“Kyuhyun, wake up! You’re gonna be late for your 8 am class! It’s the first day of school so you have to go there earlier, please.”

I love how the only alarm clock that will effectively wake me up is the sound of my mother yelling at me to get my out of bed. What a way to start the ing day.

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Why hello there. The name’s Kyuhyun. Cho Kyuhyun. Although I don’t really like using my last name due to the strained relationship I have with my old man (more on that later). I’m 22 years old studying in Kyunghee University as a 2^nd year mechanical engineering student. Why engineering, you might ask. Math and science seem to be my strengths, so my parents encouraged me to take up engineering. That, and the fact that I’m the type who doesn’t set long-term goals for himself. Don’t get me wrong, engineering seems like an intimidating course to most people but really, I’m not a remarkable student. I don’t study that much but I get by. My mom would usually remark that if I only studied hard, I would graduate with honors.

Speaking of my mom, I consider her to be the only parent I have. I don’t show it that much but I really do love her and depend on her a lot. She manages a small art academy but takes time to tend to my older sister, Ahra, and I. Compared to my old man, she finds joy in celebrating the arts. She loves to paint and has decorated our house with a bunch of her paintings. She’s the one responsible for honing mine and Ahra’s musical skill. She taught me how to play the piano which I still do – not on a professional level, but enough to create decent music that’s pleasant to the ears.

Ahra is on a completely different level in terms of music. She’s been playing the violin for 18 years and became skilled enough to study abroad in Vienna. You might think that being born 3 years apart and not of the same gender will lead us to have a very colorful sibling history riddled with fights, disagreements, and whatnots. But nope – she’s really kind, sweet, and understanding much like my mom. Whoever has to marry her will have to go through a series of interviews before I can accept him as a brother-in-law. When she went abroad, I thought I’d have a hard time adjusting without her presence. But she would call twice a week so that my mom and I wouldn’t miss her as much.

Unlike my old man who seemed to have forgotten that he was married and has 2 kids. He’s a neurosurgeon and is constantly in the hospital, as if it was his home. When he’s not in the hospital, you can find him attending international conferences. Seriously, I don’t understand how my mom copes with being married to guy who you only see for less than 2 weeks during Christmas and New Year’s. I don’t really know when they talk, but with me, he only sends birthday greetings via e-mail – nothing more, nothing less. Sure, I appreciate how he’s the one responsible for funding most of our needs but I want a father figure in my life – a father who advises me in the way that only a father knows how to, and tells me how proud he is to have me as his son.

If there’s one thing I’m grateful for my old man, he distracts us with shiny gifts. These include a house that most people would call a mansion, my own sweet sports car that I’m very fond of driving, and my darling laptop and other gaming consoles. Oh how I love to waste the day with gaming especially when it’s concerned with Star Craft. You might think that I belong to the tribe of basement dwellers (which is partially true especially during summer break) but I have a bunch of friends that I hang out with on a regular basis.

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I went on with my usual morning routine. I checked myself one last time in the mirror, with my dark blue polo, black jeans, and blue sneakers, before grabbing my bag to go to school. Thankfully, there is no traffic so I arrived within 30 minutes, having 10 minutes to spare. I went to my favorite hangout in one of the benches near the student’s lounge to meet with my friends: Leeteuk, Heechul, Yesung, Sungmin, Siwon, and Ryeowook.

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You know when you’re a kid and it’s your summer break, and you want nothing more than to waste it away at home but your parents don’t want you to so they force you to go on a summer camp just so that you could do something “productive” during summer? That’s basically how we met – hell, I don’t even remember what the summer camp was about. The only productive thing we were able to do was to make lasting friendships. They are my friends, my constants, my hyungs.

Park Jungsu, who prefers to be called Leeteuk, is the oldest among us. He is the undisputed head of our band of merry men and is responsible for keeping us in line - he’s the glue that holds us together and we all appreciate him for that. He’s a 26-year-old ahjussi, taking up advertising, with a peculiar interest in the color white. I know what you’re thinking – Leeteuk and advertising may not seem like a smart match. When he’s talking with us, he gives off this man-of-few-words vibe. It’s different when he’s talking with others wherein he’s more talkative like he was hosting a show or something. That’s when we realized that he’s got great PR skills and he and advertising can actually work.

