What am I doing here.

Sehun stared at the teacher's desk in front of him. He had just arrived at his last period's lab class well before the bell rang but the teacher had not yet arrived. Students were slowly streaming into the classroom, talking enthusiastically to each other. Luckily for Sehun, there was an odd number of students in the class and so he sat alone and didn't need to indulge in a pointless chat with anyone. After 7 periods of school, Sehun was exhausted. He never had much energy to begin with, but now his energy level was below zero.

I want to go home.

It's not that Sehun didn't like school. He did enjoy the class lessons and experiments, especially in chemistry but he hated homework. What's the point of studying again after having studied at school? Isn't that the point of school?  A place to study?

I want to eat cake.

Sehun's parents originally wanted Sehun to go to a prestigious business school, but Sehun insisted on attending Hwang High School because of Baekhyun. Sehun didn't know why, but he felt like he couldn't separate from his childhood friend. Also, business sounded boring as .

Or Baekhyun's cookies. Those were yummy.

Despite Sehun getting high test scores in school, he would've failed all his classes if he didn't strike a deal with the teachers. "Score High, and we'll grade high." was the ultimatum given to him by the teachers. Sehun therefore needed at to score at least 90% on every test for him to maintain his B average. As much as he hated to admit it, his family name definitely worked in his favor to obtain the deal.

I need to ask him to bring more.

And this was one of the reason why Sehun admired Baekhyun so much. Baekhyun comes from an average family. They weren't exactly poor but they weren't well off either. His parents used to work at a small shop in the country side, but after his father suffered a , Baekhyun had to work part-time at the shop to contribute to the family's expenses. Yet, despite his full schedule he managed to enter the prestigious Hwang High School through merit alone, obtaining a scholarship that covered all his expenses. Sehun's parents approved of Sehun's and Baekhyun's friendship because they saw what a good influence he would be to their son, and Sehun agreed. If not for Baekhyun, he's not sure if he would've become the person he is today.

Ah there he is.

The moment the bell rang, the chemistry teacher, a shrimp looking old man, slowly entered the class room with a couple books and a stack of paper under his arms. He was obviously struggling with the books as he walked in a weird crab-like format, trying to prevent the books from falling out of his hold. Sehun was about to go to the front to help him when suddenly Luhan appeared at the doorway.

"Do you need help, Mr. Einsberg?" Luhan asked in his slightly accented Korean.

"Ah-oh, sure. Thank you, dear Luhan."

"No, not at all." In a swift manner, Luhan shifted all the books over to his arm and moved them without effort over to the desk. Just as suddenly as he had appeared, he silently disappeared to the back of the room, to his own seat.

The teacher rummaged through his stack of paper before pulling out one half-sheet of notebook paper.

"Good evening, my dear students." He softly croaked out. His greeting was answered half-heartedly by the students but he didn't seem to take notice.

"Today I have an exciting announcement." Sehun was unstirred. Based on his two years aquaintance with Mr. Einsberg, "an exciting announcement" meant anything but exciting.

"We're gonna switch seats today!"

Ah . 

Sehun internally sighed. It meant he would be paired up with another student. He liked working alone. A lab partner almost meant different opinions and different opinions equaled stress.

"I'm going to read up the names of the partners, and you'll be seated as following." Mr. Einbserg drew up a miniature map of the classroom.

"Front left table, Luhan and Kai." Sehun watched as Luhan, without any expression, packed his bag and silently went up to the front. Kai, also devoid of any emotional signs on his face, threw his bag over his shoulder and walked to his designated seat. When he made eye contact with Luhan, they both nodded to each other and he sat down without a word.

That's gonna be one of a hella quiet table, Sehun thought to himself. As far as he knew, Luhan never really talked much and Kai doesn't make it a habit to talk to people he isn't familiar with.

Mr. Einsberg continued listing the lab partners down the rows, and every time he announed a pair, there were either some kind of joyful exclaim or disappointed grunt.

"Middle, the last row, Sehun and Kyungsoo."

Sehun slowly picked up his bag and slouched his way back to his assigned seat. By the time he arrived, Kyungsoo was already sitting there, staring at him with his huge serious, expressionless eyes.

