“Since it’s the first only day, I won’t assign any homework. For those of you who wish to be assessed for AP Chinese, meet with me sometime this week, so we can pick a time for you to take your test.” Our teacher announced, switching back to Korean, as the bell marking the end of our class rang. “Class dismissed.”

The sound of chairs scrapping the floor echoed around the classroom as we all stood up, bowing as she left the classroom. “Xie xie laoshi.” (Translation: Thank you teacher.)

Despite her no-funny-business hairstyle and mannerisms, our teacher was actually quite nice and very patient with the kids who struggled in class. Never losing her temper, she spoke slowly and clearly so all the students could easily understand her. I liked her.

“You should take the test for AP.” Jackson stated, shoving his books into his backpack. All he did was doodle.

“Why is that?” I asked, zipping up my pencil case before tossing it into my bag.

“You could use the challenge. I know you are more skilled at Chinese than this. This is very basic. Hen rong yi.” (Translation: Very easy)

I shrugged. “Wei shen me? Ni jue de zhe shi hen rong yi ma?” (Translation: Why? Do you feel this is very easy?)

Jackson frowned, switching back to English. “For you it is. Don’t you think so?”

“Yi dian dian, I guess.” I said, trying to look indifferent. (Translation: A little)

Jackson blinked. “I thought you would want to be in the AP class. That’s the Yoon Young I know.”

I laughed, breaking my mask, before turning around and swinging my backpack over my shoulder, making sure to get the paper version of my schedule out first. “I never said I wouldn’t take the test. I just asked you a question.” Turning back around, I saw his unhinged jaw, stunned into an uncharacteristic silence. “Oh come on. You know me better than that. Of course I’m going to take the AP class. And close your mouth, it wasn’t even that good of a…whatever I just did. That wasn’t really a joke, was it?”

“No it wasn’t and it was a pretty bad one, but you not wanting to excel is like someone telling me the sun isn’t going to rise tomorrow. It’s on that level of absurd. I was about pinch myself to check if I was dreaming.” He griped, following me out of the classroom.

I chuckled, lengthening my strides. I wanted to locate my next classroom as fast as possible. Jackson followed close behind. “What do you have next?” I asked, tossing the question over my shoulder as I struggled to push through the sea of students.

There was a pause. “Math!” Jackson shouted. “Hey!”

“What?”

“You know you are going to ace that AP test right?”

“Thanks, but I wasn’t worried. I’ll be fine,” I laughed, turning around for a second, to smile at him.

But as the laws of irony applies, because I just said I would be fine and wasn’t paying any attention to where I was going, I smacked right into Yoseob. Again. Our foreheads connected with a solid thud and he fell backwards into a few students while Jackson caught me.

"What the hell!" Yoseob yelled, shrugging the hands of fans away as he straightened himself. He paused, cocking his head to the side. "You again? Are you obsessed with me or something?"

I scoffed. “In your dreams idol.”

Yoseob raised an eyebrow. “Oh really? And why is that, freshmeat?”

“You just aren’t my type.” I shrug. Behind us, several girl gasp, their cameras are flashing and Jackson softly squeezes my arm, willing me not to make a scene.

Yoseob smirks before walking towards me and stopping only when he was a few inches from my face. Behind me, Jackson bristles. “Newsflash sweetheart. I’m everybody’s type.”

And he leans in with the intent of kissing me but I quickly shove my schedule against his lips, effectively blocking him. He stares at me in shock. “Not everyone’s.” I say, before pushing past him and through the crowd. I can feel Jackson’s hand on my arm still, squeezing a little harder then strictly necessary. Once we are farther down the hall and away from the crowd, I reach up and squeeze his hand. “Stop it.” I say quietly. Silence follows, so I stop and turn around, still holding his hand. “Stop.” I repeat myself, squeezing his hand again.

“I shoul—” he starts, shaking his head.

“Shoulda. Coulda. Woulda.” I say dismissively. “How did you even know that he was going to do that, huh? I dealt with the problem and now there is no problem.”

“Bu—” Jackson starts again, his forehead creasing.

“Jackson Wang, I’m a strong independent woman who don’t need no man.” I sassed, laughing. He cracked a slight smile and I waited until he looked me in the eyes. “I’m fine. Okay?”

He took a deep breath in and a let it out. “Yeah. I’mstillsorrythatIdidn’tdoanythingthough.” He said in a rush before I could interrupt him.

Chuckling, I tap his head lightly with my schedule, just as the warning bell echoes around the halls. “.” I quickly look at the location of my class. “Jackson. Where is your math classroom?”

“In the south wing. Classroom 2A.”

