space left for him between your legs. Once there he hooked a finger under your chin as he guided your face closer to his. He absentmindedly parted his lips the closer you got to him. You licked yours in response. You heard Baek suck in a breath when Xiumin leaned in, capturing your lips in a soft but sure kiss. You felt your body relax at the familiar feeling of his lips on yours. You sighed into it, your hands moving up to cup behind Xiumin’s neck and pull him forward, closer to you. He allowed you to control the kiss for a moment before pushing you as far back as he could without losing his balance. You could feel Baekhyun breathing erratically behind you, unable to do anything but watch as you and Xiumin made out. The kiss had started soft as the two of you got reacquainted with each other but it was rapidly growing more passionate as your tongues collided with each other.

“Fuck.” You heard Baek murmur from behind you. You felt an unmistakable hardness forming against the small of your back as the kiss grew more heated. You moaned into Xiumin’s mouth as he pulled your bottom lip between his teeth and bit. He pulled back to survey his work, taking in your dilated pupils and flushed face. 

“That gone after one kiss?” He remarked, though not entirely faring much better himself. “How wrecked are you going to look after Baek has his turn?” You tried to respond but all of the pent up desire from the day chose to flood your system. All you could feel was your desire for each of them and the fact that at that exact moment, no one was touching you. A whimper escaped you, making Xiumin chuckle. “You want Baek to kiss you baby?”

“Please.” You sounded far more desperate than you wanted to, but you needed it. It was difficult to describe the feelings you were experiencing but the overwhelming desire was clouding everything in its path. Logic and reason were locked away for the night, and you were going to indulge in Xiumin’s fantasy and love every moment of it. As long as someone touched you, right away. Otherwise you felt like you might implode. “Xiu please,”

“Go on Baek, give her what she wants.” He instructed, his eyes never leaving yours. Baek didn’t need to be told twice. You felt the soft press of his lips on your neck which made your eyes flutter as you gasped. You felt Baek smile against your skin as he continued peppering kisses along your neck and jaw before his hand turned your face towards his so he could capture your lips in a searing kiss. His other hand held you firmly against him as the two of you made out. Xiumin took advantage of your neck being bared to him and, not to be outdone by Baek, began peppering it with kisses. You let out a soft moan, and it was as if the tension in the room snapped, taking everyone’s restraint with it. You felt Baekhyun pressing against you as his body sought out any friction he could get, at the same time Xiumin’s soft kisses to your neck became deeper. Every time you felt the scrape of his teeth on your neck you moaned, each one louder than the last. 

Baekhyun noticed what his hyung was doing and took the opportunity to short circuit your brain by doing the exact same thing as Xiumin was. The feeling of having your neck ravished by both men was making you light headed. You were pretty sure that Baek was leaving marks all over the expanse of your neck. The previous marks he’d left had only just faded, not that you cared one bit in that moment. It was nothing an oversized scarf and hoodie couldn’t cover. 

Both men managed to detach themselves from you long enough for Xiumin to utter “Help me strip her.” Baek removed all the clothing on your upper body while he removed your pants, leaving you in just your panties while they were still fully clothed. 

Xiumin scowled at the dark hickey on your hip - the one that had yet to fade, asking who left that mark on you. “That would be me hyung.” Baek replied, “I couldn’t help myself.” He shrugged. He might not have noticed the way Xiumin’s jaw clenched as he stared at the mark, but you sure had, even through the haze of lust clouding your mind. He wasn’t the jealous type but something about them was making him tense. It was on your hip, hidden by clothing but for anyone who got you undressed enough to see it, it was left as a clear reminder of who had been there before them. Of who had claimed you as theirs.

You moved your hand up to cup his jaw softly. His sharp eyes, darkened with lust and something else, something carnal, lifted to yours, and stared at you. “Xiumin, are you jealous that he left marks there?” His gaze swirled with something dangerous, but not dangerous enough to deter you. 

“Careful.” He murmured. His piercing gaze made you feel like prey about to be devoured. Something you were absolutely not against. You steeled your resolve, wanting to make him let loose like you knew he could. If you pushed him just the right amount, he’d forget every insecurity he had about this reward and lose himself to dominating everyone's pleasure. You’d never regretted it in the past so you figured giving him that little push now would result in you getting fucked within an inch of your life before the night was over.

You leant forward, until your mouth ghosted his ear as you whispered. “Would you like to leave your own marks on me Sir?” You heard the hitch in his breath as you spoke. “I’d love it if you left your mark on me. Every time I see it I’d be reminded of exactly what you did to me.” You pulled back, kissing the corner of his lips as you settled back against Baekhyun’s body. From deep within his throat, it sounded like Xiumin growled.

“Hold her hands behind her back. Both of you are going to sit there and watch,” He rasped. “And you,” he said as his eyes locked back onto yours. “Will not cum until I allow you to.” 

“Yes, Sir.” You replied as Baekhyun pulled your hands behind your back and held them in place. 

Xiumin kissed you harshly, the force of him pushing you further back into Baekhyun. You had to arch your back slightly to remain as comfortable as you could in his hold. He broke the kiss and began his descent down your body. He took your request to heart, nipping and sucking your flesh as he moved from your mouth, to your neck, your chest, and stomach before settling between your thighs. Your head was becoming fuzzy from the stimulation, and your body was responding in kind. You could feel the heat running from your neck, down through your chest and settling in your stomach. You weren’t going to be able to look in a mirror and not think of Xiumin for weeks at this rate. 

Your body felt like a live wire. If no one touched you properly soon, you might just cry from how turned on you were. Xiumin’s eyes connected with Baekhyun’s as he clamped his jaw onto your upper thigh, and sucked hard. Baekhyun’s breath hitched and you felt him roll his hips against your lower back, his now hard length grazing your hands. You moaned loudly at the sensation. These two were going to be the death of you tonight, you were this far gone and you’d barely even begun. 

“Look at you, soaking through your panties. We haven’t even touched you properly yet.” He licked his lips as he hooked your legs back over Baekhyun’s, spreading you wide for him. You whimpered, so turned on and desperate for one of them to touch you where you needed it. Xiumin was an excruciatingly patient man though, you knew this as a fact. He would touch you when he was good and ready, and not a moment before that. He probably wanted to get you so worked up that you cried when he finally did give you what you wanted. “Does noona want me to touch her?” He asked condescendingly. Without waiting for your answer he pressed a finger over your clothed pussy, rubbing the digit over the wet spot of your soaked panties. You gasped at the feeling, your hands grasping behind your back, not realising until he whimpered in your ear that you’d palmed Baek’s hard length. Xiumin smirked up at both of you. “I honestly can’t tell if I’m about to ruin both of you or if you’re about to ruin me.” 

“Hyung.” Baekhyun sounded breathless as he stared down at Xiumin between your legs, the elder toying with your panties as he drew out whines from you. Unbeknownst to him, every time he drew a whine from you, your hand clenched around Baekhyun’s cock. Baekhyun’s eyes were beginning to glaze over with want. He was doing everything in his power to not run his mouth or rut up into your hands. “Hyung please, god, please touch her.” 

Xiumin gave him a shit eating grin as he continued playing with your clothed pussy, the fabric now completely soaked through as it all but stuck to you. “I thought I was touching her.” He leant forward and licked a stripe up your ruined panties, making you moan desperately. “See how responsive she is to my touches?”

“Please,” You all but sobbed. “Please, I need more.” Your chest heaved as you tried to regulate your breathing. You felt trapped between their two bodies, your own screaming with desire. “Sir, please.” 

Apparently your near broken plea coupled with calling him Sir was all it took for Xiumin to crack. His control wavered, his patience almost lost as he ripped your panties off of you. You barely even registered the fabric tearing. His eyes floated down, taking in the soaking mess in between your legs. “You’re so fucking wet noona, just for us.” He licked his lips, that devilish smile back. You didn’t have time to breathe before he moved forward, his tongue licking a thick stripe through your folds. His voice deepened with a moan. “You taste so fucking good.” His hot breath joined in the sensational overload as his tongue ran over your clit, brushing little strokes of varying pressure and sending little shocks through your core and up your spine. “You always taste so fucking good.” He murmured against you, the vibrations sending jolts of pleasure through you. “Could eat you out all day, shit.”

Words failed you when he addressed Baek. “Doesn’t she taste divine?” His face still buried in your folds, teasing you with his skillful tongue.

Baekhyun hummed as he rolled his hips into your hand, unable to stop himself from seeking the friction. “Always hyung.” He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the sight of Xiumin all but making out with your pussy. “Makes it hard to stop eating her out.” He groaned as you flattened your palm against the head of his cock. It wasn’t enough, the layers of clothing separating you from him prevented the pleasure from feeling anything but teasing. Still it was better than nothing.

“You’re not wrong. I could stay here for hours.” Xiumin replied. You cried out as his tongue entered your needy hole, lapping at your juices, and you clenched around the muscle. He ate you out like a man starved. He latched onto your clit and sucked while his skilled tongue flicked over it with desperate movements. You knew it wouldn’t take you long to reach your peak, not with all the anticipation and teasing that had led to this point. You felt your legs tremble as your orgasm built inside you. But you weren’t allowed to cum yet, Xiumin hadn’t said you could. You didn’t know how you could possibly stop yourself from teetering over the edge but you tried your best to last as long as you could for him. You didn’t want to disobey him today, you wanted to be good for him. 

The two of you had dabbled in having him be a brat tamer before, and whilst that was a very very fond memory, it was not fitting for today. His low voice pulled you from your thoughts. “Are you ok baby?” The pressure within you was mounting and your body shook from every flick of his tongue over your clit. You couldn’t speak, as much as you wanted to, all you could do was let out broken moans as Xiumin brought you closer and closer to your peak. A peak you didn’t want to cross without being given permission to. 

Baek answered for you. “I think she wants to cum hyung. She’s practically vibrating against me.” He was enthralled with watching you fall apart on another man’s tongue, a sight he didn’t think he’d ever erase from his memory, but he wanted to keep things moving as he grew more and more desperate to be actively involved. “She’s done so well for us so far, and I can’t lie hyung. I think it’ll be really fucking hot to watch her cum all over your face.” 

Xiumin had to pause at Baekhyun’s brazenness. He’d expected the dirty talk to extend to you but was rapidly finding out that the filthy exchanges they were having were only turning him on more. “Well, when you put it like that, how could I resist?” He replied. He gave you no notice as he closed his mouth over your clit, taking it between his teeth and sucked hard, the pressure that had been building exploded as your orgasm slammed into you. The force of it knocked the air from you, a loud and desperate moan left your lips, your legs shook from the intensity of it. He massaged your legs, gently lapping at your pussy while you came down. Your body twitched with the residual aftershocks he continued to draw from you with every swipe of his tongue.

As you recovered from your intense high you felt the soft press of Baekhyun’s lips on your neck. You shivered at the sensation, coupled with Xiumin rubbing his hands over your thighs, up to your waist and back down in a soothing motion. Your breathing was still laboured as you opened your eyes only to find Xiumin staring up at you, his mouth and chin glistening with your juices as he stopped overstimulating you. His gaze was still intense as he watched Baekhyun continue to leave little butterfly kisses along your neck, causing your body to shiver with need. 

Your movement did not go unnoticed by Xiumin, who chuckled. “You still need more huh? Nearly passed out from your first orgasm but you already want more don’t you?” 

Baekhyun smirked against your neck. “Noona, so needy for us. Was hyungs mouth not enough to fully satisfy you? Do you need something to fill you up?” He brought his hands to your breasts and tweaked your nipples as he sucked another mark into your neck.

You cried out. “God, yes. Please.” There was no denying that the orgasm Xiumin had just coaxed from you was mind blowing. Despite that, you could feel your pussy clenching around nothing. You needed more, needed something inside you.

“All in good time, can’t have you being selfish and getting all the pleasure now can we?” Xiumin said. “I think it’s time you did something for us.” He continued, as he stood from the bed and pulled his shirt over his head, revealing his toned torso to you. “To show that you deserve what we can give you.” He crooked his fingers and beckoned you to come to him. You leant forward and crawled towards him, removing yourself from Baek’s reach. Behind you Baekhyun bit his bottom lip as he watched your naked form move away from him. 

You popped the button on his jeans and slowly unzipped his pants, his bulge tenting his underwear. He let out a soft grunt as you let your hand roam over his underwear. “Do not fucking tease me right now. You know better than that baby.” You smiled to yourself as memories flooded you, the times you had pushed his patience over the edge, of how roughly he took you, not letting you cum until you were a mess of tears, begging him for your release. But tonight, you were going to do as you were told, even though it was becoming evident that your bratty side wanted to play. You were doing your best to keep her in check. You pulled his pants and underwear down, letting them pool at his ankles, his cock slapped against his stomach as it was finally freed from the confines of his clothing, your mouth watered at the sight. You looked up at him and he raised a brow at you. “Why don’t you show our Baekhyun how well you suck cock?” You said. Heat flooded you at the thought of being watched while you had another man’s cock in your mouth. 

He lifted his head and made eye contact with the younger, very horny man behind you. “And Baek, be a good boy and strip. You’re only allowed to watch now, no touching yourself.” You heard Baekhyun whine behind you, the poor guy was needy. He’d been rutting his hips into your lower back and hands for friction just moments ago and now he had to sit and watch, and wasn’t even allowed to relieve some of the tension he was clearly feeling. 

“Do not make me wait noona.” Xiumin’s commanding tone brought you back to the present. He was hard, very hard. You didn’t want to tease but you also didn’t want to rush this so you slowly spread the precum over his cock, running your fingers up his shaft, around the head, and down again. Xiumin opened his mouth to scold you for teasing him but his words were replaced by a groan of pleasure as you wrapped your fingers around his length and started moving your hand up and down, varying the pressure as you pumped his cock. “Fuck,” He all but whispered. 

He was always so responsive to your touches, so much so that it only spurred you on. You wanted, no needed to taste him. Part of you also wanted to ruin Baekhyun by making him such a horny mess that he might just cum untouched from watching you and Xiumin. You licked the tip of his swollen cock before bringing your lips to it and sucking softly. Xiumin let out a gasp, his hips bucking involuntarily as you finally took him into your mouth. You moved slowly, relishing in the feel of him in your mouth, filling it up. You blinked your eyes slowly as you gazed up at him as your mouth enveloped his cock. A sheen of sweat covered his forehead as he stared back at you through heavily lidded eyes.

He praised with a rough voice, as his fingers gripped your hair. “That’s right, baby, just like that. You look so good with my cock stuffed in your mouth.” You didn’t break eye contact as you moved down his length, curling one hand around his base as you bobbed your head, taking more of him in each time you made your descent. You flattened your tongue against the underside of his cock and felt his hands hold your head in a vice grip as his resolve started to wane, a deep groan emitting from his throat. He let his head roll back, his breathing growing erratic as short pants mixed with small groans flow out of his mouth.

He held your head in place as he rolled his hips into you, fucking into your mouth. His first strokes were slow and languid, letting you get used to the fullness in you, but he soon began pushing further and further. His cock started hitting the back of your throat, and on one deep thrust he had your nose pressed up against him as he bottomed out. He held it there for a few seconds. “Fucking hell. Look at you, taking me all the way. You love this don’t you? Choking on my cock in front of another man.” You shivered, as you felt your arousal leak from you. You hadn’t expected to be this turned on from just sucking his cock but you felt light you were on fire with need. You wanted to be used by them so thoroughly that you couldn’t move at the end of the night. 

You let yourself relax around him, trusting yourself in his hands, after all Xiumin had never once hurt you. He’d been the one you’d played the roughest with but he’d always taken care of you. When he felt you relax he began thrusting again, this time his strokes were getting faster, but still just as deep. “Love fucking your face noona, you, shit, you feel so good.” You struggled to hold yourself up as he used you, his hand in your hair the only anchor holding you up as you became a puppet for his use.

You knew he was approaching his climax when he began to move with less concern for the wellbeing of your throat, gagging you with his cock every few thrusts. You did your best to keep your jaw slack, as your throat was being rubbed raw, drool and precum fell down your chin in streams. “So messy, fuck, look at you. I’m almost there baby, you can take a bit more.” You moved your spare hand to massage his balls, rolling them in your palm as he thrusted into your mouth. Your action makes him groan louder than before, needier too. Your thighs clenched together, desperate in your need for friction. But you were being good, you didn’t touch or move. You choked a few times, tears falling down your cheeks to mix with the other fluids on your chin as he came. “Such a good girl for me, took me so well, let me use you to get off.” He stroked your face gently, wiping the tears away as he smiled down at you. “Wasn’t she such a good girl Baek?” He asked.

“Fuck, yes hyung, she was.” Baekhyun’s reply was strained with desire. 

“Did you touch yourself Baek?” He asked bluntly. You turned to look at him and felt a jolt through your core at just how wrecked he looked. He was breathing heavily, his chest flushed as his hands had a death grip on the sheets to stop him from touching himself. He looked so painfully hard, his rigid cock practically weeping with pre cum, twitching with need, it was so messy, and you knew how he loved it messy.

Baekhyun shook his head. “N-no. Fuck if you could see how much wetter she got from you throat fucking her hyung, my god. Please, let her touch me or let me touch myself I’m fucking dying over here.” You felt heat wash over you as you clenched around nothing. You should have felt some type of shame about how lewdly they were talking about you but you didn’t. You trusted these two men with your entire being and knew that they would never speak ill of you. Plus you were a little too fucked out to care.

