At 12:00 pm, Onew had entered his 4^th period class, ELA. The first day had been average so far; hardly any of his friends were in his classes and it made him feel awkward and shy. Onew hoped for the better.

“Onew-hyung!”

Onew whipped his head around and saw Jonghyun lightly running towards his seat of choice, which was next to Onew. Onew felt relieved.

“I thought I wouldn’t have any classes with you!” Onew sighed.

“Yeah, I know. I have 2 classes with Minho and Taemin, 3 classes with Key, and this class with you. I’m not alone yet.”

Onew huffed. “I have classes with no one so far. Maybe a few girls I know from middle school. You’re lucky.”

Jonghyun smiled and patted Onew’s back.

The class began to fill with more students until the late bell had rung. Seconds later, the teacher strolled in with books in one arm and coffee in the other. She set the cup onto her desk and stood in front of the class with her books clutched as if she never wanted to let them go—which wouldn’t be surprising since she was an English teacher.

She scanned the classroom full of students through her thick prescription glasses (that really looked good on her) and a smile spread across her face.

“Hello class. I’m Mrs. Williams.” She set the books down on the smaller teacher’s desk in front of her. “It’s so nice to see all of your smiling faces!”

Onew glanced around the room. No one was smiling.

“I hope you guys are excited about learning English and literature, because that’s what we will be going to do this all year. This year, I expect you all to learn how to decipher language and meaning within text. You will be able to…bring the text to life, as I like to say. We will also be working on speech and grammar techniques, but it won’t be a priority. Is there anything you all want to ask me before I give you your first task?”

Onew took another glance around the room. He saw a few Korean girls he recognized from the past grades staring blankly into space. One of them felt his stare and her eyes immediately wondered over to him. She smiled and waved. Onew smiled back and then turned his eyes to the front.

“Ok, great.” Mrs. Williams clapped her hands together. “Well, since this is the first day, I want you all to get a chance to meet the people sitting around you because where you are sitting now will be your permanent seats for the year—that is, unless you have valid meaning for me moving you. So, I want you guys to get into groups of two with the person behind you. It shouldn’t be hard since you all are in rows of even numbers. Once you all are grouped, I want you to ask and answer three questions about the person you are paired with. After that, we will discuss them in class. Everyone understand?”

No one said anything.

“Good. You have 20 minutes.” She strutted towards her desk and sat.

Onew looked towards Jonghyun worriedly. He didn’t want to get to know anyone else in the class. Jonghyun looked back reassuringly and turned his chair around to face the girl behind him.

Before Onew moved his chair, he quickly looked behind him to see who he’d be grouped with. To his surprise, there was a black girl toying with her pencils who looked equally as shy as he did. His eyes scanned over her shoulder length hair, clear smooth looking mocha colored skin, and her shiny lips, that must’ve been covered in lip gloss.

First thing that came to his mind? She’s pretty.

He had never seen a black female that he thought was pretty before—not that he didn’t think black girls couldn’t be pretty; Beyoncé was a prime example, though she was the only one he really knew. He had never really given his attention to black girls though he knew some could look above average, just like any other race. However, the black girls he’d see on the streets screamed average. He never noticed many of the girls at his school, so he had no opinion on them. Onew had no ideal type, so there was nothing specific he was looking for.

But this girl…

She might’ve set the bar for him.

Before he could snap out of his daydream, she looked up at him, her brown eyes piercing through his thoughts. Startled, he quickly snapped out of it and jerked uncontrollably, causing himself to tip from the chair and fall straight towards the floor.

The class’s cacophony was quieted and in an instant, bursts of laughter and giggles were filling the air.

Jonghyun smiled. “♫Whatever he does, it’s Onew Condition♪.” He sang to himself in his native language.

The girl covered in shock and helped Onew up.

Mrs. Williams looked up from her desk. “Shh!! Quiet class! People fall all the time…”she gave Onew a threatening look from under her thick glasses. Onew bit his lip and hoped that his cheeks weren’t volcano red.

“Are you okay?”

A voice like silk entered his right ear. He turned towards the girl sitting behind him and she flashed him a gentle smile. “I’m sorry if I scared you. I was just trying to organize my pencil bag and later noticed you.”

