{THIRTY}

Month 06 Day 08

Things were going much better than Kyungsoo imagined. 

As he sat at his desk, fidgeting with his fingers, he couldn't help but let out a small smile. He couldn't express in words how much guilt he felt towards his mother, who had given him that much money without any consideration for herself. Well, his mother used to always tell him mothers would put their children before them no matter what.

At first, when she left, he concluded her words to be absolute lies. But now, as he stared at the envelope in front of him, he figured that saying eventually turned out to be true. Mothers did sacrifice their valuable things for their children. 

"What're you looking at?" 

Baekhyun leaned against the doorframe of the classroom, gesturing at the envelope in Kyungsoo's grasp. Luhan appeared from behind of the shorter male, and waved a friendly hand at him. Then, he also started to grow curious about the the white envelope which was obvious under his desk. These two were seriously a pair a feeling called curiosity frequently liked to pick on. 

"It's just... something." Kyungsoo mumured in the calming atmosphere in the empty classroom, placing the envelope on his desk. "Something from my mother, weeks ago."

"Your mom? That woman we saved from those gangsters the other day?" Luhan questioned, surprised. "I thought you weren't on good terms with her, from what you've told all of us before. She abandoned you, right?"

Kyungsoo grimaced when he heard the word 'abandoned'. That word often reminded him of his painful past, and he didn't want to end up hating his mother even more from when he once did. He couldn't blame Luhan though, since the elder had been off to Busan with Minseok for some time because of their soccer tournament.

He shook his head at the both of them. "No, I've fixed all our broken ties. I mean, you can't hate someone forever, and I can't treat her like she doesn't exist until the day I die. She's the person who gave birth to me, the person who nurtured me until I grew up to be someone healthy. Sometimes, people just come to realise that staying away from each other doesn't solve anything, it just makes the gap bigger." He looked out the window with distant eyes as he sighed. "But... this is who I've grown up to become. A gangster, forced to be one because of a debt that wasn't even mine to begin with. I cried, and told her I was a worthless son."

"Hey, boss..." Baekhyun muttered out slowly before walking over to him and plopping himself down on his own desk, followed by a pitiful-looking Luhan. "Look, eventhough I don't know your situation all that well, none of us think you're a bad son to your mom. It's not your fault, and if you ask your mom, she'll say the same thing! Even so, if everyone continues to picture you as someone awful... just remember, we're by your side. Us and Go Minjae. We're like your brothers, and what relationship you have with her... you have to find out yourself."

"Now that I've thought about it, you've never told us where you came from, or anything about yourself." Luhan mentioned. "Remember the time we first met? I thought something was wrong with you then, because I'd never seen someone so introverted. I won't lie, I looked down on you. Maybe because you didn't talk much, or maybe because you were younger. But I'd say it was that time when we were facing off with those Winner bastards, and how you'd saved Minseok, that I'd started looking up to you."

There was a lump starting to form in Kyungsoo's throat. He felt burdened, because he was keeping his identity a secret from them. He always wondered when it would be a good time to tell them he wasn't from here. But would it be bad to say he wanted to tell them when things were at their ? Yeah, he thought it was pretty selfish to do, but he didn't want to risk losing them halfway.

"You guys... really." Kyungsoo looked away and smiled. He stood up, grabbing his bag. "Let's go. It's the beginning of summer break, and I don't want to waste it."

The three of them arrived in front of Chanyeol's house, bursting with laughter on the way. Luhan was sharing hilarious stories of his past soccer tournament. Baekhyun was the one giving all the enthusiastic reactions, while Luhan was there nodding in satisfaction.

Baekhyun ran to the front door. "Hm, I don't hear anyone inside."

Kyungsoo pushed the boy aside. "Move, they're probably having a soft chat or something."

"Chanyeol having a soft chat would be pretty hard to imagine..." Luhan rubbed his chin.

Swinging open the door, they were met with the rest of the gang sitting in the living room. Sehun, Minseok, Minjae and Chanyeol were around a coffee table, with various papers sprawled everywhere. They looked exhausted. All of their hair were sticking out in all sorts of directions, as if they'd raked their hands through them a thousand times out of frustration.

"You guys look like you all just came straight out of a horror movie." Luhan dumped his bag on the black leather couch.