"Oh my gosh, Luhan! You still look like a deer!"

"Sehun was that a facial expression I saw? You really did change over the summer!"

"Go talk to Joonmyun about your cheekbones, Jongdae."

"My cheekbones are fantastic and anybody is lucky to talk about them, thanks."

"Minseok I missed you so much!!!"

"Wow, screw you too Jongin."

"Sehun I saw you yesterday," the tall, dark-haired boy retorts, making the blonde to his left scoff. "Also you sort of just showed up at my house without any warning, so it's not like I wanted to see you. But then again, I never do, so I guess it's my fault for letting you cling to me so often," he adds with a smirk. The blonde's eyes widen in disbelief, then narrow with contempt, and he pounces at his dark-haired friend, successfully pinning him to a desk and proceeding to slap his arm in a totally non-girlish manner, slurring out a number of things that probably shouldn't be said on school ground, or anywhere in public, for that matter. 

"Boys! Settle down! Aish, already?"

Giggles erupt from the group of seven boys, making several heads turn to the far left corner of their classroom. They bow their heads to their teacher in apology before turning to each other again, talking in significantly quieter voices.

"Yah, Park Chanyeol."

"Ew, Byun Baekhyun, what do you want," the tallest member of the seven giggles, turning to small boy sitting next to him.

"Ew yourself. I just thought you should know that your smile is still ridiculously creepy and that you should definitely get a new one. Also that I missed it a lot over the summer," he adds the last sentence sheepishly, face a little red as he pokes his friend's dimple. 

"Well maybe you wouldn't have to have missed it if you didn't decide to go to a stupid singing camp for the entire freaking break, you ," Chanyeol whines, turning to hit the small boy sitting next to him but then hugging him instead, a grin spreading across his face that makes his right eye twitch.

"Ugh, you guys no, it's too early for your lovey-dovey shenannigans," the round-faced boy sitting across from the two intertwined boys groans, burying his head in his hands.

"Seriously, how do you guys not have, like, billions of fanfictions written about the two of you yet?" Jongin adds through Sehun's persistent beating. "It baffles me."

"Excuse me, what are you implying?" Chanyeol asks, mockingly crossing his arms across his chest and quirking an eyebrow in Jongin's direction. "Luhan back me up on this one."

The short deer-looking boy perks up at his name, turning to Chanyeol in confusion. "Say what?"

"Minseok-hyung and Jonginnie here seem to think that Baekhyun and I are in a fanfiction-worthy relationship. I however, disagree. We are obviously way past that point in our relationship," he finishes, cracking up with the rest of the group as Baekhyun whips his head around to glare at Chanyeol, face beet red.

"Park Chanmph-"

"Shhhhhhh," Chanyeol laughs, cutting Baekhyun off with the side of his hand that he lazily slides across the smaller boy's face.

"So what did I miss while I was gone," Baekhyun asks after everyone has calmed down, removing Chanyeol's hand from his face and placing it back on Chanyeol's lap. "I barely got to talk to any of you."

"Well, I worked over the summer. A lot," Luhan sighs dejectedly. "Thug life."

"I kinda just slept," the round-faced boy mumbles through his hands that his head is still buried in. "You know, until last night, when, of course, I found myself wide awake at four in the god damn morning." 

"Obviously because you were so excited to see me," Luhan laughs, poking at his friend's face through his hands. "It's your own fault, Minseok-ah. I told you that you had to get back on a normal sleeping cycle, but did you listen? Nope. You didn't. And now you're paying for it and it's really great because I am going to annoy you for the entire day! Get pumped," he finishes, laughing at the muderous glare his friend gives him.

"Do you wanna die? Because I can arrange that."

"Only if you'll be by my side, dearest Minseok."

"I hate you so much."

"Golly gee, I sure am glad to be back," Jongdae rolls his eyes from the desk he's sitting on, his unamused expression unchanged since he walked into the classroom.

"Hyung what are you even doing, that's my facial expression," Sehun grumbles, finally hobbling off of Jongin to properly glare at Jongdae. "It doesn't work on your camel face."

