Public High School.

You’d heard all about it, watched TV shows where girls in fishnet shirts and pleated shirts that barely brushed their wrists were pushed up against lockers by cut guys who were far too suave for their age. Everyone was doing it: The students, the teachers, and only if you were lucky, they weren’t doing it with each other. The girls were rude, the boys judging, and if you showed the slightest bit of intelligence you became the sworn enemy of anyone who ‘mattered’.

“Have a good first day!” your mom said in an apologetic tone as she pulled away from the curb and abandoned you.

Why couldn’t your parents have gone bankrupt after you’d graduated from prep school? Was six months too much to ask?

You knew from orientation that it wasn’t a big school. One story, about five-hundred students. You and 113 others were applicable to graduate come June. 113 people who knew each other and had no idea who you are.

Better not make a spectacle of yourself by being late.

Room 403 was just down the hall and to the left of the front entrance, and you hustled toward the room before freezing in the doorway. Were you supposed to go to your locker first? Isn’t that what people did before class? You hadn’t seen anyone else go to theirs. Everyone else had their backpacks with them, so you figured-

“’Scuse me,” came a voice from behind, making you jump before scurrying inside the doorway and glancing up for a split second at the person you’d just blocked.

“Ah, sorry-“

You did a double take.

“Well heeey!”

Oh hell no.

“I thought it was you when I saw that Bimmer leave the Kiss-n’-Go lane!”

What was he doing here?

 “I thought you were going to prep school- oh yeahhh, the whole ‘parents went bankrupt’ thing. I heard about that.”

A quick glance at the room that had gone silent around you showed about twenty faces staring straight at you.

 “Well, I don’t know if our humble abode is up to snuff for you, but hopefully you’ll have no problem adjusting to public school.”

Baekhyun Byun, the sole mission of whose childhood had been to make your childhood a living nightmare, wrapped an arm around your shoulders, but all you could feel was a tingling sensation.

Just as suddenly, he let go suddenly as you felt another presence behind you and heard the hard clap of a hand on a shoulder.

“Nice to see you, Baekhyun,” said a distinctly female voice. You turned to see it belonged to a woman who was smiling, and looked vaguely familiar. “I’ll be your teacher’s student teacher this year.”

“Y-Y-Yoora?” he stammered, turning around slowly. Relief washed over you like a tsunami. You knew Yoora better as your childhood saving grace. The girl who would always stop Baekhyun and his partner-in-crime Chanyeol from making your childhood a living nightmare.

“That’s Ms. Park to you! It’s good to see you’re welcoming our newest student,” she said before leaning in close enough for only Baekhyun and just barely you to hear, “and not being a bullying little like always.” She stepped back again, the smile never having left her face. “Why don’t you two take your seats?”

You were more than happy to do as told… before you realized to your dismay that the assigned seating had you placed right behind Baekhyun.

You sat down and tried to make the six-inch distance between you as big as possible.

“You know her?” the guy sitting to the left of Baekhyun asked, a guy who had a face that was handsome, but made him look fundamentally disinterested in, well, anything.

“Who, the chick behind me, or the chick at the front of the room?”

The bored-looking guy gave a nod toward the front. A glance at the nametag on his desk let you see the name “Sehun Oh” in bold black letters.

“Chanyeol’s older sister,” Baekhyun muttered. “Come back from beyond the grave to make my life hell, apparently.”

Sehun grunted an acknowledgement before returning to websurfing on his phone. Moments later, your attention was drawn away by the girl to your right, who you realized was looking at your arm with utter disgust.

“Uh… are you, like… okay?”

You looked down to see the angry red hives on your upper arm and had the same reaction.

“Y-yeahI’mokaythanks,” you say hastily, grabbing the heavy coat you brought with you and throwing it back over your shoulders, and hoping that Baekhyun wasn’t paying attention.

He was. His face lit up like a Christmas tree.

“So you do still break out in hives whenever I touch you!” he said loudly enough to draw everyone’s attention back to you. “If you want, I’ll take you to the nurse-“

“SHUT UP!” you snap back before you realize what you’re doing, and a chorus of “Oooooh”s fills the room.

