“Baekhyun and I broke up.”

At this, Yixing grunts.

Lu Han rolls his eyes.

Tao smirks and Kyungsoo -

Well, Kyungsoo just plainly ignores the sulking Chanyeol in front of him.

“But you and Baekhyun never went out together in the first place”, Tao deadpans.

Chanyeol lifts his head up, with a kicked-puppy expression.

“But - but it could have happened you know, in - in a universe where g - good things happen to m-me”.

“Yeah”, Lu Han snorts, “We don’t live in that universe.”

Tao high fives Lu Han and joins him in a chorus of laughter - missing Chanyeol’s creak of I know before he slouches himself further in an effort to somehow disappear under the table but ends up kicking Kyungsoo on the shin.

Apparently, Chanyeol’s abnormally tall and long body proportions and the school’s small cafeteria tables don’t work well together, or with hiding really - in general.

“Ow!” Kyungsoo throws what looks like a failed attempt of a death glare at Chanyeol - failed because it just makes him looks more like a terrified kitten, less like he is actually trying to murder someone.

He kicks Chanyeol’s shin back in retaliation and surely, soon enough a little brawl of kicking shins, knees and ankles erupts between the two of them.

Yixing looks at the scene evolving in front of him - where Kyungsoo and Chanyeol are fighting like two kindergarteners, rather than two high school students and Tao along with Lu Han are still giggling like retards at something Lu Han has said  five minutes ago - that in Yixing’s opinion wasn’t at all that funny.

Yixing wonders why somehow he is the only one who seems mature, or in the least normal amongst them, but realizes later that he can only blame it on his choice of friends.

“What exactly happened between you and Baekhyun, Chanyeol?”

“Huh?” Chanyeol looks up from his little fight with Kyungsoo and meets Yixing’s inquiring eyes - but not before wincing in pain at Kyungsoo’s final attempt to get even with him.

“Well..”, Chanyeol starts, all the while rubbing his sour shin.

He has forgotten all about his conflict with Kyungsoo - mind now focused on telling his friend about the incident during homeroom period.

“I somehow have a feeling that this will be very lame.” Lu Han interrupts, but shuts up immediately when Yixing throws him a look.

“It’s ok, Yeoli-ah. Go on.” Yixing urges the tall boy.

“I- I- as usual, I sit next to Baekhyun today in homeroom, and- and”, Chanyeol stops, eyes widening - suddenly nervous and starts fiddling with his fingers.

“And?”, all four of them, including Kyungsoo who has even discarded his calculus homework is holding his breath and leaning along with the other three, staring intently at the fiddling, curly-haired giant, waiting for him to finish the story.

“Well, then- then, I ..”

“Damnit, just spits it out!”

Chanyeol furrows his eyebrows at Lu Han’s outburst.

“I thought you said that this is going to be lame”.

“Ppsst, please..”, Lu Han waves his hand dismissively. “Any story with you messing up, or making a fool out of yourself in the end is bound to be a good one.”

“Eerr .. Thanks, maybe?”.

“Lu Han, shut it.”, Yixing growls at Lu Han, “and,” he points at Chanyeol, “you, hurry up and finish the damn story.”

“Ok, Yixing. And- Sorry, I mean, then he- he, I mean, I, yeah, I- I- ..”

All of a sudden, a loud thud breaks out when a heavy object - of what seems like a bag is dropped, rather unceremoniously in the centre of their circle causing Chanyeol to let out a very unmanly squeak.

The circle dissolve and they all shoot a dangerous look at the body that is now slumped, on the chair next to Chanyeol, all except Yixing - whose eyes seem to be brightened up as he welcomes the frowning, pale-skin boy with a wide smile, forgetting completely that seconds ago, Chanyeol’s story is the most interesting thing in the world.

“I hate my life.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Lu Han sniggers.

“My life is a joke. I’m a joke.”

Lu Han gasps, overly enthusiastic and claps his hands while expressing delightedly, “Hear hear!”

Junmyeon lifts his head up and narrows his eyes at the blonde boy.

“Ignore him.” Yixing waves Lu Han away. “What happened?”

“. is what happened.”

“Come on. It can’t be that bad.” Yixing exclaims.

“Yeah. Can’t be worse than mine.” Chanyeol huffs.

Junmyeon turns his head towards Chanyeol’s direction and quirks his eyebrows, “What happened to you?”

Chanyeol immediately scrambles and starts fiddling with his fingers again, “Well. You know, I- I ..”

“Forget it. We were trying to pester him to finish that story before you came, didn’t stop him from stuttering like an idiot.” Yixing puts a hand on one side of Junmyeon’s face and turns it his way - for Junmyeon’s attention to be on him again. “Now, what wrong with you?”

Junmyeon starts pouting like a child then, before burying his face in his palms again. His voice comes out quiet and muffled, but still is loud enough for the other five to hear it clearly.

