Sehun didn’t have to switch schools, so he was allowed to continue attending where he did before he moved into the new apartment.

He didn’t have many friends. Many pretty much meant none with the exception of one person who he got along with. Sehun was quite independent, he didn’t rely on anyone. He had his cold side too, on days he was feeling particularly off, he would become a lot like a ghost.

At 6:00 on Monday, he walked to Tunes, the CD store he worked at and bowed at the owner. Kris didn’t own the store, but his father was ill so Kris was taking over for the time being. His wife, Sara, would pop in from time to time and the three of them would talk and work at the same time.

“Why are you so formal?” Kris asked as he followed Sehun to the back.

Sehun shrugged, “Why are you so informal?” he walked to the back to get the labeler to label the prices of the new albums.

Kris laughed, “Where did you learn that wit from?”

Sehun smiled a little as put the labeler on a box of stuff and carried it to the cart.

“Influence, I think,” he replied. He rolled the cart to the main part of the store and opened the box. He began labeling the items and then putting it where it belonged.

“Really? And who was this influence?” Kris asked, taking some of the things and putting it away as well.

Sehun shrugged, “Picked it up here and there.”

They continued to put the merchandise in silence, Kris first thought that these silences were awkward, but soon learned that Sehun liked these types of silences.

“You finish this up, I have to finish taking care of the shipping orders.” Kris said before walking to the back office. Sehun nodded and continued to work.

“Excuse me?” a girl one or two years younger than him said. Sehun looked at her.

“Where are the Infinite albums?” she asked.

“Over there,” Sehun pointed to the far wall. “Sunggyu’s album and Infinite-H are there as well.”

“Thank you,” she smiled and went to the said section.

Sehun bowed and continued working, his shift was almost over. When he finished labeling and putting all the stuff away, he walked to the back door to throw the box in the recycling. After he did that, he went to the back room to put the labeler away.

“You’re done? Where do you live? I could give you a ride home,” Kris offered.

Sehun shook his head, “No thanks. I can walk.”

“You sure? It’s dark.”

“Please, I am more than capable of walking in the dark,” Sehun said, rolling his eyes.

“If you’re sure,” Kris shrugged and Sehun waved to him before leaving the store.

Sehun began walking home but then saw a convenience store and stopped there. He looked in his pocket for change and then entered the store. He walked to the frozen section and took out a tub of strawberry cheesecake ice cream.

In a bright mood, he walked to the counter and paid for it. He picked up a spoon and began eating it as he walked home.

When he got home, he threw the empty ice cream cup away and lay down on the sofa. He remembered the day when he made the promise about his first job.

“Man, that guy must hate his job.” Kai commented as they walked past a man in a hot dog costume promoting a hot dog stand. Woobin was with them and they were going to pick Mina up.

“I know right,” Sehun agreed.

“You better not end up like that,” Kai warned.

“Pft, me?” Sehun raised an eyebrow. “Worry about yourself, Mr. Too-lazy-to-clean-his-side-of-the-room.”

“Blah blah blah,” Kai shrugged. “I like it messy, I could clean it if I want.”

“So why don’t you?” Sehun asked.

“Why would I when you’re around?” Kai grinned and Sehun hit him.

“I want my first job to be cool,” Kai said.

“Yeah, I don’t want to be some boring clerk in a supermarket,” Sehun made a face.

“How about being a dance instructor? We’d get to listen to music all day!” Kai said happily.

“A dance instructor?” Woobin, who had been listening, rolled his eyes “No one is going to hire a 15-year-old dance instructor.”

“True. How about a CD store?” Kai suggested.

Sehun thought about it, “Yeah that could work. And we’d know about the latest music and we’d be listening to it all the time. All CD store managers are cool, so no annoying person will be bossing us around.”

“So first jobs will be at a CD store?” Kai held his fist out.

Sehun bumped his fist against his, “Yup.”

◌◌◌◌

The next morning, Kai was walking to school when someone shouted, “Look, its Lee Taemin!”  