“Oh sweet. I have math in the classroom right next to you.”

“Well, let’s go! We’re going to be late!” he grabs my hand and starts sprinting towards the south wing. Our laughter and footfalls echoed off the walls.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hurry up!” I nag, tapping his desk impatiently with my fingers, “I’m hungry.”

“Shush! I’m packing up as fast as I can.” Jackson retorts, jamming his books into his backpack with renewed force.

We had just finished with Math and History. Both of which were pretty enjoyable classes. And at the moment, I was nagging him to hurry up so we could go have lunch faster.

“Okay!” Jackson shouted, breaking into my thoughts with a wide swing of his backpack, “let’s go!”

By the time we got to the lunchroom, the line had dwindled down to only a few people, so we didn’t have to wait long to get our lunches. I raised an eyebrow at him when he got 4 extra cookies.

“What?” he asked, defensively. “I’m a growing boy.”

I held the hand that wasn’t holding my tray up in surrender. “I didn’t say anything. But you should think about your diet.”

He opened his mouth about to retort, before sulking and them back. “Where should we sit?” he asked, taking an apple instead.

“We should probably sit with Suga.”

“Oh! I forgot he doesn’t know I’m here!” Jackson’s eyes lit up and he started bouncing with excitement. “What color hair does he have now? When I left it was just blonde right?”

“Yep. And the stylists have picked mint green this time.”

“Did they spin the wheel again?”

“No. They let Hannah pick the color.”
 

“Ouch, no wonder it’s mint green. Does he like it?” Jackson winced.

“Hasn’t complained about it yet.”

“That doesn’t mean much. Could be harboring it.”

I shrugged. “Could be. Found him.” It was pretty easy to spot him, because lucky for us, no one else in SAH (A/N: Seoul Arts High. I got tried of typing it out every time) has green hair.

“SUGA!” Jackson merrily booms as he plonks himself directly across from Suga, who promptly jumps out of his skin.

“What the Wang!” Suga cusses once he gets his breath back. When Jackson just grins at him, he grumbles, “what the hell are you doing back?”

“Got some time off. Didn’t want to miss my little sister’s first day.” And like this Suga nods. Somehow understanding and accepting that explanation.

I scoff. “This is hardly my first day. I’m a 3^rd year now stupid.”

“Well, it’s your first day here at our highschool. It’s also the first time we’ve ever successfully gotten you to do something like this.” Jackson says.

“Like what?” I ask.

“Like listen to us.” Suga says, cutting in with his mouth full of rice.

“I listen!” They both raise their eyebrows at me. “Okay…I listen sometimes.” They nod.

“Hey. Did you coordinate our schedules so that she isn’t alone during classes?” Suga asks.

“Yeah. The only class I couldn’t get us in for is math. But I think she will be fine. The other kids will be too busy trying to figure out trinomials to pick on her. But um, watch out for a girl named Charlotte. She’s one of the possessive types.”

Suga nods. “There’s also a senior who is rumored to hit on girls who are younger than him, so I’d keep an eye out for him too…”

I let their dialogue wash over me as I watched them compare notes on who would pose a threat to me. Certainly not for the first time, I thank every lucky star I know, that I ended up with these two.

“Yoon Young.” Suga waved his hand in front of my face.

I blink. “Yeah?”

“What’s your homework load like? Jackson and I were thinking of going out to eat tonight to celebrate your first day.”

“It’s just the first day, why make a big deal out of it?”

Jackson laughed. “We just want to treat you. So, what’s your homework load like?”

“It’s light, I guess. But—”

“Than we are going out tonight.” Suga stated, leaving no room for arguments. Turning to Jackson, he asked, “if you’re back early, does that mean that you’re moving in early as well?”

Jackson shook his head. “No, I couldn’t get the moving guys to move all my stuff earlier, so I stuck at the dorms until then.”

Suga nods. “Okay then. Looks like it’s just going to be Yoon Young and me for a while then.”

Suga was talking about the shared house that he and Jackson secretly saved up for and brought last year. They had wanted to have a house that the 3 of us could live in together. But at first, I was opposed to the idea, because both Suga and Jackson’s families had helped me a lot during the time that my parents passed, providing food, love, and a room at their home. And Jackson and Suga themselves have always looked out for me. That was more then enough, I didn’t want them spending anymore money on me. But at both families’ insistent pestering, I gave it and moved into the house. Only after getting all of them to agree to no more gifts or surprises like this.

Suga was about to say more when the bell rings, marking the end of lunch. “See you guys at the end of the day.” He says, standing up and heading to the trash can.

Jackson and I get up as well and head to class.