When all of his friends were spending their last weekend of October preparing for the stressful upcoming midterms, Ten was verifying for the last time the content inside his suitcase making sure nothing necessary was forgotten behind. 

If one ever asked any acquaintance to describe him, people would say that he must have gathered a greatly of deal of good karma in his past life to be born to be such a gifted child.

A quite enviable background indeed coming from a wealthy family added to his gorgeous looks, Ten is the living example of a prince raised with a golden spoon and never seemed to lack anything and has more than most people can ask for in a life time in a short span of his eighteen years of existence.

Out of all possibilities his peers pictured for his future, the bright and young man chose to transfer far away from one of the most prestigious college in Bangkok to a private all boy Korean commerce school with questionable reputation was the most unexpected of it all. It wasn't uncommon that he walks by a few whispering comments in the halls about that sudden choice often paired with a mocking expression. There are even a few rumors circulating that said he might have been involved in some really disgraceful episodes that his family was obliged to send him away. 

No one around him really understood his decision but Ten didn't need them to, he's been waiting for this for so long and no words were strong enough to pull him away from such an anticipated change in his life.

After a tiring five-hour flight, Ten took a big breath of fresh air of Seoul and stretched his tired limbs once he stepped foot out of the airport glass door and felt a rush of delight and excitement rushing through his veins. Hopped into the first taxi in sight, the newly foreigner took the time to observe quietly the vivid changing scenery, interestingly different from the one he grown up used to, as he responded politely from time to time to the talkative driver's questions. 

The view from his window soon changed with tightly built skyscrapers and tall neon signs replaced by trees and houses scattered far in between.

The stars were already shining brightly once he finally stepped foot out of the car with his luggage next to him. An imposing building standing proudly on its tall marble columns entered his field of vision. A friendly looking middle aged man was waiting for him at the gate and greeted him with a smile as soon as he saw the younger arrive. He presented himself as the coordinator in charge of exchange students and insisted on bring his suitcase for him as he guided the younger to his new home for the following year. 

A guestroom was arranged for his arrival for the night since the staff apologetically explained that they didn't want to disturb his roommates at this hour of the night and offered to send some to move his belongings for him tomorrow to his assigned dorm room after class.

Ten gratefully thanked and bowed to the man who wished him a goodnight before turning unto his heels. Once left alone, he fell unto his bed and buried his face into the pillow trying his best to chase all the mixed emotions and letting sleep lure him into dreamland. 

Waking up early and tired, Ten didn’t manage to find much sleep last night, a concern nagging in the back of his mind. The fear of his Korean being not good enough was a recurring worry since he has only learnt on his own. Yet there was no time to self-pity before he had to starting to get dressed and directed his foot to school following the guide given by the consoler yesterday. He managed to find the entrance without too much difficulties before he got to the main edifice that had a much more modern architectural designed compared to the dormatory.

Once inside, The Thai student scanned the names pinned on the many offices in the section dedicated to teachers and staffs before knocking two times on one. The door opened up to a woman in her thirties with platinum blond hair who cheerful started: 

"Well hi, you must be Ten?" and upon receiving the affirmation gesturing the younger to step in and pulled a chair for him " Come in, come in!"

Settled down in the seat as the woman sat down in front of him, Ten listened carefully and replied shyly in a small voice as the teacher asked about his flight and explained a few more details about the procedure of the classes.  

A knock on the door resonated in the middle their conversation and soon another student walked inside.

And Ten's eyes were met with the ones of an older boy, quite slim with silver hair and a piercing gaze.

"Ten, this is Taeyong" presented the teacher "He is our student body president and will show you around. If you have any questions, you always can ask him or me!"

The mentioned student reached his hand forward and they exchanged a firm handshake, before Taeyong started with a friendly grin:

"We don't see many transfer students at this time of the year, but most of the kids here are all really nice so I am sure you will get along with them well!"

On the few minutes of their way to class, Ten learnt that Taeyong is not only slightly older and a year above him, but he is also not as scary as his first impression, in fact, the younger would even dare to say that elder was probably the "hard on the outside, gentle on the inside" type.

They quickly exchanged numbers once arrived in front Ten's classroom and bid goodbye with the promise of having lunch together at noon. 

His first classes went by without fuss fortunately, even though there are a few Korean words on the blackboard that he struggled to understand, yet to be truly honest, none of the students in his class looked motivated or interested in learning, most didn’t even bother looking up from their phones or laptops.

