"So, this is it. That's your new school, right there. And mine's right next to it, so if you ever need anything, just come over, alright? You gonna be alright?" Ed barely nodded. I sighed deeply. Doesn't seem like this kid is planning to open up to us anytime soon. " Okay then, I'll go my way and you go yours. Meet me at the school gates when classes are over. Take care!", I said turning and rushing to my class.

The rest of the hours went smoothly. Lessons went well, break-time went well and I didn't hear or see anything of Ed, so I assumed everything was ok on his side, too. At last the bell rang signaling the end of the school day. As usual, I packed my things slowly, chatted to my friends as I walked down the stairs and waited for manager-hyung to come pick me up as always. I looked around expecting to see Ed coming any second now, but after nearly 3 minutes of waiting, neither him nor hyung showed up. I suspected hyung to be busy and not be able to come, and walking  home wasn't the problem, the school's about half an hours' walk from the dorm, but what worried me was why Ed hadn't showed up. I imagined he was probably lost somewhere, since it was his first time going to school, and I myself sometimes get lost in my own school, so I decided to go find him. As I was getting nearer to the school entrance, the doors flung open and out came an angry manager-hyung half dragging half carrying a beat up, nose-and-mouth-bleeding Ed and neither seemed too pleased to see me.

"What happened?", I half asked half whispered. I have known manager-hyung since my early trainee days and I can swear I have never seen him this angry with anyone before.

"Let's go", he ordered without answering.

I silently watched as manager-hyung tended to Eds' wounds, him not even daring to move a finger. Ever since we got back to the dorm, no-one had uttered a word, so I still didn't know what had happened. Somewhere in my head I had an idea of how Ed had ended up in this state, but I kept denying the thought that he was a violent person. It wouldn't be good for our image and surely he would have thought of that before starting an argument with a fellow student.

"All done", hyung said and got up. Ed sat still where he was. I decided now was a good time to finally find out what caused all this.

"What happened?", I asked trying to look him in the eye, but he continued looking down and avoiding my eyes.

"'ad a fight with some'un. Nothing serious though. 'e wasn't even the one who punched me,eh."

"Who did then?"

"I did, in a way." I looked at him puzzled and he explained.

"So we're having a fight in class, at break time, next to the window, right? And this girl just comes be'ind the other guy and opens the window. Now, you know it was quite windy today, so the guy who's right next to the window and's getting all the wind in his face is like " Let's take this somewhere else", so we're about to leave and suddenly there's this giant gust of wind, hits the window, window's about to hit the other guy, he dodges an' th'window hits me straight in the face. Anyways, then the teacher comes in, sees the guy on the ground and my bloody face and thinks we 'ad a fist fight and s***. So, yeah, you can guess what happened after that. 'Course fat-man believes the school over me so now I'm suspen'd an' grounded, whatever that means."

"Fat-man?"

"Yeah, fat-man"

"Who's that?"

"The fat man! Why, he was here just a minute ago"

"Ah..you mean manager-hyung? He isn't fat!", I said trying to hold back my laughter. Sure he got a bit chubby after marrying Mrs.Kim but I would never tell him to his face let alone call him 'fat man'.

"Sure he is. Well he's big enough to be."

"Do you not like him? I promise he's very nice once you get to know him properly."

"Never said he wasn't"

"Then why are you calling him names?"

"Don't think he minds. Ain't that right, fat-man?"

"Yah! Watch your words kiddo! Show some respect to your elders, would ya?", hyung said walking towards us. He seemed to have calmed down now as he was back to his usual self.

"He'll get used to it", Ed whispered in my ear.

"Honestly though, Gin, that's a nasty image you're creating for yourself in front of your classmates and possible future fans."

"That's quite alright. I'd rather they know me for what I really am. B'sides everyone saw what happened so no worries."

"Hyung, it wasn't Eds' fault", I tried sticking up for him. The manager looked at us both and sighed.

"We're shooting the MV in two days. What are we going to do now you've gone and messed up your face like that? And you haven't even debuted yet, for Christs sake!", he said looking at Ed in despair. "Never mind, we'll figure something out.Come on, let's go. The guys are waiting for you."

Seems like we've got ourselves into a lot of trouble with this kid. Even so, I can't bring myself to hate him; on the contrary, I'm starting to like him, even though he's the type of kid I would try to stay away from. I have a feeling we will never be able to go back to our normal everyday lives as long as we have Ed to deal with.