“Yah! Kang Yoonji! Pali—you’re going to be late on your first day of school!” Yoonji heard her mom yell from the kitchen. 

“Arrasso—” She quickly slipped her left shoe on while grabbing her backpack and coat jacket off her bed. Stealing a quick look from her mirror, Yoonji straightened her newly bought uniform—a gray pleated skirt, a navy blue blazer, and a subtly patterned red tie—before letting out a sigh.

“I have my backpack, my uniform, keys, shoes…” Counting off in her mind, she slid open the door that separated the bedroom from the rest of the house. Yoonji stepped out before hurrying over to her mother. 
“Umma, I’m going~” She kissed her cheek goodbye. Her mother turned off the faucet before grabbing a towel to dry her hands and turning towards her.
“Do you have everything? You know how forgetful you are…” Yoonji grinned assuringly. 
“Deh! I’ll be going now, Umma. See you after school.” Giving a subtle wave of her hand, Yoonji turned around and headed towards the door.
“Yah—did you bring your lunch?” Yoonji paused midway in step, cursing silently in her head. Aish, paboya~ how could you forget?
Turning back around, she gave her mother a sheepish grin. “Ahh—looks like I forgot something…” Her mother gave her a look, before grabbing a brown paper bag from the kitchen counter and handing it to her. Yoonji gratefully accepted it. “Thanks, Umma.” Giving her another kiss on the cheek, Yoonji waved the brown bag at her. “I’m leaving now! Bye!” 
Closing the door behind her, Yoonji hurriedly walked down the street, clutching her lunch close to her chest. Her breathing quickened with each step as her heart softly pounded against her ribcage. Omo, my first day at Kangwha High—as a senior! Ottokae, I’m so nervous! I don’t know anyone, and nobody would want to know me…aish! I’m doomed.
Groaning inwardly, Yoonji kept her feet moving and her mind buzzing. She was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she didn’t even notice that she had already arrived. It wasn’t until she felt a hard bump on her shoulder, causing her to stumble and fall, that she processed the information in her head.
“Omo—mianhae! Gwenchana?” A new voice called from above her. Yoonji looked up from the ground and found herself staring into the eyes of a girl. Short, bobbed, blonde hair framed the girl’s heart-shaped face and dark eye liner accompanied by hot pink eyeshadow decorated her eye lids. Headphones covered her ears, but the girl removed them, letting them hang loosely around her neck.
Startled, Yoonji yelped a little, causing the girl from above to flinch away as well. “Omo, ottokae—are you hurt, chingu?” Yoonji looked around and realized a little too late that she was still on the ground. Hastily, she stood back up, not meeting the girl’s eyes, and bowed. 
“Sorry for bumping into you. It won’t happen again.” Yoonji let her hair fall in front of her face to hide her embarrassment.
Haeri looked at the girl with her head lowered in bewilderment. Why is she apologizing? I’m the one that bumped into her. Aish, this girl. Making me feel guiltier than I already am!
“Yah!” Yoonji jumped at her tone of voice, and straightened. Her heart dropped in her stomach when she saw her face contorted into a frown. Uh oh, did I make her mad?
When the girl raised her hand, Yoonji inwardly gasped before shutting her eyes, bracing herself for the hit. She waited a full three seconds, but nothing happened. Bewildered, she opened one eye to see that the girl had a confused pout on her face.
“Omona~ you’re making me seem like such a bad person! I wasn’t seriously going to hit you! Sheesh! Do I look that scary?!” The girl pouted, letting her hand drop into a frustrated fist. Yoonji blinked, shocked. She wasn’t going to hit me?
The girl stared at her, waiting. It took an extra second for Yoonji to realize that she was waiting for her. 
“Ah, mianhae—” She was about to bow again in apology when the girl yelled at her again.
“Yah! Don’t bow to me! I’m not some tyrant! Aish.” She ruffled her hair in annoyance and Yoonji had to bite back a grin. She’s cute. 
Unfortunately, the other girl noticed and glared at her. “Wae? What’s so funny?” She crossed her arms, raising one eyebrow in question.
Yoonji bit her lip to try and stifle a laugh, but failed as a small giggle escaped . Haeri looked at her in shock. “Bwoh?! One second you’re apologizing to me, and the next you’re laughing at me! What is this?!”
Yoonji stopped laughing, and smiled. “Mianhae, you’re just too cute.” 
At that Haeri’s scowl vanished, and Yoonji saw a shade of pink color her cheeks. “B-Bwoh?” 
Yoonji extended out her hand in greeting. “Kang Yoonji. Nice to meet you.” Then, she brought her hand and scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. “We kind of got off on the wrong foot, but…I hope we could maybe start over…?” She bit her lip nervously, shocked at her own bravery and afraid that the girl would reject her offer. However, her worries were quickly taken away as the girl returned her smile with one of her own. 
“Kim Haeri, and yes—we can totally be friends!” Yoonji’s smile broadened. Yes! I made a new friend! Maybe this year won’t be as bad as I thought.

