Blueberry Muffin and New Student

It was 8:15 in the morning when the bell rang indicating that the students had to go to their respective class for homeroom. Some students were rushing to go to their seat since their teacher was already close to their classroom. Other students, who were already seated, were talking to their friends, or preparing their books on top of their desk.

Jonghyun was sitting on his desk, which was beside the windows, while having his earphones on both ears. He was enjoying the scenary outside of the window. The sun lightened up the school yard. Trees filled with green fresh leaves were moving on their left and right due to the wind. It was a beautiful day.

"Hyung, I made it!"

A boy with light brown hair was panting and sweat was dripping from his forehead. Jonghyun took off his earphones and looked up to the person who called him.

"Oh, Daniel, you are here."

"I got this limited edition blueberry muffin from that new café near Taehyun hyung's dance studio!"

Daniel smiled widely, so much his white teeth were exposed, while showing a brown paper bag. Jonghyun who was watching his little brother being happy also made him smile.

"Good for you, Daniel"

"I bought two. One is for you, Hyung."

"Really? Thank you! We should eat it during our break later."

Daniel nodded and put the paper bag inside his school bag. A few seconds later, a man with a black shirt and long blue jeans entered the room with a thick black book in his hand.

"Take your sit quickly, guys. I have an important message today."

Last minute students went to sit down quickly and looked at their teacher. The class representative, Kim Jaehwan, stood up to lead the class to greet their teacher.

"Good morning, Mr. Cho."

The students bowed and Jaehwan sat down.

"Today we have a transfer student. Come in."

The new student was waiting outside the classroom when the teacher gave him the sign to come in. The slidding door was still opened and the new guy entered the classroom. The whole classroom was taken aback because of the new student's appearance. He was tall and had a well built body. Many students found the latter very good looking even though it was an all boys-school. 

"Good morning, my name is Hwang Minhyun. I went to school in Japan before, but I transfered here due to my parents' work. Nice to meet you!"

The students clapped after the introduction. 

"Be nice to him. You can sit behind Jonghyun at the back of the class. Jonghyun, raise your hand."

Jonghyun raised his hand. Minhyun walked toward his assigned seat while staring at the dark brown haired boy who was sitting. Jonghyun noticed the stare which made him stare back. The eye contact did not break until the new student sat in his seat. After that, Jonghyun looked at the front to listen to the lecture Mr. Cho was giving.

Who wants to have math as their first class on a Monday morning? Nope. No one wanted to have this horrible morning. There are students who were taking notes diligently, which were the nerds of the class. There were students who were sleeping while having their textbook standing up to hide their sleeping face. Daniel was one of these student. He had his face buried in his arms that were on top of his desk. Jonghyun was aware of his little brother's sleeping habit in class. He was one of the students who took notes while listening to the boring lecture of Mr. Cho. He was not a nerd, he was just an average student who had average grades. Usually, he was attentive to what his teacher taught, but today he was a little bit disturbed.

'Hwang...Minhyun'

He blushed due to the eye contact he had with the new student earlier. He turned his head slightly left and right a few times in order to erase that incident from his thought. He turned his attention to the teacher who was lazily explaining algebra expansion on the board. 

He did think that the new student was handsome. Very handsome, in fact. He did not believe the fact that he had a long eye-contact without blushing. Jonghyun was a very timid kid. He did not talk a lot to other people. He had a social problem which made him difficult to make friends or even find a lover.

The bell rang which indicated the first fifteen minute break for students. The teacher left the classroom after receiving the bow from the students, which was led by the class representative. Jonghyun put away his notebook and his pencil case. He looked at Daniel's wide shoulder from the back. It was indeed wide. He felt that his baby brother had grew up recently. He smiled on that thought. He stood up and woke Daniel up.

"Wake up, Daniel. You said you would eat that limited edition blueberry muffin."

As the muffin was mentioned, the boy woke up quickly and took the paper bag inside of his school bag.

"Finally!"

When Daniel was about to take a bite, a shadow passed in front of him. At a very fast speed, Daniel's muffin was taken away by a mysterious student. Instead of taking a bite in the blueberry muffin, poor Daniel was eating air.

"This muffin is very, real, hontoni, zhen de delicious."

The mysterious student, who was not that mysterious, had took a bite of the muffin. It was Ong Seongwoo.

"Damn, Daniel! Where did you get this thing?"

"Not thing, but muffin, Seongwoo", said Jonghyun who was sitting in front of Daniel's desk facing the frozen boy. Yes, Daniel was not moving after eating his invisible muffin while smiling. He stayed like for more than twenty seconds.

"Daniel? Are you still alive?"

Seongwoo waved his hand in front of his friend's face. Then, a tear fell from his smiling face.

"HAHAHAHHA! HE'S CRYING! WITH THAT FACE! HE'S CRYING WITH THAT FACE!", Seongwoo was laughing like there was no tomorrow while holding at his stomach. Jonghyun found it also funny, which made him laugh, but less loudly than Seongwoo. 

