Seungcheol took three long strides before he slammed his hands on Vernon’s desk. “Fancy seeing you here, Hansol. Who knew we would be year ones… again. This is our fifth time, isn’t it?” He looked at the silver haired boy with a glint of anger behind his hunter green eyes.

Vernon shrugged. With a slow blink, he looked at the older boy in front of him before turning his gaze toward the window once more. “I don’t know. I don’t keep track.”

At that time, the teacher came in and everyone had to get to their seats. Seungcheol hit the desk one more time before taking Jeonghan’s shoulder and moving to their conjoined desk.

The class started like any other first day of school with introductions and setting expectations on how the rest of the year would go. Vernon looked around for a moment to take in his surroundings. It seemed his homeroom would consist of mostly the five boys he walked by this morning, the four who seemed to have issues with everyone, and then a handful of guys he didn’t recognise, nor cared to. There was enough seats for sixteen of them, pairing up at two per desk, except there was an empty spot next to Vernon which he didn’t mind one bit.

“Class. We have a new student joining us today from Busan.” Their teacher announced loudly enough to cause a hush over the room.

Vernon groaned. Well, it seemed he thought too soon that he would have his desk all to himself.

“Min-ki, can you please introduce yourself?”

The boy looked young for being a freshman. With long blonde locks, his face clearly read like he would rather be anywhere but at the front of the classroom and no one seemed to blame him for it either.

Quietly, Min-ki said, “I would rather not.”

“Just say your name and a sentence about you and then you can go to your seat next to Hansol in the back.”

This year was starting off like crap. Vernon couldn’t catch a break at all, and now he would spend another four years having people stop calling him Hansol and back to Vernon. Why did he have to keep going through this? While others enjoyed it, he definitely did not.

The student up front stared at the teacher with such disappointment before flipping his hair off his shoulder. “Whatever,” he sighed. “My name is Ren and I like to be left alone.” He voice was deeper than expected when it wasn’t in a whispered tone. Without being dismissed to his seat, Ren walked away from the teacher and down the aisle towards the half empty desk in the back. He walked right by Jeonghan with confidence but anyone could feel the tension building betweent the two.

Ren sat down and quickly drapped his backpack on his chair before grabbing their Maths book. Vernon though the new kid smelled kinda sweet like fresh cherries and swore his hair was now a light pink colour. He had to do a double take because he swore he was platinum blonde just a moment ago. Shaking his head, he joined in opening up the Maths book before going back to staring out the window again.

***

The bell went off for lunch bringing anyone zoning in class back to reality. Most of the class bee-lined it out of the room while Vernon and Seungcheol’s gang hung back for a moment. A few minutes passed in silence as the four of them stood there sizing Vernon up while he awkwardly lingered by his desk, lazily drawing on the top of it to avoid looking at them.

Thankfully, he heard whispers between them and the sound of a two hands making contact with one another like a high five. When he briefly looked up, he saw Mingyu and Wonwoo leaving first. It was Wonwoo and Seungcheol that made the noise to say good-bye to one another. After the two left, Seungcheol reached up to Jeonghan’s cheek. Vernon rolled his eyes. These two never change; forever inseparable. Jeonghan smiled and and ran his finger up his face and hooked his hair behind his ear before turning to Vernon with the pleasant look disappearing from his face in an instant.

“Oh, Hansol. Out of all the schools, how did you end up at this one? Did you miss us that much?”

Vernon stood there blankly. He had seen those eyes so many times in his dreams that he could draw out the way the royal purple limbus faded into light lilac before hitting the pupil. His eyes seem so unreal that many asked where they could get contacts like his and he would laugh and send them to this website only for it to be an adult rated site instead. Jeonghan was the fakest person Vernon ever knew in his life, but you couldn’t help to be enthralled with him.

“I could ask you the same thing, Jeonghan. Why this one? You could literally go anywhere. I feel like you are following me.” Vernon answered back.

Sarcastically, Seungcheol responded. “I feel like I have heard that before?” He looked up to the ceiling for a moment while tapping his right forefinger against his chin. “Oh yeah. Because you always say that.” He turned and squinted his eyes at Vernon, a flash of red accompanied the glare.

“Can you give me like a few weeks before we do this again? It's the same thing over and over again. It’s getting pretty old, Seungcheol.” Vernon put his jacket back on that he had taken off during the morning classes.

Like night to day, the older boy’s face softened and then he let out a laugh. “Alright. But by Christmas break we will finally know if you are with us or against us.” He grabbed his partner’s hand and headed to the door. Before they exited the room, Jeonghan casually looked over his shoulder and sent a warning to Vernon. “And you know what happens if you are against us…” he said before laughing and heading to the right out of the classroom.

Vernon stood there for a moment rubbing his temples. “I could just transfer out… But dammit, I know they won’t let me. There is only so many schools in this district and I have been to almost all of them. This .” He sighed heavily, adjusted his coat, and headed to take a quick walk before lunch was over with.