“I didn’t realize just how many people know the complete details of the Voldemort incident,” Hyoyeon attempted a stage whisper, “there are just so many.”

            “Stop talking about Voldemort,” I ordered with a glare, “we don’t want to attract attention.  And you, unnie, are possibly the worst liar and most conspicuous-acting person I have ever met.  If anyone looked at you right now, they would know that you’re guilty.”

            Hyoyeon gave me a -hurt frown before looking for some sort of defense.  Naeun just gave a definitive nod, as we continued to walk down the hall of the University building toward the cafeteria.

            It had been two days since the night I had told my housemates about the shirt, or rather Voldemort.  Alice was the genius behind that codename (“because it shall not be named!”)  We had come up with a rough plan for getting rid of the devil’s cloth that everyone agreed with – except for Dara, who still insisted on keeping it (“it matches perfectly with the drapes in my shrine”).

            We were going to return the shirt when all of the Exo members were out together, preferably with their bags and things.  We would sneak it into their personal items, and when they returned home ‘ta-da’ the shirt would be returned, and the whole incident could be forgotten.

            The only difficult bit of this plan was that none of us actually knew the Exo schedules, thus we first needed to perform a CIA-esque stalking investigation.  This involved heavy eavesdropping of not only the Exo-frat boys, but also the many snooty sorority- sorry, clubhouse girls that worshiped them.

            At that moment, I was especially on edge.  I had come from Western Civ, my class with Park Chanyeol.  He sat in front of me, like always.

            However, today he strayed from the routine of not sparing me a glance and immediately using his desk as a pillow.

            Park Chanyeol had turned around and asked me for a piece of paper.

            I know – woo hoo, not a big deal.  But, I was trembling when I handed it to him.

            And even stranger yet, he stayed awake.  The whole class period.

            He had even thanked me, with his ovary-crushing smile before he left.

            I had had my share of excitement for the day.

            But apparently, fate did not agree with this conclusion.

            Naeun suddenly gripped my wrist with surprising strength from such a small girl, and pushed the three of us into the doorway of a dark, empty classroom.

            “Naeun, what the f-” Hyoyeon cut herself off, and her eyes widened at the shadows standing in front of the doorway.

            Though we were completely captured in the darkness, the appearance of Byun Baekhyun and Kim Joonmyun in their stupid matching leather jackets was lit up in the hallway just ahead of the classroom like they were in a spotlight.

            “Look, hyung.  You keep asking for face details about the shirt thief, but that’s getting us nowhere.” Baekhyun complained with an exasperated sigh.  “She may as well have been the Phantom of the ing Opera because no one seems to know what her face even remotely looks like – except for Chanyeol.”

            “Then, what would you suggest we look for, hmm,” Joonmyun questioned with a red-faced, angry expression.

            It was no secret that Kim Joonmyun, the Exo clubhouse captain, enjoyed being in control, and all things under him in order.  He liked his popularity, and all of the teachers liked him (because honestly, what a -up).  He was also the school’s Leadership president, so he held probably more power than any other student on campus.  I kind of think that the guy thought of himself as the president of the whole University.

            It was also no secret that Kim Joonmyun’s dominant personality trait – more of a flaw, really – was his pride.  He loved bragging about anything and everything that he was a part of.  Furthermore, from what I had heard, the stolen shirt was really putting a damper upon his personal Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  He was not taking it well, and though he was not a major prank-enthusiast, I had shuddered at some of the ideas he had come up with as punishment for me.  He wanted the thief to suffer, that much was obvious.

            “Well,” Baekhyun said, his expression suddenly lighter, “she had the most amazing legs I had ever seen.  If I, or probably a lot of the other guys, saw her legs again, I think I’d instantly know it was her.”

            .

            “That’s perfect!” Joonmyun exclaimed, his eyes crinkled as a smirk took home upon his lips.  Joonmyun’s voice trailed off as the two boys continued their walk to what I assumed to be the cafeteria.

            I looked down at my lower half in horror.

            My legs were on full display.

            Dara and Alice thought it would be just a swell idea to hide all of my clothes – their motivation, to rid me of my “hobo” style.  Thus, I was forced to allow the two of them dress me like their own life-sized Barbie doll.

