O no, this couldn’t be more unexpected

And I can tell I’ve been moving in so slow

~Kwangmin’s POV~

I sat in my desk at school trying to act like the perfect student I wasn’t. My eyes started to become heavy. Maybe a little nap will do and the teacher won’t notice. I put my arms on the desk and slowly watched the world turn dark. Ah...sweet peaceful sleep…

“Hey, Wake up… The teacher is giving you a death glare. I don’t think he is having a good day.”  I opened my eyes slowly, reluctant to see light again. My head felt heavy as I lifted it from the desk. The girl gave me a quick smile before turning her head to the front of the class. My face went hot and I averted my gaze to the front of class. Aish, why did she have to wake me up… The teacher threw a book at me just short of hitting my face.

“Mr.Jo, if we are done daydreaming, let’s focus on class now.” The teacher gave me a sneer and continued to teach. How does he expect me to learn when I don’t even know which page we are on. I started to flip through my textbook hoping it knew what page to turn too. I looked over at the guy next to me, but saw he was passed out with his head in his hand. Someone tapped my elbow and I looked over to see it was the girl who woke me up. She quickly took my book and turned it to the correct page. “Thanks…” I murmured and turned my head down to stare at the page. The heat before felt as if it had tripled. I think I have sunburn or something…  I rested my head on my hand, letting the coolness of me sooth my face. I think I’ll use the guy’s next to me example. I felt the peaceful darkness take over me again.

~~~

The bell rang for lunch waking me from my nap. Everyone around me was gathering their stuff and exiting the room. The girl next to me pulled out a book and a juice box and began to read. I put my head in my arms and stared at her from the corner of my eye. She has golden brown hair that fell about halfway down her back and she had straight lined bangs. I couldn’t quite see her eyes behind black glasses she had. Her skin was slightly tan with little white streaks and circles of skin that didn’t seem to tan. Her school clothes hang off her loosely as if she was trying to hide herself within them. Maybe she is a foreigner… Out the corner of her eye, she was staring at me. AH! She noticed me staring! “Is there something on my face? You’re staring pretty hard.” Definitely foreign, she has a weird accent.

I stretched my arms out trying to act nonchalant. “No no, it’s just ummm… I’ve never seen you before. Are you new?”

“Yeah, I just moved from the States. My name is Anastasia Munoz born and raised in The Big Easy.” She extended her hand to me.

“My name is Jo Kwangmin, lived here all my life.” Her hand was plush and soft, delicate but cold. “Ummm, what is The Big Easy?” My face felt hot again. She let a laugh followed by a sly smile.

“It’s a city in Louisiana, New Orleans, but I rather the nickname.” She pulled her hand away from me. It felt colder than where her hand was there.

“I’ve never heard of it…” I let my voice trail off. “Well since you’re new I guess I’m your first friend, right?”

“You would be correct, sir. And I’m happy that you are.” She gave me a smile. My GOSH, what the hell is wrong with my face. It feels like it’s on fire! There was an awkward silence that followed.

“Why are you staying in the classroom for lunch? You don’t want to look around the school?”

“I do but…” She looked down. “I’m not sure I can face everything just yet. I’m trying to take it in a little at a time. Culture shock and all…”

I nodded my head. My brother came into the classroom then and walked over to my desk. “Hey why are you still in here? Let’s go get something to eat.” He was pulling on my arm trying to lift me out of my desk.

I looked over at Anastasia. She had gone back to her book. I don’t want to leave just yet… “Hey, ummm, Anastasia if you want tomorrow I can go around at lunch with you. Introduce you to some people…” She looked up at me and nodded.

“That sounds nice. I think I would like that if it isn’t too big of a deal.” I saw her eyes travel to my brother who was still tugging on my arm.

“O, this is my brother, Jo Youngmin, we are twins but I’m the older one. And Youngmin, this is Anastasia Munoz. She just moved to here from the states.” Youngmin stopped tugging on my arm for a second to give a slight bow and shake hands.

“Nice to meet you, I hope you enjoy it here.” He tugged on my arm again before I rose from my seat.

“Ah, I’ll see you later then,” Youngmin was pretty much dragging to the door. “Don’t forget my tour!” I yelled from the doorway before I was out in the hall.

“I won’t!” She yelled back in English.

~~~

Okay, today I won’t fall asleep in class. I will stay awake and pay attention! I felt energized today for some reason. I slapped my cheeks for good measure and got a weird look from Youngmin. “Why did you just do that?”

“I need to stay awake. The teacher watches me like a hawk. I almost got hit yesterday.” He just shook his head and laughed.

I got to the classroom early and saw Anastasia scribbling in a notebook, pieces of paper spread all over her desk. “What are you doing?” I took a peek at her notebook and saw English written down half the page.

“I’m translating my notes. I’m not very good at reading Hangeul yet so it’s hard to study.”

“Man, that must , do you need any help?” I looked over her sloppy Hangeul notes. Jeez, how can she read any of this?

“A little, I can’t read my own handwriting with the notes I took so I’m really going off of what I remember the teacher saying. Do you think you could read it aloud? I can translate a little easier that way.”

“I’ll try…” I turned the paper sideways and upside down trying to make out the symbols. When I finally figured, I began reading it slowly, pronouncing each syllable so she would have time to write each word. We did this till the teacher came in to start class.

I did it! I stayed up in class the whole time, only closing my eyes for a few seconds before shaking my head to ward off any sleep. It’ll be easy to help Anastasia with her notes since I took my own notes. I’ll just read mine to her. When the lunch bell rang, I shot up out my desk. I was so excited for some reason, I just couldn’t contain it.

Anastasia was packing her books to slow for me so I grabbed some of her books and held onto them for her. “Hey, give those back! I was about to pack them up.”

I shook my head at her. “You are going too slow, there is a lot to see in the school so we have to get a move on.” I headed for the door making her have to follow me. “Okay first stop on the Kwangmin Tour is the Cafeteria.” We had to walk through the main courtyard to get there.

The place was full of kids eating, talking, and messing with each other. I headed over to a table near the front that was occupied by my other group mates. “To start off the tour, I’ll introduce my group members.  The one with the curly red hair is Jeongmin, than next to him is Minwoo across from him is Hyunseong, and you’ve already met my brother. And guys, this is Anastasia Munoz. She is the new student that came from the States.” They guys all extended their hands to her and nodded their head in a slight bow. Anastasia took all their hands gingerly like she was afraid to grab their hands too hard.

She gave a bow to the whole table. “It’s nice to meet all of you. Kwangmin you said they were your group mates. What’s the name of your group?”

“We are called Boyfriend! We just debuted.” Jeongmin announced and shot her a smile that would make any girl swoon. “You’ve haven’t heard of us?” He put on a little pout.

“Sorry, I just moved here so listening to music has been pushed down the list of what to do.”

“It’s alright; Jeongmin is just trying to mess with you.” Hyunseong gave her a reassuring smile.

“Okay, guys, we have to move on we still have a whole tour to do.” I said wanting to get her away from these guys. I felt a little angry they were trying to charm her so much. I don’t know what it means but I just don’t like it.

I started to walk away with Anastasia close behind me. She gave a wave to the guys at the table then ran up so she would be on my side.

We spent the whole lunch hour to explore the school grounds and introducing her to her people I knew. She seemed so happy when she was just at my side and I was just pointing out the library and stuff like that. When people came along she seemed to retract into herself and take on this shy persona. As soon as they were gone she was back to her hyper happy self. It going to be hard for her to make friends like she if she keeps acting like that, but I think I’m secretly glad she is like that.