Teenage Dream {HongIce}

Chapter Twenty One

Tuesday afternoons were going to be the worst afternoons of the week for Emil. Leon had basketball training every Tuesday afternoon, so Emil had to walk home without him. Apparently Leon had told his siblings to let him walk home with them, which Emil had mixed feelings about.

It's not that he hated any of them, it's just that he wasn't good with siblings – or people for that matter. Ping was silent and hard to talk to, being much more academic than Emil was, and would be endlessly chattering on about atomic theory, physics, astronomy, listing chemical formulas and classifications. In all honesty, the kid could speak Science better than he could English. Lien at first glance was also a little hard to keep conversation with because most of the time she didn't seem like she wanted to talk or really just couldn't think of a subject. Emil didn't know her very well at all, only that she loved to play sport, keep to herself, chat with socially confident guys and was a complete bad ass when it came to video games.

Then there was Yong Soo. Sometimes Emil could handle him, but in all honesty, the kid did scare him with his unpredictability, which for the most part, was why he was practically dreading walking home with them. It seemed a bit standoffish to be thinking this way, but what else was he supposed to be thinking?

As soon as the bell rang, Emil felt his stomach drop and a wave of nausea roll over him. It's not that bad. It's not going to be that bad, he repeated to himself, over and over as he made his way to his locker.

"Em," Leon called from his locker, knitting his brows together with concern. "You alright? You look like you've seen a ghost?" Only now did Emil notice that he was shuffling instead of walking, hugging his books to his chest and was hunched over like he was a turtle.

"Oh. I'm fine," he muttered as he opened his locker, taking a quick cautious glance at Leon, standing beside him, bag already in hand.

"Don't worry about my siblings. Anyway, you might learn something from Ping, even if it's the most boring thing in the world, but you never know when you'll need to remember the first one hundred elements on the periodic table or how an angioplasty surgery is performed," Leon shrugged. Emil slammed his locker shut and gave Leon the purest look of confusion.

"When on earth would I need to know that? And more importantly why does he know these things?" Emil asked, exaggerating his confusion.

"I don't know. So you can impress me? Or become a surgeon? I don't know," he shrugged, pursing his lips. "Or you could talk to Lien about her friends and what sort of havoc they wreaked today."

"Wait, what?" Emil exclaimed over the buzz of the corridor.

"Just ask her and she'll tell you. She's pretty proud of the stunts she pulls. And don't worry about Yong Soo," Leon began, slinging his bag over his shoulder and beginning to turn away. "He'll calm down. And Lien will kick his ass if he doesn't," he concluded, walking down the hall and giving Emil a farewell salute. He didn't react, so Leon blew a kiss, still looking backwards as he walked, earning a small only-half-forced smile from Emil, before he ran into Feliks. He had been talking to Toris, so he obviously wasn't looking where he was going either. The encounter was silent and Leon gave Feliks the biggest death stare before the other could snap and say 'watch where you're going'. Leon darted away as fast as a speeding fish and disappeared into the corridor.

Emil knew that other shit had gone down between those two, and he hadn't seen them talk since. Leon was actively avoiding him, which was mostly fine, except for the fact that Leon was constantly mentioning that a) he only went out with Feliks because he thought Emil wasn't interested, b) he never kissed anyone, or Feliks for that matter and c) that it was a mistake associating himself with him. All of the drama just made Emil worried, especially since he was completely new to high school dramas, including ex-boyfriends.