Ivy: friendship

In the previous chapter:

“You don’t know?” the girl asked surprised. Luhan shook his head.

“Kim Jong In and Do Kyungsoo started a food fight and a few boys got involved, too. Right now, they’re in the dean’s office.”

Luhan’s eyes widened after hearing this. “Do you know who the other boys were?” Luhan asked, hoping that his suspicions aren’t true.

“Um, I’m pretty sure it was Wu Yi Fan, Park Chanyeol, and Byun Baekhyun. Oh, I almost forgot Kim Joonmyeon and your cousin, Yixing,” the girl said absentmindedly until she realized who she had mentioned at the very end. “Omo! I’m so sorry Luhan.”

“It’s alright.”

“What?! What do you mean by ‘three more weeks’? All of you were supposed to be done today. How did you manage extend your detention time?” Luhan asked, barely hiding his annoyance and shock.

“If you really want the answer, you can ask those four over there,” Yi Fan pointed at Kai and Chanyeol, Kyungsoo and Baekhyun. Currently, the four boys were engaged in a heated discussion as a whimpering Yixing and an exasperated Suho stared at them.

“This is getting ridiculous,” Luhan rubbed his temple. “How long have they been at it?”

“Two and a half hours,” Yixing said dejectedly, “and that was before Baekhyun threw the chair.”

“Have you tried to stop them?”

“We tried, but it gets worst every single time we do,” Suho explained as he let himself fall to the ground, completely giving up on his hopes of peace.

“I’m putting an end to this,” Luhan couldn’t bear this anymore.

“Good luck with that,” Yi Fan said sarcastically as Luhan walked up to the boys who were divided into two sides, with Kai and Chanyeol on the left and Kyungsoo and Baekhyun on the right.

“THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU DIDN’T THROW THE CHAIR AT US!!”

“Guys, just calm do-”

“EXCUSE ME, I WAS JUST DEFENDING KYUNGSOO AND I FROM THAT ‘THING’ NEXT TO YOU. IF HE DIDN’T OPEN HIS MOUTH IN THE FIRST PLACE, NONE OF THIS WOULD’VE OCCURED!!”

“Can you please sto-”

 “HEY! I WAS JUST STATING THE TRUTH!”

Luhan swore he was going to kill those idiots any seconds now if they continued to ignore him.

“Just listen t-”

“I’VE TOLD YOU THAT I’M NOT A MIDGET AND BAEKHYUN ISN’T A GIRL!”

“SSSSHHHHUUUUUTTTT UUUUPPPPP!!!!!” Luhan yelled at the top of his lungs, causing everyone (including Yi Fan) to stare at the fair boy with shock and slight fear.

“You guys have to stop blaming each other because you’re all at fault,” Luhan scolded them. The four boys were about to protest, but Luhan spoke again. “And don’t you dare say otherwise because if you do, I swear I will cut your stomachs open and force-feed you all with whatever organ I find. Am I clear?”

Once he saw four heads nod fearfully after his “creative” rant, Luhan grinned.

“That’s more like it. Now, I want you to apologize to each other,” Luhan declared.

No one said anything, making the deafening silence create an awkward and very tense atmosphere. Luhan’s displeasure was increasing.

“I’m sorry, did I not make myself audible enough? I said I wanted the four of you to apologize to each other,” Luhan went behind Kyungsoo and Baekhyun and pushed them towards Kai and Chanyeol, making the two petite boys crash into their counterparts. Kyungsoo’s face was near Kai’s, making him flustered. He was quick to put some distance between them two. Baekhyun just huffed and pushed Chanyeol away when the latter grumbled something about this.

“I’m sorry for throwing the chair,” Baekhyun said unhappily. Chanyeol let out a smug grin.

“I forgive you,” the giant shook Baekhyun’s hair, messing it up on purpose. Luhan cleared his throat, reminding Chanyeol of what was going on. “I’m sorry for calling you a girl.”

“What about me?” Kyungsoo asked.

“Aww, I haven’t forgotten about you, mid-, I mean little one,” Chanyeol gave him a strained smile. “I’m sorry.”

“I guess I accept your apology… unwillingly,” Kyungsoo huffed as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Luhan cleared his throat, catching Kyungsoo’s attention. The older boy made a gesture towards Kai. Kyungsoo’s eyes widened when he realized what Luhan was trying to tell him with this.

He had to apologize to that thing.

Kyungsoo shook his head, making Luhan roll his eyes in annoyance.

“You have to,” Luhan said as he approached him. “You either do it on your own, or I’ll make you.”

Remembering the threat, Kyungsoo looked down in defeat. He may be stubborn, but not stupid. If he wanted to be Luhan’s friend, he would have to do anything, even the things he didn’t want to do.

“J-Jong In,” Kyungsoo gulped after he spoke.

“Yes?” Kai tried to hide his Chesire grin.

