2

“Kim Myungsoo! Nice to meet you all!”

He bowed to the class. The blob of students having a blank face and didn’t really care either way except for the tall student in the back excitingly waving his hand to the empty seat beside him.

“Alright, go on and take the seat beside Sungyeol. We’ll start right away,” the teacher smiled to him, a hand towards the direction of the desk.

Myungsoo gulped, but nodded. No one looked his way or even paid an interest to him. Minding their business and holding pencils read for their lesson. He sighed, maybe it was better like this, and took the seat beside Sungyeol. Who kept smiling.

“Great we’re in the same class huh?” Sungyeol grinned with all his teeth and gums. Yeah, it was Sungyeol alright.

“I have a speculation you had something to do with that?” Myungsoo talks under his breath, but amused.

“How dare you suspect me!” Sungyeol whispers back, but that gummy grin was still plastered all over that face.

Class went on with the usual inspections on lessons and subjects; just school in general and it was so boring to Sungyeol that he went to sleep almost right away. Myungsoo scoffed, taking it onto himself to continue on in this torture of wellbeing for all of them, and wrote away in his new notebook to have all the notes so the idiot beside him can copy at home.

Yesterday night was madness, as Sungyeol kept trying to initiate a pillow fight and Sungjong burst in his with own body pillow, whacking all of them. Myungsoo tried to shield himself with the comforter but it was no use with the relentless strikes of the brothers. Only then, when eldest Hoya burst the door open growling, did the younger two scramble to the floor with their pillows pretending to sleep.

By the time the door closed, Myungsoo was on his laptop chatting and the two idiots were fast asleep on the floor. He threw a blanket over them.

“So how about this year’s class representatives?” the teacher smiled at the students near the end of the day. Myungsoo was a little tired, maybe he shouldn’t have stayed up chatting.

The students made no move other than to lose eye contact with the teacher and look around, hoping that they wouldn’t get called on when the teacher went to write the title on the board. Along with some other jobs like class nurse and cleanup crew for that week.

Should I? Myungsoo bit his lip. It was a new school, new life, new him. No one knew what he was supposed to do. And other than the introduction he hasn’t uttered a word. Maybe he’d get respect? A good impression?

Ah, but what if they think I’m one of those know-it-alls that just care about beating everyone in grades?

As he contemplated, another hand raised. It was a girl, sitting in the front. Her short hair cropped just beyond the neck, but still neatly placed and her head was down. The teacher had to look at the roster just to find her name. The name tag was too small for his old eyes.

“Kim Hyemi,” the teacher nods. He does that a lot. He is a teacher. “Alright, that’s it for the girls. Hyemi-sshi, can you come here to ask for the next?”

The class stares at the shy girl who walks up to the podium, with round pink cheeks and stutters out, “I-Is there any boy who would like to be class rep with me?”

Myungsoo gulps, feeling the pressure rise because no, it’s hard to work with another person. Especially someone he doesn’t know and what was he thinking before. Boys around him start to mutter if they should do it, other friends pushing them to take it but none raise their hands. He rubs the back of his neck, taking a deep breath. It’s a new school.

A hand raised and Hyemi blinked quite a lot, even as she was expecting it. She looked down, scanning the roster but couldn’t find his name in time with the shaking finger from nervousness. It’s a new year after all, and it’s nerve racking.

“Kim Myungsoo,” he says to stop her misery to find his name.

She nods, and the teacher behind her smiles politely, writing down their names onto the board. “Alright, now how about the class nurse?”

*

“Hyemi-sshi?” Myungsoo hurried to the door to catch the girl leaving for home.

She stopped and maybe was a little annoyed but politely asked, “Yes?”

“I’m new and all,” he started, clearing his throat. “I thought you could tell me where we’re supposed to meet for the class reps at the start of the weeks.”

“Oh,” she smiles, pointing down the hall and Myungsoo looks where she directed, “Class 105 is the room we’ll meet in next Monday after school. You got that? It’s really easy, I heard.”

“Yeah, it’s right down the hall,” Myungsoo scratched his head. “Sorry, I didn’t know it’d be so easy.”