Xiumin caught you staring at Baekhyun and smiled. “Baby, why don’t you treat him to your filthy mouth?” He gave you a little push to set you in motion as you crawled between Baekhyun’s legs. “Holy fuck, you weren’t wrong Baek. She is so fucking wet.” You turned your head to look back at Xiumin, who was now kneeling on the bed as he stared between your legs. His eyes flicked up to yours understanding what you wanted. “If you’re good I’ll give you what you want.” He gave your ass a light tap to direct your attention back to Baek.

“Please don’t tease me noona.” Baekhyun whimpered as you slowly grasped his length in your hand.

“You don’t want me to take my time with you?” You asked playfully. Baekhyun was always putty in your hands when it came to having his cock in your mouth. He got too eager, enjoyed it too much and never lasted that long. You guessed tonight would be no different especially since he’d had to watch you and not relieve himself while doing so. 

“Fuck. No. I’m just too fucking horny to endure it.” You heard the need in his voice, the normally even tone pitching up slightly as he tried to hold himself together. “I’m doing my best to not grab your head and shove my cock in your mouth right now. Watching you with hyung, holy fuck it was so hot, I don’t know if I’m going to last very long after watching him rail your throat.” He panted.

“I’ll make you feel good Baek, I promise.” You said. He let his head fall back against the headboard as you took the head of his cock into your mouth and sucked gently. He moaned loudly at finally being touched, his eyes wide with pleasure.

“Hyung, can - fuck - can I touch her?” He sounded so broken as he tried to speak, his breath hitching every time you moved your tongue around his swollen head.

You felt Xiumin shift on the bed until he was kneeling behind you. He rubbed his hand down your spine as you took Baekhyun into your mouth once more. “You may.” Baekhyun gripped your hair as he watched his cock disappear into your mouth. You shuddered when you felt Xiumin’s fingers drag through your slick folds. “Noona, you are so fucking wet. Does it turn you on this much to be with two men?” 

You lifted your head from Baekhyun’s cock, much to his disdain. “Yes, fuck” you rasped, your throat raw from the abuse Xiumin had inflicted upon it. “Sir, please touch me.” 

“Why should I?” He teased as one finger circled your clit.

You moaned loudly. “I’ve been so good.” 

“Do you want your noona to suck your cock Baekhyun?” Xiumin said as you lowered yourself back towards his cock. You stared into his fucked out eyes and waited for him to respond. He nodded and you shifted down, placing a kitten lick to the tip of his leaking cock, causing him to whimper at the feeling. You don’t break eye contact with him as Xiumin spoke again. “You want your noona to suck your thick cock and make you fall apart while your hyung stuffs noona with his fingers?”

Baekhyun’s eyes almost rolled in the back of his head as Xiumin spoke, his hips bucking up towards you with need. “Jesusfuckingchrist hyung, holy shit, yes. Yes I want that. Please.”

Xiumin waited for you to take Baekhyun back into your mouth before he plunged two fingers into your aching pussy. You moaned around Baekhyun’s cock at the feeling, finally being touched and having your mouth filled at the same time. You swirled your tongue on the underside of his cock as you took more of him in, finding your rhythm so you could rock back onto Xiumin’s fingers and forward onto Baekhyun’s cock. 

You ran your nails down his thighs as you let your jaw relax, allowing Baekhyun to begin thrusting up into it. “Holy shit this is hot, you should see yourself noona, gonna make you choke on my cock while hyung makes you cum on his fingers.”

“You liked that didn’t you?” Xiumin remarked. “I felt you clench around me, you needy little thing. If you want to cum then you’d better hold still and let us use you.” Your eyes widened as you clenched around his fingers again.

Baekhyun began to fuck your throat as you held yourself in position, your hands gripping his thighs. You moaned around his cock as you felt Xiumin's hand match the pace Baekhyun was setting. They were both entering you at the same time, you’d never felt so full. The pressure was building within you at an alarming pace and you knew you’d snap if they kept up this momentum. Baekhyun’s moans became higher pitched and more frequent as he started to really enjoy the feeling of your throat sucking him in every time he fucked into it. The vibrations from your moans were only adding to the pleasure he was feeling. “Fuck, I’m close.” He panted.

Xiumin removed his fingers from you. You whined at the loss only to let out a strangled cry as he began to vigorously circle and tap your clit. “Then cum. Both of you.” Both of you came undone at his words, your orgasm slamming into you as Baekhyun thrusted once more and held himself in your throat as he came while you writhed against Xiumin’s relentless fingers, tears streaming down your face at the combination of choking on Baekhyun’s cock and being overstimulated by Xiumin. 

You pulled off Baekhyun as you tried to get away from Xiumin’s relentless fingers. “Xiu please, I need a minute. Too sensitive.” You whined. He acquiesced and released you from his wandering hands. 

Baekhyun was immobile, his chest heaving as he recovered from his own high. He somehow looked even more fucked out than he had before. “Holy shit.” He said to himself. 

Xiumin pulled him from his daze by telling him to move to the chair at the end of the bed and watch. Baekhyun stood on slightly wobbly legs, walked over and threw himself down on the comfy chair facing the bed, leant back and got as comfortable as a naked man could in a hotel chair, as his eyes roamed over the bed as they sought you out. “I know this is your reward hyung but I feel like we’re all reaping this reward.” He grinned. 

He had a moment where the facade cracked and you saw the excitement in Xiumin’s eyes as he took a beat to take in that he was actually experiencing one of his largest fantasies right now. Not only that, but it was going well. He only let that slip last for a second before he was back, moving to sit in the position Baekhyun had been in on the bed. You stared at him as you waited for him to tell you where he wanted you. He was lazily stroking his hard length as he let his eyes roam over your body. “Come here noona.” You made your way over to him, and climbed onto his lap.

“Are you enjoying your reward Xiu?” You asked softly as you wrapped your arms around his neck. 

He let his forehead fall forward and press against yours. “It is everything I imagined and more. Thank you for helping make it happen.” He smiled genuinely at you, that beautiful gummy smile that you adored, before he kissed you. He let his hands run over your shoulders, ghosting past your breasts, running down the sides of your waist so gently it made you shiver, before coming to rest on your hips, kneading the skin there as he deepened the kiss. He sighed into you, pressing his lips down harder, hungrier. You gasped into his mouth as he pulled your hips against his cock. “Turn around. Want you to ride me while facing him. Make him watch you fuck yourself on my cock. You’ll ruin him, and I’ll get to watch your ass bounce on my cock so we both win.” Xiumin gave you another one of his annoying little smirks. 

You gave him one more heat filled kiss before you turned in his lap. Baekhyun’s eyes widened as he figured out what was happening, his hands gripping his thighs in anticipation. You didn’t have much time to focus on the look on his face because Xiumin suddenly dipped his finger into your sopping entrance, using your juices to coat his cock. You let out a shaky moan as he moved you into position and waited for you to begin. He let you know you were taking too long by delivering a swift smack to you ass, which caught you by surprise as you cried out.

Slowly you lifted yourself up, aligned his cock with your core and sunk down to the hilt. You both moaned out at the feeling of your wet, hot walls moulding around him and pulling him in. You stayed like that for a second, head thrown back and nails digging into his thighs as you got used to the stretch. “Fuuuuck, that’s hot.” You heard Baekhyun groan. You locked eyes with him as you started to move, setting a steady pace to begin with as you relished in the feel of Xiumin’s cock hitting you in all the right places from this angle. Xiumin’s hands rubbed up and down your sides as he helped guide you up and down on his length. He threw his head back in pleasure at how deep you were taking him.

Baekhyun couldn’t help himself any more as he was hard again. The sight of you bouncing on Xiumin’s cock, your tits bouncing, the sounds you were making, all of it was too much. He wrapped his fingers around himself and squeezed hard. He bit back a moan, as his head tipped back as the relief of his own touch spread through his body and pre cum leaked from his tip. You moaned at the sight of him touching himself as you fucked yourself on Xiumin’s cock, quickening your pace. You heard Xiumin moaning and cursing behind you as your pace became increasingly desperate. 

“Hyung,” Baekhyun’s voice was strained with need.

“Wh-fuck, what?” He grunted.

“How does she feel?”

“She feels amazing, fucking herself on me so good.” He moaned as you changed the angle of your pelvis, desperate to feel him hit that specific spot inside you. “Our baby is desperate to get off aren’t you?”

“I can’t, Xiu-” You cried out. 

“Baek, get up and kneel in front of her.” He said as he pushed you off his cock, moving you onto all fours. “Baby, think you can take both of us at the same time? One fucking this pretty pussy and one using that skilled mouth of yours?”

You whimpered at his question, too overwhelmed with the prospect of being filled so wonderfully by them that you forgot to answer. “All you need to do is say yes, baby.” He said. “But I will not do anything until you tell me how much you want it.” He slowly dragged his cock through your folds.

“Yes, oh god, yes, please sir, I need it.” When he didn’t move a muscle you tried again. “Xiumin, please.”  

“Sorry baby, I was just savouring my fantasy. Trust me, we want nothing more than to give you exactly what you need.” He entered you in one thrust, bottoming out with a grunt. Your hands grasped onto Baekhyun’’s arm for dear life as your body went rigid. A loud moan and gasp left your lips and when Baekhyun grabbed your jaw and brought his cock to your lips an honest to god whine came out. You were completely lost to their ministrations, theirs to use as they saw fit. As long as you came you didn’t care what they did. Baekhyun pressed his length into your mouth and began to thrust into your mouth at the same pace that Xiumin pounded into you from behind. You had never felt so full in your life.

"Look so good with our cocks inside you, noona," Baekhyun praised, his voice huskier than you’d ever heard it before, which made you clench around Xiumin, who let out a loud moan.

"Fuck, yeah," he breathed, as he snapped his hips into you even harder, working himself in and out of your pussy. "Keep talking to her like that, Baek," he grunted the younger man, "Her sweet little pussy's tightening up so fucking perfectly."

"You like when I talk dirty to you don’t you noona?" He teased as he fisted your hair into a makeshift ponytail as he matched Xiumin’s new pace. “Noona is just greedy and cock-hungry for us aren’t you? You like having hyung and I inside those needy holes of yours don’t you?" You could barely think straight as one cock entered you the other pulled back, alternating their thrusts to ensure there was never not a cock filling you.

You moaned in agreement around his cock as you let them stuff you full, telling you exactly how you felt around them and how good you’re being for them. Xiumin’s cock brushed against that spot inside you that made you cry out in pleasure, the sound muffled by Baekhyun’s cock filling your mouth. Your thighs shook as Xiumin brought you to another climax. You felt Baekhyun pull out of your mouth as he watched you fall apart on Xiumin’s cock. He kept thrusting into you as he chased his own high, his pace somehow becoming harder and faster. “Fuck noona, you’re sucking me back in. Your tight pussy is taking me so well. FUCK.” He snapped his hips into you at a brutal pace, his hands gripped your hips hard enough to leave bruises.

“You’re gonna let Baek fuck you as soon as I’m done with you. He’s been so patient, waiting to fucking ruin you on his cock.” He groaned as his pace grew erratic, a clear sign that he was going to cum soon.

“Yes Xiu, I’ll let him fuck me. He can fuck your cum back into me.” You moaned, the overstimulation beginning to turn into pleasure once more. “Please Xiu, want you to cum inside, want you to fill me up.” He growled as he thrusted into you once more as he came inside you. He held himself in you as he panted, trying to catch his breath and come back down from his dizzying high.

“Baek, your turn.” He said as he pulled out of you and flipped you on your back. His hair was stuck to his face from the exertion of fucking you. He looked spent as he moved to your side and leant down to kiss you passionately. “You look so fucking hot noona, being so good for us.” He whispered in between kisses.

Baekhyun moved so that he was between your legs and groaned at the sight before him. “Oh baby, you have no idea how much I want to wreck you now.” His first thrust was deep and slow, moving with purpose as he enjoyed the feel of being inside you. “You look so filthy with hyung’s cum dripping out of you. You wanted me to fuck it back into you?” The next thrust had more force behind it and you felt him. Your head fell back as he fucked you, his grunts and moans increasing in volume. 

His hair stuck to his forehead from the exertion, his eyes alternating their focus from your face to watching his cock disappear into your pussy. He leant forward, effectively folding you in half as he sped up, his thrusts becoming more erratic. “Fuck, how are you this hot? I am not going to last long baby.”

“Shit, me either Baek.” You moaned as Xiumin moved from kissing your lips to your neck, down your chest until his mouth attached to your nipple. He used his hands to massage your breasts as his tongue laved at your nipples. He watched you intently as you cried out for them both to keep touching and fucking you. “Oh fuck, I’m gonna, Baek, I’m gonna cum.”

Baekhyun picked up his pace, slamming into you with vigour as you clamped down on his cock, milking him for all he was worth, your final orgasm of the night hitting you so hard that you almost blacked out. You felt utterly spent, in the best way, but you could do very little as the two men praised you, Baekhyun carrying you to the bathroom to clean you both up while Xiumin went to his room to steal the sheets from the bed. It didn’t matter how spent he was, he’d rather die before sleeping on cum stained sheets. When they’d finished cleaning you up all three of you fell into your bed together, a tangled mess of limbs. You had one man on either side of you. The two that had started this whole thing. 

“Well that was better than my drunk texts.” You murmured. Both men burst into laughter on either side of you. 

Silence settled over the room again as you all began to give in to the call of sleep, comfy, clean and warm. Baekhyun hummed. “I wish you’d had that cheerleader outfit with you.”

“Shut the fuck up.” You replied with a laugh.

“No, he’s onto something there.” Minseok reasoned as he giggled. “That outfit was really hot. Do you still own it?”

You couldn’t help but laugh at them, even though you wanted to sound pissed off. “I hate both of you, and if my legs worked I’d get up and leave this room right now.”

“Hyung high five, we broke her.” Baekhyun continued laughing.

“Shut up!” Both you and Minseok yelled happily.

You let your laughs die down as you snuggled into each other, exhausted both physically and mentally. You realised now that all the rewards had been completed. You’d think on what that meant moving forward later. Right now you just wanted to pass out, and maybe wake up to some continued fun, but you’d understand if Minseok considered the threesome request completed now.

Minseok chose that moment to speak up. “Thank you both for this. It’s uh, it’s weird to thank you for it but you know, it feels necessary. But I’m glad it was the two of you.” Minseok was doing his best to stay awake long enough to thank you both, something he really didn't need to do.

“Talk later, sleep now.” You mumbled as you felt yourself succumb to post coital exhaustion.

A/N: Um so yeah, that happened. Did the smut get away from me? Yes. Are we ok? Can I hand out fans and refreshments to any of you? Real talk, thank you for reading and sticking with me over the insanely long time it's taken to write this fic. I'd love to hear who you want her to end up with, I've got 3 endings penned and I'm still picking which one feels right so your feedback would help :)

“I swear to god if someone tries to interrupt us now I’m going to murder them.” He uttered as he broke the kiss to allow both of you a moment to breathe. A moment you would have both foregone if oxygen was a necessity. You laughed beneath him in agreement. “You are so beautiful, do you know that?” He said as he smiled down at you.

“Thank you?” You replied, unsure of what else to say at that moment. He had this way of inserting such endearing and kind statements into a conversation, no matter what it was about. 

He tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. “I mean it. I, and I’m sure the others have as well, told you that you are hot, but you should also know just how beautiful you are.” He kissed you again, softer this time, savouring the feel of your lips against his. His kiss held such affection. It held feelings that you weren’t ready to address. Feelings that you didn’t fully understand yet. He made you feel safe in a way you hadn’t felt before. You couldn’t put your finger on it but there was something about the way he was holding you and the way he was kissing you that was just so intimate.

His lips started to travel down your neck as he peppered soft, sweet kisses over your exposed skin, nipping your jaw and neck as he moved. You keened into his touch, turning your head to give him more access to your neck. You felt him smile against you, felt the way his lips curled up at the corners. “Does that feel good noona?” He asked as he grazed his teeth against your throat. You whimpered softly in response. He knew if felt good. It almost felt too good, like you were going to lose your mind if he removed his mouth from your skin. “Please tell me I can mark your pretty neck.” His voice contrasted heavily to the softness he’d been treating you with. It was rough and desperate.

Words failed you. Everything felt too good and your desire was too strong. You couldn’t navigate banter right now, all you could get out was one word. Thankfully it was the word that mattered, and the need in your voice as you uttered but told him everything he needed to know. “Please.” 

He moved his arm from your waist, placing it on one side of your body to prop himself up as his mouth connected with your throat, leaving a series of love bites in his wake. His movements became more deliberate with each one as you moaned below him, your hands grabbing at any part of him you could reach. He groaned against your collarbone when your nails raked through his hair. 

His free hand played with the fabric of your sweater, pushing it up so that his hand could roam across your bare skin. “Baek, fuck” You whined when he cupped your breast through your bra. He squeezed gently as his mouth returned to sucking at your collarbone.

“Can I take this off?” He asked as his fingers resumed playing with your sweater. You managed to convey how much you would like him to remove the article of clothing with words. He had to sit up on his knees to pull the sweater over your head, his breath hitching when he sees you fall back against the mattress in your black bra. His slender fingers brushed along the swell of your breasts, causing goosebumps to spread over your skin. “So fucking pretty.” He whispered.

Your hand tugged at his shirt. You needed to feel his skin against yours. “Baek, please. Want to feel you.” He groaned as he sat up once again and all but tore his shirt from his body. You stared at him in awe. He’s been working out a lot to surprise fans at the end of the tour and his efforts were showing. You always forgot just how broad he was since he hid it under oversized clothing and hoodies. He stilled as you propped yourself up so that you could trail your free hand down his chest. “Baek, when did you get so ripped?”

