Yuri’s POV 

The teacher yells and lashes a lecture for the boy who stood. He doesn’t seem to be bothered by her forceful voice because he continues to grin irritatingly. "Hongdo! Sit down this very instant! I'll have a word with you outside later!" He gets seated but it seems like he’s keen on making me the ‘wangta’. (victim of bullying for the whole school) He shoots me a glare, a pathetic beady glare that could barely scrape me but through his eyes were like the explosion of a missile. This meant war.

“I’m incredibly apologetic on behalf of the class. Where should you sit now?”  The teacher mumbles to herself while scanning the room. There are multiples rustles of pages as arms spreading to cover as much space as they could to be deemed as ‘casual’. I feel like an outcast, but I knew I wasn’t willing to tolerate being treated like this. The teacher finally spots a spare seat beside a girl with dyed blonde hair.

“Over there. Now go on.” The girl looked discontent with me sitting next to her. I didn’t exactly have any supplies for class yet either, this would be awkward. “Umm,” She turns to me with grievance. “Would you mind if I borrowing some paper and pen?” She leisurely s her pencil-case and hands we an ink pen, proceeding by tearing out the middle pages of her book. By the time I was scribbling down notes I could feel glares burning holes through me. A boy with a devilish expression plastered on his face and dark eyes, chewing gum silently on the same row as me.

“What’s your name?” I ask quietly. “Jessica Jung.” Her eyes flutter and I seem to see why that boy was glaring at me. He looks at her in a state of infatuation, although drool would trickle down his chin. It was disgusting, but that was what I looked like when food was near me. “You know that boy over there is drooling?” I whisper as the teacher explains the equation with her back turned. “I know. He’s been creeping me out too.” She looks at me with a look of disbelief, probably because I was so normal when she expected me to be like a ‘wangta’ or someone in-sociable. For one I was as normal as things could get....besides the whole cross-dressing fiasco. 

The lesson ends and we everyone heads for the cafeteria. Minho waits patiently pretending to preoccupy himself as his friends try to hasten him out to eat. He approaches me afterwards. “Yah, what am I going to eat?” I restrain myself from yelling into his face but he cuts me short of my outburst. “You’re a scholarship student so the school’s going to pay. And you seriously need to do something about those slippers.” He remarks critically.

I walk down the hallway, curious about what it was like around such as posh place. Though every step I took was still hindered by the fact that I wore fluffy slippers. If I heard the sounds of footsteps approaching, I’d swerve to the side and wait until they’d pass. The corridors lined with small rectangular windows to rooms held small amounts of people due to the fact most had gone out to eat. 

One thing was for sure though, it was huge. There was a courtyard centered in the middle of the school where flowers and plants grew, a soccer field of carefully mowed grass and even an extravagant ballroom believe it or not. Maybe it was time return now. I wander around turning to what I believed to be the route I had taken to get here, but it turns out that it’s not. Now I’m starting to panic, my heart beats faster and I start hyperventilating. Lost, lost, argh! I'm lost!

“Yahh! I told you Jim! I’m not going out with you!” A feminine shrill voice echoes the hall. It sounded like this girl was being harassed by a erted freak. For a while I hide uncomforatbly behind a metal locker, peering over it's hinges to spot Jessica being cornered. I step into view confidently because my suspicions have been confirmed. A boy with a creepy grin like about to pounce on the juiciest piece of meat around was approaching a familiar head of blonde hair. The ert was only meters away from Jessica. Without thought, I start hurtling towards her to drape my arms around her as she closes her eyes. As a result my arms end up hooking her head close so my chest. I quickly fix her position, inwardly hoping she hadn’t perhaps felt something she shouldn’t have.

“Jagi-yah! Haven’t you had lunch yet?” She’s speechless and she just stares at me. She wasn’t going to respond so I had to cover. “I told you, you shouldn’t diet, you’re so beautiful already.” I pretend to poke at her cheeks and smile. She continues to look at me and her eyes flutter in confusion. The ert looked disheartened, but still persistent. “Sorry there ....Jim, she’s not available anymore so you might have to back off.” I straighten my shoulders and give off the best protective boyfriend impression I could.

