“In,” Mr. Choi took Kai by the arm and shoved him inside the main office.

“Don’t touch me,” Kai snarled and broke free of his grip.

Mr. Choi followed him in and he went to talk to the secretary. He showed her the burnt-out cigarette and was telling her something Kai couldn’t hear, but he had an idea what it was he was saying.

The secretary gave him a disapproving look, “Principal Hwang is busy but take a seat here and we’ll wait for him. Thank you, Mr. Choi, I’ll take that,” she held out a tissue for the cigarette and Mr. Choi put it in the tissue. He gave Kai a nasty smile before walking out of the office.

“Take a seat,” the secretary jerked her head towards a chair. Kai sat down and waited. It wasn’t his first time going to the principal’s office. He had a seat reserved in the principal’s office ever since elementary school.

“Both of you sit on opposite ends of this room and no talking to each other. The principal will see you soon,” Mrs. Yang, the secretary, said firmly.

Sehun and Kai made eye contact with each other but then looked away to stop them from bursting into laughter. They sat where Mrs. Yang told them.

“Now, no shenanigans or you’ll be in more trouble than you’re already in,” she warned.

They sat quietly for a while, but then Kai coughed really loudly.

Sehun looked at him and smiled a little. Then he let out a sneeze.

Kai let out a hacking cough and clutched his stomach.

Sehun let out another sneeze, and covered his clean nose, “Can I have a tissue?” he asked the secretary.

Mrs. Yang gave him a weird look and passed him the entire box.

Sehun took one and blew his snot-free nose into it.

Kai let out a cough that could have fooled anyone into thinking he had tuberculosis.

“Do you have something I can on?” he asked sweetly. Mrs. Yang looked through her desk and found a packet of cough drops. She handed it to him and then returned to her desk.

They were silent as Kai on a cough drop and Sehun played with the tissues. Sehun made tiny little balls of tissues and threw them at Kai, but Mrs. Yang didn’t notice.

Kai then broke the cough drops with his teeth and threw the pieces at Sehun.

“Ow!” Sehun hissed as the hard candy hit his forehead.

“What is going on here?” Mrs. Yang stood up and looked at the mess they made. “You two! I don’t know what’s going to happen to you! No ambitions except making as much trouble as possible! First you fill your teacher’s desk drawer with glue and now this?! And it’s only the morning!”

Kai and Sehun’s eyes met and their faces broke into identical grins.

“Kai, the principal is ready.” Kai jumped, he hadn’t noticed the secretary returning from the principal’s office. Kai got up from his seat, glanced at the seat across the room and headed into the principal’s office.

“Ah, Jongin, have a seat.” Mr. Hwang gestured him to the seat in front of his desk.

Kai sat down.

“Now, Jongin, it’s been an interesting four years,” Mr. Hwang laughed lightly. “You’ve visited my office many times. I hear you have a history of causing trouble? Anyways, about this cigarette incident….”

“Well, you have gotten into a bit of trouble before and we’ve always been a little light on you. You’ve also gotten into some, ah, incidents with Kim Jongdae,” he laughed dryly. “Now, as I understand it you have no community service hours to graduate and you are not part of any school clubs, teams, or extra-curricular activities. Is that right?” Mr. Hwang asked, looking through his papers.

 “Yes,” Kai said quietly. He had never really paid attention to the other part of the graduation requirements other than the academics. He did not get along with Kim Jongdae, or as he was better known, Chen and had gotten into a few fights with him.

 “Well, you have two options. Well, there’s the first one, do nothing, and be suspended,” he chortled. Kai didn’t smile. “There aren’t any available spots in any clubs at this school where you can get some volunteer hours. But what you can do is volunteer at the library until the end of the year. I think that’s a fair punishment for smoking underage on school property since I’m not reporting this to the police. We’ll accept that as your community service hours as well.”

Kai didn’t say anything but sulked on the inside. He didn’t want to volunteer at a library, who would?

“Is this okay? Or you could make other arrangements for the community service hours, but you’d still have to go to the library as a punishment and this way, you can do both.”

“Yeah, it’s okay. I’ll go,” Kai said dismally.

 “Very well, I’ll inform the library. They’ll contact you before Sunday,” he smiled. Kai stood up, bowed slightly, and left.

As he walked to the front of the main office, he stared at the other empty chair.

Shaking his head to brush off the memories, he briskly walked out of the main office.

