“I can’t believe you just left me like that!”

“I came back to get you!” Chanyeol countered as he stood by your locker and listened to you whine about his little mini-prank earlier. He had indeed immediately come back to invite you to eat with him and his friends, but not before you had a very mild existential crisis at your table. “Don’t be so whiny. Do you know where the auditorium is?”

You nodded once before he interrupted.

“Well, so you don’t get mad again, I’ll walk with you, alright?”

You remained silent as you put your books into your bag. As you checked to make sure your physiology reader was in there, you heard him scoff.

“Okay, I’m sorry for being mean to you when we were kids. Happy?”

“It wasn’t that,” you sighed, closing the door and fastening your lock back in its place. “I dislike Baekhyun for being such a jerk. I hate him for making you be the same way. But I despise you the most. Because you let him.”

Chanyeol pursed his lips and gave a slightly annoyed look while removing his hat and putting it back on. “I’m sorry, okay. Kids are easily influenced, especially when you give loser kids like I was the chance to be cool. I can’t do anything about it now but apologize and tell you that I’m not like that anymore. Unless you want me to atone or something.”

“I guess you have a point,” you murmured as you followed him. You hadn’t seen the guy nearly at all since fifth grade. Despite the old emotions, logically speaking you had no reason not to give him the benefit of the doubt. “Alright. We’re cool for now. I guess I might as well have at least one ally… ish… person…”

“Friend,” he corrected with a smile.

“…Let’s start with ally.”

---

When you walked into the auditorium, you noticed quickly that the only other students were a group of seven other girls.

“Guys,” Chanyeol called out in an excited voice that commanded attention, in contrast to the higher-pitched babble. “I wanna introduce you to our newest member.”

The other girls waved politely. You smiled back.

“Are we ready to get started, then?” asked a girl who you assumed must be the club president. As she got to her feet, you could see that she was absolutely beautiful, with all the looks and features you’d expect of an alpha , but two big, kind-looking eyes that entirely offset any prejudgements you’d have made otherwise. “Well, first, welcome to our newest member. I’m the faculty advisor for this club, Taeyeon. Please don’t call me Ms. Kim. Just don’t go there, and we’ll have a wonderful semester. Did you have any experience in acting at your old school?”

She’s old enough to be a teacher!? “A little,” you hear yourself answer.

“That’s modesty to the point of lying,” Chanyeol interjected. “She’s- well, you’ll see soon. She wants to audition for the lead.”

“Oh, great!” Taeyeon said, grinning. “Whenever D.O. gets here, we can start. Ah, he’s the club president,” she explained. “And speak of the devil!”

“Sorry I’m late,” said a somewhat short guy with a serious face framing huge eyes, as he came power-walking through the door. “Had to discuss some student council matters.”

“If you and Suho need to do student council stuff, Taeyeon and I can handle the-“ Chanyeol offered, before being cut off.

“Nah, it’s fine. President should be here for casting for our biggest production of the year. Let’s get started, though. I’ve got an IB assignment due tomorrow.”

You could tell that despite the large, child-like eyes, that serious face had a serious person behind it. You didn’t pay attention for long, though, as your mind was drawn to the photocopies of the script being passed around.

---

You sat politely through the other auditions, but you could see why Chanyeol had been desperate enough to ask you to try out. It wasn’t that the other girls were bad, they just didn’t have the complexity of emotion that the audition piece required. As you watched, you noticed Chanyeol; it would have been difficult not to, as he was immediately in front of you. He was busily taking notes, underlining them and nodding when a girl hit the tone he was looking for on a certain line, scribbling furiously when someone fell flat.

When it was your turn to go up, you couldn’t help but have a passing thought, something along the lines of not wanting to see him do a lot of scribbling.

And he didn’t. He didn’t write anything at all, from what you could see out of your peripheries. You could see his head bobbing up and down, though. A lot of bobbing was done. And when you finished the part, the entire room burst into applause, with thundering clapping coming from the two men in the room.

“Welp, she got the part,” you could hear one girl whisper to another in the audience. The girl being whispered to shot you a thumbs-up. Perhaps drama club would be your key to survival at this school.

---

“You can go home whenever, y’know,” Chanyeol said, tapping your leg with the toe of his shoe.

You looked up at him, then at the clock. Fifteen minutes had passed since you finished your audition and took to starting on your menial first-day homework assignments while sitting cross-legged in a back corner of the auditorium. You were hidden from sight behind the rows of auditorium seats, but somehow he had managed to find and come pester you.

“Nope,” you said as your attention returned to your work. Your mom had insisted on dropping you off on your first day, with the assumption that you could ‘get to know people’ on the bus ride home. Said bus had left at 3:45, and it was now encroaching upon 4:30. “I don’t have a ride.”

“I’ll take you home,” he said as if the idea was commonplace.

“No thanks,” you said flatly. “My mom can come get me when she gets off of work.”

He gave an unreadable expression. “That’s stupid. Meeting ends at five.”

“And?”

“And you’re just going to sit here until five-thirty or whenever when you could already be at home.”

“Yup.”

“…Alright. I’ll come get you when the meeting ends,” he said, completely ignoring your proclamation. With that, he looked over to see that the next audition was about to start, and left you to yourself.

---

You didn’t give him the chance to come get you, because that wasn’t an argument you felt like having. When five rolled around, you were long gone from the auditorium, and wandering the halls of your new school.

As you walked by the school’s trophy case, listening to the sound of your echoing footsteps, a name flashed by your eyes. You backed up a half-step to learn exactly why Baekhyun seemed to have such a large following of students who cared about him.

“Varsity MVP: Baekhyun Byun”

A few news-clippings gave you the other details. He was the star running back who had helped the team make an impossible come-from-behind victory against their rival school and eventually the entire local division tournament. If there was one think he had always been good at, it was being an alpha male. Most people couldn’t see it, for some reason or another. His puppy-like appearance put an air of innocence about him that made adults overlook him.  He was quite the likeable, affable guy in most situations, and that was the way most people got to know him. You had no problem admitting that; it was a fact. But get in between him and something he wanted, and he would end your social life with a snap of his fingers. When it came to you though, it hadn't been a thing, it had been a person. And he hadn’t just taken Chanyeol away from you. He had turned him against you.

“This isn’t where I would have expected to- um, you okay?”

You jumped and turned when the baritone voice sounded behind you, to see a curious-looking Chanyeol. It wasn’t until then that you noticed the angry heat that had risen in your face.

“I, uh… the club meeting… it’s over, so I looked for you, and…” He tried to stammer out an excuse before eventually just giving up. “Just let me drive you home. We need to talk.”

“I already called my mom-“

“Well call her back and tell her I’m driving you. Don’t make this difficult,” he said, his expression going hard.

Your brows furrowed as the heat continued to rise, this time directed toward him. “What makes you think you of all people can tell me what to do?”

“I didn’t mean it like that.” He closed his eyes and removed his cap to run his fingers through his hair, clearly exasperated. “Look, I’m sorry. I would really like to talk to you, about everything. I think it’s a good idea if we’re going to be in the same place five times a week for five months, so if it’s okay with you…”

You were silent for a few moments, glancing upward briefly to look at him. He looked honestly distressed, a face you had only seen on him very rarely, and one that had always meant he was expressing his most basic thoughts. He never put himself out there like that if he could avoid it.

“Okay,” your instinct spoke up before you had a chance to deliberate with yourself. “But you have a lot to explain.”