When she wakes up, she's facing the side of the bed opposite to where Sehun was, and she's where he slept. She assumes he's downstairs, and doesn't want to mention this ever again, so she goes and gets clothing that isn't covered in Jongdae's drool and blood. She doesn't want to ruin any more of D.O's clothing, so she goes downstairs and sees Baekhyun and Yixing hovering over Luhan, and she's ready to yell at them, but she gets shushed as soon as her appearance is noticed.
"Leave h-"
"Shh!"
She puts her hands up in surrender, and walks over to see what's going on. Luhan's mouth isn't purging blood—thank god—but his eyes are bleeding out of the corners, and they're clenched tightly.
She tells them to back away, and to grab tissues, and tries to smoothen out his face as easily as she can, because she doesn't know if he's in pain or if this is normal or what's happening in the least. She's become significantly more calm, and she's handling it with more care than with Jongdae.
But in her defence, there was a lot more blood last time, and bleeding from your mouth isn't as common as say, a blood vessel popping in your eye causing it to bleed. But now, when Baekhyun and Yixing return with mountains of tissue, she's adamant she doesn't know how to handle any of this, any of them.
"Baekhyun, while I get water, wipe the blood from his eyes."
Baekhyun salutes her playfully.
"Yes, ma'am!"
She doesn't know why they shushed her earlier when now they're yelling and stomping all over the place but none of these boys have ever made legitimate sense in their entire amount of time she has known them, so she's ultimately not surprised by this in the least.
While she puts water in a cup and gets a dish towel, she can hear Baekhyun whining and freaking out over the blood getting close to him so she finishes as quick as possible, and just dabs the blood away herself, snatching the tissues from him.
"Wow Y/N, you're really brave."
She turns and thanks him before turning and finishing up with Luhan until his eyes are no longer dripping Crimson and cherry colours and takes more tissues and dabs them in water, whining his face of sticky trails coming from his eyes.
Baekhyun gags and Yixing whooshes air past his lips in disgust and she wonders how anything ever got done in this place before she was here. Same thing is to be said for her before she got here.
She wonders how long it's been, what day it is, since she's never bothered to actually look, and sure she can count but there are so many she's been asleep for and days that have melted into night and vice versa she can't possibly keep track.
"Y/N, I know he's handsome, but I don't think he'd appreciate that."
"Oh, hush up you."
Baekhyun makes a face of hurt, placing a hand on his heart in mock offense, raising his voice and barely concealing laughter.
"I think that's the meanest thing you've said to me since we met!"
"Get used t-to it."
And it was going so well.
At least she is improving though, and it seems the more comfortable she feels with these people, the less her stuttering occurs, and she wish she could thank all these people, but the topic has always been a touchy one, and she doesn't wish to prod at it today. Maybe another time.
She stands, bring the bloodied water to the sink and dumps it out, cleaning the glass because she doesn't want some idiot—Baekhyun—to find the glass and drink out of the glass containing Luhan's blood. Mainly because she doesn't want to have to deal with his whining at her because she's forgetful and can't remember to clean a glass after she's done.
After that, she spends at least fifteen minutes peeling all the sopping tissue from off her hands because of the water and pinches herself at least twelve times and every time it really hurts and she wonders why God put tissue on this Earth because she's not enjoying it.
"Y/N how long does it take to clean a glass?! Kyungsoo would like a glass!"
Kyungsoo? He must mean D.O, because she doesn't see how the name Luhan would be related to Kyungsoo in any sort of way, but then again Suho and Joonmyun seem to have no correspondence either, so she takes her chances.
"H-Here you g-go."
Baekhyun laughs obnoxiously, slapping a hand on her back harshly, almost sendin her sprawling onto the floor beside Kyungsoo.
"
O-Ow!"
"Baekhyun!"
"S-S-Sorry!"
Y/N laughs, even though her back feels like it just got stabbed all over again. She smiles to make it seem like it doesn't hurt, and it seems that everyone falls for it, laughing and smiling too, thumping Baekhyun on the head playfully.
Only when she leaves the room, does she learn she is wrong.
She goes to Kyungsoo's room, making his bed quickly because it seems Sehun forgot to do it before he went out. When she bends over, she feels the full force of Baekhyun's earlier hit, and hisses quietly through her teeth, baring through it until there's something cold touching where Baekhyun assaulted, and she hisses even louder, whipping around to see who's attacking her with such a cold object.
It's Yixing.
"Earlier, I saw how much it hurt."
Y/N's taken aback, because he looked like he believed her faux laughter earlier, but now he's saying he saw right through it? She guesses that's exactly what he's saying. She didn't think she was that bad of an actor.
"N-No! Really, I'm fine!"
Yixing chuckles softly, shaking his head slowly like he can't believe what he's witnessing and it makes her want to stomp her foot childishly.
So she does.
"Yixing! I-I'm fine! Really!"
He smiles at her, holding out the thing she now knows is an icepack, and suddenly Baekhyun shows up by the door, eyes downcast, and mouth twisted into a frown with such emotion trickled in she doesn't think she's seen this from him before.
Yixing takes this as his cue to leave, and hands her the icepack forcefully mouthing 'think about it' to her from the door, patting Baekhyun on the shoulder like its a relay pass off.
He shuffles over to her, eyes never leaving the floor once, and she wonders what's wrong with him, since he didn't hit her that hard and from what she can tell he wasn't berated that much, since she doubts Kyungsoo has the energy to do so anyways.
"What do you need, Baek?"
His body seems to soften at the nickname, and she tries her best to smile at him, despite the fact her back still aches, even with the soothing cold applied on it.
