Chapter Text
Sehun hated spring.
Hate is actually too mild of a word to describe how unbelievably irritated he became every time winter made its melancholic exodus after forcing people to shiver for months in the chilly weather. Winter wasn’t exactly his favorite time of the year but at least it didn’t make him want to pull his hair out like the first spring morning did every year.
It wasn’t really the weather that bothered him. Sehun was happy how days became sunnier and warmer every day until the summer break would already be knocking on the door and Sehun was ready to welcome summer eagerly and with open arms. He was a high school student with loads of school work straining his back through the whole year after all.
In actuality, he wasn’t just any student.
He was a brilliant student.
And that is actually the reason why he disliked this particular season so much. Even the ever so beautiful spring days couldn’t calm his mind when the rest of the students went straight-off crazy when the spring semester officially began which was almost like a holy manifesto of summer coming closer and closer.
For Sehun, it was a nice motivation to focus more on doing well in the exams. But for the rest of the students, it meant it was already the right moment to mentally show their middle fingers to all school duties and become as restless as they pleased.
‘Restless’ might also be a too mild of a word to describe the ruthless reality. Well, it was going to be ruthless for Sehun at least.
~*~*~
“Kris, come back here and sit down. I know you’re not doing anything there.”
Kris sighed dramatically as he turned away from the book shelf where he had been pretending to be searching for a book for five minutes now. It was too bad Sehun knew his best friend well enough to know he never read books so it was obvious he was just trying to fool Sehun.
“Come on, Sehunnie. We’ve been studying long enough, let’s take a break.”
“We have barely started. Why would you even ask me to tutor you if you’re not even trying?”
Sehun was not one to help others out so it mightily irritated him when the blonde teen wasn’t paying any attention after the first ten minutes. They had just settled in the school library and Kris had been more than excited to let his friend help him out but Sehun had known better than expect perfect attention from a light-headed guy like Kris. If it had been anyone else asking for his tutoring, Sehun would have declined politely. But he had developed a soft spot for Kris that he would never be willing to admit.
So they were stuck in the almost empty library without being able to really do anything.
After giving Sehun his most convincing puppy eyes and not receiving a more satisfying reaction than a dead-pan stare from the younger, Kris groaned and made his way back to the table and sat down across from Sehun. Sehun could read from Kris’ faked sad-face that the boy wasn’t going to focus on getting tutored anymore no matter how harshly Sehun would try to make him listen.
Sometimes he really wondered who exactly the older one between the two of them was.
“I had to ask you! I did so badly in the mid-term exams, you should have seen my father’s face. I can’t fail my finals too.”
“Then you should open your study books and let me tutor you, just like you asked. I have my own things to do too, you know.”
Kris pouted in displeasure. Sehun wondered what people would think if they saw the ever so manly and handsome Kris Wu pulling these silly faces of his in front of them.
Sehun never paid attention to gossips and rumors that spread around the school like a disease but only a really dumb person wouldn’t be aware of how popular Kris was. Kris might not have been the brightest student but his looks and his alluring nature made up for anything he was lacking in; he had the body of an athlete, the face of a model and the attitude of the most self-confident person on Earth. There probably was no girl in the whole school who didn’t have any wet dreams about Kris.
And Sehun was in the small minority of people who had a hard time believing Kris’ perfectness or rather taking it seriously. He had known Kris ever since he was an awkward middle schooler after all. He was probably one of the only ones who knew how Kris looked like with his natural black hair too. Kris had started dyeing his hair so early that even Sehun had a hard time remembering when was the last time Kris had looked relatively basic and didn’t stand out of the crowd like a shining star.
It was not like Sehun wasn’t just as good-looking. The two of them actually shared the same nicknames that some of the girls in the school used of them.
Sehun couldn’t hate those names more than he already did.
“Are you going to attend the spring ball this year by the way?”
Sehun looked like he couldn’t be more disinterested in answering Kris. Kris was clearly just trying to avoid talking about studying any longer and Sehun wasn’t really feeling like trying to force the elder into doing something he wasn’t going to do anyway. So he just sighed in defeat and started packing his books back to his backpack as Kris kept staring him, waiting for an answer.
“Why would I attend the ball? Of course not.”
“Right, because you’re so antisocial.”
“I’m not!”
“Then why do you refuse to come? It’s way better than any house party. Yixing and Tao are coming too. Luhan as well, probably.”
“I hate house parties too.”
“Of course you do.”
