(+) ni hao, ni zhidao Luhan he ta de pengyou hui shi zai nali?

  - hello, do you know where Luhan and his friends would be at?

(+) wo-wo-wo xiang tamen yinggai shi zai jiaochang, ruguo wo mei nong cuo de

  - i-i-i think they should be at the school field, if i am not mistaken

(+) ah, wo mingbaile. wo keyi zhidao fangxiang dao xuexiao de chang?

  - ah, i see. may i know the directions to the school's field?

(+) zhishi zhixing he zuo zhuan, dang ni kan dao yige jiaoluo

  - just go straight and turn left when you see a corner

(+) hao ba, xiexie ni zheme duo!

  - okay, thank you so much!

(+) bushi wenti!

  - not a problem!

(!!!) Sorry for the long Chinese conversations, but please bear with me, and remember, Luhan goes to an All Chinese Boys School, correct? So that explains why everyone uses Chinese frequently on school grounds. Long chapter ahead! It took me 3000 words and 7 pages T_T

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

One week passed since that day’s fateful incident. Occasionally, Alana would try to talk to her friends before Chinese class would start, but all six of them would ignore her. She suddenly lost appetite on everything from that day onwards. Meals were skipped, sleep was deprived and paintings, mountain of paintings grew.

She walked across the school’s hallway with slumped shoulders. Her footsteps were big and lazy, while her attention was on her already healed right palm, only. She stopped by at her locker to pick up a few things and sighed in relief when she remembered today’s Chinese class was cancelled due to the club meetings in school today.

“Morning, sunshine!” Brightly, Jongin greeted. Alana closed her locker shut and gave him a small smile. “Hey.” Jongin pouted, “Why the long face?” *Because of you, stupid.* “Oh, nothing. I got a few things in my head.” She said, before taking light steps away from her locker and towards her first class, Chemistry.

__________

It was currently break time, and Alana was nowhere to be seen, --- at least, in the cafeteria that is. Jongin and his clique grew worried. “This is very unusual of her.” Baekhyun, who grew comfortable to Alana’s company, said. “Let’s go look for her, Kai.” Chanyeol suggested. “All of you, too.” Joonmyeon commanded, before standing up and exiting the cafeteria.

Jongin worriedly bit his lips and sighed. *Where can she be?* “Don’t worry, Kai. We’ll find her.” Kyungsoo patted his back in sympathy. “I hope so too.” Jongin said and rushed away, towards the field in search of Alana.

__________

The wooden doors of the dance studio creek open when Sehun pushed it. He muttered a ‘thank god’ to himself before hollering at the hallway, “Hyungs! I’ve found her!” Loud footsteps filled in the dance studio’s silent air as they came closer and closer. Jongin pushed through his friends to take a look at Alana.

She was staring into an empty space with a blank page from a scrapbook in one hand and a pencil on the other. Her back was leaned away from the sofa and her bag looked like it had been carelessly thrown onto the floor. “Alana, are you okay?” Worriedly, Jongin moved towards her and kneeled down in front of her.

When she finally realized that there were people present, she rapidly blinked her eyes and tilted her head a bit. “What are you guys doing here?” Eyes furrowed, Alana questioned. “No, what are you doing here? You were not even with us during break!” Sehun bit back in disbelief. “Ah. It’s break time already?” She said in a questioning matter, but no one answered her.

Alana glanced at her watch. *Forty more minutes.*

She gulped. “Can I ask you guys to do something for me?”

“What is it?” Jongin hovered his hand over hers.

“Dance for me.”

And that reply caught everyone off-guard.

__________

“Okay, that’s it. What’s up? What is it that has been bothering your mind?” Baekhyun said and settled down on a seat next to Alana on the sofa. “What do you mean?” She raised her brows. “Don’t act with us right now; we can totally see that there’s something bothering you.” Suho wiped his sweat away with a handkerchief and sat down on the wooden floor between Kyungsoo and Chanyeol.

“Yeah noona, you weren’t even focusing when we were dancing!” Sehun complained and sat down on the floor, directly in front of Alana. Jongin took his rightful seat next to her and she was now in between Baekhyun and Jongin. “Let me see what you were drawing.” Jongin yanked the scrapbook away from her hands.

