“Oh,” Ellie said staring at the woman. She didn’t know what to say, but at least she was happy that Chen’s mother was there, although he didn’t know why she wasn’t there before. “Well, I guess I’ll get going so you guys can have some time to yourselves.”

            Chen wanted to tell her not to go, he wanted to tell her to stay with him, but he knew that he couldn’t. Instead of saying anything, Chen just gave her a smile that he didn’t really want to have, but it wasn’t like he could stop Ellie from leaving. “Thanks for coming,” Chen told her. “And take good notes for me in class. I don’t want to be behind when I return.”

            “Of course,” Ellie said with a smile. “It was nice meeting you,” she said as she directed her attention towards Chen’s mother.

            “As to you,” she said as she slightly bowed towards Ellie.

            Walking out of the room, Ellie felt an odd feeling, but she quickly pushed it aside. It was probably just her curiosity about Chen’s mother and anticipation on whether or not she would see Luhan on her way out, but Ellie doubted it. She hadn’t stayed that long to visit Chen and she was sure that Luhan would be visiting his mother for a much longer period of time. Right when Ellie was about to call Kris to come pick her up, her cell phone rang and she felt her heart skip a beat as she answered the phone.

            “Luhan, hey,” she said as casually as she could.

           “Hey Ellie,” Luhan said in his cheerful voice. “I was wondering if you were doing anything after you visited your friend.”

            “I don’t think so,” Ellie said. She was sure that she didn’t have plans since Jiyeon was going away with her own family for the time being and she wouldn’t be back home, which meant that she didn’t have to spend an awkward time together with her. “Why?”

            “I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out with me. I know that we just met and it probably sounds strange and you can feel free to reject me.”

            “No, it sounds like it’ll be fun,” Ellie said nodding her head. “But I thought you were going to visit with your mother.”

            “She’s currently sleeping right now and when she sleeps, she’s knocked out for hours. I’ll come back and visit her tonight. Where are you?” he asked.

            “I was just about to leave the building; I’m standing in the lobby,” Ellie told him when in reality she was getting in the elevator to go down to the lobby, but Ellie figured that it was close enough and she would probably be there before Luhan anyway.

            “Alright, don’t go anywhere, wait for me. I’m on my way.”

            “Alright,” Ellie said. “I’m going to hang up now.”

            “You do so,” Luhan said before Ellie hung up her cell phone. She was about to put it in her pocket when she decided that she should call Kris and tell him that she’s hanging out with some friends so he doesn’t begin to get paranoid about her not calling him.

            “Ellie, are you done?” Kris asked as soon as he picked up the phone.

            “I am, but you don’t need to come and get me.”

            “Why not?” he suspiciously asked.

            “Because I’m going to be hanging out with some friends, they invited me.” Ellie didn’t mind lying to Kris since she knew that he would freak out if he knew that she was going to be hanging out alone with a boy, but it wasn’t like she was a baby, she was already eighteen, she could fend for herself against the opposite .

            That was one of the qualities that got on Ellie’s last nerve about Kris. She didn’t like how he was so overprotective of her over the smallest thing and how he always wanted to know where she was at all times. Ellie got it that he was her technical bodyguard, but she thought that he could tone it down once in a while.

            Within no time, Luhan met up with Ellie in the lobby. “Where do you want to go?” he asked her.

            “Aren’t you the one that asked to hang out?” Ellie joked.

            “Right, my fault,” Luhan said as he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. “I guess I should figure out a thing to do.”

            “You should,” Ellie joked.

            “Why don’t we go back to my house?”

            “Your house?”

            “Ah, that sounds creepy doesn’t it,” Luhan said as he thought about his words once more. “I just meant until we figure out what we want to do. I’m not going to do anything freaky to you, I promise. I swear,” he said sticking out his pinkie.

            “Alright,” Ellie said as she interlocked hers with his. “You better not, you promised.”

            “And I’m a man of my promises,” he said with a smile. “Let’s get going.”

            Surprisingly, Luhan’s house surprised Ellie quite a bit. It looked a little larger than average, which had to mean that Luhan came from the upper middle class families. It wasn’t like she was looking into money, but after spending year after year near it she learned how to differentiate which class people fell into. It was like some weird hobby or addition that she just couldn’t get rid of, it was just there and her brain did it automatically.

            “Let’s go inside,” Luhan said pointing towards the door with his head.

            Hesitantly, Ellie followed behind. Despite people at her school sometimes thinking of her like they thought of Jiyeon, it was the first time that she was ever in a boy’s house, besides Kris since Kris lived with her, her house was his house. Sure, Ellie had boyfriends before, but she never went into their houses because they didn’t want her to. Ellie thought that it was because they were all ashamed for some reason because her boyfriends weren’t people that went to the school. Ellie couldn’t stand the boys that went to her school. Somehow, though, her relationships ended because of her status compared to the other guy’s status and it seemed to her that the only people that she would ever be able to successfully date were the jerks at the school.

