Chanyeol was still home when my Mom came back. She frowned when she saw him. She looked almost angry when she saw us sprawled on the couch, watching TV.

"Hello, Chanyeol." she said as she picked up the remote from the coffee table and turned off the TV. Chanyeol stood up and and bowed, a huge smile on his face. "No homework today?" 

Chanyeol and I exchanged looks. "We just finished." Chanyeol spoke.

"Really?" She looked skeptic. "I don't see any books around."

"They're in my room, Mom." I hastily stood up. "Chanyeol was leaving, anyway."

My Mom looked like she wanted to say something more but I grabbed Chanyeol's hand and dragged him to the door. He slipped on his shoes, not even wearing them properly. Once we were outside, he cleared his throat. 

"Look, I know your Mom is really super scary and strict but we can skip school without her finding out, okay?" I shook my head but he continued. "I've been doing this since eighth grade. Trust me."

"Chanyeol, I want to but not now. My Mom-"

"-will not find out."

"What if she does?" He rolled his eyes at me. "She's going to lecture me right now about how I wasn't studying and hanging out with you."

"Really?"

"Yes. Now go. I'll see you at school tomorrow." 

"Fine." He shuffled awkwardly and then ruffled my hair. "Good night."

I stared at his retreating figure and then remembered my Mom was inside. Right, that lecture.

"I didn't know Chanyeol and you were friends." Why was everyone asking me that? "Is he in your class as well?"

"No, he's in class 2." We were allotted classes based on our merit. Most of the intelligent students were in 1. There were good kids in 2 as well, but for Mom, anything less than 1 was stupid. She was obviously internally judging him and while she didn't say anything directly, it was evident from her expressions. 

"Isn't he your school's- what do you call it- jjang?" I don't believe this. She's lecturing me because she thinks Chanyeol is a thug or something? Like, she doesn't even trust me to make friends?

"What? JJang? Mom, no one even uses that word anymore." Seriously. Though, technically, Chanyeol is the jjang of our school but he'd laugh if anyone said that to him. 

"Is he?"

"No, Mom. He's not." She didn't look convinced. "He's not beating me up so you don't have to worry."

"He is taking up your study time." 

So that's what it's about. 

"We were studying." 

"I don't believe that for a second." She crossed her arms over her shoulders and did her whole I'm only looking out for you' thing. Same old lecture. I didn't even bother listening. What bugged me though was that I'd had three people already tell me off for hanging out with Chanyeol. Yeah, he was stubborn and never ever listened to me, but I liked spending time with him and I so didn't see what Jong In, D.O and Mom were worried about. 
Chanyeol was nice. 

You know what? I take back what I said. Chanyeol isn't nice. He's a kidnapper. And me? I'm stupid. I just follow him wherever blindly. His house and now, wherever he was taking me now that we were skipping school.

"Baekhyun-ah. Just this once, okay? Just today." His arm was casually slung around my shoulder to make sure I didn't run away. "I won't bother you with this again."

"Chanyeol, I don't think you understand." No, seriously, he didn't. He'd just shown up at my doorstep in the morning, cornered me just as I was leaving for school and lead the way out of our colony. We had walked almost the same route to school for as long as our apartment was visible. Then we'd ducked through streets that were mostly empty, given the time. We had been walking for ten minutes now and I had no clue where I was. Sure, I lived here so I was supposed to know but Chanyeol had taken us through such a complicated route that I got lost after the third left. "Anyone can walk past us right now, who recognises my Mom. We're in our uniform. We're supposed to be in school." 

He halted to a stop and took off his jacket, handed it to me and then took off the sweatshirt that he was wearing over his uniform. 

"Are you strip-"

He threw his sweatshirt at me and took back his jacket, this time zipping it up. "Put it on. The hood should hide your face and we'll walk fast enough that no one has time to double check. And it's only till the gates. No one knows your Mom where we're going." 

His sweatshirt was huge on me but I was grateful for the hood. "Where are we going?" 

The only reply I got was a mischievous grin and then we trudged on for another five minutes before we stopped in front of a house. Chanyeol took out his phone and typed something. Then grabbed my hand and opened the gates of the house. It had a pretty and well kept garden and cozy looking chairs on the front porch. We didn't enter the house, though. We went around it and to the backyard. 

"Isn't this trespassing?" 

"No. Woozi knows I'm here." 

"Woozi?" 

"Shhh. His parents are still home."  

We waited for a minute in the backyard until the back door of the house creaked open and a guy, about our age, emerged with a bunch of keys in his hand. 

"Chanyeol!" He whisper shouted and did the cool kid greeting thing with the fist bumps and shoulder pats. "How are you, my man." 

"Peachy. How come your parents are still home?" Chanyeol whispered back. 

"Long story. Tell you later." The guy (Woozi?) did a very dramatic eye roll and then turned to me. "Hey, man. I'm Lee Ji Hoon." 

"Byun Baekhyun." Do I shake his hand? That fist bump thing? I did neither. Just raised my eyebrows. 

"Hmmm. Baekhyun. Name sounds familiar." He looked at me expectantly and I just shrugged. "I've heard about you. Not sure where. Anyway, bike!"

Bike. "When you say bike, you mean bicycles, right?" 

Chanyeol chuckled nervously and Ji Hoon threw me a 'are-you-kidding-me' look. "Bike as in motorbikes. Vroom vroom!"

He went to the shed, unlocked it and disappeared inside and emerged a minute later with a motorbike. Yikes. 

"Chanyeol!" 

But he ignored me and grabbed the handles of the bike, pushing it out of a small gate, which I only now noticed, lead out of the colony.

"Bro, do you have an extra helmet?" 

He nodded, looked at me and then back at Chanyeol. "It's pink, though." He went back inside the shed and emerged with the helmet. Please,