- peter pan (wendy's tale) -

When Chanyeol sat at the breakfast table on a Saturday morning, he stomped his left foot in an irregular rhythm while continuously staring at the microwave clock. He was so much in thought, that the he probably didn't even notice his father who cleared his throat twice and loudly shook his newspaper as he turned the page.
"Anything up?" Yura asked when her father shot another glare at Chanyeol from behind the newspaper.
"Huh?" Chanyeol asked and blinked at her. The stomping stopped and from the stove Yura heard her mother sigh in relief.
"You look nervous," Yura noted. "Any great plans today?"
"Oh," he said and as if to demonstrate that he was not at all nervous, he took a bite from his unbuttered toast. He didn't even seem to realize that there was nothing on it. "Yeah, kind of. I'm meeting some friends this afternoon."
"Friends, you say?" she asked with a grin. He lately often 'met friends' and then only came home late at night. Or not at all. Officially he always slept over at Baekhyun's but Yura knew boys in high school well enough to see the correlation between him starting to date his cute girlfriend and him staying out at night.
"Yeah," he said and threw a glance at the newspaper his father had disappeared behind. "Baekhyun has a date and doesn't want to go by himself."
From the newspaper came a disapproving noise. Their father wasn't particularly strict but there were certain words that were a bit of a taboo in his presence. Among them were the names of all the three professional baseball teams in Seoul because he, as a Busan native, believed that the Lotte Giants or Busan Seagulls or whatever else they were called, were the only team worth mentioning. Other words he hated were soccer, tax evasion, vegetarian and Baekhyun. Although he never mentioned it, he clearly believed that he had only lost his former baseball-loving son because of his best friend, the choir boy. 'What's a boy even doing in choir?' he constantly asked whenever Baekhyun had been over, even though his and Chanyeol's choir times already were a thing of the past.
"So he makes you tag along?" Yura asked and pulled a face. "That is just weird."
"Well, me and Boyoung," Chanyeol said with another glance at the newspaper. Boyoung had been over before but had never stayed for dinner, so Yura wasn't sure whether it had registered to her father that Chanyeol had a girlfriend. When she had brought one of her boyfriends in high school home before, her father had interrogated the poor boy until he had no choice but to break up with her. But sons were probably different from daughters.
"Is Boyoung doing well?" her mother asked with a smile and sat down while putting fried eggs on the table. "Such a sweet girl." Her mother had been the one to initiate the interrogation of Yura's boyfriend, so whenever she fussed about Chanyeol's girlfriend, Yura secretly always felt a little betrayed.
Rather than to give a proper answer, Chanyeol shrugged and said, "I guess." He took another bite from his toast, finally realized how bland it was and pretended to be preoccupied with buttering it. Yura watched him for a few seconds and then turned back to her own plate. With their parents around, she would never really get all the information she wanted.
"There's a documentary about the Seagulls on TV tonight," her father said after a while from behind the newspaper.
Chanyeol gave the newspaper a troubled expression. "When?" he then asked, less out of genuine curiosity than out of duty.
"Eight," his father said.
There was a long pause in which Yura and her mother looked at him expectantly. Her mother even had her glass with cold tea in midair.
"I'll try to be home by then," Chanyeol said and clearly pretended to be cheerful about it. They all knew how little he still cared about baseball but that it was the only remaining connection between him and his father.
"Good," his father said and folded the newspaper to get himself a fried egg on his plate. He didn't look at his son, but Yura could tell how relieved he was. Without baseball he really didn't have much to say to Chanyeol.

Yura was older than Chanyeol by three years. Over the years he had considerally grown to a degree that she had to look up to look him in the eyes, but no matter what, she would always be his big sister. She had beaten up classmates who had bullied him as a child and if there ever was a need, she would do it again.
So maybe she was nosey at times, but she only meant the best. With their father who didn't really know what to do with him and their airheaded mother, Yura simply figured that she, as the one closest in age to him, was the one he could talk too freely.

