Baekhyun, of EXO, was in Mi-Hyun's class.

She remembered the day he was introduced, the girls' screams of disbelief, the guys' shocked and sullen faces, and him standing in front of it all with an uncomfortable smile on his face. SM could do a lot of things but pulling a 17 year old out of school? Nu uh.

And so to reinforce their image of hardworking and studious idols, SM  had decided to enroll the boys of EXO into a school renowned for its exceptional results, friendly reputation but most importantly; flexible schedules. And guess what school that was? You got it. It was Mi-Hyun's.

Good job, SM.

It was hectic at first. Mi-Hyun remembered being almost late for that class, just had the teacher entered had she managed to slip her hand between the closing door and pushed it back open. Almost running inside, she had been shocked to see her classroom teeming with at least double the amount of usual students. Judging by their uniform, some looked like they didn't even go to their school.

She knew had dropped a little, there was such a crowd her eyes almost missed the very boy who had caused all of this commotion.

He sat in the middle, girls forming a gushing circle effectively trapping him. He was nervous, anyone could tell, but the girls didn't want to back off, excitedly babbling to him while he answered politely with a strained smile.

Hands clasped in front. Black hair. Small eyes. Cute.

However, not devilishly handsome enough for all of this fuss. What on earth was going on?

Mi-Hyun's eyes wandered past and she noticed her two best friends at the back of the room, making desperate little hand gestures for her to come over. She nodded, eyes lighting up in recognition and hurried over. As she passed the boy, she felt it.

A pull.

Just a little one. Almost magnetic, like her whole soul was drawn a little in his direction.

And then Mi-Hyun frowned, because although not unpleasant, it was weird and maybe she was a little freaked and then she just kind of felt his presence all at once, the thought of him being physically a couple of meters from her, all of him, just sitting there all of this rushed through her in 0.38292631 seconds so she did the only thing possible; she firmly ignored it and walked on.

No drama scene of a girl stopping dramatically then the guy looking dramatically at her and a dramatic moment of silence as their eyes met. None of that. Just a pull then a push.

'Oh my god,' Ga-In said, slapping the table next to her so Mi-Hyun would sit down. 'Oh my god.'

'What?' Mi-Hyun said, perplexed.

'That's-that's-he's-oh my god...' From there, she decided to flap her hands around crazily, trying to grasp for words that just refused to leave .

'She means,' Hyorin calmly said on Mi-Hyun's other side, 'that we have a new student in our class. Apparently he's in some rookie group that debuted a few months back.' Her eyes didn't even leave the page of the book she was reading.

'Ohhhh,' exhaled Mi-Hyun. 'Okay...that's great?'

'Arghh-it's more than great!' sqeauled Ga-In, finally able to speak past her excitement. 'I can't believe he's in our class! THE Byun Baekhyun-'

And at that point, the teacher cut her off.

'Settle down!' He looked sternly around the room. 'We have a new student today. I understand he may not be a student outside of school but while he's in my class, he is. We are here to learn. Any student with any other goal will be asked to leave. No pictures and no videos. Whatever happens in this school stays in this school, got it?'

You tell them, Mr Kim, Mi-Hyun chanted in her mind.

'Alright. Please introduce yourself.' Mr Kim inclined his head towards the boy and the boy stood up.

'Hello, my name is Byun Baekhyun. I'm seventeen years old and from now on will be your classmate. Please take care of me.'

His voice was higher than Mi-Hyun had expected, but other than that, normal, and he bowed deeply at the end of his speech. A flurry of giggles erupted around the classroom, which were silenced by Mr Kim's glare.

'Okay,' he said, clearing his throat. 'Please open up your history textbooks, page seventy-two...'

The rest of the class proceeded in the normal fashion. The morning periods ended and to the immense disappointment of the fangirls and Ga-In, Baekhyun had to leave due to his schedule. On his way out, he bowed once more to the teacher and then walked out the door. Out of the corner of her eye, Mi-Hyun thought she saw him breathe out in relief.

But how would I know? she thought to herself. I don't even know the guy.

~~~

Baekhyun didn't go to school for the next two days.

'Idols are pretty busy, I guess,' Mi-Hyun said in response to Ga-In's complaining. She flipped through the new school newspaper, looking for articles she had only seen before on her computer screen. Being the editor-in-chief made her pretty busy herself.

'I know~' Ga-In sulked, as she rested her head in her arms. 'But the boys here are so boring.'

She wrinkled her nose in distaste at the group of guys next to them, talking in hushed whispers over some magazine or comic. 'If only we had more guys like Baekhyun.'

'Do you even know what Baekhyun is like?' Hyorin asked. Mi-Hyun waited expectantly for Ga-In's answer.

'No,' Ga-In said reluctantly. She added more confidently, 'But I'll find out.'

'Says another million stalker girls on the internet,' Mi-Hyun muttered, turning back to her newspaper.

'Hey, I heard that!'

~~~

When Baekhyun finally returned, there were bags underneath his eyes. Mi-Hyun guessed that he hadn't used makeup at school for a more friendly fit-in approach but it didn't seem to be working. He still seemed to be isolated from the rest of the class.

Meanwhile, the rest of the class had split into two simple groups:

Options A: Fangirls of Baekhyun

Option B: Onlookers

Hyorin and Mi-Hyun with the rest of the boys belonged in the latter while Ga-In (although Mi-Hyun pretended not) belonged to Option A. The whole social system was disrupted because of a transfer student. Not that Mi-Hyun minded. She liked change. It was interesting to see where it would go.

