12: Art class at Kai's old school so hard. At his new school though? Well, let's just say that Kyungsoo was somewhat of an inspiration. Pairing!Kaisoo

"I hate art. I hate moving. I hate new schools." Kai grumbled to himself as he walked through the hallway, making his way from fourth period History to fifth period Elective—which, in his case, happened to be art.

"Sounds like you hate just about everything," a voice commented to his left, and Kai looked over to see Do Kyungsoo, the cuter of the two boys with whom he'd eaten lunch, smiling up at him. "Your first day can't be all bad, can it?"

Kai pretended to think for a minute before he grinned. "Lunch wasn't awful," he admitted, winking as he added, "I think I even made a friend."

Kyungsoo gasped in fake shock before falling into giggles. Kai caught a glimpse of the other boy's schedule as Kyungsoo's hands came up to smother his laughter, and realized that he and his new friend—possibly on his way to becoming new crush—were heading in the same direction. "You've got art next?" He queried hopefully, thinking that the subject couldn't be all bad if Kyungsoo was there to be distracting.

The other boy nodded. "Why?" He wondered. "Do you?"

When Kai grimaced and shoved his schedule into Kyungsoo's face, his new friend began to giggle again. "So that's why you said you hated art, huh?"

"You don't even know," Kai groaned as they rounded the corner and came face to face with the school's art studio. Kai had been dreading this class since he'd first gotten his schedule that morning; it wasn't that he didn't like art, it's just that he wasn't very good at it and the teachers at his old school hadn't been very forgiving. He was also of the general mindset that it was the thought and effort which counted—not the end product—and his art teachers hadn't liked that philosophy much either.

"Don't worry," Kyungsoo reassured him with words and a comforting pat, making Kai's back tingle from the touch as butterflies swarmed his stomach. "Our teachers are all nice here. Besides," he continued—basically jinxing it, in Kai's opinion—"what's the worst that could happen?"

Kyungsoo held open the door for them both to walk through while Kai repeated under his breath, "You don't even know."

Unfortunately for Kai, the teacher seemed as nice as Kyungsoo had predicted, but she was also a fan of organized chaos and liked alphabetical seating charts almost as much as she liked Jackson Pollock. Kyungsoo waved over his shoulder as he went to join Byun Baekhyun, another one of the few friends Kai had managed to collect in the last six hours. Truthfully, Baekhyun had come up to Kai as soon as the latter stepped foot on the grounds and had collected him as a friend, complimenting his new companion's pretty face and unusual coloring, and claiming he needed prettier friends anyway—Kai hadn't really needed to do anything at all.

As for Kai, he was seated next to a frowning Chinese exchange student who's face looked a little like a work of art in and of itself. The boy's ears were covered in piercings, as was his left eyebrow and his septum; Kai was pretty sure that went against the student handbook's dress code he'd been forced to read, but he didn't want to possibly risk his life by saying anything about it.

The art teacher spoke for twenty minutes or so before she let her students loose with a project to draw something to hand in by the end of the period. It sounded easy enough in theory, but Kai was at a complete loss because he was great at moving his body to music but much less skilled with a pencil in his hand. He lowered his head to bang it on the wooden tables a few times before he heard a snicker from Baekhyun and glanced up to glare at his friend.

The anger on his face soon turned happy, though, because Tao had disappeared to join his fellow Mandarin speakers in a far corner of the room, so the space next to Kai was wonderfully empty. With a surreptitious glance at the teacher to make sure they wouldn't get caught, Kai gestured madly for Baekhyun to join him at his table, hoping he could talk to his new friend about the floaty feeling he got whenever Kyungsoo so much as looked at him. Baekhyun had been dating the same boy since half way through his sophomore year, and Kai thought that if anyone could help him with his fluttering beginnings of a crush, it was Baekhyun.

He glanced down at the table and tried clearing it a little so that Baekhyun could have some space to work. But to Kai's surprise, the person sitting next to him when he looked up from his task was not Baekhyun at all, rather Kyungsoo.

"Hi!" Kai squeaked in shock; he hated that he was already a senior in high school yet his voice still did funny things. Kyungsoo must have found it cute though, because he laughed again, making Kai smile and gaze sheepishly down at his art.

"Long time no see," Kyungsoo joked, trying to peek at Kai's drawing and failing miserably because Kai was doing a wonderful job of keeping his creation to himself. "Oh come on," Kyungsoo pleaded, pouring on a little aegyo for good measure, "I'll show you mine."

Kai shook his head vehemently, but that didn't stop Kyungsoo from lifting his paper to display his drawing proudly in front of Kai's face. Interestingly enough, when Kai looked at the picture on the paper, it was his own face that he saw staring back at him. He gaped at Kyungsoo as his face began to flush and the tips of his ears turned pink, but the other student just shrugged and smiled shyly at him.

"What can I say?" Kyungsoo admitted. "It's not my fault you're cute."

Kai shushed him in embarrassment, reaching up to hide the flames on his face and exposing his artwork in the process.

"Omo!" Kyungsoo remarked as he snatched Kai's drawing and gave it a good look. "What is this? It's brown and green, so a lizard maybe?"

He'd guessed valiantly, but he was very wrong. "Tree." Kai pouted as Kyungsoo began to giggle once more and Baekhyun came up from behind to view the masterpiece and join him in his laughter.

"I'd hate art class too," Kyungsoo chuckled to an increasingly frazzled Kai. "It's okay though," he comforted with a cheeky grin, "not everyone can be an artist. Just stick to being cute, arasso?"

Dedicated to Lucy682 for all the awesome ideas and for beating those first day blues. Good luck for Day 2! ^_^