Chapter Text
PART I: BEFORE.
Isn't it just so pretty to think
All along there was some invisible string tying you to me?
- Taylor Swift, invisible string
age: 4. kindergarten.
They met at kindergarten.
Heechul’s family just moved to their new place. He doesn’t know anyone at his new school or his new neighborhood. He saw a few kids playing in the streets the other day but couldn’t gather his nerves to introduce himself. His dad told him there was a park with a playground where he could make new friends, but they haven’t been able to go there yet.
Although he was looking forward to making new friends at his new school, he felt a little nervous that the kids in his class wouldn’t like him. He’s starting two weeks late into the school year so surely the kids in his class had the time to get to know each other already. He wonders if he’ll fit in.
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At school, he’s shy and quiet at first. His teachers help him adjust to the class as much as possible, introducing him to the rest of them. One of the teachers even stays by his side for the first hour of class. Once the teacher assigns them some activities to do, a kid in class invites him to sit with him.
“Hi!” the kid greets him warmly. “Do you want to sit with me?”
Heechul looks at him, seeing a wide smile with a small dimple near his mouth. His teacher encourages him so he agrees. He takes his small backpack and follows to where the other kid previously sat near the back of the room.
“I’m Leeteuk,” the kid says once they’ve settled, sitting beside each other.
“I’m Heechul,” he introduces himself.
“Why weren’t you here last week?” Leeteuk asks curiously.
“We just moved nearby. That’s why it’s only my first day in school today.”
The time passes as they finish their school activities, occasionally talking and sharing stories in between. They start to feel comfortable around each other rather fast as most kids do. It didn’t take long for Heechul to feel like he wanted to stay by Leeteuk’s side even during recess time.
“Go and get your snacks. Just line up over there with the rest of them. I’m not done yet with my worksheets.” Leeteuk tells him without looking up from writing on his papers.
“How long will you take?” Heechul asks.
“I’m almost done. But you can go first if you’re hungry already.”
He shakes his head and sits back down beside Leeteuk. “I’ll wait for you so we can go together.” He takes a peak at his worksheets. “Do you want me to help?”
“No, I want to do it by myself.”
“Okay. I’ll wait here.”
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For the rest of their recess, Leeteuk takes Heechul to the reading nook of their classroom, complete with a soft and colorful mat on the floor, some throw pillows, and small shelves of books that separate the area from the rest of the room. He shows him all his favorite books while Heechul browses the shelves for comics.
Once they go back to their seats, Heechul notices his favorite notebook is missing. He rummages in his bag and Leeteuk checks his bag as well to no avail.
“Is it the red one you had earlier?” Leeteuk asks. When Heechul nods, Leeteuk goes back to the reading nook to search while Heechul checks the table where they got their snacks earlier.
Leeteuk comes back to their table before Heechul does and sees one of their classmates taking an eraser from Heechul’s pencil case and then walking away with it.
He approaches, exclaiming, “What are you doing? That’s not yours!”
Their classmate looks at him with furrowed brows and then rushes to walk away quickly. Leeteuk catches up to him to confront him. “Give it back, that’s Heechul’s!”
Heechul walks over to them when he hears the commotion. “What happened?” he asks.
“I saw him take this from your case,” Leeteuk tells him, holding the eraser in his hand.
Their classmate rushes to go back to his seat. They let him go since they got Heechul’s eraser back anyway.
“Thank you for taking it back,” Heechul says, but he looks down since they still haven’t found his notebook. He wants it back because it’s his favorite one and it has all his drawings in it. They carry on for now and shift their attention to their teacher, who is now standing infront of the classroom.
Leeteuk glances at their other classmate every once in a while, unable to completely regain his focus. He has a bad feeling and he’s suspecting him of something else, so he stays keen-eyed.
And then he finally catches him.
There. He sees it. Heechul’s bright red notebook.
Their classmate is putting it inside his bag.
He grabs Heechul’s arm hurriedly. “He took your notebook too,” he says in a hushed voice, careful not to get caught by the teacher.
“What?” Heechul’s brows furrow.
“I saw it! He was placing your notebook inside his bag!”
