Chapter 12

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You woke up earlier than you usually did the next morning. You took a quick shower and did your morning routine. After making sure your books for today’s schedule were inside your bag and your uniform was impeccably smooth of crinkles, you headed for your kitchen to make breakfast for yourself and your grandmother. The house was still quiet, maybe she was still asleep.

When you were done with the breakfast you started making two boxes of lunch. You smiled remembering Baekhyun and the tuna sandwich you ate the day before. You hoped he would like the lunch you were going to give him today.

You were halfway finishing two lunchboxes of kimbap when the picture of a small child with big, pretty chocolate eyes popped into your head. He was crying alone between the buzz of people wearing black around him; in the center of the room was a sleek wooden coffin with his daddy laying inside it. For some reason you couldn’t erase the image off your mind since the minute you started thinking about it.

Suddenly you felt suffocated and you placed a hand on the counter top to support yourself, you were never immune to the stories about children losing their parents. It was probably because you knew how exactly it felt like.

Did little Kris really go through that? Because you could picture the situation really well. It happened to you once. You were once crying on the floor between two coffins. They were your mom and dad’s. People around you were wearing black and patting your head wishing you to be strong.

It wasn’t a good memory, but at least at the time you had your grandmother and grandfather to comfort you. Did little Kris have anyone to do that for him? He was only five. And he’d never even seen his parents alive.

Sighing heavily you reached for the cupboard to get another lunchbox. You got more ingredients from the refrigerator and began making another serving of kimbap. You didn’t know why you were making him lunch when all he did was making you live a hell.

Maybe it was the empathy you felt for him, knowing your weak spot was seeing someone else’s sadness. Or maybe it was the expressionless face he wore yesterday when he was telling you about this heartbreaking story. Maybe numbness was all he could feel now.

You shook your head and began rolling the thin piece of seaweed with rice, eggs, meat and chopped vegetables in it. Well, whatever. Kris better be grateful for the kimbap you were making him.

The school was still deserted of students when you arrived there. It wasn’t strange. The bell indicating the start of the school wasn’t going to ring in half an hour, and since the school was just messed up, the students seemed to fancy being fashionably late.

A girl with short bob haircut was sitting quietly at the corner of your classroom. You squinted your eyes to see the girl’s face but her raven colored hair was in the way. She was ducking her head low, and it seemed like she was nodding off. You gasped when you stepped closer to her figure.

“Jinri?”

Jinri lifted her head and regarded you with expressionless eyes. “Hey,” she said as you sat yourself on the seat beside her. “You’re in this class?”

“Yes. You, too?” you asked back. She nodded. You began scrambling off with apology. “Jinri, about yesterday. I’m so sorry, I lost you in the crowd. Where were you? I didn’t see you in the cafeteria.”

She waved it off. “No worries. I was just in the library. You know, cafeteria is just too noisy and I need a quiet place to take a nap.” She said pausing for a second. Then stated, “I didn’t know you were close with the tall blond boy.”

You didn’t need to ask who she meant by ‘the tall blond boy’ in particular. You shifted uncomfortably. “We’re not close, Jinri.”

As you said that, you felt the general shape of three lunchboxes poking your waist through the fabric of your bag. One of them belonged to said tall blond boy. You began questioning yourself what you were thinking when you decided to make the conceited guy a lunch.

“So he just came around and told you he was interested in you?” she wasn’t being cynical, she simply wanted to know.

You tightened your grip at your backpack strap. “I don’t know what had possessed him that made him say that. It was totally out of the blue, really. He was just... making fun of me. I think. We’re not close at all.”

You felt weird again. Did making him a lunchbox make the both of you close to each other?

Fortunately Jinri didn’t probe about it. Either she’d noticed you were uncomfortable with her questions or she really didn’t care, she brushed it off and started asking whether you always went to school this early. You didn’t mind the change of topic.

The second bell rang in no time and you filed out of the classroom with the rest of the students into the hallway. The first period went in a blur and fortunately the class wasn’t as noisy as usual. After examining your schedule with Jinri’s so the both of you would know which classes you two would share for the rest of the year, you parted ways with her so you could get to your Chemistry class and Jinri would go to her History.

You stopped in front of the classroom that had ‘Room 304’ sign above the door and looked inside. The room was already crowded with people but you could easily spot two dark brown heads between them.

A bored looking Baekhyun was sitting at the far end of the room, checking at his cellphone, with Chanyeol beside him scrolling across the song list in his iPod, a pair of earpiece in his ears. You didn’t know they’d be in your class. A grin spread on your face as you strode over to them.

“Baekhyun! Chanyeol!” you grinned happily. The boys looked up from their gadgets and grinned too.

“Sarang,” Baekhyun said. Chanyeol was waving his hand at you.

You were about to take the seat beside Baekhyun when you noticed a girl sitting on it. You glanced at the seat in front of him only to find it was occupied as well, by a girl, and then realized it was pretty much the same about the rest of the seats around his and Chanyeol’s. Oh, you forgot how they were like magnets to girls.

Since the only vacant seats in the room were the ones in the front row, you ended up taking one of them and placing your bag on the desk. As you did, someone pulled back the seat on your right side. You heard the small protest of the legs of the chair on your other side, scraping against the floor as another one pulled it back as well. It was Baekhyun and Chanyeol, they were taking the seats on your either sides with each their backpack strap slung over one shoulder. You blinked at the both of them.

“Um, guys?” you said.

