It was Minho’s first day of high school in Korea.  He felt incredibly awkward, tugging at his school uniform’s blazer. He wasn’t unaccustomed to dressing up for school (It had been quite normal in his previous school), but he still felt awkward. No one seemed to pay him any mind.

                It wasn’t his idea to transfer halfway through the school year into a high school in another country, but Minho knew better than to argue with his father. He tugged on his tie once more before pulling the school map out of his pocket, trying to locate where he currently was and where he needed to be.

                Unfortunately for him, the simple map was in Korean and he frowned. Being half Korean, his Korean wasn’t awful, but it sure wasn’t near fluent and his parents had never bothered to teach him how to read it until three weeks ago. He squinted at the print, deciding it would be best to try to ask someone instead of trying to read.

                He glanced around for someone to ask, and his eyes settled on a short boy leaning against the metal fence. The tips of his hair were dyed blonde, and Minho was pretty sure this wasn’t allowed (It wasn’t). He stared at the boy some more before walking over to him.

                “E-excuse me?” he asked, unsure of his Korean. He had never spoken it to anyone but his family

                “Neh?” The boy asked, his puppy like eyes opened wide.

                “Where is this building?” He pointed to a smallish building on the map.

                “The science building? I have a class there right now, let’s go together!” The boy offered, flashing a huge smile.

                Minho processed that slowly and the boy cocked his head to the side.

                “Let’s go, Frog.”

                “Y-yah! What did you call me?”

                “Frog. You look like one.”
                “My name is Minho! Choi Minho!”

                “Whatever, Froggy-ya. I’m Kim Jonghyun, by the way. It’s nice to meet you,” Jonghyun spewed, suddenly formal.

                “Okay Puppy-hyung, let’s go”

                Just like that, Minho made a friend.

                Jonghyun and Minho walked together to the building, Jonghyun looking over Minho’s schedule before pointing him in the right classroom. Minho thanked Jonghyun before stepping inside.

                The classroom was relatively noisy before the teacher settled everyone down. Minho stood in front of the class. This was the moment he feared the most.

                “Annyeonghaseyo~ I’m Choi Minho. I’m from England but my father is Korean.” He hoped his sentence had been intelligible. The class welcomed him, and Minho luckily got a seat near the window, and he inspected the class from behind. There were a few girls and boys who paid him no mind, but a boy in the row in front of him looked directly at him. If Jonghyun reminded him of a puppy, this boy reminded him of a cat.

The boy continued looking at him until the teacher called out “Kibum! Pay attention!” and the boy’s head whipped around, back to the front of the room.

“Yes, teacher,” he replied, annoyed.

So his name was Kibum.