- Eun-Sung's POV -

 

The problem was, I wasn't where I thought I was. The room was pitch black in the beginning and I had just been injured, so I had assumed that I was in the infirmary.

But in fact, I was really lying on a metal bench in a corner of the school's gigantic gym. In the dark.

and..With a mop..? ... also with...a complete STRANGER?!! Oh No Oh No! I started panicking now.

Did he kidnap me and bring me here? was he planning to lock me up and.and...! What had I done that was so terribly wrong in my past life that had to suffer this kind of fate?

"Hey." I heard him say, "Are you imagining things again?"

Again? Was I acquainted with him or something?

I turned to get a closer look at his face, but my eyes weren't cooperating with me anymore and I could only see a black blur.

"It's me, Kai. Don't you remember me?" He questioned in his smooth voice.

"Ahh.." I realized. But that didn't mean I was safe.

"So just tell me, why I am in an empty dark room and Alone with you with only a bench and a mop?" I questioned him when I remembered the situation we were in. I wanted clarification right now.

"Chill." I heard Kai say defensively, "I can explain."

"Then tell me." I retorted back. Seemed pretty fishy to me. Last time (at one of my other schools), some girls invited me to join their photography club, but I only ended up getting locked in the dark room for a whole night until the teacher found me.

"If you didn't remember, you out right before P.E. began." Kai started to explain.

"Of course I can remember that!" I snapped at him getting a little impatient now, "But that still doesn't explain anything".

"Okay, Okay. But that wasn't what I was trying to tell you." He defended himself.

I let him continue.

"I was waiting for you to wake up so that I could apologize to you." Kai said to me sincerely,"I'm sorry".

"Huh?" I was confused now.

"Remember that you were jabbed in the ribs?" He was beginning to state the obvious again.

He really didn't have to bring it up again in such detail. Falling in front of my whole class was embarrassing enough. I waited for him to say something again.

"Uhmm.. actually I-Im just sorry okay?" He concluded.

What?

"Spit it out!" I told him. I didn't like secrets.

"Iwastheonewhodiditandimsorry!" Kai blurted out.

"I couldn't quite catch that." I said back.

"I jabbed you." He said again. It looked like he was waiting for me to get mad. He looked so innocent that I couldn't stay angry at him.

"Fine, you're forgiven." I told him.

With that, he was his cheerful self again.

"I was being chased around by some fan-girls." He explained.

"You have fan-girls?" I gawked at him in disbelief. Well..actually it wasn't that hard to believe...I admit, he had surprisingly clear skin and gorgeous eyes..and his lips were...Ack!! What in the world am I thinking here? I must be going nuts! I, Eun-sung, can absolutely never feel anything for any guy. I know it only causes trouble.

Feeling a little disturbed, I changed the subject. "But that still doesnt explain the mop." I insisted persistently.

"Oh. That." He said, "It was already here when I came."

What? Then why-...

"I think you were throwing up while partially unconscious earlier" Kai added,"The infirmary was full too."

Ugh..I felt a little grossed out. Did I? Then who cleaned it up?

"let's get out now. I'm feeling fine." I told him. I was starting to get more involved with him than I wanted to be.

With that, I briskly walked out of the gym and the plastic blue mop lay unforgotten against the plain gym wall.

-----

When I got home, it was pretty late and my parents were worried sick about me. To make things worse, I had to wait an hour before I could board another bus because I had just missed the earlier one. 

I was also stuck with Kai for that whole hour because he insisted on taking the bus with me even though he already had a bike. I used the excuse that I was feeling a little dizzy again and I didn't have to talk to him.

He just sat awkwardly next to me without saying anything. He could have left though I thought. Didn't he get the message that I didn't want to talk to him? People at this school are seriously weird.

I know it's already an amazing thing that I don't have haters yet, but why would a stranger follow me? My unstylish fashion doesn't scare them away?

Sighing, I plopped down face-first onto my fluffy feather bed and grabbed my favorite light pink colored pig-rabbit plushie. Someone had given it to me a long time ago (so I was told), but I really couldn't remember who.

It was big enough to hug, yet small enough to carry around. Ahh~ it was so fluffy and smelled nice. ^_^ Whoever picked this out, they had pretty good taste, except the concept was a little warped. Seriously, a pig-nosed rabbit?

I began to toss it around and examine its cute piggy face. Wait, where's the shirt that I put on him? I wondered when I realized that he was stark . Maybe mom took it off when she washed it.

I got up from my bed and went to my closet. It was a mess in there.

Wow, I should clean this out sometime..looks like someone just robbed my room..not that theres much in here anyways..

I started shifting through the heaps of random clothes and miscallanous objects for the mini T-shirt.

Legos? Why do I even have these in my closet? I wondered. I tossed all the junks I found aside.

Now I reached the very back of my closet. It was deeper than I expected.. Wow..my room is surprisingly cool.

I reached out further and my hand touched something hard. Huh?

I grabbed the object and pulled it out. It was a book of some sort but I couldn't see from inside my dark closet. I tossed it towards my lighted room to look at later. Aha! I touched something small and soft. I moved out of my closet to check.