"How are things going between you and Boyoung?" Yura asked while handing him a wet plate. To his annoyance she had volunteered to clean up with him after breakfast.
"How are things supposed to be going?" he asked in return and wiped the plate half-heartedly before putting it in into the cupboard above him.
In response she raised an eyebrow at him and stood with her hands on her hips. "Don't give me that, lover boy," she said in exasperation and he cringed. "I heard your solo concert in the bathroom yesterday."
Normally she would have never been home early on a Friday night, but that day period cramps had forced her to decide against a night out. She didn't know when exactly Chanyeol had come home, only that she had been fast asleep then after trying to read some of the material for her graduate thesis. Normally she would have never even found out that there was something up, if not for her room being right next to the bathroom and for him singing loudly in the shower for at least fifteen minutes straight. The only reason why she hadn't stood up to smack him was because she was the one who had made up the rule to not bother each other in the bathroom. That, and she had been too lazy and too comfortable in her bed.
"Uhm," he said and looked very much caught. She could swear that his face was turning red. "There's that competition coming up..."
"You said you don't have to sing yourself for that."
"No, I don't," he said hurriedly and fumbled around with the dishcloth in his hands. "But that was why I was at Baekhyun's. We still haven't chosen a song."
"Uh-huh," she nodded and squinted her eyes at him. "You sang 'I Have a Lover' though by... what's her name again?"
Chanyeol put on a painful expression when he answered, "Lee Eun Mi."
"Right, Lee Eun Mi. Quite the cheesy song that," she said and continued to wash the dishes as she began to hum the melody.  "What were the lyrics again? 'That someone, only I can see them. They are only visible to my eyes. Their name will forever be sealed in my lips. Only the tears that fill my eyes know'... What was the rest?"
"'That person is you,'" Chanyeol finished tonelessly and stared at the wet cup she handed him.
"You know whose favourite song that is?" she asked maliciously. He sighed and chose not to answer. They both knew that their mother was obsessed with it. Whenever it was on TV or the radio she loudly sang along so that eventually everyone in the family knew the lyrics by heart. It was also the song that sometimes made Yura wonder whether her mother maybe had a secret love affair with the postman.
"Baekhyun..." Chanyeol began helplessly, when she interrupted him.
"Baekhyun thinks it's a good idea to sing old school love songs for the competition?" she asked and tried hard not to burst out laughing. "I didn't count but I think you sang the word 'love' at least a hundred times. And you sang that butterfly song twice. That's what woke me up actually."
His ears were bright red in embarrassment and when she chuckled she felt like a mean side character in a TV drama. There were times when Chanyeol almost seemed grown up but in moments like these it was always clear that she was the older sister of a cute baby brother.
"And you were giddy at breakfast," she continued matter-of-factly. "Because you can't wait to meet Boyoung again. Am I right or am I right?"
She grinned at him and he still avoided to look at her.
"Oh, come on, you can tell me," she gasped and threw the wet rag at him. He tried to catch it but only dropped it instead.
"It's not because of her. I didn't even see her last night," he muttered as he bent down to pick up the rag.
"Yeah, right," she said and shook her head as he handed it to her. "You know when I spent hours in the shower singing? In high school after kissing my first boyfriend." He gave her the kind of disgusted little brother look that made it clear that he didn't want to hear any details, so she clicked her tongue at him. "What I mean is that it's a family tradition to dramatically sing in the shower. I'm 100% sure that Mom did the same and I bet you even Dad sang the damn Busan Seagull song when he met her."
"Gross," Chanyeol simply said.
"So my point is," she concluded emphathically. "You're in love and I can tell."
He looked at her thoughtfully and bit his lips, as if he couldn't decide whether he could trust her. It made her a little uneasy because she didn't quite see the issue about admitting that he was in love with his girfriend.
"It's not her," he said quietly.
"You're in love though?" she asked. He hesitated for a second before he nodded. The meaning of his words slowly hit her. "But not with her."
For a moment she could only frown at him. Then a million questions filled her mind. Who was it? Did Boyoung know? If he was in love with someone else, why was she meeting her like usual?
"Where were you yesterday?" she then asked and it was only when she uttered the words that she understood that she knew nothing at all. She was almost certain that he hadn't been at Baekhyun's house but if he hadn't spent the time with Boyoung, where else could he have gone?
Rather than to answer he scratched his neck uncomfortably and was saved by their mother who bustled into the kitchen to take the dinner meat out of the freezer. "Nearly forgot about that," she said completely oblivious of how difficult a conversation she had barged into.

