Kai and Minhee helped for a little more than an hour before they were allowed to leave. Luhan dropped Kai off at home and after saying goodbye and thanks, he was opening the front door.

Tomorrow he and Minhee would help out in the morning and in the evening they were going to meet at his house to bake whatever it was they were baking.

Kai stopped to stare at an old picture of he and Sehun on the mantle of the fireplace. They both had one arm around each other and were grinning like inseparable brothers, which they were.

Kai suddenly felt a strong longing for his family, he hated the empty house. He had thought about moving once or twice but this house was under all the children’s names, it was one of the only things that proved that Sehun was his brother. Besides, what if Woobin returned to this house?

It was very nice having Minhee as a friend, but Kai couldn’t shake off the feeling that things would be much better with his brothers.

He would be completely happy then.

Sehun was pretty much dreading the fundraising event, Lay had told him that he should help out backstage until the performances were done and then be the event photographer followed by being behind the cash register for the bake sale.

He would pretty much be everywhere.

He was glad Lay hadn’t assigned him a job to do with other volunteers, especially the unfamiliar ones from the library. He was a bit on the socially awkward side, but he managed to get along with most people even if he’d much rather be alone.

On Friday, he had been asked by Sunye to meet up at the library to study so at 6 o’clock he was waiting for her at one of the study tables.

“Hi!” she said breathlessly as she took a seat beside him, her layered brown hair coming into her face as a result from the windy weather outside.

She brushed her hair out of her face, “Math?”

Sehun nodded, “Sure.”

Sehun was talented in almost every subject in school; almost because he was having immense difficulties in literature. He was a gifted reader but he could not write an essay to save his life.

“Make sure you factor out k to get the proper value for the horizontal shift,” Sehun reminded as he watched Sunye graph a cubic function. She nodded and Sehun leaned back in his chair. He had already finished reading the book they were supposed to in literature and he was planning on having Sunye help him with coming up with arguments for his essay.

The replacement was okay, but his original mentor had been the best.

The next day, Kai and Minhee continued to help with the set up. They were to finish the library’s set up in the morning while the community center would finish off for the second half of the day.

When their half of set up was done, Kai and Minhee stood back to admire their work. They had nicely placed popular books on the front stand and made colourful signs. There were many tables around that had different books on them. The circular tables of books stretched from the front of the hall where the stage was to the back where the doors were. The two tables where Kai and Minhee would be collecting money and doing things for the draw was near the back to make sure no one walked past them without paying. There were slips in every book that purchasers could use to enter the draw; buying a book was the only way to enter the draw and there were actually some pretty cool things being given away.

“Not bad,” Minhee nodded in approval, giving their work once final look.

Kai nodded in agreement, he and Minhee would be working the two tables while Hana and Lay (who was also in charge) would roam around the entire hall making sure everything was in order.

“Let’s go,” Kai said and he and Minhee turned to leave. Luhan was going to pick Ara up and then drop all three of them at Kai’s house. Needless to say, there would be less baking and more fooling around.

“So,” Minhee said as the three of them stood in Kai’s kitchen over an hour later. “Where do we start?”

Kai turned to look at Ara and Minhee did the same.

“What are you staring at me for?”

“Tell us what to do, you’re the only one who knows how to bake here,” Kai stated.

There were ingredients laden on the counter and a bunch of other pots, mixers, and trays that had been brought by the two girls as well.

“Okay, I can make cookies and I brought a mix for cupcakes,” Ara said, looking through her bag that was resting on the kitchen table. “Cookies or cupcakes first?”

“Cookies,” Kai said immediately.

Ara rummaged through her bag until she took out a piece of paper with the recipe on it.

“What should we do?” Minhee asked cheerfully, pointing at herself and Kai.

“Stand back and stay out of my way?”

Kai ignored what she said and took the paper out of her hands.

“One and a half cups of flour,” he read aloud while Ara glared at him. Minhee measured out the said quantity and poured it into a bowl.

“Two eggs,” he continued, ignoring the look on Ara’s face. Minhee was about to crack two eggs into the flour when Ara stopped her.

“Wait! You can’t just dump everything into a bowl!” She took the eggs and cracked them into a separate bowl. “First, dry and wet ingredients go separately.”

There was much bickering after that as they tried to whip up a batch of 24 cookies. Kai mostly liked to bother Minhee and Ara, acting annoying and reading out the wrong instructions. Minhee became overly enthusiastic and sometimes became prone to knocking things over and Ara was trying to maintain her sanity.

“COULD YOU STOP POKING ME?” Ara yelled at Kai after he poked her for the nth time.

