-

"Sometimes meeting someone new is all it takes for you to be happy again." - Unknown

-

Chapter 2: Questions & Mysteries

-

Youngbae pushed open the door to the room Seunghyun would soon live in for the rest of his years at the school. The room was large and rectangular, with two beds – one to the left side of the room and one to the right. Both sides of the room had a desk, chair, a wall closet, and a cabinet. Across from the entrance to the dorm was a large bay window – the white curtains pushed back – where the sun was streaming brightly over the soft beige carpet. A door beside it led to what Senghyun supposed was the bathroom.

However, what struck Seunghyun most was that there seemed to be no space for him. There were clothes everywhere – mostly on the left side of the room, over the desks, poking out of the cabinet, piled high on the chair, spilling out of the closet, and a massive mountain of sweaters and jackets on the bed where something – or someone – was cocooning themself. Clothes were also on the empty desk and bed on the other side of the room, as if carelessly tossed away from the disaster zone of its neighbor.

“Is that a person under there?” whispered Seunghyun to Youngbae as they rolled the suitcases inside. Youngbae only nodded, clapping his hand onto Seungyun’s back before waving and retreating down the hallway. Oh right, Youngbae had classes. Seunghyun did transfer a bit late to the school year. He would have to catch up, even if it was only a week into classes. Pushing those thoughts aside, Seunghyun shut the door behind him softly with a tiny click and approached the part of the room he assumed was his now.

He gathered his roommate’s clothes and placed them in a big pile on his desk before placing both of his suitcases on top of his bed and ping them. The sound was loud enough to elicit a groan from under the mammoth pile of clothes on the other bed where Seunghyun assumed was his roommate.

Uncertain, Seunghyun cleared his throat, “I – ah, I apologize – ”

“Shut up,” said the pile of clothes, and Seunghyun did.

Standing awkwardly in the room as his roommate did not make any moves to wake or communicate, Seunghyun finally decided to just forget about the pile of clothes that spoke and turned to unpack his clothes and things into the cabinet beside the bed.

An hour passed in relative silence. The suitcases were now empty and shoved underneath the bed and the desk clean once Seunghyun got the guts to simply place the pile of dirty, not his clothes on the floor on the other side of the dorm. With a small sigh, Seunghyun sat on his bed and stared across at the pile of clothes.

If he cocked his head and squinted his eyes, he could perhaps make out strands of dark hair poking out between the sleeve of a leather jacket and the pant leg of darkwashed jeans. Perhaps Jiyong didn’t want to talk to him? Not everyone was as friendly as Youngbae, and Seunghyun shouldn’t expect to make friends wherever he goes with whoever he meets.

Then again, he would at least like to see what Jiyong looked like. Who even slept till three in the afternoon anyway?

With a toss of his head, Seunghyun stood up and grabbed his satchel and a map of the school that had come with the acceptance letter. He would have to meet the headmaster and get his affairs in order first. And maybe talk to the man about his roommate. Was this much sleeping even healthy?

-

It took half an hour of getting lost and feeling flustered and awkward as streams of students passed him in the hallways when afternoon classes were let out. They swarmed around him in a stream of rapid conversation and impassive faces, not paying any attention to the lost teenage boy pressed against the wall to avoid them all.

Seunghyun cringed as people touched him but grit his teeth and bore through it. He could navigate a school for god’s sake, he was more capable than his parents had given him credit for and they were trusting him to get his stuff together on his own here.

Finally, the flow ended, and he reached another set of imposing wooden doors on which he knocked with hesitation.

A young woman opened it and smiled, gesturing for him to come inside and wait in the waiting room. Across the room was another set of doors with the headmaster’s name plate bolted to the wood. Beside the door was the young woman’s desk, with organized piles of paper and a computer on which she promptly started typing on. Seunghyun introduced himself to her, “Hello, I’m the new student. Choi Seunghyun, I’m supposed to see the headmaster on my first day of arrival to discuss some… matters.”

She nodded. “Go ahead and knock on his door. He’s been expecting you.” Seunghyun did as told.

“Come in,” said the voice inside, and Seunghyun breathed deep before pushing open the door.

Inside the office was the usual – bookcases, a large desk, two straight-backed chairs in front, with a pleasant view of the grassy field behind the school ground on the window to the left. The sun was still in the sky as summer persisted despite being the start of the new school year. The headmaster himself was seated behind the desk and was an old man, with a wrinkled face and dark hair. He smiled and gestured for Seunghyun to seat himself, of which the young man did.

