Word Count: ~2.8 k

Schedules came out on the third day that the first years were there and Yixing told Sehun that he could find them in the mail boxes in the common room. The common room was very spacious, enough to fit the forty boys comfortably. It had seven couches that could seat four; four square tables for studying that could fit a boy on each side and have plenty of room for study materials, a high definition television hanging on the right wall, and five rows of eight mail boxes in the left wall. Each one had a placard with a student’s name on it and they were arranged by room number.

Sehun pulled the little door open and found a letter inside, which contained his schedule. Sehun’s schedule consisted of four core classes and two performing arts electives. The cores were Korean, History, Algebra, and Chemistry. Chemistry was listed as first period, which would be an absolute nightmare. His brain couldn’t wake up before nine and he had always been rubbish at chemistry to begin with. His second period class was Korean, which wasn’t too bad. It would be okay if he were asleep for half of the class because it was an easy class for him. History third period and Algebra fourth would be easy enough after he had woken up.

He spent the whole day finding his classrooms and memorising how to get from place to place. Finding everything in the first place was a challenge because he hadn’t been paying attention during the orientation tour but eventually, he found everything. The dorms were about a kilometre away from the main campus. Lunch was fifth period but he already knew where the dining hall was. It was between the west and north dorms with breakfast served from six to eight and dinner served from five to eight. Students could come in whenever they could and it was buffet style.

After lunch were the elective classes. The first elective class was one period long but the second was two. Sixth period, Sehun had chorus class at the theatre and seventh and eighth he had advanced dance in the third floor dance studio. Sehun wasn’t excited as much about the core classes but he couldn’t wait for the elective classes.

When he came back to his room, Yixing was already there, looking at his schedule. “Sehun-ah. What electives are you taking?”

“I’m taking chorus and advanced dance.” He had gotten over the blushing and stuttering since the first day but his ears were still pink at the tips. “What about you, hyung?”

“I’m taking those two as well,” he beamed and Sehun wasn’t sure he was happy or whether he just felt his stomach sink down to the basement. He would get to see his hyung perform but at the same time, Yixing would see his dongsaeng perform and Sehun wasn’t sure that he could perform well in front of him. Electives were mixed grades. Middle school students all took shared electives as well as high school students.

“That’s great,” Sehun smiled back at him.

—

The first day, he got to meet all of his classmates and teachers, getting syllabuses but not actually taking any notes. Some teachers attempted to start right in on the lessons, but most of them were ignored. First period was taken up by an entrance ceremony with a speech from the headmaster. Yixing called it a boring formality and that the headmaster really just liked hearing himself talk. Everyone who had been there for two or more years knew what he was going to say and those who were graduating from the university levels knew the speech by heart. He used the same speech every year, maybe changing a word here or there to accommodate current events. For the most part it was just a “Welcome back from winter break” and “Welcome new students.” The auditorium in which the event was held had more than enough seating for the 1500 students.

Sehun talked with Yixing as they walked to the auditorium, a walk of about seven or eight minutes. Yixing talked and Sehun tried to listen, but he had trouble. Yixing looked really good in the school uniform of a navy jacket with a white, buttoned shirt underneath. In the summer, the jackets were switched for V-neck sweater vests because the weather was warmer. The emblem of the school appeared on a pocket on the left side of the chest of the jacket and on the summer uniforms it was on the left side of the chest as well. Everyone wore navy and silver striped ties, stripes running from upper left to lower right at a diagonal. Long navy pants were worn all year round. The school had no preference as to what shoes the students wore, but most stuck with converse of various colours. Both Sehun and Yixing wore black ones but he had also seen them in red, yellow, and other various solid colours.

“When we get to the auditorium, we will need to separate. At the whole-school assemblies, middle and high school students divide by grades. Middle school students sit in the front, High school sits in the middle, and university students sit in the back. First years are on the left, second years are in the middle, and third years are on the right.” Meaning you’ll be sitting across the auditorium from me, Sehun added bitterly in his head. “Don’t worry, it will be okay. The first year always seems daunting but it really isn’t. You’ll do fine. Besides, you look good in your uniform.” He smiled, dimples appearing and Sehun couldn’t help but smile back at him. Sehun didn’t want to say anything fearing that whatever came out would be incredibly stupid.

