" So, where are your other friends?" Chanyeol followed behind Baekhyun as they headed towards the cafeteria. Baekhyun was still skeptical about the new kid's behaviour but nevertheless he seemed rather nice. Baekhyun turned to look at Chanyeol and shrugged his shoulders.

" I don't have...I don't have friends." He said hesistantly, he was ready to brace himself from nasty remarks but to his surprise Chanyeol didn't laugh. Chanyeol gave a surprised expression and gaped his mouth a little.

" Why don't you make friends with your classmates?"

" It's...It's complicated."

" You're being bullied, aren't you?" Chanyeol asked.

Baekhyun's face turned slightly red, he was quite taken back that Chanyeol would ask such a straightforward question.

" I overhead your classmates gossiping behind us, talking about your appearance." Chanyeol said in a calm voice. " But don't worry, I don't like the way they have been treating you I could tell that they were jerks." Chanyeol winked.

" It's true that they hate me." Baekhyun said quietly." I have never gotten along with them since the beginning."

Baekhyun and Chanyeol found Sehun sitting at a corner table, nibbling on some carrot sticks. Sehun waved slightly as the two of them sat opposite Sehun.

" Hyung, who is this guy?" Sehun raised his eyebrows.

" He's Chanyeol, my new classmate." Baekhyun explained." Chanyeol, this is Sehun my little brother."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sehun." Chanyeol smiled sweetly as he reached out his left hand and started shaking hands with Sehun.

" It's good to see you, Chanyeol Hyung." Sehun said in a chirpy voice." Hyung, I didn't know you were so sociable."

" Sehun...it just so happened that we became friends." Baekhyun mumbled.

" Baekhyun, is your bruise better?" Chanyeol asked, pointing to Baekhyun's badly bruised face." Have you seen a doctor?"

" I'll be okay..." Baekhyun muttered, he took out a paper mask from his backpack and started wearing it." I fell badly yesterday."

" What about you, Sehun?" Chanyeol gave a concerned look." Did you fall down too?"

" I-I fell together with Hyung while we were walking down the stairs yesterday, we'll be okay." Sehun gave a nervous laugh.

" Okay, if you say so." Chanyeol raised his eyebrows.

" How did you get transferred to this school?" Sehun asked." You seem like a good student."

" My father recently moved to a new company so we have to move from our old place in Busan to Seoul." Chanyeol answered, he took out his lunchbox and started munching on a lettuce. His lunchbox contained brown rice, teriyaki salmon and a small side of caesar salad.

" That looks good, Chanyeol hyung." Sehun gasped with amazement, Baekhyun and Sehun were usually only given egg mayo sandwiches and carrot sticks for lunch.

" It's good, would you like a bite?" Chanyeol popped a small piece into Sehun's mouth." It's good, isn't it?"

" This is delicious!" Sehun's eyes widened as he chewed slowly to savour the taste.

" Baekhyun, would you like a bite?" 

" No thanks." Baekhyun rejected." I'm good."

" Are your parents really rich?" Sehun blurted out." You get to wear branded clothes and you are previleged enough to eat such luxurious food."

" Sehun, shut it." Baekhyun hissed." Do you really have to be so blunt?"

" Hyung, I'm just asking."

" It's okay, there's no harm asking." Chanyeol laughed." Yes, my parents are wealthy. My father is the COO and my mother is a doctor."

" You're so lucky." Sehun said." Meanwhile our-"

" I think that's enough banana milk for you." Baekhyun laughed nervously and turned to glare at Sehun.

" Hyung..." Sehun whined.

" You shall not tell him our family background." Baekhyun hissed, Baekhyun turned to Chanyeol and laughed nervously.

" I'm sorry he's a bit of a big mouth sometimes."

" It's okay, I understand." Chanyeol gave a slightly awkward smile." I shouldn't in into your family background."

" Our apologies if we aren't so open, we are just a bit conservative."

" It's fine, It's really okay. By the way, I haven't took down your number."

" Right...here it is." Baekhyun handed his a tiny piece with his number written on it.

" I'll message you later." Chanyeol beamed.

