The classroom fell into a deep silence as the clicking sound of their teacher's high heels drew closer. While waiting, some of them took the chance to do a final check on their homeworks while some was simply trying to squeeze in a last minute conversation with their friends. Kyungsoo however, was trying her best to ignore her deskmate since the other seemed pretty adamant to remain clueless about her existence.

"Good morning, children." The middle-aged woman greeted once she made her appearance. She carefully placed her things on the table before focusing her attention on them. "We will be conducting a little bit of a test for today so I will need all of you to partner up with your deskmate and work together or it's an F for the both of you."

Kai noticeably perked up at the announcement. His hand shot up faster than you were able to blink an eye. 

"Yes, Mr. Kai?"

"I would like to change my partner." Kyungsoo immediately felt a pang of hurt in her heart. It seemed that Kai was trying really hard to distance himself from her. 

"I'll change with you." Surprisingly, Minseok offered in a heartbeat. Her eyes looked hopeful as she waved her hand around, hoping that he will agree. 

"No, I'll change with you." Another hand shot up in the air, and the entire class was able to hear Baekhyun's loud huff in response. 

The teacher furrowed her brows. Years of teaching experience under her belt was enough to inform her about the brewing tension in the air. "Alright then, we'll go with this. Mr. Park, come here and be the partner to Miss Kim here. Mr. Kai, I'll let you be with Miss Byun and Mr. Kim, you'll have to be with Miss Do here for today. Is that alright with all of you?"

Kai and Chanyeol nodded without a word. Both of them stood up at the same time and quickly took their things to their newly assigned partners. Meanwhile, Chen didn't look that happy with the arrangement as he reluctantly gave his seat to Chanyeol. Above all, he looked more offended than anything as he glared at Minseok.

"Both of you are so not getting away with this." Chen huffed before scurrying towards his new seat. "What's up?" He casually greeted Kyungsoo, returning back to his usual happy self.

"Hi?" Kyungsoo blinked, taken aback by the other's friendliness. "You talk?" She blurted out before she even managed to stop herself.

Chen gasped while dramatically placing a hand over his heart. "What is that supposed to mean? I would have you know that I'm not part mammal even if my blood might trick you to think so."

"I'm sorry. It's just—Wait, what?" Kyungsoo furrowed her brows when she fully comprehended the other's words. 

"What what?" Chen smiled innocently.

"You were saying something about mammal and blood..?"

"Nahh, you must have heard it wrong." Chen said dismissively. "The most important thing is yes, I can talk perfectly fine and I'm Kim Jongdae or you can call me Chen. Please do call me Chen." 

"Alright then," Kyungsoo bit her lower lip. "— Chen."

His immediate response was definitely a tad bit over the top as he hurriedly clapped his hands with the widest smile Kyungsoo had ever seen coming from someone.

"Good girl." He praised, almost as if he was speaking to a small child. To say that Kyungsoo was offended by the gesture would be an understatement. She was, in fact, extremely offended and also highly annoyed. It was mostly because she was so used to people treating her like children because of her height that it had became almost impossible not to get offended.

"Do you usually go around treating people like a child like that? What, are you like a 90 years-old grandpa or something?" Kyungsoo snapped moodily with an unamused look. She was already in a bad mood because of a certain someone and Jongdae apparently just made it a whole lot more worse than it already is.

However, Jongdae was surprisingly unbothered by Kyungsoo's sudden moodiness. It was either because he was naturally that kind of person or he was just used to it. Instead of reacting badly to her, the lad simply raised his hands as if he was surrendering to the other before grinning.

"You'll have a heart attack if I tell you my age so it's better for you to not know, sweetheart." Jongdae said, still using the same tone. Then, he reached slightly forward so he could pat Kyungsoo's head. Thankfully, Kyungsoo was too busy pondering hard about his words to get offended this time. You could almost hear the gears turning in her head as she repeated Jongdae's words again and again. She wondered why exactly would she be so surprised by the revelation of his age? Since they were in the same class, they were naturally at the same age, right?

"You know what, forget it." Kyungsoo decided at last. She was not in the mood to entertain the other's crazy talk at the moment. "Let's just focus on the test and get it over with."

Jongdae shrugged. "If that's what you want."

~~X~~

Meanwhile, Chanyeol scoffed all of a sudden before shooting a glare in Kris' direction from the corner of his eyes.

"So, we all got scolded because we are supposedly endangering the entire damn population but he can get away with s like that?" Chanyeol mumbled under his breath.

"What?" Surprisingly, Minseok heard him just fine. The other was staring at him expectantly, waiting for an explanation.

"Nothing." Chanyeol cleared his throat awkwardly. "I was just talking to myself."

"Oh." Minseok formed an 'o' with . "Just let me know if you need something then."

"Sure."

They went back to being silence. Chanyeol caught the sinister look from Jongdae and glared back at the annoying male. 