“ I’ve never seen you around, you can’t have known our Jessica from school and be her boyfriend just like that.” He protests. “We’ve known each other since childhood. So shut it, stop hitting on my girl.” Jessica curls her books in closer to herself like a teddy bear, bracing herself from my rapid change in tone.

“ Kacha!” My grip around her small shoulders hopefully wasn't painful for her but firmly gripped so they wouldn’t slide. I start moving in a direction and her feet follow. After a while I realize what I have done. “Thank you... I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t intervened.” She gives me a small nod of appreciation and seems to take in my image. “Oh, and your slippers....” She smiles and chuckles. “They’re very cute.” I was liking this girl already.

“It’s nothing! I don’t like guys that do that to girls anyway.” There was a weirdo who had advanced on Dara- unnie before. It was a scary experience, but Ji-Yong taught me well. I gave him a powerful kick between the legs and a dynamic smack across the face. Wait, I was so inconsiderate. Maybe she felt like I was pushing her. I’m a guy afterall, not a girl.  “Do you feel patronized by me? I mean you don’t have to be my girlfriend just so you can get rid of that guy.”

Her hands spring up and she quickly dismisses that thought. “Not at all! Like I said I’m really grateful. I don’t mind.”  “Well now that you think it through, it can’t just be your boyfriend once then just leave you.” I look at her sheepishly scratching my head. “Sorry abo-” “Would you be my boyfriend?” She’s about 5 centimeter shorter than me and giving me puppy eyes. She laughs at my reaction. “Fake boyfriend” she corrects herself.

“Definitely, consider me your bodyguard.” It turns out maybe things were going so bad. We walk to the cafeteria scattered with students everywhere. A table of girls spring up and yell to garner Jessica’s attention for her to join but she gestures them not today. She finds a small empty space near the perimeter of the large room. She daintily places the tray of food on the table and I sit down across from with my tray piled with rice and some other foods available. We talk which earns some unwanted attention from some boys. I feel incredibly uncomfortable, if it weren’t for Jessica I would’ve went somewhere else.

We talk and she offers me a pair of runners that her brother might have. I took up the offer almost immediately she mentioned them. She disappeared for a while for me to push my food around on my plastic tray. She comes back panting lightly and places a plastic bag containing the runners near my feet. “I’ll make sure to give these back at the end of the day.” I beam and thank her one more time whilst examining the pair of shoes I now sported.

Then Minho comes over and coughs for my attention. “Jae-Yup, you need a locker.” He doesn’t make direct eye contact and stares at my empty tray speckled with rice grains. “I’ll follow you too!” Jessica jumps up and grabs her things to follow. “I think Hongdo is trying to make you a wangta Jae- Yup, I think you should be more careful.” She whispers to me and gestures to the tables on the other side of the room. One of his idiotic minions was making what I believed was a spit ball from his saliva while the others chanted the name of someone I didn’t know. Gross. I thought this school would be sophisticated because it costed so much but I guess not.

“Here’s your locker. All of the books and bags have been supplied. All you need is stationary.” He looks at me and then Jessica. She looked a lot colder when Minho was around. The welcoming smile and pleasant gaze replaced with an aloof exterior to her nonchalant eyes and a rigid line for . He places the key in my hand and walks off. “You know Minho?” She questions me after Minho turns the corner. “Yeah, he’s my room-mate.” She nods in agreement simultaneously triggering bell rings. “See you in class! Oh, we have English next.” She waves to me and runs down the hallway. I watch her scurry away with her loosely buckled shoes clack against her ankles. It was cute how loosely fit some of her uniform was.

I turn to my locker and choose out a fresh exercise book and a textbook with English clearly labelled. I close the metal door and snap the lock into place. I forgot that we were in early as everyone is slowly flooding in from every direction. This unfortunately included both Hongdo and Jim. I can see Jim pointing to me and Hongdo nodding head like a child telling his mother something that a kid did to him. Hongdo balls his chubby fists and starts severing a path towards me. “Oh, ‘Yuri- yah’ why are you so pretty? Just like a girl.” I stiffen as he says my name, but realise that he hadn’t seen through my disguise. He was obviously just provoking me with my accidental introduction. Ignore it Yuri.. Ignore it, for appa and oppa. For school. For Minho.

