“So have you made any friends, Minhwan?” you asked him as you bit into your sandwich.

Minhwan nodded. “Yep! The syllabus here is very different. At my old school, everyone took the same lessons. But here we can choose our own lessons! It’s a shame I chose algebra instead of geography, or else I’d be with you in all the classes!”

You smiled at him. He looked so cute going on and on about his first day at high school.

“Hey, Minhwan!” a tall, skinny boy walked to your table.

“Hi,” Minhwan replied, then looked at you. “This is Seunghyun. He’s my friend from algebra!”

I shook Seunghyun’s hand. “Hi Seunghyun! I’m Seon-“

“Haha, no need to introduce yourself, everyone knows you in this school,” Seunghyun laughed, flashing a wide toothy smile.

“Nah,” you shook your head. “Not anymore!”

Seunghyun insisted and asked Minhwan, “Can I sit with you guys?”

“Sure!” the two of you said in unison.

“So you two were friends since a long time ago?” Seunghyun nearly choked on his rice. “And Minhwan went overseas for five years and now he’s back and you’re friends again?”

“Yeap,” Minhwan said.

“Sugoi!!” Seunghyun gasped. Seunghyun was half Korean and half Japanese, resulting in him being good at both languages. It was actually quite cute how he would use Japanese exclamations while speaking Korean.

“Minhwan!”

It was unsurprising to see Minhwan making so many friends even on his first day. After all, he was a very cheerful person.

He must have talked a lot during algebra! There was Lee Jaejin, whose parents owned a goat farm in Jeju island, Wonbin who had an obsession with beanies, and Hongki who was offered to join a prestigious art school in Paris for his amazing vocals but turned down the offer to further continue his studies. It was almost as if Minhwan was the one who was here all along and I was the one who just migrated from Australia!

“Hey,” Hongki asked. “Where’s Leader?”

“Leader…?” you murmured.

“Yeah! He told us he’d find us at lunch,” Minhwan said.

“Oh here he comes!” Jaejin said and you turned to look at where they were looking.

Your smile disappeared.

“Hi guys,” said Seoul High School’s all-time King ka, Choi Jonghoon, smirking at you.

~

A.N. Ooh who could he be? Suspense suspense suspense /wriggles eyebrows/