“I’m sorry,” Kyungsoo muttered quietly but audible enough for everyone to hear.

“What? I couldn’t hear you,” Kai wanted to reel in the moment a bit longer.

“I’m sorry,” Kyungsoo repeated a little louder.

“A bit louder please,” Kai placed a hand near his ear. Kyungsoo was fuming at this point.

This brat! I can’t stand him!

“I said I’m sorry!” Kyungsoo exploded.

“Tch, tch… You have to be nice about it,” Kai was enjoying this a bit too much. “You could say something along the lines of ‘Oh, Kim Jong In, my sincere apologies to your greatness and I swear I will never do something to offend this y bea- OW! Luhan!”

“Don’t push it,” Luhan warned. Kyungsoo thanked Luhan for pinching Jong In’s arm. “He already said sorry. Now it’s your turn, pabo.”

“You hurt me,” Kai placed his hand over his so-called wounded heart, “But I will do it just for you. Do Kyungsoo, I apologize for my immaturity and I will try to behave from no own… although I don’t promise that will last for long. Better?” he now faced his friend.

“Sort of. I didn’t really like the last thing you said. But I will make sure you do keep your promise,” Luhan poked Kai’s forehead as if to put his statement inside the younger’s head.

“Now, can I be assured that every one of you will not engage in any fighting while we wait outside for our rides?” Luhan asked.

All of the boys got out of their surprise or immaturity and imitated soldiers saluting a high-ranking official.

“Yes, sir,” they chorused together.

“But I need you. You’re the only one who can control them.”

Luhan sighed to himself, not being able to understand how he ended up having Choi-ssam following him like a puppy. Why? The dean asked (more like begged) him to “supervise your seven classmates during their detention period.”

 “Can’t you just ask anyone else? I think there are staff members who are more capable of supervising my classmates,” Luhan was trying to get out of this situation as quickly as possible. As much as he loved being around the boys, he didn’t like acting like the mediator every time Kai and Kyungsoo, Chanyeol and Baekhyun, or all four fought with each other while Yi Fan, Suho, and Yixing face palmed in the background.

“No one wants to watch over them, especially after Byun-si threw the chair at the younger Park,” Choi-ssam said in a very desperate tone. “And no one was able to get them to stop fighting. However, you did the impossible. I saw you control them.”

“Sir, I just made them shut up.”

“You did more than that. Please, I wouldn’t ask you this if there was another choice, but we ran out of options. We really need your help, and if you agree, we will boost your grade average.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary. My average is fine as it is.”

“We will give you the right to do whatever you think is necessary to get the boys to behave, as long as it’s reasonable. I will comply to all of your requests, if you accept.”

Luhan stopped walking and turned around when he heard a thud behind him.

Oh no…

The dean was kneeling with his hands intertwined as if he was begging for mercy. Was that a puppy face?

Be strong, Luhan… Don’t fall into the trap…

“Ppplllllleaaassseeeeeeeeee,” Choi-ssam was pleading and the people who just happened to be in the hallway gave them started to chatter. Luhan was turning red when he felt the attention become too overwhelming.

“Fine! I accept,” Luhan slumped his shoulders in defeat. Choi-ssam stood up faster than the speed of light.

“Thank you,” Choi-ssam said a bit too cheerfully, much to Luhan’s chagrin.

Suddenly, the door was opened with a loud bang. This startled Yixing and Yi Fan who were falling asleep on their desks, and the others who were conversing with their allies. When they turned to see the cause of the noise, they were surprised with the sight of Luhan… who was wearing a pink frilly apron over his navy blue uniform with a pair of white gloves and a red bandana on his head. He had a look of determination on his face. The room became quiet.

Well, this was unexpected.

“Uh, Luhan,” Yixing broke the deafening silence, “w-what are you wearing?”

“I’ll explain everything in a few minutes. For now, all of you are going to follow me. Bring all of your belongings; we’re not returning to this room,” Luhan ordered.

The boys did as they were told, just for the sake of ignoring the fact that Luhan was wearing pink. Then they followed Luhan after he locked the door they were in. Even though they didn’t know where Luhan was taking them to, they found out they were being led somewhere inside the cafeteria when they entered it. Luhan knocked on the door that led to the kitchen.

“Tao, open up,” Luhan said, making some of the boys confused.

The doors opened, revealing their classmate, Zitao. Luhan entered the kitchen with the others following him.

“Tao, please hand them the materials,” Luhan told Tao. The latter began handing each of the boys a piece of paper, white gloves, a red bandana, and a pink frilly apron. The guys began to sweat bullets.

“What is this?” Yi Fan asked.

“This,” Luhan pointed at his own apron, “is what you are going to wear during detention for the next three weeks. It’s going to protect your uniform from getting dirty when we complete our chores for today.”

“C-chores?” Kai and Yixing spat out.