I try to ignore his incessant poking and nudging. “You’re such a ninny. A goody two-shoe dork.” The feeling of being bullied was foreign. But I wasn’t a ninny, or a good-two shoe dork. Not like he needed to know I wasn’t. I turn around to walk away but he roughly grabs my arm. He was asking for it, he really was. He causes a crease to fold over the blazer, Minho’s blazer, that he’d probably think I’d ruined. Hongdo scoffs and spits a glob or icky saliva on my shoe, Jessica’s shoe. “What’s with the glare? Can’t you do anything else?” I stay quiet hoping I wouldn’t attract any attention. “Speak, or maybe your parents couldn’t teach you even that since you even mucked up your own name. You probably come from a good for nothing family. You’re parents probably taught you nothing.” His gang laughs and nudge each other. His words about my parents ring through my head.

Parents...... Taught...... Nothing. “You son of a b*tch” I seethe. Dropping my books I jab him in the belly causing him to fall over. I swear all I could feel after the collision of my fist against his stomach was jiggling belly-fat. It was repulsive.I clench his tie in my hands, my knuckles painted white and bloodless.

 By this time a crowd has formed around us like froth on the rim of a glass. The onlookers whisper to one another. “Listen here. You mention my parents or my family one more time, and you’re going down to a place you can’t come back.” He wore me out, strung me and cut the last strand that kept my temper from catapulting into a fiery catastrophe. My parents were my achilles heel, there was no exception for them being demeaned. His lips quiver momentarily, caught in trauma of what had just transpired. Though it was my mistake for letting him recover. “You dad’s probably a pile of-” He did it again. My knuckles crack as they collide with his jaw. He releases a sickly drunk groan and I look up to find Jim along with Hongdo’s gang slowly retreat.

The audience seemed to be ensnared with the performance my anger had caused. I stamp my foot forward, narrowly missing Hongdo’s head and everyone moves back a step.

“Anyone who dares try anything with me with end up like this.” I call threateningly. Hongdo’s jaw looked like it would start swelling soon. His face, barely intact as he murmurs his slurred rant. “And you... One more time...Even something small, it’ll be worse.” I walk away hoping nothing else would happen, I didn’t need some kid to try a fast one on me. I can hear footsteps fill in the gap as mixed voices of his minions gush over him. “ Hyung! Are you okay?” And all of the way back to class I keep singing to myself ‘Yuri, you idiot! Idiot! Idiot! You stupid idiot!’

Jessica waves me over the moment I step into class. “Jae- Yup! Over here!” She’s already prepared me some of her pencils to borrow. What an angel. Some girls I recognize as the bystanders whisper to one another as they enter the room. Not in the scornful way they did when I was introduced, somehow more like they were admiring me. Suddenly a girl with a auburn dyed choppy hair comes up to me. “Jae-Yup, I saw your fight...” Jessica looks at me worriedly in confusion. “You were jjang!” She gives me a thumbs up and grins. “Nobody likes Hongdo anyway. And I think it’s cute that you respect your parents enough to start a fight.” A couple of other girls adjacent to our table throw in a few comments and giggles too.

“Um, it’s okay.” I reply warily unsure what would happen next. But through all of this praising I felt although I’d be called out eventually for being such a badass for beating Hongdo up. Well, it was just a punch in the stomach and an uppercut to the jaw, it wasn’t a full on gang fight. He should be grateful I hadn’t continued or he might have been lying in a hospital being attended to in the intensive care section, wheezing his last breath instead of in the infirmary. I could be expelled though.... Argh! You idiot! You got in, you convinced Minho, got your hair cut, then you go and blow everything away by beating up a schoolyard bully.

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Minho’s POV

It seemed like Yuri was getting closer to Jessica, not like I was paying much attention. Jessica and I hadn’t talked much or made any sort of direct contact besides the fact that our parents did business together. There’s a crowd of girls squabbling over Yuri, praising him over something. I try to hear what they're saying until Jonghyun's voice reaches my ears.

Jonghyun's scribbling small words into the blanks on his sheet. He never did his homework, he was lazy, but the denying lazy where he would insisted that there was too many things he needed to do the day before. “Yah, Minho. What is that word for that Australian animal that jumps, with a pouch?” He curls fingers and starts a hopping motion. “A kangaroo.” He snaps with realization and returns to the world on his page.

