TEN

Cain wished he could go with Abby and Abby wished he could go with her but he couldn't, not to where she was going. The best he could do was accompany her part of the way but not fully. He was going to have to get off the taxi a few blocks before arriving at the dorms and they were already halfway there. They just couldn't chance them being seen together, not by group members, EVE staff or even just fans. 

Cain had not only been teaching Abby how to dance and rap the past week but he also talked to her about each of the members, their likes and dislikes. He told her about each of the member's habits and also which members he was closest to and which ones he wasn't. She had to know all that information if she was going to be living with them and not only that but pretending to be him. The members had to believe that Cain was still the same person and they couldn't sense that anything was off. He knew it wasn't going to be possible for Abby to be 100% like him but she had to at least be believable enough so that she wouldn't be questioned.

He had noticed she had tried to tone down some of her germaphobe habits, such as not washing her hands as often or as long. It had been hard for her though. The best she could do was try to hold off for as long as possible. Then once she absolutely couldn't take it anymore, she would go and clean herself with disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer. So there really was no way for her to stop her habits fully and the longer she went without doing them, the worse it became when she finally gave into them. Cain thought it would be better if she were to just be sneaky about it so he bought her a few things once he had gotten his allowance.

Everything that he got her was in the backpack Abby was taking with her. The only things she had in her backpack when he put a plastic bag with the things he bought her were her laptop and a dictionary which she would be needing for her job. They even had to switch phones since the members would be texting Cain but the Cain that was going to be with them was really going to be Abby so it was important for them to each have the phones that corresponded to their role. And if it was an important text, they agreed that they were going to just forward them to each other and the other would let them know how to reply to the text. They were mostly just going to do this when it either came to family or work matters. Cain was fine with Abby texting the members whatever it was she wanted to text them since she was going to be the one to put up with them.

"Remember that my—your room—is the one next to the bathroom. Abel's bed is the one next to the window so use the other one. And if Josiah wants to get in bed with you just tell him your gassy and he'll go away." 

Abby already knew that Cain and Josiah were close but she didn't know they were so close that one of them would even get in bed with the other. For a moment she had a scene play out in her head, a scene that would only really be in BL fanfics.

"Are you and Josiah a c-c-cou-ple?" 

Cain's eyes widened at this. He was aware that many Ebenezers "shipped" him with other group members, the one he was most often "shipped" with being Josiah. But he would have never imagined that Abby was one of those fans and he couldn't believe that she would actually ask him such a question. 

"No way! He is like a younger brother to me! I hate it when we're shipped by fans. Sometimes I even have to hold myself back from hugging him just because I don't want another yaoi fanfic about us being written." 

Abby was disappointed at hearing this. She was actually one of those shippers that thought Cain and Josiah looked cute together. She had always admired their closeness but now that closeness that she had liked so much was going to backlash at her. There was no way she was going to be able to share a bed with someone, not even if that someone was as cute as Josiah.

"Remember that you will be free to go out so long as it isn't late. You'll be going to the EVE building early each morning with the guys. Usually when we're done early with practice, we'll all go out somewhere but if you don't want to go with them you don't have to. Members have decided a few times to just go back to the dorms instead of going out and you could do that. But don't forget that the curfew to be out is at 8 on weekdays and 10 on weekends." 

He had already told her all this but he couldn't help but repeat himself. It was all important stuff she had to remember. 

"And if you have any questions or concerns feel free to text me." 

He felt he needed to add this so that she would know that she could always contact him.

"Free to go out? Where would I even go? Can I just stay at the dorms the whole time? Or would that be too weird? I do still need to work after all..." 

She didn't know why he would even think she would want to go out. It was like he had forgotten she had Agoraphobia. Abby wasn't a homebound Agoraphobic, she could still go out but recently it had been her Mysophobia that bounded her at home more. 

"Right. You do have to work and I guess the only time you'll really be able to do that is when you're at the dorms. I just thought that perhaps you might want to see me...I mean go to your apartment..." 

They had already agreed on Abby going to her apartment the same evenings her mom did which was once a week. And that was only so that Cain wouldn't have to actually speak Spanish to her mom. Her mom didn't usually stay long whenever she was there but she did like to at least have dinner with her daughter and chat a bit. Cain had hoped that perhaps Abby would still want to go to the apartment on other nights though.

"The dorms may be close to my apartment but I would still have to ride a taxi so I much rather not." 

She was already going to have to ride a van with the boys and that alone was more than she could handle. 

"We could meet—somewhere—" 

He was about to suggest meeting at a place near the dorms where she could actually walk to but that wouldn't make any sense. Just the fact that he was about to get off the taxi some blocks away from the dorms was because they didn't want to be seen together so meeting up someplace near the dorms wouldn't be possible either. Not only did his group members frequented nearby places but so did a lot of his label mates, they hardly ever ventured outside the area. There was a high probability of running into one of them while meeting up and he didn't want to chance it.

