Walking back to class after lunch with Amber and Sulli, Taemin shuffled along sandwiched between the two girls who chatted away with him like they’d been friends all their lives. It gave him a nice but odd feeling. He wasn’t use to making friends at all, let alone this quickly, it had even taken Eric almost two weeks to become his friend. Not the two hours it had taken Sulli. 

With the exception of his advanced English class, Sulli or Amber, or both, were in every one of his classes. Yunho was older and therefore wasn’t in any of his classes so Taemin made a mental note that he would only have to watch out for him outside of class. 

Realizing that he had been tuning out the girls’ gossip, Taemin jolted back to the moment as he figured out that he should be paying attention to the who was who of the school. 

“So Victoria is the captain of the cheerleading team. She’s actually really nice, but she puts on this tough mean girl exterior.” Sulli was filling Taemin in on all the ongoing school gossip. “She’s best friends with Yuri who thinks she’s dating Minho except that Minho broke up with her at the end of last year. She just won’t accept it because technically there is a marriage pact between Yuri’s family and their family.”

“What?” Taemin questioned. 

“Minho’s older brother graduated already and is off in England attending university.” She rolled her eyes, “He was supposed to be the one engaged to Yuri but he went off and married some rich business man’s daughter in England.” 

“Oh.” Taemin nodded pretending he was understanding everything. 

“Yeah so Minho keeps turning her down and she keeps acting up.” Sulli shrugged. “But oh! Amber tell him about Jonghyun and Kibum!”

Amber rolled her eyes before she began, “It’s your favourite story, why don’t you tell it?”

“Because you tell it better.” Sulli pouted at her friend, receiving another eye roll for her troubles. 

Amber sighed, resigned. “My cousin Jonghyun and his friend Kibum are also technically engaged because of a family marriage pact.” They arrived at Taemin’s English class. “Jonghyun’s dad bretrothed him to his childhood friend’s unborn child when Jonghyun was like a year old or something, thinking that Kibum was going to be a girl. Except he wasn’t and the legal papers had already been drawn up and billions were now at stake if the pact were to be broken. So they figured what the hell.”

“But… what?” Taemin felt very confused, he thought that the feelings towards same- relationships weren’t yet exactly welcome. 

Amber grinned, “It’s totally not the norm but because of legal reasons, they have to wait until Jonghyun and Key are both of legal age to nullify the agreement.” There was something in Amber’s tone that made Taemin pause. 

“Unless they decide to just keep it up?” Taemin asked, he was trying to gage the tone that Amber was using. 

Sulli and Amber exchange a look, words waring between their eyes. The sound of the bell announcing the final moments to get to class rang and the topic was dropped as the girls had to rush to make their own classes on time. 

Squaring his shoulders to enter his class, Taemin walked in and headed to the empty seat closest to the window. When given the chance, he always took the seat that gave him an escape route. Call him paranoid or a product of the school-shooter generation, Taemin liked to be prepared.

Whispers followed him as he walked, not that they really bothered him considering he was always the new kid being talked about. No sooner did he take his seat was someone hissing at him from two seats behind him.

“That’s Kibum’s seat.” The boy said, his hair cut in a stylish wave. Only a couple empty seats remained and the hallway outside the door was no longer filled with fast paced moving bodies.

The quiet whispers in the room silenced as people tried to look at him without being totally noticeable. Not that it worked. Taemin just ignored them as he unpacked his bag, he was excited for a class that he figured was a guaranteed easy grade. It would help boost his average in the other classes he was worried he wouldn’t be as strong at. 

“I can’t wait to see what Kibum does.” A girl giggled from the back corner of the room. 

Footsteps echoed in the hall accompanied by a smooth male voice. “What are you waiting for Kibum to do?” The voice sounded familiar to Taemin, but he couldn’t exactly place it. 

The voice continued with a snarky tone. “I don’t particularly like being kept waiting when I’m being told to do something.” The owner of the voice walked in the room, his blond hair perfectly styled and his uniform just slightly off regulation with his undone tie and purple instead of white dress-shirt. He was looking at his nails, head down as though completely uninterested. 

He was accompanied by a familiar face, who’s own layered blond hair was fluffed and standing nearly straight on point. Jonghyun looked more approached in his uniform than he had the night before in his street clothes in Taemin’s dorm room. 

“New kid is in your spot.” The girl’s voice was gleeful and it made Taemin’s skin crawl. That tone back in the US never led to anything not sinister. 

Kibum’s head rose slowly, solidifying his nonchalance and his eyes were narrow as they settled on Taemin. 

The feeling of dread in Taemin’s stomach lifted as he recognized his flight seat mate and he couldn’t help the smile that lifted the corners of his lips. 

“Hey!” Jonghyun shouted as he recognized Taemin, a ridiculous grin on his face. His mouth opened to say more but he was cut off as Kibum shrieked in joy. 

“Tay!” The older boy hurried across the room and lifted Taemin out of his seat. He pulled him into a bone crushing hug. “Oh my god, you’re here!” He bounced around, dragging Taemin in a happy circle. “You didn’t call me!’ 

“Sorry.” Taemin said, still smiling. “I was going to this weekend after I was more settled.” 

“Well now you don’t have to and I don’t have to go to the trouble of tracking you down.” Key ruffled his hair and tossed his own backpack in the seat beside Taemin. 

“Am I really in your seat?” Taemin asked, “I can move if you want.” 

“No!” Key shushed him, “Its fine. You’re all set up there anyways. Jonghyun come over here and stop blocking the door.” He spoke fast and flapped his hand at Jonghyun. 

Someone in the class let out a little gasp and Key rolled his eyes. “You would think that I’m some kind of horrible all the time the way that people talk.” An embarrassed air filled the room and it made Key smirk. 

“You are a total , but you’re my .” Jonghyun said. The other boy grinned and it made Taemin think of an overexcited puppy dog. “So this is your new son.” He walked over and dropped his own bag on the seat in front of Taemin. “We’ve already met.”

Key’s face twisted in confusion. “How?” He ignored the comment, he’d get Jonghyun back for it later. 

“Hello Jonghyun-hyung.” Taemin said softly. “Its nice to see you again.” 

“Hyung? Why are you already calling him Hyung? What am I missing?” Key said, a grumpy look on his face. 

“This is Minho’s new roommate.” Jonghyun supplied, a funny look flashed in his eyes just for a moment before disappearing. 

The same look came upon Key’s face and he visibly had to work to remove it. “Well that just means I’ll know where to find you.” Key smiled at Taemin as their teacher walked into the room. 

The teacher blinked at the sight of Taemin in Key’s seat and Key allowing it but she didn’t say a thing. If Kibum were going to show acceptance to their new student, hopefully others would follow suit. She didn’t want to deal with any high school drama bull. Calling the class to order, she waited for Kibum to take his new seat and without any further preamble, class began.