            I had been given a decent-enough grey v-neck, but the monstrosity black shorts that landed me in Park Chanyeol’s bedroom were currently decorating the top sliver of my things.

            “Well, guys I think our only solution is digging a hole and dying,” I dejectedly sighed.

            “Wait,” Naeun whispered.  The quiet girl pulled Hyoyeon’s plaid flannel jacket off of her shoulders before taking off her own heart-printed jumper.  She tied them around my waist, one jacket acting as a cover up for the front, the other as one for the back.

            “Naeun, this is a good idea,” Hyoyeon excitedly agreed and helped her tie the sleeves around my waist more securely.  I took a test step; it felt like I was wearing a cape on both halves of my body.

            If Dara and Alice thought that I looked like a hobo before, I didn’t think there would be words to fit what thought of my style resembled now.

            But, at least my legs were completely covered all the way down to my knees.

            The three of us walked out of the classroom nonchalantly (Hyoyeon was acting like she was on crack) and headed for the cafeteria like we had been previously.  I attempted to ignore the weird stares I received, but I did not have somebody to talk to me and take my attention: Naeun did not talk, and Hyoyeon was practically convulsing.

            We entered the cafeteria and walked to our usual table by the windows.  More stares pelted my five-year-old fashioned body as we put our bags down.

            It was awkward to say the least.

            At least I’m not getting stopped by Byun Baekhyun because he saw my legs…

            “That’s some interesting leg-wear you have there.”

            I spun around fast and nearly shrieked.  Kim Joonmyun, Byun Baekhyun, and Kim Jongdae all stood before me, the former with a smirk and the latter two with excited grins.

            “Thanks,” I mumbled, playing with my fingers.

            “Yoo Hana, why are you covering your legs?” Joonmyun asked with a of his head.  By this point, it seemed like the entire cafeteria was watching us like some type of show.

            “Something you’re hiding?” Baekhyun chimed.

            “I-um-well-I-”

            The guilt stuttering was not helping the current situation.

            “Why don’t you let us get a peek under there?” Joonmyun questioned as he reached his hand out to pull up my jacket in the front.

            “SHE FORGOT TO WEAR A TAMPON, OKAY!”

            Silence.

            All heads turned to Kim Hyoyeon, who was shaking, post-outburst.

            Jongdae let out a hoot of laughter before leaning on his knees to full-on cackle.  “This is even better than if she had stolen the shirt!”

            Joonmyun’s face melted into one of pure horror as he hurriedly pulled his hand back.

            “Hana, I am so sorry.  I just, wow, sorry,” he stammered. 

            “It’s okay,” I muttered, sending Hyoyeon a side glare.  Embarrassment burned across my cheeks.

            “Nothing to see here everybody!  Just go back to your lunches!” Joonmyun called out to the entire cafeteria.  “I’ll make it up to you Hana!”

            “It’s really okay.”

            “Nope, I’m gonna fix this!  Come on boys, let’s go get this lady some tampons.  We will be helpful,” he gave a cheerful smile before dragging a giggling Baekhyun and Jongdae out of the room.

            I was now openly glaring at Hyoyeon, who sheepishly began to walk to the lunch lines.  Naeun silently snickered as we followed.

            “Kim Hyoyeon, you couldn’t have thought of anything better?” I hissed as we entered the lunch-lines.  “Anything would have been better than what you said,”

            “I’m sorry, I panicked,” she sputtered.  “At least, things can’t possibly get any worse.”

            It was that day that I decided God definitely had a good humor on him.

            “Yo, Tampon Girl, my girlfriend told me to give this to you!” a stranger said with a grin, handing me what I had apparently neglected putting on this morning.

            “Thanks,” I mumbled with a fake smile, taking the feminine product.

            My action caused a waterfall of reactions.

            By the time I had made it to the front of the line to purchase my lunch, nine more people gave me tampons, all of the referring to me as “Tampon Girl.”  Hyoyeon awkwardly looked away the whole time, and offered to carry my gifts.

            When we returned to our lunch table, there was a small pile of about ten or fifteen more tampons waiting for me on my chair.  I shoved them all, along with all of my other ‘goodies’ into my backpack.