"Daniel, you can eat mine. I'm not hungry. Here."

Jonghyun handed the muffin to Daniel which made him recover from his frozen posture.

"Yah, Ong Seongwoo, you own me cafeteria's Bibimbap, okay?"

"What? No! I'm short on money this month!"

"You just tainted my limited edition blueberry muffin! You need to at least exchange it with something!"

"Aish... Alright, I'll buy you Bibimbap... But one. You hear me? O-N-E"

Daniel smiled and ate his muffin happily.

"Daniel is a big eater. He can eat 3 portions of Bibimbap", said Jonghyun.

"That was my biggest mistake... treating him."

"You lost against at basketball. It was the deal, so it was not a treat."

"Whatever."

Jonghyun giggled due to his little brother's and Seongwoo's usual bickering. It took time before he had opened up to Seongwoo. Seongwoo was Daniel's friend since kindergarten. Daniel introduced him to Jonghyun a few days after he was adopted. Seongwoo was aware of Jonghyun's disorder, but the latter was persistent enough that he became friends with Jonghyun. It was a little bit tough, but it was worth it.

 

"Are you Japanese? Or you are mixed?"

"Do you want to join basketball team?"

"How come you are so good looking?"

 

The new student's desk was filled with other students. He was surrounded by them and was asked a lot of questions. Minhyun smiled and answered, one by one. Some answers made the group surrounding him laugh.

"I'm fully Korean. I went to school in Japan because my parents lived there for two years. I'm not planning to join any club soon and the answer to the last question is... because of my mom?" 

The group of people laughed because of the silly answer Minhyun gave. Minhyun was social even though his appearance was cold. Do not judge the book by its cover. Indeed.

Jonghyun who was having fun with Daniel and Seongwoo was all ears to the conversations Minhyun had with his classmates. He did not know why he was very conscious to that boy. He was very confused. He did not know the boy, but he felt that he wanted to get know him more.

 

12:00 pm 

"Damn, Daniel! Your lunch is luxurious as always."

It was lunch time. Students were having lunch at the cafeteria or inside of their classroom. Three desks were put together so that Jonghyun, Daniel and Seongwoo were face-to-face to each other. They were having lunch together like any other days. 

"Right? That is how much Jonghyun hyung loves me!"

"Stop making me jealous! Jonghyun hyung, make me some tomorrow, too!"

"Yah! Stop asking my Hyung to make your lunch! Ask your own brother!"

"Jisung hyung? Nah man, he will give me burnt food."

Jonghyun and Daniel laughed because it was true. The first time Seongwoo brought a lunch made by Jisung, it was a disaster. The rice was half-cooked, the vegetables were raw and the meat was, well, not meat. Jisung was Seongwoo's cousin who lived with him since middle school. 

Jonghyun took out his lunch from his backpack. It was a small plastic container. The first layer was rice, there there was few pieces of meat and some marinated vegetables. If it was compared to Daniel's food, Jonghyun's lunch was only one quarter of it. He did not eat a lot ever since he was young. That was why his body was small and he was light like feather.

"Hyung, you should eat more!", Seongwoo said while eating the bread he bought at a convenience store earlier in the morning.

"This is more than enough for me", Jonghyun smiled while eating slowly his lunch with a pair of chopstick.

"Hyung, eat my meat. You need more protein in your body!"

Jonghyun knew that declining Daniel's offer was impossible. Daniel was a persistent boy. When Jonghyun did not eat during lunch, Daniel gave him a long lecture about how humans need to eat in order to grow. He even gave his lunch to his brother even though food is his life.

"Thank you, I will take a few of yours then."

They ate while talking about some funny variety show that broadcasted yesterday night.

"I'm going to buy some green tea. Do you guys want something?", said Jonghyun taking out some change from his wallet.

"I want strawberry milk, Hyung", said Seungwoo and Daniel in unison. Jonghyun nodded and was about to stand up when he bumped into a taller man. The sound of coins falling on the floor was heard. 

"Sorry, are you okay?"

A hand appeared in front of Jonghyun who was on the floor. The fallen boy took the help and looked up to see who his helper and his bumper was.

It was Hwang Minhyun.

"Y-yes... T-t-thank you...", said Jonghyun in a very low voice, but loud enough for Minhyun to hear him. Jonghyun's eyes wanderedaround because he was embarrassed. 

"Are you really okay?", Minhyun asked the latter another time just to make sure. Jonghyun nodded shyly and was looking on the ground.

"Hyung!"

Daniel and Seongwoo rushed to Jonghyun's side to see if he was alright and sustained any injuries.

Minhyun smiled. Jonghyun looked up at the new student and another long eye-contact occurred. Minhyun did not averted his eyes, but looked at the small boy right into his eyes.

"Beautiful."

"Handsome."

Starring at each other's eyes, both of them felt something tugging in their heart.