The day started out as normal as all other Monday's do. Me ignoring my alarm clock and sleeping 25 extra minutes until I finally roll out of bed with only like 15 minutes to get to school. Then I have to groggily get dressed, run around trying to find all my stuff, and find some sort of thing to eat for breakfast (today it was an apple) and rush out the door with only 10 minutes to sprint 5 blocks, up a flight of stairs, and down a huge hallway to get to my homeroom on time. After that I usually sleep or daydream through all of my classes until I can see all my friends again.

 

    Once I finally made it to my class and sat down I sighed. The only good thing about my morning routine was that it helped keep me fit. But boy did it make me tired!

     

"Here" My friend says, chucking me his water bottle

I catch it and I take a few gulps then chuck it back to him.

 "Thanks!" I say giving a cheerful smile.

  "Well one of us has to make sure you don't pass out from exhaustion." He snickers.

I frown. "Come on JR! It was one time!! Plus it was hella hot out!"

JR rolls his eyes, still laughing. "Whatever you say dude.."

I roll my eyes at him. As annoying as he can be sometimes JR was my best friend and I owe him for a lot. We've been through a lot together from beating up jerks who try to mess with us to helping each other with math homework.

Suddenly two more of our friends show up and we all begin talking about the dumb stuff we did during the weekend.

I was about to say something when the teacher showed up and called our attention.

 

"Alright class settle down!", she said, "Listen up! I have an announcement to make!!"

 

'oh boy an announcement! I wonder if she's finally retiring!' I thought smiling, imagining cranky old Mrs. Lee leaving the school.

 

"Okay everyone! So today we'll be receiving a new student!"

 

My ears perked up a bit. 'a new student? We never get any of those..Who'd wanna transfer to this crummy place!' I thought.

 

"He's from America so his Korean may not be the best but I still want you to treat him as you would anyone else. Now please give a warm welcome to our new student!"

 

As she said that he walked into the classroom and the sound of all the girls gasping could be heard. I looked up to see what the big commotion was about and I almost gasped myself. The new kid who walked in was very attractive. He has big dark brown eyes, long eyelashes, bright pale skin, a slender yet kind of muscular frame, and dark brown hair. Overall he looked like he could be an idol or something! I shook those thoughts from my head. 'he's just some new kid..' I thought.

 

"H-hello everyone. My name is Aron Kwak and I'm from America so I apologize for my bad Korean skills. Please treat me well." He said cautiously with a slight accent and bowed. The girls all squealed.

 

"omo! he's soooo cute!!"

"his accent is to die for!!"

"he looks like some kind of celebrity!" Those comments and many more were heard throughout the class until the teacher told us to calm down again.

 

"Quiet everyone! Now Aron it looks like there's an empty seat over there by that window next to Baekho so I'm afraid you'll have to sit in the back." Mrs. Lee said pointing over in my direction.

 

"Yes that's alright." He said bowing again and walking to the empty seat a few feet from mine. Then, the teacher began class, "Alright! Now that that is out of the way we can get right into math!! I finished grading those quizzes and I was very disappointed with the amount of B-'s we received!!" Everyone groaned.

 

I sighed and rest my head in my hand. I hated math so I usually slept through it or looked out the window. But now there was someone blocking my view of the window. I turned my head to look at the new kid. He had out a pencil and a notebook and was busy taking notes. As if sensing I was looking at him he turned his head and looked at me. Our eyes locked for a second and I felt my heart beat a little faster. After a few seconds he smiled politely and awkwardly turned back to the front.

 

'oh great..I probably scared him since I was staring at him!...wait...why do I care? and why is my heart beating so fast?' I wondered. 'it's probably just because I'm a little embarrassed....I think..'

 

  

      Today has been nerve wracking so far. As soon as I woke up this morning I've been busy. I had to iron my uniform so it'd look neat, I spent at least 20 minutes trying to style my hair out of its awful bedhead look, then I went back and forth across the house trying to get all of my things together. Once that was finished I looked at my bathroom mirror and sighed. I barely got any sleep last night because I was so nervous and now I had dark circles. I grabbed some concealer and then spent another 10 minutes deciding whether to put any more makeup on. After deciding that the concealer was enough. I made my way to the kitchen to eat breakfast. My mom smiled at me as I walked in.

 "There you are! I was beginning to worry that you'd fallen back asleep! Now hurry and eat your breakfast! I made you your favorite...pankcakes~" My always bright and cheerful mother said. 

I smiled at her and sat down and began eating. I was really hungry but even so I was so nervous I could barely eat! I mean, if you had to move halfway across the world to a country that speaks a different language you'd be nervous too! The whole reason we moved in the first place was because of my dad's work. Well....that's mostly the reason at least. The other reason is because I made a big mistake and embarrassed my parent's and my reputation. 

 'except it wasn't even my fault!! how was I supposed to know my ex-boyfriend would be an  and tell the whole school about our relationship?!'  I thought bitterly and sighed. Oh yeah by the way, I'm gay. In America it wasn't that much of a big deal and my parents were more or less fine with it. (my mom more than my dad) But when word spread throughout town and to my father's work it began to bring us some...unwanted attention so my father jumped at the chance to move. Even if that move was to South Korea, where being gay wasn't very accepted.

"Aron~ Are you excited for your first day of Korean school??" My mom said cheerfully breaking me from my bitter trance.

I smiled lightly and told her yes in English. She slapped me lightly on the shoulder.

"Yah!! We're in Korea now so you better start speaking Korean!"

"A-alright mom..." I said in Korean. She just smiled and said "That's better~" I rolled my eyes. My mom can be so weird sometimes. 