Sehun had gotten to the point he was more than ready to just leave the library to avoid talking about the stupid ball. Running to escape wasn’t really an option though since Kris’ legs were far longer and faster so he would reach Sehun in no time and keep persuading him like a maniac.
The spring ball was an annually arranged event for all the students of the school who wanted to come which, not so surprisingly, made Sehun hate spring just a little more. He really didn’t have anything against the idea of it; he was sure there was a reason why the students wanted to hold it every single year. But it also meant that Sehun had to run away from girls who wanted him to take them out through the whole semester. Sehun really didn’t want to be rude and turn all those girls down every year but honest to god; he just really didn’t give a fuck about the whole ball.
And he was more ready to choke himself to death than go to such a futile event to waste his time.
“I do have a marvelous idea though.”
Sehun had somehow missed how the look in Kris’ eyes had turned mischievous and the corners of his lips were curved into a small smirk.
He really didn’t want to hear any of Kris’ ideas as they usually were anything but marvelous. Stupid and straight-off frenetic was far closer to the truth.
“Please spare me from having to hear it.”
“Don’t be like that! It’s a really good one.”
“As good as when you decided to come over to my house when I had told you I had homework to do, climbed up the drainpipe trying to reach my window, fell down midway and almost broke your arm?”
Kris looked like someone had just told him the Moon was actually made of cheese.
“That was years ago.”
“And you haven’t gotten any smarter.”
“Just right what the Einstein of the school would say, thanks. Just shut up for a second now, okay?”
Sehun stared Kris straight into his eyes and kept his lips sealed. There were few people in the surrounding tables who kept giving curious looks towards them but turned their heads immediately if Sehun turned to look at them, eyebrows knitted together in annoyance.
Sehun kept silent for few seconds and that was enough of an encouragement for Kris. The latter bent over the table to come closer to Sehun, the earlier smirk back on his plump lips. Their noses almost touched as they continued staring each other and Sehun kind of wanted to pull away. But it wasn’t anything unusual from Kris to enter Sehun’s personal space so he didn’t really mind.
Kris was the only one Sehun allowed to do this; come awfully close to him and touch him without asking for permissions. Sehun knew he was known around the school to seem like a distant person who would be too cool to talk to anyone which made most of people keep their distance to him.
Except all the female students when the spring ball was coming closer and closer and getting a good-looking guy as your date became the most important mission.
He did talk to Minseok, Tao, Yixing and Luhan quite frequently so it wasn’t quite the truth that he didn’t talk to people. But it was Kris whose close friendship with Sehun was the reason people saw that getting close with Sehun really wasn’t an impossible thing to achieve.
But Sehun swore there was never going to be anyone in his life that he would let to do this to him; a cold trail of sweat was already running down his temple as Kris’ face was so close to his that he could hear how their breathings mingled together.
Sehun could also swear he heard a quiet squeak somewhere behind him. He felt against the urge to grunt. He could only imagine how this must look like to others with their oddly close set-up.
There were tons of rumors about Kris and him already, or so Kris had told him. The younger had a hard time trying to believe it but it was not like he cared if it was true or not.
No one’s opinion ever mattered to Sehun.
“I was just thinking…”
Kris’ voice was barely a whisper. Sehun could feel chills running down his spine, merely for the intensity of his friend’s baritone voice.
“…That maybe this year…”
There was going to be a harsh slap against the blonde boy’s cheek if he decided to come any closer.
“…We could go together. To the ball.”
The slap didn’t come but the shrill screech of Sehun’s chair was just as loud.
Kris still remained in his position, not moving an inch as he stared at Sehun who looked so awkward and flustered at the same time. He was still pulling his chair further away from Kris as if the lanky boy would attack any minute and eat him for lunch.
“Have you gone absolutely mad, Wu Yi Fan?”
The sudden sensuality disappeared as Kris looked like he was just about to burst to laugh. The amusement was clear in his voice meanwhile Sehun was debating inside his head if he should deliver the bitch slap or not. He decided not as it might be a shame to ruin such a model-like face.
“Come on, it would be fun!”
“How could that in any possible way be fun?!”
“Because we’re the princes, isn’t it obvious?”
And there came the awful nickname that Sehun hated with all his heart.
Sehun brought a finger against his lips to gesture the still-laughing boy to fucking shut up. It only made Kris crack up even more.
