Hongbin's POV

"...bin...Hongbin...HONGBIN. Wake up!"

My bed began to shake and that was enough to wake me up. My eyes flew open and there was Ravi, hanging onto the bed by the top bed frame, staring at me.

"Oh, good. You're up."

I rubbed my eyes, making some kind of noise, the intended meaning behind it unknown even to me.

"I didn't think you'd want to sleep through breakfast. You must be starving."

"Oh...right." My throat was dry and my voice sounded hoarse. I cleared my throat before continuing. "What time is it anyway?"

"It's a little after 6."

I groaned and fell back onto my pillow.

"Ya! Hongbin! Don't go back to sleep! If you want warm food for breakfast you have to get there early, and that won't happen if you're stuck waiting for one of the showers to open."

I slowly got back up. Today was not going to be easy to get through. I hadn't fallen asleep until 3. We had stayed up until nearly 1:00 am just talking, and then after everyone else had fallen asleep, I just couldn't. I'd never shared a room before, and it took me ages before I could actually block out the sound of the others sleeping enough to fall asleep.

Hopefully taking a shower and getting breakfast would be enough to make it so that I wasn't yawning in the face of my advisor.

"Ugh..." I rubbed my eyes once more, swinging my legs over the side of the bed.

"There you go. Now don't go back to sleep. I'd suggest running for the bathroom as soon as Hyuk comes in. That way you can just get into his shower."

I nodded, my throat still feeling dry.

Looking around the room, I saw that both Hyuk and Leo were gone. Ravi was heading over to the end of his bed, packing up his laptop and books, his hair still damp.

So it looks like I'm surrounded by early-risers. Great.

"Is getting a shower in the mornings always this intense?" I hop down to the ground, holding onto the bars of the bed as I teeter back and forth for a moment.

"During the weekdays it almost always is. As long as you get up around 6 or so it's not too bad though. It's around 6:30 when everyone is rushing to get ready for breakfast, especially the younger residents. They'll take as much sleep as they can possibly get, even if it is only an extra 20 minutes or so. I'd normally be the same, but it seems like there's some sort of correlation between intelligence and some kind of neurotic need for cleanliness. Some of these people take 30 minute showers, even if they know people are waiting in line for the shower. And when there's only three showers and over 20 residents, it can get kind of...hectic."

"There's only three showers!?"

"Yeah, for now anyway. This house wasn't really designed to have this many people living in it originally."

I groaned. This was going to take some getting used to.

Just then, Hyuk walked into the room, hair still dripping.

"Might want to hurry, Hongbin." He said, smiling. "You don't want to lose the shower to some other resident."

"Right." I mumbled, before a realization dawned on me. "I don't have any towels or shampoo or anything! It was all in my suitcases..."

"Oh, right, I forgot about that! You can borrow my stuff for now if you want."

He put his shower caddy next to the door, walking over to his wardrobe.

"Thank you. Hopefully it won't be too long before I get my stuff back. Or at least head to the store to buy whatever else it is I need for now."

"It's not a problem. We're all good at taking care of each other here!"

He walked over to me with a fresh towel in hand.

"I really do appreciate this. I owe you one"

He smiled. "It's fine, really! Now you'd better hurry to the showers before they're all taken."

Forty or so minutes later, we were all heading down to the dining hall.

Ravi and the others had spent a good portion of the past couple of minutes warning me of the dining hall food, telling me what was good and what to avoid.

"A lot of the food is more English and American styled, so that might be a pretty big change for you."

I had noticed that they never seemed to mention much Korean food. And it dawned on me that no one here ever seemed to use honorifics, with the exception of Juhong, who had referred to me as "Mr. Lee" instead of the Korean standard.

"Why is that, anyway?"

Ravi turned to look at me as we walked down the stairs.

"Why is what?"

"Why is Rovix so American-oriented?"

"Oh, I think I heard somewhere that Juhong grew up in England. But he always explains that he wants us to be used to other cultures' "standards" because the goal for Rovix residents is that the school is able to set them up with an appropriate job upon leaving, and a lot of the time, that job is overseas."

