“How come anyone would do this to you?” Yoonji’s mother questions her daughter as she helps drying the wet bag and books using a standing fan. “Did you find out who did it?”

“No, but it’s okay, Mom. I still have some old backpacks in the closet that are still usable.”

“Don’t let the kids get to you,” her mother advises.

“Alright, Mom.”

“Be careful on the way there, honey!”

“Okay, Mom!”

“Yoonji-yah,” her father calls from the living room. “Do you want me to take you to school? I can borrow our neighbor’s car.”

“You don’t have to, Dad. Just go to work as usual.”

“Are you sure?”

Yoonji looks at her father in suspicion. “Did Mom say anything to you?”

“Of course she did. You know that we as your parents would be worried about you.”

Yoonji approaches her father and then holds both his arms. “If there’s anything serious, I’ll let you do something about it. For now, don’t worry too much about it, okay, Dad?”

Her father sighs before start caressing his daughter’s hair. “Okay. But really, you have to tell me right away if things get serious.”

“Sure thing, Dad! I’ll be going then!”

After saying bye to her father, she skips her way to the bus stop, where the school bus is already parked there.

She gets into the bus quite early too today, which means there is no one in the passenger seats other than her. It is short-lived however, when the bus gets to another stop, and sure enough, the thirteen boys in her classroom board the bus too. This time, some of them greet her as soon as they see her.

“Hey, Yoonji-yah!” Junhui in particular immediately takes the seat next to her while the other guys are still scampering around trying to get a place to sit. “I see you have a new bag there.”

“This isn’t new, it’s an old one, but still can be used, so.” She just shrugs.

“Is your stomach okay?” Jisoo asks from the seat in front of Yoonji.

“Ah, it’s fine now.”

“Oh, aren’t you the new student in our class?” the boy who sits next to Jisoo asks. Yoonji notices that the boy has a long hair, very different from the other guys who are all sporting short hair.

“Yeah, she is,” Junhui answers for her.

“I haven’t introduced myself! I’m Yoon Jeonghan.”

“Yoo Yoonji.” They then do a handshake.

“I heard you got sick yesterday after you got punished by The Terminator. I supposed you had it hard in our class, did you?”

“Well... kind of? But who is The Terminator?”

“Mr. Kim, the math teacher.” Junhui is the one who answers again.

“Well, for some unknown reason, he holds a grudge against our class, so much that he always searches for any mistakes done by our class’ students. Just try to make sure you stay out of him as far as possible,” Jeonghan explains.

“Because if you’re near him, that means you’re already in problem,” Junhui adds. “Of course, if you’re in class, you can’t do anything. You need to take cover.”

“You’re sitting next to Wonwoo, right?” Jeonghan asks as he points at the said boy who is sitting at the corner of the bus’ backseat. “You can take cover with him. For another unknown reason, Mr. Kim doesn’t really mess with him even when it’s obvious he’s done something unpleasant in his eyes.”

Yoonji turns to look at where Wonwoo is sitting. When all of his friends are busy chitchatting with each other, he’s just sitting there quietly, his eyes fixated to whatever it is outside the window.

You can take cover with him. For another unknown reason, Mr. Kim doesn’t really mess with him even when it’s obvious he’s done something unpleasant in his eyes.

Jeonghan’s words stays in her head, making Yoonji unable to concentrate on the lesson. She also keeps stealing glances at her seatmate, who seems to be focused on listening to the teacher.

“Why do you keep looking at me?” his deep voice is suddenly heard as Yoonji is still trying to steal glances at him. His words though make her hang her head down immediately.

“Is there something on my face?” he asks again, and this time, Yoonji tries to look up. Wonwoo is totally looking at her right now, curiosity filling those brown orbs. She clears , willing to let the awkwardness go away.

“Handsomeness,” she tries to joke, but somehow, it makes the situation even more awkward for her. Now that she thinks about it, she can’t believe she just said that, as she puts her head even deeper into the table.

“Oh,” is the response she can hear. “Thank you, I guess.”

She tries to lift her head to glance at him again. From the corner of her eyes, she can see him writing notes with a little smile on his face.

Does that mean she’s slowly getting into his good side? She sure hopes so, if Jeonghan’s words are true.

By the time the break time bell rings, the boys as always are hovering over Soohyang’s seat. In turn, the three girls in The Unwanted club also gather around Yoonji’s.

