~종인~

“I should’ve known. Who else would’ve managed to keep his spot without coming for practice even for a single day?”

“Why, thank you~ I take it that you’ve finally accepted my talent.”

“I wasn’t suggesting it was talent that kept the slot open for you.”

“Then what were you suggesting, Kim?” The tone was as mocking and irritating as ever.

I was about to make a rude comment about his father and the rest of his filthy rich family, but Sooman Seonsaengnim chose that moment to walk in again, abruptly stomping on the fire.

“I just came in to check on you two…” he announces. “I hope you’ve already started?”

Our faces immediately loose the sneers, and fake smiles pop in place. “I was just getting started,” I say in a sugarcoated voice.

“Don’t you worry, we’ll have perfected this by the end of this break.” Taemin says in an equally sugarcoated voice.

“You’d better.” Sooman Seonsaengnim nods and leaves the room. As soon as he’s out of hearing range, I throw myself in a headlock with Taemin.

“Yah! Why’d you say that?! Now he’ll be expecting you to learn and perfect all the moves in just an hour!"

“Well, then you better make sure you do a good job of teaching me,” Taemin says without batting an eye. His smirk is back in place.

“Try keep up, then,” I say, my smirk matching his, and without a second warning, I begin the complex sequence.

I gotta give him credit for one thing, though – though I’ll never admit it, Taemin is talented and catches on quick. Not even five steps in, Taemin was matching my moves, not needing to even be guided.

~

                    ~경수~

“Yah, snap out of it,” Baekhyun clicks his fingers in front of my face, as I jerk awake. “Did you not sleep last night or something?” he scolds.

I could hardly tell him about the frequent nightmares that constantly keeps me up, so I just shrug my shoulders and say, “You’re putting me to sleep~ I can’t help it.”

Baekhyun narrows his eyes and punches my shoulder.

“Fine.” He says, “You do all the talking.”

~

                    ~종인~

I think an explanation is due.

It’s not like he is Voldemort if I’m Harry – he is more like Draco: a pesky annoyance that claims he is my sworn enemy. Ever since we had the misfortune of being a part of the same class in second grade, he’s been forever competing for the number one spot, which is obviously the place only I deserve.

After being at the sequence for longer than half an hour straight, we both head for the water filter at the back for a relieving five minute break.

I wipe the sweat off my brow.

The thing is, ever since we met, we’ve always been bumping into each other, coincidentally entering the same classes, same competitions and same shows, always trying to keep the spotlight to ourselves, but each time, forced to share it. I have a feeling the seonsaengnims are doing this on purpose: playing with us – (*gasp* manipulating us!*) – and keep putting us together.

Thinking about it again, it’s easier to say the whole thing was a Natsu/Gray style frien—no. Not “friendship”. Rivalry. That sounds better.

I am Natsu: Naturally, as I am obviously the main character. He’s Gray coz…….. He strips.

Yup. Makes sense.

~

                    ~백현~

After catching Soo drifting off (and nearly falling off the branch) for the third time, I get him to share his side of the story (even though I hadn’t properly finished narrating my half – I still had four years of gossip to catch up with him.)

So Kyungsoo starts talking.

“Um…….. So……. I got adopted?”

“Yah! Is that any way to tell a story?” I interrupt. “That was atrocious. You’ll put me to sleep!”

Soo gives me his adorable lost puppy look, and I can’t help but squeeze those chubby cheeks. “You don’t start with the part I already know,” I say in a kinder tone, “You start at the very beginning. Not the very very beginning from when you were born, but, you know… after the accident – you can skip the accident.”

I hope Kyungsoo has properly grasped the art of storytelling when he nods and launches into the story again. “So…….” (I’m itching to tell him not to start with ‘so’, but manage to shut up and wait.) “……..Well, after that accident – well, you know Imo and Imobu didn’t want anything to do – didn’t want to take me in ’cause, well, I suppose they had their own problems, so I was dumped in the orphanage.”

“So, what was it like there?” I have to prompt him because Soo just stops. I decide, looking at his face, it’s better not to probe into the whole “didn’t want anything to do –” thing.

“Boring,” Kyungsoo gives the one word answer.