Cain had thought about what he could do, about a way he could be close to Abby so that if she ever needed him she could easily go to him. Because living nearby wasn't going to be good enough since she would still need to ride a taxi, something she didn't want to do. He needed to be able to be closer to her but at the same time have a reason to be in contact with her. 

He had thought about becoming a trainee at EVE but it would require a contract to be signed and he didn't know how long he was going to be in her body. And it wasn't like his talents were going to remain in her once they switched back. He also didn't think she would be interested in debuting as an artist so becoming a trainee was out of the question. He had to find some other way.

He had applied to cafés near the dorms and even the ones near EVE Entertainment but to actually work in EVE would be better so he had applied for some regular job positions there. So far he had been called for interviews at some of the cafés but he was still hoping for that call from EVE.

"I think we better stick with meeting once a week and just do phone calls and texts on other days." 

Cain was sad at hearing this but he could understand where she was coming from and he didn't want to seem clingy by insisting. 

"Ok. We'll do that then." 

He smiled just to reassure her. Cain had started to feel like a worried parent and perhaps that would seem uncool but he cared about her. He noticed Abby's hands started to shake as they were nearing the street where he was to get off. He wished he could hold onto her hand to try to calm her but he knew she wouldn't like that.

Abby had taken out her pills bottle but was having trouble opening it, her hands were shaking too much to be able to. Even if she did end up opening them, she would most likely have spilled them all. 

"May I?" 

Cain extended his hand out and she gave him the pills bottle. He wrapped his hand around the lid and was able to quickly open it. 

"They should really make these easier to open." 

He didn't want to make her feel bad that she had struggled to open it while he was able to do so as fast he had.

"Well you seemed to have opened it just fine." 

"I guess I did. But hey, you should really take the label off that bottle. Your name is on it. I could get in trouble if they find me taking meds that were prescribed to someone else." 

Abby hadn't thought about it but he was right, it would probably be a good idea to do so. Not only because he would get in trouble for taking meds that weren't his but also because it was her name on them and something they both wanted to do was to hide their true identity.

"You're right. I do have other meds though but I guess I'll just write the name of each one with a sharpie." 

She didn't want to end up confusing her meds. 

"We have a lot of them in our desk, just check the top drawer." 

Having sharpies was something all idols had to have since they always needed them to sign autographs on the albums of fans.

"Will do. Thanks." 

"Well I guess this is it now...This is my stop. Talk to you later?" 

He wanted her to keep him updated on how she was doing and he hoped she would. She nodded and he got off.

Abby didn't know if he was going to walk all the way back or if he was going to take another taxi or perhaps just go someplace else. Even though she had wanted him to accompany her, she had felt bad about it. He didn't have to go with her. He could have just stayed at the apartment and avoided having to walk which she was most certain he was going to end up doing. Since they had only gone halfway and the dorms weren't all that far to begin with, it wouldn't make much sense for him to take a taxi back.

Now that Cain was gone she felt so alone. Abby had always preferred being alone, at least she had the past few years but she had somehow gotten used to having him around. She had even started to feel comfortable with him to some extent. But now she was going to have to get used to seven other people, perhaps even more since she doubted Cain only interacted with the members of his group. There were hairstylists and makeup artists, people that not only would she have to be around but people that would also need to touch her. Just the thought alone scared her.

Abby had been too busy in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed when the taxi had arrived at the dorms. The driver had to repeat himself a second time with a louder voice just to get her attention.

"We've arrived."

She apologized and thanked him at the same time. Cain had already paid the taxi driver ahead of time since they had known the exact distance so there was no need for her to use either cash or her card.

"Hyung! I heard you injured your ankle! Are you okay?" 

Josiah had come out running as soon as the taxi left. He had been looking out the window all morning just waiting for his favorite hyung's arrival. Abby thought it was cute how he seemed to care so much about Cain and it only made her ship them even more.

Josiah was about to hug her but she backed away before he was able to. Cain had told her to put an ankle brace on so that she could use it as an excuse so that she wouldn't have to start dance practice right away. But Abby planned on using the ankle brace as an excuse for other things, such as keeping the members from getting too close. 

"Careful. You'll end up stepping on me."

"Oh. Sorry." 

He backed away and looked down to see the ankle brace.

"Doesn't your shoe fit you tight with that ankle brace?" 

She had thought that it did since an ankle brace required extra room but the sneakers she was wearing where the ones Cain had been wearing. She could only assume that all his other sneakers at the dorm would fit her just as tight. She was probably going to have to buy some bigger shoes if she wanted to continue wearing the brace.

"Sucks none of the members can let you borrow their shoes since you wear the biggest shoe size out of all of us." 

