Still A_Stray: Living With Stray Kids (ot8 fanfic)

Chapter 12

Cooking up a storm, piece of cake (cake cake cake)

Since 3Racha had taken the car to drive to JYP, Hyunjin and I were stranded at the maknae dorm unless we wanted to walk. Luckily, this turned out to be a common occurrence among the members, so there were spare clothes, toothbrushes, and phone chargers in the closet. After I hung up with Claire, I showered—unabashedly using Minho's conditioner—and changed into some of Changbin's things; Hyunjin didn't even bother putting on his own spare clothes, preferring to keep wearing Seungmin's sweater. I couldn't blame him; they were stupidly soft.

By the time I re-entered the living room, Minho was done gardening and was now beating Seungmin, Jeongin, Hyunjin, and Felix respectively in cards.

"Thank god you're here, Yeji," Felix said to me, looking up from where he'd put his head in his hands. "You're the only one who can beat him."

"What? Who gave you that idea? I'm honestly terrible at cards," I protested, holding up my hands.

"You got second in Chutes and Ladders," Hyunjin pointed out.

"Yeah, behind you. If you can't beat Minho we're all done for."

"Just try, noona," Jeongin begged.

"If he wins for the fifth consecutive time, we'll never hear the end of it," Seungmin added.

I melted under their pleading gazes. "Fine, one round."

Minho blinked at me as I sat down. I had half a second to wonder if I'd offended him somehow before he leaned across the table and straight into my personal space bubble. "Did you use my conditioner?"

I shrugged, offering him a smile with much less apologeticness than I should have given. "Sorry?"

Minho's eyes narrowed, and the realization struck me that Minho was a very vengeful person, and I was probably about to get pounded by him in cards because of said thirst for vengeance.

Felix shuffled the cards, dealing us both; Minho sized me up. "So, Yeji-noona. Think you have what it takes?"

"Ah ... not really," I said. "What is this game, anyway?"

In one wide sweep of his hand, Felix spread the cards onto the table, and Minho slammed his hands down in challenge, eyes cutting into mine.

"Go Fish."

I blinked. "Hey, I know that game. Claire taught me..." I cast confused looks at the members. "But it's an American game. How did you...?"

"Felix," they all said in unison.

Felix shrugged. "When we were trainees, there were a lot of sleepless nights before performances, or nights where we just stayed up for fun. I always bring games with me, so I had them on hand, whereas the other members didn't think to bring stuff like that with them. So English games—like cards and Chutes and Ladders—were the only things we had to keep us entertained."

"Which means I've been playing this game for as long as we've been a group," Minho said, lifting his chin in a challenge.

I decided I wasn't going to let him push me around—I hadn't even used that much of his conditioner, anyway—and slid my cards toward me, taking them and whipping them out like a fan. "Game on, then."

He did the same. "You go first."

"Fine." I surveyed my cards. They were pretty mid, but not something I couldn't work with. "Got any ... twos?"

His eyes narrowed. "Go fish."

I bit the inside of my cheek, drawing a card from the array set before us.