“Why?!” I gasp, “Did you not have friends?”

Soo looks down.

“No.”

      I immediately feel a rush of sympathy towards him, and feel like kicking myself for being so insensitive and slow thinking. Of course. The orphanage was filled with little brats below the age of five. Soo, at eight, would’ve had no one he could relate to.

      “But what about at school?” the question comes out automatically.

      Kyungsoo squirms. “You know I didn’t see much of school or the Orphanage soon after the accident because of my leg.”

      “Your leg?”

      Soo nods. “Yeah, they had to operate it, and that’s why Imo –” Kyungsoo gulps his trademark gulp when he’s hiding something. “Well,” he says, quickly moving on, “So the operations took round half a year. That’s why I ended up in the grade below.”

I nod, remembering my confusion the first few days Kyungsoo hadn’t come to school. I’d tried calling, but the engaged tone sang mockingly in my ear each time. I only understood when Seonsaengnim told us in school – “Do Kyungsoo’s Abeoji has passed away, and the said boy has to undergo a series of operations that span across five months: That means he will be missing vital lessons for the term test, so we’re going to put him in the year below.”  

I remember seeing him for a short while, within the said span of five months. He came to school one day, leg in a cast, clutching a pair of crutches. He didn’t see me. He didn’t hear me call his name. The next day, he was dragged back into the operation theatres.    

~

                    ~경수~

“That’s gotta be the record for the longest time you’ve managed to stay silent,” I observe, dragging Baekhyun back to reality. Baek snaps out of whatever trail of thought he was thinking and gives me a lopsided grin.

And with that, he’s back on the interview.

“So, what’s your Eommonie and Abeoji like?” asks MC Baekhyun.

“Eomma is the BEST!” I gush, not waiting for Baek to even finish what he was saying, “The moment I saw her, we clicked. She’s made me feel the most welcome at home, and hasn’t left me out of anything and has gone out of her way to –”

“Woah, woah, woah… hold your buffalo. That’s a heap!”

I grin sheepishly.

“What about your Appa?” Baekhyun injects, and I shift on the branch I’m sitting.

“Um…” I gulp, “Well, he’s cool too, I guess? I’m just… not as close to him as I am with Eomma.” I scratch the back of my head, feeling guilty. It’s never right to love one parent more than the other… that’s like favoritism.

MC Baekhyun asks his next question just in time to save me from further embarrassment. “So… any brothers? Any sisters?”

The distraction from worry is short-lived. “A dongsaeng,” I squeak out. Baekhyun looks at me weirdly, eyes narrowed.

“What?” I say, narrowing my own eyes.

“Are you…. Scared of your dongsaeng?” he says slowly, testing waters, a smile ready to surface at any moment.

“You would be too, if you were in my place,” I snap.

“Why? Anyone I know?”

“You could say that. He’s about the most popular guy in school. My brother…. Is Kai.”

~

                    ~백현~

      Kyungsoo watches my face as what he just said sinks.

      Kyungsoo, Little Soo, the little introverted, awkward boy, the brother of the cocky, talented, popular Kai? A more unlikely lot haven’t been put together in history.

      I laugh awkwardly. “Maybe this might make you popular?” I joke, trying to find the brighter end of things. If anything, Kyungsoo’s shoulders slump further.

“Far from it,” Kyungsoo’s voice is hardly above a whisper. And he tells me the way Kai had treated him since day one.

~

                    ~찬열~

Eomma lets me leave the house only once I am swaddled in several layers of clothes which makes me look around as wide as I am tall, and yes, that makes me look ridiculously like a purple, blue and green giant ball – that is, a purple, blue and green giant ball currently rolling down a hill.

No – I am not rolling down a hill: I am not jobless enough to (but nearly am there), and I for one, am definitely not a rolling buffalo, but, given my current attire, I probably resemble one – Well, that is a purple, blue and green one.

Anyways, on this fine (I would hardly call it that) Saturday, I’m cycling around Yanggu – why? Not because I like the exercise. Please, No. N.O. (We roll~ We roll~) – it’s what I’m doing because that’s all there is to do in Gangwon: Eat, sleep, wash (rarely) and those privileged enough to own a bike: ride it. The unfortunate souls who don’t are stuck reading. I visibly shudder.

