Monday morning was a dreadful day for Lay, despite the fun he had the day before with Uncle Choi and Luna. He was more than glad to be able to meet new friends after only a two week period. Pacing back and forth to burn the ever glowing energy in him, he tried to stop imagining how boring his homeroom teacher, Mr. Kim, was. Needless to say, the boy was already bored thinking of his day before he was even half through it.

Lay checked the news on some channels and pulled off a contented smile as he heard the weatherman tell the viewers the sun was going to shine for the following couple of days. He tossed away the remote and stuffed his school bag with the food his mother made for him the night before. 

His sister, Fei Yen’s, high-pitched dolphin cry echoed from room to room, wishing for his mother’s attention. Looking up from the kitchen, his mother called Lay while she prepared a feeding bottle. "Can you give your Father his breakfast, please?” The woman placed a tray with jam inside toasted bread, coffee, and a fresh green apple on his hands.

Lay nodded unwillingly and stared at the apple, as if it would peel its skin through his eyes. Maybe it was his intuition that held him back from immediately putting up his usual soft smile on his face since, for a moment, his expression remained that of a frown. Realizing his insincere acceptance, Mrs. Zhang lifted up her hand and patted Lay’s shoulder lightly. “He got up quite early again.”

“I see,” he declared and wandered towards the stairs. The boy shook his head and curled up his lips while humming a random song that came to mind - a contrast to his head as he forced his hands to stop gripping the tray excessively.

His mother smiled gently and called him with her harp like voice. Watching him carefully turn his head with her bright eyes, she approached him and patted his hand. “He might be busy working and you know he doesn’t eat when he’s deep into it.“

Lay nodded again as a silent answer, looking rather blankly at her.

His mother pointed at the door upstairs. “You can put it before the door, dear,”  she told him and patted the boy’s head. Fei Yen gave another scream, desperately crying for their mother and she headed towards her room, but not without another assuring smile.  

There was a hidden message behind her request according to her slowed down voice and Lay could only guess it was because of something he didn’t like.  

"I know," he said keeping himself from grinding his teeth while he tried to hold his raging temper without losing his calm posture which was already loosening up the second his memories went wild. He turned around and followed the steps upwards.

“You know that your Father won’t let them do something to us.” Lay stopped midtrack as the woman continued, “Give him a chance, won’t you?”

Her words were final, although her tone was soft like clouds floating in a baby blue summer sky. He could never understand how his mother retained her composure as easily as breathing the air.

“I know,” he repeated in a mumble rather to himself than to his mother, as if he wanted to assure himself what she said was true.

Lay balanced his way through racks of old books arranged according to the alphabet. As far as he could remember, when his father didn’t work or go training physically with him, he would stick his nose in a book and push the slim spectacle frames of his glasses back with his fingers from time to time. 

He remembered his mother telling him his father didn’t read books that much before. In fact, he was the last person she’d thought of being able to hold a book for more than three seconds. He had never read any books, nor did he touch any page out of the shelves left and right from him. He just sat there, did his homework, and left after a short hello and goodbye.

His mother’s curiosity grew each day so it wasn’t a surprise that she directly sat next to his father the day he visited the bookstore once again.

No sooner did Lay reach the last door on the second floor than he heard his father’s dominant voice resounding through the door. Lay wasn’t someone who’d eavesdrop on somebody, thus he put the tray down right away to hinder himself hearing more than he was supposed to.

“…Lay will be eighteen in two weeks.”

The boy abruptly stopped and gazed at the door like an x-ray, trying to see through the barrier while his grip tightened.

“Yes, I know…”

Without giving a second glance, he stormed down, leaving the tray clashing onto the ground.

The last thing he wanted to know was the confirmation of what he hoped wouldn’t happen anytime soon. Nonetheless, he knew better than to brood about it and tried to pulled his lips up.

He failed and was only able to do it after several attemps.

The sun was warm on his back when Lay hurried to the front of the school, smiling brightly when he noticed both Amber and Luna stepping inside, waving at Kris as he held the door open for them.  Lay was running just a little bit behind but at least he wasn’t late and he took the steps two at a time before he rushed inside, moving quickly to catch up to them.

“Morning!” he called when he ran abreast of his group, startling Luna who jerked in surprise as she shifted into Amber.

“Hey!  Watch it cuz,” Amber grinned, steadying Luna with a shake of her head before she waved at Lay in greeting.  “Hey Lay.  You’re usually early aren’t you?” she asked easily.

“Yeah,” Lay agreed, rubbing the back of his neck in discontent he quickly pushed aside after listening to his father’s conversation, but also embarrassment as he looked at Luna out of the side of his eye, feeling slightly bad that he’d surprised her.  She’d lost the startled look and was at least giving him the tiniest of smiles but she was letting the others do the talking.

“But you’re here and that’s the main thing,” Kris nodded sagely, clapping Lay on the shoulder with his hand.

“There’s Victoria,” Luna pointed, granting Lay another quiet smile and nod before she hurried over to the taller woman next to the lockers.

