Warning: Homophobic slur

            Transferring high schools is really not a good idea, no matter what grade you’re in.

                Sehun Oh had told his parents this fact many times as they packed their lives away into cardboard boxes. But his words, like any other time he spoke, fell on deaf ears. This left Sehun to watch quietly as every blanket, plate, and picture frame was neatly tucked away undeterred.

                There really was no legitimate reason why his parents decided to move. It wasn’t like his father got a new job, or got laid off, or got promoted. His mother had told him that town-life was becoming too much for her and for their family. And Sehun as going to university soon, she had reasoned, he needed to go to high school in the city to get more experience, attract more scouts for scholarships.

What a load of bull.

Sehun knew the real reason why they moved, but he humoured his mom just as she so often humoured him.

The town he had spent his whole life in was quiet with not a lot of people; no one’s voice was quiet enough when there wasn’t a lot of noise to start with. Even a whisper sounded like a yell. There were no secrets in this town; there were no places to hide. The fields were wide, the streets vacant; just being out in the open made people feel exposed, and scrutinized. Sehun never wanted to go outside anymore (not that he was allowed to in the first place), and after awhile, neither did his family.

                Even so, no matter what bullted explanation his parents gave him, here he was in a different town that felt miles and miles away from the quaint little house where he grew up.  Sehun was sitting in the parlor, myopically trying his shoes on his way out the door.

                Despite all of the other noise, Sehun never realized how physically quiet his old town was until he moved to the city. There was too much noise in the city- too many people, too many cars, too many voices and sounds all mixing together in a cacography of chaotic noise. Every so often he felt like he missed the quiet, but that idea would always dissolve pretty quickly into dust.

                Fixing his shoelaces and slinging his backpack over his shoulder, Sehun took one last sweeping glance at his two bedroom apartment. If his old house felt small despite its large lawn and vast amounts of physical space, this new house felt even worse, even smaller, even more restricted. He could barely breathe.

                Sehun slowly let out his breath, the noise cutting through the air like a wet knife through butter. Maybe he was just loud, or maybe his house was just that deafeningly silent. That was one thing that didn’t feel like a whole one eighty degree switch from his old life. His house was always the only place that was silent.

                Despite his animosity toward moving cities, the act of switching high schools hadn’t been too bad. Sehun didn’t have to take the bus anymore since he only lived about a block from school which meant that he didn’t have to worry about bus fare or accidentally forgetting his lunch at home every day. He also didn’t really have many close friends at his previous school. He hadn’t been the most well-liked guy around, especially since…

                Sehun took a sharp intake of breath and shook his head.

                He still had some apprehension, though; it was directed at something else. Since he had joined this school in his grade ten year that meant he had to join a ton of extracurriculars in order to graduate with his batch. There weren’t very many options for him to choose from. The Cooking Club was out of the question since he couldn’t even make a sandwich without destroying the kitchen. The debate team was also a no since Sehun didn’t want to be stuck in a room full of pretentious rich kids for an hour two times a week after school. He also didn’t give a about politics or international affairs to be quite honest (although he probably should).  The only other group with open slots was the musical theatre crew.

                When Sehun had chosen to join that group his guidance counselor gave him a pitying look, but kept silent. Sehun hadn’t thought much of it since at his old school people looked down on anyone in visual performing arts who weren’t in dance, no matter how good they were at their discipline. Thinking about it now made Sehun a bit nervous. Maybe there was something to worry about. What if the members were weird, what if the teachers were crazy? What if the usual harassment from other students went a little further than just scoffs and eye rolls? What if…

                Sehun aggressively grabbed the door handle to his new school pushing his thoughts away. Students were already milling about around him so he had to make a conscious effort not to shake his head violently lest they think he was crazy.

                With one last deep breath to calm his nerves, Sehun opened the door.

*

                Sehun had forgotten just how obnoxious teenagers were as he stepped into the building.

                There was noise, so much noise everywhere.

