In English class the teacher passes out a survey. I take the stack of papers from the person in front of me and hand them back to the person behind me.  I read the paper over once and then go right to answering all the questions. Where do you see yourself after high school? College. Where do you see yourself in ten years from now? Working. Where do you see you’re self in twenty years? Still working. Do you see yourself starting a family in the future? Why or why not? No, because relationships don’t last.

***

               “Did you take the survey in English?” Baekhyun runs up to me in the hallway and I nod my head. “That was cool. We usually don’t take surveys. How’d you answer the last one? Are you going to start a family in the future?” Baekhyun wiggles his eyebrows.

               “No,” I say bluntly. I realize how uninteresting I am, “How about you?” I nudge his arm.

               “Maybe,” He skips ahead a little and then turns around to face me, walking backwards down the hall.

               “Sorry hyung, but I don’t think you can have children with Chanyeol,” I say and laugh at how pink his cheeks become.

              “You never know,” We both laugh. We walk into the gym but before we can walk into the locker room the teacher waves us over.

              “Have a seat,” Baekhyun looks at me strangely before dropping his books and sitting down on the ground. I do the same and sit down awkwardly. Why are we sitting on the gym floor?

                A few minutes pass before everyone fills in the gym. Kris walks in with a group of third year students and I suddenly feel really stupid sitting here kicking Baekhyun's foot dumbly. They walk over looking confused, and sit down with everyone else. I wonder what this is all about. “Alright class, before we get started, I’m supposed to have a talk with all of you...” , this probably isn’t going to be good. The teacher looks at each of us before continuing. “Don’t have .” A few people start to choke on air while a few others start to giggle.

                “Isn’t this something we talk about in Health class?” One student asks.

                “Yes, but I was informed that it was necessary information. Most of you will probably have me for Health next semester so I thought I’d get it over with.” A few people burst into laughter. “Oh come on guys, do be so immature.” The teacher actually starts to laugh a little. I feel like this conversation is bothering me a lot more than it should. I look over at Baekhyun and he doesn’t seem to give a . He’s laughing along with everyone else.

                “Got it, guys? Don’t have . And don’t drink or do drugs,” The teacher looks over at us and stares at me, laughing a little, “Are you alright, kid?” A few people look over at me and start to laugh along with the freaking teacher.

                “Tao, your face is getting all red,” Baekhyun says, trying to hold back a laugh. My eyes widen and I can feel my face heat up even more. I glance over a Kris and he’s actually smiling. God, I hate this class.

                “Alright, alright, go get ready for class. I’m glad we had this talk.” I stand up and quickly run into the locker room. That was so embarrassing.

***

                “The gym teacher’s really funny,” Baekhyun says, casually getting dressed.

                “Oh, so funny,” I say sarcastically. I hate that teacher. Baekhyun looks over at me and starts laughing again. “Stop laughing! It’s not funny.”

                “Yes it is,” We shut our lockers and walk out. “Hey, where’s Suho?”

                “He texted me this morning saying he was going to stay home today,” I say and shrug my shoulders.

                “He seems really depressed again.” There were only a few days when he didn’t seem depressed.

                “I know.” I frown. “I wish Lay would do something.” Everyone says Lay is deadly quiet but couldn’t he at least walk up to Suho and force him to talk to him? That could fix everything. They could go back to being best friends and everyone would be happy again… well, almost everyone. Suho would probably be unhappy knowing Lay doesn’t share his feelings. I don’t think I’d want to simply go back to being friends and completely ignore my true feelings. I kind of wish I could completely relate to what Suho’s going through, but I can’t.

                “Well, you never know,” Baekhyun says shrugging his shoulders.

                “We’re going to be starting football today so I’m going to be putting you into partners,” The teacher says staring down at his check board. “Get together with your partner after I call your names and then find a place to practice throwing the ball back and forth,”

                I look over at Baekhyun and start praying that we’ll miraculously be partnered together. The odds of me getting paired with someone I don’t like are even greater since Suho’s not here. The teacher starts rattling off names and dread over comes me when he calls Baekhyun’s name along with one of the girls in our class. He walks away sadly. “Tao and Kris,” My heart stops and I stare at the teacher. “Get going pink cheeks.” He motions for me to get moving. I unintentionally glare at the teacher and then walk to the back of the gym where Kris is standing. This is going to be so awkward.

                When I walk up to him I can see that he’s trying to hold back a smile. “It’s not funny,” I hiss but suddenly regret doing so. Kris is scary. One of the other students throws Kris a football and he catches it easily. I at football. We look around and realize everyone else is already beginning to throw the ball back and forth. Kris turns to my and throws the ball. I flinch instead of catching it and it hits me right in the arm. “Ouch.” Kris makes a face and walks over to get the ball. After a moment he throws it again and this time I attempt to catch it, but the ball painfully collides with my fingers, making them crack.

                “Catch it,” Kris says and I suddenly get even more frustrated. I glare at him for several minutes, feeling extremely irritated. “You try throwing it this time,” He walks over and hands me the ball. Once he’s back in is spot I try to throw the ball, but it’s too big for my hands so I know it was a really bad throw. It collides into his leg rather forcefully causing him to flinch this time. Kris walks back over and hands me the ball this time. “Make sure you have a good grip on it.” This is so annoying.

                This time the ball hits the ground a few feet away. This is so embarrassing. Kris sighs and walks over yet again. He walks behind me and I suddenly feel extremely awkward. “W-what are you doing,” I ask as he grabs my hands from behind.

                “Showing you how to hold a football,” He says.

                “I-I know how to hold a football,” I say defensively, regretting my ignorant tone.

