{Twenty One}

"Kai!" Your voice boomed as you spotted the brown haired boy a few metres away at the main hallway to the classrooms. The said boy turned his head, looking for the voice that called for him, not before a smile graced his features and you running towards him.

"Good morning, Hyojin!" Kai greeted with a huge smile plastered on his face, "I told you to call me Jongin since god knows when..."

"Your god knows when is actually yesterday, idiot..." You rebutted with a straight face before breaking into a grin as you emphasised his name, his real name, Jongin.

"Yah who are you calling idiot!" Jongin exclaimed before smacking your head with a soft force, but you still winced inevitably from the impact.

"Manners, Jongin, manners!" You refuted and threw a glare at him, playfully. By now, the other people at the hallway were fixated at the bulk of noise called 'Jongin and Hyojin', not before dwelling in their own gossips and rumours of the possibly new couple, but those two did not care about them. They were used to it. They knew they were innocent, platonic friends.

However, someone took it the other way.

His left blue converse sneaker rested on the door of his locker while the other just stood rooted to the floor. As he leaned casually backwards, his gaze was not casual at all, more like intense, a mix of anger and a little bit of jealousy  no just anger. He let out an inaudible huff and crossed his arms, like a sulky child that did not get the candy he wanted. His grip on the special something tightened.

"Kai I see? So his name is Kai....." Luhan huffed as he stared at the mentioned tanned boy.

His olive skin radiated in the morning glow even when he was indoors.

But he has a pale complexion that made him look almost sickly. He blamed the cold weather in stupid Canada that did not allow him to see much sun.

His bright eyes sparkled in the ceiling lights hanging above.

But his eyes grew darker and darker even though he already had black pupils.

His full lips broke into a full on grin.

But his significantly thinner lips morphed into a scowl.

He was the perfect kind of summer beach boy that any girl will fall for.

But he was just a pale flower boy who always get mistaken for being a female.

He was already losing in every way.

Hyojin and Kai were walking to class together since they were having the same first period for the day: Chemistry. As the period was normally conducted in the laboratory, they took a turn to the right at the left wing, while arguing which is better: Strawberry milk or chocolate milk.

Needless to say, a stalker with the name starting with a L and ends with an N walked towards there too, making sure to leave at least a three metre gap between them. Hey, he has the same period as them too.

Childish, he thought.

However he thought back about the incidents where you and him were arguing about the same thing too.

Unoriginal, go pick something else, Kai, Jongin whatever your stupid name is, chocolate milk is mine, he corrected himself.

It was not long before the sign 'Chemistry Laboratory' was in view.


-------

"Okay, class. Today we will be going to do something really interesting! And of course this will be a pair work assignment as usual! Get into pairs!" Mrs Park, the chemistry teacher said in a cheery voice. Sometimes you wonder if she downed two cans of redbull before every class.

As soon as the instructions were given, you found the familiar tanned boy right beside you, flashing you a smile. You returned the gesture and hi-fived each other.

Luhan was supposedly about to go to you, as usual since you two were lab partners before, but the beach boy beat him to it. He wore a stoic face but went up to you.

You felt a tap on your shoulder before spinning around to see Luhan with a straight expression.

"Aren't we supposed to be partners?" He said with a voice so soft that you might not pick up if you perked your ears up for his voice.

You felt bad for a moment, but Jongin obviously needs more help here, so you tried to look at apologetic as you can and said, "Sorry Luhan, Kai is having his first lab lesson today and he needs a lot of help..." You took a shallow breath before continuing, "so, next time maybe?"

Luhan's face fell but he managed to turn it back to normal before you took notice of it. The rising temperature of the fluids within him showed no signs of decrease, but yet his face remained expressionless before nodding.

Luhan ended up pairing with another girl named Miyoung or something, more like a fangirl as he noticed she actually hyperventilated a little when their fingers touched. He did not give a hoot about it as he fixed his focus on the lab partners two tables away.

Sometimes they would laugh at their small jokes that no one seemed to understand. Sometimes you would just make fun of his stupid answers written in the blanks of the worksheet. Sometimes Kai would put his left arm around you just to take something from your side.

Luhan frowned at his observations. You two were having fun, too much fun for his liking. And what the hell was Kai trying to do with his hands? He fumed as he felt the temperature of the fluids in his body increased and increased.

"Luhan? Luhan!" Miyoung shouted in her meek voice.
"Huh?" Luhan replied not really caring about her.
"YOUR FINGER!" She almost screamed.

Luhan then realised the burning sensation in his fingers because his finger was literally barbequeing in the flame of the bunsen burner. He yelped as he quickly retracted his finger and running it under cold water to soothe the burn.

It was only the first period and Luhan was already suffering from a burnt finger and very very confusing feelings.