“Him again?” Heechul glances his way. “Maybe he took it when we got our snacks.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
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Their teacher’s discussion is their last activity in class for the day. She dismisses their class and they say their goodbyes. A few of their classmates start to leave the room but Leeteuk rushes to their classmate, quickly followed by Heechul.
“You took Heechul’s notebook too?” Leeteuk asks, demanding an answer.
The kid gives him a look. “What are you talking about?” he asks, feigning innocence.
“I already saw you putting his notebook in your bag. Give it back now.” Leeteuk says.
The kid glances around the room as if looking for a way out. “You’re just making stuff up. I didn’t take anything.”
“But you took my eraser earlier. You only gave it back because Leeteuk caught you.” Heechul says.
The kid’s face starts to get red. “Fine!” he says, upset. He opens his bag to bring out Heechul’s red notebook before throwing it on the floor. “There!”
Heechul quickly picks it up while Leeteuk says, “That’s not nice!”
“This is your fault!” the kid exclaims all of a sudden, pointing a finger at Leeteuk. “You didn’t have to be such a tattle tale, you idiot!”
Leeteuk’s face shifts to unease and he shakily steps back to put some distance between them.
Heechul is so surprised at their classmate and he starts to angry, wondering why he is being so mean. Before he thinks better of it, he lightly pushes their classmate. “Don’t call him that! Stop being mean!”
Maybe Heechul’s push came out more forcefully than he intended, or maybe their classmate was just caught off-guard that a light push was able to send him down. But he falls and lands his butt, startling the three of them. Right then, a teacher comes in the room to see the timing of it all – Heechul pushing, the kid falling. She rushes to them and helps the kid who fell stand up, who is now crying.
“Heechul, no pushing.” The teacher says calmly but still with an air of command.
“I didn’t mean to make him fall,” Heechul says, his eyes drifting from his classmate to his teacher. He feels bad all of a sudden. He didn’t mean to push that hard to make him fall. He didn’t mean to make him cry. He just wanted his notebook back and he wanted him to leave them alone.
“Heechul only pushed him because he was being mean to us both!” Leeteuk quickly explains before their other classmate starts to cry harder.
“He pushed me, Teacher,” he cries.
“Okay, okay—let’s all calm down for a moment. I will talk to you all separately. Can you apologize to each other?” the teacher says.
Heechul’s apology came first. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to push hard.”
Then comes a mumbled apology from Leeteuk and their other classmate.
“Leeteuk, can you take Heechul back to your seats first and wait for me?”
Their teacher leaves the room for a while with their crying classmate.
Leeteuk sees Heechul's face—his eyes shining with unshed tears, worry all over his face. “What’s wrong?”
“I didn’t mean to make him fall,” Heechul explains. “I didn’t want him to fall and cry. Teacher will get mad at me.”
“No. I'll tell her what happened,” Leeteuk says, hoping it would help Heechul feel better. “I'll tell her he took your things.”
Heechul considers this, but he stays quiet for a moment.
“Do you believe me?” he asks after a while.
“What?” Leeteuk asks.
“Do you believe that I didn’t mean to hurt our classmate?” he asks, his voice growing quieter.
The truth is, after the teacher left he had a sinking realization that Leeteuk also wouldn’t believe him. He’s excited that he made a friend today, but once the day ends maybe he won’t want to be friends with him anymore. He can’t shake off the dread this brings him.
To his surprise, Leeteuk nods eyes that look so pure as if to say, ofcourse I believe that wasn’t your intention . “I believe you. He was being really mean.”
“He was mean to you too. But you don’t look so angry.” Heechul comments, remembering what their classmate said about him.
Leeteuk stiffens, his eyes shifting to avoid his gaze as he fidgets with the hem of this top. “He’s been mean to me before,” he says with a quiet voice.
Heechul’s eyes widen. “What?!” he exclaims. “So he was always mean to you?”
He’s starting to feel angry again.
Leeteuk nods sheepishly. “I told Teacher about it before and then he stopped. Maybe that’s why he’s being mean again–because I told our teacher about it…” he drifts off.
