It’s upsetting to see how nervous Oakley gets when he worries about what his dad’ll do, but Eve said something that made it feel a little silly to worry once.

“You can go wherever you want, and do whatever you want once you’re 18, so let’s stick together until then.” It wasn’t much, and it sounds easier than it is, but it’s the only thing they could think of.

Sticking together through it, whatever happens. It’s a nice metaphor for what they’ve been doing already, but saying it out loud helps.

Traumatizing high school experiences, rocky home lives, serial killer kidnappings, and moving schools, their journey up until now was a rollercoaster dumpster fire happening as they went, but it felt better to burn together.

If they couldn’t trust their teachers, they had each other; if they couldn’t feel safe at home, they had each other. And now, if they want to move out of home, they have each other.

So it’s an unspoken rule for them that if one of them needs help, at least one of them will come. They only have each other, so when someone, or two someones in technicality, ask you to help move in again, you simply must.

For a guy who prides himself on being loyal and dependable, he’s feeling rather targeted and taken advantage of as he’s moving packed boxes and taped up belongings carefully, but with a feigned grief.

It’s all in good fun; however, he has to have an outlet for his screaming leg somewhere in this trust-based deal.

Circling back on one of his previous rabbit hole thoughts, it’s not that strange that when a couple of traumatized or repressed teenagers go through a fuckening of unsafety, they would want to be together after.

Will would assume that’s the next step of best friends: first, you hang out a lot, become best friends, then you go through things you would never tell a child about, and you move in together. At least that’s what order Oakley seems to be doing it in, however backward it may be by now.

Willing himself to focus on the task at hand, he picks up the pace, vowing to show up one day for no reason in a fit of revenge for the beating his muscles are receiving at the hands of Oakley and Noah’s back-to-back heavy boxes of mystery livelihood.

Huffing to get air for a second, he fans his collarbones, then turns back out the door, whooping in one last burst of energy, when the last couple of boxes are brought inside.

“Is this what workhorses feel like after a shift?” Will jokes as he slides the last box across the floor and dramatically lets himself fall to the floor. The cold and hard wood soothes his sweating form.

Snickers and little huffs of laughter trickle in from the various placements of people occupying the apartment.

Movement doesn’t stop; boxes need unpacking, and containers need places to go, and furniture is waiting to be arranged.

Slowly, he picks himself off the floor, his brief trip to it revitalizing his overheating body.

“What can I help with?” He offers himself up as he trudges over to Oakley, his hands on his hips.

“I should have everything done soon. Why don’t you get everyone some water?” The taller boy was elbows deep in a box as he sat at the desk Will had dragged in hours before, eyed him with an inquisitive look, then gave him something to do.

Fully aware that there was probably nothing he needed for now, he determined to be useful and serve everyone some water. Grabbing cups and ice, he filled them up, then caught Noah and Eveline talking on the couch as he walked over from the kitchen.

“I would recommend making a schedule. It's likely you won’t end up following it, but if you make one, you can figure out who does what, so no one’s pointing fingers when it’s not done.” Eve guides, reframing their spat over who was supposed to wash the dishes that day in a more palatable way.

“That and communication, it’s pretty important that you guys can come to a compromise when you don’t agree on something,” Will adds while walking out from behind the couch, setting the icy water glasses down on coasters.

Eveline got on him about how she hates stains from the water of cups, so he’s been using them ever since.

Noah seems surprised he used them, but happy at the same time, he’s glad he’s learned something useful for gaining social credit, and Eveline is pleased with the action.

Making an affirmative noise, at his addition to the conversation, she brings one pointed finger up to emphasize it. “That’s a very good point, communication is key,” she punctuates her words with a nod of her pointer finger.

“I get the feeling you two will be bickering in your sleep.” Will teases, sitting on the armrest next to Eve while Noah looks at him like he ate something wrong.

“I know we joke a lot, but we actually act similarly. He’s my childhood friend, we get along a lot better than you guys think.” Noah defended them, with Oakley still unpacking, he left her to keep their relationship safe from inaccurate jokes.

