Lunch break was one of Zitao’s favourite times in school but apparently he couldn’t really enjoy it in his new school. Tao flinched again for the nth time that day when he felt a finger poked his cheek. He tried to focus on his lunch but with a crowd of curious girls staring at him like mad scientists experimenting with dangerous chemicals, it was kind of hard.

“Wow, a boy.” Hyoyeon muttered in disbelief.

The girls were quite in shock at the moment. All of them crowded around the nervous boy at his table in the Academic Major’s cafeteria, staring at him while they were eating their lunch. Even the cold Jung Krystal was included in the crowd but with different interest.

“So, you have nuts, huh?”

“Jess!!!!”

All of them snapped their head to glower at Jessica. Krystal smacked her sister on the head for the bold question.

“I’m just curious, okay?” Jessica pouted whilst rubbing her throbbing head.

The girls gave her a look before setting their attentions back on Tao.

“Taozi, what makes you transferred to Korea?” Taeyeon started.

“My f-father was promoted here.”

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

Tao blushed at the question and the girls resumed their squealing. Jessica wiggled her eyebrows in a suggestive way at him that made him even redder.

“N-no. I never had one.”

The classroom fell into a deafening silence. Tao squirmed in his seat and glanced around at the blank look his classmates were showing at the moment.

“You’re impotent then?” again, the blunt question was from Jessica.

Smack.

“Ow, Krystal!!!”

They ignored the outrage cry that came from Jessica and continued their interrogation on the poor Tao who was still blushing furiously at the question earlier.

“I’m sorry to ask this but by any chance, are you a , Taozi?”

Tao spluttered and the blush became prominent on his whole face. His reaction at the question drawled a huge gasp from his classmates. They stared disbelievingly at the young lad before Sulli hugged – more like squeezed – Tao and kept chanting protect near Tao’s ear, her eyes roaming wild.

Tao wheezed because of the tight grip on him and looked up in time to see Jessica got dragged to the far side of the room, away from him by Krystal and Hyeoyeon.

“Let me go!!!” Jessica wailed.

Just then, a familiar tune resonated in the building; stopping whatever activity the Academic Major building occupants were doing. The girls looked up immediately at one of the speakers in the building that were attached on the wall near the entrance to the cafeteria. Zitao blinked from Sulli’s tight grasp as he tried to make out the tune. It sounded familiar…

“Doraemon!!!”

Luna shouted excitedly and Tao’s mouth formed a little ‘o’. The theme song of the Japanese cartoon flowed out from the speakers in the building until it was disrupted by a loud shrill of the microphone. Tao and some of the girls winced at the sound.

“Park Chanyeol!!! Give me that!” a male voice sounded from the speaker with the song still playing in the background.

It sounded like there was a struggle when the voice from earlier and another voice got mixed up with the song. Tao felt like his eardrums were going to burst from the shrilling of the microphone but as he took a glance around, the girls were quite laid back like it was some sort of a normal occurrence in the school.

A loud crash and then it was silence. The song stopped playing. Tao stared at the speaker curiously, wondering what had happened and after a few minutes, the sound of someone clearing their throat was heard from the speaker and the male voice from earlier spoke up.

“Sorry for the inconvenience. There is an announcement here. Student Huang Zitao of 1-A Academic Major, please report yourself at the Student Council’s headquarter after school. I repeat, student Huang Zitao of 1-A Academic Major, please rep- Yah!!! Stop pulling my pants, you stu-”

The line was cut off abruptly and the cafeteria was silent again for a few seconds until the girls started to move again and Jessica’s wails continued. Tao sighed wearily amongst the commotion that came from the other side of the room where three of the girls were trying to restraint Jessica from coming near him.

“I-is this normal, Sulli-sunbae and why are they restraining Jessica-sunbae?”

Sulli looked down at Tao who was still caught in her embrace and smiled at the lad, “Yup, you better get used to it and for your second question, it is because we’re trying to protect your innocence from that ert so don’t go near her and call me noona, Taozi.”

Sulli laughed as Tao whined and unconsciously snuggled deeper in her embrace. She patted his hair fondly before remembering something.

“Tao, you need to go to the Student Council after school. Do you know where that is?”

Tao looked up and shook his head. Sulli pinched his cheeks at Tao’s anxious look.

“It’s in the Sports Major building being the main building of the school and all,” Sulli scoffed and continued, “Don’t worry, I’ll go with you later, Tao.”

The shy grin of appreciation that blossomed on Tao’s face unfailingly managed to draw squeals from his classmates.

