Please keep your expectations low...

----- How Troublesome -----

“I like you, Sehun oppa!” A flustered girl with a long dark brown hair tied in pigtails forcibly shut her eyes close in nervousness as she shakily shoved a piece of scented pink envelope – which seemingly looked like a love letter – right in front a 6-feet tall handsome pale guy sporting a blond hair with his bangs messily splayed over his eyes who goes by the name of Sehun.

The guy – Sehun – did not even bother to spare a glance at the trembling girl. Instead, he just casually ran his fingers through his hair uttering something that would definitely break the girl’s heart in an instant. “Well, I don’t. Sorry.”

Upon hearing the words, the poor girl froze in her place, retrieving the love letter slowly after a minute or two before turning around and dashing out of the hallway, with audible sobs escaping her quivering lips.

Sehun sighed before bending his neck side to side. How troublesome. He whispered to himself. It’s not like Sehun is a mean guy. He’s just too honest for his own good. Sure, he was pretty popular because of his godlike features and his current position as the captain of the basketball team. It was no wonder that he would be constantly bombarded with love notes and confessions almost everyday to the point that it irritated the reserved boy. Why don’t they get that he was just not interested? The blond male heaved another sigh as he placed his hands inside his pockets. He was about to take his leave when his eyes caught a sight of perhaps the only person he’s somehow interested in through the windows.

Strolling across the grassy part of the school was a tall lanky young man wearing thick black-rimmed glasses that could cover almost half of his face, carrying a ton of books in his arms despite the fact that the load definitely made it difficult for him to walk straight. The guy was obviously trying his hardest to keep his balance as he walked through; unaware that one of his shoelaces was untied. He was too engrossed on keeping his books in place that he did not notice a lone rock on his way which caused him to trip and land on fours, with all his books scattered on the ground. People who witnessed the funny scene snickered not-so-subtly and the fallen boy just sighed, not because of the people laughing at him but because he failed to protect his books from the dirt. They were all new and he spent the night covering the books with plastic covers simply because he loves books. He sighed loudly again, with a frown marring on his face as he carefully gathered his beloved books.

“I’m so sorry! T-This will not happen a-again!” He whispered to his books as he lovingly dusted the remains of dirt off them.

“He’s talking to his books! Oh gosh, so weird!” One of the girls around him commented rather loud enough for the boy to hear, followed by another series of snickers.

“What can we say? Kris has always been a little too weird. It’s creepy.” Another girl chimed in with a mocking laugh.

The boy – Kris – just sighed, choosing to ignore them as he stood up carefully. Anyway, he has been used to such mockery. He always wondered what’s wrong with talking to his books. His books are basically like his family. They would never understand. He thought to himself as he let out a silent chuckle.

Well, Kris Wu was a rather a unique type of person. People would like to describe him as a dork, as a weirdo, as they would see him talk to animals, plants, to basically anything, whether living or non-living things. He was also labelled as clumsy. He would tend to trip over literally nothing several times and bump on things unintentionally. He was often seen with new bruises almost everyday because of his clumsiness. These were only a few of the reasons why Kris had been the center of bullying. He’s a senior student. He was supposed to be respected, but the people, even his juniors, did not mind his standing at all. He was an easy target. The best part – for his bullies – was the fact that he never fought back every single time he was bullied. People might think he was just a weakling, but they failed to see that he just have a soft heart for everything. He never held grudges on people. He was also optimistic. He always thought everyone has a good side that is yet to be discovered.

Anyway, despite his lanky structure, he was tall – tall enough to be part of the basketball team. However, much to everyone’s disappointment, he was too clumsy to even hold a ball in place. He was never a sports person anyway. But he had no choice. He’s graduating this year and he had to find a club to join this time. It was a rule in the school that seniors should be member of at least one club, and Kris was not a member of any. Although he loved books and was a nerd, he despised math so much, so joining the math club was not even an option. He loved chemistry, but sadly, there was no chemistry club in the school. The rest of the clubs were either sports or arts. He was bad at both. So, he decided to try out for the basketball club, because people did say his height was of a basketball player.

He was obviously not accepted to be part of the basketball team. He was disheartened at first, but his face lit up with gratitude when the kind-hearted captain of the basketball team gave him an offer to be their waterboy instead. That would technically mean he’s part of the basketball club. Kris couldn’t be happier.

“Well, well, why are you just standing there, Sehun?” A mop of curly brown locks suddenly appeared out of nowhere and placed his arm around the pale man who was busy staring out the window.

“What are you looking at– oh,” the brunette stopped talking when he turned his head to check what or rather who Sehun was looking at. A mischievous grin found its way to his lips as the brunette nudged the other boy by the shoulder. “Oh, loverboy, quit staring and make a move already!” He teased.

Sehun then glared at the man before he swatted the man’s arm away from his shoulders. “Whatever, Baekhyun,” he nonchalantly said as he shot one last glance at Kris before he walked through the hallway, with Baekhyun following the suit, blabbering more and more just to tease Sehun.

It was already lunch time and Kris was really starving. At the sound of the bell, he hurriedly arranged his things scattered on his desk and stuffed them inside his bag, with some of his pens dropping on the floor in the process. He heaved a breath before he bent down to retrieve the pens – only to bump his forehead on his desk midway.