Baekhyun strolled down the hallway with his five friends, casually winking and smiling at the girls they passed, returning irritated glares of boyfriends with smirks. It was the first day of senior year and already, they were being drooled and sneered at. Baekhyun inwardly smirked. Ah, things never change.
The group of boys stopped at the end of the hall to visit their lockers, finding it to be already crowded with sticky notes and love letters from girls of all grades from their school. 
“Ahh, I love being showered with all this attention.” One of his friends sighed in satisfaction as he began to peel the sticky notes and letters off of his locker. The maknae of the group, Sehun, scoffed.
“I feel sorry for your future wife, hyung.” He snickered. He was only younger than all of them by a couple months, yet he still called each of them ‘hyung’. older boy looked back at him with a scowl and a handful of notes.
“Wae?” He turned back to his locker and twisted in the combination. 
“Because instead of being a wife, she’ll be your maid. She probably won’t even have time to feel good about herself because she’d be worshipping you with compliments.” A deep voice snickered. Jongin turned and glared at the two men who were now laughing at him.
“Yah—Park Chanyeol, Oh Sehun! Be quiet, will you?” Suho, their calm and collected leader, shushed them. Reluctantly, the two men shut their mouths, but a stifled laugh slipped amongst them.
Baekhyun calmly opened his locker, shaking his head at his friends’ stupidity. He had begun peeling off the notes off of his locker when another one of his friends, D.O., spoke up. “What do you guys have first period?”
“I have History with Lee Seongsangnim.” Jongin scowled, crossing his arms unhappily. He absolutely hated History class, it always made him want to take a snooze. To top it off, he had one of the strictest teachers in the whole building teaching him. Perfect. 
Chanyeol chortled beside him, slapping his back. “Aye, Jongin. Luck is not on your side today. I have Music, first.” He placed both hands on the back of his head, grinning. “Looks like I’ll be getting an easy A in that class.” He laughed, pointing his finger at Jongin teasingly earning himself a hard nudge from the younger one.
“Me and Baek hyung have Calculus first with Im Seongsangnim.” Sehun spoke up, leaning against the lockers. Baekhyun closed his locker, turning his attention to his friends.
“That class is gonna be a piece of cake. I’m probably gonna sleep half the time.” He brushed it off nonchalantly. 
“Tch, smart .” Chanyeol muttered, but Baekhyun only smirked at him.
“Don’t be jealous of my awesomeness~ I’m sure you can always find a girl with your undeniable good looks.” He teased, chuckling. Chanyeol opened his mouth to reply but D.O beat him to it.
“Oh, that reminds me. I heard that there’s a new student—” The words had barely left his mouth when the guys instantly pounced on the new information.

“Yah! Why do you only bring this up now?!” 

“Is it a boy or a girl?”

“I hope it’s a girl!”

“Is she hot?”