Being two relatively good-looking boys with a close relationship to each other did make other people to come up with hideous-sounding names. Kris had told him the first day of school that he had heard some girl calling him a prince. Sehun had only let out a bridle and didn’t bother himself too much with the information. Hearing a group of girls whispering to each other and calling him ‘a prince’ as he passed them actually complimented him, even though he hadn’t let anyone see it. He had only continued walking down the corridor, his chin held up high. After a month of hearing ‘prince’ more than his actual name, he had become annoyed.
And annoyed he had been ever since.
“So you just want to feed the flames and make sure people will never stop using such embarrassing names about us?”
Sehun really wasn’t going to give a flying fuck about Kris’ admired face if he was going to say something to irritate Sehun even further. He was more than sure those few other people in the silent library had heard the entire conversation and that was enough for the younger to feel like wanting to disappear. Kris, oh so surprisingly indeed, looked like he was witnessing something extraordinarily hilarious.
"There are girls here who love seeing us two together. I don’t see why it would be so bad to give them what they want.”
“You’re supposed to go to the ball with a person you’d like to go out with. It’s like a date, for Heaven’s sake. And you definitely are the last person I’d want to go out with like that.”
“Ouch, that hurt.”
“It was supposed to hurt.”
“But Sehunnie…”
Kris’ words and whiny voice was enough to turn Sehun’s alarms on just in time. And so this time, Sehun was the faster one and stood up before Kris had the time to bend over the table again to pull Sehun close to him. Kris gave him a saddened expression again. He had only had the time to lift his bottom off his chair to lean closer before Sehun had jumped up.
“Please stop calling me that.”
“What, Sehunnie? It sounds cute.”
“And I’m not cute.”
“That’s true. ‘Grumpy’ describes you better.”
“I’m not like that either.”
“Yes, you are. You used to be cute too. Like that one time in middle school when you got a B in a test and cried like there was no tomorrow. Definitely gonna remember that forever.”
“I did not cry!”
“Oh yes, you did. You were very adorable.”
“I’ll burn all your porn stashes if you say that one more time."
“That hurt too, Sehunnie.”
Sehun might not have warmed up to Kris’ idea to accompany him for the spring ball but he still managed to drag Sehun along to lunch even though the younger kept complaining how he should be studying over the lunch break and how he’ll fail all his exams if he won’t study for at least thirty minutes still.
“You already look like a rotten noodle. You have to eat.” Kris had laughed whole-heartedly when Sehun managed to look even more pissed off after his comment.
So they were seated in one of the tables in the lunchroom; Sehun sitting beside Kris on his right side as Tao had immediately sat on the left side of the tallest boy once Sehun and Kris had entered the hall and joined Tao, Yixing and Luhan. Yixing and Luhan sat across from them, Luhan looking as cheerful as ever. Yixing looked like he might fall asleep at any second. The three were mostly Kris’ friends actually but Sehun agreed to join their group quite often as Kris always insisted. Sehun would normally be buried in his books or eat with his classmate Minseok but he didn’t mind Tao, Yixing and Luhan’s presence every now and then.
Luhan was actually one of Sehun’s secret favorite people. There were times when Sehun actually responded to Luhan’s wide grin with a delicate smile. It always made the angelic-looking boy smile even brighter.
Luhan was smiling just as prettily as always, clearly enlightened by Sehun’s uncommon presence. Even Yixing had smirked when Sehun had sat down. And that was a very big reaction from Yixing who was usually either too sleepy or too high to really care about anything.
Sehun had asked Kris once if Yixing was a lot different when he wasn’t on drugs. Kris had only shrugged and told that he was only a little more passive and chiller. Sehun hadn’t asked for more details even though he was a little curious to know more.
A cool and a little popular student or not, Sehun had always been too inoffensive to even try smoking a cigarette.
He wondered if Kris smoked when he wasn’t hanging out with Sehun. He probably did.
“I’ve finally chosen who I want to take out to the ball! I’m so excited!”
Luhan looked like he couldn’t really stand still. Not again, was Sehun’s first thought. He was sure Kris would bring up his suggestion again if they started talking about this nonsense.
“Really?” Yixing voiced out first, surprisingly. “I just agreed to go with the first girl who asked. Can’t remember her name though.”
“You probably don’t even remember how she looks like.”
“That’s okay. She remembers me so I’ll just pretend I remember her too.”
Luhan just shook his head in disbelief, still smiling though. Sehun prayed Luhan wouldn’t ask him next. But of course Sehun wasn’t lucky enough to be spared.
“Are you going this year, Sehun?”
“Uh… no, I don’t think so.”
“I told Sehunnie he should come with me. It would be so much fun, wouldn’t it?”
