Word Count: ~2.8k

Fifth period was lunch break. Sehun decided to eat alone because he was honestly used to it. He got lunch, an apple, from the dining hall but brought it outside to eat under a tree. He always looked sour and kept everyone at arm’s length so he was very surprised he heard someone coming over. He had been daydreaming and hadn’t noticed that he had absently eaten half of the apple already. He was sitting pensively, thinking about how he had already made a couple acquaintances. Then he remembered Taeyeon.

A few days ago, they had chatted on the phone and she sounded bubbly as ever. Back at school she met up with her friends and they acted like there wasn’t a whole winter in which they hadn’t talked, almost like she was just on vacation in a foreign country. He really missed his big sister, but she would be very proud of him when he told her that he was making friends, Chanyeol, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo, Yixing, and Jongdae. He didn’t want to be friends with Jongin, really. That guy seemed really arrogant and withdrawn. At least Sehun was just grumpy and withdrawn, not rude so much.

He snapped out of his daydream when he saw someone coming over to him. Great, he thought, it’s my favourite egotistical prick lab partner with his usual arrogant façade.

“Sitting here alone eating an apple,” Jongin mused, sounding irritatingly mock philosophical.

“What of it,” Sehun all but snapped.

“I just thought that you wouldn’t made friends by now, what with that pretty face of yours.”

“I prefer being alone,” he stated, ignoring Jongin’s jests about him being a flower boy.

“Is that so?” Sehun thought back to Yixing, who he wouldn’t mind spending time with, or Taeyeon, who he missed dearly, or even his classmates, who he would like to make friends with.

“Yes.”

“Well that’s too bad then.” Jongin sat down next to Sehun.

“Don’t you have friends to sit with and bother?”

“I’d prefer to bother you. The others bore me.” He held out his hands as if he were examining the job of a manicurist casually.

“Lucky me,” Sehun grumbled.

“Sure I think so,” said Jongin responding to Sehun’s sarcasm. “You should be feeling positively blessed right now.”

Sehun had finished his apple, so he stood to leave, Jongin getting up with him. “What? Are you going to start following me around now?”

“I’ve got nothing better to do.”

“That to harass me?”

“Yes.” Sehun sighed in exasperation. Why was it he who this Jongin character decided to torment?

“I need to put my bag back in my room before afternoon classes and I don’t want you joining me.”

“Sehun ah is so mean. I’m hurt,” he whined with mock injury. Sehun rolled his eyes and left Jongin looking after him with a smirk. Despite his threat, Jongin did not follow Sehun back to his dorm.

—

Sixth period was when they had elective classes. From the dorms, Sehun headed straight to the theatre. Waiting outside the theatre, he saw some familiar faces from earlier classes, Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Kyungsoo, along with Yixing. He had forgotten that Yixing was taking this class and that the class was multi-grade. His heart went into overdrive and his paper-white skin tinted pink. Kyungsoo looked over, concerned.

“Are you okay?” he asked quietly.  Sehun nodded slowly and looked away from Yixing. He could feel his pulse loud in his ears and was surprised that no one could hear it.

“Funny seeing you here, Sehun ah. I wouldn’t have pegged you as a singer to be honest.” Jongdae latched onto Sehun’s back and rested his chin on Sehun’s shoulder.

“Why are you guys here right now? I thought that advanced chorus was the second period.”

“It’s supposed to be the second period but today the advanced chorus teacher is busy, so we get to come to this class and have to go to the advanced classes second period to make up the class we missed.” Every teacher taught a beginner or intermediate class for the first elective block and then an advanced class for the second block. “I’m stuck in advanced dance second period.” He pulled a face, sticking out his tongue. Sehun smirked, wanting to see how this kid danced.

“So who else is here that you know?” Sehun asked Jongdae.

“Joonmyun hyung is around here somewhere. He’s taking intermediate chorus and advanced dancing.” Sehun could feel Jongdae’s heart beating just a little faster with their bodies pressed together like this and he suspected there was something between them, at least on Jongdae’s side.

“Oh there he is!” Jongdae turned Sehun by the shoulders to face the guy. Sehun remembered vaguely that he was one of the tour guides during orientation. Jongdae must have had a similar reaction to him as Sehun had to Yixing. Sehun could definitely feel Jongdae’s heartbeat skyrocketing and it was all he could do to not laugh out loud. “He’s my neighbour in the dorms and he was the one I got the tour from.” He smiled softly, less snidely than usual.