“So Lay!” Amber grinned, throwing her arm over his shoulder, the motion awkward due to the height difference.  “You ready for the quiz today?” she asked, completely serious as she pulled his head down to speak into his ear in an almost conspiratorial manner. “You know Suho – I mean Mr. Kim would give you his judging look, if not?”

“Quiz?” he stopped and blinked at her with wide eyes, feeling his heart race at the mention. The thought of his classroom teacher giving him an hour of detention for a bad mark was bad enough. Imagining Mr. Kim humiliating him or smacking him with one of his chalk would be worse. Then he noticed Amber was trying to keep a straight face and he looked over in surprise when Kris smacked her gently in the back of the head.

“Stop teasing him like that,” he chided with a snort.

“What?” Lay exclaimed, mouth hanging open partially as he looked between Amber and Kris, relying on the taller male to confirm it was just a joke.

“Hah!  You should see your face,” Amber clapped, shaking her head in amusement.

Kris rolled his eyes and simply patted Lay on the shoulder.  “Don’t mind her.  She’s been dying to do that to somebody this year, besides, we’ll prepare for competition today. It’s one of her crazy phrase during a school term,” he explained dryly with a disappointed glare at the young woman.

Lay laughed nervously at the admission and let himself be propelled along until they reached the lockers where Victoria and Luna were conversing quietly, the two seemingly more at ease around each other than they were in the larger group setting.  “So what is it about? What kind of competition is it going to be?” Lay asked with a glance around the small gathering.

Luna shrugged at his question while Victoria remained quiet, her expression attentive but slightly guarded and Kris just sighed, equally at a loss.  “I guess we’ll find out!” Amber chuckled, glancing at the clock in the hallway with a frown when she saw it was almost time for class.  “Gotta go!” she exclaimed, waving at the trio clustered at the locker.  “See you guys at lunch?” she called, tugging on Lay’s sleeve to get him moving.

“Yep,” Luna smiled in response, giving them both a wave as she nodded at Victoria, earning a smile and quiet agreement in turn.

“See you later!” Lay agreed as he backed up, very nearly running into someone else in the process.

“Hey!  Watch it!” they yelped, catching Lay by the arms to stop him in place, long fingers surprisingly strong wrapped around his biceps.

“Yah!” Lay exclaimed, whirling around to see who he’d nearly stepped on, blinking in surprise when he had to look up at the student who always had dark circles under his eyes.  Wasn’t his name… Tao?  “Sorry!” he apologized quickly, stepping back to put a bit of space between them, glad to be getting away from the irritated grip.

“Just watch where you’re going next time,” Tao grumbled with a frown, giving him a distasteful once over before he glanced over Lay’s shoulder briefly.  His keen, dark brown eyes narrowed slightly as he focused on something behind Lay with a strange sort of intensity, but when he looked back at the shorter male, his lip curled up in a partial sneer.

Slightly confused and wondering what he’d done to deserve such an expression, Lay looked behind himself to see what had caught Tao’s eye and only noticed Luna, Victoria, and Kris as they were starting to shuffle off.  “Sure,” Lay trailed off, jerking to follow Tao’s sudden, mute departure when the other male simply left him standing there without another word.  Slightly put off, Lay frowned and hurried to catch up to Amber in their classroom, glad that they had unofficial but mostly accepted ‘assigned’ seats already.

“Slow poke,” Amber made a face at him as he sat down in front of her.

He just shrugged apologetically, taking a quick look around the room to see that he wasn’t the last one in, though the bell rang while the last of the stragglers made their way into the classroom.  Not for the first time, he lamented that Luna was in another homeroom but at least there was Amber.  And Luhan in the desk beside him, to be fair.  Speaking of Luhan… the young man had his head propped in his hand on top of the desk and appeared to be asleep.

“Luhan,” Lay called softly, reaching across the space between them to poke the other male in the shoulder.

“Hm?” Luhan grunted, sitting upright as his hand slapped the top of the desk.  “Oh,” he blinked, realizing what had happened, the utterance followed by a sheepish smile as he gave Lay a grateful nod.

And then class was starting with their instructor, Mr. Kim droning on about something or other. His dark eyes kept flicking from the book he was reading out of to the rest of the class, scanning to see if they were paying attention and from times to times to the window, as if he was expecting for something coming from outside.

He had a weird way of holding the book; keeping it very close onto his chest and nearly let half of his face drown behind the pages. The man's slightly stooping position made his head hide under his oddly high lifted shoulders.  Almost idly, he ran a hand through his short, dark brown hair and sighed, appearing to focus on Lay for the briefest of moments, expression slightly pensive.

But then it was past and Mr. Kim was turning to write something on the board, leaving Lay feeling slightly unnerved by the unexpected scrutiny, asking himself whether he had something on his shirt. Just to be sure, he glanced down but when he saw nothing amiss, he frowned and rolled his eyes, leaning forward over the desk as he struggled to pay attention.  It was just really difficult when the day was so nice outside and he had the pleasant memories of the weekend to distract him.  At least before that conversation he’d overheard from his father at any rate.