“Good morning, Jongup-oppa!”

            “Your hair looks pretty today, oppa!”

            “I like your new shoes, oppa!”

            I just woke up and I did not comb my hair this morning.  I got these shoes a month ago, thus, they are no longer new.  Jongup squeezes his way through the swarm of squealing fan girls, silently cursing to himself because he still needs to stop by his locker in the next five minutes before class starts.  When he finally stumbles out of the overexcited mob, Jongup takes a moment to gasp for air at the end of the hallway.  The moment isn’t long though because when he takes a glance behind him, the boy realizes that the girls have pinpointed his location and are currently dashing straight toward him.  Jongup wants to scream for his life, but he doesn’t—his voice would only fuel their obsessed souls.  Therefore, the boy scrambles down hallway after hallway before settling himself in front of his locker.  He silently thanks himself for being a dancer, thus having the stamina to run so fast for so long.

            His period of rejoice only lasts a few seconds though because as Jongup is inserting his locker combination, he hears the faint screams from the girls once more.  They’re getting closer… He panics as he pulls his books out of his locker and slams it shut as fast as he possibly can.  The boy doesn’t realize that one of his close friends had been standing behind the locker door until he closes it.

            “Himchan!  You scared me!” Jongup yelps in surprise and the other boy frowns.

            “A face like mine can scare you?” Himchan asks, raising a curious eyebrow at the other.

            “Of course, have you seen your face when you rock out on the drums?” Jongup smiles, knowing that insulting Himchan was one of the most enjoyable things to do.  “You make it seem as if your eyebrows and your nose and every other part of your face are having a seizure all at the same time.”

            “Excuse me!  You do not talk to me like that!” the black-haired boy exclaims and Jongup sticks his tongue out.

            “You’re excused.  Now if you don’t mind, I only have a minute to get to class and the fan girls are heading this way to find me,” Jongup shivers at the thought.

            “They love your body,” Himchan laughs and follows with an unnecessary flip of his hair that was currently spiked.  “But they love my face more.  Don’t worry, I’ll hold them back for you.”

            “I see Jongup’s backpack down the hallway!” a girl shouts and the sound of footsteps launch forward into their direction.

            Jongup slams the locker next to him in frustration.  “Oh come on, I bought a black backpack so it couldn’t be seen!” The boy sprints in rage to his first period after that and makes it to his seat the moment the bell rings.  Himchan arrives a good fifteen minutes tardy.

            “So who can draw the orbital diagram and write the electron configuration for the element antimony in both regular configuration and noble gas configuration?” the teacher begins the warm-up as she scribbles the element’s symbol at the corner of her white board.

            The class is silent and no one bothers to raise their hands, too tired to participate.  It is only morning after all.  Jongup is too exhausted as well, considering the fact that he had just escaped from a herd of fans.  Luck is unfortunately not on his side though.

            “Jongup!” the teacher calls him up, after pulling his name from the pile of students’ names she had placed into a box.  “Will you do this problem for us?”

           This problem consists of three problems… The dancer sighs as he gets up from his seat and strolls casually to the board, nonetheless mustering more squeals from the girls in the class.  He starts by taking a look at the periodic table from across the room and locating antimony before jotting down its electron configuration.  The teacher nods in approval at his answer and he continues by writing the noble gas configuration down as well, trying his best to ignore the blatant whispers behind him.

            “His arms are so strong.”

            “His back profile is so amazing.”

            I’m holding a marker and they think that I’m strong?  Jongup begins to push down harder on his marker in greater frustration as he illustrates the orbital diagram.  When he’s finished, the boy tosses the marker into the teacher’s cup of writing utensils before heading back to his seat, muttering a soft apology at his unintentional rudeness.  Jongup wasn’t a troublemaker or a bully or any other kind of that sort—it was just that he was sick and tired of being chased and followed, of being popular.  The boy never asked for these fan girls.  All he wanted was to dance freely in the practice room, but after getting noticed by the dance team, he was pressured into having his schedule changed as they convinced him to join their group.  After Jongup debuted during his first assembly of sophomore year, the boy’s school status was completely changed.  But he didn’t want it that way.

            “Very well, Mr. Moon,” the teacher comments as the dancer takes a seat.  “Your configurations are correct, but there is an error in your orbital diagram.  Does anyone know what it is?”

