“Really, though,” says Baekhyun, “this is pretty good.”

Chanyeol is horrified. Kyungsoo is slightly disturbed. Jongdae doesn’t know whether to stare at him or smile at him (he settles for both).

And Jongdae’s mother just asks, “Would you like a second helping, dear?”

At the “yes, please,” that Baekhyun chirps, Chanyeol starts pulling at his own hair, and whispering about how the world must be backwards, because there is no way anybody can like Mrs. Kim’s tuna lasagna.

She gives him the trademark Kim glare, the one that Jongdae has perfected down to an art, and Chanyeol just makes a “meep” sound and shrinks back into his chair.

“Please break out the pizza now,” says Chanyeol with a pained expression, and Baekhyun just blinks innocently at him over his second plate of the lasagna that nobody else in the world will eat. Except Jongdae, because it’s his duty to rid the world of the horror that is his mother’s tuna lasagna.

The pizza is brought out, consumed, and they talk about classes for a little while before pulling out the movie of the night: Shaun of The Dead.

(They rarely watch superhero movies, because who needs to when you are one? Or will be one, anyway.)

“Never seen this one before,” whispers Baekhyun, eyes fixed on the screen, and he’s leaning lightly against Jongdae’s shoulder.

“Me neither,” replies Jongdae, but his eyes keep flitting to Baekhyun every now and then, throughout the movie, and it’s almost cute how Baekhyun chews on his lip, fidgets with the hem of his shirt, plays with his fingers absentmindedly and the tips of his hair light up whenever he’s surprised or amused by something on the screen.

Cute. Jongdae reevaluates his thoughts. He needs to give himself a twack on the forehead. He can’t just go around thinking stuff like that about his friends!

(But Baekhyun really is quite cute.)

Jongdae grumbles inwardly, and tries not to notice when Baekhyun’s side presses against his, warm and easy, halfway through the movie.

School passes by in a rush, and soon, it’s been a month that they’ve been at Haneul High, amidst classes of First Aid, Mad Science, and some other subjects that make Jongdae’s brain dry up and wither. The Hero Support track is incredibly boring, but occasionally there are some interesting things. They learn to make laser guns one week, and another week is spent learning to fire them.

P.E. classes are surely the worst for Jongdae. They run drills, where a citizen in danger needs rescuing, and it never turns out well for sidekicks. The heroes dominate P.E., where they basically have permission to show off and be as flashy as possible.

Kyungsoo always ends up requesting to partner with either Jongdae or Chanyeol, and recently Soojung and Baekhyun as well, and even though his marks are constantly lower than the other heroes, he doesn’t mind, because they know as well that he’d rather partner with them than anyone else.

“Losers,” jeers the other Fire Manipulator fron the Hero track, and Chanyeol bristles, the ends of his hair flaring bright red, a side-effect of his manipulator power. He nearly sets Soojung’s hair on fire again as they’re walking to the cafeteria, and the student body vice-president, a Water Manipulator named Joonmyun, ends up spraying water on the both of them to douse the little flames.

“Just ignore them,” says Joonmyun calmly, as he’s pulling the water back to his fingers, leaving them both dry, “they tend to get that way most times. Cocky. They’ll improve when they get older.”

“Thanks,” murmurs Jongdae, and the others echo his words. Soojung still looks mad though; she purses her lips in annoyance and ignores Chanyeol for the rest of the day.

Baekhyun is glaring at his spoon insistently, and when Jongdae nudges him, he says, “Oh? Ah. Just thinking about how terrible this whole situation is.”

“Don’t take it out on your eating utensils, though. Poor thing.”

Baekhyun snorts, and taps Jongdae’s hand with his spoon. “Says you, who spends all his time drooling in his sleep at his desk. Must be covered in germs by now.”

“He’s right, though,” says Amber, who’s slipped in beside Kyungsoo, and she starts handing out cans of Milo she’d nicked from the canteen lady. “Most of the heroes nowadays are jerks to sidekicks. They don’t see the importance in having sidekicks. I think sidekicks are kickass, by the way.” She slides her arm around Soojung’s shoulder. “Especially since I’m gonna request this kickass sidekick as my own when she’s graduated.”

Exclaimations of “what?” and “really?” go around the table. Soojung looks exceptionally pleased, and studies her fingernails with feigned interest.

“We’ll work well together,” smiles Amber, “weather powers and all. We’re friends, after all. Wouldn’t want anyone else working beside me.”

Chanyeol pouts. “Well, Kyungsoo obviously won’t want to partner with one of us.”

“Chanyeol!” Kyungsoo splutters. “I haven’t even thought of it yet, you dirk! There’s three more years to decide.” His expression softens. “Besides, why wouldn’t I want to partner with one of you guys? We’ve known each other for ages; and it’ll also be advantageous in battle.”

