“Good morning, students,” Lee Soo Man called from the front of the main hall, up at his little podium again, “Did you all sleep well? Are you all ready for another fun-filled day of team-building?”

His questions were met with a few tired groans but, other than that, silence.

“I’m glad to hear it! Now, as I said yesterday, we’ll be spending most of today in form groups, getting to know the people we’ll be seeing every morning and afternoon registration. I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun with the activities that your tutors have sorted for you. That’s all I really have to say this morning. I may see you around the school throughout the day but, for now, would you please make your way to your form rooms as quickly as you can so we can begin today’s events. Thank you.”

The pupils trudged towards their form rooms for the year, all of the adrenaline from yesterday well and truly gone. It was obvious that at least one or two students were going to fall asleep at some point during the day.

“Tao~” Chanyeol chimed when he reached his form room, slightly more awake than the rest of the class, “Aren’t you curious about what we’re going to be doing this morning? They haven’t told us anything. Are you worried? What if they ask us to show a talent or a party trick? Are you going to show them your Wushu? Or are you going to rap?”

Tao folded his arms and placed them on the table, resting his chin and sighing.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Chanyeol asked, sitting down next to the raven-haired male.

It took Tao a minute to respond, “Hmm? What?”

“What’s up?” the tall, hyperactive boy repeated, “You look upset.”

“It’s nothing,” Tao muttered, hoping Chanyeol would just drop it and leave him alone. It was too early for his childlike antics.

As if on cue, Baekhyun strolled over to the two seated boys, wrapping his arms around Chanyeol’s neck and sticking his head in between both of them.

“What are we talking about?” he enquired, interested in their private conversation.

“Nothing,” Tao replied, turning his head away from the couple.

“What’s wrong with him?” Baekhyun whispered into his boyfriend’s ear.

Chanyeol shrugged, “Not sure. He won’t tell me.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll find out eventually,” Baekhyun reassured, his voice just as low as before.

The shorter boy took a seat next to his boyfriend and shuffled closer so that their arms were practically touching. He tilted his head to the side, resting it on Chanyeol’s shoulder. Chanyeol took the hint and adjusted his position so that he had an arm around Baekhyun and the older male was leaning against his side. The taller one wished he could just pull Baekhyun into his lap and cuddle with him for a while but they were in school and it would be inappropriate to the situation, especially as Tao was still moping beside them.

“Hey,” Chanyeol poked Tao’s side repeatedly, “Hey, Tao.”

Tao looked up, frowning, “What?”

“Seriously, what’s wrong?” the tall boy asked, smiling sympathetically.

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Tao grumbled after a moment.

Now it was Chanyeol’s turn to frown.

“But why?” he wailed, kicking his legs a little under the table, “I wanna help~”

“Can you not?” Tao hissed, signalling for Chanyeol to be quiet, “You’re drawing attention to yourself.”

Chanyeol let out a childish whine from behind closed lips, pouting and furrowing his eyebrows some more. Tao sighed. How could that boy be so damn happy all the time? All he ever did was laugh and joke around.

“Fine,” the raven-haired male said, effectively shutting Chanyeol up, “I’ll talk to you at break or something. Just please be quiet for five minutes.”

Chanyeol did a mini salute with his spare hand, the other still wrapped securely around Baekhyun’s shoulders, and yelled a quick “yes sir”. Tao couldn’t help but let a flicker of a smile onto his lips. As much as he hated to admit it, Chanyeol’s happy attitude was pretty contagious sometimes. Tao felt slightly better already.

He decided not to think about what was getting him down until break. He put it to the back of his mind. He was used to it. It was hard sometimes but he was used to it.

Luhan stretched his upper body across the floor, flopping down in that position and being too lazy to move again. The whole class was sitting on the floor as the dance studio had no tables or chairs. It was just emphasising the sleepiness everyone was feeling. Sehun chuckled to himself at Luhan’s cute behaviour. He was so adorable.

Wait?

Adorable?

No. Sehun, stop it.