As the clock hit twelve, Ten walked out of his classroom and followed with a flow of people that he presumed was going to the cafeteria as well. His gaze wandered around trying to find his new and only acquaintance in this environment as he sat down at the nearest table to the entrance. As he bended down to fetch for his phone from his bag's front pocket, his view was shadowed all of a sudden and he raised his eyes to two boys who have approached close enough and were standing right in front of him.

The ginger boy strangely resembling a mix of bunny and ferret greeted him first:

"Hey, I have never seen you around before, you are new here right?" started the boy extending his palm "I am Doyoung."

"Ten" introduced back the foreign student with a wide grin and his eyes turned towards the slightly taller boy with brown curly hair who offered him a bright eye smile curling into crescents:

"Jaehyun, Nice meeting you man”

Doyoung scolded: "Use honorifics, he might be older than you!" and changed the subject with a surprising invitation:

"Do you want to have lunch with us?" pointing towards a table in the center.

Ten was a little taken aback by such an overwhelming and sudden suggestion by a stranger he barely spoke two sentences to, to which he internally tried to explain as culture difference yet kept a polite smile on his face: "Actually I already-"

"Ten! There you are" Taeyong jogged towards him and frowned when he got a clearer view of the other two intruders there and asked "What are you two doing here?"

"What does it look like to you? Trying to show this kid who to find if he wants some extra fun, duh!" Doyoung scoffed and changed to a faked polite tone once the silver haired boy glared at him "Sorry Mr.student council president, we were just trying to be friendly, ok? So can he come with us pretty pretty please?" 

Taeyong tried to keep his composure and pretended he didn't hear it turning towards Ten:

"Well, looks like you have met some of the people I planned to present you to today" before bending over whispering "though I really don't want to admit we know each others sometimes."

"And yes," turned Taeyong back to the anticipating duo behind him "He can come with us" 

Ten maneuvered with some great effort a tray full of Korean dishes that Taeyong insisted stacking on his plate and trailed behind them as the silver haired boy kept on asking whether he was sure he had enough food before reaching the table where three others boys were at.

"Who is this?" asked one of them sipping on his orange juice with a brown mushroom haircut staring surprisingly with his large round doe eyes at the sudden appearance of a new face "Oh my God" yelled the latter covering his mouth dramatically as his eyes shift between Ten and Taeyong: "Taeyong, are you cheating on Winwin?" earning him a slap from the silver haired boy.

Taeyong pushed the new student forward and cleared his throat:

"This is Ten, he just transferred here so take good care of him" 

"You should have said that earlier, by the way I am Yuta" The first boy to speak was now waving at him cutely.

Taeyong then began to present nonchalantly to the other two people present at their table, starting with the elder boy with soft brown hair and even softer eyes:

"Taeil" who greeted him with warm smile demonstrating all his perfect white teeth, before shifting to the very young looking boy with chubby cheeks "and Donghyuck who should really go back to his own table with his little friends." 

"Awn, leave him alone" Yuta defended hugging the youngest of them closer and pinched his cheeks "he just wanted to hang out with the big boys for once." 

“Says the most immature hyung of them all” the younger argued back “don’t you have some Naruto to watch?”

“What did you just say you lil-”

"Guys shut up, you will scare him away" commented Doyoung rolling his eyes before pulling on the new transfer student's sleeve for him to sit down and asking curiously blinking his large eyes:

“Please don't be mad if I am wrong, but you don’t look you are not Korean if I am right?”

How kind of him to not have remark on his accent thought Ten before shaking his head and answering:

“I'm from Thailand” and added “Bangkok more precisely" 

The small group of boys let out an exclamation in unison and Yuta even joined his palms together before bowing his head to the tip of his fingers:

"Sawasdeecrap!" 

"Ten hyung, do you know how to make Tom Yum Goong?" eagerly asked Jaehyun scooting closer even and added "I love those, I mean I have never tried any before but I am sure I’ll love it if I ever do!"

"I always wanted a Thai friend" Donghyuck commented wiggling his brows "You know so it will be easier to hit on all those pretty girls once I get there one day.”

"Stop messing with other people's language Yuta, Jaehyun, leave the poor kid alone, he's not here to start a restaurant and Donghyuck, you are too young to think about dating, you hear me?!" stepped in Taeyong before adding to the regards of their new foreigner student "Sorry they can be a little too excited sometimes."

"You apologize like you are their mom" grimaced Doyoung to which Ten internally agreed with. It wasn't hard to see the role that Taeyong had in the dynamic of their group even though he barely saw him twice including this time.

