“Can I ask you something?”

“What is it?”

“When you leave this place . . . you won't forget me, right?”

Before answering, he turned to face the boy sitting beside him on the grass,“How could I? You were my first friend here and you're my best friend now. You're pretty much stuck in here.” He rapped his knuckles against his head, smiling reassuringly.

“You promise?” The boy asked, eyes turning hopeful, “You really won't forget me?”

“I promise,” He returned, holding up a pinky finger, “if you promise never to forget me.” The smile that shone from his very first friend warmed his heart and made him feel slightly more secure about the entire situation.

The boy held up his own pinky finger, hooking the two of them together, “I will never forget you, Hyuk. I promise.” He said.

~*.*~

Hyukjae ducked as a plump, red ball flew right over his head. He back-pedaled towards where the ball landed, snatching it from the polished floor just as a second ball whizzed right by his left ear. It hit the wall with a bang that echoed throughout the entire gymnasium, eliciting murmurs of awe and surprise from the spectators resting on the bleachers.

Hyukjae hissed through his teeth, thankful that his opponent's aim was off, else the left side of his face would have shown a nasty red and he'd be out. And the last thing he wanted was to get out.

There was an ugly bet weighing him down this time in particular.

Bracing his left foot against the shiny gym floor, Hyukjae stretched his entire body forward and let the squishy blue ball fly from his hand, shoulder muscles working to propel the ball angrily. The poor girl didn't even have a chance to dodge—the ball smacked against her stomach loudly and she grunted in pain. Several of Hyukjae's teammates cracked up from behind him, glad that he was on their team.

When it came to sports of any kind, they knew Hyukjae to be ruthless. Whether it was a girl or guy, anyone who dared to go up against Hyukjae would be treated the same way. He would crush them senselessly.

Hyukjae never played around.

As the girl rubbed her sore stomach and trudged over to the other losers on the bleachers, Hyukjae found another target immediately and without warning, launched yet another attack. To be fair, he never really aimed where he'd throw the ball, just relied on the fact that it would connect with something; so when the ball knocked against his own friend's face, glasses pushing back into his eyes while the boy yelped in pain, Hyukjae felt that the offense couldn't be held against him.

The game was called dodgeball. You're supposed to dodge.

Simple as that.

The game between the two co-ed teams during physical education (P.E) dragged on, Hyukjae's teammates falling like flies, their opponent's teammates doing the same. Another five minutes and Hyukjae was the only one left on his side of the line, backing up slowly as 5 opposing faces raised circular weapons at him.

He groaned, already seeing the end flash before his eyes. He had only one ball left while the other team had every other ball the game originally started with. Frankly, he blamed his dumb teammates who threw without thinking, causing balls to get caught, and everyone who threw them to get out.

He dodged the first ball that came his way and caught the second one that hit his chest, throwing it back at them and getting another out.

Now all he had to face was three. He was getting a bit happier, because with the smaller number, he could see a way out. But he cursed when the team suddenly decided to get smart and he started running backwards as they all ran forward. He didn't get too far.

Each of the three attacked at the same time. Balls went flying toward him that he tried to dodge, but a second batch came quickly because the bastards had everything on their side, and Hyukjae knew he was done.

A yellow ball crashed against his forehead while a green ball assaulted his stomach while a red ball damaged his groin. There were no words needed to describe that he was in pain. The string of curses that left his mouth as he comically fell sideways, cupping himself, was more than enough.

He cried internally while lying there on the gymnasium floor, knowing that he'd just lost both that damned bet and his dignity.

Kyuhyun laughed in Hyukjae's face as the ashamed boy told him the story of his defeat during P.E.

There couldn't possibly be a better outcome for him. The humility of his best friend, along with winning the bet that works primarily in his favor—this was just too good.

“Why wasn't I there to see that?!” He bellowed, guffawing loudly, “It must have been too embarrassing to watch. Oh, your poor teammates!”

“Seriously, shut up. It wasn't even that—”

“I wish I could have seen your face! You probably looked like a suffocating monkey! Oh!” Kyuhyun's face was tomato red and he could feel a cramp pressing against his ribcage, “Oh!” He doubled over while grabbing his stomach, cackling like the villain he was.

Hyukjae huffed in annoyance, “Are you done yet?” He asked, rolling his eyes. “It's really not even that funny.”

Kyuhyun shut up immediately and sprang upward, “Okay, you're right, it's not that funny.” He admitted, “What I'm really excited about is that bet of ours. I bet your I'll be laughing like hell by the end of the day, kitten!”

And for the second time that day, Hyukjae felt completely like dying as Kyuhyun doubled over and cracked up all over again. He doesn't know what he did wrong in his past life to deserve a friend like this.

“Take out something to write with and a scratch sheet of paper. Tests are going out now, so no more talking. If I hear you talking, I'll assume you're cheating, take your test paper, and give you an F. This is your one and only warning.”

Hyukjae sighed through his nose and dropped his chin into his folded hands upon his desk, bottom lip jutting forward a little at the thought of taking the dreaded weekly math quiz. His mind was churning with the week's lessons starting from Monday, trying hard to remember anything—equations, theories, postulates, methods, solutions, damn, numbers in general—that would help him do even remotely well on the quiz.

