Minju's POV:

I was not late.

This was thanks to my running like a wild person.

I slammed my bag on my desk as I sat down, tired, sweaty, and irritated.

Sunmi looked at with astonishment. “You look…”

“Don’t –“ I raised a hand. “I’ve had it for today.”

“I was going to say nice… did someone do your hair?”

I pursed my lips at her for clearly making light of my desperate situation.

She laughed. “Okay, okay... Did you run here?"

"I DID," I stared at her with wide, wild eyes.

A smile threatened to crack on her lips, but she visibly suppressed it.

"I am sorry to hear that... Your bike - ?"

"Still broken."

"Ah. Well, this is why I always do things myself; never wait for someone, or you'll wait forever." She winked for good measure, and I dropped my head on my desk. Leave it to Sunmi to resort to cliche expressions as her punch line.

From this angle, my left cheek pressed flat on the cool desk top, I could see as students filed in; some sat at their desks, some near the doorway chatting. Luhan was one of them. Of course he was; to him school was a social event; what was education but an excuse to mingle?

Just then, something - or someone caught my eye.

"Wow... Who is that?"

“Hmm?”

“That guy talking to Luhan. Who is he?"

“Ah, that’s Chen. He’s the new guy. Everyone’s been talking about him. Apparently he’s from Seoul.” (Trust Sunmi to know the details about all the good-looking guys at school).

“Seoul, huh…” I said absentmindedly as I watched him. He was tall and handsome with wavy brown hair; he must have been enjoying a nice joke because his teeth were showing in laughter.

Just by the way he carried himself I could tell he was on a totally different level than Luhan. His excellent posture and controlled gestures made him seem graceful and intellectual as he spoke.

My heart sunk.

"Wow..." I murmured again.

"Out of your league?" said Sunmi with cheeky smile.

"Totally... but it's nice to know such people exist."

In blissful reverie, I wondered what it was like to be friends with someone like that.

--

It turns out he wasn’t even in our class. When the bell rang, he was kicked out by my terrible teacher and everyone got back to their desks.

Well, there goes any chance of becoming close to him...

With a frown, I dropped my head on my desk.

“Had a nice walk?” Someone poked me in the head as they passed me.

I looked back and saw Luhan smirking as he held up two fingers in a peace sign; he threw in a wink to complete the picture. I wanted to vomit. He probably winked so many times this morning he forgot to differentiate me from the other girls.

“Here, Luhan!  I saved you a seat!” That was the voice of Miss Populaire: Hyeri Won. She was gorgeous to say the least, and her dad owned a watch factory so they were super rich. However, when she heard that my dad owned a boarding house (which housed her boyfriend Luhan), she was outraged. We’ve managed to stay on good terms though. By not talking to each other.

“You said you’d visit me,” she whined in her cutesy tone.

“Uh, I’ve been a bit busy…” Luhan laughed weakly.

“Well you better not be busy next week. It’s my birthday and I’m throwing a party. You’re coming right?”

“Huh…? – Oh, yeah of course, sorry, I was just checking a text-“

“From another girl?!”

“No, no! From Chen, my friend.”

My eyes widened. They’re friends? - Already?!

I nudged Sunmi.

“Hm?” she looked over.

“Luhan’s friends with Chen…” I whispered as quietly as I could.

She nodded and then patted me on the back. “You know what to do.”

I nodded with determination, and for the rest of that class I strategized my plan of using Luhan to get to know Chen. If all goes well, we’d be laughing like good friends as we ride in the sunset before long, haha!

I had to actively tame the above sentiment - I didn't want to raise my hopes beyond reason. Acquaintanceship is what I need to work on first.

--

When class was over I stopped Luhan at the door.

“Luhan,” I said.

“Hm?”

I grabbed him by his shirt sleeve and brought him away down the hall, out of people’s way (and so those girls wouldn’t be annoyed by seeing me talking to Luhan so openly).

“What are you doing?” he muttered, rolling his eyes.

I stopped at the corner of the hallway.

“You’re friends with Chen, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Can you introduce me?!” I clasped my hands together in plea. If he had any mercy in him at all -

A smile broke out on his face. And that’s when I knew it wasn’t going to end well; maybe I should just walk away now –

“AW-MO!” he cried, hands on his cheeks in a gesture of mock surprise. “What is this?”

I grimaced and looked down. Dammit. I should have known this was how it was going to be.

“My Dongsaeng… in love?”

He laughed loudly and menacingly. My hand curled into a fist and I closed my eyes.

“Minju, Minju, Minju…” He shook his head at me in pity. “But you’re…” He gestured to me as he looked me up and down in disappointment.

“Forget it,” I growled, and was just about to walk away until I saw Chen coming towards us.

“Ah, Chen!” Luhan declared, putting an arm around him and bringing him to me. “We were just talking about you!”

“Were you?” Chen looked charmingly puzzled.

Gosh, I was right. His voice is magical.

“Minju was just saying how she – “

I quickly threw her hand over Luhan’s mouth, muffling his words. I laughed nervously, cursing Luhan in my head.

“Hi, I’m Minju.” I smiled. “Welcome to Yutan Academy. I hear you've already become acquainted with Luhan. Any friend of his is -" I suddenly felt a wet tongue sweep across the palm of my hand.

“Aw! You – gross!” I let go of Luhan’s mouth only to see that my hand had a streak of saliva across it.

Luhan grinned unashamedly.”Anyway, Chen’s actually – “

Then Chen burst out laughing, full teeth, and eyes sparkling. I think my heart might have squeezed a bit.

“You guys are funny, quarrelling like a – “

Luhan and I looked at Chen with piercing eyes. Don’t say the word…

“…pair of people that quarrel…”

My eyebrows furrowed. I hope he doesn’t write song lyrics…

Luhan scratched his head. “Anyway, yeah, this is Chen. We'v were friends back in Seoul.”

 “Huh?” I said to Luhan. “But aren’t you from the country?”

“I was born in Seoul and lived in the county later. Chen and I went to elementary school together.”

“No way…” I looked at Chen with pity. “I feel so bad for you.”

Luhan rolled his eyes.

"It wasn't all that bad," said Chen with humour in his eyes, making me smile. Gosh, he's so sweet. How is he friends with Luhan? They’re so different…

“Are you done creeping my friend now?” Luhan asked.

“I’m not creeping,” I retorted. I looked back at Chen with a smile. “Anyway, it's nice to meet you.” I bowed my head.

“You as well,” he replied smoothly. SIGH.

Luhan gagged, and I punched him lightly in the shoulder.

“See you around!” I waved.

As far as introductions go, that wasn't too bad, I thought smiling as I walked to my locker.