            No one raises their hand.  A somewhat loud bam emerges and everyone casts their gaze to the back of the room, where the sound had been produced.  However, they quickly turn back toward the whiteboard, not amused because it had only been Daehyun—the smartest one in the class, possibly the school, but the one that no one bothered to care much about.

            “Daehyun-sshi,” the teacher states because apparently, Daehyun had caught her attention by accidentally dropping his book on the floor.  The boy slightly bounces at the sound of his name being called.  Daehyun raises a finger to push his glasses up before he looks up.

            “N-Nae, Mrs. Jung.”

            “Can you please identify the error in Jongup-sshi’s orbital diagram of the element antimony?” she asks him, and Daehyun is aware of the fact that he cannot stay silent because Mrs. Jung knows that he obviously knows the answer.  He has the highest grade in the class after all… but that wasn’t important, of course.

            “N-Nae,” Daehyun takes a moment to examine the slightly messy diagram.  He responds nervously to the question after a few seconds, not entirely trusting his own voice.  “Each o-orbital is supposed to hold two electrons and those two electrons must spin in opposite directions, th-thus their arrows must point in opposite directions, but J-Jongup-sshi’s diagram shows the arrows pointing in the same direction.”

            “That is correct,” Mrs. Jung smiles before making eye contact with the two students who have just participated in the warm-up.  “Thank you, Jongup-sshi, Daehyun-sshi.”

            The class doesn’t seem to care about anything that had just occurred though as a few yawns are heard, followed by the soft click of Himchan’s pocket mirror as he closes it.

---

            School is long for Jongup that day, but he is especially glad when he finally arrives at his last period of the day: dance.  When he enters the practice room, the music is already on as the members change into more comfortable clothes.  Jongup doesn’t need to though—he had worn sweatpants, a tank top, and a hoodie to school because the boy preferred to be comfortable over attractive, unlike Himchan who liked it the other way around.  However, it seems as if no matter what Jongup wears, he will always be comfortable and attractive at the same time to the school.

            Jongup starts practicing first and the youngest member in the team, Junhong, joins him not long after.  The rest of the dance team eventually appear in the routine and the members practice a good hour until the music is stopped and they begin to clean up.  Junhong, who only needed to put on his jacket and pick up his backpack, approaches Jongup to say goodbye.  Junhong was like Jongup; he didn’t bother to dress to impress.  The only thing was that Junhong didn’t have the whole school running after him all the time.

            “You were great today, hyung!” Junhong exclaims and gives the other a pat on the shoulder.

            “Thanks, Junhongie, you weren’t bad yourself,” Jongup smiles at the younger male as he wipes his sweat with a towel from his backpack.  Junhong waves goodbye before exiting the room, and Jongup returns the wave before shoving the towel back into his backpack, zipping it up, and putting the bag on his shoulders.  Being the last to leave the room, Jongup turns the lock to secure the area throughout the night before heading to the school hallway.

            Something catches his attention from the opposite side of the hallway though.  Jongup hears a faint voice coming from another room and curiously, he approaches the door the song is coming from.  As he gets closer, the voice becomes louder and the lyrics become more audible.

이유를 몰랐어 왜 내가 변했는지
한참 생각했어 나 만난 이후로~

            Jongup doesn’t stop himself when his hand turns the door knob and pushes the door open.  He’s too curious now about the genius behind the voice to leave.  Jongup has a variety of music on his iPod, and ballads are included too, but he has never heard a voice as passionate as the one serenading him with this graceful acapella cover.  He inserts his head through the gap the door had just created and peeks inside…

… only to find the greatest shock of his day.

            The person singing is the same person who had corrected his electron orbital diagram earlier in the morning.  What was his name again?  Jongup struggles for a long while, nibbling on his bottom lip as he frustrates himself trying to remember the boy’s name.  It finally hits him after a long minute and Jongup exclaims excitedly.

            “Daehyun!”

            The boy’s voice cracks in the middle of the high note he is hitting and a slight strain is heard before he jumps in surprise.  Jongup enters the room and rushes to Daehyun.  “I’m sorry, did I scare you?”  Daehyun shyly smiles and nods his head slightly, still trying to recover from the surprise.  Jongup stops for a moment to absorb the sight.