When they reached the auditorium, Sehun went to the left and Yixing went to the right. The first years aside, everyone was meting up and chatting lightly as they found places to sit in groups with the friends they haven’t seen for the entirety of break. The first years, however, were quiet, not really knowing anyone in particular except for roommates, but even roommates were still awkward with one another.  Sehun took a seat next to a guy who looked sleep deprived and generally gloomy. On his other side, came a kid with a timid appearance, large lips, and hair that hung down in his eyes, even longer than Sehun’s, which only obscured his eyebrows.

During the ceremony, Sehun suppressed a couple yawns, as the ceremony was rather boring. There was nothing of great importance being said and he understood what Yixing was talking about when he said “boring formalities” and that the headmaster liked hearing himself talk.

After the excruciatingly long ceremony, punctuated with a final and very cheesy “And I wish everyone a wonderful school year,” everyone got up, many stretching stiff limbs, some tapping sleeping neighbour’s shoulders. Sehun stretched and heard his back pop. He left the auditorium and collected the bag that he had left in the pile with everyone else’s, slinging it lazily over one shoulder and heading off to his first class in the science building.

—

Chemistry, despite being an hour later than it would be, was still miserable. It wasn’t that Sehun knew no one in the class; it was that he did know someone in the class. It was that annoying boy who sat next to him on the bus when they first came to Kairin. The one who had said that he looked cute when he was sleeping. To Sehun’s utter horror, the teacher decided that Sehun and this boy would make excellent lab partners so she sat the two next to each other. The class had assigned seating and unless a serious problem arose, these would be the partners for the rest of the year.

“Oh Sehun,” he mused to himself when the teacher called his name for attendance. “A cute name to go with a cute face. Well, when you don’t pinch your face and look like you’ve eaten five lemons anyway.” He smirked, something that really irked Sehun.

“Kim Jongin,” the teacher read off and Jongin replied with a bored, “Here.” This was another thing that really irked Sehun. This boy seemed to think that he owned the world but at the same time that the entire world was just a joke. Sehun just knew that this class was going to be miserable, what with being stuck with this jerk as his lab partner and the fact that Sehun was rubbish at chemistry, he was looking forward to the worst science class he had taken thus far.

Unfortunately, this teacher was one of those who thought that teaching on the first day of school was a capital idea and she started right in on dimensional analysis. Sehun was so lost that even a map couldn’t have helped him out of his confusion. He was glad that he wasn’t the only one who had difficulties with chemistry but he resented that Jongin understood everything the teacher said with that same arrogant look stuck to his face.

Jongin caught Sehun glaring at him and smirked. Sehun pinched his face even more and Jongin actually chuckled to himself. Sehun stared angrily at his notes, which made no sense at the moment and he suspected that they never would unless he found someone to help him understand the concepts. The teacher was a good teacher for the students who understood the material, but those who didn’t were simply left for dead, Sehun being one of them.

Sehun stared dejectedly at his notes and suddenly noticed Jongin looking over his shoulder. “You have to divide by litres at this step to change the units, not multiply,” he said simply and with a face pink with embarrassment, Sehun erased it and redid the problem, getting the answer displayed on the board this time.

“Thanks,” he muttered under his breath.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I caught that one. Try again,” he said with mock confusion.

“Thank you Mr. Kim,” Sehun said venomously.

“Close enough.” Jongin shrugged. Secretly, Sehun was thankful that Jongin had helped him, although he would never admit it to Jongin’s face. That boy had an ego to rival that of one of his neighbours in the dorms, Minho. He was feeling mixed as to whether he would ask for help from Jongin in future when he was having trouble or find someone else to help him. Class was over and Sehun quickly packed up his things before heading to his next class, Jongin still on his mind.

—

His second period class was much better than first. He had Korean second. The class was much easier and his neighbour was much better. His name was Park Chanyeol and this boy laughed at the stupidest things, often having overly dramatic reactions to everything. When Chanyeol laughed, Sehun couldn’t help but crack a smile on his usually emotionless if not slightly irate face. Chanyeol was often described as a happy virus and it was true. He made everyone laugh when he laughed and the teacher didn’t care about his disruptions as long as everyone in the class did decently enough on tests and essays.

