Yixing had his copy of Romeo and Juliet in front of him, but he wasn’t reading it, it laid open on the rooftop, stuck on page 15 from when they were reading in class. He’s got his headphones covering his ears, playing a Nell song, since most of his Chinese songs were erased after he left his cellphone on the kitchen counter, and his mother accidentally splashed water on it. It went on the fritz for a few days before Yixing decided to reset it, and all of his songs had been erased, his contacts only saved because he backed them up.

The song changes and Yixing hears rowdy shouting over the light hum of a new song. He puts his notebook down, as he stands, stepping over his book and heading towards the edge of the rooftop. Below he sees four boys goofing off. He’d seen them around the neighborhood, before especially the shortest of the boys.

Yixing remembers his name being Junmyeon, a sunbae in his school, and the only one of the four guys present that went to school. One of the guys, he’s got blonde hair and a smile on his lips that turns his eyes into crescents; he’s lazily pushing the tallest of the group off him. A different guy turns towards the rooftop, Yixing doesn’t hide or runaway like others would, he continues watching the group, staring at the boy that’s staring in his direction. Waiting until he looks away, walking away from the school building with the rest of his friends, their rowdy voices drowned out by the sound of his music.

Yixing stays at the edge of the rooftop a bit longer, watching the area beyond the school grounds with bored eyes. It’s a Thursday, and there’s not much to see even if he could see much in the darkening evening.

He remembers a time when he thought moving to South Korea would be a new exciting adventure. It turned out it wasn’t.

He feels a hand on his shoulder and he turns, facing the person that snuck up behind him. It’s his cousin Huang Zitao. He pushes his headphones down so that he can hear the younger male.

“Auntie wants you to come home now,” Zitao tells him. “She invited Kris-ge for dinner tonight.”

“Again,” Yixing sighs, he heads over to his books and throws them into his schoolbag. “I wonder when she’s going to finally adopt him.”

“Why do you act like you’re so bothered by Kris-ge,” Zitao asks. “Kris-ge is really nice. He’s always looking out for us.”

“He’s an agent for my mother,” Yixing states. “If I don’t tell her where I’m going, then he’s the one calling her and telling her I’m with him. Why does she need to know where I am 24/7?”

“Because she’s your mother,” Zitao mutters. “And Kris-ge is an adult so he supposed to do things like that. Adults are supposed to be responsible right?”

“I guess,” Yixing sighs, walking towards the rooftop door.

“Anyway gege, I saw that group of misfits outside the school earlier when I was coming here. I mean why do they of all people need to be outside of the school, it’s not a playground and only one of them even goes to school.”

“Maybe they came to pick up the one that goes to school,” Yixing suggests, as they head down the stairs to the school exit.

“Can’t they do it quietly,” Zitao huffs. “I don’t even get why that guy even goes to school. He should just drop out and be like the rest of those guys.”

“Yixing you’re home,” his mother acknowledges from her place in the kitchen where she’s cooking. “How was the library?”

“Fine,” Yixing answers with a sigh. “I got some homework done.”

“That’s great,” he hears his mother say. “Can you come help me in the kitchen though, sweetie?”

When the sunsets in the evening on Friday, Yixing finds himself walking home from the actual library. He’s supposed to get home before it’s too late to watch some romance drama with Zitao, even if he was just going to stop paying attention halfway into it.

He’s at an intersection, readying to cross the street when a hand wraps around his arm, pulling him away from the curb. There are two people he expects to see when someone grabs onto him; the first is Zitao, because Zitao is always sneaking up behind him, attempting to scary him with touches to his shoulder and arms. The second person is Kris, because that’s the only other person he truly knows outside of school.

When Yixing turns his head, removing the headphones that isolated the sound of the outside world to around his neck, he does not expect to see the person in front of him. The boy is about his height with slightly tanned skin in the white of the streetlamps. His hair is slightly ruffled and in his eyes as if he’d tried to style it but gave up, and his eyes are on the street behind Yixing.

“You should be more careful,” the boy tells him. He’s the one Yixing was watching the other day, the one that had looked up to him when he was peering down at the group from the rooftop. “You almost got hit by a car.”

Yixing doesn’t answer and the boy notices, his eyes going from the street to Yixing’s face. “You’re the guy that was on the rooftop yesterday right? The one that was eyeing us like a creep?”

“You’re the leader,” Yixing asks.

“Nope,” he answers. “Suho is.” Yixing doesn’t get to ask who Suho is, because that one guy with the crescent eyed smile is calling for Kai, observing the both of them with a frown on his lips.

“We have to go; Luhan will be off any second.”

“I’m coming,” the boy in front of Yixing tells the blonde kid.  He turns back to Yixing, a grin falling upon plush pink lips as he eyes Yixing. “Try not to get hit by a car okay? I kind of want to see you again.” He walks away from Yixing, heading over to his group of friends and Yixing finally gets a better look at them. Junmyeon’s watching him, like the blonde kid, a frown on his lips, and his arms crossed.

Yixing turns away, and gazes at the street till there’s no cars present, he hurriedly crosses the street, while bringing his headphones back up till their covering his ears. He starts to think about that brief encounter with the group.  They’re from two different worlds, and Yixing’s not supposed to interact with them, no one’s supposed to interact with them.

They’re the lowest of the low, and Yixing’s constantly told from everyone around him that he’s not supposed to talk to people like that. They’ll bring him down with them if he gave them the time of day. Yixing doesn’t see the harm in them, Junmyeon has a nice smile and seems smart, but Yixing knows that his mother would put even more restrictions on him if she found him entertaining the idea of talking to the group.

Yixing spends the weekend at home, his mother suggests he goes to the movies with Kris and Tao but he refuses, saying that he has a lot of unfinished homework to get out of it. On Sunday he lounges in Tao’s room as the younger boy talks to his mother via skype.

When they’re saying goodbye, Tao turns the laptop so that his mother can get a look of Yixing lounging on Tao’s bed, and Yixing sits up, telling the older woman goodbye in Mandarin, and promising to visit her in the summer with Tao.

“You should have come to the movies with us yesterday, gege,” Tao tells him as he types away on his laptop. “The movie was really nice and Kris-ge asked about you.”

“He was only asking about me to report back to my mother,” Yixing says. “I’m surprised she hasn’t enlisted your help. I guess she just assumes I’ll tell Kris everything.”

“I think you’re overthinking things,” Tao tells him. “Kris-ge wouldn’t betray your trust even if he does tell auntie that you’re out with him, when you two go out. Kris-ge is cool.”

“If you idolize him so much you should be appreciating every second you get to spend with him when I’m not around.”

“He always asks about you, when you’re not around,” Tao complains. “How’s Yixing? How come he’s not coming? Is he still having trouble in school?” He attempts to mime Kris voice but it comes out way too deep. “It’s annoying.”

“I told you,” Yixing retorts, grinning slightly when Tao glares at him. “What are you doing Taozi,” he asks, attempting to quickly change the topic.

“Looking up a book Kris-ge was reading. He said it was really interesting.”

First Chapter!