Time to take a ✨oneshot✨

soso not canon but idc

A/N: au where Lin is irritable most of the time bc he's an empath and all that :P oh yeah and teen/childhood au lol

Growing up, Lin had many sides to himself. There were two distinct sides, however, that showed through the most often.

Some days, he was fine. Some days emotion flowed through freely and he'd laugh and cry, drinking in the best of everything like a drug.

Other days well. Sometimes things, emotions, energy was just too much- too overwhelming. His face would just be blank. No one knew how to read him on those days because- that didn't mean he was sad, why would it? He could be thinking about the happiest or saddest of things and you'd have no idea.

One day, his two best friends in second grade came up to sit next to him on the bus. Oliver and Ricky. Lin was leaning against the window, only sparing them a small glance. It was silent for a while.

"Hi Lin," one of them finally said. Lin closed his eyes longer than necessary if only to hide the dramatic eye roll.

"Hi," he replied coldly. He continued staring out the window, watching the passing trees, a small frown across his features. The other two exchanged a glance and Oliver shrugged.

The two continued to talk about something, deciding to leave him alone for now. Lin crossed his arms, huffing quietly. Ricky, sitting next to him, stopped talking and turned to face him.

"Are you okay?" he asked, hesitant.

"I'm fine," he grumbled and this time the eye roll was very visible.

"Did something....."

"Can you not?" he snapped, finally turning to face them. They both flinched a bit, faces heating up. Lin immediately felt bad. "I-I'm really sorry," he looked down, tears welling up. He was shaking the tiniest bit. They both nodded solemnly, not sure what to say.

That was how a lot of his friendships went and how some of them ended.

Somehow with one person, that's how it began.

He tended to be a floater nowadays in sixth grade. He was considered the class clown, something he was proud of, and he loved theater. Having way too much time alone, he'd spend it working on facial expressions in the mirror. He wanted to be an actor someday, not to mention they made him more approachable.

Moody, his friends called him. Hormones, his teachers told him. But his mom was a psychologist. It wasn't Lin's fault he was so in tune with other people's emotions- what the hell is an eleven year old supposed to do?

"Okay class, we have a new student today," a tall, blonde boy stood at the front of the classroom, rocking back and forth on his feet, "there's an empty sit right over there," the teacher told him quietly. He nodded, walking to the back of the class, down the aisle. Next to the empty seat sat a much smaller boy with dark hair. His forearms rested on the desk, sleeves pulled up as he stared blankly at his nails.

Twenty minutes into class, everyone supposedly doing partner work but the kid hadn't said anything. He was just pulling at his fingers, watching them fiddle. After about two minutes of nothing, Jon decided to speak up.

"So what are we doing?" The kid looked over to him, avoiding eye contact.

"Oh I already did my part while she was talking but here," he slid his notebook over, leaving spaces where Jon was supposed to write something.

"Oh.... okay," he scanned it, "how do you do that and pay attention?" Lin looked back down.

"I don't know, I just do," he didn't like answering questions.