“Do you like what you see?” He bit his lower lip as his eyes followed your fingers as they made their way closer and closer to the waistband of his pants.

“Mmm. Always. You always look good Baek.” Your hand stills centimeters above where he wanted you to touch. “Like this, when you’re sleepy, when you’re in a food coma from too much pizza. Always.” Baekhyun pulled you forward into another kiss, your lips parting as your tongues explored each other's mouths. He tasted like candy. Hot, sweet and increasingly desperate candy.

As the two of you kissed his hand unclasped your bra and you let him remove it from your body before he pushed you back into the mattress, breaking the kiss to lower his head to your chest. “Fucking perfect.” He smirked as he watched your face contort with pleasure as he circled your nipple with his index finger before capturing your other breast with his mouth. His tongue draws circles around the hardening bud then flicks over it at the same time as his fingers work your other breast. The contrast between the two feelings has warmth flooding your system.

He moved further down your body, his soft lips leaving a trail from your breasts down to your hip, where he bit your flesh - not so hard that it hurt, but hard enough that it left a mark. He settled between your legs and paused. You took advantage of the moment and tried to calm yourself, you didn’t want to cum the moment he touched you but with how turned on you are, you knew it wouldn’t take long.  “I’ve wanted this for so long now.” He hummed.

You watched him through lust hazed eyes. Baekhyun, Byun Baekhyun was between your legs telling you how much he wanted you. You whimpered as he slowly dragged his teeth from your thigh, higher and higher. “Ever since that night in the bathroom I’ve been dying to feel you, to taste you.” You feel his fingers trace your folds through your completely soaked panties. “So wet babe, have I had that much of an effect on you?” He teased. “We’ve barely even started yet.”

You whimper at the feeling of his fingers. They are so close to where you want them but he holds back, waiting for you to answer him. “All for you Baek, look what your words and body do to me.” You all but yelp as you feel him push your panties to the side as he pressed one finger into your pussy.  He groaned at the feel of you around his digit as he moved it in and out of you a few times.

“I think you can take more sweetheart. You’re pretty pussy is so eager for anything I’ll give it isn’t it?” His dark eyes are completely focused on the sight of his slick finger as it moves in and out of you. You moan loudly in response, making him smirk. “At a loss for words already?” You shoot him as much of an incredulous look as you can but as he teased you with his words, he inserted a second finger and circled your clit with his thumb.  He curled his fingers slightly, moving his fingers at a teasing pace. 

“I’m gonna make you fall apart on my fingers first, then on my mouth.” You moaned louder as his thumb applied more pressure to your clit, his fingers moving with more purpose, chasing their goal. “Have to show you everything that you’ve been missing out on angel.” His touch was too much and not enough all at the same time. You could feel yourself rushing towards your orgasm but every time you felt it build, his fingers would slow down to a painstaking pace as you were denied your release. You weren’t sure if he was doing it on purpose or not until you looked down at his face, a devilish smirk plastered on it as his eyes focused on his ministrations. “Gonna make you regret waiting so long for this.” 

“Don’t start what you can’t finish Baek.” Your voice was breathy with want, your mind only just able to hold on to the conversation taking place. You wanted more, no, needed more and the only way your brain could think to get him to stop teasing you was to challenge him.

His eyes flicked up to stare into yours as he licked his lips and began to move his fingers again, faster and with more pressure. “Focus on me, wanna see you fall apart. We’ve got plenty of time baby, I plan on keeping you up until the sun rises.”

You struggled to not toss your head back and close your eyes as your release slammed into you, your breathing ragged as the waves of white hot pleasure spread through your body, your vision blurring with the force of the orgasm you just had. Baekhyun’s fingers slow their speed as he helps you ride out your high. You whine as he removes them from your heat only to lick your juices off them, groaning at the taste of you. 

You slowly came back down to earth at the feel of his hands rubbing your thighs. He applied enough pressure for it to not tickle you. “That was so fucking hot noona.” Your hips bucked involuntarily as his hands rubbed higher and higher on your thighs. “Can I taste you? Think you can handle it yet?” He asked, his pupils so dark and blown out with lust as he waited for you to see if you could form words to respond to him. “I’ve wanted to taste you for so long noona.”

Your body tingled all over with oversensitivity but your need for him is overwhelming. You shivered, clenching around nothing as you nodded, eyes glassy. He kissed your thigh softly and your body jerked in response. You felt him smile against your thigh as he repeated the action before slowly dragging his teeth from your thigh up your leg, and moved over your mound, to the other thigh. The sensation made you whimper as you tried to grind your hips, but he held you down with his hands. “Please” You breathed.

Baekhyun licked his lips, his fingers hooking around the waistband of your panties as tapped your hip, his silent request for you to lift your hips so that he could remove the fabric that was standing between him and what he desired most. You complied and he removed your panties with haste, the only indicator that he was also desperate to get back to exploring your body. 

Once the barrier between him and your center was removed he positioned himself back in between your legs. He stared at the sight before him, you bared for him, ready and wanting. He lowered his head between your legs, using his hands to spread them wider. “You’re so fucking wet baby, all for me.” He murmured right before his lips met your core, his tongue flicking against your clit. The sensation made you gasp.  

You felt him smile with his face buried in your folds as he repeated the motion, deepening the pressure until he drew the first whimper from you.  Your hands dug into his hair and he hummed at the feeling of your nails against his scalp. The sound vibrates through your core, the motion pulling a deeper moan from you. You were definitely kicking past you, you should have done this with him a long time ago. The sounds he pulls from your body only seem to spur him on. As he inserted his fingers back into you he pulled your clit between his lips and sucked. You cried out, your back arched and you ground your hips against his face. It was too much, he was too much. You were drowning in him. He moved his fingers slowly, relishing in every delectable sound he drew from you. 

Baekhyun seemed to enjoy taking his time, building you up until you almost couldn’t bear it anymore before he’d increase the speed and pressure he applied. He was winding you up as tightly as he could before giving you the euphoric release you were after, touching you exactly how you needed him to. He flicked his tongue against your clit faster and you cried out in pleasure, his free hand holding you down the only thing stopping your hips from bucking uncontrollably. 

You lifted your head as you watched him get drunk on you, his brows furrowed in concentration and his eyes open and focused on you. You bit your lip as he raised a brow at you. His eyes were fucked out and you hadn’t even gotten to touch him yet. The feel of his mouth and fingers only made you crave more and more of him. You clenched around his fingers repeatedly. He flattened his tongue and licked up and down your folds before lifting his head to watch your face as his fingers continued to pump in and out of you, curling to hit that sweet spot. His face glistened with your juices, a sight that only turned you on more. “Fuck, you feel –” he rasped, unable to coherently finish his sentence. 

“Baek please, I’m so close.” you moaned. You could feel the coil inside you grow tighter with each curl of his fingers. You weren’t going to last much longer at this rate. You were too turned on, for the man who once jokingly referred to sex as a tactical meat injection. The man who was knuckle deep in you was savouring the feel of you, he was drinking in the faces you were making as a direct result of him. 

“Don’t worry sweetheart, I’ve got you.” He said as he lowered his skilled mouth back to your bundle of nerves.  His forehead crinkled in concentration as he rolled his tongue against you, focused solely on your pleasure. You let your head fall back against the mattress as you gave into the sensations he was giving you. You could feel his dark, lustful eyes on you as he took in every reaction he pulled from your body. If you’d asked past you if she ever thought Baekhyun would be this excellent at cunnilingus you would have said no. You would have guessed he’d be one to rush through it in order to get to the main event but oh, how wrong you were. You’d never been happier to be wrong given how quickly your arousal was mounting under his tongue. God you wanted to fuck him.

After several minutes the combination of his fingers and tongue was too much for you. Your breathing quickened as, throwing your hands over your mouth as you all but screamed his name. He moaned against your clit as he increased the strength of the thrusts his fingers were making. Your eyes rolled back as it all became too much for you, that tight coil finally snapping, throwing you into your second, and much more intense, orgasm. Right as it hit you Baekhyun moved his mouth to bite your thigh, the hint of pain mixed with the intense pleasure almost made you black out. 

You had to pull him up by his hair in order to get his hands and mouth away from you, your oversensitive body shivering with every continued touch. He kissed his way back up your body, murmuring praises into you each time his lips met skin. 

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.” You hummed in response, words still evading your lips. You gasped when he left another love bite on you, this time at the swell of your breasts. Your skin had to be littered with his marks but you didn’t mind one bit. He had unlocked something within you that you weren’t aware of. You’d never been big on pet names but something about the way he delivered his to you, then marked you up had only turned you on more. “You look so pretty marked up like this. You’ll think of me every time you undress for a while.” He surveyed his work with pride, and something else that you couldn’t quite place. 

His warm brown eyes met yours as concern flooded his features. “I didn’t hurt you did I? I can get a little carried away sometimes…” You shook your head, your hand cupped his face.

“No Baek, they felt really good.” You sighed. “The one on my hip hurt a little, but in a good way y’know?”

“Yeah, it’s gonna last the longest.” He smiled bashfully. “But I’m not apologising for it. Seeing you covered in my marks is such a turn on.” He traced a finger along the marks that littered your neck. “So good for me angel.” He smirked as he heard a soft whimper escape you. “Oh and don’t think I haven’t noticed how you react to my pet names for you. Wouldn’t have guessed you to like them so much actually.”

“Me either to be honest. I normally don’t enjoy them this much.” You were still so aroused, needy with lust. Your body would not be able to handle sex with him yet, but you knew exactly how to pass the time until you were ready for him. “Something about your voice and touch does something to me though.”

You let your hand slide between your bodies, grazing over his crotch, feeling him suck in a breath as your fingers passed over the hardness in his pants. His cock was hard and strained against the fabric of his sweats. You pulled his face back down to yours and kissed him, tasting yourself on his tongue as he hungrily opened himself to you. He let out a surprised noise as you hooked your legs around his waist and rolled. He broke the kiss but didn’t move away as he spoke. “Baby, if you wanted to have your way with me all you had to do was ask.” 

You laughed. This man was ridiculous. He’s just given you two mind blowing orgasms and was clearly in need of being touched yet he still found time to crack jokes. The mouth on him. You kissed him again before you began to make your way down his body, careful not to leave any marks in your wake lest they be seen by fans. A pity really. The expanse of his neck and chest was begging for a love bite or two. 

You sat up, kneeling between his legs as you ran your nails up and down his clothed thighs.”you know what,” You start. Baekhyun cocked his head at you in question. “You were right Baek.” You bounced slightly on the bed and Baekhyun looked at you, a look somewhere between confusion and arousal as you smirked. “There really is so much room for activities.” 

Baekhyun’s head fell back against the mattress as he laughed at you. “Oh my god. Why would you bring that up now?!” His hands flew to his face as he tried to muffle his laughter. “I give you two orgasms, and you kneel in between my legs and have the audacity to fucking bounce while completely naked and that’s what you have to say? I cannot believe ohhfuck'' You figured he was about to go on a long tangent of whingeing at you so you palmed him firmly over his sweats. It had the desired effect. Baekhyun’s words died in his throat, replaced by a needy whine as you kissed along the waistband of his pants while continuing to stroke him over his pants.

When his hips bucked involuntarily you removed your hands which caused him to whimper in protest. He stopped when he realised that you had moved so that you could pull his sweats down, tapping his thigh to get him to lift his hips. You crawled off the bed as you tugged his pants down. “No underwear Baek?” You commented.

“I- I don’t usually sleep in clothes. Not comfortable.” He replied as he moved up the bed so that he was propped up by pillows, able to sit up and watch you. “Come back noona, you’re too far away.” He pouted.

You crawled back up the bed, kneeling between his legs. You wrapped your hand around Baekhyun’s cock and pumped slowly as you watched his face contort in pleasure. “You’re so beautiful Baek,” You whispered. You felt him react to your words as his cock twitched in your hand. “Do you like it when I praise you?” You asked. His dark gaze and strained response told you all that you needed to know. “You like it when I tell you how perfect your cock is? How much I want to have it in my mouth? How I know how good it will feel to finally taste you?” 

Baekhyun’s hips bucked at your words, a strained cry fell from his lips. “Fuck,” It was his turn for words to fail him as you lowered your head to suck a hickey into his upper thigh. You knew no one would be seeing this part of him unless he was naked. Baekhyun quietly whimpered above you as you did so, trying his best not to thrust up into your hands. 

“Noona, I need - holy fuck.” You leant forward and licked a stripe against the vein and Baekhyun bit down on his lip as he watched you. You kissed up and down his length, teasing him. “Please. I- I don’t think I’ll make it if you tease me.” You looked up at him from your position between his legs and saw that his eyes were shut tightly as he tried to prevent himself from giving in to the bliss you are making him feel.  You decide not to tease him further, he looks like he’s only a moment away from retaliating when you slide his cock into your mouth. He moaned loudly as you slowly took his length into your mouth. You bobbed your head up and down before pulling all the way off as you stared at him. His breathing had become ragged as he watched you through hooded eyes. You stuck your tongue out and swirled it around the tip of Baekhyun’s cock before you wrapped your lips around the tip and sucked gently. Your hands pumped his length as your mouth concentrated on the head of his cock. 

You lifted your head, your hands continued to pump him slowly as you spoke. “You’re being so good for me Baek.” He moaned needily. “Let me take good care of you. You’d like that right?” 

“Yes. God, yes. Please.” He breathed.  You lowered your head again, removing your hands as you licked him from base to tip, flattening your tongue against the underside of his cock. You fluttered your tongue over his tip then took him into your mouth again. You hummed as you bobbed your head, your cheeks hollowed. Soft panting noises come from Baekhyun as he held himself back from fucking up into your mouth. You felt his fingers grip your hair as you rolled his balls in your hand. “I- fuck. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to last.” He panted.

His words spurred you on. You bobbed faster and applied more pressure. He started whining and moaning loudly. When your jaw started to ache from exertion you allowed your hand to return to pumping him as you alternated between fluttering your tongue and sucking the tip of his cock. “F-fuck,” he moaned, eyes rolling back at the feeling of your sinful mouth. When he couldn’t prevent his hips from bucking any more you stuck your tongue out, the head of his cock entering your mouth as your hands still pumped him. “Oh god, where - wh, I need to - fuck!” He couldn’t form a coherent sentence when your mouth felt so good. It was so warm and wet and inviting and he was going to lose it.

Your eyes met and you made no attempts to move away as his hips began to buck erratically. Instead you closed your eyes and stuck your tongue out further, hoping he would get the message. With a strained moan his hand took over from yours as he pumped himself even faster, high pitched moans falling from his lips as he chased his high. You dragged your nails down his thighs and he lost it. You felt the hot bursts of his cum as they landed on your face and tongue. You gripped his thighs firmly as he rode out his high. When he finally stilled you leant forward and gently sucked the tip of his cock, lapping up any cum that was left there. “Fuck baby, look at you.” He hummed. “You’re a mess, covered in my cum.” You felt his finger wipe over your cheek before he inserted it into your mouth. You wrapped your tongue around his digit, sucking his cum from it, opening your eyes as you did. 

Baekhyun sucked in a breath as he repeated the action again. He was silent as he cleaned your face, his eyes transfixed on the sight of you eagerly swallowing every drop of his seed that he gave you. “You are so fucking sexy.” He stroked your hair, thankfully none of his cum had landed in it. “Come back up here.” He beckoned.

You crawled back up, your hips settling over him as he pulled you into another kiss. This one was more intense than the others. “I want you so fucking bad noona.” He said as he came up for air. A wall of desire crashed into you when he bit your lower lip and sucked before he moved on to kiss along your jawline, stopping when he was near your ear as he whispered. “Can’t wait to make you scream my name as you cum on my cock.”

You needed to have sex with this man. Like now. Like right now. You kissed his neck, and rolled your hips, a whimper falling from your lips when you felt him hold you down against his crotch and thrust against you. He groaned when you repeated the action. “Baby you’re so wet. Can feel you coating my cock. You want me that badly?” He asked as he smirked up at you. You could probably cum again just from this but you wanted so badly to feel him pound into you.

“Need.” You corrected.

“Need? Well then we’d better fix that. If my darling noona needs me to fuck her then who am I to prolong that?” He was being smug about the whole thing now and it would have irritated you had you not been so out of it. All your mind could focus on was the feel of him as he slid through your folds, and how good it would feel when he finally entered you. “It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.” He sighed.

“Oh my god Baek, shut up and fuck me already!” Baekhyun laughed and pressed kiss a into your shoulder.

He rolled the two of you so that he was now on top. He stared down at you and licked his lips. You let your legs fall open, your hand reaching down to pump his cock a few times. His eyes closed as he sucked in a breath as he became harder. Once he was ready, you removed your hand, and Baekhyun settled himself over you, weight braced on one arm while his free hand guided his cock through your folds, hissing at the lewd sound that the motion made before he slowly pushed into you, both of you moaning at the way you stretched around him. 

He drew his hips back before slowly thrusting back in, going deeper each time. When he finally bottomed out he could barely speak. “Fuck, you feel - around my - so tight.” You whimpered and wrapped your legs around his waist, pulling him in deeper as your eyes met. You needed him and he felt so good and you just needed everything he was capable of giving you. First and foremost, you needed him to move. 

