Boram walked onto the school campus with the M boys next to her. They were playfully chatting with each other, talking about how bad Chen's cooking was.

    "Like, I think it's a miracle I'm alive right now."

    "No kidding. For a moment, I thought he was trying to poison us with all the burnt spots." 

    "Ugh, let's see if I ever cook for you guys again," Chen grumbled. "And you guys are the ones who wouldn't wake up..”

    “Yeah, boys. Don’t be so harsh on Chen.” Lay chimed in.

    “Thank you!” Chen looked smug. “Somebody gets it—“

    “After all, his food really helped us wake up, didn’t it?” Lay finished, and the rest of the boys cackled. Boram grinned. 

    Before she had met the boys, Boram’s life had been so dull. She had grown up with barely any friends because of her overprotective father, who claimed that she was to be different than everyone else. Of course, young Boram had not known what he meant at the time but didn’t dare to object. The only people she could talk to were her maids and her tutors, but even then, her maids were too cautious around Boram, lest they accidentally make a mistake, or her tutors were too boring to hold a conversation with. 

    “Ugh, you guys are all useless!” Chen frowned, stomping ahead of the group. The boys, excluding Kris, were still laughing when they chased after him. Girls on the side of the sidewalk were either staring in wonder or giggling at how cute the boys were.

    “Kinda reminds you of the first day we met, doesn’t it?” Kris laughed.

    “Yeah,” she looked up at him, smiling. “It does.”

⃟⃟⃟⃟

    Boram was sitting at a grand, wooden table with six pairs of eyes staring back at her, eyes that she was secretly glad to see, but of course she didn’t express it. 

    “Boram, these boys will be your bodyguards starting today.”

    “Bodyguards?” thirteen-year old Boram asked. She knew that having bodyguards was normal for a princess, but she was still surprised at the thought of having them. A part of her remained happy about their presence. They looked about her age, which was new to her. Another part of her, however, changed into annoyance after hearing they were her bodyguards. Boram felt suffocated enough already, but now she had six more people watching her every move?

    “They are the sons of my very own bodyguards, so they were trained to be the very best. Now that you’re growing older, I thought it would be appropriate.” The King looked up at the clock against the wall. “I have a meeting in a few minutes, so it looks like I’ll have to see you at dinner.” 

    “Yes, Father.” Boram replied, still eyeing the boys.

    As he left the room, an awkward silence filled the air as the boys shifted uncomfortably in their seats, looking at each other for help. A minute passed and a boy with blonde hair, sitting at the farthest left, cleared his throat.

    “Ahem. Um, hi,” he waved, “I’m Kris.” Then he looked to his right, nudging the boy next to him.

    “Oh! I’m Tao!”

    “Hello, I’m Lay! Nice to meet you!”

    “Xiumin.” the said boy smiled shyly, avoiding Boram’s eyes.

    “I’m Chen! The best and strongest boy here!” Without warning, Chen got up from his seat and started somersaulting in the air. Boram would have been impressed if he had not fallen face first onto the floor midway. He got up with a pained and embarrassed expression on his face as the boys couldn’t help but laugh at him. Chen ended up running out of the room, while several of the boys chased after him.

    “Jongin. Kim Jongin.” Boram’s eyes landed on the last boy, who had just spoken, and her eyes widened in surprise.

⃟⃟⃟⃟

Kris seemed to have noticed Boram’s change in mood because, “Oh crap, sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

“No, it’s okay,” she looked up at him, giving him a sad smile. “Let’s go before those boys do anything more stupid.”

    Luhan was already there when Boram got to her class, and he greeted her with a smile and a wave. He didn’t mean to sound creepy, but he had figured out about a week ago that Boram always came ten minutes before the bell. In his defense, he just wanted to see her as much as he could. But what bothered him was that she always came with the two boys, Kris and Lay. What bothered him even more was that they were extremely good-looking as well. Several other girls seemed to think that as well, because they began whispering to each while glancing at Boram.

