Chapter One

 Donghae had never been the brightest student in school. From the moment on that he was in kindergarten, he well… to put it bluntly: he . When they had to draw a straight line, his line was so strange that it almost looked a circle. When they had to cut the paper in half, he managed to cut himself. When they were playing in the sandbox, he managed to swallow the sand (that little incident didn’t even happen once but three times!).

However that didn’t make school any less fun for him because his friends were always there to make his day. He made them laugh when he made such little mistakes so he didn’t really mind. His best friend always said to him: “You’re the only person I know who is so brilliant in his own way.” To be frank, Donghae didn’t really know if his friend meant it sarcastically but he thought so because he was in no way brilliant. Instead, the one who said it to him was.

Kyuhyun was the best student of the whole year. He could literally do anything but he was an absolute genius in math. It was a great mystery to the whole school (and if Donghae was honest, also to him) why the genius had befriended the fool but Donghae couldn’t deny that he was extremely happy with Kyuhyun as his friend.

“Mr Lee!” A ‘pang’ resounded on Donghae’s desk and startled he looked up to the person who made him so incredibly shocked. Mr Kim, one of the school’s strict teachers, was standing before his table. His small eyes glared through his little glasses at Donghae and involuntarily Donghae swallowed.

“Yes?” He asked his teacher with a small voice.

“Yes, what? Mr Lee.” The teacher demanded an answer from him and confused Donghae tried to look sideways to Kyuhyun. Maybe his friend could help him a bit.

“Look at me!” Mr Kim demanded again and Donghae had to bite his lip to keep the tears away. He didn’t like it when people were yelling at him. His mom almost never yelled at him so he wasn’t really used to it. But still Donghae converted his eyes towards Mr Kim’s small eyes and began wondering how the man could see anything. ‘That’s probably why he needs the glasses.’ He told himself and he began nodding because he was proud that he figured it out.

“Oh, so you do know the answer?” Confused Donghae looked at the teacher. He had been daydreaming about the glasses while his teacher asked him a question. In panic, Donghae took a quick glance again at Kyuhyun. Luckily he managed to do it without the teacher spotting him and he saw that Kyuhyun was throwing his head constantly to the right side. ‘Maybe he has pain in his neck?’ He wondered and he almost asked him about it when he heard Mr Kim screech through the classroom: “I want you in front of the blackboard today, Mr Lee!” 

At that moment Donghae understood that his friend had been pointing with his head to the blackboard. Donghae averted his gaze to the blackboard and his already big eyes widened even more when he saw a math-equation on the board that he didn’t understand at all. He whimpered softly and quickly glanced at Kyuhyun who gave him a sympathetic smile before he walked to the blackboard. Donghae occasionally tripped over the bags on the ground but he reached it without making too much casualties and the teacher gave him the chalk with an almost sadistic smile on his face.

Donghae stood in front of the board. His fingers trembled and he stared blankly at the equation. It seemed like witchcraft in his eyes. It was some kind of potion that you could only make if you were a genius like Kyuhyun.

“Well, Mr Lee. Are you going to solve this today or are you going to admit that you lied to me?” Donghae was almost sure that he heard Mr Kim making a soft laugh. Still, he knew that he didn’t understand it at all and that the best way to get out of the confrontation was to give Mr Kim the chalk back.

So, again with trembling fingers, Donghae put the chalk in Mr Kim’s hand. Mr Kim’s fingers immediately had a death grip on the chalk as if he was scared that Donghae would change his mind and take the chalk back from him to solve the equation.

“For lying you get detention, Mr Lee. And I believe that it’s your third time of getting detention. Is it not?” He asked Donghae and the boy reluctantly nodded. Mr Kim showed his yellow teeth to Donghae but Donghae wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be a smile. It sure didn’t look like it. It looked more like an piranha that was happy that he finally got his meal!

“Well, then you can go to the principal.” Mr Kim added and his foul mood from earlier was completely gone. Donghae let his head hang low as if he was some kind of puppy who had done something bad. Under his bangs he sought eye contact with Kyuhyun. When he found the sympathetic eyes of the younger, Donghae gave a small smile. It was a rule at their school that if you had had three times of detention that you had to go to the principal, so there was nothing that could be done about it.

“You can go, Mr Lee.” Mr Kim pointed at the door and Donghae walked out of the classroom. He felt all the stares of his classmates. Some snickered but most of them seemed to sympathize with him. Well, he had to go to the principal of course, which meant that the principal would call his mom. Donghae let his head hang even lower. He didn’t want his mom to come see him again. He didn’t want her to know that he had failed another day to do his best in class.