"For the last time Oh Sehun I do not look like a camel I swear to freaking god I am going to-"

"Okayy that's about all I can take for one morning," Minseok declares, getting up from his desk with a shake of his head. 

"But Minseok-ah it's only been like five minutes," Jongdae pouts, going over and wrapping himself around Minseok's waist. 

"I don't want your hugs, nooo," Minseok laughs, half-heartedly beating at Jongdae's arms before wriggling out of his grasp. "Seriously, though, Joonmyun's probably already formed an anuerysm waiting for Luhan and I to show up. I'll see you in like two hours, you baby, okay? Aish," He adds when Jongdae pretends to wipe a tear from his eye as Minseok turns and heads for the door. 

"See you guys!" Luhan calls as he follows after Minseok, almost walking straight into the doorframe before turning to face forward at the last second. Once he's recovered his wits the honey-blonde turns to his friend as they stroll down the hallway to their first period class.

"I really wish I got to see those goofballs more over the summer. Stupid jobs for stupid tuitions for stupid colleges that I really need to get in to. I hate being a senior," Luhan complains. "Everybody was always talking about how great it would be 'ruling the school' and all that, but they forgot to mention how you probably wouldn't even notice how much better it is with all of the stress that gets pushed onto you like some birthday present you never wanted to get. It's like that one time you got me socks two years ago for my fifteenth birthday. Like, yeah, they're useful and all, but who really wants socks? That's how I feel about school. School is socks."

"Okay, so one, today is our first day being seniors. Two, that was the worst analogy I have ever heard in my life, and three, you are painfully dumb, please stop."

"If I'm dumb then what are you? An invalid? Oh yeah, too late."

"Wow look out the window, we're so high up! Wanna step a little closer to it for me?"

"Luhan, Minseok!"

A boy with dark hair slicked up neatly and a giant smile plastered on his face jogs up to them, interrupting their bickering."Gosh, it's so nice being around people who aren't taller than me," he says a little breathlessly, having jogged a whole five feet. He smoothes down his annoyingly pristine uniform and straightens his tie before fully looking at the two boys in front of him, a small frown replacing his childish grin. "What took you guys so long?" He inquires, turning to Minseok. "I was starting to think Chanyeol accidently stepped on you."

"I am not that short! Also it's-" Minseok pauses, looking at his watch. "Literally 8:01."

"Well, yeah, but it's the first day of our last year together! We should be treasuring every moment we have together, as they are now so fleeting. You guys mean the world to me and I want to enjoy our friendship for as long as I can. I also just really didn't want to be left with Yixing by myself. He wouldn't stop talking about how expressive my eyebrows were," he protests, unconciously bringing his hand up to touch his furrowed brow.

"Aw, Joonie I missed you," Luhan laughs at Joonmyun's agitated face, pulling him into a hug.

"Me too, Gramps," Minseok teases, joining in. "You're the same as ever."

"You guys still should've come earlier," he grumbles into the hug, but he smiles anyways when Minseok and Luhan pull away. "There's a new teacher."

"For our class?" Minseok asks, peeking around his shoulder into the classroom to try to catch a glimpse, but to no avail.

"Yup. Based on his looks, he can't even be five years older than us. I suspect even less. I heard that he's from Canada or something but is actually Chinese, so he should like you, Luhan. Nobody really seems to know anything about him, though, so I wouldn't count on that. C'mon, class is going to start soon, and I really don't want any of us to get on his bad side. When you see him you'll know why."

The three boys shuffle into the classroom and take their seats next to each other as the bell rings. Their new teacher, sitting at his desk in the front of their classroom, stands up, and immediately everyone falls silent. Oh dang. This guy is forreal. 

"Good morning, my name is Mr. Wu. This is my first year teaching, but I still expect respect from all of you. Do not try anything in this class or there will be serious consequences, no exceptions. I presume you have all carefully read the school handbook and therefore know everything you can and cannot do, so I see no point in wasting an entire class period going over the rules. I hope we have a great year," he finishes, not making any facial expression until his last sentence, when a surprisingly charming smile lights up his face. 

