“I heard if he hadn’t been the son of the President of Asia, he wouldn’t have been accepted.”

“Yeah? Well I heard that he has late night rendezvous with a couple of the higher ups who wanted to try the sinful fruits.”

“It’s probably a little bit of both, honestly. I mean, think about it, who would let a Z into a higher education facility? They don’t need any schooling.”

“It would save face for the President.”

“And the higher ups would get their fill…”

Overhearing these types of conversations over the last few weeks and just become a part of his daily life. They were an unwanted thing that just loomed over Jongdae’s head with a passive-aggression that dealt in hatred and malice. The words were wrong, of course. Not about him being a Z- the council had said nearly six years ago now that he was a “Z as clear as day.” No, that bit was true, it was his father buying his slot or him demeaning himself for it that were the lies.

Jongdae had worked his off for this slot. Zs have it the hardest to get into any post-secondary educational facility. Since they are seen as worthless nothings, they were given that slot in life. The one where you’re shoved to the bottom of the food chain and left to slowly perish- whether by starvation, overworking or loss of your will to live. So if a Z wanted to obtain higher education, there were trials they had to face.

First, you had to meet with your secondary schooling councilor, then you must be present to the board of education for any prospective schools, you had to declare what your determined major would be, and then you had to pass an exam for each individual school- and that wasn’t even the worst of it all. If you passed the exam (which anything below 90% for a Z on these tests was a failing mark), you then had to sit through a “Z Camp” where they explained precisely what your position on campus- and in your chosen major- would be. You were handed a list of requirements that had to be upheld throughout the course of your stay on your chosen campus- and even after all of that, you aren’t guaranteed anything. Simply because your rank card had a Z upon the surface.

So, since he had set foot on campus, Jongdae had done the only natural thing and lowered his head. He kept it as low as he dare- a symbol of a submissive, docile, creature but also a note that he had his eyes toward the future. Sure, the words he heard tore him apart. It hearing what people thought about him simply because he was enrolled in a College with a Z status- but he couldn’t give up yet. This was for his own damn sake.

Regardless, his hardest classes happened to be his core courses. Go figure, the “basic” courses needed for every major would be the hardest. Keeping his head low, he entered his Earth Science lecture hall and took a seat toward the back of the hall. Grateful that when he had last checked the class information only one other person had joined. There was enough space for this class to hold 120 students, but for his specific time slot (and for the lab that accompanied it) there wasn’t even half of that number signed up. He’d given the “three week cool down” time before checking again and while he was aware that 2 people had indeed already filed for a class switch, he also noticed that there was a new addition into the class. Which wasn’t too bad- the actual lab portion of the course was only scheduled to begin tomorrow afternoon (or Wednesday; you could have chosen either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning as your lab time for this particular course, Jongdae had chosen Tuesday for convenience’s sake).

In the final five minutes before the professor entered, the rest of the students for the class filed in- mostly Alphas and Betas, the red and blue bands proudly displayed around their wrists; there was a few scattered omegas, their yellow mint green bands looking calming against their thinner wrists. Jongdae lowered his gaze once more and set about pulling his desk up from its slot on the side of the arm rest and placing his books upon the surface. Another quick glance informed him that the new person who transferred in hadn’t arrived, seeing as he recognized all of those who were present from their previous gatherings. For a science class, it was slightly unsettling that they only gathered twice a week outside of the lab sections- but he supposed it was the minimum necessary.

As the clock tower chimed from the center of the campus square, Professor Bang calmly strode into the room, a messy head of jet black hair following him before the jogged up the steps and found a seat- surprisingly behind everyone else, aside from Jongdae. He seemed to have taken the middle ground between the class and the Z. It took quite a bit of willpower for Jongdae not to snort at the obvious Beta aspect the new guy displayed- not that the male’s band was on display to be judged, the other was wearing a somewhat oversized purple hoodie that covered most of his hands, so the blue was completely covered up by the jersey-knit cloth. Jongdae shrugged it off- that wasn’t anything he needed to worry himself over.