“You’re Choi Seunghyun, yes?” Seunghyun nodded. “Well, I just want to clear up that your parents told me about your condition, and I’ll have arrangements done for you by the end of the week.” That was good. He needed them if he was going to make this school year any amount of normal. “Your parents also mentioned that you’re also quite intelligent and – what was it – can sing?”

Seunghyun blinked. His parents told his headmaster he could sing? “Ah – I – sort of.” His face was blushing now. This wasn’t where he expected the conversation to be going.

The headmaster noticed and laughed. “Oh no, I was simply asking because Jiyong, your roommate, has a propensity for making music in the middle of the night.” What the hell, thought Seunghyun, his roommate got more and more weird. “The boys around him seem to sleep through it well enough, but, well, you’re new here.”

“Is, ah, Jiyong healthy?” asked Seunghyun. “I mean – he was in bed all day today.”

Much to Seunghyun’s surprise, the headmaster nodded. “We run a school filled with not just youth, but special students who will be exempt from certain classes in exchange for other extra credit courses. You may also be one of them if we feel the need to change your status, due to your condition, of course.” The headmaster inclined his head thoughtfully. “As you might have noticed, Jiyong, amongst others, are these special students, so don’t worry about them. There are a few in your year.”

Seunghyun nodded. Special students, huh? “Are… Are they also like me?” he asked quietly. He had never met a person like him. He was special. Not the good kind of special though, and it gave him a glimmer of hope to think that maybe there would be others just like him here.

“You’ll find out soon,” smiled the headmaster. “For now, my secretary will print a schedule of your classes and an updated map of the school. Some parts are under construction and forbidden to enter. I do hope you will enjoy your year here at Kongnamul. If you have any other concerns, please contact my secretary or any other figure of authority such as the professors, and we shall do what we can to help.”

Hearing a dismissal in his voice, Seunghyun quickly stood up and nodded, smiling in thanks, before bowing and exiting the office. The secretary met him at the door and handed him a stack of papers promptly. “Don’t lose it,” she said. “You officially start tomorrow.”

“Thank you.” Senghyun took the papers and slid them inside his satchel before leaving the waiting room and entering the long hallways of the school once more. This time there was no stream of students and he hurried back to his dorm.

-

Upon stepping out of the elevator at his floor to his dorms, Seunghyun was suddenly accosted by a person with pale blonde hair, a round cheery face, and well-built frame underneath a shirt, jacket, and jeans. He was walking down the hallway to get to the elevator but stopped when he saw Seunghyun.

“Hi!” greeted the young man, grinning already. “New student, right? Jiyong’s roommate?”

Seunghyun almost cringed. “Does everyone already know?”

“Just me,” assured the other, “I’m your neighbor. My name is Kang Daesung, you?”

“Choi Seunghyun.”

“Nice to meet you, Seunghyun,” said Daesung, whose face was just so warm and cheerful that Seunghyun immediately felt comfortable around him. Much to his disappointment though: “I gotta go to my class right now, but I live just next door to you – room number four. I’ll see you tonight at dinner though? It’s from 6 to 8 in the hall, if you didn’t know.”

“Yes, thank you, I – yeah, I’ll see you later,” replied Seunghyun hurriedly as Daesung moved smoothly around him and entered the elevator. Despite saying he was going to classes, the young man had no things on him, no bag or pen or even a notebook. Perhaps this wasn’t unusual at this school? Still, Seunghyun couldn’t quite trust that thought.

He moved down the hallway as the elevator doors shut behind him. The last door on the right. His door. Number six bolted right onto the wood. His new home. It was definitely different from his house back in Noa with his parents. They had enrolled him in the Noa School in name only and had taught him at home until the acceptance letter from Kongnamul arrived. This was the first time he had been surrounded by people his age in, well, years. It was exhilarating.

Quickly and quietly, he entered his dorm and noted that the mountain of clothes hadn’t moved yet. It was amazing how Jiyong had managed to crawl into them without displacing the top and letting it fall all over the floor. Or maybe Jiyong somehow magic’d them on top of his torso and arms and legs and head without even moving. It didn’t matter how much he contemplated it, Seunghyun wouldn’t figure it out until he saw it for himself.

Exhausted already by the day’s events, Seunghyun toed off his shoes, leaving them in his closet, and lied down on his bed, ready to pass out. He turned his head and looked at the sleeping pile where Jiyong was supposed to bed and wondered what the headmaster meant ‘special students’. Maybe Daesung was also a special student? Would Seunghyun be a special student? He had a pretty serious condition to be special.

“We’ll see how it turns out,” he murmured to himself before closing his eyes and drifting off for a quick nap.