Luhan turns to Joonmyun, quietly whispering, "He's not that scary. You're such a wuss." He's puzzled, though, when Joonmyun doesn't even turn to look at him, staring straight ahead with wide eyes. He shrugs, thinking his friend is probably just too enraptured with the teacher's heartwarming speech to respond-

Oh wait.

The teacher.

Luhan's head snaps up, and he is met with the cold glare of Mr. Wu, who starts taking slow, deliberate steps towards the now terrified seventeen-year-old boy.

"What was that?" 

"I-I am sincerly sorry for speaking out of turn, Mr. Wu-ssi. Please accept my apology," the small boy stutters, bowing his head slightly at the man now towering over him.

"That does not answer my question. Please repeat what you said."

"I, uh, I just said that you're not that scary, seosang-ssi, and t-then called my friend Joonmyun here a wuss for thinking that you were," he stutters, turning to look at Joonmyun apologetically and simultaneously fearing for his life. 

Mr. Wu cracks a smile, and the entire class seems to let out a breath. He turns to Joonmyun with a glint in his eyes. "You think I'm scary?"

Joonmyun immediately turns beet red, spluttering and shaking his head furiously before letting out a nearly incoherent, "No, sir!" The entire class breaks into quiet giggles and snickers, still unsure of to act around this intimidating new teacher. Mr. Wu walks back up to his desk, an amused smirk gracing his face for a second before becoming emotionless again, but the glint hasn't left his eyes. He's actually quite handsome if you ignore the paralyzing fear he induces. Thick blonde hair, long, graceful limbs, perfectly smooth skin. Not bad at all for a high school teacher. Most of the girls in the class seem to notice this, too, apparently, as they exchange looks and giggles between sneaking not-so-subtle glances at the young teacher. Joonmyun was definitely right with the age comment. Scary, yes, but senior? Definitely not. And, judging by how he handled Joonmyun and Luhan, not very senior-acting, either. Music Theory has never been a very popular class, due to it's lack of enthusiasm from both the students and the teacher, but this guy seems anything but boring.

They might have a great year, after all.

***

"So have you grown some balls over the summer or are you just going to follow Luhan around like an ugly puppy that nobody wants for another year?" 

"Excuse you Jongin, but my balls are plentiful and if I'm ugly then you need to find a job occupation involving the blind, because my face is like a gajillion times better than yours."

"Wow Oh Sehun, I thought we were friends! The last time I checked, friends are not supposed to insult each other so heartlessly," Jongin protests, completely contradicting what he said not five seconds earlier. 

"Aww, cry about it," Sehun mocks, getting distracted by a fly whizzing around the room and trying to swat at it.  

"I hate to burst your bubble Sehun but that's your thing. Or don't you remember?" He laughs when Sehun's head snaps up to look at him, and he continues with a smirk. "That one night when it was really late after our first gig anmph-" Before Jongin can even finish his sentence, his mouth is covered by a murderous-looking blonde boy's hand, his eyes squinted in a silent challenge as he pulls it away.

"You little ."

"Love you, Sehun-ah," Jongin laughs, pulling the younger boy into a hug before flinching away when Sehun kicks his shin.

"You do not get to touch me," he grumbles in reply, but the corners of his lips are turned up into smile. 

Jongin has known his best friend Sehun since they were in kindergarten. Sehun's family had just moved into the apartment across the hall from Jongin's, and immediately the two boys' parents hit it off. Because of this, the two said boys found themselves in each other's company more often than not. This didn't really work out too well for awhile. Awhile as in three years, until, in their fourth year of being in the same class in the same school, living in the same flipping building together, they found a common ground: dancing. Everything else is history. They practiced together, talked about their dreams together, and, eventually, got into the best arts school South Korea could offer together. It all worked out pretty well, with both of them making some really good friends over the year and eventually combining them all into one loud group of talented boys. 

