pairing: ChenLay
length: 3676 words
A/N: Written at the request of kakashilover! Hope you like it!
Part One: Rules and Relaxation

The last thing that Lay expected to happen when he showed up at school the next day was Kim Jongdae waiting for him at his desk, smile blindingly bright and obnoxiously wide. Sure, he had known that he would eventually see the principal’s son today, but not first thing in the morning. They didn’t have the same homeroom class, did they? Having never paid attention to the other boy’s existence until yesterday, Lay had no idea if they shared any classes at all or if Jongdae meant to stalk him to his homeroom, which wouldn’t be surprising considering how much information the principal’s son had already collected about him.

“Good morning, Lay!” Jongdae happily greeted as he quickly stepped aside when the other male carelessly dropped his relatively empty backpack on the floor, almost directly on top of the Jongdae’s white sneakers, before plopping into his seat.

“’Sup,” Lay muttered, trying to shrink into the background since some of his classmates were curiously looking over at the unlikely pair. “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to say hello!”

“Well, you’ve said it now, so you can bugger off back to your class. I’m tired.”

A look of worry crossed the smaller male’s thin face. “Oh no, are you okay? Are you sick or something?”

“No, I’m fine. Just—just please leave me alone right now,” Lay gritted out. “Class is gonna start soon and I need some time to unwind before the teacher starts talking.” He reached into his backpack for his black earphones and then began untangling the wires, which had gotten bunched up at the bottom of his backpack.

“Oh okay, but—”

“Oi, loser,” a deep voice called out as an extremely tall boy with platinum silver hair and dozens of piercings decorating his face appeared.

Jongdae’s eyes widened with awe as his gaze swept over the boy’s ears which seemed to be encased in metal due to the sheer number of earrings he was wearing. It was Wu Yifan, one of Lay’s friends and a piercing aficionado. Like Lay, Wu Yifan had been called in on multiple occasions for his dress code infractions and had served a significant number of detentions himself for refusing to adhere to school rules. This was Jongdae’s first time seeing him up close and he looked just as remarkably menacing as the rumors made him out to be.

Meanwhile, Lay groaned in exasperation. All he wanted to do was listen to music by himself, but interruptions kept coming, one after the other. “What do you want, Kris?”

“Just wanted to make sure you weren’t dead from an alcohol overdose,” the tall boy snickered while leering down at Lay. “By the way, who’s the squirt?” Kris asked, jutting his thumb at Jongdae who was watching their exchange with an eager gaze.

The principal’s son promptly drew up his chest and straightened his back, wanting to seem as cool and imposing as he possibly could, despite the obvious difference in height between him and Wu Yifan who towered over him like a giant. “I’m—”

“He’s no one,” Lay answered as he turned away, missing the look of hurt and sadness that briefly crossed the smaller male’s face. “Anyway, we’re still on for today, right?”

“Duh. And you owe us big time for skipping out yesterday.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Lay muttered while waving the taller male away. “I’ll bring an extra bottle of vodka to leave at the hideout and I promise not to say anything if Tao tries to light it on fire.”

Kris snorted loudly. The second-youngest of their squad was a budding arsonist who had been collectively banned by the others from playing with fire in their hideout, but it was no surprise that he ignored their complaints and continued with his experiments, although he did make sure to always have a fire extinguisher on hand. “Don’t encourage him. But make it two extra bottles and you’re off the hook.”

“Deal.”

Kris grinned toothily before looking over at Jongdae once more, his dark gaze unfathomable. The principal’s son beamed up at him, keeping his back ram-rod straight. Seconds later, Kris looked back at Lay and said, “See you later, loser.”

Lay only nodded and he turned back to his desk to continue untwisting the black wires of his earphones while praying for Jongdae to leave as well. He desperately needed some alone time and his classmates’ stares were beginning to unnerve him. It was one thing to be stared at when he was by himself, since he could care less about what they thought of him as an individual, but it was another thing to be stared at because the principal’s son was acting chummy with him all of a sudden.

Fortunately, Jongdae finally realized that it was time to give the other boy some space, so he smiled kindly while saying, “I’m gonna go to class too. Bye Lay.”

“Bye,” he mumbled back, keeping his gaze focused solely on his tangled earphones.

Jongdae let out a shallow exhale, staring at Lay for several more heartbeats, before stuffing his hands into his pants pockets and walking out of the classroom.

--

“So I brainstormed all of last night for the perfect nickname,” Jongdae said as he walked with the taller male to the school parking lot, to Lay’s annoyance.

