we’re the lucky ones
prologue : 1 : 2
♡ I’m cringing at my old writing. definitely glad I improved over the past year ⚓ 4474 words || multichapter || supernatural!au || not requested || personal
“That looks painful,” she commented as the man before her peeled off his shirt. “Like, really painful. I’m going to start now.”
Baekhyun yelped when something cold touched one of his wounds, “I know I said hurry with this, but can you do it just a little more carefully? That hurts, So Eun.”
“I am doing it carefully,” the brunette huffed, tweezer in her right hand. “You’re the one that keeps squirming. Now hush so I can do this.”
Baekhyun bit his lip as So Eun drew a thorn out of his back and tossed it onto a metal pan at her side. It was a little bloody and not a pleasant sight at all, especially for a squeamish person like him. He resorted to wiggling his toes, but that only earned him a soft hit from Lay.
“I’m trying to work, Baek,” Lay said, glowing hands settled over the younger man’s calf. “Movement disrupts the cuts I just closed.”
“Can we just get Luhan in here to levitate them all out at once and then have Lay heal me in my sleep or something? And are you going to have to stitch me up again?”
“I kind of have to,” So Eun pushed him forward to examine his lower back. She tutted in disapproval. “You ripped up the stitches that were there before and you know healing big wounds drains Lay of all his energy. This wouldn’t have happened if you were careful. Now I have to spend my time taking care of you instead of watching the episode that was just subbed.”
Baekhyun peeked over his shoulder with a pout, “Do you want to kiss it all better?”
The person quietly leaning against the wall gave a chilling laugh before approaching the exam table. “Limits, kiddo,” Xiumin raised an eyebrow, swinging an arm around his girlfriend’s shoulder. His words practically dripped with venom. “Learn them.”
“Get off, I’m working,” So Eun tried to push his heavy arm away, but he was stronger than he looked and she had to accept the fact that he was going to continue to backhug her as she disinfected Baekhyun’s injuries. “Fine, but only because you were gone for a month. Don’t distract me, either.”
“No promises, baby girl,” Xiumin muttered, nuzzling into her hair. His voice was all sunshine and cupcakes and butterflies when he spoke to her. “I’m a pretty distracting person.”
“You guys sicken me,” Baekhyun pretended to gag and Lay wrinkled his nose in agreement.
Aeris placed her stuffed rabbit on top of the dining table and rested her chin on it. She addressed the girl in front of her with half lidded eyes, “So… what’s your name?”
“Jae Yeon,” she answered, back straight. The least she could do was play it off cool, but it’s hard with five people staring you down. Especially when those five people are probably a head taller than you. Jae Yeon tried to fake anger. “How dare you interrogate me when you’re the ones trespassing in my house? I want all of you out so I can–”
“Calm down, miss,” the tall one beside her, named Kris, put a warning hand on the back of her chair and Jae Yeon hated how she automatically recoiled with a Sorry, sir. “We just want to talk and get this sorted out since it seems like you were given the wrong information. This house is ours and has been ours for two years now.”
“They told me that this was my place,” she looked around the table, ready to make a snarky statement, but she realized that it was more likely she was the one intruding, not them.
“Give us a second. Sehun is pulling up some documents now and we’ll see what happened,” Luhan sent her a stunning grin and her cheeks flushed. “Don’t worry about it, sweetheart.”
Sehun typed away on his laptop before showing them the screen. All Jae Yeon could see was a lot of numbers and letters, but there must’ve been something important because Kris pressed his palms against his eyes, Aeris buried her face in her hands, and Suho gave everyone an apologetic look.
“What does it say?” Luhan cocked his head to the side. “I don’t get it.”
“The database is wrong. It says that the property’s open so the department probably assigned her this house,” Suho explained, pointing to a line in the middle of the screen, “which is odd because almost everyone knows we live here.”
“…so what happens now?” Kai drummed his fingertips on the table, waiting for his leaders to answer. “Should we go talk to the department?”
“We can go see them in the morning,” Suho suggested once he caught Jae Yeon trying to hide a yawn. “We’re all pretty tired.”
“Yeah, but where is she going to sleep? In the spare bedroom?” Kai studied the newcomer with suspicious eyes. “What if she snoops around or attacks me in my sleep?”
Luhan stretched his arms over his head and winked, “She can take my room.” When Aeris asked him where he would sleep, he quirked his eyebrow suggestively. “I’ll sleep in my room, too.”
