Hardly a minute later, students began to trickle in, each one staring at Taemin as they took their seats and continuing to look at him after. Face flushing with embarrassment, Taemin looked down at his desk and tried to ignore the looks. 

“Listen up everyone, stop staring at our new student and turn your eyes towards me.” The teacher spoke out. “I know that you’re all interested in what’s happening but I’d like to remind you right now that you are still in class and will be expected to learn. Now Taemin if you wouldn’t mind introducing yourself, hopefully this will dull some of the curious minds.”

Taemin nodded and voice shaking he stood up, chair legs scratching noisily on the tile floor. He begun to speak quietly, his voice hardly up above a whisper, “My name is Lee Taemin and I’m from the United States, I hope that we will soon be friends?” He looked to the teacher for permission to sit down and was given it with a nod. 

“I expect you all to make Taemin feel welcome and pretend that you are all respectful and productive members of society and not the trouble makers you usually are. Now open your books to page 145 and let’s begin.” The was no more time for nonsense and Taemin was grateful that unlike his previous schools where they essential had question and answer periods for each new student.

Trying to ignore the stares, Taemin looked at the teacher and his textbook and after a quick lesson they were told to work silently. Unfortunately though, the girl in the next seat didn’t listen and poking him in the arm said, “Hey.” 

“Hi.” Taemin said, trying to keep his eyes on his work. He swallowed hard and turned the page of his notes. 

“I’m Sulli.” She was persistent. 

“Nice to meet you.” His tone was flat and he hoped that she was going to get the message. 

“You know you really should look at someone when you say that.” Sulli’s voice was light and when Taemin turned his head to look at her feeling sightly ashamed, he could see that she was smiling. 

“Sorry. I just don’t want to upset the teacher on the first day.” Taemin admitted telling a half truth. He didn’t want to admit that he was having a harder time with the word problems than he should. 

“Honestly Mr. Kim doesn’t care if we talk as long as our work gets done.” Sulli scribbled an answer down in her book. “When did you arrive here? In Korea? Your Korean is pretty good.”

“It really isn’t.” Taemin said modestly. “I only arrived yesterday and I’ve been teaching myself Korean so I’m not sure exactly how good I am.”

“Wow cutting it pretty short. Your parents really didn’t give you much time to adjust.”

“I don’t have parents.” Taemin explained, embarrassed. “I’m a ward of the country, but it’s okay.” He tried to backtrack when he saw the horrified look on Sulli’s face. 

“I’m so sorry, I mean, I didn’t mean to say anything that was offensive.” She bit her lip and Taemin thought that she looked more upset than was warranted.

“Don’t worry about it.” He smiled, “it’s not the worst thing that someone has ever said to me.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.” 

The bell signalling the change of classes rang and Taemin was in no hurry to pack his things. He’d waited until the first rush of people left before getting ready to leave. 

“Not very talkative are you?” Sulli said, slowly packing her things. 

Taemin shrugged. “Not really. I don’t usually have much to say.” The class was half empty and Taemin started to pack his things. 

“So I am. Talkative that is.” Sulli grinned and Taemin squinted his eyes at her wondering how she could bounce back and forth emotional so quickly. “Did you want to have lunch with me? Or rather me and my group?”

Taemin looked at her skeptically. Usually kids didn’t take to the new Korean kid this quickly. He hummed to himself and thought that maybe it was different because he was just the new kid here, being Korean wasn’t something that made him different. 

“You want to have lunch with me?” He wanted to try and read her face as she answered. 

Her smile looked genuine when she answered. “Not going to lie, we never get new kids here and I’m totally excited to snatch you up for myself.” 

Taemin wasn’t exactly sure how to feel about that but he also didn’t want to miss out on possibly making a new friend. 

“Well you’re honest.”He said as they walked towards the door. “Okay I’d like to have lunch with you.” 

“Excellent!” Sulli gave him a huge smile. “What class do you have next?” 

“Science.” He pulled out his schedule to confirm and looked at Sulli when she gave a little gasp. 

“Me too! Let me see your schedule!” Without waiting, she plucked the paper from his hands and scanned it. “We have almost every class together.” She exclaimed happily. 

Taemin took his paper back when Sulli handed to him. “That’s great.” They walked out in to the busy hallway and Taemin held his bag closer to him. 

Navigating through the crowd, Sulli chattered away the entire time and Taemin enjoyed it considering he didn’t have to contribute anything and could just listen. By the time they arrived at the class he had learned more information about Sulli in five minutes than he learned about Eric in three months. 

By the time lunch came, the apple he had eaten earlier had long stopped fulfilling his hunger and he was looking forward to the juice box thing and the tangerine in his bag. He happily followed the still chattering Sulli to the cafeteria, priding himself on his ability to follow Sulli’s one-sided conversation and actually pick up on most of the words. 

