CHAPTER I.

It all started when we were making blueberry muffins in Home Economics class...

"No, Taeyong! You’re doing it wrong!" Joy screamed angrily at her partner. She huffed to herself as she snatched the bowl of blueberry muffin batter out of his hands with a frustrated expression. 

Lee Taeyong stared at her, his mouth agape as he continued to hold the bright, Barbie pink spatula in his right hand, "What'd I do wrong?" He asked her, his eyes wide as he sadly watched the bowl whilst blueberry-dyed batter dripped silently from the tip of his utensil onto his apron. 

Mixing muffin batter was just too much fun.

She stared at him with a bewildered expression, fearing that she would let out her inner Satan Joy if Taeyong's annoyingness coaxed her enough. Joy had been far too late when she had come back from fetching the cinnamon. When she had come to the rescue of the poor muffin batter, he was already whipping it to an inch of its life.

She glared at him, swiftly picking the spatula from his hand then tossing it in the dishwasher, "The batter is supposed to have lumps, Taeyong." She explained to him, slowly accentuating each syllable; twisting into an even bigger scowl with each word almost as if she was talking to a first grader. Taeyong felt oddly offended by this gesture. The sweet-faced girl angrily slammed the glass bowl on the countertop, the resounding sound causing everyone to stare at them oddly. "Does it look like there are lumps in here, Taeyong?!" She held out the bowl profusely, an ugly scowl marring her face.

Taeyong figured she would be a decent Home Ec partner at first. He did not expect some Martha Stewert wannabe with anger management problems who was encased in a sugar-sweet wrapping of a pretty face and nice smile. He rolled his eyes, she was probably just taking her anger out on him for his blunt rejection at her recent confession.

He threw a glance at the clock, patiently waiting for class to end. She coughed pointedly at his wandering eyes.

The latter grinned nervously, "Uh," He fumbled out his words, a slight stutter sneaked out as he caught wind of the knife-sharp stare she threw his way, "No?" 

Geez, Park Sooyoung was scary when she wanted to be.

Joy may have been all smiles and bubbles in her attempts to seduce him and get him to be her boyfriend, but the minute he tells her he's not interested she turns a full three-sixty.

Not that he laughed in her face for a good five minutes after she confessed to him with a box of wrapped homemade chocolates. Whoops?

She flipped through the recipe in an attempt to prove her point, her finger tapping pointedly to a step that called for, "Fold the batter a maximum of twelve times, the batter should be lumpy." She read out, an overly saccharine sweet tone accompanied her sardonic voice as she read out the recipe. She resisted the urge to slap Taeyong. She wasn't salty or anything about him rejecting her a few days ago. It was uh, the muffins. Yep, that's it, the poor muffins.

Joy opened to chastise him even further, but then shut it at the clear distinction he made to show he was bored. . "Just toss that batter away." She muttered out slowly with a quiet tsk, already heading towards the pantry for a new set of ingredients. 

She stared at him for a second as she halted in her steps, wondering if perhaps she had shown too much of her true self to Taeyong. She tried to be nice. 

Not like it had anything to do with the crush she had on him since middle school. Not like she had a chance anyways. She seemed to have had a premonition the past night that suggested Taeyong was anything but straight. Because, hello, why else would a guy reject someone like her? She stared deceitfully at the EXO phone case he held in his hands and his lanky body. No sane straight guy would turn me down, she thought to herself reassuringly.

Taeyong hummed pensively as she stalked away, pulling out his phone for the nth time to check his phone for the time.

What did it matter if it was lumpy or not anyways? That was like... texture discrimination.

His eyes drifted to the batter, the bowl sitting sadly at the counter. He couldn't let the blueberry muffin batter he poured all his love and passion into waste. The thought of wasted muffin batter made his blood boil. Taeyong grunted to himself, clambering out of his chair which he had been so oh-so-comfortable in.

He stared at Joy as she eagerly chatted to Ms. Park.

The brown-haired male pulled out the muffin tin, smiling smugly at the thought of Joy marveling and cooing at how great his muffins were if they ended up baking to perfection. Yeah. Fat chance of that happening. He eagerly poured in the batter in the lined wells, clucking his tongue at the thought of his Home Ec partner, "There are starving chickens in Africa..." He shook his head at her obvious ignorance to current state of the union, "...Who is she to say we should restart?"

He never said he was educated about it either. 

He paused in his actions as he went to place the muffin pan in the hot oven. Wasn't there some kind of thing he could use to protect his smooth, precious hands? He smiled brightly at the paper towel dispenser. Duh, Taeyong.

He pushed the muffin into the oven, a bunched up pile of paper towels shielded his hand from the heat. How smart was he?

He grinned to himself happily skipping away to Jaehyun in pursuit of some fun to quench his boredom. 