Baekhyun smirks, looking at the anger on your face and knowing he has the upper hand. He doesn’t have to say anything else, as whispers begin to spark up around the classroom.

“Who does this new think she is?”

“She did not just talk to Byunnie like that!”

“She gets hives from touching him? How weird is that?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him end someone in less than two minutes. Guy’s a champ.”

Your face burned, and your heart pounded slow and hard. Less than three minutes into public high school, and you’d already lost.

“Can I have your attention, please?” Yoora suddenly called from the front. “Your teacher’s not here yet, but I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself.”

Oh Yoora. What an angel.

The teacher soon came in, and the rest of first period was uneventful, as was second and third, and before you knew it, it was lunch time.

---

The highlight of your day was easily seeing that Baekhyun didn’t have the same lunch period as you. On the other hand, being new meant not knowing anyone, and not knowing anyone meant eating in the atrium-style cafeteria alone. The only reason you knew Baekhyun in the first place was because he was a frequent visitor of Chanyeol, who had been your next-door-neighbor and preschool-friend-turned-grade-school-enemy. Since your family had moved to a smaller house, you’d been districted to a different school. No one here but your childhood arch nemesis knew you.

“Hey!” a chipper, surprisingly deep voice rang out right as you were about to bite into your sandwich, plopping down on the bench so hard that you almost caught air. “Long time no see!”

You looked up at the extremely tall guy who had sat himself down next to you.

“Uh…”

He kept smiling until he realized that you had no idea who he was. With a sigh, he rolled his eyes and pulled at his ears.

Those uniquely-shaped eyes. Those sticky-outie ears…

“Chanyeol!?”

What happened? He got hot! Guys who make your childhood miserable aren’t supposed to grow up to be hot! Whatever happened to karma!?

His hands dropped back down to his lunch box, which he opened and started fishing around in. “Took you long enough.”

“If you’re here to make my first day hell, Baekhyun already has the monopoly on that,” you said cooly, biting into your sandwich to keep yourself from revealing your inner feeling of injustice, not even bothering to ask what he was doing at that school. “You can go now.”

He was silent for a second. “Looks like the finally grew some claws- I’m kidding!” he said suddenly when you looked up at him angrily. “Jeez. Is that any way to greet your good friend Yeollie?”

When your glare didn’t ease up, he sighed again. “I leave the alpha male stuff all up to Baek now. I’m not here to tease you, so please stop trying to kill me with your eyes.”

You relinquished your glare hesitantly before taking another bite of your sandwich. “…Then why are you here?”

“Do you have to be so cold?”

“Did you have to turn into a total when we were kids?”

He nodded with a straight face. “Fair enough. Anyway, I came to ask you a favor. Hear me out before you scoff.”

You put down your sandwich and picked up your bright-red apple, staring at its small details and imperfections while waiting for him to go on.

“You’re a good actress, right?”

You took a menacing bite out of the shiny red fruit. The memories of all the major parts you’d played in school and community plays and awards you’d gotten flashed through your mind.

“Eh. –Ish.”

“Actually, drama club is putting on a production in a couple of months, and we could really, really use you as lead female.”

Your eyebrows rose; this wasn’t at all what you’d been expecting. “Me? Why me? I’m new here.”

He looked a bit distant, then replied in a lower voice. “I know. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but I don’t think of the girls here have what it takes to pull off this role. We voted on the play, but apparently none of them took that fact into consideration when they were deciding. You taking the lead in this one is the only way I can think of this play being a success. That is, if you’re as good as I’ve heard.”

You bit off another chunk of apple before meeting his challenging gaze with one of your own. “So you’re in Drama Club, I take it?”

“Secretary,” he said. “That also puts me in charge of PR. And I don’t wanna be in charge of PR for a play that’s going to .”

You nodded. “I can see that. Alright, when are auditions?”

Chanyeol’s gaze brightened to the one you remember from so many years ago.

“You’ll do it?”

“Not because you asked me to. Because-“

“I don’t give two s why you’re doing it! Auditions are right after school; art room. See you there!”

You opened your mouth slightly, but were silenced by a small wave of disappointment and hurt when you realized that Chanyeol had just gotten up and gone to eat with his friends, leaving you alone once again.