"yeosang's been hanging out with this boy more than us and it's making me kind of frustrated. i'm learning sign language for him and he won't even pay attention to us anymore. it's confusing me." wooyoung said and sighed.
"i think it's just that it's his first real friend, baekhyun not included, since baekhyun was closer to us than to him." yunho tried to reassure wooyoung.
"yeah. he's—" san got cut off when the bell rang.
everyone sighed and started to pack up their things. even though they were starting to get a little more used to it, it was really weird to be away from each other for so long and it made the brothers want to spend even more time together than usual.
mingi walked into his classroom to see an unfamiliar man sitting at the teacher's desk. he looked up, seeing 'i'm your substitute teacher, call me mr. k, you have a free period today. don't kill each other.' on the board.
the child subconsciously nodded his head and started walking towards his seat in the back of the room.
"hey, kid. over here." some voice suddenly spit out.
mingi turned around and saw a friend group of six boys all sitting in an almost complete circle, whispering to each other while trying to get mingi's attention.
"hey, don't address him like that! you'll scare him away!" one of the kids yell-whispered to another. "well, giving him a big smirk and waving him over isn't gonna do much either!" "then what is the best way to do it?" "i don't know, we-"
"hi, what do you guys want?" mingi suddenly blurted.
everyone's whispers stopped and they all looked up at him with surprise and a bit of embarrassment.
"o-oh, we were just wondering, since you.. um.. are, um, always, like..." "oh my god spit it out already. we want you to come sit with us because we feel bad seeing you sit alone in the back all the time."
"s-sit with you? but i don't-" "so what if you don't know us, you can get to know us. come on, it's our job as a friend group to make new kids comfortable!"
well, not what i was ever expecting but ok. mingi thought.
"i mean, sure... i'll come sit.." the child said, taking a seat at the only available spot in their little circle and placing his bag underneath him.
"let's start with introductions, hi there, i'm seoho! i'm basically the mom here, so don't ask if i seem to baby anyone, including you, a little bit. it's nice to finally talk to you!" "hi, i'm ravn." "ravn acts like the dad-" seoho cut back in, "-a weird dad, though." "hello, i'm keonhee! let's be best friends!" one said loudly, smiling and making mingi a little shy and embarrassed. "hey, i'm hwanwoong. no, i'm not small. the world is just too big for me. i also play the guitar.." another said. "i'm leedo." "i'm xion! nice to meet you! what's your name?" the last yelled.
"i'm mingi... and i... don't really like anything."
everyone silently sat there for a moment before they brushed off mingi's words and began asking him a bunch of questions; like if he had siblings, what his parents looked like, and even his sexuality. it was a little weird.
but even though he was awkward and still confused as to why they talked to him, it felt really nice to the child to know that he was finally making friends of his own.
they chatted all of class, and basically the whole day.
"hey san, can i ask you something you won't like?" "no, why would you?" "no, just—promise that you won't get mad at me? please?" yunho begged.
san rolled his eyes and leaned his head down. they were currently getting time to do homework in class, and, since the brothers were done with theirs, they were just chilling out. yunho was folding a piece of paper into a paper airplane, and san was lying his head down on shiber, who was placed comfortably on his desk.
"could... could you put shiber away?" the older brother whispered. san quietly gasped in an offended tone.
"no! of course not! why should i? he's not hurting you." san whispered back angrily, covering the stuffed toy's ears as if to prevent it from hearing any insults coming its way. yunho got nervous.
"i-it's because.. you..." he sighed.
"you're embarrassing me." yunho closed his eyes.
the boy kept his eyes closed for a moment as he was afraid san would be angry and have an outburst, but instead, when he opened his eyes, he saw his brother staring right into his eyes, with a hurt expression.
"embarrassing you? how?!" "it's just... i'm trying to be cool... it's not cool when you have an eleven year old brother who still plays with toys." yunho frowned. "i don't mean that to hurt you, really, i just can't stand that i can feel people staring at us."
san's face turned from anger to sadness.
"so what, i'm not cool enough for you? i'm a baby for still liking plushies?" he whispered, his eyes watering.
"no, no, no, no, no—san, don't take this the wr-"
yunho stopped when san aggressively snatched shiber and shoved the doll back in his bag. he then somehow quietly slammed his arms on the table and flung his head down to hide his face in his arms.
he only made things worse. now people were really staring at him. "what's wrong with his brother? they're so weird." he heard a girl behind him whisper.
at last, the school day ended, and wooyoung, san, and yunho finally left the tense class.
san ran ahead of the two, not even looking back once. he was obviously angry, and wooyoung was confused, but yunho knew exactly why he was upset. the oldest was a bit (very) mad at himself for making san upset.
san couldn't go far. they waited outside for the other two to get there, also waiting for their parents to arrive.
jongho showed up after a little bit, seemingly nervous and very very quiet. but none of the brothers payed much attention to it.
they waited and waited and waited. no one came.
eventually, hongjoong showed up to pick up the kids, but only four of them were there. yunho, being the oldest brother and protective of his siblings, started worrying a lot about where in the world yeosang and mingi had gone. he was trying to avoid thinking the worst case scenarios, but it was too late for that.
finally, they heard mingi's voice while sitting in the car with the windows open.
"no! let me stay here! they all want to chat with me, do you know how long i've been waiting for this!" mingi was arguing with someone, who's identity was obvious.
they watched as yeosang was hauling mingi out of the school against the younger's will. mingi was trying his best to fight back, but, even though he was taller, yeosang was stronger than him.
"no! no! let me go!" mingi screamed while yeosang yelled some random gibberish to get hongjoong to help him.
the father sighed, turned off the car, and got out to come and help the situation. he picked mingi up, cradling the struggling child in his arms and carrying him back to the car, while yeosang wiped all the sweat on his forehead that had shown up because of his crazy efforts to get mingi out of there.
after getting to the car, mingi calmed down (though he still wasn't happy), and they finally went home.
i go back to school tomorrow ewwwwww