Although the happy virus was sitting right next to him and acting as the biggest distraction in existence, Sehun knew he would be able to pass the course with flying colours. He was always good at writing essays, even early in the morning when his brain wasn’t completely awake. He was a quick reader and breezed through nightly reading, often finishing books within the first couple days it was assigned when the class was supposed to spread the reading out over a few weeks. His essays had just enough bull to satisfy the teachers without making him puke from the stupidity of what he was writing.

Chanyeol introduced himself much better than how Jongin had.

“Hi, Sehun ah. I’m Chanyeol.” He gave the biggest grin that anyone could give and Sehun was wondering how he had enough face to smile that big. For some reason, his smile made it look like he had more teeth than the average person. He extended his hand and Sehun took it, smiling back. For some reason he couldn’t not smile back at him. Another reason that Sehun smiled back was that although he had a really soft face and curly hair, he had a surprisingly deep voice, which didn’t match his face at all.

“Hello.” Sehun thought to himself that this guy was definitely all right and he would be really fun to hang out with after school. When the bell rang signalling the end of class, Sehun was sad to leave. Chanyeol made him laugh and Sehun decided that he wanted to become friends. He packed up his bag and proceeded to his next class.

—

Third period was world history. Sehun didn’t like the class but he also didn’t hate it. It was just a class that he had to take. It wasn’t difficult, but it wasn’t boring either. There were things that intrigued him and he focussed on those as he studied as opposed to stupid things that he didn’t care about. He memorised those for exams and then forgot them shortly after, that was how he had always done it and would always do it.

In this class, he had two very interesting neighbours by the names of Byun Baekhyun and Kim Jongdae. Baekhyun was a short kid with a pale complexion, not as pale as Sehun’s but fairly close. He said that he was absolutely rubbish at History. He said that memorising dates and names was just a waste of time. Who even cared what day of what month of what year this guy was born. He knew about when these things happened, It wasn’t like it was going to change so he didn’t really care. Besides, he pointed out that they probably weren’t going to use it later in their lives anyways.

Baekhyun was really animated and strongly opinionated, but not as strongly opinionated as Jongdae. This kid hated history but the difference was that he had good grades in history in the past. He had his own ideas as to why this class was pointless. These historical figures were kind of little s. The teachers always said that without them we wouldn’t be where we are today, but he rebutted that without the greedy bastards, someone with better intentions could have made much more progress in the same amount of time. He also pointed out that they never really learned about women in history unless they were shown in a poor light. Sehun respected that this little twerp spoke his mind as passionately as he did. It was admirable, really.

Although these two were funny, they still couldn’t top Chanyeol. Of course, Sehun wanted to get to know these two a little better as well. Jongdae wasn’t nearly the that Jongin was, though and for that Sehun was thankful. He didn’t need Jongin, but that was when his thoughts drifted back to the jackass. Sehun pushed thoughts of him out of his mind as he focussed on history starting from 8000 BC.

—

After a little chitchat with Baekhyun, he discovered that he shared the next class with the boy as well. Baekhyun excelled at algebra, unlike his less than stellar performance at world history. Another boy Sehun met in his algebra class was a boy by the name of Do Kyungsoo. He had wide eyes, almost as if he had the appearance of constant surprise. When Sehun thought that Kyungsoo’s eyes could get no larger, they did. Kyungsoo was no genius at algebra and it certainly showed when the teacher began the class with a problem to do with quadratic equations. Kyungsoo’s eyes looked like they were about to fall out of his skull.

Baekhyun had no difficulty solving the math problem in his head and guided Kyungsoo to the correct answer, slowly but surely. The look of understanding that lit Kyungsoo’s face up was priceless. Sehun was almost snickering as Kyungsoo looked at Baekhyun with pure admiration. Sehun was able to get the problem easily enough, although he had to do it on paper, unlike their little prodigy, Baekhyun.

Sehun pointed out to Baekhyun that Algebra would probably be just as useful as world history but Baekhyun said that because it was easy and he was talented at it, he wanted to do well. Sehun laughed inwardly. He was a strange kid certainly. At least algebra wouldn’t be boring sitting next to these two.

A/N: The story is going a little more slowly than I would like but I also want to give the other pairs I promised some love and also develop the story to the point where you started. Ages are off from how they actually are but I feel like it fits the story better like this. They aren't off by much, though. Em. Thanks for reading and I hope you have fun with the rest of the story!