As we walked down the hallway to our lockers, I heard some of the students gossiping about this new Chinese kid in our school, which I’m 99.99234453% sure they’re talking about me. “Is she a study abroad student?” “Wow, she must be rich then.” “Maybe she’s relatives with some government official?” “What if she was a spy?” This is why one should never trust rumors.

I don’t know if the lockers were assigned by seating, but Jungkook’s locker happened to be right next to mine, and Jimin and Taehyung have theirs right below us.

All of the sudden, a sworn of people, mostly girls, started to huddle around a few feet away from us, and I closed my locker to see what was going on. The three boys didn’t seem fazed at all by this sight, but Jimin seemed to understand what I wanted to ask. “They’re all looking at our school’s so-called ‘kingka,’ who is also our student body president. His name is Kim Seokjin, and he’s the one walking in the middle over there. The one on the left is Jung Hoseok, and the one on the right is Min Yoongi. They’re all seniors from class 3A.”

Kingka? “What’s a kingka?”

Taehyung responded. “The most attractive and charming and most likely richest guy in the school, who also happens to be good in both academics and sports. And also tall, unlike Jimin.”

Jimin frowned at his last comment. “Hey, are you calling me short? He’s probably just wearing insoles.”

Jungkook snorted. “It’s not like you don’t.”

Jimin looked devastated and pretended to punch him in the stomach. “You guys are so mean. Why am I even friends with you two?” I tried to hold in my laughter as Jimin kept denying their claims.

A girl came running towards us, which I assumed was Jimin’s “girlfriend,” and stopped right in front of me. She simply looked at me in confusion as I flashed her a smile. Jimin popped up from behind and smiled at her. “Hey Yura, this is Hyemin. She just joined our class today, and she’s joining our squad now.”

I looked back at Jimin. “What? Since when?”

Yura seemed super excited to have me join them. “OMG, for reals? Yes, please join us! Oh yeah, I’m Yura. YAY, I’m not going to be the only girl now. Wait, is Namjoon joining us?”

What? There’s a Namjoon guy too? Taehyung responded from behind me. “He will when he pops up. Let’s go get some food.”

After getting our food, we found a table near the back of the cafeteria. The three boys sat next to each other, while Yura and I sat across them. I sat in front of Jungkook, and of course, Yura sat in front of Jimin, with Taehyung next to him. Lunch is always the best time for gossip, and Yura was the first to ask. “So Hyemin, where did you go to school before?”

“Guangzhou No. 2 High School.”

Yura furrowed her eyebrows. “What? Where’s that?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. I’m from China. I just came to Seoul two weeks ago.”

Yura legit dropped her jaw. “OHHH, so you're the one everyone was talking about today. I thought it was someone else because your Korean is so good. Why did you move here?”

I thought about how much I wanted to expose about my family. “My mom is a Chinese-Korean-English translator for international businesses, so I’ve been getting some Korean and English off of her since I was little. She recently married a Korean businessman that she met in China, so now I’m here.”

“Oh, wow, that’s so cool. Then who’s this Korean businessman stepdad of yours? He must be rich if he can get you into this school.”

I stayed silent at that question, and fortunately, Jungkook saved me from answering. “She probably got in with a scholarship for high academics. Coming here doesn’t mean your family’s rich.”

Wow, I’d never thought of that before, but that sounds like a good excuse to use. “Yeah, my stepdad said Seoul High accepted me because I had really good grades back then, so I’ll need to work harder now that I’m starting school in a new environment and with a new language. Please take good care of me.” Technically, I’m not lying here.

Jimin laughed at my response. “Nah, we’re probably going to be the ones asking you for help. I almost failed math last semester, but good thing I got some last minute tutoring from Namjoon.”

It’s this Namjoon guy again. “Who’s Namjoon?”

Taehyung spoke with his mouth full. “He’s the smartest guy in our class, the one with those big nerdy glasses sitting near the front of the class. Sometimes he likes to study on his own during breaks and lunch, but he would usually join us. No one else really likes talking to him because they think he’s a geek, but he’s actually a pretty cool guy. Even better if you can understand the theories and stuff he talks about.”

Jimin looked at him in disgust. “Stop spitting your food everywhere.” Taehyung purposely started chewing next to his face, and they ended up fighting again.

Yura looked around. “He should be joining us today. I mean, I doubt he wants to start studying on the first day of school, but maybe he misses the library too much—oh, I see him coming.”

I looked in the direction Yura was pointing to, and sure enough, a guy with big nerdy glasses is seen walking towards our table and sits down next to Yura. “Hi guys, the librarian told me they got some new books on plasma physics, so I went to borrow the books first.” Wow, such dedication. The four of them gave him an unamused look.

Namjoon turned towards me. “Oh, hi Hyemin, I’m Namjoon, same class as you. I’m surprised that you’re actually joining us for lunch. I bet Jimin was the one who dragged you in.”

Jimin narrowed his eyes at Namjoon. “What do you mean dragged? I didn’t drag her here, she willingly came with us. Right, Hyemin?” He turned to look at me expectantly.

I thought about the situation earlier. “Actually, you pulled on my arm when we left, so technically, you did drag me with you.” Taehyung, Yura, and Namjoon burst out in laughter while Jungkook tried to hold it in. They’re actually pretty cool people to hang out with. I wouldn’t mind joining their squad.

For the rest of lunch, they asked me more about my life ba