"Hi, I'm Kyungsoo, rank 2 in our grade." Kyungsoo seriously presents himself, reaching out his hand. Despite having been in the same class for 3 years, Sehun has never ever talked to Kyungsoo. Still, Sehun found it amusingly funny how serious Kyungsoo was in introducing himself.

"Yea, hi. I'm Sehun. Forgot my rank." Sehun shook his hand firmly, like a he was in a business meeting. A surprised look crossed Kyungsoo's face before he went back into his totally-serious-mode.

"You're rank 8. I remember because I memorized the ranking. I'm looking forward to work with you." Kyungsoo then turned around and stared to the front, his full attention on Mr. Einsberg who was now going through lab safety procedures like he does every day. Sehun, finding Kyungsoo's sudden abrupt dimissal a bit awkward, decided to sit down and keep his distance. He didn't find Kyungsoo annoying, but he thought the small male student with the huge eyes certainly was a bit odd.

Finished with lab safety procedures, Mr. Einsberg went into discussing the lab of today and handed out guidesheets, which the students passed back. When Kyungsoo retrieved the guidesheets from the student in front of him, he quickly glanced over it.

DETERMINE UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE THROUGH TITRATION

Kyungsoo looked displeased. "I've done this before."

Sehun had done it too but wasn't sure what to answer, so he simply replied "Oh?"

"I went to a summer research internship at Northwestern University in America where I attended several intergrated science courses, including organic and inorganic chemistry. It was difficult because I struggled a bit with the English language but it was definitely worth it. I learned a lot." Kyungsoo answered eloquently and seriously as if he was in a college interview.

Sehun, not sure what to make out of this new information, simply replied "I see."

"It says that we should titrate only two times per substance, but I think it's much better if we do it three times to make the graph more accurate and also do a pre-trial to find approximately where the pH is so that we can determine what litmus paper to use."

"Sounds good."

"Also, let's get a magnet rod so that we can make sure the substances are evenly distributed throughout the experiment."

"Hn."
 

Kyungsoo started assembling the apparatus while talking, pulling out drawers and scribbling down diagrams, and soon the whole desk was full of equipment. Sehun let Kyungsoo ramble on. He didn't particularly mind not doing anything.

".. density may be a factor so we should dilute substance A." Kyungsoo zealously jotted down words in his lab book. "What else...?"

"The temperature?" Sehun lazily added. "Since the substances react strongly with each other."

Kyungsoo stopped writing and looked up at Sehun. The look of surprise that Sehun witnessed earlier apparant on his face again. He then returned back to his normal, expressionless face. "You're right. You're absolutely right. Why didn't I think of that?!" Kyungsoo turned back to jotting down stuff on his lab book. He was pretty much muttering to himself at this point.

"Of course, these two substances are incredibly reactive with each other. Temperature is a vital determination of the pH point. That means we should also consider the pressure and..."

Rest of the period went by smoothly. It consisted mainly of Kyungsoo doing all the work and Sehun holding up the apparatus and following whatever directions Kyungsoo gave. Kyungsoo had turned the simple experiment into a full blown research paper, taking into account every single factor that could possibly affect the outcome of the experiment. By the time they finished--or Kyungsoo was satisfied with the results, the other students had already packed up and were chatting happily among themselves. 

"That should be enough data." Kyungsoo smiled for the first time after they had cleaned the desk and put everything back to the drawers. "I'll send you the lab report tonight."

"Tonight? It's due next Friday, right?" Sehun was puzzled.

"Yes, but I like doing my homework ahead of time. It makes me more prepared." Kyungsoo answered.

".. right." Sehun never did his homework, so he couldn't imagine doing a two-days amount of work in one day, especially not a week and a half before deadline.

"Thank you for your cooperation today, Sehun. You were really helpful. I wouldn't have thought of including the possibility of gas humidity as a factor for the approximate error of pressure difference if not for your suggestion."

Sehun didn't recall having said anything related to that, but he decided to just take the easy way out. "No problem."

"Alright, then. See you tomorrow." Kyungsoo then quickly paced his way out of the classroom, but not before bowing to Mr. Einsberg on his way out.

