“Xing!”

Kris looked up in surprise when his didi’s hand was suddenly yanked from his own as Chen all but tackled him, excessively happy to see him again. Kris looked a little bit lost for a moment, trying to figure out what he should do when he felt a familiar, shy warmth on his arm and looked up to see Tao. He almost smiled.

“Gege, should we sit together today?” Tao asked, looking hopeful. Kris nodded, awkwardly rubbing the others back when he suddenly hugged him, and biting his lip hard so he wouldn’t laugh. Unfortunately it only half worked, and Kris could feel Lay’s eyes heavy on him.

Kris ruffled up Tao’s hair and rolled his eyes, leading him into the classroom and sitting beside him, automatically pulling their desks together because the English lessons were spilling over into other classroom times. Putting it to practical use seemed to be helping Tao quite a bit, though, which made him more confident, and Kris felt satisfied that he was teaching him well.

Kris spent a lot more of the day pointedly ignoring Lay than he wanted to admit, because he could see the curiosity b inside of him. Kris groaned quietly, tucking his head down a little bit and coaxing Tao into translating as he tried to adjust his posture so his back wouldn’t hurt later on.

Kris didn’t even pretend to be surprised when Lay pushed his desk right up against Kris’, leaning too far into his personal space as Kris gently corrected Tao’s grammar, watching as he absorbed what Kris said and nodded. “You two seem awfully friendly.” He commented softly, and Tao’s face turned bright red, completely confusing Kris as he looked over at Lay.

“Is it wrong for me to make friends?” Kris asked softly, and he was shocked by how much of him needed to hear Lay say no.

“Calm down, I’m not picking on you.” Lay said, eyeing Kris carefully as though trying to read his mind. Kris wouldn’t honestly have been surprised to find that he could.

“Then why-” Kris started, but he was interrupted by the teacher calling his name. He looked up, then moved to the front of the room, leaving Tao behind to Lay’s prying whispers that Kris was guiltily glad to be rid of for the moment.

“You’ve been doing really well with teaching Tao.” The teacher commented, and Kris was startled by the praise. It wasn’t something he had been expecting, but he nodded slowly. “Don’t look so frightened. You act like you expected to be in trouble.”

“I have nothing to get in trouble for.” Kris said, his expression a little bit guarded. The teacher watched him for a long moment.

“I’m glad you’re making friends. Most people I wouldn’t let talk so much during my class, but...since I’m considering you more of a teaching aid for the others than anything else, I’m allowing it. The school therapist spoke with me about your file-” Kris’ eyes widened, and the teacher trailed off, looking at Kris’ expression carefully before deciding how he should proceed. “I’m just very glad to see you opening up, Yifan.”

“Thank you.” Kris said, a bit stiffly. The teacher gestured that he was free to go, announcing to the class a moment later that it was a free study period, and Kris took a seat beside Tao, his hands itching to reach for a book, but he hadn’t made it to the library yet.

“Kris?” Lay said softly, reaching out to tug on Kris’ sleeve. Kris turned to look at him, and for the first time in a while Lay recoiled at the expression on his face, clearly seeing something he hadn’t anticipated. “Kris, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Kris said, turning his eyes back to the already-completed work in front of him. “Give me your page. I’ll check it for you.”

There was a long bout of silence following Kris’ statement, but slowly Lay handed over his page, looking slightly afraid as he did. Kris took the page and and started going over Lay’s translations, overly aware of both Tao and Lay’s eyes on him. He corrected a few mis-translated words and he was about to hand it back when he noticed Chen’s name - his Korean name - written inside of a little heart on the bottom of the page. He inspected it for a moment before turning back to Lay, looking at him with a hard expression for a moment before handing it back.

“Your school work isn’t the place for mindless doodles. Get extra paper if you’re going to do things like that.” Kris said, and Lay nodded quickly, taking the page back and hurriedly erasing the light pencil drawing.

Kris was surprised to find himself cornering Chen between classes later on, all but pinning him to the wall with a threat on his tongue. Chen looked about ready to piss himself as he stared up at Kris, shaking a little bit and looking around for anyone who might help him.

“K-Kris?” He whispered, his eyes wide with fear. “What did I do?”

“Lay.” Kris said menacingly. “If you - just don’t hurt him.”

“I - hurt him?” Chen echoed, his expression one of disbelief.

“Or I’ll hurt you.” Kris said, nodding once.

“U-understood.” Chen said, carefully scooting down the wall and then running off, leaving Kris to glare at the wall and try not to think about what he’d just done.

Way too much vulnerability.

It has recently come to my attention that this may very well be the oddest pairing I've ever done. ChenLay, I mean. But I've always kind of had a thing for them. I feel like Chen needs to be protected and cared for, and Lay is just oblivious enough to do that while still kind of making Chen feel somewhat neglected (because yes, I'm a bit of a sadist, and I think Chen needs that too. Or something.) Anyway, I'm probably going to update again later, because this wasn't even the chapter I meant to write, but I just got off a thirteen hour overnight and instead of sleeping I thought it was a good idea to update. .-.