He blinked a few times, resisting the urge to shake his head violently, as if that would rid him of the affectionate feelings he was currently harbouring for the sleepy boy sitting next to him. He chose, instead, to focus his attention on their form tutor, Miss Liu, as she was explaining their tasks for the day.

“Yo, guys. Listen up, okay? Today we’re gonna be doing some little activities as a class, alright? Some of them seem a bit boring but, to be honest, you’re quite lucky you’ve got me as your tutor,” she smiled, laughing quietly as she spoke, “I know that Miss Kim’s class is having a discussion about their feelings and how they’re coping with adapting to college life and how they’re dealing with being teenagers in general. Also, Mr. Park’s class is being set an essay on what they’re looking forward to and what they’re worried about this year. We’ve got some nice easy stuff to do. Why do real work just yet, huh? Let’s have fun for the next few days!”

She punched the air, causing a few of the students to giggle and some of the boys to join her. She was a really nice teacher. Sympathetic, amusing and charismatic. She was the perfect form tutor. Even though some of the pupils had only known her for a day, she already seemed like someone they could trust – someone they could rely on and confide in.

Just as she was beginning to explain the details of the day’s tasks, Sehun reached over and ruffled Luhan’s hair. He suspected the boy had fallen asleep because he heard nothing except soft, regular breathing from the golden-haired male. Luhan sniffled and pulled himself up, his eyes only half open.

“Tired?” Sehun whispered, smiling at the other one.

Luhan nodded, “Yeah, sorry. I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

“Don’t apologise,” Sehun breathed, shaking his head, “Why didn’t you sleep?”

Luhan laughed briefly, “Oh, you know…”

His voice trailed off as he turned away from the younger boy, deciding to pay attention to Miss Liu instead of continuing the conversation with Sehun.

Hm. Odd.

Sehun elected to stop asking questions. It was obvious that Luhan didn’t want to talk right now but the darker-haired boy couldn’t help but be worried. There was something troubling Luhan; that much was clear. However, he also knew that one day wasn’t enough to build a link of trust between two people. He’d have to wait until Luhan was ready to tell him whatever it was that was causing him distress.

Lay glanced over at Suho, writing on his paper beside him. He’d written half a page already. That was half a page more than Lay had managed. He looked back at his own, blank sheet, struggling to think of what to put. What was he worried about this year? Was there anything he was particularly looking forward to? He thought to make a short list of all the points that came to mind, telling himself he could expand on them later. Tapping his pen on the table, he wracked his brain for some ideas or at least a starting point. He pictured his subject choices and ran through them in his mind. He quickly scribbled something down on his page.

“Maths exam” was what the note read.

He’d split his paper in half, one side for the things he was looking forward to and the other for what he was dreading about the upcoming year. That first point was on the latter. He moved over to the more positive side, writing “dance class”. He hesitated before making another note on that same side.

“Spending time with Suho.”

He scribbled it out furiously after two seconds, ripping the paper in the process. His eyes widened but, before he could raise his hand to ask, Mr. Park was already at the boy’s desk, handing him a new sheet of paper.

“Try again,” he instructed, “Don’t worry. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just write what you feel.”

Lay nodded and the teacher walked away again.

‘But I don’t know what I feel,’ Lay thought to himself, resting his chin on his hand and starting to tap his pen against the desk once more.

Meanwhile, Miss Kim’s class was in the middle of a heart-wrenching feelings splurge. No, that’s not strictly true. They were in the middle of an attempted heart-wrenching feelings splurge. Every time Miss Kim tried to ask a question about how the students were coping with life, the boys would snort and smirk and the girls would just stay silent, smiling to each other out of embarrassment. This was more like a counselling session than a team-building exercise. Especially as the chairs were laid out in a circle with Miss Kim’s chair at the top and the students in a loop around her.

“Fine, I’ll start with something from my own personal experience and then I’ll ask for volunteers again,” she was still smiling. She never stopped smiling.

She cleared and brushed down her skirt, sitting down again, fed up of standing and searching for anyone to contribute to the conversation.

