Seven | Book 1 (An EXO fiction)

41.

Jongdae's bed is comfortable. Not as comfortable as mine...but like still it's nice. Baekhyun and Jongdae have managed to force me to be the one to sit on the fluffy mattress by claiming the floor space before I even got here. Jongin isn't nearly as bothered by the act as I am.

But lots of things have been bothering me anyway.

I fold my sock covered feet beneath me while Jongin scoots over to lean in closer and wrap an arm around my waist. I feel far too comfortable.

"-and Kibum...you know he's human. But he's her favorite of all of us. I don't know why," Jongdae rambles. He's been going on for about 30 minutes now. I asked for information about all of them so that I could get a feel of their personalities; to figure out what kind of people they are and what their intentions might be. I didn't mean to get the guy going knowing he would never stop.

"Is there any way that I could talk to him?" I ask as soon as I can get a word in.

"I don't know," Baekhyun says "He's always with her."

I frown. "But so are you-"

"Literally," he cuts in "always with her," he stresses.

"Yeah, but she doesn't seem to like hurting him. She acts around him the way you do around..." Jongdae motions towards Jongin then outside of the room "all of them. He doesn't seem to hate her either."

"That's weird," I murmur.

"That's just how it is," Baekhyun says monotonously. A squeeze at my side makes me relax the tension in my body that I'd built up during the conversation. "He's only been here for a few years also."

"How long have you two been here?" I ask cautiously.

"When I turned 15," is all Jongdae says.

"For as long as I've had memories." Baekhyun looks down at his thighs after his sentence. Quiet settles over the room. I glance at Jongin and he offers a small smile that doesn't reach his eyes. I sigh loudly to fill the now full and gloomy silence. From just 2 meetings I've managed to learn almost nothing about Moonbyul's Charmers outside of the fact that they hate Moonbyul, women, and apparently Kibum. I don't know what the deal is with Kibum but I'd have to meet with him myself before being able to give any sort of personality analysis.

"Okay...thanks for telling me. I know its hard to have to rehash memories and stuff that you don't like recalling, but really thank you. You're both very strong for having gone through this and you deserve better. You really do. Hopefully it won't last much longer. Everything that you've told me is going to help us all out a lot in the end." I scoot to the end of the bed and set my feet on the ground. "I have to go now, but I'll be back at the same time tomorrow. Is that okay with you both?"

"Isn't it unsafe to be coming here?" Jongin whispers into my ear. His eyes are wide with worry, I smile fondly and rub the top of his head.

"It's fine. It's late enough that everyone is asleep. No one is roaming around except for me. You know that there aren't any guards or anything. It's fine. I won't get caught," I assure him. He squeezes his lips together in disapproval, I turn to face the Charmers on the ground again. "I'll be back tomorrow." Jongdae nods while Baekhyun plays with a string on the knee of his tattered jeans.

Jongin and I leave the room after neither of them shows any other signs of saying goodbye. I didn't really expect some kind of eager goodbye, and yet I still feel off put by the lack of response from the two of them.

I offer to walk Jongin back to his room, and with no objection he wraps his arm back around me and tugs me tightly to his side before we trek off to his and Kyungsoo's room.