He didn’t think he could handle two days in a row of constantly being around the chatterbox, but he supposed he had brought this upon himself upon agreeing to let Jongdae visit his house the previous day, which had led to the principal’s son incessantly pestering Lay to let him visit again today.

As soon as school had ended earlier, right at three o’clock on the dot, the principal’s son had been waiting for Lay outside of his last class and Jongdae had immediately accosted the taller male before he could stealthily sneak away. Once again, students had sent curious glances their way while whispering to each other, no doubt cooking up brainless gossip to add to the rumor mill, since that’s what everyone did when it came to him.

Lay had done his best to escape the growing crowd, only unable to shake off Jongdae who had followed him persistently while asking where the taller male was going and if he could come along. Knowing that he couldn’t skip out on going to the hideout again, especially after promising to bring extra liquor for the other boys, Lay had decided that he’d let Jongdae come with him to his house, since he needed to pick up the alcohol from there anyway. And then he’d make up an excuse to send the principal’s son on his way before driving to the hideout.

So here he was now, reluctantly walking side-by-side with Kim Jongdae.

“I filled up an entire page of potential names and it took me forever to knock out some of the really good ones that I came up with. Like I kept going back and forth between a bunch of nicknames, since they all sounded so cool and I wasn’t sure which one you’d like best. I really want you to like the nickname I chose, but you never told me how you picked yours, so I had to go off of my gut feeling for what you’d maybe like. And—”

“Oh my god, please, just get to the point,” Lay hastily interrupted to prevent the principal’s son from rambling non-stop into next week. Listening to Jongdae’s drivel was incredibly draining, especially about something Lay honestly could care less about.

“After lots and lots of thinking, I finally decided on Chen!” The smaller male beamed brightly, extremely pleased with himself.

Lay raised an eyebrow at the declaration. “Why Chen?”

“You’re Chinese, right?”

The taller male nodded. Born and raised in Changsha for nine years before moving to Seoul so that his mother could expand her business overseas. It helped that their neighborhood already had several Chinese families living there, namely Kris and Tao’s families, so adjusting hadn’t been too difficult. But Lay didn’t understand why his ethnicity had anything to do with Jongdae’s self-proclaimed nickname.

“Well, I wanted a nickname that would connect to you in some way, so I searched up Chinese names and Chen sounded nice,” Jongdae explained, clearly pleased with himself. “The Korean equivalent is Jin which is actually the Chinese equivalent of Kim, so I thought that was a cool connection too, since my last name is Kim.”

“Oh.” That was quite interesting. Lay had to hand it to the other kid. Jongdae had clearly put a lot of thought into choosing his nickname, which was more than what he could say for some of his friends, like Zitao lazily shortening his name to Tao. Lay wasn’t going to burst Jongdae’s bubble, even though he also wasn’t going to start calling him Chen. It wouldn’t do to unnecessarily inflate his ego.

“So now that I have a nickname like the rest of your friends, can I go to your hang out spot and meet them?” Jongdae eagerly asked.

“No.”

“Aw, why not?” the smaller male whined, pouting and crossing his arms over his chest.

Lay pointedly kept his gaze trained straight ahead. “Because it’s our hideout and we’re the only ones allowed in.”

“I can keep a secret! Scout’s honor!” Jongdae rapidly uncrossed his arms so that he could properly salute.

“Nope, still not letting you come.” The two boys arrived at Lay’s car and he unlocked it before swinging open the door to the driver’s seat. Likewise, Jongdae stepped in through the passenger’s side and buckled the seatbelt over his thin body.

Once he was securely strapped in, the principal’s son immediately turned to Lay while wearing the most beseeching expression the taller male had ever seen on a person. “Oh, please, Lay! Please, please, please, let me come with you to your hideout!” Jongdae begged, pressing the palms of his hands together in a prayer pose. “I swear I won’t say or do anything to embarrass you. I won’t even talk to your friends, I promise. I just want to look around—just once—and learn more about you.”

Lay stared back at the principal’s son, still not convinced. “How do I know you won’t rat us out? How do I know you won’t tell your dad or any other adults about our hideout?”

“I swear on my life that I won’t!” Jongdae said at once. “I won’t let a single person know about your hideout. I’ll take this secret to my grave!” He suddenly grabbed Lay’s hands, causing the taller boy to yelp in shock at the unexpected physical contact, and continued pleading, “I won’t compromise your hideout at all. You can trust me! And if I do anything to break that trust, I promise I won’t bother you ever again. Please, Lay, please let me come!”