“Umpf!” He groaned at the impact as he caressed his sore forehead, earning snickers once again from his classmates who witnessed his misfortune. “Sorry, desk,” he mumbled an apology to the offended desk before he crouched down and collected the pens. After such, he shoved them inside his bag and made a dash to his favourite lunch spot.

Kris’s eyes twinkled and his lips upturned showcasing his signature gummy smile at the sight of his usual spot unoccupied. There was nothing special with his lunch spot. It was just under the shade of a huge tree that was located in the grassy area at the back part of the school. But to Kris, it was perfect. There was hardly any student in the place especially during that time. Most people were definitely squeezing themselves in the crowded cafeteria to order the food that was not worth the hassle. And if given the choice, Kris would definitely not set foot on such a terrible place because his so called misfortunes usually happened there.

He could not even count how many times his bullies dumped their lunch on him, which was pretty sad for Kris because the food didn’t deserve to be treated that way. Every time he came there he would end up broke and hungry, because the bullies would either take his lunch from him, take his money, or both. His ears would even hurt at the endless insults thrown at him. So, he decided to search for a secret spot that was peaceful enough for him. Besides, he didn’t have any friends to eat lunch with anyway.

He sat down against the trunk of the tree and straightened his legs. He looked up, closed his eyes, and savoured the fresh air from nature with a smile on his face. Afterwards, he opened his backpack and took his lunch box out, which was covered with cute animated dog designs as he adores dogs so much. He smiled wider as he stared at his lunch box, admiring the cute little details before he was brought back from his reverie by a loud cough and a series of familiar snickers.

“Oh so here’s where you’re hiding at!” Kris’s head snapped up at the voice and frowned upon seeing the newcomers approaching – one tall tanned man with a tousled jet black hair called Jongin and the other, Mingyu, who was taller than the former by an inch. Both displayed their arrogant smirk on their faces. Their presence screamed danger to the silent boy.

Kris only chewed on his bottom lip as the two were nearing him. His heart was slamming hard against his chest as his eyes showed a glint of fear. The duo had always been making his highschool years quite uncomfortable. Just the thought of the things they did to him made him shudder internally.

Jongin then stopped at his tracks just a foot away from the frozen boy as he stared him down before suddenly howling in laughter, with Mingyu following the suit. Kris stared at them perplexed, with his eyebrows furrowed. Why are they laughing? He asked no one.

It took a while before Jongin’s laughter died down a little. With a cough, he lifted his arm and pointed at Kris’s lunchbox. “What the hell is that? Sooo gay!” He managed to say before breaking into laughter once again.

Kris then pouted at the laughing boys before he clutched on his favourite lunchbox tightly. “I-It’s cute,” he mumbled softly with his head down. He stared at his lunchbox with adoration before he hugged it more tightly.

“Cute? Are you a freaking girl?!” Mingyu commented in between his laughs. Jongin smirked at Mingyu’s remark but his face fell when he saw Kris just shut his mouth, refusing to look up to them. Jongin hissed in annoyance before he crouched down to meet Kris in the eye.

“Listen, four eyes. Look at me when I’m talking– !“ The tanned male was about to grab the scared boy by the hair when his hand was hit by a can of juice midway.

“What the heck– !“

“Oops! It flew out of my hand, sorry.”

A familiar voice broke the tension down right on time which made the trembling boy release a breath he did not know he was holding. He slowly looked up and confirmed that the voice was indeed from someone familiar.

“C-Captain,” Kris managed to breathe out as his bullies shot their heads up to see who the intruder was.

“What the heck, Sehun? What was that for?!” Jongin stood back up and eyed the pale man who was just sitting up on a large branch of the tree Kris was leaning against. The tanned male placed his hands on his waist with his foot tapping the ground impatiently, waiting for Sehun to speak up.

Sehun sighed as he let his legs dangle on the branch before he lifted himself up and jumped down on the ground. “As I said, Jongin, it flew out of my hand,” he nonchalantly repeated as he dusted the dirt off his pants.

“What kind of lame excuse is that?” Jongin retorted, obviously not buying what Sehun just said.

“The truth.”

Jongin and his friend only scowled at the statement while Kris on the other hand silently chuckled at his answer.

“I can’t believe you guys are wasting your time picking on a senior instead of doing something productive,” Sehun casually said as he leaned his back against the tree near Kris who was just sitting down looking at him.

“Stop being a killjoy, Sehun. Stay out of this,” Mingyu barked back, scratching his head in an exaggerating manner. Well, the day was boring and messing with the nerd was their ideal source of entertainment.

“I wouldn’t be if you’ve already done your parts in our project. I don’t really care about you but I don’t want to fail.”

With that, Jongin and Mingyu just groaned in displeasure before saying, “Fine, whatever!” as they turned around to leave but not after Jongin kicking Kris’s shin which made the poor boy yelp in pain.

“How troublesome,” Sehun sighed suddenly, breaking the momentary awkward silence after the duo's leave. It was  soft but audible enough for Kris to hear.

“Thank you, C-Captain!” The poor boy flashed his huge genuine smile showcasing his gums to the tall man who looked momentarily stunned before reverting back to his stoic face.

Sehun then looked away as he swiftly ran his fingers through the strands of his blond hair, leaning more against the