|new kid|

Chapter 4 - Small steps!

No matter if he trusted Baekhyun or not, it was still hard for Sehun to get rid of that inching feeling in his stomach. Like he had done something wrong. He felt like he had betrayed the Exoplanet by sharing his secrets. It was just one person, but he trusted Baekhyun so easily... just from seeing Baekhyun, he knew he had a lot to learn.

Walking back to where Chen and Kyungsoo were was a tedious journey. Only those two weren't alone anymore. There were more kids sitting with them.

Chen immediately jumped up when he saw Baekhyun and Sehun return. "Guys, this is the new guy I was talking about!" he explained.

Sehun gave them all a look. They all looked... different was an understatement.

A lot of them had vibrant hair colors. They weren't all short per se, but there was a noticeable dip when you looked closer. He didn't know how exactly to introduce himself to all of them simultaneously...

"I'm Chanyeol!" the tallest one yelled immediately. One of them smacked him on the side of his arm. "Chanyeol, you should let the older ones introduce themselves first!" he said.

"Oh, forget that order already!" another one chimed in. "I'm Kai," he said.

The one who had smacked Chanyeol rolled his eyes. "I'm Xiumin... nice to meet you!" he said and smiled.

"And then you have Lay and Suho over there!" Chen said and pointed at the two other kids. Sehun stood there awkwardly.

"I'm gonna have a hard time remembering all of your names..." he muttered, earning a laugh from most of them.

"Don't worry about it! We'll help you remember!" Chanyeol comforted and patted him on the shoulder.

"I'm Oh Sehun... nice to meet you," he introduced himself.

"Sehun! That's a nice name! Where are you from?" Suho asked. 

"... Well, I'm from Seoul, and I just recently moved here with my parents..." he explained and shot a look at Baekhyun. That's what he told him to say in the first place.

Baekhyun smiled at him and gave him an approving nod. Sehun felt a small weight of his chest go out when he looked at the other kids and they didn't seem weirded out. 

They all seemed like such good friends. They were talking to each other so comfortably and freely, and Sehun could feel the tension ease in the atmosphere around them. They trusted each other, and he could tell as much. And he could tell that Baekhyun was trying to include him in that nice atmosphere also. It was a different matter whether he fit in or not, though.

He felt like he was intruding. They were already too good friends to begin with, and he almost had no place there. He knew it would be difficult, being part of their group, but he just didn't wanna imagine how much.

As if on cue, his stomach gave a low rumble.

Sehun placed his hand over his stomach as if to try and silence it. Baekhyun looked over at Sehun just in time to catch his reaction. "Man... guys am I the only one who's hungry?" he asked out loud, making sure everyone heard him.

"Nah, we were waiting for you and Sehun so we could go eat," Kai explained and stood up. "Let's all go to the cafeteria!"

Sehun heard a crowd of "yeah!"s from the rest of the boys and started following them to the 'cafeteria', where they would eat food - where he would eat food for the first time.

The cafeteria was big and crowded. It was where all the students ate food after all, from what Sehun could see. There was a line of people holding some sort of planks while they waited for the staff to put "food" on them...

... No lie though, the food looked pretty good.

All the kids stood in line, with Sehun behind Kai and in front of Xiumin. Baekhyun was somewhere in front of Kai, he couldn't really tell since Chanyeol was immediately in front, but he eventually saw him with his full plank following Chen and Lay and going somewhere to sit. Getting the food was a weird process, even for Sehun... you just moved along and the adults plopped food on your tray and you got some plastic tools to eat it with.

He went and sat down with the others, some of whom had already started eating. "... do you guys smell that?" Sehun asked. There was something bothering his nose, but he couldn't tell what. It smelled distinct, not too bad though, but it had a weird smell.

"... What? What do you smell?" Lay asked. "Is it like, a bad smell?"

"No, but it does smell weird..." Sehun responded. Immediately, he saw the look of panic painted across Baekhyun's face, but Chanyeol jumped into the conversation first.

"I dunno man, I'm only smelling the food. That doesn't smell that bad, at least," he said.

... FOOD HAD A SCENT?

"I-It's not that..." Sehun tried to save himself, and he tried not to let the shakiness in his voice absolutely give him away. "... oh well, it must be something else then. It's okay, nevermind," he said, still recovering from the shock that food smelled.

He saw Baekhyun unwrap one of the forked tools and use it to calmly eat his food. He was almost doing it in long, exaggerated motions as if he expected Sehun to follow along. Sehun slowly matched his movements, trying not to stare too much at Baekhyun.

The moment the rice entered his mouth, it's as if his body went on autopilot.  He immediately knew what he was doing next. All the motions were manual, and he was sure Baekhyun could tell, because there was no other explanation for the sigh of relief he heard from his right.

And food tasted absolutely divine.

He could eat all day, and he could pretty much eat everything. The people on the Exoplanet were missing out.

"Woah, relax, you're gonna hurt your stomach," he heard Suho say. Sehun looked down at his plate and wow, he didn't remember eating so quickly. The only thing he had left was the dessert.

Feeling a spurt of confidence, he looked at Baekyun as if to say 'don't worry, I got this one.' and picked up the plastic container, almost dropping it immediately, causing everybody at the table to look at him. He could see Baekhyun physically having to hold back from facepalming.

Maybe he didn't get it.

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i missed a day and all i can say is we vibin
this chapter gave me trouble but i like this ending 6v6;;