They definitely fought sometimes (everyday), but never seriously. It was always just teasing, which Jongin did fondly every chance he could get. Now a days, these chances were appearing more often due to Sehun's massive, annoyingly obvious crush on Luhan, their angel-faced singer friend who is ridiculously smart, but at the same time literally one of the dumbest people Jongin knows. It basically goes like this: Sehun fawns over Luhan, Luhan calls him cute, Sehun blushes a lot, Jongin makes an embarassing jab under his breath that only Sehun can hear, Jongin gets kicked painfully somewhere on his body, Luhan notices nothing. And the cycle repeats. Jongin finds it absolutely hilarious, even if his bruised legs can't say the same. 

"Jongin are you reminiscing again? I hate it when you do that, it's so weird. Can you not?" Sehun scowls, snapping Jongin out of his haze.

"Oh hush. We're just friends, unless you want me to tell Luhan-hyung otherwise. I'm sure your princess would get very jealous," he laughs, dodging Sehun's foot and instead falling out of his seat. 

"Sehun, Jongin. No," the teacher scolds, before standing up and directing her words towards the entire class. "Class is about to begin. Please take your seats." 

Everyone reluctantly shuffles into their desks according to the chart on the board, taking their seats as the bell rings. Jongin is in the last row all the way to the left, while Sehun is in the first, right in front of the teacher's desk. Figures. Word gets around in a school as small as Exo, so unfortunately the teachers have learned their lesson at this point when it comes to Sehun and Jongin. 

So now, here Jongin is, the only two empty desks in the room serparating him from any other classmates he might have decided to talk to, and Sehun being watched like a hawk in the front row. Jongdae, Baekhyun, and Chanyeol are all in their third year, while Sehun and Jongin are only in their second, so they only see each other during break and lunch, when they all meet up in the hallway outside of Luhan and Minseok's class to eat and get out energy. They get yelled at pretty much everyday, but oh well. Some things you can't really help. 

Jongin looks up at the clock and sighs. Two more hours until break. He can do it. 

Two more hours.

***

Jongdae flinches as a crumpled up piece of paper hits the back of his head. He slowly turns his head around to see Chanyeol giggling quietly from three rows behind him and Baekhyun making over-dramitic pointing gestures at the ball from two seats to Chanyeol's left. Jongdae rolls his eyes and turns around, carefully smoothing out the paper so it doesn't make any noise that might alert the teacher of their horseplay. The entirety of the note is just a stupid pun from Chanyeol about how handy sign-language is, but a high-pitched giggle escapes Jongdae's mouth before he can stop it anyways.

The class falls silent and everyone turns to look at Jongdae. After a couple seconds of bated breath, Chanyeol bursts into laughter, and the rest of the class follows suit. Jongdae tries to fight down a blush, but there is definitely a pinkish tint to his cheeks by the time the teacher settles everyone down. Luckily, the bell for their first break goes off before their teacher can decide who to punish, and Jongdae, Baekhyun, and Chanyeol hastily make their escape from the classroom to make sure they're not there when she does. 

"The first day of school? Really?" Jongdae scowls, hitting Chanyeol's arm as soon as they enter the hallway. "That pun just took ten years off of my life." 

"It was so great, right?" Chanyeol laughs, doing a little gallop thing before almost tripping over his feet and deciding to walk like a normal person again. Chanyeol turns to Baekhyun, looking for support, and Baekhyun lays a supportful hand on his shoulder. 

"It was wonderful, darling," Baekhyun nods mock-sincerely, and Chanyeol's face drops with an over-dramatic gasp.

"Are you making fun of me?"

"Me? Make fun of you? Who do you think I am, Park Chanyeol? Of course I was," Baekhyun laughs, dropping his hand and running away with an embarassing squeal when Chanyeol tries to grab at him. 

"Ewww," Jongdae snorts, watching the spectacle from a couple feet back. "Why am I friends with these people." 

"I know right," a voice says from directly behind him, making him jump about five feet into the air.

"JESUS CHRIST KIM MINSEOK NO," Jongdae curses when he turns around to find his friend grinning at him proudly. "The next time you do that I am going to make you cry." 

"I look forward to it," he laughs, falling into step and shaking his head at Chanyeol and Baekhyun's tangled lump of giggles on the ground down the hall. 

"So how was your first two hours of being a senior? Did you miss me?"