"I do? But doesn't Joel have big feet?" 

Abby remembered watching one of Joel's Vlive's where he said he had big feet. She knew he was really just trying to cover up for something else he wanted to say but she still thought that perhaps he really did have big feet. 

"Oh yeaaah because his feet are just as big as his nose." 

Josiah started laughing and she couldn't help but laugh along as well.

"Are you sure you don't need help walking up?" 

They had both started going up the stairs since the elevator there was broken. Josiah had been following behind her. He had wanted to walk beside her but she told him she needed room.

"I'm fine. Thanks." 

It was a good thing her ankle really wasn't injured or else she might have not been able to go up the stairs without any help.

"You should at least hold on to the handrails then. We wouldn't want you to get a worse injury than the one you already have." 

He was the youngest member and yet he seemed to be really caring. Abby was surprised to see that side of him, she hadn't expected it. He always seemed like the kind to be taken care of and not the one to actually do the caring.

"I'm fine. So long as we take the stairs slowly then I'll have no problem going up." 

She just really didn't want to touch the handrails, not with her bare hands. Handrails were something that were constantly being touched by people, people that had been to many places and touched many other things before finally touching the handrails. And she knew that people didn't always wash their hands.

"The guys have prepared some food for us to eat. You hungry?" 

"You guys cooked?! Without burning down either the dorms or yourselves?!" 

She was surprised they even cooked. She would have thought they just bought food from fast food restaurants. Their group was known to have bad cooks and the few that could actually somewhat manage without burning either themselves or the food were really just mediocre. 

"You've gotten funnier hyung. But no, no one got burned, we aren't you." 

Abby realized just then her mistake. He said that Cain had gotten funnier. And she really shouldn't say things he wouldn't say. She needed to be more careful with that. She had only just met one member out of seven and she was already messing things up.

"Well it's nice to know that no one got burned but I think I'll skip on eating. I'm on a diet right now." 

Cain had told her it was fine to say that he was on a diet if she didn't want to eat with the members. He said he had actually been wanting to lose a few pounds and the guys knew that.

"Suit yourself. I'll save a plate for you just in case you change your mind." 

She wasn't going to but she thought it was still sweet of him to do.

Abby knew that she wasn't going to be able to eat food cooked by others so she had packed a sandwich she made back at her apartment and brought along with her some other snacks. As for her other meals, she was going to have to figure it out along the way somehow. Her mom was the only exception when it came to eating food not made by her but that was only because she made her mom wash not only her hands with antibacterial soap but also any ingredient that could be washed. Not only that but everything had to be washed twice and in hot water. Normally she would wash her hands four times but with food you couldn't really do that because it could go bad if you did, so twice was enough for her.

Abby went straight to Cain's room as soon as they walked into the dorm. The other members were all sitting around the coffee table eating. She had seen on their Vlive's that they had a big dining room table with chairs. But instead they were all sitting on the floor and eating from the same plates as each other. She saw some of them were even feeding others with chopsticks they had just used. She would never be able to do that. She walked past them without saying anything, she really didn't want them to ask her to join them.

"Hey don't get mad at me if the room is dirty! It's not my fault you haven't been around to help clean it!" 

Abel, there was no mistaking his voice. His voice was the only one that was that deep. Abby didn't think it was necessary for two people to clean a room when there was only one person occupying it at the time. There was no way a single person could make such a big mess, at least that's what she told herself as she was standing in front of the room she was to be staying at. 

The door to the room was closed and she was going to need to open it. She could no longer wear gloves all the time like she did before because she was supposed to be Cain and he didn't go around wearing latex gloves. So instead of gloves she had to pack a bunch of tissues in her backpack. At least if someone caught her with a bunch of tissues in her hand she could just say they were for something else. Napkins would probably be better though since they were thicker, she was going to have to buy some later.

The tissues seemed too thin to Abby despite them being 3 ply. She had to use three of them just so that she would feel safe opening the door. But first she had to make sure that the tissues wrapped all around the doorknob so that she wouldn't accidentally end up touching it once she twisted it open.

Abby almost ended up dropping her backpack at the sight. The room looked like it had been littered and ransacked. It practically looked like a pigsty. There were food wrappers and trash everywhere. Cain had warned her that Abel was messy but she didn't think it would be to that extent. She wished she had disinfectant spray with her but it hadn't fit in her backpack otherwise she would have sprayed the whole room. The only thing she had managed to take with her was a package of disinfectant wipes. It had 75 wipes and she was sure she was going to need every last one of them just to be able to clean the room.

