chapter 7

It was the last day of school. They would have their summer vacation from the following day and into the next one and a half months. Not all the students were taking their vacation time; a few, the ambitious ones or the ones who had ambitious parents, decided or did not have a choice other than agreeing to attend classes instead, so that they can shorten their overall school time or to take classes that were useful for their future.

These kinds of students were usually easy to recognize; pale, wearing stern facial expression most of the time, strict with the school rules down to the smallest bit, and despised the so-called 'social butterflies.'

Surprisingly, the student they hated the most was Kyungsoo (on the contrary, the social butterflies adored him too much.)

It was probably bitter for the ambitious students, having to see the boy skipped class after class yet he maintained to ace all the subjects easily, coming out on top of those who were throwing away their social life to dedicate themselves in studying, to be somebody they were prepared to be.

Thus they insulted Kyungsoo the most.

People gathered around Kyungsoo, cooing and adoring him, emphasizing their miserable, lonely life. With all his accomplishments Kyungsoo should have been more like them. Miserable. And so, they attempted to make Kyungsoo's life less cheerful. Those bitter students insult the boy whenever they got the chance.

Unfortunately, Kyungsoo, with his over the top naivety, did not consider the insults as a mockery at all. There was one time when one of those miserable students intended to offend him;

Kyungsoo was sitting in the library, reading his favorite books. That day Sehun decided to accompany him, stating that he got nothing to do anyway. Out of generosity he was willing to waste his time having a boring time inside the boring library with the boring bouncing boy, he said.

"Hey!" protested Kyungsoo, his lips formed a disapproving pout.

A student walked toward Kyungsoo, a sickly smug smile decorated his face. Sehun recognized him as one of the top students, especially in math if he was not mistaken; at least before Kyungsoo came and snatched his place without any effort.

"You are as irrational as a square root by a negative number. Don't bother trying to fill up your head," the student sneered. He smirked, deliberately warding off the book Kyungsoo had been reading with the back of his hand.

"Don't you mean 'Imaginary'? Irrational is a number that cannot be written as the ratio of two integers, while the square root by a negative number is imaginary," Kyungsoo corrected the student. He furrowed his eyebrows.

"But that was harsh. Are you trying to emphasize me as 'non-existing'?"

Kyungsoo looked sad. He bit his upper lip unconsciously, his brows folded into a frown.

Sehun had an urge to smack the insolent student when he saw the boy's saddened expression, but before he could say anything Kyungsoo's face brightened up.

Kyungsoo raised his head with a smile. "Nah, you can't be insulting me, I'm one hundred percents sure. The thought of the whole 'Imaginary numbers' idea as a useless thing is kind of elementarish, don't you think?

“Don’t even start with 'Irrational numbers'. Hipassus would've waken up in his grave if he heard someone stating that the irrational numbers are useless or delusional." Kyungsoo giggled, thinking of the absurdity. The giggle turned into a burst of laughter. He thought that the student told him the wrong definition purposely to tell him a joke to cheer him up, and it was indeed so funny for him; Kyungsoo could not stop laughing.

The poor boy didn't realize that he was the only one that was laughing; the other one was just standing there, face beginning to lose its color.

Sehun snickered, releasing low chuckles he disguised as small coughs. The scene was entertaining. Kyungsoo was jabbing his 'imaginary' spears repeatedly without even realizing it.

Imaginary kkkkkk, Sehun let out a sheer laugh mentally.

"Imaginary numbers do exist. Very useful and have practical uses too, but you have to study some more advanced stuffs before the uses become apparent," Kyungsoo said with a giggle.

The student who was supposed to humiliate Kyungsoo got even paler. He left Kyungsoo without a word, causing the boy to knit his eyebrows in confusion.

Sehun couldn't hold it. Clutching on his stomach, he laughed wholeheartedly. He didn't stop laughing even when a librarian came to him, politely asking him to quiet down his laugh. Sehun waved his hand, urging the person to leave. He grabbed Kyungsoo's hand and dragged the boy out of the library.

Kyungsoo got confused. He repeteadly whined, "What? What's so funny? What Sehun-ah? tell me!"

