School felt different after the win.
Not louder. Not brighter.
Just aware.
People turned their heads when he passed. Some whispered.
Some did that quick glance-and-look-away thing humans seemed to enjoy whenever they were trying not to be obvious about looking.
A few phones lifted, then lowered again when they realized he had noticed.
Li Shen kept walking.
He did not speed up. Did not slow down.
There was no reason to.
The hallway had become a little more crowded around his name, but the hallway itself was still just a hallway.
Beside him, Diego was practically vibrating.
He walked backward for a few steps just to make sure Li Shen was listening.
"We're celebrating tonight," he said. "No excuses."
Li Shen looked at him. "Celebrating what?"
Diego stared.
"Bro," he said, already offended by the question alone. "We just won."
"I know that."
"Then you know what we're celebrating."
Li Shen thought about that for a second.
He had won.
The match was over.
The result had been recorded.
People had reacted.
That part made sense.
But celebration?
He looked at Diego again. "What is a party?"
The hallway went quiet.
Not fully. Not completely.
But enough.
Diego stopped walking.
Ethan, who had been a few steps ahead, turned his head slightly.
Daniel blinked.
Marcus glanced over once, then looked away like he was trying to decide whether this was real or not.
Diego just stared at him.
"A what?"
"A party," Li Shen repeated.
Diego opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Then rubbed his forehead.
"Okay. Okay, hold on." He pointed at Li Shen like he was trying to keep him in place by force of will.
"You do realize that is a normal word, right?"
"I assume so."
"Then why are you looking at me like that?"
"Because you said it like I should already know."
A beat.
That made Diego stop again.
Then he gave a helpless laugh and threw his hands up. "Because everybody knows what a party is!"
Li Shen waited.
Diego looked at the others, then back at him, and sighed.
"A party is basically a hangout with the homies."
Silence.
Li Shen repeated it slowly in his head.
Hangout.
Homies.
The second word was the one that caught.
He looked at Diego. "What is a homie?"
The silence that followed was longer.
This time even Diego froze.
Ethan turned fully around.
Daniel's expression went blank in the way it did whenever something had become too strange to process immediately.
Marcus actually paused mid-step.
Diego stared at him for a full second.
Then another.
Then he pointed at himself, then at the others.
"A homie," he said carefully, "is like… a friend. A friend of sorts."
Li Shen considered that.
"A friend of sorts."
"Yeah."
"Then why not say friend?"
Diego made a noise that sounded like pain. "Because nobody says it like that. That's why."
Li Shen nodded once.
"Understood."
Diego blinked at him. "You did not understand that at all."
"I understood the meaning."
"That is not the same thing."
"It is close enough."
Ethan let out a short laugh under his breath, which seemed to make the situation more real for everyone else.
Daniel looked away like he was trying not to smile.
Marcus shook his head once, slow and resigned, as though he had already accepted that this was the sort of thing Li Shen was going to do forever.
Diego looked between them all, then pointed at Li Shen again.
"No, listen. You have to come. You hear me? You have to."
Li Shen did not answer immediately.
He looked at Diego.
Then at Ethan.
Then at Daniel.
Then at Marcus.
They all had the same kind of expression on their faces, even if they wore it differently.
Expectation.
Not pressure, exactly.
Something lighter.
Something social.
He thought about it.
A gathering.
Noise.
Food.
People talking at once.
No obvious objective.
No score.
No finish line.
That would have sounded useless before.
Now it sounded… not useless.
Just unknown.
He exhaled through his nose.
"Sure."
Diego lit up immediately. "Let's go!"
Then Li Shen added, calm as ever, "But I will have to get the permission of my parents."
Diego stopped so hard he nearly tripped.
Ethan closed his eyes.
Daniel turned away.
Marcus rubbed his forehead.
Diego stared at him with a look of pure disbelief.
"…You are serious."
Li Shen looked at him. "Yes."
"You just agreed to a party."
"Yes."
"And now you're saying you need permission."
"Yes."
Diego looked like he was trying to decide whether to laugh or scream.
"Man, what kind of sixteen-year-old asks for permission to go out?"
Li Shen thought about that.
"An obedient one."
That did it.
Diego bent over laughing, one hand on his knee, the other pointing uselessly at him like the answer had broken something in his brain.
Ethan shook his head, but he was smiling now.
Daniel muttered, "I can't believe this is our team."
Marcus gave a single quiet chuckle, then looked at Li Shen with a strange kind of respect, as if he had just witnessed a very specific form of bravery.
Li Shen tilted his head. "Why are you all reacting like that?"
Diego wiped at his eyes and straightened up. "Because normal people don't say stuff like that while sounding dead serious."
"I am serious."
"That's the problem."
Li Shen accepted that without argument.
It did seem to be a problem for them.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, already planning the next step.
The screen lit in his hand, bright and clean.
He checked the time, then glanced at the messages he had ignored all afternoon.
Claire had sent one earlier.
Dinner is at 7.
There were two more from her after that.
Where are you.
And:
Don't do anything stupid.
He looked at the screen for a second, then typed with one thumb.
Going out after school.
Need permission.
A reply came almost immediately.
Permission for what?
He looked up at Diego.
"A party."
Diego made a strangled sound.
Claire's reply arrived a second later.
What do you mean by party?
Li Shen stared at the phone.
Then at Diego.
Then back at the phone.
He typed:
A hangout with the homies.
The reply took longer this time.
A few seconds.
Then:
…Did you just say homies.
He looked up again.
Diego had gone still, watching him carefully.
Li Shen asked, "Why is everyone reacting to that word?"
Diego slowly pointed at the phone.
"Who are you texting?"
"My sister."
He looked like that somehow made everything worse.
Claire's reply came in again.
I'm coming over.
Li Shen frowned slightly. "That seems unnecessary."
Diego heard that and laughed again, but there was a nervous edge to it now.
"Yeah, man. That sounds about right for you."
He shoved his hands in his pockets and grinned, trying to recover his energy.
"Fine. Bring your sister. Bring your parents.
Bring the whole government if you need to. We're still celebrating."
Li Shen looked at him.
At the others.
At the way they were all still half-amused and half-stuck on the fact that he had said homies with absolute sincerity.
Then he gave a small nod.
"Good."
Diego pointed at him again, this time with renewed confidence. "See? That right there. That is why we need to keep you around."
"For the party?"
"For the chaos."
Li Shen considered that too.
Then he said, "That sounds inefficient."
Ethan let out a laugh this time, actual and clear.
Diego threw an arm around his shoulder and started walking him toward the exit before Li Shen could object.
"Come on," he said.
"We're heading out after school. You can ask your parents. Just don't say homies in front of your mom."
Li Shen thought about it for a second.
Then, very seriously, he said, "I make no promises."
Diego nearly died laughing again.
And for the first time since the win, Li Shen felt the shape of something new settling into place.
Not battle.
Not training.
Not the weight of a medal or the pressure of a crowd.
Something stranger.
A room full of people.
A name for them.
And a night he had not yet experienced.
He looked down at his phone, thumb hovering over Claire's message, and finally typed:
I may need to attend a party.
A second passed.
Then Claire replied:
I'm calling Mom.