Sehun was walking slowly to the door when he saw Kai still packing his bag by the window, looking distressed.

"Hey Kai." Kai looked up when he heard his name and saw Sehun waving at him from the door. "Oh, hi Sehun. Wassup?" Kai hurried next to Sehun and they exited the room together.

"Come with me to the bubble tea place today! I got a surprise."

"Bubble tea again, huh? Well, I'm up for it. I need some fresh air anyway."

"You look pretty bad. How did your experiment go?"

"Of all the students, why did it have to be Luhan?" Kai sighed. They walked up the stairs to pass by Kai and Sehun's shared locker where Sehun lumped off his textbooks like he does every day.

"Is he that bad?"

"What? No, not that. He's not bad. He's actually pretty good, considering he's not even a science major."

"Then what's the problem?" Sehun zipped his bag.

"There's just ... something about him."

"Go on."

"He's too .. I don't know. He's polite and diligent and all that but there's this vibe I get from him. It doesn't help that he's an upperclassman too. You know how awkward I get with seniors."

"True. You get awkward with, well, everyone, but especially people older than you." Sehun laughed and then paused. They had reached the main gate now, so they stopped walking.  "I don't think Luhan is the type to enforce age hierarchy though. He is forced to hang out with juniors twice a day because of his schedule, and I haven't heard him complain."

"Well, he actually told me not to worry about it and talk to him casually, but I just didn't feel comfortable at all. Ugh, I was all tense during the experiment. I thought I was going to die."

"Was he alright though?"

"Yea, he did half the work. But have you seen his handwriting? It looks like ing calligraphy. He's so damn meticulous, it freaks me out."

"He can't be more meticulous than my partner."

"What partner?"

Upon hearing a sudden voice below his ear, Sehun jumped half a meter from the ground, scaring Kai at the same time as a domino effect.

"HOLY BAEK YOU SCARED THE OUT OF ME!" Sehun grabbed his chest, trying to calm his frantic heart down.

"Well, sorry for scaring you with my existence." Baekhyun deadpanned. "What partner? What were you talking about? Oh, hi Kai."

"Sup?"

"Are you being forced to the bubble tea store?" Baekhyun asked Kai, who nodded in confirmation. "No surprise there. Let's go then."

"Ok, don't come then." Sehun pouted. Baekhyun ignored him and walked ahead, with Kai and Sehun awkwardly dangling behind him.

The bubble tea store was literally right next to the school. Ever since it was built there two years ago, Sehun had been frequenting it around 3-4 times a week, sometimes with Baekhyun, sometimes without. He has probably spent around $500 per year on Bubble tea alone. The bubble tea store was bright and modern and quickly became a popular place of high school students to hang out.

For the past two years, it's been called

            BUBBLE TEA

Baekhyun looked up and the previous name sign had been replaced by

            BOhBBLE TEA

Snort, Baekhyun internally rolled his eyes. "Creative name." Baekhyun sarcastically complimented and Kai started giggling. Typical Sehun to name his first cafè like that.

"Yea, I couldn't really think of anything haha .." Sehun got embarrassed, which only made Kai laugh even more, clutching to his stomach. "Anyway, let's go in!"

Inside was bright and roomy with light blue walls and white tables and light brown chairs everywhere.

"It looks exactly the same as the previous place." Baekhyun noted.

"Well, I just bought it yesterday, remember?"

"Which exactly makes me question why the you bought it in the first place."

Finding a table on the very far corner of the store, Kai and Baekhyun sat down while Sehun went to get their orders. Although not as close as he was with Sehun, Baekhyun had known Kai for a little bit over 1 year and hung out with him quite often. He was first introduced to Kai through Sehun as they were both science major. Baekhyun had been surprised that Sehun managed to make another friend as he generally avoids any human contact, but he quickly figured out why. Kai is like the exact duplicate of Sehun. He doesn't talk to people he doesn't know, doesn't participate in social events, and avoid anything remotely stressful like a fly. 

The only difference is that Kai actually has work ethic. Ranked as #1 in the science department, Kai makes Baekhyun question whether or not scientific minds come with an extra byproduct of antisocialness.

"So what were you guys talking about?" Baekhyun initiated the conversation like he always does.

