That fleeting joy she had from singing lesson diminished just as fast as it was formed. 

The next few days went by easy until Thursday when it was History of Music again. The teacher began the class quickly by giving out the test results from the last lesson. There was a surprise in that Baekhyun, the annoying Baekhyun that is, continued his streak of being impressive by topping the test this time. Actually she should have seen it coming. His superior genes that Leah also has which must explains why they are always at the top academically and are most talented among the students too.

Unfortunately for Robin though, everyone had passed the test except her. Which led to her being called to Mr Jung’s office during lunch break that not only denied her of her chance to eat opposite the devastingly handsome luhan but also made her really hungry afterwards as a result of skipping lunch.

“ I would be glad to give you extra lessons after class but it seems that it would not be helpful in this case. Where language barrier is the concern, I’m afraid my limit as a history teacher cannot overcome that. “ Mr.Jung began.

Robin looked down on his table where her test paper laid on.

8/40

She should feel ashamed of herself. Yes she should be. But actually this still exceeded her expectations. This was pure luck because she didn’t understand a question and it seems like she was pretty lucky to even get 8 questions correct.

“ I’ll learn hangul as fast as possible!” Robin offered.

Mr.Jung studied her face. Then he shook his head. What does that even suppose to mean?! Is he giving up on her already? That’s not fair!

“ You must. There’s no other choice. I’m sure you are aware that this is a core module and you must pass this in order to be promoted to the final year. It is imperative that you study harder.” He sighed. “I hope this will be the last time I will have to see you in my office. This is very worrying Robin,”

Robin could only nod. This was really terrible. She felt helpless. With that she was dismissed. Which only leave her with 5 minutes of break-time before her next lesson, History of Art. She began dragging her feet to the main cafeteria in the academic building, wondering whether they’ll be any food left for her. Unlikely. Probably cold soggy fries which reflected her feelings and mashed potatoes to re-emphasize on how pathetic she feels.

She heard quick footsteps pacing from behind her. She turned around. 

Luhan smiled. “ Skipping lunch for a diet?”

Was he joking? She couldn’t tell.

“ No.. I don’t do diet.. “ She pretended to laugh. It was weird.

“ That’s what I thought so too. Anyway I heard you got called to Mr.Jung office is everything alright?” He asked with such sincerity that it became impossible to lie. Yet completely embarrassing to admit that she was the only student to fail the test.

Her eyes shifted. “ .. Yeah. It was nothing much really.. “ Her mind began searching for something to say to continue the conversation. She must not appear boring and bore him away. “ Have you had lunch?”

The question seemed lame to her but Luhan just nodded and smiled. Then he lifted his right hand that held a zip lock back. Upon further inspection she noticed that it contained a pie. He urged her to take it.

She returned a puzzled look.

“ I saved a chicken pie for you. I mean you’re probably hungry since you didn’t eat right?” he said as he shook the bag a little, signaling her to take it.

She suppressed her megawatts smile into a tiny appreciative smile. “.. oh thanks.. that’s nice of you.” She felt weak inside. She may never eat this in a million years. This was going straight into the archive of Luhan’s gift to her. The collection starts today. Luhan had saved a chicken pie for her! For her! How thoughtful.. how romantic! He was thinking.. about her!

“ You don’t like it?”, Luhan asked, eyes earnest.

Robin shook herself out of her thoughts, took the bag and realized that her silence must have came across as indifference. “ Oh no no.. I love chicken pie! Yeah I mean.. I eat it all the time..” she lied. What the hell. She eats chicken pie like once every two years.

Luhan flashed her yet another smile as the bell rung. Urgh. This pie will have to wait. Now she had to get to another class. Looking up at Luhan who was checking his watch, Robin decided to pluck up some courage and spoke first. “ So.. what’s your next class?”

“ Oh.. History of Art with Mr-“

“ Mr.Oh?”

Luhan chuckled in surprise. “ Yeah that’s right. You’re in his class too?”

YESSSSSSS, Robin wanted to do a victorious roar out loud. But suppressed it in. She opted for a smile. “Yup. Lucky us… shall we walk to class then?”, she offered.

As soon as they entered the class, Luhan took a left turn and walked straight to his group of friends and Robin realized she was alone again. What was she expecting.. to sit beside Luhan in class again? Oh well.. she ignored it and grabbed an available sit she found at the end of the class. A girl she recognized from singing class was sitting next to her and began introducing herself. They exchanged names and Robin was beginning to feel better about herself. Perhaps she was really capable of making friends.

