* Notes-Hawaiian/Pidgin Translations:

auwe: an expression of something bad/sad/surprising; like “Oh man!”
Lolo: crazy
Aloha: Hello, goodbye
Ahi Poke: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poke_(Hawaii)

Chapter 1

Sehun was late to soccer practice again. It really wasn’t his fault though, dumb old Kris had forgotten to get peanut butter and Sehun had to get it himself, run to Mister Hu’s farm to feed Micky and then sprint to the practice field, the result being that missed the practice game beforehand. Coach Kalani smiled at him and mouthed that it was okay.

They did a lot of drills that day, since Coach Kalani’s son, Mike, was back from college with new things for them to try. Mike went to school in Miami and he was on the soccer team, so when he came home he always tried to teach everyone new exercises.

Once practice was dismissed and everyone was filing out of the changing room (Sehun was the only one still in his uniform), Coach Kalani pulled Sehun aside and asked why he was late.

“I had to take Micky his sandwich,” Sehun explained plainly.

Coach blinked at him. “Micky…Mister Hu’s goat?”

“Yeah,” Sehun nodded. “He controls the weather you know.”

Mike gasped and covered it with a cough. Coach himself looked pained for a few seconds before he finally mussed Sehun’s hair and told him to be on time tomorrow.

“Feeding goats,” Sehun heard one of the boys laugh. “What a weirdo.”

Sehun’s balled his hands into fists and exhaled slowly. Coach shot a warning look to the boy who said it.

As the team started to disperse, Sehun ran after a few kids from his class, finally catching them halfway down the block.

“Guys, wait up!”

They were walking with an older boy from the middle school who eyed Sehun oddly as he approached.

“You wanna play a game?” Sehun asked eagerly. “Or maybe tell me what Mike showed you before I got here?”

Jamie looked away. “Um, I don’t remember what he said.”

“Oh,” Sehun said. “Well, we can play anyway, right? Or do you want to go to the beach?”

The older boy coughed. “Does he always follow you around like this?”

Devin rolled his eyes. “Yeah, so annoying.”

The older boy laughed. “Like a dog.” Then he threw his head back and howled.

Sehun jumped, startled, and the boy did again. This time Devin joined in, and soon Jamie, Marcus and Jonah did too. Confused and on the verge of tears, Sehun waited until they were done to speak.

“You could have just said no,” he told them. Then he walked off with his head high. He could hear them barking and howling a block away.

Sehun dragged his feet all the way home, purposely taking his time. The social worker was stopping by today, and Kris was in a bad mood because Sehun left the milk out and it spoiled. It wasn’t like he’d meant to do it, it was an accident. Grandma said that Kris didn’t mean to get so frustrated, he was just under pressure to make things perfect. He was wasting his time in Sehun’s opinion, nothing could ever be perfect now.

There was a car in the driveway when Sehun got home, which meant the social worker was already there. Sehun sighed and looked down at his dirty uniform. He left his shoes on the porch so he wouldn’t leave foot prints.

“Oh, you’re back,” Kris called when Sehun shut the door. “I thought you might have been out playing.”

Sehun bit back a snarky retort, he was supposed to keep that on the down low when adults were present. There was a woman with long brown hair sitting at the kitchen table, a glass of water in front of her. Sehun almost rolled his eyes—it was one of Grandma’s fancy glasses. Kris always tried way too hard with these people.

“Hi there Sehun,” the woman said cheerfully. “I’m Penny Huntington. It’s nice to meet you.”

She held out her hand and Sehun took it, forgetting that he was all dirty. “Oh,” he said softly upon realizing. “I’m sorry…”

She laughed and waved her hand. “When did a little dirt ever hurt anyone?” She said lightly, taking a napkin and brushing her hand off. Sehun’s lips turned up slightly. This lady was alright.

Once Sehun had washed up and changed, Ms. Huntington asked him the usual questions. How do you like school? (Better now that it’s out for summer.) What’s your favorite subject? (English.) Have you been sick at all lately? (No.) Does anything hurt? (No.) And so on. It was so familiar that Sehun could answer in his sleep. Then it was over and Kris was walking Ms. Huntington to the door. Sehun narrowed his eyes at his older brother behind his back—he was wearing his work shirt for crying out loud.

As soon as Kris shut the door Sehun ripped off his slippers and threw them as hard as he could at his brother’s back.

“Ow!” Kris yelped, whirling around. “Sehun, are you lolo?”

“Why didn’t you buy peanut butter?” Sehun hollered, seconds away from tears.

“I’m sorry! I told you I’d get it on my way to work tomorrow…”

“I told you about it a week ago! Why can’t you remember anything? You never remember the important things!” Kris was visibly hurt by that but Sehun was beyond caring. “You made me late for practice you dumb jerk!”

“Hey!” Kris yelled, now he was getting angry. “Don’t talk to me like that and don’t yell, grandma’s sleeping!”

“You’re yelling too!” Sehun screamed. “And why did you tell that lady she could come today? You promised we’d go to the movies!”

“What do you want me to do?! The only other time she could make it was on the day of your first match!”

That gave Sehun pause, and he felt a little twinge of guilt. So Kris had remembered that.

“What match?” Sehun mumbled. Then louder, “I hate soccer. I’m never going back!” And then he turned and ran to his room, slamming the door behind himself. He threw himself on his bed and finally started to cry. He didn’t know what upset him more, the fight he’d just had with Kris, being late to practice or the dog remark. Then he decided that it was definitely the last one.

He didn’t know how long he spent lying there before Kris came in.

“Leave me alone,” Sehun yelled automatically. “Who said you could come into my room?”