All around him people were screaming at each other. Large cliques of girls dressed in the latest fall fashion were hugging each other and screeching at the top of their lungs. Their OH-MY-GOD-I-MISSED-YOU-I-HAVEN’T-SEEN-YOU-IN-FOREVER’s were making his ears ring. He bet that half of the groups of girls didn’t even like each other and the other half had seen each other a few times a week that whole summer.

The dude cliques were hollering at each other smelling like a mix of sweat and spray-on deodorant. They were all bro- in greeting while not so subtly showing off their tans and newly acquired muscles.

Everyone was dressed to impress, something that would fade in about a week despite promises to oneself that they would dress nicely for this school year.

                The more quiet students puttered about trying not to be seen or appear awkwardly searching for their friends. Sehun was among them, although he didn’t have any friends to look for. He slid along the lockers that lined the hallways, hands in the pockets of his jeans.

For the most part it was working. Still, some people would catch Sehun take in his look -pasty white skin, long black hair, scrawny limbs, unfortunate (so unfortunate), permanent face- and quickly face another way.  Sehun just ignored them. He had more pressing matters to attend to. Like finding his goddamn classroom for example.

                There were students hanging out in every doorway of the school which made it hard for him to read the numbers on the doors. They all seemed to be a part of the same clique: all tan and muscular, wearing track pants or khaki’s with a mix of various kinds of sports shoes and socks with sandals. And long haired, beautiful girls hanging off of their arms like accessories.

It wasn’t until five minutes before the bell that he finally found his classroom. By then there were no more seats available except for one right in front of the teacher’s desk beside a dude that appeared to be passed out on his desk.

                Sehun carefully set his backpack on the floor and slid into his desk, trying not to wake the guy. The dude on the other side of the sleeping kid didn’t share the same sentiment as he threw the bag that someone set out to save the seat for him onto the desk, the numerous chains and key chains clanking onto the hard surface with a thundering crash. He then proceeded to yell at his friend behind him like he was inside a gym.

The sleeping guy jumped at the noise and drowsily lifted his head from his desk. He had sun dyed brown hair and skin the colour of warm caramel. In contrast to the heavy tans of the other jocks, his seemed more natural. His long eyelashes brushed his cheekbones as his deep, dark brown eyes focused on Sehun. When he carded his fingers through his slightly messy hair Sehun could see that his arms were pretty muscular despite the usual scrawniness or pudginess that came with being fifteen. He looked at Sehun warily not meeting his eyes as he bowed to him slightly. Sehun gave a small smile and a bow and in return before the last warning bell rang.

                After the usual playing of the national anthem followed by the morning announcements the homeroom teacher greeted the class without rising from her desk. She seemed pretty young by teacher standards.

                “Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a good summer!” she chirped in an overly cheerful voice. Sehun resisted the urge to roll his eyes, slouching lazily down in his chair.

                “My name is Mrs. Rose and welcome to grade ten geography!” No one made any noise in affirmation.  Mrs. Rose remained unfazed and continued on. “I’ll start by doing the attendance. When I point to you tell me your name and something we should know about you. I know that most of you know each other, but just humor your poor teacher for once. I have a lot of students’ names I have to remember this year!”

Sehun’s hands started to sweat uncontrollably. He balled them into fists and stuffed them under his armpits.

“So let’s start on this side of the room,” Mrs. Rose said gesturing to the side closest to Sehun.

“You!” she pointed to the obnoxious blond guy sitting beside the tan kid. “Tell me your name, where you’re from and an interesting fact about yourself.”

“Hey what’s up, I’m David Keeler,” the boys said, syllables rolled of his tongue, his lip curling into a sleazy sort of smirk. Sehun was pretty sure this was supposed to be a female seducing look, but honestly it just made the guy look like a douchebag. This way of acting not something Sehun was unfamiliar with. Jocks always used this technique to hypnotize teachers into liking them (as if everyone didn’t automatically like them already.) Almost all of the girls in the class were probably falling to their knees by now; Mrs. Rose had probably melted into a pile of goo.