Yura was Chanyeol's older sister, so naturally she felt responsible for him. She had always thought that she would take care of him until one of them died of old age. Whether they married and had children and maybe moved far away, she thought she would always be the one he trusted the most with his secrets. That was how it had always been.
But Chanyeol wasn't a little boy any longer and their time slowly ticked away. She didn't know if she would forever be able to fight all his demons.

- the first date -

Baekhyun stared outside and folded his arms in front of his chest. It had finally stopped raining but the sky was still suspiciously grey. His shoes were still wet, too.
"So I was thinking that we could do 'Flying Butterfly' by YB for the competition and maybe rearrange it a little," Chanyeol said. He sat across from him at the coffee shop table. Next to him Boyoung clapped her hands in glee while Jungyoon next to Baekhyun lazily stirred her capucchino. "I mean it's easy to learn."
Baekhyun didn't want to have this conversation. His plan had been to ride rollercoasters and eat hot dogs in the afternoon sun, not to sit in the coffee shop next to the amusement park and talk about the damn band competition. Even if they agreed on a song, they still had three other people to convince so he didn't think it made any sense to discuss this during his precious date time.
"Too popular," he said and looked at another table where a girl whispered something into her boyfriend's ear. He wanted Jungyoon and him to be like that. "I bet there will be at least two other bands playing it."
"So?" Chanyeol shrugged. "We'd just have to be best at it." Boyoung nodded eagerly and Baekhyun furrowed his brows.
He didn't mean to but did think about it for a second. He didn't like it. The song was easy, that much was true, but it wasn't a song he thought suited them. Their only advantage during the competition was their singing and 'Flying Butterfly' wouldn't really allow them to show that.
But this definitely wasn't the place to discuss that.
"I like the song," Jungyoon said in a bored tone.
"Me, too," Boyoung said happily. Neither of them was very helpful.
"Because it's a good song," Chanyeol said as if Baekhyun couldn't say no any longer. Ever since he had started dating Boyoung he had the delusion that they would all follow his every order as long as that order was repeated by her.
"Can we talk about that on Monday?" Baekhyun asked tiredly and put his head in his hands. "Can't we first think about what to do after this? I don't want to spent all day here."
This was definitely becoming the worst date of his young dating life.

They ended up hanging around the mall closeby. Boyoung and Jungyoon tried on shoes and dresses and jewellery while Chanyeol and Baekhyun tagged along like their butlers. In the bookstore then Boyoung and Jungyoon read each other cheesy book plots and Baekhyun figured that at least they were becoming friends. As the afternoon flowed along like a nearly dried out river the two were hitting it off while Baekhyun constantly failed at starting a conversation with Jungyoon. Chanyeol, who checked his phone more and more often, really wasn't any help either. Normally he talked all the time and had the talent to include everyone in his chit-chat but this time, when it was really important, he chose to act all quiet and mysterious.