Baekhyun had stilled as he waited for you to adjust to him. You were both breathing heavily, bodies warm and eyes heady with need. “Baek,” You whined as you rolled your hips into him, trying to indicate that you were ready for him to move..

“Shit,” he groaned. “How do you want it?”

“Wanna feel you, wanna feel like I can barely move afterwards.” You said.

He moved. His first thrust was deep and slow, moving with purpose as he enjoyed the feel of being inside you. The next thrust had more force behind it and you felt him. He was dragging this out, making you want to cry. It felt so good. With each thrust you felt yourself being moved up the bed, the power he had in those hips had you feeling like he planned to make good on your request.

“Put your feet on my shoulder,” he panted as he slammed into you. You cried out as you moved your legs, the new angle making you feel him even deeper as he continued to thrust into you. “You take me so well noona, FUCK” he moaned loudly as you clenched around him. 

A pressure was building inside of you. White hot pleasure mixed with desperate need. Baekhyun moved one of your legs so that both of them were resting on the same shoulder. He ground his hips into you before drawing back and slamming into you, deep and hard. Your hands fisted the sheets as you moaned wantonly. It felt too good.

“Shit, how do you feel so tight. Your pussy doesn’t wanna let go of my cock.” He groaned. 

“Faster Baek.” You cried. “Please.” 

“I wanna hear you say it.”

“Say what?”

“Say noona wants Baek to fuck her faster, noona needs Baek’s cock,” He slowed his thrusts and you whined as you felt that pressure within you begin to recede. “Beg for it, tell me how badly you need it, how badly you want it. All.” He thrusted once, “Night.” twice, “Long.” and a third time, as hard as he could as you screamed his name.

“Noona needs-” you panted. “Noona needs you to fuck her faster Baek, please, fuck. Noona needs your cock, needs you to fuck her until she forgets her own name.” He smiled down at you, a dark and excited smile. “Noona needs you to fuck her until the sun comes up.” 

He picked up the pace, moving faster but never losing the power in his thrusts. Your head fell back as he fucked you, his grunts and moans increasing in volume. His hair stuck to his forehead from the exertion, his eyes alternating their focus from your face to watching his cock disappear into your pussy. He leant forward, effectively folding you in half as he sped up, his thrusts becoming more erratic. “Oh fuck, please tell me you’re close baby.” 

You nodded, words escaping you. You were being fucked too thoroughly to be able to speak. You felt tingles spread through your body as the pressure within neared its peak. He pressed a hand at the base of your throat, and when you nodded again he applied pressure. You cried out in gasping moans as your release hit you hard. You struggled to keep your eyes open as you watched him. You wanted to see him reach his peak too but it was too much. Your head tilted back and intense pleasure washed through every bit of your body.

You only had to wait a few more moments before his body went taut. His breath caught in his throat as his face contorted in bliss. He thrust as deep as he possibly could and cried out between hard, shaky gasps before releasing your legs and collapsing on top of you. 

You smiled and wrapped your arms around him as he attempted to return to his body. He murmured the cutest little sounds of contentment as he came down from his high. You kissed his temple and ran your hands through his hair, feeling him sigh against you. “That was,”

“Shhh, no talky. I’m gonna need a minute or twenty after that.” He mumbled against you.

You laughed at how cute he could be after he basically just fucked you into next week. He whined above you. “Oh god, please don’t laugh. Too sensitive!” Which only made you laugh more. He couldn’t handle it so he pulled out, both of you sighing as he did, and fell onto the mattress next to you, lying on his side. 

He traced his fingers along your inner thigh, collecting some of the cum that had spilled out of you and pushed it back inside of you. Your eyes widened as he did it again, oversensitivity causing you to shiver at his touch. His gaze was transfixed on his fingers as they collected his cum, pausing before pushing it back into you for a third time, instead bringing his cum covered fingers up to your mouth. You took his fingers into your mouth, licking his fingers clean. His eyes were dark when he pulled his fingers from your mouth as he leaned forward to kiss you. “Fuck. That was goddamn hot.” He whispered against your lips. “Gonna cum on your tits next.” His tongue worked against yours as he tasted himself on you.

A/N: There may or may not be a continuation of his reward in the next chapter. He hasn’t gotten everything he requested yet ;)

[4:31pm] You: Because I am absolutely not thinking about you in a family friendly way right now. 

[4:31pm] You: How would you touch me Baek?

His response came immediately, both saying everything and nothing at once. Your mind began to cloud over with desire. It’s not like you hadn’t sexted before and it absolutely was part of his request. You were doing this for him… at least that’s what you were telling yourself.

You wanted him to feel comfortable enough to get specific with you. Dancing around the details wasn’t going to get either of you anywhere. The need in you was growing faster than you cared to admit. You knew how adept he was with his words and now was the time to test the full extent of his skills. 

[4:31pm] Baek: How would I touch you?

[4:31pm] You: You could always remind me ;)

You scoffed at his replies. The audacity of this man knew no bounds and the fact that you weren’t even remotely mad about it should have told you something. 

[4:31pm] Baek: I think we both know how I’d touch you.

[4:32pm] Baek: Would it kill you to ask nicely?

[4:32pm] Baek: Since I am wonderful and amazing and kind and generous I’ll help you out.

[4:32pm] Baek: You already look pretty relaxed on the bed so how about this? I want you to follow my instructions and touch yourself like I tell you to, like I would if I were in the room.

[4:32pm] Baek: And what might that be?

[4:32pm] You: You forgot modest and humble.

[4:32pm] Baek: Don’t answer that.

[4:32pm] You: This bed is comfortable. It is missing something though.

[4:32pm] You: You on top of me. 

You smiled as you sent the message, knowing the exact look that would pass over his features as he read it. You could practically hear his laugh.

[4:32pm] You: Ignore my previous retort. Please.

As you lay back on the bed you felt your body heat up in anticipation. Excitement crept through your veins, feeling increasingly like your nerve endings were live wires. You did as he instructed before sending your reply to him.

[4:32pm] Baek: Wow, that was such a cheesy line. I said listen to my instructions, not to make jokes like me.

[4:33pm] You: And then?

His reply did not take long, yet you were eagerly awaiting his reply already. 

[4:32pm] Baek: I want you to lie back and spread your knees.

You sighed as your fingers made contact with your body. It wasn’t like this wasn’t an action that was foreign to you but somehow it felt different. 

[4:33pm] Baek: Touch yourself, slowly at first.

[4:33pm] Baek: How does that feel?

[4:33pm] Baek: Are you wet noona?

[4:33pm] You: Feels good Baek.

[4:33pm] Baek: Let your nails graze over your skin and pretend it’s me.

Far more than you cared to admit. You had soaked through your panties before you’d even so much as touched yourself.  

[4:33pm] You: Yes.

[4:33pm] You: Makes me want more.

[4:33pm] You: DCIM387523.jpg sent

[4:33pm] Baek: Show me.

Part of you was glad that you couldn’t see his face when he saw the image but a much needier, much hornier part of you wished you could see how much the image affected him.

You bit your lip as you stared at the image. It was clearly not his first dick pic because beginners luck with dick pics was not a thing. He was hard, the tip of his cock already leaking pre-cum. You were reminded of all that he could do with said cock, and exactly how it felt inside of you. How perfectly it fit and how it made you cry out in pleasure. It was taking far more self control than you had anticipated to refrain from getting yourself off. That wasn’t what this reward was about though. It was about following his instructions and so far you were succeeding.

[4:33pm] Baek: Please. Wanna see how much you want me.

[4:34pm] Baek: Your panties are ruined and I have barely begun.

[4:34pm] Baek: So needy for me.

[4:34pm] Baek: Look at what you’ve done to me baby.

[4:34pm] Baek: DCIM5932123.jpg sent

The flood of desire in you just kept growing. So much so that you did seriously consider putting on a bathrobe and booking it to his room so that you could sink down on his cock. You clenched around nothing, feeling so empty and all you wanted was to feel him inside you again. You were getting tremendously worked up, and you knew you wouldn’t last long. 

[4:34pm] You: Fuck.

[4:34pm] Baek: Fuck that’s hot.

[4:34pm] You: Because I do.

[4:34pm] You: Feels so much better than my fingers ever will.

A whimper left your mouth as you closed your eyes and let the sensations overtake you. You let his words paint the picture of his hands digging into your sides as his mouth worked its way down your body, leaving a trail of love bites in its wake. Of his fingers pushing into your heat, drawing moan after moan out of you, stopping right before you came only to resume his actions with vigour as he watched you fall apart beneath him. Logically you knew that it was you touching yourself but with your eyes closed it was much easier to suspend disbelief and imagine that your hands were Baek’s, that you could feel his mouth on your skin and his voice in your ear. Even when he wasn’t physically present in the room, the man was overwhelming.

[4:34pm] Baek: Slow down baby. Don’t rush.

[4:34pm] You: Is it cheesy to say I miss your cock?

[4:34pm] Baek: Imagine I’m there with you.

[4:34pm] Baek: Think about my mouth on your neck, marking you up. Look at the mark on your hip and imagine me giving you a matching one on the other side.

[4:34pm] Baek: Think about my hand moving between your legs.

So much so that you had forgotten to respond to him. You were busy giving into the Baek your imagination had created that you had forgotten that the real Baek was present - even if it was just via text. 

[4:36pm] Baek: Yah! Don’t leave me on read because you’re busy masturbating.

[4:34pm] Baek: Move your hands slowly down your body, like I would.

You heard the message notification but didn’t want to cease the motions of your fingers in order to answer it. One hand was busy tracing light patterns around your nipples, your nails occasionally grazing over the sensitive flesh before you squeezed it between your thumb and finger. The other hand traced down your body, caressing your skin as you got closer and closer to where you needed to touch the most. 

Ring Riinnngg You jumped at the sound of your phone ringing, the sound shocking you back to reality. You saw Baek’s name and sucked in a breath as you realised that you had forgotten to continue texting him. But now he was calling, which meant you’d hear his voice and he’d hear how desperate you were for him to touch you. It would be embarrassing if he hadn’t heard you like this before… however that was in person. Lest you ignore his call as well and completely fail at providing the other half of his reward, you answered. “Baek.”

His voice was rough on the other end of the line. Hearing how affected he was made you clench around nothing, once again feeling far too empty. You let out a soft whine, a sound that was not missed by his ears. “Put me on speaker baby. Then your hands can keep occupied. You just have to listen to my voice.”

“This is much hotter than I thought it would be.” You admitted. 

You heard his breathy laugh through the speaker. “I can’t disagree with you on that.” You could hear his laboured breathing as he jerked himself off. “You know what?” He asked.

“What Baek?” You replied, your voice breathier than you ever remembered hearing it.

“If I was there right now, I’d tease you until you begged me to let you cum.” He grunted. “You know I would.” 

You whimpered, flashbacks of the hours you endured of him edging you flooding your brain. You licked your lips as you listened to the sound of his hand working his shaft. “God I want your cock in my mouth, to watch you come undone as I suck you off.” It wasn’t a lie, you had enjoyed every second of blowing his mind the first time you’d given him head. 

You heard him pick up the pace, soft whines sounding through the speaker as he really started to imagine he was fucking into your mouth. “You look so good with my cock in your mouth as well. Fuck.” He was really getting into this fantasy, really giving himself over to it, just as you were.  “You can use two fingers now. I know it’s not the same as my hands or cock but it’ll have to do for now.”

You plunged your fingers into your soaked heat, moaning loudly at the feeling of them. They weren’t enough though and they never would be. Not when you knew what all of him felt like, not when you knew exactly how he could make your body react. “Want. Fuck. Need more Baek.” You whimpered. “Wanna feel you.”

“I know you do baby, but you can’t have more right now. You’re just gonna have to fuck yourself on your fingers for me.” He moaned as he thought of stuffing you full of his cock, fucking you until you couldn’t form words. “Let me hear you.”

You moved the phone so it sat between your legs, hyper aware of how he could now hear exactly how wet you were for him. “Christ I’m so fucking hard for you, you know that right?” He groaned. “That sounds so fucking hot, holy shit. You’re dripping for me baby.”

You moaned again, hearing his voice like this was tearing you apart. “Tell me. Unf. Tell me what you’re doing.”

“I’m lying on the bed, pants around my ankles as I jerk myself off wishing I was fucking your mouth or your pussy instead of my fist. You feel amazing wrapped around my cock, like your body was made for me.” 

“Shit.” You whimpered. “What I wouldn’t give to sink down on your cock right now.” You sped up your movements, chasing your high.

He groaned loudly. “Fuck. You have a filthy mouth, you know that noona?”

“I’m visiting the gutter at present.” You smiled.

He laughed, never ceasing his rapid movements. “How committed to the gutter are you right now?”

“I’m having phone sex, what do you think?” You chuckled, your breath hitching as your hand grazed your clit.

“Touche.” He replied, grunting as his body responded to the sounds you were making. “By chance did you bring any toys with you? Long shot I know.”

“I. Fuck.” You replied. “I brought my vibrator with me.”

“Shit. Go get it.” He slowed his movements while he waited for you to retrieve your toy. He really wanted to cum at the same time as you but if the sounds you were making with just your fingers were any indication, he was in for an impossible task. He heard you return to the bed and instructed. “Turn it on, low speed. Keep fucking yourself on your fingers for me. I want you to hold it just far enough from your clit that you have to grind into it to feel it.” He started moving his own hand again once he could hear the low buzz of your vibrator and the squelch of your fingers. He was matching his pace to yours and every time you moaned or whimpered his name, he felt his cock twitch. “Fuck noona, the sounds you’re making are so hot.”

You’d forgotten to respond to him but at this point he didn’t really care. He could hear everything you were doing, everything he had instructed you to do and the sounds you were making were driving him insane. “If I was there, I’d be fucking you into that mattress so hard you wouldn’t be able to walk properly. I can hear how wet you are for me baby.”  

You cried out his name as you moved even faster, hearing him do the same. “Feels so good Baek, not as good as your cock but holy shit.” You could feel that familiar tingling in your core, and knew that you weren’t far from reaching your peak.

He cried out in ecstasy. “Shit. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to last noona. You’re making such sweet noises for me.”

You whimpered. “Baek, please.” It felt so good and like not enough all at once.  

He panted, somehow still able to form coherent thoughts. “You wanna cum baby?”

“I’m so close, please, I need more.” You whined. 

“Increase the speed and get yourself off baby. However you need to, just let me hear you as you come undone for me.” He listened as you increased the speed, crying out as you pressed the vibrator against your clit, holding it there while you fucked yourself on your fingers. “So good for me. Fuck I -”

“Baek.” You moaned. You were so close, so fucking close but you needed to hear him. To hear him lose it at the sound of you fucking yourself like he told you to. 

“Mmmph, yes baby?” He moaned, so close to finishing, you could tell by the strain in his voice, the speed of his hand and the erratic breathing.

“I wanna hear you cum. Please.” Your final request was all that it took to throw him over the edge, and hearing him moan your name as he came hurtled you into your own orgasm which made you see stars.

For a few moments all that could be heard was erratic breathing. Baek broke the silence. “Holy shit.”

“No kidding.” You replied, a post orgasm smile forming on your face. 

***

“You’re sure you messaged him?” Minseok asked as he paced around the room. He’d been doing this for the past five minutes and it was beginning to stress you out.

You reassured him. “Positive. I’m sure he’ll be here soon.” You could see that your words weren’t having the desired effect so you stood and moved to block the path he was wearing through the carpet. 

He realised what you had done at the last possible moment and stopped before he walked smack bang into you. You grabbed his hand, your free hand cupping his cheek. “Hey, calm down. This dinner isn’t a big deal.”

Minseok narrowed his eyes at you as he fidgeted. “Maybe not for you, but I feel like I’m about to embarrass myself in front of someone I work with, and live with.”

“You seriously need to just trust me.” You sighed. “Plus the first part of this dinner isn’t even about you anyway.”

The sound of knuckles rapping on the door caused Minseok’s next words to freeze in his throat. You gestured at him to look normal as you moved to open the door. He did his best but anxiety was seeping out of him in waves. There was no way Baek wouldn’t know something was off about him.

Baekhyun stepped into the room, grinning and giving you a hug. “I’m sorry I’m late! I fell asleep earlier and only just woke up.”

“You must have been tired Baek.” You smirked.

“I was worn out.” He said with a glint in his eye.

You ignored his comment, knowing full well what would happen if the two of you indulged in banter for any length of time, and instead chose to lead both of them further into the room. You turned around when you reached the small multipurpose table that was going to serve as your dining table. “Organising dinner was on me and I figured that since the final tour date is in two days that you could both have a bit of a cheat meal.” You saw words of protest appear on both of their lips, Baek’s far less truthful than Minseok's. “Before you complain, I ordered Korean food. I know you’ve been missing it. I didn’t order the healthiest food imaginable but it’ll be delicious and hopefully comforting.”

Minseok smiled at you. “That actually sounds great.”

“And Baek, don’t worry, there’s no cucumbers this time.”

Baekhyun did a little happy dance which made both you and Minseok laugh. “Noona doesn’t hate me!” He sang.

You looked down at your phone as you checked the app and saw how far away the driver was. “It should be here soon. I’ll go down to the lobby to collect it while you two set up somewhere to eat. I’ll be back soon.” You gestured around the room to help them get the message that they needed to move things around so that you could all eat. 

Minseok sent you a warning glare as you left the room. “Noona,” You ignored the complaint in his voice, knowing that if all went well you’d probably pay for that action later. Right now what mattered was getting some food into all of you.

