"Thanks, I look forward to it. See you tomorrow, night." He replied before putting his phone on charge and slipping the device under his pillow, settling down for sleep. 

He couldn't wait to see if he could meet some of Kris' other friends.

Taemin woke happy and full of energy the following day. His dad was no where to be found so Taemin made his way to school carefree and soon found himself sitting in homeroom eagerly awaiting the arrival of his new friend.

Kris brushed a hand through his hair as he made his way through the school's hallways, rubbing the back of his neck a little before walking into homeroom. While he might have woken up in a foul mood, that disappeared when he noticed Taemin, a small smile tugging at his lips as he sat down next to his friend. "Morning," He said, running a hand through his hair again, it just did not want to cooperate with him today. "Sorry about my appearance. As the saying goes, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed."

Taemin smiled when he Kris enter the classroom. Secretly he had been looking out for him. However he could also tell that a few of the boys that had cornered him yesterday, and who had accidentally hit Kris with the dodgeball, were in turn watching him. It made him feel a little uneasy but he tried to ignore them. He giggled at Kris' apology and shrugged to show he didn't mind. Honestly he couldn't find much to complain about regarding Kris's appearance. Soon a teacher walked in a the class began to settle down somewhat.

Kris smiled back to Taemin, poking his cheek playfully before glaring at the guys, who he recognized from the day before. There was actually a small bruise on his cheek from the impact of the dodgeball, but he ignored it because it wasn't that bad. He then grinned sheepishly before looking up to the teacher, smiling when she said that they had a partner project that would last for the rest of the year.

He immediately pulled Taemin's desk and chair over to his own, smiling. "Would you care to be this dragon's partner for the rest of the year?" Taemin couldn't help but blush at the offer... it almost sounded like he was asking something else... but regardless he nodded eagerly. He still didn't know many people in the school, and he'd already taken a liking to Kris. He couldn't think of anyone he'd rather be paired up with. This probably meant that they would spend more time together outside of school as well and Taemin didn't mind at all.

Kris smiled brightly when Taemin nodded so eagerly, a small blush dusting his own cheeks as he looked to his hands then nodding as well. "Thanks... it means a lot to know that you actually want to be my partner, and not because I scare you," He said, looking to Taemin then nodding and looking to the project that the teacher gave out. Taemin couldn't really think of a reason that he wouldn't want to be Kris' partner... Kris had been nothing but kind to him, yeah sure he had that "dragon" nickname floating around but Taemin thought Kris was actually kinda sweet. He smiled at Kris to tell him know he was happy and eagerly looked over assignment with him.  "Oh? Huh, this is interesting, we need to observe nature and take pictures. The reason why it would take so long to complete is because we'd also need to go out on the ocean and scuba dive, taking pictures of ocean life. Sounds pretty cool, actually. I've always wanted to go diving... and I like taking pictures," He explained with a grin, taking a quick picture of Taemin smiling with his phone then putting it as his contact picture.

Taemin's eyes lit up at the concept of the project. He loved nature, in fact he loved drawing, but he would enjoy taking photo's as well. Besides, by the sounds of it, it would force him out of the house a lot more, and as a bonus he would get to spend a lot of time with Kris in a lot of fun activities. 

Taemin blinked after the picture was taken... quite unsure as to what had just happened. Highly curious, Taemin peeked at what Kris was doing and ended up blushing. Quickly he got out his note pad and scribbled on it. 

"What a terrible picture of me to use for that!" 

Kris looked at the notepad and laughed softly, shaking his head a little and saving the picture. "Well, I find the picture cute," He said before realizing how that sounded and clearing his throat a little, a small blush creeping across his cheeks. "I, um... I like seeing you smile. You look so bright when you smile," He said with a small smile of his own before rubbing the back of his head then looking at the different places they could go. Taemin blushed again. Seriously him cute? Well... he had been called such before but usually irritated him, but for some reason when Kris had called him cute it just made him feel jittery. He was sure that his blush deepened when Kris mentioned his smile and for the moment kept his head down, coincidentally not seeing Kris look the other way. 

"We could start the project after school maybe? There's a meadow close to my house," He said, looking to Taemin then at the project paper. "There's a lot of flowers there, and at night the fireflies are everywhere. It's beautiful, and I think you'd like it," He explained, poking Taemin's arm playfully then ruffling the sweet boy's hair before looking to his schedule.

Taemin nodded when Kris offered that they start the project that night, he honestly wouldn't mind meeting up with Kris outside of school any time but he would probably kick up a fuss if Kris wanted to come to his. Kris made the field sound wonderful and he couldn't wait to go, it would be better than sitting in class at any rate. For now he would use his phone for pictures he figured, trying not to blush again when his hair was ruffled. 

