Charmer ||Lee Minho / LeeKnow||

Chapter 35

The delicious smell of something baking had been enough to get me up and out of bed this morning. Ri had gone downstairs for his morning workout with Noah, leaving me in his bed to snooze. Eventually, a delicious smell crept under the door and roused me from my slumber. So it was only fair I followed my nose to see where it was coming from. It led me to the kitchen, where I found Nate in a rather messy kitchen making his famous brownies.

Nate had welcomed me with a warm smile and invited me to join him. He seemed at peace in the kitchen, pottering around and happily chatting away. He'd told me that he had always enjoyed baking and he wanted to make me some brownies as a welcome gift. Despite my protest that he really didn't have to go out of his way for me, he wouldn't take no for an answer. In return, I demanded that I at least tidy up, which he reluctantly agreed to in the end. He seemed genuinely interested in getting to know me and was beginning to ask questions when Caleb and Luca had walked into the living room, laughing and joking with each other.

"Ooh brownies for breakfast. Yes!" Luca exclaimed, doing a little happy dance as he made his way towards the kitchen. Caleb smiled as well, but approached a little slower, quietly assessing the situation. Luca seemed the polar opposite and came over to me straight away.

"I didn't really get a chance to speak to you last night, as Ri was keeping you all to himself. Hi, I'm Luca. Nice to meet you" he said, holding out his hand. I clasped his outstretched hand and held it in both of mine, as it was the customary way to politely greet someone. He did the same and then bowed slightly, so I returned the favour. "Sorry I didn't catch your name last night" he said politely.

"It's Lexi. My name's Lexi. But most people call me Lex" I said nervously, releasing his hand.

"Lex? Really?" Luca giggled. "Sorry, I don't mean to be rude. It's a lovely name. Just very similar to Dex that's all. This could get confusing" he said.

"Not really. Dex is an annoyingly loud introverted babygirl, whereas Lex here is a breath of fresh air" Caleb said, bowing slightly to me. I did the same in return, smiling at him shyly. I hadn't planned on dealing with the guys so soon, but I guess I was in their space, so it was inevitable I'd bump into some of them already.

"So" Caleb began, "You never did tell us last night how you and Ri met. I'd love to know how that happened" he said, taking a seat at the counter and looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to answer. Luca sat down as well, while Nate was messing around with the oven.

"Urm, it's kind of embarrassing really. Long story short, I kind of spilt a hot drink over him. Then stood on his phone. Then headbutted him. All by accident obviously. Needless to say I'm more than a little accident prone" I admitted, slightly mortified by my confession. It never sounds any better each time I tell someone about it.

The three guys all burst out laughing at the same time. I looked between them, confused as to what was so funny. It was Luca who eventually stopped laughing long enough to speak. "Wow. Here I was thinking Finn was the clumsiest person I'd ever met, but it sounds like you might actually be worse than him. Guys, I think we might need to keep those two apart, just in case. For their safety and ours."

"I'm more surprised that Ri didn't kill you for one of those things, let alone all of them together. And now, what, you guys are dating?" Caleb asked, a broad smile spread across his face.

I hesitated, not knowing how to answer that. I mean, it was early days and we hadn't discussed anything. I didn't want to make any assumptions, as I'd done that before in the past and that had never worked out well for me, clearly.

"Yeah, Ri has fought us over things far less dramatic than that, so how the hell did you survive his anger? I bet he was really pissed. Wait, I recall Noah saying something about Ri arguing with someone in public. Was that you? Oh my god, you have to give us all the details. Noah didn't tell us anything and Ri would kill us if we asked him. Come on, give us all the gossip, girl" Luca pushed.