***

Minseok set down his chopsticks after finishing a piece of chicken. “Alright, enough stalling. Tell us about your meeting.” You had been waiting for him to broach the topic, figuring maybe his nerves about the other conversation might have pushed this one out of the way.

Baekhyun was a little less gracious, immediately speaking whilst still trying to eat. The guy could sing and dance at the same time but he could not eat and talk simultaneously - no matter how hard he tried. “Yeah, what happened?” He started in between bites of his piece of chicken. “What did they say?” Another bite. “What did you say?” Another bite.

“Are you staying with us?” Minseok asked softly.

“Are they assigning you to another group?” Baekhyun asked with a certain amount of worry in his voice.

“Guys, calm down.” You set your own chopsticks down so you could talk to them before they bombarded you with questions. “The meeting went well. It was with two of the managers and Junmyeon was there as EXO’s representative. We all just discussed the criteria I was given when I took on the role. Feedback was provided from the staff as well as from you guys and then I provided my own opinions regarding my performance. Overall it was quite positive.” You smiled. It was the truth - the meeting was positive. Mostly.

Baek cheered as he engulfed you in a hug. “That’s great news! See we all told you how great you are at your job.”

Minseok however, was more reserved. He had a half smile on his face that said he knew there was more to the story than what you’d provided. “Why am I sensing a ‘it was quite positive, but’ moment?”

Baek stilled, refusing to detach himself from you. You sighed. “They have to send the performance discussion to the CEO and then he will make the final decision about my employment after your final performance. We won’t know the outcome until we’re back in Korea.”

“So you just get to stress about it until then? That doesn’t seem fair.” Baek muttered.

“I’m stressing about a few things.” You replied honestly. Maybe it was time to let them know what your brain had been wrestling with. 

“Like what?” Minseok asked earnestly as he reached across the table and grabbed your hand. “You know you can tell us. No matter what it is.”

You nodded. “Of course I’m stressed about my job. If they don’t keep me working with you guys, will they assign me to another group at SM or will I be going back to Mr. Kim and waiting for him to find me another group to teach?”

Baek rubbed your shoulders, muttering to no one in particular about the tightness of your muscles. His touch was both calming and distracting, which was precisely your problem. He paused to reassure you. “I’m going to speak for all of us when I say that you are great at your job regardless of the reward system you implemented. It was a definite bonus but even without that aspect of the lessons, we all improved greatly.”

Minseok squeezed your hand as he stared at you, his eyes full of warmth and love. “You’ll land on your feet no matter what happens there. You’re an excellent teacher and the company would be dumb to let you go to their competition.”

“That is another thing I stressed about.” You said, soft voice thick with emotion. “Were you only so willing to learn because it wasn’t always exactly professional? Our relationship was blurred before I was employed as your teacher.” It was something you had been increasingly unsure of recently. Would they have been as attentive and willing to learn if you had been less familiar and suggestive with them? Had you taken advantage of the situation? Had you taken advantage of them? These were all questions you were beginning to ask yourself and the negative thoughts  were growing louder by the day in your mind.

As if sensing the inner turmoil you were feeling, Minseok moved his chair closer to you so that he could grab your free hand. “If anything I think the fact that we knew you and got along with you before you were our teacher only helped make us feel more relaxed around you.” He smiled at the man who had resumed back hugging you. “Like Baek said, the less than professional side of the lessons was a bonus but at the end of the day you took our learning styles into consideration and adjusted the way you taught to suit each of us. That is not something every company assigned teacher does. They usually stick to their lesson plans rigidly and we have to work harder if their style of teaching is not beneficial for us.” 

His words pierced through, causing you to feel far more emotional than you had planned to be this evening. “Thank you Minnie.” You said, your voice trembling slightly. 

He released one of your hands to wipe away a stray tear that had escaped your eyes. “You are a phenomenal teacher. Don’t cheapen what you’ve accomplished just because you happen to have slept with us.” You choked out a laugh as he wiped a few more tears away. “We are all incredibly proud of our super talented friend and teacher for doing what no one else had been able to accomplish - teaching EXO English.” You smiled genuinely at that, thanking him for his words.

You tried to shrug but the act was harder to do with Baekhyun restricting your movement. “Pretty much.”

 “Was that everything you’re stressing about?” Baek asked softly from behind you, his head resting on your shoulder.

You shook your head. “Nothing I feel like discussing at this time though.” He narrowed his eyes at you in concern while you felt Baek remove himself from behind you, dragging his chair closer to Minseok’s so he could see your face as well. You saw the concern in his eyes and all you wanted to do was get away from this conversation. You weren’t ready for that part of the conversation yet and they would both have to trust you enough to not try and push you for answers. “I promise I will tell you as soon as I’m ready. I won’t dwell on it or anything like that.”

Baek crossed his arms. “I’d better not have to find you by the Han River again after you’ve gotten too upset.”

Minseok wasn’t having it. “I can tell from your face that there’s more…”

“You won’t. I promise.” You assured him. You had no intention of feeling as lost as you had that day. He nodded, sharing a look with Minseok that told you that they believed you and would let it go for now, but that this conversation wasn’t over. You would tell them eventually but you needed to work out the answer yourself before you even brought it up with them. You took a sip of your drink and wondered how exactly the conversation had been derailed so much that you had shed tears. That was not what tonight was supposed to be about. “I’m changing the topic now.” You stated. “How do you feel about the tour coming to an end?”

Baek smiled. “It’s been a lot of fun actually getting to visit places where we never thought we’d have that many fans. We’re only done with the American leg of the tour though. We’ve got the encore show in Seoul to prepare for, then the tour will officially be finished.” He licked his lips. “And then I can eat all the pizza I want.”

Minseok laughed as he begrudgingly added. “But then we have to start to work on the next album as well as CBX’s Japanese debut.”

“No rest for the wicked.” You replied.

Minseok shook his head. “No rest on the horizon for us. Are we tired? Sure. Do we love what we do? Absolutely. I think we all realise that we kind of get to rest in a couple of years once we have to start enlisting. EXO will have to take a break then.”

Baek chuckled. “We’re all workaholics though. So we’ll rest but to most people we’ll still appear to have too many schedules.”

Minseok sighed as he shook his head. “Why do we keep moving to heavy topics of discussion? Can we stick to lighter things?”

“Pick a topic then.” You smiled.

“Hyung. I think you owe me an apology.” Baekhyun blurted out.

Minseok looked bewildered. “For what?” He asked.

Baek stood abruptly and pointed back and forth between you and Minseok vigorously. “I was right the whole time! You and noona were fucking, the entire time!”

“Baek, seriously?” You blurted.

“It’s ok.” Minseok smirked. An unexpected action given the man was a nervous wreck not even an hour ago but he was if anything, never to be underestimated. “Baek, tell me, when have I ever denied it?” He asked, his head cocked to the side.

“What? Yah! You did though! Every time I brought it up!” Baek’s voice was increasing in volume as he got worked up.

Minseok however, remained the picture of unbothered, leaning further back in his chair as he got comfortable. Every other time Baek had brought up the idea of you and Minseok fucking, the elder had always been one breath away from punching him, but now that there were no bystanders he was toying with Baek. “No. I just never confirmed it. I never said we weren’t though. You just assumed that since I never told you you were right.” He shrugged.

Baek’s mouth opened and closed rapidly as he tried to find a fault in Minseok’s reasoning. “I. But. You.”

Minseok raised a brow. “You know I’m right.” He said.

Baek nodded a few times as he realised he had never heard Minseok or you deny that you were sleeping together. “Smooth hyung, smooth.”

“Shut up.” Minseok muttered, laughing under his breath, light dancing in his eyes.

“Wait! I have a question then.” He blurted.

Minseok groaned, that light dimming slightly. “Why do I know I’m not going to like this question…” 

“Don’t hate me. I’m just really curious.” Baek grinned.

“Fine.” He said.

“Since the two of you were fucking the whole time, how did a reward even work for you?” 

“Baek.” You warned. 

“What?” He exclaimed. “You told me everyone got a sexual reward, or punishment, and I get that. But if the two of you were already well acquainted with each other's bits then how could anything sexual still count as a reward for you?” It was a valid question, and the more you thought about it, it did lead to telling Baek about the threesome… and you were curious to see if Minseok would take the bait.

Minseok’s reply was guarded. The easygoing light was gone from his eyes, replaced by a wall. You willed him to just relax and tell Baek everything, knowing it would be better for Minseok’s confidence if it came from him rather than you. “I made a request.”

“But haven’t had it fulfilled yet?” He asked.

“Correct.” 

It was like trying to draw blood from a stone and Baek was doing his best to be respectful in how he asked. “Like, I don’t mean to pry but you have to know that kind of response only makes me more curious about what you asked for hyung.”

“Don’t play dumb Baek, you know what I asked for.” Minseok snapped. “She already told me that she accidentally spilled that information.” He groaned, embarrassed by the entire situation.

Baek took it in his stride as he continued the conversation as though Minseok wasn’t trying everything in his power to end it. “I have follow up questions.”

“Baek.” You tried. He shot you a look that said he’s my hyung and I know his moods better than you do sweetheart.

He pressed on with his questions. “Have you planned it yet?”

“What?” Minseok replied, growing exasperated but not surprised by the younger's antics.

“I don’t know hyung! I assume threesomes take planning?!” Baek threw his hands in the air, laughing nervously. 

Minseok stilled, finally understanding that Baek was trying to make him feel at ease with the topic at hand. “I. No, it has not been planned yet.”

“Oh, ok.” He replied, unsure of where to go next. 

Minseok put his head in his hands and grumbled. “Can we please stop talking about this?”

Baek smiled at Minseok lovingly. “Sorry hyung, I was just curious. Didn’t mean to make you self conscious.” He cleared his throat. “Just to be clear, there is absolutely no judgement from me, in case that was something you were now feeling weird about.”

Minseok had not removed his face from his hands but he still replied. “It’s fine. It’s just not a normal topic of conversation.”

It was time for you to step in and try to get this conversation to where it needed to go. Baek was closing in on it but had not asked the right question, nor did it seem like Minseok was going to provide the information required even if he had been asked the right question. “Baek, how do you feel about threesomes?” You asked.

Baek had not been expecting that question. “Well I’ve never had one noona, but I dunno, they sound like they could be good if the right people were involved.”

You pressed on, hoping that if you didn’t provide him room to think too much he wouldn’t make an ill-timed joke.“If you were to be involved in one, would you opt for two women or a man and a woman?” 

He mulled over the question for a bit, taking it seriously. “As hot as two women sounds, it also seems like a lot of work,” he began and you heard a small laugh from Minseok. Okay maybe jokes weren’t the worst thing Baek could throw into this conversation. “and not gonna lie I’d probably just watch the two of them and cum embarrassingly fast.” He laughed nervously. “So I’d probably go for a man and a woman.” He saw the look in your eyes and exclaimed. “What?”

You shook your head. “Nothing. I just appreciate your honesty.”

“You’re welcome?” He replied, slightly confused and feeling rather exposed. He fidgeted for a moment before standing and pointing at the fridge. “I’m getting a drink.”

Once Baekhyun was out of earshot Minseok glared at you and hissed. “What are you doing noona?”

You smiled innocently. “What? This is the perfect way to introduce the idea to him.”

Minseok was wrestling with his anxiety and fear of rejection. “But. Shit, I don’t know. Why is this so nerve wracking?” He wanted to get it out there but he was so terrified of the response.

It was your turn to squeeze his hand in reassurance. “Just follow my lead now, then if things go like I think they might, I’ll follow your instructions later.” You winked.

“...Fine.” He replied, not entirely certain that this wasn’t all going to end in flames.

You leaned over and whispered in his ear. “Just so you know, if this topic of conversation hadn’t come up naturally I was just going to bring it up. This is a far better way to do it though. Plus, you are not blind, you can see he’s interested.” You kissed his cheek as you pulled away.

“Can the floor just open up and swallow me already?” He groaned, looking anywhere but at you or Baek..

“So Baekkie,” You smiled. “I have some questions now.”

“Why are you looking at me like that?” He asked suspiciously.

“Like what?” You replied.

He stared at you. “Like a cat circling a mouse.”

“No idea what you’re talking about.” You replied, cutting him off before he could say anything more. “Anyway, my questions. Will you answer five questions for me?”

“Um, ok.” He looked confused but he rarely refused games involving questions with you. “Does Minseokkie have to answer as well?” He asked.

“He doesn’t have to,” You replied as you brushed your hand over Minseok’s leg.. “but I think it would be more fun if he did.”

“Okay.” Baek replied.

“Maybe.” Minseok added.

Here went nothing. Things were about to either get really awkward or work out swimmingly. “Do you like to watch?” You asked.

Baekhyun replied slowly. “That’s very vague noona.”

You replied sarcastically. “Given the previous topic of discussion I felt like it didn’t need to be more specific.” Neither of the two men looked like they were opting to speak first which simply was not going to work for you. “Fine. I’ll rephrase. Does the idea of watching two people having sex appeal to you?”

Baekhyun nodded. “I’ve watched porn, so that feels like a given.” He said matter of factly.

“Yeah.” Minseok agreed.

“Does the idea of having someone tell you where to touch your partner, and how to fuck them turn you on?” You asked, hoping this question would elicit more of a response out of them.

Baek shifted in his seat, a slight blush tinting his ears. “I, um. That. Yeah, that does sound really hot actually.”

Minseok however, as you expected, was not as enthralled by the idea of giving up control. “Hmm, not really.” He replied succinctly.

“Does the image of you and another guy sharing a woman, fucking her at the same time, hearing her fall apart because of the pleasure you’re both giving her make you feel some type of way?” It definitely made you feel some type of way, and you knew both of them were interested in the idea of a threesome so this question should have been an easy one to respond to.

Baekhyun swallowed thickly. “Fuck.” He was a bit flustered, the tips of his ears turned slightly red.  “Um, yes. That sounds really fucking hot.” He nodded.

Minseok still looked guarded but there was a fire in his eyes that told you all you needed to know. “Yes.” was the only reply you received.

Time for the final step. There was no taking this image back once you’d put it out there. “Would the idea of the woman being me, and the other guy being your hyung be a turn off?”

Baekhyun smiled softly, a complete dichotomy to the nature of the question you had asked. “Actually, not to expose myself here, but that’s what I’ve been imagining this whole time, and as long as it doesn’t get weird then no, it is absolutely not a turn off at all.” He avoided looking at either of you out of slight embarrassment. 

Minseok stilled, his breathing rough. “Fuck.” Reality slammed into him as he finally knew that his request was possible and that he would not be rejected.

You pressed on, hoping to calm the tension that was growing in the room. Baekhyun had yet to look at either of you after admitting that he was turned on at the thought of sharing you with his hyung. “Would you believe that your hyung picked you to be the one he wanted involved in his reward?”

His head shot up, eyes wide. “What?”

Minseok suddenly felt very exposed. “Noona!” He yelled.

Baekhyun shook his head. “Wait really?” He pointed at himself. “Me?”

You nodded, grinning as you replied. “Yes. You.”

He sucked in a deep breath and looked at Minseok. “I want to preface this with, I am flattered and 100% down for this but I have a question.” Minseok waited. “Why me hyung?” He asked.

Minseok looked torn between being relieved that this request seemed within his grasp and hoping that the earth would crack open and swallow him whole so that he didn’t have to explain to Baekhyun why he chose him for a threesome with you. “Uh… do I have to answer?” 

Baek narrowed his eyes at Minseok. “Yeah. You do.”

He took a deep breath and averted his gaze as he spoke, still embarrassed to be saying this in front of Baek. “You seem open minded, you have never shamed me when I’ve let a kink drop in a conversation.”

Baek nodded. “True.”

Minseok fidgeted with his hands as the anxiety worked its way out of him. “I also, uh this is embarrassing, I like to be in charge when it comes to sex. And I don’t think you’re the type who would challenge me on that.” He finally turned his gaze to Baek as he uttered his next sentence. “I also trust you not to fuck this up.”

“Thanks hyung.” Baek smiled brightly, laughing to himself right after. “Wow, what a fucking weird conversation.” He took a beat to centre himself before honestly replying. “Uh, you aren’t wrong though.” He shrugged. “I have no problem taking charge during sex but I also take instruction well and don’t care if I’m calling the shots or not.” Thay boyish grin returned to his face as he couldn’t help himself. “I’m just happy to be there.”

“Noona,” Minseok said as he waved his hand in front of your face. “Are you ok?” He asked.

“Hmm?” You shook your head as your eyes focused on the two men staring at you. “Sorry, I was just thinking about…” You replied, not realising how off with the fairies you had been.

“About what?” Baekhyun asked, a knowing gleam in his eyes.

Your breath shuddered as you spoke. “About both of you fucking me. Sorry, my brain is heavily distracted right now.” You bit your lip as you tapped your temple with your finger. “There are a lot of incredibly hot images taking place in there.”

“So uh, I guess the question of the hour is - are we doing this now?” Minseok asked quietly. Even though Baekhyun had all but jumped for joy at being selected as the third person, Minseok was still nervous about the whole thing. You remained silent while he posed the question, having led the discussion to this point, you were curious to see if he’d take over and lead from here. He gestured between all three of you before he continued speaking, his voice gaining in confidence the more he spoke. “Clearly we are all down for it, and none of us are unaffected right now. But do we need some time to consider it?”

You shook your head. He knew you were down bad for it since you kept drifting off into a daze whenever you thought about it. He all but smirked at you before turning his focus to Baek.