The week had been a little hectic for Hyukjae; having to babysit his demonic younger siblings while having his own demonic battles with the older ones, being dragged out on mysterious outings by Kyuhyun only to be bullied into dares, pranks, and bets by blackmail.

In short, studying that week was a mere afterthought for Hyukjae. Paying attention in class was completely imaginary.

Solemnly, he shook his head as Mrs. Song came by his desk and the test paper dropped in front of him, countless equations and numbers in general mocking him him on the page. They pretty much guaranteed his failure.

He recognized none of them.

“Clear your desk of everything but a pencil and paper, Hyukjae. You don't want me to take your test.” Mrs. Song warned while pointing down at his things.

“Yes, Mrs. Song,” Hyukjae muttered and obediently removed his back pack from his desk, inwardly cringing at the old woman's nasal voice.

He audibly sighed once she walked away, trying to remember what his grade in the class was. Though he groaned quite loudly upon realizing he had a low B around 83%, and that completely bombing this eight-question quiz would kill his GPA.

He groaned again when he looked at the impossible first question. “Is there something wrong, Lee Hyukjae?” Mrs. Song asked stressfully in a shrill tone that startled Hyukjae.

“Uh, well . . . Since you asked.” He lazily pointed down at the paper with his pencil, “Can I retake this test?”

“What need is there to retake a test you haven't even taken yet, Hyukjae?” She demanded.

Hyukjae nearly rolled his eyes, annoyed at how she stressed her words so much and kept saying his name in her ugly voice. “No disrespect, Mrs. Song, but I was just asking.”

Because I know I'm going to fail, woman.

“Well since you asked, Hyukjae, the answer is 'Yes', you can take it again.” She huffed, “But next time, Mr. Lee, I'd prefer if you'd ask such a question after you've actually taken it. Look at you always wasting such precious class time.”

This time, Hyukjae did roll his eyes as the wretched teacher finally stomped away back to her desk at the front of the room. He didn't understand why teachers couldn't just answer your questions without making a huge fuss or answering them with another question! It was beyond frustrating.

He groaned yet again, but much more quietly, as he was tapped on the elbow just as he was beginning to scribble incomprehensible nonsense in answer to the quiz's first question. Rolling his head to the side in effort to make his aggravation clear, Hyukjae mouthed a harsh 'What?!' at his seat mate.

Yunho made a pleading gesture with his hands, pointed to Hyukjae's pencil, then picked up his own and pointed to the nonexistent eraser, silently asking if he could borrow Hyukjae's pencil to erase work.

Hyukjae made a face at him but caved when the latter started drawing 'tears' down his face with his fingers. It took Yunho a mere two seconds to erase a number and begin working again. Hyukjae sighed before turning back to his own problems.

Abandoning number one and searching for the easy ones on the page to complete, Hyukjae skipped questions two through six and started at seven, actually surprising himself by finishing it and was about to move on to eight when Yunho tapped him on the elbow again.

'What?!' he mouthed-yelled.

Yunho jabbed his finger at the pencil. 'Please?'

'No!'

Yunho pouted, which was unsightly to Hyukjae, and pointed again then repeated the pleading gesture. 'Pretty please?'

Hyukjae huffed and handed the pencil over quite reluctantly, frowning at the overly used eraser-end he was handed back. Four minutes later after Hyukjae had successfully finished question eight, Yunho was tapping his arm again, rapidly—and frankly, Hyukjae snapped.

“Dammit, Yunho!” he screamed before he could stop himself, completely annoyed.

He paled, though, when he heard Mrs. Song produce a loud huff and shout an ugly, “Lee Hyukjae!” He made a face at her and groaned as she stood on her feet. “You're done. Give me your test!”

Her heavy footsteps reached his desk quickly where she snatched his paper up before he could even protest, and ripped it in two, right before his eyes. “No retakes for you!” She jabbed her finger into his face, making her point, and marched away.

“Ugh!” Hyukjae slammed his head on his desk in defeat, “Whyyyyy?”

“I'm sorry, dude.” Yunho whispered from his right side, feeling bad. Hyukjae waved him off without raising his head which hurt now anyway. It would take a while for him to bring it back up.

With his head down on the desk, head pounding with severe, self-inflicted headache, Hyukjae spent the next 30 minutes of the class hour silently like this until the bell dismissed them for the day. His head felt heavy as he lifted up, groaning with the effort.

His constant groaning only became louder and more miserable, though, when his phone buzzed in his pocket and he took it out to find a text message from that dreadful Kyuhyun.

From: Kyu

To: Hyuk

Meet me at your locker and prepare to look totes adorbs for later, kitten ~

And Hyukjae almost cried. He had nearly forgotten what the rest of his day would be like.

~*.*~

Seven year old Hyukjae smiled warmly at his very first friend, bewitched by the smile on his face, charmed by the sincerity with which he spoke his promise.

“Thank you,” he replied, letting on, just a little, how much he was really affected. He didn't want to leave his best friend behind. If anything, he wanted to be at his side forever.