Kai blinked and raised an eyebrow. Sure he resembled the maknae of SHINee a bit, but he didn’t look enough like him to be mistaken for him. It made him wonder why people were so stupid.

“Taemin oppa, I’m your biggest fan!” the girl said excitedly, dragging her friend along.

Kai stopped and just stared at her. Up close, he definitely didn’t look like cheery Taemin. He had rock hard eyes and a stare that could freeze a pond over. His face hardly ever showed expression and his aura was surely much different than the star. In a way, you could feel coldness radiating from him and his don’t-care-about-anything attitude could most definitely not be of a celebrity’s.

“Oh,” she blinked up at him. Not to mention the fact that he was taller and tanner than Taemin.

“I-I’m sorry,” she bowed multiple times before scurrying off with her friend, terrified.

Kai continued walking and when he arrived at school he went straight to class. He hated being there when the kids were frolicking in the halls for absolutely no reason.

When he entered class, there was a girl talking to the teacher. He didn’t notice the teacher or the girl and threw his bag on the desk. He sat down and rested his head against his bag, closing his eyes.

Ms. Song said some more things to her and the girl nodded.

“Can I quickly go to the bathroom before class starts?” she asked. Ms. Song nodded and she scurried out of the classroom, she hadn’t even noticed Kai.

When the bell rang, the other students also walked into class. No one sat on either side of Kai, which was how Kai liked it.

Before Ms. Son began teaching, the girl came into class and nervously stood in the doorway.

“Oh, Minhee-ah! Come in, come in,” Ms. Song beckoned her forward. “Class! Heads up and looking this way.”

Kai opened his eyes and lazily looked at the front of the class. A relatively pretty young girl was standing beside Ms. Song and was looking down at her feet. She had long, straight, black hair and was average heighted. She was clutching the straps of her bag and was avoiding the eyes of the students.

“You can introduce yourself now,” Ms. Song smiled kindly.

Her dark eyes looked up and she bowed to the class. Then she smiled sweetly, “Hello, my name is Kim Minhee. I hope we get along and become good friends.”

Ms. Song smiled, “Yes, I hope so too. Minhee’s always ranked in the top 5 of all the schools she’s attended.”

Minhee turned red, she hadn’t intended on letting everyone know that.

“Ouhhh, pretty and smart,” Chen hooted.

“Umm, do we have any empty seats?” Ms. Song stretched her neck, looking for extra seats. Their class was smaller than the other classes, so any new students would automatically be put in their class.

“Oh, there are two seats near Jongin. You can sit in either one,” Ms. Song pointed to Kai.

The class gasped a little and watched as she walked to the desk to his right. She didn’t take notice of the stares she was receiving.

While Minhee took some notebooks and pens out, Ms. Song began her poetry notes.

Kai didn’t take much notes, he just leaned back and listened. His grades were good, he had been gifted with the ability to understand soething without much effort. With Kai, if he listened once, he would remember and he was excellent at putting two and two together.

Kai’s eyelids began drooping as Ms. Song assigned work to the class, she was going to go photocopy something.

“Excuse me?” a girl’s voice caused his eyes to snap open. He looked to his right and saw Minhee facing him.

Kai stared at her.

“Umm, my eraser fell under your chair,” she pointed to her eraser that was in between Kai’s feet. “Could you please get it for me?”

Some students who had noticed, watched Kai’s reaction carefully before he bent down and picked it up. Without a word, he glanced at it and then held it out to Minhee.

“Thank you,” she smiled as she took it from him. The class was surprised, they hadn’t known what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t that.

Kai turned back around and then noticed everyone’s eyes on him. He looked at the class with no expression on his face.

Suddenly, they had better things to do.

His classmates didn’t treat him like royalty, he was just there.  Like a big, 182cm tall pile of flesh no one dared to touch. He just wanted to be alone, he wasn’t rude (most of the time), he didn’t have anything against anyone (except perhaps Chen), nor did he cause any trouble (on most days). However he was most definitely not unfair, Minhee hadn’t done anything to bother or offend him so he didn’t see a reason to be rude.

