The day that Kim Minseok transferred to my school seemed like any other Monday. Fall was comfortably warm this year, and my brother and I got off the subway station a stop early just to walk the rest of the way to school and enjoy the weather. Normally, we didn’t leave for school together but this had been a special occasion.  

“Noona, can your short legs please move a little faster?” 

Okay, so my little brother was a brat. 

“You don’t actually have to wait for me, Jongin,” I snapped back. 

Jongin just sighed and shook his head. “I need to stay with you until I hand you over to Chanyeol hyung.”

“Hand me over - yah, what kind of words are those?” I grumbled. “I’m not a parcel.”

It was hard to believe that I was the older sister here. Jongin was only a second year, two years younger than me. However, he stood a good half foot taller than me and, for as long as I could remember, had always been the protective one. 

I guess he had good reason. 

Chanyeol was waiting for me by the school gate, attracting attention from all the girls passing by. He was slouched against the wall, headphones in. His tie was undone and his uniform was half tucked in. Typical. Chanyeol was my best friend and neighbor. Our families have lived next door in the same apartment building ever since I was born.  Normally, Jongin left for school earlier, and I left with Chanyeol. Today, however, Chanyeol had to come in early to meet with his band, and Jongin was tasked with getting me to school. 

“I could have just come myself,” I muttered to Jongin. “I know you like to go to the dance studio in the mornings.”

Jongin’s gaze immediately softened. “It’s okay,” he said, giving me a playful nudge. “You’re more important to me.” 

As we passed through the gates, Chanyeol pushed off the wall and fell into step next to me. 

“What was the meeting about?” I asked, turning to him as Jongin veered off toward the arts building. 

“We’re finally getting a new bass player, this guy named Kim Minseok,” Chanyeol replied. “He’s Baekhyun’s friend, and just transferred to our school. Apparently Yixing and Jongdae have already met him before, and they say he’s a chill guy. He’s already met half of the band anyway. So adding him should be fine. Now Jongdae can go back to just singing so this is great. No offense to Jongdae but his bass skills are subpar. He should stick to vocals.”

Chanyeol was in my year, and we had known each other for as long I could remember. Our moms were close friends, and I honestly didn’t remember a time without him in my life. He was even taller than Jongin, and had recently dyed his hair a color so light that it was best described as silver blond. He played drums for eXo, a really popular pop-rock band that was semi-associated with the school. That was another reason he was attracting so much attention from the girls. Other than the height, Chanyeol was kind of a local celebrity.   

“I thought Jongdae’s bass was fine,” I said, thinking back to their last practice. 

Chanyeol sighed. “Fine isn’t good enough for eXo,” he replied, rolling his eyes at me. “Besides, I think Jongdae’s happy with this. He told me playing an instrument and singing at the same time is stressful. Not enough brain cells I guess.”

“Hey, you Park,” Jongdae called, coming up behind us. He gave Chanyeol a shove, before falling into step on my other side. “Jimin-ah, why do you hang out with this jerk?”

I gave him an innocent smile. “Chanyeol oppa is always nice to me,” I replied. ‘

“Of course I am,” Chanyeol said proudly, draping an arm protectively over my shoulder.  

Jongdae just grumbled, following us into our classroom. The truth was, Chanyeol liked to tease and play around, but he was always careful with me. It had been like that for as long as I could remember, and he also had good reason to be.   

I didn’t actually run into Minseok until the middle of the day. Run into was a very literal term, because we collided around a corner, and the books I had been holding in my arms went flying onto the floor. 

“I’m so sorry! Oh no, let me - ” The boy I ran into hurriedly dropped to his knees and started gathering the loose notebooks into a pile. All I could see was the top of soft dark brown locks as he bent down. When he straightened, holding out my books with an apologetic smile, I was mesmerized by a pair of beautiful, almond shaped eyes. He was average height for a guy, but was short to me since I spent most of my time around giants like Chanyeol and Jongin. Thick eyebrows, thin pouty lips, high cheekbones. But it was the eyes held my attention, even as I wordlessly took my books back. “Are you okay?” he asked nervously.

“I, yeah, I’m fine,” I replied, finding my voice. I studied him, tilting my head.  “Are you …” I had meant to ask him if he was new, since I had never seen him before, but then realized it was a rude question if he wasn’t. 

“I’m fine too, don’t worry!” the boy replied, mistaking my question. “I was just looking for the cafeteria?”

Oh. “So you are new?” I asked, finally. 

“Yes, this is my first day. Hi, I’m a new third year student – Minseok.”