”Of course, childhood friends who make googly eyes at the chance to live together.” Will swooned over the edge of the couch, dramatically reenacting with much creative liberty the wide-eyed stares they gave each other.

Batting his eyes dramatically, he made fake kisses in Evelines direction, as she cooperated in the teasing.

Dramatically acting with him, her dark blue eyes staring into his, the fake kdrama music playing in the background. He can just imagine the ‘shala~ la~ lalala~’ chiming in from seemingly nowhere as he draped his shoulder over Eveline's and fell into her personal space.

Eveline herself bit her pinky finger and turned her face away as she made her shoulders appear so tiny and frail, as she pretended to be the Mary Sue that is every bad kdrama female lead in a three-way with two bad boys.

Noah cackled at the reenactment, not even upset at the insinuation that they may want to be more than childhood friends.

Oakley, catching the distinct sound of Noah’s hilarious laugh, turned the corner from his room to see Eveline and Will’s reenactment of a bad kdrama everyone's seen but won’t admit to dirty-pleasure watching.

“I’ll protect you, jagiya.” Eveline puffed her chest out, rolling up her sweater sleeves to make flexing poses as she did bit her lip and pushed her brows together.

“Oppa, I need saving!” Will put his hands on Evelines knees, as he mustered up the most doe-eyed expression he could manage. His dark green irises expanded as they twinkled in the most dramatized form of tiny and helpless he could project from his less than little form.

His lips formed the most unrealistic pout he could pull from within him. He made little hmf noises as he spoke.

The cringe was palpable, but so hilarious, as Oakley immediately dropped into a heap where he had walked into the room, clutching his stomach and hand over his face as he rolled on the ground.

Noah had already been reduced to a puddle long ago. Cackles and full-body wheezing echoed through the room as Eveline and Will let their dramatization go, and bumped heads in their laughter.

Fishing out a remote from a basket somewhere near the couch, Oakley squished himself into the puddle of laughs, as he flicked the channels to find the most stereotypical, not afraid to make fun of itself, kdrama in the library.

The rest of them are egging him on when he scrolls to a good one, or booing when the pick isn’t dramatic enough.

Not even minutes later, Noah, Oakley, Eveline, and William are huddled together and enveloped by a scene where a step-mother is bullying the daughter-in-law. It’s so villainious and dramatic that it circles from funny to interesting.

None of them had expected to have their attention captured, but it’s hours later, and their crying, sneezing into tissues, and coughing out phlegm.

“How could the stepmother treat her like that? She just wanted to fit in with the family.” Will cried, one small tear falling from his face.

“Especially when she was an orphan before that,” Eveline spoke with ease, not crying, but her eyes never left the screen, her gaze focused on what was happening as she handed him more tissues.

Another moment later, and they were arguing over which oppa was better for the female lead.

“Glasses oppa is too cold, doesn’t he know how to express his love?” Will tsked, his eyebrow twitching when the glasses oppa acts cold to the female lead and gives her mixed signals.

“The nice oppa isn’t any better; he assumes she’s being nice when she gets him a gift.” Oakley chimes in, pointing at the screen in annoyance.

“Maybe the Nice oppa just doesn’t want to assume, the Glasses oppa needs to show his love better.” Will defends the character in the kdrama, not even sure what they’re talking about anymore, the sun’s already set, and they’ve been watching kdramas for a while.

“Maybe the Glasses oppa just didn’t know he wasn’t showing his love.” Oakley rebutted, voice still even, as he argued his case.

Surrendering, Will focused again on the kdrama, and Eveline fought off sleep to watch more of the kdrama with her head balanced on his shoulder.

One scene later, the pick me female lead is arguing with her snake best friend, who got involved with her boyfriend to make another boy jealous.

It’s mouth-watering trash cinema, and Will can’t stop watching, until he does, his eyes closing without his consent as he drifts into a kdrama-filled dreamland of oppas, Mary Sues, pick me snakes, and nice dads who spoil their children with chicken.