"I-I'm sorry. I didn't me-"
She cuts him off with a laugh. It's not directed towards him condescendingly, but more so in a way as if it's unbelievable. She doesn't know who told him this is something to stress about, but she needs to have a stern talk with them.
She doesn't want to see him like this.
"Baekhyun, I'm okay."
Baekhyun splutters, like he can't understand her, and says eight different things all at one time and she has no clue what he's trying to say, so to stop him, she places a hand on his shoulder, the sudden contact shocking him into silence.
In a rush of confidence—or is it sentimentality?—she leans up, and kisses him on the cheek, her actions turning them both pink, dusting their cheeks a rosy colour. Baekhyun's eyes are wide, and he looks as if this has never happened to him before, and he doesn't react immediately, but after thinking it over, he straightens up, slapping a smirk on his lips.
"I-I always knew you'd f-fall for me." He tacks on an awkward laugh at the end and it takes all she has not to laugh at him.
"Y-Y-You got me."
They're smiling had smirking and blushing, but soon it becomes too much, since she's so far out of her comfort zone she's kind of scared, so she squeaks out something along the lines of a "goodbye" before blasting out of the room away from him.
He doesn't answer her, and doesn't come out of the room until after dinner, sporting a neutral face she can't quite decode.
But then again, she doesn't have much time to think about it because then people are shouting and smiling at a figure on the floor and Luhan is finally awake.
Sort of.
"Five more minutes.." He mumbles, pushing his fingers onto Kai's legs, as if trying to turn off an alarm on a clock in his bedroom.
At some point, he realizes it's not his alarm clock, but a person's leg, and sits up grunting, complaining about there being too many people around him and too much light streaming into the room around her, and she's just getting to him when he's attempting to stand to walk to his room.
"Luhan, sit down!" She yells, alerting him and everyone else of her arrival.
"Dude, you better sit, she'll beat you up."
Luhan looks at her, taking in her hunch and her icepack and laughs heartily, the laughter sounding and feeling like a challenge.
"Luhan, sit, you're still weak."
"Like hell I'm we-"
He tries to jump, but immediately his legs give out, and she dives for him before remembering her back or the icepack, just managing to cradle his head from smashing against the wooden floor of the living room.
"Y/N!"
"Noona!"
She just stands, brushing off her pants, ignoring completely the sting of the stitches in her back being pulled, and before she can bend over for the icepack on the floor, at least three people have offered to get it and two have bumped heads lunging for it, and one head hits her leg, knocking her back into someone's arms.
She feels someone catch her, and upon further investigation, finds it to be Yifan.
"Sorry.."
"Are you okay?"
She smiles up at him, flashing her teeth.
"Yeah, I'm fine, thank you."
She stands up, pointing at boys as she addresses them.
"Luhan, you better lay on the couch until you get better, or at least well enough to stand!"
Luhan salutes.
"Joonmyun, Yixing, would you please help him?!"
They nod, but Jongdae pipes up from behind her, a laughing tone to his voice,
"Ooh, Y/N is on first-name basis with the leader! I guess we should all tell her our names, too."
There are murmurs of agreement, and people line up.
"I'm Jongdae, but people call me Chen."
She nods, not bothering to tell him she already knows because she has better things to do than argue with him about this stuff that doesn't even have any significance whatsoever.
"I'm Jongin. But Kai is my nickname."
"I'm Kyungsoo, but people call me D.O after my last name."
"His last name is Do!"
Thankfully, Tao cleared it up for her.
"Tao's name is Zitao."
She hears a snort, and then the stomping of a foot.
"Great! Just great! I was ready to reveal my first name and you ruined it just like that! I can't believe you have audacit-"
Y/N rubs at her temples, praying by some sort of miracle of God this will all stop soon.
"Shut up!"
"Be nice."
"Everyone be quiet, you're giving Y/N a headache!"
Everyone halts immediately, looking at her. She's so tired she just frowns, pulling out her best puppy eyes and popping her lip out slightly, praying this will work to her benefit.
"I'm tired, would s-somebody come lay down with me?"
Two hands shoot up immediately.
The hands belong to Zitao and Jongdae, and she looks at them.
Their hands are unrelenting, staying firmly planted in the air, not moving.
"I don't know who to choose, play rock, paper, scissors to decide."
After a best two out of three—declared by Jongdae—Zitao won, and after his little victory dance, she headed upstairs.
She just brought one upstairs to minimize fighting, and just by her luck two of the most problematic four put their hands up, so it was a win/win no matter the outcome. She's glad Joonmyun didn't put his hand up since if he won World War III would happen while he was gone.
They decide to go to Tao's room, and she just now realizes she's never seen it before.
The walls are navy blue, covered in posters of Chinese celebrities and sports stars, and his computer is on, showing his wallpaper of him and all the guys of the house, and when he notices her looking, he smiles.
"It's a family photo."
She looks at it, and it looks really old, maybe from three years ago, and she finds it really cute, with all of their younger selves on it.
"We'll have to add you soon."
She didn't realize how much that sentence would mean to her.
"Maybe we will."
_________________________________________________
Chapter 13: with the sickness eradicated, Suho begins to formulate plans to infiltrate castle SM and rescue Baozi. Y/N helps out the best she can. Also, after learning to trust Y/N in an odd way, EXO let her in on a not-so-well kept secret. Furthermore, EXO bring in their wringers to help with plans and the taking down of Onew.
(wow that description is long..)
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Torn // exo x reader
FanfictionY/N Y/L/N just wants to be left alone. She's not good at social interactions, and if she's being honest the thought of people scare her. She can barely talk without stuttering and her past is so dark she doesn't think even the brightest of flashligh...
