"Gege I want to go on the swings!" I complained.

But my attempts were never listened to. We always had to stay with Tao, in case something bad happened to him.

"Let's just keep playing in the sandpit. We can go on the swings when Mommy takes Tao home for a nap."

"Why can't Tao just come with us? There's four empty swings!"

Tao had been listening to us and dug his fingers into the sand, as if trying to grasp something in there. "Don't want to! Sandpit! Sandpit!"

Tao was very stubborn, and he didn't like change.

~

Two weeks passed, and I learned that I hated my Algebra teacher with a fiery passion. I had his class right before lunch. So if he for some reason had a large stick up his that day, I was kept in for a minute or two after the bell rang.

To others, this was just annoying. But as I wasn't them, it meant a lot of lost time to me. I always went straight to Tao's tutorial class during lunch. We never ate the school food. Instead, his teacher Ms. Kwon took our orders in the mornings, and came back with fried chicken.

Today, the jackass held me in for a good five minutes. He kept the whole class in, saying we didn't respect him as much as he deserved. Finally, I had enough of his bull, just grabbing my stuff and walking out. No good student followed me.

"Wu Kris! Get back here!" He shouted behind me. Did he really think I would listen to him when I already had my feet out the door? Was he crazy?

I had to use all of my energy to run out to his classroom. I didn't hear any wailing from outside. Was he ok in there?

As soon as I opened the door my eyes locked with Ms. Kwon's. Her smile didn't falter and she pointed to the back of the room.

Tao was too distracted to notice  me, because he was fiddleing with the buttons on a NintendoDS, with an unidentified kid sitting across from him. As soon as I approached my brother, he looked up at me with rage in his eyes.

"You forgot about me! Mean Gege!" He screamed, putting the DS down and hitting me a few times in the stomach.

"Hey! Don't hit me, it isn't nice!" I scolded him.

"Sorry." He imediatly responded. Unlike his child years, he was getting better at learning the right and wrong time for things.

"Whose DS is that?" I changed the topic, no longer wanting to see his mopy face.

"Chanyeol's! Gege, this is Chanyeol!" He pointed to the kid across from himself.

"Hi..." He said softly. At first I figured he was quiet and timid, but then he smiled, showing quite a lot if teeth. No way a smile like that would belong to someone timid.

"Your smile is really big." I couldn't help but say. In retrospect, this was probably the wrong thing to say, because he looked down, ashamed.

"I like his smile! It's big and full of love!" Tao argued. But then he lost every ounce of interest in the conversation and returned to his video game.

"You're right, it looked like it was full of love." I agreed.

Chanyeol smiled again, a smaller one this time. Oh well, it was still a smile.

"So...what are you doing here? I haven't seen you in this room before." I noted, sitting down.

"Ms. Kwon is my aunt, and she asked me to help out. I don't mind, and Tao's really nice." He told me. Seriously? That woman was far too young to be his aunt!

"Oh? That's good to hear." I smiled awkwardly. As crazy as this sounded...I was a bit socially awkward. I couldn't blame Tao, but I blamed my parents for raising us all the exact same way.

"Lu Han isn't with you today?" He asked, taking off his glasses. His full attention was now on me.

"No, he has a different lunch than Tao and I do." I explained. His eyes sparkled with interest.

"Do you always come here for lunch?" He went on.

"Why are we suddenly playing twenty questions?" I smirked.

His expression imediately changed to shock and then to embarrassment.

"I'm sorry..." He apologized, putting his glasses back on.

"No, it's alright. Why so interested?" I chided on.

"Uh...just making conversation, I guess." He bit his lip.

"Kris! Don't bully my poor nephew! He's got three important years ahead of him!" Ms. Kwon appeared out of nowhere.

Tao gasped at her words. "Don't bully Chanyeol, he's my friend!"

"I'm not bullying anybody!" I defended myself.

"Ms. Kwon is just teasing your Gege, Kris. He isn't actually bullying me." Chanyeol smiled at my brother.

"Oh..." Another thing about Tao. He didn't understand what a joke was. To him, everything was either the truth or a lie. There was no in-between, until someone straight out told him.

"Hey Tao, wanna show Kris how we greet each other?" Chanyeol bounced up.

"Yeah!" He crawled on top of the table, startling me. Then he made his way to Chanyeol, who had his palms up.

Their hands pressed together and their expressions turned into absolute glee. I didn't understand...

"You know how Tao doesn't like people being too physical with him? But he feels comfortable touching other people. It's the best of both worlds!" Ms. Kwon explained.

I grinned, realization dawning on me. There was someone outside of me and Lu Han that he felt comfortable with.

"Oh, look guys your lunches are here!" Ms. Kwon interrupted my train of thought, sending Tao scrambling to the line to pick up our fried chicken.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Chanyeol whispered.

"What is?" Temptation made me reapond.

"The fact that...Tao can see things...the way they are." He finished.

I had no idea what I was supposed to say. I didn't understand.

~

After school, Dad told me to rake the lawn while he and Mom left for a business meeting. Such great parents.

"SOL." Lu Han commented.

"Yeah yeah. Where's Tao?" I muttered as I dug the ugly rake through the grass.

"He's getting his bike. We're gonna play outside so you don't have to be all by your lonesome." He teased, a fudgesicle, obviously enjoying my torture.

"Gege!" A cry was heard above. "Let's play hide and seek! But you have to catch me!"

I ignored his cries, until Lu Han shrieked as he looked up.

"TAO GET DOWN FROM THERE!"

Panic overtook my body. My eyes darted up and I saw Tao walking on the roof.

Tao was startled by the scream and stumbled, my breathing stopped. Lu Han disappeared and so did the rake from my hands. I ran to the side of the house to try to do something.

"Tao! Listen to me very carefully! How did you get up there?" I shouted to him.

"Daddy's window!" He yelled back, curling into a ball.

"Ok Tao, get on your hands and knees and slowly crawl to me!" Lu Han was on the roof now too. "Kris go get a ladder right now!"

I ran as fast as I could to the garage to find the thing that might save both of them. Ladder, ladder, of course that cruel higher power would hide it from me today.  I wasted no time looking for something that wasn't there and ran back out.

"It's not there!" I shouted back, feeling a tear escape my eye. My God I was so scared.

" it all!" Lu Han screamed. "Ok! Tao, we are going to crawl very carefully back to the window, do you understand me?"

"We could jump! Kris gege is down there, he'll catch us!"

"No Tao, listen to Lu Han gege! Go towards the window!" I yelled back to him.

"You can catch us!" He stood up.

"No I can't!"

Please God...

He jumped.

Lu Han grabbed under him.

I was frozen in fear.

They landed on the concrete.

I heard some cracks.

__________________________

I often wish I had a Lu Han. I'm more of a Kris, but it's exhausting playing both roles.