The boy pressed himself to the walls of the hallway, tightly clutching his books close to his chest. Once he caught sight of the blonde tuff of hair, his breathing hitched and his eyes went wide, continuing to follow the owner of the hair.

“Blonde?”

“Good morning Mr. Kim!”

Girls started to surround the blond male and they squealed obnoxiously at his new look. The teacher gave a curt bow before continuing to walk towards his designated class, overlooking the trail of high schoolers following him like lost puppies. He held a bag slung over his shoulder and walked with a slight hop in every step he took.

 “Hey Mr. K! Cool hair man.”

Boys that passed by gave high fives and the teacher just smiled politely in response while returning their gestures with his free hand.

“All of you get to class!”

A woman in her late fifties slammed one of the nearby doors open and waved her arm, whipping around the ruler in her hand. The area under her arm was wrinkled and jiggled with every movement she made. She scrunched up her nose at the bug eyed students.

“Well, what are you all waiting for?!”

“I’m sorry Mrs. Lee, I became late because I forgot the rest of the correction papers at home and went back to retrieve them. Please forgive my tardiness.”

The old lady spun around with her ruler and raised it high over her head, but was met with a man bowing back towards her. He had his head held down low and she instantly began tucking the stray hairs in her face behind her ears.

“It’s nothing Mr. Kim, you are excused! We wouldn’t want one of our best teachers to have detention, now would we?” She gave a sickly sweet smile and the male teacher just scratched the back of his neck.

“I wouldn’t exactly call myself a teacher yet Mrs. Lee. I’m still in my training period.”

Mrs. Lee just waved her hand and placed another on his shoulder, acrylic nails scratching over his dress shirt.

“Oh, but you already teach a class on your own so why pay attention to the little details! And need to be so formal to me Joonmyeon, call me noona.”

The male teacher gave a smile back while bowing once more, making the old woman in front of him give another sheepish smile and saunter back into her classroom. Once the door closed, loud shouts were heard from inside and everyone knew that the students were being yelled at. Mrs. Lee had a knack for punishing students for no reason.

Kim Joonmyeon, age 22, first year of teaching at Kyungbok High School. Standing at five feet and eight inches, bright angelic smile and poised body, he was the epitome of all men. Girls swooned when he passed by and boys looked up to him as if he were god in a human form. He just finished his basic degree for teaching and was working as an assistant, but the school thought it was okay for him to go solo, allowing the male to be in charge of his own class instead of having to work as a teacher’s aide.

“Move it loser!”

The boy that was standing towards the edges of the walls was pushed down onto the ground, snapping out of his daze and focusing on the pain his hands and knees. All of his books and belongings crashed onto the floor and a chorus of snickers just resonated in the semi empty hallway.

“Hah, nice one Hyunshik!” The gang of boys high fived the one named Hyunshik and all cackled as the boy on the floor tried gathering his possessions.

“Don’t think you’re getting out of this scot free mute boy. Same place, same time, don’t be late or you’ll get it.”

Hyunshik held up a fist and kicked the backpack on the floor, abusing miscellaneous objects and school supplies. His crew all kicked the books and once they stepped on each and every thing on the floor, they left, leaving the boy with his tattered self.

“This day can’t get any worse.”

“ZHANG YIXING, GET YOUR TO CLASS BEFORE I SEND YOU TO THE PRINCIPLE’S OFFICE AGAIN!”

A horrid shriek made its way into the hall and bounced off the plainly painted walls, entering the boy’s ears. Lay gathered up the rest of his books and stuffed them into his bag, avoiding the menacing glares from the hag with the ruler.

“This is the twenty first century and she holds that ruler like she’s able to punish us with it. She needs to get with it or get out.”

Smiling at his little remark, he ran to his next class to escape the witch’s wrath. He opened the door to the class and heads turned to look at the sound, but only for a brief moment before going back to whatever they were doing earlier. Lay made his way to the back of the class and pulled out his chair, not fazed by the loud scraping noise the metal pegs made on the tile ground.

“When will they grow up?”

He brushed the paper balls and empty candy wrappers off his desk while flicking away the thumbtacks on his chair. Nobody bothered to talk to him since he was just a transfer from China; they figured he didn’t know how to speak the native tongue anyways.

Sitting in the back, nobody disturbed him unless it was one of Hyunshik and his cronies, but that was a daily chore. If he was back at home, his friend Tao would have kicked their asses long ago. Even Kris would have kept them away with his mean looks, but if he was back at home in China, he would have been able to at least defend himself in his own language.

“Here goes another day.”

Putting up with the amount of spitballs and eraser bits thrown his way, Lay made it through the first half of school and the bell finally rang, signaling a break before the second half of hell.