○○○○○

Kai was so thankful that the weekend had come. Sure he had to work, but his job wasn’t one he hated, he worked at a CD store. Listening to the music all day let him bask is his ocean of loneliness quite effectively.

At 11:30, the time for him to go to work approached so he quickly prepared.

After grabbing his jacket, phone and locking the door, he headed to the CD store near his house. It was one of those things about this house that made it so convenient; everything was close by.

He bowed at the owner as he entered and took his place behind the register.

The CD store, DISC, was very large and popular. There were albums, CD’s, and posters of all the latest bands and singers. He had been working there for almost 2 years now and it had just become an automatic routine what he did.

“Play this in the background.” Suho, the owner, passed him Henry’s solo mini-album.

Kai took it and inserted it into the DVD player that was connected to the store’s speakers.

“How’s school?” Suho asked.

Kai shrugged, “Okay.” These kinds of answers were expected from Kai. Suho had gotten used to his cold exterior pretty quickly, he was an understanding person. Suho was probably the closest person to Kai at the moment, and even he wasn’t that close.

“Excited to graduate?” Suho grinned.

“You bet,” Kai muttered.

“Why do you hate high school so much? Those four years were one of my best,” Suho said.

“Worst of mine.”

“Why? I’m sure you’d have no problem with friends. You’d become popular in no time! Not to mention those girls who are always chasing you.”

Kai snorted, “Yeah, and those girls are so fake. Everyone in high school is, it’s so hard to find a real person,” Kai said truthfully. It bothered him how people tried so hard to fit in and didn’t show their true selves just so that they could be normal. Kai had always gone for being unique, he and Sehun were probably the most unique people he knew.

“True.” Suho nodded, he looked at his watch. “I’m going to go see if the delivery has come.”

Kai nodded and Suho headed to the back.

A pair of teenage girls walked to the cashier, their arms full of albums and posters.

When they saw Kai, they smiled excitedly and approached the counter.

“Hello,” the first girl beamed.

Kai bowed, “Hello.” He took the items she put in front of him and scanned them.

The girl unrolled a poster and it revealed a picture of SHINee’s Taemin.

“You look a lot like him. Do you, perhaps, know him personally?”

Kai looked at the picture and then at her with no expression at all, “No.”

“Oh,” the girl rolled the poster up again. “Can you dance?”

Kai stopped scanning her last album and then replied, “No.”

He finished scanning her purchases and gave her the total of her items. She tried to converse more with him, and her friend did the same after that, but they both failed. Kai was a hard nut to crack.

“Kai,” Suho walked over a couple of minutes later after directing where the shipments would go. “Can I ask you something?”

“If I say no, you’ll ask anyways won’t you?”

Suho grinned, “Yup. Anyways, you don’t seem like the type who takes an interest in the latest music trends or really loves music. So why do you work here? All the other employees seem to just love music, which is why they’re here. I mean, there are many fast food restaurants out there where you could get a job. ”

Kai looked down for a while and then looked at Suho.

“I made a promise once that my brother and I’s first jobs would be at a CD store,” he finally said.

“Ohhh. Does your brother work at a different CD store?” Suho asked.

Kai looked away, “I don’t know.”

○○○○○

Sehun looked at the apartment he now called home. He had been having trouble finding a place to live lately. In his old apartment, he had found a rat in the kitchen. He moved out the next day because there had been a rat infestation, it had been a trashy apartment anyways.

He didn't have much stuff: clothes, two bags, other necessities, and memories.

He took his special bag, a one of a kind bag his dad had given he and his brother, and carefully put it in the closet in his room. He hadn't used it for four years, and he wasn't planning on wearing it anytime soon. It was too special and held too much sentimental value he wasn’t ready to face yet. It had been four years since he had last seen Kai and their siblings, and two since he had escaped from the wretched orphanage. He had been on his own for two years and was quite unsure of how and why he had gotten there.

He quickly shoved his clothes in some drawers, set some things in his bathroom, and then headed out to buy some groceries. Sehun had a part time job; it was at a CD store. The owner was pretty cool and didn't ask much about Sehun's life which was good because Sehun wasn't going to reveal it.

He arrived at the grocery store in a couple of minutes and picked up basic things. Then he went to the noodle section and began examining each pack he was interested in. Then when he found the ones he liked, he dumped a whole horde of them in his basket. All his other groceries were now covered in packages of noodles. He picked up some fruits, vegetables, rice, and then headed for the ice cream section.