Kris then looked back to his and Taemin's schedules before laughing a little. "Hey! We have Health together! Sometimes we have Health instead of Gym," He said then looked again and sighed. "But that looks like the only thing we have together, just like Gym, unless you count the last class of the day, which was Cooking," He groaned softly, rubbing over his face before flinching at the dull throb of his bruise cheek, he had almost forgotten that it was there.

Taemin's eyes narrowed in concern when Kris' hand found it's way to his cheek again. Taemin almost asked again if he was alright but Kris had said earlier that it was fine so he would respect that for now. He stood, still watching Kris for signs of discomfort just as the bell rang telling them to go to their next class. He didn't really want to separate from Kris after Health, but he would grit his teeth and bare it. He packed his bag and slung it over his shoulder, giving Kris a smile and waiting to walk with him to their next class.

Kris smiled brightly before shaking his head at Taemin's concerned face, his smile softening. "Its alright, I'll be fine. It's just it's still a little tender from yesterday," He explained before nodding and getting up as well when the bell sounded, patting Taemin's back encouragingly. Taemin raised an eye brow as Kris dismissed his "injury". Honestly it didn't look that bad but Taemin couldn't help his concern... he would keep an eye on it as the day went. "Do you remember the way to the Art classroom, or do you want me to walk with you?" Kris then asked softly. Taemin bit his lip at the question, sure he remembered the way to the classroom but he didn't really want to part from Kris just yet... but on the other hand he didn't want make the other boy late to his own lesson, so he tilted his head as his thoughts seemingly warred with each other. Kris chuckled atb the confused look on Taemin's face before looking out the homeroom door and seeing one of the guys from Taemin's drawing, narrowing his eyes then gently taking Taemin's hand and walking out with him, stopping in front of the male.

Eventually Taemin decided to be a little selfish and have the other walk with him, but before he could reply, somehow, Kris had already gone up to one of the boys who had covered him in water yesterday, silently watching the exchange, squeezing the other's hand lightly. He hadn't exactly forgotten the boys from yesterday but he had definitely put them out of his mind for the time being. But it seemed he didn't really have to worry about how he was going to ask the other to walk with him to his class after all. Taemin just hoped that Kris' reputation would be enough to keep them away for the time being. 

"If you ever do that to Taemin again," He snarled at the boy in Chinese, making the boy look up then pale when he realized who was speaking to him, "I will personally make sure you regret it. Make sure to tell the others that as well." He turned away from the boy before gently leading Taemin through the halls, the grip on the sweet boy's hand tightening ever so slightly as they reached the Art classroom before reluctantly letting go. "I'll see you after class, okay?" He said softly, running his fingers through Taemin's hair before realizing what he was doing and clearing his throat shyly. Taemin blinked a little when the fingers laced into his hair, struggling not to lean into the touch, a blush staining Kris' cheeks before patting Taemin's head with a sheepish grin and heading into his own Music class.

Kris smiled a little as he watched Taemin go into his classroom before walking into his own, sitting in his seat before listening as the teacher started the lesson. His mind once in a while strayed to wondering how Taemin was doing but he kept most of his focus on the class at hand. There was a small quiz that they had to do, so the class got the paper and Kris started to work, his face going back into a serious mode.

Chen in the meantime sat next to Taemin with a smile, patting his shoulder. "Hey, Tae, did you sleep well through the storm?" He asked as he pulled out his sketchbook. Taemin smiled at his recently made friend and nodded. The storm had passed pretty quickly and he was happy that it did. Though texting Kris back and forth had helped a bit. Chen nodded back before opening to one of the pages in the sketchbook, it covered in different ideas for the comic, including an idea inspired by the movie Homeward Bound. "So many ideas were suggested to me for the comic, and I can't seem to pick one!" He said with a small sigh then smiled at Taemin again as the class started, sketching over some more ideas before closing the book and getting started on the assignment for that day; draw one of your classmates as an animal. Immediately Chen started sketching Taemin as the dog from the other day, grinning brightly.

Taemin grabbed his stuff out of his bag an placed it on the table. He was eager to start sketching, it helped him relax a little. He grabbed one of the reference books and began sketching a Panda off one of the pages whilst glancing at the boy sitting next to him. Unknown to Taemin, who he was actually sketching was Kris and Chen's other friend, Huang Zitao, also known as the Kungfu Panda. He was sketching someone else before blinking then looking to the boy next to him, looking to the paper then smiling shyly at the panda drawing.