Sehun recognized David as one of those loud jerks in the hallway, wearing track pants like it was his duty to show off at every moment where his place was in the school hierarchy. The loud button up red shirt he was wearing made him look all kinds of mismatched and weird, not to mention the colour was giving Sehun a headache. He looked away.

“I’ve been here, to Milne, since grade nine and I play defense on the soccer team. Go Bears!” he hollered.

A wave of interest washed over the classroom as a few people cheered along with him. Even Mrs. Rose’s eyes lost their vacant look as she focused on David for a moment. He smiled a little wider at her, tilting his head to heighten the affect.

Pretty soon Sehun’s eyes were going to pop out of his head and roll away from all of the pent up energy from trying to resist rolling his eyes. He was probably trying to win over poor Mrs. Rose so she would let him do whatever the heck he wanted throughout the school year. Sehun had seen this tactic performed many times during his grade nine year at his last high school. It had always worked, every damn time.

“Alright, nice to meet you David,” she said eyes still locked on the douche-jock with interest. Damn guy already had the teacher wrapped around his finger. “Next, you.”

“Uh...” the tan guy beside Sehun started intelligently. His face was angled toward his desk, staring at his fingers on his right hand. “My name is Jongin Kim. I just transferred across town from Whitcross so it’s my first year here at Milne.” Jongin paused awkwardly tugging at the hem of his shirt. “And I... I’ve been taking dance at the conservatory since I was five.”

On obvious snort rang through the classroom as well as a few other muted giggles and scoffs. Jongin slouched slightly in his seat as the hand in his lap balled into fist. His face remained neutral, but Sehun could see the tightness around his lips.

Mrs. Rose ignored all of the noises like nothing had happened. She gestured at Sehun. “And you?”

Sehun didn’t speak for a few moments as the noises died down. He was floored that Mrs. Rose just let the class harass Jongin like that while also having an inner battle at what to say about himself, if there was anything to say about himself at all. Part of him wanted to stand up for Jongin, but another part of him wanted to stay unnoticed by everyone. Clearly sticking up for Jongin wouldn’t do that for him.

Sehun clenched his fists harder under his armpits. “I’m Sehun Oh. I transferred here from outside of the city and I... I.” I’m sorry Jongin, I’m a coward. “I... ... at cooking.”

No one displayed any kind of dismal reaction, just a few good natured chuckles and one immature guffaw (“He paused after he said !”). As the introductions moved on, Sehun watched Jongin at the corner of his eye. He was still curled in on himself and chewing his lower lip.

Sehun felt bad for not sticking up for Jongin. He turned to face his desk mate as the bell rang to switch classes in attempt to makes amends. But Jongin was already gone and out the door, a breeze blowing in his face as Jongin gracefully bolted out of the classroom and into the chaos of the hallway.

*

                Another thing Sehun didn’t like about moving was a fact that he had to make new friends. Well he didn’t have to, but he didn’t want to be an awkward loner until he graduated. He had friends at his old school, albeit not very many, but the whole making friends skill was pretty foreign to him. Or maybe the skill was just forgotten somewhere along the line when shunning between petty fights became longer and those fights weren’t so petty anymore. Maybe it started when everyone started to build walls around themselves, some people painting them in different colours and others building them so high everyone would give up trying to break in before they even tried to start. Back when everyone was still small, playing with each other on the playground and sharing each others’ snacks, making friends wasn’t a science. Letting someone sit beside and play with you came from the goodness of your heart (or from the persuasion from an adult) and was not seen as a ruse to get into someone’s pants or to stab them in the back.