“Alright everyone. Settle down.” Professor Bang finally spoke up, the words nearly shouted despite the fact that there was barely a low din of sound as people made themselves as comfortable as they could. “As I’m sure you’re all aware, today marks the first day of all the new transfers. That being said, congratulations! You bastards scared almost all potential classmates away.” It was obvious the professor was simply making a lighthearted comment, trying to bring up the mood before the serious began. “So, lab starts tomorrow and there is a lot of information our sole transferee needs to be caught up on. Based on last week’s assessment tests, there’s only three of you dimwits that could possibly be of any use- and one of you is in the wrong lab.”

A murmur rose underneath the professor’s words- it was a mixture of worry over how poorly people could’ve done on their assessments and curiosity over who the three who were acceptable to the professor’s standards. Jongdae simply kept his head down, he didn’t particularly care. This wasn’t something he needed to worry himself over, he just needed to pass this course for his final humanities credit and his first science lab credit. His eyes traveling over his desk, he began to fiddle with the light orange cover of his notebook before letting his gaze flick to his wrist. The thought of how orange came to symbolize everything he was slowly floating to the forefront of his focus as he forced himself to pull his gaze away from the disgusting gray shade that made his Z band.

“… Kim Jongdae.”

Well, . That was probably not a good sign. Eyes wide, Jongdae slowly lifted his gaze from his desk to the professor at the front of the lecture hall. He could feel a sudden burst of nervousness taking over his heartrate and his fingers unconsciously curled into his palms. Taking a deep breath, he forced his voice to sound clearly across the hall, “Yes?”

“After much serious discussion it has been decided that you will catch Zhang Yixing up to speed. It’s only three weeks’ worth of notes, can you handle it?” Professor Bang inquired, leaving Jongdae a little winded.

It was an inquiry that gave him the choice to opt out, but it was an inquiry from an Alpha professor, which meant saying anything outside of a confirmation would place a target on his ing forehead. “Yes, Professor Bang, I can handle it.”

“Great. Zhang, meet up with Kim after class. Until then, do your best to follow along for today.” Just like that the professor dropped the topic and moved forward with his lecture- but just because he moved on, didn’t meant the class had.

Despite his distance from the rest of the class, he could still hear a soft murmur of confusion as to, “Who in their right mind would pick a Z to help someone like Zhang Yixing?”

Sinking lower in his seat, Jongdae filtered out the noise of the class and listened intently to the professor, his black ink pen gliding smoothly across the paper as he took notes as precisely as he could manage- all things considered. His focus be damned though, because he could still hear the murmurings about “the Z” and “the President’s bastard son.” As the minutes slowly ticked by, his notes- while still precise- became messier, and his every muscle became more and more tensed. Jongdae didn’t understand why everyone felt a need to talk about this now, wouldn’t it be better to discuss it after class had ended? (Although in retrospect, that’s probably why so few of them had passed the first assessment test.) An hour and a half later, the professor turned around and stretched his arms out.

“Alright! That is it for today. Everyone with lab tomorrow, make sure to brush up on the last two chapters we’ve covered! You’ll want to remember as much as possible!” The professor finished with his voice raised over the growing sounds of books being slammed into bags and desks being dropped back into their resting positions.

Jongdae was used to taking his grand old time when it comes to leaving his classes- so this time it was no different. He made sure to keep himself so indifferent and focused on his task, that it took himself by surprise when Zhang Yixing was suddenly standing in the direct path of the only way out of the aisle in which he had been situated. Freezing with his shoulder strap halfway to being placed on his right shoulder, Jongdae glanced around quickly. Sure, Yixing looked harmless enough; and there wasn’t an obvious overbearing presence radiating from the other male- but that didn’t mean he was comfortable talking alone with someone of a higher status in a classroom with no one else around. Not that his classmates had loaned him that privilege as literally everyone else that had been in the room joyously filed out before Jongdae had a chance to react.

Forcing his attention back to Yixing, Jongdae exhaled softly before speaking at last, “I don’t know what all you need covered, nor do I know your schedule. So when do you want to get together?”

“Now? In an hour? What works best for you?”

“Yea-“ Jongdae started his autopilot response only t