"Pft, you wish. Basically Luhan and Joonmyun got in trouble for talking by our new teacher who is probably in a mafia of some sort and has the power to kill you with his eyes. I'm pretty sure Joonmyun wet himself, so it's been fun so far," Minseok remarks, making Jongdae laugh. 

"Joonmyun getting in trouble? You guys really are bad influences, my mom was right."

"Excuse you, your mom loves me more than she loves you. Don't even try to deny it."

The two boys finally approach the rest of their group at the end of the hallway, Chanyeol and Baekhyun untangled and standing talking to each other, Sehun and Luhan slightly red-face, and Jongin literally sprawled out on the ground laughing. Jongdae and Minseok both breath a tired sigh at the sight of their friends, then turn to look at each other and burst out laughing. 

It really is good to be back. 

*** 

Break ends just as quickly as it started, but lunch time seems to roll around not long after. Luckily, all seven boys have the same lunch this year, unlike last year, when Jongin and Sehun had lunch before everyone else, which led to uncharacteristically peaceful lunches for the other five that none of them actually enjoyed that much, despite all of the teasing Jongin and Sehun go about how much nicer it was without the two of them there. So when the bell rings for the second time that day, everyone seems to be much more excited to get to the cafeteria than they ever had, and it's not long until an entire lunch table is claimed and filled with loud laughter and messy eating. 

"Hey, you know what we should do over the weekend?" Luhan pipes up suddenly, an idea popping into his head. "Jam session! Now that Baekhyun's back, get it, baek, heh heh," he continues through a chorus of groans and Jongdae banging his head onto the table, "we can finally have a complete band practice and not have to feel bad about him not being there. Because he will be there!" 

"I'm up for it," Chanyeol agrees. "Haven't gotten my guitar out since practically the beginning of summer."

"My house?" Minseok suggests. "I don't want to have to drive anywhere." 

Jongin throws a piece of lettuce at him. "You're so lazy, hyung. If I could drive I would drive all the time."

"And end up in a ditch somewhere."

"Shuddup Sehun, you'd be with me."

"Yeah, you're probably right. At least then someone would try to find us."

"You little-"

"OKAY SO MY HOUSE IT IS," Minseok cuts them off, wanting to avoid a headache while he can. 

"I'll give you and Jongin a ride, Sehunnie," Luhan offers and Sehun gives him a little nod. "Oh, and can I invite Joonmyun? He can drive you, Jongdae, since you guys live so close."

"Yeah, duh, we need someone to supervise us or else my house will explode. I like my house and do not want it exploding," Minseok agrees, trying to pillage some of Baekhyun's food from his tray and flinching back when his knuckles are clacked with chopsticks. 

"Me and Bacon can take the bus," Chanyeol says, and everbody nods, happy now that they have something to look forward to.

"Ohmygosh I'm so excited now! I'll finally have someone to harmonize with again and Chanyeol will have someone to play guitar with and Joonmyun will be so happy to do something other than homework and oh gosh this is so great," Luhan fangirls (fanboys?), jumping up and down and enthusiastically shoving food into his mouth. 

"See, now I'm back to questioning whether or not you do drugs. There is no other reasonable explanation for your constant enthusiasm," Jongin shakes his head. 

"I'm high on life, home dog," Luhan laughs, making a peace sign by his face.

"I hate you so much."

"Goodbye, everyone. I no longer want to live on this world."

"I'm so done with you. I'm so done."

"You are not allowed to speak ever again."

"I love you guys," Luhan laughs, and as everyone gets up to throw their food away and reluctantly return to their respective classrooms for the rest of the day, they all can't help but smile, too.

This was definitely going to be a great year.

[A/N:

hohoho my first chapter, here goes nothing!! 

I know it's kinda short, don't hate me;..;

the next chapter will definitely make up for it; this chapter was mostly just a filler so that everyone gets the jist of things, so yeah #sorrynotsorry  

So... where's Kyungsoo? Hm, gee, I wonder..*waggles eyebrows*

I don't really know how frequently I'll update, but for now I'm shooting for a chapter or two every week:)

get pumped for next chapter and I love you all:*

byee<3

]