" Do you need my number, Hyung?" Sehun asked, handing him a small piece of paper.

" Sure." Chanyeol smiled." I'll make sure I'll remember your number."

Just then, the school bell rang indicating that lunch break was over.

" I'll see you later, Hyung." Sehun waved to Baekhyun and Chanyeol and slowly limped away.

" Is Sehun's leg okay?" Chanyeol asked curiously.

" He's born with a deformed foot." Baekhyun explained." He has it hard sometimes."

" I feel bad for him, to see him struggle." Chanyeol said quietly." It's not easy moving around like that."

" I agree..." Baekhyun mumbled.

" Come on, let's go to class before we are late."

---

After school, a luxuxious BMW was parked infront of the school gate waiting to pick Chanyeol up. Chanyeol offered to take Baekhyun and Sehun home but Baekhyun declined immediately, fearing that Chanyeol would find out their secret.

" I guess I'll text you later." Chanyeol said as he stepped into the car." I'll see you tomorrow."

" Yes, I'll see you tomorrow." Baekhyun muttered.

Chanyeol smiled and rolled up the car window before the car took off in a hurry.

" Hyung, why don't you allow Chanyeol to drive us home?"

" Sehun...we can't trust him completely." Baekhyun sighed." It's his first day of school, why do you have to be so gullible?"

" He seems like a good guy." Sehun commented." He wasn't really judgemental or anything."

" He could be faking it, Sehun...a lot of rich kids are arrogant and they hate people like us do you understand? They loath our very existance. Just look at the way we are dressed?"

" But Hyung, not everyone." Sehun protested." There are some good rich kids helping the poor and stuff like that, you shouldn't stereotype them so easily."

" Sehun, one day you'll realise that they will just use you for fame, deal with it."

Once they got home, they were greeted by their mother who seemed to have sober up. She was getting ready to go for her part time job at a fried chicken restaurant nearby. She turned to Baekhyun with a really stern look, she pointed to Sehun and gave a warning for Sehun to behave himself. 

" Don't make me kill you both." Their mother said coldheartedly.

Baekhyun nodded before shutting the front door carefully.

"I need to get ready too go to work." Baekhyun said as he scurried into his bedroom, he quickly got changed into his work attire and covered his face with a paper mask to hide his bruised face.

"Make sure you do your homework! Don't cause any trouble while I'm gone!" Baekhyun said sternly as he rushed out of the front door.

It was a thirty minute bus ride to his workplace, Baekhyun worked a part time barista at a cafe in quiet, secluded area in central district. Everyday, he would spend the whole afternoon making endsmeet to support the family before returning home in the evening to do his homework. Because of their situation, Baekhyun hardly have any time to study which resulted in his poor results which was another reason why a lot of students looked down on him, mocking his intelligence.

Baekhyun leaned back and rested his head on the window, he took out his old earphones from his backpack and plugged it into his phone. He started scrolling through his music playlist and clicked play when he found a song that he liked. He breathed a sigh of relief and stared outside the window to daydream, he started humming to a song called idontwannabeyouanymore. Baekhyun loved listening to Billie Eilish because of relatable her lyrics are to his current situation, he loved how original her music is and he simply found her the most relatable artist ever. 

All of a sudden, Baekhyun's phone buzzed, alerting a message notification.

" Who is it?" Baekhyun murmured. Not many people messaged him, he didn't really find a need to message anybody because he preferred being alone rather than socializing. Baekhyun opened the Kakao app and saw a message from a number he didn't save.

Hi, this is Chanyeol. You can save my number from here, I hope we get to talk more often I really think you're a good person.

" I almost forgot I gave him my number." Baekhyun started typing a reply.

I'll save your number from here, I'm really busy right now so I can't reply often. It's good to meet you, Chanyeol.

It wasn't long before Baekhyun recieved a message from Chanyeol.

No worries, I guess I'll see you around tomorrow. 

Just then, the bus arrived at his destination and Baekhyun hopped off the bus and took a ten minute walk to the cafe, he was greeted by a fellow part-timer, Kyungsoo who was a college student from a nearby university. Kyungsoo was Baekhyun's only friend before he met Chanyeol and he treated Baekhyun like a little brother.

