| 11 |

  

    The very next morning, Apple woke up early as usual. She laid in bed for a while, just staring at the ceiling, letting random thoughts flow and linger through her mind. Finally, she sighed, jumping out of bed, and left her room after grabbing a black knit pullover from her closet.

Apple skipped into the kitchen, happier than she had even been in a long time. She started rummaging through the cupboard for a skillet and clean plates, desperately trying to balance on her tiptoes. She had gotten the plates, but the skillet was under a stack of porcelain soup bowls, precariously thrown on top of each other. She narrowed her eyes. Whoever did the dishes had to be disciplined. She got up on her tippy toes and began to gingerly pluck away at the bowls, but her finger slipped and the porcelain tower started tilting towards her. She reflexively closed her eyes but she heard a chuckle behind her so she turned around to find Chanyeol towering over her with a steadying hand on the stack of dishes.

"Need help?" he had a picture perfect smile plastered on his face. Well, he doesn't look like he was completely faced just hours ago. She nodded, grinning, and he grabbed the pan out with ease. "Here. Need anything else?"

Apple nodded her head in thanks and placed the iron skillet on the stove. She turned up the heat and handed a box of strawberries to Chanyeol, silently asking him to wash them. He obliged without a word and rolled up his sleeve, getting to work, washing and slicing the fruits. She grabbed a couple of ingredients from another cupboard and, in a short amount of time, she had whisked up some sort of pale yellow mixture.

Chanyeol watched as she quickly poured ladle-fulls of batter on the hot skillet and skillfully flipped them. Within minutes, she had cooked up a stack of vanilla crepes and allowed Chanyeol to help fill them with homemade whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

Afterwards, she held up a mug and arched an eyebrow at him. "Hm?" he cocked his head to the side and she grabbed the canister of coffee beans. I need to learn sign language. "Oh. No thanks," he said, grabbing a jug of apple juice from the fridge. "I'll have this instead."

They sat side by side at the table (Chanyeol had grabbed his laptop from his room) and scrolled through a sign language website while picking at their crepes. Chanyeol had picked up the alphabet pretty quickly but he had a lot of trouble memorizing different words. He would mix up 'please' and 'thank you' and 'London' and 'Manchester'.

The worst part was when Fia walked into him trying to sign 'arrangement' but, instead, signing 'having '. She just stood there with an unamused expression written on her face as she waited for an explanation. Apple simply laughed, correcting his hand, and shrugged when he asked why Fia was giving him death glares.

Fia occasionally jumped in to help translate what Apple was trying to get across (“For the third time, tuck your thumb in, you .”), but when Kai entered the room, she looked at him for a while without saying anything. Then, she broke out into a smile.

"Studio today?" she suggested. Kai looked shocked and confused.

"Erm," he rubbed the back of his neck. "Sure?"

Apple and Chanyeol shared a look after watching that awkward encounter, but they couldn't ask because Kai and Fia scarfed down the food in record time and left together.

"Did something happen last night?"

I have no idea.

The next two weeks consisted of the same things. Chanyeol helped Apple make breakfast every morning, and afterwards, she helped him practice sign language. Kai and Fia spent hours every day in the studio, just dancing, while the other two sat in Apple's room. Chanyeol would whimsically strum random notes on his guitar, sometimes breaking out into a song, while watching Apple paint for hours on end; she had almost finished the eyes. They’d all do lunch on their own accord and then coordinate for dinner. Either Chanyeol and Apple cooked, they went out for dinner, or they ordered take-out from Fia’s box of menus.

Nothing had really changed between Kai and Fia. Nothing that Chanyeol could see anyways. They didn't seem like they had started dating, but they still spent almost every hour of every day together.

After the two weeks, Chanyeol finally got up and pulled Kai away from the studio for a couple of minutes. Fia pretended she hadn't seen and continued practicing the choreo Kai had shown her a couple days before. "Alright," Chanyeol said, putting his hands on his hips. "Spill."

"What?"

"You and Fia. Something happened that day, right?" Chanyeol rolled his eyes. "Spill."

Kai was silent, but Chanyeol stubbornly waited for his response. "Nothing really happened," he muttered. "We're just friends."

"You and I both know that's bullsh-"

"She made it perfectly clear that she didn't want anything with a roommate, Channie," he shrugged.

"So something happened." Chanyeol raised an eyebrow.

"No. She just... doesn't like me." Kai knew that was a lie. Fia wouldn't have kissed him back if she didn't like him, but there was nothing Kai could do about it. She didn't want him. "I should get back. I'm teaching her the Call Me Baby choreo."

Chanyeol trudged up to Apple's room without any interesting news to tell her. Apple looked up expectantly when he entered the room but he shook his head and her face drooped. Nothing? Really?

"He said they're just friends," he explained.

That's bull and we all know it.

"That's exactly what I said. I'm convinced something happened though."

Before Apple could respond, Fia peeped into the room. "Let's go out for dinner tonight. I'm craving Italian," she smiled. "Well, Korea's version of Italian. Hurry up and get ready. I'm driving." She winked and skipped down the hall back to her room.

Chanyeol jokingly tried to stay when Apple said she needed to change, but she blushed and kicked him out of the room, causing a wide smirk to appear on his face before she slammed the door in his face.

Fia was already in the driver's seat, Kai riding shotgun, when the two got to the garage. Fia and Kai were silent, and that was when Chanyeol realized that they only talked to each other in the studio. Now, the two were looking out their windows, almost avoiding each other.

But it was a whole different story when Fia started driving. She sped through the freeway like no one had ever done before, with an adventurous glint in her eyes.

They were almost hit by an oncoming truck when she ran a red light. "JESUS ING CHRIST, FIA," Chanyeol shouted from the backseat. "CHILL BEFORE WE DIE."

Fia blurted out a quick 'sorry' before almost running over an old lady with a cane.

"Whoops," she muttered.

"DO YOU EVEN HAVE A LICENSE WOMAN?"

Fia ignored him and continued driving down the road like one would if he was in a car chase. Chanyeol didn't notice anything until Apple grasped his hand tightly. He looked over and saw that Apple was holding onto her seat belt for dear life, with her eyes clamped shut and her lips sealed to prevent any sound from coming out. It looked like she needed to scream but didn't want to. "Apple?" he whispered, but she shook her head as if she was trying to chase away any terrible thoughts. "FIA, STOP THE DAMN CAR!"

"Huh?" Fia looked back, finally realizing the state Apple was in, and immediately stopped the car. The car screeched to a stop at the side of the road and she scrambled out of the driver's seat into the back with Chanyeol and Apple.

Chanyeol pulled Apple into his huge embrace, rocking back and forth, and tried to calm her down by rubbing her back. She took a handful of his shirt in her fists and cried, burying her face into his chest. burned with the need to scream or weep but, unfortunately, no sound would escape her lips. She was shaking and panting like she had run up a mountain. Kai stared into the back, making eye contact with Fia. "What happened?" he mouthed and Fia shrugged, feeling guilty about her reckless driving. Fia ran her hand through Apple's mint hair multiple times until the tension in her shoulders finally unspooled.

"Let's just go home for now," Kai said, slipping into the driver's seat. "I'll drive."

Fia climbed back into the passenger's seat, occasionally glancing worriedly through the rear view mirror at Chanyeol and Apple.

Chanyeol kept her in his arms for the entire ride home.