With the encouraging look on his dad’s face fresh in memory, Taekwoon waited outside the classroom door with his heart beating, sweat forming on his back and palms clammy from nervousness. This school would be the last one. He had to make sure. He didn’t want to bother his dad with his own stupidity any more. His dad had enough business to bother himself with - he hated being one of them. But his dad would never blame him. He never did.

The muffled noise of the teacher he had been introduced to when arriving with his dad early in the morning to receive his schedule and do his final register, Mr. Cha, leaked through the classroom doors. Taekwoon had warmed up to him instantly, relieved to find out the teacher was young, cheerful and almost a little too nice. He had been through a fair share of burned out, angry teachers that gave him judging looks when they saw his list of school tranfers and lacking grades. Mr. Cha had simply glanced at the documents and looked him in the eyes with an encouraging look, assuring him that he would no longer need to transfer schools. His dad had left with smile thanks to him.

“Now, everyone, today we got ourselves a new student in class! I hope you all will welcome him warmly.”

Mr. Cha popped his head back out in the hallway, giving him a brilliant smile, eyes disappearing. “You can come in now, student.” He smiled warmly, indicating him to enter. He nodded and entered with a beating heart.

It was not a big classroom, their class consisting of maybe 16 students in total; all boys as this was an all-boys school. Most of the students were looking at him in either mild interest or not looking at all when he lined up behind Mr. Cha’s desk and greeted the classroom. “Hi, my name is Jung Taekwoon.” He said, just loud enough for everyone to hear, so he didn’t have to repeat himself. He knew it was kind of customary to say something more, like; ‘my dad is a lawyer’ or ‘I’m interested in music’, but he wasn’t much of a speech-giver. He just hoped he would be able to go to school quietly this time.

“Very good Taekwoon, please take a seat.” Mr. Cha motioned towards the only free seat in the classroom, obviously the least popular one; front row, by the door. He had hoped to get a window seat, but such dreams had no hope when you entered school months after it started. Relieved they weren’t seated in pairs; he walked towards his seat and sat down as the teacher started class.

The boys seated around him glanced at him with curious eyes, but they smiled and seemed friendly enough. He looked around himself at them, observing. The one on his left was pretty skinny, tall, with facial features to be envied and short black hair styled in a way that seemed almost professional. His eyes became round as plates as he stared at Taekwoon a little shyly, a slight smile tugging the edge of his lips. The one behind him had bleached auburn, curly hair and glasses, making him look a little nerdy, but the crooked smile and playful glint in his eyes gave him away to be a jokester. The true nerd seemed to be the black haired one beside him, another kid with glasses who looked way younger than the rest of the class, already holding a pen in his hands and resting it on his notebook while waiting for something worth jotting down. He turned his attention back to the teacher as he remembered not bringing any notebook today. Flinching at his own inescapable stupidity, he closed his eyes and bit at his lip in annoyance.

As class ended, a glance at the schedule still lying ready on his desk, the only piece of paper he owned and now covered in messy notes around the edges, revealed the second period was self-study. The moment Mr. Cha left the room, half of the class rushed out of the room and he was surrounded by noise. Even the one who had been sleeping in the corner by the window had magically woken up at just the moment class ended, right before the bell rang, and left in a hurry. Staring blankly in front of himself, he was unsure of what to do when he had not received any tasks or homework to do yet. Soon his view of the wall in front of his was blocked by the three boys seated closest to him, friendly and curious looks on their faces. He looked up at them blankly, waiting for them to speak first.

It turned out the one with the pretty face was actually named Hongbin, the curly haired one was in fact Jaehwan and nerdy was indeed younger, pushed up in class due to brilliance, and introduced himself as Sanghyuk. “You can call me Hyuk, though.” He had said.

“So why did you move here?”

Taekwoon guessed it was a question impossible to avoid when new in class, but he didn’t have any intention in telling the truth. The lie rolled off his tongue easily. “My dad transferred.” They all nodded in understanding before moving on with the interrogation. He had been through this process several times. It was like reading off a script. The questions always the same.

“What does your dad do?” Sanghyuk had asked, as if reading his mental script word-by-word. This time he didn’t have to lie. “He’s a cop.” He answered. Saying it always made his chest warm up in pride. The three boys nodded in acknowledgement, and he recognized a glint of admiration in Sanghyuk’s eyes. His dad was an excellent detective, even though he was left with little time to spend with his son and four daughters. But he had never once transferred stations.

“So... What do you do? Like, on your spare time?” Jaehwan asked. As a high school student you didn’t get much free time, as you spend most days and most hours of the day in school, but when he did have time he quite enjoyed any kind of sports. A trait most likely inherited from his dad. “I play soccer”.

“Ohh, none of us are into soccer, but Hongbin here is quite the basketball player, if you’re interested in that?” Jaehwan declared, indicating towards Hongbin, who nodded in confirmation. He looked suitable for basketball; his height over the average and strong-looking arms. He didn’t mind playing some basketball, but he wasn’t as good at it as soccer. “Sure.” He said with a shrug, but he was hoping the school would at least one soccer club he could get into. He had eyed the big grass field in front of the school with longing when his father drove past it to the main entrance earlier in the morning.

