The bell rang loudly throughout the school, signalling all the students of SOPA Seoul that first period has started. All of them piled into their classrooms quite noisily.
 
It was currently a breezy Thursday morning when Mark walked down the now empty hallways of his new school, a map in one hand and a short stack of books in the other. He had just finished a 'meeting' with the principal who welcomed him, albeit too happily. The man had a grin that could battle The Joker's, Mark thought.
 
"3B," He mumbled out loud, scanning his eyes over the labels on the doors of each classroom. Once he found it, he stuffed the map into his back pocket before wiping his clammy hand onto the fitted black school pants he was wearing, then reached out to the handle, carefully opening the door. 
 
The teacher immediately took note of his presence and gestured for the new student to come in, a welcoming and warm grin plastered on her face that made him feel a bit more relaxed. 
 
"Come in, come in!" She exclaimed as Mark shut the door behind him, walking up to her timidly to stand beside her in front of the classroom. All of the student's attentions were now on him, most looking bored though a few looked mildly intrigued.
 
Mark gripped onto the strap of his backpack lightly while he shifted from foot to foot. "Uh, hello. My name is Mark Yi-En Tuan."
 
There was a slight accent to his Korean which showed that he was foreign even though his looks already gave that fact away.
 
"Alright, Mark. I'm your homeroom teacher, Mrs Kim. You may take a seat beside.." She paused to scan her classroom, finding only one spot open. A sigh left her thin lips as she tapped the front of her heels against the floor, shaking her head at a certain student who had his attention stuck onto the sight of the field outside the window. 
 
Now normally Kim Taeyeon wouldn't let anyone sit beside Jaebum, who was quite the troublemaker indeed. But she currently had no choice since the other spots were taken. Sighing yet again, the teacher gestured for Mark to head to the seat at the back. "Sit beside Mr Im there,"
 
Mark noticed all the stares he was getting as he made his way down the right aisle to the back row. He felt self-conscious of himself, like he always was. 
 
Once he reached his assigned table, he dropped his small stack of books onto it before sliding into the chair. He was about to place his backpack onto the ground like he had always done in America but then he took notice on how everyone else's bags were hanging off the back of their seats. The transfer student did the same, with the intention of fitting in and not standing out since that wasn't his forte.
 
Sparing his desk mate a glance, Mark noticed how the other didn't seem to care about anything other than the field outside where a class of freshmen, Mark presumed, were having PE. His eyes flickered downwards to the guy's name tag and read, 'Im Jaebum' in his head. He watched as the other's eyes blink every few seconds, seemingly getting heavier by the second. It wasn't until exactly two minutes and thirty-four seconds later of staring (yes, Mark kept count only because Mrs Kim's lecture on cleanliness is boring), did the stranger finally turn his head towards him with a bored look on his face, his eyebrows raised and his lips lazily twitched up into the slightest smirk.
 
"Ya know, a picture can last way longer."
 
Oh crap.
 
Mark spluttered a few incoherent words, half in Mandarin and the other half in English. The other just stared at him with amusement before letting out a yawn, his head dropping onto his desk with a light thud.
 
Blinking at the now sleeping student a few more times, highly confused, Mark just shrugged then took out his notebook to sketch a few things even though he wasn't that good in art.

-

 
"You idiot, wake up!"
 
Groggily, Jaebum woke up and stared up at the source of the annoying sound, expecting it to be the new kid.
 
Though when he looked up, he saw his 'best friend', Park Jinyoung. 
 
Everyone usually questions why the two are even friends to begin with since Jaebum was more of lazy and uncaring about his grades while Jinyoung did everything in his will power to get straight A's every time.
 
They've been friends since they were in diapers, never leaving each other's  sides at all. It was always a given fact that Jinyoung was smarter and more hardworking, thus earning more love then both their parents (Jaebum's foster ones) than Jaebum does which is why the latter willingly slacks off just to annoy his parents.
 
He always tried to hate the other because everyone loves Jinyoung, but the guy didn't do anything other than be himself so Jaebum couldn't really put the blame on the younger.
 
"Where's Mike?" Jaebum yawned out before getting up, looking around the classroom only to see a few students doing their homework or chatting with each other.
 
The younger threw him an odd look, which would look incredibly judgemental if you hadn't known him for long. "Who's Mike?"
 
Jaebum blinked. "The transfer guy, isn't his name Mike?" He questioned in confusion as the two made their way to the cafeteria.
 
"There's a transfer student?" Jinyoung asked with wide eyes, not knowing of the news since he was in a different class. Normally you'd have to be either really smart or loaded to be accepted into the school since it was prestigious.
 
All he earned was a nod from the other as they lined up to get their food which didn't take long considering the girls who ogled over them would always let them cut line.
 
