𝐑𝐔𝐁𝐘. nct

six

Ruby choked on the skittle in her mouth as she watched Jeno miss Yangyang's mouth, violently coughing, the latter gave Jeno a disappointed look. "How hard is it to throw a skittle in my mouth?" Yangyang asked as Donghyuck laughed, "Yeah weren't you on the basketball team!" Donghyuck joined when the door opened.

"Guys come down for dinner" The boy at the door said and Donghyuck looked at the girl sitting beside him. "That's Jungwoo." He said as Ruby nodded her head in acknowledgement.

"You don't even need to say anything anymore. She's gonna get introductions at dinner anyway" Yangyang said and they stood up, Jeno throwing his arm around Ruby's shoulder as they dragged her outside.

"Are they scary?" Ruby asked, before her and Donghyuck made eye contact, the two burst out laughing as they walked down the stairs, arriving at the long dinner table near the kitchen.

"What are you guys laughing about?" Jisung asked as he switched off his phone, putting it in his pocket, he looked at the four new arrivals at the table. "At the fact that Ruby asked if the other guys were scary" Donghyuck said sitting down at the table next to Jisung, Ruby taking her place beside him.

There was silence at the table before Renjun's soft giggles were heard and suddenly all eyes went to him, the boy immediately pressed his lips together and put his phone in his pocket. Ruby swore she heard Donghyuck mutter 'cute' under his breath but she didn't comment.

"What are we even having for dinner?" Jaemin asked as Chenle shrugged, "Apparently Xiaojun and Hendery are cooking" The latter said, groans filled the air making Ruby's eyebrows furrow. "Why? do they make bad food?" Ruby asked as Shotaro looked at her with a sigh. "Xiaojun doesn't know how salt works, Hendery is at least a bit better than him" He replied and Mark laughed at his statement.

Suddenly a boy appeared from the kitchen with a black pot in his hand, running over to the table before setting it on one of the coasters. "What's that?" Jisung asked, eyeing the pot on the table. "Soup" The brown haired boy replied, "Aren't you going to specify which soup?" Sungchan asked as the boy shrugged.

"We haven't had a supermarket trip yet so Hendery put whatever vegetables he found in the fridge. We call it the vegetable fiesta" The boy said with jazz hands. "I'm Xiao Dejun by the way, Xiaojun for short" The boy extended a hand, Ruby looked at the soup suspiciously before taking his hand and shaking it.

"Xiaojun! The pan is burning!" A yell was heard from the kitchen as Xiaojun pulled his hand away looking back with a panicked expression, "Do you want help?" Ruby offered. Though she wasn't a master in cooking, she knew how to not burn a pan.

"No! No! Everything is fine!" Xiaojun said before he ran to the kitchen. "Kun said he would ban them from the kitchen if they messed up again, which is why whenever they do mess up, they do everything to hide it so Kun doesn't know." Jeno explained as Ruby shook her head with a laugh.

"Kun?" Ruby asked as Donghyuck piped up beside her. "If Taeyong's the leader in the mafia business, Kun's the leader here at the house. Whatever Kun says in this house goes as a rule, even Taeyong listens to him. He's part of the medical team" He said as Yangyang muttered something about Kun always being on his ass for not cleaning his room.

"Are you guys gossiping about me?" A guy entered the room taking his place on one of the seats. By his words, Ruby assumed he's Kun. "I'm sure they've told you about me, Qian Kun. I'm part of the medical team" He said flashing Ruby a smile.

The girl smiled back before she turned to look at Donghyuck. "How many of them are left Hyuck?" She asked as the boy laughed. "A little more and why are you still calling me that?" He said and she shrugged, "It stuck" She replied.

Her eyes drifted to the staircase where Taeyong and Jaehyun walked into the room, suddenly she felt something hit her forehead. She took the skittles that sat on her lap and looked at Yangyang and Jeno who were trying to hold in their laughs.

She threw the skittle back at them, the red bean landing in Yangyang's glass of water. "Ruby!" The boy cried as he grabbed a spoon, trying to get the skittle out of his glass.

Taeyong smiled at the incident before turning back to talk to Jaehyun and they took their places at the head of the table. A few more minutes went by, more people poured into the room. She talked a bit with Jungwoo who sat beside her with Donghyuck intervening from time to time to criticize Jungwoo.

She also got familiar with Yuta who asked her about how she managed to break one of the targets at the shooting range and she just replied with a laugh that was enough to get her off the hook.

"Where are the other three?" Taeyong asked as Jungwoo shrugged, "They said they were coming out in a few" The latter replied and Taeyong nodded, turning his attention to the girl sitting beside Jungwoo.

"I've told the guys to get you some clothes tomorrow but I'm afraid you'll have to sleep in Donghyuck's clothes for tonight" Taeyong said as Ruby waved at him as if to say it didn't matter much.

She reached out to grab her glass of water, taking a sip but soon choking on it when she saw a group of three men enter. Jungwoo softly patted her back as she let out small coughs.

She watched as one of the guys sat in front of her, her eyes trained on his breathtaking visuals. Her head drowning out Taeyong's voice who was speaking to her, her eyes took in whatever was in front of her.

The guy's dark hair, the way it fell over his eyes and the stoic expression on his face. The way the black sweater he was wearing only gave in more to his features, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

"Doyoung, can you please go check what they're breaking. I'm too tired" Kun's voice bought her back to real world. "Were you even listening to me?" Taeyong asked as Ruby's eyes snapped to the man, her face still holding a dazed expression.

The guy in front of her got up, making his way to the kitchen as Ruby's eyes trained on the entrance of the kitchen. "Who was that?" Ruby breathed out, all eyes on the table went to her but she was least bothered about that.

"Kim Doyoung, one of the members of the information team" Donghyuck said, holding back his laugh. "Ruby, I was saying something-" Taeyong said before he was cut off when Doyoung entered the room again.

"Shh, shut up" Ruby said as her eyes remained on Doyoung who wasn't aware of her eyes on him. The table went silent and Doyoung sat in his place in front of her. "Don't you have a crush on Taeyong?" Jisung whispered, Ruby waved him off with her hand, "Who cares about him" Ruby softly said.

Doyoung looked up to find all the attention in the room on him, "What?" He asked and everybody looked at him either trying to hold in their laughs or having a knowing look in their eyes.

"Why am I offended?" Taeyong's voice broke through the silence causing the table to erupt in laughter, yet the confused man didn't notice the lovesick eyes of the girl sitting in front of him.

( note! ) to my first from the beatbox album would 100% save me from vecna.
I'm sorry this update took so long 😭
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!