“No, no. You didn’t.” he smiled back at her with equal gentleness.

“Should we start on those questions?” The girl used her decorative pen to point towards the board.

Onew nodded. “Yeah…” he looked at the board then back at her. “What’s your name?”

“Ary. Ary Phillips.”

Onew liked the sound of her name. “Ary….” He let it simmer on his tongue before she interrupted him.

“What’s yours?”

Onew pointed to himself. “Me?”

Ary laughed. “Yes, you. Who else?”

Onew bit his tongue. How embarrassing. “Ah, yes. I’m Jinki. Jinki Lee. But my friends know me as Onew.”

Ary cocked her head and her eyebrows rose. “Onew? That sounds interesting. What does it mean?”

“It’s supposed to mean ‘gentle’ in Korean.”

Ary’s eyes widened. “You’re Korean?”

“Yeah.”

“No way. I never really would’ve guessed. You don’t look very Asian.”

“I don’t?”

“Nah. Maybe the eyes would confirm it, but if you had double eyelids, I don’t think I would’ve seen you as Asian at all.”

Onew shifted in his seat. Though what she was telling him was interesting, he felt a bit uncomfortable. He didn’t’ exactly know what to say to her.

He continued anyway.

“What are your interests?”

Ary’s lips stretched into a smile. “Oh wow…this might take forever… I’ll only name 3 for the sake of time. I really like ELA and writing. Language Arts is my best subject and my main interest. I for sure will study it more in college. The feeling I get when I think of books is just…I don’t know. But I love them. They’re like windows to another world, like another universe you can go to when you want to escape reality. People don’t realize how much benefit reading can do. It’s relaxing, can increase your vocabulary, and you can go wherever you want with whomever you want and be whoever you like! I just love the idea of reading and writing, especially if it’s about a different culture. There are so many amazing things in this world to discover and only few people get to do it. I hope to be one of those people someday.”

Onew nodded. He’d never seen anyone so passionate about writing and literature. He could actually see the twinkle in her eyes when she spoke of her love for ELA. He didn’t really care for the class that much, though he usually passes.

“You seem passionate. I wish I even knew what I wanted to do with my life.” He rested his chin on top of his arms.

Ary shrugged. “It’s all about soul searching. Everyone has that moment in their life when they experience change within themselves. They realize that what they’ve been doing for a while isn’t how they want to live their lives. They find out whom and what is important to them and what isn’t. And they learn more about themselves in the process.” She smiled. “And some people have their phase earlier than others. But the cycle never really ends. It just expands.”

She wrinkled her nose cutely.

“Time’s up!”

Onew and Ary both looked up from each other and Mrs. Williams began making her way to the front of the classroom.

Ary glanced towards Onew and bit her lip. “We haven’t finished,” she whispered.

Onew thought for a second. “Maybe she won’t call on us?” he gave her a hopeful grin.

“Well, let’s start with your two.”

Onew saw Mrs. Williams’s dainty fingers pointing towards him. She had a look of interest on her face and clasped her hands as if she was waiting for an answer.

Onew scanned the classroom and saw that all eyes were on him. He whipped his head towards Ary for help.

Ary lowered her eyebrows in sympathy for him. She mouthed the word “lie”.

“Uh…” Onew began, “her name is Ary. Ary…” he looked towards her again.

“Phillips.” She mouthed.

“Phillips,” he repeated. “Her interests are in English…” he scanned the next question on the board that they didn’t get to and began to think up some lies. “Uh…her future goals are…to become a writer…and a…journalist?” he looked towards her to see if he was doing well. She nodded.

“And…the college she is planning on going to is…” he quickly thought of any prestigious colleges and the first one that came to mind was the one his mother went to. “Seoul University.” He stopped there.

Mrs. Williams looked impressed. “Miss Phillips, is what he was saying true?”

Ary nodded, agreeing to half-truth and half-lie. Mrs. Williams’s lips curved into a promising smile.

“Great for you! Good thing too because you will be writing a lot this semester, even doing contests! I think I know who my star writer is!”

Ary smiled and looked at Onew. Onew looked back at her and winked. Success!  He thought and relaxed into his feeling of accomplishment.

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Agggggghhh they finally met one another!!!

What's life gonna be like for Onew afterwards??? lol

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