“I don’t need any time.” Baekhyun replied. It wasn’t a rushed response, just one he sounded very sure of. Both of your gazes focused on Minseok. His response would determine if you were fucking these two men tonight or if you were scheduling a threesome, which seemed like the strangest possible calendar entry you could make.

“I’m down,” He loosened a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding in. “I’ll just need a little bit of time to mentally prepare for it.” His gummy smile flashing as he realised the situation he was discussing. Baek raised his hand. “Uh, yes?” Minseok replied.

“I have more questions.” He paused, thinking over his next words carefully. “I’m completely up for this experience but we are going to have to talk about how it will work y’know. So we don’t overstep or make it weird.” 

You smiled warmly at both of them, proud that Minseok had persevered through his nerves to get to this point. He hadn’t been rejected (and you knew he never had that to fear) and was actually manifesting going through with it tonight. Proud of Baek for having the forethought to ask about boundaries to make sure the experience was good for all involved. Rather than coo at them about any of that, you decided to try and act nonchalant in an attempt to hide how badly you wanted both of them. “Alright then how about you go prepare. We’ll know when you return if Xiumin is getting his reward tonight or not.” You looked at Baek. “And if Xiu comes out, we will discuss how things will proceed. It’s his reward - we’re just excited to be here.”

A/N: Now you all just have to wait for me to die from writing this threesome, resurrect myself, dies while editing it, be resurrected again and then I’ll unleash it upon you. We’re so close to the end and I honestly don’t know how to thank everyone who has stuck with this fic because it’s been a damn long time. Years! So thank you - I really, truly appreciate it.

Minseok sighed as he leaned back into his chair. “You know I don’t enjoy being kept waiting.”

“You tell him then.” You snapped. You weren’t just going to drop that kind of bombshell on Baek with no warning. If Minseok was going to get snippy about it then he could buck up the courage to go hang with Baek and tell him. You knew he wouldn’t though. For all of his bravado there was still the fear of rejection dwelling in him. Regardless of how many times you reassured him that none of the guys would be disgusted by the idea.

He stared at you pointedly, one brow raised. “That was not our deal.”

You stood. You had to start to get ready. “Fine. How about after my meeting with the managers and Junmyeon tonight, the three of us have dinner together and talk?”

Minseok looked at you, his expression wrought with concern. “That’s going to be really awkward if he says no.”

You shrugged as you located your make-up bag. “I don’t think he will. He seemed excited about it when he knew that was what you requested. He really wanted to know who you’d picked.”

“Why would I not be surprised to find out he’s a voyeur?” Minseok half laughed. “It won’t be weird? Like it’s pretty obvious he’s been crushing on you.”

You shook your head. “No. We talked about it a lot actually, and we’re just going to see how things progress naturally.” You shrugged. “I mean all of us care about each other and desire each other to a certain extent so it’s a bit confusing to label anything yet. I’ll review it once this tour is over since my contract is finished then.”

He nodded before adding quietly. “Will you have to work with another group?”

You grabbed the make-up bag and moved to sit in front of the floor length mirror near the entrance to the room. You couldn’t lie, you had no idea what was going to happen during the meeting. You couldn’t see why SM would keep a contract with you and EXO if the group weren’t doing any further promotions in English speaking countries. There was a very real possibility that you would be assigned to another group or another company. “Possibly. It’s part of the purpose of tonight’s meeting. Kind of a review of my work and scope for likelihood of future work for me with you guys or with other groups. If SM isn't planning to rehire me then my boss will place me at another company.”

Minseok took a seat on the floor next to you as you applied your make-up. “It would be weird to not be able to have you around as much.” His expression was sombre as he thought about the reality of any of them not being able to spend as much time with you without it raising questions. You felt the same. You’d grown incredibly close to all nine of them and the idea that you wouldn’t be able to just drop by unannounced or attend schedules with them was difficult to think about but you also knew that it might actually be better to put a bit of distance between all of you. You’d be able to find ways to hang out with them in the future, and even if you weren’t under contract with SM you’d still be able to spend your free time with them, when they were available.

You paused. “Who knows, it might be good though. The lines between work and pleasure got kind of blurred, and that’s my fault, so separating my work from my relationships with all of you might help me to work out how this all looks moving forward.” You needed to work out what it was that you felt for each of them, and where things went from where they were now. At this point you had slept with each one of them and had deeper relationships with a few of them but you didn’t know if you wanted anything more with any of them other than friendship. You needed time to unpack all of your feelings, your time with Baekhyun had solidified that. There were feelings there but neither of you knew if they were ones that either of you wanted to try to pursue or if they were largely built off months of sexual tension.

There was one week remaining before all of you headed back to Korea. You had decided that once you were back in your home then there would be no more sexual encounters with any of them. Not until you made your mind up about what you wanted. Did you want all of them, some of them, one of them or none of them? You did not have an answer to the question that burned in the back of your mind. So you ignored it.

“Enough of this talk, it’s bringing the room down.” You softly chuckled. Minseok glanced at you through the mirror as you resumed putting your face on. “I believe you were telling me about the movie you were in and why I can’t watch it.”

He smiled. “You get sad when we die…”

“Do any of you act in things and not die?!” Minseok’s laughter rang throughout the room as you ranted about how you’d tried to watch a few of the things the members had acted in and every single one had ended with one of them dying.

“Cute.” He teased.

“Shut up.” Your response only made him laugh harder. The two of you continued to bicker about the dangers of watching anything any of the members acted in while you got ready. You both agreed that Soo would eventually have to remain alive during a role if he wanted to really explore acting. He couldn’t die in every role, you would threaten to nickname him Korea’s Sean Bean if he did. Minseok requested to video that particular encounter if it ever occurred.

Once your face was finished Minseok excused himself and left to go work out with Yeol and Jongin at the hotel gym. Those three and Baekhyun had been working hard on their physiques. Jongdae had joked that Minseok was Baekhyun’s trainer and Jongin was Chanyeol's, which put all too many ridiculous images in your mind. You felt sorry for whoever got stuck training with Minseok since he was overly enthusiastic about working out. You have never seen someone get so excited about the prospect of working out.

You began to pack your room up while you killed time before the meeting. All of you were off to the airport very early in the morning and depending on how tonight went, you might be short on packing time tomorrow. You pulled out clothes that you would need for tonight and for the flight tomorrow and packed everything else. You made a mental note to not do any more shopping out of fear that your luggage would be over the weight limit at the airport.

When there was no more packing to be done you turned your attention to the self evaluation sheet that you had completed prior to the meeting you were about to have. You had made a series of bullet points regarding your achievements, work ethic, teamwork and competence. You felt good about the performance side of the meeting. Your concern was going to be about the future of your contract. At least if they didn’t choose to keep you under contract with SM it would not be difficult for you to be placed elsewhere, not after the success you’d had with two high profile groups.

The sound of your phone pulled you from your thoughts. You really hoped it wasn’t one of the managers rescheduling the meeting because as much as you were starting to feel nervous about it, you just wanted to get it over and done with. Dragging the feeling out would not do you any good.

A laugh escaped you when you unlocked your phone. You should have known who would be the one messaging you. Baekhyun had a knack for texting you at moments where you needed distraction.

[1:24pm] Baek: Do you know what I’ve been thinking about?

You stared at the message. Of course you didn’t know the answer to his obviously rhetorical question. 

[1:24pm] You: Care to share with the class?

[1:24pm] Baek: Where’s the fun in not making you guess at least once?

You made a mental note to add eternally insufferable to the list of traits that applied to Baekhyun. He could bring a smile to your face with ease only to irritate you a moment later. You decided to play his game, the earlier conversation with Minseok popping back in your brain.

[1:25pm] You: Fine. You’ve been thinking about how to best apologise to me for making me watch the episode where you FUCKING DIE HORRIBLY alone. Even if that’s the wrong answer, you should be thinking about how to fix that.

[1:25pm] Baek: …That’s not what I’ve been thinking about, but I will consider options now.

[1:25pm] Baek: Did you cry?

[1:25pm] You: Of course I cried! It was heartbreaking and traumatising and oh my god I can’t believe you didn’t warn me!

[1:25pm] Baek: Aww, you cried that much for me? Were your eyes all puffy?

[1:26pm] You: Yes Baek. I ugly cried. Happy now?

The scowl on your face deepened as you thought of the smirk that would be on his face as he thought of you crying over his acting. At least no one witnessed you having an absolute breakdown over that episode. The story was heartbreaking and you had cried for his marriage, his family, his friend and everything horrible that was to come.

[1:26pm] Baek: Honestly? I’m not not happy about it. My acting must have been good!

[1:26pm] You: I mean yes, your acting was good but also there was the additional layer that is I saw someone I KNOW IN REAL LIFE die.

[1:27pm] Baek: Does it make you less sad to know that I was actually just asleep once I ‘died’ and was still in the scene? 

[1:27pm] Baek: Just had a nice little nap. Some of my best work.

If he’d dared say that to your face you would have shoved him through a wall. 

[1:27pm] You: I actually hate you, you know that right?

[1:27pm] Baek: Wow noona, lying is not a good look for you.

[1:27pm] Baek: Anyway, about what I was actually thinking about…

[1:28pm] You: You frustrate me so much.

It was the truth. He did frustrate you, so very much. Conversations flowed easily between the two of you but he knew exactly how to push you to the end of your rope without actually damaging your relationship. Even if he did make you want to throttle him on more than one occasion.

[1:28pm] Baek: In a good way though, right? Like sexual frustration ;) Pent up need, palpable tension. 

Your mind drifted back to the morning after his reward. The soft blankets, entwined limbs, and sleepy Baek who snuggled and wouldn’t let you leave the bed because apparently you were too huggable, comfortable and couldn’t you just tell your bladder to go back to sleep? Leaving the bed had been something you’d done reluctantly. Baekhyun was an excellent cuddler and his voice when he was still half asleep just did things to you, but when nature called you were provided with little wiggle room.

[1:28pm] You: Is this what you’ve been thinking of? Sex?

[1:29pm] Baek: There’s a study that says people think about sex between 10 to 20 times each day.

[1:29pm] You: So you’ve been thinking about sex.

[1:29pm] Baek: Yes. It’s a normal and healthy thing to do. I’m not weird.

You checked the time before you replied. You needed to wrap this conversation up soon and head down to the conference rooms for your evaluation. In addition to your nerves about your future with SM, you now had Minseok’s reward at the forefront of your mind again, and like every other time - you had no time to bring it up and discuss it with Baek.

[1:29pm] You: You are weird, but not for thinking about sex. Are you planning to elaborate on this important train of thought any time soon? I’ve got a meeting to get to.

[1:29pm] Baek: Oh right, I forgot about that meeting. Well, whilst the other night was incredible, it was only half of my reward if I get to have everything I requested…

[1:29pm] Baek: We’ll discuss how I’m not weird at a later time.

Shit, the phone sex. He’d requested that as well and you had not delivered on it yet. When he’d mentioned it you remembered being excited to see how skilled he was at it. The most either of you had ever done via the phone was flirting and for want of a better phrase, foreplay. Sexting-lite if you will.

[1:30pm] You: I had actually forgotten about that part of the request. Someone distracted me. Weird guy, incredibly hot and great in bed though.

[1:30pm] Baek: Sounds like a catch. Why’d you let him out of your sight?

You laughed out loud at his response. He never missed the opportunity to inflate his own ego or fish for a compliment.

[1:30pm] You: I can’t do this now Baek, as much as I enjoy our banter, I have to prepare for this meeting. It’s important. 

[1:30pm] You: I’ll make it up to you later by giving you the other half of your reward ;)

[1:31pm] Baek: Ah ok well with an offer like that, how could I refuse? Your meeting will be fine, regardless of the outcome btw. Unless they make you move out, then that will be awful.

[1:31pm] Baek: Forget I said that!

[1:31pm] Baek: Even if they don’t do another contract with us, you taught other groups at the company while we were in Japan so they’ll probably just have you as an in-house English teacher or assign you to another group.

[1:31pm] You: Thanks Baek, I hope it goes well. And to soothe your worries, I won’t move out. Mr Kim’s company rents the apartment, not SM.

[1:32pm] You: Oh! I meant to ask if you wanted to join Minseok and I for dinner after my meeting to debrief? About 8pm?

[1:32pm] You: And before you say it, I do not mean that as an innuendo. I’m the closest to both of you so I want to talk to you after the meeting regardless of how it goes.

[1:32pm] Baek: BUT I HAVE SO MANY COMEBACKS FOR THAT

[1:32pm] Baek: How dare you ruin my fun. 

[1:32pm] Baek: But yes, I’m free. I’ll join you both for dinner.

[1:32pm] Baek: I’d like to debrief you in person.

[1:33pm] You: Why are you like this?

[1:33pm] Baek: You secretly love it.

You refrained from replying to him. You hadn’t lied when you said you didn’t have time to banter right now. You needed to make your way to the meeting in the next ten minutes and before you left your room you needed to ground yourself. It was just a meeting. You’d had many meetings with the managers since taking on this job, and all of those meetings had gone well. This one was probably just to review the tour and schedule another one once you returned to Korea.

***

You entered the conference room on the third floor and had to hide your surprise at seeing Junmyeon seated next to two of the managers. He’d made no mention of being involved in this meeting when you’d had breakfast with him and Sehun this morning. A heads up would have been nice, you thought to yourself as you smiled and greeted each of them.

“Thank you for joining us,” One of them said. “Please take a seat and we’ll get started.” They gestured at the seat opposite them at the conference table so you did as requested and waited for someone to continue speaking.

The manager sitting in the middle began to speak. “Much like Mr. Kim, we assess you on three main areas. 1. How well the tasks were performed 2. How you worked with the clients and 3. Work ethic/professionalism. We have also added in the progress that has been made since our previous evaluation.” He gestured at Junmyeon on his left and the other manager on his right. “We will provide our feedback and EXO’s leader will also provide feedback on behalf of the group.” He smiled at you knowingly. “As you know, it is easier to have formal meetings with fewer members if you want it to be over in a timely fashion.”

You chuckled and agreed, having been involved in a couple of such meetings. They had left you wondering if you were just going to be in said meetings until you grew old and died. You’d even watched as a newer manager up and quit over not being able to settle on a takeout option in the practice room one day. The poor guy’s first mistake was asking what everyone felt like eating. After thirty minutes of heated debate between pizza, chinese and chicken you saw the exact moment they accidentally broke him. Having Junmyeon here made much more sense. He would have gathered responses from each of the members and summarised them for this meeting.

The man on the left pointed to a camera at the end of the table. “We are recording this meeting so that we can pass it on to Mr. Kim rather than holding another meeting to cover the exact same points once we return to Korea as well as sending a report to our CEO. He will review it as well as watch the final concert to see the fruits of everyone's labour.” You nodded in response. “To begin, we would like to hear your self assessment.”

“Thank you.” You replied. “Well to begin, I’d like to address the main development request from the last meeting. I have grown closer to the members which has made it possible for me to greatly improve my tailored lessons, but also allowed us to be more informal with each other and over time has removed any residual awkwardness that was present. They treat me like they do the other staff they work closely with, almost like family. Whilst I have grown close with the members, when I am in public with them I don’t act as friendly with them to ensure that no one thinks I am too close with them or that there is a lack of respect involved. We live in the same building so we do spend time together where we can be more informal with each other but that is with the safety of knowing no members of the media or public are witnessing our interactions. The same goes for being on site for any promotional work. I may have become friends with them but they have a job to do and so do I, so none of us interfere with that. To the best of my knowledge there have been no complaints about me being too close with them or causing delays in them doing their jobs.” Junmyeon smiled warmly at you. “I think the best way to move through this meeting is for us to discuss one point at a time.”

“We can do that.” The man in the middle nodded. “It will save backtracking.” He turned his head towards Junmyeon before he spoke again. “Would you like to provide your feedback regarding this point?”

Junmyeon nodded and sifted through his papers. “I don’t have a lot to add for this point. The company requested that our teacher become closer and more familiar with us so that it would not be awkward for our working relationship. Whilst it was a little awkward in the beginning, all of our members have welcomed teacher-nim with open arms. We treat her with respect and formality in public but when it is just her and us, she is our friend and one of the valuable members of EXO’s staff.” The managers added to their own notes as he spoke.

The one on the left spoke next. “I’ll keep it short. We agree that you have succeeded in achieving what was requested of you. We no longer see the stiff student - teacher dynamic which was present during the previous evaluation. We have observed your comfort levels around other staff as well as the members and are very pleased with how well you fit into the EXO family. The closeness has allowed you to not feel like you can’t scold them when they act up or are too playful, something not every member of staff feels comfortable doing. The thing we were concerned about was if fans would think you were too close with them or if any dating rumours would appear but thankfully there have been no issues.” The other manager chuckled and added. “Some fans now know that you have been the English teacher and translator for the entire tour and think you’re great at your job.”

You smiled at their evaluation. So far, so good. “To cover the first main point, I believe the tasks set out have been completed to a high standard. The group hardly ever required me to step in and translate responses for them during their ments or various interviews. I feel that the consistent effort by each member and myself to improve their conversational skills, pronunciation and vocabulary has been successful.” Junmyeon was the only one looking at you while you spoke, the other two were busy making notes as you spoke which was relieving, it was always easier to speak about your strengths when you weren’t being stared down. You took a breath and continued. “The interviews that have been released have received a lot of love from fans, who have been impressed at how much their English has improved and how they feel comfortable enough to play around in English during interviews. There have hardly been any slip ups with their ments, and considering that before I began my lessons over half of them were not confident to say anything other than their names in English, they have greatly improved. My one on one lessons have helped each member to learn their ments and memorise them without needing prompting.” You leant back in your seat once you finished speaking. You had delivered on the first of the criteria, you felt confident about that. The two managers finished making notes regarding what you had said before they finally looked back up at you.

