“Calm down, Minseok-ah, no one here will eat you because you are new.” A young blonde boy with a slightly chubby face mumbled to himself as he stood in front of the gates to his new school. While a couple hundred students passed him, he just stared at the huge building and the unfamiliar characters above the entrance which probably just said the name of the school..

He was very nervous, could only speak a couple words of basic Mandarin because he had a few private lessons before he and his parents moved to China. His father was promoted under the condition that he would be working in China for a couple of years because they were short on staff over there. Minseok had to leave his old school, friends and home to move to a completely different country with a different language and different culture.

Today was his first day. The director of his school said he would be accompanied by a senior student who could also speak Korean. That made things only half as bad for Minseok and hopefully he would get along with that person. He didn’t even know whether it was a girl or boy, just that this person’s nickname is Tao. From Minseok’s research, it could be either a girl or a boy depending on the character.

Minseok took a deep breath and nodded to himself as he stepped through the gate, neatly wearing his new school uniform and a black backpack. He was usually a very cheerful boy but he didn’t know what would expect him here. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any bullies in his class. One reason why he insisted to go to a mixed school instead of an all boys school. He thought boys in mixed schools were most likely not so much the bully type because they want to keep their face in front of girls.

The Korean boy fished a piece of paper from his pocket on which he had scribbled the characters for his schedule with its translations below. On the first day it said he had to go to the third floor and there he could try his luck and find his room. The floors seemed to have quite a large number of rooms, he should have expected it, Qingdao was a big city. Not as big as Shanghai or Beijing but way bigger than the small town he came from in Korea.

After what felt like an hour Minseok eventually found his room, he had talked with hand and feet with a Chinese student who appeared to be a nice senior student and led him there. The door was open already and so he timidly entered. It went quiet immediately as all heads turned to him and in no time he was surrounded by the girls of his new class.

“啊，很可爱！你是新的学生，是吗? (So cute! You are the new student, right?)” One of the girls asked, he only understood a few words and guessed the meaning so he nodded with an embarrassed smile. Some of the girls even patted his hair and touched his cheeks, he didn’t know Chinese girls were so touchy. He just let them do what they wanted, what was he supposed to do now anyway. At least it seemed that they liked him.

He heard some boys laugh and come up to them, gently pushing the girls away and saying something to them in Chinese. The girls seemed to be disappointed but went back to their seats nevertheless. Minseok was kind of relieved, his new class was nice and even though he couldn’t understand much, he could read in their faces that they were trying to make it as enjoyable for him as possible.

After a minute he was pulled aside by student while the others sat down, he looked around confused until he spotted a pretty woman entering the room. She must be their homeroom teacher. She had long black hair which fell in slight curls onto her shoulders, her face had strong features and a slightly tanned and smooth complexion. Hopefully, she would be just as nice as his new classmates.

She smiled as she spotted him and winked him over to her in front of the class. Then she made a confused face, looking around the class and asking the other students something, he didn’t understand. He saw some of them shaking their heads and heard her sigh. She turned to him with a smile again as the door burst open and a tall, skinny yet muscular guy with short black hair stepped in, a smirk on his lips as he looked at the ladies who started to fawn over him immediately.

“Yo, Mrs. Song, nice outfit. Sorry for being late, you know the bus. That should be the boy I’m supposed to help, right? Cute one, like those Korean flower boys on TV.” The tall male spoke to the teacher and looked at Minseok with a grin. Minseok thought he was weird, he hoped this guy wouldn’t be the one to help him.

“Will you ever grow up to a nice gentleman like the students in my class, Tao? At least apologise in an adequate manner next time. If you could help our new student now? He seems a bit lost and shy.” Mrs. Song sighed and shook her head before smiling at Minseok again and waving over at Tao. Tao? Minseok died inside, he didn’t want to stick to such a weird guy and he could swear the tall male spoke in an inappropriate manner to their teacher, let alone this smirk. He would rather be awkward around his new classmates and quietly try to understand and learn the new language instead of having to be with this person all day.

“안녕하세요, 제 이름은 김민석 이에요. 만나서 반가워요. (Hello, my name is Kim Minseok. Nice to meet you.)” He spoke politely anyway, maybe his first impression of this guy was wrong but he would find out about that later.

“Same, just call me Tao. Don't worry, you will adjust in no time. You seem to have a fanclub in your class already and Mrs. Song is so easy-going and chill,” Tao explained with a slight Chinese accent in Korean and laughed softly. Minseok still found him weird, his personality and outer appearance didn't fit together. He was wearing black, worn-out boots, black, tight, skinny jeans, a white muscle shirt and black leather jacket. And was that eyeliner? Didn't only idols wear eyeliner?

“I can see that, she seems very nice. Your Korean is pretty good, where did you learn it?” Minseok asked curiously nevertheless.

“The usual; watching dramas, music, etc. Mrs. Song wants you to introduce yourself now. We have enough time to talk when I show you around the school.” Tao nodded his head towards Mrs. Song and motioned Minseok to step forward and face the class. Minseo bit his lips but as soon as he saw the encouraging faces of his classmates, some of his nervousness faded.

“Helly everyone. My name is Kim Minseok and I am from South Korea. I have a Chinese name by which you can call me too, it’s Xiumin. I am learning Chinese right now and hope you will be patient with me and guide me along a bit.” Minseok introduced himself hurriedly with a bow of his head and listened to Tao translate for him while he directed his gaze to the floor. He blinked when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to meet Mrs. Song’s gentle eyes and assured smile.

Minseok smiled back and after his new classmates clapped for him - the girls even squealed - he went to take a seat in the back with Tao next to him. He took out his small laptop and Tao translated everything for him, it was mostly organisational stuff like information on the books they would need and whatnot. Tao was pretty loud and tried to engage him in jokes and private talks but Minseok rather wanted to listen quietly. Though, he could not explain why he glanced at the Chinese male now and then and found something endearing about him. He observed the same behaviour with his classmates, even the male ones.

Later Tao showed him around the school like he promised and it wasn’t really that bad to have him as his advisor/translator. He was pretty fun at times but also pretty full of himself. Minseok felt like some kind of trophy too because so many girls had been crowding them at every possible second and even though Minseok could not understand them, he knew they were also talking about him.

“You will get used to it in no time,” Tao whispered with his low voice in Korean into Minseok’s ear, his Chinese accent teasing and kind of daring. The girls squealed in jealousy while Minseok blushed at the unwanted attention. That wasn’t necessary, it was making him uncomfortable. As if this wasn’t already awkward enough for the new student, Tao linked their arms together and pulled him out of the crowd towards the school entrance.

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