            I was about to take a bite of the pasta I had ordered, when “Hana, Yoo Hana!”

            Not again.

            “Hana, these are for you,” Joonmyun chirped, handing me a box of expensive tampons.

            “Thank you, Joonmyun.” I awkwardly took the box from the excited boy.

            “No problem!  I hope they will make up for my behavior today.  May they make these next few days of yours a comfortable, enjoyable time.”

            I had never been so embarrassed in my life.

            The shame-oblivious Kim Joonmyun skipped back to his table on the other side of the room, offering me a thumbs up.

            “These are some quality tampons, Hana, you’ve got to let me use some when I start next week,” Hyoyeon said, looking at the box.

            “You’d be lucky if I didn’t hide all of your tampons.” I grumbled.

            “Woah, Hana, what’s with the stock pile?” Alice’s voice and Luhan’s giggle hit me before their presence did.

            “What are you talking about?” I asked in confusion.  Luhan’s giggle grew as he sat down in the seat in between myself and Naeun.

            “Turn around,” he gleefully ordered.

            Much to my dismay, an even larger pile of tampons had appeared behind my chair.  I didn’t even bother to stuff them in my backpack.  I knew the pile would only grow.

            “Hey, Tampon Girl!” another voice called in our Korean History “Foreigner’s Class.”  Luhan, Alice, and even Kris all let out snickers, as another stranger ran up to me and handed me a tampon.  By this point, I had run out of room in my backpack and had resorted to filling Alice’s with them.

            I think I had enough tampons to cover me for life.

            I usually quite enjoyed Foreigner’s Classes, they were generally easy, and were mostly cultural, the types of study that I was good at.  They were made for transfer students to easier assimilate to Korean language and culture.

            My freshman year, they were hard, because they were mainly all learning the Korean language.  I entered the school with  somewhat-decent Korean skills via my parents and when we travelled to visit our relatives.  However, Alice entered with nothing, and she learned the language faster and better than I did.

            Saying I was awful at learning language would be an understatement.

            When the five of us first moved into the old DBSK house, communication was difficult.  Hyoyeon and Naeun only spoke Korean, Dara who had lived in the Philippines for some time, knew an okay amount of English, but Alice only spoke French.  My C-level passing three years of French skills was our closest tool to a translator.

            Alice would say something in French, I would badly translate that to English, and provide an even worse translation of that in Korean.

            It was a mess, and many awkward situations arose from the language issue.

            For example, Alice had asked me for un cravate, a tie, to match her outfit.  I thought she had said une crevette, a shrimp.  My Korean translation was even worse, and Hyoyeon had happily presented Alice with a sea monkey aquarium.

            This problem was short-lived.  Three months into the year, Alice was better at speaking Korean than I was, and even had learned enough English to help me out when I couldn’t communicate correctly.

            Our culture and history classes were right up my alley though, and Professor Kang, one of our main Foreigner’s Classes teachers had signed me up to tutor several students who struggled.

            “Did you do the homework?” Alice whispered as Professor Kang entered the classroom, a smile on his face.  I nodded and turned my attention to the front of the room.

            Professor Kang was not the only teacher standing at the front, but Professor Culpepper, the head of the Language department was standing with him.

            “Students, this is Professor Culpepper,” my teacher began, “we will be doing a special project with her Linguistic major students!  You will all be paired with one of them – don’t complain, the pairs have already been decided.  Oh, and Kris, since you are a linguistics major as well, you will also be given a transfer partner.”

            Kris boredly nodded.

            Alice and I gave a matching eye roll.

            Unless I was working with somebody I knew, I detested group work or partner projects.

            They were incredibly awkward, and somebody (usually me) always ended up doing more work than the everyone else.

            Professor Culpepper’s students entered the room, all looking as confused and empathetic as we did.

            “Linguist students, you all know your partners! Go find them in the room, and remember no Korean at all times.”

            The last set of instructions made Luhan light up like the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, and Alice lifted her chin and whispered a proud “fantastique.”

            No fumbling over my phrases today.