“Hey, did your mother make you some toast again?” Jungin asks as she drags a chair in front of Yoonji’s table. Taeyeon quickly climbs the desk, while Hyejin still hesitates to sit next to Yoonji, but this time Yoonji doesn’t offer it.

“Yeah, she did...”

“Okay, take them out.”

Yoonji doesn’t do it immediately, which sort of irritates Jungin.

“Take them out now!”

“Yoonji-yah, let’s eat together.”

Yoonji looks up to the one who spoke, Junhui. He throws Jungin a dirty look, while Jungin looks at him in disbelief.

“Stay out of this, Wen Junhui! She’s our friend, not yours.”

The use of the word ‘friend’ doesn’t do anything to Yoonji anymore. Instead, she starts balling her fist together.

“You can bring your lunchbox. Hurry up,” Junhui beckons Yoonji again, and she looks up at him, and after that, starts taking her lunchbox from her bag. After that, Yoonji stands up from her seat, ready to follow Junhui.

“Wait a minute!” Jungin holds Yoonji’s hand which is holding the lunchbox. “I thought you agreed to be in our club? To be our friends?”

“Let go of her hand, Park Jungin!” Junhui suddenly explodes, and he forcefully severs Jungin’s hold onto Yoonji’s hand. “You think you can fool people with the same trick twice? Never. She’s going with us.”

Junhui is now holding onto Yoonji’s wrist. With that, he drags her out of the classroom, away from the trio who are surely not taking this situation very well.

“You should’ve run to me first before you get surrounded by them,” Junhui scolds Yoonji as they are walking towards the cafeteria. “Seriously, if I’m not around, what would you do? Getting your lunch taken away again?”

Yoonji notes that Junhui is somehow overreacting with the situation. Although her lunch getting taken away again might be a serious problem, she didn’t think he would care so much about it, especially since they haven’t even been friends for exactly a day. She throws a suspicious look at him, and he throws a confused one in return.

“What?”

“Why do you care so much if my lunch is taken away?”

“Huh? That’s just what friends do.”

“No. We barely know each other for a day. Why do you care about it so much?”

He lets out a sigh.

“I just don’t have a good record with those girls, okay. Especially their leader. She’s just a total bully.”

Yoonji nods, silently wondering how bad his record with them would be. She would’ve asked, but Junhui doesn’t seem like he wants to talk about it, so she doesn’t say anything.

She follows him until they arrive at the cafeteria. Junhui lets go of her hand and goes straight to the table where the boys and Soohyang are sitting, but Yoonji hesitates for a moment.

“Yoonji! Over here!” It’s Soohyang, waving her hands to Yoonji as an invitation to sit on their table. Gripping on her lunchbox a bit more tightly, she approaches them.

“Sit here.” Soohyang pats the space in between her and one of the boys. This eerily reminds her of when she invites Hyejin to sit next to her, but she tries to push that little memory at the back of her mind, and starts situating herself on the patted space.

“Do you know all of the guys already?” Soohyang asks Yoonji. The girl who gets questioned shakes her head.

“Hmm, where do we start... Seungcheol! Did you introduce yourself to her already?”

The boy in question, the one who sits right next to Yoonji, turns to look at Soohyang. “Huh? Oh, not yet.”

Seungcheol then has his eyes Yoonji, who at the same time also turns to look at him. Once they meet eyes, she immediately nods her head in acknowledgement.

“I’m Choi Seungcheol. I’m also the class’ president, in case you’ve been wondering who leads the class’ greetings.”

In the class, Yoonji sits on the first row, third column, right next to the windows. She barely checks the person who leads the class’ greetings because of her position, but now she knows, it’s this guy. And sure enough, he’s also handsome, just like the rest of the boys.

“Who else you haven’t known yet? Oh, Jeonghan?” Soohyang points at the long-haired boy who sits across the table.

“We already know each other! We talked during the bus ride this morning.”

Yoonji nods, a small smile forming on her face.

“Bus ride?” Soohyang asks in a small voice, seemingly surprised by the newly learned knowledge.

“I haven’t!” One of the boys suddenly shouts with his hand raised before Soohyang could ask more about the bus ride. He then stands up and bows to Yoonji’s direction. “I’m Lee Seokmin, nice to meet you!” Then he shows a really bright smile, the brightest Yoonji has ever seen during her stay in this school.

