The next day the group all gathered in the woodcraft studio at school.  Suho and Luhan faced off while the rest of the group circled around them watching. 

Suho threw a right hook.  Luhan blocked. 

Suho threw a left hook.  Luhan pushed it down.

Suho threw another right.  Luhan blocked and gripped Suho’s wrist holding off another attack.  He stepped forward and hooked his ankle behind Suho’s.  Gripping the taller boy’s shoulder, Luhan pushed and would have dropped Suho to the floor in a real fight.

But instead, Luhan held him off balance for a moment.  When the cheering all around him indicated he had “won,” he helped Suho up and they separated with grins on their faces.  Kyungsoo wrapped an arm around Luhan’s neck.  “Not too bad for the new kid,” he said with a grin.  “Let’s get out of here.”

As everyone headed out, Kai slung his arm around Sohee’s neck and pulled her with him as he came up on Luhan’s other side and slung his other arm on top of Kyungsoo’s over Luhan’s shoulders.  “Not too bad at all,” Kai agreed.  They walked out linked like that and Luhan felt like he had passed a test and had taken one step closer to belonging.  It was an unfamiliar, wonderful feeling. 

“You busy tonight?” Kai asked, suddenly. 

Luhan looked at him, surprised.  He shrugged a shoulder –difficult to do with two arms draped there- and said, “Not particularly.  Why?”

“You should hang with us tonight,” Kai said, drawing looks from Kyungsoo and Sohee.  “What do you think, Sohee?  Think the new kid is cool enough to hang out with us tonight?”

Luhan looked passed Kai into Sohee’s eyes.  His heart seemed to stutter. 

Sohee scoffed.  “How would I know Kai,” she said.  “I’m never allowed to join you guys on your nighttime outings.”

“Well, I think you should come, Luhan,” Kyungsoo threw out.  “Meet us in front of the school when cram school gets out.”

“Alright,” Luhan agreed.  He briefly wondered what the other guys would think of him tagging along, but he had figured out that if Kai and Kyungsoo invited him, everyone else would readily accept him. 

His new classmates really were an odd group of friends.  At first, it seemed weird to Luhan that they all got along so well, but as Luhan got to know them, he began to understand.  At the center of the group was Kai and where he was his childhood friends Kyungsoo and Sohee were too.  It was Kai who kept them all together.  And because it had been Kai and Kyungsoo who had brought Luhan into the group, everyone else had readily accepted him as one of them. 

Luhan had easily fallen into their rhythm the day before.  The eleven of them would hang out at lunch and play soccer after school.  Sohee would join them and they would walk around town, joking; laughing.  They would catch a movie, get something to eat, do karaoke, or (on rare occasions) hit the library to study.  The day before, Luhan had said goodbye when they had headed off to cram school in the evening. 

The next morning had been a little awkward because Luhan wasn’t sure his new friends’ acceptance extended past the first day.  But he needn’t have worried.  They greeted him the same way they greeted each other, sleepily grabbing his hand and pulling him in for a quick one arm hug and a slap on the back. 

The only downside Luhan found about his new school and his new friends was that he couldn’t get away from her.  As evidence by the fact that she and Kai showed up at school together that morning.  Sohee spent a lot of time with Kai and Kyungsoo and thus spent a lot of time with their group.  She h