Chanwoo groaned and reached up to make sure his nose was still intact before opening his eyes. Seunghyun was besides him on the bed, getting ready to slam his head into his owner's nose again.

Quickly, the human boy sat up to protect his nose and watched at Seunghyun tried to charge at his now-absent form, didn't have anything to stop himself, and with a shocked sounding "Rouw!" fell off the bed.

It almost sounded as if Daesung and Jiyong were laughing with Chanwoo from their places on the bed besides him. As Seunghyun tried to recover himself and his dignity, Chanwoo got himself out of bed to get ready for school. Because strangely enough, he was looking forwards to going to school.

He'd never particularly loathed going to school, but he'd never really looked forward to school before either. Maybe it was because he'd never had anyone to look forward to seeing before. Moving around from town to town had never allowed him to make many friends. Really, a part of him knew that making friends here so quickly was strange and dangerous. If they-- No. When they moved again, Chanwoo would have to say goodbye.

That's why he was going to enjoy this now, he decided as he went to feed the cats.

~

Today he was early again. When he walked into his first hour, none of his friends were there yet. But seeing as he hadn't arranged to meet any of them he hadn't really expected them to be there.

However, he wasn't alone either.

Chanwoo tried desperately to avoid eye contact with the tall boy across the room. It wasn't wash though. The older boy kept looking over at him. And even though he knew that the other's called the sophomore his friend, Chanwoo wasn't sure he understood how someone so willing to be mean and fight with them could be their friend.

The chair closest to him scraped across the floor, startling him.

With wide eyes, Chanwoo watched as Junhoe flopped into the chair and grinned lazily. "Good morning."

"Morning," Chanwoo somehow managed to whisper back.

"We need to talk," Junhoe's voice was really deep, and seemed to rumble around him like thunder. It was an intimidating sound, but also an estranged sort of familiar, like from a dream or memory.

A memory. One of warm hands and umbrellas on rainy days. Of familiar eyes and the faintest scent of cigarettes woven into a work suit.

"You're a good kid."

The rumbling voice pulled him back. The stared at Junhoe, not completely understanding. Didn't the other boy hate him?

Junhoe chuckled. "I don't hate you, kid."

Chanwoo blushed. He hadn't meant to think aloud. "S-sorry."

"Do you even know what your apologizing for?"

Chanwoo thought for a minute and then shook his head.

Junhoe laughed, and it was a nice sound. "No wonder Jinannie likes you so much."

"June, you're not picking fights again, right?"

"Nah hyung. I can be civil if I want."

"Yeah, but the thing is, you don't usually want to." Bobby sat down on Chanwoo's opposite side.

"Hanbin isn't with you today?" Junhoe looked surprised. "Don't you guys carpool?"

"He's sick," Bobby seemed to scowl a bit, and Junhoe's shoulders tensed.

"He gonna be ok?"

"Hopefully. He'll be home alone."

"That's good," Junhoe ruffled Chanwoo's hair as he leaned over to talk to Bobby. "Charting is sick today too, so I'll be sticking to you guys for today."

Bobby nodded and reached over to bump Junhoe's hand out of Chanwoo's hair and replaced it with his own, running his fingers through the youngest boy's hair. "There must be something going around. Be careful, okay kid?"

Chanwoo nodded. Funnily enough, he was enjoying the way it felt to have e his hair combed through like this. He'd expected the older boy to be rough and pull. Maybe it was just because he seemed so excitable. Instead, it was like Bobby was being careful with him.

But when Donghyuk bounded in with Yunhyeong in tow, Bobby's hand disappeared. Chanwoo couldn't help. It be a little disappointed.

~

His second hour was usually shared with both Hanbin and Bobby, and their usually busy table of three felt really empty with just the two of them. The remaining hyung seemed to sense this and moved seats so that they were side by side.

A sudden yelp filled the room and Chanwoo jumped a bit in his seat. One of Bobby's arms came to wrap around his waist to settle him.

"Mingyu! What the heck man?"

"Wonwoo was tickling me! Not my fault!"

Bobby gave the other boy a dirty look before turning to Chanwoo. "You okay?"

Chanwoo gave him a small smile. "Yeah. Thanks."

~

Third hour was always kind of crazy. Chanwoo had never been in a more energetic history class before. As he sat by Donghyuk and Yunhyeong, he wondered how he hadn't realized that the two were dating before. The amount of flirting and general cutseyness made him feel like gagging.

As they packed up and waited to be dismissed, Chanwoo told the other boys he'd meet them for lunch late again.

Yunhyeong frowned at him. "Chanwoo, you eat right? You don't avoid us because you're not eating, right?"

Chanwoo shook his head and pulled a brown sack lunch partially out of his backpack. "I'm just running a quick errand, hyung."

Donghyuk grinned and reached out to pinch the maknae's cheeks. "Good, because you're handsome just like this."

Behind him Yunhyeong nodded. "Ladies love chubby cheeks and dimples."

"Hyung!" Chanwoo whined as he turned scarlet and quickly separated himself from the two.

Once he'd finally made his way out of the classroom and down the hall, the boy checked to make sure nobody was watching before heading to the abandoned courtyard.

Before going outside, he checked to make sure the doors wouldn't lock him out and that, again, he wasn't being watched. Then he slipped out into the cool autumn air. As he walked to the center of the courtyard he rummaged in his bag for the extra supplies he'd started bringing.

When he'd set everything down, he clicked his tongue. The sound cut through the silent air. And then he waited.

As he watched, six sets of eyes appeared and regarded him before one of the six little corresponding mouths replied to him with a tiny "Mew!"

So, as of when I'm posting this there are officially 50 of you lil fluffernutters subscribed to this story. 50! Wow! I feel so so so happy. Plus a lot of you commented on that last chapter! :')

I tried my best to respond to everyone. You have no idea how happy y'all made me. 

Now, at this point y'all have realized how much I love sneaking my cameos in yeah? So who do you think Chanwoo's newest lil friends are? I'll give you a hint. I've snuck one of their real life siblings in here already. Seriously, if you guess and get it I'll love you for forever. I love Ikon, don't get me wrong, but these fluffers are my actual bias group and I love them so much. Another hint: I chose them very specifically for this particular role instead of switching them and Big Bang because the one who's sibling appears in an earlier chapter actually had/has a real life impact on Chanwoo (and I'm living for the day I get to see them interact T^T)

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Ink