“Yes,” Luhan answered. “Since none of you can behave while sitting inside a classroom for hour and a half in the presence of a teacher, I will supervise your detention from now on with Tao’s help. And believe me when I say that we are not going to spend extra time inside school doing nothing.”

“You can’t do that!” Baekhyun complained.

“Why not? Choi-ssam gave me full authorization over you guys. I can do anything I want if it ensures all of you to finish detention in the next three weeks,” Luhan placed his hands on either side of his hips.

“I still don’t get why we have to do this?” Yi Fan told Luhan. “Those four are the ones who keep fighting. Joonmyeon, Yixing, and I never engaged in the fighting and we are still in detention.”

“Choi-ssam told me that by keeping you three in detention with them, the fighting would be maintained at a mild level. But since I can’t go against this part of our agreement, you will have to stay behind with us and set an example to these four boys about productive and non-violent teamwork,” Luhan emphasized the ‘non-violent’ part. Yi Fan gave him an ‘Are-you-serious?’ expression.

“Anyone else has anything to say about this matter?” Luhan asked, although that translated to ‘Say something negative about this and I will end you’ to the others. They remained silent and Luhan smiled.

“Great, we shall begin,” Luhan clapped his hands together.

For the next hour and a half, Luhan taught the boys how to wash dishes, sweep the floor clean, and other domestic duties. When everyone got the hang of it, the boys worked diligently and some of them began having conversations with either Luhan or Tao without any fights. When detention ended, the boys were exhausted. They had never experienced this before. Sure, they knew how to make their beds or arrange tables, but they never really had to worry about these things since their employees took care of this.

But nonetheless, the guys have worked hard enough during detention. So, he thought they deserved some ‘freedom’ away from the chores so they could socialize with each other like the normal teens they were and not when they were drying dishes and such.

Now here he was outside Choi-ssam’s office on a Friday, waiting for the man to finish his conversation with one of his colleagues. Luhan was playing with the hem of his navy blue blazer when the door opened. Choi-ssam said his good-byes to the person and directed his attention to the Chinese boy.

“Lu Han, come in,” Choi-ssam directed the younger inside his office. “What can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to ask you something,” Luhan said.

“Fire away,” Choi-ssam told him.

“For the past two weeks, I’ve noted progress between the guys. They are getting along better and the fights have been minimal. So, I wanted to see if it was possible to reduce their detention time.”

Luhan saw the thoughtful expression on Choi-ssam’s face, until the latter spoke.

“I don’t think there’s a problem with that. In fact, I believe they could finish their detention tomorrow. But you won’t be able to bring the boys to the building since there’s going to be some moving around with furniture and that sort of stuff. Instead, you will have to complete it tomorrow at the high school building, since it will be empty save for a few staff members and students.”

“That’s perfectly fine,” Luhan answered.

“I will make some phone calls to the high school, so the receptionist could let you inside the building because students from the other schools are not allowed inside without a valid reason,” Choi-ssam told him as he grabbed a piece of paper and wrote instructions on it before handing it to the boy.

“Thank you, sir,” Luhan said.

The bathroom was actually decent looking, but just like everyone else, nobody wanted to clean a restroom.

“Hehe,” Kai started backing out of the restroom. “I remembered I have stuff to do at home. I’ll see every one of you on Monday.” He tried rushing away, but Yi Fan dragged him back by his shirt’s collar. “Not so fast,” Yi Fan glared at him and Kai gulped, “We are going to finish today.”

“Yi Fan’s right,” Luhan declared as he and Tao were bringing in the materials needed for the job. “The sooner we start, the faster we can go back home.”

He started assigning work to everyone and the work began. It wasn’t until half an hour later that Tao started complaining about feeling sick.

“Hm,” Luhan touched Tao’s forehead. “You do feel a little warm. Just wash up and I’ll go with you to the nurse’s office.”

“No, that’s alright,” Tao shook his head. “We are halfway done here, and I wouldn’t want to delay you guys any further. I’ll go by myself.”

“Okay, if you say so,” Luhan guided Tao out the door. “Just walk to where we had entered the floor. I’m pretty sure the office was there. I’ll try to see you in a bit, okay?”

“Alright,” Tao said and started walking away.

“’Kay,” Yi Fan answered. Luhan just nodded and left the bathroom.

He was walking down the never-ending hallway and turned right when he felt something bump into him. The sudden contact made him fall to the floor.

“Jiao-long!” he heard a little girl scold someone else. “I’m sorry, miss, this kid is always daydreaming and never looks where he is going.”

Luhan was about to say he wasn’t a girl, but when he looked up, he was speechless. There were two identical children who looked no older than ten with short dark hair and fair skin. He realized they were fraternal twins since one of them was the girl who spoke and the other was a boy. It took him a while to tell them apart from each other because they had the same hairstyle and they were wearing the same dirt-filled white baseball uniform and sneakers with bats in tow.