The manager in the middle flicked through some papers before he gestured to Junmyeon. “Would you like to provide the feedback you’ve collated from your members?”

Junmyeon nodded and adjusted his posture as he picked up the paper in front of him. He paused to put on his glasses before he began to read. “I will have to jump through the points since we are only discussing one criteria at a time. I asked different members for feedback and in the interest of time I thought I’d provide a testimonial for each point. When I asked Chanyeol to tell me about his learning experience with our teacher he provided the following.” He took a breath. “Teacher-nim was always very organised. She kept our lessons interesting so that we didn’t get distracted. She worked out which learning style worked best for me and then adjusted her approach accordingly. She gave me music and movies as homework and asked me to learn dialogue from movies to recite to her in English. She paired us up and got us to interview each other, with the aim of providing responses in English, the more ridiculous the better. I think she realised that when you put a challenge in front of any of us that we are all too stubborn and prideful not to rise to it. My private lesson with her centred around music and was conducted in my studio. I think she did an exceptional job as she allowed us to dictate when and where we would hold lessons. She seemed to always be available, even if it was a quick phone call to ask about phrasing or pronunciation. I also think that how close we have become with her helped us when we felt nervous about our skill levels as we knew she wouldn’t scold us, rather she’d find a creative way to show us the correct wording.”

You suddenly thought of another point that you had forgotten to mention. “I have addressed how I worked with the clients already but I would add that whilst I have made myself available at any time, given their busy schedules, that they have made a group effort to not abuse my availability. If they are requiring a late lesson, they buy a meal for me. I believe we work very well as a team.”

Junmyeon nodded in agreement. “She’s correct. Yixing often had to have very late or very early lessons and he would make sure to compensate her for her time if it was well out of expected working hours. He had to have one lesson at 4am so he ordered teacher-nim breakfast to be delivered at a time she requested and made sure all of us were aware so that we could avoid requesting a late night lesson on that day in consideration for her lost sleep.”

The two managers jotted down their notes regarding everything that had been said. “We agree that you have proven to be a very successful teacher for the EXO members. The end result has exceeded our original expectations of them, something that shows dedication from both yourself and them. It speaks volumes about your ability to engage them in learning a language when they have as busy a schedule as they do.”

Just one point left, then the evaluation portion of the meeting would be done. You hoped they were going to give some indication about your future before you left the meeting but after mentioning ending this evaluation to their CEO, you weren’t sure if he would reserve his decision until after the final concert. “As for the third point, professionalism and work ethic. I believe my own work ethic has improved to keep up with how dedicated to their jobs they are. I am available at all times but I ensure that I get sufficient rest and breaks to prevent burn out or provide a sub par lesson. I believe I am very professional in my interactions with the group in public, more informal when it is just them and me but I am still their teacher and they respect me when I am doing my job.”

  This time Junmyeon didn’t wait to be asked to speak, he knew it was his turn after you. “I agree with the points made by but would like to add Jongin’s review.” You smiled as you thought of Nini. “Noona made time to come to my personal schedule to conduct my private lesson. She had to travel quite a distance to the photoshoot site, and then conducted my lesson with the knowledge that we would be interrupted and that I would be distracted. Nevertheless, she was incredibly polite to the wardrobe, hair and make up staff I was working with as well as the photographer. She knows each of us well enough to know our hobbies and what will motivate us. She based my lesson around lines from a book that I could read to my nieces which I found so touching. She conducted herself in a very professional manner that day, even the photographer was impressed by her adaptability and patience. She has never said no to a lesson request from any of us, nor has she not been available when we’ve had questions for her. We’ve never had a teacher like her and I think I can safely speak for all of us when I say she’s the best teacher we’ve ever had.”

The two managers smiled fondly as Junmyeon read out Jongin’s feedback. You had yet to meet a single member of staff who wasn’t whipped by that man. They were all utterly endeared by him, and you understood why. Jongin had been someone you had bonded with from the very beginning when you’d visited to keep him company while he recovered from his injury. “The members have covered your availability and effectiveness from their perspective. I would like to provide some feedback from the other staff members you have worked alongside with. Pretty much all of the staff, from choreographers, dancers, make up cordis and wardrobe team to the sound techs have reported getting on well with you. They have all reported that you carry yourself with a high level of professionalism and have been nothing but respectful towards them. Not once have you deemed your work to be more important than theirs and you have shown interest in what they do and how hard they work. You haven’t had any conflicts with staff or caused any problems for them. They have reported that the EXO members seem comfortable around you, that they take your work seriously and show you as much respect as you show them.”

The manger in the middle smiles at you. “I think it is clear that we are very satisfied with your work, the results speak for themselves. You have been easy to work with, have gotten along with everyone and done everything that was required of you. The members like working with you, and I was told by other idols at SM that you were a very good teacher from the couple of lessons you held while EXO were in Japan. We don’t get to decide about the continuation of your contract, that is up to our CEO. He will review the formal performance review report that we’ll send through today and we expect him to contact Mr. Kim next week. Speaking for us however, we hope that he will opt to sign another contract with you. It’s been a pleasure to work with you.”

The validation of all of your hard work felt good. Like really good. You knew you had done a good job, but to hear so many positive comments about everything you had done during your time with EXO was a huge compliment. “I understand that you don’t get to make the decision, and I will respect whatever decision your CEO makes. I understand that if EXO don’t have further schedules in the west that it would not make sense to re-contract me. I would like to express my interest in being assigned another group within the company, or, being hired as an in-house teacher/translator for all of the artists under the SM umbrella. I have been treated exceptionally well by this company, its staff and idols and have thoroughly enjoyed my time here.”

After that the meeting naturally came to a close. You thanked everyone for their feedback and their time before excusing yourself so that they could further discuss your work without you being present.

***

You needed a distraction after that meeting. You tried to decide on an option for dinner later that evening but your mind kept circling back to the fact that your future with the company was up in the air until you got back to Korea. It left you with mixed feelings. What if you decided that ultimately you wanted to keep working with the guys only for the CEO to deny you another contract? What if they were too busy to make time for you? What if after what if, each one playing on your anxieties a little more than the last. So you left your room and went to see Yixing after texting him to let him know you were coming over. He was lounging in his room watching a movie after having done interviews all morning for a show he was filming back in China. He smiled at you when he answered the door, pulling you into the room into an engulfing hug.

The two of you curled up and watched the rest of Kung Fu Hustle, the perfect movie to take your mind off things because of how ridiculous it was. The two of you laughed at different references, Yixing even paused to explain some of the ones that went completely over your head and you had to explain some to him - both of you laughing even harder when you worked out that the subtitles you were relying on were almost a different script to the audio he was listening to.

At some point during your second movie, a drama that you couldn’t remember the name of, he fell asleep. You decided to head back to your room and annoy the person who could always distract you. You sent your first text as you left Yixing’s room.

[4:23pm] You: Did you end up working out with the others?

His response was instantaneous, something that still surprised you. He was a busy guy, and honestly you had half expected him to be gaming or sleeping. 

[4:23pm] Baek: Ugh, yes I did. When this tour is over I’m going to eat so much pizza and never take my shirt off in public again.

[4:23pm] You: Is the diet & work out program that bad?

[4:23pm] Baek: …I hate to expose myself here but in case you haven’t noticed, I exaggerate sometimes.

You laughed heartily at his confession, as though he thought he was actually divulging a secret to you.

[4:24pm] You: What!? You?! Exaggerate?!

[4:24pm] Baek: Please don't make me laugh, my abs hurt. 

[4:24pm] Baek: Hyung made me work extra hard today. And now I can’t eat until dinner. 

[4:24pm] Baek: I’m so hungry noona.

Your mind drifted back to the dinner that was in a couple of hours. Why had Minseok made him work out extra hard? Was it his way of punishing Baek for not already knowing about the proposed threesome? Did he not want him to be limber for tonight if he said yes? Was he that sure that Baek would turn him down? Or was he trying to exhaust him so his guard was down? None of the options made a lot of sense to you given you would be surprised if Baek turned the idea down. 

[4:25pm] You: Poor Baekkie, you should rest your muscles.

[4:25pm] You: Does this mean I have to be careful to order healthy food for our dinner tonight?

You tried to think about healthy, protein rich, low carb options for dinner and… the options did not bring you joy. You had been thinking about ordering Mexican or Thai since you could all share everything and it was food that was still good when you woke up at midnight for a snack. 

[4:26pm] Baek: I really don’t want you to. I can have a cheat night. Minseokkie won’t get mad because you ordered the food. It’s win win.

You scoffed at his message. You had half a mind to order something that heavily featured cucumbers just to spite him but that also didn’t sound like an ideal dinner for you. 

[4:26pm] You: Using me for food is a new low even for you Baek.

[4:26pm] Baek: But you’re so useful noona.

[4:26pm] Baek: I would gladly use you in other ways ;)

Three minutes. It had taken him three minutes to steer your conversation down the suggestive path. If you indulged him he’d latch on and go for it. You weren’t against this kind of distraction… actually it could serve another purpose. One - it would take your mind off everything entirely for a little while and Two - if you really went for it, it could fulfil the second part of his reward. It wasn’t scheduled as such but you decided to see how the chips fell.

[4:26pm] You: How much is the rent?

[4:26pm] Baek: What?

[4:26pm] You: I’m just wondering how much rent you’re paying to live in the gutter.

You entered your room and flopped down on the bed, getting comfortable as you waited for his reply. He had said he was taking up residence in the gutter in the last text exchange you had but you weren’t sure how much of it he remembered given everything else that occurred that day.

[4:27pm] Baek: Oh, the gutter is rent free my dear.

[4:27pm] Baek: Why do you think I’ve taken up residence here ;)

Turns out he did remember. You smiled as you adjusted your pillows, wondering where was texting you from. 

[4:27pm] You: You’re shameless.

[4:27pm] Baek: This is not new information.

[4:27pm] Baek: You should join me down here. Like I’ve told you before, the gutter is fun.

[4:27pm] You: Fun is not a convincing enough argument for getting me to move. 

[4:27pm] You: You might have to convince me…

You’d laid down the challenge for him. Given him a free pass to engage with you however he chose to. He might go the funny route, or he might go the lewd route. 

[4:28pm] Baek: Oh? That I can absolutely do.

[4:28pm] You: You sound very sure of yourself.

[4:28pm] Baek: When it comes to the gutter, I am very confident noona.

[4:28pm] Baek: You’ve visited the gutter more than once. 

[4:28pm] Baek: It looked good on you.

[4:28pm] You: I have visiting rights, but I find my visits to the gutter more exhilarating because I don’t live there.

[4:28pm] Baek: Don’t move then, just have a holiday house here. 

That text made you laugh more than you should have. If anything you already lived down in the gutter, you just refused to admit it.

[4:28pm] You: Now that is a possibility. My visits have been more frequent as of late.

[4:28pm] You: I blame that on a certain someone.

[4:29pm] Baek: I’m flattered. 

[4:29pm] Baek: That means you’ve been thinking about me.

You had no intention of making this easy for him. He was already overly confident in himself in your text exchanges, and if you inflated his ego any further he’d be insufferable. No, you were going to make him work for it. He tended to react to being challenged by you with attempting to fluster you.

[4:29pm] You: No.

[4:29pm] Baek: No?

[4:29pm] You: No.

[4:29pm] Baek: Well that’s too bad, because I’ve absolutely been thinking about you.

[4:29pm] Baek: And to be clear. None of those thoughts have been family friendly.

There it was. The open invitation to engage in his second request, whether he realised it or not. However, unlike last time where the two of you did this in a packed room, you wanted to make sure he was alone and could fully indulge in this. 

[4:29pm] You: Are you alone now?

If he said yes, then you were going to do this. The thought of his request returning to your mind. ‘I want to read, hear and see you take instructions from me, and I you’ The reminder of his words hitting you in your core. 

[4:29pm] Baek: I am very alone in my room. Yeol is out shopping with Sehunnie.

[4:29pm] Baek: Why?

[4:29pm] Baek: Are you alone noona?

Before you could change your mind you quickly got off the bed and grabbed a couple of things from your suitcase, tossing them onto the bed as you returned, a bit more excited than you had anticipated you would be. You laid back and got comfortable against the pillows. You held your phone up and snapped a selfie of you biting your lip and hit send.

[4:30pm] You: sending DCIM052.JPG

[4:30pm] You: I am.

[4:30pm] You: I think you should tell me about these thoughts.

[4:30pm] You: In detail.

[4:30pm] Baek: Fuck. You can’t just send something like that with no warning.

[4:30pm] Baek: The things I would do to you…

[4:30pm] Baek: You are so fucking hot.

You had gotten the response you wanted. He wasn’t shying away from this. You pictured him in his room, the room where the two of you had thoroughly explored each other's bodies. Repeatedly. The room where you lost count of how many times you came. The room where, even a day later, you could still feel the ghost of his caress against your body. Desire bloomed within you.

[4:31pm] You: So tell me, what would you do to me? 

[4:31pm] You: Because I am absolutely not thinking about you in a family friendly way right now. 

[4:31pm] You: How would you touch me Baek?

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this update. I promise the next one picks up right where this one left off ;)

You looked up at him, refraining from poking his cheeks. It was time for your teacher's persona to take hold and that persona was in charge of her surroundings. She was not easily swayed by lust or the promise of sex. You weren’t immune to any of their charms or looks but you had been able to hold back until the right moment with everyone else. Your history with Baekhyun made that much more difficult. “Like I’ve mentioned to you in the past, each lesson is tailored to a member's interests and learning style to better help them remember their lines by associating them with a certain thing.”

He watched you quietly as you spoke, his breathing returning to normal from his position above you. “Do I get examples of what those tailored lessons were this time? You’ve always been so vague in the past.”Now the two of you were having a semi-normal conversation while he was still on top of you, and everything that was him flooded your senses. One of you was going to have to remove yourself from this position, and soon.

You nodded as you tried to ignore the press of his hips against yours and the unmistakable hardness you could feel. “For instance with Jongin I made it specific lines from a book he likes to read to his niece. For Kyungsoo it was the steps in a recipe. I make each thing, whatever that may be as all of you have been given different ones, a line from your ment and associate it that way.” He nodded as you spoke, listening intently. He might prefer to be doing other things at this very moment but he could not deny the fact that he was finally getting information that he’d been after for months. 

He took your words in and pondered them for a moment before a playful grin spread across his face. “Do we seriously have to go through with the lesson or can we now say I’ve had mine?” He asked. His weight shifted slightly and you had to swallow the moan that threatened to leave your lips.

You sighed and shook your head at his suggestion. “We have to actually go through with it. Your managers wanted me to do your lesson tonight anyway so this way we won’t be lying to them when we tell them that you had your private lesson.” You were working overtime to push down how turned on you still were and how part of you wanted him to try to derail the lesson, to distract you so much that you couldn’t think of anything other than the pleasure he promised you.

“Fine,” He said in defeat as he finally removed his body from yours, pulling you into a sitting position as he stood and adjusted himself. He moved to the twin bed opposite you and sat down, resigned to postponing sex with you, again. He mumbled frustratedly. “I do not understand why everyone is so adamant in cockblocking me though.” 

You chuckled quietly before responding. With the way he was acting you’d think someone stole his favourite toy. It was moments like this when you forgot that he was an insanely famous idol who could command tens of thousands of fans. You forgot that he wasn’t just a guy who refused to let go of his childish charms - a trait that was definitely a plus in your books. “Quit your grumbling. The faster you pass the lesson, the faster we can get back to other things.” You raised a brow at him as you uttered the latter part of your statement, your words wiping that pout right off his face. 

Baekhyun sat up straight, rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles. “Alright. No time like the present then. Let’s get this lesson going. Don’t drag this out as well. So what are you associating my lines with?” He asked matter of factly. It would appear that Byun Baekhyun was an eager beaver. It seemed like he’d decided to go with your plan for now, probably in the hopes of flying through it so he could get back to more salacious activities the moment you were done with his lesson.

You knew if he put his mind to it that you could get through the lesson rather quickly. His ment was not the most difficult given his penchant for playing with the audience and fucking with the other members during their ments. You knew he’d go off script if he felt confident enough but if he got tripped up on a word, he’d likely forget his place in his ment and have a repeat of what had occurred during tonight's concert. Which was exactly what you were being paid to prevent from happening. “Video games,” You replied. “However I only need to associate 4 of your lines as one is a joke in Korean and the other is legitimately you saying Aeris and Hi so if you can’t remember those then you are a lost cause.”

“Rude.” He remarked. 

“Am I wrong?” You retorted.

“You’re a mean lady, but no.” He shook his head as he begrudgingly acquiesced.

“I’m a delight, you’re just easily distracted.” 

“You try not being distracted when all you can think about is how you should be having sex right now.” He half snapped at you. He might have given in to going through with your lesson but it would be wise of you to not forget that just because he’d pushed his lust down for the time being, it was simmering beneath the surface, barely contained.

You cleared your throat and decided that the smart move was to get going with the lesson. You knew what would happen if the two of you engaged in banter for too long. “Alright so line one please.”

“Really noona?” He scoffed.

You held his gaze as you let yourself fall back into your role during these lessons. “You should address me as teacher while we have a lesson.”