                “No you don’t….” Kris moves my fingers along the white line of the ball. “Grip it here, and make sure you space your fingers out,” I can feel his breath on my neck and a shiver goes up my spine. I find myself staring at his hands gripping mine. Kris has really long, skinny fingers.  “Got it?”

                “Yes.” I my elbow back but realize Kris is still behind me when my arm makes contact with what I hope isn’t his face.

                “Ouch.” I turn and see him clutching his shoulder.

                “Oh, sorry…” I’m making such a fool of myself. I can feel my face heat up again. I look around for the clock. “Class is going to end soon, right? I don’t want to play anymore.”

                “The teacher said we’re going to be playing football for the rest of the week since it’s his favorite sport,” Kris says and I sigh desperately. I hate this teacher so much. The bell rings and I’m overwhelmed with joy.  Then I get the feeling Kris is staring at me and I quickly feel extremely awkward. I turn and ask,

                “Do you want me to hand the ball in,”

                “I got it.” While he goes to put the ball away I take the opportunity to get away, heading for the locker room.

                “Football ,” Baekhyun whines as he puts on his shoes.

                “I couldn’t agree more,” I say, noticing my friend is staring at me with an odd expression. “…What?”

                “I saw you and Kris getting all touchy feely.”

                “No we weren’t! It’s not like I would enjoy that!” Why is he being so weird?

                “Are you sure you don’t have a crush on Kris?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.

                “What do you mean by crush?” I’ve never thought about having a crush on a guy.

                “I don’t know… I was thinking you might have a guy crush on him. I guess I kind of have a crush on Chanyeol. I think he’s really cool and nice, and I really admire him. Even before we became friends I could never keep my eyes off of him. That’s a crush isn’t it?” Baekhyun says smiling cutely.

                “I guess so,” I’ve never really thought about it that way. Chanyeol’s the only guy Baekhyun’s really ever seemed to like, so he’s not gay, right? Do I have a crush on Kris? I find him interesting and I always find myself watching him whenever he’s around. He is really handsome. But he does scare me a little, and there’s no way Kris would ever like me. But I don’t even like Kris. He’s not gay, and neither am I…

                “Don’t give yourself a mind ,” Baekhyun says, laughing. “It’s not really something you can think too much into.” Does he mean uality? You can think too much into your uality? The bell rings and we hurry to finish up.

***

                “Maybe you should go talk to Kris,” Baekhyun says while he starts gathering his books.

                “Why?” I ask, surprised. Why would I go talk to Kris?

                “Ask him about Suho and Lay, he probably knows something,”

                “Why don’t you go talk to him?” I ask, suddenly feeling nervous.

                “Because you guys have more of a… connection,” He attempts to demonstrate with his hands.

                “Huh?”

                “Just go. He’s probably at his locker, go wander down the senior hallway,” He pushes me off and I actually start walking in the direction of the third year hall way. What should I say to Kris? What could he know about Lay and Suho that might help with their whole situation?

                I walk down the hallway rather aimlessly, trying not to attract too much attention from the older students. I spot Kris at the end of the hall, looking through his locker. My heart suddenly starts to beat faster than normal. I slowly make my way up to him and then work up the courage to actually speak, “Kris,” He quickly looks up and turns towards me. I seem to freeze under his stare.

                “Tao,” He says, turning back to his locker.

                “I wanted to ask you something,” I say, awkwardly running my hand through my hair. He shuts his locker and leans against it, staring straight at me now. This is even more awkward.  “I-I was going to ask you, u-um about Suho and Lay,” , I don’t know what to say. Kris walks a few steps forward, closing the distance between us. My cheeks feel like they’re burning. “Um…”

                “Do I scare you?” He turns his head to the side, inching closer.

                “W-were you listening?” I ask and he takes a step back.

                “What about Suho and Lay?” I take a moment to figure out what I want to ask.

                “Does Lay have any feelings for Suho?” Kris’ eyebrows furrow.

                “They were best friends weren’t they? Lay never really told me what happened between them,” He says. I guess he doesn’t know anything.

                “Did you ever suspect Lay of liking Suho… as more than just a friend?”

                “You mean, like having a crush?”

                “Yes! Um, did you ever suspect Lay of having a crush on Suho?”

                “I always thought they liked each other like that,” He says shrugging his shoulders, “They both gave off that vibe towards each there,”

                “Then why aren’t they speaking?” I ask, genuinely confused.

                “Figuring out your feelings isn’t always that easy. Maybe this way they’ll both find out how much they actually care for one another,” Kris actually seems very wise at this moment, it’s like he knows everything even though he clearly doesn’t. “Maybe they don’t know what it is they feel,”

                I nod my head in understanding. We stand in silence for a few minutes and I quickly go back to feeling awkward under Kris’ gaze. “Now, back to my question,” He says leaning in extremely close, invading my personal bubble. He probably knows I’m afraid of him, but that doesn’t mean I want to admit it. “Do I scare you?”

                “N-no,” I say, mentally slapping myself for stuttering. Kris smirks.

                “Oh really,” He raises an eyebrow.

                “Y-yes, really,”

                “Stop harassing cute second years,” We both turn to see Kai and D.O. walk past, snickering. I can feel myself blush for the hundredth time today. The bell rings in the nick of time, signaling the end of the day. Kris shuts his locker and says, “I have to get to work.” I wonder what kind of job Kris has. He stares at me for a few seconds and I swallow nervously.

                “What kind of job do you have…?” I ask.

                “I’m a busboy,” He says and walks off.

                I’m surprised I didn’t get shoved into a locker this time…

***