The next day I found myself walking up to our classroom with none other than Jay Park at my heels. One would think he'd be the last to show up for class, but I suppose we can say that this morning has yet to prove itself to be a norm or an outlier. I glanced at him briefly from the corner of my eye, his white dress shirt was untucked with all the buttons open revealing a white shirt underneath, and his blazer was slung over his shoulder. He walked with such an arrogant swagger for someone who just got held back a year. I ignored him for the most part, though he didn't really bother starting a conversation with me. We walked into the classroom together; Taec and Junho were already in their seats at the opposite ends of their row.

“Good morning,” Taec greeted us with large grin on his face.

I returned the gesture while Jay just nodded and made his way to his seat, dropping his bag carelessly on the floor. Junho was, as always, too busy with his book to even look up at whoever came in during the mornings (or any part of the day, really). As soon as I took my seat, the rest of the class came in one by one from the corridors. Minji was the next to arrive, her morning scowl on her face as she took her seat and immediately crossed her arms on her table and dropped her head to go back to sleep. I suppose this was what all four of us, well five including Jay, had in common: we were all early birds. Not that we had a lot of early morning memories, we just usually sat here together a few minutes before the rest of the class would arrive. Sometimes I would sit next to Taec and talk about random things like the night before, any weird dreams we'd have, even a movie or a show we've seen. We got along pretty well in the sense of the word, and Taec would call me sometimes to ask for help with non-academic matters, but were we friends? I've known Minji since middle school, but it wasn't like we talked all the time or went out to do things together. We were comfortable around each other, even ganging up on some unsuspecting classmate for our regular ranting moments, but that was the extent of our friendship. Junho was a tricky matter. He seemed to be part of our table simply by default. That is, Minji, Taec and I invaded his space back in first year. He didn't seem to mind, and he never said anything about it nor did he leave, so we all just assumed he was okay with it. Eventually he would join us for lunch as well when he would come into the cafeteria later than any of us. Now Jay was a part of this little group as well.

Group? It was a funny thing to say about the five of us. Were we a group because we didn't exactly fit in with the other groups? Jia and Wooyoung came in the room with an ongoing argument. It was one of arguments that they have been having since first year. Jia says it was harder being a girl, but Wooyoung argues that being a boy was much harder. I didn't follow all the points they had made throughout the years, but it seemed like they were back to point #1 at the moment.

“Girls have to go through childbirth, in case you didn't know, that hurts like hell,” Jia pointed out, taking her seat and hanging her school bag on the hook found on our desks.

“So? That's optional. It's not like all women give birth, they get pregnant by choice most of the time so they know what's coming. Guys, however, when their wives give birth have to work twice as hard to support a family.”

Jia rebuttaled this with a glare, “Wives can work too you know? They can share the workload.”

“Not here, it's still primarily a patriarchal society so the father is still the head of the household.”

“You totally ripped that off our Social Studies homework, didn't you?”

I tuned out the rest of the conversation when Junsu and Fei walked in together. They were the class on and off couple, and they seemed on again if Junsu carrying her bag was any indication. Junsu walked Fei to her seat next to Junho and took his seat in front of her. Junsu and Fei resumed their earlier conversation, and I tried not to look or listen which proved to be a difficult task when they sat directly in front of me.

Distraction came in the form of Changmin, Jinwoon, Seulong, and Kwon. These four were known as 2AM, but to me, they were my source of daily news and gossip. Jinwoon and Changmin were part of the school paper as lay-out editor and official photojournalist respectively, Seulong was the gossip go-to guy, and Kwon was in charge of disseminating information. It was ironic that the boys of our class were on top of the news, but I suppose it was because they were snoops by nature, and Kwon just had a big mouth. Seulong dropped his bag on his seat and gave Minji a slight tap on the head before making his way to the seat next to me.

He gestured with his head towards Junsu and Fei deep in mushy conversation. “On,” he mouthed.

I shrugged at him, meaning I really didn't care much. They were bound to be 'off' again in a matter of weeks.

“So I have new info on the new teachers and the new kid.” Seulong whispered.

I leaned in closer to him and glanced briefly at Jay. “BBB?” I asked. BBB, or Bad B-Boy was the new codename for Jay Park, Seulong and I had briefly talked about it yesterday afternoon during the after-school study program.

He nodded. “Did you know our homeroom teacher doesn't have a teaching license yet? He's here for an on-the-job training thing. Looks like he took some teaching courses from SNU. I always thought he'd go to a foreign school. I think he has a girlfriend here, that's why he chose to stay and apply for his training here.”

I dropped my eyes immediately. “Girlfriend? That's a rather audacious assumption don't you think?”

“Audacious? You and your big words. Well, that's what I heard anyway. I'll look into it more. Anyway, what I really needed to talk to you about was that-”

“We need more people in the Burrower.” That was Changmin. He took a seat on the desk Seulong was in, eyeing me seriously.

The Burrower was the official school organ, and Changmin has been the photojournalist since first year. As soon as he joined, he began constantly bugging me to join the paper with him.