--

Keeping up with his determination to keep things quiet, the first week of school passed without any major events. The three classmates were kind enough to show him around and inform him of their classroom rules and school regulations, not very different from those of his old high school. He had learned most of the names of the people in the classroom, and the class in general seemed like a very friendly and connected bunch. The only exception was a sleeping boy with bleached blonde hair in the corner, who no one seemed to pay attention to. And he didn’t talk to anyone either. He showed up to class quietly, sat in class quietly and left quietly. As if nobody could see him come and go.

Taekwoon only first noticed his presence in the classroom on his fourth day, when he had first showed up with the bleached blonde hair and Mr. Cha scolded him lightly for it. Apparently anything lighter than auburn was again school regulations, but the teacher only informed him of the rule – didn’t tell him to fix it. The day after he showed up in a hat covering the hair, but it only lasted one day before the showed up with his hair styled up in a cloud of yellow again. Taekwoon’s interest was awakened, as he found it amusing.  

--

It was on the Monday of his second week he was first introduced to his quiet classmate. A student from another class suddenly came rushing into their classroom during self-study period, shouting “Hey! Wonshik is fighting again! On the rooftop!”. Everyone in the room had scattered out to see, and Taekwoon was dragged along by Jaehwan.

On the rooftop there was a lot of students, even from other classes, standing in a half circle around Wonshik and a big, buff student who looked like a 12th grader. Wonshik, however, seemed to have the upper hand. He was furious, Taekwoon could almost feel the anger from where he was standing, as he circled his victim with his arms raised. His lip was bruised, split but not bleeding, and his hair, that had been neatly styled the very same morning, was all over the place. The buff student was slightly limping, but seemed to have taken no damage to the face. Around them, people were cheering on the bigger boy, edging him on to finish up. No one seemed to be on Wonshik’s side. Around him the students that arrived with him were asking what the fight was about.

“I think he said something about Wonshik’s dad and he just snapped, just like that.”

He strained to hear more, but only heard annoyed murmurs from the classmates surrounding him.

“He’s always picking fights for nothing…”
“Why can’t he just go to school quietly like everyone else?”
“I bet he’s a psycho.”
“I wish he would just leave and let us all live in peace…”

He blocked them out with a frown. So far Wonshik had attended school perfectly quiet as far as he knew, speaking and looking at absolutely nobody and always showing up in class. How did he obtain this reputation?

Thanks to his father teaching him, Taekwoon had a sense of justice. The trait continuously got him into trouble. He didn’t seem to have the ability to not in to other people’s business. Quietly cursing himself and his inability to stay away, he felt his feet and body move him through the crowd of students and step between the two boys, facing Wonshik with a frown. Wonshik snapped out of his anger and his eyebrows rose in confusion as he looked Taekwoon right in the eyes. Wonshik was slightly taller than him, he realized.

“What are you doing?” Wonshik asked, bewildered. He dropped his arms to his sides and looked rather puzzled. He probably didn’t even recognize him as the new student in his class.

“Stop this, Wonshik.” Taekwoon said, trying to sound as reasonable as his dad used to when breaking up the fights between his sisters. Wonshik’s look turned offended and looked at him like he was a crazy person. “Who are you, exactly?” He asked, eyes squinting.

“I’m Taekwoon. I’m new in your class.” He kept his voice calm. His father had told him how to pacify people who were angry or irrational - calm was key. Wonshik had a moment of realization, for a moment almost looking cute as he pursed his lips into a perfect O. He nodded in acknowledgement and put his hand on Taekwoon’s shoulder and carefully pushed him sideways. “Nice to meet you, now move.” Taekwoon didn’t budge. Wonshik frowned, stepped back and lifted his arms back up in position. “I’ll hit you too” he warned. Taekwoon cocked an eyebrow, actually amused.

“I’m not afraid of you.” He wasn’t. He was confident he was fast enough to block him if he tried to hit him. This surprised Wonshik, it seemed. He was most likely not used to people standing up to him. He hesitated for a moment, before he moved to hit. “I warned y-“

“Why are you so angry, Wonshik?” Taekwoon cut him off before he could finish and deliver his blow. He didn’t say it loud enough for the people around to hear. It was another trick his dad had taught him, his words always clear in his memory.

“Angry kids always carry around some sort of pain, Taekwoon, and they’re always looking for something to let it out on.”

Wonshik froze at his words, something washing over him as he was left with his mouth open and eyes blinking. Taekwoon rested his own expression into a neutral look, relaxing. His dad was usually right.

Wonshik gathered himself pretty quickly, shutting his mouth into a tight scowl, dropping his arms with hands in tight fists. He looked at Taekwoon with something that wasn’t anger anymore, more like confusion, before he simply walked away, looking down, off the roof, leaving the crowd and victim behind. Taekwoon watched his back as he left, blocking out the sound of offending calls thrown at Wonshik by the students surrounding him. Behind him the buff student was shouting after him too, trying to follow, but Taekwoon gave him a warning look and the student cowered.