Kai innocently shrugged.

Once the cookies were in the oven, Kai looked at the boxed cupcake mixes they would be making.

“I can just dump all the ingredients into this one, right?” he asked.

“Yeah, go crazy,” Ara shook her head. So under Ara’s strict guidance, Minhee and Kai managed to whip up a batch of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.

“Cookies are done,” Ara said as she took the golden brown chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. Kai and Minhee were dumping spoons of the mix into the cupcake holders.

“Just dump them into that container,” Kai pointed to the container on the table.

“After they cool or they’ll turn out weird,” Ara said, setting the cookies on the counter to cool.

Once the cupcakes were in the oven, Ara announced that she had to leave.

“Already? Why “ Minhee frowned.

“I have to go home and help my grandma,” Ara said, putting her shoes on in front of the door. “Remember to take the cupcakes out in fifteen minutes.”

“Okay, thanks for all your help,” Minhee smiled.

“Yeah, thanks,” Kai nodded.

Ara nodded back and left after waving goodbye.

“You should stick around, I’m not a fan of decorating cupcakes,” Kai said. Minhee shrugged and smiled, “Well I am!”

They talked for a couple more minutes before the cupcakes were ready and they were icing and decorating them on the table. Well, Minhee was happily decorating while a disgruntled Kai iced them.

Kai let out a sigh as he looked at all the cupcakes that were left.

“We have to ice ALL of these?!” he asked, looking horrified.

“Well duh,” Minhee nodded as she sprinkled little red hearts on a cupcake that Kai had iced.

Kai groaned as he began icing his third cupcake. When he finished he put the cupcake beside Minhee and wiped the remaining icing on the spoon over her left cheek.

She yelped and looked at Kai with narrowed eyes.

“Well that made this more fun,” Kai quickly whipped out his phone and took a picture. He burst out laughing when he saw the picture and showed it to Minhee.

She gasped rather dramatically, “Delete that right now!”

“No thanks.”

Minhee reached for the phone, forgetting that there was icing on her face, and Kai held it away.

“Pass it over!” She stood up from her seat and Kai did the same, stretching his arm so that the phone was well out of reach.

“I’m serious! Delete it!” She jumped up to try and retrieve the phone but failed, the good thing was that she managed to get half the icing on her face on his arm.

“Hey!” Kai yelled. He put his phone on the top shelf of a cupboard and used a tissue to wipe the icing on his arm.

Minhee grinned as she also took a tissue to wipe her face.

“Well I win,” Kai said triumphantly.

“Shut up,” Minhee muttered as she began decorating the cupcake that had supposedly caused this ruckus.

It took them an extraordinary amount of time to ice the cupcakes, mainly because they kept pulling pranks on each other. But an hour later, there were 35 beautifully decorated cupcakes in containers.

Minhee put the cooled cookies into another container and set them on the counter.

“We should put the cupcakes in the fridge so the icing won’t go bad,” Minhee said. Kai nodded and he and Minhee put the cupcakes in the fridge.

Minhee glanced at the time, it was 8:00 and they had to leave early the next morning too so she texted Luhan to pick her up. He had been rather reluctant to let her stay at a friend’s house (he had too much experience with Minhee’s “friends”) but Minhee managed to persuade him in the end, bringing up the fact that Ara (who had helped her out of sticky situations) would be there.

“Are you looking forward to the event?” she asked conversationally as they sat across the kitchen table with a bowl of grapes between them.

“Eh,” Kai shrugged, popping a grape into his mouth. “It’s whatever.”

This was half of a lie; he had stopped looking forward to things a long time ago, nothing held any sort of attraction for him. On the other hand, being on the management team with Minhee would surely bring some good laughs.

Minhee looked around, “So your parents aren’t home?”

Kai’s throat became dry so he shook his head.

“Work?”

He shook his head again.

She looked at him curiously before Kai cleared his throat and said, “They’re dead.”

To him, the words felt ice cold and dripped with bitterness.

Minhee blinked before saying sincerely, “I’m sorry.”

Kai shrugged.

“You don’t have any siblings?” she questioned

No was a lie and yes was also technically a lie since they were not with him.

“It’s complicated,” Kai said after contemplating his answer.

There were a lot of complicated things about Kai.

Kai found himself on another walk that night, just to clear his thoughts and think about his life.

It seemed very odd, going to an official event when he had had the same boring and uneventful routine for the past four years. It seemed even stranger that he was going with someone who he now considered a friend. He had never thought he would ever be able to do something as normal as that after his family had fallen apart. He had somehow managed to cook up a cold, reserved, and lifeless image of himself when he thought about how he would live for the rest of his life.