That comment earned mixed reactions. Sehun shot Kris a death glare. Luhan nodded his head enthusiastically. Yixing breathed out a laugh. Sehun heard Tao scoffing.
“I don’t see why it would be fun.”
“Oh please, Tao. You know how much people ship those two. Sure it would be funny.”
Of course Tao had a negative reaction, Sehun thought. Everyone knew by now that Tao had been crushing on Kris ever since they started hanging out in the beginning of the first school year. Kris was the only one who seemed to be completely oblivious. Or maybe he just avoided to bring it up, Sehun didn’t know for sure.
He and Kris didn’t talk about such things as love life despite their closeness; mostly because Sehun’s only true love was getting good grades and he avoided having to socialize more than he had to, so obviously he wasn’t too interested in dating anyone. He did know Kris had hooked up with several girls in the school though.
Sehun felt a little bit bad for Tao. He didn’t care about the fact some people thought he had a romantic relationship with Kris but he wished Kris could tone it down a little when Tao was around.
Tao was an okay person after all and Sehun did want to stay on his good side.
To Sehun’s luck, the conversation didn’t continue anywhere from that as cheerful laughing and shouting broke the rather peaceful atmosphere in the hall and made the five boys and the rest of the students turn their heads to where the sudden noises were coming from. The double doors to the lunchroom were slammed open and a group of boys entered the room and everyone was smiling and singing some kind of a victory song; clapping their hands, throwing arms around their friends’ shoulders and giving high fives to each other.
Sehun recognized the group immediately.
A new student in school definitely wouldn’t recognize Sehun to be more than a hard-working student and let alone anywhere near popular. People didn’t roam around him, compliment him all the time nor did he have a big group of friends and acquaintances. He didn’t attend house parties or any other gatherings like the rest of the popular kids. Sehun was admired from a good distance for his smartness and handsomeness, and that was the thing. Only secret admirers who dreamed about him. Kris was a lot better with people and so his admirers weren’t as shy as Sehun’s. But Kris still chose to rather spend time with Luhan, Yixing and Tao than get to know the other popular people.
That was also a reason why people called Kris and Sehun ironically the royalties of the school; they had everything they needed to become popular yet they remained unreachable and preferred each other’s company over being in groups.
It was always the two of them. Their friendship was the only thing that mattered to Sehun just as much as his success in school.
The distant princes.
Sehun didn’t believe there was anything as ridiculous as the things people came up with about him and Kris.
The group of boys who were now busy with filling their trays with food and singing victory songs were a completely different thing. They were the actual popular ones. They all belonged to the school’s basketball team. There were many different sport teams but the basketball team was the one who kept winning all tournaments one by one, year after year. They all were both good-looking and even more athletic than Kris was. They always made sure they were noticed when entering the room and all girls from Sehun’s classes started sighing in admiration if even one of the guys passed them. Many of them were also bullies.
To cut a long story short, they were everything that Sehun hated.
Noisy and haughty brats.
The team captain Park Chanyeol was known to be the biggest bully. Minseok had told Sehun once that Chanyeol often picked on him during classes. Luhan had said he often saw the tall boy shoving others during gym classes. Even now he was the loudest as he dropped his tray with a bang to a nearby table where the whole gang soon followed him.
Park Chanyeol, Byun Baekhyun, Kim Junmyeon, Do Kyungsoo, Kim Jongdae and Kim Jongin.
The most liked yet most hated people in the school.
“Did one of them finally lose their virginity or what’s the fuss?” Tao sounded almost bitter and continued eating the piece of bread he had in his hand, angrily-squinted eyes never leaving the lousy gang. Sehun didn’t wonder at all why the cat-like boy sounded so displeased.
Kris or anybody else had never told it straight to him but Chanyeol and the others apparently bullied the foreign students in the school. The reason why Kris had become friends with Luhan, Yixing and Tao was because they were all part of the small minority of Chinese students in the whole school. Sehun was positive they left Kris and Yixing alone since Yixing wasn’t only someone who was always on drugs but also the biggest dealer in school. Kris was too far above everyone else to be bullied. He wasn’t so sure about Tao. But Luhan was such an innocent human-being that he was a propitious victim for bullying.
Sehun glanced at Luhan. He really did look startled.
“I heard they won the match against another school that has a really tough team. Another reason for them to be so stupidly proud", Kris clarified.
The lunch break went on and they quickly changed the subject. No one started talking about the spring ball again which was something Sehun was very happy about. They could hear loud yells and laughs from Chanyeol’s table quite often which always made Tao and Kris roll their eyes and Luhan looked like a prey waiting for a possible primal.
