I was in a considerably bad mood as I ordered our food and grumpily snatched my change from the cashier. I saw Sehun coming towards me, the tickets sticking out of his jacket pocket.

“Here,” Sehun grabbed the drinks while I carried the snacks and popcorn.

It wasn’t too long before he noticed my sour mood as we took a couple of steps away from the snacks bar.

“What’s up?” he asked, furrowing his eyebrows. I explained to him what Hoya had said and Sehun proceeded to call him a couple of words that he wouldn’t have dared say in front of his little sister.

“Who cares about him?” he snorted. “Honestly, Kai, don’t let him get to you, he doesn’t even know you so he can’t say that stuff. He just felt like a hot shot because the rest of us weren’t around. Musta felt brave to try and get on the bad side of the toughest of all, Kim Jongin.”

I didn’t say anything. Sehun was right, this guy wasn’t anyone significant and he didn’t know me.

But the thing that was getting to me was the fact that even people who did know me were saying those things.
 

I shook off what Hoya said to me and enjoyed the movie with Sehun. We had fun laughing whenever something popped out and we didn’t even flinch because it was so predictable.  

“I didn’t even know what was happening,” Sehun said as we exited the theatre room.

“Yeah, but you never do,” I snorted as I threw away my popcorn carton.

“Shut up,” Sehun shoved me and we continued to comment on the lack of comprehension that horror movies provided. They all comprised of the same thing: murder and random things popping out even when it makes no sense to.

“Enjoyed yourselves?” a sneering voice behind us said. We turned around and saw Hoya with two other guys behind him.

Sehun cocked an eyebrows as he said, “Yeah, we did actually.”

Hoya then called him the son of something that most certainly wasn’t his mother.

“Big mouth, today, eh?” Sehun said. “Watch it, Hoya.”

“You should at least apologize to Sungjong,” the guy to the right of Hoya said.

“Listen, Fathers of Peace, we don’t need you to tell us what to do,” I said as Sehun rolled his eyes and we turned away.

“Well obviously someone does since you don’t even have a mom in the right state of mind to do so,” Hoya scoffed behind me.

In less than a millisecond I had thrown my leftover coke at him and was charging towards him with my fist raised and fire in my eyes.

“Kai!” Sehun was just as fast and had put himself between Hoya and me with his face an inch away from my fist.

“Move,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Come on, Kai, let’s go,” Sehun put my fist down and tried to push me the other way. People were beginning to watch but I hardly noticed that as I looked over Sehun at a dripping wet and fuming Hoya.

I shoved past Sehun and grabbed Hoya’s sticky collar.

“Say something like that to me, or anything for that matter again,” I said in a low voice. “and I will literally tie you up into a pretzel and break every bone in your body while drowning you. You just got on my nerves, Geek Boy, which was pretty stupid of you,” I hissed before letting go and allowing Sehun drag me out of the theatre before security showed up.

Once we were out I cursed and called Hoya a bunch of creative names; almost all of which had profanity.

“Calm down, Kai, forget him,” Sehun said as we walked to the bus stop. Sehun had known me since kindergarten so he practically grew up in my situation, which was how well he understood it. He had quite liked my mother before she went off her rocker and she had liked him too, nowadays she really enjoyed it when I brought Sehun with me to visit her.

“What is he anyway?!” I burst out as we stood at the bus stop.

“No one,” Sehun answered promptly, clearly not wanting my anger to intensify.

I was still radiating with anger as we got on the bus and Sehun had to drag me away from this little girl who stepped on my foot before I did something.

“What I don’t understand is with what right did he say those things?” I squinted my eyes as we sat down at the back of the bus. I was very touchy about the subject of my mother, very few people knew about her and how Hoya did I had no idea. But he had no right to talk about my mother like that, he didn’t need to mention her, how unnecessary.

“He didn’t Kai, what he did was totally wrong so just leave it, okay?”

I could tell Sehun was upset that I was angry, and that he too thought Hoya was out of line, so out of respect for Sehun I didn’t press on about it. We rode the bus in silence until we arrived at our stop.

“I have to stop and buy drinks for Grandpa, see you,” I said when we got off the bus and stood in between the plaza across the street and our neighbourhood.

Sehun nodded, “Okay, tell him I said hi.”

I nodded and we slapped each other’s hands before going opposite ways. I crossed the street and walked along the sidewalk, a refreshing breeze swirling around me as my feet scrunched on top of the fallen orange and red leaves.

When I got to the convenience store that held Grandpa’s favourite vitamin milkshakes, I headed straight for the drinks section. I grabbed his favourite flavours (vanilla, strawberry, and a mix of banana and mango) as well as a bottle of caramel flavoured chocolate milk for me.