                Sehun had been one of those people who built up his walls up so high and so thick that no one even dared to get close to touching it. His walls were thinner once, so easily accessible and vulnerable, but that meant they were easy to break and destroy. Once those walls were gone, massacred and knocked to the ground so brutally that only bits and pieces remained, Sehun rebuilt them. Rebuilding them was hard work, every so often while he worked, someone would come and knock down a part of it. It was a tedious task, but eventually he finished building. These walls were twice as tall and three times as strong as the previous ones. Nothing could penetrate it and knock it down now, or so he made himself believe. Most of the time he was proud of his walls, but now was not one of those times. Rapunzel may have been safe in her tower, but that didn’t mean she never dreamed of freedom.

Sehun felt like a dweeb as he stood in the middle of the cafeteria clutching the straps of his backpack tightly. Or maybe like a little kindergartener standing in the middle of the hallway after his parents left him on the first day of school. The only difference now was that everyone was already friends and he had no one. These people were not as accepting as they probably once were.

It wasn’t that he was afraid that some people would kick him out of their table, but if no one knows you they make sure to sit at least a three foot radius distance away from you. Because who would go through all the hassle of befriending a lonely, nerdy looking new guy when they had a perfectly good group of friends already?

“Hey, kid! What you doing just standing there? People are gonna maul you over,” a gentle peppy voice sang behind him. Startled, Sehun jumped about a foot in the air before turning around.

A boy that was slightly taller than Sehun looked down at him as if taking in his appearance. He had a pretty face, with soft features and pale skin. His facial expression was neutral, but there was no mistaking the slight lilt to his lips that gave him a look of underlying mischief. His eyes were hidden behind thick framed black glasses, like he had something he wanted to keep secret.

The guy held out his hand. “My name’s Baekhyun, what’s yours?”

Apparently this guy, Baekhyun, was one of the few survivors of effortless friendliness, handshakes be damned. Sehun’s handshake was hesitant and flimsy while Baekhyun’s was strong and purposeful.

“My name’s Sehun.” Baekhyun’s eyebrow quirked up.

“Ooooh, your parents decided to keep their roots I see. Your name is Korean,” he observed with a laugh.

So is yours, Sehun thought pointedly. He didn’t know how to answer Baekhyun so he merely mumbled a “yeah” in response.

Sehun’s lack of response didn’t faze Baekhyun. “So, are you new around here?”

My god, how is this guy so friendly? “Yeah... I just moved here.”

“Oh wow, really?” Baekhyun kept eye contact with Sehun like he was really interested. “Well hey, since you’re new, do you want to eat lunch with me and my friend? We can give you a tour of the school after.”

Sehun kept silent in shock for a few moments. He felt like he was on the set of some cheesy family show and he was just waiting for someone to call “cut!” No one was this nice in real life.

As Sehun’s silence progressed, the corners of Baekhyun’s mouth became tenser. He dug his hands into his pocket. No one said cut.

“Uh yeah, sure, great, that would be great, thanks.” Baekhyun’s face became soft once more.

It wasn’t like Sehun had an excuse to say no anyway. He was alone in a new city, he’d be a fool to refuse a free offer of friendship. At least, he hoped it was free.

Baekhyun turned and started to walk off toward the exit on the other side of the cafeteria even though there was another one that was closer. “Here, follow me. My friend and I usually don’t eat in the caf. The classrooms are usually empty so we eat there.”

They walked side by side, even though Baekhyun seemed to take two steps for every step Sehun took though he was taller. Sehun walked silently beside Baekhyun who seemed to have run out of words. The silence wasn’t awkward between them; it was peaceful against the dull lull of the voices in the mainly quiet hallway. However the lack of voices also meant that the few voices that were talking were amplified.

“,” someone stage whispered as Sehun and Baekhyun approached a group of jocks.

Sehun almost flinched. Were they talking to him? His hands started to sweat.

Sehun surveyed their faces as he and Baekhyun passed by- All of which looked smug and amused. All except for one.

There was a guy at the end of the group who looked all sorts of uncomfortable as he looked pointed away from them. He had wavy brown hair that was cropped short at the sides, the standard cool-guy cut these days. He had small pink lips and a very soft looking face, sort of like Baekhyun, but a bit sharper than his. He looked like one of the jocks- his outfit choice (yellow sneakers, trackpants, slightly tight red Hollister t-shirt) a dead giveaway. But that made no sense. How could a guy with a face like that hang out with the jocks?