"There's this bar I know that's owned by a friend," Jungyoon said in her usual bored tone as they sat in the mall's food court with burgers and fries. "And this evening there are a few artists performing there. It's mainly hip hop but maybe that gives you an idea for a song. If you want to come." She shrugged and mainly looked at Chanyeol. They had been classmates before so she probably figured that he was more quiet than usual because of the competition.
"Cool," Baekhyun said excitedly. Hip hop wasn't his thing but if she invited them, he maybe still had a chance. "That would be awesome."
He looked at Chanyeol who seemed to like the idea but then frowned. "I need to be home by eight."
"What, why?" Baekhyun asked dumbfoundedly. Curfews had never been a thing in the Park family.
"Baseball documentary with my father," Chanyeol said and did not seem to be really looking forward to it.
"Not a game but a documentary?" Baekhyun asked incomprehensively. He knew that Chanyeol's father loved baseball because the Lotte Giants memorabilia in the house was pretty hard to ignore and because Chanyeol, too, had talked about it a lot during their first couple of years in school. He also knew that Chanyeol had officially stopped liking the game after it had almost caused him to be thrown out of the band club. Back then their club leader Lay, who was usually laid back but even more crazy about music than Chanyeol, had not been amused when Chanyeol constantly skipped practice to watch another club they had a feud with.
The whole situation had been similar to when Chanyeol had become friends with the ballet dancer boy who eventually stole his girlfriend in middle school and made him hate dance of any kind. Baekhyun knew in fact that during his extreme baseball phase Chanyeol had become friends with a few of the other fans. For a short while he had dated a girl he had met during the practice games and one afternoon Baekhyun had run into Chanyeol and a boy with a baseball cap hanging out in the band club room like it was no big deal. The boy had also watched the band's performance during the school festival. But then they must have had a fall-out because Chanyeol suddenly declared that he hated baseball. Baekhyun had never asked about it because Chanyeol disliking baseball had meant that the arguments with Lay finally ended and that was all that had mattered to him.
But just because Chanyeol disliked the game now probably didn't meant that he could easily tell his crazy father about it.
"You can just go without me," Chanyeol suggested. He looked at Boyoung who bit her nails thoughtfully.
"I was going anyway," Jungyoon said helpfully.
Boyoung sighed. "You really don't mind?"
Chanyeol shrugged, "I'm sure it's going to be fun."

- an old friendship -

"What are you doing here?" Kris asked grumpily. He probably would have looked a lot scarier if not for the colourful convenience store uniform and the fact that he was crouching down to restock a low shelf with snacks.
Luhan casually leaned against the fridge with beer and said, "Silently judging you."
"I'm working," Kris said with a package of dried squid in his hand and looked at the security camera above them. "And if you judge silently you really shouldn't say that out loud."
Luhan clicked his tongue at him and let his gaze wander around the rest of the store. There was one other bored employee at the cash register and exactly one customer who browsed through the car magazines in the front.
He really meant to be angrier but anger was one of those emotions he couldn't hold onto for very long, especially in such an banal environment. It didn't help that the radio music in the store was blaring too loudly for him to ignore the cheerful pop song.
"So you knew that they know each other," he finally said and Kris sighed as he stood up.
"I didn't know that they would both be there," he said and walked to the back of the store to get more boxes. Luhan followed him.
"You know, I could have mentioned that if you had told me that they know each other," he said a little too loudly. The guy at the register gave him an odd look and Luhan was glad that he probably didn't understand them.
Kris took three boxes with instant noodles and carried them to another shelf.
"I mean, yeah, I'm all for watching drama unfold," Luhan continued. "But I wouldn't invite my new friend if I knew that... hell, I don't even know what your boyfriend is to him, only that seeing him apparently made him panic."
"First kiss," Kris said monotonously and grabbed an instant noodle cup so forcefully that he dented it.
Luhan looked at him incredulously. "." At least that explained why Minseok would have left the building 'to get some fresh air', only to then never return. Hari had tried to call him at least a dozen times and had nervously asked over and over again whether Kris' boyfriend was 'the boy with the guitar case'. It was embarrassing to be the only one who had absolutely no clue what was going on and Kris also leaving without another word had been no help at all. "You don't think you should have mentioned that?"
"I didn't think it was any of your business," Kris said and for a few seconds Luhan was unable to reply because he knew that Kris wasn't actually wrong. Luhan was technically an outsider in the whole story. Unlike Kris and Hari he was not really closely related. But it still felt bizarre to hear those words from someone he had shared all his information with.
"You had no business asking me about Minseok either," he said meekly and had a feeling that he knew what Kris would say next. This was probably the moment when they finally parted.
"I never forced you to tell me anything."
It hurt more than he wanted to admit because it confirmed his suspicion that Kris had long stopped thinking about them as friends. Luhan had thought it would be fine, he would be able to mend things and during the past year it sure had seemed that way. They talked regularly again. They hung out on campus.  And he hoped that one day Kris would eventually be able to trust him again.
But in the end they were probably still stuck in the rain behind the cram school. The moment never ended. When Kris dropped his umbrella and beat up the guy Luhan was with because he thought it was an attack. When Luhan, out of breath because of the scarf that had nearly choked him, pulled him back and repeated over and over again that it was a misunderstanding. It was all a misunderstanding. It was all his fault.
'Who the hell is he?' the Kris in the memory asked and Luhan gave the same wrong answer time and time again. He said that the guy was his boyfriend snd Kris always had the same confused look as if he wanted to ask who he was then but was too proud to.
They probably would have never spoken again after that, had they not ended up in the same university. It was always easier to keep old friendships in new places than to create new ones, so after weeks of stalking him and chatting him up, Luhan had managed to be on speaking terms with Kris again. He thought they were friends. But to Kris he probably was nothing but an acquaintance he only put up with because he lacked a better alternative.
"Look, I'm working," Kris said when Luhan kept silent and shuffled off to the register.
Luhan nodded. And left without a word.