"You know.." Minseok suddenly spoke up after a while. "My friend, Baekhyun, is not a bad person. I've known her since like forever and she's probably one of the nicest girls out there. Sure, she's a tad bit loud and annoying at times, and sassy as well but I can assure you that her heart is always in the right place."

Chanyeol blinked, taken aback by the random outburst. "O.. k? Is there even a point in this conversation because I don't see where is this heading to. Why are you telling me about her all of a sudden?"

"Because you clearly hate her."

"That's not.. true." Chanyeol frowned, looking slightly offended by the baseless accusation.

Minseok raised a brow in response, clearly implying her lack of trust in his words. 

"Why are you running away from her then?" Minseok prodded.

"I did no such thing."

"Oh, really?" It doesn't take that much to notice the dripping sarcasm in Minseok's tone. "Let's see. You are clearly here now instead of being next to Baekhyun and you seem quite relieved by that fact more than anything so if that's not a clear indication that you're trying really hard to avoid her, then I don't know what is."

Chanyeol bit his lower lip. The other was obviously speaking nothing but the truth. His mind instantly went blank as he tried to come up with a plausible excuse for his action. To nobody's surprise, he came up with nothing. 

"I just need some.. fresh air!" Chanyeol snapped his fingers. "Yeah, that's it. Some fresh air as in you know, new face and new spot. Things like that." Chanyeol nodded, more to himself as if he was convincing himself that he just came up with the most brilliant excuse ever. Alas, he didn't.

"That's the most lame excuse that I've heard ever." Minseok deadpanned. "Fresh air my . You guys barely met a few days ago and you are already in need of some fresh air? Is she really that smelly or something? I'm pretty sure she put on her deodorant this morning."  

Chanyeol would've blushed if he can. "It's not that. I'm just trying to make new friends.." He added in a small voice, feeling himself shrinking under the weight of Minseok's stare.

"I'm sorry for saying this on our first meeting, but that's a whole lot of bull's crap to be honest." 

"Bull's crap?" Chanyeol blinked profusely.

"Or bull for some people. Whichever you prefer obviously." Minseok added nonchalantly.

"I don't think I get.. you?"

Minseok furrowed her brows. "You don't know what that means?"

Chanyeol shook his head in a slow motion, wondering if he was revealing himself too much.

"Are you sure you're a teenager? Not some dirty grandpa? Because you're acting like one right now." Minseok was evidently judging the other at the moment as she stared at him from head to toes, trying to decipher if the other was simply playing a mean joke with her.

Chanyeol's eyes widened for a split second before he quickly regained his composure. 

"Of course not." He quickly denied while smiling awkwardly. "Do I look like I'm in my late 50s or something to you? I was just messing around with you."

"Oh, thank goodness or this is going to be weird as ." Minseok shook her head before shifting her attention back to her book. "Well, I guess I was just reading into the situation a tad bit too much then. It's probably just because Baek talked too much or something, isn't it? Because if I have to be honest, the girl never shut up and I would love to shove dirty socks in too sometimes."

Not wanting to prolong the conversation any longer than necessary, Chanyeol eagerly nodded in agreement before focusing on his book as well. He made a mental note to warn the rest of his friends about these new girls. Apparently, Luhan was not exactly the only smart one among her friends. 

~~X~~

"Those guys are such a bunch of freaks."

"Tell me about it." 

"Yeah, tell us about it, Minseok." Baekhyun taunted.

Minseok instantly slapped her arm, not tolerating the other's attitude. "Don't be mad that I took your man. He was the one who volunteered first."

"He's not my man!" Baekhyun huffed loudly while turning away from Minseok, crossing her arms defiantly. 

"Okay then, maybe I should go back and ask him if he wants to be my deskmate from now on." Minseok made a move to turn back in the direction of the school before her arm was abruptly grabbed by Baekhyun.

"Don't you dare." Baekhyun warned while squinting her eyes. 

Minseok smirked. "See? Your man it is."

"Hell no."

"Hell yes."

"Language, girls." Suho interrupted disapprovingly, which only earned her an immediate eye roll from the girls.

"I wonder if she will end up of allowing us to not mind our language only when we're old and wrinkly." Tao whispered at the side towards the nearest person to her, who just so happened to be Luhan.

Luhan snorted loudly. "Yeah, right. I'll bet my pinky finger's nail that she will never stop even when she's dead. She will like rise from her grave screaming at the top of her lungs to tell us to mind our goddamn language."

"Just nail?" Tao furrowed her brows. "Why not your entire hand while you're at it? Coward."

"Sure, but it will be your hand instead." Luhan quipped back. 

Tao gasped dramatically, offended by the other's bad intention. Without thinking, she pulled the other's hair. A tad bit too hard unfortunately, which instantly earned her a smack in the back of her head in response. It was rather accidental on Luhan's part, but Tao didn't know that. The next thing that you know, both of them had their hands deeply rooted in each other's hair. 

"Guys, stop it!" Suho yelled in her attempt to halt their fight, only to no avail. 

"Get Tao." Minseok signalled towards Baekhyun while she was already positioning herself behind Luhan, ready to pull them apart. 