Juhong failed to mention that to me. I guess it makes sense, though.

As we walked into the dining hall, Hyuk continued on about the pancakes they serve, though I was only half  listening at that point.

The dining hall was much larger than I expected, the open space being hidden in the back of the building behind the main staircase. Large circular tables were scattered throughout the room, and already there were a few people eating their breakfast.  The first person I noticed among them was N.

I walked over to the table, putting my bag down at one of the open chairs with one hand, waving to N with my other hand.

"Ah, Hongbin. So you managed to get up in time!"

I could hardly make out what he had said, as he spoke around a mouthful of cereal.

"Ha, yeah, thanks to Ravi. If it were up to me, I'd probably still be in bed."

"I figured, though I didn't have Ravi pegged as the one to be up before you. The first night's always the longest. I'm sure you'll get in the swing of things soon enough. And I'm sure having some food will help wake you up, after all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day!"

I laughed, nodding as I walked over to where they were serving food.

A couple of times, I would walk by a younger kid, and they would do a double-take, I suppose in surprise at having a new student. It seemed like most of the students here were younger, I'd say 10 and younger. Seeing all these young kids definitely made me more thankful for N, Ravi, Hyuk, and even Leo, now that he'd finally said more than a few sentences around me.

When I had first been told about the Rovix Home, and finding out it was first and foremost an orphanage, my immediate thought was that it was all going to be little kids, mostly toddlers and babies, so the fact that there were kids around my age was definitely a relief.

I was just as relieved that, so far, none of the students were kids that ran around their own egos. If I hadn't been told this was a home for geniuses, I honestly wouldn't have known. I had to admit, though, that I was curious as to just how 'gifted' the other students were.

After gathering all the food I would need, I walked back to the table, seeing N, Ravi, Hyuk, Leo, and a student I didn't know all sitting together.

Placing my tray down, I sat down next to Leo.

"And just who might you be?"

I looked up, startled at the strange, unfamiliar tone of voice, making eye contact with the only student at the table I had yet to meet.

"Uh...I'm Hongbin."

His previously blank face quickly morphed into a big, cheesy grin that surpassed even Hyuk's.

"Oh, it soo nice to have a new resident here that isn't five. And this one talks too!"

I didn't quite know how to respond, so I just chuckled, smiling what was surely a very confused looking smile.

"I'm Ken, the pride and joy here at Rovix."

I saw N quickly reach over and bat him on the side of the head, both of them quickly erupting into laughter.

Ravi turned to me, also fighting back laughter. "Don't pay any attention to them. Whenever they're together, they don't do anything but laugh, even if no one else is in on the joke."

"Ravi! Are you trying to turn Hongbin against me? What did you just say about me?" Ken looked back at me. "I assure you, everything Ravi said is a lie. I am in fact the most intelligent and well-liked student here."

He could barely get through the second half of his sentence before his briefly straight face once again morphed into a huge smile.

"Oh, but I thought Juhong only wanted you for your dashing good looks." N was quick to reply.

"Ya!" He whacked N on the shoulder. "I'll have you know, I am good looking, right Hongbin?"

I was already trying to fight back laughter at N and Ken's little routine.

"Oh, yeah. I'd say you even give Juhong a run for his money."

Ken's face went blank for a split second, before registering what I had actually said. He made an exaggeratedly indignant face, the rest of the table bursting into laughter at the image of old, wrinkly Juhong.

I grinned, looking up at Ken, trying to hold in my laughter. Reaching out for my glass of water, I took a sip when Ken spoke up again.

"I don't think I like this new student very much. Can we take him back later?"

I choked on my water, swallowing the wrong way as my laughter exploded at the wrong time.

I sat there, choking, and the rest of the table laughed even harder, even Leo laughing, before he surprised me and rubbed my back as I continued to simultaneously laugh and cough.

For the next hour we laughed and talked, with Ken's antics often taking center stage.

I couldn't remember the last time I'd had so much fun.