“Hey, don’t!” She exclaimed and sighed.

A very long silence followed as Jongin stared at the sketch. His eyes were moving from Alana to the sketch, one second after another. “What is it, Kai?” Kyungsoo finally asked. Jongin snorted. “See it for yourself.” He threw the book towards Kyungsoo and growled, lowly.

“Wait, aren’t these people…” Joonmyeon’s voice trailed off. “Oh look, that’s Xiumin and Chen!” Chanyeol said, recognizing the two figures. “Let me see that.” Baekhyun snatched the book away from them and placed it gently on his lap. “Oh, ho.” He smirked.

“What does this boy, ---what was his name again?” Baekhyun paused to place a finger onto his chin. “Luhan.” Alana answered for him. “Right. What does this boy, Luhan, means to you anyway?” He repeated his question. Alana could feel Jongin stiffen.

She abducts the scrapbook away from Baekhyun and hugged it to her chest. “They are all my friends, --- were, actually.” “What happened?” Joonmyeon continue to press on that matter. Alana jabbed a thumb towards Jongin’s direction. “He happened.” She grimly replied.

“Hey, don’t blame me. I am your boyfriend after all, and that Luhan dude had to go all protective over you? Pfft.” Jongin defended himself. “Ahh, Kai showed up after Chinese class didn’t him?” Kyungsoo started. “And you didn’t tell your friends about your relationship with Kai.” Chanyeol  kept the ball rolling. Half-heartedly, Alana nodded.

“I think they’re mad.” Sehun told. “Well no , Sherlock.” Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “They were my only friends…” Alana howled and closed her face with the palms of her hands. “Hey, than what are we?” Baekhyun placed a hand on her shoulder.

“You called me a .” Alana pointed out.

The whole clique erupted into a laugh.

Baekhyun awkwardly laughed and scratched his neck. “Well, uhm, about that well, ---“

“But his point is, if you need a shoulder to lean on, you always have us, alright?” Joonmyeon gave her a smile. It didn’t occur to Alana until that moment that Joonmyeon had a very beautiful smile, and it reminded her or Yixing’s.

”I guess.” Alana tried to smile.

“Urgh, this is not working. What do you want us to do?” Sehun asked. “Punch them?” Chanyeol offered. “Embarrass them?” Baekhyun recommended. “Maybe we should tie them up and throw them into a river.” Jongin said, monotonously. “I sort of like that idea.” Sehun fist bumped.

“No, no, no. None of you will do any of that.” Alana shook her head.

“Then?” Kyungsoo challenged.

“When time allows it, can you guys … befriend each other?” Alana requested.

The room burst into declination.

“Guys, guys. Stop. It won’t be hard work anyway, since we are already friends with Xiumin and Chen?” Joonmyeon tried reasoning out. “But hyung, they are Chinese!” Baekhyun stressed on the word. “Hyung, that’s pretty racist.” Sehun folded his arm and tsked.

Alana chuckled at this sight. Both cliques are much more similar then they thought.

“Okay shush. We can do that. But I think Alana, what you should do first is ask forgiveness from them.” Kyungsoo advised. “You mean, say sorry?” Alana looked at him, confused. “Exactly.” Kyungsoo nodded. “Woah, woah, woah. Why does my girl have to say sorry to a bunch of middleclass Asians?” Jongin objected. Alana rolled her eyes.

“Uh, Kai you do realize that you’re Asian too, right?” Chanyeol laughed. The group laughed along with him.

“Well you did say that there are your friends and you were keeping a big secret from them. As much as they don’t like Kai, it was wrong for you to not tell to them about your relationship with him.” Kyungsoo explained and sent Jongin a mean glare. “I’ve tried talking to them, but they all ignored me.” Alana whined. “Then try harder.” Suho urged.

”Alright, I’ll drop by their school today after the club meeting.” She informed them. “Do you want me to come with you?” Jongin asked. “Nooooo thank you. It’ll be world war two if you go!” Baekhyun joked. Everyone laughed but Jongin. “Right.” He said under his breath. The bell rang, indicating that break time was over.

Before everyone left, Alana spoke up, “Hey guys?”