Then again, every minute in this place was hell to Lay.

Making his way out of the class, he was shoved out of the way by a few of his classmates before he was successfully able to make his way to the roof. He trailed up the steps and twisted the doorknob to the roof, throwing his body against the door to push it on its rusty hinges.

“Good of you to finally show up freak.”

“Why won’t these girls leave me alone?”

Suho frantically walked down the hall, taking sharp turns around the corners to avoid having to face the usual hoard of girls that barged into his class during lunch. He could never get any peace during this time due to their shrill voices and high pitched giggles every time he tried to take a bite of his lunch.

Seeing another group of girls the way he was planning to go, he backtracked and made a beeline up the stairwell. He hid in the darkness of the unlit area and held his breath.

“Where did Mr. Kim go?”

“I think he went this way, let’s catch him before lunch ends!”

The clicks of their heels come closer to where he was hiding, but the sounds faded in the distance and he let out a relieved sigh.

The sound of a door rattling brought him out of his thoughts and he saw a patch of light coming from under the door he stood next to.

“This must be the roof. Might as well eat here since I can’t go back to my class.”

Turning the dingy doorknob with utmost care, Suho felt the breeze hit his face and another sigh was released from his lips. Taking a step, he shielded his eyes from the sun and continued to walk forward out onto the roof.

“What the…”

Looking at the sight in front of him, there were about six or seven boys all gathered in a circle, kicking their feet forwards at a lump in the center. Peering between their legs and feet, he found a crumpled body amidst the chaos.

“Hey! What are you boys doing up here?!”

Hyunshik and his crew turned to find the blonde teacher rushing forward towards them and they all backed up, hearts thumping and becoming frantic at being caught red handed. Suho scanned their faces and jabbed a thumb back towards the entrance towards the roof. By the way that Suho was looking at them, the boys knew they were in some deep .

“L-LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!”

The boys scrambled around the teacher who just stayed in his spot with his arms crossed. Suho rubbed his temples before going towards the boy on the floor.

“Hey kid, are you okay?”

Feeling the beatings stop, Lay inhaled deeply to give his lungs oxygen. He managed to get some air in, but also breathed in the dirt from the ground, throwing him into a coughing fit. Looking up to see who his savior was, he was met with the blinding light of the sun and a dark shadow looming over him. He crossed his arms up in front of his face and waited for the blow, but nothing happened, leaving him bewildered at the person in front of him. Peeking around his arms, he found the person’s face hard to make out from the harsh light.

“I said are you okay? Those brats looked like they were beating you pretty hard.”

Lay rubbed the dust out of his eyes and gasped as his eyes started to adjust. The light was less blinding, but was still shining as brightly as ever and it made the blonde in his hair glow like an angel’s halo.

Lay scooted back on the floor before standing and brushing off any debris from his clothing.

“Don’t worry about those boys earlier. I’ll make sure to get them in trouble for you.” Suho winked and Lay felt the tips of his ears heat up.

“Hey kid. Are you sure you’re okay?”

He leaned forward and pressed a hand over Lay’s forehead, his eyebrows creasing together while trying to find a temperature. Lay on the other hand felt his stomach do a weird flip flop and squirmed from the uncomfortable feeling.

Suho’s hand looked prim and dainty, his nails perfectly trimmed and without a scar in sight. But when he put his hand down on Lay’s forehead, Lay felt the small amounts of calluses Suho’s palm and he shivered at the way his rough fingertips brushed over his face.

“You do seem a little hot, but I don’t think-“

Before Suho could finish his sentence, a hand swiped out and whacked his hand away from Lay’s forehead. Suho just stared at Lay who was fidgeting uneasily and hiding his hands behind his back.

“S-Sorry… I have to go now.”

Lay quickly grabbed his abandoned bag, hastily trying to force all of his belongings back inside and ran straight to the exit, leaving Suho in his surprised state. He’d never seen a student run as fast as Lay did just now. Most of his students tried to catch his attention for as long as possible, but Lay had looked at him as if he were a monster and bolted out of there once he got the chance.

Suho stood with his head tilted downwards, wracking his brain for a reason why that student acted that way.

“Maybe he thought he was going to get in trouble? I should tell him later. Too bad I don’t have him in any of my classes.”

Suho heard the bell ring and that signaled the end of lunch. He exhaled exasperatedly, turning on his heel back to the classroom when his foot collided into something and he heard the sound of something sliding against the concrete ground. Looking down, he saw a tiny book with English words on it.

“Basic English Conversation for Beginners”

He picked it up and flipped through the pages, wondering why that boy had this book with him.

Pocketing the small paperback book, he now knew how he was going to talk to the strange boy tomorrow.