Lay woke with a groan at the sound of loud voices. The sun blinded him when he opened his eyes, and for a minute or so he forgot where he was and tried to go back to sleep. He might’ve been able to if it wasn’t for the annoying sounds of cupboards being opened and closed and the clinging of glass against glass that was coming from the other side of the white divider separating him from the rest of the room.

“Would you quiet the down?!” He yelled, listening as the noise disappeared and the shuffling of feet replaced it. The boys that appeared near the end of the bed were a sight to behold; they looked like they ought to swing by the hospital instead of hanging around school. Their clothes were messy, even torn in some places, and big red marks covered pretty much every visible inch of their skin, already turning bluish in some places. Lay sighed tiredly before shooting his juniors a quick glare, getting of the bed in the process. “This is the infirmary you know? It’s supposed to be quiet.”

“S-sorry hyung…”

“So…” He looked them over again. “It’s that kid again huh? Who started it?” He knew exactly who they’d been in trouble with – the brat was a handful but he knew how to leave his stamp. Lay originally had no grudges with the younger, but once he was affected by it all he couldn’t not do something about it. When the boys in front of him started with their defensive explanations however his frustration grew. If the brat wasn’t been the instigator he couldn’t very much use that as an excuse to punish him, and if he didn’t have a good reason behind it there was no help to be found from his seniors either. He clicked his tongue as he pushed past the first-years, leaving them to their wounds.

The dirty hallway he entered did nothing to improve his mood; rather he could feel it worsen by the minute. He wasn’t even supposed to be there yet, but his parents just had to change the summer plans in the last minute – not that they went on vacation together, but normally they’d be away until at least a week of the new semester had gone by. Now he was forced to go to school from the first day like everyone else, and he wasn’t enjoying himself. Maybe that showed on his face, because when he walked along the corridor people were faster to scoot over than usual. Lay couldn’t help but smirk at this; last semester the first-years took a bit too long to figure out the connection between him and the sudden increase in accidents among the rowdier students, and he had to suffer through over a month of unknowing newcomers trying to pick fights with him. He settled for taking comfort in the fact that that was over, and refrained from thinking of the coming year’s hardships.

The problem at hand was that he had no idea where he was headed. He could go to his home classroom but he had no idea what the time was, and if class was about to start he didn’t want to get caught anywhere near there. The eastern roof was Kris’ favorite hangout but the two of them getting riled up about the first-years together was pretty pointless, not to mention he’d be reduced to a wet puddle in the heat outside – it was bad enough that the school had virtually no working ACs so the air refused to circulate properly, effectively leaving the inside of the school all humid and sticky; he didn’t need to make everything even more unbearable by willingly going out in the sun.

A sudden buzzing sound along with the annoying vibration of his phone brought him out of his bitter pondering, and he fished it out of his pocket to check if it was something he could just ignore – noting what the time was while he was at it. To his great disappointment however the sender was far from someone he could simply wave off. Luhan’s name blinked next to the new message icon, and Lay sighed before opening it. He seemed to have scared the few people in the corridor with his sudden laugh, but couldn’t care less; there was just no way he was going all the way to the student council office just to have a ‘pleasant chat’ with his hyung. He texted a simple ‘too far, sorry hyung’ back and continued walking for half a minute. He then realized the mistake of his answer – Luhan would never let him get away now that he’d confirmed that he was actually in school. How did the guy even know he was there in the first place? In any case it was time to go into hiding.

“Haunted hallway it is.” He mumbled and scarpered off. The haunted hallway was, as the name suggests, a supposedly haunted corridor in the second floor’s west wing. Lay had made sure that’s what people thought at least; even his affiliates – he wasn’t sure it was possible to actually refer to them as friends – had no idea that he’d set it all up; the sounds and moving shadows around nighttime were all tricks, and although he was pleased with them he found himself wondering many times how it was that high school students still believed in ghosts. Still, the whole point of it was to keep people away, which it did fairly well at least after sunset, so he wasn’t complaining.

 Even now, during lunch time, Lay arrived to find it completely deserted. Well, apart from the few people he could hear talking in one of the classrooms, but he was pretty sure they wouldn’t interfere with his hiding in the storage room anyway. If they did he’d get his revenge soon enough either way; just that thought made him smile.

“Hm? Now what?” He chuckled as he noticed a chair blocking the entrance to his hiding place. Who would lock someone up in there? Who would even take their time to lock someone up when they could just smack them around a bit instead? He kicked the chair away and pulled the door open, closing it gingerly behind him. His eyes went around the small dark space for a few second, but when he found he couldn’t see anyone with just the dim light streaming in from the small window at the far end of the room he reached for the light switch. At first he still couldn’t see anything apart from the ordinary shelves filled with light bulbs and toilet paper, and then his eyes landed on a figure on the floor. The boy was on his back with his uniform jacket under his head and arms over his eyes. Lay laughed at the sight, quickly quieting himself when he figured the other must be sleeping – after all, he knew better than anyone how irritating it was to be abruptly woken, especially by strangers. “Can’t be helped…” He sighed, deciding that he’d better lock the door to keep unwanted elders out.