“If you're joining the Burrower you better be joining the Underground Digger too.” Jinwoon stood next to Changmin, his tiny eyes smaller as he tried to convince me of the same.

The Digger was the school's unofficial official batch website co-designed by Jinwoon and a few other members from 3A and 3C back in second year. It was where all the latest trends and daily news were found.

I looked around for Kwon, and just as expected, his smiling face was already in view behind Jinwoon. Sometimes I think AM in 2AM did not stand for the time of the day but rather the radio frequency where the news was broadcasted all day and night. Kwon was part of both the Burrower and the Digger. He was a columnist and a daily blogger for both. He'll probably be in charge of this year's mascot, too. He thoroughly enjoyed wearing that mongoose costume from last year.

I opened my mouth to answer, but they all spoke up first. “You have to join the paper,” Changmin said, more firmly this time.

“And the Digger,” Jinwoon piped in.

“It's not like you even have a club to busy yourself with,” Kwon added.

“Just say yes. Think about it okay?” Seulong said, placing a hand on my shoulder.

I sighed. There was no way I could back out when all four of them were ganging up on me like that. Why would they even go through such efforts to get me to join? I know I haven't joined a club since first year, but that was really more of a personal preference. It wasn't as if I had no interest in the clubs offered, it was just that I already had too many extra-curricular activities I needed to keep up with.

“I'll think about it,” I said.

Seulong didn't look satisfied with my answer, and I was about to ask him about what he wanted to tell me before we got interrupted by Changmin, but a shrill scream was heard from the front.

Alarmed, the four boys stood up quickly, and like the...investigators they were, they all walked towards Ahn Sohee, the source of said shrill scream. She was clinging on to Chansung, her unfortunate seatmate who was trying to pry her hands off his uniform.

“What happened?” Suzy asked as she entered the room.

Sohee ignored her and looked up at the taller boy she held on to. It was no secret Sohee had a crush on Chansung. Ever since Chansung cut his hair in second year he had ascended from tall boy with the bun from 1B to tall dark and handsome from 2B (and now 3B). It seemed he was keeping the same image as he maintained the short hair.

“What happened?” Yeeun asked.

“I saw a spider!” Sohee whined, “Oppa, kill it!”

Chansung rolled his eyes and finally pushed Sohee away from him. “It's just a spider, it's not gonna do anything to you,” he said, obviously trying not to lash out at her.

“It's a spider Sohee, you're a billion times larger than it is, if anything, it's the spider that fears for it's life, imagine being squished by a ginormous foot,” Jia said, also annoyed.

Sohee stuck her tongue out at Jia, but Jia didn't react to it, instead, she turned to Wooyoung and stuck out her tongue at him, repeating Sohee's last statement in a sing-song voice.

“Not everyone is a man like you Jia,” Sunye snapped from the door.

I rolled my eyes. Here we go again. I ignored the rest of the argument about Sunye and the rest of the Wonder Girls' accusations of Jia being a man, and miss A's rebuttals that at least they weren't as flat-chested and didn't have to stuff their underthings.

The rest of the class finally arrived, Khun and Chansung joined Seulong and Changmin on one side of the room, ignoring the girls on their way. Jinwoon and Kwon were watching the exchange, Junsu and Fei were still in their little bubble, Junho was still busy with his book, Taec was studying, and Minji was still asleep. Oh the joys of 3B.

“So, is it like this every morning?”

Jay slid into the seat next to me, leaning back and enjoying the “show”.

Ian's warning repeated itself in my mind and I ended up laughing, and getting a weird stare from Jay. “What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I answered, “I just remembered something...that's not actually funny...but that's not the point.”

The noisy chatter began to subside momentarily as Ian walked into the room although some whispers were still heard through the scraping of chairs and the rattling of desks. Ian took a look around the room and his eyes dimmed for a moment when he reached the last row. “Mr. Park to your seat, please,” he said.

He took out the folder with the class list again and started with the roll call. It wasn't necessary, but I guess he was just doing what he was told. I couldn't see Seulong's face, but the way his head was turned towards Ian gave me a bad feeling. Seulong was too good at sniffing out information. It had been him who had first exposed Junsu and Fei's secret relationship in second year. With his nose, Changmin's professional paparazzi skills, Jinwoon's site, and Kwon's gift for gab, Junsu and Fei had been revealed within months of suspicion much to Junsu's chagrin. It led to days of ignoring each other until one day they just started talking again.

Ian started off with the morning announcements, most of which were reminders to behave and to stay away from trouble. The latter message seemingly directed towards Jay and I who were sitting at the back. Ian continued with the upkeep of regulations though it was obvious not everyone was listening. Junho was still with his book and Minji was still asleep, Sunye was busy powdering her nose, Sohee stared at Chansung dreamy-eyed while Chansung tried his best to ignore her. The rest of the class did their own things as well, pausing for a moment to listen, then returning to whatever it was they were doing. It seemed only Taec, Yeeun, Suzy, Khun, and Min were really listening to him.

I sighed. Oh well, Ian must have at least known what he was up against especially after my little seminar on Class 3B. I met his eyes for a moment and smiled. Fighting I mouthed.