“You know that feeling when you just want to give up?” His voice shook as he asked the question aloud. “Are you familiar with the feeling of being so alone and truly having no friends to talk to?”

He faced the video camera he posted on its tripod and he was a second away from just letting the tears fall but he held them back because he felt pathetic and stupid and unmanly. It was a routine that Luhan found himself doing when the house was quiet, his parents worked and he couldn’t sleep. He propped his recorder in front of his face and would just talk. Talk about school, about his family life, his thoughts and feelings – anything he would talk to a friend about.

This was how he stayed sane for three years and how he could get on through high school. The media projects that those with “no friends” had at least a few people to converse or interact with: a sibling or classmate or friend from elementary school. Luhan had none.

But such simple inquires he had asked himself before had left him struggling with tears now. And before he would dare subject himself to a crybaby pity party, he just turned the machine off, closed it up and crawled into bed. He lifted his blankets to his cheeks, wiped the loneliness from his eyes, and got a good night’s rest. It was so good that he almost missed school the next day.

One hour later and he arrived to the campus with mussed hair, half-buttoned dress shirt, no tie, and crunched glasses. It was the bus and all of its occupants that had done this to him. Bodies pressed against him hadn’t allowed him to finish being dressed and his tie to go missing. The stampede of businessmen knocking into him had him drop his glasses, proceeding to trample over it. The wind of the door being flushed open swept his hair into an absurd direction what with the lack of time to prepare the gel to sweep it into a nice comb, he looked like he rolled out of Spring Break in Mexico.

Who would care? Luhan thought as he wandered around the school to find his class. It’s not like anyone notices me.

But apparently, everyone did. Murmurs of who the hot new boy in school was happened to be the only topic of discussion. Luhan, however, was ignorant to it. Even when he placed the annoyingly weak contacts in his eyes, squinting, he still couldn’t see the interest on every student’s face when he walked out of the boy’s room. He wasn’t sure why he was picked first to play soccer in physical education when he was often forgotten. Or why there were many female students lined up against the fence to see him launch the ball wickedly. Or why they cheered or why anyone began talking to him. He felt lost.

As he slugged into his next lesson, tired and still partially blind, he’s immediately jolted forward in his chair when he sees a blonde in a pressed school uniform glide into the seat in front of him. It was Kris Wu. Luhan could hardly breathe. After all, how could he possibly forget that he had one class with this gorgeous student?

“Aren’t you new here?” Feeling his heart lurch into his throat, blocking his opportunity to speak, Luhan only shook his head in reply to Kris’ question. “No? What’s your name then?”

The teacher interrupted the two at that point, offering them the chance to bond over detention if they continued to converse or to quiet down and listen to the lecture. Kris settled in his seat and faced the white board while Luhan’s body heated up with shame as his mind raced. He was so warped in his thoughts that he almost missed the topic that the teacher switched to when he stomached the thought of Kris openly talking to him. Luhan nearly died at the two words his ears caught: group project.

“I want you all to pair up with someone you’ve never had the chance to talk to and come up with some ideas that you both are going to present at the end of the semester. Make it good, make it fun, just don’t get too erse, alright?” The teacher stated. Luhan twiddled his thumbs. “I’ve got the list of pairs right here.”

A chorus of groans and disappointment had turned into the gospel singers projecting words of His Savior to Luhan. If it weren’t for his professor’s last addition, he was sure that he would bury himself. The teacher began pinning students together and the two that were the last to be grouped were none other than Kris and Luhan. And as Kris turned around in his seat to face Luhan with a small smile, he said, “Looks like we’re partners.”

“Yeah,” muttered Luhan, his face flushed with embarrassment, tone apparent that he was torn by which emotion to take. Should he have been happy or nervous? He wasn’t so good with hiding his feelings but communication was never his strong suit so he just went with a simple but not quite an enthusiastic, “Great.”

Kris thought nothing of it when he turned back around in his chair and Luhan slumped in his seat. What was he going to do? He thought, becoming exhausted by the mere concept of social interaction. He couldn’t comprehend why it was so difficult to grasp then came to the short conclusion that maybe it was due to the fact that he was introverted for the majority of his life. With a good shrug of his shoulders, he brushed off the situation and when class ended, he stuck his earphones in his ears, turned up the volume of his music, and then went to lunch.

Buying a simple apple and a bottle of water from the cafeteria, he took his snack to the hill on the side of the school, allowing him a brilliant view of the campus and a light breeze to hit his face. It did help that it permitted an overlook of the basketball courts where his talented and dedicated idol would practice during this period. Without fail, Kris in a tank top and gym shorts cracked the orange ball across the white stripes and jogged along the court as he made his shot. Luhan thought, it must be my lucky day.

He smiled with a pleasant sigh, kicking back into the grass, stretching out, the day’s events wearing on him that he found himself falling into a light nap and dreamed of having the fearless guts of NCIS Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo and say something cool for once to the most popular guy in school. Slipping into la-la land with a grin plastered on his face, he wasn’t aware of the blonde student who sat beside him for a moment, chuckled at his blissful state and patted his knee, then left. Instead, he was shaken awake by the school’s security guard and reprimanded with a detention slip. Luhan groaned.

He wanted to leave the moment Luhan entered detention. Two-hundred and ninety-three percent positive that the room was crowded with future criminals, he internally groaned at the thought of spending a few hours in what he perceived to be hell. He took a seat near the door in the front and refused to make eye contact with anyone unless it was the teacher. When the teacher walked in and made a few comments, it didn’t help Luhan’s stomach at all. Being told that he was in there for a reason was not what he wanted to hear when he listened on a few conversations that dealt with being caught with or having ual in the bathroom. He didn’t belong there at all, but how could he leave?

“Hey partner, what are you doing in detention?” There it was, the sound of the heavens opening and the face of the angels had spoken to him. It was Kris in all of his pristine-uniform glory, concern written all over his face.

Slightly speechless, he was saved for the moment as Kris delivered a message to the teacher from the admin’s office and Luhan collected his thoughts. It wasn’t much time at all, the phone call tearing the teacher’s attention from Kris, who walked back over to obviously continue where he had left off. He simply asked in a factual tone, “Why don’t you just leave?”

“Won’t I get into more trouble?” Luhan blurted out to which Kris just laughed.

“Probably. But think about it – do you really belong here? Just say you’re going to the bathroom and head out.” He suggested. Luhan considered his options, looking from the students to the teacher busied with the call and then back to Kris’ face which smiled at him, egging him on to take a risk. “Live a little, will ya?”

But questions rattled around his head and everything seemed to be moving so fast and today was quite awkward, it almost felt like a dream that any minute he’d wake up and he’d be the same loser he was every morning. So he decided to take a chance, to take Kris’ advice. Kris nodded toward the teacher who ended the phone call and left the room but not without sending a waiting glance to Luhan who sat nervously in his seat.

“Um, sir,” Luhan weakly croaked. “May I use the restroom?”

-

Like I said on my other story, thank you so much for sticking around and if you didn't, I don't blame you. I hope you are all doing well and don't be hesitant to give feedback or ideas or suggestions on what you want to see. I have it planned so that there will be more characters coming in and the plot will definitely thicken so I'm excited to see that. Hopefully with summer break being ed upon me, I'll be able to update maybe once or twice a week, depending on how much time I'll have. Looking forward to seeing Sehun or Kai? Maybe an SNSD member? I am, quite honestly. Get some hetero action over here. Anyway, have a good day and see ya'll in the next update (hopefully posted sometime this week).