Lay would never admit it to anyone, but during the twenty minutes he’d been in there before the other boy woke up, he’d actually found the uninvited second presence comforting. Now that the stranger was up he wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Mm? Oh, hello?” The boy mumbled drowsily and rubbed his eyes a bit before flashing a friendly smile and sitting up. Apart from his red hair there was no indication that the boy should be at a school like St. Andrew’s – pale skin without any notable scars or bruises, perfectly ironed uniform despite the slightly disheveled state it was in after the nap, a very bright and naïve expression. This all told Lay just one thing.

“You’re new here, aren’t you?” It wasn’t a question so much as a statement, but the boy answered politely nonetheless.

“Yes, my name’s Kim Junmyeon, it’s nice to meet you.” He held his hand out, but Lay just cocked a brow at the boy, who seemed to get the message. “So, uh…?” It was obvious what he wanted.

“…Lay.”

“Oh, okay? Then Lay-ssi, do you mind me asking why you’re in here?” Lay couldn’t help but scoff at the way he was being addressed.

“I could ask you the same; who threw you inside?” He retorted to avoid answering the question. The other chuckled under his breath, apparently finding the situation entertaining for one reason or another.

“Well, when I got here a couple of hours ago I sort of stepped in between two people who seemed to be arguing, which I know I shouldn’t have, but, you know… anyways, they couldn’t agree on who should ‘teach me a lesson’ so to speak, and sort of made up their minds to lock me in here. They were saying something about this corridor being haunted and whatnot, but I really can’t believe that… Anyhow it seems like they meant for me to stay the night in this room, but since you’re in here that should mean I can get out whenever I want. Thanks for that by the way.”

“… Wait, you let them lock you up without a fight?” Lay must’ve looked as confused as he was because his expression earned him a quiet laugh.

“If they were going to throw me in here either way I might as well be in one piece, right?”

“…Point taken. But I can’t let you leave for a while, not until a certain person has stopped looking for me.” He grumbled, and the smile on the other’s face faded just a bit.

“Really? Too bad, I’m starting to get a bit hungry.” Junmyeon chuckled wryly, to which Lay rolled his eyes. Of course he was.

“Pity you’re not leaving for a while then.”

“Hn, I’m sort of wishing you’d woken me up and let me out instead of keeping me in here.”

“Hm? I never wake a sleeping person… well okay, it happens but no, you don’t do that unless you have to.”

“And why not? Isn’t it normal for people to want to be woken up if they’re sleeping in school?”

“Do you know the golden rule? That’s why.”

“So you just don’t wake people because… you wouldn’t want them to wake you?”

“Exactly. But hey, I do it for them to – waking me can be a very painful experience.”

“Ugh, yeah, sure. I’m just going to go back to sleep then.”

“Be my guest.” Lay huffed as he watched the other boy curl up on his side, back towards him. The very polite character had changed half-way through their conversation, and it bugged him a bit. Then again what had he expected? At least the guy seemed more like the rest of the students now.

For a while he just sat there, listening to the steady breaths of the sleeping figure in front of him. It was strangely relaxing, and he soon found himself getting drowsy as well. He had been rudely awakened before; another couple of minutes of sleep couldn’t hurt, right?

“Hey, .”

Was he hearing things? A sharp kick in his side told him he wasn’t. His eyes snapped open and he practically flew off the ground. The other guy was gone, but to his great despair Luhan was there instead, glaring at him furiously, arms crossed and all.

“Care to explain yourself?” The blonde asked grumpily, sending a kick to his calf this time. Lay cleared his throat, desperately trying to think of an explanation… and then his phone buzzed. He mumbled a quick ‘thank you God’ before rummaging through his pockets, shooting Luhan an apologetic smile, not entirely honest though, and finally reading the message that had saved him. What it said however made him knit his brows in confusion.

“…borrowed some lunch money, thanks for the chat, have fun with your friend…?” He read aloud.

“What’s-” Lay held up a finger to signal for the other to wait a second, and he fished his wallet out of his back pocket. His jaw dropped at the emptiness – hadn’t he had at least eighty thousand won in there? What the hell was that crap about ‘lunch money’? “Lay, your face is scaring me.” The blonde said with a disturbed frown. Lay just scoffed – he’d been officially challenged, and thoroughly owned at that, by a freakin’ newcomer.

“Well played Junmyeon-ssi, well played…”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Can you tell I was struggling with this chapter? Haha, I really wasn't intending for Sulay to meet up so early on, but I just figured it was a good opportunity to properly introduce the two of them. 

The poster was made by DekciWWicked of Exotic Melody, thanks a bunch~! <3 

And of course lots of love to all subscribers! <3<3<3 *glomps* Extra hearts and hugsies for comments to GritzKauerholt, SHINeeChocolate, andreab990619 and Aliceee17! <3<3<3 Damn, I'm becoming all soft and mushy...

By the way, did I mention that I was totally distracted by a pairing I don't even ship? This clip pretty much had my head spinning for a good thirty minutes with stupid ideas that have no place in this story. If this is not fluffy enough to make me consider breaking up Hunhan and Taoris, I don't know what is. Really stupid lovely maknaes - it's not fair to mess with people's heads like that.

~Fi