"Aron. Hurry up and finish eating so we can go. The school is only a few blocks away but since it's your first day I'm going to drive you so you can see the area." I nodded and quickly finished my breakfast and ran to fetch my school bag. Once I checked it to make sure I had everything I needed for the 40th time, I headed outside to the car where my mom was waiting. I hopped in and off we went. The whole ride I felt the anxiety creeping in. I was regretting eating breakfast now. But before I knew it we were in front of the school. There were random students scattered all over in their own little friend clusters. I gulped and hoped I would be able to make friends.

"Alright Aron. We're here. Now have a great day, make friends, and remember....speak in Korean!~" She said. I nodded and got out of the car. After waving her off I began to make my way inside the school. Since it was my first day my mom insisted I be a bit early so if I got lost or something I'd still have time. Which was very kind but there was still like 25 minutes until the day started and I just wanted it to be done and over with as soon as possible. When I got inside the lobby I noticed three adults waiting for me. Two men and a woman.

 

"Ah hello there. You must be Aron, right?" The woman said slowly as if she were speaking to a child. I felt a bit annoyed at this.

"Yeah I'm Aron." I said back politely.

"Welcome!" She said sweetly (too sweet) "I'm Mrs. Lee and I'll be your homeroom and math teacher. This is Mr. Choi the principle. And Mr. Kim, the English teacher." She said gesturing to the two men beside her. Mr. Choi was a very tall man with high cheekbones and deep, distant eyes. Although he was very attractive. In fact, he looked more like a model then a principle with his fancy suit and perfect posture. While on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, Mr. Kim was kind of short and had big bright eyes and wore a matching bright smile. He seemed very hyper and bouncy. However both of them looked very out of place next to Mrs. Lee who looked like she was at least 400 years old and wore clothes that could have belonged to the last century. Plus she had a lot of makeup caked on her face and so much perfume it could probably be smelled from across the lobby.

 

"Aron it's so nice to meet you! We hope you're adjusting well so far! So we're just going to give you a brief tour and then Mrs. Lee will you to your class alright?" Mr. Kim said, breaking me out of my reverie. "a-ah yes alright. Thank you." I said politely. Mr. Kim just smiled even bigger. "Aww there's no need to be nervous! You'll love it here! Now, let's get this tour started!!" He said excitedly. I just smiled as followed them. 

 

'so much for a "brief tour"' I thought when we finally returned to the lobby after taking a walk all around the entire school! At least I had begun to understand the basic layout and figured I wouldn't get nearly as lost now.

"How was it? Not so bad, huh?" Mr. Kim said cheerfully. I nodded.

"Well time sure flies! homeroom ends in a few minutes...so let's go Aron!" Mrs. Lee said sweetly again. I inwardly cringed. This lady was freaking me out bit.

"Well see you later Aron! Have fun on your first day and if you ever need anything just look for me in room 132, alright? Seeya!" Mr. Kim said turning around and walking down a hallway and out of sight. Mr. Choi just gave me a curt nod and walked into his office, leaving me alone with Mrs. Lee. She smiled sweetly (too sweet again) and led me to her room. "Alright Aron just wait here a minute and let me get everyone settled down okay?"

"Alright.." I said, anxiety creeping in again. Before I was more or less fine since I wasn't really around any students but now I was about to be into a room full of them. 'Oh crap! I'm going to have to introduce myself right? ughh...' i thought and began rehearsing some ways to introduce myself.

 

 

Before I had time to think of anything else I heard the teacher call me inside. I took a deep breath and walked into the room. Immediately I felt all eyes on me and even heard a some gasps. 'Do I look bad or have they just never seen an American before? and even so I don't look any different from them..Do I?' I stood in front of the room and took another deep breathe before introducing myself.

 

"H-hello everyone. My name is Aron Kwak and I'm from America so I apologize for my bad Korean skills. Please treat me well." I said cautiously, worried about my accent and I bowed. I was very surprised when I heard girls squealing.

 

"omo! he's soooo cute!!"

"his accent is to die for!!"

"he looks like some kind of celebrity!" Those comments and many more were heard throughout the class until the teacher told everyone to calm down again.

 

"Quiet everyone! Now Aron it looks like there's an empty seat over there by that window next to Baekho so I'm afraid you'll have to sit in the back." Mrs. Lee said pointing over in the of the direction of the boy who I'm assuming is Baekho.

 

"Yes that's alright." I said bowing again and walking to the empty seat. Then, the teacher began class, "Alright! Now that that is out of the way we can get right into math!! I finished grading those quizzes and I was very disappointed with the amount of B-'s we received!!" Everyone groaned.

 

I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding.

'so far so good....' I thought as I took out a pencil and a notebook and began taking notes. I already knew all of this stuff but I figured Korean style math would be different from American so I wanted to play it safe and take some notes. After finishing writing down an equation I felt like someone was looking at me. 

'You're a new student from another country! Of course they're going to stare at you!' I thought. Nonetheless I looked over to my right and noticed that the guy next to me was staring at me. I was surprised because he was really handsome. He has bleached blond hair styled like a Mohawk, fierce looking dark eyes, pale skin, but an overall kind looking face and he looked rather muscular. Our eyes locked for a second and I felt my heart beat a little faster. This is weird I shouldn't be gawking at a classmate like this! So I smiled politely and awkwardly turned back to the front. It took all my strength to not glance over and see if he was looking at me. I began wondering how long he was staring, if was even staring at me. 'he could've been zoning out...and there is a window behind me..' I thought. Although it didn't do anything to calm my beating heart. 'ugh! all the anxiety is getting to me!' I thought trying to convince myself that it was in fact just the anxiety.