He transferred at the beginning of the school year, which should seem like no extraordinary feat, but it was. We got new students every year, but the girls went extra crazy over this one. Why, I had yet to find out.

He was in my fourth period, halfway through the day. The girls started hyperventilating while he spoke to the teacher. I could only see him from the back, but I could tell he had dyed his hair to a dark brown and it lay just past his shoulder. His jacket – buttoned in the front – hugged his waist, which was actually smaller than a few girls’.

A girl I’d never spoken to before appeared next to me. “Uh, your name is Hangeng, right? I nodded. “Would you mind switching seats with me?”

“Why she nervously looked to the right, to the new kid. Oh, I see. Well I’m sorry, but it’s the first day of school, I’ve already seen all the people I wanted to see, and the only thing keeping me from shooting up the school is lunch looming on the horizon. That and I don’t have a gun. “Sorry, my leg really hurts.” The girl pouted. I internally laughed. My table was the only one not filled up, as there was an empty chair next to me. That was why this girl had materialized next to me, and that’s also why I turned down her offer.

The new kid turned to sit next to me. The girl pouted in his direction, frowned at me, and bounced back to her seat like nothing happened. The new guy sat down. “She your girlfriend?” He asked. His voice was low, though not too low. It surprised me a bit, since he seemed so delicate, but it suited him. His eyes were big and intent on me. He wasn’t just attempting to make our year together less awkward.

I looked back at the girl who, upon seeing me, frowned once more. Turning back to the new guy, I replied with, “No, I don’t even know her.”  And then, because my level seems to be rising as the seconds tick by, “She wanted me to switch with her so she could sit next to you.”

New-Guy groaned. “I’ve been here a total of three class periods and I’ve been asked out eight times, two of which were guys. I wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t the first day of school and I actually knew some people. By the way, I’m Heechul. You got a name?”

“Hangeng.”

“Chinese?” I nodded. “Thought so. Well, Hangeng, you’re my first friend, so I’m sitting with you at lunch.”

“Fair enough.”

“Oh and you should know: I’m gay.”

The entire class heard him. Girls cursed. Guys shivered, as if Heechul would try to make a move on them.  I knew at that moment that Heechul had become an outcast. A paper ball landed on my desk. I un-wadded it and read the note: Are you sure you don’t want to change seats with me? Heechul looked over my shoulder and rolled his eyes. I took out a pen and wrote back: Thanks, but no thanks.

Which is how I, too, became an outcast.