“YAH!” All of them froze and stared at a flustered D.O. as he huffed impatiently. Straightening out his collar, he composed himself before clearing his throat and speaking. “I heard she was—”
“SHE—?!” Chanyeol’s exclamation was muffled by both Suho’s nudge in the stomach and Sehun’s hand covering his mouth. D.O. sent him a glare, before nodding stiffly.
“Yeah, I heard today’s her first day. And, if my resources are correct—which they usually are—she has Calculus first period with Im Seongsangnim.” He gave Baekhyun and Sehun meaningful looks.
“YES!”
“NO!”
Sehun stuck his tongue out at Chanyeol as the older one huffed angrily. Baekhyun rolled his eyes at their immaturity, but shrugged at the new information, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Cool.” was all he said, thinking that this girl wasn’t any different from the rest. More hearts to please. 
Pushing himself off of his locker, he started down the hallway. “Yah, where are you doing, Baekhyun?” D.O. called after him. Baekhyun glanced back, giving a sideways smile.
“Going to go meet this new girl, what else?”

Yoonji looked up to find herself standing in front of a classroom. Haeri had helped her find her first class and both girls were excited to find out that they shared it together. They had squeezed through the crowded halls, Yoonji constantly mumbling “excuse me” and Haeri just pushing people out of the way, often yelling “Yah, move!” causing a brief opening in the mob of students, before they were faced with yet another wall of bodies.
Haeri wiped off the imaginary sweat from her forehead before placing her hands upon her hips. Standing side by side, Yoonji noticed that the other girl was slightly taller than her, with a little more hip and bust. She, on the other hand, had a flatter chest and less of a figure. Nonetheless, Yoonji pushed aside the tinge of jealousy and stared at the mass of students already present in their classroom.
“Ughhh, Calculus. I still wonder how I got into this class for free.” Haeri grumbled beside her. Yoonji giggled softly, before taking a deep breath and walking in. 
Instantly, she felt the eyes of students on her as she and Haeri walked across the classroom to a pair of desks near the front that were empty. Yoonji instantly felt self-conscious and lowered her head a little in embarrassment.
“Yah,” Yoonji turned to find Haeri giving her a soft smile. “Don’t worry about them, arrasso? They’ll settle down after a while. Let’s sit.” Yoonji nodded, grateful for the reassurance, as she sat down next to Haeri. The murmurings hadn’t ended, but Yoonji wisely chose to ignore them and take out her notebook and pencil.
Baekhyun and Sehun arrived at the classroom to find that the students were already whispering in their clustered groups. Neither of them were noticed, however, since they hadn’t fully entered the room.
“What are they gossiping about?” Sehun murmured from behind him. Baekhyun scanned the clusters of students, trying to identify a new face when his gaze landed on two girls sitting near the front of the class. One of them, a girl with short blonde hair, he fairly recognized as being Kim Haeri—one of the few girls that wasn’t fazed by him and friends’ attractiveness. His eyes moved over to the girl next to her. He took a sharp intake of breath as he felt his heart flip unconsciously in his chest. 

She’s beautiful.

The girl had her head in her hand, tapping her pencil lightly on her notebook as she turned to Haeri who was talking animatedly beside her. As Baekhyun looked closer, he noticed that there was a slight crease in between her brows and that her eyes kept flickering to the students that were whispering around her. 
She’s uncomfortable.
He didn’t know why, but anger suddenly surged in his veins. These stupid kids. Why were they already giving her a hard time on her first day?
Tightening his jaw, Baekhyun felt a sudden compulsion to protect her from these people. To punch every single one of them. To take all her troubles away. 
“Not what—who.” He muttered under his breath quietly, his eyes focused on the beauty in front of him. Sehun looked over at the new girl too and his eyes widened.
“Woah, she’s pretty~” He cooed, eyes sparkling. Baekhyun dropped his jaw, and instantly felt like beating his dongsaeng up when he noticed who he was staring at.
“—Kim Haeri?” Baekhyun said incredulously. Sehun sighed in content. 
“Even her name sounds beautiful~” He eyed her hungrily and Baekhyun couldn’t help but stifle a laugh.
“Ouch—hyung!” Sehun rubbed the back of his head where Baekhyun had hit him.
“Yah, byuntae. Calm your hormones.” He chuckled. The younger one scowled, before sticking his tongue out.
“You too, hyung.” He smirked. Baekhyun blinked shocked. “Bwoh?” Sehun nudged him, grinning.
“Well? Are you going to go talk to her or no?”
 

