Jinki took a deep breath looking at the university building. The first day.

He had moved to the new town two days ago after having gotten a scholarship at the prestigious university. Those two days he had mostly spent in his room in the flat he shared with three others to let his body rest. At least on the first day he wanted to come across as normal.

And it had worked. He was a bit slow and if one looked closely, they would notice a slight limp. But he didn’t need to use his crutches so he was positive that no one would pay any particular attention to him.

The first day didn’t have any lessons yet, just introductions and a tour of the campus. Jinki felt a few nervous butterflies erupt in his stomach at the thought of the tour but he told himself to be optimistic. It would be fine. And if it turned out to not be fine, he would just leave the rest of the group and go back on his own. Still better than showing up on crutches on the first day.

He went into the big lecture hall where all first-years were gathered. It amazed him that the university was so small that an entire year could fit into a lecture hall with 1500 seats. He sat down in one of the front rows – avoiding the stairs – and watched the lecture hall fill up. He was one of the first to come and had made sure to sit in the middle of the row as not to seem as if he was blocking it from either side but it still took a while until someone sat down next to him.

“Hi,” she smiled. “I’m Park Sunyoung.”

“Lee Jinki,” he smiled back. She seemed nice. “What’s you major?”

“Psychology. My parents wanted me to do law but that’s way too boring so I’m glad I got out of that one. What’s yours?”

Jinki grinned widely. “Law.”

She groaned and hid her face behind her hands. “Of course it is! Sorry!!”

“No bother, I know most people think that way.”

“You don’t?”

“I like it.” Jinki shrugged. “I like building arguments with my knowledge and having discussions. I could do without all the memorizing though.”

“Exactly!” She pointed a finger at him, seemed to realize that that was impolite and quickly took it down. “How do you deal with that? I would-“ but she interrupted herself at the same time a distinct hush went through the noisy hall. “Oh, here they are.”

“Who?” Jinki looked around and spotted five young men that had just entered. He recognized them vaguely. “Am I supposed to know them?”

“Choi Minho,” she pointed at the tallest of the four. “He acted in several big dramas and movies.”

“Kim Kibum,” she pointed at the one with bubble-gum-pink hair. “He owns very successful fashion line.”

“Kim Jonghyun,” she pointed at the smallest. “Son of a chaebol and a music producer.”

“Lee Taemin,” she pointed at the one with blond hair. “Another chaebol son. He won several big dance competitions and makes choreographies for K-Pop groups sometimes.”

Jinki’s mouth opened in a silent “ah”. He watched in mild fascination as the four boys sat down in one of the rows towards the front. They were all handsome but the air of importance and self-assurance around them slightly rubbed Jinki the wrong way. He was too used to trying to blend in to feel comfortable around people that did the opposite.

“Two years ago they seemed to have found each other for some reason. No one really knows why but you always see them together. Jonghyun even took a year off so he could go to uni with the others.”

Jinki wanted to reply but all conversations come to an abrupt halt when a petite lady at podium cleared .

“Welcome to SKY University.”

All optimistic hopes Jinki had for the campus tour were shattered after about ten minutes. Since the main building was built on old ruins, and the basement had an exhibition of the old walls and artefacts that had been found during construction, it was only logical that they would go there. Apparently an elevator existed but Jinki didn’t see it and the guide of the group he was in (aka the law students) was a rather terrifyingly grumpy middle-aged man and Jinki simply wasn’t desperate enough to face his wrath. Maybe it would be fine.

Getting down the stairs was fine. He took them rather slowly and everybody was so busy staring at the four famous young men in their group, nobody looked at him weirdly.

But as soon as the slowly-walk-past-the-exhibition-part begin, Jinki’s body protested. It had never liked that particular way of moving and the stairs had already irritated his hip. She sent one last longing look at the exhibition pieces and went to lean against the wall close to the exit. Maybe another day he could come back to look at everything. But not that day. He took out his phone to play while the others were occupied but only a few seconds in, another body next to him caught his attention. It was the small one from the group that could quieten a whole lecture hall just by appearing. Jong…in?

“Hi, I’m Kim Jonghyun.” He smiled and bowed in greeting. Ah. Almost got it right.

“Lee Jinki, nice to meet you.” Jinki bowed back.

“So Jinki, why aren’t you joining the tour?” Jonghyun spoke rather softly but with the air of someone who knew their high self-confidence was invulnerable.

“Uh… my hip isn’t fond of that kind of walking. Any walking really, but especially that.” Jinki forced a smile and hoped Jonghyun wouldn’t ask further. To his relief, he didn’t, just looked at him silently for a few seconds.

“Definitely a more interesting reason than mine. My dad funded this exhibition so I’ve been dragged here countless times for all sorts of events. Richard is only interesting for the first three times.”

Jinki grinned. “Richard?”

“The skeleton they found in one of the walls. Terrible company to be honest, but the poor guy isn’t really at fault I guess.”

“I love looking at that stuff.” Jinki sighed and rubbed gently over the angry burning in his upper thigh.

“I can take you one day.” Jonghyun offered. “I probably know more by now than Mr. Grump.”

Jinki laughed and thanked him and together they watched in silence how the tour of the exhibition came to an end and people started staring at them. If he could, Jinki would’ve moved out of the spotlight but moving probably would have garnered even more attention since he was certain that he would be limping quite noticeably. The other three guys came over to them.

“Jongie, who is that?” The tallest asked and Jinki felt himself shrink.

“Ah,” Jonghuyn lit up. “That’s Lee Jinki.” He quickly introduced the others and after the round of bows was over, he continued. “I was just going to show him the elevator. You coming with us?”

Jinki stared at Jonghyun, almost unable to believe how perceptive he was. A warm feeling grew in his chest and he smiled.

I know this is short... It's just to establish the setting. 

Please let me now what you think ❤