She comes running through the school’s front doors her hair a disheveled mess atop her head, her uniform jacket ruffled and the collar uneven, the tie that peeks out at the top is crooked and her dirty sneakers screech against the finely waxed school tiles. She rushes past every student who is lolly gagging in the halls and heads straight for a shining locker with a handsome guy loitering next to it with a knowing smirk upon his lips.

Shinae swiftly ignores him in her rush and sloppily puts in her locker’s combination and throws it open letting it slam into his face. She jumps slightly hearing a groan, she pulls the door back and stares into her best friends now partially damaged face. 

“Sorry Luhan,” she smiles sheepishly before going back to rummaging through her bag to empty it of all its useless content. Luhan rubs his boyish face and peeks around to shoot a cheeky glare in her direction, eyeing her messy uniform before his lips quirk into a full blown smirk.

“You do realize you look a total mess, right?” His soft voice wilts with mischief. 

“No, Luhan I had no clue.” She gives him an exhaustive look before slamming her locker door shut and dropping her bag to the floor. 

“First off I know I’m almost late on the first day of our last year together-but I have a reason. That stupid Monitor who I swear hates me stopped me for not having my uniform on correctly, he made me stand there while he watched me fix everything wrong with it. That yihead is seriously a pain in my behind-I will not miss him when we leave here!” Shinae blurts it all out in a quick breathless rant and Luhan smiles softly in response and gets to work straightening her uniform out. 

“Isn’t it a bit ironic,” he speaks out straightening her collar, his large doe eyes gleaming against the artificial lights as he gives her an admiring smile and ruffles her already destroyed locks.

“That he spent all that time fixing you up and in a matter of minutes you manage to undo all that work?” He smirks a bit as she slaps his hand away and glares up at him in a manner only she can manage. He laughs a bit before their little moment is interrupted by a very distinct voice coughing to get both their attentions. 

As if on command both of the seniors turn their heads to meet a familiar face, one whose hair is styled to perfection, whose uniform is impeccably pressed and clean, and whose typically airy gaze is hardest on the two of them.

“Yah! What the hell are you doing!? You promised this year that you would at least try to be a good student, and not be late for once.” To anyone who didn’t know the trio this would look as though he was a scolding mother rather than a same aged friend, but his stern gaze didn’t let up even when Shinae sported a slightly unsettling pout.

“It wasn’t my fault this time,” Shinae shouts across the hall before running over to engulf him in a hug. He shoots a look in Luhan’s direction waiting for something to tell him that Shinae for once isn’t lying about it not being her fault.

“This time she isn’t lying Yixing,” Luhan walks up and swiftly takes Shinae’s place giving Yixing a tighter hug before pulling away.

“It was the school monitors' fault, whose name is Yifan-not Yihead as Shinae so lovingly puts it.” Luhan lets the sarcasm drip from his pink lips and Shinae’s face goes slightly red as she shoves him and shoots Yixing a hopeless look.

“When will he stop bullying me?” Shinae asks jokingly, and all Yixing can do is smile because he’s back at school with his two most favorite people in the world. With that quick reunion, Yixing is pushing both Shinae and Luhan through their homeroom door, the same one they’ve been entering and exiting for the past three years together. 

As if she has the pathway memorized by heart, Shinae walks to the back of the classroom and sits down promptly between a seat that is already sporting Yixing’s beautiful and crisply clean backpack and an empty one that will soon hold Luhan. She sighs contently looking around the classroom waiting to spot the one person in the whole world she hates, Luhan plops down next to her and looks at her roaming gaze and shakes his head.

“He’s not here yet, trust me you’d know-the underclassmen outside would be screaming their little heads off because mister handsome has arrived with his posse of other handsomites,” Luhan drones on with sarcastic bitterness. Shinae and Luhan both mutually dislike Byun Baekhyun, and would do anything to avoid being near him-but it was incredibly hard to avoid someone you had homeroom with every year. That meant for all of Shinae’s miserable life she had to start her day and end it with the vilest of creatures, by her standards at least. 

