It was going to be a good day.

A good day for Kim Jongin, that was. He and Byun Baekhyun had hogged the marble table just a bit beyond the garden alcove of their school. A few minutes ago, Wu Yifan had shown up as prince-like as ever, with a deliciously red apple in one hand and the other with his new textbooks. Jongin had a feeling Park Chanyeol was going to be late. Chanyeol was a rather consistent guy, Jongin liked that about him; he was predictable in the way he did things. For instance, Chanyeol was always late and always tall.

Sometimes, Jongin wondered if those two things were really anything to go by.

“Three,” Baekhyun began a countdown, eyes lazily glancing at his watch while leaning his cheek on his hand. “Two.” Jongin was about to tell him to shut up when Baekhyun said, “One.”

“Boo-yah!” a boyish voice that suspiciously sounded like Sehun’s echoed off from the school gate. Jongin stifled an annoyed groan and Baekhyun let out a defeated sigh.

A few seconds later, frantic footsteps could be heard running towards the picnic table and Baekhyun tried his best to look as excited as a sleepy person could be. A sandy haired boy skidded to a stop, eyes beaming and a smile on his face. Behind him was a black haired boy who looked equally agitated as Jongin felt.

“Isn’t this exciting?” the sandy haired boy exclaimed, sliding into the seat, hip clashing into Baekhyun’s. “We all get to be together again.”

“Yes, yes,” Jongin drawled, swatting his hand in Sehun’s direction. “Very exciting.”

The black haired boy took his seat silently beside Jongin and dropped his backpack onto the table.

“So, high school,” he announced in a thoughtful tone, looking around the place. “I am a freshman.”

“Yes,” Jongin nodded solemnly. “Yes, you are, Huang Zitao.”

Tao didn’t answer; his gaze kept wandering towards different crowds of students as if curious of what planets they were from. A shadow loomed behind him and he flipped his head upside down to find a chewing Kris, staring down at him.

“You’re here,” Kris stated the obvious, looking amused at the angle Tao was staring up at him. He’d already finished his apple, it seemed. He pulled out a lemon candy from his pocket, unwrapped and dropped it into Tao’s open mouth without a word.

“Isn’t this sad?” Sehun suddenly wailed as Kris scooted over to sit on the other side of Baekhyun, just opposite Tao.

“I thought you were excited just a moment ago,” Baekhyun frowned confusedly.

“Yeah, but that was before Kris hyung came,” he wailed and hurried on talking before Kris could give him the ice glare. “I mean, hyung’s a senior, so we’ll only have a year together in high school as a whole group!”

Tao chewed on his lemon candy, it cracked noisily.

“Unless Kris hyung is willing to flunk a year,” Tao suggested. “Then he could graduate with Luhan hyung and–”

Jongin rolled his eyes and Kris raised an eyebrow at Tao.

“You’re not serious,” Kris asked, flicking his bangs out of his eyes. “I still can’t tell when you’re joking, and when you’re not.”

Jongin snorted, “He’s being serious.”

“Oh,” Kris said flatly. “Then the answer is no.”

Baekhyun stared at his ticking analog watch, and said, “We have forty-three minutes of waiting before first period.”

“Why did we have to come so early?” Jongin grunted and hid his head in his arms on the table.

“Because we’re ‘sophomores’,” Baekhyun said, using his fingers to bunny quote. “I don’t even know why my mum thinks it makes a difference.”

“I don’t even know why you listen to her,” Jongin argued, cradling his head. “And why is she friends with my mother? This is a nightmare. I set my alarm to ring at quarter past seven and she came screaming at me to go get ready at six-thirty! Does that even make any sense?”

“Stop whining,” Baekhyun grumbled, trying to sound as understanding as possible.

“Lucky Chanyeol,” Jongin continued. “He’s probably still sleeping right now.”

“Or maybe, Minseok managed to break into his house and drag him out of bed, and they are coming right now,” Kris suggested, looking seriously convinced.

Before the others asked, he pointed to the little walkway from the school gate. Expectedly, there Minseok was, half carrying and half dragging Chanyeol towards them with a disgruntled look on his baby face.

Tao immediately got up to help and so did Kris. Jongin rolled his eyes. Those goodie two sh– he paused, four shoes.

“Ugh,” Minseok let out a relieved roar once he threw Chanyeol onto the table and slumped down in Kris’ seat. “Finally, got here. Thank gods.”

“Then, you two freshmen, come with me,” Kris wriggled his fingers. “You need your timetables and you need to sign yourself in at the office.”

Sehun and Tao left with Kris as Minseok sunk back down in his seat, mumbling that he ought to print out his timetable last night so he wouldn’t have to take out his phone to check every so often.

“Oh, hey. Look who just came to school,” Baekhyun said, voice suddenly excited. Chanyeol snored away while Minseok turned to look where Baekhyun was staring at.

“Who are–” he asked and then, “Oh. I see.”

“I didn’t know little loony has a boyfriend,” Baekhyun continued curiously. “What’s her name again? And why does that bloke look familiar?”

Minseok squinted as the pair of students walked passed them into the school building. The boy was tall and his hair was bleached blonde. He was carrying a tattered skateboard in one hand, while he shouldered two schoolbags on his left shoulder. The girl had long brown hair and pale skin. She was carrying a stack of folders with both hands. As their backs turned towards the table, Baekhyun gaped.

The design of the skateboard hit them in full view and Baekhyun immediately slapped a hand on the table, jolting both Jongin and Chanyeol.

“What the–”

“Look! That’s, that’s the guy!” Baekhyun exclaimed, shaking Chanyeol’s arm. “Did you see that? He’s dating loony!”

Chanyeol looked up disgruntled as Jongin narrowed his eyes at the pair as they disappeared. His mouth fell open.

“What guy? Who’s Loonie?” Chanyeol grumbled, running a hand through his uncombed hair and tried to adjust his eyes to the sunlight.

“The badass skateboard bloke. You know– what do they call him?” Minseok said to himself mostly, “Something like, Jelly or Zealous–”

“Zel