            Alice was pulled away by some bubbly girl I vaguely recalled having in a Chemistry class at one point.  Kris stalked over to Huang Zitao before enticing the fashionable Exo boy in Mandarin.  Luhan went off with a different Exo boy, a large grin upon his face.

            I looked around, waiting for somebody to approach me.

            “Yoo Hana?”

            A cold monotone voice made me turn.  I was face-to-face with a princely face adorning a stoic expression that could rival Kris’.  His black hair was slicked back and styled delicately on his head.  He was donning a dark leather jacket, so I immediately knew whom he belonged to.

            “Yeah?” I answered.  My answer made him frown slightly.

            “English.  How boring.” He muttered and took the seat next to me.

            Do I ask him for his name? He’s kind of scary…

            The boy let out a heavy sigh.

            “So, Yoo Hana.  You gonna say anything or just sit there like a statue?” his accent was impeccable, especially for someone who was not from America.  If he had a golden tan, he could have blended in in Miami perfectly.

            “I’m sorry,” I mumbled.  “What’s your name?”

            His eyebrows raised lightly, as if surprised by question.

            “Oh Sehun.  Pleased to meet you,” Sehun turned his head to the front as Professor Culpepper and Professor Kang began giving out instructions.

            “Over the course of this semester, you will be aiding the Linguistics majors in their cultural and conversational skills of your homelands,” Professor Kang announced in Korean.  “You will only be allowed to speak in the language of the transfer partner when you are together.  At the end of the semester, both of you will be asked to give a presentation on the prompts we are passing out.  Each pair will be given a different prompt.  For the presentation, our transfer student will present all information in Korean, and our Linguistic student will present all information in the language of the transfer student!”

            The professors excitedly passed out the prompt booklets.  Sehun glanced at ours, and I wanted to groan when I read what we were to present:

            Students from outside of Korea have had many adventures we can only dream of encountering!  Your presentation will be to tell three stories in speech format.  The first must be the most exciting thing that has ever happened to our transfer student outside of Korea, and the second, the most exciting thing that has ever happened to our transfer student while in Korea.  You and your partner must go on an adventure together, the story from this will embody your third speech, along with what Korean experiences have taught our foreign student!  Good luck!

            Sehun huffed from next to me when he finished reading the prompt.

            I sighed.

            This was not going to be a fun project.

            The professors talked about the “importance” of spending a lot of time with your partner, and how we should make the most of this “exciting opportunity” before we were excused from class.

            Luhan, Kris, and Alice met at my desk after Sehun had all been sprinted out of the room.  I was packing the collection of tampons that had been left behind my chair during class into my pockets.

            “I’m SO excited!” Luhan squealed.  “Kim Minseok is so nice, and what a babe, really.”

            “Luhan, I question your uality,” Alice muttered.

            “I do too, but then I see y, silent Son Naeun, and I am reminded why I-” I whacked him in the back of the head before he could finish his sentence.

            “So, you’re all working with Exo boys?  Figures, I’d be the only one without a hot one,” Alice whined.

            “Sehun’s kind of a jerk, don’t be jealous.  I am not looking forward to working with him.” I grumbled as we began walking out.

            “Well Minseok is GREAT!  We’re going to have a wonderful time!”

            “Tao is pretty cool, too,” Kris murmured.

            “Yeah, the two of them even invited us to join in on their Exo dance rehearsals!” Luhan announced with a grin.

            Exo dance rehearsals?

            “What?” I asked in curiosity.

            “Every Thursday, all of the Exo guys rehearse their dancing!  They dance for the school, and they invited Kris and I.  Minseok and Tao think we’re fun!” Luhan cheered.

            Alice and I shared a secret look.

            Luhan had just given us the perfect opportunity to slay Voldemort.

Hey guys!

I'm so so sorry for the long break in between updates - I have just received a new computer (my old one was held together with tape and legitimately smelled like fire).

After the next four days (I will be at freshman orientation), updates will hopefully be more frequent - minus a break when I will be travelling in Europe.

I hope you liked this chapter - I know I really did.

Thank you SOOOO much for all of the support and patience.  I hope this extra long chapter makes up for my absence :)

Please continue to read, subscribe, upvote, comment, and enjoy!

Winnie