❄ Cold Relations ❄ [SEVENTEEN] ✓

Chapter 6: A Mountain of Sweets (i.e. Hoshi's Spicy Dish)

When Vernon came out of the shower, Hoshi was on the phone, and Woozi was lying on the bed, laughing uncontrollably.

"What'd I miss?" he asked as he dried his hair, hung up his bath towel, and turned off the exhaust fan.

"Room service," Hoshi said, unable to mask his thick accent, "I order kimbap wit pork and vegetable, no egg, no tofu. And Kimchi Stew, wit less chili flake. Thank you. Goodbye."

Vernon sighed in response to Hoshi's broken English. "What are you two doing?"

"You take too long in the shower," Soonyoung protested. "Woozi and I both agreed that if we waited for you, we were likely to die of starvation. So, I called room service instead."

"And how did that work out for you?"

"Terrible. I never even realized that they had put me on hold. You know what they say: if you want a job done right, do it yourself. Come on, Woozi; to the kitchen, we go!"

Jihoon shadowed Hoshi to the door before Vernon called them back. "While you're gone, I'll see what else we need to set us up for the night. But what about sleeping arrangements? Sleep in separate rooms or everyone here together?"

"Together," Hoshi affirmed. "It's my first night in an unfamiliar place. I don't want to sleep alone."

Vernon raised an eyebrow. "Woozi, what about you?"

Unease flickered about in Jihoon's dark eyes. "I'm with Hoshi. I think we should stick together... for safety reasons," he added.

"Okay, sounds good. But there's still the problem of deciding who gets the queen bed and who sleeps on the pullout couch... Any ideas?"

"I say we arrange this from shortest to tallest," Hoshi proposed. "Shortest gets the pullout coach, and the two tallest get the queen bed."

Woozi glared at him. "Are you sure you want to go there? Think carefully before you answer."

"Okay, moving on! So, how about a dance competition?"

"I can't dance," Vernon said out-front. "Though, a rap competition... that I can do."

"I'm a vocalist," Woozi stressed, dismissing the suggestion. "To make this simple, I say we play an old-fashioned game of rock-paper-scissors."

Vernon snorted. "Or, as Seungkwan puts it, rock-seizure-paper."

Hoshi grinned. "I remember that. Andromeda was pretty fun until Jeonghan and Seungkwan took over, excluding me since I might slip up and give out a spoiler or two." For a moment, Hoshi looked angry, but it didn't last; the word "grudge" was seldom a part of his vocabulary. "I must warn you guys: I never lose."

"We'll see about that," Vernon said confidently.

All three of them formed a triangle. On the count of three, they launched into the first round. Woozi chose rock, and Vernon and Hoshi chose paper. Paper covers rock, and just like that, Woozi was sleeping on the floor.

"That was rigged," Jihoon said in denial. "It's always the short ones. Always."

Vernon fell backwards and bounced lightly on the mattress. "Mmm... it's like sleeping on a cloud!"

Woozi squinted his eyes. "Now you're just rubbing it in."

"Maybe," Vernon sniffed. "But there's no need for grumbling. We'll rotate each night."

Woozi's face lit up with twisted delight at the prospect of a squabble. "Who gets the couch tomorrow night?"

Hoshi and Vernon exchanged glances; then Vernon said, "I have a feeling that Hoshi's going to suggest another dance competition. On that note, I volunteer to take the couch."