"Uhmm we got a seat change in chemistry."

"And?"

"Well, we got new lab partners."

"So what happened?"

"I got this meticulous guy... I don't know who the guy Sehun got is though."

"How many are in that class again?"

"13."

"And you're not able to remember 12 other people...?"

"Uhh ..." Kai scratched his head. "We never really get to interact in that class.."

"You mean, you don't interact."

"That too, I guess." Kai scratched his head. Baekhyun sighed. 

"So who's your partner?"

"This older student ... he's kind of scary."

"Scary?"

"Just a hunch I got."

Hearing the sound of slouching footsteps coming closer, Baekhyun and Kai stopped their conversation and looked up. Sehun arrived with three bubble teas.

"Ok, my treat today!" He brightly smiles at his friends as he sets down the cups.

"You mean, your treat every day." Baekhyun answered and snatched the bubble tea with the pink straw.

"Hey! I need to make money too!" Sehun quickly secured himself the one with the blue straw, leaving the green strawed tea for Kai.

"Why bother? It's not like you'll ever go broke."

"So who is your partner, Sehun?" Kai quickly interrupted before Baekhyun and Sehun started bickering about economics.

"Right, about that. It's Kyungsoo." Sehun answered amidst slurping tea.

"Kyungsoo..?" Kai looked at Baekhyun, who stared right back.

"Don't look at me, I'm not even in your class."

"He said he's ranked nr. 2 in the school." Sehun added.

Baekhyun snorted. No wonder he didn't know who Kyungsoo was.

Kai shook his head. He never really paid attention to those kind of stuff either.

"You know, the one with the large eyes?" At the mention of eyes, Kai's own brightened up as if a switch .

"Oh! The small dude with heart-shaped lips?"

"Uhh.. I don't know about his lips. I didn't really pay attention to that. But he's definitely small .. kind of like Baek." Sehun made an approximate measurement with his hand. 

"I'm not small, you . At least I don't slam my head into the door frame like you do." Baekhyun shot back.

"Hey! I always helped you when you needed to reach lollipops from the grocery store!"

"SO HOW WAS KYUNGSOO AS YOUR PARTNER?" Kai liked Sehun and Baekhyun, but their bickering drove him nuts.

Thankfully, Kai succeeded in recapturing Sehun's attention.

"Kyungsoo? He's kind of an interesting guy. He's really formal and he speaks all seriously and stuff. He works really quickly, but the experiment lasted on forever because he kept including new ideas that he wanted to test out." Sehun recalled. "Well, he ended up doing everything, so I'm fine with it."

"An overachiever." Baekhyun mumbled. While Kai and Sehun went into some discussion about the experiment that he had not the slighest remote interest in, Baekhyun looked around the store and busied himself with slurping bubbas from the cup. Most students he didn't recognize but he could see based on their uniform that they were from his school. There were mostly girls in the store, all dolled up and stealing glances toward Sehun and Kai. Probably the reason why Sehun likes this store, Baekhyun thought annoyingly.

People never sent him glances. The only times he's gotten glances were from old, dirty men on the streets. Baekhyun shudders just at the thought. He then looked outside and his heart jumped.

Outside stood Luhan.

He was staring sideways into the store, as if he was looking for someone. He wasn't wearing school uniform but dressed in normal clothing, with a bag slung over his slender shoulders. His light hoodie covered his blonde hair, but Baekhyun would be able to recognize him miles away. That nose, that mouth, those eyes.

Baekhyun's heart started beating rapidly. Who is he looking for? Could it be...

"I-I have to go now." Baekhyun abruptly stood up almost knocking over his cup. "I have some prior appointment, I forgot. Thanks for the bubba, Sehun."

"Oh, ok. See you tomorrow then, Baek." Sehun was surprised by the sudden departure but remained oblivious to Baekhyun's lie. Kai simply waved at him. 

Baekhyun hurridly exited the Bubble Tea store, but once outside he began walking slowly down the pavement. He felt adrenaline rush through his veins, but didn't dare to look back.

Notice me .. notice me..

Then, a wave of mixed relief and ardor washed over him when he felt a hand lightly grabbing his shoulder and a melodious voice uttering his name.

