Jinyoung sighed deeply before approaching the school's gate. It was full of students: some of them were happily chatting with their friends about their summer holiday and some others were just looking around, a worried expression on their face.

He made his way into the crowd, looking for his friend Jaebum. He was the only one Jinyoung knew in his new school, unfortunately his other friends went to different ones. Anyway, Jinyoung was glad to have him at least.

While he was searching for him, the gates were suddenly opened and he couldn't help but enter inside since people around him kept pushing as if they were in some kind of free amusement park. They were going to school, where's the rush to go inside?!

The building was huge, there was no doubt, and it seemed even bigger form the inside. When Jinyoung finally found his classroom his eyes immediately searched for Jaebum.

Please let me sit beside him.

His hopes were completely destroyed as he saw his friend sitting with Jackson. Jinyoung wasn't really close with that kid, but he remembered that Jaebum had once mentioned something about having a crush on him.

As Jaebum looked at him with an apologetic smile on his face, Jinyoung threw him a death glare. Damn it how could he betray him today of all days? He knew better than anyone how much Jinyoung hated to sit beside strangers.

At the end Jinyoung took an empty seat on the last bench row, hoping that no one will take the one next to him. His hopes weren't heard this time either. A guy sat beside him and he turned to face Jinyoung.

"Hi, my name's Mark. What's yours?" The boy introduced himself with a smile. He had brown hair that fell slightly into his eyes. Jinyoung ran his fingers through his black locks, as if it could, in some way, move Mark’s hair from his eyes. How could he not feel uncomfortable with that fringe in the eyes?

"Jinyoung." He shortly answered.

"Geen- what?" Much to Jinyoung’s pleasure, Mark ran a hand through his bangs, exposing his eyes.

"Jin-young." He repeated, a little slower than before.

"Gin-iiong? Is that right?"

Jinyoung scoffed, he was already getting annoyed. Was this guy making fun of his name? What kind of name was Mark anyway?

After Jinyoung's sound of disapproval, Mark spoke again. "I'm sorry, but your name doesn't seem American at all... I didn't mean to be rude."

"Well, yeah. Your face doesn't seem American at all, too." Jinyoung kept on with his annoyed mood.

"My face says I'm Asian, but I can assure you that I'm American! I was born here and I know only a few things about my hometown..."

"Ok." Jinyoung didn’t care about Mark’s nationality. Honestly, he didn’t care about anything regarding Mark.

"I'm Taiwanese deep in my soul. What about you? Korean?"

"How did you know?"

"I'm almost more confident with Korea than Taiwan because my best friend has a crush on a Korean guy, so he learnt a lot about Korea and by being 24/7 with him I couldn't help but to learn something, too." Mark said with a chuckle at the end.

Jinyoung nodded slowly, not really understanding why this guy was saying so many things – such as his friend’s uality – to a complete stranger like him.

"So, would you mind repeating your name?"

Jinyoung took a pencil from his pencil case and wrote his name on Mark's desk. What a respectful student, it’s the first day and he’s already damaging school’s desks.

"Jin... Young. Jinyoung." Mark read aloud.

Jinyoung sarcastically clapped his hands at Mark's achievement and the latter hit his chest playfully.

“Are you here in US just for studying? Or do you live here?” Mark asked, resting his elbow on the desk.

“Just studying… My family lives in Korea.” Jinyoung decided to answer Mark’s questions and try not to be rude.

“Oh… You must miss them. Do you have sisters or brothers?”

“Yeah… I have two older sisters.”

“Me too! But I also have a younger brother. Are they in Korea?”

“Yes…”

“That’s sad, you don’t have anyone here… Do you live alone?”

Jinyoung didn’t manage to reply because the teacher arrived and they all got up from their seats to greet her. He was somehow glad because he was getting sick of Mark’s questions.

After that the teacher started explaining what they're going to do this year. She was their English teacher and she looked like a nice person, Jinyoung hoped that she'll understand that his grades won't ever be great since he wasn't a native American.

“So? Do you live alone?” He heard Mark whisper.

Jinyoung looked at him with a frown. “The teacher’s speaking.” He whispered back.

“You’re boring. She isn’t saying anything important anyway.”

Despite Mark’s pout – maybe his attempt to be cute and make Jinyoung talk to him during the lesson – he decided to ignore the boy and listen to the teacher.

Eventually the break time arrived and finally Jinyoung managed to talk to Jaebum.

"Traitor."

Jaebum tried hard not to roll his eyes. "Hi Jinyoung, it's great to see you, too."

"You promised you'll be sitting near me on the first day!" Jinyoung whined like a child.

"I did, but at that time I didn't know wild Jackson y Wang was going to attend our class!" Jaebum tried to defend himself.

"Friends are more important." Jinyoung stated, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"We aren't even that close! It's not like I'm your biggest friend, anyway."

"But you're the only one!"

"I don't know if I should be offended or-" Jaebum was interrupted by someone bumping hard into him. They both fell down.

When that someone got up, Jinyoung widened his eyes as he saw it was Jackson. The boy helped Jaebum up and apologised.

"What were you doing?" Jaebum asked.

"I uh... I tripped on my foot, I'm just clumsy." Jackson giggled awkwardly.

"Not even giving me the credits, hm?" Jinyoung turned his head towards the voice and found out that it was Mark's.

"Credits? What does he mean?" Jaebum asked no one in particular, it could've been Jackson, but Jinyoung as well.

"Oh, nothing!" Mark replied instead. "Hi, Jinyoung!!" He added with a smile.

"Hi..." Jinyoung greeted him back. "He's Mark, my desk-mate? I think." He tried to introduce Mark to Jaebum.

"I see. I'm Jaebum."

"I already k-" Mark never finished his sentence because Jackson abruptly covered his mouth with the palm of his hand.

"Can you excuse us?" Jackson asked out of courtesy before dragging Mark away.

"They're weird." Jinyoung stated after the two left.

"Jackson is not weird! Mark is!" Jaebum immediately defended his crush.

"Whatever." Jinyoung ended their little argument like that since the bell rang and they needed to come back in class.

Not much happened until school finished. Jinyoung gathered his things and put them in his bag.

“See you tomorrow.” Mark said with a smile before leaving, not seeming to expect a reply from him.

Jinyoung took the bus to come back to his flat. While looking out of the window he took a glimpse of Mark walking down a pathway which leaded to a bunch of condos. Probably he lived in an apartment there…

When he entered his apartment he immediately reached for his diary. At first it was just a way to practise English, but it became a habit soon. He could be completely honest about everything because no one was going to judge him. He could let out his insecurities, denials and fears.

"Dear diary,
today was my first day of school and an annoying guy sat near me. He talked to me a lot about random stuff.

He’s cute, though.

 

Honestly, I think he’s really handsome and charming.

Maybe I can be friends with him, since Jaebum is ditching me for Jackson. I hope he’ll get laid soon because he seems frustrated.”