She had placed an order for some things as soon as she knew the address to the dorms. Disinfectant wipes, disinfectant spray, hand sanitizer and antibacterial soap were all going to be arriving there sometime later that week. All she needed to do was make sure that she was going to be there to receive the package when it arrived or else she risked the guys opening the box and questioning the items in them. Cain had told her that each of the guy's had a locker in the dorms where none of the guys were allowed to open and go through, she was going to have to put all the stuff she got in there. He had given her the combination and even told her which one was his locker, she only hoped everything ended up fitting in there.

Abby's stomach had been grumbling but she was going to have to wait to eat her sandwich. Getting the room cleaned was her number one priority just like cleaning in general was always her first priority before doing anything else. She only wished she had at least a pair of gloves with her but she was going to have to settle with using socks instead. She hoped Cain was cleaner than Abel and that he had clean laundry. 

He had told her she could text him if she had a question or if she needed anything so she was going to do just that. She took out his phone which was temporarily hers and texted him.

<Socks. I need socks. Is your laundry clean?>

<Of course. I did my laundry the night before the switch. You should be able to find my socks on the bottom drawer.>

<Which one is your dresser?>

They were two dressers in the room, one was white and the other one was black. He had forgotten to tell her where his clothes were. Each member had a small dresser and a section of a closet but overall they liked to share clothes since they didn't have much room for all of them to be able to have a wide selection of clothing.

<The white dresser is mine and the left half of the closet are my clothes. All of my shoes are under the bed. Why do you need socks though?>

Cain found it odd that out of all of the things she could ask him for it was socks.

<I want to clean your room but I have no gloves with me.>

<You do.>

<What do you mean? I didn't bring any with me.>

<Well you may not have latex gloves with you but I did buy you some actual gloves that can be washed and reused. They are supposed to be work gloves so I'm sure they'll be perfect to clean the room with. Have you checked the plastic bag I put in your backpack? I actually got you some other things as well, things that might be helpful for you.>

She had known about him having put a plastic bag with things inside her backpack but she had no clue as to what those things were. All he had told her was that he got her some things as a thank you for letting him stay at her apartment. He had actually told her he wanted to pay her rent but she refused so instead he had started helping out more with chores and buying her things. She had wanted to refuse the things he bought her as well but he told her he would only feel bad if she rejected them so she told him it was fine so long as nothing he got her was expensive.

She opened her backpack and started digging for the plastic bag. It had been all the way at the bottom but she was able to pull it out. And just like he said, there was a pair of white work gloves with black PVC dots on both sides. She tried them on and they fit perfectly, of course he was going to know his own hand size. She had to thank him for being so thoughtful but first she was going to finish looking through the plastic bag. There were various other things, some she didn't know what they were or why he would even get them for her. She could understand the travel size hand sanitizer but cologne and hair spray?

<Thanks for the gloves and the other stuff. I really appreciate it. But I have to ask, what's up with the cologne and hair spray? I thought I said not to buy anything expensive, aren't colognes expensive?>

<The cologne and hair spray are not actually cologne and hair spray.>

<What do you mean they aren't? What else are they going to be?>

<Disinfectant spray. I wanted to disguise them for you so that the guys wouldn't notice you using disinfectant spray around the dorm, they would find that odd. So I bought a CHEAP cologne and hair spray and emptied them out to put the disinfectant spray in them. I know you like to spray disinfectant spray on your clothes so I thought it would help if it were actually in a cologne bottle. That way Abel will think you're just putting on cologne while you're really putting on disinfectant spray.>

She thought his idea was good but she was still unsure about the hair spray bottle.

<And...the hair spray bottle? Do you actually think I spray disinfectant spray on my hair? Because I definitely don't. I may spray it everywhere but I know where I shouldn't and my hair is one of them but that is why I take frequent long showers.>

<Of course I don't think that. The hair spray bottle is just a guise. You can keep it out on the nightstand and just spray it around the room when Abel isn't looking.>

It was true that it could be a way for her to be able to have it around but to keep it out in the open, she thought it would be too risky and dangerous. She didn't think a hair spray bottle was a good guise for disinfectant spray.

<What if Abel or one of the other members decide to use it?>

<They won't. None of the guys use hairspray. They all prefer hair gel.>

<Ok. Well I guess that works then. So thanks again. It was very thoughtful of you. I had actually ordered some disinfectant spray along with other things but I was planning on keeping them in your locker. There will be times when I'll be able to be all alone at the dorms, right? I was actually planning on cleaning whenever the guys are out.>

<Yea, you should probably get at least one day a week when you'll be able to have the place all to yourself. Just remember to fake having a stomachache or something cuz I do usually go out with the guys.>

<Ok and thanks again. I'll have to start cleaning now if I want to be finished by the time we have to leave to EVE.>

<K. Well just text me if you need anything else or if you have any questions.>

Cain had lost count as to how many times he had told her this but he felt the need to say it any chance he got. He just really didn't want her to have to go through anything without his help. He felt responsible for Abby and he wanted to do as much as he could for her.