“When I was your age,” she began, closing her eyes as if to place herself back at the scene, “I was rather popular in school.”

Who would have guessed, right? Sarcasm, by the way.

“I would attend all of the house parties, get asked out by most of the boys and generally avoid homework. However, I soon found out that this was wrong and that I should have prioritised my time a lot better. I failed my first set of exams and had to retake them. This affected my application to university and I was forced to take a year out of school at the end of college, working in a clothes shop and doing some freelance modelling to pay for rent and food. I applied again the following year and got accepted to study secondary education and, now, here I am. I think, what I’m trying to say is to focus on your exams, don’t get distracted and never give up.”

She finished her little speech and opened her eyes again, pleased with herself.

“So,” she clapped her hands together, “Who’s going to go next, hmm?”

If she was expecting someone to willingly volunteer themselves for her little story time, she was sorely mistaken.

“Let’s have,” she paused, looking around the room, “You. What’s your name?”

The boy sighed inwardly, unhappy that he’d been picked, “Kai.”

“Kai?” Miss Kim raised an eyebrow, “But there’s no ‘Kai’ on the register. Are you in the right class?”

“Jongin,” D.O offered, facing the other boy, “His name’s Jongin.”

“Ah, that explains it. You use a nickname then, Jong- Uh, Kai?”

Kai just nodded, leaning back a little more in his seat.

“Tell us, Kai, why do you use a nickname? Don’t you like your real name? Is there something you’re trying to hide from or forget?”

Kai shrugged and some of the pupils started to mutter between themselves.

“Well, I can’t imagine you’d want to run away from anything, Kai. You seem like a nice, handsome, young man. I’m sure you’re very popular with the ladies. How’s your love life? Any possible girlfriends?” Miss Kim was churning out question after question, intimidating the young boy before her.

“Um, Miss Kim, I’m pretty sure personal questions like that are inappropriate for the class,” D.O interrupted again.

She flapped her hand at him, “No, no. It’s fine, Kyungsoo. Kai doesn’t mind, do you Kai?”

“Uh…” was all that the tanned boy said.

“See? It’s fine,” the teacher repeated.

Miss Kim was still pestering Kai about his love life and whether or not he had a girlfriend, too engrossed in him to notice the angry glares D.O was shooting at her. She had always been highly unprofessional but to be asking a college boy about his first ual experience (the subject to which the conversation had now turned) was completely out of line.

“Is that the headmaster outside?” D.O asked, his voice loud, “Let me go and check. Kai, come with me?”

With that, he pulled the younger boy up by his arm and led him out of the room, away from Miss Kim and her incessant questions. They walked down the corridor a little way, far enough that their teacher wouldn’t hear them.

“Are you alright?” D.O let go of Kai’s arm after realising that he was still holding it, “She was being totally inappropriate.”

Kai shrugged.

“You should go and tell the headmaster or another teacher if you felt uncomfortable about her talking to you like that.”

Kai just stood still, not saying a word, looking at D.O.

“I mean, she should really get fired. I don’t know why she hasn’t been sacked already. There have been loads of reasons to get rid of her but no one really listens to them. They don’t see her as a threat because she’s so ditsy. But she’s dangerous. She’s a cougar, or whatever they’re called. She likes younger guys. Everyone knows it, even the headmaster. She even told him, you know. He tried to ask her out and she rejected him, saying he was way too old for her.”

Again, Kai was silent, just listening to the older boy.

“Oh, sorry,” D.O’s eyes widened, “I’m talking too much. I’ll shut up now. Are you okay? Did she make you feel uncomfortable?”

Kai hummed quietly, “Not really. She wasn’t particularly doing anything – just asking questions.”

“O-Oh. Well, if you ever do feel apprehensive around her, be sure to tell a teacher, okay?” the older male smiled at Kai who just nodded in response, “We should probably get back to the classroom. I bet she’s moved on to torment someone else now so she’ll leave you alone for a while.”

Again, Kai nodded, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.