~~*~~

The last bell rang thorough the school and the class buzzed with excited whisper as they were dismissed from the final lesson of the day. Tao stood up from his seat after packing his things and went over to Sulli. The girl was waiting at the door of the classroom and as soon as Tao stopped beside her, she looped her arm with Tao.

“Ready?”

Tao gave a small nod and off they went.

They went out of the building and crossed the yard past another building that various sounds of music came from. Tao tilted his head curiously as he stared at the said building and Sulli explained without being told to.

“It’s the Music Major building. Our school have four majors that students can choose from. Music, Academic, Arts and Sports though the Sports Major is the main major of the school since SM High is a school which excels in sports rather than academic aspect and that is why our major only have 15 students including you which is why we are so surprised that you, choose the said major and so, being the sole male in the Academic Major.”

Tao gaped hearing Sulli’s explanation, “O-only 15? In the entire major?”

Sulli nodded, “Our classroom is the only one in function and our teachers are also limited though it is quite fun because you get to roam the whole building freely without too much students in the hallways.”

They walked in silence and finally came upon a building that was bigger than the other buildings. Sulli pulled him to the entrance of the building and Tao looked around as soon as they stepped in.

“Wow,” he breathed.

The entrance hall was grand in its own way with expensive chandeliers hung from the ceiling, the wall were painted with soft colour and there was a sitting area for visitors made of a few exquisite mahogany furniture.

“Welcome to the main building of SM High.” Sulli grinned.

They walked along a few hallways and with every step they took towards their destination, Tao felt the insides of his stomach clench in anxiety and fear. Beads of cold sweat broke on his forehead and he tried to wipe them subtly.

“N-noona. T-the members of the student council…all of them are m-male?”

Sulli nodded and frowned when Tao visibly paled at her response. They walked past a group of students and Tao suddenly flinched when they walked too close to the said group. Sulli stared worriedly at his junior and opened to voice this but they already arrived at their destination.

“This is it. You sure you’re going to be okay?”

Tao nodded stiffly and Sulli noticed his hands were shaking. She grasped his hands and squeezed them gently to assure the boy, “Are you sure? I can wait for you.”

“N-no. I’ll be fine. Thank you, noona.”

Sulli gave him another squeeze before letting go of the younger’s hands. Tao waved at Sulli as she took off. The smile on his face dropped as soon as her back disappeared at the corner and he took a deep breath to calm himself down. He turned to the door and knocked.

“Come in,” a voice replied from the other side of the door.

Tao reached for the knob with a shaky hand and turned it. The door opened and Tao hesitated for a second before stepping in.

~~*~~

“Kris, the toilet on the second floor of the Arts Major’s building has been fixed.”

“Good.”

“Also, we have received the reply from Woolim High. They have accepted our offer for the friendly match.”

Kris nodded and his companion continued spouting off recent events as they walked in brisk strides. They were just entering a new conversation when a loud crash sounded. They halted in their tracks and stopped talking.

“What’s that sound?”

As Kris finished his question, another loud crash came along with a high-pitch shriek. Kris exchanged glances with his vice president before they sprint towards the source of the noises. Turned out, the noises came from the other side of the door of the student council’s room. Kris slammed open the said door with Suho, the vice president trailing behind.

“What the…”

An object flew past him, barely missing his handsome face. Kris stood frozen and turned his head slowly to identify the object that apparently got stuck to the door beside his head.

A knife.

“What the hell?” Kris growled.

A gasp from Suho that had just entered the room caught Kris’s attention and his gaze immediately landed to the middle of the room where Chanyeol was knocked out cold on the floor. Kris then glanced at the corner of the room where the commotion was coming from. He could see his other fellow members were struggling to avoid odd things that flew towards them.

Kris strode forward and given his athletic reflex, he managed to get thru the assault of the flying objects. He stopped directly in front of Tao that was curled like a ball and was sobbing. The latter looked up with teary eyes and scooted further from him. He was holding a pot in one hand and the other, a fork.

“G-get a-away.” Tao squeaked.

Kris stared at the younger boy and turned to look at Kai that was nursing a bump on his forehead because of a flying pan courtesy of Tao.

“What did you guys do to him?”

“We didn’t do anything!” Kai looked convincingly affronted at the accusation but of course Kris’s keened eyes could practically saw through it.

“Kim Jongin.” Kris narrowed his eyes.

Kai huffed and looked away from the elder’s gaze, “It’s because of Chanyeol.”