"I was right. It was you after all, Baekhyun!" Baekhyun turned around with a surprised look on his face, partly due to shock, partly due to bliss. He did! He did!

Next to him stood Luhan, smiling sweetly at him.

"O-oh, h--h-hi Luhan!" Baekhyun stuttered.

"Sorry, did I frighten you?"

"No, I was just a bit surprised. W-what are you doing here still? Classes ended a while ago."

"I had soccer practice. It was cut short today though. How about you?" 

"I was just having bubble tea with Sehun and another friend."

"You didn't leave together?"

Baekhyun blushed. Quick, an excuse!

"Uhm well, no they had some kind of lab going on and they were discussing it." 

"Labs, huh?" Luhan smiled. "They're so diligent. Who was your other friend? Someone I know?"

"I don't think so. His name is Kai.. he's in the same science class as Sehun."

Luhan and Baekhyun were now walking together down the street toward down town, opposite of Baekhyun's house. Baekhyun wanted to ask Luhan where he was going, but at the same time, he didn't want the conversation to stop so he just kept on rambling. "...apparently they had just changed lab partners or something. Sehun got a really small but fastidious guy with large eyes and Kai apparently got some scary older guy."

Luhan chuckled. "Some scary older guy?"

"Well, he didn't tell me how. He said it was just a vibe he got? But Kai's really sensitive in general so.. "

"Kai ... I heard he's the one who's ranking first at the science department?"

Baekhyun felt a pang of jealousy in his chest, although he knew it was stupid to feel that. So what if Luhan knew Kai? Everyone knew Kai.

"Yeah, he and Sehun are both really smart. It's just that Sehun doesn't like doing homework, but I'm sure if he did, they'd be ranking close to each other. Maybe even higher." Baekhyun didn't know why he felt the need of making Kai less accomplished than he is, but he couldn't stop the words from coming out from his mouth. However, he was relieved that Luhan didn't seem to notice.

"You have amazing friends," Luhan complimented. "As expected of an amazing person like yourself."

Both a sense of pride and blush spread through Baekhyun's body.

LUHAN JUST SAID I WAS AN AMAZING PERSON MY LIFE IS FULFILLED

"I.. I just want to apologize for today." Luhan continued without noticing that Baekhyun was having festival in his head right now. "For disappearing so abruptly. I wanted to get to know you better but unfortunatenly, we didn't get to talk very much .."

"No, no, it's alright!"  Baekhyun suddenly felt annoyance toward Jessica and Tiffany for showing up and interrupting their conversation. Luhan was trying to get to know me! "I'm happy you took time to chat with me, I know how busy seniors are. Not to mention, you're always surrounded by people so... "

They had reached the train station and Luhan stopped at the entrance. For a moment, he looked a bit flustered but then he looked straight into Baekhyun's eyes.

"I know this may be a bit sudden but .. may I have your number?"

Baekhyun fell silent at the unexpected request.

Seeing the junior's dumstruck expression, Luhan quickly explained. "Since I'm a senior, I think it'll get a bit hard for me to approach you in school. I think it'd be more convenient if we talked over text message... if you don't mind, of course. I'd love to get to know you better." He then gave the loveliest smile Baekhyun had ever seen in his life.

"Yes, sure! Of course! .. I mean, yea sure no problem."

Somehow Baekhyun had managed to exchange his number before Luhan departed into one of the trains. Somehow Baekhyun had managed to walk all the way back to his dorm without getting into a car collision. Somehow Baekhyun did not ... of overexcitement after his heart had been crossed maximum speed limit for blood pumping.

It was a miracle that Baekhyun was still alive after receving the short two-line message.

"Hi Baekhyun, I'm glad we met today. I hope you got home safely. -Luhan."

Hi sorry, I totally forgot about this story haha.

I don't really know if I want to continue this story because I feel like my storytelling is really boring plus school just started so .. I definitely won't be able to update that often. Well, if you got some constructive feedback, that'd be nice. Or just a general opinion. I was hoping that maybe in the future I could revise this story and make it even better. 

Anyway, thanks for reading. The new layout of AFF kind of threw me out :/