“Alright, alright, fine,” Lay finally relented, sighing deeply as he shook Jongdae’s hands off of him. He knew he wouldn’t be able to win against Jongdae’s pushiness, so he might as well get it over with sooner rather than later to avoid the other boy’s endless begging. “I’ll ask the others if they’re okay with you visiting—just once, like you said—and if they agree, then I’ll bring you over sometime next week.”

“Yay!” the principal’s son began to cheer, but Lay swiftly cut him off.

“But if even one of them says no, then tough luck,” the taller male warned as he switched on the ignition. “And the only reason I’m agreeing to this is because you promised to keep me out of detention for the rest of high school.”

“I could maybe keep your other friends out of detention too, but I’d have to think about how to do that without drawing suspicion from my dad,” Jongdae mused as he leaned back into the passenger seat. “I mean, for starters, you guys would have to stop breaking the rules as much, because I don’t think I could cover for multiple people multiple times without it looking weird, y’know? One person is easy enough, but—” He took a moment to mentally count all of Lay’s friends. “—seven of you guys? That’s a pretty tall order.”

“It’s fine. You don’t need to worry about them. Just focus on me and we’re good.”

The ends of Jongdae’s thin lips curled up into a wide grin. “Got it.”

--

To Lay’s astonishment, none of the others had opposed to letting Jongdae visit the hideout.

Kris had been the first to agree, saying that Jongdae was harmless from what he’d seen.

“Besides, D.O can kick him out if he oversteps,” the tallest male added as he meticulously fitted silver ball studs into Xiumin’s new shark bite piercings.

“Why am I always the one taking out the trash?” D.O snapped indignantly.

“Because you’re the most intimidating one out of all of us,” Kris answered simply. “And don’t even try to hide it, D.O. We all know you enjoy being the ‘big bad wolf’.”

“Say that again to my face, you ugly rat,” D.O growled, baring his teeth threateningly.

“My point exactly,” Kris haughtily purred.

“Drop it, you two,” Suho idly cut in from his corner, where he was sketching new tattoo designs for Tao. “Xiumin’s gonna castrate you if his lips get messed up.” To hammer the point home, the eldest of the group held out his right hand to flip off D.O while simultaneously glaring at Kris.

“Careful, Xiumin, the fate of your lips is in my hands,” Kris reminded him, a dangerous grin decorating his sharp features. “You might wanna think twice about that.” He then angled his face back to Lay and said, “He’ll only come once, right?”

“Yeah, he promised to just look around. And he won’t give us away either.”

“Then let him visit,” Kris replied. “Besides, if anything does happen, you’ll take responsibility, so it’s not like it’s a huge loss for the rest of us.”

“Thanks, I appreciate the support,” Lay said dryly. “Is everyone else okay with that? Last chance to say no.”

However, none of them voiced any dissent.

So, as promised, Lay brought Jongdae with him to the hideout the next Friday after school.

The principal’s son was a buzzing bundle of energy during the entire ride and he excitedly prattled on, barely pausing for breath, which Lay wondered if he should be concerned about. Surely talking that long without any breaks wasn’t healthy.

Once they were parked in a nearby underground car garage, Lay turned to him with a serious expression. “Okay, so remember, this place isn’t just mine. It belongs to all of my friends, so don’t touch anything unless I give you permission to. You can look as much as you want, but touching is off-limits.”

Jongdae nodded vigorously. “Is everyone already there?”

“Probably, but we didn’t make any concrete plans since I told them you were coming over today. Some of them might not be there because of that.”

“Aw man,” the principal’s son pouted. “I was hoping I could meet them all.”

Lay raised an eyebrow in amusement. “I seriously don’t understand how your mind works, but whatever. Let’s go.”

They left the car garage and trekked up two flights of stairs before walking down a narrow, quiet street. Jongdae didn’t recognize this side of town and his eyes hungrily drank in his surroundings, trying to commit every last detail to memory. Who knows when he’d ever return? Or if he ever could return.

The two boys soon stopped in front of a black door, relatively unimposing, and Lay unlocked the door before swinging it open. They stepped through the entrance, shutting and locking the door behind them, and then kicked off their shoes. There was one more door waiting for them at the end of the short hallway, this one white, and the pair walked through it as well before finally reaching the main room of the hideout.

“Well, here we are.” Lay gestured around the spacious room. “This is our hideout.”

“Whoa…” Jongdae breathed out.

It looked like a giant recreation room with a kitchen area attached. There was a U-shaped black leather couch that surrounded a long, rectangular glass coffee table. On top of the table were a black television remote and a large bowl filled to the brim with various chocolates and candies. There were three square white side tables near the far end of the room, where stacks of paper and boxes sat atop. On the wall north of the couch was a giant plasma television screen that covered most of the wall. Underneath was an open cabinet filled with various game consoles and controllers. Next to the kitchen area was an entrance that led to a hallway and Jongdae spied a few doors that most likely led to smaller rooms.