“I finally got the chance to be alone with Jongdae. You guys all know how long I’ve been waiting for a chance of some alone time with him and earlier- earlier that chance came. We were walking to lunch together. I was telling that killer joke about the hipster and his coffee ..”

Lu Han groans and rolls his eyes.

“I heard you, Lu Han.” Junmyeon says, through the palms of his hands.

“But that joke is stupid, did Jongdae even laughed?”

Junmyeon looks up and pointedly scowls, “Just so you know, he did indeed laughed at it, and thought it was very funny.”

“Obviously his sense of humour are as dead as yours are non-existent and ..”

Unfortunately, Lu Han is cut short when Yixing shoves a lollipop into his mouth. “Here, on this.”

“Carry on.” He then gestures to Junmyeon.

“Thanks.” Junmyeon smiles gratefully at Yixing, which made Yixing’s cheeks turn unconsciously pink - because it’s a well- known fact that when Junmyeon smiles, everyone takes a backseat, but for Yixing it does more than to repel him in stopping and staring - Junmyeon’s smiles tug on Yixing’s heartstring, causing it to erupt into an uncontrollable frantic paces of beating.

Every single one of them notices the of pink on Yixing’s face, all except of course, Junmyeon - who occupies himself rather well with staring at the ceiling while attempting to remember where he has left his story off before Lu Han rudely interrupted.

“Ahh! I remember now..”, and Junmyeon resumes to pout again before carrying on with his story, “We were having such a good time - talking and laughing, when suddenly that tall dude, whathisname – Yi Fan? Kevin? Kris? Or was it Wu Fan? One time I heard it was BenBen ..”

“Woah! Woah! Stop!”, Lu Han holds his hands up in front of him, one holding on to the lollipop.

“Why so many names? Are you talking about one person, or twelve?”

Junmyeon shrugs.

Suddenly, Tao speaks up.

“You know, he actually prefers it for other people to call him Yi Fan. It’s his real name anyway.”

All eyes turns and suddenly are on Tao, looking at him oddly.

“Why?” Lu Han raises an eyebrow at Tao.

“Why what?  Why Yi Fan?”

“No. Why he has so many names?”

Tao shrugs.

“God, who cares?! Obviously because the guy has issues. Now, where was I again? Damnit Lu Han, you always screw everything up.”

Yixing helps Junmyeon out.

Junmyeon snaps his finger, “Ahh! Exactly. So there I was with Jongdae - happily laughing and talking, generally having the time of our life, when suddenly something tall and blonde came out of nowhere and stood in front of us. I swear to you people, he really did came out of nowhere. It was like he was waiting for us there, and he had it all planned out. He grabbed Jongdae’s arm and dragged him off, and Jongdae didn’t even fight, he just smiled and waved goodbye ..”

“No doubt glad to be away from you and your hipster jokes I’m sure.” Lu Han interrupts, but everyone else hushes him.

“And that tall guy glanced at me and he was god, smirking. Oh , oh ..” Junmyeon drops his face on the table, trashing around like a child and his hair with his hands. “That smirk. What I wouldn’t do to smack that smirk all the way back to Canada ..”

“Hey! I can help with that.”

“What?” Junmyeon stops, and looks up at the beaming Chanyeol.

“I’m almost as tall as he is. Holding him down won’t be a problem for me, though for you..” Chanyeol drags on, pointedly glancing at Junmyeon up and down.

Junmyeon gasps dramatically, as if Chanyeol has just insulted his mother.

“Well, you .. you know .. you’re ..”, Chanyeol fidgets.

“He’s what, Chanyeol?”, Lu Han urges, clearly amused at the scene of a fidgeting Chanyeol and an insulted Junmyeon.

Chanyeol scratches his neck awkwardly and whispers lowly, “A midget.”

Lu Han drops backward in his chair in a fit of giggles, while Junmyeon slumps back in his chair, murmuring, “Great, just great. He stole my Jongdae and I can’t even reach up and smack him all way to his hometown properly by myself because I’m a midget, a freaking midget.”

Chanyeol looks guiltily at Junmyeon, while rubbing soothing circles behind his back, “It’s ok, I’ll help you. I’ll hold him down to your ‘level’ and you can smack him all you what.”

Suddenly, Junmyeon shines up - grinning and looking at Chanyeol with twinkles in his eyes, “Yeoli-ah, you’re right. It actually sound really good, you can..”

They continue to talk animatedly with each other - Chanyeol nodding his head determinedly when Junmyeon tells him how they’re going to sneak up on him and everything when suddenly, “You dimwits are not going to smack Yi Fan all the way back to Canada.”

They both turn their head to face a scowling Tao, Chanyeol whines, “Why not?”

“Forget it!”

Junmyeon opens his mouth, but quickly shuts it again, mumbling fine under his breath when he catches a sight of Tao’s glare that alone is enough to send the manliest man from the manliest of man out there cowering into the safe arms of his mother, all the while peeing his pants, mind you.