The teacher, an old almost balding man soon entered the class and began with the introduction of the subject. Much like history of music, this was going to be a hangul-filled subject. This was bad. She must consider arranging some sort of tution with Leah or conspire with Baekhyun to cheat during exams. Suddenly she thought about Luhan. She wondered how good his hangul was. Perhaps he was as bad as her since he’s Chinese? She secretly wished that was the case. Another 5 minutes went by and the teacher began speaking about the projects that we were supposed to produce at the end of the semester. Then before she knew it she’d heard him say “ Partner up now please! And from now please sit accordingly so that you may start working together!”

Then as if a hurricane blew over, the over competitive students in the class took off from their seats hurriedly and engaged in what she could only described as civilized human trafficking. Left and right people were frantically calling names out, asking for their past GPAs and selling themselves as if their lives depended on it. Wow. Everyone here is really competitive. I guess this is really the top school’s league, unlike her typical school back in the UK. Then Robin realized she was the only one not moving.

And it wasn’t only because she didn’t know anyone, but also because she had nothing to offer to anyone. Who’s going to take a girl who can’t even read hangul? This was a burdensome secret that she never want to let anyone know. Telling the truth would likely cause a measure of difficulty, ranging from awkward to embarrassment.

Leah and Baekhyun, the only two people she can think of who would be okay with it are nowhere in sight. Where are they when she needed them the most now!?!?!??

As everyone started partnering up and sitting together, fear struck Robin. She tried looking around, but to no avail.

“ Wanna partner up?” Robin heard a voice.

It was Luhan.

Oh god. Given under any other circumstance she’d be over the moon, but in this case she didn’t feel particularly excited about showing her stupidity and illiteracy to him.

He was waiting for her. She took a desperate look around the class once more, hoping somehow Leah or Baekhyun would appear, but they didn’t.

She sighed and turn to Luhan. “ Sure..”

Taking a seat together, she could see everyone was starting to settle down now. . How was she going to break this to Luhan? She’s going to jeopardize his grades for sure.

“ Are you okay? You look so worried. Don’t worry even thought I’m Chinese my korean’s really good. I’ll be able to write my part of the report well,” he assured her. But it only made her feel worse. She returned a weak smile.

“ That’s not what I’m worried about..” she mumbled.

Then before the teacher could speak another word, Robin looked up to see Baekhyun running straight through the class door. He began apologizing profusely to the teacher for being late and was dismissed with a stern look. What was he doing being 15minutes late for class? And wait- what a jerk! Couldn’t he just have appeared for like 2 minutes earlier?!

Mr.Oh turned and called out to Baekhyun. “ You’re required to partner up with a classmate to work on the final project. As it seems that you are rather late, I’m afraid you will not have much choice. Anyone here without a partner?” He called out to the class as Baekhyun looked around.

Right there and then Robin wanted so bad to jump out of her seat, waved her hand out and scream me me me!!!!

As Baekhyun eyes met hers, it seemed almost like he knew what she was feeling. She didn’t mean to be dramatic but she was struggling to communicate to him by mouthing “help” continuously and doing irrelevant hand movements. Baekhyun pretended to cover his mouth to hide his laughter. Luckily someone was talking to Luhan and distracting him.

“ Well, is anyone going to partner Baekhyun?” Mr.Oh asked. At once a few hands sprang up, mostly girls. Robin was annoyed. She once again tried to signal for him to choose her and he did seem willing to help until he realized Luhan was already her partner. He looked away and began picking someone else. A few voices began calling him out which he didn’t seem to respond to until a boy stood up and said, “ I’ll partner him Mr.Oh,” and promptly signaled him to come sit together.

“ Who’s that?”, Robin subconsciously asked Luhan. She briefly remembered him from their lunch table but forgot their names.

“ Oh that’s D.O, he’s my roommate” Luhan said, as he opened up his textbook.

Class went on for another hour, the whole time as Robin was struggling so hard to keep up and tried not to let Luhan realized that she was dying inside. Before the bell rang the teacher reminded everyone about their homework and announced that they would be going for an overnight field trip on the third week and that they should be prepared. Great. Just Great. Robin thought and let out a sigh. She looked out of the class window and realized that it was snowing.

“ It’s snowing already?” Baekhyun whined loudly as Robin could hear that he was nearby. She looked up to see that he and several familiar boys were walking towards Luhan. As he stretched his arms lazily upwards, he continued making a sour face at the snow outside the class window. “ Seriously I hate winter”.

Robin felt herself frowning. What’s wrong with him? Winter is awesome. It’s cozy, it’s christmasy, it’s perfect. She began packing up her bags. Another class to go and this awful day would be over. She needed an emergency meeting with Leah already. She could hear the boys making their way out of the class.

A familiar voice called out to her. It was Baekhyun.