Yep! Found it! I thought happily.

-----

The very next day~

 

Min-Soo and I were walking to the school together under the warm sun. I found out that she was actually my neighbor earlier today when I saw her walking out of her house. What a coincidence!

When we arrived, it was still pretty early. I wanted to get out of my house early so I could read at the library for a while before I started classes and had to focus on studies. (The librarian had actually put me on her favs list and not blacklist because she had heard me call her "good-natured" the other time.) Sarcasm is a great weapon sometimes.

I didn't know why Min-Soo was leaving so early though. She didn't look like the type to love books.

She probably has her reasons.

We walked to the school gate together while she talked to me about the latest beauty products she had bought. It wasn't so interesting to me, but since she was so immersed in telling me about it, I didn't want to act like a bad friend. Did it always feel like this to have a female friend?

Even though I was really bad at communicating with others and having a decent conversation, she didn't notice because she was content doing all the talking herself. I was a pretty boring person and I admitted it.

I shook my thoughts away and smiled at her while nodding from time to time to pretend I was listening and interested in what she had to say.

"AAAHHHH!! OH. MY. GAAAAWD!!!" Min- Soo started to scream wildly, "It's SHIINNEEEE!!!"

She began to pull me along with her while she ran towards a small group of boys.

"What's shiny?" I asked her with a confused and clueless expression. I don't see anything shiny around here..

"NO! Not that kind of shiny, I meant SHINee spelled with a Shin and an e and then another e." She explained to me in a know-it all kind of voice, "That group of guys over there are called SHINee."

"Uhhh..", I replied, "I've never heard of them".

"Have you been living under a rock all this time?" Min-Soo asked me with disbelief shown on her face, "How could you not know them? They are the most popular and hot guys on the campus!"

"Well, besides EXO.." She added, "But they are currently gone on some kind of study abroad thing they chose to participate in- only half of them decided to stay."

Wow, this girl 's sure caught up on all the gossips regarding "hot guys". I don't see what's so great about them.

"SHINee oppaaass~~", She screamed when we reached the group of boys.

"Er- Hi Min-Soo", One of them replied awkwardly. He looked used to this routine but it seemed that he was only saying Hi out of politeness.

"*sigh* Her again. And I thought we came early enough to avoid any unnecessary encounters." A tall-looking guy muttered.

One of them that looked too cute and girly to be a boy turned his attention to me. "Hyungs!" He exclaimed while pointing to me excitedly, "Who's that?"

"This is my new friend, Eun-Sung." Min-Soo cut in while flashing a seductive smile at the boy.

The boy ignored her after he got the name and turned his attention back to me. "She's pretty, right hyung?" He whisper to the tall-looking guy next to him.

Excuse me? I arched my eyebrow.

I turned to look at Min-Soo. She didn't hear because she was too busy gawking at the other guys. She didn't look like she was going to leave anytime soon.

I started leaving, but Min-Soo suddenly gave me her attention again.

"I'll introduce you to them!" She told me excitedly.

"This is Lee Taemin" Min-Soo pointed at the girly boy. Taemin gave me a friendly smile and waved at me. "I love bannana milk" He cheerfully told me. Okay, that was kind of unnecessary to know.

I nodded awkwardly at him.

"The one next to him is Choi Minho." She continued while nodding in the tall serious-looking guy's direction. He just looked at me without much expression.

"And on Minho's left is Kim Kibum" She said while smiling extra brightly and pointing to the umma-looking one, "But people call him Key". He looked kind of familiar.

"If I'm not wrong, you're in my first period class. Maths right?" Key said with a polite smile on his face, "I hope we can get along."

He looked pretty easy to get along with. My first impression was that he was one of those arrogant flirts, but I guess not. Maybe it wouldn't be so wrong to open up to them a little. They seemed okay.

"Hi", I said timidly. I wasn't used to interacting with so many nice guys all at once.

"And lastly, the one standing at the far end is Lee Jinki, otherwise known as Onew", Min-Soo introduced the tofu-looking like guy without much regard.

 "Bling-Bling hyung isn't here yet, but if you met him, you would probably like him. He's really funny." Taemin added.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you, Eun-Sung." Onew replied looking a little dazed. He looked like he was thinking about something.

"By the way, how do you know them?" I asked Min-Soo.

"Of course, because I'm their number one fan." She told me proudly.

"Yah. Come on guys, let's get to class." Key interrupted. He didn't like to be late and was always one of the first people to enter the classroom.

"Such an umma." I heard the one called Minho whisper. I laughed quietly to myself. These people were so amusing. And friendlier than I imagined.

---

We arrived at the main building where all the classrooms were, but we had to split up. Minho, Onew, and Min-Soo had classes in B-wing and the rest of us were in A- wing.

Key and I walked Taemin (who was a classroom apart from us- A-5) to his class and dropped him off.

Then we entered our room together and waited for our other classmates Teacher Jung to show up. Key said that he would take a nap, (which he called his "beauty sleep") so I didn't bother him and remained quiet while people started filing in.

