You stare at him bewildered, coffee girl?

The teacher, in turn stares at you, then at Zelo, then back. “I see you two have already met?” she asks cocking an eyebrow.

“Umm, n-” you start, but Zelo cuts you off.

“Yes! This morning we met,” he says, grinning like a madman.

The teacher looks fairly surprised, she obviously didn’t expect anyone to know the Korean boy just yet. “Well, I think I know who he’s going to be partnered with for the semester,” she said. “But first, I have to introduce him. Everyone, this is Zelo, and he’s part of the Korean boy band group transferring in this school for a bit, B.A.P.”

Zelo waves and flashes everyone a big smile, friendly and pleasant. “Hello! I’m Zelo and I hope to be your friend from now on,” he says, and of course, that wins everyone over. He then looks at you and winks, making your heart skip a beat and making you blush. Again. The teacher, the angel that she is, suddenly speaks up and Zelo shifts his gaze from you to the teacher.

“Now, as you all know, each of the members will be partnered up with someone for the rest of the semester and will basically be, I suppose, peer support. Their partner will be in all of their classes and such, and now,” she looks at you. “I think we’ve established who Zelo’s partner will be?”

Now everybody stares at you, including Zelo. You force a smile, “Yeah, I guess so.”

As you walk out of homeroom, Zelo catches up to you and pats your shoulder. “Hey,” he says in that y voice of his. You look up to him and smile, “Hello, I’m really sorry about the umm, coffee incident this morning. I’m Hazel Hummingbird by the way. Do you need your jacket back? You must be cold…” you say. But he refuses the jacket, “It’s colder in Korea so I’m used to it. And don’t be sorry, the coffee woke me up actually, I was half asleep this morning,” he explained, laughing and making his eyes shrink. “I’m Zelo.” You smile at him and he sees you, stops laughing and immediately looks away.

Hmm? Why did he look away?

The rest of the short walk to first period is done with a comfortable silence and soon you’re in Maths listening to another boring lesson by one of the most boring and technical teachers in the school with Zelo sitting next to you, sharing your textbook.

He leans towards you and whispers, “Are all the lessons this boring?” he asks. You can’t keep the smirk off your face, “Oh yeah, except maybe Music. I like the lessons then, I mean, I at theory but I love prac time,” you reply, not looking at him. “And it seems that we have that subject next. You rap right?” this time you turn your head to look at him and you realise he’s been looking at you really intensely. Suddenly the teacher calls out to the two of you, “Hazel, Zelo, is there something wrong? Would one of you like to answer this question that I was just explaining?” you look at the teacher and almost shrink because of his glare, and then you look at the problem on the board. What the hell is that?

Zelo glances up at the question on the board and stands up confidently, “I’ll do it,” he tells the teacher who an eyebrow. Zelo simply walks up to the whiteboard, grabs a marker and solves the problem with ease, as if he was only breathing. When he finishes, he puts the marker down and stalks back to his seat with the teacher looking at him in utter surprise and you looking at him in amusement. “So you’re smart too, huh?” you ask.

He gives you another goofy grin, “Only reason why my parents even let me audition for a talent agency.”

The bell rings and the two of you pack your things, heading out of the room with you in front and Zelo trailing behind. As you walk towards the music room, you ask him, “So having fun yet?”

“Hmm, not yet., soon maybe once we get to Music since you say it’s the most exciting subject and I trust you,” he replies just as you enter the room and an explosion of sound fills your ears. You stand in the doorway for a bit until you realise that it was a K-pop song, achingly familiar. You try to rack your brain for ideas, all you could remember that it was a song Reena had shown you before.

All of a sudden, someone starts rapping and you look behind you, your gaze meeting Zelo’s. He winks and pulls you into the room, circling you while rapping at 100 kilometres an hour. You’re amazed at his nimble and sophisticated tongue, able to go so fast that if you had even tried to rap as he had, you would have puked out rainbows. His rap ends and the song continues, other blonde Asians joining in.

When it does end though, you can only stare at Zelo and his five companions. Zelo speaks up, “So did you like it? Our song, Warrior,” he asks grinning that goofy grin of his. And then you remember, so that was what the song was. The first K-pop song Reena had introduced to you, Warrior.

