“What’s taking teacher so long?” Students complained after 5 minutes the bell had rang.

“There’s new students coming today remember? That’s probably why.”

“Jin,” Chan stopped writing and turned to me.

“Hm?”

“This answer’s wrong,” he pointed to a problem on my workbook with the eraser end of his pencil.

“No it’s not,” I shook my head.

“Yes it is, right here you weren’t suppos-”

“Just hurry and copy the rest of it before the teacher comes,” I said in a hushed voice.

“Yea yea,” he continued circling answers.

The door soon slid in and came in a teacher, “Class quiet down, your teacher’s handling some paper work and we just need to see if everyone’s here. When I call your name say here.” He read names off a sheet of paper as each person said “Here.” once their name was called. “Now that we’re done with that who would like to run this to the teacher’s office?”

“I’ll take it!” I shot my hand in the air.

“Alright then, I’ll be leaving be quiet until your teacher comes,” he left the paper on the desk and left.

“What are you doing? You’re supposed to be helping me,” Chan looked up from the workbook.

“See you in a bit,” I winked and stuck my tongue out at him as I went to the front of the class and to the teacher’s office.

“Seonsaengnim,” I held out the attendance sheet with both hands.

“Ah thank you,” she smiled softly as she took it out of my hands. I bowed slightly before standing up straight again looking around for my homeroom teacher before leaving. There was three bent heads at his desk, their faces unable to be seen.

They must be the new students.

I quickly headed to the door afterwards stopping by at the vending machines before going to class.

“You’re suppose to be in class,” a deep voice cleared their throat.

I shut my eyes in fright.

Calm down, the worse they can do is suspend me I already have cleaning duty after class, take slow deep breaths.

I let out a deep breath before turning towards the voice.

“Mark,” I sighed in relief.

“Scared you?” he grinned mischievously.

“Idiot,” I pouted as I hit his shoulder.

“Go to class if you’re scared,” he smiled showing his top row of teeth.

“I will I was just getting something,” I adverted my eyes from him.

“Here put this on,” he took off his hoodie and put it over my shoulders, “That way you’ll be able to hide anything in the pockets,” he eye smiled before leaving.

I turned back to the vending machine after he left and got two chocolate cartons of milk, stuffing them into the pockets of the hoodie one in each before going back to class.

“What took you so long?” Chan didn’t look up from writing as I stood next to his desk.

I pulled out a carton of milk and placed it on the corner of his desk, “Ta-dah!”

He frowned a bit when he looked up, “Where’d you get that hoodie?”

“Mark oppa let me borrow it,” I zipped up the hoodie.

“Here just take this back,” Chan handed me back the carton of milk.

I put the milk back into the pocket and sighed in my mind before going back to my seat which was a few seats away from Chan’s.

I propped my elbow up on the desk and rested my chin on top staring at Chan waiting until he finished with the workbook. I started looking around the room as we waited for our homeroom teacher to come in.

“Sorry for being late students, but I was taking care of some business. As you’ve all heard we’ll be having a new student,” the teacher announced as he got settled.

Chatter started going around the room until someone raised their hand, “Mr.Bak I thought we were getting new students not a new student,” they put their hand back down.

Mr.Bak rubbed his temple before continuing, “We had a long dispute in the office about it and it’s been settled that our class will only be having one new student.”

Aw’s were heard all over the classroom.

“Silence,” Mr.Bak ordered waiting for everyone to turn quiet before turning to the door, “You may come in.”

The door slid open and in strode a boy with black hair bangs just falling above his eyes, he stood at the front of the class facing everyone.

Whispering started back up especially from the other girls, “He’s cute isn’t he?” the girl next to me turned to me just for a second before staring at him again.

“Silence students,” Mr.Bak pounded his fist on the podium, “Introduce yourself.”

“Pass this back to Heejin,” I heard Chan’s hushed voice whisper, before he passed my workbook to our classmates.

“Here,” the person in front of me slid the workbook onto my desk. I looked down as I opened the workbook and put it in place as to make it seem casual.

“Hello everyone my name is Wang Junkai, please call me Karry,” I heard the new student say as I was still shuffling my stuff around.

“He’s transferred here from China so please be kind to him, he’s still learning Korean. Now let’s see where you’ll sit,” Mr.Bak called out a student’s name and had them raised their hand, “Let’s have Gyo Heejin show you around since she’s not paying attention.”

At my name I looked up to see the new student still standing at the front with the Mr.Bak, “But Mr.Bak there’s other students that can show him around,” I defended myself.

“Yes, but you’re learning Chinese this is the perfect time for you to use it!” Mr.Bak smiled. I glared at him from my seat. “Whoops I didn’t mean to say that in front of the whole class,” Mr.Bak took a short breath, “Heejin you will be showing Karry around after class, end of discussion. Karry, you may go to your seat,” Mr.Bak ended before opening his book.

“Shouldn’t you apologize?” Chan slammed his fist down on his desk making everyone startled, “It was your mistake so shouldn’t you apologize to Heejin?” Chan stood up, his chair scraping the floor as he did.

“Out of my classroom now Lee Chan,” Mr.Bak roared. Chan grumpily marched out of the class and slid the door shut with a loud thud.

He stayed out in the hallway for the rest of the class time without making any noise.

“Class dismissed,” Mr.Bak called before collecting his stuff.

I stood from my desk and headed for the door just a step away from the door Mr.Bak called me back, “Heejin, don’t forget to show Karry around,” Mr.Bak stepped out of the room before me.

I gritted my teeth for not being any faster in getting out. I turned back around to see the new student behind me. I headed out door and stopped to see Chan still standing outside. He saw me and we made eye contact for a second before he broke it heading in the other direction.

“Chan!” I called out, but he kept walking, “Chan!” I called out again going after him, I took hold of his sleeve to have him shake it off and continue walking.