It was an early morning in mid August and the boys in the Boys' Home were getting ready for the first day of the new school year. Soon-Chun and the rest of the boys were sitting waiting for Son Su-Dae to send them off to school. Mrs. Son was fifty years old and took care of boys like Soon-Chun who were in situations where they needed a place to stay. Soon-Chun's mother had died when he was only eight and he had been living with Mrs. Son ever since. All the boys there were there because their parents had died or because their parents abandoned them whatever but whatever the case Mrs. Son took care of them as if they were her own. Mrs. Son suffered from and abdominal disease that made it impossible to have children of her own because of this her husband left her and she opened the Boys' Home. She had taken care of many many young men in her life and knew how to deal with even the most difficult ones. All the boys called affectionately called her uhmoney and treated her with respect. She got money from the government to support the boys. She was a strict woman like a Sergeant she stood straight as an arrow and made sure each boy was always in line and out of trouble.

"you boys better get going now" Mrs. Son said as she knit on her rocking chair
"good bye uhmoney" the five boys said in chorus as they walked out.
"Ho-Pyong" she said stopping the oldest of the boys "good luck in finding a good college"
"don't worry uhmoney I will find one soon" Ho-Pyong said as he left


"ok I'll see you in lunch then" Dae-Hyun told Soon-Chun as they went to their new home rooms.
"yeah I'll see you then" he patted Dae-Hyun on the hack and walked off.
Soon-Chun and Dae-Hyun were both in their final year in high school the most important year in their academic life the year that literally kills students. But somehow Soon-Chun was still cool as ice when it came to school he wasn't stressed and wasn't worried about anything he was just happy that he was able to make it this far. Soon-Chun finally found the room and say in an empty seat. Their home room teacher walked in and presented herself very seriously

"I am Ms. Cho I would first like to welcome all of you into my classroom, and secondly I would like to tell you all something you probably already this is the most important year of your young lives" as she said this Soon-Chun looked at the students ineffectively hiding their fear.
"here we will learn who will be successful in the rest of their lives and who will fail, my goal is to have each and every one of you pass the exam but if you don't help me help you then that will result in failure" she said this like a serpent taunting her prey with her awful hiss before striking her prey.
"that being said I'm telling you now that you will be assigned a major science project I will randomly assign you a partner and together both of you will work on something to submit to the university science competition I will assign your partner two days from today"

"this is great first day and we already get a project" Soon-Chun thought

Dae-Hyun was diligently taking notes when it was finally time for lunch. As Daehyun walked down the hallway he met with Soon-Chun
“Hey what’s your class like so far?” Daehyun asked
“well I guess it’s alright, Hey did your class get assigned that science project?” Soon-Chun asked as they walked into the lunchroom
“oh yeah that’s going to we already have an assignment” Dae-Hyun said
“I hope I don’t get a lazy partner”
“Me either” said Dae-Hyun as they lined up to get their food.


Halfway across the cafeteria Joon-Sup sat alone at a table the poor awkward boy had no one to sit with he considered sitting with his hyungs but ultimately decided against it. Across from the table a boy who was new to the school sat across from him the boy was in his class his name was Jae-Yup “Why is he sitting with me?” Joon-Sup thought “maybe I should try saying something...No I think it’ll be best if he starts the conversation first”. The initiation Joon-Sup had hoped for never came instead the boys sat in an awkward silence until the bell to dismiss the children from lunch rang. “why am I so awkward?” he thought then Jae-Yup walked to the cafeteria exit together...sort of.


“Hey Yeun-Ja, do you know who that boy is? I’ve never seen him” Hyoi-Soon asked
“I’ve only seen him in school but I don’t know his name, why do you care anyways?” Yeun-Ja asked “Because my mother has always taught me that I should get to know all my classmates”
“don’t you think you’re annoying people by doing that?”
“not really I’m just being friendly” Hyoi-Soon replied
Yeun-Ja simply sighed as she walked into her classroom
“See you after-school?” Hyoi-Soon asked
Yeun-Ja sat at her desk and gave her friend a thumbs up.

As Hyoi-Soon worked she kept looking up at the mystery boy “how have I not seen him before?” she wondered to herself. It was almost the end of class and the students began to clean up she saw the boy standing near the doorway waiting for the teacher to tell him to leave “this is my chance” Hyoi-Soon thought.

“Hello I don’t think we’ve met before my name is Hyoi-Soon”
“Hi I’m Dae-Hyun”
“nice to meet you”
“uhh...yeah...not to sound rude but why are you talking to me?” Dae-Hyun asserted “I hope I don’t sound too rude” Dae-Hyun thought
"well I thought that since we were gonna be classmates I should make an effort to get to know you"
"oh well you don't really have to"
"but I want to"
"what the heck am I supposed to respond to that?" Dae-Hyun mentally asked
"so do you want to hang out or something?" Hyoi-Soon asked
"uh...sorry I'm really busy and I have to meet up with a friend"
"ok..." she was then cut-off by the teacher dismissing the kids. Dae-Hyun dashed out if the door but not before Hyoi-Soon called him.
"maybe tomorrow?" she asked standing in the door frame
"yeah.. maybe..." Dae-Hyun said as he walked backwards. Suddenly he bumped into someone
"oh sorry" he said. Hyoi-Soon stood at the door and smiling to herself about his clumsiness.

"Argh Dae-Hyun why are you so awkward with people you've been around enough people to know how to act around them, you've also lived with enough people to know that they can't be trusted" he sighed at the thought and leaned against the wall as he waited for Soon-Chun.
Dae-Hyun had lived with so many different families and people that he could not count the number on his fingers. His mother had abandoned him when he was two and he went around to different foster homes sometimes he would have lived in three different homes in a year. When he was eight he finally found a permanent home with Mrs. Son. But because of his previous experience at the other homes he did not trust easy the only people he trusted were Mrs. Son and the five brothers that he lived with.