Kai frowned as he looked up at the building before him. He’d heard the rumors going around about how awful the place was, but he never believed for a second that it could be as bad as people told him. But that was until he was there himself, and soon concluded that the rumors weren’t exaggerating.

The school was of the regular concrete block design – square buildings without particular character that were simply built to accommodate the students for the long hours; not necessarily providing them with a good study environment judging by the dirty windows and… explicit… graffiti. The place looked like it hadn’t been cleaned for years, which might very well be true considering the current circumstances.

“Just kill me now…” Kai muttered as he in a deep breath and entered the building, his back straight and head held high – the last thing he wanted to do was appear weak in this hellhole he’d arrived at. The looks he received from some of the students lounging around in the corridors made his skin crawl, but he had enough experience with hostility to force any thoughts of fear to the back of his head, clench his jaws and just keep walking. Being a transfer student at any regular school must be tough in itself, but Kai sensed that unless he got the rules of this place down soon, really soon, his stay might become very short-lived. Maybe that was a good thing though.

After a few minutes of walking up stairs and making his way past countless unfriendly faces he finally found himself face to face with the doors to the teachers’ lounge. He knocked lightly on the door once, earning him snickers and sneer from around the hallway. He felt the ends of his mouth tug down a bit, and he knit his eyebrows in frustration before tugging a bit on the door, ignoring the whole ‘respect your elders’ thing and planning to waltz right in. He was more than surprised to actually find it was locked. He banged on the door expecting some kind of response but got nothing, not so much as a normal repercussion.

“ this … what the hell’s the point of locking the doors anyway?” He muttered, and almost jumped out of his skin at the sudden words that came from right next to him.

“It’s to keep all of us out.” The boy who’d spoken to him was a bit smaller than he’d expected, and the dyed dark brown hair and eyeliner had Kai wondering where the other was in the social order. “Never judge a book by its cover.”

“Sorry, wasn’t my intention.” Kai grumbled, a bit confused as to how the other could tell what he was thinking. He considered asking for the other’s name, but decided against it – he was never one to initiate and that was definitely not going to change now.

“Do you have a name or should I call you greenhorn?” The boy asked with a smirk, his slightly droopy eyes twinkling with something Kai couldn’t seem to place. “Alright, have it your way. If you ever need… a favor, ask for Baekhyun; I’ll see what I can do for you.” With that the shorter boy turned and sauntered off to god knows where, leaving Kai on his own by the teachers’ office again.

It was the rattling of the very door he was standing outside of that pulled him back to reality, and he glared at the first person to take a step into the corridor. The woman jumped a bit, but slipped past him without a word, clutching her papers and books to her chest tightly as she disappeared down the hallway, whistles and a number of not-so-nice nicknames following her as she went. Frowning in annoyance Kai turned to the second person instead, clearing his throat in an attempt to attract the man’s attention.

“What?” The older snapped grumpily, running a hand through his hair without looking up from the papers he was busy examining. What was up with these teachers?

“I was hoping someone could tell me my class at least.” Kai muttered and clicked his tongue, rolling his eyes when the teacher finally raised his head to look at him. A sigh escaped the man’s lips before he turned and took half a step back towards the office.

“Seungri, get your out here, the new kid’s asking for you!” As he thought he heard a muffled shout in return Kai caught himself thinking that it was no wonder the students were messed up if their teachers were dysfunctional as well. The question was just which side had been the first to act up. “And you,” Kai glared at the teacher for pointing his finger but listened nonetheless. “We have enough trouble so I’m going to tell you right now that if you don’t follow the rules you’ll regret it.” When the man stalked off Kai let a quiet laugh out, staring in disbelief at the teacher’s back. Using threats on your students probably wasn’t the best way to keep everything in order – it obviously hadn’t worked so far, and either way Kai knew that he wouldn’t even be called from the crowd unless he did something outrageous. And maybe not even then; he was positive there were way worse people than him in the school.

“Hey, you Jongin?” His attention turned to the teacher he supposed was Seungri, smirking a bit at how unprofessional the man looked. Buzz cuts, piercings, skinny jeans and leather jackets aren’t exactly classic features for people in the educational sector, and this man had all of them. “Hey, kid, I’m talking to you.” The man said brusquely, and without warning pushed him forward to make him walk.

“I prefer Kai.” He informed with a huff, shaking the man’s hand off his shoulder.

“I’m Seungri, teacher in training and your supposed homeroom teacher. If you cause trouble I swear I’ll choke you with my bare hands so try to keep fights to a minimum for your own sake.”

Kai realized soon that this Seungri wasn’t a teacher you’d want to fight with. There were a few students who got just a bit too close to the man when they were headed towards the first floor, and he actually didn’t even seem to hesitate before shoving them into the walls, shooting them warning looks afterwards.

“I graduated two years ago; at least most of the third years remember enough about me to back off. If you want to survive here you have teach people not to mess with you.” Seungri explained tiredly as he dragged a first-year away from the classroom door by his collar, apparently ignoring the stream of curses and threats escaping the student’s mouth. “This is your home classroom; first year class B. Run along and make friends while you can, the teacher for your first period should be here any minute.” Kai felt like it wasn’t such a good idea to talk back, and so held his tongue but glared at the teacher’s back as he strutted back the way they’d come. Not until he turned his gaze back to the classroom did he notice that his supposed classmates were all giving him dirty looks.