"In 1.. 2.. 3.." Baekhyun counted, hands stretched out to grab Tao. "Now!"

They simultaneously locked their arms around Tao's and Luhan's waist, successfully pulling them apart from each other. However, since Tao was a lot more taller than Baekhyun is and definitely a whole lot more stronger, the shorter inevitably lost her balance. She unconsciously loosened her grip around Tao's waist, causing the other to lose her balance as well. Tao staggered and nearly fell back against Baekhyun, if it wasn't because of someone who suddenly pulled her into their embrace. 

"What the , why is it so damn cold—" Tao halted mid-sentence as she looked up and found herself staring at the thickest brows she had ever seen. 

"Are you alright?" The owner of the thick brows asked her, but quite honestly, Tao wasn't listening. She was too busy staring at his brows, wondering how on earth can someone's brows became that thick. "Umm, hello..?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, totally." Tao finally snapped into reality, mostly because Baekhyun somehow managed to pinch her waist.  "Thanks, Mr. Brows."

"Mr. what?" Said 'Mr. Brows' blinked several times, looking wildly amused. But, he never got his answer as Tao quickly escaped from his embrace to join her friends before they were ushered away by Suho. 

"Oh my God, that was a close call!" Baekhyun gushed once they were out of earshot. (Or so she thought.) "He appeared like just totally out of nowhere!" 

"Where did he come from anyway?" Kyungsoo spoke up for the first time. Her brows were all scrunched up together as she pondered hard on the matter. 

"I know, right?" Minseok asked rhetorically. "I told you they are a bunch of freaks. Right, Tao?"

Tao shrugged. "I don't know about that, but there's definitely nothing normal with his brows. Apparently, it's even weirder up close."

"Enough with that." Suho intervened. "That's not the most important thing here. The most important part here is you guys should learn to not fight in public ever again. You could've easily gotten hurt if it wasn't because of him. I promised to take good care of you guys so help me a little bit here by staying out of trouble."

"Question." Luhan raised her hand as if she was currently in class. "Does that mean we can totally fight with each other at home though?"

"Well, this ain't over yet then." Tao quickly warned while wagging her finger in front of Luhan's face. 

"No, of course that's not what I meant—"

"Oooh, it's so on, panda!" Luhan vowed.

"Bring it on!"

"You know what, never mind."

~~X~~

"Kris? What are you doing here? We've been waiting forever for you."

Kris looked up and blinked. "Oh, sorry, Jongdae. I was just helping someone.. just now."

"How many times do I have to tell you? It's Chen now. Call me Chen for goodness sake!" Chen rolled his eyes, looking mildly annoyed and bordering exasperation.

"Ow! Alright, I get it." Kris winced. "Would you stop that now?"

Chen smirked deviously. "Sure. Would you rather me showing you this instead?"

".. no." 

"Huh. Bet you didn't expect that, don't you?" Chen's smirk only grew more sinister if that's even possible. 

"How long exactly have you been here?"

"Long enough to see you becoming a knight in a shining armor for the panda girl." Chen began wiggling his brows around. "You are lucky Chanyeol or Kai weren't here to witness that or you will never hear the end of it. Be thankful that I'm the one who volunteered to find you when you didn't show up at the parking lot just now."

"I have nothing to hide. She nearly fell and I just so happened to be nearby." Kris puffed out his chest as if to prove his words. "Besides, the rest of the boys are too much of an to come looking for me anyway. Well, save for Yixing I guess but he's too deep in his world most of the time that he will just end up of looking for me like a week later."

"True that." Chen bobbed his head several times in acknowledgement. "Did you just indirectly told me that I'm such a nice person that I'm quite literally an asset to the world though? Why, thank you. I didn't know you hold me in such high esteem, Kris. I will take that into consideration while buying for your Christmas present this year."

Kris rolled his eyes. "I have exactly two things to say here. One, I never said that. Two, I've learned better than to expect even a slightly decent Christmas present from you, Jongdae."

"Chen! It's Chen! Jeez, why does everyone keeps on using that lame name?" Chen threw his hands in the air out of frustration. 

"That lame name is your birth name, idiot." Kris countered back.

"Urghh, I knew it I should've totally changed my name back then like you did."

"I don't think Kim Chen has that nice ring to it like Kim Jongdae does." Kris commented. "Sounds like kimchi."

"Better that than my lame so-called birth name." Chen whined. "Jongdae is so old school, don't you think so?"

"No."

"Urghh, what do you know? You're the epitome of living fossil itself."

"Hey, I take offend on that."

"Do I look like I care?"

Kris facepalmed. "Why did I even bother to save the lot of you back then? The girls are right. You guys are a whole bunch of weirdos."

"Yeah, yeah, too late now, Wu. Now, come and get going. I bet my left that Kai and Sehun are wrestling Chanyeol for the car keys by now."

"Euww?"

"My is y as hell and you know it."

"No, I don't."

"Want me to give you a little snippet?"

"No!"