“Welcome back, everyone!” Jungsu said jovially as they started class. “How was your first night as roommates?”

            “Uh…” Sehun began, glancing at Tao, Kris and then Luhan.

            “It was fine,” Kris said. Jungsu looked slightly confused, but continued on once again.

            “Alright!” he said, clapping his hands. “Great! So, this is your class. I hope you guys are all getting along and stuff, because you’ll be together all year!” The boys all glanced nervously at Tao, their fright still not having totally dissipated. Kris vowed at that moment to get the other boys to like Tao.

            “Okay, open your books, I’m going to start with history today,” Jungsu said, and that’s how the school day began.

            The day was easy, and particularly boring except for two incidents. The first was English class:

            “Hello class, I’m your English teacher, Jung Aerin. Since this is a different type of school, you can just call me Aerin. We’ll take a diagnostic test first to see where you all are; this isn’t for a grade, so don’t worry.” She handed out the sheets of paper.

            The test was easy. Kris had always been good at English and he felt sure that he got all the answers correct. Aerin had them pass the papers to someone else in the class to grade when they’d finished. Kris traded his with Lay, but looked over across the room to make sure someone had traded with Tao.

            To Kris’s great pleasure, he discovered that Luhan had traded with Tao. Kris smiled.

            “What’s with the goofy expression?” Lay asked teasingly.

            “What goofy expression?” Kris asked, turning back towards Lay.

            “The one on your face,” Lay laughed.

            “Nothing,” Kris said quickly. Lay gave him a playfully suspicious glance but didn’t press the issue.

            “Whoa, you’re really good at English,” Lay noted. “You only got number sixteen wrong and that’s it.”

            “Damn past subjunctive,” Kris muttered. “Thanks though.”

            “Yup. How’d I do?”

            “Thirty-seven out of fifty,” Kris said, handing Lay his paper back.

            “Hey, not bad!” Lay said, looking pleased. They all passed the papers to Aerin, who quickly shuffled through them.

            “Wow, I’m impressed with this class. Class 2-C had a much lower average score than you did. Kris, you got a forty-nine out of fifty. Well done!” Kris grinned, leaning back in his chair confidently. English came easily to him. “However, we do have a perfect score!”

            Kris shot up, looking around the class. Not Chanyeol, he could barely speak his own language. Not Kyungsoo either. Maybe Chen? Or perhaps Sehun?

            “Congratulations, Tao!” Aerin said, and the entire class looked back at him. He looked down at his desk.

            Tao? Kris was surprised. But then again, Tao kept surprising him.

            The rest of the lesson was fairly boring, as expected. Aerin seemed like a good teacher but for Kris, who knew more English than the rest of the class (except for Tao, apparently), it was too easy.

            The second incident that day that Kris found interesting was gym class. And interesting was an understatement.

            “Okay, I’m your teacher, Mr. Shin. Don’t call me anything other than Mr. Shin. I don’t like this school’s rule of calling your teachers by their first names. And do not call me coach.”

            Mr. Shin was a large man, with bushy eyebrows and pockmarked cheeks. He had a glint in his eye that even instilled some apprehension in Kris.

            Luhan, of course, was terrified. Mr. Shin was a million times scarier than Tao.

            “Today we’re going to play basketball. You and you,” Mr. Shin said, pointing at Kris and Chanyeol, two of the tallest in the class, “you’re going to be the captains. Pick your teams.”

            “Uh, okay,” Kris said. “Chanyeol, you can start.”

            “Baekhyun!” Chanyeol said with a smile. Baekhyun grinned and joined Chanyeol.

            “Tao,” Kris said. Tao looked relieved as he walked over to Kris.

            “Um…Kai,” Chanyeol continued.

            “Lay.”

            “Kyungsoo.”

            “Xiumin.”

            “Suho.”

            “Chen.”

            “I guess I’ll take Sehun then,” Chanyeol said. Sehun looked dejected as he walked away from Luhan, who joined Kris’s team.

            Kris was certain by that point than there was more to Sehun and Luhan than met the eye. But he didn’t say anything.

            “Alright now play!” Mr. Shin said. “I bet tall kid’s team wins.”

