“His… t-tutor? But I-,” Luhan began.

“Luhan would be happy to be his tutor,” Suho interrupted, turning around in his seat to look at Luhan and the teacher, “from what I’ve seen, they’re pretty good friends now.”

Luhan could easily hear the sarcasm laced with anger in Suho’s voice and the expression of scorn on his face said it all, but the teacher, of course, didn’t notice any of it.

“Oh, really?” That’s great!” the teacher said excitedly and looked at Suho and then back to Luhan, “I suppose it all works out for the best then.” She gently patted Luhan’s head and then turned around and took her spot at the front of the class, beginning her lecture for the day.

Suho then smirked at Luhan and turned back around in his seat, facing the front of the class. However, Suho wasn’t the only one who was angry. Seung Gi sat glaring at Luhan from across the classroom, causing Luhan to sink lower into his seat in worry.

The bell rang and the students hurriedly rushed out of the classroom, thankful to be out of the incredibly boring class. Luhan, on the other hand, was always busy daydreaming so he was the last one packing up as usual.

Seung Gi waited until everyone was out of the classroom and then he briskly walked over to Luhan and just as Luhan was looking up to see who it was, Seung Gi slapped him aggressively. Luhan’s head immediately snapped to the side and the force of the slap almost caused him to fall out of his seat. He cupped his stinging face with his two hands and looked up at Seung Gi with angry tears in his eyes.

“What the was that about, huh?!” shouted Seung Gi angrily, watching Luhan hold his reddened cheek.

“W-What are you t-talking about?!” Luhan cried, his face feeling as if it were on fire and hot tears fell from his deer-like eyes.

Seung Gi just stared at Luhan coldly for a few moments before asking, “you just love being with Kai, don’t you?”

“I-It’s not like that!” Luhan said defensively.

“Then what is it like, Luhan? You didn’t even attempt to refuse the offer to tutor him!” Seung Gi bellowed, seeming to grow more delusional by the second.

“I tried! I really did! I started to but then Suho-,” Luhan began.

“No more ing excuses… I’m done hearing them! It’s always excuses with you! I’m not stupid Luhan – I know you like him… but if you even think about betraying me with Kai, I will kill you,” Seung Gi said menacingly and shouted a few more obscenities before storming out of the classroom, leaving Luhan with a bruised face and a shattered ego.

Luhan, instead of going to lunch after second period despite being very hungry, spent his time in the bathroom putting on makeup to cover up the reddish-purple handprint left on his face from Seung Gi’s slap. He winced every time he had to touch the bruise and when he finished, he looked at himself in the mirror but angrily looked away. He hated the person he saw looking back at him – he hated how pathetic and helpless he had become in such a short time. He just wanted to go home and not to his home here in Itaewon… but to his home back in Seoul with all his old friends and loved ones. He missed them now more than ever and he deeply regretted the fact that he never appreciated them like he should have. Too bad he realized his mistakes too little too late.

It was now the end of the school day and Luhan had succeeded in avoiding Seung Gi throughout the rest of the day. He checked his phone to see what time it was and then he noticed that he had 20 new texts… and all of them were from Seung Gi. They all said things like: I’m so sorry. Are you okay? Answer your phone! Stop ignoring me. You made me do it. I didn’t want to hurt you.

Luhan rolled his eyes, thinking that Seung Gi really was insane and he quickly deleted all the texts before hurriedly making his way to the bus stop so that he could be on his way to the hospital to tutor Kai.

The hospital with Kai… just him and Kai.

The idea of spending one-on-one time with Kai was enough to make Luhan’s heart soar and he smiled brightly. It seemed as if Kai was the only one who could make him smile nowadays. No matter how horrible his day was… he always had a reason to smile after it all.

That reason was Kai.