"Oh no, he's hot," was Kris' first thought after he spotted the black haired guy.

A low cough from Lay made him realize he was staring. , he didn't have the time or the energy to deal with this. None of this.  That day would definitely be complicated. He broke his too-long-eye-contact with the guy to scan the small crowd behind him. He knew all of them, of course. Luhan and Minseok were his classmates, and he had talked to the others a couple of times. He would have even considered them friends, if it wasn't for the stupid basketball's team facade.

But he couldn't understand why they were at the gym. Sure, there had to be a simple explanation for this. Everyone at school knew the basketball team practiced almost every day at 4. It had been established long ago, and was respected religiously. No one was allowed to skip practice or to interrupt it. And this was clearly and interruption. And who were they? Oh, right. The ninjas. What was it? Wushu? Who the practiced wushu in Korea? He sighted and dragged his hand over his face.

"So, is someone going to explain what's happening here," he started with his authoritarian voice, looking at the guy in front of him with narrow eyes. He returned the gesture.

"I believe you owe us an explanation," the guy snapped, "we were just practicing when they interrupted us."

Kris felt his blood begin to raise its temperature. How dared this... this brat talk to him like that? He took a step closer.

"Don't you know who am I? No one, and I repeat, no one talks to me like that."

He felt Lay's low chuckle besides him. Well, there was maybe one person who did. That was not the point.

Instead of feeling intimidated, the guy straightened his shoulders, raised his head and answered, loud and clear, "I don't give a about who you are. You are interrupting my practice and disturbing my team mates. So get out of here."

Everyone went quiet for a moment, seemingly in shock. Suddenly, two identical "oooohhhhs" echoed the gym. Each team turned to its back to see a grinning Baekhyun and Chanyeol, who were now proudly and knowingly smiling at each other. A few guys snickered, somewhat breaking the tension. Kyungsoo slowly approached the black-haired guy and patted his arm.

"Tao," he said softly, in a conciliatory way, "Why don't we all talk about this? I'm sure we can work it out."

Kris recovered from his momentary shock and felt his blood boil.

"Yeah, I'm sure we can work it out," he said with a low voice.

He took a step closer to this Tao guy, expecting him to feel threatened by his closeness. Surprisingly, he did not. He stared back determinately. He was almost as tall as Kris himself, and oh god, he was so ing close. He felt Lay's hand on his shoulder, gently but firmly pulling him back.

"Stop it, Kris. He is just an idiot, a kid. He isn't worth it," he whispered.

"Who the hell are you calling 'a kid', you idiot," Tao snapped back.

Once again, the gym felt silent for a few moments. Wow, that was unexpected. Kris was dumbstruck. , he had noticed the brat's Korean wasn't great, in fact it was barely understandable, but it hadn't even crossed his mind he could be Chinese too. It confirmed Lay's theory that they were slowly conquering the school. Tao took a deep breath.

"If you want to complain about this, go talk to the Principal and stop wasting my time."

Kris gripped the basketball he was holding tighter. Why was this affecting him so much?

"I will," he turned to look at his teammates, throwing them the ball, "Start practicing. You've already wasted too much time."

Lay followed him as he stormed out of the gym.

"Hey Wu, slow down, my legs are not a mile long as yours."

He caught up with him soon enough, and stared at him intently.

"What happened to the 'I'm the cool basketball team captain' facade? You don't usually forget it." 

Kris ignored his best friend as he ran through the empty corridors to the Principal's. When he arrived, he stopped on his tracks and took a deep breath before knocking the door firmly.

"I'll wait here," Lay whispered when he got to his side. Kris nodded gratefully.

As soon as the Principal saw him, he shouted, "Yifan! Just the person who I wanted to see! Please, come in."

Kris went in, and then stood awkwardly by the door. Despite having known the Principal for quite a long time, sometimes he was still taken aback by his bluntness and passive-aggression.

"Mr. Kim, I wanted to talk to you about the... wushu team. And it's new leader."

"You've met Zitao? Wonderful! That saves so much time. I was about to ask you to be his tutor. I don't know if you know yet, but he has just arrived from China, and barely speaks Korean. So, he'll need to improve his level if he wants to keep his grades decent. Basically, he needs someone to help him with his homework, the extra practice given by the teachers, and generally helping him adjust to our school. As you are both Chinese, and your average is impressive, I thought you could help him."

Kris seriously hoped he had misheard him. There were lots of other Chinese guys at school. Without going far, Lay and even Luhan from Tao's team were Chinese. The Principal sensed this and chuckled.

"Tutoring could be really helpful if you seriously want to apply for that scholarship you talked to me about. Just think about it."

Kris felt his anger resurge. The Principal knew he couldn't afford to refuse this opportunity, and was using it against him. He nodded, and the Principal smiled brightly.

"Great. You'll have to talk to him yourself. And remember, if he falls back at his classes or his average falls, you'll be to blame. Bye"

Kris closed the door behind him feeling a strange mixture of anger, confusion and amusement. As weird as it might seem, those were generally his feelings after talking with that man. He was puzzling. Lay was waiting for him outside, reclined against the wall.

"That was quick. What did he say?"