The cafeteria was loud and crowded. Taemin followed Sulli to the buffet line, amazed by how many foods were there. He happy picked rice and chicken, choosing safe foods that wouldn’t upset his stomach on his first week there. He had forgotten that meals were included for him and he grabbed a bottle of water at the end.

They walked over to an empty table and Sulli set her tray down before telling Taemin that she would be right back. He nodded, soon regretting that he didn’t ask her to stay. 

“Hey, new guy.” A deep voice said from behind him. 

Taemin stiffened and he swallowed his mouthful of rice. The owner of the voice moved around to slam his hands on the table in front of Taemin. The two trays bounced but nothing spilled. 

“I’m talking to you.” Hands on his back pushed him forward and he slammed hard into the table. His open bottle of water spilled all over his tray soaking everything so badly that the rice began to float. 

“Sulli is mine.” The large teen in front of him spoke, leaning down to get in Taemin’s face. Not that the younger could move if he tried with the hands on his back. “Don’t you be getting any ideas about doing anything with her.”

“I hardly know her.” Taemin winced, the pressure on his back getting too intense. He tried to keep in a little whimper but the hands tightened and he couldn’t help the little noise that escaped him.

“Keep it that way.” The pressure suddenly released and Taemin sat up abruptly with the lack of pressure. 

The cafeteria was silent, like everyone had been watching the exchange between Taemin and the scary jock like boy. Taemin whimpered again as he rubbed his sore shoulder. 

“What did Yunho want?” Sulli said, oblivious as to what had just happened. She had returned to the table with another girl with short blue hair. “Oh, this is Amber.” She said, gesturing to the girl as they sat down, Amber placing her own tray next to Sulli’s. 

Taemin didn’t want to admit that he had clearly just been threatened but he couldn’t lie. “He wanted to tell me that you were his girl.”

Sulli groaned and Amber laughed. “He’s at it again.” Amber teased, poking Sulli’s nose. 

“Eurgh.” Sulli said starting to eat her food. “You would think he’d get the hint by now. Just ignore him.” She said to Taemin, noticing that he wasn’t eating. “Do you not like it?”

Taemin looked confused for a moment before remembering his tray. “I knocked over my water when Yunho came over.” It wasn’t a lie exactly. 

“Oh no!” Sulli sad sadly. “Why don’t you get some more? Do you want me to come with you?”

Taemin shook his head. “I can only have one serving per meal.” 

“What?” Amber said looking really confused. “Why? You’re too skinny so don’t say you’re on a diet.”

“I’m here on a scholarship because I’m a ward of the country and so I can only get one meal at each meal. I have a tangerine in my bag though.” He dug out the orange fruit and wiggled it. 

The boxed juice came out as well. 

Sulli shook her head and passed Taemin’s tray to a passing student with a smile, they took it with a confused look and Taemin watched them take it to the tray emptying station. “Share ours.” She pushed her tray and Amber’s to the middle of the table. She must have noticed the negation on Taemin’s face and held up a hand to stop him from talking. “Don’t even argue, if either of us is still hungry we will do get more.”

“Its what friends do.” Amber said, reaching forward and stealing a piece of chicken from Sulli’s tray. “And it looks like you’re one of us now so accept it and eat.” 

Taemin had a feeling that this friendship wasn’t going to lead to winning many arguments, so he accepted without too much of a fight. 

“So what’s your cell number?” Sulli said after a few moments of they filling their faces. 

“I don’t have a cell phone.” Taemin said not really bothered by that fact. He was used to no having things that other people did and in his mind a cell phone was just one more thing to not feel sorry for himself about. 

“What? Who doesn’t have a cell phone?” Amber said, staring in disbelief at Taemin. 

“Can’t afford one, never really needed it or wanted it.” Taemin shrugged. He figured that he should be embarrassed but it was only a cell phone. 

Amber continued to look confused so Taemin diverged his information. “I’m here because the Korean government wouldn’t pay for me to stay in the American foster system any more. It was cheaper for them to put me up here than in the States.” He spoke quickly hoping that his Korean was translating properly. 

“Well .”Amber swore, “We’re going to have to fix that.” 

“I can’t afford it.” Taemin said slowly, maybe he didn’t say that properly. 

Amber grunted at him, waving a hand as though dismissing his silly claims. “We will deal with it later.”

The bell rang again and Taemin marvelled in how fast the lunch hour had passed. He wasn’t looking forward to introducing himself over and over again but it was a necessary evil. He was rebuffed when he tried to take a trays but he followed behind Sulli who proclaimed that they both had history after lunch and that Amber was in that class too. 

Smiling at his first real cafeteria lunch with a friend, Taemin couldn’t even be upset about Yunho’s rather lame attempts at intimidation. He headed happily off to class and couldn’t believe his luck, maybe things were looking up and his search for his family would also be as lucky.