Hyemi laughs and startles very well did startle him, “No, I meant being class rep.”

“Right… I knew that,” he chuckles awkwardly afterwards. The air is filled with a pregnant pause and he starts to sweat because he’s talking to a girl and he’s new and no, they were not friends.

“Well, see you around,” she says, bowing slightly as a gesture that she really didn’t know what to do and promptly left. Only after she turned the corner did Myungsoo let go of a breath.

“Wow! Our little Myungie has turned into a complete heart breaker!”

He scoffs, turning around to see Sungyeol out of sleep and holding a piece of chalk towards him, facing the board, “I see you’re back to using your eyes and not in your dreams.”

“Lookie at you,” Sungyeol pays no mind to his remark. “Getting all lovey dovey with the new class rep! Oh the new kid is so mysterious!” as he makes a heart around their names and Myungsoo just sighs. Sungyeol grasped the chalk with two hands, fluttering his eyes and he mocked a gag. His friend then dramatically swung his arm up and pointed to him, “But! Your last push was weak!”

“What are you spouting now?” he shuffles his bag onto his shoulder, sticking a hand into a pocket.

“If you really want a highschool love-love romance spectacle you gotta completely envelope her into an entire universe of Myungsoo! Or else,” he crosses the heart and names into two sectors with a long line, “You wouldn’t get any chicks in a lifetime!”

“What are you saying man? I don’t want no love romance fit,” Myungsoo snorts, starting to head out and Sungyeol quickly jumps after him.

“So whatcha wanna do today?” his best friend asks as they switch shoes. Walking out of the school and onto the high roads of the city. “Food, games, hitting on chicks?”

“You’re too much,” he laughs loudly, pushing the other a little. “Let’s go to the bookstore. I know a few novels finally translated over and I’ve wanted to pick them up for a while now.”

“Ah the bookstore,” Sungyeol scratches his chin. “I know a place!”

“That’s the bookstore?”

“Yep!”

“R-really? All of it?”

“Of course, my little Myung!”

The boy stared widely at the ten floored building completely dedicated to books and so on. Sungyeol looked completely pleased with himself and started to drag the other in, “Floors seven through nine are all manga and stuffs like that. Cosplay, gachas, posters, merch; all that nerdy crud.”

“I’m not a nerd,” Myungsoo huffs. “I just like it.”

“Yeah, keeps saying that, Myungnerd.”

“I’m not!”

The went to the sixth floor full of manga first, as Myungsoo kept on pressing he was just a reader. Not a collector yet Sungyeol made fun of the one figurine of Asuna (the one when she was in SAO, dressed in her Knights of Blood uniform) he had and it made him all defensive and giggly. Scanning rows and columns of manga, he finally found the press he liked and surveyed the new releases.

“Wow,” he breathed. “Magi and Kuroko already updated two volumes as I was out. And Kagepro’s got two art books now, along with Gungale’s anime release; I don’t even know where to start with the others.”

“I suggest buying the anime DvD set for ALO arc and get the new nendodroids for Asuna or Kirito’s limited edition school uniform. Having two people to buy gets you both. The newest light novel is good, but you should continue following the web novel to be certain of changes. Gungale you can catch weekly.”

“Or the new Kagepro art books to receive a special poster of the Yuukei Quartet. If you buy the new Chuunibyou, you get a free charm. I suggest hoping for Yuuta or Rikka; they hella messed up with Nibutani’s hair so the edited version won’t be out till next month. But Dekomori is alright.”

Myungsoo stumbled, desperately trying to catch the books in his hands that flew out because, why, why do people just suddenly talk in your ear?

“Oh, careful.”

He was stabled and a man in front of him was holding one or two of the books he pretty much threw in the air while he sighed with relief, “Thank you, Hoya-hyung.”

“You two,” Hoya snorts, putting the books back as the two snicker. “Stop scaring people, especially people I know. Gosh, make me look weird.”

“But Howonnie!” One, with the ponytail, pouted and lifted a small poster, “I wasn’t lying about the Kagepro poster.”

“Nor the nendodroid,” the other held up a small figurine of a girl, which was Myungsoo’s favorite character at the moment and perked up.