“It’s alright,” Luhan stood up. “But you are not allowed into the building because you’re not high school students, so why are you two here?”

“We could ask you the same,” the girl told him.

“Touche,” Luhan muttered.

“In response to your question, we are trying to look for our idiot brother who is stuck in detention today inside this building. He’s in middle school, so you probably know him. His name is Wu Yi Fan,” the girl told him as her brother nodded.

Yi Fan has siblings?

“Yeah, I do know him. I would take you guys with him, but I have to go somewhere else. All you have to do is turn a right when you reach the end of this hallway,” Luhan pointed at said location. “From there you walk straight, and turn left on that corner. The boy’s bathroom is two doors down, so you will be able to find him there. Yi Fan is in there with more boys, so you will probably have to look around inside before finding him.”

“Oh, okay,” the girl replied. “Thank you so much.”

“Yaah!” Chanyeol cried as he felt someone’s weight on top of him. Then he felt that person pat his head like they would to their cat. It took him a second to realize it was Baekhyun’s hand doing the patting (and not pulling his hair like those other times).

“Baekhyun, get off me!” Chanyeol told the boy.

“Nope, I’m tired! You make a nice cushion,” Baekhyun replied nonchalantly.

Chanyeol tried shaking him off him, but failed. He then tried to stand up and he actually got the boy off him. Chanyeol heard a splash and realized Baekhyun fell down on top of the bucket of soapy water. He let out a laugh.

“It’s not funny!” Baekhyun yelled.

“Argh! Who dirtied the floor?!”

Chanyeol and Baekhyun gulped when they heard an angry Kyungsoo, thinking they were in trouble for the incident. But then they saw the small footsteps of dirt on the floor along with two baseball bats near the entrance. They let out a sigh of relief, but jumped when they heard Yi Fan cry.

“Get off me!” Yi Fan cried. “Someone get them off me!”

The boys looked at Yi Fan, who had two identical, dirt-filled children clinging on him; one of them was on hanging on his shoulder and the other was on his leg. Chanyeol and Jong In rushed to help him, and each of them grabbed one child. Jong In carried the child and set what appeared to be a she on the sink countertop.

“Hey! We weren’t doing anything wrong!” the dark-haired girl pouted. Jong In cooed at this.

“You’re so adorable!” Jong In told her. The girl’s frown became a wide smile.

“Yes! I finally found someone who acknowledges this!” the girl cried out loud.

“Awww! I just want to glomp you!”

Kyungsoo’s eye was twitching. He had spent almost an hour scrubbing the damn floor, and now his efforts were in vain.

He wanted to murder someone really badly.

So, he resorted to the only sane thing he could do: he took off his red gloves, grasped Jong In’s shoulder and turned him around, and slapped the boy with the gloves as hard as possible.

“Oww!” Jong In rubbed his cheek. “What was that for?!”

“Stop flirting with a child and help me clean up this mess!” Kyungsoo yelled at him.

“Oh and how would YOU know about flirting with children?” Jong In retorted playfully. Kyungsoo almost choked. “Why you-“ Kyungsoo grasped Jong In’s collar.

“C-can yo-ou two st-top fighting a-and help me g-get this kid off m-me?! I-I c-can’t bb-breathe!”

Chanyeol was being strangled by the other child, who they identified as male. Yi Fan got the kid off and Chanyeol who started coughing.

“Jiao-long, how many times have I told you to not strangle people?” Yi Fan scolded the boy. The boy just stuck out his tongue.

“He wouldn’t have to do that if you just let us hug you,” the girl told Yi Fan. Yi Fan started twitching.

“That wasn’t hugging! You doppelgangers tackled me! ”

“Tch, drama queen.”

“Um, excuse me,” Yixing cleared his throat, catching Yi Fan and the girl’s attention. “Yi Fan, who are they?” he asked while pointing out the girl and the boy.

“My name is Wu Hui Lei and that’s my twin, Jiao-long. We are the awesomeness in that bozo’s bleak life,” the girl smiled.

“In other words, they’re my siblings,” Yi Fan deadpanned.

“WHAT!! Since when?” Joonmyeon and Jong In gaped.

“Since that fateful day that the Legends the divided the Tree of Life in half to prevent the evil of the Eye of the Red Force from coveting its heart. The halves were hidden and eventually two suns that look alike were created by the twelve forces of the halves and were sent to two worlds that were alike. It stayed that way until our parents helped the twelve forces reunite and purify evil. The two suns were once again together in the same world, but in the shape of two amazing beings that were integrated in the Wu family,” Hui Lei explained with a mystified expression on her face. The boys didn’t know how to respond to her story.

“You two were born in a hospital in Vancouver,” Yi Fan broke her illusion. “Nothing mystical happened on October 31^.”