- games -

"Hey, Jongdae," one of his friends called out to him but he didn't look. If he looked away now he would lose again and he had already lost enough money to the damn game. They had been in the game arcade for at least two hours now and his eyes hurt and the others were getting bored with it but he really, really needed to win this time.
"You're friends with Park Chanyeol, right?" Hyuk asked and leaned over Jongdae's shoulder.
"Yeah," Jongdae answered mechanically while maneuvering his avatar across a lake with crocodiles.
"Have you ever noticed anything strange about him?" Hyuk asked and picked his nose. Jongdae shook his shoulder in disgust. His avatar nearly got eaten by one of the crocodiles.
"Everything," Jongdae said because 'normal' wasn't a word he associated with Chanyeol. Everything about him was too much in a way. He usually was too loud, too opinionated, too absurd, too spontaneous, too dedicated, too careless and too tall. Jongdae was glad that Jongin had joined the club because he at least balanced out the height gap.
"Have you heard about the rumour?" Hyuk said warily and Jongdae almost gave him a questioning glance but then his avatar nearly fell into a pit of fire.
"What rumour?" he asked instead.
"I don't know whether it's true or not. I just heard it from Yangil who says he heard it from someone in class 2," Hyuk began evasively and paused as if unsure whether to continue. For a moment they both stared at the screen and at Jongdae's avatar who was fighting a group of skeletons. When he was in safety in a jungle, Jongdae asked, "So what's it about?" He wanted to be prepared before going to school the next morning. The worst things that happened were those that came as a complete surprise.
"I heard he made out with a dude on Friday," Hyuk said and sounded extremely uncomfortable.
Jongdae's avatar meanwhile was killed by a snake.
"Huh?" he asked and frowned at Hyuk. "What the hell?"
Hyuk shrugged and for the first time Jongdae noticed how he looked at him as if he thought that Jongdae might be in on it, too.
It was Sunday now, so the rumour was two days old. If it had already travelled that far during the weekend, he could only imagine how ty their Monday would become.
"I hate school sometimes," he said and looked at the bright 'Game Over' sprawled across the screen.