“Ah, Kim Minseok?” Seeing his confused look, I quickly went on. “Hi, I’m Kim Jimin. I’m best friends with Chanyeol, Park Chanyeol. The drummer. I know the band…?” I trailed off, a little embarrassed by my babbling. 

“Ohhh.” A look of understanding flooded Minseok’s handsome face. “I was supposed to meet Baekhyun in the cafeteria…” he checked his watch and sighed. “…5 minutes ago. I kind of got lost.”

Since I was heading to the cafeteria as well, I immediately offered to show Minseok the way. He let out a sigh of relief and thanked me profusely. It seemed that this school was a lot bigger than his old one, and he was having a hard time getting around. 

Chanyeol was waiting for me outside of the cafeteria, leaning against a column and causing the girls passing by to slow down for a longer look. I swear, he was causing a line just by being there. He straightened up when he saw me, then narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Minseok. 

“Chan, I found your new bass player,” I told him, motioning at Minseok. “He was lost.”

At that, Chanyeol smiled, all previous hostility washing away. “Ah, Minseok! It’s nice to finally meet you! Baekhyun mentioned that you were in our lunch period too. ” 

Minseok cracked a smile and accepted Chanyeol’s fistbump. That was another thing about Chanyeol that made him so popular. He was extremely charismatic and always quick to make friends. In the lunch line, Chanyeol went for his favorite bibimbap, advising Minseok to also give it a try. The lunch ladies all greeted Chanyeol warmly and gave him an extra serving of desert. That was the kind of guy Chanyeol was – even friendly with the cafeteria aunties. 

“Why are you pouting?” Chanyeol asked, seeing my face as I eyed his desert. “Yah. I’ll share it with you, okay?” At that, my faced brightened. 

“What a gentleman,” I said, squeezing his arm. Chanyeol just sighed and headed for our usual table, Minseok in tow.

Byun Baekhyun wasn’t even really part of the band, not officially. However, he was close friends with all of members and best friends with Jongdae; he ended up as the unofficial band manager, who occasionally stepped in for vocals when Jongdae was sick. Sehun, who played the keyboard, was already digging into his curry rice by the time we got there, and Yixing, the guitarist, had his face buried in his phone. 

“What’s he doing?” Chanyeol asked sliding into an empty seat. 

“Texting his boyfriend,” Baekhyun replied immediately. 

Yixing looked up, frowning. “He’s not – what is wrong with you guys?”

“Yah, shut up, Byun Baek,” Jongdae agreed, reaching over to smack Baekhyun’s arm. 

Yixing was one of the only two Chinese students at our school. He was really close to the other one – Lu Han, from the soccer team – and Baekhyun liked to tease them. I personally think it was because Yixing used to be close with only Baekhyun before Lu Han also transferred in. Maybe it was jealousy.  

Upon noticing Minseok, everyone immediately started bombarding him with questions about his first day of school. Minseok didn’t seem to mind and took it all in stride. 

“Are you also in the band?”  Minseok asked, turning to me. 

“Jimin is our mascot,” Baekhyun said, fighting to keep a straight face. 

Jongdae let out a loud chuckle and gave him a high five. 

“You two are a disgrace,” Sehun muttered under his breath. 

Chanyeol just ignored them. “Jimin-ah is my best friend,” he explained, pulling my chair closer to him and pushing his extra desert toward me. 

“I also design eXo’s album covers and flyers,” I added, eyes fixed on the chocolate cake. 

“I already said I’d share,” Chanyeol laughed at my greedy expression. 

“Chocolate?” Sehun suddenly looked a lot more interested. 

“Not with you,” Chanyeol said, pushing Sehun’s fork away. “I promised to share with Jimin.”

“You can have mine,” Minseok piped in, pushing his cake toward Sehun. “I’m trying to watch what I eat because of soccer.”

Sehun’s eyes widened comically. He let out a mutter of thanks only seconds before his fork diving into the desert. 

Minseok played soccer? I turned to look at him again. He certainly had the build, I thought. Muscles, and such mesmerizing eyes. As if feeling my gaze, Minseok looked up and caught my eye. He gave me a confused little smile, and I immediately looked away, blushing. Just as I was about to dig my own fork into some chocolate cake, my phone vibrated with a line message from…Baekhyun?

I looked across the table and glared at Baekhyun. He made an innocent face, gesturing to his phone and then whispering something in Jongdae’s ear. I swear those two together were pure evil. 

r u checking out my Minseokkie? 

I slide my phone back on the table, giving the two my deadliest glare. Baekhyun and Jongdae were best ignored. 

“Jimin, are you coming to watch practice today?” Chanyeol asked, not having noticed the exchange. 

“I can’t,” I explained. “Joonmyun oppa is visiting from college.”