The group didn’t say anything more as Sehun and Baekhyun passed by. Pretty boy remained staring at the floor.

Sehun glanced over at Baekhyun as they rounded the corner out of sight. Baekhyun hadn’t reacted when that word was thrown at them. His head was held high the whole time, his stride strong and confident. But as Sehun looked closer he could see the hard lines around his mouth had returned. A light tremor also seemed to have taken over his fingers.

Sehun didn’t say anything to Baekhyun even as they stopped in front of a door in an empty hallway. It wasn’t any of business as to why those guys heckled them, but that didn’t mean he didn’t give a . He did give a . He gave a lot of s. He wasn’t a stranger to this kind of treatment and yet...

Sehun swallowed and rested a hesitant hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder. Baekhyun’s tense muscles relaxed slightly and thankfully he didn’t pull away.

Baekhyun glanced at Sehun from the corner of his eye so that he wasn’t looking at him from behind his glasses. His deep brown eyes showed a fleeting spark of gratitude before quickly looking away and opening the door with a flourish.

“Jongdae, I’m here! I brought company!”

Sehun could hear a voice with a volume that shook the glass on the door greet Baekhyun as he meekly slinked into the room. The door slid shut behind him with a click.

Once inside Sehun came face to face with Baekhyun animatedly talking to someone he had never seen before (who presumably was Jongdae) and a face he had just seen that morning. The new guy in contrast to Baekhyun had a rough face, all roguish with sharp edges. However the kind glint in his eyes and his mouth that seemed to have a natural upward quirk at the edge, balanced out his face nicely.

Sitting on a chair by Jongdae was Jongin, the graceful dancer from his geography class. He was eating a sandwich, vacantly staring at his juice box. He hadn’t seemed to notice that Baekhyun entered the room, or maybe he was trying to avoid his presence.

Jongdae noticed Sehun awkwardly standing by the door and stuck out his hand out in a friendly wave.

“Hey there, come closer. We don’t bite, or at least I don’t,” he said with a smile. He looked like a cat when he smiled, a sly cat. It made him look like he was up to something, which made Sehun feel unsettled.

Sehun shuffled forward uncertainly.

“What’s up, I’m Jongdae,” he said easily. Sehun mumbled his name in response.

“This one doesn’t talk much either, how did you find him Baek?” Jongdae asked turning around, away from Sehun. Baekhyun had turned around a chair and was facing Jongin. Jongin was sitting up straight, staring at Sehun in recognition and Sehun gave him a small smile in greeting. Jongdae slipped into the chair in the desk beside Jongin as Baekhyun patted the chair beside himself, beckoning Sehun over.

“He was standing in the middle of the caf like a lost little lamb. What about you? Where’d you find this one?”

Jongdae slapped a hand onto Jongin’s shoulder. He flinched so hard his knees collided with his desk, nearly upending the thing. “I found him standing at the staircase. The one by the gym.”

Baekhyun winced and gave Jongin a sympathetic look. “You okay kid?” Jongin nodded and started fiddling with the ziploc bag that held his sandwich.

Baekhyun sighed and leaned back on his chair. He shook his head as if he was trying to rid his head of something. “Really though, on the first day? Usually those douchebags wait a week before they even thinking about picking on the new kids.”

Jongin shrugged staring at Baekhyun’s shirt. Sehun swallowed and slowly opened his lunch container. He felt really guilty for some reason.

“Yeah they were calling the poor kid gay and prancing around like drunk horses before I pulled him away.” Jongdae sighed. “Those losers never have anything better to do.”

Jongin seemed to slouch in on himself. Baekhyun seemed to notice that Jongin didn’t want them to talk about this anymore and he turned to Sehun.

