After deciding that he and Chanyeol were destined to be soulmates and that he'd tell their grandchildren about how they met in calculus and he borrowed a pencil and that's how they fell in love; Zitao began to actually pay attention to what Mr. Kim had begun writing on the board. But honestly, how could anyone pay attention with Chanyeol sitting right in front of them in all his handsome glory. Couldn't he just bask in the radiance that was Park Chanyeol and ask questions later? 

"Hmm, let's see.. Ah! Zitao, can you give me the answer to this?" Mr. Kim asked, pointing to the equation on the board. 

"He's absolutely perfect.." Zitao mumbled without thinking, causing everyone to turn to face him. Realizing what he'd let slip, he tense up and sat at attention, "I mean-- I'm sorry can I go to the restroom?" 

"Uh, sure. Take the pass." Mr. Kim replied, calling on a different student as Zitao sprang from his seat and grabbed the pass exiting the room quick as lightning.

Maybe his mother was right, maybe homeschool was the perfect place for him. At least at home he wouldn't have to face his first crush, and make a fool of himself. 

"Just calm down, he's just another person." He tried to reason as he splashed his face with cool water from the tap. This wasn't like him at all, he was all squirmy and riled up, he felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest. He considered his options, he could always hide out in one of the stalls until the bell rang, fake some sort of illness then call his mother to come collect him. But that was the cowardly way out, surely his father would be disappointed, maybe he could just go back to class with his head held high and act like nothing had happened. Feign ignorance, after all it's not like they knew who he was talking about. It was the perfect plan. 

Walking back into class like he owned the school was easy, that was until everyone looked at him like he was an alien, maybe kicking open the door had been a tad too dramatic. 

"Well that's one way to return to class." Mr. Kim frowned snatching the hall pass from the teenager's hands before returning to his lesson. 

Zitao walked to his desk painfully slow, keeping his eyes glued to the floor so as to avoid making eye contact with Chanyeol, or any one else in the room for that matter. Settling into the cold plastic that was his desk, Zitao felt secure enough to glance at the clock. 

11:55

He only had five more minutes until the bell then he could disappear in the cafeteria and stress eat like any distraught teenager. Maybe he could put Chen's survival guide to good use and find a quiet place to wallow in self pity, away from people that could potentially ridicule him. 

When the bell rang, and instant feeling of relief washed over Zitao, he let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. Tossing his belongs into his backpack as quickly as he could manage, he prepared to make his great escape. But it was too easy. It was much to simple for him to just be able to slip out of the classroom unscathed, granted it was just class and no one probably even cared about his slip up anymore, but he just had a feeling that something was going to trip him up. 

Cautiously heading for the door, he kept his guard up, ready at a second's notice to send a kick to someone's throat, or scream like a terrified six year old and run sobbing towards the cafeteria; whatever was more convenient. 

A tap to the shoulder sent the raven-haired martial artist spinning around to see his attacker. 

"Woah, sorry did I scare you?" Chanyeol chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck shyly.  "I was just gonna give you this back. Thanks again, Taozi." He added slipping the pen into Zitao's hand, lightly ruffling the younger boy's hair before walking away.

Now had any other person called him Taozi and deliberately ruffled his hair he'd probably have punched them in the throat then ripped their arm off and used the severed limb to readjust his stylishly messy hair. But this was Park Chanyeol, the butterflies that had taken up residency in his stomach could live with letting the little slip up slide. 

The entire encounter had left him rosy cheeked and practically floating into the cafeteria, and if he listened hard enough he was almost certain he could hear birds chirping a cheerful tune as little woodland creatures began putting together his wedding outfit. Okay, maybe he had an overly active imagination, but when your only friends are your over dramatic mother and your sarcasm ridden father, you sometimes needed an imaginary place to escape to. 

After basically dancing into the cafeteria, the trek through the cafeteria seemed almost like a Herculean trial. It was so crowded and confusing, it was making his head spin. All he wanted to do was find his new friends, sit, and stuff his face. Was that too much to ask for?

"Well hello there."

Zitao froze, hearing a voice so close to him. Someone had invaded his personal space. Two intruders in one day? Was this what he'd have to look forward to? He turned to face the offender, and cocked a brow, waiting to hear their excuse for bothering him when he was on a time sensitive mission to find his friends. 

"I'm Sehun. My friends and I have been holding a little competition involving everyone here in the cafeteria, and you seem to have been voted the Most Beautiful Person in this room. Congratulations, the grand prize is a night with me." He winked, placing his hand on Zitao's forearm.