“It’s officially called the Den,” Lay continued, “but the name is pretty lame so no one actually uses it.”

“Hey! I take offense to that.” Kai—Jongdae knew him as Kim Jongin—glared at Lay from where he was sitting, his lanky body draped across a plush armchair. His long legs dangled over the chair’s left arm while his shoulders rested against the right one. In his hands was an open family-sized bag of sweet and sour-flavored potato chips. “You guys said that you liked the name.”

“I never said that I liked it,” the older male retorted while wrinkling his nose at the pile of crumbs that was growing on the floor under Kai’s armchair. “Also, that’s gross, dude,” he said, pointing at the mess. “Clean that up before we get ants in here.”

“Eh, D.O will do it,” Kai replied dismissively.

Then, without warning, a fist swung out of nowhere, squarely colliding with Kai’s right shoulder and causing the boy to shriek multiple expletives in one breath as he slumped over. Jongdae’s gaze followed the arm, eventually landing on the soft, youthful face of a short boy whose round brown eyes were glaring daggers at Kai. “You shut your filthy trap,” the boy, who Jongdae recognized as Do Kyungsoo, snarled as he retracted his fist from Kai’s shoulder.

“What the f—”

D.O’s fist went flying again, landing directly on Kai’s other shoulder this time, and the other boy howled with pain. “I’m not your maid, you worthless little cockroach. Clean up your own mess,” D.O spat before stalking to the refrigerator to grab a chilled can of beer.

“Um, is he okay?” Jongdae whispered to Lay while pointing at Kai, who was whimpering loudly as he massaged his sore shoulders. “Should we help him or something?”

“Nah, Kai deserved it,” Lay flippantly answered as he led Jongdae towards a hallway. “He knows better than to piss off D.O like that, especially after breaking his motorcycle last week.”

“It was an accident!”

Lay ignored the youngest of his friends and pushed open the door to his private room in the hideout. It was set up similarly to his recording studio at home, although not as well-furnished. He didn’t want to take any chances, in case Tao actually burned down the place or Kai mistakenly wandered in and broke something “on accident.”

From the other side of the wall, he could hear the familiar whir of Suho’s tattoo machines. He didn’t know which of the other boys was in there with the amateur tattoo artist, not that it really mattered. At least it meant that two of them would be occupied for a few hours. And that meant less people potentially barging in on Lay and Jongdae. But just to be safe, Lay locked his door while Jongdae sank into a light green bean bag chair.

“Do you all have your own rooms?” the principal’s son asked while poking the squishy material of the bean bag chair.

Lay hummed an affirmative as he reached over to grab the black guitar case that rested against the wall near the door. He had purchased two identical acoustic guitars, keeping one at home and one at the hideout, so that he wouldn’t have to worry about damaging his instruments during transport. Once the guitar was free from its case, the taller male carried it over to the other bean bag chair, this one bright red, and sat down.

“This is so cool,” Jongdae marveled as he looked around Lay’s room. Moments later, he quietly added, “Thank you for letting me come,” while the other male began tuning his guitar. “I know I was pretty pushy about getting you to let me visit your hideout, so thanks for indulging me.”

Lay let out a sardonic chuckle. “At least you’re aware that you’re a stubborn brat.”

“Hey!” A socked foot lightly kicked the taller male’s firm shin. “I’m not a brat,” Jongdae protested.

“I beg to differ. Now shut up so I can finish tuning.”

The principal’s son obediently kept his lips sealed and watched as Lay deftly twisted the guitar pegs while strumming the silver strings. He could tell that this was truly home for the other boy, that music was his soul. And Jongdae felt honored that Lay trusted him enough to share such a sacred piece of himself.

After adjusting the last peg, Lay lightly trailed his fingers across the six strings, letting the notes shimmer in the air under his practiced touch, and then looked up at Jongdae. “Will you sing with me?”

The smaller male’s eyes lit up like fireworks. “Can I?”

Lay just shrugged. “If you want to. That’s why I asked.”

“Yes, yes!” Jongdae quickly answered, his cheeks glowing with happiness. “I—yes, I’d love to!”

Lay smiled softly and his fingertips began dancing over the silver strings, playing a sweet melody that he had penned the previous night. Within seconds, Jongdae was humming along, his light lyrical voice blending seamlessly with the guitar.

And they continued making music together in that safe space, blissfully free from the outside world’s ruthless judgment and prying eyes.

♈♈♈