She slowly walked towards the board, where the list of students assigned to different classes was stuck on. There were students who looked at her  in wide eyes like they had never seen her before. They were right. She is a completely new student. She walked up and the list of names on the sheet of paper became clearer and clearer.

1. Park Chan Yeol
2. Kang So Eul

Her vision went a little blurry as her head reeled and she had to regain balance by breathing deeply.

How can a top student from Seoul perform lower than someone from a small town in South Korea in the state monitored exam?

~

“Chanyeol!!!!!”

“Hey! Chanyeol! When are we going to have a meeting for our football club?”

“Chanyeol! Don’t forget that we also need to have a meeting for our guitar club!”

“Yeol-ah, the ferrets are waiting!”

Chanyeol grinned brightly and nodded at every requests that came in his way before continuing his way to his homeroom before the first day of the new school year starts – Class S.

Everyone in this high school knows Chanyeol; striker in football club, president of the guitar club, ferret appreciation club member, and the resident prankster of the entire school. If he were not the top student, he would have been the trash of the entire school. However, he also happened to be good a studying, which made him the darling of the entire school.

He walked into the new classroom, where the homeroom teacher had already taken his place at the teacher’s podium at the very front of the class. He knew the teacher.

“Junmyeon-saem!” he smiled brightly before going to the seat at the furthest back – due to his consideration of other people at his back not being able to see the blackboard since he is tall, and he grew a few more centimeters during the summer.

Kim Junmyeon, the homeroom teacher, beamed gently at him. Chanyeol knew Junmyeon well since the young teacher always eats his meals outside of school at Chanyeol’s family’s restaurant; Viva Polo.

“Chanyeol-ah,” Junmyeon spoke softly, “I need to ask you a favour this semester.”

“What is it, Junmyeon-saem?” he asked, blinking his eyes. His teacher didn’t respond but blinked his eyes and nodded, signaling him that the boy would know later. ( -saem = shortening the song-saeng-nim to make it sound cute. but you probably already know cuz you're here. lol)

Once the school bell has rung, more students poured into the classroom. Chanyeol saw a few familiar faces like Chen, his friend Within a few minutes, everyone had found their seat and took their places, except one seat beside Chanyeol. Nobody wants that place since it’s at the back of the classroom and it is hard to see the board from there.

“Everyone!” Junmyeon announced, “welcome to Class S, our new program of assigning the top students who scored the best in the exam before the summer. Congratulations on making to this class!!” the young teacher put his arms in the air in a triumphant pose. Everyone looked at each other, unable to understand their teacher’s action.

Chanyeol chuckled. Teacher Kim Junmyeon had always been the one who misses the of the moment and ends up being awkward at most of the things he does, despite being an extremely sweet and kind-hearted teacher.

“Ahem,” Junmyeon cleared his throat, “we have a new student joining us this year.” Everyone looked around to look for an unfamiliar face. Chanyeol joined in too but could find none. The school is small and everyone pretty much knows each other even if they do not personally know.

The sliding door of the classroom opened and entered a girl. The first thing Chanyeol thought of was about grim ghosts from the spooky tales his grandfather told him when he was a little boy. The girl is pale, ghastly so, with her long jet-black hair cascading down her face, completed with a set of blunt bangs at her forehead. Despite her ghost-like appearance, she has a really pretty face that even a bad haircut couldn’t hide.

“Everyone, this is the new friend that I was talking about,” Junmyeon smiled fondly and gestured at the girl, who stood at the front.

The girl did a 90-degrees bow, “Good morning, everyone. Nice to meet you,” her voice was just a few levels louder than that of a whisper, “I am Kang So Eul, but you can call me Soul like how my friends back home call me.”

“Back home?” Junmyeon echoed, “Where did you come from?”

“Seoul,” she mumbled an answer as she turned towards Teacher Junmyeon.

“All right,” Junmyeon continued as he scanned the classroom and his eyes landed on the spot just beside Chanyeol, “Chanyeol-ah, would you be kind enough to show this lady around for the first month before we switch seats next month?”

Chanyeol nodded but he didn’t mistaken the way the girl froze for a moment before coming to sit down beside him. “Hi, Soul,” Chanyeol grinned as he stretched his hand out for a handshake, “my name is Park Chanyeol.”

Soul just nodded in recognition and remained stiff at her desk. They didn’t exchange further words even when the school bell rang for lunchtime break.

“Chanyeol,” said Baekhyun, Chanyeol’s same year friend from different class “who is she?” he asked.

The tall guy shrugged, “Kang So Eul, or Soul. She is from my class.”

“She is so pretty.” Jongin, the underclassman, sighed until his head jerked forward from a slap behind.

“Who is pretty?” Krystal, another underclassman, who happens to be Jongin’s bestfriend slumped herself beside Jongin with a pouty face. Jongin laughed as he nudged her with his elbow shyly.

“So Eul, Chanyeol’s new deskmate.” Baekhyun answered in place of Jongin.

Krystal frowned, which made her notorious resting face look more intimidating, and looked around to see So Eul, who was sitting by herself in front of a tray of lunch that she had gotten from the school canteen. She ate the lunch calmly, one slow and thorough bite after another, without looking at anyone but her lunch.

~

“Does the school instruct you to follow me to home?” Soul turned in one road to face Chanyeol and asked him.

He shrugged, “No, but my house is this way.” He pointed at her back. She turned back and continued walking towards the direction where his Chanyeol’s house is.

When both of them arrived in front of a cozy-looking two-story house, a woman emerged from the front door. “Honey!” she called the girl and walked towards Soul to hug her. The girl stood stiffly in her mother’s embrace. 

The figure who followed the said woman was no other than Chanyeol’s mother. “Omma?” he asked in disbelief, “what are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?” his mother asked without answering his question. Typical mom.

“I just came back home,” he shrugged. His eyes were going back and forth between his mother and her mother. “What are you doing?”

“Oh!” his mother exclaimed, “this is my best friend back in boarding school!” Chanyeol groaned internally, knowing how his mother can be like when she meets old friends from the past. “This is my son, Chanyeol.” His mother beamed at her mother.

“Nice to meet you, young man,” Mrs.Kang spoke. Chanyeol carefully looked at her and realized that Mrs.Kang looks a lot like Soul – pale, almost translucent, skin with pretty facial features. The only difference is that she has a soft chestnut coloured hair instead of jet black. “Your mother has nothing but all the praises for you.” She beamed.

Chanyeol did a 90 degrees bow, “Nice to meet you too, Mrs.Kang. My name is Park Chanyeol. I’m So Eul’s desk mate.”

“Oh!” his mother exclaimed. He almost rolled his eyes at his mother’s excitement. “This is wonderful! Do you still remember our times back in boarding school?”

Mrs.Kang nodded, “We spent so much time together back then. Come in. Come in. We all should talk and catch up.”

Chanyeol cast his eyes downward but rolled his eyes under the lids before he was dragged into the Kang household.

~