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“You’re back early,” Yooyoung commented when she saw Jinae coming back into the room. “I thought you were regrouping with friends from your prior school,” she teased.

“They were feeling kind of hostile so I took my leave,” Jinae replied. “Baekhee, Soyeon, and Huanyue were all having bad mornings.”

“That’s too bad. What happened, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Soyeon and Huanyue get stage fright sometimes. Apparently Huanyue got a little thrown off guard by that weird chemistry teacher and screwed up first impressions.”

“Oh goodness. I’ve heard he is quite the character,” she giggled. “I’m sure that your friend will be fine. The first day of school can be brutal by way of impressions.”

“I’d say you made a good first impression,” Jinae replied with a brilliant smile.

“Thanks, I think,” Yooyoung replied. “You’re interesting to say the least,” she returned.

“Is that good or bad because it sounds bad,” Jinae teased.

“We’ll see. I still don’t quite know your sense of humour, but we have a whole year to get to know one another better.”

As they talked, Jinae could almost feel someone’s gaze on the back of his head but when he turned around, he couldn’t locate the source. Every time Jinae looked like she was going to turn around, her observer would duck down behind his physics textbook, which was upside down. Were Jinae to look carefully,, she would notice both the inverted book and the boy’s neighbour casting an occasional gaze at the boy with the physics book and rolling his eyes. Jinae noticed none of this.

--

Lunch ended and the remaining three parted ways, returning to classes. Luhan was dreading returning to the classroom and having to see Minseok again. He hoped that he wouldn’t embarrass himself further but he did not manage to accomplish that. His first embarrassment was slipping from Korean to Chinese as he tried to solve a maths problem on the board and explain his work. He only realised his mistake when he received blank looks from the teacher and his fellow students alike.

“Was that the wrong answer?” Huanyue asked shyly in Chinese, cheeks heating up rather quickly.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t understand your explanation,” Mr. Jongwoon tried to explain as delicately as possible. “You are not speaking Korean.”

The pink tint in Huanyue’s face was darkening and fast approaching red as she went back and explained all of the steps in Korean. Minseok gave her a reassuring smile and the two shared a moment of eye contact. Were that Huanyue’s cheeks could get any redder, they would have. As she explained, she found herself stuttering badly again. Even an approving and encouraging nod from Hyelim couldn’t help her get past her earlier embarrassment.

When Huanyue finished her explanation of the problem in Korean, Mr. Jongwoon nodded approvingly.

“Very well done,” he commented as Huanyue returned to her seat and wishing the earth could just swallow her up. She would be attending classes with these students for another four months. She didn’t know whether she would be able to survive if these sorts of mistakes would become a regular occurrence. The only bright side Huanyue could think of was that she would be changing her identity at the end of the four months and would no longer have to live with the embarrassment that came with her mistakes throughout the four months she would be attending as a girl.

Maths class ended and Huanyue heard a reassuring voice from behind her. “It’s okay,” Hyelim soothed. “Everyone makes mistakes. I don’t think anyone would hold it against you. More than anything, I think that everyone is impressed that you can explain these things in both Chinese and Korean.”

“Are you sure that people don’t just think I’m dumb and can’t tell the difference between Korean and Chinese?”

“Absolutely positive,” Lime replied with a nod. “Some people might think it’s funny for a while but even they will get tired of bringing it up. Minseok’s reaction didn’t look like a bad one either,” she added. “I think he looked impressed.” Luhan looked unconvinced, eliciting a sigh from Hyelim. ”I’m sure that you will get a chance to talk to him normally soon,” she promised. “At the least I think that he admires you for being able to recover from the embarrassment with such ease. And here he comes now, I know not what for” She gave a cheeky smile before returning to her desk.

Luhan looked up and almost squeaked with embarrassment. “U-uhm. H-hello there,” he stammered.

“Hey there. You’re Huanyue, right?” he began with a grin. Huanyue nodded dumbly. “I just wanted to tell you that you’re really interesting and I look forward to being in the same class as you this year.” Although the word sin themselves were a little awkward, the air with which he said it made it out to be very smooth.

“Y-yeah,” Huanyue mumbled, internally slapping himself as he averted his gaze and turned bright red.

“Soccer club tryouts are coming up next week. Are you going to try for the team?” Minseok prompted.

“Definitely,” Huanyue replied brightly, looking back at the other.

“Best of luck then.”

“You too,” Huanyue replied happily. The smile Minseok flashed may or may not have made Luhan’s heart flutter just a little.

“Time for class to start,” the teacher announced, signalling that the students needed to sit down for class again.

All through class, all Luhan could think of was Minseok’s smile. Luckily enough, none of the other teachers felt the need to pick on him in class.

--

Baekhee spent the afternoon trying to avoid eye contact with other students for the rest of the afternoon. She only spoke when absolutely necessary. Her thoughts were a mix of emotional frustration at the fact that he couldn’t be with Yoonjo for quite a while and the social stress of gawking and glares from fellow classmates.

--

Soyeon’s afternoon consisted of a Korean class in which she was asked to read a few passages aloud and paragraphs rife with voice cracks. With each voice crack, her paper-white skin got redder and redder. When she finally looked up from her book, she saw the Chinese boy at the front of the room staring vaguely at her and someone by the window with tan skin smirking ever so slightly. Soyeon sat down with a flaming red face. She wasn’t sure which boy was more embarrassing, the spacey Chinese boy or the cocky tanned one. For her, the end of the school day just couldn’t come quickly enough.

A/N: Hope you enjoy more interactions between EXOVenus~ Worry not, things will get even more interesting.