Early the next day, I rose to a surprisingly happy mood. I guess I was really excited about my new school.

By the time I left my room, the sun was out. It looked like a good day to be out, just that I didn’t have any friends just yet, so there was no one to go out with. What a pity. Maybe I’d spend lunch reading a book under a tree. I did see some nice green areas in the school compound on my way to the dormitories.

Upon reaching the school, I reported straight to the office, where I had been told to go. The school was so big, everything was so different. In my previous school, every little thing would have been handled by the headmaster himself. Here, there was an office just for scholarships. I had a lot to get used to.

After settling the administrative issues, the lady in charge brought me to my homeroom. Even the corridors were shiny to my eyes.

“This is your homeroom. I hope you have fun here,” she said with a smile, as she left me to what would become my place of study for the next two years. I took a deep breath and opened the door, expecting to be the first as I was a full thirty minutes early. I’m not sure if it was to my horror or delight, but there was another already in the room. Horror because this was the first person I was meeting and I would have to spend the next thirty minutes with this person whether I liked it or not; and delight because I would meet my first new friend! Wearing a hoodie, the person was slouched over the table. I guessed he was sleeping, but as I entered he adjusted his posture such that his chin was still on the table with his arm covering the lower half of his face, but he could see me and I could see his eyes below his slightly ruffled hair.

Without looking at his mouth, I could tell that he was smiling, as the boy in front of me had the pair of most expressive eyes I had ever seen. They were twinkly in their own right, and showed his expression fully.

“Finally, somebody! I was getting bored,” he said.

“Umm, annyeong haseyo,” I shifted uncomfortably, still standing. I wasn’t sure what to say as I didn’t even know him.

“New here?” he asked in a friendly manner.

“Uhh, yeah. You?” I immediately screamed at myself inside for having asked what must have been the stupidest question ever, but he simply laughed.

“Nope, been here my whole life for as long as I can remember,” he chuckled, his eyes laughing along again.

“Oh!” I remembered that SM had primary and secondary divisions too, but it was mainly the college that made it famous. Still, I was sure there were people like him who had been there since primary school.

“Why don’t you sit down,” he said, pulling out the chair beside him.

“Oh, thanks,” I hurried over.

“I’m Sungmin,” he introduced.

“Hi, I’m Jiyeon,” I said with a smile. This guy – Sungmin – seemed nice enough; I was glad that the first person I met was friendly so I felt relieved. I thought there might be awkward silence, but he was personable and he just asked me some general questions and it wasn’t awkward at all.

A few minutes later, I started having stomach pains. Then I remembered the piece of bread I had eaten the previous night. I had just brought it along from home, thinking it was okay, but it now appeared that it wasn’t.

“Sungmin, so sorry, think I have to go to the toilet for a while,” I interrupted him as he was telling me about the different celebrations throughout the school year.

“Oh, yeah, sure.”

I rushed to the toilet, which was thankfully easy enough to find. After I came out of the cubicle, there were some girls at the sink, looking at themselves in the mirror.

“Wow.” One of them said this in a low voice, remaining in an O-shape.

“What?” Another asked, still preening her hair.

“That’s the longest skirt I’ve ever seen in this school,” the first said, folding her arms.

“It can’t be that bad,” the second girl said, now looking at her eyes.

Yet a third chimed in, “It really is, you know, just take a look.”

And yes, they were saying all this in front of me, while I was washing my hands.

When the second girl finally fished out some time to look, she almost screamed. “Oh my god! It is that bad!” She glanced up at me and shook her head. “Who are you anyway? Never seen you before,” she posed the first question to me. After what they had said, I wasn’t sure whether or not to be hostile or friendly. But I decided to play safe.

“Hi, I’m Jiyeon. How do you do?”

“Uhh, well. I was doing great until I saw you…” the first girl said sarcastically as the trio walked out with laughter trailing.

I stood there for a good minute, swallowing my saliva and almost running back into the cubicle to cry, until I recalled that Sungmin was still waiting for me. I wiped whatever moisture had welled up in my eyes and hurried back.

Back in the classroom, more people had started streaming in. I headed to my seat but the first girl was there. And she was…leaning on Sungmin’s shoulder.

“I’ve missed you, Sungmin!” she said in a high-pitched voice while trying to do a puppy-eyes look. I don’t know why, but I caught myself holding my breath while waiting to see what Sungmin’s reaction would be.

I smiled inwardly as he brushed her off without even so much as looking. “Stop it, Heejun.” He jerked his shoulder away, causing her to fall abruptly.

“Hmph!” She stomped off.

“That girl’s crazy,” I thought to myself, as I went back to sit beside Sungmin. Not a moment later, I heard stomping of feet back to the seat I was at.

“What?! This girl with the long skirt can sit here but I can’t? Ah, waegurae, Sungmin?”

“Heejun, stop making a scene. You’re not even my girlfriend.”

“And she is?” she challenged.

“So what if she is?” he replied hotly, earning loud gasps from Heejun as well as other onlookers. The topic ended there as a bunch of boys ran in and did high fives with Sungmin. Others clapped him on the back as they walked past. Some even sat down for a short while to chat with him. The episode with Heejun had obviously not affected his mood as he greeted them back just as happily.

“Boy, he’s popular,” I thought to myself. Nearly everyone else who walked in after said hi to Sungmin.

Ten minutes before the start of class, three other boys walked in coolly and sat themselves in front of us.

“Jiyeon, this is Eunhyuk, Ryeowook and Kyuhyun,” Sungmin introduced. “Guys, this is Jiyeon. She’s in this class.”

“Annyeong haseyo,” they chorused cutely.

“Annyeong haseyo,” I greeted them back.

“Where’s Donghae?” Sungmin asked.

“He’s a little late today, think we’ll see him only at lunch,” informed Eunhyuk.

“See you there,” Sungmin used his thumb and first two fingers to form the shape of a gun and playfully ‘shot’ Eunhyuk.

“Hey, it’s about time. Come on, I heard our new teacher doesn’t really like latecomers.” Ryeowook was anxious to go.

“Relax. With me around, what’s there to be afraid of?” Kyuhyun assured Ryeowook as he put his arm around him.

“Still…” Ryeowook was already standing.

“Ok, come on Kyu, don’t get Wookie into trouble on the first day of the new year. Too bad we’re not in the same class this year anyway, Hyuk… Well, see you all at lunch, I guess,” Sungmin shooed them away.

“From the way you introduced me, I thought they were all in our class too,” I joked, curious as to why Sungmin introduced me to a whole bunch of people not in my class but not to the rest who had stopped by to say hi earlier, who were really in our class.

“Because those are my best buds and I see that you need some taking care of so I think we’re all going to be spending a lot of time together,” Sungmin joked. “Anyway, Ryeowookie and Kyuhyunnie are a year younger. Well in fact Kyu’s two but he’s early.* I’m just not in the same class as Eunhyuk and Donghae.” Then his face grew more serious and his tone low but soft. “Jiyeon ah, sorry for using you just now to deal with Heejun. I…”

“It’s ok.” I was a bit quick to forgive, but I understood the situation that had taken place earlier. He gave me a grateful smile. I felt like the guy who had helped me on the bus. I was just paying it forward, I guess, and I wasn’t even doing much. Still, I felt happy inside. Apart from Heejun and co, my first meetings all passed well. I was glad to have met Sungmin.

*In Korea, the school term starts in March, so anyone born before then can choose to go to school with the previous batch. Kyuhyun attended the same batch as Ryeowook because he was born in February. I know Sungmin is also early, but for the sake of the story, let it pass pretty please :D