Just as they took their tray of food and paid, the whole cafeteria went from being loud to dead silent. Jaebum turned his head to the entrance of the cafeteria, his eyes immediately falling onto a guy who had his eyes glued on a book. Said guy slowly lifted up his head and instantly flushed once he noticed that everyone was eyeing him.
 
"Is that him?" Jinyoung asked, still staring at the boy who had run off to one of the tables by the corner. Once he sat down, he placed his paper bag onto the table and took out a ziplock bag with two sandwiches inside. Jinyoung quirks a brow at that.
 
"What is he, 11?" He snorts, about to head to his usual table with Jaebum when the older suddenly walked off without him, in the direction of where the new kid was sitting.
 
"Mikeyyyy!" Jaebum exclaimed before sliding into the seat across from Mark's, setting his tray down on the table. Jinyoung, not wanting to sit alone, trudged off after the older then slid into the seat beside Jaebum, not particularly caring about the foreign guy in front of him as he began to eat quietly.
 
Mark blinked once, twice. He stared at the two in front of him, only recognising one of them. A few seconds of silence later, he cleared his throat. "It's Mark."
 
"Potaeto, potahto."
 
Jinyoung huffed, looking up from his plate of food, ready to shoot an insult at either of the two only to not say anything once he set his eyes on the new kid.
 
White skin, plump lips, twinkling eyes and messy hair.
 
"Woah," was all the youngest of the three let out.
 
Jaebum's head snapped towards the younger, his face scrunched up in obvious disapproval. "What's the matter? Love at first sight?" He snorted, making Mark blush slightly at that.
 
Looking like he was just caught red-handed, Jinyoung instantly shook his head. 
 
'Be straight, Jinyoung. Straight,' He chanted in his head, shaking off his thoughts of the extremely attractive foreign guy in front of him. Sighing in visible frustration, he grabbed his pudding cup and began piling spoonfuls of it into his mouth.
 
Mark stared at him, both confused and intrigued. Just as he was about to say something to the new face, Jaebum waved a hand in front of him. 
 
"He's straight, don't even think about it," The boy stated as if it were a living fact. 
 
Mark just huffed. "And what if I am too? Maybe I just wanted to make friends?"
 
Jaebum just chuckled as he leaned forward, looking all smug which made the older have an to punch him. He grabbed Mark's hand that held a slice of pizza, eyeing his fingers before dropping it onto the plate to stare at the other's face which was only inches away.

Mark somehow felt like digging a hole as he fidgeted in his seat, avoiding Jaebum's eyes. 
 
"No way you're straight. Your nails look like they were newly cut. Your skin seems flawless so that means you use facial products and your hair seems too neat and washed for a straight guy's. They wanna appear rough and masculine though you however look presentable. And your avoiding my eyes which means you know I'm right. T'is why I call bull." 
 
And the same smirk Mark received earlier spread onto Jaebum's lips as Mark stared at him, awestruck.
 
Jinyoung, who was trying to appear as nonchalant as possible at the hopefully correct analysis, pointed a spoon towards Mark with pursed lips. "You'll get used to it. But hey, at least we know his brain is working right?"
 
And that earned him a smack to his head.

-

It was senior study hall time, which basically meant a free period where all the classes are mixed up and are 'supervised' by a sleeping teacher 'taking care' of the class. 
 
Jinyoung was flipping through his physics book, bored because he knew all the contents of it already. His mind then drifted off to Mark, cursing himself because he used to not believe in 'love at first sight' but then now he couldn't seem to deny the fact that maybe his heart had been stolen by someone he's only spoken a sentence or two to.
 
"Uh, hi. Can I sit here?"
 
As per usual, some sleaze in his class wants to sit next to him to either copy his notes or ask him to so their work. Normally that role belonged to Jang Wooyoung, a jock who was now repeating his senior year for the second time. Though he was a nice guy, he didn't bother with his studies.
 
"No, Wooyoung-shi. You may not," Without even looking at the source of sound, Jinyoun replied as he pretended to be intently reading about the structure of atoms. 

"Wooyoung?" The same voice sounded in confusion and that was when Jinyoung realised it wasn't the repeater after all.

Slowly, he lifted up his head and saw Mark staring at him with those dark brown orbs of his that reminded Jinyoung of a lost puppy and oh god he wasn't supposed to feel this way---

"Jinyoung? I'm sorry if I'm interrupting but you're the only one I know here and I need help with my homework if that's alright? I should've learned Korean before I transferred here huh," Mark chuckled, obviously nervous as he gripped his history textbook in his fingers.

If this were another person, Jinyoung would've shouted 'no's for ten minutes straight. But this was Mark Tuan, a guy who somehow stole his heart right off the bat.

"Sure!"

That's how Jinyoung knew he was screwed when that one word slipped out of his lips.

this was way overdue, short and it was boring i know im sorry ; v ;
may take this down and replace it tomorrow heh idk.

i have an exam in like twenty days orz im screwed heh.
i'll try to update weekly but no promises /sobs