He stared at you, bewildered that you were pulling rank on him. It was difficult for him to draw the line between the you he knew and the you that was sitting in front of him now. It was almost like the difference between some of the guys on and off stage personas. Baekhyun had one as well but his blurred the lines constantly as he allowed more and more of his true self to be the person everyone saw on stage as well. “You’re kidding me right?”

“You don’t get special treatment from the rules Baekhyun.” You said softly. It was difficult for you to speak to him with an air of authority, the two of you had almost always communicated with flirtation, something you hadn’t realised until you were forcing yourself to not flirt with him. You could do this. You’d managed to do it for the other eight members - not that you exchanged flirty texts on the daily with them but you were ignoring that fact - so you could persevere and get through this lesson with him. “If you follow the rules you’ll be rewarded but if you misbehave, you’ll be punished. That’s how my lessons work. So I’ll ask one more time, first line.”

He looked down at his hands and took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds before exhaling. When he lifted his head a huge smile was plastered on his face as he loudly said. “Aeris!!! Hi!” He even added waving and finger hearts to the imaginary crowd he was addressing. He wasn’t one to do things by halves, the competitive nature in him came out far too easily. If he was going to do it, then he was going to do it properly.

“Good, that was the easiest one. You’ve already been through this ment twice so this lesson is more about getting those lines to feel more natural for your mouth and to make sure they stick in there regardless of what else is going on.” You said.

He shrugged. “I’m normally good at memorising but then I get flustered or too excited by the concert and forget the rest of my ment. It’s normally always in Japan that it happens and that’s because I’m too excited.” 

You smiled. “Well if my lesson helps in any way then I’ll consider it a grand success.”

Baekhyun returned the smile then cocked his head to the side. “We can’t tarnish your perfect record now can we? This lesson has to work.” He gestured at you. “So how are you helping me remember the next line?”

You answered him in the most serious tone you could muster. “Mario Kart.”

“I’m not associating a line to ‘It’s a-me, Luigi!’ am I?” He laughed.

“No. You will play a single race and associate that race with the line. I have selected Bowser’s Castle for the track but you get to pick your character.” As you spoke you handed him a 3DS from your bag that you’d prepared for this lesson. 

“As if I’m not going to be Yoshi.” He grinned.

“Huh, and here I had you picked for King Boo or Waluigi.” You remarked.

“I’m offended that you’d even entertain the thought. Yoshi is life.” 

You caught yourself before you engaged with the banter. It was proving to be a lot more difficult than you had anticipated to not fall into your normal rhythm when speaking with Baekhyun. Using video games was a good idea as his memory of them was second to none but the competitive little shit in him was bound to come out and do its best to derail the learning experience. You were going to have to keep your wits about you if you actually wanted to get through this lesson in a reasonable amount of time. “Second line Baekhyun.”

He opened his mouth, a retort ready but he let it die on his lips. It seemed like he remembered at the last moment that this was not just the two of you hanging out but that this was you actually doing your job and that he should respect the rules that were put in place for all of them. “I learned some English for today but it’s quite hard. I’ll do my best.”

You listened as he spoke and made your mental notes of how he could improve. “Try not to speak too fast or you will get jumbled. The fans won’t mind if the sentence doesn’t flow perfectly if they can hear what you’re saying to them. Make sense?”

He nodded. 

“Good.” You held up your 3DS and pointed at his. “Now we will complete our race. While we do, I want you to repeat the line at the end of each lap.”

“Alright. I hope you’re ready to lose noo- uh teacher-nim.” He caught himself at the last moment, addressing you properly for the first time since the lesson began. You had not even considered that you might win at any of the games you’d planned for his lesson but you were more skilled than you let on. With Mario Kart you might stand a chance, you had extensive history with that particular game.

You do your best to not be baited by him as you reply. “Winning or losing is irrelevant for me in this race. The point is for you to recall the line of the ment during the game so that if you stumble or forget it during a concert you can think back to the finish line of Bowser’s Castle and it should come to you.” 

The race begins and you only speak to remind him that he has to say the line at the end of each lap. To his credit he doesn’t falter and repeats the line on each of the three laps. You can hear his confidence grow each time as his mouth gets used to the foreign words and the best pace for him to say the line in. Baekhyun wins the race, which was to be expected, but he stops himself from gloating. You catch a glimpse of the look on his face before he schools his features and it was smug and ready to yell something like ‘in your face!’ at you but to his credit he remembers the reason he was playing the game and doesn’t say anything.

You begin to load the next game on your 3DS and hold out your hand for him to pass the one he’s holding back to you. Once he does you request the next line of his ment from him. He obliges as he watches you select a new game from the home screen. “Anyway… meeting all of you I’m really happy.”

Once the game loads you hand the device back to him. “I don’t think you’ll have trouble with that line but I’ve still assigned a game to it. I thought of including games you play a lot but ultimately decided against it because they would take too much time for us to get through. Plus I don’t really want to alter your experience with Overwatch, LoL or PubG. So I’ve gone with a knockoff version of Team Fortress 2. We’ll play a single round and I want you to apply the line when you save a teammate from death.”

“It would be macabre but funny if it was when I killed someone but I see your point.” Once he had selected his character and weapon of choice the round began. You were never great at this style of game but since the teams are largely made up of bots, you fare better than expected. You were no match for Baekhyun though, not that either of you were surprised by that. He did manage to save some of his bot teammates from being killed and said his ment line as he saved them. You stole a couple of glances at him as he played, his face was bright and focused. As though nothing outside of the game existed to him at that moment.

“The next line does not have a game associated with it because it’s one you can drop if you forget it but otherwise it’s easy for you to pronounce. Third line please Baekhyun.”

He stood up and excitedly gestured around the room as he fake yelled the line. “What’s my name?!”

“Like I said, I think you’ll be fine with that one. Moving on to the last two official lines. They are a bit wordy so it is easy for you to lose your place or trip up on the phrases. Try the next one for me, and take your time. I know it was one you got stuck on in the most recent concert.”

He sighed as he remembered that he’d messed up his ment earlier this evening. You hadn’t wanted to bring it up but it was a teachable moment after all so you felt justified in doing so. Especially after your discussion earlier about how the fans were in no way disappointed in him for his little mistake. “It’s our first time here,” He paused as he thought for a moment about the remainder of the line. “It’s our first time here in the USA so I am feeling nervous.” He laughed lightly at the fact that he messed up the line about being nervous.

“I know you will think of it as a mistake but you took a moment and got through the line so I see it as a success. The next game will hopefully help you with this sentence though. It’s called Rhythm Heaven. We’ll play one of the mini games and each beat that you hit will be a word from this line. We’ll repeat it until you apply the rhythm of the mini game to the line. Then it should be stuck in your head.

Baekhyun starts the mini game and spends some time getting the hang of how it works. You know he’s invested once his foot starts to tap along to keep the beat, then he introduces the words of the ment into the beat he’s following. He follows the intonation and pitch of the music so his line sounds ridiculous when said how he says it while playing the game but you know it’s planted itself into his head - and probably yours as well. 

You get him to repeat the line a few more times after he finishes the game to ensure that he can say it without pitching up and down or bopping on the spot while he speaks. Once you are satisfied that he’s got it down you move on to the final line that you have to apply a game to. 

“There’s more lines to your ment after this one but they are all ad libs done by you so this is the final line as far as the scripted ment goes. You’re doing really well so far, which you should be proud of.” You load up the final game on the 3DS and prepare to have your ass handed to you by Baekhyun in it. “Final line please.”

“Today’s performances will be powerful & we’ll make sure to have fun.”

“That was good. Just be careful not to blend ‘will’ and ‘be’ together. Speak slowly and enunciate as best you can.” He nods in agreement as you speak. “The final game is Mortal Kombat. We will have one fight and I want you to break the line up into sections. Say the first half when you first deal damage to me and the second half when you perform a fatality.”

“Dibs on Scorpion.” His response was lightning fast. You were not surprised, after all what group of guys had you met that had never played MK before? The ridiculously over the top violence for a simple fighting game was a beacon to almost every guy you’d ever met. 

“Why him?” You asked. You’d figured him for more of a Johnny Cage kind of guy given his penchant for being over the top, comedic and annoying yet talented.

Baekhyun stared at you like your question was the dumbest thing he’d heard all day. “His fighting style is closest to hapkido, how am I not going to choose him?!” He shrugged.

You had forgotten those nine years of hapkido that Baekhyun had completed. That video of him leaping over seven men on youtube flashed through your mind and you recalled how attractive it had been to watch him execute such fluid leaps, kicks and rolls. “I should have guessed.” You replied.

He grinned at you. “So when I win is the lesson over?”

A small laugh escaped you. “You shouldn’t be so confident, it’s unbecoming.”

“That did not answer my question teacher-nim.” He teased.

You sighed. “Yes Baekhyun. Once you complete this final game, I’ll have you run through your ment one final time and then the lesson will be over.”

He practically vibrated with excitement and you couldn’t tell if it was from playing games or if it was because he had not forgotten what the two of you had almost been about to do before the lesson was brought up. He’d have to wait a bit longer after the game finished. You still had to explain the reward system, in full. Which meant telling him some facts that he might not be all that thrilled to hear. You couldn’t quite put your finger on why you felt your anxiety bubbling whenever you thought about telling him the truth of everything that had been going on between you and his members these past months.

Baekhyun breezed through the final game, nailing his ment in one go. No sooner had he handed the 3DS back to you did he start running through his whole ment. He did it three times in a row to prove to you that he had it down. When he finished a knowing smirk formed on his face. “So teacher-nim, did I pass? Are we done?”

“You did incredibly well Baekhyun. You passed with flying colours - your managers will be pleased to hear it.” He stood and took a step towards you, ready to pounce. He was eager to return to prior activities and you couldn’t really blame him, but you had to delay it a little longer. You held a hand up to stop him from advancing, which he did. His brows furrowed and he looked at you slightly confused. “Before the lesson officially ends I have to explain the reward system to you.”

He shook his head. “I’m certain that it can wait.”

“This is really important.” You stopped his advances once more. “Please Baek. I need to do this before anything else happens.” All of your anxiety surfaced at that moment and you couldn’t meet his eyes anymore. You were scared of having this conversation. He frowned at you but nodded, taking a seat on his bed once more. You stared at your hands as you mustered up the courage to go through with the speech you had spent hours attempting to formulate. 

You had no idea how he would react. You hoped he’d understand, that he wouldn’t think you were a whore or that you’d strung him along, but most of all you hoped he wouldn’t hate you. You didn’t know if you could bear it if he no longer wanted anything to do with you, especially since you knew he had feelings for you that went beyond a desire to fuck you. He deserved the truth. He deserved all of the information before the two of you slept together. If you were honest with yourself you were terrified of him rejecting you because somewhere along the lines, you couldn't pinpoint exactly when it happened but, you’d begun to fall for him. Now you couldn’t imagine your life without him in it in some way or another. You couldn’t imagine your life without any of them but the thought of Baekhyun not being in your life made you unspeakably sad. 

“Hey.” You heard his soft voice from next to you. When had he moved from the other bed back to you? You must have been too caught up in your thoughts to have seen him move. You couldn’t meet his gaze. You couldn’t look at the kind face because what if it morphed into one of disgust and hatred as soon as you told him? “Noona, what’s wrong? I can literally see the wheels turning in your head.” 

“I just need a minute.” You said quietly. You needed him to stop looking at you so you could calm yourself enough to tell him what you needed him to know. 

He nodded and moved to stand up. “Alright well I’m gonna go to the bathroom and when I come back you are going to tell me what’s going on.” You didn’t look up but you heard his footsteps retreating from you as he made his way to the bathroom. A single tear fell from your eye as you heard the bathroom door shut. You quickly wiped it away. You couldn’t lose it yet. You hadn’t even told him yet. Your brain was just jumping to the worst case scenario and you needed it to stop, like now. Your throat felt dry and in the pit of your stomach you could feel the beginnings of nausea wash over you. You stood and shook all of your limbs as you tried to get a hold of your anxiety before you lost control of it. 

You had all the time in the world to feel miserable and cry yourself to sleep if he took the news badly but you couldn’t start before you’d even told him. You tried to recall Minseok’s words about telling Baekhyun. He’d told you that he might be mad and react negatively initially but that he would come around, or that he’d take the news far better than either of you could predict. Either way, you wouldn’t know until you ripped the bandaid off and told him. 

The bathroom door opened and you watched as Baekhyun walked back towards you. He stopped a few feet away, giving you space. “Please take a seat Baek.” You said. He silently sat on his bed and waited for you to speak. “I need to tell you some things and I need for you to not interrupt me. Let me get all of it out before you respond, can you do that?” 

“You’re starting to scare me noona.” He said softly. 

You were sure you sounded pathetic at this moment but you couldn’t do anything other than get the speech over with before you chickened out of it and potentially ruined everything. “Please Baek,” 

Baekhyun was rarely serious but the tone he answered you with told you that he would do as you asked. “I promise I’ll shut up and listen.” He said solemnly.

You took a deep breath to ground yourself, then a second to calm yourself and a third to give yourself reassurance. To his credit, Baekhyun kept his word. He did not try to rush you, nor did he say anything. He could see that whatever you needed to say, you were struggling to do. He waited patiently while you gathered yourself. “I actually don’t know the best order to tell you everything in but I’ll start with the lessons. The concept of these private lessons came about after that truth or dare game. Minseok had said something about everyone desiring me and I kind of figured that I could work out a tailored lesson for each of you and then offer you a reward if you behaved and a punishment if you didn’t. The argument about fantasies somehow led me to offering the reward in a way that suggested that it could be sexual in nature.” 

Baekhyun remained silent and whilst you weren’t making eye contact with him, you saw his eyes widen as you spoke. “It didn’t fuck with my friendships with any of the guys and was a one off deal, with the exception of Minseok. It allowed them to experience a fantasy that they wanted to try out in a safe setting. I don’t know, this probably makes me sound like a whore or something.” You paused, shaking your head and taking another deep breath to steady yourself. “So the question that had been itching your brain all of these months was that the rewards and punishments were sexual fantasies. I made each person swear to not discuss them with anyone that hadn’t had a private lesson, and that if they did discuss their reward or punishment with other members to keep it as vague as possible.” 

There. You’d done it. You’d told Baekhyun the truth about the reward and the fact that you’d been with each of his members. That was only one part of your fear though. The facts were the easy part to get off your chest. The next part, the part that actually required you to expose your feelings was the part that frightened you. It frightened you because you cared about him. “I don’t know if this changes how you see me but I know that for all of them it was just sex with a person they know and trust but there were no other feelings involved. With you it’s different. I didn’t realise it until it was too late that our feelings ran deeper than light flirtation and that we actually wanted something more, for lack of better words to describe whatever this thing is that’s been slowly building between us. I can’t speak for you but I’ve come to the realisation that I couldn’t do this with you and not feel some type of way about it. I have feelings for you and I needed you to know about all of this before anything happened between us. You needed all of the information before we crossed that line.” 

The silence after you finished speaking was deafening. All you wanted to do was curl into a ball, hope that a portal to another realm opened up and swallowed you whole so that you’d never have to face Baekhyun again. He was quiet for a long time, so long that you weren’t sure if he would ever speak to you again. You probably disgusted him now, you probably weren’t worth anything to him anymore. After what felt like an eternity of silence he spoke. “Can I speak now?” He asked quietly.

A shuddering breath rattled through you. “Yes.”

“What do you mean with the exception of Minseok?” Of all of the things to utter, this had not been on your list of possibilities when it came to responses Baekhyun might have to your speech. You would answer any questions he had if it meant that he didn’t ask you to leave and never speak to him again. You didn’t think you could handle that.

“He and I slept together after the truth or dare night and decided to continue a kind of fuck buddy arrangement afterwards as a means of stress relief.” Your reply was succinct. You weren’t about to go into detail if you didn’t have to, you didn’t see how that could possibly help your situation. 

To your absolute shock, he laughed. He actually laughed. Loudly. “So I was right?! I fucking knew it!” 

“Yes.” You were at a loss for words. Maybe he’d lost his mind. Maybe you’d just broken Byun Baekhyun beyond repair. You know how when people receive the worst news of their lives and their response is to laugh. Maybe that’s what had happened. Or maybe you’d freaked out for no good reason. Maybe Baekhyun was actually just that petty that he was thrilled to find out that after all this time, he was right. 

The silence resumed after his laughter died down. His face became serious once more as he processed everything you’d told him. “This is a lot of information to take in at once.” He said.

“I know.” You replied.

“I don’t know what answer you want from me noona. You’ve fucked each one of my members, who are my closest friends, and somewhere along the lines caught feelings for me so you wanted me to know before we had sex. And you’ve also been fuck buddies with Minseok for months. I- I don’t really know what to say right now noona.”  His resigned sigh is what almost broke you.

You found the courage to meet his eyes. You saw confusion and something else in them but you didn’t see any of the negative emotions that you had been so terrified of. He moved closer to you and took your hand in his. “I don’t hate you, I’m not repulsed by you and I’m not mad. But it’s a lot and I don’t know if it alters my feelings.”

“I understand.” You’d said everything that you could. You weren’t going to beg him to stay because well, you still didn’t know what exactly these feelings you had were, or how deep they ran. You just knew they were there and the thought of him not being in your life hurt.

His gaze was earnest as he spoke. “This isn’t me storming out or anything but I need to go talk to someone. Give me like an hour to process?”

You nodded. “I can do that.” With that, he left.