“Hyung!” he called. “Hyung! Look at this kid. Isn’t he a cutie?” He teased, grinning deviously as Sehun attempted to shake him off.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, cute. I’m definitely not cute,” Sehun grumbled. Jongdae merely shrugged. Yixing chuckled and now Sehun’s heart was beating faster now and he knew Jongdae could feel it. Jongdae released Sehun with a smirk as he went to stand next to Joonmyun.

“Sehun ah, this is Joonmyun hyung. Joonmyun hyung, Oh Sehun.” Even just saying this, Sehun could hear something different in the way that Jongdae talked to Joonmyun. It was almost, respect or admiration, something that did not really appear in Jongdae’s voice at all. He couldn’t tell whether anyone else noticed the difference in Jongdae except that Yixing smiled a mysterious and knowing smile and Sehun suspected that he noticed as well.

Joonmyun held out a polite hand and Sehun took it. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Sehun ah.”

—

Students milled about around the entrance to the theatre chatting. It was a Greek theatre with stone steps for the audience. It was a great place for singing because the acoustics were brilliant. Apparently the teacher was usually late by about five to ten minutes. The idle chitchat going on around the amphitheatre was stopped by two loud claps. Everyone turned to see the teacher and he introduced himself but before he said even one word, Sehun’s jaw dropped.

“I am the chorus teacher, Lee Donghae, but you can all call me Donghae hyung if you want to. I will be filling in for Yesung this year.” Sehun knew that this was a prestigious school but he didn’t realise that they would have professionals teaching at the school.

“Is that the Donghae? Super Junior’s Donghae?” he whispered excitedly to Yixing. Yixing smiled his dimpled smile and replied, “Yeah. He’s a great teacher, even if he’s a little spacey sometimes.” The students filed into the theatre and waited for class to begin.

The mixed levels made for a very interesting class. Some voices were tuned and pure, like Jongdae’s, Kyungsoo’s and Baekhyun’s. Yixing had a beautiful voice as well, soft but also clear. The class started with warm-ups but even Yixing’s scales were beautiful. Jongdae caught Sehun staring and nudged him from behind.

“You like him, don’t you?” He whispered knowingly, smirking. Sehun glowered at him but realised that he had similar blackmail material.

“You like him, Joonmyun, don’t you?” He returned and the smirk slipped off of Jongdae’s face. He clamped a hand over Sehun’s mouth and looked around quickly, hoping that no one heard.

“How did you know?” he hissed in Sehun’s ear.

 “It was written all over your face when you introduced us. Besides, you were leaning on me. I could feel your heartbeat. I’m just surprised he hasn’t noticed yet,” it was his turn to smirk.

“Yixing is your roommate. He must be pretty thick if he didn’t notice.” They both glared at each other but came to a silent agreement that neither of them would tell. Warm ups ended and they were warmed up well enough.

“First years are going to take a range test,” said Donghae. Jongdae smirked, confident that he had the best range in the group. Sehun certainly didn’t have a great range, just two octaves. Yixing told him that he could improve his range if he worked at it and if he wanted, Yixing could help him with it.

Jongdae had about three and a half octaves, which was the same amount that Kyungsoo had. Baekhyun had just a few notes more than Jongdae, and Jongdae looked simply murderous, glaring daggers at his back as Kyungsoo congratulated him.

Joonmyun patted Jongdae on the back saying that that was still more range than he had and Jongdae turned pink, at which Sehun threw a smirk. Yixing looked on politely with a knowing smile and Sehun wondered if he knew about Jongdae and Joonmyun. His stomach dropped as he wondered whether he knew about Sehun as well.

Range tests took up most of the period so the teacher said that they could leave early. It would be too much trouble to try and start a piece with only five minutes left. Baekhyun and Kyungsoo said goodbye afterwards and headed off to enjoy their free period. They missed song writing and composition and would just have to go back later in the day and find out what they missed. In the meantime, they were going to spend the hour together. Sehun, Jongdae, Joonmyun, and Yixing headed over to the dance studios. The class he was missing for chorus was dance, so he just decided to tag along and wait until the class was over to ask what he missed.

—

The third floor dance studio was quite large for such a small class; there were only 34 students in advanced middle school dance class. The room was four metres high and the floor was ten by fifteen metres. The long walls had ceiling height mirrors. Across from the door, there were three tall windows that looked out on the quad of the campus. The 35 students filed in and Jongdae stood by the door awkwardly. In the class, Sehun saw both of the students who had sat next to him during the entrance ceremony. Another face he saw was that of Jongin. Sehun glowered. As if having Chemistry with him wasn’t bad enough, now he had to suffer through dance as well. At least Yixing was in the class.