Mr. Kang walks in and slams him bag on the table. He greets us with the usual stiff salute and starts calling out the names for the roll. “Oh Minho, I heard you got a new room-mate. Is it that Jae- Yup dude?” I had an urge to lie for some unknown reason, but I responded with the truth. “Yes, why?” Jonghyun flings his arms into a mini fit. “He beat up Hongdo, I mean everyone wants too at some stage, but he literally knocked him over with a jab. How heroic is that puny kid?” Jonghyun  smiles with admiration glinting..... Wait, Yuri had gotten into a fight. On the first day? If she didn’t want to be found out about being a girl them she should blend in. Not stand up to the most infamous bully in the school.

“Class! I want you to go off into pairs and work on analyzing a poem.” Mr. Kang says in fluent English. “Um let’s see now, Jessica Jung with Jonghyun Kim.” Poor girl, she didn’t know how poor Jonghyun’s english skills were. “Minho and Yuri.” Oh sh*t, I forgot to get his name changed. The class turns to Yuri and she sheepishly grin and rubs the back of her neck. “Um,excuse me sir. I think you have me mixed up with my twin sister. My dad wrote the wrong name for enrollment. “That’s not my problem, you should do to the office and get that fixed at the end of the day. Now go off in your pairs and start the poem.” 

The moment she pulls the chair out next to me I start interrogating her.“What’s this about a fight?” “Well, Hongdo pissed me off and he said some stuff about my parents which made me hate him more.....So I kind of knocked him down and gave him a bruise on the chin.” She paces her facts to possibly avoid my scorn. I lean in closer. “Was it bad enough for him not to come to class.” She looks hesitant in answer, probably scared that I would kick her out. This kid meant trouble, that needed to be handled with responsible care and surveillance. If this was first day and she caused this much damage to gain that much attention, I could only hope this year would be peaceful

“Class this work is due in 2 weeks time. I think you have a very generous amount of time, so I only want the best quality work.” Mr. Kang yells before the bell sirens dismissal. Yuri is packing up her stuff up when Jonghyun and Jessica race up to her. “Omo, Jae- Yup, you’re so daebak!” Yuri is flushed and smiles like an idiot. I’m unsure if it’s from the attention or because she likes him. How often did she get praised? “Ok, I think we need to go no-” “No! Minho, let me treat Jae-Yup. I’ll take him out for some BBQ. How does that sound?” Jonghyun looks intently, and I kind of despise how he made Yuri’s hope soar through the roof about free food. “I’m coming too!” Jessica pitches in. Yuri looks up at me, searching for my approval. “No.” She sighs and shrugs her shoulders at them like there was no decision in the first place. A feeling arises in me that I hadn’t necessarily labelled yet rises, one that made me feel weird.

“You don’t own him, why not?!” Jonghyun whines and Jessica nods in agreement. What were they? The Yuri duo? Their eternal quest to satisfying the wandering mouth of Yuri? “You don’t own him either, and we have a project.” I push Yuri from behind so we can get out of the room. Oh, how I felt like a mother right now. Within half an hour we seem to have gotten back to our dorm, unscathed and food-less. Yuri changes out into her hoodie and finally released her tense posture into a jelly composure that flops onto the chair. Her bag lay sprawled on the ground, yelling for some attention as the books started pouring out. She looked like she did yesterday, restless and like I had never known she was a female.

It felt peaceful, I knew it wouldn’t take long for things it be tossed up like salad, but this momentary peace with nice. Just a silent room with my Tomboy roomie and I. “Oh, Minho! I forgot to tell you.... is it okay if I have a girlfriend?” My eyes start twitching and my fingers involuntarily contract. “You want a what?!”

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Author’s Notes: 

Omo, I’m sorry everyone. I was so lazy and also had a writer’s block this week. I’ll be honest, there was not much work, but I was caught up in small other things that clogged my mind. I tried putting it up yesterday but then something came up and I started to panic really badly. BUT, we now have another chapter to enjoy. :) I'm going to have to change my schedule. Sorry. This chapter took an incredibly ling time to write, but the holidays are coming which means, possibly, more updates! :D

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