            “Wow, okay,” Kris said under his breath. He and Chanyeol started, Kris easily hitting the ball out of Chanyeol’s reach and the game really beginning.

            Mr. Shin kept yelling at Chanyeol’s team, because they weren’t doing nearly as well. Kris scored the first point.

            “Nice!” Chen grinned, patting Kris on the back. “We’ll win for sure.”

            It seemed like Chen was right. Kris scored twice more, Xiumin scored twice, and Lay scored once. Chanyeol’s team was still basketless.

            Kai was running from one end of the court to the other, and it looked like Tao was running in the exact opposite direction, neither of them watching where they were going. It seemed like it was happening in slow motion, Kris observing their impending collision without being able to do anything because he was too far away.

            “Tao!” he cried right before Tao and Kai were about to hit each other. Tao turned and just before he hit Kai, he did an amazing dodge and somersaulted on the ground, landing perfectly on his feet. Kris was awestruck as Tao dusted himself off and turned around to look at Kai.

            In fact, by the time Kris was able to pull his gaze away from Tao, he noticed that everyone else was looking at Kai too.

            “Mr. Shin, he’s bleeding!” Kyungsoo cried, kneeling down next to Kai, who looked like he was in pain. “Do something!”

            “I’m a gym teacher, not a doctor,” Mr. Shin shrugged. “Get him to the nurse.”

            “But he’s bleeding. We have to staunch the blood somehow. That’s a big cut,” Kyungsoo said.

            “If you’re so smart, why don’t you do something then, huh?” Mr. Shin snapped. Kyungsoo looked at him angrily.

            “Fine,” he said, pulling off his shirt and using it to wrap Kai’s wound.

            “Kai, are you okay?” Kyungsoo asked, pressing the shirt to Kai’s leg.

            “…Yeah,” Kai managed to say. “I’m fine.”

            “No you’re not!” Kyungsoo cried as he looked at the pained expression on Kai’s face.

            “I’m sorry,” Tao said quietly as he stared dumbstruck at Kai. “I…”

            “It’s okay, Tao,” Kris said reassuringly, and the others nodded. “It was an accident. It wasn’t your fault.”

            “I’m bringing him to the nurse,” Kyungsoo announced. “Xiumin, help me carry him.”

            Kyungsoo and Xiumin picked Kai up, supporting him as he limped off to the nurse.

            “Well, I guess we’ll have to stop playing now that the teams are uneven,” Mr. Shin said. “At least tall kid’s team won.”

            “My name is Kris,” Kris said gruffly.

           “Yeah, yeah. Okay then, you can just do whatever you want until the period is over; I’ll be in my office.” Mr. Shin left promptly and the boys were left with nothing to do in the otherwise empty gym.

            Lay, Chen, Suho, and Chanyeol started a new game, while Sehun sat talking with Baekhyun and Luhan. Kris walked over to Tao.

            “That was a really cool somersault you did,” he said in the most complimentary tone of voice.

            “It’s just from wushu training,” Tao explained as he and Kris sat down. “I can react quickly but…I feel bad.”

            “Why? It was just as much his fault as it was yours, and it was an accident on both your parts, so you shouldn’t worry about it.”

            “Really?”

            “Yeah!” Kris laughed. “You really shouldn’t be blaming yourself. It wasn’t even that bad of a wound.”

            “It was deep though. He was bleeding a lot,” Tao said worriedly. Kris put his arm around Tao’s shoulder to reassure him, but suddenly Tao tensed up, even clenching his teeth. His expression remained unreadable, though, so Kris pulled his arm back.

            “You, uh…you shouldn’t worry.”

            “Okay,” Tao sighed.

            “So,” Kris said, changing the subject. “You’re pretty good at English, huh? Are you a native speaker? Or did you live abroad or something?”

            “No, I taught myself,” Tao said.

            “Wow!” Kris said, sincerely impressed. “That’s amazing, Tao!”

            And then he smiled. Tao smiled. Kris’s heart stopped for a moment. Tao’s perfect, bow shaped lips turned up and his eyebrows went up slightly. A blush appeared on Tao’s smooth cheeks as he ran his fingers through his hair bashfully.