            The inside of the house was slightly messy but that didn’t bother Ellie since she saw no point in cleaning since it was just going to get dirty again. At her own house, Ellie always told the maids not to bother cleaning up her messes since the same thing was probably going to get dirty the next day. In the end, since her parents were always away, the maids agreed and started cleaning up her things once a week and leaving it alone the rest of the time.

            Luhan, on the other hand, was nervous. He wasn’t sure if bringing Ellie inside of his house was okay since they hadn’t met that long ago, but he wanted to know more about her and he wanted to spend some more time with her. When he first asked her to hang out with him, it sounded so foreign coming out of his mouth that Luhan had even doubted it was him speaking but somehow it was him and somehow she agreed.

            Upon coming in the house, he wished that he would’ve cleaned up. He wished that he could’ve quickly tided up the place and then everything would’ve been alright, but it didn’t seem like Ellie was making a fuss about the mess, which was good in Luhan’s mind.

            “Here, sit,” Luhan said as he sat on the couch and motioned towards the spot next to him.

            “Uh, sure,” Ellie said as she hesitantly sat down next to him. “So,” she said as she looked over, “do you live here alone?”

            “My parents and me,” he said. “My father is probably at work right now doing something. No one ever knows where he goes during the day. It’s like he’s living a secret life or something.”

            “Yeah, I know how that feels,” Ellie slowly admitted.

            “Why, are your parents never home?” Luhan asked with concern.

            “They’re always out on business so they aren’t home.”

            “Well, we could keep each other company,” Luhan suggested. “I mean in a friendly way. We can be friends with each other and see each other when we’re feeling lonely about missing our parents.”

            “Okay,” Ellie said nodding her head. She had no idea why she was saying those things, but at least it felt nice to have someone that could understand how she felt on a regular basis. Most of the kids in the school didn’t see their parents all of the time, though, but to them, money was the only thing that mattered so as long as they got money, they were happy. She finally felt as though she had someone that she could understand and talk to.

“Why are you here?” Chen asked turning to his mother.

            “I can’t see you?” she pouted and Chen just rolled his eyes.

            “It’s not like you ever cared about me before.”

            “What are you talking about? I’ve always cared for you.”

            “Then why don’t you stop?” Chen asked. His anger was boiling and he didn’t know how long he would be able to last before he would start doing stupid and irrational things.

            “Stop what?” his mother asked.

            “You know what I’m talking about,” Chen said through gritted teeth. “You’re the whole reason why I’m in the hospital in the first place, don’t act like you don’t know because you’re perfectly well.”

            “That girl, she seemed nice,” his mother said changing the subject. “What was her name, Ellie?”

            “Yeah she’s nice, but you better not do anything to her.”

            “Why would I do anything?”

            “I know how you are,” Chen said. He was beginning to get fed up with his mother really fast and just wished that she would leave him alone. Sometimes he wished that she would just walk out of his life and never come back, at least that would be better than what he had to deal with from her. He was tired of all of the excuses and he was tired of being alone. He would rather be alone than have to see her and hear her excuses, though.

            “So, she goes to the school with you.”

            “Yea, she does,” Chen said. “She’s my seating partner, which means that we are going to work on a lot of projects together.”

            “But you aren’t even that far into school yet,” his mother said thinking about it.

            “Doesn’t matter,” Chen said shaking his head. “Their school is set up differently. You would’ve known that if you ever paid attention to me.”

            “Does she know why you’re really in the school?” his mother asked as she looked straight at him, but Chen stayed quiet. He wondered why his mother had to bring up such a topic when he was lying in a hospital bed. “Does she know how someone like you got into the school?”

            “What are you talking about, someone like me,” Chen said staring at his mother in disgust. “What about people like you, huh?”

            “I’m guessing she doesn’t know,” his mother said completing ignoring him.

            “I got in because I’m smart, I’m smarter than you’d imagine,” Chen said.

            “Do you really think that’s all?” she asked eyeing Chen. “Jongdae, mothers know everything, you should know that by now,” she said as she headed towards the door. “I’ll be taking my leave now. I may come back, I may not. It all depends on what I feel like, have a nice day.”

            Chen stared at the door for a long time after she left. He hoped that she wouldn’t come back. He didn’t even know why she had come in the first place but he hoped that she wouldn’t come back; she had reason to come back and see him. The only person he wanted to visit him was Ellie. Never again did he want that witch to see him ever again. 

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What was Chen's mother talking about? How did Chen get into the school? Why doesn't Chen like his mother? How did he get into the hospital? What are Luhan and Ellie going to do at Luhan's house? What will Kris think of Luhan?

Here is Chapter 8. Hope you enjoyed :D

Originally I was going to have Chen's part in the hospital in the next chapter, but figured that it would be fine putting it at the end of this chapter instead.

Renzei27: Haha yeah, his mother is alive, I thought I should get that out there in the open :)