- down in the suburbs -

Going to Minseok's house on Sunday was Hari's last resort. She knew very well that his mother didn't like her for 'being too willful', as Minseok had laughingly explained it before. She also hated the way his older brother always leered at her as if she was a piece of meat on the market. But after being unable to reach Minseok since Friday, when the Boy With The Guitar Case had reappeared like a creepy miracle, she really had no other choice but to look for him in his boringly ordinary family sanctuary.
Luck wanted it that the one who opened the door was his younger sister Minkyung, the only other family member she genuinely liked.
"Unni," Minkyung said happily and probably would have hugged her if not for being the child of such a stiff family. Public affection was a no-go for them and the front door of a suburbian house apparently counted as the public.
"I'm looking for Minseok," Hari said with a smile and prayed that he actually was there because she didn't want to explain why she hadn't checked before coming to his house. They had attended the same high school, so his house wasn't too far to reach by bike but it was still at the far end of their former school district. The only reason why it even belonged to that district was the fact that it was too far out for other schools.
"Oh, yeah, of course," Minkyung said and took a step to the side to let her in. Hari had avoided coming to his house as best as she could, so everyone else in the family probably would have asked her to wait at the door while they fetched him. That in return would have given him the chance to tell them that he didn't want to see her. "He's in his room," Minkyung said when Hari took off her shoes and Hari could have kissed her braided head in gratefulness.
When they walked past Minseok's mother in the kitchen, Hari greeted her as friendly as she could.
"Minseok didn't say you were coming," Minseok's mother said in return and put stress on the 'you'.
Hari laughed politely. "Oh, I'm not staying for long. I'm only returning a book I borrowed." She showed her bag as if to prove that point and Minseok's mother sighed.
"She's in a bad mood today," Minkyung whispered and Hari wondered whether her mother ever was in a good mood. She certainly hadn't witnessed that yet.
When they reached Minseok's room, Minkyung gave her another smile and went into her own room across the hall. As sweet as she was, she was probably going to eavesdrop, so Hari took a deep breath, knocked and then quickly entered the room to gain momentum.
"What the?" Minseok asked from his desk. He quickly flipped a notepad like a little girl hiding her diary. Which was suspicious.
"I just wanted to prove that you have to think twice before you decide to ignore me," Hari said nonchalanty and leaned against the closed door behind her. She had him trapped and he looked troubled.
"I was worried, you know," she added which immediately softened his expression. "Care for a walk?"

Hari knew the story about how Minseok's parents had originally bought the house in that special location because of the school. It was hard to reach by public transport and the closest supermarket was fifteen minutes by foot, so although the area was very quiet, it was by no means convenient. But the local public high school happened to be known for its baseball team, which meant that it was a potential stepping stone for a major league career. Which was what their parents clearly had been hoping for for both their sons. Minkyoo, Minseok's older brother, had been even more promising than him. Minseok had never really liked to talk about it because when she met him, Minkyoo's career had already ended in the disaster that was him being dragged away by the police due to underage drinking and assault. But before that Minkyoo must have been a star. It was probably because he had been a pitcher. From what she gathered pitchers tended to be the most popular.
It was ironic that in the end the effort had become a waste. Minkyoo had given up after no one would scout him any longer, only to then fail the university entrance exams two years in a row and to have his father beg his superiors at work to hire his son. His parents had then focussed their energy on Minseok who also stopped playing after breaking his hand during a game. Minseok was smart enough to get himself into university but to his parents that had never been enough. They had moved for two sons who had failed them.
That was what the neighbourhood meant. All the tiny neat houses and the many, many trees stood for the hopes and the disappointment of Minseok's parents. So when they walked along the narrow streets and when he had his hands stuffed in his pockets, she didn't complain about how much she hated visiting his house because it was too rural for her liking. She really would have liked to talk to him elsewhere but for all she knew, he would avoid her during the next couple of days on campus.
After reaching a small park with many benches, a pavilion and a lily pond, she finally said, "So what happened?"
He kicked up dust as he shuffled towards the pond rather than to answer.
"Okay, let me specify that," she sighed. "I already know that the guy at the party was the boy from our school."
Minseok flinched but didn't turn around.
"I mean, do you know how often I watched your stupid baseball practice?" she asked in exasperation. "All the running and catching and throwing really wasn't all that exciting, so I had enough time to look around and he was there a lot. I could draw a phantom picture of that face."
At that he let out air through his nose in a soundless laugh but still pretended to look for fish in the pond.
She sighed. "Look, I know who he is. I saw you, remember? After you broke your hand like an idiot? So don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. I'm trying to help you here." She didn't use the word 'kiss' because it would probably make him run away and off into the mountains. But it was what she had seen two years earlier in high school and what had made her understand him a little better. That was why he always dated the same generically cute kind of girl. It was to prove to himself and the world that he was normal. Whatever that even meant.
Minseok still didn't answer and instead walked towards the pavilion. She followed him begrudgingly because she knew how long a process it could be to get answers out of him. He sat on the bench lining the pavilion and she sat down across from him, when he shrugged, "Nothing happened."
She raised an eyebrow at him because she really didn't want to hear another lie. "When? In school?"
"On Friday," Minseok said.
"So..." she began and frowned. "He didn't catch up to you? And you were in too much of a shock to return my calls?"
Minseok spent another endless seconds staring at the pond, before he answered, "He did catch up."
"That's hardly nothing," she said and was about to pose more questions when he gave her a hard look.
"So how is it helping me if I tell you what happened?" he asked and his voice was oddly even. She wanted to reply that it usually helped to talk about feelings. He couldn't bottle everything up and pray that he didn't explode one day. There were enough cases of people who had kept everything to themselves and who had consequently become sick. Feelings weren't automatically a mental illness but feelings that were ignored could become one.
But this wasn't the first time she tried to tell him that.
So she didn't say that they were friends and that she only wanted the best for him. Instead she said, "You liked him more than you like to admit, didn't you?"
He held her gaze for a second before he looked down. "It's just not right," he muttered.

