Pushing aside the sea of students that occupied the halls, Mai eventually found herself in front of her locker. The moment she opened it, the realization that everything was in her duffel bag had slapped her right across her flawless face. She didn't have it nor did she even know if it was still near her homeroom or not. Releasing a heavy sigh and closing her locker's door, it was as if the Princess was dragging her feet all the way to class.

Thoughts regarding to her most recent encounter with some of the Princes flooded her mind. Being around them made her realize how much she really missed their company. It's too difficult for her to turn her back on the memories they had created together; and all of the promises attached to them. But the sheer mysteriousness of their appearance shook her to her core—there was a reason why all of them were there and she was going to find out sooner or later just why.

Gathering her composure, Mai stepped into class with no hesitation, and was quickly confronted by the humble eyes of an old friend. Her heart skipped a beat and she immediately pressed her hand against her chest, right where it was. A small gasp escaped her luscious pink lips. This was definitely not the way she had wanted to start off her day.

 "Mai?" their own lips parted to almost sing her name.

Taking a few more seconds to get lost in his wonderful eyes, she flashed back into reality after the awkward silence between them. "...Kai..." she returned his surprised tone.

Kai's heart was beginning to beat faster and faster. "I knew you were here; I knew it," he tried to contain his grin and withhold the need to just hug her.

Mai focused in on Elijah right behind him. He had a sympathetic face that was both filled with worry and cautiousness. He paid close attention to Kai's body language; and determined that his gestures weren't meant to harm the Princess. She, however, made a mental note of gathering information from Elijah. Something was up; and somehow her trusted advisor was involved.

Sending a mental apology to the Princess, Elijah calmed down the loud and rough classroom. Tapping his planner against his clean wooden desk, he politely ordered, "Okay class. Let's get to our seats and we can introduce the newest addition to our homeroom."

The entire class of twenty nine, now thirty with the addition of the brand new alien prince, silenced themselves in their assigned seats. Mai shuffled off to her seat hurriedly, realizing that the only other empty seat was to her right, for she was settled into the front left corner of the room. Her old classmate had ended up getting demoted into a lower ranking class for reckless behaviour, and she knew their place had to be filled eventually.

Kai kept his eyes locked on her, examining just how much she had changed. Face wise, she hadn't changed at all. But he did make a mental note of how she had matured. It wasn't exactly out of the blue for someone of her planet to age the way she did; but her attributes were extremely special and especially captivating. He couldn't help but finally grin once she pouted while placing her chin on the palm of her hand and looking out the window. She may not have wanted to even gaze in his direction, but that didn't bother him.

"Please introduce yourself," Elijah turned to face the very familiar figure in his presence.

The Prince immediately placed his hands in his pockets and leaned confidently. "My name is Kai."

As Elijah took the proper procedures to present Kai to the class, Mai continued to avoid any possible eye contact with him. She just continued to look out into nature, wondering if she'd ever have the freedom that wild animals held. A simple tap on the shoulder caught her attention. Building up her wall of superiority once more, she turned around to respond.

The person who wanted to talk to her was not whom she had expected though. "I think the new guy is staring at you."

"I haven't noticed." What a terrible lie. Everyone in the room noticed once she entered the room. Kai hadn't taken his eyes off of her for more than ten seconds; and he clearly had a train of thoughts gliding through his mind with each passing moment.

Taemin leaned back on his seat and laughed lightly. The light shined at such an angle that made him seem almost angelic. "Who wouldn't blame him though; you're an extremely beautiful girl," he smiled while staring out into the sky.

Kai noticed how Mai tried to conceal her smile while talking to the boy behind her. That human was irrelevant to his interests; but did pose as a small obstacle in their mission. Looking forward to the rest of the class, he grinned, "Thank you for all of your warm welcomes."