“It was my room first,” Kris reminded him. At least he had changed out of his work shirt by this time, Sehun thought glumly as he buried his head in his pillow once more. Kris sat on the edge of Sehun’s bed and rubbed his back in circles like their mom used to do for him before he went to sleep. It made Sehun want to cry all over again.

“I’m sorry I forgot about the peanut butter, and I’m sorry I yelled at you this morning,” Kris said quietly. “I know you didn’t mean to leave the milk out, I was just frustrated.”

Oh yeah, Sehun had forgotten he was supposed to be mad at Kris for getting mad about that.

“Now, why are you quitting soccer?” Kris went on, “I thought you loved it.”

Sehun sniffled and shoved his face farther in his pillow. “Mmflndsamenhaem.”

“Excuse me?”

Sehun looked up. “My friends are mean and I hate them,” he sobbed.

Kris gave him a pitiful look. “Oh baby…” he held out his arms and Sehun flung himself into his brother’s lap, crying into his shirt.

“I don’t have any friends,” Sehun cried. “They all hate me.”

“No they don’t,” Kris said automatically.

“They do!” Sehun yelled. “Ever since they died nobody wants to talk to me. It’s like I’m bad luck!”

“Well then that’s their loss.”

The pair of them looked up to see their grandma standing in the doorway, leaning on her bright pink cane. She wasn’t a particularly old woman, not yet eighty, and she didn’t have that many wrinkles. Even so, she relied heavily on her cane, she couldn’t walk very far or very fast and she got frequent headaches. She seemed frail, but she had a spitfire personality. One minute she could be a sweet little old woman who would give out candy to kids in the supermarket, and the next she’d be shoving her cane in someone’s face hollering about how at nine years old she wrestled a wild boar to the ground and pinned it for twenty minutes until her father finally came around to kill it.

Grandma stepped further into the room and Kris immediately tried to stand up, forgetting that he had Sehun on his lap.

“Stay there darling,” She said with a wave of her hand. “I can walk this far.” She hobbled in and plopped herself down on Sehun’s bed. “Now come here, Peppermint.”

Sehun smiled a bit at the nickname. Only grandma was allowed to call him that, it had been his nickname since he could remember. He crawled over to her, snuggling into her side. Grandma put her arm around Sehun’s shoulder and hugged him tightly. Her grip was still strong and comforting.

“You listen up, there’s no such thing as bad luck. There’s unfortunate circumstances and people who are too dumb and stuck up to know the difference. Anyone who doesn’t want to be around you is a fool and a half, Peppermint. I know it feels rough, but someday you are going to find someone who will be your number one. If you can hold out until then, it’ll feel like you won the lottery.”

This was why Sehun adored his grandma. Anyone could have said that to him, but coming from her it felt like a promise that things would get better. Sehun sniffled and managed to pull a smile to his face.

“There’s my sweet boy,” She cooed, kissing Sehun’s forehead. “Now no more tears. Crying can be a good thing, but too much of it will hurt your soul.”

Sehun nodded and wiped his eyes. “Yes ma’am.”

“Ma’am,” she scoffed, pinching his cheek. “You cheeky thing.”

Kris had taken the day off from work to greet the social worker, so he didn’t have to leave before dinner and could actually cook for a change. He fried up some Shrimp, and then threw some taro into the pan with green pepper and onion. He also chopped up chives, carrots and a few mushrooms for Sehun’s lunch the following day. Kris kept promising to buy tuna and make Ahi Poke, and it seemed like he’d finally do it on Tuesday when he got his paycheck. Tomorrow though Sehun would make rice and throw the leftover shrimp in with the vegetables to make bibimbap.

They ate together that evening, grandma came into the kitchen and sat at the table with them. She complimented Kris on the shrimp, teasing him by wondering who he learned to cook from. Kris insisted that it was all natural talent, but even Sehun knew that it was grandma who taught him.

It was moments like this that grandma said made them ohana. Even though Kris had been adopted from China and Sehun from Korea and grandma was a Hawaiian native, it didn’t matter that they weren’t related by blood, they were still family. And family included those who weren’t around anymore, so their kitchen table had an extra seat out for the spirits of those who had left. Sometimes Sehun would stare at the empty chair and imagine his father sitting there, taking off his tie and sighing his work day away, or his mother with her student’s papers sprawled everywhere and looking for the glasses still on top of her head. Grandma said that as long as Sehun could remember even a little bit about them, they’d never leave him.

After dinner Grandma went back to bed, Sehun watched TV and Kris sat in his room reorganizing the folders on his laptop or something equally boring. Sehun fell asleep on the sofa and woke up at ten thirty in total darkness. He promptly ran to his room, threw on his pajamas and then dashed into Kris’ room, hugging his pillow to his chest. He hesitated outside the door, poking just his head in. Kris looked up from his laptop right away and scooted over on his bed, making room. Sehun scurried in, tossed his pillow down and burrowed under the sheets.

Kris clucked his tongue and tapped Sehun’s nose reproachfully. “You forgot sunscreen again,” he scolded. “You’re all burned up.”

Sehun ignored him and shifted closer, peering at Kris’ computer. “What are you doing?”

“Finance,” Kris answered, combing his fingers through Sehun’s hair.

Sehun bit his lip. “Kris? I got all A’s on my report card this year.”

“So you did,” Kris said.

“Can I have a baseball bat?” Sehun asked quietly. “I’m the boy I know without his own bat.”

Kris patted his head soothingly. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Kai shows up in the next chapter.

PS I love Kris and Sehun's grandma she's so kick !!!