The first few days of university, Tao would be the loner in all his classes. He would not talk to anyone at all due to his fear of people. Because of this, people would steal glances at him and would find him weird. However, he just ignored that. He was used to it anyway.

It wasn’t until the start of the second semester when people would start calling his names and bully him, all because of his introverted personality.

“Hey, kid! You deaf? Answer me when I say something! Got it?,” a senior, Chen, said as he clenched Tao’s shirt, pulling him closer.

“I’m-I’m so sorry, senior,” Tao replied with a soft voice with eyes closed, scared as what was coming next.

“Speak up, boy! I can’t hear you, damn it!” Chen shouted.

“He said he was sorry, Chen! Let go, jerk!” a voice shouted from the back. Everyone who gathered, including Chen and Tao, looked back and saw that it was Kai, another senior.

“Dude, I was just trying to give the new kid a les-“

“A lesson? Man, that’s what you always say. Get a life, Chen. This ain’t high school anymore,” Kai said, grabbing Chen’s fist that gripped Tao’s shirt, forcing Chen to let go. Kai took Tao’s hand and led him out of the crowd.

“Thank-thank you, mr?”

“Kai. Don't call me mr, we're practically the same age. And don’t worry about it. Been there, done that,” Kai said with a slight smile on his face.

“Oh?” Tao asked, intrigued by what Kai just said. Before he was going to ask, he was disturbed by a faint shout from a distance.

“Hey, Kai! Come on, we’re gonna be late!” a tall and deep-voiced student shouted.

“I’ll tell you next time. Right now, I got to go. Wanna come with us?” Kai asked Tao.

“Uh, maybe next time. I still have a lot of homework,” Tao answered.

“Sure, no problem. Well, see you around, Tao!” Kai said as he ran towards a group of boys, apparently waiting for him.

“Yeah,” Tao replied, although too soft for Kai to hear anyway. “Wait, I never told him my name. And why did he seem very familiar to me?” Tao wondered to himself, feeling confused. For a quiet kid, he had a lot of curiosity. He wanted to find out how Kai knew his name. With that, he went to his dorm and started “researching” about Kai, whom he just met.

a/n: I'm sorry if this was such a short chapter ;; I'll try to make the other chapters longer HIHI. Anyway, whoo, new characters <3 Third chapter coming up tomorrow so stay tuned! ^^