    Whatever, she’s already my mate. His inner wolf scoffed, and Luhan smiled.

    Kris and Lay headed towards the back of the room where their seats were, and Boram went to her seat next to Luhan.

    “Hey.” He was practically beaming. 

    “Hi,” Boram smiled back. “Somebody’s really happy today, did something happen?”

    “Me? No, nothing happened,” Luhan said, still grinning.

    Boram laughed, “Well, I guess you always look happy so that makes sense.”

    It’s only because I’m with you, he noted.

    With the few minutes left before class, Boram proceeded to take out her papers and pencils and organized them accordingly across her desk, like she did every day. Luhan just silently watched her do so and his heart bubbled with joy. A couple of weeks had already passed, but he still couldn’t believe that his mate was right in front of him. 

    But she’s not responding to you, his wolf reminded him.

    Luhan frowned.

    “Luhan!” a bright voice drew him away from Boram, who was still shuffling through her backpack. In front of his desk stood Joohyun, another classmate. 

    “Hey,” Luhan smiled.

    “Oh, hi Boram!” Joohyun waved at Boram as well, to which she waved back. Boram remembered Joohyun by her dyed hair. She noticed that Jooohyun dyed her hair often, and this time, her tips were dyed a bright pink. “Oh, Luhan! I just wanted to say thank you for helping me with Chemistry homework last night again. You’re always helping me, and I feel bad..”

    “Oh no, no. It’s fine, really,” he laughed. 

    “No, but I’m not okay… Here, let me treat you out once! So I can repay you.” 

    “Ah… I’m not so sure,” he chuckled sheepishly, glancing at Boram, then at Joohyun, then at Boram, and back to Joohyun again. “You really don’t have to…” 

    “But I want to! It’s a yes, then, okay?” Joohyun winked before skipping off to her seat. Other girls around her silently groaned in jealousy.

“Do you tutor her or something?” Boram asked.

    “Oh, no,” Luhan shook his head, “She asks me questions over text. But I didn’t think she would ask me that…”

    “Well, you should go! She seems really nice,” Boram smiled at Luhan.

    “You- you want me to go?” He looked taken aback.

    “Why not? She said she wanted to repay you for helping her, didn’t she?”

    “Well, yeah, but you’re okay with that?” 

    “Huh? What does me being okay have to do with— ”

    “Good morning, class!” Mr. Kim entered the room, going up to the podium, and the class immediately quieted down. Luhan was still staring at Boram when she turned around to face the front. “Time goes by so quickly, doesn’t it? It feels like school just started yesterday, but it’s been a few weeks now! You guys have all been really busy, right?” 

    The class chorused an unenthusiastic, “Yes,” and some students started complaining about the workload they had.

    “Now, now.” Mr. Kim clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention again. “Being a senior is a lot of work, but if you work hard, your results will be that much more great, right? Don’t forget that you’re almost an adult now; you’ll have a lot more responsibilities later on.”

    He couldn’t have been more right. Over the last few weeks, Boram had experienced a ton of workload that all the other seniors had to go through as well. The seniors especially had a lot of work and things to stress over because they would have to take the admissions test soon. Of course, Boram’s future was already set for her. She had a nation to lead, and so she knew that the responsibilities she had now were nothing compared to what she would have later on.

    Class officially began, and the room finally settled down, students concentrating on the lecture. Thirty minutes passed, and Boram tried to focus her attention on Ms. Shin, her Calculus teacher, but she couldn’t help drifting off every once in a while. Maybe her conversation with Kris earlier that day had to do something with it. Or maybe she just felt that she knew this material confidently enough already to take a break for a bit. 

    Suddenly, she felt warmth on her arm, and she looked down to see Luhan scribbling something down on her notebook, hidden from her view. Startled, she looked up towards the teacher, but fortunately, she had her back to the two of them. Once he was done, he quickly shifted back onto his side of the table and began writing notes again. Boram slowly look down towards her paper, having to tilt her head to the left to see what he had written, no, drawn.