"Uhm, what?" Zitao scrunched his eyebrows as he shook Sehun's hand away, backing up slightly.

"You know, that's a great outfit you've got on. It looks good on you, but it would look even better crumpled on my floor." 

"Oh my gosh, is he bothering you?" A blonde at the adjacent table asked rolling his eyes. Zitao turned to face him and recognized him as Kris, from what Chen, Baekhyun, and Xiumin had explained earlier in the day. He nodded shyly in response and turned again to face the platinum haired playboy that stood before him. 

"Sehun, why are you such a pain?" 

"I'm just playing around." The younger replied, rolling his eyes at the angry blonde.

"Sehun, you were supposed to call me last night!" Luhan spat from beside Kris, his palm covering his mouth in an attempt to be discreet.

Taking note of Luhan, Kris shook his head with disapproval but continued speaking nonetheless, "You can't just come to a party at my house with Luhan, then scam on some poor kid right in front of us three days later. Clearly he isn't interested." Kris turned his attention towards the startled looking new student, "Do you want to anything to do with him?"

"No, thank you." Zitao replied shaking his head.

"Good, now you can go be hopeless over there. Bye Sehun." Kris announced, loud enough to get other people's attention and have them stare at the platinum haired boy as he walked back over towards his friends. 

Zitao bowed his head to show his gratitude to the older boy for his help, and turned his heel immediately spotting Xiumin's smiling face. Smiling back he began to walk in said boy's direction only to be stopped.

"Wait, sit down!" Kris called after him, pointing to the seat in front of him. Zitao once again cocked his brow, pointing to himself to assure that Kris was speaking to him.

"Don't be stupid, yes you." The blonde replied nodding his head. 

Tao turned his head in Xiumin's direction, to see Chen and Baekhyun now giving him curious looks as he sat with the China Line. He simply shrugged his shoulders a bit confused himself and turned to face Kris, who seemed to have lifted the permanent scowl from his face and replaced it with his attempt at a friendly smile. 

"Why have I never seen you around before?" He asked, playing with the plastic straw that sat in his water bottle. 

"My names Zitao, I'm new, I just moved here from China." Tao replied, nervously playing with the black and silver beaded bracelet around his wrist.

"What?"

"I was home-schooled."

"Wait, what?"

"My mother taught me at home."

"No, I know what home-schooled is, I'm not retarded." Kris replied, scowl back on his overall handsome face. "But you're telling me you've never been to a public school before?"

"No."

"That's so..interesting." Kris grinned, eyes roaming over the younger boy.

"You must have made a ton of friends. You're so handsome." 

"Oh, no I haven't, but thank you."

"Oh so you agree? You think you're handsome."

"No, but I was--"

"That's a pretty cool bracelet. Where'd you get it?"

"My dad bought it for me." 

"It's adorable."

"It's totally bak!" Luhan added in, reaching out to touch the beads.

"What the hell does that mean?" Kris frowned, throwing Luhan a judging glare.

"Oh you know, like daebak but shortened.." Luhan tried to explain, a happy smile present on his feminine features.

"Wait, if you're from China.. How come you're speaking Korean?" Yixing cut in before Kris could give Luhan a snarky reply. Zitao had completely forgetten about the thin brunette sitting on Kris's right until he'd spoken up.

"Oh my gosh, Xing. You're from China and you're speaking Korean!" Luhan whined, embarrassed by his friend's silly question. Yixing then sat the remainder of the lunch break pondering the information Luhan had bestowed upon him.

"Give us a minute." Kris smiled, pulling out his cellphone, tapping away at the screen for a few seconds before both Luhan and Yixing's phones vibrated. Both boys began typing a response and within a few seconds Kris was reading their replies and grinning almost frighteningly at Zitao.

"Well Tao, you should know that we don't do this often, so this is a pretty big deal. Like it's unheard of that we'd do this." Luhan began, using his hands to express the rarity of the situation.

"We want you to sit with us." Kris nodded, looking at his nails, because honestly he was too fabulous to even look in Tao's direction right now.

"Every day for the rest of the week!" Yixing nodded excitedly like he'd just gotten a new puppy. 

"Oh, no no, it's fine I was probably gonna sit wi--"

"Perfect, see you tomorrow!" Kris nodded, standing with his water bottle, ready to leave to his next class. 

"On Wednesdays, we wear leather." Yixing smiled, his dimples on full display.

Zitao groaned and fought the urge to bang his head into the table as the three Chinese boys walked away from the table, happily talking amongst each other in their native tongue.