Summer was coming to an end and school was approaching fast for a small group of friends. Trying to enjoy the last bit of summer vacation, the group of five decided to spend as much time together as possible. Or more like the energetic American friend pulling the rest of the group around before school started.

"Can you believe this is going to be our last year?" Francis asked. "We'll be separated this time next year."

"Don't talk about that!" Alfred exclaimed, clearly upset on the fact. "Man, I'm gonna be still here next year..."

Arthur laughed at his cousin. "Junior." Alfred made a face at his smirk.

"Orientation is tomorrow," Ivan spoke up. "We can see if we have any classes together."

"You three might," Yao glumly answered. "My parents still made me take all these AP classes."

"What!?" Francis exclaimed. "Senior year is supposed to be the easy break year!"

"Aren't you supposed to have some electives?" Alfred asked.

"He took summer classes at the college, remember?" Arthur bluntly added.

"Dude, you're like the poster guy for Asian stereotypes," Alfred said to Yao, who just stuck his tongue out at him.

"If that's the case," Ivan started, "then you should be taking the electives. Since you took the summer classes and all."

"How was that?" Francis asked.

"Can we not talk about that?" Yao groaned, resting his chin on his hand, elbow on the table. "It was just work aru. We'll see on the classes..."

"Speaking of work," Arthur mumbled, looking at his watch. "My shift starts in 20 minutes. I need to go."

"What?" Alfred whined. "It's our last three days of summer and you're still working?"

"I have to go back to work as well," Ivan said, standing. Alfred whined more.

"Don't you have football today?" Arthur asked Alfred, annoyed.

"Man!" Alfred cried. "I forgot! My dad'll kill me if I miss another practice!"

"Looks like our meet up's coming to an end," Francis said before starting to go. He said goodbye as he began to leave first, only someone grabbed his arm when he was walking out the coffee shop.

"Wait, Francis."

Francis turned, raising a brow. "Yao?"

"Could you... help me out with something...?" Yao begrudgingly asked.

Francis smiled brightly. "But of course! Anything for my sweet little friend!"

Yao grumbled something under his breath. Francis' frilly personality was the reason why he was so reluctant on asking him for help, but he didn't have much of a choice. "Come with me..."

Back with the others, the three teens were quite surprised to see Yao taking off after Francis of all people.

"What do you think that's about?" Alfred asked.

"Hard to say," Ivan answered. "Never seen Yao so frantic about Francis."

"He probably just needs a ride home," Arthur said after rolling his eyes at the other two. "The three of us are busy and Francis is the only one free."

"They're going back inside the mall," Ivan pointed out.

"We were just there!"

Alfred jumped back a bit from his cousin's sudden booming voice. "Dude, calm down! What's got your panties in a twist?"

Arthur glared at his cousin. "Football."

"Shit!" And with that, Alfred was out the door.

"Idiot..." Arthur said under his voice before noticing Ivan staring at him. "W-what?"

"Nothing," Ivan answered.

Yao let out an exhausted sigh, finally home after yet another meet up with his friends. He still didn't understand why Alfred continued to set those up; they did the exact same things all the time! Even so, he was gladly at home.

"Ma, I'm back," Yao called from the front door, removing his shoes.

"Okay!" Yao's mother shouted back from the kitchen.

"Where's Didi?"

There was a sudden clashing sound of dishes being dropped. "Yao!" Yao's mother furiously yelled.

Yao took a deep breath and ignored any more yelling his mother threw at him. He rushed to the stairs and headed up, knocking on one of the doors. "Didi?" The door opened and Yao went in.

"Hey, Di-" Yao started but cut himself off when stumbling on something. Shopping bags. "What's this?"

"The clothes Mama bought me for school..." Yao's brother, Xiang, answered, sitting back on his bed. He was playing his video games before as usual.

"Oh..." Yao dejectedly responded, knowing full well what that meant. He sighed, heading over and sitting beside his young brother. "Don't worry, Didi. New school, new people. And our counselor's very nice; I'll go with you to talk to her tomorrow."

"Yeah..."

Yao gave a soft smile, wrapping his arm around Xiang's shoulder in hopes of comforting him. "Sophomore year's not too bad aru. It'll be fun finally going to the same school again."

Xiang only nodded his head, gaze still down.

Yao ruffled his brother's hair. "Hey, wanna see what I got today?"

Didi - little brother
Gougou - big brother (Cantonese)

I need to stop posting new stories with so many already out and barely updating... But I just needed this out in the open! Hope this story doesn't mirror another bc I don't recall reading a fic like this before. Sorry if it does!

PS hints of OTP maybe. Depending on where this goes...