“So that was Hoseok, he’s a really nice guy to be honest.  Just the rumors you will hear will make you second guess that.  It’s up to you to judge.”  Hyungwon shrugged and stared down at his long fingers in his lap, biting on his lower lip.  “I really am sorry Kihyun.  I should have recognized the signs from earlier.  We’ve seen them before.  Just throw something at me next time, I tend to forget things but I don’t want to make you uncomfortable at all.”

                Kihyun shook his head, hovering a hand over Hyungwon’s arm.  All the comfort he could ever give to someone.

                “Thanks, Kihyunnie.”

                “Alright!  Enough emotional bs.”  Changkyun hopped to his feet and then stooped low to press a kiss into Hyungwon’s hair.  “Baby I’m gonna go snag us some food since its actual lunch time now.”  Hyungwon gave a sleepy smile as he pressed back into Changkyun’s legs.

                “Thank you.”

                Kihyun gave a small smile, it reminded him of the first time he saw Hyunwoo’s mother and the doctor together.  It was cute.

                Hyungwon watched as Changkyun walked away, leaning forward as his eyes followed.  “You know what Kihyun.  I’m gonna marry that boy.  I don’t care if his parents want something different for him.  I love him.  Proudly follow him to hell and back.  Break all systems for him.  Hack my way through war tragic lands for him.”  Hyungwon looked at Kihyun with eyes full of love.  “And it’s not because he’s a good lay, cause believe me he has the stamina of like twenty guys.  It’s amazing, but I love him for him.  His need to know everything attitude, his reading, his love for knives, his workout schedule, his reading.  Sorry, I know you don’t know us all that well.  I shouldn’t be confessing to you how I love my perfect man.”

                Kihyun pulled on the zippers of his bag, pulling out his notebook and a pen.  You two are cute together.  It reminds me of Hyunwoo’s parents.  He held the notebook out to Hyungwon.

                “Aw, thank you.”  Hyungwon smiled at him and then quirked an eyebrow.  “Who’s Hyunwoo?”

                Kihyun covered his smile before writing his reply.  My sporty popular adoptive brother.

                “Oh, your brother, okay.  Popular?”  Kihyun nodded.  “Already?  You guys just got here.”

                Kihyun shrugged.  He’s always the popular one.  Usually I get stuck hanging out with him and his friends because I never have any of my own.  Too weird for people I guess.

                “Oh, come on now.  You’re not weird.  Honestly, it’s those sporty like people that weird me out to be honest.  When I first met Hoseok he spent all his free time at the gym, at that time it was mostly because he thought he needed to gain more muscles to be stronger.  But now it’s because he likes going so much, it’s so boring, and he had to go a rope my man into it too.  Not that I’m complaining too much, I mean the turnout was abs and a nice fine-looking to stare at.  But sometimes you just wanna cuddle on the couch and you can’t do that if your boy is at the gym.”  Hyungwon made a face.  “Hoseok has basically roped everyone but me into being gym buddies.  You come be a couch potato with me.  I need a potato friend.”  Hyungwon gave him a sly smile.

                You would be the first friend I will have ever made on my own.  Kihyun wrote, feeling a blush pull to his cheeks from his admittance.

                “No way!  Kihyun that can’t be!”  Kihyun nodded fiddling with his braces.  “Well now you have, hold on, um.”  Hyungwon held up his fist in front of him.  “There’s Wonho, he likes you, he doesn’t call anyone sweetie.  Changkyun thinks you’re adorable, and Gun will love you cause you’ll be a new person to bounce ideas off of.  Then there is me, and I’m just awesome.”  Hyungwon took a breath.  “And Hyukkie will love you to pieces, he loves small cute things.  And Jooheon will like you cause he don’t have a mean bone in his body.  That makes six friends.  Congratulations Kihyun.”  Hyungwon smiled proudly.

                I don’t know any of those people.  Kihyun wrote, frowning as certain words started to look shaky, his hand was getting tired.