“That’s our Kyungsoo,” quips Jongdae, “always thinking ahead.” But inside he’s worrying. He’s not going to be partnered with anyone, is he? He won’t be able to do anything. He’ll just be… normal. And he’ll watch his friends all go off into the distance and fight villains and he’ll be—what will he be doing? Accounting? Retail sales? Own a flower store? The last one sounds strangely tempting.

“Earth to Jongdae,” says Baekhyun, and he blinks. Everyone is looking strangely at him. “You alright there?”

“Yeah,” says Jongdae weakly, “yeah, just fine.”

Just fine, he thinks again. Just normal.

Joonmyun seems to be right though, when he says the heroes get nicer when they get older, as seen in the sophomores and seniors, who treat everyone the same, no matter what track they’re from.

Wu Fan has the power of flight, and regularly offers drop-offs to kids who miss the bus home. Minseok is one of the sophomores who genuinely enjoys hanging out with them, even though they’re a year younger and can barely match up to the extreme cryokinesis powers he possesses, to Soojung’s envy (but that’s soon settled when he offers to help teach her some things she could possibly do with her power, and she agrees excitedly).

They’re not too sure when Yixing starts joining them at their table, maybe five months into the year, but the boy from the Hero Support class a year above is friends with Joonmyun, and invites himself into their cosy little gang without any difficulty. The boy has a propensity for healing, and is capable of joining the Hero track, but he’d requested to be placed in Hero Support instead, knowing that his powers were mainly aid-worthy, and not particularly defensive or offensive-based. He gained a lot of respect for that from a lot of the other students, but there are still some who feel that it was a bad move. Yixing doesn’t seem to be bothered by it.

The heroes in their year seem a little put-out that the seniors spend time with the sidekick kids too, but don’t show too much care for it.

Jongdae is relieved when he meets Lu Han, who is Hero Support a year above him because he too has not shown a single fleck of power yet, and they commiserate over banana milk and Kyungsoo’s cookies, which he brings to school one day and shares out with the entire table, including some of the teachers (they corner him after school and ask him for the recipe; he declines and offers to sell cookies to them instead).

It’s surprisingly nice to see that he’s not the only one in the school who hasn’t developed a power yet, though it’s still lousy knowledge. Lu Han’s parents are famed superheroes in mainland China, and they’d sent him here, hoping that maybe this school had something the other schools didn’t. And Lu Han doesn’t want to disappoint them, but he only has two years left before he graduates.

“Any idea, though, what it might be?” asks Jongdae, and Lu Han shrugs, picking at his sandwich.

“Maybe something to do with flight. Or fire. How about you?”

Jongdae ponders this. “My mum and brother are technopaths. Maybe something to do with electricty? Could be entirely different, though.”

“Well, whatever it is,” jumps in Baekhyun, “it’ll probably be something incredibly awesome, knowing you.”

“Knowing me?”

“Yeah, well, you’re you. Brilliant with everything. Your power will probably be as brilliant as you are.”

“Don’t think it works that way, though.” Jongdae laughs, and revels in the grin on Baekhyun’s face. “You’re awesome too, but your power really doesn’t deserve you.”

Lu Han seems to smirk a little at this, and he leans over to Yixing and murmurs something in Chinese, who glances between Jongdae and Baekhyun once, and nods sagely.

Jongdae feels his face heat up at this, and asks, “What are you two talking about?”

“Oh, nothing,” says Yixing, in that blank way he has, “Just the odds of the two of you getting together.”

Jongdae’s mouth falls open. “What? The two of us? We’re just fifteen.” He motions between himself and Baekhyun, who’s staring at Lu Han and Yixing with wide eyes, skin beginning to tinge with his usual glow. “And we’re just friends.”

“For now,” says Yixing wisely, as if he’s some kind of Shaman King who can see the future, and he floats away with Lu Han, who is snickering wickedly into his hand. Jongdae narrows his eyes at him.

Baekhyun, on the other hand, has light hanging off him all over, and Jongdae helpfully points out, “You’re lighted up.”

“Ah, whoops,” says Baekhyun in embarrassment, and he shuts his eyes, concentrating on willing the light to go away. Jongdae watches in fascination as his hair and skin return to a normal colour, and the hazy glow around Baekhyun dissipates. He doesn’t realise he’s staring even after Baekhyun’s back to normal though, and Chanyeol elbows him, coughing.

“I just remembered something that I need to ask,” says the lanky boy, and Jongdae is grateful for the change in subject, even as he flushes at the thought of the conversation prior, but then Chanyeol furrows his eyebrows, and adds, “but I forgot what.”

Kyungsoo shakes his head, sighing.