The wide halls were quite noisy, until a loud bell rang, signaling the beginning of classes. On the giant door there were small numbers indicating his classroom – second grade. Kim Ryeowook was only 8 years old, yet he already had transferred schools due to his parents’ job. Nervousness flooded through the younger boy’s mind, since it was the first day on that particular friendly school. To worsen his fears, half of the school year already passed by, it was uncommon for transferences to occur in such time of the year, summarizing, the entire class was already familiar with each other, while the poor boy still had to assimilate the many unknown faces it contained.


He was slightly trembling, when a gentle lady – which he presumed to be his teacher – invited him inside. As expected from the beginning, many groups were seen spread across the class. The attention given was rather unsettling, causing the young boy to stare at the floor, instead of his colleagues. He was supposed to find a seat to place his belongings, but to his dismay, the classroom was lacking desks. After long 5 minutes, his teacher returned with a desk, placing it randomly on an empty spot. That would be his seating place for the rest of the year.


Expressing shyness, Ryeowook headed directly to it without paying much attention to his classmates. ‘Nothing should go wrong’ he thought those encouragement words to coax him into actually making friends in this new school, since he was unable to do so in the previous one. Unfortunately, the first day he spent it alone. Seemingly, no one actually felt the interest to approach him, which made the young boy sad.


Perhaps it was hard befriending so fast?


Attending to his wishes (or not), on the following day, a group consisting of three boys decided to talk with him – or should it be pick on him?


“Girly boy” one of them singsong the insult directed to the small boy, who was simply eating his lunch.


The younger’s eyes automatically narrowed obviously taking those words as an offense. “What?” he tried to calmly ask, only to confirm his ears were working just fine.


“Are you deaf? We said you are just like a girl.” Another boy mocked him more, seemingly very entertained with the reaction shown by the new student.


Without hesitating, little Ryeowook ran after those annoying brats in order to teach them a lesson or two in a very “friendly” way. They do say contact helps to increase people’s closeness, in this particular case would be the boy’s fist in contact with the others’ faces.


Too bad Ryeowook was too slow to reach them.


Somehow, that turned into an everyday thing: the boys would tease the young boy, causing the latter to go after them very, very annoyed. A few days later, they happened to finally exchange words and not insults.


“Yah! I am tired of running after you! Would you stop, pretty please?” little Ryeowook whined while he panted heavily from the tiredness caused from the heavy exercise made. There were seats spread around the courtyard, so he quickly occupied one once he was neared them.


“Already? You’re no fun!” One of the boys whose nickname was fish – for who knows the reason – indignantly complained while demonstrating his adorable pout.


“I am not here to entertain you!” Ryeowook hissed humorlessly, frowning at the other boy who was acting cutely.


“You’re not? B-but monkey told me this is exactly like playing tag, the only difference is that the job of going after everyone is exclusively yours!” the fish boy smiled widely while chatting with Ryeowook during their ‘game’, blinking innocently in order to coax the other to return to the game.


“Fish! Stop chatting so much during our game! You two are almost like two girls gossiping. Anyway, make him play with us again” The monkey reprimanded them as he arrived after a long run, since he thought Ryeowook was still chasing after him.


The fish one simply rolled his eyes in annoyance. “I was trying! Why don’t you take my place then? Also, where is gamekyu?” he defended while staring at his friend with anger.


“No! You have more appeal. About him, I bet he is still running like the idiot he is” The monkey jokingly stated while starting to laugh at his own joke about his friend. Soon, his loud laugh was interrupted as the boy felt a hard slap on the back of his head.


“Says the idiot who was running together with me” the last one arrived, raising his eyebrow at his ‘funny’ friend.


Ryeowook tilted his head slightly, wondering if they should be considered as friends, after they spend many days together. However, it was rather awkward, since they never introduced to each other. The only thing he knew were the nicknames that were just as strange as those boys. Pondering about asking their names, he actually kept wondering in his mind which kind of names suited each one of them. Were the nicknames based on surnames? Perhaps fish was related to Sardine? Oh well, it was easier to ask.


“What are you staring at?” the one named as gamekyu rudely asked once he noticed the other was in an obvious daze.


“Nothing, I was just wondering what weird nicknames you all have. By the way, what is your name?” Little Ryeowook shrugged cutely, not the least intimidated by such intonation used against him.


Gamekyu’s jaw dropped open, in disbelief. They spend so many days together yet they forgot to make a proper introduction? How dumb. “After all these days and you still don’t know our names?” he indignantly questioned, still surprised.


“I guess we forgot” the monkey one pointed out while they exchanged awkward stares between them.