“You’re disgusting,” Aeris scowled at him and rose to her feet. Kris did as well and Luhan glanced between the two of them curiously. “Jae Yeon, you can take my room for the night since the spare room is a bit messy. Kris, come with me.”
“Where are you guys going?” the lilac haired man stood up to follow them. “And if she’s staying in your room, where are you sleeping?”
“I don’t know, the couch?”
“You can sleep with me–”
“Fuck you,” Aeris gave him the finger before leaving with Kris trailing behind her.
“Let’s go. I’ll show you where her room is,” Kai got up from the table and pulled Jae Yeon’s chair out for her. “Just don’t come by my place or I’ll convince them to kick you out.”
“Kai, don’t be rude. And Sehun, you can check that tomorrow. Why don’t you go rest? You’ve done enough for the night,” Suho closed the laptop and patted the youngest’s back. With Suho leading and Jae Yeon in the back, the four of them made their way upstairs. Sehun turned back to look at her.
“If you want to get on everyone’s good side in the morning, make them some breakfast,” Sehun advised. “Xiumin wakes up the earliest, but he doesn’t eat until all of us are up so you’ll have time. And you see that door over there? It’s locked, but don’t try to open it. Don’t go looking around either or the others will really pissed.”
“Got it,” she nodded, making a mental note to avoid the mysterious panelled door. “How many people live here?”
“Including you? Fifteen.”
Kyungsoo groaned, rolling over and burying his face in his pillow. He was usually in a better mood in the morning, but today was not his day. The small cough he had yesterday worsened overnight. His throat hurt, his head was spinning, and it was his turn to cook breakfast. Lay’s powers, unfortunately, do not on things like colds and fevers because the body has to experience them in order to form resistance. He can lessen symptoms, though, which Kyungsoo planned to see the healer about.
He sniffed the air as he went down the stairs, a blanket wrapped around him. My nose must be messed up, too. It smells like food–wait. His eyes narrowed. Someone’s using my kitchen.
The PJ clad intruder hummed to herself, oblivious to the presence at the doorway. She continued to fry, scramble, toast, whatever she was doing…but it was his kitchen. Friends or not, he never let anyone use his kitchen when it was his turn to cook.
“Woah, there!” a hand clamped onto Kyungsoo’s shoulder when he tried to approach the girl. Chen. “Let’s not disturb the newbie, alright? I know you don’t like people in here, but she’s doing it for a reason. Everyone else is over there.”
Kyungsoo was swivelled around and redirected toward another door (more like forcefully shoved, but you get the idea), one that opened up to a spacious living room. Newbie? That meant that it wasn’t one of the only two female residents in the house. Now that he thought about it, the girl was dark haired and, while the team’s medic could cook, So Eun dyed hers brown recently. And Aeris was blonde, which meant that–thank God–she wasn’t the one in there because that girl cannot make food to save her life and would probably burn the house down.
“I found one!” Chen chirped happily, pushing Kyungsoo into a chair and skipping over to curl against Aeris’s side on the adjacent couch. “That makes the attendance nine out of fourteen here.”
“But only eight out of that nine awake,” Xiumin said softly, referring to the person sleeping soundly against his shoulder. “She didn’t even wake up when I carried her down here.”
“So we’re missing Luhan, Lay, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Tao?” Suho ticked off the names off his fingers. “Baekhyun is sleeping off his injuries and Lay’s tired from healing all night, but the rest? It’s already 7:30. What are they going to do when classes start?”
“Who was that person before?” Kyungsoo asked Chen as the others talked amongst themselves. “And why are we all gathering here?”
“Apparently, her name’s Jae Yeon,” he replied, words melting into a purr at Aeris’s hand running through his hair. “She was assigned this house by accident so we were going to talk to the department of Student Affairs about this. Oh, and she’s making us food, too.”
“I can see,” Kyungsoo deadpanned and was going to ask another question, but he was interrupted by the sleepy people stumbling down the stairs and the emergence of the aforementioned girl.
At her call of Breakfast’s ready, there was a mad dash for the dining table. Within seconds, every chair around it was filled and Jae Yeon seated herself in the last one, between a still drowsy blonde man and a completely excited one with mint blue hair. Mouth stuffed with food, the one to her left introduced himself as Tao and the right Chanyeol. The others eventually said their names as well and in a relatively friendly manner, content with what she whipped up.