The teacher for this course was Lee Hyukjae from Super Junior and Sehun was just so excited for this class. It was even better when Hyukjae did a demonstration of basic freestyle. This was probably the most impressive thing he had seen in his life. Hyukjae was a better dancer than anyone else in Super Junior and it showed as he was dancing up at the front of the room. He did this demonstration before he took attendance.

When Hyukjae was taking attendance, Sehun took note of his classmates. The one who looked like he needed more sleep was another Chinese exchange student by the name of Zitao. The one with the really long hair and big lips was called Taemin.  When Hyukjae called “Jongin,” Sehun wrinkled his nose and Yixing looked at him confused. Sehun just shook his head and whispered, “I’ll tell you about it later.” Chanyeol was here as well. When he wasn’t sitting down, he was the tallest person in the room. Sehun and Zitao were also pretty tall compared to the rest of the class, he realised. Chanyeol looked a little awkward, like he hadn’t quite grown into his tall body yet.

Hyukjae also had a test for the first years. They were going to demonstrate how well they could dance. He named off a few Super Junior songs and asked who could do each one. He started with “Break Down.” Sehun raised his hand shyly. Yixing looked over at him with a surprised look on his face. Break Down was a more difficult dance and the look of surprise turned into a look of pride. Jongin raised his hand as well, usual smirk on his face. Taemin raised his hand as well. Hyukjae assigned each of them a part. Sehun was on Hyukjae’s right at the end of the line of four. Taemin was between Jongin and Hyukjae to Hyukjae’s left.

The music started and they began. Sehun and Jongin had similar dancing styles. They were both almost jerky at the beginning but still very precise. Taemin moved fluidly and in a style similar to Hyukjae’s. As the dance continued, Sehun and Jongin smoothed out and the four at the front of the room looked fantastic, moving in perfect synchronisation. The second years were certainly impressed, if not slightly envious. At the end, they were all breathing a little harder even, to Sehun’s relief, Jongin. Hyukjae told them that they were a really impressive group of dancers and he had high expectations in the years to come.

Yixing smiled up at Sehun and Sehun tried not to turn bright red with everyone in the room looking at him. Jongin looked as cocky as ever that he had done so well. Taemin looked embarrassed at the compliment.

The second song that Hyukjae tested was “Sorry, Sorry,” but because there were only two first years left, he pulled a couple upperclassmen to assist. Alongside Zitao and Chanyeol were Yixing and Joonmyun. Jongdae had managed to creep up alongside Sehun and the both of them watched Yixing and Joonmyun intently. Yixing looked just as good as Hyukjae, fluid from start to finish. Chanyeol, although he looked awkward walking and standing, looked fine dancing. Tao started out a little off beat at first but quickly corrected it and the group got much better.

“This years first years are probably the best class I’ve ever seen,” Hyukjae mused out loud and Yixing smiled proudly down at Sehun. Sehun almost lost it, almost turned tomato red and almost squealed like a little girl. Using all of the self-control available to him, he stopped from doing this; in return, he could only reply to the smile with a soft nod.

The rest of practice was Hyukjae seeing whether the other upperclassmen remembered from the year prior. Only a couple had forgotten a dance or two, the rest were flawless and Sehun couldn’t help but watch Yixing the whole time. He could feel someone watching him but he didn’t actually care. Jongin was practically staring a hole in the back of his neck but he didn’t notice. Class ended way too soon and Sehun was practically distraught that class was over.

After class, Jongdae did a quick check-in with Hyukjae about missing because of chorus and Hyukjae said that he would have to make it up by learning the first few steps of “Mr. Simple.” Jongdae’s face fell but Joonmyun offered to help him with it. His face lit up so brightly that you could practically read by the light. Yixing chuckled. Yixing, Sehun, Joonmyun, and Chanyeol waited around for Jongdae to finish talking to the teacher.

They had some time to kill before the dining hall opened so they decided to go and find Baekhyun and Kyungsoo and just hang out for a while. They were at the recording studio for composing and song writing. Jongin had disappeared somewhere and Sehun was relieved that he wouldn’t have to deal with the guy anymore, at least for today.

A/N: Again, 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. This really reads like a K-drama and I’m sorry if it’s going slowly. More characters are appearing and soon we’ll have the full cast. Now we have awkward Jongdae to add to the awkward cast of awkward people.