Yoonji was so focused on what Haeri was saying that she didn’t even notice someone standing in front of her desk. It wasn’t until Haeri had stopped talking and scowled at the mysterious person that Yoonji snapped out of her daze and looked up. 
Instantly, her eyes widened and she was speechless as the boy in front of her smiled charmingly, and extended out a hand.
“Hi, I’m Byun Baekhyun. You’re new here?” Yoonji felt her heart rate increase as she continued to stare up at the handsome boy in front of her. Omo, what is this? Why is my heart beating so fast?! Am I about to have a heart attack?
Yoonji didn’t even know how long she had stared at him before someone cleared their throat next to me. Haeri raised her eyebrow at me, a knowing smile tugging at her lips. Yoonji felt blood crawl to her cheeks before smiling softly, and shaking his hand. The instant their hands touched, Yoonji felt a jolt of electricity flow through her that it took effort not to pull away abruptly.
Baekhyun secretly felt it too, which inevitably made his heart race even faster. 
A loud whisper exploded among the students behind her, startling Yoonji into releasing his hand first.
Baekhyun narrowed his eyes at the body of students and they almost immediately they dialed down. Looking down at her, he opened his mouth to speak when he was interrupted by a clearing of the throat behind him. Turning around, he saw that their teacher had already walked in the room and was now looking expectantly at everyone. 
“Everyone sit down, please!” She yelled, her voice projecting throughout the classroom. Everyone then shuffled into their seats. Baekhyun and Sehun sat in a pair of desks behind the two girls. 
“Hello, class. Welcome to a new school year. I’m going to be your teacher…” The rest of the words were blurred, however, as Baekhyun sat back and admired the mysterious beauty in front of him.
 

At the end of class, everybody shuffled out of the room hurrying to their next class. Haeri turned to Yoonji with a small pout. 
“I have English next period. You sure you’ll be okay finding your way around school to your other classes?” Before Yoonji could respond, a voice spoke for her.
“She’ll be fine. I’ll help her.” An involuntary shiver ran down her spine as Yoonji realized who the voice belonged to. She felt her cheeks get warm and her heart to flip unexpectedly in her chest.
Haeri looked unconvinced as she crossed her arms. 
“Yah, who do you think you—” She couldn’t finish her sentence however when an arm suddenly wrapped itself around her shoulders.
“It’s okay, babe~ Baekhyun hyung will take good care of her. Let’s go to class. I have English next too.” Sehun winked over at Baekhyun, before slowly steering Haeri towards the door.
“Babe?! Yah! Don’t you ‘babe’ me!” Haeri exploded in his face. Before they completely left, Haeri grabbed the edge of the door frame, holding herself back. She faced Yoonji exclaiming, “I’ll see you at lunch!” before her fingers were pried off the door and she was dragged away. 
Once they were alone, Baekhyun boldly turned to her. Chuckling, he asked, “Mianhae, I didn’t mean to frighten you. My friend will take good care of her, I promise.” He grinned at her, and Yoonji felt her cheeks slightly warm. 
Words still stuck in , she only nodded, before curling a strand of hair behind her ear.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I got your name?” Baekhyun looked at her expectantly. 
“Why do you want to know my name?” She blurted, but instantly felt stupid for asking. Baekhyun, however, just chuckled and stuffed his hands into his packet.
“I dunno. I want to get to know you, I guess.” He cocked his head to the side. Her heart stopped momentarily beating as she held her breath. He's so cute~!
She slowly smiled.
“My name’s Yoonji. Kang Yoonji.” Baekhyun’s heart fluttered. Yoonji. What a beautiful name.
“Well, Yoonji-sshi,” Baekhyun gestured towards the door. “What do you have next?”
They slowly made their way towards the door. 
“Music with—”
“—Hwang?” Baekhyun finished for her, excitement pulsing through him. Yoonji looked at him astounded, before shyly nodding. Baekhyun chuckled.
“Well, Yoonji-sshi, looks like we’re spending another class together.”