Right then, their teacher comes back to their classroom. She talks to them separately, Heechul being the first, followed by Leeteuk. Heechul was waiting in their reading nook with some comics in hand while waiting for Leeteuk who comes back with glassy eyes.
Earlier, he heard some sniffling and saw Leeteuk being hugged by the teacher. He stood up and was about to approach them, worrying about Leeteuk this time, but his teacher had gestured for him to stay put so he sat back down.
“Are you okay?” Heechul asks Leeteuk now who gives him a nod.
“Did you cry?” he already knows the answer, but he moves closer to look at his eyes.
“I’m okay now.” Leeteuk gives him a small smile.
Heechul suddenly engulfs him in a hug. “Thank you for helping me.”
Leeteuk is caught off-guard by the sudden contact. They had just met for the first time earlier today. He has never gotten close to any of his peers this quickly. Still, he hugs him in return. Heechul was by his side through it all and it gave him the strength to stand up to his bully. It gives him a bit of relief knowing he’s not alone this time.
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Mrs. Kim, Heechul’s mom, arrives at their classroom shortly after. She sees her son, with a boy who she assumes is the one he got in a fight with. But they look rather friendly, not at all like two kids who got caught up in a fight. Heechul is proudly showing the other kid his drawings.
“Mom!” Heechul runs to hug his mom upon seeing her.
“Hi sweetheart,” she hugs him and kisses his forehead.
“Mom! I made a friend!” he excitedly says and pulls her towards Leeteuk.
“Hi Mrs. Kim, I’m their teacher, Ms. Eve.”
“Hi, Ms. Eve — sorry, is this him? It looks like they’re getting along well.”
Ms. Eve shakes her head. “No, there is another kid involved but he got picked up already. This is—”
“Mom! This is Leeteuk! He’s my friend!” Heechul interrupts them, feeling excited about introducing his new friend to his mom.
“They’re friends. Leeteuk is also involved. He didn’t want to leave Heechul’s side until you arrived,” Ms. Eve explains.
“Heechul didn’t do anything wrong, Mrs. Kim! I told Teacher already that he was just defending me. But our classmate was mean to Heechul too! I saw it all!” Leeteuk explains.
“He was being mean to us both! He hid my notebook and my eraser but Leeteuk saw him and took it back and then he threw my notebook to the ground!” Heechul says it all in a rush.
Mrs. Kim inquisitively looks at their teacher.
“Heechul, why don’t you sit over here with Leeteuk for a while? I’ll let your mom catch up to what happened.” Mrs. Eve leads them to the reading nook.
The two kids settle and Ms. Eve goes back to Mrs. Kim and leads her to sit down at a table to talk.
“They made that very clear by explaining repeatedly. I just want to preface this by saying I believe them. The other kid has a history of bad behavior and admitted to instigating things when I talked to him earlier. The teachers are dealing with that separately and we’ll have another discussion with his parents.” Ms. Eve says. “The thing is, Heechul still pushed his classmate after all that. It’s protocol to talk to the parent after the kid has done something wrong. The school doesn’t want to scold the kids but we just need to ensure this doesn’t happen again. So while the teachers monitor them and deal with it at school, we hope that at home, you’d reinforce treating other kids kindly to your child too.”
Mrs. Kim nodded. “Is the other kid okay? Was he hurt?”
“He’s okay, no injuries. Heechul only pushed hard enough for him to fall seated on the floor, but…”
“I get it. We shouldn’t tolerate the pushing. I’ll talk to him separately too.”
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Once they finish talking, Mrs. Kim approaches the area where Heechul is playing with Leeteuk. She hears Leeteuk saying “Heechul, next time you shouldn’t push them, okay? We’ll just tell them nicely to stop so that Teacher doesn’t get mad.”
“Teacher didn’t get mad.” Heechul corrects him. “She believes that I only defended you.”
“I know. But we shouldn’t fight with others. What if your mom gets mad?”
Heechul looks at him and considers this for a moment. “I told you I didn’t mean to push hard. I’ll say sorry tomorrow.”
“Okay. And we’ll just tell Teacher if it happens again.”
“Yeah. But… we are friends now right?” Heechul asks.
Leeteuk nods. “We’re friends starting today.”