Kyungsoo feels good again as the scene opens. Dresses are a bit… drafty. He looks down at his tattered trousers. Typical, that they would give him the poor role. Guys and girls alike are squealing at seeing him crossdress (or… they think he’s crossdressing).

‘Action!’ Jongin is sitting on a ridiculously high chair at the back.

‘Umm… I am so hungry…’ Kyungsoo was just told to be in Jongin’s exact words ‘cute’ before he went in.

Sehun marched in, his clothes casual and… very posh. A huge rip was heard as Jongdae desperately tried to make a convincing ‘poor’ last minute outfit. Sehun walked on with completely dirt free clothes (they smelled of strong jasmine, as well) but one of his trouser legs was half gone. Kyungsoo could just hear the thuds of girls fainting. ‘Don’t worry!’ Sehun made no effort to do the accent (Kyungsoo wasn’t even sure if any of them knew the play) ‘I am the Artful Dodger. So called so because I am a master of tax evasion.’

‘Pickpocketing.’ Kyungsoo whispered discreetly.

‘and pickpocketing of course.’ Sehun carried on so smoothly Kyungsoo was wondering if he had hallucinated Sehun’s last sentence.

‘Like how I just stole your handkerchief.’

Kyungsoo played along ‘Where’s it gone? It was my most valued possession.’

Sehun took out a fancy handkerchief with the distinct letters ‘SO?’ on it.

‘Funny because those are my initials.’

‘Aaaaand, the my nickname for my mother.’

‘Oh, what was her name?’

‘Susan. Umm… So-san. A little joke… we had.’

Jongdae gave Kyungsoo a thumbs up from backstage.

‘And if you are hungry, then I have an old acquaintance called Fagin.’ Sehun’s voice couldn’t have been more upper class.

‘Who is this Fagin?’ To properly get into character, Kyungsoo thought he would make his voice an octave higher (he was trying for the money, and for freedom.)

Some more people squealed at the sudden character change.

‘Umm, he’s someone who helps the street kids like us.’

‘And will he be nice?’

‘Of course, you’ll be like family.’

Jongin was frantically miming opera singing from the back (it was time for the song) but Sehun pointedly ignored him.

‘What should I consider myself?’ Kyungsoo sung the last bit.

‘I am not singing.’ Sehun whispered before saying ‘You should consider yourself a little boy, otherwise I should be quite concerned.’

‘I’ll consider myself at home, consider myself part of the family.’

‘A bit presumptuous.’ Sehun muttered in the background.

The next three minutes were unbelievably awkward for Kyungsoo (doing all the changes were very confusing on the spot) while Sehun just did half-assed dancing in the background.

Suho stepped on ‘If we waste any more time, we won’t have any time for the pickpocketing, Dodger.’

Kyungsoo felt his cue ‘Sir, I don’t want no part in no pickpocketing.’

‘Well, you’ve got to pick a pocket or two.’ The worst part was Suho looked like he believed what he was saying.

‘I’ve got to pick a pocket or two?’

‘Well, you see on average, a person gets pickpocketed ten times in their life.’ Suho began ‘So it’s most probably due their way. Also, the money people put in their pockets is approx. 0.05% of their income on average, so it’s not like you’re doing them any harm. Think of it as another form of collecting tax. And if you pick at least 40 pockets a day, like my Dodger, then on average you will have about 200 pounds, a very substantial income. Add that to not having to pay tax, what we are doing is illegal anyway, you get about 50 pounds more than someone who has gone to university, is well established in their field, and works the whole day.  Pretty good I say.’

‘Well… you can’t really argue with the logic… I think?’ Kyungsoo had expected for a moment that Suho would burst into song.

Kyungsoo glanced up at the time. There wasn’t any. If the rest took any more than 6 minutes, he would be late for class.

Kyungsoo made actions to Jongin, who in turn shoved Luhan towards the stage. His dress was bright red, and so was his lips, and he had also decided to dye his hair red. Unfortunately, some dye remained on his hands. The overall effect was quite… scary. Luhan looked like a serial killer.

Still, the girls squealed. Crossdressing, for some reason seemed a main theme here.

‘Hi I’m Nancy, I like your attitude.’

‘Yep, do you have a lover called Bill?’

‘Umm, yes?’

Obviously Jongin had caught on, because Kris stepped on stage.

‘Do you like my Nancy?’ These were probably the most words Kris had spoken all day.

‘Yes I do.’ Kyungsoo said it immediately.

Kris started pretend-beating Kyungsoo up. The play didn’t quite go like this, but who cared?

As Kris was turning on Luhan, Tao stepped in.

‘DON’T HURT NANCY!’ Everyone gasped. Plot twist.

Kyungsoo looked up. 2 minutes.

He tried to tackle Tao to the ground but Tao did something which meant Kyungsoo ended up on the floor while Tao was standing perfectly solidly. ‘You can’t!’ Tao seemed a bit hysterical now.

Jongin slid into the middle ‘And Nancy lived happily ever after, the end!’

‘Am I the only one who that went a too quickly for?’ Jongdae emerged as everyone dispersed (not to go to classes, they were rich enough to bunk all the time).

Kris hugged the crying Tao in his arms. ‘ Tao loved Oliver when he was little and he hated the Nancy dying part the most.’

‘And.’ Jongin started ‘We forgot to tell you Tao is a genius martial artist. So, that’s why we had to stop it.’

Kyungsoo started to run for class (he didn’t really give a crap anyway) when Jongin held him back.

‘Where are you going?’ He looked sad, and had his puppy eyes look.

‘Jongin is right, but for a different reason.’ Suho said ‘You need to help us tidy up this mess.’

Kyungsoo looked around the littered room with a sigh.

‘And I will be off to class because I cannot afford to miss one.’ Suho left.

‘Just tell your teacher you were sick or something.’ Luhan offered.

Kyungsoo sighed again as he bunked his first lesson ever.

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AN - While I was writing this, I realised just how well Tao's character fit Honey.... uncanny... and all the chapters seem to end with sighing.