“Then explain why Vancouver was in full celebration on that day.”

“It was Halloween. Other than that, everything in Vancouver was normal.”

“Nothing in Vancouver is normal! Vancouver is filled with fun stuff. That’s why we named you Wu Ye Fun the day we found you in the streets! It was in honor of Vancouver!”

“First of all, I was part of the family before you two were born. And second of all, stop changing my name! I’m Wu Yi Fan!”

“More like You No Fun,” Jiao-long spoke out loud for the first time.

The siblings started arguing with each other again while the boys stared in utter confusion.

“I don’t know whether I should laugh or panic,” Chanyeol muttered.

“Let’s just keep on doing our work,” Kyungsoo pulled Jong In’s ear and led him to the entrance where they would clean the stains the twins made. The others went back to doing what they were previously doing without Yi Fan’s help.

“Take off your shoes, I’m going to clean them to the best of my abilities,” Yi Fan ordered the twins. Hui Lei let out a gasp as the twins did as they were told.

“You don’t like cleaning. Who are you and what did you do to our idiot brother?!” Hui Lei exclaimed. Yi Fan started scrubbing the shoes as an amused grin appeared on his face.

“Trust me when I say that spending two weeks full of cleaning with Luhan can make a change. I’m a different man now,” Yi Fan told her.

“Where is he?”

“Who? Luhan?”

“No. The man that you claim to be.”

Yi Fan face palmed. Of course the little she-demon would pull something like this. He scrubbed the shoes harder than he was supposed to. “Here,” he shoved the now-cleaner shoes to the twins.

“Rude,” Hui Lei and Jiao-long scolded Yi Fan.

“Guys, we’re done,” Joonmyeon announced as the boys observed their finished work. The bathroom was now sparkling.

“Woo!” Yixing exclaimed, surprising everyone. “Our hell is done! Let’s get out of here!”

“She said I had a bit of fever, so she gave me medicine and told me to rest. I guess I have to see the doctor today after detention,” Tao replied.

“I guess so,” Luhan agreed. He then checked his watch. “Detention is almost over. Did the nurse say when you could leave?”

“She told me as soon as my headache was gone. It still throbs a bit, but I think I can manage.”

“Then I guess we ca-” Luhan was interrupted when they heard the door slam really loudly.

“What the hell was that?” Tao asked, still shaken up from the noise.

“I’ll go check,” Luhan said as he went out of the room. There was no one in sight and the door was shut closed.

“Is anybody here?” he asked aloud, yet nobody replied.

That’s odd

Suddenly, a burnt odor filled his nostrils. His eyes widened when he realized it was smoke. Luhan rushed back to the room.

“Tao, we have to get out of here,” Luhan told him hurriedly.

“Why?” Tao asked confused.

“I can smell smoke in the room,” Luhan explained as he rushed back outside with Tao in tow. This time, smoke was more visible and there were medium-sized flames behind a desk. He ran to the door and tried to open it but couldn’t.

“Do you smell that?” Hui Lei asked her brother.

“It smells likes something’s burning,” Yi Fan said aloud as the smell started to become stronger.

“I don’t like this one bit,” Yixing told everyone. “Something’s not right.”

“Let’s get Luhan and Tao,” Jong In pointed out. “We can’t leave them behind if that’s the case.”

They began running to their destination, but as the distance shortened, smoke was visible. They turned the corner and, much to their horror, discovered the smoke was coming from the nurse’s office.

“Baekhyun, sound the fire alarm!” Joonmyeon yelled at the boy.

Jong In ran to the door, and saw the flames engulfing parts of the office through the door’s window. He tried to open the door but it was useless; the door was locked and the handle was becoming hot.

 “Luhan and Tao are inside! We have to get them out of there!” Kyungsoo and a few others started coughing because of the smoke.

“The door’s locked! There’s no other way inside!” Jong In was trying to remain calm, but how could he? His first true friend was there along with an innocent soul!

“Yes there is!” Hui Lei announced. “Follow me!”

Jong In, Jiao-long, and Yi Fan ran behind her and stopped when she did. Jiao-long pointed at the air vents. “You can go through there!” Hui Lei exclaimed.

“How am I supposed to get up there?” Yi Fan asked.

“Jiao-long, get on all fours!” Hui Lei yelled as her brother did what she said.

“I’m not stepping on him!”

“You don’t have to! Use this!” Chanyeol cried out with a chair in tow. He set it down after Jiao-long stood up. Yi Fan got on top of it and tried pulling the vent open. It took a while, but he was able to take off and threw it to the floor. Yi Fan got in, but his legs were still dangling out of the vent. Chanyeol got on the chair and pushed Yi Fan’s legs inside.

“Get me up there!” Hui Lei ordered.

“Are you kidding? It’s too dangerous!” Chanyeol wasn’t planning to comply her demands.