“Well, duh. Isn’t it obvious?” the fish sarcastically told his dumb friend that was proving to have the brain of a monkey.


Gamekyu simply shook his head negatively at his two friends that were nearly starting to bicker, quickly interrupting them. “I am Kyuhyun. The one addressed as fish is Donghae, and the monkey…” Kyuhyun paid a short glance at the monkey flashing a quick grin at him. “You can keep calling him in that way” he finished his sentence with the sole purpose of annoying the monkey.


The monkey quickly protested at the continuous bullying their friends were doing on him. “I have a name, okay? It’s Hyukjae, but my artistic name is Eunhyuk, so please call me that way” Eunhyuk showing a gummy smile, seemingly happy with his way introduction. Ryeowok raised his eyebrow at the ‘artistic name’ thing, but decided to ignore that part.


“Monkey is way better” Donghae naughtily told those words directed at the young Ryeowook, who simply watched the friends bickering, very amused.


“It isn’t” Eunhyuk objected that, feeling very annoyed in the exact moment.


“It is” Donghae insisted, enjoying fully the annoyance expressed on the young features of his friend.


“I said it isn’t!” Eunhyuk hissed at his best friend who obviously was making fun of him.


While both were busy with their bickering, two pair of eyes kept watching it intently. One was amused, while the other was very bored with the common scenario, but both were speechless. There wasn’t much to talk anyway.


“Why is he called monkey?” little Ryeowook finally questioned, since they still didn’t bother to explain the reason behind such nickname. The other two were too busy kicking each other, so Kyuhyun was the only one available to answer him.


“His face is the same of a monkey… the brain as well” the young boy answered while yawning boringly. Those two followed cycles: first discuss then they would fight in the end either of them would be crying.


“That makes sense… I think” Ryeowook tilted his head cutely as he watched those two who were still amidst their heated fight. Wasn’t Kyuhyun going to split them before someone got hurt?  “Why did you call me girly when we first met?” he decided to question now since the other was accepting to answer it.


Kyuhyun that had his eyes watching Donghae lamely pinching Eunhyuk’s arm turned to look at the boy standing beside him, with an evil smirk adorning his young features. “Because you are”


Ryeowook grunted from the answer, but kept quiet. After glaring at the other, he gave a kick on Kyuhyun’s leg as his sweet revenge, causing the latter to wince in pain. “What? You know it is true.” he defensively stated as he massaged the spot. The little boy only rolled his eyes in annoyance after hearing the last remark, wishing he had kicked the other stronger.


Although they were officially considered as friends now, those three brats still kept teasing him about his girly looks. At least Kyuhyun, who happened to be his seatmate since the first day of school, was well behaved during classes. However, as soon as the bell rang signaling its end, he would certainly return to his evil self.


“Won’t you ever leave me alone?” a pouting Ryeowook questioned thinking how bothersome they were. Was friendship supposed to be like this?


“But you like us!” Kyuhyun pointed out with his usual grin, which was annoying on the other’s conception. “If it weren’t for us, you would be completely left alone! You would be endangered because the wolves would want to eat you!” he added trying to give a convincing explanation to his friend.


Ryeowook growled at the wolves part, there weren’t any of it around – or at least, he hasn’t seen it yet. “I think it would be better that way” he mumbled as lowly as he could, trying to ignore his friend’s speech that obviously was having problems to assimilate the difference between reality and games.


Kyuhyun stuck his tongue out childishly as he was able to hear what the other said clearly. “You know, you’re different from what I imagined” the young boy seemed a bit thoughtful while his gaze was fixed on his friend’s face.


“How you expected me to be?” Ryeowook asked out of curiosity, wondering what kind of first impression he caused.


“Since you have that girly appearance…” before Kyuhyun could finish his sentence, the smaller hit his arm quite violently, causing him to wince. “… I thought you would be a cry baby, but you are violent!”  little Kyuhyun finished his statement with a whining tone, while massaging his arm in the particular spot hit.


“Oh. Really?” Ryeowook replied quite uninterested in hearing more of his friend’s blabbering. Instead, he started packing his material, hastily getting up to leave.


The other who was busy complaining, noticed his friend leaving him behind. “Yah! Wait for me!” Kyuhyun screamed very annoyed at his friend.


Unconsciously, Ryeowook chuckled and a small smile adorned his cute features.


He wasn’t alone anymore.
 

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Hope it isn't too lame :) this is dedicated to my dear dongsaeng who helped me to start writing fanfics. He seems to have a high attachment to this fanfic so I thought I needed to end it OTL I STILL NEED TO END THIS FANFIC AND HOPEFULLY NOW I WILL