When Taemin got a bit bored with that he before he began glancing over Chen's comic idea seeing which ones he thought were more interesting and funny. Chen was lucky so many people had taken an interest in the comic. After a while he'd chosen a couple of pages he wanted to point out to the other. But as the class came to a close a paper ball landed in front of him. Taemin's eyes narrowed but opened it anyway. 

"Kris can't protect you forever .."

Taemin looked over his shoulder just to see the boy Kris had threatened that morning glaring at him, he quickly turned around and stuffed the note in his pocket. Chen hadn't seemed to notice anything yet and he hoped he could keep it that way... he would just have to learn to walk the corridors a little quicker.

"What class do you have next?" Taemin jotted down sliding the note over to Chen, though Chen was busy so he didn't look at the note right away.

Tao blinked at the ball of paper that Taemin had picked up. He has seen what was written on the note, then turned in the direction and saw the boy as well, pursing his lips then shyly tapping Taemin's shoulder, hoping that his eyebags didn't make Taemin scared of him - that seemed to happen a lot to the panda boy. Taemin almost jumped when he was tapped on the shoulder, he hadn't really meant for the other to notice that Taemin was drawing him. He quickly hoped that the other hadn't taken offense to it. But he quickly realized that the boy seemed to be fine with it.

"I saw note... Kris protect you always. When he protects, lasts long," He said in broken Korean softly before giving Taemin another shy smile. Taemin, however, paled a little at the boy's words, despite the fact they were meant to be comforting. If he was going to get cornered and picked on, he'd rather not have Kris dragged all over the place to protect him. It was probably stress Kris didn't need.  

"Um... hi... I'm Tao..." Panda boy murmured as Chen looked up and smiled brightly. "Taemin, this is Huang Zitao, or Tao as we call him. People think he looks scary but he isn't, he's just not used to attention! He's a lovable panda," Chen said before patting Tao's shoulder. Taemin smiled and jot down; "My name's Taemin, forgive my silence but I lost my voice a long time ago" and quickly passed it Tao whilst Chen introduced Tao to him. It seemed he'd been correct to draw him as a Panda after all. Tao smiled when he saw the note and nodded in understanding, and then Chen finally looked to the note and tilted his head. "I have... Chemistry next, what about you Tao?" Tao looked to his schedule, furrowing his eyebrows then finding the class. "Biology..." The panda boy murmured as the bell rang to end the class.

As the bell rang he packed his stuff, it would seem his next class was with Tao. Biology was, to him, the most interesting out of the three dull subjects called science. He followed the two out of the class, occasionally glancing over his shoulder but so far he saw no sign of pursuit... he would probably have to be cautious when he was alone. Tao got up and quickly followed Taemin before leading Taemin to the Biology classroom, showing him the way. Kris would have been worried when he saw Taemin walk out by himself, but he relaxed when he noticed that Tao was with him. Tao might not have looked like much, but the panda boy had actually been training in the Chinese martial arts of wushu for 11 years now and was more than capable to protect Taemin while Kris was in another class. Said Kungfu Panda kept his guard up, looking around to make sure that no one was looking at Taemin in a threatening way, almost acting like a bodyguard before finally walking into the class. "Sit with me?" The panda boy asked shyly as he sat by the window, nervously playing with the hem of his shirt.

Taemin was happy to make it to class without any problems, at least for now, and he was happier still when he found only one of the group pf boys shared the biology class with and Tao. Speaking of Tao he happily sat next to him and waited for the class to start. He really disliked science and it was a struggle for Taemin to pay attention all the way through the class. 

As predicted, the class started and Taemin soon began to zone out, beginning to doodle, the very thing Kris had originally told him off for. But he couldn't really help it. He would make sure he studied at home but he couldn't really handle science classes. Soon patterns and silly cartoon animals began to fill up the note pad he always carried with him whilst every now and then he scribbled an answer down on his workbook, waiting for the bell to ring. Tao peeked over and giggled quietly before going back to the lesson, though he couldn't understand a thing that the teacher was saying, just staring blankly at the board then looking out the window then around the classroom. The teacher seemed to know to not call on him or Taemin, so the panda boy relaxed a little before writing random phrases in Chinese on his notebook.

Finally, class ended and Kris walked out of his Chemistry class after saying goodbye to Chen, who had Music class next, then walked out of the classroom to find Taemin. The Chemistry room was fairly far from the Biology room, so Kris quickened his pace to try to get to the sweet boy before anyone else did.

He didn't want anything bad to happen to Taemin, there would be hell to pay if anyone upset or hurt the sweet boy while the Dragon was still around!