As soon as first period ends, Hyukjae pulls Sungmin to the side when everyone is exiting. “What?” Sungmin asks, frowning at his friend’s sudden jumpiness. “What’s wrong?”

“Donghae,” Hyukjae sputters. “Donghae – he’s here!”

Sungmin, still confused, asks, “What are you talking about? Who’s he?”

“You don’t remember?” he asks, his eyes wide. “Remember the fifth grade? That one kid that practically no one liked because they thought he was weird. He moved away and no one knew where he went, but no one really cared. That kid is in our class.”

Suddenly remembering, Sungmin’s mouth forms an ‘o’ shape. “I remember him! He liked you, didn’t he?”

Hyukjae blushes at the memory but manages to roll his eyes. “Who cares? That was a long time ago, and it wasn’t even a crush. He just liked that I was friendly to him. Anyway, he’s here! Can you believe that?”

Sungmin shrugs. “I didn’t know he could sing or dance, actually. Hey, maybe we could introduce ourselves? Who knows? Maybe he’s not weird anymore.”

“Are you crazy?” Hyukjae asks, suddenly backing away quickly as if Sungmin caught a disease in the last moment. “Why?”

“I want to know if he can sing,” Sungmin says casually. Right at that moment, Siwon exits the class, Donghae trailing behind, juggling his books in his hand clumsily. Sungmin is about to go reintroduce himself when Hyukjae clumsily trips, pushing himself onto Sungmin, causing the two to collapse in front of Donghae.

Immediately, Siwon stops walking and so does Donghae, and the two are staring down at Hyukjae and Sungmin. Red in the face, Hyukjae tries standing up, and Sungmin pushes him to get off of him. “You’re bony,” Sungmin mutters as he rubs his .

“Sorry,” he murmurs.

“Hyukjae,” a new voice suddenly speaks. “And… Sungmin? You-You two… here? What are you two doing here?”

Sungmin is the first to answer. “We got accepted this year. We didn’t expect to see you here, though, Donghae. How have you been?” Sungmin asks as if the two had been friends for the longest time.

Smiling, Donghae responds happily, “I’m good. So… you two sing?” he asks, looking expectantly from Sungmin to Hyukjae, who finally stood up and faced the crowd.

“I do,” Sungmin replies. “But Hy- I mean, Eunhyuk is here to dance.” He gestures to Hyukjae who is fixing his shirt now that had stretched out.

“Oh, that’s cool,” Donghae says softly, still smiling. “Well, it’s nice to see you two. Hopefully we can catch up later, okay?” He walks off with Siwon, the two chatting away comfortably as they make their way to their next class.

“He’s not too bad now,” Sungmin comments, smiling triumphantly.

Hyukjae rolls his eyes. “I can’t believe you did that.”

Sungmin gapes. “Me? You’re the one who pushed me!”

“Only because you were about to go up to him!” Hyukjae fights back.

The two continue bickering as they walk off in the different direction, oblivious of the slightly younger man who left before them listening curiously until their voices fade away.

-

The two share the same classes until fourth period rolls around. Sungmin has singing lessons, while Hyukjae has dance class. The two parted, agreeing to meet in front of the building at lunch.

Hyukjae never considered himself a shy guy. Sure, he tends to be passive, but he was friendly and liked to make others laugh. Even though he was late to class due to having gotten lost and having to change in the bathroom because the lockers were close, he still felt confident that dance class was going to be fun.

“Sorry I’m late,” he says quietly, readjusting his bag.

“Who are you?” the teacher asks, glaring at Hyukjae. He did not like to be interrupted.

“I’m Hyukjae, but you can call me Eu-“

“Sit down and listen, Hyukjae. And don’t be late again, unless you want detention,” the teacher warns without letting Hyukjae have another say. He goes on to continue explaining the class and future projects, and Hyukjae quietly sits on the floor. He’s confused because he didn’t hear the earlier parts, but decides to not ask anyway.

Finally, the man finishes explaining and asks the class to warm-up with stretches. Hyukjae throws his bag over to the corner of the room, excited to dance already. He does a couple of quick stretches in the corner by himself when someone approaches him.

“You’re the new kid, right?” he asks. Hyukjae notices that the boy is a little on the heavier side, but doesn’t mention it when he nods. “Well, I’m Shindong.” Hyukjae raises an eyebrow at the uncommon name, which causes the other boy to chuckle. “That’s not my real name, but my stage name.”

“Oh, I’m Eunhyuk,” Hyukjae says, smiling immediately.

“I thought it was Hyukjae?”

“Yeah, but I want Eunhyuk to be my stage name,” he explains. “Do you dance?”

Shindong laughs. “Yeah, I love it. Everyone thought I was a singer when I first came here, because of my weight and all, but boy did I prove them wrong.” He continues laughing, so Hyukjae just goes along with it.

“Anyway, you should come stretch with us,” he says, gesturing to his group of friends. Hyukjae’s eyes brighten at the offer and he nods, grabbing his bag and walking over with Shindong.

The teacher immediately calls for all of their attentions when they are finished stretching. He quickly dances the first part of the dance, then shows them the moves step by step. He says that he expects the first part to be memorized by the end of the week for their first big test, then leaves them to practice for the remaining five minutes of the class.

While Shindong and his friends slowly practice, Hyukjae is already serious about the whole dance/His eyes are focused on his reflection, examining his every move with precision. He repeats each step over and over, and attempts to go through with the whole thing but fails towards the end. He doesn’t hear when Shindong bids him farewell and the whole class leaves for lunch.

What he does hear, however, is the sound of the stereo being .

“Wha-“ he says, startled. He turns around and sees Donghae there, his head cocked to the side, watching Hyukjae.

“Sorry,” he apologized, smiling. “But you were so focused, and I figured you’d like some music to dance along.”

Hyukjae is standing there, dumbfounded, but answers, “Thanks. What are you doing here?”

Donghae sets his bag down and walks over to Hyukjae. “Practicing,” he says, immediately catching up to the beat and moving with the music. Hyukjae watches in awe as he gets almost all of the moves down immediately. “I have this class fifth period, and I always practice during lunch.”

Hyukjae, confused, asks, “Then how did you know about the dance moves so quickly?” He admits to himself that he’s jealous that Donghae learned it at such a fast rate.

This causes Donghae to laugh and stop dancing, staring at Hyukjae with big, innocent eyes. “I took his class last year, but I didn’t do so well, so I’m taking it again. He did the same dance last year, so I already know it.”

“Oh,” Hyukjae says quietly. He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly as he watches the other boy dance to the music, each move done with precision. He glances at the clock and his eyes widen, realzing it’s lunchtime and he is supposed to meet Sungmin. “I-I have to go,” he says, quickly grabbing his stuff. He leaves without another word, leaving Donghae to stare after him when he goes.

A sad smile enters his features as he dances to the music alone.

----

A/N: Yeah, so Donghae isn’t in Eunhyuk’s dance class. I honestly was going to put him in there… but I decided not to. BUT he will show up more often in the next chapter. These first two chapters are to kind of introduce the characters and their roles. Honestly, I’m still trying to figure out how to get these two closer… but I’m sure it’ll come to me. I have several ideas in mind, so I just have to choose one. Thanks to everyone for reading :) I’ll try to update tomorrow, or maybe the day afterwards.