Living With Stray Kids?

Chapter 8: FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!

My heart felt as heavy as a brick, I couldn't believe I caused so much trouble already. That's it, there's no way they're letting me go anywhere now.

Chan gazed over the three of us, patiently waiting for an answer. "None of you want to tell me?", he sighed. "Fine, Felix you're up. What caused Areum to leave the dorm?" He nodded towards the bag of groceries, finally getting Felix to cave in.

"Uhhhh, I wanted to give you a surprise brownie party..?" he tried. After a solid 10 second stare-off with Chan, he gave up.

"Fine, okay so I kinda wanted to make some sweet treats to celebrate our first day of vacation, but then you wouldn't have approved cuz I usually buy too much by accident, so then I got her to go get them, but then manager hyung came in, and..... yeah"

I smiled at the rambled explanation, feeling a mix of pity and appreciation for the Australian boy. 

Chan paused, and then sat down on the chair in front of the couch. Seemingly calmer than he was before, he passed me a cell phone. "I'm giving this to you in case emergencies like that happen again, it has all of our numbers so feel free to call if you need our help."

I thanked him, and promised to never go anywhere without his permission again. 

Satisfied with my answer, he turned to Felix and Minho,  "You guys have GOT to be more careful, Felix that was very irresponsible of you. But I think we all need something sweet after this day, so go ahead and start on the brownies." With that, Felix jumped up and happily walked over to the kitchen with his plastic bags. 

Chan continued, "Minho, you're a lifesaver, but what are you doing back here?" Minho chuckled nervously, "Hehe, I forgot something important. It's nothing don't worry about it, I'll leave on the midnight train tonight". 

And with that, everything was back to normal. Minho went into his room to grab the gifts he forgot for Soonie, Doonie and Dori, and Chan went to wash up before dinner. I, on the other hand, decided to join Felix in the kitchen for a fun baking session.

As I made my way to the kitchen, my phone buzzed in my hand.

User: heyy miss hwang, heard you got a phone after getting in trouble?

Confused, I responded

You: who is this??

User: pfft he didn't tell u who was who? its han :)

I smiled to myself, they really made me feel like I belonged, even though this was the last place any STAY should've been. Changing the user name so I could recognize him, I decided to add everyone else later that night.

"Okayyy let's get this started, Areum can you preheat the oven?" Felix asked.

You see, this would have been fine, if I  knew anything about cooking or functioning in a kitchen. Unfortunately for everyone I didn't know a thing about baking, and definitely not on how to work an oven. But I wasn't about to be a nuisance again, so I replied

"Yeah, sure!"

Not noticing the few dishes resting in the oven, I turned it on to max heat to make the process faster.

And with that I walked over to Felix to help him knead the flour. He smiled at me, and I shared the expression of sympathy for what we just went through.

Around 10 minutes later, a voice rung out from across the dorm. "Does someone smell something burning?" Chan called out.

Minho walked into the kitchen not long after, eyes widening in shock as he noticed the oven.

" AREUM WHAT DID YOU DO?!" he panicked

Rapidly shifting my attention to the oven, I noticed a black trail of smoke emerging from its door. I ran towards it to try to figure out what to do. Stepping over and protectively shifting me to the side with his arm, Minho opened the oven door.

A gust of dark air washed over us, leaving me coughing up a storm and Minho tucking me into his chest as he moved us backwards away from the oven.

"Felix get the fire extinguisher NOW!" he frantically called out to the shocked Australian boy.

Still blinded in Minho's arms, he finally let me go as he grabbed the extinguisher from Felix's hands and put out the fire. Chan rushed into the kitchen at that exact moment, urging everyone out of the kitchen and into the living room.

"Stay here, I'll go make sure everything is completely put out" he assertively told us.

The situation left us all startled, and mood was once again heavy after the potentially hazardous situation. "I-" I started. But I couldn't get any words out. Overwhelmed with emotion, tears began to flood my eyes once more.

Minho sighed in exhaustion. He came to sit beside me on the couch I found myself on, and gently patted my back in comfort. After finally meeting his eyes, I tried again. "I'm so so sorry" I mumbled. "At this point just kick me out, you guys don't deserve to have to deal with all this".

Chan walked into the room right after that sentence, but must've been listening as he replied "Relax. I know how tough it is to be in a foreign situation, and it wouldn't be normal if you did everything perfectly from the get go"

He softly smiled before taking a seat next to Felix and placing an arm around his shoulders to comfort him.

"No one understands how that feels better than we do, so trust me when we say it'll be okay" he reassured me.

Felix chimed in this time, looking just as apologetic as I did. "it's my fault, I keep on putting you in these situations" he told me, unable to meet my eyes.

I was about to reply, but Minho beat me to it. "It's no one's fault, although telling her to work an oven when she CLEARLY doesn't know how to cook maybe wasn't the smartest idea" he joked in attempts to make the mood lighter.

Seeing the faltered response by all of us, Minho gave it a rest. Everyone was too shaken up by the experience, Felix still playing with the rings on his hands as he fidgeted.

"forget about it, you guys head to sleep now, and try not to set the dorm on fire while I'm gone".

And with that, Minho grabbed his things to leave to Gimpo. But just as he left the dorm, I ran to catch up with him at the elevators, leaving the aussie members confused in the dorm.

Spotting him about to walk in, I called out " Wait!" I ran to catch him before he left, out of breath because of the insanely long hallway.

"Woah, Areum you can't miss me that quick" he teased, turning to face me and abandoning the open doors of the elevator.

Unable to speak the gratitude I felt, I engulfed him in a hug. "Thank you for helping me" I spoke softly. He patted my back briefly, then removed me from the hug. "Don't go getting all sentimental, I'll be right back within the week" he chuckled.

After a genuine smile, he sent me off from the inside of the elevator as he was about to go down. "Be good, Hwang. And I MEAN it this time"

And with exchanged waves, he was off, leaving me walking back to the dorm to head in for the night. Just then, I felt a vibration in my pocket.

Pulling out my new phone, I got a message that made my heart drop down into my chest.

Jisung: AREUM GET INTO THE DORM NOW, SOMEONE SAW YOU

A/N: anddd we're back :) thank you to everyone who has been patient with this story so far, I'll try to make more parts soon! What do you think is gonna happen in the next chapter??