-

“Oi, oi, wake up, yeah, c’mon – ”

The voice was loud and insistent, like a fly buzzing his ear, and Seunghyun absentmindedly pressed his head deeper against his pillow, forgetting for a moment that he was actually in Kongnamul, not at home, and there was a person in his dorm room who would probably have something important to say.

“Wake. Up.”

Seunghyun cracked an eye open and saw a face only a few centimeters from his own. Predictably, he yelped, scrabbling backwards to get some space between him and this stranger.

The stranger was lean, pale, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, and – Seungyun swallowed – beautiful. One side of his hair was cropped short against his skull, but the other side was full of hair that fell down his face and over his shoulder – long and black though the ends of the hair were dyed pink. He was young-looking, a bit on the skinny side – wrapped up as he was in a dark oversized sweater that was falling over to reveal a bare shoulder.

“Hello,” croaked out Seunghyun, his back pressed against the wall, looking at the stranger, who was kneeling on his bed, still watching him with huge, wide eyes.

“You’re my roommate,” stated the young man.

“Choi Seunghyun,” offered Seunghyun.

The young man tilted his head in contemplation, the long hair swinging against his face. “I’m Kwon Jiyong, and you missed dinner.”

Seunghyun blinked. “What?” He looked around and it was true – the sky outside was dark and the only light was the two bedside lamps that were lighted on either side of the room. His stomach grumbled and it made Jiyong snort.

“Here, want some?” From the hoodie’s front pocket, Jiyong pulled out an apple and offered it to Seunghyun.

“Do you mind?”

Jiyong his mouth and smiled – his teeth very white and very bright. “Well, I’m not going to eat it.”

Seunghyun looked away from the sight of Jiyong’s mouth and focused very hard on the apple in the young man’s hand. He carefully took it and bit in, letting the apple’s juice run over his tongue and accidentally slip over his lip. Quickly, Seunghyun wiped it up with the back of his hand, jerking up to see Jiyong, whose eyes were still focused solely on his face.

“Did you need something?” Seunghyun shifted uncomfortably under Jiyong’s intense gaze.

“You smell weird.”

“Um.”

“Good,” said Jiyong, grinning, before he stood up, brushing his hair out of his face and behind his hair, revealing more of his face, and it was oh-so-terribly distracting for Seunghyun. “Not weird as in bad. Weird as in good.”

Seunghyun nodded slowly, eating his apple with more focus than he would ever normally give it. What kind of roommate had he ended up? Not only did Jiyong grumpily sleep all day, only waking up when it was dark, he didn’t seem to be inclined to normal conversations or personal space. And, added Seunghyun’s brain spitefully, he was extremely good-looking.

“Well, breakfast is tomorrow from 7 to 9. You might want to make that one.” Jiyong gave the apple core in Seunghyun’s hand a pointed look. Seunghyun, silent and dumbstruck, watched as Jiyong pulled on a hoodie over his hair and slipped on a pair of sneakers.

“You’re going out in the middle of the night?”

Jiyong looked back at him, eyebrows raised. “Why not?”

“It’s dangerous,” tried Seunghyun.

“You’re annoying,” said Jiyong, his hands now on his hips. “Go back to sleep and don’t bother me in the morning.”

Seunghyun shrank into his sweater. Well, they were already off to a great start. In the dim light by the entrance of their room, Jiyong’s hair seemed to go from pink to red at the tips. He gave Jiyong a half-hearted wave as goodbye just then as Jiyong rolled his eyes and left the room.

It was far too surreal to be real. The school was already weird from the get-go – these special students and Jiyong’s attitudes to normal social conventions. Seunghyun didn’t know if they would get along if Jiyong was more inclined to make Seunghyun as uncomfortable as possible. Though…

Holding the apple core in his hands, Seunghyun remembered that Jiyong had brought him an apple. Maybe he had remembered that Seunghyun was missing dinner and wanted him something to eat at least. Maybe Jiyong did care already – just a little bit – though he would show it in a roundabout way. It was… cute, decided Seunghyun with a smile.

Changing into his pyjamas and setting up his phone as his alarm for the morning, Seunghyun slipped back into bed with a grin and a warm feeling in his stomach. Maybe this wouldn’t just be a normal teenage life, it might just be a tiny bit exciting.

-

A/N: That meeting was a bit anticlimactic, wasn't it? I promise they'll interact more in the next chapter - I'm just trying to set everything up so you guys will have a plot and characters, y'know? Please - if you have any thoughts or constructive criticism, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks for reading! :D (psst - I don't have any other pairings planned, but if you wanna see anything, drop it below! It's nice having suggestions!)