His mysteriousness had aroused strange rumors about him though.

Like the gang he was apparently apart of.

Like how he had taken on 7 gangsters and come out alive with only a bruise.

Like how he stole cigarettes from the convenience store.

Like how he sold drugs.

Like how he had been abandoned by his older brother.

Well, that last one might be true.

◌◌◌◌

Later on in class, Minhee was collecting stuff she had missed over the month.

The boy next to her that had picked her eraser up looked a little intimidating and grumpy, so she turned to the girl on her other side.

“Hello,” she smiled. The girl continued to stare at her desk.

“Umm, I’m missing a couple of sheets. Do you have the notes from the beginning of the year?”

The girl turned her head and stared at Minhee with light brown eyes. She had long, straight black hair and at first glance she looked very pretty, but her angry expression made her look a little cold despite her warm eyes.

Kim Ara, also known as the ‘SheDevil’, a unique girl she was. No one knew anything about her.

She just transferred over to their school in grade 9 and nothing was known about her personal life. She was quiet, but when she spoke her words were cold and harsh. The kids stayed away from her because she had quite a bit of temper and they knew she knew how to fight because she had broken a kid’s nose without much effort once.  

Kai and Ara: the two mysteries of that class. They were furtive, but no one knew that they were quite vulnerable as well.

Minhee shrank a bit at Ara’s stare. Why do my seatmates seem so cold?

Without saying anything, Ara turned away and put her hands in her pockets. Minhee bit her lip and turned away as well. I’ll just get them from the teacher.

 Kai hadn’t noticed the little situation, he was too lost in his thoughts. He didn’t really enjoy coming to school, he never had even though he was good, but now he just hated it. Dropping out had entered his mind a couple of times but he was held back by certain voices in his head.

Kai and Sehun threw their bags down onto the sofa after they entered the house.

“What’s with you two?” Woobin raised an eyebrow, Mina was sleeping beside him on the sofa.

“The teachers keep pestering us about how different high school is,” Sehun rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, it’s so annoying. And Mrs. Lee keeps saying we’ll get expelled in our first week if we continue to act the way we are,” Kai scoffed.

“She’s trying to change our comical ways,” Sehun said and Kai nodded.

Woobin raised an eyebrow, “Well it is different but not as bad as they make it seem in middle school.”

“Why don’t we drop out?” Kai asked, looking at Sehun.

“Good idea, get our CD store jobs and-”

“Yah yah yah!” Woobin gave them both a look. “You two are not dropping out of school. Nope, no way. You are going to graduate high school, a high school diploma is the least you need in this world. You’re going to university too and you will be successful young men.”

“Why can’t we be street smart, like you?” Sehun crossed his arms.

Woobin stood up and flicked both of their foreheads, “I have a diploma, in case you didn’t notice. And this family has more than enough street smart people.”

“There’s only one,” Kai pointed out.

“Exactly,” Woobin nodded. “That’s more than enough. Now promise me that you will both graduate high school.”

They both sighed but muttered, “Promise.”

Kai sighed again and put his head on his desk. If he didn’t carry out the promise, it’s not like anyone would know. He had never thought about it before, but he had made many promises to his older brother before he had left and wondered why he bothered to keep them.

No one’s here to see me fulfill it, so no one will know if I don’t. Being alone has its perks……

The sarcasm in the last thought was too much for him so he decided to go to sleep again. Sleep was the only way he could escape, escape from his thoughts and escape from reality.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hiya~! Long time no see homies

This chapter is so boring as well lalala, next chapter is a little more interesting.

I'm watching God's Gift 14 Days and I love it so far <3 Lee Boyoung is such a good actress, I love her. She looks so pretty with curly hair!

And I finished EXO's showtime, it was good I guess (Y)

I have nothing to say today, so byebye~!