“Trouble in paradise, hyung?” Jaehyun asked him with a chuckle, carefully scrubbing the mixing bowl in the dishwasher. Taeyong shot him a perplexed look at the sight of Jaehyun actually washing the dishes and his comment implying that there ever was a paradise, scratching his head he stuck out a tongue at his friend.

He glanced at Jaehyun's measuring cup that held a lumpy batter.

“So, maybe I did make the wrong choice choosing Joy,” Taeyong replied, trailing his finger on the desk, a pout arose from him whenever he didn't get his way. Either way, how could you blame him? He was a teenage boy and when you see a pretty girl eager to be your term partner who you can coax into doing all your work, you go for it. He just didn't expect her to end up confessing to him...

"I told you she had anger issues." Jaehyun patted his friend on the back, an unsympathetic smile on his face, that if anything; resembled a sneer.

Yeri giggled in response from the corner, “What’d you even do wrong--” She paused mid-sentence her eyes diverting to the door, Yeri's eyes slightly widening in surprise. 

"What are you even looking at?" Jaehyun followed her line of vision as. Taeyong followed it curiously. 

"Oh."

“I’m really sorry we’re late!” A thick, accented voice spoke, Taeyong turned his head. His eyes made an up and down, without himself even realizing it. Did he just check out a guy? Perhaps he accidentally inhaled too much cinnamon.

Snap out of it Taeyong, you’re straight.

Not like you drooled at the teaser pics of EXO's new comeback last night...

Two exchange students walked in, Yuta, the Japanese exchange student and Ten, the Thai. Taeyong vaguely recognized them despite not having classes with either of them. He cocked his head to the side as he pondered over how cute the Thai one was.

Ms. Park smiled “Oh, hello!” She greeted them, her hands already welcomingly gesturing them to come in, “You must be the new home ec students?” 

From Ms. Park's side, Joy's mouth quickly turned into a tiny 'o' at the sight of the flabbergasted Taeyong. Score. She started to feel her nose bleed. She read a tad bit too many fanfictions. She turned her eyes to the new students. A devilish smile graced her lips.

The taller of the two bowed, Taeyong noticed him hitting the other one to continue after him, “Nice to meet you, my name is Nakamoto Yuta.” 

The other boy smiled widely, “Hello, I'm Ten!” 

His Home Ec teacher awkwardly beamed, “Uh, Ten?” She grimaced, she wasn’t that great at English but she knew how to count to at least count to ten, “Is that your name?” The petite, Korean lady rechecked the attendance list. Was it a new trend to be named by numbers nowadays?

Ten’s mouth formed into an sheepish expression, “Or Leechaiyakul Chittaphon.” She nodded in understanding, her face still set into a bewildered expression as she wondered why anyone would like to be named by a number, “Miss, one of your ovens is on fire.” He blankly pointed at an oven she rethought the downfall of today's generation. She turned her attention to the oven currently covered in a thick curtain of smoke and flames. 

.
.
.

“You!” Ms. Park screamed hotly at Taeyong, a furious expression replaced her calm expression that had been on her gentle features not too long ago, “What kind of an idiot puts paper towels in the oven?!”

A dusting of soot lay across her nose, as she grasped onto the fire extinguisher while Joy sympathetically patted her teacher’s back. Ms. Park wheezed in exhaustion, an old lady like her really didn't deserve this kind of treatment. What really was happening to this generation? A boy named after a number and a boy who had put paper towels into an oven.

Jaehyun stifled his chuckle behind Taeyong as the new students smiled nervously, a slight hint of puzzlement on their faces. She gave Taeyong a furious glare, already writing a detention slip, and an expulsion point slip, and a principal’s office slip, oh and a parent’s slip. This really was the start of the generation's downfall. She angrily marched over to him, handing him the pile of paper slips.

This had caused a delay in her class and had completely messed up her class schedule. She took out another slip, bitterly scribbling on the paper. “And a class disruption slip.” 

Taeyong groaned in annoyance at his overly-sensitive teacher, “I’m sorry, Ms. Park.” It was just an oven. His eyes widened as she grabbed a ruler, moving into a stance to whack him, did he just say that out loud? "I deeply apologize for my actions, my head was not in the right place at the time," He bowed deeply into a straight, ninety-degree angle.

Ms. Park shook her head at his obvious empty apology, scurrying to her office to dial the engineer, “Could everyone sit at the table?” She called out as she shuffled through her office.

Ten chuckled at the event that happened earlier, "He was the guy who put the paper towels in the oven, right?" As he not-so-subtly pointed his finger to Taeyong.

"Yeah, Lee Taeyong or something," Yuta responded absentmindedly throwing a swift glance at the direction Ten looked at, "I think he rejected my sister like a week ago or something."