Kim Heechul, who was born a few days later than Leeteuk, is also taking up advertising. Like Leeteuk, he is graduating soon. He’s the only one who calls Leeteuk as Jungsu due to the special bond they’ve formed across the years. The people who said I am the evil one in the group, with my sharp tongue and quick wit, clearly have never met devil Heechul. If I recall, most of our plans which ended disastrously were conjured by the devil himself. We used to joke around that girls shouldn’t remain single for too long unless they want to date someone like him. Still, we love him to death and can’t imagine our group being better off without the wildness of Kim Heechul.

Kim Jongwoon, or Yesung as he prefers to be called, is a 25-year-old music student majoring in voice. I swear he’s got the skills to make it big as a soloist in the future. If there is a word that can best sum up Yesung, it is weird – that’s what makes him interesting, though. I haven’t forgotten the words he used to describe himself that first day in summer camp. Who the hell begins introducing themselves with “I like bug collecting.”? Apart from that, I’ve never met anyone with a philtrum fixation – hell I didn’t even know what a philtrum is until I met him. Even so, I consider him to be indispensable due to his funny antics and his weird sense of humor. It’s not something I’ll admit but his weirdness just works.

Lee Sungmin, a 24-year-old business major, was the first person I befriended in my group of friends. He’s easy to talk to and is game for anything. He is the epitome of cute but deadly. He exudes this natural aegyo without trying too hard and uses that to his advantage to make others succumb to his will – no one is immune to it (except maybe the 6 of us but not completely, I must admit). I wouldn’t mind having his back during a fight since he used to study martial arts until 3 years ago, when we all decided to do our mandatory enlistment. He’s a jack-of-all-trades who can pick up any hobby and learn it with sufficient skill. He’s the one person in the group whose loyalty I will never question.

Choi Siwon has the same age and course as Sungmin. We like to dub him as the man who has it all. He’s filthy rich but he’s not the type that will slap it in your face. Among the 7 of us, he has the most fan girls due to his god-like body and celebrity-worthy face. I don’t know about his face but the rest of his body is not without effort – going to the gym is a religion for him. Have I mentioned that he’s a devote Christian, as well? You might think that he and Heechul the atheist would be at odds with each other but they’ve managed to work things out to coexist peacefully. Siwon is the quintessential son-in-law but you’d be surprised to find out that he’s never had a single girlfriend in his life.

Kim Ryeowook is 23 years old and is Yesung’s junior in music. He has this distinctive high voice that we like to tease once in a while – but in all seriousness, his voice, much like Yesung’s, is sublime. I think you can already tell that he and Yesung are close since they’re also cousins. When we’re too lazy to go out and instead prefer to hang out in one of the member’s house, he’d be the one responsible for cooking us a decent and edible meal. He’s only a couple of months older than me and is the only one in the group I don’t call hyung which he dislikes. He’s probably the one I usually go to when I have problems since I consider him to be the most approachable in the group.

- - - - - - - -

When I reached the table, I realized that Heechul hasn’t arrived yet which is very typical of him. I greeted them with my usual salute and listened in on their conversation.

“Got any plans for tonight, Boss?” asked Yesung. Boss is a nickname we jokingly call Leeteuk.

“None, sorry guys.” answered Leeteuk. He seemed to have read the disappointment on our faces.

“Remember that today is Org Fair so we gotta stick to our orgs and help them promote so that the freshmen would be encouraged to join. I’m pretty sure we’ll all be tired by the end.”

Damn. Forgot about that. Next to Heechul, I’m the one who doesn’t really take org activities seriously. The rest of them seem to enjoy their orgs since they’ve joined in those related to their majors.  I got stuck with the theater guild due to a ridiculous bet I made with Heechul back in my freshman year- terms where that the loser has to successfully audition and become a member of the theater guild or else an even worse consequence awaits. That’s the last bet I made with him since I learned that you never make deals with the devil.

I was lucky enough last year to not have taken on any acting roles. I was usually part of the props committee – even then I didn’t really help since I paid some idiot to do my share of the work which left me to do things I enjoyed. I guess this year will be no different.

RING!

“We’ve got 5 minutes ‘til class starts. We’ll continue this later. Let’s meet here for lunch.” said Leeteuk. We all agreed and went on to our respective classes.

And so begins the first day of school with my attending biology, a science elective that I chose. I hope the day ends better than how it started. Oh what the hell, expect the worst?

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Whew. It’s been a long time since I wrote fanfic. I’m usually the reader not the writer hahaha. I make no promises on updating regularly just because I’m a medical student. In any case, I hope you’ll like this :)