"That'll be 14.92$ sir."

Renjun made a mental note to ask Jeno to pay him back while he fished out a twenty dollar bill. Once he got his change, he grabbed the chocolate bars and ran back to the dorms.

Jaemin and Yeosang had been getting together a lot recently which did inevitably lead both boys to be harassed by their friends about getting together. Eventually they gave in. So Renjun's dorm was currently being inhabited by eight boys, most of whom hadn't had anything to eat or drink within the past twelve hours aside from coffee and Redbull and Renjun guessed that most of them hadn't slept much either. So you can imagine his stress.

When Haechan jokingly challenged Jeno to bake four dozen batches of chocolate chip cookies within one hour Jeno gladly accepted. And Renjun gladly accepted Jeno's request for him to go to the nearest corner store and buy some chocolate bars so he could make chocolate chunks. On Renjun's way out, he didn't miss the slightly impressed expression of Haechan's face as Jeno sped around their tiny kitchenette as if his feet were on fire, trying his absolute hardest to win Haechan's bet.

Renjun slipped his student ID through the key reader and walked back upstairs. He could practically hear his friends even when he was still a floor away.

He opened the door and stepped halfway into the apartment so that he was still standing at the threshold.

"Jeno I'm back with the-"

Before Renjun could finish his sentence a mop of black hair sped towards him. He shut his eyes and braced for impact. When he opened them again the chocolate in his hands was gone. Once he recovered from the scare he shut the door behind him and entered the living room to sit down. The sounds of scuffling behind him made him turn around to see Haechan coming over, joining him too.

"Jeno told me I was too big a distraction for him." Haechan explained as he took a seat beside Renjun. "I guess he didn't appreciate me trying to eat cookie batter while his back was turned."

"I wonder why." Renjun said sarcastically. Haechan shrugged sarcastically as a response.

"Well good thing you're here now! We were just looking at embarrassing pictures of ourselves when we were babies. You're up Haechan!" Yeosang said while hiding his phone. Everyone else in the room were all stifling their giggles.

Haechan narrowed his eyes at Yeosang but nonetheless pulled out his phone to track down a picture of himself as a baby. Once he found a picture he put it on the coffee table and everyone gathered around to look.

"Ooo you were soooo cuteee!" Yeosang said while his ears were still turning back to their normal shade from light pink.

"Yeah." Jaemin agreed.

"You don't look too much like your parents though." Chenle said. Jaemin shot him the kind of look that a mother shoots her child when they've said something out of line. Haechan just waved it off.

"I get that a lot." He said. "I've always had a different look from my parents, just genetics I guess." He shrugged. He honestly wasn't that bothered by his looks being different from his parents so he never understood why people always got so touchy about the subject.

"Well my turn!" Chenle shouted to bring the group out of the awkward silence they had fallen into. He scanned through a few pictures on his phone then he eventually showed it to the group to see. Haechan leaned in for a better look and no doubt a fetus Chenle was taking up the entire screen. The group all gave a few 'oohs' and 'aahs' at how cute Chenle was. Yeosang pinched his cheeks making him let out a high pitched laugh that in turn made the group laugh even more.

"Say," Haechan said, making Chenle look at him. "You look pretty different from your parents too."

Chenle gave him a look. "That's because I'm adopted, hyung." He deadpanned.

"Oh." Haechan fiddled with his fingers in embarrassment while the rest of the group giggled a bit. Luckily a triumphant scream from the kitchen made them look away from Haechan to see Jeno hopping towards them.

"Eight minutes to spare!" He shoved his phone in all of their faces and sure enough, he had successfully baked four batches of cookies in fifty two minutes and thirty six seconds. Jeno stood there with a triumphant look on his face until the impact of two bodies on either side of him changed his expression to a surprised one.

He opened his eyes and saw that Chenle and Jaemin had both gotten up to hug him in his celebration of winning Haechan's stupid bet. "Congrats hyung!" Chenle giggled when Jeno squirmed in his hold. "I knew you could do it!"

Jeno continued to wriggle in the boy's hold which of course only made them tighten their grip on him.

