The memories somersaulted around inside my head, twisting and turning; random shreds of information (sights, sounds, and smells) glided forward, before shattering into millions of tiny fragments. The snow. The cold. The sickening snarl. The battle. The bloodshed. The creature’s warm breath on my skin. All gone.

Thud! I let out a cry of pain as my hand collided with the tall wardrobe to the right of my bed. Realising my left hand was still clasping my phone from earlier that night, I glanced at the screen: 5:59AM. Groaning, I rolled over, buried my head in my pillow and tried to recollect any scraps of memory I had of the dream. All I could remember was the deadly snarl of a wolf and the unbearable feeling of some sort of connection – albeit very faint – to the second wolf that had appeared.

Brushing all thoughts of the dream aside, I clambered out of the bed and began to prepare for the day. It was my first day of school in a country I had never been to before. And I was alone.

The closer I got to the school, the slower I walked – by the time I was nearly at the entrance to the enormous building my feet were being dragged across the concrete floor. I thought I’d be alright on my own – at least for a few weeks – but the moment I stepped through those big glass doors and entered the building I knew just how wrong I’d been. Gazing round the colossal room with equally as wide eyes, I searched desperately for a friendly face among the crowds.

That’s when I saw him.

 He wasn’t as tall as most of the others, but regardless of that fact he was still by far the most good-looking. Absolutely every single one of his features was clearly defined and irresistibly beautiful: from his dark entrancing eyes and high cheekbones, to his silky purple hair and pale skin that looked softer than a baby chick’s feathers. Everything about him was enchanting.

Our eyes met momentarily; his eyes flashed darkly (though it was difficult to tell from where I stood at least 7 metres away from him) for only a second. I’d seen him before, but where? How? As he turned away from me, two other boys – who looked to be about the same age as me – materialised next to me.

“You’re the new girl, right?” One of them asked me, awakening me from my daze. He was quite tall – taller than me, at least – with fluffy coffee-coloured hair, a cheerful smile and a handsome face; the boy next to him was just as good-looking, only with fine, light blonde hair and a sullen expression plastered on his face.

“Yes, that’s right.” I responded, partly stunned by their unbelievable beauty, yet partly disappointed that I wasn’t able to keep staring at the mysteriously familiar stranger.

“I’m Kai, and this is Sehun.” Kai gestured toward the hostile-looking blonde. “We’re supposed to give you a tour of the school before lessons start.”

“Ok,” I agreed. I was glad of the company and grateful for Kai’s friendly attitude (although Sehun made me feel quite uneasy.) They started walking and I trailed after them. Before long they had shown me the science labs, the sports hall and the gymnasium, the cafeteria, the dance studios… pretty much most of the school.

After a while of walking in silence, Kai looked at his watch and turned to me. “We still have a while before we have to go to registration… is there anywhere you want us to show you?”

I dug my hand into my pocket and pulled out my timetable, unfolding it handing it to him. “I don’t know where my homeroom class is…” I laughed nervously.

“Oh, you’re in Sehun’s class! He’ll show you later.” Sehun didn’t exactly look like overjoyed at this thought, and I’d be lying if I said I was.

  Ten minutes before registration, we were sitting on a wooden bench in the gardens, soaking up the serene ambience. Not one of us spoke. Kai was gazing at the flowers by his feet (Knautia, to be precise) while Sehun admired a delicate-looking butterfly which was fluttering its cream-coloured wings around his head; I simply sat and watched the other two. Sehun was the first to break the peaceful silence. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“I’m Yeongi. Han Yeongi.”

The blond nodded and stood up from the bench. “We need to go now. I’ll show you to our homeroom.” He nudged Kai’s side lightly with his foot. When the other didn’t respond, he spoke again (to Kai, this time). “Yah! Kim Jongin! Get up! We have to go now if we don’t want to be late.” ‘Kim Jongin? Is that Kai’s real name?’ I thought to myself, but I didn’t voice my question.  Kai (or Jongin) rose to his feet and they began walking back towards the building; I quickly followed suit.

My heart pounded against my ribcage when I entered the classroom after Sehun (who, by the way, turned out to be quite a nice person even if he did look a bit miserable). I stopped dead in the doorway. Sehun noticed and turned round. “Don’t be so nervous. No-one’s gonna bite you… hard.” I tried to speak but gave up when I found that I had seemed to have lost that ability. Reluctantly, I followed him into the room and sat in the empty seat between him and the reason my heart was beating so fast: the familiar stranger I had locked eyes with for less than a second earlier that morning.

A woman entered the room approximately twenty seconds later and stood at the front, facing us. She smiled a pretty smile and her eyes wandered around the room until they found me. She gestured for me to stand up and join her at the front. When I had done so, she rested her left hand on my shoulder and announced, “This is Yeongi. She has recently moved here from England and will be joining our class for the rest of this academic year.”

I sat back down and – not having the confidence to strike up a conversation with Sehun, who happened to be talking to the remarkably pretty pink-haired male in front of him – took the book I was currently reading out of my bag and opened it to the page I had marked with my bookmark. I had read three pages when the purple-haired god to my right leaned across and tapped me on the shoulder. I jumped in surprise at the sudden contact. When I looked up I saw that he was handing me a note. Slowly extending my hand, I shyly accepted it. “Could you pass it to him for me, please?” He gestured to the boy in front of me and my heart sunk like The Titanic did a century ago. Sighing, I tapped the boy’s back and handed him the note.

It was a while before I noticed the Sehun and the boy he had been talking to (whose name was Luhan according to Sehun) were staring at me. Luhan continued staring at me for the remainder of homeroom and throughout the entire day – I was in all of their classes and some of Kai’s and the god’s too.

At the end of the day as I walked to the bus stop with Sehun and Kai, Kai asked me if I had any plans for after school. I shook my head. Kai then proceeded to tell us he was planning on playing basketball with a few of his other friends but he needed one more person to play. Sehun said he couldn’t go because he was going to Luhan’s house, so Kai asked if I would play. I hesitated for a moment before answering – I was terrible at any sport that wasn’t bowling or swimming and disliked most sports because of that fact, but on the other hand I really didn’t want to go back to my lonely apartment. “Well… I at sport in general (especially basketball) but I’ll play if you don’t mind losing.” Kai laughed and said that it didn’t matter how well I played, after all it was just a game. He was the first person that had ever told me that when regarding my lack of sports skills.