“That idiot won’t know where he’s going! I know where the vents lead to! Now get me up there!” Hui Lei demanded.

“Argh! Fine!” Chanyeol carried the nine year old girl and pushed her inside.

“Be careful!”

“Tell that to my idiot brother!”

---

“What are you doing up here?” Yi Fan asked Hui Lei, when she catched up to him. “You’re supposed to st-”

“Save the scolding for later,” Hui Lei shut her brother up. “I’m going to guide you through the vents. God knows where you could end up without my help.”

“Fine, but stay by my side,” Yi Fan grumbled.

“Go straight and turn a left,” Hui Lei ordered.

“Okay,” Yi Fan realized something. “Wait, how do you know where to go up here?”

“Pfft, do you really think Jiao-long and I study from books when we’re not in class?”

“That would be the normal thing to do.”

“We’re not normal. We’re Canadian.”

There was a pause from Yi Fan. “I regret ever asking you this.”

The siblings remained quiet until Hui Lei told him they reached their destination. Yi Fan pushed the air vent until it was open. He looked inside the room that was now a pouring mess thanks to the sprinklers.

“Luhan! Tao!” Yi Fan yelled out, hoping there was a response.

“Yi Fan?!” Luhan’s voice was slightly faint but audible enough.

“Are you two okay?” Yi Fan asked from where he was.

“Yeah!” Luhan replied. “Hold on, let me get Tao!”

A few seconds passed and the only thing that was heard was the sound of water pounding on the floor.

“I got him!” Luhan appeared with Tao, the latter’s arm over Luhan’s shoulder. Both boys were soaking wet and were pale-looking, especially Tao who could barely move. Luhan set Tao down on a chair and moved nearby a surviving table and pushed it towards the vent. He then went back to Tao and helped him walk towards the piece of furniture. It was complicated to get the younger on the table since his tremors were getting worst, but the boys managed to get him inside the vents. After this, it was much easier for Luhan to get up to their escape route.

“Are you okay?” Yi Fan asked him.

“I’m fine,” Luhan answered and that’s when he noticed Hui Lei. “Er, Yi Fan… why is your sister up here?”

“She helped me get to the- wait, you know her?” Yi Fan asked confused.

“Yeah, we bumped into her before we found you,” Hui Lei explained and then faced Luhan. “So you’re Luhan? Yi Fan told me that you were a boy. I guess my brother is an idiot after all because he confused you for a boy.”

Yi Fan and Luhan just sweat dropped.

“Um, Yi Fan was never wrong. I’m a boy,” Luhan said.

“Are you serious? But you’re even prettier than most girls!” Hui Lei exclaimed, feeling slight confusion and joy.

“Can we change the conversation? This is getting uncomfortable!” Yi Fan interrupted.

“Agreed,” Luhan was ready to move on when he looked at Tao. “We need to get out of here. Tao is going to get weaker if we don’t.”

“Then, let’s go this way. Follow me,” Hui Lei instructed. They started moving in the same direction the Wu siblings used to enter. They were nearing the exit, but they heard yelling and screaming as they got closer.

“What’s going on?” Tao asked weakly.

“No idea,” Hui Lei answered. The girl got peeked her head out a bit to see what was the cause of the ruckus. The scene before her was hectic; she could have gotten a headache after seeing some of the boys fighting with three high school students if it wasn’t because she saw Jiao-long using his bat to hit some of the high school students.

“Woo! Go Jiao-long!” Hui Lei yelled in encouragement.

“Are you mental?” Yi Fan asked his sister.

“Nope,” Hui Lei answered nonchalantly. “Little brother is kicking some guy’s arse with his bat.”

“WHAT?!” Yi Fan looked out, and saw Jiao-long was literally doing just that. “Brat, are you crazy?! Get away from that boy!”

“Jiao-long, beat him up to a pulp! But make sure he falls near the vent!” Hui Lei went against her brother’s instructions. As expected, Jiao-long listened to his twin and made his victim fell down near the desired area. Hui Lei turned her body around so her legs would go out.

“Geronimo!” The girl let herself fall out of the vent and landed on the guy’s back. She got off him and instructed the boys in the vent to do what she did. Yi Fan landed first, but Tao fell a few seconds before he could even stand up.

“Oof!”

“Gah!”

“Oh gosh! I’m sorry Yi Fan!”

“It’s alright.”

“Hurry up guys! I need to get down,” Luhan said with a nervous tone.

Tao removed himself off Yi Fan and tried helping the latter, but both of them almost collapsed again. “Coast’s clear!” Tao coughed out as his knees met the floor once more.

Luhan looked down and panicked. From where he was, it looked like a long fall.

I can’t do this!

“Yes you can! Just let yourself fall! I’ll be there to catch you, Xiao Lu!” Luhan heard his voice and his fear disappeared. He took a deep sigh and fell down.

