After Spanish class, the whole group gathered around Emil, who was trying to sink under his desk. They were all staring at him, yet Emil couldn't read their faces. Not that he wanted to. He knew for sure that they were going to tell him he couldn't sit with them anymore.

"I think we found Emil's place in our group," Leon said, looking to the others. He scanned each of their faces as they nodded. "Emil Steilsson, you are officially our rebel."

"I'm what?" Emil asked, looking up at Leon. "You can't be serious. Aren't you going to kick me from the group?"

"Why would we do that?" Leon laughed. "That was awesome the way you took on Sirta like that!" He held out his hand for a fist bump, which Emil hesitantly returned. "You officially have your own place in our group. What's better than that?"

Emil smiled to himself. "That's awesome," he admitted. "I'm actually really happy now." He couldn't stop the swelling feeling in his chest at the thought of being accepted for the way he was. "You guys really rock, you know that?"

"We know," Mei said, flicking her hair behind her shoulder. "Now let's just hurry up and get to our next classes." She wiggled her fingers at him. "Bye, Emil. See you later!" Grabbing Max's hand, they were gone, off to their next class.

The others filed out until all that was left was Emil and Leon. "Look, I don't ask people this a lot," Emil began. "But would you like to come hang out after school? At my place? I feel like there are some things we can talk about."

"Like what?" Emil asked, getting up from his desk.

"They may not have heard what you said to Sirta when yelling at her, but I did," the Cantonese boy answered. "Maybe it would be nice to talk about it."

"Oh," the silvery-haired boy said, lowering his gaze. "That." He frowned. "I mean, I guess we can."

"I mean, we'll be hanging out too," Leon quickly assured. "There's this band I want to show you! They're amazing, but Yong-Soo thinks they're total trash. Something tells me that you'll like them, though."

"Okay," Emil said, nodding. "Yeah, I'll just tell my brother that I'm going to a friend's house after school."

"Cool," Leon said with a smile. "Oh, and one more thing. Try not to hold my brother and Ivan against me. They are pretty cool sometimes, but I never know what they're going to be doing whenever I get home."

Emil was a little confused, but he was glad that Leon had invited him over. Maybe if he was brave enough, he could kiss Leon again, and maybe even tell him that he had feelings for him. Though he had only known him for two days, he felt a strong connection to the Asian boy, and he hoped that Leon felt the same.

.

Leon opened the door to a small house on a busy street. It looked like the last kind of place Emil would expect him to live, but he didn't say anything. The small house was cute and had little, red shutters. Everything about the outside of it matched, which left Emil to wonder what the inside looked like.

He soon found out as the door swung open to reveal an indoor just as cute and cozy-looking as the outdoor. And before he could say anything about it, Leon beat him to it.

"I swear my brother is the gayest gay to ever gay," he sighed. "Our house looks like a bunch of women live here and not three men." He rolled his eyes. "Like I said, try not to hold it against me."

"I will attempt not to," Emil said, smiling at him. "Who all in the group has been to your house?"

"Just you, Yong-Soo, and Lilli," Leon answered. "Lilli thought it was cute and Yong-Soo called me gay for weeks." He groaned. "It sounds like they're home, or at least one of them is. Stay quiet and follow me." He began to lead the way down the hall like they did in action movies when the protagonist didn't want to get caught by the bad guys. "My room is right around the corner."

When Emil stepped around the corner, he was nearly chest-to-chest with a gigantic man. He looked up at him and gulped. Who was this guy? Was he the "Ivan" guy that Leon was talking about? Emil was lost for words as he stood, gaping, at the guy.

"Why hello there!" the tall man cheerfully said. "Are you a friend of Leon's? He didn't tell us he was going to have a friend over today, but you're more than welcome to stay." He looked down at Leon. "Why didn't you tell us we were having a guest? I would have cleaned up more."