There’s nothing to do up here, I tell you. No Wi-Fi, no form of signal, be it radio, Phone, TV or otherwise. You’d think I’d be able to play a video game at least, or watch a movie; but no~ the video player is busted. -_-”

Great.

So…. I’m just riding around the mountains like a purple, blue and green buffalo/ball.

~

                    ~경수~

At first, I am reluctant to tell Baekhyun.

I mean, I haven’t told anyone how I felt. Not even Eomma! All this time, I’d been bottling it in, acting like I didn’t care – but the truth is, it hurts. It hurts. And the more I keep my mouth shut, the more the pressure builds.

So the moment I open my mouth, words tumble out like a sea of pent up emotion.

      Right through, Baekhyun speaks not one word. He listens wholly, fingers clenched, and when I finish, he growls, “Let me kill that bastard,”

      “Aniya!” I put my hands out to stop him, “No, no, no… just don’t. I’m better off avoiding him anyway.”

      “Michaso? I can see you’re not okay.” Baekhyun says, beginning to climb down the tree. That’s when I play my final card.

      “Please?”

      My voice is barely heard.

                    There was more reason not to tell Baek than not having told anyone before. I knew he would react this way; run to protect me: It’s what he has always done.

     Baekhyun nods.

                    But one thing I can rely on, is Baekhyun always listens to me…..

Baekhyun sighs. “C’mon, let’s go down. I’m hungry. That’s what all this talking does to you.”

                    …...and he knows when to stop. And how to make me feel better.

I follow Baek down the tree, and to the mat Eomma had laid. She is lying in the shade, reading a novel. True to his word, Baekhyun grabs the basket, and begins emptying its contents down his throat. I shake my head to myself. I know I’m not one to talk, but I always wonder where all that food goes to.

Before the pig finishes it all, I grab myself an egg muffin. It’s no longer burning hot, the way I love it, but it still has that familiar aroma that takes me back to Movie-nights every Friday, and the home made Gyerang Bbang Appa always made. When I bite into it, I smile a little, just like I always do.

The last reason I didn’t want to tell Baek is because, I always associated Baek with the happier days of my past. Telling him would somehow make him involved with Kai and that whole mess, and I didn’t want that. I wanted…. I wanted an unsoiled memory of the past, and that meant distancing Baekhyun from my present.

That’s what I’d been doing all this time. Avoiding Baek in hopes that the memories would stay unaffected, almost sacred. I realize now that that was just stupidity. And today I crossed that line.

And I regret nothing.

I watch Baekhyun wolf down the last hot dog, and laugh happily.

~

                    ~찬열~

Could someone please help me?!
I’m a purple, blue and green buffa—wait, human! – rolling (quite literally) down a hill.

I didn’t know the breaks on this thing doesn’t work! 0___0

Someon-- *ouch*

~

A/N:

What's up with this Chanyeol 0__0 (I dunno what I was doing, I randomly decided to include this, which resulted in my failed *epically failed* attempt of humour. (Hahaha, but writing him is fun~)

Moving onto slightly more important matters, to all of you who were hanging on the cliff-edge, wondering about Taekai: there, your mystery is solved. (I hope you like this version of Taekai... and yes, I couldn't resist including that Fairy Tail gif~) I hope the Baeksoo bits were just as entertaining/interesting/well... did you like it? >_<" Did you?

I was gonna update this yesterday, but got delayed because my internet speed was slow, and the gifs wouldn't load. Oh, and speaking about the gifs, I need your help, guys: http://www.asianfanfics.com/poll/aff_view/98078 answer the poll, please? *.*

I think I shoulda thanked Noona for giving me a whole page of family/relations and what to call them in Korean (Like Abeoji, Eomoni, Imo ...etc) a long time ago... anyways, Thank you. And thank you, silent readers out there, who secretly like the fanfic? (Please feel free to share this secret with me?) And thank you, ?noisy? kkk- kiddin, you readers who always comment: I love readin and replyin the comments <3

Is that all I have to put in my essay?

Yes, I believe so-

umm... yea.

~