Hanbin seemed completely oblivious to the whole class’s stares as he slumped towards Ms. Park.

            “So, Kim Hanbin, since you are the last person to arrive, there is only one seat available. Can you find it? Or should I carry you over, child?” She drawled without looking at him.

            The whole class turned towards the only empty seat, which happened to be right behind Jimin.

“Just my luck,” Jimin thought irritably, “to be stuck in front of that strange kid. I really hope his bad energy doesn’t rub off on me. I need to do well in math this year! At least I won’t have to look at him.”

            When Hanbin had settled down in his seat, the class resumed as if nothing had happened. Jimin focused on taking notes and tried to forget about the prescence behind her, but less than a few minutes later, she felt a tap on her back.

            “Hey do you have a pencil? I forgot to bring one” Hanbin whispered. How in the world does someone forget to bring a pencil on the first day of school? Jimin handed him one from her arsenal of supplies and returned to her notes, inching forward a bit in her seat. A few seconds later, she felt another tap on her back.

            “Do you mind giving me a piece of paper too? I don’t have a notebook.” Swallowing a huge sigh of exasperation, Jimin ripped out two pieces of college-ruled paper from her new notebook, and handed it to Hanbin. For the rest of the class period, she ignored the sound of his breathing behind her and tried to follow Ms. Park’s speech on exponential equations.

            As soon as math class ended, Jimin threw all her things in her backpack and marched to her next class without looking back. When she arrived at English class, a smile broke across her face at the sight of Joy. True to her name, Joy was a cheerful girl who immediately befriended everyone she saw. Jimin had met her the day before when Joy helped her carry her luggage to her dorm room.

            “Jimin! We’re in the same class together! I’m so excited. Do you know who our teacher will be? Come sit next to me,” Joy jumped up at the sight of Jimin and gestured to the seat next to her. As the rest of their class began arriving one by one, Joy introduced herself and Jimin to each new person and started creating a group-chat for the class. Their teacher was the last person to enter the classroom, and immediately caused all the girls to emit squeals of excitement.

            “He’s so handsome!” Joy whispered giddily. Jimin agreed that he was better looking than most of the teachers that she’s had. But the thing about him that really caught her attention was the sense of reassurance that he seemed to radiate. There was something about the way he looked around the room with a soft smile, as if he already loved all his students.

            “Hello everyone. I’m going to be your English teacher this year. My name is Park Jeong-su, but I prefer for you to call me Leeteuk. It’s a special name I gained in college, but I’ll save that story for another time,” Leeteuk smiled to himself as if remembering a distant memory that only he knew. “Now how many of you have ever read a truly great story?”

            The rest of the class passed by all too quickly. Jimin had never felt so at ease but so captivated at the same time. Leeteuk’s smooth storyteller voice drew them all into his world. They listened to him as if in a trance, and began sharing their own stories. One boy told of his cousin, who was his best friend growing up, that died when they were twelve. Leeteuk then asked him why this cousin was so special to him. The boy said that his cousin was the kindest and most happy person he has ever met. Leeteuk then asked him what he thinks is the best way of remembering his cousin. The boy said that he could never stop remembering his cousin in everything he does. He felt guilty about going on with his life and doing well when his cousin, who was always better, will never get to live what he deserved. Then Leeteuk asked him if the dead could be kept alive by the living who carried on their principles. Is it possible that should the boy, taking opportunities that he believes would be better deserved by his cousin, continue to live kindly and happily, he could preserve his cousin’s spirit?

            At the end of class Leeteuk announced, “Now that we have gotten to know each other a little bit, tomorrow we will start reading William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Yes it’s a little cheesy, but what a better way to start the year than with the most well known romance story in the world?”

            Jimin smiled eagerly. She had watched all the versions of the movies, and she always took every chance to watch the ballet adaption. Now she would finally get to study the classic in a classroom, and with Leeteuk as her teacher too! She couldn’t wait to start.

*******

“Jimin, the food here is better than the hotel buffet when my family went to London last time!” Joy skipped ahead and peaked her head in every line. “Excuse me. Excuse me, let me through. Hey, what are they serving in this line? Oh pork chops? Okay thanks! Jimin where are you? Come quick! Hey, how are you? I’m Joy, do you know what they’re serving in this line?”

            Jimin struggled to push her way through the throngs of hungry students. Her new school had a giant dining hall with two floors of serveries. The first floor comprised of pizza ovens, stir-fry and crepe lines, salad bars, and a café area. The second floor contained various homecooked meals, waffle and ice cream machines, sandwich and pasta bar, and drink dispensers. Jimin had never been faced with so many options of free food before. Delicious sights enticed her from every direction.

