Yuri’s POV

I was standing outside the door of my classroom. It was my first day in school and I was fidgeting with the hem of my skirt. I was feeling rather nervous. Hanging around with MBLAQ was fine because I knew them and because Joon was there to introduce me to my new friends.

But this . . . this is a completely different thing. I don’t know the teacher, I don’t know what the students here in Korea are like, and I don’t know how tough the subjects will be compared to the subjects in China. And furthermore, I’m very shy when it comes to making new friends. I can never make the first step. I always keep to myself until someone approached me.

Will I be alone throughout my entire school year because of it? I really, really hope not because then it would . And it didn’t help that Mir was two years older than me. Because that means I might not see him so often. I don’t even know if our lunch break is at the same time.

“Class, we have a new student,” I could hear the teacher, Mr. Han, saying loudly through the midst of the chatting students. “Please make the lovely girl feel welcomed.”

From outside, almost immediately, I saw that all the boys perked up when they heard the word ‘lovely girl’. How typical of them to do so. I walked inside the four walls filled with about twenty students, feeling like I wanted to turn around and bolt.

Will they like me? Will they accept me? I don’t know. I hope they will.

I could see all eyes staring at me, staring at my outfit: black-rimmed glasses (yes, I wear glasses but I’m not a nerd), a light blue singlet, skinny jeans and a grey cardigan. A little cross necklace reflected in the lights and the black bangles on my left wrist made a soft tinkling sound whenever I moved.

I smiled shyly at the class full of curious eyes. “Annyeonghasaeyo,” I said softly. “My name is Lee Yuri. Please take care of me.” I bowed. The class consisted mostly of guys. There were at least ten girls, but guys dominated the class.

“Class, let’s introduce yourself to her.”

“Lee Chaerin.”

“Lee Seunghyun but you can call me Seung Ri,” one guy said lazily.

 “Lee Taemin.”

“Lee Chan Hee but people call me Chunji,” another guy spoke up.

How many Lee’s are there in this class? Omo! I’m a Lee too!

“Son Dongwoon!”

“Gong Minji, but people call me Minzy.”

“L.Joe.”

L.Joe??

 “Lee Byunghyun to you, Miss Lee,” Teacher Han muttered to me. Another Lee. He shook his head in disbelief. “What is it with kids these days, getting them a nickname?”

“Ahn Daniel.”

“Hyuna.”

Soon everyone had introduced themselves to me. My head was spinning from all the Lee’s in my class. Teacher Han scanned around the room, looking for a place for me to sit. “Miss Lee, you will sit in between of Miss Gong and Lee Byunghun.”

I nodded, quickly going to my seat. I smiled at her neighbors. Minzy beamed at me. “You’re pretty,” she said to me earnestly. “Don’t you agree, Seung Ri Oppa?”

Seung Ri nodded but he did not look like he cared much.

I gave her a smile. “Kamsahamida, Minzy-sshi, Seung Ri-sshi,” I said quietly.

“Just call me Minzy,” she replied, waving her hand. “I think we’re going to be good friends!” She giggled as Mr. Han started the class. She seemed like the energetic type of person.

I just smiled back. There goes my fear of making new friends, I guess.

L.Joe’s POV

I arched an eyebrow from the corner of my eyes during class. Yuri seemed really quiet and shy. But she seemed friendly at the same time. Wow, how did I manage to deduce to that?

I wonder why she suddenly came to our school. It’s in the middle of the term. I didn’t think they would accept new students at this time of the year. It was pretty strange, for the matter of fact.

During the entire lesson, I noticed she was silently listening to Mr. Han, even though nobody really bothers to listen, while everyone were sleeping, gazing off or talking — doing anything that doesn’t involve listening to what Mr. Han had to say. Once I caught her looking at me so when I turned to smile at her, she blushed and looked away. I shook my head, chuckling softly to myself.

She’s really shy, I thought as the bell rang. Maybe I should talk to her.

But to my misfortune, just as I turned to talk to her, Taemin and Minzy walked up to her. “You wanna hang with us?” Minzy asked the new girl. “We could show you around, show you to your next class.”

She looked up, surprised that she was being offered help. “Uh, sure,” she replied. “I guess I can.” She smiled.  Wow, that beauty of her smile. She packed her stuff, got up and the three of them walked off.

Aish, there goes my chance.

“Yo,” Chunji drawled lazily and I looked up to him before turning back to the door where Yuri once stood. “What are you staring at?” He looked at where I was looking. “Don’t tell me you’re having a thing for the new girl.” He sighed as if I do that all the time which is not true. He was the one who have a ‘thing’ for every new girl he finds.

I shot my friend an irritated look. “Don’t be stupid. Of course not,” I snapped defensively for no apparent reason. “I was just trying to be friends with her because she’s new and all but I guess Taemin and Minzy had beaten me to it.”

“Or you’re just trying to look for a new girlfriend,” Chunji replied, watching me as I hastily packed all my stuff and headed out to the hall to my locker to get my books for my next subject. He had to run to catch up with me. Good, that’ll give him some exercise.

