The moment Jaehyun stepped out of his car it felt good to be back. Summers were always boring whenever he had to just sit home. He did see a lot of friends over the summer, but Jaehyun only thrived whenever he was in a very large group of people. Like school for instance. He loved coming here because everyone knew him or wanted to know him. He was always friendly and made as many friends as he possibly could. This year there would be tons of freshman who would be knew. He could make lots of new friends. That would probably be the nicest thing he could ever imagine. 

If there was something that bothered Jaehyun, it was not getting along with everyone. He wanted to be liked by all so he could just make everyone happy. His team always thought of him as  puppy because of that, but he always made them laugh. It was the only real strong point he had and he wanted to make sure he used it. 

On the other side of campus Taeyong arrived. Taeyong was the exact opposite of everything Jaehyun was. He hid most of the time, in the art studio. It was rarely used, only by the art students themselves and there weren't that many of them to begin with. Taeyong always knew he could hide in here when things got too much out there. And now, with the beginning of the year and all, he knew it would be too much. There were lots of newbies walking around, not knowing what they were doing. He just hated to be watched. Staying in the shadows was more his thing. 

Now Taeyong was a senior he knew his way around school pretty good. He knew all the secret passages and all the ways to walk around unnoticed. He had succeeded to do so for the past 3 years. What was one more year like this? And it wasn't like he disliked all people. He did have some friends from art class. They hung out to paint sometimes, but not too much. Taeyong did need his space from people from time to time. Or his mind would just go crazy. The others in art class were practically the same. They all hung out because of convenience, but in the end they liked being alone more. 

Meanwhile Jaehyun was walking around like he owned the place. Everyone was saying hi to him or was bumping his fist while he walked by. He was thrilled to be back and hadn't felt a live like this since the last day of school, three months back. He made his way over to the football team, who were hanging out at the entrance steps. It was their usual routine. Johnny was smiling while Yuta looked like he'd seen a ghost. Jaehyun caught Yuta looking at his sister again and rolled his eyes. He seriously got sister problems. Meanwhile Mark was making conversation with the others too. It was nice to see them all together again. It had been a while since everyone was vacationing or doing a summer job. 

"Hey guys! What's up?" Jaehyun asked as he joined them on the steps. Everything was falling into place again, everything was normal once again. School had not changed at all. 

"Nothing much! Haven't seen you all summer!" Mark protested while bumping his shoulder. He had always been good with Mark. They were lab partners and all. 

"Look who's talking! You didn't have time for me all summer..." Jaehyun acted like a hurt girlfriend, earning him a rub on his head from Johnny. He was being a dad again. 

"You seemed pretty busy too", Johnny told him while getting his stuff together. 

"Well, I missed you guys, okay??" He said in a loving way while almost hugging all of his team mates. Jaehyun was definitely not afraid of touching anyone. He would hug anyone whenever he got a chance. Which had definitely earned him the title of puppy. He needed lots of attention like a puppy. 

"Let's get to class before we all get detention on our first day", Johnny said while getting up. He was a good leader for this bunch of people. They needed him, all of them did. No one ever complained when Johnny said something because they knew he did it in their best interests. 

Taeyong watched everyone going inside before leaving his place to go to his locker. He did need his utensils for class. And since it was the first day, he really needed to get to that locker in time. Taeyong always made sure to not go to his locker too ofter during the year, because that meant facing that endless hallway of people. That endless noise of small talk. And boy, was there a lot of noise today. He took his stuff and scurried off to class without anyone seeing him. Or so he thought. Jaehyun realized he'd never seen that boy before while he scurried past them. With his black and white striped shirt, dress pants and shiny shoes it felt like he was completely new, but then again he wasn't. He felt familiar in some kind of way that hurt Jaehyun's brains. 

Jaehyun was smart. So smart he always made it to the top of the class at the end of the year. He was going to be valedictorian next year and it made him happy. That was probably also why he was student council president. He did a good job of running the student council, but this did mean he had little time for anything else beside football and student council. It took up all of his extra time, but the teachers cut him lots of slack for that, because they liked him of course. How could they not? 

In their first class of the day Jaehyun felt genuinely happy to see all those familiar faces again. Even the teacher had said hi to him. It all just felt right. That's how it went for the rest of the day too. He was greeted by everyone and some of them even hugged him. He did not discriminate anyone. That was his motto. By the end of the day there was football tryouts. He and some team mates were throwing the ball around at school because they were going to be early anyway. Suddenly one of the balls went too far, Jaehyun thought he could make it and he did. He caught the ball, but knocked someone over in the process. He heard lots of things shattering on the ground and looked behind him. 

It was the same boy as before. The one he had just noticed. Taeyong looked up at Jaehyun in surprise. But then he started cleaning up the paint he had dropped, picking up the glass pieces so no one would step on them. 

"Are you okay?" Jaehyun asked the boy in front of him. All Taeyong did was not and try to be out of there as fast as he could. The other boys were watching too, so he couldn't stand all the stares. Taeyong felt like he needed to get out of this situation as fast as he possibly could. Some people might even notice who he is. 

Taeyong cleaned up and ran away from Jaehyun without saying a single word. He just made sure he was inside the art class as fast as he could. Finally there, he calmed down a bit. He knew he'd been overreacting, a lot, but that didn't take away that that scene had been very stressful for him. He felt like dying. Why did they have to play catch in the courtyard? Don't they have fields for that? 

Jaehyun felt confused and very worried that he'd hurt the guy. That's why he told the others to go on without him while he followed to where the boy had run. It seemed like the art class. He walked in to see the boy calmly sorting out the paint and trying to brush it off his clothes. He was a mess and it was Jaehyun's fault. 

"I'm so sorry about before..." Jaehyun said, while Taeyong fell silent. He hated that the boy was here and saw what a mess he was. Jaehyun inched closer. "Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" 

"No", Taeyong finally said in a firm voice. He just wanted to be left alone. 

"My name is Jaehyun, what's yours?" He finally asked after standing there for a while. 

"Taeyong", he didn't know why he'd said it, but it just came out. 

"Well, Taeyong, to make it up to you I'll be coming here every single day to clean up!" Jaehyun promised while Taeyong rolled his eyes. This guy really needed attention and was too much for someone like him. 

"Please don't", this was his getaway. Not somewhere other people could harass him like they did outside of this classroom. 

"I just don't like people being mad at me..." Jaehyun said in a sad voice. He felt like Taeyong really didn't like him and that had to be stopped. He couldn't have someone being mad at him at the start of the new year. He had been stupid for catching that ball like that, but he was going to make up for it. 

Meanwhile Taeyong just wished for the boy to go away and leave him be. There had been too many human interactions today. It needed to stop. He needed to stop. That's probably why Taeyong nodded at what the boy said, to get him away from here. 

"I'll see you tomorrow then!" Jaehyun said, pretty proud of himself while Taeyong was debating if he was really going crazy or if this boy was something special. He was literally going to hang out with someone from the jocks... What had gotten into him??