“That’s just great.” He mumbled as he stuck his hands in his pockets and shuffled over to the closest window. Whilst trying his best to ignore the rest of the boys in the room he pushed the window open, brushed some dust off the windowsill and planted himself there as casually as he could manage. At least if he looked outside he wouldn’t accidentally insult someone.

“…n’t recognize his face. He must’ve been one of the transfer students that started today. I walked up to him to see what kind of person he was, and it looked like he noticed me as I made my way over.”

“Huh?” Kai turned his head, and looking up met a pair of sharp, dark eyes.

“He didn’t seem to know who I was, or maybe he was acting. It was hard to tell.” He kept staring up at the tall boy from his seat by the window, but when he glanced at his classmates their previous glares had suddenly become very uncertain, and there was a lot of quiet whispering going on. Kai gulped but looked back to the boy who was standing in front of him.

“I wondered what he was planning… he looked more like a flirt than a fighter, but looks can be deceiving. What did he get sent here for? I figured at his confused expression that he mustn’t have known who I was or what was going on, so I decided to give him another couple of seconds to introduce himself before I would start getting annoyed.”

“…I’m Kai… nice to meet you?” Kai said slowly, cocking a brow at the boy’s allover strangeness. The way the boy was talking as though reciting a book was somewhere in between irritating and amusing. A small chuckle escaped the other’s feline lips and he tossed his head to the side a bit to get the black bangs out of his eyes.

“He seemed hesitant when he told me his name, but I supposed that was because the rest of our classmates were cowering in the back of the classroom; he must’ve taken that as a bad sign of some sort. Should I tell him my own name as well? I made up my mind not to – he’d probably find out soon enough either way. As Kai didn’t seem interested in talking and he didn’t look like he wanted to pick a fight I turned to leave, making a mental note to myself to see whether it was as comfortable to sit on the windowsill as it looked…”

“… What the hell?” Kai breathed when he couldn’t hear the boy’s monologue anymore. He’d expected a lot of different characters, but no one like the boy he’d just met. His classmates were staring at him in disbelief where they sat, a few looking at him with what almost seemed like envy.

“What was that?”

“How the did he escape-“

“I bet Tao was just in a good mood…”

“What if-“

Kai could feel his face contorting into what was probably a very ugly grimace, but he couldn’t help it. This… Tao? Was he one of the leaders around this place? Was that why everyone seemed so frightened of him before and were gossiping like thirteen year old girls as soon as he left the room. Somehow it didn’t make sense to him, not at all. He leaned back where he sat, gazing up at the clear sky. What was the point of staying inside when the weather was so nice?

“It’s not like anyone’ll notice I’m gone.” He scoffed as he slipped out through the open window. After basking in the sunlight for a few seconds he made up his mind to explore the grounds a bit.

Although the place was overgrown in some spots and dried out in others, Kai figured he didn’t really care whether the lawns looked good or not; he was more concerned with whether or not there was a secluded spot where he’d be able to get his own space, seeing as classrooms and hallways alike were crowded with people without any sense of what was right or wrong. Despite having been in a few fights himself Kai was confident that he’d lose to whomever he happened to go up against, mostly because he’d missed out on an entire semester to actually adapt to everything and learned how the hierarchy worked.

He could imagine even before he really started looking that every accessible part of the roof would be taken already, as well as all of the unused classrooms, every storage room and maybe even some of the less frequented bathrooms. Yet despite foretelling it Kai found himself frustrated to no end that he couldn’t seem to find a single area that was unoccupied. Finally he just dragged his feet after him and slumped down against the far wall of the gym. If he couldn’t have a more comfortable hideout then he could at least settle for someplace that was slightly secluded. The wall that surrounded the school’s premises matched the dull school buildings of grimy concrete, but the slender branches of the trees outside, still full of greed leaves, made for a nice contrast and added a bit of shade, not to mention they would probably function quite well as shelter from the occasional downpour.

“…” He grinned to himself as he listened for any noise, but could just barely make out the muffled sounds coming from the other side of the building – he hadn’t missed the upperclassmen who’d made themselves at home in one of the gym’s storage rooms, but obviously they weren’t as attentive to what was going on around them. “This could work…” With a sigh of relief he let his eyes close and leaned his head back against the cool wall, breathing in and out slowly. It was funny how he hadn’t noticed that he was practically holding his breath all this time.

“…Who the hell are you?”

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A/N: Alright, first chapter is up! I wrote this in a couple of hours so it's not really been proofread so to speak not that that would help in my case.

To be honest I wasn't planning on starting off with Kai, I just did, but every chapter will be centered around a different person so I'll be leaving you clueless about this new person that shows up until god-knows-when. Seriously though, there's going to be one or two chaters in between, but by then you might be able to put one and one together and guess what everyone's roles are.

Anyways, thanks to everyone who subscribed, lots of hearts to you! <3<3<3<3<3<3 And thank you andreab990619 for commenting - extra hearts to you! <3<3<3 I hope you all liked the first chapter because it's going to be two weeks until the next one!

~Fi