Except the owl eyed man sitting next to Baekhyun. He’s been glaring at her for quite a while now and she was honestly feeling a bit unnerved. “Umm, is it not good?” she lifted her fork. “Do you not like it?”
“No, he’s just pissed that you cooked in his special kitchen. Don’t worry, he’s like this to anyone that does that,” Chanyeol mumbled around the crepes in his mouth. “But, shit, these are good.”
Sehun let out a happy grunt. “Apology accepted, kiddo. Apology accepted. Thank God you made enough to feed 25 people.”
Jae Yeon watched as the crepes disappeared from the large platter in the center of the table. “Well, I thought you’d eat a lot so… ”
There was silence as the last few strawberries were stabbed and plates scraped clean of cream. Kris was the first to finish and he dutifully brought his utensils to the sink, calling over his shoulder, “The office is opening in half an hour. We should be there early before there’s a line. It’s two weeks before classes start so there’s probably going to be a lot of students. I guess we don’t all need to go so Kai, Chanyeol, Tao, So Eun, and… ” there was a cough from the brunette’s boyfriend, “Xiumin.”
Xiumin beamed in approval and sent the girl beside him a wink, but So Eun easily brushed him off, rolling her eyes.
Jae Yeon soon found that the people with her were…interesting, to say the least. From what she could tell, despite their tall statures, Tao and Chanyeol acted like children. One skipped around the concrete path and snapped pictures on his phone, murmuring about how the lighting was great in the morning. The other had headphones in, singing and dancing to a dubstep remix of what she figured was Row, Row, Row Your Boat. He walked along the edge of the path, using an imaginary paddle to push his imaginary boat through an imaginary river. And yes, he was attracting the stares of the people straggling about on campus. The other two, So Eun and Xiumin, were obviously dating. You had to be blind not to see it. His face twinkled with adoration while his coos of I missed you, babe were never ending; and even though So Eun was dodging his open arms, trying to escape the hug, her smile never faltered.
And then there was the person next to her. To be honest, she was still wary around Kai. She’s had a lot of awkward first meetings, but accidentally crawling into someone’s bed in the middle of the night certainly takes the cake. Jae Yeon quickly glanced at him, averting her eyes when her cheeks felt warm. Kai was undeniably handsome, from the way his hair fell perfectly over his forehead (jeez, was bed head not a thing for him?) to his seemingly perfect proportions. Now that she thought about it, in the house, no one was a visual error. All of its occupants were oddly good looking and woah, is this the real life version of the Cullens?
Kai watched her, brow furrowed. Jae Yeon’s expression changed with her thoughts and it was amusing to see it shift in a matter of seconds. “Something on my face?” he quirked an eyebrow when he caught her gaze. “Or am I just that charming?”
“Um, ah, oh, yeah, you see…”
“And I leave you tripping over your words? Man, I’m good,” his grin was brilliant. He was going to continue teasing her (it was almost as easy as messing with So Eun, just as satisfying, and there isn’t a vengeful boyfriend to bite his ass), but Chanyeol loudly pointed to a red brick building several yards away.
Like Kris predicted, a line was already forming despite the office opening just minutes ago. Thanks to Xiumin’s fast running, though, they were able snag eleventh place. Numbered slip in hand, they took a seat and leaned back the padded backing. The only thing left to do is wait…and wait…and wait…and wait…and wait…and–
“Eleven!” the person behind the counter called. “Number eleven? Going once. Going twice?”
“Wait, isn’t that us?” So Eun peeked at the rectangular paper in Tao’s hand. “Yah, that’s us!”
“Going three times–holy fudge nuggets!” the office lady let out a squeak of surprise when the group suddenly rushed to the front, four pairs of hands slamming onto the counter. “Gracious, please don’t scare me like that. How can I help you today?”
“Ah, yes, we have a bit of a housing issue. You see, she,” Xiumin pointed to Jae Yeon, “was accidentally assigned to the house that we,” he gestured to himself and his four friends, “and about ten others live in. We were wondering if you could fix that issue so that she can have a place to stay, just preferably not ours, before school starts.”
“Can I have one of your IDs, please?”
Xiumin blinked before turning to the people behind him. “I didn’t bring mine.” They stared back just as blankly, patting their pockets. So Eun rummaged around in her bag for a bit and hummed in satisfaction once she found the black and white card in one of the zippers. “Oh, look at my princess, always prepared.”