He lightly pulled his backpack from his shoulder as he basically danced to his desk. Placing it to the side, the Prince decided to play the same game Mai was. He'll keep his distance from her, if that's what she wants, but he knew in the end that he'll win. She will want to talk to him. She will want an explanation. She will pull him aside to converse privately. And when she admits defeat, the mission can be properly carried out.

"Uh, excuse me," Taemin leaned forward to sweetly capture Kai's attention.

The wideyed Prince, who could have been related to Taemin due to their similar looks, was a bit caught off guard by the boy's actions. "Mhm?"

"I wanted to properly introduce myself," the kind boy smiled. "I'm Taemin."

"Nice to meet you, Taemin."

Mai was mentally stabbing Taemin, for even drawing his attention like this was going to force her to have to talk to Kai. What she hated the most was the fact that their desks were doublets, meaning that her desk was the same long wooden table as Kai's. There was no escaping, no space, no room for her to even properly breathe.

"And your new tablemate is Mai," he continued their introduction. "She may seem a bit distant at first, but she's really nice once you talk to her."

Kai immediately concealed a small laugh from escaping his lips. He definitely knew that quality of Mai's. She was the type to observe people at first, just like him, before drawing conclusions of whether or not a relationship of any kind with them was worth their time. They definitely had butted heads over the years, but it just strengthened their friendship even more. "Pleasure to meet you, Mai."

Mai slightly turned to face her old friend, accepting the fact that he had matured greatly himself. She noted how much leaner he looked compared to his days years ago. Even trying to push aside the fact that he looked absolutely amazing in their school uniform, the Princess coughed under her breath. "Likewise, Kai."

The tensions between them rose—but just the mere type of tension was a bit of a mystery. Anyone could clearly notice that there was something going on between them, but would be too shy to even ask such a question Their awkward eye contact was finally interrupted by their teacher.

"Let's begin today's lesson plan," Elijah ordered the sea of students under his control. He fiddled through his planner, taking notes and attendance, before returning his attention to the teenagers. "Okay, you guys know that the first quarter festival is coming up."

A loud explosion of cheers and claps flooded everyone's ears. The ultimate pride of their school was their festivals. They had them for every occasion possible, including the blossoming of the flowers in the spring, the first day of scheduled snow, a beach festival when it gets warmer, and everything in between. Take into account that their sports teams were national ranking champions, and their genius population was truly the some of the most brilliant people around. All of those labels are shattered when the festival preparations are the main focus of all students and staff.

Elijah smiled largely at their enthusiasm. "And since this is your final year in high school, you guys know what that means," he turned his back on the students so he could face the board. While grabbing one of the markers, the youthful teacher wrote words in his perfect writing as he spoke. "We are the ones in charge of the entire year's festivities. Now, all of you need to nominate and vote on possible ideas to present to the other senior class homerooms."

"I nominate Mai as our leader!" Someone exclaimed from the back of the room.

"Okay," Elijah legibly illustrated her name on the board, "who agrees with that?"

And every other hand, aside from Kai's, immediately shot up into the air. A part of Mai was a bit happy that Kai hadn't reacted. She immediately looked at the possible extremely stressful moments coming up, but festivals were truly something she enjoyed—and well, she can't turn her back on them!

"Are you okay with that, Mai?"

"Yeah," she smiled at her advisor. "I'd be honoured to lead and oversee the preparations."

"Great! Now, who has some awesome ideas?"

"Since it's close to Halloween, why not do a theme centered around that?" Another student expressed their thoughts.

"Wow, so original; a Halloween themed festival," their tablemate laughed under their breath.

"Okay, then what do you suggest?"

A ton of possibilities were written all over the board within the hour of homeroom. The most popular idea though, was a circus themed extravaganza. They had never done that in the history of the festivals; and it was a family centered proposal. Mai was already thinking up all sorts of games and rides that could be attached to such a theme once it was suggested. There would be fireworks and face painting, tons of carnival rides, maybe even a petting zoo for children. But it had to be voted on by the other senior classes. Who would even turn down such a brilliant festival?