***

In contrary to the "dilligent students', the social butterflies were preparing for their holiday gleefully. They had been chatting about it for months, if not for nearly a year, exactly since their first school day after coming back from their summer vacation last year.

"What are you planning to do on your vacation, Suzy?” a girl chirped happily.

"I'm gonna stay in a private island in Belize for one or two weeks, depending on how hot the guys are," the girl giggled. "After that I'm thinking of going to Europe; my family owns a private resort in Monaco, but I don't know, I got bored after going there a few times." Suzy sighed dramatically.

"Oohhh! Why don't you come with me! I'm planning to go to Europe too! I was told that there is an awesome place in Greece, Perivolas Santorini. It's a paradisiacal sanctuary, they said, so poetic right!" The other girl clasped her hands together.

"Come on, let's meet there! We can attend Paris Fashion Week afterwards!"

"Minzy, you are so smart! Let's have our vacation together then! I wonder what Ellie Saab is gonna pull out this year, and ugh, Louis Vuitton was so genius last year. Checked chicas beehives with the cute ribbon, genius!"

The girl named Minzy replied back in equal excitement. "I know! It looked like Twiggy gone wild in Parisian board, right?!"

Sehun got dizzy after accidentally hearing the girls' conversation. Every of their sentences was ended with a raised high pitched tone. He could imagine sentences filled with exclamation points if their conversation was written on papers. Sehun grimaced, shivered at the thought. What an exclamation point abuse.

He dragged Kyungsoo to walk away from the noisy girls, but to no avail, they had spotted their presence.

"Sehun-goon, Kyungsoo-goon, where are you planning to go for holiday?!" They dashed to the boys cheerfully. Oh dear God, even a question is ended with the annoying high pitched sound. Sehun scowled.

"Ah. I'm planning to go to Sehun's grandparent's house to mphhhh-"

Sehun covered Kyungsoo's mouth before Kyungsoo could say more. He stood close to the boy, practically pressing Kyungsoo's back to his chest.

Kyungsoo's lips were so soft, pressing into his palm as if he was kissing it intimately. All about the boy was soft, warm, and petite, as if he was made to fit Sehun perfectly. The height, the softness, the petite body, the silky skin, the scent of his hair; they were all perfect. Sehun placed his jaw over Kyungsoo's head, sniffing the boy's sweet scent. He felt blood rushing to his head. His hands felt warm, and got warmer every passing second.

"Shefunha wha ar yhou dhoingh I can'th brreath," Kyungsoo protested, unaware of the effect of his warm breath and the vibration of his voice to the taller boy manhandling him.

Sehun breathed sharply and released Kyungsoo. He cleared his throat. "Ah. Yes. Kyungsoo will be joining me to stay at my grandfather's," he awkwardly said. Ignoring his rising pulse, he grasped Kyungsoo's hand to drag him out of the class. He could hear the girls chatting in excitement, in their loud disturbing high pitched tone,

"I TOLD YOU! Kyungsoo must be coming from the Do yangban clan; if not, he would not ever get the invitation to Oh Clan's country house! Sehun's grandfather is their most influential leader, right! He was being in charge of the whole branch!"

"OH MY GOD you are so right Suzy!" Minzy gasped dramatically, covering her agape mouth (they had to act a lady-like even when they were in shock, and jaw dropping was not so lady-like).

"Sehun is so kind yet very strict to the rules! He never invited me to his house even once!" Suzy went on proudly.

"Oooohhh! And Sehun offered him to stay in his dorm room! At his first day of school! And now Kyungsoo got the invitation to stay at the country house for the entire summer holiday! This is awesome! I wonder how powerful the Do Clan is!" Minzy squeaked enthusiastically, squealing together with her equally enthusiastic friend.

Sehun snorted. He kept walking away even after he couldn't hear their conversation, his hands were tightly clasped over the boy's.

***

Sehun was sitting lazily on the couch when he heard a noise came from Kyungsoo's room. There was a creak sound behind the door as its handle was pulled down. Kyungsoo held the door open with his body, and he pushed it with his hips as he dragged something out with much difficulty.