Kim Joonmyun was the oldest child in my family, my older brother by six years. He was away most of the time at college in Seoul, finishing up with law school. Joonmyun was not very tall, especially compared to Jongin, but he was very smart and well-mannered. Really smart, not smart in the way I was. I suspected that he was my parents’ favorite child.  

“Joonmyun hyung? I’ll stop by after to say hello then,” Chanyeol said, pleasantly surprised. It had been a while since Joonmyun has had time to visit home. Chanyeol was practically family, and probably missed him a lot too.   

“I’m sure he’d be happy to see you.”

The first time Chanyeol and I got caught passing notes in class was on a Friday afternoon in the sixth grade. The teacher had made us stay after class and clap chalkboard erasers, which always made a huge mess. 

This time, it was our math teacher, Professor Lee, who snatched up the folded piece of paper that was on route to my desk. 

I cringed, sinking down on my seat. 

“Passing notes, Mr. Park?” Professor Lee barked. “Just because you don’t want to learn does not mean you should be distracting Miss Kim. What is this, a love letter?”

He meant it as a joke, and the class tittered with laughter, but he was not far from the truth. Chanyeol and I had gotten bored in class and decided to compile a list of the cheesiest pick-up lines we knew. The last one I added had been ‘Do you have a map? Because I'm getting lost in your eyes.’

“You guys are going to get it now,” Baekhyun hissed under his breath to me. 

I propped my book up as a wall for hiding and peeked over to look at Chanyeol, making a ‘do something’ face. Chanyeol just shrugged, biting his lip. 

“If it’s important enough to be passed in my class, then I’m sure it’s important enough to be shared with the class. Let’s see what we have here?” There was the crinkling of paper, and I disappeared back behind my makeshift wall. ‘Did you sit in a pile of sugar? Because you have a pretty sweet...’” Professor Lee stopped reading with a cough as the entire class erupted in laughter. 

I looked over at Chanyeol and saw him smiling sheepishly, looking rather proud of himself. 

“Park Chanyeol, Kim Jimin – come in early tomorrow morning and wash all of the chalk boards in this room.” 

“Yes, sir,” Chanyeol coughed, probably not wanting to argue in case Professor Lee wrote us up for something worse. 

“In the future, I would appreciate it if you two shared such thoughts privately to each other and not during my class time,” Professor Lee added. He had a little twinkle in his eye, and I could tell that he was more amused than angry. He tossed the paper onto my desk on his way back up to the front of the class. 

“Yes, professor,” I agreed meekly, fighting a smile of my own.

The last period of the day on Mondays was gym class. Chanyeol was in my class, as well as Jongdae. To his amusement, I blushed three shades of red when Minseok joined the class. Minseok was wearing the gym uniform – black shorts, white tshirt, and I could see the muscles on his calves. 

“You are so obvious,” Jongdae hissed as we started the warm-up exercises.  

“Go away,” I hissed back. 

We were playing soccer that day, and by luck, all four of us were place on the same team. I was assigned to play defense, which ended up meaning standing around for most of the game. My team had a very strong offense that kept the ball on the other side of the field most the time. 

I found myself mesmerized as I watched Minseok play, sprinting through the field and spinning to avoid players. I could tell that he was a really good player, and Lu Han, who was playing midfield on the other team and part of our school’s soccer team, was the only reason my team had not completely dominated.

Minseok had sweat a good amount during the game. It dripped down the sides of his neck and clung to the tips of his damp hair. His eyes were hard, focused on the game, and lines of concentration sometimes made brief appearances on his forehead. 

I guess that instead of staring at Minseok, I should have been paying attention to the ball because the next thing I heard was a yell of caution before I felt the soccer ball come into contact with my face, knocking me off balance. 

To my surprise, someone caught me right before I hit the ground. I blinked a few times, before my eyes focused on the worried face above me. It was Chanyeol. How had he gotten here so fast? He had been on the sidelines just seconds ago. 

“Goddammit, Lu Han, why are you not watching where you kick the stupid ball,” he was yelling. “This is gym class, not one of your freaking soccer matches.” 

A moment later, Lu Han’s blond head swam into my field of vision. “Oh god, Jimin, I’m so sorry,” he said, face paler than usual. “You’re bleeding…does it hurt?”

I brought a hand up to my face and found that my nose was bleeding. 

Chanyeol threw Lu Han a dirty look. “Of course it hurts, you idiot,” he snapped. Chanyeol quickly pulled his tshirt over his head, leaving him in only a white tank top. I could hear a collective gasp from all the girls in the class. Chanyeol ignored them, quickly folding the tshirt and using it to stop the blood