“Yeah?” They all chorused.

“Thanks.” She grinned and left.

But little did they know, the real World War II was about to come.

__________

Alana grumbled inwardly as she sauntered away from the art room. Her art club teacher advisor, ---who also happens to be her art teacher, ---just told the club members that they were going to hold an exhibition next Monday, which was only four days away. As the president of the Art Club, Alana had many duties to complete.

She jotted down mentally the things that she needed to do today which was a whole load of things such as; typing and photocopying out the permission letter and distributing them to the students chosen to showcase their work of art, searching for the exhibition materials and easels to put up the canvases, decorating the Auditorium where the exhibition will be held, and many, many more things to be done.

When she arrived by the school’s big, iron gates, she looked at the school across dubiously, but Kyungsoo was absolutely correct. She should have never hid about anything to her friends, ---including about whom she really was, but that matter to her seemed unavoidable. If she wanted to settle it the right way, she wasn’t going to back down and become a coward.

*This is it.* She bit her lips and marched in. The guards were dozing off at the guardhouse so Alana took this opportunity to sneak in. She felt nervous because this was an all boys’ school, after all. She aimlessly strolled along the hallways, drawing attention of the boys that were by their lockers. Most of the students were Chinese, Alana noted.

She finally gave in to asking one of the students on Luhan’s whereabouts. She stopped her tracks at a boy who was currently stuffing some books into his locker. He seemed nice. And so Alana said,“Ni hao, ni zhidao Luhan he ta de pengyou hui shi zai nali?” The said boy gawked at her with surprise. Of course, who would think a Malay girl could speak Chinese so well?

“Wo-Wo-Wo xiang tamen yinggai shi zai jiaochang, ruguo wo mei nong cuo de.” He stuttered. “Ah, wo mingbaile. Wo keyi zhidao fangxiang dao xuexiao de chang?” Alana acknowledged. “Zhishi zhixing he zuo zhuan, dang ni kan dao yige jiaoluo.” He explained. “Hao ba, xiexie ni zheme duo!” Alana exclaimed before scurrying away quickly.

“Bushi wenti!” The boy hollered and watched Alana step away.

Alana waved without looking back, afraid that she would have missed the boys. *Go straight and turn left when a corner appears.* She chanted in her mind and sharply turned left to see a glass door. Through the transparent doors she could see the field laid out in front of her eyes. Without further ado, she pushed herself against the doors and rushed her way towards the field when she spotted Wufan’s hair. It wasn’t hard to spot it anyway; it was shinning gold in color.

“Guys I think I’m imagining things, but I see a chick in our school oh my god???” Jongdae uttered with fascination and pointed towards Alana’s figure. “What do you mean, ---HOLY THAT’S ALANA!!!” Wufan exclaimed both with surprise and horror. “Guys, it’s not April so stop.” Yixing shook his head at them. “No ge ge it is really jie jie, ---THERE ARE BOYS SURROUNDING HER!!!” Tao shrieked. “WHAT?!” Luhan whipped his head to verify Tao’s words. Minseok gasped and cupped his mouth.

Meanwhile, Alana struggled to free herself from the jocks; ---at least that’s what they claimed they were. “Excuse me, urgh.” She inhaled a deep breath in when she finally made it out and resumed her journey to Luhan and his friends. “QUICK EVERYBODY ACT SERIOUS!” Jongdae hissed and flipped the book nearest to him open, --- which happens to be an encyclopedia.

By the time she reached the gang, Alana was already out of breath. She knew that they were already aware of her presence I mean come on, since when did Jongdae read encyclopedias?

“I-I-I need to tell you something.” She placed her hands on her knees and hunched. Oh, Luhan so badly wanted to go help her if it wasn’t for the recent information he received this morning. He had to remind himself that he was still angry at Alana to prevent himself from helping her. He knew that it was evil, ---that feeling, ---but she deserved it, Luhan convinced himself.

His friends did not dare to say a word, so instead, to represent them; Luhan muttered a ‘what’ very coldly. She straightened her body posture and heaved a breath out. “I’m sorry.” Alana looked at each and every one of them in the eye and said those words, sincerely. She wasn’t the type to say ‘sorry’ easily, it used to be the other way round and it felt weird hearing those words coming out from her lips.