"Sehun-ah! Please help me!" He shouted, struggling hard to pull out a huge bundle out of his room.

"It got stucked!" he whined.

"Ugh! Come here, don't be naughty and get out already!" Kyungsoo grunted as he played tug-of-war with the poor door.

"Sehun-ah!" Kyungsoo tried to clutch the tie of the huge bundle and pull it. He set his right feet to the wall to pull harder, but to no avail. The bundle was bigger than his petite body, so it was impossible to force the bundle out by his strength alone.

Sehun raised an eyebrow. He calmly sauntered toward the smaller male.

"What are you doing?" He stood up behind the boy that was wiggling his butts in determination, pulling the bundle with all his strength.

"What do you thing I'm doing!" Kyungsoo snapped at him. "Help me will you..! Ukh..."

Sehun didn't move an inch.

"You could just just untie the thing and re-arrange anything you keep inside," Sehun commented. His arms were folded over the chest relaxingly as he looked at the boy's effort in interest.

"Fine!" Kyungsoo grouched. He swept away the naughty strays of hair covering his left eye.

"I will untie my already neatly packed sweet bundle and take out the contents," he sweetly announced as he slowly began to unfasten the knot of the bundle.

"Oh, and by the way, it contains the cute clown dolls you are so fond of." Kyungsoo smiled innocently.

"There are precisely a hundred of them, including the doll head you found yesterday. I have attached it perfectly with its body, don't worry. A hundred clown dolls, all are cute with their wide smiles and bright glorious costumes. I will take them out one by one, placing every single of them neatly on the floor. All a hundred of them. Maybe I should also sing my favorite song when I do that," Kyungsoo cheerfully said. He whispered out the song slowly,

I love to play all day

come join me all my friends

Sehun was as pale as ghosts. "W-wait Kyungsoo! Let me help you!" He placed his hands on top Kyungsoo's immediately to stop Kyungsoo doing what he said -- threatened.

Kyungsoo grinned victoriously. "Thank you for helping me voluntarily, Sehun-ah!" He chimed.

Sehun muttered out some inaudible grunts. "Whatever, let's just get this thing over with fast," he grumbled. Tightening his grab on top Kyungsoo's hands, he leaned the upper part of his body back and using both legs as anchors.

"ON THREE!" He shouted.

Kyungsoo nodded in determination, unaware of the fact that he was practically within Sehun's embrace. Sehun realized it too well, though; he could feel blood rushed to his cheeks, heart's beating crazily inside the rib cage.

"One..Two..THREE...!" They pulled out the huge bundle with all they might at the count of three. The huge bundle was released instantly, causing them to stumble a few steps backwards. Sehun was able to control his balance at first, but then Kyungsoo bumped into him. He caught the boy but was stumbling backward due to the impact. He and Kyungsoo both fell to the wooden floor, with the boy was still in his embrace.

For a while they froze up and unable to do anything; Kyungsoo out of the shock, and Sehun because of the boy in his arms. They were so close, there was barely an inch between them. Kyungsoo's body was trapped perfectly between Sehun's slightly wide apart legs.

Sehun's hands were placed on Kyungsoo's hips, wrapped around them tightly.

Sehun unconsciously placed his jaw on top of Kyungsoo's soft hair, taking a deep breath to inhale the scent. Strawberry. Everything on this boy screamed softness and sweetness. He released one of the hands circling the boy, slowly bringing his fingers to Kyungsoo's face. Tilting the boy's head toward him, Sehun ghosted his fingers on the silky smooth face, slowly until they reached the plump lips. Sehun moved his lips closer.

"Sehun-ah..." Kyungsoo whispered. "Are you alright? I'm so sorry to make you fall with me."

Sehun could feel Kyungsoo's warm breath as he spoke. He closed his eyes, enjoying their closeness.

"Sehun?" A soft voice brought him back to his senses.

Sehun's breath hitched. He could not believe what he had let his own self to happen. Releasing himself from Kyungsoo, Sehun took his time to steady his breath and wild pulse. "I'm fine," he quickly said as he stood up fast.

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