“I’m Lee Chan, the youngest~” one of the boys waves at her cutely, making Yoonji smile.

“I’m Boo Seungkwan! I came from Jeju!” the boy with the chubby cheeks introduces himself, also with a little wave.

“Oh, Jeju?” Yoonji looks on with wonder in her eyes.

“Yeah, actually even some of the guys came from the States, like Hansol and Jisoo,” Soohyang explains.

Yoonji turns to look at the said two boys who are sitting right next to each other, talking. She can faintly hear that they’re talking in English, and again, a look of wonder crosses her face.

“Oh, and of course, our Chinese friends! You know Junhui already; the one next to him is Minghao.”

Junhui and Minghao, who were also talking to each other, turn to Soohyang when they hear their name being mentioned. When they shift their eyes to Yoonji, Junhui pokes Minghao on his ribs with his elbow, making the other boy yelp shortly in pain. Then he turns back to Yoonji and bows at her.

“Hi, I’m Xu Minghao, nice to meet you.”

Just like what Junhui had implied, Minghao’s Korean sounds totally accented, but Yoonji finds it cute that she can’t help another smile forming on her lips.

“Okay, is there anyone else you haven’t known yet?”

Yoonji looks at each of the boys and shakes her head after that.

“Then I guess that’s everyone! Oh, what do you have there?”

Soohyang is looking at the lunchbox that Yoonji brought with her. Yoonji gets another déjà vu as she starts keeping the lunchbox close to her chest.

“It’s—toasts. My mom made it for me for lunch.”

“Toasts?” Soohyang looks somewhat surprised. “You eat only toasts for lunch? You don’t eat rice or whatever?”

Yoonji in turn is surprised as well because Soohyang’s tone starts sounding like her mother’s. “Well, I don’t always eat toasts for lunch...”

“Why don’t you eat my lunch here?” The offer is coming from Seungcheol, as he slides his tray of lunch to Yoonji’s side of table. “I haven’t touched it just yet.”

“Ah—no, it’s okay...” Yoonji is about to slide it back to Seungcheol, but Soohyang stops her first.

“Don’t worry, just eat up. You’re just recovering from your stomachache, so you need to have more fulfilling meal.”

“But I’m fine, really. I’m the type who gets full easily.”

This time Yoonji manages to slide the lunch back to Seungcheol again, who looks at her in astonishment.

“I’m fine eating only toasts, I mean it,” Yoonji reassures him.

Suddenly, Jihoon who has been sitting quietly the whole time, gets up from his seat and leaves without word, startling everyone on the table.

“What’s wrong with him?” Seungkwan asks as he looks at Jihoon’s tray, still full of many side dishes.

“Don’t know,” Seokmin who is sitting next to Jihoon’s empty spot replies.

“Are you sure you don’t want to have this for your lunch, Yoonji-yah?” Seungcheol asks again.

“Oh, no, thank you. Just eat up,” Yoonji refuses with a polite smile. Seungcheol doesn’t look convinced enough with her answer, but eventually he slowly starts eating it.

Not too long after, Jihoon comes back with another tray.

“Excuse me,” he says as he slides in between Soohyang and Yoonji, and puts it on the table, on the spot right in front of Yoonji. Everyone looks surprised by Jihoon’s unexpected action, as he goes back to where he was seated, in between Seokmin and Jisoo.

“Please eat it.” Jihoon gestures towards the food as he resumes eating his lunch again.

Yoonji looks at him wide-eyed and then she eyes the lunch in front of her – rice, kimchi, seaweed soup, meat, and spinach, all served in that one tray. Soohyang pats the other girl and gives her a warm smile.

“Just eat it,” she says, sounding totally amused. Everyone resumes eating as well, and as Yoonji looks at each of them, another smile of gratefulness is blossoming on her face.

Hahaha how I love tsundere!Jihoon xD Anyway let's get to the vote count immediately!

Seungcheol - 6 votes
Wonwoo - 3½ votes
Jihoon - 3 votes
Soonyoung - 2 votes
Hansol - 1½ votes
Junhui - ½ vote

Suggestion is still open, but I'll accept one vote per username! If you've commented before, that means I already took note of it~

And although it's kinda late... Merry Christmas everyone! ^^