“ It’s practice period come on. Jay’s a real when it comes to late comers so you better hurry!”

Huh?

Nevertheless sensing some truth in Baekhyun’s words, Robin succumbed to his warnings and quickly caught up with him and his friends. In a short time that they walked to the next class, Robin has understood what he meant. Luhan joined in to explain that every student were to hold a performance, solo or in a group at the end of each semester. It was a huge deal because at every of these showcases that the school organized there would be tons of representatives from major entertainment companies as well as Arts university programmes who would be out scouting for talents. While ideally most students would want to do well enough to continue in the prestigious university programmes in this school, not many people could meet the standard. As such these showcases offers great alternative paths or sort of a back-up plan. And for the outstanding students they would be aiming to catch the eyes of scouting agents from entertainment companies who would then take them in as trainees either straight after high school or much preferably, the prestigious university here. This explained the much importance that the school places on the showcase preparation and allocated a practice period on almost every other day where students go to practice studios to practice. There were several vocal and dance teachers who would be guiding along the way. And notably Jay, the dancing coach was known to be very particular about timing.

“ He’ll make you jog three rounds around the school before you can even dance if you’re a minute late!” a boy added in. Robin suspected that it was an exaggeration. She noted that he had really huge ears.

Kai hit his head. “ Stop scaring her dude!”

She remembered his name because it was short. Robin sniggered as they continued hitting each other.

As soon as they reach the huge practice room, she noticed there were already about 30odd students inside. And before she could finish scanning the room, she felt someone jumping on her back.

“ Boo!”

Baekhyun laughed. “ Hold it there Leah. I’m gonna join in”. He joked and Robin immediately shook Leah off her back because she had no doubts Baekhyun would really do it. By the time they settled down at the far end corner of the practice room, Robin had noticed that she was sitting in the midst of the A clique. Everyone in the class were also sitting in their own circles, busy dicussing about their performance.

“ You’ve got any idea what you wanna perform?” Leah asked Robin. She shook her head in reply. “ Nope. No idea. You?”

Leah shrugged her shoulders. “ Me neither. I was thinking of doing a duet!”

“ Do it with D.O hyung! I think you guys will fit together well!” A boy enthusiastically chirped in. Robin turned to see it was the tall boy with dark eye circles. What was his name again? Oh Tao. Right.

“ I won’t do it. She’s too pitchy,” D.O replied matter-of-factly which prompted Leah to grumble.

“ That’s fine. I don’t wanna sing with an emotionless block of wood either.” She snapped at D.O and immediately he turned his huge eyes to her and glared. Leah replied with a defiant face and squinted her eyes challengingly.

Baekhyun laughed. “ Let’s organize a fight after school! I’ll set the boxing ring up and I’m betting on Leah. Who’s in with me?”. This made the big ears boy perked up as the started making some jokes on it. Robin couldn’t help but laugh. They were so silly but completely entertaining. And she like how she didn’t feel so self-conscious with them and it was surprising.

As Jay, the dance instructor began to call out groups to perform, Luhan began gathering the attention of the rest of the boys. Before she knew it, she heard Jay calling out, “ EXO you’re up!”

Then immediately in response 12 boys stood up, made their way to the front and started forming a position. Before she could ask, Leah quickly filled her in and told her that the boys had always performed together as a group and called themselves EXO ( Robin giggled at the name) and they were always the highlight of the showcase.

“ I think they’re practicing a short routine. It’s the dupstep introduction”, Leah said, focusing her eyes to the front. “ You’ll wanna see this. It’s really cool!”

Leah was completely right. As the music begin Robin was amazed. Their sychronization was spot on, the dance moves were sharp, cool and just awesome. D.O began singing the first two lines and his voice came out so powerful that it shocked her.

“ Wow, he’s really good.” She commented to Leah who rolled her eyes and grumbled, “ Cocky bastard”. Robin sniggered. Then the dance moves became stronger, more complex and impressive. In the next beat Baekhyun popped up, with his elbows resting on two boys’ shoulders as he sang. It was y. Robin was immediately shocked by her thoughts. She could hear faint gasping sounds of girls in the class. This was the first time she was seeing Baekhyun so focused, so serious and this side of him was new. By the time the song ended she found herself clapping vigorously. Then she had realized Luhan didn’t even sing and was quite disappointed. She’d heard from Leah that he was a good singer as well and really wanted to hear him sing. But oh well, at least she know knew he was a good dancer as well. Is there even limit to this perfect guy? She'd heard such men existed before but she's never seen one up close.

Walking back, Luhan wiped his sweat with a towel across his neck. He looked down and caught Robin looking at him. He gave a sheepish smile. She returned it shly. What a great day to end this terrible day, Robin thought.