He swallowed these thoughts, though, not wanting to make the younger boy more upset than he already was. Hyukjae unhooked their pinky fingers and clasped their hands together instead.

“Come on,” he said, standing and pulling the boy up with him, “I want to show you something.”

“What is it?”

“It's a surprise. I can make sure you'll never forget me with this.”

The boy laughed as he started to get pulled along, “I already promised that I won't forget you, silly.”

Hyukjae turned, ruffling the younger boy's hair, “I'm just making sure.” He said.

~*.*~

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Hyukjae asked in a flat voice as he reached his locker. Kyuhyun beamed at him, his smile having that slightly sinister look it always had to it.

“I'm just super excited, is all.”

“Don't 'is all' me. You're having way too much fun with this already.” Hyukjae opened his locker while trying to ignore the happy-go-lucky look on Kyuhyun's face. Though he frowned more deeply upon seeing the little red note idly resting atop of his sports bag.

He stuck his hand in and pulled the note out, slipping his backpack inside locker in its place. It's Friday, there's no room for homework in Hyukjae's mind. His backpack hasn't been at home over the weekend since middle school, and it wasn't breaking record now.

“Ah, another love note from so-and-so?” Kyuhyun observed as Hyukjae slammed his locker shut and emerged with the red letter.

Hyukjae gave him a pointed look, “One: not a love note. And for the last time: his name is Choi Seunghyun.”

“Oooh ~ Even correcting me on his name!” Kyuhyun teased while Hyukjae rolled his eyes, “You like this guy, don't you? Come on, don't lie.”

“Definitely not. Can we just go and get this over with?” Hyukjae just wanted to get home and rid himself of his skull-numbing headache.

“Oh, so now you wanna go.” Kyuhyun poked Hyukjae's nose, snatching his hand away before it got smacked, “You just don't want to talk about you getting all cozy with this Choi guy. What is this, like, your fourth letter from this dude? He must loooove you ~!”

Hyukjae sighed in annoyance as he pushed his friend's face away, not able to quite swallow the fact that the evil boy was making kissy faces at him. “I already told you that they're not love notes, you !”

“Oh yeah? Then let me see it.” Kyuhyun held his hand out to Hyukjae, palm facing up, and expression fairly pleased with himself for doing so. “Come on, give it.” He demanded, wiggling his fingers when Hyukjae swallowed and began blinking despite himself.

“No!” Hyukjae refused before slipping the red note into his back pocket.

Kyuhyun almost giggled at his friend's awkward stutter, rocking happily on the balls of his toes as he asked out a sing-song, “And why not?

Hyukjae cleared his throat and looked away, trying to find something to say. He sighed when he failed, though. “B-Because it's a love note. . .” He muttered in defeat, abruptly turning and walking away from his friend who was already howling with laughter.

“I told you so!”

The two boys stopped walking as they reached the overwhelmingly pink exterior of the mall's most popular shop since its installment. Hyukjae groaned miserably while Kyuhyun grinned at him from ear to ear.

“Let's go!” The younger of the two cheered merrily and started tugging at Hyukjae's wrist, causing many a passerby to turn and stare judgmentally.

“No, please!” Hyukjae whined, “I'll do something else. I'll go anywhere else with you, just not here. Please!”

Kyuhyun laughed and wiggled his forefinger at his miserable companion, “Nuh-uh-uh, you can't run away from this now, kitten, it's already been agreed on.” His merry laughter turned into a deep, evil rumbling which escaped his throat as he dragged Hyukjae inside, missing the horrified expression on the boy's face because he was much to busy marveling at the excessive amount of pink objects on display.

No, not even 'on display'--everywhere. It made both boys shudder in absolute disgust.

The store's polished floor was tiled light pink and hot pink; the display shelves, cases, and counters were all a strawberry pink; the front and back covers to every single book, notebook, magazine, and movie were an assortment of stylishly designed pink colors; the backpacks, purses, wallets, t-shirts, jackets and pants, and all accessories were more creative assortments of a raspberry pink. The walls were pink. The pillars that held up the pink ceiling were pink. The retractable belt that acted as a line separator was pink. The cash register, the computers, the scanners—everything was pink, pink, pink.

Hyukjae was so close to vomiting, he didn't know what to do with his life at the moment. Especially when the current bane of his existence (second to Kyuhyun and third to the terrible monster he held in his arms) walked out of the pink staff room door at the back of the pink store.

Looking at the feminine boy walking towards them brought Hyukjae such despair. He'd forgotten exactly how wonderfully pink the employees' uniforms were. He'd forgotten how many of those damn dolls he was carrying were in the store.

As slick as he could, Hyukjae wiped the tear away before it fell from his eyes just as the female reached them, hiding his sorrows as Kyuhyun openly expressed his undying joy.

That face, Kyuhyun thought, is all that I live for.

“Hi guys, welcome to Hello Kitty Isle where you can buy all the best merchandise all in one place.” He smiled kindly at the two of them. It literally almost melted Kyuhyun who caught himself quickly when his knees suddenly buckled. “Can I help you with anything?”

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