It was a warm summer morning. The sky was exceptionally clear and the Sun a little too bright. The smell of grass filled the air, and the atmosphere was full of energy. The classroom was filled with non-stop chattering as the kids streamed in one by one, returning from their term break and sharing with each other their stories and adventures over the short break.

At the corner seat of the classroom, a skinny boy had his head rested on the table, his face facing the window and his eyes shut. The other kids in class stole quick glances at him in the midst of their conversations, not very discreetly whispering and discussing who this fresh face was. The boy could hear the whispers, but he didn’t react and continued to pretend he was asleep.

The whispers stopped when another boy entered the class, his backpack hanging on one of his shoulders. He wasn’t handsome nor beautiful by society’s standards, and he was only slightly taller than average. He was very lanky and skinny, but he had an aura which made people look at him. He was rather popular among the kids in class, and he was greeted very readily when he entered the classroom.

“Hey Woobin!”

“Ah, our model is here!” another voice quickly chirped, and the classroom broke into a loud laughter. Woobin just glared over at the owner of the voice, “oh, shut up.”

“You still want to be a model?”

Woobin just shrugged. He didn’t want to continue this topic, not with them. He couldn’t be bothered getting annoyed at them, but he didn’t want to continue it either.

Woobin walked over to the boy at the corner of classroom, nudging him a little. “Hey, sorry to wake you, but you are taking my seat.”

The boy opened his eyes and sat up and mumbled a soft apology, nodding and taking his bag, casually moving to the next empty seat and very quickly, had his head on the table again.

Woobin took his seat and looked at the other kids in class, using his eyes and silently asking who this new kid was. The rest of them just shook their heads and shrugged. No one had seen this kid before and he was already in the classroom when the first person entered that morning.

From how he had readily moved to a new seat, Woobin didn’t think he was an unfriendly person. He reached over and gave him a little nudge, and the boy just opened his eyes, his head not leaving the table.

“Hi, I’m Woobin. I haven’t seen you before. You are a transfer student?” It was a very Woobin thing to do. He was always rather sociable, which was why the other kids in class liked him and could openly joke with him.

A small, polite smile formed on the boy’s fleshy lips and he sat up straight. “Yeah, transfer student. I’m Jongsuk.”

“Why did you transfer here?”

“Family moved.”

Woobin nodded and was about to ask another question when the homeroom teacher entered the classroom. The kids quickly scurried back to their own seats as the teacher walked to the front of the classroom.

“Hi kids, how was your term break? We’ve got a new student joining us. Jongsuk, say hi to everyone?” Mr. Kang happily spoke.

Jongsuk awkwardly stood up. He didn’t exactly like being the centre of attention, and he could feel his ears turning red. He just quickly bowed and mumbled, “Hi, I’m Jongsuk.” He looked around a little uncertainly and took his seat.

“Woobin-ah, since Jongsuk’s sitting next to you, take care of him alright?”

Woobin nodded. He didn’t mind that. In fact, he liked the feeling of responsibility and control.

Mr. Kang grinned and continued, “Alright, since this is the first class of the new term, let’s talk about your term break. Woobin, let’s start with you.”

The lessons that day passed relatively quickly. Since it was the first day of school, the teachers weren’t exactly in the mood to teach either and they just spent their time talking about insignificant things. Woobin had tried to make small conversations with Jongsuk and Jongsuk had politely responded but the conversations died down pretty quickly.

It wasn’t that Jongsuk wasn’t interested in making friends with Woobin, but he took a much longer time to warm up to strangers. He did appreciate Woobin’s efforts to talk to him, and he wished he could have done more to keep the conversation going, but there was this barrier that stopped him from doing that. He just needed time to get fully comfortable talking to someone.

“Want to join us for lunch?” Woobin asked.

Jongsuk nodded. He didn’t mind that, of course. He had packed his own lunch box and was actually prepared to have lunch alone, but since he now had an invitation, he saw no reason to reject it. He picked up his lunch box from his bag and followed Woobin and his friends to the canteen.

The group of boys headed to buy their lunch, while Jongsuk followed Woobin to an empty table. Woobin had a lunch box and a packet of milk in his hands.

“Let’s eat. Don’t have to wait,” Woobin said and opened his lunch box.

Jongsuk followed suit and a surprised look flashed across his face when he saw the contents of Woobin’s lunch box – 6 hardboiled eggs, and that’s all. Jongsuk looked up at Woobin curiously, contemplating whether to say anything, but eventually he did. “That’s all you are eating?”

Woobin nodded, and before he could say anything, he heard a distinct laughter coming from behind him. It was one of their classmates, Myungsoo. Woobin sighed and kept quiet, knowing Myungsoo was going to do all the talking for him. Jongsuk recognized the voice. It was the one that called Woobin a model that morning.

“He wants to be a model! That’s why he’s eating nothing but eggs. He wants to build muscles and grow taller. But really, look at him. He’s so skinny and scrawny. He has been eating only eggs for lunch the past one year!!!!” Myungsoo said between laughs, his tone mocking Woobin a little as he pats Woobin on his back. “Woobin ah, you should just give up. You aren’t going to make it.”

A year ago, during class, they had to share about their dreams. Woobin wasn’t too sure what he wanted to do at that time, so he just uttered without much thought that he wanted to be a model. Of course, the entire class broke into a loud laughter. No one really believed he could make it, considering his build. Even Mr. Kang told him to be serious and to reconsider his dream. It was then that Woobin suddenly felt all the determination to really become a model. He suddenly wanted badly to become a model. He wanted to prove all of them wrong.

Jongsuk just said a soft “oh…” and went back to eating his food quietly. Woobin couldn’t read Jongsuk’s thoughts. He didn’t laugh along with Myungsoo and the other boys who had returned with their food, but he didn’t look like he thought Woobin would be able to become a model either.

“Whatever you say.” Woobin just replied nonchalantly and continued eating his eggs.