Emil looked around the spotless house, wondering what there even was to clean up as Leon replied with, "Because I knew you and Yao would embarrass me. You always do. Now, we're going to go to my room and study for our Spanish test. No, we don't need snacks or anything. Just please leave us alone, I'm begging you, Ivan."

Ivan chuckled to himself. "Fine, I get it," he said, smiling. "Get lost, Leon."

Leon smirked and dragged Emil the rest of the way to his room. "Let's get down to business," he said, throwing his backpack onto the bottom bunk of his bed, which turned out to be a futon. He walked over to his computer desk, which had a huge stereo system on it. "I need to show you that band." He pulled out a CD with a cover of a skeleton in a marching band uniform. "This CD literally changed my life, I shit you not."

Emil gave him a disbelieving look. "Come on, Leon. You expect me to believe that?"

"Dude, I'm not even kidding," the Cantonese boy said. "Just listen to the first song on this disk, and you'll know. It's revolutionary. It's something beautiful and insane and awesome all in one!" He put the disk into the stereo.

The song began with a beeping noise, like on a heart monitor. Emil was already caught by that. How interesting to use something like that as the beginning of a CD. The singer then joined in. He had a soothing voice, until it got to one part of the song that really stuck out to Emil.

"If you look in the mirror and don't like what you see,

You can find out firsthand what it's like to be me."

The song then went into a rock breakdown a couple lines after that, but those lyrics were stuck in Emil's head. And when the song ended and went into the next, Leon turned down the music and turned to him.

"So what do you think?" he asked, smiling widely. "Do you like it?"

"I think I do," Emil answered, thinking more and more about those damned lyrics. "What's the CD called."

"It's called The Black Parade," Leon answered. "It's by My Chemical Romance. I love their music because it's just so relatable."

"What parts are relatable to you?" Emil asked, eyes widening.

Leon smiled at Emil and walked over to him. "I struggled with depression when I first moved here, too," he said after a moment. "This CD helped me in more ways that I cared to admit, because it made me feel like I wasn't alone." He took a deep breath. "I used to think such terrible things about myself. I used to do such terrible things to myself." Leon was quiet for a moment. "I don't want you to suffer alone, Emil. Not when I know that I can be there for you."

Emil was quiet for a long time as the music went on in the background. "There's no way you can know what I feel toward myself," he finally said. "I'm not a likable person. Many people have told me that, and you will all discover it for yourselves soon enough. There is nothing good about me, Leon. Like the singer said, I look in the mirror and hate what I see."

"I wish you didn't," Leon softly told him. "Because that's not what any of us see." He was quiet for a second. "I didn't mean what I said yesterday about my brother working with crazy people. He does work on a psychiatric unit, but I know that there are some people there because they just feel sad."

"How do you know that?" Emil asked. "Have you ever been on one?"

"My brother was the only reason I didn't go to one," the Cantonese boy said. "But some days Yao would come home and just cry. He couldn't tell any of us why he was, of course, but he even had a few patients off themselves in the hospital." He reached out and grabbed one of Emil's hands, causing the Icelandic boy's heart to skip a beat. "Promise me something, Emil."

"What's that?" he asked, trying not to get too emotional.

"Promise me that you won't do that to yourself," Leon slowly said. "Promise me that we'll be best friends forever, together. Promise me that if things get too hard to handle, you'll call me, and we can talk about it together."

Emil was silent for a moment. "It's hard living with this illness, Leon," he finally managed to say. "I know you say that you were depressed at one point, too, but you don't understand what I go through every day."

"Then help me understand," Leon told him. "I meant it when I said I wanted you to be my new best friend. We can talk about these things together. Hell, the whole group cares about you a lot, Emil. We want to make sure we'll still be a group later on after high school as well." He smiled at his friend. "And we want to make sure you're a part of that group."

"Why?" Emil asked. "You barely know me. It doesn't make any sense at all."

"It doesn't have to," Leon told him. "We like you, Emil. And we want you to stay a part of our group of friends that we created. Lilli was a good judge of character to bring you to us before anyone else could get you."