The lady inputted So Eun’s student ID code and pulled up her residential record. She scrolled through the file, shaking her head. “Nope, no mistake here. That’s where she belongs.”
“No, you don’t understand. We were put in that house by a certain someone, as you can probably see in the thingy,” Tao tapped the monitor.
“Yes, I saw that, but Ms. Lee here was also assigned to your house by that same person,” the lady tilted the computer screen, “as you can probably see in the thingy. This person had specially requested for Ms. Lee to stay in this house, like you were. Because she hasn’t confirmed her arrival yet, your house is still considered ‘open’ as in there is a missing place, but it’s reserved for her. I just need Ms. Lee’s ID so that I can officially put the house as closed.”
“I don’t have my ID at the moment,” Jae Yeon showed the lady her empty hands and nodded when she was answered with You can come back later. “Okay, thank you!”
When they left the building, Kai sighed. “Let’s hurry back. Everyone else needs to hear about this.”
To say that everyone was surprised was an understatement. A major understatement. Once the situation was explained, the living room erupted into a simultaneously shocked Ehhhhhhhhh? It took Kris a whole minute to hush everyone.
“So, you’re saying Lee Soo Man put her in our house?” the leader asked carefully. “Our Soo Man–Baekhyun, stop that!”
But the brown haired man refused to listen and kept shaking Jae Yeon by her shoulders. “Who are you and how do you know Soo Man?” he demanded. “Answer me. Answer me, you intruder!”
“H-he’s my uncle!” she managed to say through her dizziness. “How do you guys know him?”
“Wait, he’s your uncle?” Kyungsoo repeated, confused.
“I literally just said that–”
“Shhhhh, Kyungsoo is talking,” Chanyeol waggled a finger in her face. “No one talks when Kyungsoo talks.”
Ignoring the two of them, he went on. “Does that mean Lee Soo Man wanted her to know about the thing? He put her in this house with us and all.”
“Possibly,” Kris gripped the armrest of the chair beside him. “Jae Yeon, did your uncle or your parents mention anything about us?”
“Nothing much…oh!” her eyes lit up. “My mom said something weird before I left. Something about looking for the dude that was at his funeral last year. Apparently, I’m supposed to tell you the day I got my braces removed.” At their weirded out faces, she quickly raised her hands. “Her words, not mine. I swear!”
“If she’s Soo Man’s niece and she’s supposed to tell us a date,” Sehun pointed to the black door in the corner, “wouldn’t that be part of the code that unlocks the file we couldn’t open? After all, Kyungsoo went to the funeral for us. Didn’t you say you talked to Master Lee’s sister? That could’ve been Jae Yeon’s mom, right?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Suho muttered as their gazes shifted. “Can you tell us the date? Then Sehun, go down and input it into the computer.”
“Uh uh,” she refused firmly. “I’ll help you, but I want to go down, too. This somehow relates to my family and I don’t like not knowing about it. And I live here now because my uncle put me here so why keep secrets?”
“She’s got a point,” Kris admitted and Suho agreed. “Alright, so we’ll all go down together, but you have to keep what you see and hear a complete secret, got it? We’ll explain everything down there.”
She silently followed as they unlocked the door and flipped on a light. There were your run of the mill stairs leading down to what she assumed was the basement. They looked stable enough, with how everyone was walking down without relying onto a railing, but she wasn’t too sure.
“Watch your step,” Kai warned, steadying her with a hand on her elbow. “Don’t fall.”
There’s a scoff from the blonde behind them. “That’s actually really cute. Why didn’t do that?” Aeris complained.
“You seem okay,” Luhan quipped, going on ahead. “Not like you’re going to get a cramp halfway down.”
“I could–oh, look, Lay was kind enough to help me. Thank you, darling,” she smiled at the one holding her hand and stuck her tongue out at the one who wasn’t.
From the front of the pack, Xiumin overheard what was going on and held out his hand. “Watch your step.”
But So Eun didn’t take it. “One, I’m not going to fall and two, no.”
“I’ll tickle you,” he threatened, wiggling his fingers. She–being the air ticklish person she was–flinched immediately.
“Fine, but this is it,” she huffed, linking their pinkies together. She shouted over her shoulder. “Jae Yeon, the steps start widening at this point so don’t trip.”
Despite the advice, Jae Yeon nearly lost her footing when the concrete steps changed to white marble ones, red carpet sitting on top, but Kai’s grip tightened and prevented her from face planting. He couldn’t stop her jaw from dropping, though, and that’s exactly what it did. The farther they went down, the lighter it became until she was able to identify the source: a giant crystal chandelier dangling from a panelled ceiling.