Kai found that he didn’t want to live a life like that, but he didn’t want to live any other way without his family so he was stuck.

He just wished that he could find his brothers, if not both just one would light up his life. Just one person who he could call when he needed someone, one person to live with him and fill up the loneliness he felt. He just wanted someone from the past to appear, to remind him that his old life hadn’t been a dream and that it was still possible to have a happy life. That not all hope was gone.

Kai wistfully looked up at the sky with his hands in his pockets.

Please.

The next day, Kai found himself quite busy in the morning, helping everyone set up and preparing everything kept him occupied from the intense thinking he had done the night before. He met with a couple of people from the community center, they were nice and they worked as a team to sort everything out.

At last at 10 o’clock he and Minhee were situated behind the two tables guarding the shelves of books. The bake sale and availability of the books would start after the performances.

People were filing into the room, filling the hall up. Other volunteers were doing things like directing where people should go and controlling the lighting and sound in the room. There was a large banner hanging on top of the stage, announcing the event to anyone who looked at it.

“I heard there are middle school kids performing, that’s cute,” Minhee smiled as she looked towards Kai.

“Kids are so gross.”

“Teenagers are so mean,” Minhee stuck her tongue out. Lay interrupted their conversation by introducing the event and then the performances started.

“Cute, huh?” Kai said, looking at Minhee, the kids on stage were actually looking very professional and sophisticated.

“Yes, they are!”

Kai laughed and they continued to watch. It was enjoyable, Kai would say something negative and Minhee would rebut with something good to say.

“You’re such a goodie goodie,” Kai rolled his eyes.

“Which is something to brag about,” Minhee said stoutly.

Kai chuckled, “Okay, I’ll give you that one.”

“Let’s have a round of applause for the wonderful performances!” Lay said as the last group exited the stage. “I’d like to thank all the instructors that helped these kids put on a great show!”

Minhee clapped enthusiastically while Kai put his hands together twice.

“Okay now our bake sale is open and we also have many books for you to buy as well as some games! All proceeds will go to the local hospital so be sure to enjoy yourselves!” Lay smiled and there was another round of applause before Lay exited the stage and people began moving.

Kai and Minhee became busy once again, there were over 200 books, too many to count customers, and only the two of them. Both of them stood rooted at the cash register, finalizing sales of books, bookmarks and stationeries.

“Can’t you give this to me for cheap?” one girl batted her eyelashes as she tapped the corner of a book against her cheek.

Trying not to vomit, Kai said, “Sorry.”

He quickly scanned the book and took her money before calling the next customer.

“How’re things going?” Hana asked, coming in between the two during the time people were still browsing for books.

“Alright,” Minhee smiled.

“This book is missing a slip,” Kai said, showing Hana the inside cover of the book where there was supposed to be a slip to enter the draw.

“Ah, seriously? Go find Lay and ask him for some, there might be some missing in other books,” Hana said. “I’ll cover for you.”

Kai nodded and ventured through the hall, looking for the kind dance instructor. 

He found Lay across the room near the stage, directing a volunteer somewhere.

“Do you know who Sehun is? Get all the dancers on stage and go tell Sehun to take a picture of the banner with all the dancers underneath,” he said, pointing to a boy standing near the other side of the stage.

It was an automatic impulse by now, Kai had always whirled his head to see the face of whoever the Sehun that had been called once. By now, he half-heartedly did it, only because it was a habit and not expecting to see someone of any significance.

This time was no different as Kai’s head snapped to where Lay was pointing.

But there was something wrong about the usual sinking feeling.

The boy was standing with a camera around his neck, his sinewy figure slouching against the wall. He did a hair flip as he looked up, not at anything in particular, and Kai immediately recognized that naturally grumpy expression, the boredom evident on his face. Four years had not changed his face greatly; Kai could practically see the half moon shape his eyes formed when he smiled. The small, puffy lips and rather cold attitude that could be seen from a mile away hadn’t changed either.

Kai dropped the book he was holding, quite afraid to look away.

Oh Sehun was standing twenty feet away from him, looking perfectly healthy and very much alive.

(I do not know why there’s a stupid double line there -.-)

It’s happened, I do hope you guys are happy.

I really don’t know about this story, I’ve been thinking of deleting it or re writing it a different way quite a bit but we’ll see how it goes.

Comments would be greatly appreciated :) just lemme know if you like the way the story’s going, okie?

See ya later~!