Yixing swiftly takes his seat next to her and rolls his eyes in a way that only he can and stares pointedly at the two like they’ve done something dreadful. But before he can say anything to reprimand them for the thousandth time, the shrill shriek of an underclassmen girl shatters the whispered conversations and all eyes shoot to the closed door. In a matter of minutes, other pre-pubescent voices shout out, muffled only slightly by the walls that encompass their class. Soon the door at the front of the room is jiggling and in walks the infamous jerk, Byun Baekhyun. 

Baekhyun’s eyes meet Shinae’s quickly and before they both shift to glares, he looks away and she does the same huffing angrily. The whole atmosphere of the room changes when the two are together, even if they aren’t sitting near each other or interacting, everything tenses. But their fellow classmates have gotten used to it by now.

Yixing sighs, ”When will you two just get over yourselves and become friends again? It’s been years, this is ridiculous!” 

Shinae easily ignores him shooting him a judging stare when another student catches her attention. He’s tall, slightly tanned his large ears are more of a charm than anything, his large eyes and half smile cause her to inhale sharply, Chanyeol. As if he feels her stare he looks over in her direction and heat flares upon her cheeks. He smiles softly at her before he turns to talk to another equally tall and handsome student, Sehun. 

Shinae feels her insides squeal as she turns to face Yixing and reprimand him for his ludicrous observation but Luhan beats her to it.

“You’re only saying that because you think Junmyeon is hot,” Upon the mention of the J-word Yixing’s stoic face shifts into one of a flustered school boy, and the same pink that moments ago adorned Shinae’s face now peppers his own smooth cheeks. 

And just on time, a familiar face enters the room and Yixing’s cheeks flare up hotter as he clears his throat and tries his best to keep his usual stoic composure.

“I’m not saying that because I may or may not find Junmyeon attractive,” His voice cracks on Junmyeon's name betraying his true feelings and Shinae chuckles under her breathe at his expense. He shoots her a glare and shakes his head,” I’ve just heard its best to leave school your senior year with no hard feelings.” 

Luhan and Shinae exchange a glance smiling secretively, their friend is not the best at hiding his affections. When they turn to focus on the front of the room and a person none of the students have ever seen enters and takes his spot at the front of the class. He is not dressed in a school uniform which can only imply that he is not a student, either that or he is hopelessly confused. 

He is short in stature, round glasses embellish his small face and rest atop his sharp nose. His softly colored hair is spiked to perfection and despite his lack of height he somehow manages to hold an air of authority. His sharp eyes stare out at all the Seniors sitting down, he carries a worn out brief case that he sets down on the pedestal set up in the very front of the room. He clears his throat, turns to the chalk board behind him and grabs a piece of yellow chalk and begins to write out a name on the board.

Kim Minseok.

He slams the chalk down and turns to address every student.

“I am Kim Minseok, I will be taking the place of your previous teacher who suffered a head injury this summer break and will be in recovery indefinitely.” He clears his throat setting his hands on the pedestal top and pops open his briefcase pulling out some papers.

“So, I’ll be taking attendance and at the end of the school day, as usual, you all will come back here and I will give you guys the details of your last massive school project. One that is only reserved for Seniors, so feel lucky-Oh and I’ll also be assigning partners as well.” He promptly spits it out, smiling to himself before he began to call out names for attendance. The names being called were hightlighted by the whispered gossip of all the students who were wondering how exactly their teacher got hurt.

—————————————————————-

Shinae comes rushing into the cafeteria and quickly takes her spot right next to Yixing and across from Luhan. She clenches her fists on the table and looks at Yixing expectantly, he gives her a stern glare before leaning in and spilling.

“Okay, so what I gathered is that it was a rainy day and Mr.Lee was going to get the mail, and from what I heard he has some of those stone steps off his front porch,” both Luhan and Shinae leaned forward with wide eyes and eager ears.”I guess the concrete got slippery from all the water and he walked out and BAM! He was out like a light and rushed to the ER.”

Luhan smacks the table and leaned back taking a bite