Luhan scoffed. “Is it so, princess?” He stressed on the ‘princess’ word. Alana averted her eyes from the ground to his face to see that if he was really being serious. Her whole body system felt like it automatically shut down when she sees Luhan looking at her, dead in the eye. *He knows.*

She then skimmed her eyes to the other five figures to see that they portrayed the same facial expression too; if not a hurt expression was displayed. *They know. They all know. It’s over now Alana, its over.*

“I thought we were your friends.” Wufan sarcastically remarked. Yixing laughed, “We were fools to think that. We were fools to think that a person as honorable like you would willingly befriend us.” Alana gritted her teeth. She was angry. She was very angry. She was fuming with anger.

“Ah, so that’s why you’re with that Jongin boy, isn’t it? Because he fits your standards and is actually worth of your time!” Sadistically, Luhan chuckled. “Didn’t the times we spent together mean something to you?” Minseok cried. Alana wanted to speak. She wanted to tell how wrong they were, and how much they meant to her, but wouldn’t budge. It was like Alana suddenly didn’t have possession over her own body.

 “Cat got your tounge?” Jongdae snorted.

Alana took a minute to close her eyes and respired.

She had doomed for this day to come ever since the first time she met Luhan. It was completely useless for her to defend herself from them right now; none of them would even believe her. She felt a pang of bitterness grow inside of her whilst she tried to digest everything they said to her.*They think of me that lowly?*Alana could feel her nails digging into the palm of her hands, but instead of justifying herself, she did the opposite.

“Who?” She inquired. The sunny sky suddenly didn’t seemed so clear anymore, clouds were starting to hover each other and with each minute ticking by, the sky turned as mundane as ever, --- matching Alana’s mood. “It doesn’t matter who told us anymore. It just matter why you didn’t tell us in the very first place.” Tao confided.

And after those words came out of his mouth, Alana had it. Tao wasn’t even calling her jie jie anymore. Her mind throbbed in pain and she finally unclenched her fists to massage her temple. Wavering, she said, “I told you all to trust me in every step that I make.”

“None of you did.” Heavily, she mumbled.

“I was trying to protect you all, ---“Luhan opened his mouth to speak, but Alana held up a hand and beat him to it. “Because of what I am today, I have a dead mother and a brother that has been in coma for the last thirteen years.” Crystal clear tears rolled down her eyes as she confessed.

She turned her back towards them before giving them a final glance to say, “You were all wrong. “ As she whisked away, a driblet of rain fell onto Alana’s cold, icy fingers and that was when she grew conscious that it had started raining.

Slowly making her way across the field, she went back to her own school and dropped by her favorite place; the baseball shack. She needed to vent out her feelings through something, the very least. Alana wasn’t the talking type of person and she hardly shares her problems with other people.

Grabbing a baseball bat in her right hand, she flicked the switch to the on button of the automatic-baseball-throwing machine. Taking her place fifty meters away from the machine, Alana swung the bat behind her hair, and swayed it forward when the ball neared her, sending the small, tiny ball flying into the sky. It rained heavily and not long later, Alana’s uniform was wet from head to toe. She made no attempt to shield herself from the rain and hit the baseball with the bat continuously.

There was only one person in her school who knew about who she really was and Alana was positive that he blurted it out to them. She let herself be drenched in the rain, as if it was a punishment for her to distrust her friends. But she knew it was never enough to get back the six friends she lost.

Alana dropped onto her knees and let her tears cry along with the rain that poured from the sky. The noisy sound from the automatic-baseball-throwing machine kept her company as she sobbed silently in the rain. Gritting her teeth from anger, she stood up and whispered, “Kim Jongin.” before resuming to hitting the baseballs in order to unleash her anger.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Wey hey! So what do you think of this chapter omg??? This is the longest chapter i've ever written heheh. It has been really cold nowadays, take care of your health! *^* Omg have you gaise seen the teaser of exo's 'miracles of december'? Ahhhh, Luhan's voice in the Chinese version one makes me go asdfghjkl! He is certainly an angel sighs.

Until we meet again!

xoxo, Tuna.