Taemin rushed to the school. He entered the building and stopped in front of Kai’s locker. He put his hand on its lid and bent over. He was out of breath.

“…”, he panted and straightened himself slowly, “I- I- I’m…”

He opened the lid of Kai’s locker and put a package in it. He closed the lid and leaned on it with his head facing the ceiling. He still panted.

“What are you doing here?” Yixing suddenly walked to the senior and frowned at him.

He was accompanied by Suho. They were on their way to the canteen to meet the others. Yixing had returned from Hong Kong and wanted to surprise his friends. He hated Taemin. Why? Because the Chinese student could not stand how rude and heartless of a person the senior was. He hated the way Taemin handled the girls. Although the female students were willing to be treated like , he had no rights to take advantage of them. Taemin turned his face to the junior and tilted his head with an annoyed expression. The handsome boy didn’t like Yixing either, because when the junior was a freshman, he was the only one to have the guts and talk some girls out of falling for the shameless player. Taemin pushed himself off the junior’s locker and passed Yixing, while bumping into his shoulder. The Chinese boy remained calm, yet he cursed at the senior in his mind.

“Let’s go.” Suho ordered, and together they made their way to the canteen.

When they arrived there, the boys were hugging each other. Yixing put on a puzzled expression. They had a public group hug only if something was odd. Right after Suho had asked them if they were done, Yixing noticed that Kai wiped his tears away.

꧁༺ ༻꧂

After exchanging some words with all the boys and talking about how his time in Hong Kong had been, Baekhyun finally arrived too. The skilled pianist seemed bothered, but when he noticed Yixing he immediately smiled happily and hugged him.

“When did you come back?” Baekhyun asked him and told the boy that he had become more handsome in these past six months.

The others agreed and they all laughed. Chanyeol put his arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders again and pulled him over to ask him about his whereabouts. The pianist blushed slightly and pushed him away, but the clumsy friend would not let him escape. Sehun sighed and grabbed Chanyeol’s arm to make him let go of his best friend. The playful boy pouted, while the others laughed. Baekhyun thanked Sehun but avoided his eyes. Since his roommate knew about his feelings for Chanyeol he felt a little uneasy around Sehun. Yixing finally got the opportunity to talk to Kai in person.

“Senior Taemin was standing at your locker earlier.” he informed the sun-kissed boy, “Is there a matter I’m not aware of yet?”

Kai was a little stunned to his words. He assumed that now he had admitted defeat the senior would continue messing with him. He hated the idea of having to throw away raw oysters every ing single day. He sighed all annoyed and hurt. But the anger overtook the pain slowly.

“Suho?” Sehun asked for his friend and pulled him aside, “Thank you.”

Suho nodded at him lightly, barely noticeable for the others. He knew exactly why Sehun was thanking him. It was because he had talked to Kyungsoo and although his heartbroken friend was not in the mood, some of Suho’s words he had taken to heart. Yixing lifted a brow as he was confused.

“Alright… what’s going on? You guys have changed so much in six months. What did I miss?” he asked the boys and made them all become silent.

Chen and Xiumin smiled, because they had told their buddy on the phone about the relationship they had started five months ago. They kept no secrets from the others. Suho stepped back as Yixing’s question was not directed at him. Kyungsoo lowered his head, while Sehun glanced at him without a word. Baekhyun blushed and Chanyeol scratched his head, giving his best not to tell on Kai’s failed battle against Taemin, the one and only person Yixing hated. Kai bit his lips under his mask and remained silent. He looked somewhere else to avoid Yixing’s eyes.

“Okay, never mind then.” Yixing finally said, because he did not mean to pressure his friends with such a simple question.

They would eventually talk to him when the time was right. The boys ate their meal in the canteen, and then they all walked separate ways as the classes were about to start. Chen and Xiumin left first. Yixing and Suho went to the restroom. Sehun, Kyungsoo and Baekhyun made their way back to the auditorium for chemistry class. Kai and Chanyeol walked through the hallway where the lockers were. The sun-kissed student sighed in annoyance.

“What’s it?” Chanyeol asked after a while and put his arm around Kai’s shoulder, “You cried… What happened?”

Kai gulped, took a deep breath, and rolled his head. He was insecure and felt bad about having to open his locker. Chanyeol glanced at the lid and instantly understood what he had to do. He let go of Kai’s shoulders, opened his locker, grabbed the package, and removed the lid.

“Huh?” Chanyeol’s expression was puzzled, “Doughnuts?”

Kai lifted his brow in confusion and approached his friend with careful steps to glance into the package. Indeed, there were no raw oysters but pastry in it. Cosmic latte and aqua pearl doughnuts. Kai was confused. Why would Taemin put those in his locker, after what he had done to him earlier this morning? The pastry was from Kamong.