“So Sehun, tell me about yourself. Where’d you move from? What are your hobbies? Do you like running? Playing sports? Video games? Join any extracurriculars? Do you like movies? I like movies. I watch a lot of movies.”

Jongdae seemed to take the hint. “Ugh, it’s terrible watching movies with this guy. He only watches old movies- Gone With the Wind, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Godfather- And when he does watch the new stuff he complains about everything- the actors, the setting, the lighting, cinematography, and all of the other stuff I don’t even understand. It’s terrible.”

Half of Baekhyun’s mouth pulled down into a frown. “Well excuse me; at least I take time to appreciate a movie for things other than the CG and cast list Mr. I-Only-Like-Transformers-Because-Megan-Fox-Is-Hot.”

“Um.” Sehun mulled over his options and decided on the safe one. “I moved from a small town outside of this city. And um... cities are really loud?”

“Yeah sorry about that,” Jongdae laughed. “Baek and I probably are responsible for about sixty seven percent of that noise.”

“More like you take up fifty percent and I take up seventeen, you ,” Baekhyun jibed back. Sehun cracked a smile at their antics. These guys didn’t seem to so bad. Maybe he should...

“And I did join an extracurricular. Well actually I had to,” he started uneasily. Baekhyun and Jongdae leaned toward him simultaneous interest. “I joined Musical Theatre.”

Baekhyun sprung back into his chair in surprise and Jongdae’s eyes widened. Jongin snapped his head up and stared at Sehun. “You’re kidding me.”

Sehun fidgeted uneasily. “Uh yeah, is that a bad thing? Because I didn’t want to join cooking or the debate club because I don’t like that kind of stuff, but I was a part of the theatre group at my old school and I really like the arts because it’s fun and stuff and-“

“Are you kidding me? Bad?! That is not bad, this is fantastic!” Jongdae said excitedly. “We haven’t had new members in almost a year!”

“What?” Sehun and Jongin uttered at the same time.

“Jongdae and I have been members of the Musical Theatre crew since grade nine! It’s fantastic! You’re going to love it!” Baekhyun exclaimed happily. Well what are the odds?

“I joined Musical Theature too,” Jongin said quietly. Jongdae and Baekhyun immediately stopped talking. “I like that kind of stuff too,” he muttered with a blush.

“So, what’s your specialty?” Jongdae asked. Jongin looked at him quizzically. “Everyone in the crew has a specialty. Mine is voice.”

“Voice? Like choir?”

“No, voice as in singing. Show choir singing.”

“Mine is drama and voice,” Baekhyun butted in.

“Uh, dance,” Jongin said unfurling slightly from his slouch. Now it was Jongdae’s turn to look at him quizzically.

“For real? Don’t dancers usually join the dance crew?”

Jongin wrinkled his nose slightly. Everything Jongin did was small and calculated, like he was afraid that he would do something wrong if he brought too much attention to himself. “Break dancing isn’t really my thing.”

“What is your thing then?” Sehun asked.

“Yeah, what? Samba? Krump? Waltz? Pole? Strip?” Baekhyun wiggled around in his chair and started to peel off his cardigan obscenely. When he started to the side of his thumb Sehun slapped his hands to his eyes, face heating up. He heard Jongdae slap Baekhyun upside the head.

“Calm down there cowboy and is stripping even a type of dance?” Sehun uncovered his face and saw Baekhyun scowling at Jongdae and rubbing the back of his head.

“I don’t know, isn’t it?”

“.”

“Ballet. I do ballet,” Jongin cut in. His lips were pressed tightly together like he was trying to hold back a smile, or maybe a laugh. “And contemporary and modern, but not any of that other stuff, I don’t really want to try that.”

Jongdae nodded politely and turned to Sehun. “What about you?”

“Drama, I like acting,” he said vaguely.

 “Wow, that’s awesome! We’ve been running low on drama kids since most of them graduated about two years ago. I was afraid Zitao and I would be the only two left this year too,” Baekhyun looked so excited he was practically vibrating from all of the energy.

