His knees were shaking and he felt the warm sweat run down his forehead. He tried to tell himself the sweat was a result of the summer sun, even though that was a terrible lie. His heart was racing in his chest. Why was he so nervous? He wasn't on his way to save the world or anything; he was just going to start a new school. A different kind of school. In Seoul. Just thinking about it made him miss his family already even though he just arrived. “You can do this, Baek!”, he told himself over and over again. He let out a heavy sigh before raising his head. He stared at that big banner hanging over the gate entrance and read “SM Boarding School”. The sign itself scared him. He inspected the school area carefully before starting to dig in his backpack. Before leaving his home in Bucheon the principal had given him the certificate of his scholarship along with other necessary things: a bunch of papers containing instructions and rules of his new home, one map of Seoul and another map of the school and dorms.

The first reaction he had when passing the gate entrance was to widen his eyes and drop his jaw. Everything was huge. The school area was surrounded by a black and long fence. The whole area was big as a city park, with its big lawns and high trees. In the centre of it all he saw a huge brown building. According to the map that was the main building. In Baekhyun’s opinion, the long stairs with the big doors and windows made it look like a castle. A bit further away he saw four other buildings looking very like apartments. That was the dorms, two for the girls and two for the boys.

It was a pleasant surprise to see that the whole yard was empty. Even inside he didn't catch a glimpse of another student. It wasn't that surprising if he really thought about it, looking at the big clock on the main building he could easily guess that everyone was in class. The map in his hand was supposed to help him find the reception. Unfortunately, reading maps wasn't Baekhyun’s greatest talent. With much struggle had had dragged his suitcases and bags up and down one too many stairs and run through what felt like hundreds of corridors in search for the reception. It took him forty minutes and a minor panic attack before he finally found it.

“Excuse me,” he said in a low voice when approaching the reception lady. She was an old chubby lady with big, round glasses. She seemed irritated when looking up from the newspapers in her hands. Baekhyun didn't continue because he was expecting her to say something. When she didn't, but just kept giving him that bored look, he spoke up again: “Uh, I-I was...” It was something with her eyes, Baekhyun thought. Something that gave him the creeps. She was looking at him as if she was judging him from head to toe. “I'm Byun Baekhyun.”

Her judgemental eyes spoke for themselves: “So?”. She didn't move a single muscle in her stone-cold face.

“I'm new here,” Baekhyun tried again.

Finally she spoke up: “You're the one from Bucheon?” She had a hoarse voice, just like Baekhyun had imagined it, like she had been smoking non-stop since the day she was born.

“I-I just wanted... Where should I...?”

She turned the office chair she was sitting on so she could type something on the computer to her right. When she was done she got up from her seat and walked out of sight. She returned with a key which she gave to Baekhyun. “Your room is 208,” she said, “Leave your bags there. When you're done go to your classroom. You're in class 4-C, classroom number 21. Walk up those stairs and follow the corridor. If you don't find it then that's your problem.” Without looking at Baekhyun she grabbed her newspaper again and made herself comfortable on her chair. “Class ends in 45 minutes.”

*

Having to carry his two suitcases and two bags all by himself, Baekhyun moaned in frustration because the dorms were too far away. Halfway there he dropped one of the bags. It fell to the ground, spitting out everything inside it. He moaned again, this time louder. But to his rescue he saw a boy much taller than himself, with short black hair, walk towards him. He hoped from the bottom of his heart the boy would stop and ask if he needed any help, because he knew he would be too shy to ask. And as if God had answered his prayer the boy stopped in front of him.

“Do you need help?” he asked and crouched down before Baekhyun had time to answer.

“Thanks.”

The two of them quickly managed to pick up Baekhyun’s stuff and Baekhyun couldn't help but feel embarrassed when exposing his cheap things; his non-designer clothing, old second-hand cellphone that almost didn't work and papers showing that he entered this school almost for free. Even so, the other didn't seem to care.

“Are you the new guy?” he asked instead.

Baekhyun nodded.

“You're in room 208, right?”

Donghae raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Yes” he said and picked up the last stuff that was left. “How did you know?”

“I'm your new room mate,” he said and smiled, small dimples visible on his cheeks. “The principal said you'll be arriving today”. He extended a friendly hand, “I'm Kim Jongdae.”

Baekhyun smiled back at him. “Byun Baekhyun,” he said and for just a second he didn't feel as nervous anymore.

*

Jongdae sure had a lot of money – it was so obvious it was almost painful. When arriving at their common room, Jongdae’s side of the room forced Baekhyun had to make a conscious decision to not let out an audible and embarrassing "wow". Compared to Baekhyun’s side Jongdae’s side had an expensive laptop, a little television, a new desk, and an armchair. Everything looked so expensive and it was so clean that for a second Baekhyun was too scared to live here. What if he breaks something? He nearly died of shame when comparing his things with Jongdae’s; cheap clothes and papers. Did everyone in this school have these things?

“You want to unpack?” Jongdae asked.

Baekhyun shook his head fast. He laughed nervously. “I-I’ll do that later... Let’s just go to class. I’ll change into the uniform.”

It was easy to engage in a conversation with Jongdae. He was polite and talkative, the two of them talked a lot when heading back to the main building. According to Jongdae he asked for permission to leave the classroom to help the new student, since they would be sharing room. Baekhyun couldn't be more thankful Jongdae was the first person he met in this scary place.

*

When standing in front of the door to classroom 21 Baekhyun’s heart started to beat faster again, like it had when he first sat his foot in this place. His knees started to shake and some sweat drops were visible on his forehead, just like before. Jongdae didn’t fail to notice and placed a cheerful hand on the nervous boy’s shoulder before opening the door. The first person Baekhyun saw was a tall, thin man in glasses. He was probably in his early forties and looked pretty nice, unlike the grumpy receptionist. He looked kind of dorky. The man, his Korean teacher, smiled at him.

“I see you brought the new student safely,” he said and with that the whole class was staring at them. Baekhyun tried to force a smile. “Everyone, this is our new student.”

“The scholarship-guy?” someone said in a low voice, but loud enough for everyone to hear. Everyone giggled. Baekhyun blushed and the teacher glared at the boy who said that before offering Baekhyun gentle smile.

“Introduce yourself,” he said

Baekhyun didn't wish for anything other than for the floor beneath him to swallow him whole and make him disappear from the surface of the earth. Today was his doomsday, he was sure of it. He regretted ever leaving Bucheon