            “I really like English,” Tao said shyly.

            “Wow,” Kris breathed, still looking at Tao’s adorable little smile. He thought to himself that if he could see that smile more often he’d be very happy.

            “Um, class is over now,” Tao said, and Kris refocused his eyes on Tao’s. Those feline eyes looked brighter than usual, but maybe it was just Kris’s imagination.

            He and the other boys gathered, and as they walked the cafeteria for lunch, Kris had a new spring in his step. It’s probably just the leftover adrenaline from the game, he thought.

            They all sat at the same table, even though Kyungsoo, Xiumin and Kai were still missing.

            “Tao,” Luhan said suddenly, “you were really cool when you did that flip thing.”

            “Yeah!” Baekhyun added. “Look, Tao, we’re sorry that we weren’t the most welcoming at first. Please let us start over.”

            “Exactly,” Luhan agreed. The other boys all nodded enthusiastically, with wide smiles.

            “Yeah, sorry,” Sehun said genuinely.

            “Hey, Tao, are you good at video games?” Lay asked.

            “I…I don’t really play video games,” Tao said softly, seemingly surprised that people were suddenly talking to him.

            “What do you like to do?” Kris asked. “Besides wushu, I mean.”

            “Well…I like shopping,” Tao said hesitantly. “Clothes and stuff.”

            “Wah,” Luhan gushed, “that’s cute!”

            Cute. The word struck Kris. He wasn’t the only one who thought of “cute” and Tao together. It was okay for him to think that.

            Kris smiled to himself as everyone continued to talk to Tao.

A/N: I cannot believe I finished this chapter tonight. Now I'm going to fail my calc finallll TT_TT Oh well. Not like it matters because Exie is in college~

Also, the pairings have mostly been decided...Taoris, Hunhan, Baekyeol, Kaisoo, and...idk. I don't want to pair Xiumin and Chen. I like Chen/Suho. I like Xiumin/Suho. I like Lay/Suho. What do you guys think?

@Nakonoshi: Tao is so cute~

@vanndee13: I'm sure we will!

@AlwaysMe-: I like the note too :) And the picture!

@demonic_angel0711: I agree with your pairings...but I don't really want to introduce any new characters...oh, what to do, what to do...

@Renzei27: Thank you <3

@hallyterry: Kekekeke :D

@Sageandaparty: FAVORITES? Omoooo thank you~

@rosebutterfly: Kaisoo it is!

@dancingparty123: I'm glad you like it!

@silverphoenix: Hehehehehe quite. Kris doesn't know his own feelings already. 

@BlueStarLover: I DID see that they got their piercings together. Omoooooo so cute <3

@kitty_kat: I'm so so glad <3

@KyuMinLover123: Thank you!! Makes me happy to hear that~

@aznmusiklife: Hehehehe I love that!

@deathangeL_se7en: I'll forever love Taoris too~

@fyrefox233: No no I'm definitely doing Kai/D.O. Definitely :)

@Fandom22: I'm so happy thank you!

@mj_a_lover: I'm trying to keep up with their interviews...I still have NetEase and Tudou left to go...I loved the Youku one though. 

@s7herry: Maybe I'll write a crackfic someday~

@Galdy42: Thank youuuuu I'm flattered :)

@kawaiikimbap: Yeah...there's more to this Hunhan than meets the eye, as they say...you'll seeeeee~

@NaerEllen: Kekekeke flip as much as you like~

@shizuku: Kaisoo seems popular so...voila~

@FeliciaT: Thank you!

@SadisticRainbows: I see Kray as more of a bromance. That's why I roomed them. It's like Jongho.

@DancerTae: Omoooo thank you!

@UndergroundMemories: Yup! 

@clarene: Oooh...that could be good. I will consider it.

@butterflybabe13: Yaysies thank you!

@deerkey: Kaisoo is so popular...all these comments made me start shipping them too hehehehe

@specialleeme: Voila!

@AsianDrama: WAHHHH Shinee in my story hahahaha. I'm so curious too :)

@BalancedCuppycake: It's my goal to make all my readers melt into pure sugary gooeyness ;P

♥ Exie