There was an art show in the gym at lunch that day. Mi-Hyun went with Ga-In, who so happened to be the photographer for the school newspaper while Hyorin like the recluse she was, disappeared into the library. Arm in arm, they walked leisurely around, stopping so Ga-In could take some shots. The finalists had already been marked and Mi-Hyun took off her glasses to lean in and take a closer look at one of the paintings.

'It's kind of ugly,' she declared absentmindedly to Ga-In. She heard someone chortle from behind her. She ignored the person. People laughed when others told the truth. Although it certainly was not very pleasing to the eye, the artwork still made something stir inside of Mi-Hyun. 'I kinda like it, actually,' she said. 'Okay, I'm voting for this one. Take a picture, Ga-In...Ga-in?'

Mi-Hyun looked at her best friend, who was gazing with her eyes bulging at something behind Mi-Hyun's shoulder. Mi-Hyun turned to see Baekhyun press his sticker onto the voting chart beneath the painting. Had the chortle come from him? He gave her a brief smile (she was feeling that pull again, why, why, why) and then walked off. Mi-Hyun watched him join another guy, ridiculously tall, and the two off them walked off together talking casually while a trail of girls followed.

'Oh my god...', whispered Ga-In. 'Baekhyun smiled at you....HE SMILED AT YOU DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS OH MY GOD OH MY GOD-'

'If you keep on saying 'Oh my god' your vocabulary will shrink to the size of a peanut,' Mi-Hyun snapped at her. She raised her hands to her face to find it a little hot. Had it always been this hot in the gym? Were the air conditioners on? What if they were all slowly suffocating without them knowing it? Surely someone else knew about the temperature and would do something? Should she-

'You're freaking out in your mind, aren't you?' whispered Ga-In, leaning in freakishly close and peering. 'I can see it in your eyesss...'

Mi-Hyun pushed her away.

'Stop it!'

~~~

Their Mi-hyun's second encounter with Baekhyun in that week was in class. All the fangirls had somewhat calmed down when it started to become clear Baekhyun would do really nothing but listen and take notes. One afternoon, Mi-hyun suddenly found herself sitting next to him.

She didn't know if she had been the one to sit next to him or he was the one who sat next to her and when he caught her staring, she knew she had to say something.

'Woah, I didn't notice you were there,' Mi-hyun blurted, since it was the truth and the truth was always the first thing that came to mind.

She didn't know if it was the afternoon sunlight or the warm drowsiness of the class but Baekhyun seemed more relaxed right now than he'd ever been since he'd transferred. He looked at her. 'Well...I'm here.'

An awkward silence.

'Uh, okay.' Feeling stupid, Mi-hyun turned her face to her book and proceeded to dive into the world of mathematics, where no numbers would make her as flustered as a boy ever could. Five minutes later, a note was slid over on her desk. It was from Hyorin:

Hey, did you watch the new episode of The Autumn Rain? Thoughts on Minseok, go go go

Mi-hyun scribbled back a reply.

Still not sure whether he would be fit to play the female role or male role

She passed it back and heard a giggle. It slid back to her again.

He should be the seahorse, that way he can have the babies and still be the man in the relationship ;)

Mi-hyun couldn't contain her laugh. She clapped her hand over to stifle the sound but her shoulders shook regardless. She felt Baekhyun's curious eyes on her, and just for the sake of it, she slid the note over for him to read. As soon as she did it, she wanted to snatch it back. What if he didn't watch the drama? What if he didn't find it funny? What if he thought she was crazy? But a few seconds later, he started to laugh as well, silent sounds coming out from his mouth as his eyes practically closed in their amusement. Mi-hyun felt an ache to hear the real thing.

His eyes met hers and they laughed together, silent silent laughter, for one more second before he slid the note back and resumed his work, still smiling. Mi-hyun folded it and tucked it in her pocket. It felt important, for some reason. At the end of the lesson, as Mi-hyun swung her bag over her shoulder and pushed her chair in, she dared to do one more thing. She gathered up her guts, turned to Baekhyun and said, 'Bye.'

Just a normal bye, like the casual one friends gave to each other at the end of a long day. Baekhyun looked surprised, then looked at her expectant expression and returned the 'Bye' with a grin. Without knowing it, both had taken the first tentative step towards an inevitable friendship.

Mi-hyun smiled and left. After a few minutes, Baekhyun decided to leave as well, politely saying goodbye to the girls and climbing into the van parked outside of the school. As they drove out  of the school, his manager asked the group of boys, 'How was the first week of school, kids? You like it here?'

Chanyeol was the first to respond. 'I hate it! The other students treat me like an alien or something.'

'Well, it's not like we didn't know that would happen,' Kyungsoo replied. 'I'm sure it'll get better.'

'There are so many girls in my class!' Jongdae laughed. 'I don't know how to act around them. What am I supposed to do?'

'Just ignore them,' Suho chips in. 'If you don't know what to say, say your greetings then just ignore them. But you know, politely.'

'Or you can flirt with them!'

'Chanyeol!'

'I was just kidding! No flirting, Lee Soo Man told me clear enough before...'

'Baekhyun?' The manager looked back at the quiet member.

'Hyung?'

'Yeah?'

'When does the next episode of The Autumn Rain air?'

A/N: The Autumn Rain is a fictional drama, just letting you guys know ^^ I promise Mi-Hyun and Baekhyun will have more interaction in the next chapter :)