Ten shook his thoughts away, diverting his attention to small, raisiny Ms. Park who grumbled while she begrudgingly pushed a wooden cart out of her office. His ears tingled as shivers went down his spine from how squeaky that cart was.

Taeyong shoved his hands in his pockets, shuffling beside Jaehyun at all the teasing jokes and giggles thrown his way. 

("Taeyong, did you know oven mitts existed?!")

“.” Jaehyun liltingly , much to his elder’s chagrin.

Taeyong shot his friend an indignant stare. “How was I supposed to know paper towels are highly flammable?” 

"I'm pretty sure it's common sense, Taeyong." Jaehyun retorted.

Perks of being a rich kid who was spoiled rotten his whole life.

Ms. Park walked out of her office, a wooden cart with squeaky wheels almost half the size of her was being wheeled out of her office. The wooden boy had a paper named, "TBP" taped onto the front and if he wasn't mistaken... He could hear whimpers coming from it. Perhaps he was just going crazy. His jaw dropped as Ms. Park carefully pulled out... a baby?

That's it. This was crazy.

“Due to a delay in our class time because of a certain someone,” She pointedly looked at Taeyong, not in any way trying to hide her infuriation, “I'll have to assign the partners for the baby project in a much more rushed manner than I would have preferred.”

Everyone shot her dumbfounded expressions, clearly taken aback by this foreign project they had never heard of before.

Kim Yeri warily raised her hand, Joy who sat beside her was obviously pressuring her to ask the question, “What’s the baby project?” She conscientiously asked, a nervous look on her face.

Ms. Park nodded, “Yes, I’ll get to that right now.” She handed out pink, baby-patterned brochures out to her students to help support her briefing.

Taeyong quietly read the brochure to himself, noting the pretty clouds and baby bottles that decorated the brochure.

Ten, on the other side of the room, fawned over the pretty brochure, getting distracted by the fluffy clouds more than he should've.

Real Care Baby engages users by:

- Crying to be fed, burped, rocked or changed
- Cooing when its needs have been met

This electronic baby simulator holds users accountable by tracking, measuring and reporting on:

- Mishandling actions, including Shaken Baby Syndrome, head support, and surrounding temperatures

Whether used in class or during extended simulation experiences, this interactive “robot” baby provides unforgettable lessons on:

- Teen pregnancy prevention

- Childcare

- Marital relations

- education

Taeyong looked up from the brochure to look at Ms. Park as she talked, “You will be doing the baby project, in a nutshell, you will be taking care of a Real Care Baby with a partner picked by me.” She continued to hand out marking schemes while she debriefed the class.

“Since we have an odd number of boys to girls, two boys will have to be partnered together.” Taeyong fidgeted noticeably at Ms. Park’s announcement, “I have already picked the two boys who will be partners.” She gave Taeyong a side glance. Look on the bright side, Taeyong. You won't have to be partners with Martha Stewart wannabe. He thought reassuringly to himself.

Taeyong’s eyes bulged out at the marking distribution, “60% of our entire grade?”

“Worry about how much marks she took off of you for burning an oven.” Jaehyun , smiling suggestively at Kim Doyoung across the room.

She announced the partners, groans and occasional whines resonating through the room in the event of an unwanted partner. Jaehyun tsked to himself sadly, as Yeri scooted her chair over to his eagerly.

“Taeyong and Chittaphon.” She announced. Wait, what? 

Ten looked up from the brochure with a surprised face as Yuta nudged him at the mention of his real name.

"Sorry, what?" He whispered to Yuta as Taeyong stared at him oddly, "I got distracted with the pink babies." In honesty, he didn't even get a chance to read the brochure, giving up when he found reading the Hangul too much for his head to handle. The pretty brochure was much more fun to look at, anyways.

"You're partners with paper towel guy for this project," Yuta whispered back.

Ten pretended to nod in understanding as Ms. Park stared at him judgingly, having heard his conversation with Yuta, he presumed. He threw a friendly smile at Taeyong, who had set his stare on the pink lump cradled in his new teacher's arms. 

Ms. Park gingerly stuck out her hands to give him the baby simulator, swaddled in a pink blanket, “Congratulations, Ten, it’s a girl.” She let out a tiny scoff at his peculiar name.

"Wait, what?" He peeked at the brochure once again, scrambling to translate the words as she not-so-patiently held out the baby in front of him.

Oh.

from the author: introductory chapter! I’m sorry it took so long >< I planned to update yesterday but something came up c:

feel free to tell me how you think of this chapter below! (do you like the pacing? lol) 

6/15/16: editted a little--but i should be studying for math finals bYe

8/2/16: revised again! ten isn't a new student to the school anymore! he's just a new student to the CLASS.

special thanks to: skylord54, Kuud3r3Baka, BlackSahara and heydoctor for upvoting! your upvotes and comments are honestly a treasure to me~! <3