He opened the freezer and looked for his favourite flavour, strawberry cheesecake. But to his disappointment, it wasn't there. He closed the freezer and looked around.

A boy, around his age, had taken the last pint and was sluggishly walking to the counter to pay for it.

Sehun pouted a little. That's my favourite........

But he brushed it off and bought a vanilla pint instead. I'll buy it from somewhere else.

As Sehun finished his grocery shopping, the boy who had his ice cream left the shop, happily eating the ice cream.

 “Ohhh! I love this one! And this one! Ouuhh and this one!” Sehun excitedly put two dozen packets of noodles in their trolley. 

“What are you planning on doing? Becoming a fat, lumpy noodle or opening a noodle factory?” Kai raised an eyebrow.

Sehun narrowed his eyes at him, “Shut up! I love noodles! What's it to you if I turn into a lumpy noodle?”

“I don’t want to share a room with a lumpy noodle,” Kai said flatly.

“Yah, stop fighting. Sehun, let's put half of those back, and Jongin, keep your remarks to yourself,” Woobin scolded. 

“Okay,” Sehun sighed and took some out.

“Whatever.”

○○○○○

That Saturday afternoon, Sehun walked through the large community center arts building, trying to find the main desk. After a whole lot of wandering around, he found it.

 “Sehun, so nice to see you,” the head lady, Mrs. Lee, stopped talking to the secretary and smiled at Sehun. “What is it?”

“Oh, um, apparently my name is on the list of instructors for the new dancers. I don’t know how it gets there, but I’m not going to be an instructor.”

Mrs. Lee’s face fell, “Why not? Sehun, you’re so talented and I know you could teach the kids amazing things. It could be good for you.”

Sehun shook his head, “I can’t.”

“Why? I know you like kids.”

“I don’t really dance anymore,” he said sheepishly.

“What? Why? You used to always come here!” she exclaimed. “It’s been two years, Sehun, why did you stop?”

“The interest kind of died…….” he said. He did not know how Mrs. Lee had interpreted his expression when he came to the arts center with the rest of his orphanage, as fun. He had enjoyed the dancing and the instructors, yes, but the company and lurking worries in his head, not so much. He had never come other than with the orphanage and was quite surprised that Mrs. Lee was so keen to remember him and for him to instruct at the center.

“Sehun, if you were an instructor here, you could dance with the kids and the other instructors as well,” Mrs. Lee told him. “It could be so much fun!”

He shook his head again, “I’m sorry.”

“Please, Sehun. Give it a week and then give me your final answer. Think well!” Mrs. Lee said, running off before Sehun could disagree again.

Sehun sighed and walked out of the building.

○○○○○

The weekend dragged by and Monday morning, Kai was at school again.

He walked into his homeroom class and slumped down in the back seat.

“Uh, Kai?” a girl walked to his desk.

Kai showed no expression on his face and didn’t even look up.

“Someone told me that you smoked cannabis yesterday. Please don’t, you should protect your body,” she said gently as if she was some great person who wanted to genuinely help people. Kai knew she was acting though, he could see right through fake people.

Kai raised an eyebrow. Where did people get this type of stuff? He finally looked at her, “I smoke weed? I had no idea. But since you enjoy believing what people say so much, you should go discuss it some more with your possy of gossipers.”

The girl gaped at him, “So you don’t?”

“Why don’t you go ask your friends?” Kai scoffed.

The teacher stepped into the class and quieted everyone down. The girl glanced at Kai once more before going back to her seat so that the lesson could start. Kai got very annoyed when people asked about his life, especially when they asked ridiculous things that had no connection to him.

During the break, Kai got bored and threw eraser pieces at the girl in front of him. He sighed and grumpily threw the eraser into his open bag on the floor after getting tired of it.

His mischievousness hadn’t quite left him, but he wasn’t the same as he was before. In fact, anyone that had known him before high school would not recognize him as the happy, funny, and charming boy that used to be him.

Sooo I don't really like this chapter....

But I guess you find out about Kai's lifestyle and you know that Sehun is alive..... meh. I guess this is the trigger chapter, you know, nothing exciting happens but there's some foundational things that need to happen and some background stuff you need to know......

Oh well, I'm too tired to worry about that now :p see ya~!