I dumped the drinks into a nearby basket as I browsed the store for anything else we might want to eat. I didn’t find anything for Grandpa, but I did happen upon my mother’s favourite chocolate covered taffee and bought that for the next time I would visit her.

I paid for the items I bought and was home 20 minutes later, after an excruciatingly long bus ride that composed of me being sandwiched between a rather large man and a woman who kept inappropriately touching my leg.

“KAI! IS THAT YOU?” I heard Grandpa’s voice in the living room the moment I stepped into the house.

“No!” I called back with amusement as I went into the kitchen to put the drinks and candy away. I threw the candies in a cupboard and stored all the drinks in the fridge, leaving out my milk and Grandpa’s drink.

“Can’t you ever respond properly?” Grandpa said loudly as I walked into the living room. Grandpa was sitting on the sofa, watching his favourite game show.

“I could, but where’s the fun in that?” I said as I walked past him, putting the drink in his hands and then sitting on the other sofa.

“Ah, mango and banana?” he looked at it happily before opening it and taking a sip.

“I never disappoint,” I said cockily as I drank my milk as well, enjoying the touch of caramel.

“Of course you don’t. How was the movie?”

“Alright,” I shrugged. “Sehun says hi.”

“How is he? Doing okay?”

“Yeah, he’s fine,” I replied. Grandpa was always so worried about Sehun, he had always seen Sehun as this innocent little boy who didn’t know how to get around without help and a mess-up. Even though Sehun and I did the same , Grandpa always thought Sehun was the naïve version of me and that I had influenced him badly but that it was a miracle Sehun was still such an ‘innocent flower boy’.

Which he technically was, but Sehun had his cruel side too, I mean no angel goes around vandalising a cop car.

But Sehun was pretty nice, even to strangers.

Something I had trouble doing.

After school on Monday for detention, Choi had split us up to mop certain classrooms. This time though, he wasn’t monitoring us as we were all in different classrooms.

I looked around the grade nine classroom I was supposed to mop up, the lazy brats didn’t even stack their chairs.

I decided to stack the chairs, at least make it look like I did some work. I stacked the chairs on the desks and looked around exhaustedly as though I had just run a marathon.

Just then Choi walked into the room.

“Working hard?”

I didn’t even look at him as I walked to the mop and bucket I had placed in front of the classroom.

“No snarky retort?”

“I like to save them for worthy opponents,” I snapped.

He took a few steps into the room and looked around, “Shining. I want this room to shine, to be able to see my reflection in these desks.”

I suppressed my urge to say that if that was the case, it was probably better if the desks remained unclean.

“Whatever.”

“I’m leaving now, only the custodians will be here, make sure you get the job done right,” he said before leaving without waiting for my reply. With his hasty exit, he didn’t see my shoulders straighten up with excitement and my face rearrange itself in a mischievous manner.

I dipped the mop in once and squeezed out the excess water before lazily cleaning the entrance of the classroom. Then I grabbed a paper towel and wiped the first row of desks, though that had no effect on the desks since the paper towels were dry.

“Phew, hard work,” I said to myself as I wiped my forehead and threw the paper towels away. I dropped the mop and bucket into the custodian’s office before stopping by my locker to gather my gym-bag style bag.

I called Sehun and he picked up after a couple of rings as I walked out of the school, fixing the sole strap of my bag on my shoulder.

“Hey, bud, where are you?” I asked, kicking pebbles as I walked to the bus stop.

“School, where else?” he replied.

I stopped in my tracks, “What? Why?”

“I’m doing the cleaning,” Sehun answered in a tone that expressed confusion. “Why? Where are you?”

“I ditched since Choi left, didn’t you know?”

“He said we had to clean up the classroom though….”

I laughed out loud and a few kids that were passing by gave me strange looks at my bark-like chuckle.

“Oh Sehun, you’re so naïve,” I said. “If he’s not in the building breathing down our necks and watching our every move, it’s a ticket to leave.”

“Oh,” was all he said and I knew Sehun was scratching his head. “I’m just gunna finish, where are you going?”

“To visit my mom,” I answered. “Wanna stop by? She’d be glad to see you.”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll head over when I’m done.”

“Kay, bye,” I hung up as I arrived at the bus stop and very conveniently, the bus arrived right away.

I took the usual route and gave my awkward greetings to the nurses that I walked by as I went to my mother’s room.

“Leaves, there are such pretty leaves!”

When I entered the room, my mother was sitting in front of her window, admiring the colourful leaves that were falling as autumn did its thing.

“Mom,” I called and she looked over her shoulder and smiled widely. She patted the seat beside her, “Sit! Come sit with me, Jongin, look at the leaves.”