But either way, half an hour later, when Donghae sat with a very stern looking principal, he heard murmurs in the hallway, which had to be his mother. His mom was actually not Korean but Swedish. She was very tall: one meter and eighty-three centimetres to be exact. She always wore stylish clothes and she had short, blonde hair. She wore no make-up because she said that  it ‘would only make her uglier because she had no talent to put it on her face’ and instead there was almost always a smile on her face or at least a mysterious smirk.

The reason for the murmurs was often her length because she loved to wear high heels, which made her even taller! Donghae asked her once why she did that: “I don’t care what other people think, sweetie,” (She always called him by pet names which made him feel like a small child) “I like to wear them and I can see everything if I wear them.” Which was actually true because just a few people were taller than his mom, so nobody was hindering her sight.

The door of the office opened and the principal and Donghae looked at the woman who walked in. His mother wore sunglasses today (her favourite ones)  even when there was barely any sun outside. She took them of in a very charismatic manner and put it in her hair. Then she held out her hand and shook the principals hand. She bowed, though not as deep as the principal, and when she let go of his hand, Donghae saw the principal shake it because she probably had squeezed it too hard.

Donghae merely let out a sigh. This was typical his mother. She knew everything about manners in not only Korea but also China and Japan (the countries in which she made many business deals) but she almost never used that information unless she wanted something from someone. She always explained that as: “Stuck-up people need to learn that I won’t accept too much from this hierarchic culture.” His mother was a free spirit that only accepted a few things from the culture. She bowed and such but she never really acted as she should with the hierarchic culture and people forgave her because she was an ‘outsider’. Despite living in Korea for so many years, his mother would never be a complete member of the society but she didn’t mind that, instead she made use of it.

His mother sat down elegantly on a chair and put on long leg on top of the other. Donghae saw the principal swallow hard. He obviously found his mother quite attractive and Donghae had to do his best not to gag. Sometimes he wondered if he was really her son. His mother was everything that he wasn’t: elegant, smart, charismatic and tall. While his was clumsy, stupid, shy and short. He had asked her about it but she showed him plenty of pictures to prove to him that she was indeed his mother (some of the pictures still made him shiver if he thought about it).

“So, what seems to be the problem, Mr principal?” His mother asked almost accent less and in a polite tone. The man stuttered and looked at Donghae’s mother’s cleavage. Donghae really wanted to spurt out of the room but he knew that that would bring only more trouble so he gritted his teeth and kept quiet. He knew that this was really typical of his mother. She always made use of everything that she had, even when she had no interest in reality.

“Well… Mrs…ehm…”  The principal blushed a bit and his mother sighed before her friendly answer: “You can call me Mrs Lee.” And the principal nodded although he seemed a bit disappointed that he couldn’t call her by her first name.

“Well…ehm…Mrs Lee.” Donghae watched his mother smile encouragingly. “Donghae was sent out of the classroom again.” He explained and now the two adults looked at Donghae. Donghae quickly sent his mother a pleading look before he defended himself: “I just couldn’t solve an equation.” And his mother smiled knowingly: “Ah yes, he’s got that from me. I was bad in mathematics too, back in the day.” She gave the principal a soft smile and the man fell right into his mother’s trap: “Oh well, we all have subjects that we find harder, don’t we?”

His mother gave a victorious smile that Donghae knew all too well: “Indeed, that’s why I think that it’s only fair if we don’t give him any punishment. You can’t punish somebody, only because he doesn’t understand something.” The principal looked baffled as his mother stood up and she quickly grabbed the principal’s hand again: “I’m glad that I’ve sent my son to such a great school with such a great principal. You’re really a good man.” She smiled a killer smile and the principal was in a daze. “I will take my leave now with Donghae. I’m glad that you take it so well. Good day.” After she was done shaking the principals hand, she took Donghae’s and she pulled him quickly out of the office.

She smiled a mysterious smile and put on her sunglasses again. Then she walked with big, elegant steps to her car while Donghae almost ran after her like a little child, muttering something along the lines of ‘killer mom’.

The first chapter! *celebrations*

I know that it's kind of a 'why am I posting this chapter' kind of chapter but the only reason is that it's easier to introduce certain characters this way...

Anyways next up is: Eunhyuk! And some other things that I'm not saying >;)