"Are we forcing Jeno to be in a group hug?" Mark asked as he slowly rose from the couch. "Awesome!" He jumped up quickly, surprising the three boys, and hugged Jeno from the front. Jeno wished he could just melt into himself at this point. Haechan smiled at the scene for a moment before he decided to join the pile himself. He walked up and wrapped his arms around the entire group of boys. Even though his arms didn't physically touch Jeno, he could still feel them encasing his whole being.

"Okay guys." Jeno giggled at his friends. "I get it. I'm done showing off. Now get off me and let me serve some cookies."

At those words the four boys around Jeno quickly obliged him and moved away so he could retrieve the cookies. What kind of idiot would stop a person from serving you fresh chocolate chip cookies?

Jeno began moving the cookies onto four plates since they didn't have any platter big enough for four dozen cookies at once. While he did that, the rest of the boys took their seats on the couch waiting for Jeno.

"Thanks Jen."

"Thank you Jeno."

"Nice job Pop Tart."

Maybe chocolate chip cookies weren't Jeno's thing per se, but these were so fresh; steam rose out of one if you broke it open.

"Jeno is so sweet." Yeosang said while Jeno finished passing out the cookies. "Like a ball of sugar."

"Please, Jeno is a whole basket of sugar." Chenle said. Jeno flinched slightly at those words. He still remembered his dream from the beginning of the year of a basket of sugar with a single grain of salt in the mix. He'd had his share of weird dreams but that one took the cake. He still thought back to it from time to time and frankly he just wanted to know what it meant.

But now wasn't the time to worry about that. Jeno shook his head to clear his thoughts then he began listening to Haechan telling a thrilling story about harassing one of his swimmates apparently named 'Doyoung.'

Mark was enjoying Haechan's story, it was funny after all, but midway through he noticed that not everyone was listening to him. While Haechan was enthralling everyone, Jaemin sat at the edge of the couch, far away from anyone else, just sort of staring into space. Mark frowned at the picture. He didn't like the downcast expression Jaemin had. He liked it when he smiled and laughed.

Mark slowly got up and picked up two more of Jeno's cookies from the plate. No one else seemed to notice his behavior. He walked over to Jaemin and took a seat in the chair perpendicular to the couch. Jaemin was still unaware of his presence.

"Hey." He said softly, making the boy look at him. "You want another cookie?"

The edges of Jaemin's mouth twitched upwards ever so slightly. "Sure."

Mark handed him the cookie and took that as an invitation to sit down. "So um....your mind running like Usain Bolt and you can't keep up?" Mark cringed at his awkward analogy but Jaemin only laughed. He was happy to see that he could make the boy smile.

"Something like that." Jaemin said.

"Well...I know we don't know each other but wanna talk about it?"

Jaemin pondered his offer for a second before his eyes lit up.

"I've got an idea!" He chimed. "If you wanna make me feel better then share an embarrassing story with me!"

Mark visibly flinched. "What!? I can't do that! What if you tell everyone?"

"I promise mOrK I won't tell." Jaemin said in a slightly snarky voice. He shook his head when Mark didn't say anything. "C'mon pleaaaase? I really do promise I won't tell. And if it's something really funny then you just might make my day!"

Well how could Mark refuse after that? "Alright, but you can't tell anyone." Mark said as he wagged his finger in front of Jaemin's face. Jaemin nodded enthusiastically and Mark sighed. Then he began his story.

"Lamo nice story Haechan." Chenle said just as Haechan was finishing talking.

"Did you just say Lamo out loud?" Renjun asked in a slightly incredulous tone.

"Fight me Ge." Chenle countered. Obviously he shouldn't have said that because it caused Renjun to shoot up from his seat and launch himself at Chenle. Jeno had to hold him back.

"He's right though Chenle, you only use Lamo on things like social media." Yeosang said once Renjun had calmed down.

"Speaking of social media!" Jeno chimed in (partly to change the subject). "I should post a picture of myself; the winner of Haechan's bet, with Haechan; the loser of Haechan's bet and post it to instagram!"

Haechan couldn't even be mad.

Jeno shifted his position on the couch so he could be right next to Haechan. He took one picture where they just made peace signs with the plate of cookies in front of them. Then, they each picked up a cookie and pretended they were eating them for the second pic. For the third one Haechan decided to take his cookie and gently push it into Jeno's open mouth at the last second. In the picture, Jeno's eyes are as round as the cookies in his hand while Haechan has a playful smile on his face.

You could practically hear Jeno blushing.