“Since we all know University admissions are drawing near we're working double time on our lessons. In a few minutes, your workbooks shall come through that door,” Ms. Jea said, with a flourish of her arm towards our door.

I heard snickering from my seatmate and I turn to see Jay Park doubled over on his seat. I doubt he was this amused by our dear Ms. Kim, so I snuck a peek at whatever it was he was doing. Being seated in the very last row had it's benefits, I was pretty sure Ms. Jea wouldn't notice me any time soon.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

“None of your business,” he hissed, turning his back towards me. I can see why he was so popular with the girls. He was such a gentleman.

Is this what it was like to have a seatmate? You see I've never actually had a seatmate before. If you haven't noticed yet, before the addition of Jay Park, there were 21 students in the class including Lee Sunmi, which leaves me alone in the last row. Had Jay Park and Woo Hyerim not arrived, I would be sitting in between Lee Changmin and Ok Taecyeon who were still in the row in front of me. But seeing as how nothing ever goes according to plan, here I was now...next to Jay, who was such a ray of sunshine.

Math was never my strong subject, and neither did it look like it was my seatmate's too, though it seemed as if Jay didn't actually care enough for it- he didn't appear to actually care about a lot of things. I ignored him for the rest of the class as he fooled around with his cell phone and I attempted to get something, anything, out of this lesson. I've always wondered why Math was considered purest of all subjects. Was it because it dealt with numbers which therefore separated it completely from subjectivity? Was it its purely abstract nature that made it stand above the other fields of sciences? Maybe, maybe not.

Over to Jay's upper left, Taec was busy concentrating on writing down his solutions neatly in his work book, pausing every now and then to push his heavy glasses up his nose. Taec liked Math, and if you were nice enough to him, he'd help you out, which really leads to a lot of our classmates taking advantage of him like that. I could already tell what Jay was planning by the way he was looking at Taec, and from where I sat, it did not look good at all.

I kept one eye on my new seatmate as he continued to not pay attention in class. The other eye I kept on Ms. Jea just in case I got into trouble for my seatmate's inability to focus. We were given a diagnostic test to gauge how much we had retained over the past two years, and the numbers were literally floating from the page and swimming in my vision. It was just a diagnostic test so it shouldn't matter if we do well or not...right? In my head, these equations were supposed to mean something to me, they looked familiar, but nothing was really ringing a bell in my head.

I snuck another furtive glance at Taec; I wonder if he would help me after class again this year? He didn't seem to mind tutoring me last year, so maybe, he could extend the favor this year as well? If I keep him away from Park Jaebeom, would he agree to it? If he did decide not to do it, to what lengths was I willing to convince him to otherwise?

I suppose it has been decided then.

I cornered Taec in his seat as soon as the lunch bell rang. I laid both hands flat on his desk, my arms not really effectively trapping him in his seat, but it was enough to get my point across. Taec looked up at me, and he didn't seem to be surprised at all, almost as if he were expecting me to be there. He grinned at me, and it was a very smug grin. “I help with math for lunch,” he said, flashing me his pearly whites.

I relaxed my arms and let them fall to my sides as I dropped down to the floor, balancing on my toes. I propped my chin on his desk and did my best rendition of aegyo that I could muster. “Taec I can't really prepare you lunch, but I will offer my best protective services from any would-be advantage-takers.”

“Yeah, yeah, you got yourself a deal, you can be my personal bodyguard again this year,” he said giving me a pat on the head.

“Yes!” I said, with a fist pump. “Okay, now time for lunch, are you staying here?”

Taec sent me an incredulous glare as if I didn't know him and his lunch habits for the last two years. He finally stood up and when he did, that was when I noticed the more pronounced height disparity between us.

“Taec, did you grow again this year?” I asked, my voice rising a few pitches up.

He cleared his throat and puffed his chest out a little bit. “Yeah, three centimeters.”

Which tops his height at 185cm. I hate my life, how in the world was I supposed to 'protect' a guy twenty centimeters taller than I was? Well, if we count a few inches from my Doc Martens then that lessens the difference...somewhat. “Congratulations Taec, you are now the second tallest guy in our year,” I said, and with that I gave him a good slap on the back and pushed him out of our classroom and into the cafeteria in the next building downstairs.

Taec pushed the door open and extended his hand motioning me to go in first; I keep forgetting Taec was one of the more decent boys in this school. Not that I still believed in chivalry- okay, fine, I would like it if some guys would at least remember I was a girl.

Taec and I entered the cafeteria, and I was well reminded of that one movie where everyone was neatly categorized into a label and then were seated accordingly around the lunch room. Lunch tables were allocated equally per year level, and while it was not prohibited to intermingle, the lower years would take this seriously and cower in fear in their little corners in the lunch area. Ah, the joys of being a senior.

