Taemin couldn't believe it. It was the first day of school, and his mom had forgotten she needed to give him a ride. There was no use in asking her to drive back from work, it was too far away. It looked like his only option was walking, but that meant he would be seriously late. He sighed as he locked the door behind him and began the long trek. It was lucky that the people that worked in the school attendance office had a soft spot for him. 

As he neared the entrance he slowed down his pace to look less harried. He didn't want people to see him desparately rushing to make it to school. Since he already had to go to the office and he had pretty much missed all of his first class Taemin decided to stop by his councelor to see if any spots had opened up in the painting class he'd wanted to take. Turns out it was his lucky day. It almost made up for having to walk to school... 

Taemin didn't have much experience with fine arts, (he'd always been a dancer) but his friend Jonghyun had taken the class last year and had told him it was pretty neat and was an easy A. Taemin was open to new experiences, and he couldn't say no to easy grades, so he'd hoped he could get into the class. 

A couple hours later he found himself wandering around the basement floor, looking for the right classroom. If he was honest, before today he didn't even know this part of the school exsisted. The room was easy enough to find, but when he walked in it looked as though all the seats had been taken. His eyes quickly sweeped over the room, trying not to show his worry. He'd gotten the last spot, so there had to be...there! Taemin breathed a silent sight of relief as he spotted an open seat in the back next to a person he had never seen before. 

His tablemate's eyes were almost covered by his outdated over-long haircut, and his body was dwarfed by too-large clothes. He sat huddled over the table, tapping the end of his pencil on the wood. Right away Taemin knew his type: insecure. He felt bad for him. This guy probably wouldn't look so bad with some fashion advice and a dash of confidence. He was probably feeling bad that no one had wanted to sit next to him yet. 

Luckily, Taemin was good with these types of people. He really liked to help people, to boost their confidence so they could feel better about themselves. He wasn't really sure why, but he'd always liked giving out compliments. Seeing people smile and change for the better because of what he'd told them helped him to feel better about himself too. He wasn't just a pretty face, he was a good person. 

He tried initiating conversation, but Kibum (he now knew his name) was slow to respond. It was ok, he had expected him to be shy. As he saw Kibum slowly tuck a piece of hair behind his ear and look at him through his long bangs he decided that he was going to get this boy to trust him. Maybe he saw Kibum as a challenge. The harder people were to reach the more rewarding it was when they finally opened up. 

As much as he loved dancing, what Taemin wanted the most was to be a therapist. He'd always been good with relating to people, but things had really hit home when his father had had a bout of depression during Taemin's middle school years. He had seen firsthand what mental illness could do to a person, and how it could bring down a whole family. He knew how much his father's therapist had helped is father and everyone else that knew him. Ever since then he'd wanted to be able to be that person for other families and people in pain. No one deserved to live like that, no one. 

In the remainder of the class he learned that Kibum was in the same year as him, he'd been doing art since he was young, and that he really didn't seem to like answering questions. 

After school he met up with Jonghyun and Minho. They'd planned on going to an arcade to use up all their spare change as a last goodbye to summer, but now Taemin also had to stop to get art supplies. Luckily his friends didn't have a problem with going there first. 

Minho drove them over to the only art store in town, and they decided to all go in with Taemin instead of waiting in the hot car. Jonghyun led them over to the paint supplies as Taemin pulled his list out of his backpack. They had almost finished collecting everything he needed when Kibum showed up with a friend. Taemin froze up a little, unsure how to address Kibum in this out of school context. He looked to his friends for help, but luckily...

"Jinki, hey!" MInho cheerfully greeted Kibum's friend whose face lit up at seeing a familiar person. 

"Minho!" Jinki responded as he walked over to clap him on the back. "Finally decided to take an interest in art?"

Minho scoffed jokingly. "I will when you come to dance practice some time," he retorted.  

The two of them took no time in introducing all of their friends to each other, and soon everyone was acquainted. It turned out that Minho and Jinki had gone to middle school together. The lived close to one another and sometimes played basketball together at a nearby park. 

Kibum looked more comfortable than he had in class, and Taemin felt bad for having tried to get him to talk so much when they'd just met. As the others chatted he walked over to speak quietly to his classmate.

"Hey, sorry for attacking you with questions earlier. I get nervous when I meet new people and I kind of lose sense of what I'm saying."

Kibum looked up at him and smiled kindly. 

"Sorry for being so grumpy. Jinki was supposed to be in the class with me, but he had to drop it this morning so I was kind of pissed about that, and then you kept talking when I'm used to working in peace." 

Taemin nodded understandingly. "I'll try to be quieter next time. I meant what I said though, you're really good!"

Kibum shook his head, rejecting the compliment, "You should see Jinki's stuff. It's incredible. I'm just ok. But thank you."

Before Taemin could answer back he heard his name being called as Minho announced it was time to depart for the arcade. They said their goodbyes and left, taking most of the noise with them. 

Jinki chuckled to himself. "Of all the people I wouldn't expect to see in here...Choi Minho."

"Yea." Kibum agreed. "All three of them. I didn't know they ever left the dance studio." 

He thought for a moment. "Taemin was nice though. He apologized for talking so much today. I guess he's not as stuck up as I thought he was."

"That's good" Jinki responded. "Maybe he's like Minho. If you don't know him his quietness can be read as arrogance...although Taemin doesn't seem to be really shy, but still..."

Kibum hummed in agreement. "I still wish you were in the class instead of him."

"Me too." Jinki agreed. "Maybe I could switch places with him some time. We have the same last name, so no one would suspect a thing."

Kibum snorted at his friend's joke, "Of course, an ingenious plan, what could go wrong?"

"Well, I doubt he'd be a fan of my Calc class." Jinki groaned, as he was brought back to reality, "I already have loads of homework."

Author's Note: Hello lovelies. <33 I hope you liked the chapter. I would have updated earlier, but I was stuck at the part in the art store. In terms of Taemin's character; his 'observations' on Kibum's insecurity are based on his snap judgement of him, and I plan on going into that later. But basically he's someone who's always been good at reading and empathizing with people, but he's never met someone like Kibum so he misreads him. Part of their story will be him learning how he judged Kibum wrong and how learning more about Kibum helps him to understand more about himself. At least that's what I would like to happen. I hope I can write it in a way that that comes across. Don't hesitate to leave comments or ask questions. I'm open to discussion. ^^