                “Nonsense, you know me.  And then Changkyun, and he likes you, believe me, he likes readers and I can tell you’re a reader.  And Wonho likes you.”  Kihyun shook his head.  “Oh, come one Ki, I know he likes you, he can never sit still, and believe me we dealt with panic attacks before.  And from the blush I can tell you appreciated the art that he is.”

                Kihyun felt his cheeks flare before glaring down at his notebook.

                “If anything, you have me as a friend, and I honestly I am worth sixty people so there.”  Hyungwon gave him a grin and held his hand out in space next to him.  Like magic a sandwich dropped into his hand.  Kihyun slowly helped his jaw close as he saw Changkyun running towards them with a wide smile.

                “Good catch as always.”  He said as he dropped next to Hyungwon, give him a quick kiss on the cheek.

                “Well you told me to always be prepared, now give me your un-tossed goods and you can eat this monstrosity.”

                “Yes, dear.”  Changkyun laughed handing over his sandwich.  “What were you all talking about?”

                “How Kihyun made his first friend today, and I was trying to convince him that he made six, but he doesn’t wanna believe that so I told him I’m worth sixty friends and then you threw food at me.”

                “Oh, well then, I like you Kihyun, you can count me as a friend.”  Changkyun gave him a small smile and signed to him we’ll be best friends, Hyungwon can just be that random rock you know.  Changkyun snickered and took a bite of his sandwich.

                “What did you say?  Changkyun that’s not fair!”

                Kihyun smiled as Changkyun only made a kissy face at Hyungwon.

                “Oh, you have done it now mister.  I will go and learn sign language and no for you until its perfected.”  Hyungwon said taking a bite of his sandwich and scrunched his nose in distaste.

                “One.  You like my baby, no way you’ll master a language before you will want it again.  Two, you even think about not eating that I can guarantee you get nothing until I finish reading the entire public library.”  Changkyun gave him a glare as Hyungwon slowly lifted the food back to his mouth.  “I know baby, it’s not the greatest but you need to eat something before tonight.”  Hyungwon pouted at him as he chewed a mouthful.  “We get Mama’s cooking tomorrow.  Oh!  Kihyun, what are you doing after school tomorrow?”

                Kihyun scrunched his nose.  Usually he and Hyunwoo raced home to take care of Hyunwoo’s mother, but now that wasn’t needed.  He didn’t have therapy, tomorrow was his free day.  But leaving without letting Hyunwoo know where he was going; that wasn’t really an option. 

                I have to ask my brother, but why?

                “It’s Tuesday, we usually eat with mama on Tuesdays.  Wonho wanted to know if you would like to come with us.”

                Okay, it shouldn’t be a problem.  He would just worry if I didn’t let him know.

                “No worries, here,” Changkyun dug his phone out of his pocket.  “Put your number in my phone and I’ll text you to ask later, deal?”

                Kihyun nodded, reaching over to take Changkyun’s phone carefully, pouting when he realized it was a touch screen phone and slowly removed on of his finger tubes.

                “Anyway, Changkyun, I need to borrow your notes for science.”

                “Slept through class again?”

                “If he wasn’t so monotonous I wouldn’t have slept.”

                “Irrelevant, you have slept through rock concerts.”

                “Regardless, I need your notes for the note checks.”

                “Can’t you just bull them like usual?” 

                “No, he checks for specific facts that I know won’t be on the final and then deducts points from me, that means I have to be awake the next class to make those points up and I don’t want to.”

                “Fine, they’re in my bag.  You can borrow them when we get home.”

                “Thank you.”

                “Hey freaks!”  Kihyun jumped, shoulder’s slumping in as he was prepared for more name calling. Changkyun gave him a worried look before giving him a small smile.

                “What do you want Jinyoung?”  Hyungwon asked as a small boy with dark hair strolled over.

                “Nothing, I just wanted to see if you slept through math class or if I actually have to go today.”

                “We didn’t cover anything special from what I could tell when I woke up.  And I thought Jaebum told you to stop skipping.”

                “He did, but Youngjae isn’t feeling well and he stayed home.  I want to check on him, Jaebum has already left anyway.  If he gets to skip, I get to skip.  He can’t give me rules that he himself won’t follow.”

