Yixing looked around the dining hall nervously. He’d never been around so many people, let alone so many people his own age. There were only, like eight kids in age in his home town and everyone else was way older or way younger. To make thing even more awkward for him, he had grown up around only shifters. He’d never gotten the chance to meet any non-shifters before and now here he was surrounded by them.

His mother had told him that this was a good thing. It was a chance for him to grow. He could make new friends, get to know about other about types of supernaturals first hand, and just grow as a person. His father had agreed as did the rest of his family. He had an aunt who’d gone to Dark Lake as a teenager and had gone on and on about how much he was going to love it.

The fifteen year old shifter wasn’t so sure.

Now he was even more unsure.

“I would like all of our returning students to head to their dorms,” Minji, the woman running the school, smiled, “please check the list in the front hall for your dorm room assignment. There have been several changes this year and several of you are no longer staying in the same rooms. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”

“Don’t worry about it, noona,” a kid called out from the back of the room, “we don’t mind.”

“Jongin,” a girl beside him hissed, “keep it down.” Several returning students laugh at the pair before they all got up to leave.

“Now,” Minji smiled at the children that remained, “pull up a seat and let’s talk about why you’re all here.”

--

“Room 501,” Yixing muttered to himself, “room 501.”

“I’m in that room, too,” the shifter turned around and was greeted by a warm smile.

“Huh?” Yixing blinked, taken aback by the sudden appearance of the boy standing before him.

“I’m in room 501, too,” the boy smiled, “my name is Kim Joonmyun. I’m a dragon.”

“I-I’m Zhang Yi-Yixing,” Yixing stuttered. He’d never met a dragon before, “shifter.”

“Cool,” Joonmyun smiled, “do you want to talk to the dorms together?”

“Th-That’s ok,” Yixing smiled shyly, “I’m sure y-you have friends you’d ra-rather ta-talk to.”

“Not really,” Suho suddenly looked a little shy himself, “I don’t know anyone here.”

“Oh,” Yixing frowned before hesitantly taking the other boy’s offer to walk together.

--

“Welcome!” Yixing almost had a heart attack when he opened the door to his dorm room only to have confetti thrown in his face while his two roommates – not counting Joonmyun who was behind him – shouted a welcome loud enough for the whole building to hear.

“I’m Kim Minseok,” one of the two boys greeted, pulling Yixing into the dorm, “but everyone calls me Xiumin. I’m a vampire.”

“I’m Kim Jongdae,” the other boy smiled, pulling Joonmyun inside before closing the door, “but call me Chen. Everyone does except our friend Sori. I’m a werewolf.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Joonmyun smiled, “I’m Kim Joonmyun. No one calls me anything different. I’m a dragon.”

“Really?” Xiumin asked, a bright smile on his face as he let go of Yixing, “Kris is gonna be so happy! He’s finally gonna have another dragon to talk to. Maybe. He doesn’t talk to any of the dragons already enrolled here, but he might talk to you ‘cuz you’re our roommate and we’re his friends.”

“At the very least he’ll exchange a few words with you,” Jongdae laughed, “when he stops by he'll have to acknowledge your existence, so that’s something.”

“Kris?” Joonmyun frowned slightly, “you mean Wu Yifan? That Kris?”

“You know him?” Chen’s smile dimmed slightly, “or you know of him?”

“Everyone knows about Kris,” Joonmyun told the pair, “but I always wanted to meet him. He’s one of the most powerful dragons alive today. Who wouldn’t want to meet him?”

“The council,” the vampire and werewolf replied, their joy completely gone.

“True,” Joonmyun frowned, “but that’s their loss, right? They were foolish enough to give him up to the ISBIP.” Xiumin and Chen shared a look before their smiles returned. Apparently, Joonmyun’s words pleased them.

“So what about you?” Chen asked Yixing who’d been hoping that they would forget all about him, “who and what are you?”

“Z-Zhang Yixing,” Yixing replied, “shifter.” Xiumin and Chen smiled brightly again before launching into a full celebration for the arrival of their new roommates.

Apparently, their last roommates had moved out at the end of their first year here. It had been just the two of them for all of last year and they were over the moon to no longer be alone. Jongdae made a joke about ghosts haunting the empty rooms which creeped Joonmyun and Yixing out enough that they slept in the living room that night.

--

“First day?” Yixing turned to find a pretty girl sitting beside him.

“Y-Yes,” he nodded.

“I’m Shin Sori,” she greeted, “shifter. You’re Zhang Yixing, right?”

“How d-did you k-know?” he asked, amazed that one of the most powerful shifters in the world knew his name. just like Joonmyun knew about Kris, Yixing knew about Sori. When he was younger, he’d even idolized her and wanted to be just as powerful as she was.

“Jongdae told me,” she pointed to a boy Yixing recognized as his werewolf roommate, “and Xiumin warned me that you’re very shy.”

“Oh,” Yixing looked down slightly, “I’m just not used to being around so many people. Especially when most of them aren’t shifters.”

“Really?” Sori asked, looking genuinely interested, “did you grow up in a small, shifters-only town?”

“Kind of,” Yixing nodded, “it’s not like the people there are elitist or anything like that. Non-shifters just can’t live there because of a really old council law about it being shifter territory. It’s stupid, but the council isn’t going to reverse it any time soon.”

“Very true,” Sori nodded, apparently pleased by his response, “the councils aren’t in the habit of undoing the things that they’ve done in the past. No matter how much they should.”

“You don’t like them much, do you?” Yixing’s mouth worked faster than his brain and he rushed to apologize for offending her, “I’m so sorry, it just slipped out.”

“Its fine,” she shrugged, “it’s the truth, why hide it?”

“Because the shifter council will ,” Chen said, dropping down into the seat in front of Yixing, “right, Yixing?”

“Right,” he nodded.

“They can only if they hear it,” she shrugged again with a small smirk, “are either of you going to tell on me?”

“Nope,” Chen laughed.

“No way,” Yixing shock his head, “your anger is totally deserved. They have no right to punish you for it.” Chen and Sori looked at each other and smiled.

“That’s the first time you haven’t stuttered around me,” Chen told the other boy, “looks like someone’s getting used to having non-shifters around.”

Yixing could only smile shyly.

A/N: awww, a shy Lay is an adorable Lay. Truth be told, I turn into an awkward turtle whenever I write Lay. I don’t know why, but I just find it so hard to write for the adorable unicorn. Does it show? Like always, feel free to request a character that you wanna see a special chapter for.