Taeyong, wanting to leave a good first impression, clinched his teeth brushing it of this time and changed the subject avoiding another bickering: "Anyway, Ten, is there any activities that you like? We have a tons of clubs for all kinds interests and I am sure you can make plenty of new friends from there"

Yuta hissed at his change in attitude and mumbled lowly leaning towards Jaehyun sitting across from him "He is playing his role of the perfect student body president again."

Doyoung rolled his eyes shoving Yuta's face away that he judged was too close his boyfriend's, yet agreed with Taeyong for once: "But it's true, what kind of stuff are you into? Any games or stuff to do in your free time? Don't be shy about it. Yuta here is into animes and we try to not laugh at him too much for it, at least not in front of him."

With all eyes on him, Ten shyly replied: "I used to take dance class back in Bangkok..." 

Taeyong's face lightened up and encouraged on: "Well that's great, they are always looking for new members in the dance crew as well, aren't you Yuta?"

"Yeah totally" the said person nodded nonchalantly, uninterestedly poking on the food with his chopstick and added with a grimace, "We need a new member anyway since Jaehyun betrayed us and joined the choir just to be with his boo."

Doyoung defended scooting Jaehyun by the arm closer pulling his tongue out: "You are just jealous that you can't talk to your freaking crush without blushing like a school girl." 

Ten’s curiosity was peaked, yet said nothing not wanting to be indiscreet, yet Jaehyun noticed the change in his expression and asked a tone full of mischief: “Wanna see a trick that set this Japanese hyung off like a firecracker?”

“Shut up Jung Jaehyun!” The mushroom haired boy jumped onto the tall boy, trying to cover his next words yet was almost immediately pinned down by Doyoung and Haechan ignoring his pitiful muffling covered with a hand.

“Yo Hansol” shouted Jaehyun to a tall figure standing across the room.

“Hey guys” greeted a blonde guy with big eyes that immediately reminded Ten those of a certain Japanese boy who has suddenly became surprisingly quiet as the rest of the table responded with a unified hi.

“Why don’t you say hi Yuta hyung?” Doyoung directed purposely towards his hyung, as Taeil lowered his head trying to hide his chuckle.

“Hey-y” stuttered the poor boy with his cheeks flushed bright red and shifted his gaze down to his knees without any more words. 

The whole time that Hansol stayed chatting with Taeyong and Jaehyun, Yuta was intensely staring at the box of banana milk he was holding as if it was the most fascinating thing he has ever seen in the world, not even blinking once.

As soon as their target of interest left the sight, Yuta buried his face into his hands refusing the look up and muttered: “I hate all of you.”

“Nan, you don’t” Doyoung stated matter factually shaking his head.

Yet before the elder male could argue back, the bell rang announcing the end of their break.

With quick goodbye exchanged as Taeyong once again offered to accompany him to his next class, this time with Taeil along side as well,

Doyoung waved at him one last time: “I’ll see you later Ten!”

It turned out the reason that Doyoung has been extra friendly with him was staring directly at him once Ten moved his suitcase to his new shared dorm room finding that rabbit-looking dude smiling widely at him with his bunny teeth.

Overall, his new college life was flowing peacefully. Ten has never been the type of person that easily befriended others, but this time, he felt strangely comfortable with the always so talkative and playfully boys, and strangely at home with a roomate that he barely met for a month. 

By the time Ten realised how fast he got used to everyone’s perpetual habit of breaking into their dorm room without previous notice, he was practically glue to the hip with Doyoung doing everything together from studying to eating expect when the latter was with Jaehyun.

To which Ten has the surprise of discovering, even though he had his doubts before that they were indeed dating after witnessing Jaehyun peak the latter’s cheek: and confronted his roommate about it one day when they came back from the gym:

“Have I never told you that?” asked Doyoung, truly looking confused for once.

Ten shook his head and bitted his lips, unsure whether he should expose what has been on his mind for quite a while now, until he made up his mind and said:

“Doyoung, I have to tell you something, I saw Jaehyun kissing a girl last Friday when I came back from the market”

Yet surprisingly, the latter didn’t seem slightly fazed by the revelation and shrugged: “He’s bi.”

Ten remained slightly speechless and retorted “That’s not my point.”

Doyoung turned around and calmly explained: “Jaehyun and I are dating, but we are in an open relationship” and let a small smile creep unto his lips and asked with almost daring tone: “ever heard of that?”

Yuta would be the second most often to tag along with them. Since the limited amount of free time he had, joggling between his lead dancer and soccer team's stricker positions, he'd most likely only show up to their room as Doyoung put it "to ask stupid advice question about his crush but actually never put them into practice." Though their Japanese friend was so energetic and always so joyful, yet it didn’t stop him from stuttering and able to form a coherent sentence in front of his gorgeous knight in his shining basketball jersey as Ten would eventually start to nickname with the rest as well.