The two boys were inside Tao’s bedroom along with the boys (and Hui Lei).

“Why are you two frowning?” Kai asked. “Although that bastard deserved more than school expulsion and juvenile detention, he gets to suffer the consequences. You should feel relieved.”

“But justice wasn’t served in a good way. Tao has to stay at home with an injured leg and a fever and you guys have to finish that third week for fighting those guys,” Luhan sulked.

“Eh, it was sort of worth it,” Baekhyun replied. “It was much better than punching this giant,” he gave Chanyeol a playful punch on the shoulder. The latter just laughed.

“Besides, we don’t really regret it,” Kyungsoo added. “We were all trying to defend you after Jiao-long told us those were the guys who did it.”

“You guys are really reckless. Especially you two,” Yi Fan pointed out his siblings in particular.

“Oi, we were trying to help!” Hui Lei argued with her arms crossed. “And we didn’t get hurt.”

“But still-” Yi Fan got interrupted by Tao.

“Please don’t scold them. What they did was very brave. I know I wouldn’t even dare to do half the things they did,” Tao told Yi Fan, who may or may not have turned a bit red when Tao gave him a heart-felt grin. Hui Lei and Jiao-long noticed this exchange and tried to hide their Chesire grins.

“I know you wouldn’t. The things they do are terrifying and disturbing,” Yi Fan muttered while looking away. Tao heard this and chuckled.

“The twins are not terrifying. They’re adorable… I mean, just look at them,” Tao cooed at the twins who gave evil smirks to their older brother. “I just want to hug them!” he exclaimed while Yi Fan gulped. He then faced the guys. “You guys said you have detention this one week, right?”

“Yeah,” the boys chorused.

“Luhan,” Yi Fan called the boy.

“What?” Luhan asked. Yi Fan gestured for him to get closer and once he did, he whispered in Luhan’s ear. Luhan let out an excited smile.

“Really? You really think so?” Luhan’s cheerfulness was notable in his voice. Yi Fan nodded in response.

“What are you two going on about?” Yixing asked confused.

“Yi Fan suggested that since we can only see Tao in the afternoons on school days, those who didn’t get detention could come and help you guys finish detention earlier so we could get more time during our visits.”

“I like that idea,” Yixing said.

“I agree,” Baekhyun voiced out.

“Aww, you guys would do that for me?” Tao asked trying to prevent himself from tearing up.

“Of course we would,” Luhan replied. “We’re all friends, right?”

There was a pause before anyone could reply. Luhan looked at the guys worriedly. Had they still not considered a friendship amongst them at all?

The guys stared at each other with similar expressions. Then Chanyeol smiled, knowing the answer.

“Of course we are,” Chanyeol replied. “Sure, we might have our differences and we had a rough start, but look where we are now.”

“Chanyeol, that was really good,” Baekhyun said admiringly.

“Pfsht, obviously. I am very good when it comes to these things,” Chanyeol just had to ruin the moment. Everyone laughed at a gloomy Baekhyun.

“Group hug,” the twins yelled together, trying to eliminate any tension.

“So, you’re basically saying that you guys befriended each other because of a food fight, a five week detention, and a fire accident?” Sehun asked him. Suho looked pensive now.

“Hm, I guess I could have told you the story like that and not go into too much detail,” Suho muttered more to himself.

“You think?” Kyungsoo deadpanned. Suho just shrugged it off.

“But you know,” the owl-eyed boy said, “none of this would’ve happened if we hadn’t met Luhan in the first place. My fight with Kai would probably continue until our last days, same with Baek and Chan, who would live behind their relatives’ shadow. Tao would not be saved. Yixing would have been homeschooled. Suho would have to deal with the pressures by himself. And Yi Fan would still be a loner.”

Sehun looked down to the ground deep in thought.

Is that why the guys think so highly of him? I had thought it was because of his age and intelligence.

“Well, we could’ve been saved from being the twin’s p-”

“OW!” The three boys turned to see Chanyeol on the floor, hugging his right leg. Behind him were a boy and a girl who, if Sehun wasn’t mistaken, were wearing the navy blue uniform that belonged to the students of the middle school portion of SM Academy. They reminded him of Kyungsoo not only because of their dark hair, but there was something that didn’t seem quite right behind their innocent exterior.

“What was that for?!” Chanyeol cried to the two students.

“You’re too tall,” the dark-haired girl complained. Chanyeol and the newcomers started bickering, and Yi Fan joined in after a few seconds.

“Playthings,” Suho finished. “This would be one of the few things we could’ve saved ourselves from if we didn’t meet Luhan.”

“I think you summoned the devil’s spawn just in time,” Kyungsoo added.

“I’m so confused,” Sehun said sincerely. Suho was about to explain everything, but they heard someone clear their throat. When they saw it was the girl who cleared , Suho let out a surprised squeak. Sehun barely managed to hide his surprise at seeing the newcomers next to them whereas Kyungsoo acted nonchalantly about this.