 Just as I was about to reach my locker with Chunji tagging behind me, I saw three familiar figure standing around there.

It was Taemin, Minzy and Yuri. It turned out that her locker is right next to mine. Seriously, talk about good fortune. I nodded politely when I reached my locker, getting my next book out. Chunji panted hard, stopping behind me.

“I hate you,” he wheezed, trying to catch his breath. “You’re so annoying.”

I turned to him, trying to balance my bag in front of me. “Aren’t you supposedly fit?” I asked him with a raised eyebrow. “After all, you’re like the most popular guy in school — voted most athletic too.”

“That’s not funny,” he frowned. “You caught me off-guard when you started to run. And you had quite a good head start. I didn’t know where you were going so I had to rush to keep up with you. Yah, don’t ignore me! I’m talking to you!”

I ignored him anyways, taking my books out and putting my other books in.

The three of them standing next to us were having a conversation of their own. “So, what’s your next class?” I heard Taemin asked the girls with hopeful eyes. Did his eyes just twinkle? “I have music next.”

“History.” Minzy rolled her eyes.

Yuri smiled ruefully. “Sorry, but I have math class next,” she replied.

I turned to her. “I have math as well,” I told her without thinking and they looked at me, surprised by my sudden butting into the conversation. I did not normally do that and even I, myself, was caught by surprised. “I could walk you to your next class if you want.”

Next to me, Chunji choked on the bottle of water he was drinking and I gave him a withering look, willing him to be quiet. He heeded, bowed, and walked off to his next class.

Yuri seemed surprised but she nodded. “Sure. That would be great. Thanks.”

“Well, I guess we’ll see you around,” Minzy said to her, giving me a look before scurrying off with Taemin right behind her since their classes were headed in the same direction and math was the opposite. Chunji had disappeared to his art class.

I smiled. “I don’t know if you remember, but my name is —”

“L.Joe,” she replied, nodding. “But your real name is Lee Byunghun.”

I stared at her, amazed. “Wow, you remembered.”

She smiled. “I remembered all the Lee’s. I cannot remember the others yet though, other than Minzy.”

I laughed. “You’ll get it eventually.” I shook my head. “Somehow, the principal seemed to find it funny to put all the Lee’s in our year in the same science class,” I told her as I fell in her steps, walking to our math class. “So poor Mr. Han had a hard time at first, trying to figure out which Lee is which. Eventually he got used to it and could tell us apart — after a month, that is.”

“I bet you guys used to confuse him all the time,” she said, laughing as well. “Like, if he called you, you’d tell him you were someone else and such.”

“Omo! How did you guess? That was exactly what we did!” I nodded, still laughing. “Neh, it infuriated him so much. We used to get sent to detention because of it. But it was worth it. We have to enjoy our high school lives, right?”

“Riiiggghtt,” she said, giggling.

We entered our classroom and I ushered her over to where my other friends were. They looked up when they saw a girl with me. They gave me funny looks. After all, Chunji was the player, not me.

“Yuri, this is Ricky and Changjo. And, of course, you would know Niel from our class,” I introduced her to my friends and vice versa. “Guys, this is Lee Yuri, a new student in our class.”

She smiled, bowing at Ricky and Changjo before turning to Niel. Recognition lit up in her eyes. “Oh, Niel. As in Ahn Daniel.”

He nodded. “I prefer people calling me Niel because I think having a one syllable name is cool,” he explained to her.

She nodded, going along with him. “Nice to meet you Niel-sshi, Ricky-sshi, Changjo-sshi.”

Ricky laughed good-naturedly, rubbing the back of his nape while he eyesmiled at her. “Actually, I think Changjo and I should call you noona. We’re technically a year younger. We skipped a grade.”

She looked impressed. “Wah, you guys must be so smart,” she remarked.

Changjo blushed. “Anniyo, noona.”

Niel smiled at her. “Don’t need to be so formal with us, by the way,” he said. “You are our friend now. Friends don’t need to call each other with honorifics. Well, not the ‘sshi’ bit at least.”

Yuri smiled and I could tell that she was relieved to have made friends so soon on her first day.

“So, Yuri, what’s your story?” I asked. “Like, why did you suddenly enroll here in this school in the middle of the term?”

She shrugged. “I transferred here from China,” she replied.

“Wow!” Ricky gaped at her. “You’re Chinese? But you can speak Korean fluently!”

She laughed and nodded. “Well, I’m half-Korean, half-Chinese. My dad is Korean and my mom is Chinese. So ever since young my parents spoke Korean to me. It was normal to speak Korean in China for me. I know Mandarin though,” she explained.

“That’s so cool,” Niel gushed.

Just then our teacher came to start the lesson and I was assigned to help her with the math work we had done since the first day of school. She beamed at me when our teacher said that and I smiled at her.

Lee Yuri . . .

What an interesting person to get to know.