He has also met Sicheng, by the name of Winwin that most called him with, and his round eyes and dark black hair who didn’t talk much and was quite shy which was understandable being a foreigner struggling with Korean as well. On the other hand, Sicheng probably barely needed to speak as Taeyong seems to be around him 24/7 and doing everything possible for him already, almost like a mother as Donghyuck liked to mock.

Yet, the most memorable meeting Ten has had in Korea, and possibly of his whole life was the most unexpected of all with no foresight.

It was an unusually cold day in October, after the dance crew’s weekly practice ended, Ten was dealing with a whiny Yuta complaining about how he witnessed yet another girl slipping a love note inside Hansol’s locker when he noticed his watch was gone. Knowing he probably left it behind in the practice room, Ten quickly told Yuta to go ahead first before turning back on his heels, half due to his watch half to his desire of escaping from the latter’ endless cries.

Once his watch retrieved, Ten’s gaze landed a section he has never encountered before and decided to take a detour, exploring the unknown.

His ears soon caught a mesmerizing piano melody and before he knew, his footsteps were echoing in a long corridor decorated with various renaissance paintings covered in dust on the walls, the music grew louder at each step and finally lured him in front of a small music room.

Ten can vaguely distinguished a figure inside to be quite tall even sitting down, with their black uniform hugging his broad shoulders perfectly. He never heard that piece being playing before nor he ever was interested in classical music, but there he was, creeping on a pianist that he couldn't fully make up the face of, with his long and lean fingers skillfully dancing between the blank and white keys.

He soon lost track of the time he stood there, until the music finally stopped, and the stranger snapped his head towards the door and a pair of chestnut brown orbs meeting sharply with his own.

Ten could hear his heart skipping beats echoing louder and louder and his stomach turning into a knot as he saw the stranger standing up and slowly shifting towards the door.

Panic began to kick in and his natural instinct guided him running in the dimly lit corridor, and a few minutes later, he was trying to catch his breath outside of the building. Not bothering to care for the uniform coat that slipped from his fingers during his illogical escape. 

He brought a hand to his chest as he slowly paced back to his room.

The sun was already setting low in the horizon and the cold breeze typical of Fall evenings made his skin shiver, but Ten didn’t bother tighten his scarf and let the cold sensation helping to clear his mind a little.

As his head cools down, Ten suddenly felt pathetic for running away for no apparent reason, feeling almost a bitter taste inside his mouth. The only consolation he has is that fortunately he was now living by himself, otherwise he can't even imagine the tantrum his mother would threw at him for losing his coat. 

It seems that he'd have to return back to get it back tomorrow, yet Ten’s soul is disunified about the shame of facing that stranger again or the disappointment of not.

To his sorrow, neither the stranger or his coat was in sight once he managed to track back after class to where he arrived by mistake yesterday.

As Ten let out a deep sigh and was about to direct his feet back to where he came from, a low voice suddenly appeared in his back made him jolt on his place:

“What are you looking for?”

“I lost my coat around here” slowly explained Ten, gaze turned around to lock with those pair of brown eyes as of yesterday once again, the same pairs that were almost hauntingly familiar in his dreams.

The latter unlocked the door to the same music room and walked in before quickly coming back with the said coat in hand and commented monotonously with an emotionless expression: “It is impolite to spy on others.”

Ten apologize quickly, lowering his eyes down to his shoes and trying to blame the sudden surge of pink unto his cheeks on the back of the golden sunset rays.

“What’s your name?” Ten gathered his courage to ask as the stranger’s hand reached the doorknob.

“Johnny” answered the latter clearly annoyed “Now would you leave me alone?”

Ten paced slowly down the same dimly light corridor, with the name of that stranger fulfilling his mind, a name rolled so nicely on the tip of his tongue, sending chills down his spine and spreading warmth through his entire body. Ten has to reprimand the urge of repeating that name countless of times by himself and foolishly smile as he do so.

The next few days passed by and Ten grew increasingly absent minded in everything he did to the point that even the most clueless Yuta noticed his abnormal attitude, and after being questioned multiple time, he finally opened it up as he asked one evening during dinner to Doyoung and Jaehyun: “Do you guys know someone named Johnny?”

Doyoung’s spoon dropped into his soup resulting in a small splash and a visible stain on his white shirt, yet he didn’t seem to notice and instead, lowered his voice:

“Why are you asking about him?”

After Ten quickly summarized his encounter, the pair said in unison:

“Stay away from him” both looking strangely serious for once “It is for your own good.”