His day started out as normal as it ever did: he woke up early, dug through his closet for some sweats and a T shirt, and headed out for a long day of work. However, the place he was headed to was anything but normal, as it wasn’t in accordance with the daily routine he had become accustomed to in the past couple of years.

It was his first day of college. For years he had struggled to become a singer, and now he was taking on his newest challenge: obtaining a college degree.

If he had learned anything from the whole TVXQ breakup, it was that he had to learn to make his own way in the world. The company obviously wasn’t too concerned with what happened to you as long as you were still bringing in profits, so he (and in turn, each of s) were constantly worrying over what would happen when the day came when they were no longer seen as profitable in the all-seeing and calculating eyes of SM Entertainment. Thus, he had made the decision to pursue a degree in Film Studies.

He had always had a deep love for the film industry and the drama that he had worked on had only deepened his love for the art. He loved the way the camera could capture the hearts of an audience within just a few seconds. It was simply… magic. Although it would be difficult, Choi Minho was optimistic of the future. After all, school was paid for through his singing career and he had always been fairly intelligent, so adapting to school would be a fairly simple task.

The only issue that faced him seemed to be the very one that was enabling him to attend the university in the first place: his fame. Ever since his debut, he had been plagued with the inability to even leave his dorm without being spotted. Any hope for a ‘normal’ life had disappeared completely within just a few short months. Of course, we would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy this new lifestyle, but sometimes, he missed the normalcy of his old life with his parents and older brother.

As he trudged across the campus to his first class, he was overcome with nervousness. Where would he sit? What if someone recognized him and he was chased from the room by rabid fan girls? What if an antifan went on a crazed tirade in front of the entire class? It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that any of these things had happened to him.

He tugged his hoodie tighter around his body and adjusted his hood a bit to cover his face even more. He jerked the straps of his backpack even closer to his body as his breathing became ragged. He felt himself begin to have a panic attack. His mind began to argue with itself:

‘Maybe this was a bad idea.’

‘Are you kidding? You’ve been in front of thousands of people on stage! This is nothing! Get yourself together, Choi!’

Eventually he made it to the classroom. Although the class wouldn’t start for another thirty minutes (he had left early to avoid traffic), the class still contained around forty students out of the two hundred enrolled. He looked around for a moment, trying to find a place to sit that would be ideal for avoiding the detection of his peers. Finally, his gaze lit upon a girl to the far side of the room.

She had long, light brown hair and was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. She was so obviously an American transfer student, which made it seem as if she could be his saving grace. ‘An American probably doesn’t know anything about K-pop. I’m safe!’ he thought to himself as he made his way to her side of the room.

As he passed her, he stole a glance at her laptop screen, which displayed her Facebook page. Written entirely in English. This only seemed to confirm his suspicions that he was in the clear, and he grinned mischievously to himself, proud that he had avoided the situation he had been concerned with for the last week. He distanced himself from the girl by one seat and began to pull out his spiral (his laptop weighed his bag down too much) and his textbook.

As he rummaged in his pack, it became increasingly apparent that he had left his pen back at the dorm. He inwardly cursed himself and tried to figure out what he should do to remedy his problem. Suddenly, it dawned on him. He glanced toward the girl sitting a foot away from him and gathered his courage (and what little knowledge he had of the English language).

“Excuse me?” he asked. She looked up from her laptop expectantly. He swallowed nervously, as his accent wasn’t anything to be proud of. “Can I borrow pen?”

She smiled and nodded, turning around to look in her bag in order to find the requested item. She handed the object to him and he contentedly set about to accomplish the task of doodling around the edges of the paper. A few seconds passed and he heard a voice to his right speaking his native language.

“I can speak Korean, by the way. I wouldn’t be in a class that’s taught in Korean unless I knew the language, you know.” She smiled at him coyly.

He felt his blood run cold, both from embarrassment and the realization that he had made a mistake in picking who he sat next to. International fans were sometimes worse than fans from his own country. He picked his bag up off the floor, ready to bolt to another seat if need be, when she spoke again. “My name is Amelia. What’s yours?”

He set his bag back down, deciding that if she had to ask his name, then she should be harmless. “Minho,” he answered as he continued to eye her warily while her hand was presented to him.

“I guess we better get to know each other then,” she smiled encouragingly as he reached out to grasp her hand as well.

“I suppose so,” he smiled, feeling a bit better about his first day.

It’s been like two years since I last wrote a fanfic, since I had a bad experience with one, so I’m sorry if it’s atrocious lol. So what do you think? Should I continue?