Lay woke up to the ringing of his alarm clock and quickly went about getting dressed in loss clothes for dance practice. Turning his music on, Lay grabbed clothes for the school day a folded them before placing them in a bag for after practice. Putting his ear buds in each ear and plugging them into his phone, Lay made his way downstairs to the kitchen, hoping the music playing in his ears would block out his step mother’s terrible voice.

Once in the kitchen, Lay grabbed a breakfast bar. He was pouring himself a glass of orange juice when he heard it, the annoyingly fake laugh of his step mother.

“Well he didn’t want to make the trip at first, something to do with that stupid son of his or something” her voice makes its way to Lay’s ears. He considers turning up the volume in his head phones, but curiosity gets the better of him and he continues to eavesdrop on his step mother’s conversation. “Yeah he had some dance thing this Saturday we were supposed to go to, but I talked him out of it and we will both be there this weekend, I can’t wait to work on my tan down there at the beach” Disgusted, Lay finally turned the volume higher and finished the last few bits of his breakfast bar. Lay turns to the cupboard and grabs two granola bars to eat after practice and puts them in his bag. Taking the last swing of the orange juice, he took the empty glass to the sink. While he was rinsing it out he felt a strong hand on his shoulder. Taking one ear bud out he turned to face his father.

“Good morning son” his father said smiling.

“Morning” Lay responded before turning off the tap.

“Son, your mom and I can’t make it to your recital this weekend. Her friends are throwing a little get together down at the beach and it’s really important to her that she and I go” he said, looking somewhat guilty.

“No big deal” Lay says shrugging. Good to know her tan it that important to you dad, Lay thought to himself.

“I’m glad you’re okay with it, I’ve been to so many it’s not like missing one is going to be that big of a deal, right” he asks jokingly.

“Yeah it’s just one more recital” Lay said, fake smile on his face, as he picked up his school bag, and the bag with his extra clothes. Kai and I are doing a really cool duet together that I’ve been working really hard on though, his inner voice wants to whine out but he holds it back. “I’ll probably be late, I have practice tonight” Lay says instead as he opens the door.

“We are leaving early tomorrow morning, so if I don’t see you before then, good luck son” Lay watched his father give a small wave before he turned to kiss the woman who had just entered the room. Lay replaced his ear bud and closed the door rolling his eyes.

The walk to school was uneventful, as he tried to immerse himself in the rhythm of the music pouring into his ears. He stopped in his tracks and smiled up at Suho’s building and contemplated going up to see him. That would be rude to wake him up early just because you want to see him, his inner voice scolded. You could be late to practice, a scared voice whines. Lay gave one last smile up to building where he was sure Suho was sleeping peacefully and then continued his walk towards the school.

Once at school, Lay headed towards the auditorium. He placed his bag in one of the chairs and then went onto the stage to warm up.

“Hey Lay” Kai hollered into the room, as he walked towards the stage. “I can’t believe that the coach is sending you and I to this competition can you? I am so excited and nervous, my mom already invited my grandparents and I’m trying to build up the courage to ask someone if they want to come.” Kai blabbed as he stretched a little. Lay felt a little surge of jealousy as Kai rambled on about how excited his family was, but quickly brushed it off, Kai is his friend and he should be happy for him.

“So who are you inviting over huh” Lay says jokingly as he moves to put his phone on the speaker.

“I’m not going to tell you now, maybe later though” Kai says laughing.

“I knew it wouldn’t be that easy” Lay shouts back, as he clicks on the song that Kai and he need to practice. “Ready?” he asked Kai as he grabbed a small remote for the speaker so he could press play once he and Kai were in the right position.

“Oh I was born ready” Kai says as he moves into position.

“Whatever” Lay replies as he rolls his eyes.

The song was played and then replayed again. The pattern continued, each boy working harder as the time passed by, until a different song cut in.

“You are beautiful no matter what they say. Words can't bring you down” Lay watched with wide eyes as Kai stopped mid step and ran down to retrieve his phone. “Hey beautiful, can you give me one minute and then I will call you right back?” Lay couldn’t believe his ears, who is Kai talking to, he wondered to himself. “Yes I promise” Kai said before turning to face Lay. “Not a word” he says narrowing his eyes.

“Was that a little bit of Christina Aguilera I just herd blaring from your phone Kai” Lay can’t help to tease.

“Shut