“Is this a grand staircase?” she gaped at the new environment. Somehow, when she wasn’t paying attention, the narrow, dusty passage opened up and they were in a room that reminded her of Beauty and the Beast’s entrance hall, stone pillars, tall doors, and all. From what she could see, they were on the left fork of the staircase.
“Yes, indeedy,” Tao chirped. “This is our main hall. It’s supposed to be a secret so tell anyone and you’re dead. Haha, just kidding!” Even though his tone was light, the tenseness in his shoulders suggested otherwise.
They walked straight forward, up another flight of stairs that led to a decorative hallway. She was only able to get a glimpse of it before being pulled into the first door on the right. The inside was exactly what she expected to see in Jimmy Neutron’s shed: a large monitor embedded into the far wall, the ground littered with paper sketches, a table piled with circuit boards, and tools tossed around haphazardly.
Without being asked to, Sehun nudged his way past the others and settled in front of the biggest computer, cracking his knuckles and typing in a long string of characters that appeared as asterisks to everyone else. Finished, he asked for the remainder of the code and Jae Yeon stuttered out a mess of numbers, still in awe over the fact that she was trapped in an underground base with people who didn’t look very friendly anymore. Holding his breath, Sehun hit the ENTER key and watched as a red processing bar filled the screen.
“Hello? Eun Jin, is this thing on?” a weathered finger tapped the screen once the file opened. Jae Yeon immediately recognized the voice as her uncle’s and was proven right when he moved away to sit on a chair. A female answered with a soft Yes, dear and she realized with a jolt that it was her aunt.
Jae Yeon didn’t know that she was falling until Kai grabbed her by the waist and guided her to the bench where everyone else had drifted towards. The look on their face was probably the one she had on her own, fascination with the tiniest little bit of fear. When Soo Man suddenly laughed, she jumped a mile in the air and the ones around her did the same because this was really him.
“Sehun, play it,” Suho whispered. The youngest had paused it right after the startling laugh. He complied and scurried away from the screen, choosing to seat himself next to Tao on the bench instead.
“Well, if you’re watching this, it means Eun Jin and I are dead,” the mirth in his voice was the complete opposite of the current atmosphere. “I’m guessing you’ve all met each other by now. I don’t know how old you are as you’re watching this, but I’m guessing that Xiumin and So Eun are dating. You think I couldn’t see it? I knew you two were soulmates the moment you saw each other and the connection will only get stronger as you get older. And Kris isn’t overworking all of you, is he? He should start loosening up. After all, Suho is showing potential leadership qualities and I hope he’s also a leader now. Anyway, I could go on and on about all of you, but I’m afraid I don’t have that much time and I think you want me to get to the point.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “As you know by now, Jae Yeon is my niece and yes, I do want to involve her our business. Train her and explain everything that has happened, from the Creator to the Great Exodus to the second Exodus to now. I assigned her to the house I gave you and I expect nothing but the best from you. Besides, you were able to get the password for this, right? Ah, I had you travel all over the world and solve the hardest riddles… sorry about that, but you had to prove yourselves.” There was a scoff from Chen, I nearly fell off that damn mountain in Peru. “Now that you’ve seen this, a few more files should appear in the folder. I made videos addressed to each and every one of you. Unless, that is, you’ve recruited more members. There’s also the data I was able to get from the laboratory and info about other branches and associates, if you ever need help.” He gestured to someone offscreen and Eun Jin came over to say hi.
“I’m sorry we had to leave you all so soon,” she said, “but you’re big kids now! Be careful. Ah, Soo Man, we have thirty seconds left. Stay healthy, okay? Don’t die on the job! And remember to clean up after yourselves. Separate the lights from the darks when washing. Oh, and don’t–”
“Ten seconds.”
“Ah, what to do… We love you!”
And with a final wave, the video ended. Silence reigned in the room until Suho cleared his throat. “I guess that’s that.”
“What’s going on… ?” Jae Yeon trailed off, unsure of what to say. “What are you guys? What am I getting myself into? What’s business was he talking about?”
“Well, first things first,” Kris heaved himself to his feet and offered her a hand. “We’re EXO, a group of monsters that could probably kill you in our sleep if you ever decide to betray us. Welcome to our home and we hope you enjoy your stay here.”