" Hey, puppy great to see you."Kyungsoo teased as he threw a soapy dishcloth at Baekhyun.

" Stop teasing me, Hyung." Baekhyun groaned." And why do I have to do the washing?"

" Because it's my turn to be in charge of the cash register." Kyungsoo gave a cheeky smile." And you're pretty good at washing dishes don't you think?"

" Hyung..."

" Okay okay, I'll let you do the cash register tomorrow and by the way why are you wearing a paper mask?"

" I'm sick today." Baekhyun pretended to cough." You wouldn't want a sick person to spread germs, do you?"

" That's true, but you don't sound sick to me." Kyungsoo gave a skeptical look.

" It's true, I am really sick."

"Alright, if you say so."

For the whole afternoon, Baekhyun wiped the cafe tables and washed a lot of dirty dishes, he mopped and swept the floor. It was exhuasting but it was the only way to support his family. It was nearly 6pm, the cafe was almost empty except for a few customers, Baekhyun was about to end his shift when all of a sudden a familiar figure entered the cafe. Baekhyun quickly turned his back and pretended to wash more dishes even though they were already clean. He could recognize that tall, handsome guy in an instant, it was Chanyeol!

" ! What is Chanyeol doing here?" Baekhyun muttered under his breath and started to panic, he couldn't let Chanyeol find out that he was working here, It'll ruin his reputation.Baekhyun didn't dare to turn around and stood really still.

"Welcome, what would like to order?" Kyungsoo greeted.

" I would like to have iced strawberry latte, grande size." Chanyeol said cheerfully as he handed Kyungsoo some cash." I'll take away."

" Sure, that'll be $5 here's your change." Kyungsoo returned some money to Chanyeol and handed him a beeper.

"Baekhyun, one takeaway of iced strawberry latte!" Kyungsoo called out.

" Kyungsoo, you don't have to say it so loudly." Baekhyun whispered sharply.

" Isn't this my normal tone?"

"Well...yes..but...forget it I'll explain later."

Baekhyun quickly made his strawberry latte and pressed the button that activated the beeper to buzz.

" Here's your drink, thank you for coming." Baekhyun provided eye contact with Chanyeol and quickly handed Chanyeol his drink, he purposely deepened his voice to prevent Chanyeol from recognizing his voice.

" Who's that guy you were hiding from?" Kyungsoo asked curiously after Chanyeol left." Do you know him?"

" He's...he's my new classmate, he's supposedly my friend."

" That's unusual coming from you, you were never sociable."

" I wasn't the one who approached him he was the one who insisted on being friends."

" That's good for you, you finally have a friend in school besides Sehun."

" Sehun isn't my friend he's my brother."

" Brother, friend at least you have somone in school."

" Hyung, I'll be going see you tomorrow." Baekhyun bidded goodbye before walking out of the cafe.

 

Baekhyun arrived home and heaved a sigh of relief, Sehun didn't cause a commotion today and their mother was still at work.

"Hyung, you're home!" Sehun said happily, he limped towards Baekhyun and hugged him.

" I'm glad you didn't cause any trouble today." Baekhyun said, hugging Sehun." Look, I got you your favourite kimbap>" Baekhyun handed Sehun a black plastic bag containing two rolls of kimbap. 

" Hyung, thank you!"

" You're welcome." Baekhyun smiled." Come on, let's eat before Mother comes back."

After dinner, Baekhyun returned to his bedroom and took out his studying materials from his school bag and started doing his homework. After completing his homework, he changed into his pajamas and flopped onto the bed, he yawned was about to fall asleep when all of a sudden he received a message.

Baekhyun's eyes widened when he realised it was a message from Chanyeol and to his horror it was a message that he didn't expect.

Baekhyun, It sounds crazy but I thought I saw you today at a cafe, a worker looked really similar to you and I was pondering whether that guy was really you. I know it sounds crazy but was that guy really you? Where were you the whole afternoon?

Did Chanyeol recognize me at the cafe?