Taec and I took our usual seat with Minji and Junho; the four of us were the usual outliers in the class. While Junho was technically under the 2PM label, he wasn't exactly always with the other guys. As I've mentioned before, the lines are actually blurred when it came to the guys' groupings. How I wish I could say the same thing about the girls.

Because our entire year only had 64 students in this insanely large campus, it was very much possible for each clique to have a table all to themselves. The Wonder Girls were situated al fresco with a pretty rainbow colored umbrella all to themselves; Hyerim was already at their table, which only meant she was about to be absorbed into the group in a matter of hours. This absorption, would of course include a transformation into a social butterfly. Her boring classic Mary Janes were soon going to be replaced with lovely Mary Jane pumps, complete with knee or thigh high socks with or without the lace ts, entirely dependent on her preference, because after all, individuality is very much valued when you’re a member of the group.

Since uniforms were apparently not under strict compliance, some students could get away with a few modifications so long as the basic guidelines were followed. Seriously, whoever wrote the school handbook did not check for gaping loopholes like that. Most of the girls hiked up their skirts a little higher than the three-inches-above-the knee rule, this was the first rule to be overlooked. Since there was no ruling for socks and shoes, other than that they should be in plain white or gray or navy, and black respectively, most students opted to let their personality shine through their choice of footwear. There was one ruling, however, that most students could not get passed by, and that was the white uniform dress shirt and gray blazer with the school logo and nameplate. It was modifiable to a certain degree, but most students just preferred to wear them improperly. Except the Wonder Girls of course, everything had to be bejeweled and glamtastic for them.

The cafeteria doors opened wide with a loud bang and the students of Class 3A came walking in, in their usual pyramidal formation. If you thought the Wonder Girls had no personality, then you're severely mistaken. Every member of 3A wore their uniform according to protocol, even their shoes were nearly identical. The only distinguishing factor between these clones were their hairstyles, although there was also the fact that there was not a hair out of place on each of their heads.

“The clones are here,” Minji muttered under her breath as she took another spoonful of rice in .

“Well, they are allegedly the model class,” Taec said, leaning back a bit to get a better look at them- or, rather, her.

Im Yoona, the school's ideal girl. She was one of the heiresses, if her last name wasn't clue enough. Seulong had the same last name too, only no one really believed us when we said he was a direct descendant of Im Hyunae. Their argument was that they say all Im descendants were gifted with unrivaled beauty, talent, intelligence and grace. In other words, perfection, which explains dear Mr. Ok's (and a good percentage of the male population's) infatuation with the girl.

And obviously Seulong had none of those traits.

“Stop ogling Taec, you're Mr. Ok, get a grip,” I said, pulling on Taec's tie before he fell over his seat...again.

“Just look at that perfection,” he gushed. Ladies and gentlemen, Ok Taecyeon has left the building.

I took another sweep across the cafeteria out of force of habit, and I spotted a lone figure standing awkwardly, lunch tray in hand, a few steps away from the buffet table.

“You guys don't mind if I invite another person to our table, do you?” I asked, meeting each one's eyes- or at least trying to.

Minji rolled her eyes, Taec just shrugged, and Junho...just continued eating. I took all three responses as a yes and stood from my seat and cleared my throat, “Jay! Over here,” I called out to him, making sure my voice carried over the loud chattering from the other students present inside.

Jay's eyes widened a bit and his brows shot up, I couldn't blame him if he was startled by my invitation, I wouldn't have expected it either. He looked around the room again before finally giving in and walking towards our table. I know I silently promised Taec to keep Jay away from him, but maybe this was a better arrangement. You know what they say, keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

He walked towards us, the hesitation obvious in his steps as he took his time making his way to our table that was situated right at the corner of the room facing both the main entrance and buffet table. He slowly set his tray down and took a seat, looking at each one of us already there.

“Welcome to our table,” I told him as soon as he met my eye.

“Uh..yeah...” he replied, casting another glance at the other occupants of the table.

“Oh don't mind them, they don't mind you so, really, just...be comfortable.”

I knew that last statement did nothing for him, but I had to say something. Jay shrugged and started with his lunch, not really bothering to make conversation. In a way I guess I understood how he must have felt, being demoted like that. He was once the star of his year, he was the Bad B-Boy Jay Park, and now he was suddenly just another outsider in our class. While his reputation still had some bearing in our class (maybe even our year), it didn’t really account for much if he now sat with us for lunch. I doubted him sitting here would boost our, or his, popularity, not that it mattered, well perhaps to Jay it did matter, and him here with us now, only dampened his already not-good day.

“It's only the first day,” I told him, not really having a point in mind. “Who knows, maybe tomorrow you'll get your old Bad Boy rep back.”

1 Jea, from the Brown Eyed Girls