            “It’s funny, I got scared this morning too by a friend,” Jongup tries to lighten up the awkward and tense atmosphere, but fails because Daehyun has taken a seat and is currently avoiding eye contact as he organizes his music on a stand.

            “So you sang all of that, right?” Jongup persistently questions, trying to get more words from the other.  Daehyun only nods.  “You’re really good.”

            “Th-Thank you, Jongup-sshi,” Daehyun says quietly, almost inaudibly while still refusing to look Jongup in the eye.  This frustrates Jongup for some reason; he determinedly attempts again to get Daehyun to talk while making eye contact with him.  “You’re not bad yourself.”

            “What?  I don’t sing,” Jongup shrugs his shoulders, puzzled at the compliment.

            “O-Oh!” Daehyun bounces a bit on his seat, and Jongup starts to think it’s a habit.  “I meant you’re not bad at dancing.”

            Jongup thanks him after processing the conversation and then he begins to wonder why he is talking to Daehyun, who is supposed to be one of the school’s social delinquents.  The dancer becomes even more puzzled before he realizes that something is different about the “nerd” right now, but he’s not sure what.  But whatever it is, it’s causing Jongup to feel guilty using the word “nerd” to refer to Daehyun.

            “Did you get a haircut or something?  You look different,” Jongup asks after a long period of silence and thinking.  He just can’t put his finger on it.  But then for some reason, Daehyun decides to shift his gaze from his music sheets to Jongup’s face, curious as to why the other is asking so much about him.

            And then realization strikes at Jongup and knocks him down.

            Daehyun is not wearing his glasses.  Duh.  Jongup mentally slaps himself on the face.

            “N-No, I didn’t.”

            “Your eyes are really big,” Jongup blurts out absentmindedly and covers his mouth once he discovers that he had just said something extremely awkward.  He removes his hand to correct himself.  “I mean, without your glasses.”

            Daehyun is then reminded that he does not have his glasses on.  He shrugs, not knowing what to say.  “My mom tells me I received her big eyes.”

            “She sounds conceited, like Himchan,” Jongup smiles and Daehyun doesn’t think twice before returning the smile.

            Jongup regrets attempting to make eye contact with Daehyun at that moment as he is knocked down once more.  Daehyun’s eyes have formed elegant crescents and his lips have curved upward, displaying his perfect teeth.  Jongup is captivated.

            “Himchan-sshi is very conceited; I don’t know how he can handle all the girls going after him,” Daehyun begins to feel more comfortable talking with the other, which messes a bit with Jongup’s mind, because Daehyun was so quiet and antisocial around school.  Why was he talking so much now?

            “You seem very happy today, Daehyun-sshi.”

            Daehyun’s expression is full of surprise all of a sudden as he realizes how much he had just said.  He clasps a hand over his mouth and Jongup raises an eyebrow in curiosity.

            “I guess I’m happier when I practice my vocals?” Daehyun mumbles as he removes his hand.  Jongup nods, accepting the answer.  They chat for a while longer as the dancer completely sets aside that he is talking to a boy that no one really knew.  But the fact didn’t bother him anymore.  Daehyun wasn’t an unlikeable person.  He was just underrated.  It is then that Jongup wonders what it feels like to be on the opposite end of the social pyramid.  Considering the fact that he hated being popular, maybe it was a better experience?
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A/N: I've changed my mind on a couple of things!  One!  This story will be split into three parts, because it's really longer than I expected.  I'm sorry I couldn't get to writing it sooner... my weekdays are packed with school-related stuff, and my weekends consist of doing homework and community service.  I was fortunate enough to find time during this three-day weekend... and well, I felt bad for making everyone wait so long, so I decided to post what I have now!  I won't guarantee updates soon... but I do have a one week Thanksgiving break I'll be spending in Vegas... I'll try to finish it up before I leave! :)  Two!  I decided that the current title of this fic is pretty lame so it's going to be changed to A New Perspective for the next update!  I didn't want to change it now because some readers might not be able to recognize the fic if I do so.  Oh and the lyrics that Daehyun sang here are the first two lines of 4MEN's "Baby Baby."  I really adore his voice in his cover of this song, and so I just had to use it.  I mean, the moment his voice appeared, I was taken away!  Haha!  Thank you so much for being patient and for supporting. ^^