Around five minutes later, the class was about full and Teacher Jung came in holding a big stack of papers.

I noticed that the annoying idiot wasn't here yet and I was pretty relieved. Ha! I thought.

Teacher Jung began screeching in his rat-like voice for everyone to quiet down and get back to their seats. His voice never fails to grab my attention, I thought snickering to myself. Haha, the name Rat-Jung really suits him.

"Stand up and greet the teacher." Kai instructed the class formally. Apparently, he was the class rep.

"Good morning, Seonsaeng-niim!" The class chorused while bowing to the teacher.

"Ehh-HEMMM", He cleared his throat and began talking.

"Us teachers from the math department just had a meeting earlier this morning and we decided that we would try using different means to enhance the student's' mathematic skills." Rat-Jung started to explain, "And for my class.. I've decided for you students to do an interactive group project that incorporates math. You will be put into pairs and the assignment is to find a restaurant or store and work part time there. It can be any place of your choosing, but you will keep in mind that you will be required to write a shared paper about what you learned there."

The class groaned loudly. No one wanted to do anything so bothersome and time consuming. Plus it was still first thing in the morning and nobody wanted to think.

"Quiet down now!" Rat-Jung slammed his bamboo stick on the podium.

Everone hushed at once.

"Everyone, write your name on a slip of paper and place it in this bowl up front when you are finished." The teacher said. He indicated the small glass fishbowl.

I thought about my possible partners and who I might get. Anyone in the class is fine, but I just don't want to be paired up with that irritating jerk. I thought to myself. But Ha! He's not even here so that will never happen! I smiled openly now.

But just then, the smile was instantly wiped off my face when I saw the idiot walk into the classroom. Well, more like limping and I could see several bruises on his leg. Along with a huge band-aid on the side of his head.

Why is he here now?? Why did he even have to come? I thought to myself feeling a little frustrated. And I thought it was a perfect opportunity to avoid being his parter 100% certain. I disregarded the causes for his injuries and even scoffed at him for looking so silly. Serves him right.

Whatever, there's so many people in the class and the chance is way too slim. I comforted myself.

"KIM JONGHYUN!" The teacher yelled at the numbskull, "WHY ARE YOU LATE AGAIN? PASS OUT THESE PAPERS AND THEN PUT YOUR NAME IN THE BOWL UP FRONT!"

Jonghyun began to pass out the stack of instructions to everyone surprisingly obediently.

But when he got to me, he smirked.

"What!?" I glared at him. I was still mad about him playing that prank on me.

Then he raised his thumb to his mouth, and it.

"Nooo. Oh. No. You. Don't! Don't you dare do what I'm thinking you are about to." I warned him carefully, "Just hand over that sheet like a good little boy." I reached my hand out for the project instruction sheet.

"Sure." Jonghyun said sarcastically," In your dreams." Then he wiped his left thumb onto my sheet before handing it to me.

"Ahhhggg!! Ewww!" I almost screamed in disgust and shifted away from it, "Now I don't even have a usable copy! I'll have to scrub that thing with cleaning detergent before I can even touch it."  "My fingers are gonna rot off!" I exaggerated.

The moron just ignored me, still with that smirk on his face and proceeded to write his name on a slip of paper.

"Darn it!!"

"Do we have a problem back there?" Teacher Jung asked in a warning tone.

"N-no sir! I just dropped something that's all" I made up a random excuse for my outburst.

I just wanted to wipe that proud look off his face and kick him into a garbage truck or something. Then I would be rid of his mean jokes and irritating presence.

Of course, I couldn't really do that, so I just turned away from him sulkily and looked out the window where the empty hallway was.

"Alright class!!" Rat-Jung got everyone's attention, "Now that all the names are in the bowl, I will begin picking the pairs!"

Please, not be him. Not be him! I pleaded in my mind while crossing my fingers behind my back with both hands.

That sneaky idiot saw it and made it a point that I couldn't avoid him.

"I know you are just dying to get me as a partner. But don't worry, we are already tied together by a red string of fate. Your partner will be me." He told me with a big grin.

"Yeah, right." I muttered back.

"Meeh-rong!" He stuck out a tongue at me. Whatever, I can't let him get to me.

 

Teacher Jung lowered his bony hand into the bowl and picked out a name. It wasn't me. ...Or the idiot. Drat!

5 draws later, I was getting uneasy because we were both still unpicked. The chances of me not pairing up with him were getting slimmer and slimmer!

Jebal Jebal! I still pleaded in my head while clasping my hands together with my eyes shut.

The teacher had already picked around 12 people and there were only around 30 people in the class.

"KIM.. EUN-SUNG!" Rat-Jung announced.

He began to pick the next slip of paper that would determine my partner.

AAAHHHHHH I don't wanna hear it! Don't wanna heaaar!!!! I covered my ears with both hands, fearing the terrible outcome.

"K-I-M -" I could see my teacher mouth out...

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A/N: Hello there! :D I hope You enjoyed the read. Be sure to subscribe and comment for better chapters!

P.S. This is what they roughly look like in the fic except that onew doesn't have wavy hair. ;D