    Luhan had drawn a face with wide eyes and mouth open wide: a spaced-out expression that Boram found to be quite funny because of his level of art skill. If only I could introduce my art teacher to Luhan. Next to the picture was a note, “This is you.” She silently tore the page out from her notebook — it had been empty anyways — and she wrote another message down.

    “I don’t know whether to be more offended by your drawing of my expression or by your drawing skill.” She folded it and slowly slid the paper towards him, making sure the teacher was still busy writing down the equation. 

    Luhan’s cheeks were already hurting as he unfolded the paper, his eyes finding his way to her smooth handwriting.

    “I doubt you’re any better,” he wrote back.

    “Whaaat? Is that a challenge?” 

    “Puh-lease, you don’t possibly think you can beat me, right?”

    The two ended up glaring at each other for a second before breaking out into a grin. When Ms. Shin finished writing the equation on the board and turned around, Boram and Luhan looked away, clearing their throats as they shifted back into their seats. After a minute, Luhan slowly looked to his right again, taking glimpses of Boram and the way her dimples showed when she smiled. He couldn’t get enough of it. 

    When Boram turned around to look at the clock, she caught Kris’s eye. He was looking at her with an expression she couldn’t quite understand. Uneasiness? Disappointment? She quickly turned to face front again, startled at the unexpected eye contact. When she glanced over her shoulder again, Kris was studying Luhan this time. Boram was confused; why would Kris look at the two of them with such a face? 

    But then again, she thought, she had gotten a lot closer to Luhan than she had expected to. Was Kris just worried about Boram getting too attached with the people here? She frowned. She didn’t see what was so wrong about trying to get along with the students here while she was staying. As long as she didn’t reveal her identity, it would be perfectly safe. Plus, Luhan was very friendly and open to her; she felt comfortable around him, more so than any other student. She smiled lightly when she remembered their first encounter where she had thought Luhan was Sehun. If they had met differently, Boram wondered if she still would have been able to become as comfortable around him.

    Just then, Luhan turned his head towards her and smiled when he saw she was looking at him. 

    Probably, she thought, smiling back.

⃟⃟⃟⃟

    Xiumin was walking with Boram on the way to her locker after her last class.

    “How was class?” Boram asked.

    “It’s okay, I mean, a lot of it is what we learned,” he shrugged. At the Palace. 

    “That’s true.. but it is a lot more fun since I’m learning with a lot of other students. I’ve never really had that, yknow? You guys haven’t either, but yeah.”

    “And besides the fact that I wanted to come to a public school at least once,” she continued, “I think it’s a good experience to see what the future generation is going through right now. It’ll be helpful for me when I’m making decisions later on.” The two were walking down the hallway towards the front of the school. Now that it was a few weeks into school, the boys weren’t as strict on their watch as they had been when Boram first began school. Now, it seemed only appropriate to walk around with a few of the boys, to which Chen had grumbled, “Why did we all have to enroll in school?” 

    “You sound like my Father, always sounding like you’re fifty-six years old,” Xiumin wrinkled his nose, earning a slap on the shoulder from Boram. “Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing. Hey! I love my Father, but you two always talk politically,” he laughed.

    “Well, what can I say? I’m total Princess material, aren’t I?” Boram shrugged, grinning back at Xiumin. The two stopped once they reached Locker 623 and Boram went ahead and unlocked it.

    “Can you hold this for me real quick?” Boram held out the water bottle she was holding.

    “Mhm.”

    With her free hand, she reached into her locker for her textbooks when a piece of paper slipped out onto the floor as well. 

    “Here, I got it.” Xiumin reached up and picked up the slip.

    “Thanks,” Boram shut her locker. “What is it? I don’t remember putting that in there.”

    “Um, Boram..” he looked up from the paper, eyes wide. “I- I don’t think it’s anything important. I’ll go thro—“

    “Why, what is it?” Before he could do anything, Boram snatched the paper from his hands. 

    You better back off of Luhan. He’s mine.