Also, this wasn't beta-read, so there may be a few mistakes.

“Try not to worry too much, Yuen. You’ve made a lot of progress so far.” Casey tried to reassure him and encourage a little patience.

“It doesn’t feel like it.” Yuen unconsciously hunched his shoulders, picking at his food.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. It hasn’t been that long.” Parker wrapped his arm around his shoulders. “Iahn’s a pretty closed-off kid, it’s honestly amazing that he’s opened up even this much in such a short time.”

Yuen wouldn’t exactly call weeks a short time, but he wasn’t in the mood to argue. His friends were trying to cheer him up and he didn’t want to use his brain anymore after today’s math class.

“He’s not scared to sit next to you anymore.” Shi pointed out.

“Yeah, except he tenses up like he’s sitting next to a great white shark.” Lucifer unhelpfully added, while trying to sneak Parker’s Jello cup.

“At first,” Andy quickly interjected, “but he relaxes bit by bit and he’s getting comfortable faster every time we hang out.” Andy beamed his megawatt smile at Yuen for reassurance, while he subtly pinched the youngest who inhaled sharply, but didn’t yelp like most people would.

If you looked at their group from the outside, Yuen looked like he would be the scariest and he was scary, but in reality, Andy was by far more terrifying because while Yuen had a glare that could make the ice-age shiver, Andy would hurt you with a smile and he was very good at making you forget that he was capable of that.

“Speak of the devil.” Namjoon pointed and Yuen looked up to see Iahn walk into the lunchroom with kids from the rest of his grade, and a few from his class it seemed.

He didn’t think the kid had friends in his class.

The longer Yuen watched, the weirder a feeling he got. Iahn looked annoyed and was ignoring the two, but what looked like good-hearted teasing at first glance, Yuen quickly realized wasn’t. The two boys' smiles were more like sneers and two other boys in front of Iahn looked more miffed than the kid himself, finally telling them off after one of them “jokingly” shoved Iahn’s shoulder and moved Iahn ahead of them in the lunch line to separate the two from him. They looked upset with the little assholes, but Iahn

Casey’s hand bumped Yuen’s bicep, “Go get him.”

“What?”

“Go get Iahn and bring him over here. Have him eat with us today, — you can use me as an excuse if you need to.” Casey pushed him a little harder, prompting him to get up. He understood what was happening over there — they all did — but unlike Yuen, he knew what to do about it.

Casey didn’t stop pushing him until Yuen was out of his seat and smacking Casey’s hands, “Fine, fine! I’m going.”

Yuen felt various eyes of the cafeteria on him as he approached the lunch line, but Casey’s on his back were more pressing so he didn’t dare stop.

Yuen didn’t know how to approach this, and certainly not with the finesse that his extroverted friends would, but he didn’t have the luxury of time to think about it. The only thing he could come up with in the dozen or so steps it took to get to his target, was to just get the kid’s attention in his usual brand of bluntness.

“Iahn.” Yuen ignored the way Iahn flinched at his name because all five of the boys did too and the group of middle schoolers whipped their heads towards him.

Yuen immediately recognized the two boys as the same ones who were hassling Iahn near the bathroom some time ago, and grit his teeth.

‘Little punks,’ he internally growled, he couldn’t care less if he was glaring at a group of middle schoolers like they had personally offended him (because they had), and looked at Iahn who wasn’t the only one avoiding looking at him after he’d realized who it was. The other four boys were clearly intimidated.

Yuen is an upperclassman — a high schooler — with a scary reputation, so the fact he was calling Iahn out was alarming enough to make them back off and just watch what was going to happen.

Iahn looked more scared of him than he did of those boys but Yuen motioned at him to come to him. He hesitated but did as prompted, avoiding eye contact.

“Come on. You’re sitting with us today.” Yuen’s dry as dust statement was met with stunned silence and he waited for Iahn’s to pass, prompting him with barely a chin jerk towards the tray behind the kid and waited for him to grab it before walking ahead and letting Iahn trail behind instead of making him walk in front or beside him. He had a feeling that would make Iahn feel like he was being sent to the gallows. That’s certainly how Yuen would feel if their positions were reversed.

Casey shook his head with a sigh, but let the boys go this time. It's a start. He'll give Yuen tips on how to properly get those boys off of Iahn’s back later. For now, they’ll just worry about the kid.

“Iahn!” Casey enthusiastically greeted the pre-teen as they approached the table and Yuen retook his spot beside Parker.

Casey slid away from him, patting the seat between himself and Yuen, and Iahn mumbled a “Thanks,” before taking the seat and set his tray down in front of him.

It would be hard to overstate how uncomfortable Iahn was at this moment. So uncomfortable he almost felt nauseous, but eating lunch with the high schoolers is a lot better than wearing it on his clothes. So, no matter how awkward it was sitting beside Yuen and eating outside of the privacy of the house, it was better than the alternative that he’d been preparing himself for in the lunch line.

Iahn couldn’t figure out why Yuen called him over though. That was the biggest thing in his mind, or it would be, if the high schooler wasn't pulling Hershey kisses from seemingly nowhere and handing them to him with a clipped “Here,” at random intervals every few minutes for the entirety of lunch.

After school was even weirder because the boys were waiting for him near the school doors instead of the parking lot and Parker scared the shit out of him by suddenly wrapping his arm around Iahn’s shoulders right when he walked out of the doors.

Iahn was having trouble processing the surreal experience of walking down to the corner store to grab snacks with a bunch of high schoolers but… after the day he’d had he couldn’t bring himself to care. He was exhausted, drained, and could barely drag his feet. If Parker didn’t have his arm around his shoulders, he would have fallen to the back of the group and lagged behind. Instead, he was at the back, keeping a moderate pace with the other three at the back.

At the store, Parker kept asking him what he wanted and Iahn half-heartedly chose something, but one thing wasn’t enough apparently because they didn’t stop asking until he had an arm full of snacks before they were headed back to the school for the cars, then on to Yuen's house per their usual routine.

Yuen’s friends had been coming over to the house a lot more often — almost every day — and Iahn was starting to wonder if this was actually normal for them and the times Yuen had gone to their houses instead had been flukes just because the older boy didn’t want to be at home.

He didn’t know, but he was right to some extent. Yuen hadn’t wanted to be home at those times, but he was also wrong in the assumption that hanging at Yuen’s house every day after school was normal. The boys had been doing it for them. Because Iahn was skittish they had agreed it was a good idea (and it just so happened to be Yuen’s idea) for him to get comfortable with all of them around to mediate first before moving their hang time back to its rotation between their houses. So far it was working.

Iahn didn’t put up too much of a fight. When they were around, he felt ok. There were even moments when he could smile even if they never lasted long. When he was by himself everything was just...dark. Even when he didn’t want to hang out with the teenagers, even if he didn’t feel better hanging out with them, he didn’t feel worse and that was a small blessing.

Iahn opened his backpack and stacked his snacks inside starting with the heaviest before zipping it up and returning his eyes to the row of trees along the hillside beside the road that has become his favorite part of the drive. For a moment he could forget he was in the city, surrounded by people, and could just focus on the wall of carefully contained mud and nature that made it a little easier to breathe.

Sorry, it's a little short. I got writer's block and ran out of time.