“Who is he?” the girl asked Suho and Kyungsoo, maintaining her sight on Sehun.

“This is Oh Sehun. He’s in 2-A with Kai and the others,” Kyungsoo told them.

“Ah, so this is the new boy that idiot brother told us about,” the girl replied. Kyungsoo just nodded.

“Hey! I’m not an idiot!” Yi Fan yelled as he approached them. “And you, why don’t you defend me from these doppelgangers?!”

“Because everyone knows you do act like an idiot,” Kyungsoo’s words cut Yi Fan like a sharp dagger.

“Wait, did she say ‘brother’?!” Sehun asked, still disturbed by the fact that the girl-and now the boy- were staring at him.

“Yeah, they are my siblings,” Yi Fan answered. “Wu Hui Lei and Wu Jiao-long,” he pointed at the girl and the boy. “Or as I call them, the devil twins.”

So these are the twins… Why are they still staring at me?!

At that moment, the twins were whispering to each other in some language Sehun couldn’t understand. It sounded like Mandarin, but that wasn’t it. But that was the least of his worries. He still didn’t understand why they were not taking their eyes away from him. Yi Fan let out a nervous laugh.

“Don’t listen to them,” Yi Fan told Sehun as he covered the twins’ mouth. “They’re crazy! They’re adopted and got traumatized because of this!” Jiao-long bit Yi Fan, who cried out in pain.

“Liar! We found you in a trash can out in the streets of Vancouver,” Hui Lei said. Yi Fan was about to retort, but they heard Tao in the distance.

“Clones!” Tao yelled as he ran towards Yi Fan’s siblings.

“Taozi!” they cried together as they allowed Tao to glomp them.

“Oh, I haven’t seen you in a while!”

“We missed you!”

Everyone of the boys started joining the conversation, leaving Sehun by himself.

Alright, I don’t know what’s going on or how should I react to this… All of a sudden, I feel like I’m that one person that doesn’t know what’s going on while everybody else does.

“You’re going to let bugs crawl in if you don’t stop gaping like you are now.”

Sehun felt a soft hand underneath his chin, as the hand pushed his mouth closed. He realized it was Luhan who did this.

“Thanks, I didn’t even realize I had my mouth open,” Sehun said gloomily.

“You feel excluded. Am I right?” Luhan asked, staring at the scene before him. Sehun just stared at him with wonder.

How did he figure it out?

He just nodded in response.

“Just ignore those doubts you have. You’re obviously not excluded; if you were, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now, would I?” Luhan looked at him. Sehun puffed his cheeks and let out a sigh.

“I guess not,” he replied. Luhan let out a laugh. “What?” Sehun asked confused.

“I haven’t seen you do that before! That’s so adorable!” Luhan told him with a wide smile. “Do it again.”

“No,” Sehun tried hiding the creeping blush by returning to his stoic demeanor.

“Oh, come on! Please!” Luhan begged.

“No.”

“Please!”

“I said no.”

“So you won’t do it for me?” Luhan pouted.

No, don’t you dare fall for it!

You won’t stand a chance, Sehun.

I will disown you!

Just give Luhan what he wants. It won’t hurt you if you do.

Sehun sighed and puffed his cheeks again. Luhan’s pout disappeared and he let another mirthful laugh.

Well, he’s happy again…

He tried to fight it, but Sehun smiled at a happy Luhan. And it wasn’t one of those strained smiles he always gave. This time it was a heart-felt smile.

If you can’t fight them, join them.

“You’re smiling!” Luhan exclaimed.

“Yeah, I guess I am.”

It feels weird, but I like it.

---

Author's Note: I was going to update last week, but senior year is a real pain in the arsch. Meh... I updated.

(I'm still bummed because (spoiler alert) I had everything ready for a Halloween special. I'm gonna update it next time, but it's not Halloween anymore TT^TT)

I finished the three parts (finally!) and I hope you enjoyed the twins. I modified the intro for 'Mama' to fit that scene with the twin's "origins" [Disclaimer: I don't own the lyrics nor am I using them to gain profit. I'm just a lousy fujoshi who enjoys EXO a bit too much]. They seem like a bunch of smart- children (especially Hui Lei), but there's a reason behind it. These OC characters are based of true experiences... ^J^ My favorite part was when Luhan had the pink apron. I don't know why, but that was stuck on my mind until I wrote it down. Who do you think the cheeky boy was? (The cheeky part should give it away).

I want to hear what you guys have to say about this chap, so please comment below. I also want to thank everyone who subscribed and I hope people still show their support by either commenting, subscribing, voting, buying me tiramisu bubble tea (I wish)... Don't really buy me that (even though it's a guilty pleasure (both the cake and the drink)).

Until next time,

~Ulyana ^J^