They were just about to take their trays and leave and Luhan and Sehun were still having a discussion about the upcoming history exam when the older boy suddenly looked terrified and started shaking like a leaf in autumn wind.
Sehun furrowed his eyebrows and lifted his gaze.
It was the one and only Park Chanyeol.
Behind him were two other boys whose name tags Sehun had to check.
They were Baekhyun and Jongin.
Chanyeol was definitely shorter than Kris but he still looked giant with his broad shoulders and manly features. The low tone in his voice was enough to make Luhan look like he wanted to run off.
“My friend Baekhyun here told me you didn’t give him the batch yesterday like you promised, Yixing.”
Chanyeol tapped one of his friend’s shoulder who supposedly was Baekhyun. He didn’t look too happy at all. Sehun moved his eyes to the other boy on Chanyeol’s right side, Kim Jongin.
The tanned boy was staring right back at Sehun which took Sehun by surprise. He didn’t look a single bit ashamed that he had been caught; he actually did no move to tear his eyes off Sehun. And Sehun stared right back.
Chanyeol might be tall and attractive in his manly way but it was definitely Jongin who just managed to take Sehun’s breath away. He finally woke up from his trance and quickly turned his head to look at Yixing.
Had he been staring the whole time?
Tao, Kris and Luhan were looking at Yixing as if he had just betrayed them all. Yixing didn’t look too interested as he only stared back at Chanyeol who was relatively calm.
“There has been some trouble that I have to handle before I can continue dealing in school again. You’ll get your weed next week.”
“Yeah, you better keep your word. I don’t really like being lied to.”
“I didn’t even ask your friend to pay beforehand, man. I haven’t stolen your money.”
“I don’t care about that. I want that weed.” It was Baekhyun now who opened his mouth. He actually sounded irritated, unlike Chanyeol.
Yixing managed to convince Chanyeol and Baekhyun that there was no problem and everything was going to get sorted out for next week. The third guy, Jongin, didn’t open his mouth the whole time and he still stayed silent when the three finally left their table and joined the rest of the gang. Sehun didn’t have the nerve to look at the guy again to see if he was still staring. Sehun wondered why Kim Jongin had even come along in the first place. He hadn’t looked threatening or ominous. Quite the opposite; he was looking at Sehun as if he was curious and wanted to really observe him from head to toe.
Kris was the first one to open his mouth when he had made sure Chanyeol, Baekhyun and Jongin were far enough to not hear them.
“Are you fucking crazy?! You’re dealing for Park Chanyeol and his people?”
Tao and Luhan looked like they also required an answer. Sehun didn’t understand why it was so big of a deal. He had already believed Yixing sells drugs for pretty much everyone but clearly that wasn’t the truth.
Yixing was just as chill as always, ignoring the three pairs of eyes that were glaring at him. Sehun just kept spinning his head, not knowing who exactly he should look at.
The feeling that had filled his whole body from head to toe after catching Kim Jongin, definitely one of the most wanted boys in school, staring at him was still bothering him too much anyway.
“You all have told me you don’t want to know who I deal to.”
“That doesn’t answer the damn question!”
“Why wouldn’t I deal with them? Almost all of Chanyeol’s friends buy shit from me. It isn’t a problem.”
“He just came to us to talk about drugs! In the middle of a school day! Anyone could have heard! Who is that irresponsible?”
“Keep calm, Kris. I’ve dealt with them for forever now. It’s my business anyway.”
“It’s not your business only when we are present too!”
Kris and Yixing kept arguing for a long moment before they both got too tired to continue. Tao and Luhan opened their mouths to say something too every now and then but it was mostly just Kris telling Yixing he was absolutely stupid and Yixing looked like he was about to strangle himself at any moment so he wouldn’t have to listen.
Eventually, they left the lunchroom and Kris avoided being close to Yixing the whole time.
Sehun, in the other hand, wasn’t even fazed by the incident. He was too occupied to get rid of the weird feeling that had captured him under Jongin’s stare.
Kris threw his arm lazily around Sehun shoulders as the two of them parted ways with Tao, Luhan and Yixing. Kris and Sehun entered a hallway and Sehun immediately felt like he was being eyed again. The corridor was crowded so it was impossible to know who was responsible for making him feel like this or was he just going crazy.
Kris suddenly squeezed his shoulders almost protectively but didn’t say anything.
Perhaps he wasn’t crazy.