bad boy killer ☆ l.ty | ✔

01

"You okay?" A voice asked from beside you, and you turned to see your locker neighbor, Mark, out of breath as he opened his own. "I was at the other end of the hall and couldn't get here fast enough."

The idea of Mark Lee protecting you from those three was enough for you to crack a smile. First of all, you didn't need protection from Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest, they were more nuisances than anything else. Secondly, Mark didn't quite strike you as the alpha male protective type anyway.

"It's fine, Mark. They're just three dumb guys, nothing to call the police about." You took out your binder for your next few classes, stowing away the ones for your very last ones.

Mark's face lit up into a grin as well, chuckling at himself, "Thank god, I was not in the mood to get beaten to a pulp."

"Hey, where's Chenle?" You peered around, looking for the adorable little underclassmen that had pretty much attached himself at the hip to Mark.

"He is fortunately at home, sick."

"Don't you mean unfortunately?"

"Ehh."

You scoffed, elbowing the boy in the side. "Be nice to him, he pretty much idolizes you."

"Who calls their idol old and fat when they don't get their way?" Mark replied indignantly just as the bell rang.

"Zhong Chenle, apparently. See you later, Mark."

"See ya!" He gave you a wave as you parted to go to your own classes.

As a senior, you had very few serious classes to take, you really just needed to get your extra number of credits to graduate. That meant that your classes were filled with the strangest ensemble of people, underclassmen and upperclassmen, from the potheads to band geeks to "bad boys" to studyholics to drama nerds. And you were just kind of there. You normally sat with Chenle in your first class, art. His bubbly self always brought a smile to your face. But now that he wasn't at school, you were quite lonely at the large table, accompanied only by an empty chair.

"Where's the kid?" A voice that, much to your disdain, was starting to become familiar to your ears asked.
Dumbest was sitting on the table just a couple inches from your supplies, feet on your younger friend's chair.

"Chenle's sick today." You informed him, scooting your colored pencils away from him before coolly reaching into your bag for your sketchbook.

"So does that mean this seat's open?"
Looking around the room, you suddenly got an idea, "Nope! Because uh, Sicheng is going to sit with me today!"

The boy whose name you had just loudly announced perked up from where he had entered the art room. You were friendly enough with Dong Sicheng, he was a relatively quiet boy who lived down the street from you and was featured in several childhood photos alongside you, Taeyong, and Jaehyun. He hesitantly approached you, pulling the chair out from under Dumbest's feet before setting his bookbag on it.

"Yuta, could you please move? I need to get my supplies out." Sicheng's quiet request held enough confidence to make Yuta hop off the table.

"Of course." The other boy grinned, ruffling his hair as he walked away.

"Thank you." You said quietly to Sicheng as he retrieved his supplies before sitting down beside you.

"No problem," He replied with a warm smile, observing your hands as they flipped through your sketchbook to find your current assignment. "My mom told me to say hi the next time I saw you, by the way."

"Ah, tell her I said hi, too."

You finally found the correct page, the beginnings of a sketch of four small figures sitting on a bench. The two in the middle had their arms around each other tightly, smushing their cheeks together. Only the outlines had been put down so far, nothing to define who they were exactly. But Sicheng clearly knew what it was.