                “Yeah, I understand that.  The only reason we are here today is because we were threatened with a frying pan if we skipped school again for the next week.”  Hyungwon smiled. 

                “Mama threat?”

                “Wonho tells her one story and the frying pan becomes her new weapon.”

                “Ah, well, I guess I’m lucky then, Jaebum doesn’t want to get in trouble as well, so for the most part he keeps his mouth shut.”  Jinyoung smiled and then looked over at Kihyun.  “Hi, I’m sorry, we haven’t been introduced yet.”

                “Oh yeah.  Jinyoung, this is Kihyun.”

                “Hyunwoo’s brother, right?  I heard him mention you earlier before Ken and cronies dug their claws into him.”  Jinyoung gave Kihyun a bright smile, his eyes crinkling in the corner.  “I’m sure he’s a great guy, but you should warn him that the swim team isn’t all that great.  Of course, your brother is a big guy, they probably won’t try the same , but if they get to talk crap about me and mine I’m gonna talk just as much crap about them.”  Kihyun’s eyes widened as he just nodded at what Jinyoung was saying.  The boy’s smiled had gotten colder as he talked more and more about the swim team.

                “It’s not crap if it’s true.”  Changkyun growled.

                “Enough!  Jinyoung if you’re skipping class find me tomorrow, I’ll look over the section tonight and see what’s up with it.”  Hyungwon yawned.  “There will be no more talk of low lifes and losers at our quiet tree.”

                “Alright, alright.”  Jinyoung held his hands in front of him, his cold demeanor changing in a few seconds.  “I’ll see you guys at mama’s tomorrow night, right?”

                “Yeah, Min’s welcome back to society hopefully too.”

                “Awesome, you guys say hi to him from me today okay?  If he gets to go tomorrow that will be awesome.”

                “Will do Jinyoung.  Hopefully Youngjae is doing okay.”

                “I’m sure that’s where Jaebum is, so most likely he is being mothered with horrible food, hence the reason I am skipping.”  Jinyoung smiled and waved at them all.  “Nice meeting you again Kihyun, hopefully I will see you tomorrow night as well!”

                “Bye Jinyoung.”  Changkyun said plainly as he picked back up his stolen book and flipped to the page he left on.

                “Oh no.”  Hyungwon’s eyes widened in horror.  “Kihyun, this is horrible!”  Hyungwon covered his mouth in dramatic shock.  “We’ve lost my Changkyun baby to the land of imagination.”

                “This is a detailed history coverage on the war of 1818, Hyungwon.”  Changkyun replied not even bothering to look up.

                “Land of long boring forgotten imagination!”  Hyungwon corrected.  “Quick Kihyun, let us leave before he starts reading out loud to us!”  Hyungwon unfolded his legs, pressing a quick kiss to Changkyun’s cheek as he stood.  “I’ll show you around the school before the next period.  We still have plenty of time.

                Kihyun gave the tall boy a small smile as he packed away his things, handing Changkyun his cell phone back as he stood to follow. 

                “I’ll text you later Kihyun.”  Changkyun gave him a wink.  “Don’t let him nap in any of the rooms he shows you.  You’ll never get anywhere if you let him.”

                Kihyun smiled and nodded before taking off after Hyungwon, pulling his own phone out of his pocket and flipping the screen open.  He had two notifications of text messages.  One from Changkyun’s phone, with just a quick message to remind Kihyun to save the number and another from his brother.  Kihyun let out a silent sigh and opened the message.

                We will talk about your choice of friends on our way to the hospital.

                Kihyun stomped his foot softly in frustration.  They were his friends.  His first friends.  Hyunwoo didn’t get to decide who he could be friends with.

                “Kihyun!  Keep up, you’re small I don’t wanna lose you.”

                Kihyun’s head snapped to the empty hallway that Hyungwon was halfway down, just standing there with his hands in his pockets, a sleepy smile on his face. 

                “Come on shorty, I gotta show you my nap room so you can find me later.”

                Kihyun gave Hyungwon a small smile as he hurried to catch up.