“Running low sounds like a bit of an understatement,” Sehun observed weakly. Jongdae and Baekhyun deflated so quickly Sehun didn’t realize it happened until it was over.

“Well yeah, most of the teachers and administration say it’s a ‘waste of time’, it ‘won’t get you anywhere in life’, you know, all that good stuff. There used to be a bit more people, but ever since the school cut the budget for the VPA program to fund most of the sports teams, a lot more people have been leaving the arts.” Jongdae chewed on a piece of kimchi bitterly.

“For all the good that’s done them. The only team that actually wins is the soccer team. The other teams just roll round around on the ground and call it ‘playing’. I swear the ball spends more time in people’s faces than going into the nets.” Baekhyun snorted. “The choirs and bands win awards all over the place, but do they care? No.”

The atmosphere around the table turned gloomy. Sehun and Jongin shifted awkwardly in their chairs. Everything that the two had said was familiar ground for Sehun; it was like that at his old school too. The choirs and bands had won countless medals and national recognition. Adjudicators praised their music, audiences applauded their performances. They’d captured and awed masses of people. And yet, in the trophy case at the front of the school, only the sports trophies were displayed in all of their shiny glory while the music plaques and medals gathered dust on the ledge in the choir room. Years upon years of them stacked on top of each other only seen by few who spared the time to glance at them.

Sehun was starting to realize town life and city life weren’t so different at all as he once assumed. He wasn’t expecting for moving to the city to be like moving to a different country, but he had hoped that the city would be more accepting, in more ways than one. For such a large amount of space, the minds of the people who lived in it were still small. And their walls were just as tight. Maybe it was because there were too many people packed into such a wide area. There was no space to breathe, to feel, to think on your own. People just going along with what people of authority say because somehow among the thousands of voices, their voices are the only ones heard. The thought left a sour taste in Sehun’s mouth.

Sehun didn’t know what to say, he had never been good at comforting people, it was never really his thing. These kinds of situations made him squirm in discomfort.

“Does your crew have a name?” Jongin stuttered quietly after a few moments of silence. Jongdae and Baekhyun glanced at him and he shrugged sluggishly like something heavy rested on their shoulders. “I mean, you can’t just be called the ‘Musical Theatre Crew’ that sounds so dull.”

“Why would they want to name us? They don’t even want us in the first place,” Jongdae grumbled. “If we don’t have name then we’re easy to dispose of.”

“Well then make yourselves indispensible. You don’t need a group of straight laced, balding men to tell you who you are. Don’t let the club be theirs, make the club yours.” Jongin looked at their faces for the first time since Sehun saw him that morning. His gentle yet fierce like a bonfire on a cold fall night. “Even though the club was created by them all those years ago it still exists because of you.”

Baekhyun leaned back on his chair at that while Jongdae leaned forward and furrowed his eyebrows. The four boys sat in silence for a few moments every so often broken by laughing voices in the hallway and the tick, tick, tick of the clock.

Suddenly, Baekhyun sat up straight, a lopsided smile growing on his face.

 “The Breakfast Club,” he said his face lighting up like a flickering candle. “Our name will be the Breakfast Club.”

Jongdae cocked his head to the side. He didn’t seem to know the meaning behind that name, but Sehun did.

Jongin face slowly melted into a genuine smile for the first time that day. “The Breakfast Club, I like it.”

_____________________________________

A/N: Chapter one is up! *claps and cheers* Whew this took awhile to write (it's around 5500 *cries*). Also, I'm really sorry about the layout >< IDK how to fix it ><

Please comment to help me improve my writing! 

Also, don't by any means say the three letter F word I beg you please don't ever call someone that word (unless I guess you're English and you're talking about cigarettes), even if you're saying it as a joke. There are some things you can and cannot say even as a joke. (I was really uncomfortable wriitng that word Oh My God ><)

But there are also going to be some other homophobic slurs in the future just a pre-warning. This is high school after all :/