- picking sides -

The world was ending. That had to be it. It was the only explanation that made any sense.
Less than a week ago Kyungsoo had been sure that Chanyeol signing them up for a competition they weren't qualified for and The Fist Lee agreeing to go out with Baekhyun were the most bizarre things that would happen in the next couple of months. It was only a matter of weeks until everybody would finally realize that time to prepare for the university entrance exams was slowly running out and that their idle high school days were over.
And then he heard that Boyoung, one of the nicest persons he could think of, had been called into the principal's office for breaking the nose of one girl and for ripping a large patch of hair off another girl's head. Of course he only learned about it when she was brought home by her mother at the beginning of lunch break and when the whole school watched them cross the school yard from inside their classrooms.

"What the?" The Fist asked in bafflement from her place at the window. She yelled Boyoung's name a couple of times but they were too high up fot her to hear her above all the other screams. Kyungsoo wondered how The Fist even knew her name, when she swiftly turned to him. "You're one of Baekhyun's friends, right?" she asked aggressively, as if the whole thing was his fault.
He slowly nodded, so she asked, "Well, then what the hell is going on?"
"I have no clue," he muttered.
"So what are you standing here for?" she asked and before he could reply, she grabbed his shoulder and pushed him outside. "Let's find the hell out. That girl would not hurt anyone without a reason."
He tried to fight her off but she simply dragged him along like a sack of rice. "Where are we even going?" he asked and flailed his arms. The students they passed all laughed at him.
"We're looking for her boyfriend," she said flatly and finally let go of him when they reached the room of class 3 at the same time as Baekhyun who came running from the opposite direction.
"What's going on?" he asked out of breath and Kyungsoo shrugged helplessly.
"Boyoung didn't really hit someone, did she?" Baekhyun continued and watched The Fist as she marched inside the classroom. Chanyeol stood at one of the windows and looked outside, so she jerked him around. Kyungsoo didn't hear what she said to him but when she faced him, something about her angry expression softened. She gestured towards Kyungsoo and Baekhyun at the door, Chanyeol gave them a nervous expression and then followed her outside. When he got closer, Kyungsoo noticed that he had a bruise under his left eye.
"What happened?" Baekhyun asked him when Chanyeol walked past them to get out of earshot from his class. They followed him until they reached the edge of the staircases.
"This is my fault," Chanyeol then said miserably and absent-mindedly scratched the bruise. "She was just trying to defend me."
"From what?" The Fist asked angrily and Chanyeol flinched.
"Is it because of that rumour?" Baekhyun asked and The Fist and Kyungsoo looked at him in confusion. The painful expression in Chanyeol's face made it clear that he knew what Baekhyun meant.
"What rumour?" The Fist asked.
"Jongdae told me about it," Baekhyun said evasively with a glance at Chanyeol. "He says that someone claims he saw Chanyeol on Friday."
The Fist gave raised her eyebrows in a way that made it clear that she had no time for guessing games. "Doing what exactly? Buying drugs? Smoking? Dancing in a damn tutu?"
"Making out with a guy," Chanyeol said in a strangled voice. The Fist gave him an incredulous glare at that and then it seemed to dawn to her.
"That's ridiculous," she said but it almost sounded like a question. "And that's why she freaked out?"
"I tried to stop her," Chanyeol said. Which probably explained the bruise.
They were all quiet for a moment. Kyungsoo didn't really know what to say, so he could only assume that the others didn't either. He wasn't even sure what to think, as if he was attending class after two weeks of being sick without understanding the basis of the topic his teacher talked about.
"So is it true?" The Fist asked and Baekhuyn sharply in the air through his teeth. Kyungsoo stared at her in bafflement. He hadn't even thought about asking.
"What?" Chanyeol asked irritatedly.
"Look, man, if you want us on your side, we should know all the facts," she said matter-of-factly. "Is that rumour true or is it not?"
They all looked at him expectantly and he had a strange expression when he said, "Course it's not."
"Okay," she said. Next to her Baekhyun looked incredibly relieved.
Kyungsoo meanwhile couldn't help but think that rumours didn't just come into existence out of thin air. There always was something that triggered them in the first place.
So whatever Chanyeol had done and how much truth there was to it, Kyungsoo doubted that it was something that could easily be solved.
And he hated to think that way, but his first instinct was to worry about his studies. They were in a critical phase and his whole future depended on whether or not he passed the entrance exam of the university of his choice. Friends were important but his parents would never forgive him if he failed after being dragged into someone else's problem.

