“So...” the blond statuesque friend spoke, holding his burger with his two large hands, “you skipped the last classes of the day.” he stated, eyeing his friends for a moment before taking a big bite of his food.

“And,” added another voice to the conversation, “that you shouted that you like to men.”

“Okay, first of all,” declared the person in question “Sehun, why are you here?” Kyungsoo directed the question to the blond boy sat to his right, at the booth of the local burger place, “second,” he turned left, to Yifan, yet another blond “it's because after I said that I panicked and ran to the bike sheds.”

Sehun then put his two cents into the conversation “I'll have you know I met Yifan in the Central Plaza and tagged along when he said food.”

“Glutton...” murmured Kyungasoo, rolling his eyes.

To the outside, people would never suggest that the three were friends, with their differences so apparent – Yifan still donning his basketball uniform, Kyungsoo his work uniform, and Sehun being a vibrant city soul fashionista; with his high brand backwards cap, his peace-symbol-stamped hoodie, tight black jeans and shiny high tops. It all seemed to clash, yet there they were, discussing away the troubling news that had travelled around the school.

“Why always the bike sheds?” Yifan asked himself that question, “Anyway, I expect this'll explode tomorrow, considering who you said it to...” Yifan leered into the contents of his burger, inspecting for pickles.

“I thought it'd have exploded already...” the smaller of the three sighed.

“Who did you say it to?” wondered Sehun, after gulping his milkshake noisily “Gossip never specified.”

“Kim Jongin.” both Kyungsoo and Yifan answered in unison, both with forlorn tones to their voices.

“Preppy? Huh, with his popularity, you just picked a person ripe for the top of the gossip, didn't you, Soo?”

“Okay,” Kyungsoo straightened up, then pointed a poignant finger at the city body “don't call me Soo, you don't know me that way, Sehun. And besides, it's his fault! He kept pushing me and pushing me!”

“...What is it this time?” asked a not-so interested Yifan, with a bland voice and helping himself to the fries placed at the middle of the table.

Kyungsoo glared at the tone of his friend's voice “Why do you say it like that, Yifan?”

“Sorry, but whenever I hear your name and Jongin's it's always some disagreement that had gone out way out control. Like when you made him upset when you ignored him, people were ready to call you arrogant and a whole of a lot worse things.”

“But we ended up resolving this!” exclaimed Kyungsoo, unhappy to hear such quick assumptions from people's opinion on his situation with Jongin, “we agreed that we'd try to be friends.”

“Oh, so Preppy gets the special treatment, and I get called out all the time? Specially when he annoyed you to the point that you had to blurt out something like that? You really ain't fair, 'Soo'.” The city boy emphasised the syllables of the unwanted nickname by mousing his lips and extending the vowels.

“Argh...” Kyungsoo grumbled, unable to find a justifiable reason as to why he was biased for Jongin, without the unnecessary teasing he'd get for crushing on the top ranker.

Yifan leant forwards on the table, addressing Sehun in loud whisper “It's by his teasing that you can tell he likes you already.”

“Oh, is that so, then, okay!” Sehun shrugged, returning to grinning at the deliciousness of his milkshake.

“Yifan, you and your loud mouth, seriously,” Kyungsoo shook his head, “back to the topic at hand, I'd suggest you two stay away from me in school for a while.”

“Why?” queried Yifan, confused.

“Well, in fear of retribution, or correction or whatever gay bashers do.”

“Oh no,” Sehun feverent shook his head, placing his milkshake on the table and crossing his arms, continuing to deny Kyungsoo's poor attempts at reassutance, “I'm sticking with you. Maybe then I can fish out the 'phobes and I can deal with them. I don't want them to ruin my time here with their narrow-minded views.”

“Why, did you deal with them back in the city?”

Sehun nodded, “look, I'm not like you, so you know, I can't truly appreciate what it is you going through, but, I will not say I've never experimented. It's no big deal. But when you start being intolerant, violent and downright idiotic for the stupidest reason, my knuckle rings come out.”

Yifan stared at the city boy with wide eyes, slowly retracting away from the table “...knuckle rings?” asked the hesitant basketball player.

“You think I got involved in bar frights without protection?” asked Sehun rhetorically. He balled his right hand into a fist and kissed his knuckles, “these babies have struck more cheeks and stomachs than Americans have struck oil. ”

“What a horrible comparison...” murmured Kyungsoo to himself, “Yeah, no, no knuckle rings, and no taking out those babies, Oh. I don't want this to escalate into a morality war, or a religious one. Just... you know, ignore them.”

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