Emil sighed. "Okay," he said. "I'll stick with you guys."

Leon smiled. "Good. Now there's one more song I want to play for you. I guess it could express how I feel at this moment."

"Using a song to express how you feel?" Emil laughed. "How cliche."

"Oh, whatever," Leon said with a grin. "Now hold on a moment." He switched the CD out and plugged an iPod into the speakers. "This is My Chemical Romance as well, but a newer song." His smile widened as the guitars and drums began to play in the song. "Tell me what you think."

Emil listened intently. His head was nodding along to the beat as he took in every word that the singer had to say. It was soothing in a way, like a rock ballad. Then it got to the chorus, and Emil gasped as he listened to the lyrics.

"'Cause I wanted you to know that the world is ugly,

But you're beautiful to me."

The Icelandic boy's heart skipped a beat. Beautiful? Was that really what Leon thought of him? When he looked up at Leon, he noticed that the Cantonese boy had moved closer to him. Were they going to kiss again? Leon was close enough to kiss again. But what if Leon didn't want to kiss him at all and Emil fucked it all up?

Before he could think anything else, Leon pressed his lips against Emil's. Everything faded away but Leon, Emil, and the music. It was a perfect moment that Emil wouldn't give back for the world. He felt Leon's hand tangle up into his silvery locks as they kissed in the most pure and beautiful way.

Emil felt his hands rest firmly on Leon's waist as they kissed. He rather enjoyed the way things were going at that moment. There wasn't a single thing wrong with what was going on. Under his pinky finger on his right hand, Leon's shirt had slipped up a small bit of the way, and Emil could feel his heated flesh.

They finished kissing when the song was over and Leon pulled away, cheeks flushed. "Emil, the world is such an ugly and terrible place, but you make it beautiful to me. Please remember that."

"Oh, my God, you're so cheesy," Emil commented before pulling Leon in for another kiss.

.

That night, Emil sat at the table next to Leon while sitting across from Ivan and Leon's older brother. It reminded him of meals at home, oddly enough, except Leon was there. His brother Yao acted a lot like Lukas, and while Ivan was more quiet and stoic, he was the Mathias type of person at the table.

"So Emil, where are you from again?" Yao asked, accent still clear in his voice, unlike Leon's. It made Emil personally wonder if Leon had strived to get rid of his accent when he got here.

"Iceland," Emil quietly answered. "Reykjavík." He shifted a little in his chair. "I moved here a few weeks ago. Let me tell you, it's a real culture shock to me."

"Just imagine what it was like for us coming from China," Leon answered. "We came from such a strict country to this."

"It wasn't that strict," Yao grumbled into his rice. "You just don't like rules, Leon."

Leon rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever," he said before stirring his food around his plate. "Things are probably way different in Iceland. Like, you're probably confused as to why it's so hot here."

"We have volcanoes in Iceland," Emil stated. "I know what heat is. But all of this sunlight is insane. In some parts of my home country, we only get three hours of sunlight a day." He then went quiet again as he stuck a spoonful of rice into his mouth. Emil was the only one at the table not eating with chopsticks, and it made him uncomfortable, but he wouldn't dare admit that out loud. "This food is delicious."

Though Leon had noticed that Emil had only taken a bite of the rice, he didn't say anything. Instead, he switched the topic to his brother. "So, Yao, how was work today?"

Yao flicked his long, dark ponytail behind his shoulders. "Stressful," he sighed. "But when is it not?" He smiled at Emil. "And thank you for the compliment, Emil. I appreciate it when people enjoy that food that I make." His small, brown eyes then flicked over to Ivan and a small smile played on his lips as his hand went under the table. "It always makes me feel great to know that someone enjoyed my food."

Ivan smiled at Yao as he looked over at him. "Who wouldn't love your cooking?" he asked. "Authentic Chinese food is the best."

"I just wish we didn't have to have rice with literally every meal," Leon complained.

"It's good for you, so shut up," Yao told him.