You grin back at Zelo and his companions, “That was pretty cool. Although I have no idea what the hell you guys were saying.” You’re rewarded with laughs from all six of them.

Music class goes on and it seems that the whole of B.A.P. would be in the same music class, which is sort of expected. All that basically happens in the lesson is just students –mostly girls– standing around the boy group, acting all mushy and adoringly. You’re a bit annoyed but what can you do? They were pop stars, of course girls would be flocking around them. But you still can’t help but feel a small pang of jealousy. Zelo was your partner, no one else’s. The rest of the lesson is spent with improvisation with everyone either on instruments or singing, rapping or beat boxing. You sing and play the piano, and have the best music lesson of your life.

The bell rings again and you quickly pack your things. You glance at Zelo and hesitate to call out to him, he was still surrounded by a few girls. You have to tell him though, “Zelo!” he looks at you, “It’s recess now. Find me if you need me okay?” You turn and walk away, going down the staircase towards the grass area, and to your favourite spot under a shady tree where it was all quiet and peaceful. You pull out a book from your bag, Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult and open it to the page you were up to. You haven’t even read a whole page until you hear a familiar y voice call out your name.

“Hazel! Hey! I was looking for you, you know,” he exclaims, jogging up to you. “Why did you leave me?”

You wonder why he looked for you when he looked perfectly fine with his group mates. “I thought you were going to stay with your B.A.P. friends,” you tell him. He sighs and sits next to you, “You’re my partner right? You should stay with me because if I get lost, it’s your responsibility,” he stares at you with beautiful unblinking eyes. All you could do was nod. He shuffles closer to you, “What are you reading?” he asks.

You lift the cover of the book so he can see the title. He looks at it and suddenly his forehead cutely crinkles in concentration, after a few moments, he gives up, “I give up, my speaking might be alright but my reading is horrible,” he tells you. You look up from your book and start laughing, almost tearing up while he looks at you and starts laughing as well. Your laughs die down and you look at him again and say, “It’s Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult.”

His mouth makes an O shape and he suddenly stares into your eyes. “Can you read it for me?” he asks. You tilt your head, puzzled but agree anyway, “Sure.”

As you start reading, he shuffles even closer and you feel his warmth even through the jacket – his jacket – you’re wearing. You blush but read on and in ten minutes, Zelo’s head is on your shoulders, dozing off and quietly snoring. You smile to yourself and you lie his head on your lap, making him stir but still fast asleep. Soon you quietly doze off as well with your hand on his head, and the both of you stay in that peaceful position for a while.

You wake up to the touch of someone’s hand on your face, you slowly open your eyes and discover that Zelo was the one who was touching your cheek. He looks like he had just woken up as well, he still looks a bit dazed. You rub your eyes.

“…Zelo?”

Suddenly, he stiffens, as if only realising what he was doing, takes his hand back and sits up, turning his back against you. “Uh, s-sorry…” he mumbles, scratching the back of his head. You blush, realising what had just happened, then you remember something, “Wait. What time is it?”

Zelo turns back around to face you and looks at his watch. “11:45…” he trails off. Then you give each other a look, both of you speaking at the same time, “Crap.”

The both of you hastily pack your things and run to class. 15 minutes late. You burst in the room, only to be stared at by everyone in the class, followed by some smirks and laughs. The teacher looked enraged, “And what are you doing 15 minutes late for my class?”

Zelo, the angel that he is, saves the both of you from impending doom. He tells the teacher, “I’m sorry sir, I’m Zelo and my manager called to tell me something important so I was held up for a bit. Hazel here is my partner so she stayed with me or else I wouldn’t know where to go. I hope you don’t mind sir, we really didn’t mean to be late,” all while flashing that adorable smile of his.

The teacher glares at the both of you for a moment longer then sighs. “Alright, just sit somewhere and let’s get on with it. The lesson I mean.” You’re amazed, no one had reasoned with this teacher before, he was one of the scariest ones in the school.

As soon as the teacher looks away, Zelo glances at you and makes that goofy grin again, winking and giving you thumbs up with his hands. You give him a grin back and the both of you take your seats beaming like madmen, getting ready for another boring lesson of Geography.