Kris opened and closed his mouth comically, without making a sound a couple of times. After that, he accepted he was too messed up to speak and begun walking towards the gym. He hadn't even been able to tell the Principal about the practice interruption. It was almost 4.30, meaning that he had already lost half of the practice. And he still had to talk to the ninja before they left if he didn't want to end up looking for him the following morning. Lay followed quietly, sensing that he needed the space. They hadn't been friends for so long for nothing. Despite the fact that one of Lay's favorite activities was to wind Kris up, he knew how to read him very well, and when they needed to be serious. He was also as loyal as they could get, and Kris honestly couldn't ask for a better best friend. Now he was being sentimental. Great. With a sight, he stopped in the middle of the corridor. Lay approached.

"Okay now. So, what's the problem?" he asked once they were side to side.

"I'm the ninja's tutor," Kris' voice was extremely low, barely a mumble, and he was avoiding eye contact.

A bright smile appeared on Lay's face.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that? I didn't quite get it," he asked teasingly. 

Kris pushed him lightly, as Lay bursted out laughing. Kris honestly didn't catch the joke, but Lay was laughing so hard that he could barely breathe. 

"Don't you get it? He disrespected me, treated me like nothing. Me. What an idiot," Kris huffed.

"But... you are nothing. Stop being so full of yourself, Kris," his friend elbowed him with a half warm, half sarcastic smile.

Lay was still laughing by the time they reached the gym. There, he tried to recompose himself. After all, they had a "reputation" to maintain, as he jokingly reminded Kris. The fact was that neither of them gave a about things such as reputation or social status. Actually, most of the time it meant they weren't allowed to spend time with some of their friends just because they happened to be in the wushu team. It was just something expected from them, that they had learnt to accept, with all the pros and the cons. When they had first entered the basketball team, they weren't too glad to be suddenly noticed, although Kris had to admit he liked being on the spotlight now. He was the school's most important team's captain, and he was proud of it. And he wouldn't allow anybody, specially not a kid, to disrespect him. 

When they entered the gym, only the basketball team was there. There were still fifteen minutes of practice, so while Lay practiced a little, Kris walked resolutely and trying not to think about it too much to the locker room. The whole wushu team shared an aisle of lockers, and were all changing back into their clothes, but they stopped as soon as they saw Kris. Well, that was awkward. He walked directly towards Tao, who apparently was in the middle of putting on his shirt. Oh god, his abs! Really impressive. Right, he wasn't supposed to be watching them. "Eyes on his eyes," Kris told himself. That was easier said than done. What the hell was wrong with him that day? He thought like a teenage girl. He stared at Tao and said with a serious tone:

"We need to talk."

Tao nodded and held his gaze. They moved from where the rest of the team was changing, and stood a couple of locker rows away. The guy was brave, Kris had to admit that. There weren't many guys at school that, knowing who he was, would still challenge him. Kris wouldn't even admit it to himself, but he liked that. Well, it kind of exasperated him, but it was also thrilling and challenging. And well, from a completely objective point of view, he was hot. And a weird kind of cute. His black as ink hair matched his slightly dark, somehow greenish skin. Around his gorgeous black eyes, two darker circles made him look a bit like a... panda. Yeah. But Kris didn't seem to be able to take his eyes away from his body. He was well toned, but lean. His arms were frankly impressive, and he had long, muscular legs. He wouldn't even start on his abs. A loud cough took him out of his thoughts. 

"Ahem. Why are you looking at me like that?"

. How long had he been staring? They were close, closer that when they started. He didn't even remember taking a step forward. This was so ing embarrassing. He stepped back quickly and looked back to Tao, still shirtless and blushing lightly, but with a determined look on his eyes. 

"Let's get over this. What did you want to tell me?" he said.

"Yeah, right," the last thing Kris wanted to do was to keep embarrassing himself in front of the guy, "So, the Principal announced me I'm your new tutor."

Tao opened and closed his mouth soundlessly a couple of times before blurting "You've got to be kidding me."

"There is no point in complaining. Believe me, I've tried. We are stuck together," Kris interrupted.

Tao's face fell a little, and Kris felt something inside himself clench. They hadn't started well, and he didn't want to help Tao as much as Tao didn't want his help, but he wasn't used to rejection. At least, not from people at school. He made himself harden his look.

"We just need to set up our meet up. Starting on Saturday, one hour, every day. And that's it." 

"Me don't actually need a tutor, you know," he said quickly, wincing visible after realizing his mistake. His cheeks blushed slightly and his shoulders slumped. Goodness, he was ing adorable. Kris felt a smile creep into his face.

"You were saying?" 

Tao practically murdered him with his look, and then nodded. He actually didn't talk much, but Kris suspected that wouldn't last long. 

"What about at 3, right before our practice?" he suggested.

Tao shook his head quickly, "Unless you think half an hour will be enough, our practice starts at 3.30," his voice sounded tight, as if expecting Kris to realize something.

"What do you mean you have practice? The wushu team only practices once a week, on Wednesdays. I'm still not sure why you were here today, but that's it," he felt idiotic, as if he was missing the obvious.

The Panda looked uneasy, and for the first time in their conversation, he broke eye contact, "Actually, now we practice every day. At 3.30. We'll have to share the field,"

Kris stood there processing this new information. Then, a loud thump made him look to his side. Minseok was trying to stand up as quickly as possible, surrounded by a guilty looking wushu team. They had been spying. Great. From the corner of his eye, he caught the sight of Tao smiling. A genuine, wide and amused smile. It was the first time he did so, and it made him look completely different. Younger. Softer. Happier. It made Kris forget he was supposed to be angry for the team's intrusion. But then, his own team also came in, revealing their hiding place too, and he remembered what Tao had just said.

"Wait, what!?"