Emil snickered a little under his breath as Leon pouted into his rice, but once the Cantonese boy saw the smile on his dearest friend's face, he couldn't help but smile as well. Leon was glad he had invited Emil over that night. Many things had come to light for him, the most important being his feelings for the Icelandic boy. He just hoped that he could help Emil with his depression.

.

Emil walked into his brother's apartment later that evening, touching at a sensitive spot where he was sure a hickey was going to develop. He just hoped Lukas wouldn't notice. Then he would never hear the end of it. Lukas would want to know what kind of people his brother was hanging out with, that was for sure.

Lukas walked into the front room. "There you are," he said. He was drying a glass with a towel as he spoke to his brother. "Did you eat while you were over there?"

"Yeah, his brother made dinner," Emil answered, setting his backpack by the door. "Leon's really good at English, so he helped me out quite a bit with my assignments. Did I tell you he lives in the same situation as I do? Only he's from Hong Kong."

"Really?" Lukas asked, inspecting the glass. "That's interesting that you'd meet someone with a similar background story to yours in your new group of friends. Are you sure he's not lying to you?"

"Why would he lie about that?" Emil asked. "And if he were lying, then how could he easily get his legal guardian to be in on it?"

"It was just a question, Emil," Lukas sighed. "Calm down." He set the glass on the kitchen counter right behind him. "What did you two do?"

The Icelandic boy was suddenly very aware of the mark on his neck that he was almost certain Lukas had spotted. "We did homework and listened to music," he said, bending down and getting into his bag. "Leon even burned me a copy of the CD we were listening to." He pulled out a burnt copy of The Black Parade. "See?"

Lukas nodded. "Well, I'm glad you had fun. Did all of your homework get done?"

"Yup," Emil answered, hoping Lukas wouldn't ask to see it. After all, there never was any homework to begin with. He had gotten all of his work done at school, but he knew that Lukas wouldn't let him go somewhere without a good reason.

"Good. I'm glad," he said before going back into the kitchen.

Emil took the opportunity to scurry off to his room and lock the door. His heart was pounding as he looked in the full-length mirror on his closet door. The mark Leon had left on his neck was getting darker. It was going to be noticeable the next morning. What was he going to do? It wasn't like back home in Iceland where he could wear a scarf or something.

He got out his phone and called Lilli. "Hey, Lil, I have a question," he said when she answered. He could hear the other girls in the background. This wasn't good. He had to make sure that there was no way the girls would get the wrong idea.

"Go for it, Emil," she said. She had a smile in her voice, even though the other girls were squealing and begging to say hi to him as well. He could hear their shouts of, "Hi, Emil!"

"You and Natalia leave, uh, marks on each other, right?" he asked.

"Marks?" Lilli asked. "What kinds of marks? Like hickies?"

"Emil has a hickey?!" Laura squealed. "From who?!" She could be heard clapping her hands together excitedly.

"Tell Laura to keep her big mouth shut," Emil hissed to Lilli.

"Got it," Lilli said as there was a sharp smacking sound.

"What was that for?" Laura asked.

"Don't dip into my conversation," Lilli said. She then returned her attention to Emil. "Well when I get hickies, I just use foundation and makeup to cover it up. Why, how bad is it?"

"It's getting pretty bad," Emil said, looking in the mirror. "Could you help me with it tomorrow morning?"

"Sure thing," she replied with a giggle. "We're about the same shade of pale, right?"

"Oh, shut up," Emil grumbled. "Thanks, though."

"Don't mention it," Lilli said with another giggle. "Who's it from?"

And that was when Emil said he had to go and hung up the phone, much to her disappointment. But it wasn't like he could openly tell people that he and Leon made out almost all evening, especially the people they hung out with. What if they got the wrong idea and thought the two were dating?

Emil sighed. He wished they were dating, but Leon had told him that it would complicate things if they did, so he accepted it. He just wished he knew what would be so damn complicated about it.