Lay skittered down the stairs and ran straight to where his next class was, stumbling into his seat and ignoring the stares of his classmates from his loud entrance. He needed to get the feeling of his teacher’s hands out of his mind and calm his heart down.

“His hands weren’t as soft as they would be, but it still felt good.”

Realizing what had just run through his mind, he shook his head and slapped his face, while ping the front pocket of his bag and pulled out his phone and earphones. Putting the buds in his ears, he pressed play and loud beats and noises erupted from the tiny speakers. Lay could no longer hear his rowdy classmates and it was all replaced by the upbeat tempos of his music and his music only.

Feeling the relief wash over him, he put his head in his arms and let his head rest in between the space. He didn’t get back up until the mortification faded and by then, the school day was over and it was time for him to head on home.

The only good thing about having being found out by Mr. Kim was that Hyunshik had left him alone, not wanting to get in trouble again. It was pleasant to be able to walk through the halls without having to brace himself every few minutes from their harassment.

The bad thing about his encounter was that he still had to go to school and face Mr. Kim. Just thinking about yesterday made Lay flustered and what’s worse was that he had English next.

Mr. Kim was the only English teacher in the entire school.

Pushing the memory out of his head, Lay became afraid that he was starting to form some kind of towards fingers or something. He snuck into the class from the door towards the back of the room, pulling his hood over his head to hide his face. Suho hadn’t seen him due to all of his fangirls surrounding him and trying to give him gifts before the class started.

“Mr. Kim, please accept this!”

Another box of chocolates was pushed into his face and he resisted the urge to slap it away. Taking the box, he gave a small smile and the bell rang, making the girls pout and making him mentally cheer at how they had to leave.

“Good thing I have this class next!”

Internally groaning, Suho just nodded and walked to his desk for the attendance sheet. Waiting for all of the students to file in, he grabbed the clipboard and handed it to his class monitor sitting in the front. The class monitor was one of his more studious students so he didn’t have to worry about having to shake her off like all of the other girls.

“Is everyone here Hyeji?”

“All but one, I called his name and he didn’t-“

Hyeji turned her head and sighed, marking an X in the missing student’s spot and handed the clipboard over to Suho.

“What’s with the sigh Hyeji? I’m sorry for making you have to do the attendance every day.”

 The girl shook her head softly and pointed a finger towards the back of the room where a boy was looking out the window. His hood blocked his face so only a small portion of his profile was visible.

 “He didn’t say here when I called his name so I thought he was missing. He’s always spacing out that boy.” Hyeji clicked her tongue and made her way back to her seat.

Suho continued to stare at the lone boy in the back and looked down at the last student that was marked down.

“Zhang Yixing? He’s a foreigner?”

Meanwhile in the back, Lay forgot all about the class once he managed to get to his seat. His eyes absentmindedly watched the scenery outside, becoming spellbound by the birds that soared in the sky and how the trees rustled in the wind. He had his eye on a butterfly that was perched by the window and was so entranced by it that he didn’t hear the bell ring or his name being called twice.

A loud sound made him jump in his seat and when he turned his head towards the front, he found a face close to his own. He jumped back, alarmed by the sudden prescience and fell backwards in his chair.

“Uhm, are you alright Mr. Zhang?”

Mr. Kim was staring intently at the student who was just wide eyed and the entire class was laughing at the sight.

“Hey loser! Get up off the ground so Mr. Kim can teach already!”

Suho turned his head towards the girl who had spoken and his eyes narrowed, making the girl press her lips together and shrink back in her seat.

“Please pay attention in my class Yixing, we are going to begin.”

Lay couldn’t focus on anything besides the words that were coming out of Suho’s mouth. His voice sounded like angels singing and the way that his name rolled off Suho’s tongue made him shiver. He disregarded the chorus of derisive laughs from the class and scrambled back into his seat, hanging his head down low to hide the red tinge in his cheeks.

“And hoods are not permitted in my class either, please remove that.”

Lay made no move to take off his hood so Suho took initiative to do it for him.

To Suho, he merely pushed the hood off of Lay’s head, but to Lay it was a whole different story. Lay felt a pair of hands brush his hair and over his ears, feeling his fingers ever so slightly move past his head and touch his neck a bit.

“That’s better. See me after class as well, I need to speak with you.”

Snapping out of his trance, Lay nodded his head and Suho let out a small chuckle. Moving back to the front of the class, Lay couldn’t help but watch his retreating figure.

Seeing movement in the corner of his eye, he saw a girl looking at him with a deadly glare in her eyes. She was the girl that always hung around Hyunshik and his friends if she wasn’t all over Suho like a bug. Her eyes were narrowed and she pointed a thumb out and viciously dragged it slowly over her neck before turning back towards the front of the class and Lay just sat dumbfounded in his seat.

“What did I do?!”

“And that will be all students, so don’t forget to study!”

A loud chorus of “YES!” was heard and Suho grinned at how energetic these kids were. Watching them all leave out the door, he spotted a boy making his way out in cover of the crowd, but Suho called him before he was able to make it out.

“Zhang Yixing, where do you think you’re going?”

Lay froze in his spot and cursed for not leaving fast enough. The exit was only a few steps away and he was so close to leaving the class.

“Should I just make a run for it?”

“I hope you weren’t thinking of trying to run away without seeing me first.”

“HOW DID HE?!”

Lay spun around, astonished that his teacher could practically read his mind, but kept his poker face on and walked towards the front of the class.

“I bet you’re wondering why I told you to stay here. Well, I wanted to give you something.”

Suho turned around and rummaged through his bag while Lay was panicking on what he was talking about, trying to keep his heart beat at a slow.

“Here.”

Suho held out Lay’s English conversational book and Lay just nodded stiffly, taking the book and tucking away into his bag.

“I didn’t know you wanted to learn English that much Yixing, but then again I didn’t really realize you were one of my students until today. I’m sorry about that.” Suho gave a bashful smile and Lay just shrugged back.

Lay felt the sting in his chest when Suho said that he didn’t know that he was one of his students. Keeping his blank face, he bowed slightly and walked out of the room.

“Wait!”

Suho grabbed Lay’s shoulder and before he knew it, Lay had already pushed his hand off and was out the door. Suho watched the student practically run outside and heaved a sigh, ruffling his hair.

“I guess I do scare him. Hopefully I can make it up to him somehow.”