“They’re noisy.” Baekhyun said simply without gesturing to anyone in particular. But you knew who he meant by ‘they’. You could hear the soft sighs of exasperation from the girls at the back, as if Chanyeol and Baekhyun moving seats was making their lives incomplete.

You started a small conversation with Baekhyun as Chanyeol decided he was more interested in the songs in his iPod. The conversation didn’t go very far though, because a minute later the teacher strolled into the room and immediately the class was started.

Chemistry was as easy as looking at the back of their hands for Baekhyun and Chanyeol. Mr. Go was teaching a fast paced Stoichiometry, his face buried into his thick, dusty chemistry book as he droned on and on about the formulas and theory, but it wasn’t a problem for the two boys. They were born with the brains – as werewolves were given with high IQ level – and they’d gone through stoichiometry once, simply because they’d gone through a senior year in high school and just graduated two years before.

But of course, Baekhyun mustn’t let it slip out of his mouth when you asked him how he seemed to have easily gone through all the problems when you were struggling with the third problem on your Chem book. The reason? Well, it would do no good for their incognito.

Baekhyun scratched his head, stumbling for a lie, as the three of you walked down the hallway after the subject was over. They were on your either sides again, Baekhyun shoving his hands in his pockets while Chanyeol looked amused at your question.

“Um, chemistry is just my favorite subject, I guess.” He said finally.

You pursed your lips. “Chemistry is one of my favorite subjects, too. But sometimes it’s just quite hard to understand.”

Chanyeol gave you a boyish grin. “It won’t be that hard if you’re going through it once again. It’s not our first time learning high school Chemistry, so it’s just like a repetition to us.”

“A repetition?” you asked with a small frown on your face. You looked up at Chanyeol confusedly, missing Baekhyun’s glare over your head at the other boy. Chanyeol kept the grin, feeling pleased that he was messing with Baekhyun, and shrugged lightly in response to Baekhyun’s glare.

“Like he said, it’s just our favorite subject. You do what you like, right?” he said.

“Ah,” you nodded, still feeling something weird.

Baekhyun was eager to change the subject. “So I heard you’re going to peer tutor Kris Hyung?”

You blinked at the mention his name then nodded, resigned. “Yes.” You looked up at Baekhyun. “Aren’t you good at Math, Baekhyun?”

“Well,” Baekhyun thought over his answer for a while. “No, actually. Not really.”

“Really?” you brightened up and said almost pleadingly, “You can join our tutoring session if you want.”

Baekhyun looked at you. He would want to. Unless Kris had another plan in his head and wanted to handle this whole black pearl thing by himself. He usually didn’t like it if someone intervened his plan, which usually was going to go just fine only by his own.

But he didn’t want to sound like he was rejecting the offer either, so he said instead, “You don’t feel comfortable around Hyung.”

That caught you off guard.

“I... I, uh, it’s not that– I don’t– I mean–” you felt blush crept up your neck and ducked your head low. “Is it that obvious?”

Baekhyun chuckled a little. “It’s that obvious.” He said. “Why do you not feel comfortable around him? He’s very nice to talk to. He’s very mature and intelligent-” he caught himself. “Aside from Math, that is. He’s good at everything except for Math.”

You were still frowning, thinking back to when Kris was trying to scare you in the darkness the first time he gave you a ride home from your workplace. He was laughing his head off when you screamed the moment he grabbed your wrist creepily. You rolled your eyes. Yeah. That was very mature.

“He’s very sarcastic.” You said to Baekhyun.

“At times.” He agreed, smiling. “But most of the time he’s quiet. Very quiet. He thinks before he does something and he makes sure he knows what he does. Like I said, he’s very mature.”

You looked at Baekhyun’s solemn expression. Baekhyun made him sound like he was a really cool guy.

“Don’t worry,” Baekhyun said stopping in front of an English Lit classroom. “He wouldn’t be that difficult. Hyung is a little unpredictable, but he’s not that hard to like either.”

You nodded, then looked at Baekhyun again. “Wait. You call Kris Hyung?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun said not grasping what you were trying to say.

“But we’re in the same year.” You said frowning.

There was a pause.

“Oh,” realization dawned on him. He blinked and caught himself again. Only a little late this time. “That... I, uh, he’s older than me.”

You gave him an ‘Of course?’ look.

“I got into pre-school a little early,” he paused again, “And I, uh, I skipped a year. You know, I was quite... bright. Back then. In middle school.”

An unconvinced look was plastered over your face. “Um,”

Before you could ask another question Baekhyun hurriedly placed his hands on your shoulder and pushed you gently to the general direction of the adjacent hallway.

“You’re going to be late!” He laughed nervously. “For your next class. I’ll walk you to your class. What’s your next subject? Do you know where the room is?”

You blinked twice at Baekhyun’s flustered state. You opened your mouth to answer him but it wasn’t your voice that came out.

“She has Math,” said a deep voice, and then another arm slipped around your shoulders. Baekhyun removed his hands from your shoulders immediately. When you looked up, Kris was already materialized by your other side and smirking down at you. “With me.”

Your eyes widened. “How did you-”

“Mrs. Kim. You’re my peer tutor because I’m in the same class with you.” Kris said, then looked at Baekhyun. An unspoked communication ensued between them. “I’ll cut from here.” He said as if cutting in a dance in a ballroom.

“Sure.” Baekhyun said with a somewhat relieved smile. “I’m going to my class then. See you at lunch.”