Once the bell rang, indicating the shift of classes, all students hurriedly gathered their belongings. Taemin and Mai had the following period together—Physical Education. While Taemin was conversing with a few people for a brief moment, Mai shot up from her seat and immediately rushed to Elijah as he recorded all of the information he had written on the board. Kai kept his eyes focused on the beauty in his presence. He tried his best not to have his eyes travel down from her slim waist to her perfectly sculpted legs. But that didn't really work out.

"I am about to spontaneously combust," she growled under her breath.

"You've handled this hour pretty nicely though," he told her as he kept his eyes focused on the board. "You didn't yell, fight, or hit anyone. I'm extremely proud of you."

"I can't even fathom the fact that I have to sit in homeroom with Kai right next to me," Mai pulled out her cellphone from her backpack. "And I am not excited about the likelihood that I'll have the others in my other classes."

"Then overlook that fact, Mai. They can't win if you don't give them the opening to get inside your mind."

"They won't even start that game," she scoffed while walking towards Taemin who was waiting for her by the doors. While presenting a small smile to her , Mai turned around to bid farewell to her 'cousin'. "Goodbye, Mr. E!"

"See you later, kids!"

Kai pulled his backpack over his shoulder as Elijah returned to his desk to arrange his papers for his following class. Aside from being a homeroom teacher, Elijah was one of the English teachers for the seniors. He specialized in the analytical part of literature. In reality though, his specialty back at the palace was the observation of situations and others. Hewas the head advisor and analyzer of the royal family, and was the absolute best at his occupation.

Once they crossed paths, Kai whispered, "Thank you."

Outside in the halls, the confident Prince met up with the only other high schooler of his group. Sehun was leaning against the wall, right outside of his homeroom, waiting for Kai to relay back any information with him. Upon seeing each other, Sehun rushed to the older Prince's side.

"Where are the others?" asked Kai.

Sehun sighed under his breath, "They got sorted into the college system here."

"Figures," the other laughed as the two headed towards their following period. "The educational process here on Earth is extremely trivial to me."

"I don't understand what high school and college means."

"I believe they split up the students by age and level of comprehension," the older replied. "Which means anyone passed eighty or eighty five with a certain level of intellectual background is qualified for the higher means of education."

"Mhm, interesting... Then the thirteen of us would already have the highest degrees possible here on Earth." Which was no exaggeration. The teaching process back at their galaxy was extremely extensive compared to Earth's. And each of the Royals were educated by the best of the best, in a wide array of subjects, to prepare them for the difficulties of gaining the throne.

"Yes. We would."

Sehun and Kai began to observe the crowds of students that flooded the halls. There was  a ten minute passing period between each class, allowing all students to get their needed books and settle into class comfortably before the start of the new period. The campus itself was gigantic, having parted all of the different educational levels from each other. There were four buildings, each three stories tall, dedicated to the high school; while more than ten buildings of the same requirements consisted the college base. The elementary and middle school sections were at a whole different campus just five minutes away, to separate the drastic s.

Upon finishing and concluding his analysis of humans. Most were missing the natural etiquette that Sehun was brought up in, just modern day to day mannerisms and such. It appalled him to a degree, but he understood that his background was really special compared to theirs. None the less, he somewhat preferred keeping to his own circle, where he was comfortable with each and every member. "Remind me why we are enrolled here?"

"Because we need to show her that we have no bad intentions. Just as I had predicted, she seemed more than distant upon seeing me. I just collided paths with her earlier."

Once they reached Sehun's next class, which was right next to Kai's, the younger asked, "Was she surprised?"

"Definitely. But Mai seemed a lot calmer than I thought she would. Which means only one thing—"

"That you were right," the one minute bell rang to remind students that they didn't have a long time before the start of the following period, "and she has already been confronted by Kris and the others."

"We'll converse with the others during lunch time," Kai told him as he glided over to his class. "There's this oddity, and possible problem--that we all need to talk about."