Teenage Dream {HongIce}

Chapter Two

The day seemed to pick up its pace with Leon around. The conversations were awkward and one sided, but Emil hadn't really had a proper conversation with anyone outside his family for years. Leon liked to talk. A lot. Even though it might not have looked like it, he felt quite comfortable around Emil.

"So I'm going to be here for like, a year or something. My parents are volcanologists and they're going on this huge research trip, so obviously they had to take the whole family along, especially since some of my older siblings are interested in the study. It's not exactly fair but what the hell, I've never been anywhere like this," Leon explained. Emil just listened most of the time. Instead of doing class work Emil just spent the majority of his time listening to Leon and debating with himself what he was going to do.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Leon asked.

"Just a brother. His name's Lukas."

"What's he like?" Leon inquired, he was very interested in Emil and really wanted to secure the friendship before Leon would change his mind like so many in the past.

"Um. He's twenty five right now. Most of the time he's quite boring and quiet. Spent most of his time in Norway. Likes coffee and books," Emil summarised. He didn't really want to get into details about his situation. "How about you, got any siblings?"

"Enough to sink a battleship," Leon exaggerated, only a little too loud. The physics teacher turned to Leon to shush him. He put his arms up defensively and nodded as if to say 'yeah I got the message bro'.

"They always let me talk in class at my old school. Where was I?" Leon asked, turning back to Emil.

"Sinking battleships," Emil said quietly. Leon gave a short laugh before continuing.

"Right. Well I'll just start with the youngest and go up from there. There's my brother Yong Soo, he's fifteen. Super annoying but can be fun. His twin brother Hyung Soo, or Kim. Not annoying, but is a total dick. He's not with us anymore."

"Oh. I'm sorry," Emil muttered.

"Nah, don't worry about it. He's just had a bit of a hard time and his dad's taken him to go live in Russia," Leon changed the topic and continued. "Then there's my little sister Lien, she's sixteen. Quiet, nice, quite understanding. We get along. Then there's me. Then there's my older brother Ping, he's eighteen. He's really smart and way better than me, so my parents are always like 'Li Xiao, you better get an A+ in chemistry like your brother Ping or you'll never be a doctor'." Leon imitated in a sharp angry Chinese accent that made the corners of Emil's mouth twitch up into a smile.

"So he's quiet, always got his head stuck in a book all that stuff. So Yong Soo, Lien and Ping are all at school here too. Then I have my older sister Mei-"

"There's still more?" Emil exaggerated quietly.

"Yup. Mei's kind of loud, and bossy. She's like a second mother but she can be a lot of fun sometimes. She's twenty. Then there's my older brother Tai. He's twenty one. Probably the loudest zoologist you'd ever meet. Obsessed with elephants for some really strange reason. He's kind of cool. And then I have my oldest brother Kiku. Total party pooper, super serious and like, way too quiet. He's twenty three." Leon finished.

"So that's..." Emil trailed off, counting on his fingers. "You have seven brothers and sisters?"

"Pretty much. It's never quiet at home."

"How do you fit that many people in one house?" Emil asked in an almost worried tone.

"I really don't know, but there's a lot of room sharing."

Emil nodded and then returned his attention to the teacher, causing a long silence to fall between the two. It had been a long time since Emil has done his school work. He hadn't done any for months. It was ok after his mother died, he got back on his feet and only just passed last year, but this year he had hardly done any. Sometimes he wondered if he was failing or not, he probably was but he didn't care.