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Koko was dead and no one except him knew, he didn’t have any other family anyways.
She had been in a car crash with a drunk driver and had been rushed to the hospital. Koko died before they could start the surgery. He only found out because of a phone call from the hospital’s head doctor.
It was fine, he was making do, he was fine living on his own, even if it meant that he had to pick up a mostly full-time job at the 24-hour store at the end of the street, Mystake's Shop, which took up most, if not all of the time he was not at school.
The landlord didn’t know that a fifteen-year-old was paying all the bills for the small apartment. There were many times he had to skip out on going out with the others so he could clock more hours in.
Only, today was one too many times, and they were getting suspicious so Nya and Kai were sent to find him (and possibly drag him down to them).
”Lloyd?” Kai asked as he and Nya stepped into the blond’s apartment. There was a heap of letters on the floor, most were from the bank. Other miscellaneous things were haphazardly all over various surfaces they could see.
”He’s over here,” Nya told him from where she found Lloyd slumped over at his desk, clearly asleep.
An email was pulled up on his laptop, it was from Mistakè’s Shop and was something about 'if he was late for his shift again then his pay would be lowered significantly'.
What exactly was going on?
”Lloyd?” she asked, shaking him gently. After a few moments, he woke and looked like he didn’t remember falling asleep.
”Nya? Kai? What are you doing here?” Lloyd asked, getting up and stretching.
”Where’s your mum, Lloyd?” Kai asked.
The boy visibly stopped for a moment.
“She’s at wor-“ Kai cut him off, “The truth,” he demanded.
“S-she’s dead,” Lloyd whispered. That was not what they were expecting.
”Dead? For how long?” Nya asked, not liking where this was going.
”A few weeks?” It had been a month.
"And you've been covering all this yourself?" He needed confirmation. Lloyd nodded.
"So that's why you kept skipping out on us," Nya said, then her tone lowered significantly, "Our offer still stands, you know."
When they had first met, they had made him an offer: if anything bad was to happen to him, he could move into their apartment. He nodded again. By now, they both had a pretty good idea of what had happened.
Later that same day.
They had gone to pick up some packing boxes to pack up Lloyd's stuff. He and Kai would be sharing what was once only kai's room.
"Sorry," he said when they were sorting out his stuff in their room.
Kai turned around to face him.
"Lloyd, what on earth are you saying sorry for?" Kai asked as he grabbed something out of one of the boxes.
"For intruding upon your's and Nya's space, for you to know about mum dying, and to see me like that," Lloyd wouldn't meet the older boy's eyes.
"That's absolute bullshit. We made you that offer, remember? And I was once in a similar situation," he told him.
"You have?" Right, Lloyd didn't know that he had raised Nya after their mum OD'd and their dad left.
"Yep...our mother OD'd and then our father, he left, I was nine and Nya was five at the time. I had to get three jobs just to pay for food and this apartment," Kai told him.
Lloyd had a surprised and rather bewildered expression on his face.
"What? How? Is that why you don't talk about your parents that much?" It wasn't really a question anymore.
"Maybe." Kai didn't anything more so Lloyd didn't ask.
Later.
"Lloyd, do you have any other relatives?" Nya asked while they ate Chen's Noodles takeaway, no one could be bothered to cook.
"No, none I know of anyways. Mum was an only child," the blond answered.
"How about your dad?" she asked, stirring her chicken Hokkien noodles.
"He was an only child also and anyways, I don't know where he is or if he is even alive," Lloyd was playing with his chopsticks, not meeting her eyes. [See AN]
Oh.
The next day, Lloyd woke abruptly at seven AM and was disorientated for a moment at waking up in an unfamiliar room.
Until he remembered what had happened the day before.
He was late for his before-school shift at Mystake's !
Lloyd had gotten ready in a rush and rushed out of the room. Only to find the Smith siblings standing in the kitchen, talking quietly to one another.
At the sound of his footsteps, they turned to face him.
"Morning Lloyd," Kai greeted before he went back to stirring instant coffee powder into his mug.
"Don't worry about rushing off to the newsagency this morning, your shift's been moved to tomorrow afternoon," Nya told him.
What? Why would she do that?
"What? Nya, why did you do that? How did you do that?" Lloyd asked, keeping his gaze on the crack in the paint on the wall behind Kai's head. Nya set her bowl of cereal down on the bench [kitchen bench] and turned to face him yet again.
"Because, Lloyd, you need a break. Come spend the day with us and the others and if you don't want to, find something else to do that isn't school- or work-related," she told him.
She wasn't really inviting him to spend the day with them and the others? Surely not, it had to be a trick.
Before he could say anything, Kai spoke up, "Nya's right, and you're welcome to join us." It was like Kai had heard that particular train of thought.
"Thank you. I think I will," Lloyd said as he poured himself a glass of water.
It couldn't be too bad, could it?