- peter pan (leaving neverland) -

The scene was so familiar that Yura reacted before she really understood what was going on. As usual she walked back from the station rather than to take the bus because she liked to have the exercise and to stroll along all the streets of her childhood. Her first kiss, her first date, her first night over at a boy's house, they had all happened in that area between the station, her house and the high school. If not for her walking, she probably wouldn't have run into Chanyeol who came out of an alley without taking notice of her. Just when she wanted to call out to him, two other boys in school uniforms came dashing from the alley and followed him. They loudly swore at him, he sprinted off and without giving it much thought, Yura ran after the group and yelled at them to stop. She clearly startled them so much that one the boys immediately fled when she swung her bag and hit the other's head. The boy glared at her and muttered something under his breath before scampering off.
She looked at Chanyeol who stood a few steps away from her and breathed heavily. He didn't thank her but instead gave her a reproachful glance. It was then that it hit her. He wasn't ten years old anymore. Even then he had sometimes complained that she would fight bullies for him but now it was probably even stranger. She was a head shorter than him after all.
"What the hell happened?" she asked angrier than intended when she realized that the right sleeve of his school uniform was nearly ripped off. There was dust all over his clothes and he was missing his bag. She looked at his face and wondered for the first time whether the bruise under his eye really had been a mere accident.
"Nothing," he said.
She scoffed. "Are you being bullied again?"
He bit his lips because he clearly didn't want to be reminded. He had never liked to admit that he was being bullied. That was what made it so hard. He understood that he was a victim but also blamed himself for it.
"No," he said.
She sighed, "Do you think I'm stupid? Why were those boys following you? And where the hell is your bag?" She almost yelled the last words and he flinched.
"It's none of your business," he said, turned around and marched off towards their house. She was too dumbfounded to reply.

He had never asked for her help, not even as a child but whenever she had rescued him from dangerous situations, he had immediately burst into tears and told her everything. He had told her about how other children for being slow and chubby and weird. No matter how brave he had pretended to be at first, he had always told her.
But now she knew nothing. On Monday he had come home with a troubled expression and a bruised face but when she had tried to ask him about it, he had told her that he tripped in school. If she thought about it, he had sounded like one of those wives in TV shows who were hit by their husbands and then told everyone that they had fallen down the stairs. No one liked to talk about how they were beaten.
She knew nothing. She didn't know whether this was connected to him staying out at night or to him being in love with someone who wasn't Boyoung. All she knew was that she wanted to help him but not how.