            “Oh my god Joy. Freshman fifteen? More like Freshman forty!”

            Finally, Jimin settled on shrimp pasta and Joy got steak salad. They carried their food into the dining area and faced a whole new dilemma. Rows upon rows of tables lined the room. Like my mom’s kimbap on Christmas, thought Jimin. She scanned the hundreds of unfamiliar faces.

            “Are you looking for someone, Jimin?”

            “Huh? No no I was just thinking about how I’ll ever get to know all these people.” She guessed that Sehun probably had a different lunch period. She had yet to spot him on campus so far…

            “Don’t worry, you’ll probably meet everyone soon enough! Let’s go sit with those people. I know that boy from my biology class.” Jimin followed Joy to a table in the center of the room.

            “Hey Jinhwan! This is my friend Jimin. Jimin, meet Jinhwan. He’s the one from my biology class.” Jimin greeted the boy shyly. He wasn’t exactly handsome, but he had that friendly confidence of the popular boy everyone knew.

            Jinhwan introduced the girls to the rest of his table. It turns out they all lived in the same dorm hall.

            “Bobby’s my roommate,” Jinhwan said about the boy sitting next to him. Bobby immediately stood up and broke into a loud freestyle rap welcoming them to his table, but unfortunately startling the girls more than anything.

            “Donghyuk here has abs of steel,” Seeing her skeptical look at the quiet boy, Jinhwan laughed. “Don’t worry, we were all shocked last night when we saw him shirtless. But under that button down, wowwww.” Donghyuk turned a deep shade of red and continued poking at his rice.

            “Yunhyeong here is pretty right? You should meet his younger sister! When she helped him move in yesterday I tried to ask for her number, but Yunhyeong here almost beat me up. Ah see? He’s hitting me again.” Jimin laughed at Yunhyeong’s agitation. Although, Jinhwan’s not too bad of a choice if his sister’s going to have so many admirers anyway.

            “Don’t be fooled by Taehyun’s pretty looks! Girls always fall for his puppy face, but he’s famous for being a player in my hometown. Just warning you…”

            “Please don’t listen to him, it’s not my fault my eyebrows slant downward,” whined Taehyun, and she couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. Just a little bit.

            When they got around to Mino, Jimin suddenly cried out, “You look likeG-Dragon and Taeyang combined!!”

            “I’m Him,” Mino raised his eyebrows and winked, to the roaring laughter of all the boys. Looking around in confusion, Jimin spotted one last boy that Jinhwan had not introduced yet. Instead of joining in the conversation, he was furiously shoving pizza into his mouth, so that the only thing showing was the top of his snapback. Then he tilted his head back to drink water and revealed the familiar chipmunk face of-

“That’s Hanbin. My best friend since 2011,” Jinhwan pointed to the guy Jimin was staring at. This cannot be real. Is he stalking her? Out of this whole big school, why did she have to sit at the same table as him?

            “We’re in the same math class,” responded Hanbin, revealing a mouthful of half-chewed pizza. Disgusting! Nodding politely as a greeting, Jimin quickly turned back to ask Jinhwan where the bathroom was.

            “ Just head out the door and turn right. We’ll be waiting for you to come back,” said Jinhwan with a wink.

            Walking towards the bathroom, Jimin kept thinking about this Kim Hanbin. Why did he bother her so much? She didn’t even know the boy for God’s sake. Get it together, Kim Jimin, she scolded herself harshly. She had never felt so strongly opposed to someone she barely knew before. There was just something about him that seemed… crude? Or…lazy?

Sehun would always take school seriously.

She opened the bathroom door.

Sehun had impeccable manners.

She looked up.

Sehun––

            Jimin let out a piercing scream that filled the tiny bathroom, bounced off the walls, and shot into the dining hall outside. Right in front of her, sitting on the toilet with his pants down to his ankles, was her prince, her dream: Mr. Oh Sehun himself.  

Hi everyone :) I hope you're all doing well. Since I'm on break I'm going to try to update everyday, or every other day.

Their English class is actually inspired by my sophmore year English class, and the boy's story is one that someone actually told once. Their dining hall is based on my school.

Comment if you have any questions, suggestions, thoughts. How do you feel about having pictures in the story? I'm trying to experiment a bit, and I couldn't help wanting to put these cuties in ;) I'm looking forward to hearing from you!