I smiled and went where she directed me, putting my bag down on her bed.

“I want to see the leaves, they’re so beautiful,” she sighed wistfully.

“Should I bring you some?” I asked, despite the fact that I wasn’t sure if the nurses would allow it. “I’ll go get them.”

But my mom shook her head as I half rose from my seat, “They should stay outside, they’re prettier outside.”

“Okay,” I said, sitting down again. “Sehun’s coming soon, do you want to see him?”

“Sehunnie?” she repeated before she displayed another smile with twinkling eyes. “Yes! I’d love to see him, Sehun is a good boy.”

“Miss Kim?” a nurse knocked on the open door before letting herself in. “This just arrived for you.”

The nurse was holding a package and I furrowed my eyebrows as she drew nearer to us, who was sending my mother a package?

“Ou! A present!” My mother stood up and walked past me to the nurse, her bony knees bumping into mine in the process.

I stood up as well and we both stood in front of the nurse. She kindly smiled down at my mother and held out the package.

Meanwhile I was staring at the package in confusion, who would send my mother something? It wasn’t anywhere near Christmas for any promotional advertising gifts to come in, and my mother wasn’t subscribed to any magazines that she could buy things from; I was always there when she wanted to buy something from a catalogue.

“Thanks,” I nodded at the nurse and she took her leave. My mom was sitting on her bed, opening the parcel with an excited look on her face.

I sat down with her and when she got the package open, inside was a silver long chained, medium sized black purse. It looked expensive, very expensive and it had a pattern hidden in the felt.

“Wow!” my mother’s eyes sparkled as she held the bag up. “This is so pretty!”

“Yeah,” I said distractedly, I was looking at the box, there was no return address. I looked inside the wrapper strewn package for a note of some sort when Sehun knocked on the door.

“Hello,” he smiled as he walked in.

My mother ran to him, leaving her bag on the bed. “Sehunnie!” she embraced him like a son and Sehun gave her a one armed squeeze. Sehun only tolerated my mother calling him ‘Sehunnie’, whenever I called him that he threw me a glare as well as a punch.

“Look! I got a present!” she dragged him by the arm and forced him to sit beside me.

“What’s up?” Sehun held his fist out and I bumped mine against his.

“Not much except this,” I replied as my mother put the purse around her shoulder and showed Sehun.

“It’s very pretty,” Sehun complimented, giving her one of his ‘cute’ smiles. “Who bought it?”

“No idea,” I muttered. “It wasn’t you, was it?”

“I wish, but nope. No return address?”

“Nothing,” I said, finishing my very thorough search of the parcel and putting it on the side table; I had found nothing except tissue paper, bubble wrap, and some of those salt packages that they say not to eat.

“Can I see the purse, Mom?” I asked, holding my hand out. She walked over and put the purse in my hands. She then sat back down on her bed with her knees up and wrapped her arms around them.

I opened the purse and found a folded note inside.

Just a small gift for a big personality.

“What’s that?” Sehun read the note over my shoulder. “Whoah, anonymous.”

I flipped the note over but there was nothing. My expression remained puzzled, who bought my mom this gift?

Grandpa doesn’t know the first thing about buying purses, besides he would have given it to my mother himself, or at least to me to give to her. Nor did my mother have any friends, she had lost them all as steadily as she did her mind. She had no other family either, another reason to add to the already unstable emotions my mother had when she met my father who had done nothing to tone them.

A very strange thought crossed my mind, absurd really, and I didn’t like to think of it. But I couldn’t pinpoint anyone else that had any relation to my mother.

Had my father sent it?

There are some things in life you shouldn’t do, and possibly sending your ex-wife expensive bags while she’s in a permanent psychiatric ward where you put her, is one of them.

So I was GOING to update yesterday, butmy internet and laptop were acting so stupid!

Not that this 24 hours really made a difference hehe

I hope you are all well and having a good holiday! I sure am :) (doing absolutely nothing resourceful!)

Do leave a comment, I kind of like this chapter, kind of don't ;) So I'll leave the rest to you

Byee!

PS the bag in the main picture of this chapter is what Kai's bag in the story looks like, I really don't know why I wanted to let you guys know that so badly, like it's just a bag but yeah. I'm not imagining it as leather though, but that style for sure. And Kai would never walk around with the strap that short, the bag would go mid-thigh 

^_^

(I mention the bag like twice in this chapter, just in passing. I highly doubt any of you even noticed it's presence, but to a bag fanatic like me, it's so very important.)

*two minutes after I press 'Save Changes'*  I don't know why the picture isn't showing as the main image, so I'll just show you :)