Jihoon-Woozi

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“Are you sure you’ve got everything? Shorts, jeans, jackets...what else...shirts? Did you pack underwear? What about swimwear?” Jihoon’s mom had a tiny list in her hands and was crossing things out and writing necessary items down. They were all gathered on the front lawn, while Jihoon’s father sat in the car, waiting to take him to his new home.

“Mom, I’m going to school, not on vacation. Besides, you’re the one that repacked my bags.” Jihoon sighed inwardly and was ready to leave so that this whole fiasco didn’t go on for any longer than it had to. His mother had already repacked his things twice, the first time, she forgot to pack his boxers and shoes, and the second time she repacked everything in the exact same place that he had packed everything in originally. Then when that was done, she went to the kitchen to make breakfast only to realize that they were behind schedule by a full hour. She then quickly made toast, spread some jam on top, and stuffed it in her son’s mouth. Everything was a mess, like always.

“Okay, I’m sorry. I’m just worried.” She closed her little notebook and stuffed it in her back pocket. Jihoon had expected this from his mother, since she wouldn’t be able to drop him off at the boarding school, she must have wanted to feel like she was at least doing something. “You both should get going. I’ve held you back for long enough.” She quickly hugged her son and then lightly pushed him towards Minseo who stood closely beside them. Jihoon smiled softly and then hugged his little sister who wore a mask and a blanket across her tiny shoulders. “You have socks right?” His mother asked quietly and Jihoon redirected his reassuring smile to his mother who suddenly realized how silly her question was. “Jihoon...be safe please.” Jihoon hesitated for a moment before nodding, he then opened the door to their car and climbed into the passenger seat. He rolled down the window.

“Don’t worry, I won’t disappoint you guys again.” There was a silent pause and it looked like his mother was going to speak but she didn’t. “I’ll see you guys soon.” Jihoon said and Minseo pulled down her mask to smile at her brother. He noticed that her face was flushed from the cold air outside and he motioned to her to pull the blanket around herself tighter and she did. Jihoon’s father pulled out of the driveway, his mother and sister both waved at him from the frosted green grass in front of their house. He rolled the window back up and sighed heavily.

Jihoon watched his family disappear from sight as the car traveled further and further away. For some reason this morning seemed colder than the rest. He knew that his mother and sister would have come with him to see him off but Minseo was sick and she needed someone to take care of her. Jihoon knew that his father wouldn’t even be driving him to school right now if the situation was different. If Min was healthy, then his mother would drive him to school with his talkative sister in the back seat while his father would be working. However, today he took the morning off at work to drive him to the boarding school, and he didn’t seem happy about it at all. The tense silence in the car could vouch for that.

“Don’t get into trouble Jihoon.” His father warned quietly and Jihoon nodded his head softly.

“I won’t.” He replied and then turned his vision away from his father’s stern profile to stare out the foggy window. He put his headphones on and began to listen to music, something to help him wake up, something to help him forget, or both. Everything moved slowly, but time did not, and soon enough his father was slowing down the car as they drove by tall concrete walls, about ten to fifteen feet high. To keep people out, or in? Jihoon didn’t want to linger on that thought as they passed by curving steel gates every so often. He observed the tall, aged fencing that appeared infrequently. As he peered through the gates that they passed he could see tall pointed, red brick buildings gathered together, surrounded by acres of green grass. The first thing he thought of was that the school he was going to attend was huge, and he couldn’t even see into the whole area yet.

“Where is the entrance?” His father asked and Jihoon studied the map that he pulled up on his phone.

“It should be up here somewhere.” Jihoon said and pointed ahead, where there was a wide opening. They turned the car through the open gates and as they entered in, they came across a huge parking lot that stretched both left and right. It was mostly empty, but Jihoon figured it was for the times when parents and family were invited to the school for events and seminars. They drove towards another pathway that lead them closer to the school, as there were gates that separated the parking lots from the actual campus.

“Wow…” Jihoon breathed as he stared ahead at the view. As he looked past the cars in front of him, Jihoon could see the buildings almost clearly now. In the position he was in, it looked like they were layered upon each other-just like a painting. Dark red aged brick, tall points on the rooftops, lots of windows. It was absolutely beautiful and Jihoon could see some students walking around the campus already. Jihoon got out of the car and his father followed.

Jihoon stood there for a moment in the open air and breathed in. Even from inside the campus, he couldn’t see the whole area. It was just pathways leading to the front of the buildings, as the place they had parked was towards the back. Another thing he noticed was the large amount of trees that were scattered upon the school grounds. Jihoon’s father suddenly cleared his throat and walked ahead of him as Jihoon followed. He felt like he was a 5 year old being taken to his first day at school.

They walked on the smooth paved pathway until it curved to the front of the main building. It was smaller than the other buildings, and a large part of it was made up of sparkling floor to ceiling glass walls. Jihoon’s father glanced at the sign that hung on the red brick outside wall that said: Main Building/Front Office. They both walked in and a student walked out at the same time as them, he bowed to both of them quickly before he scurried off. Jihoon stuck his hands in his coat pockets, he suddenly felt insecure at his new school. Jihoon stood off to the side as his father greeted the lady who sat at the front. She smiled warmly and her eyes wandered to where Jihoon stood, a surprised look of recognition on her face.

“Oh, Lee Jihoon! We’ve been expecting you!” She greeted and Jihoon bowed to her as she smiled back. “Your check in time was a couple hours ago so we were getting worried. We had your roommate get called in here but we had to send him back to class. How about you bring in your belongings and I will get everything settled here with Mr. Lee?” She motioned to Jihoon’s father and Jihoon nodded slowly, still processing everything she was saying.

“Mr. Choi! Can you get out here and help bring in Mr. Jihoon’s belongings!” The lady called and a tall student came out from the back room and bowed to both of them.

“Hello, my name is Junhong.” He greeted shyly and Jihoon wanted to shrink away from the kid who wore a neat, pressed uniform with blue accents and a striped blue tie, he was so tall that Jihoon cringed to himself. “Where is your car parked?” He asked and Jihoon finally pulled himself together to smile politely at the guy who stood in front of him. He lead the way outside and left his father behind to deal with check in. Jihoon and Junhong carried all of his stuff back in two trips, so it wasn’t too difficult. It would have been three, but Junhong’s arms were long enough to carry all of the boxes that held his music equipment and shoes. Jihoon sighed heavily when he noticed that the boxes fit perfectly in the tall kids’ arms while Jihoon could barely carry his guitar and bags at the same time. He already didn’t like this guy. They were silent on both trips there and back, so Jihoon didn’t have a chance to ask him about what year he was in or anything. Jihoon was stuck in the office again as the other kid disappeared back into the other room and his father finished up his talk with the lady at the front desk.

“If you’d like, Mr. Lee, you can stay and help your son settle in-”

“Unfortunately, I have to get to work.” He said and Jihoon stood there awkwardly as the lady sensed the tense atmosphere.

“Oh, of course. You must be very busy. Well, we will take care of Jihoon here so don’t worry about anyth-”

“Jihoon,” He cut the lady off and her embarrassed flushed face appeared, “be safe.” He turned to his son and Jihoon gave a short nod. His father then turned, walked out the glass doors and disappeared down the pathways back to the car. Jihoon then looked back at the lady who fanned her face to cool it down.

“Um, well then, let me call your roommate down here. One moment please.” She turned away from Jihoon who sighed quietly. He waited for a minute before she turned back and smiled at him again. “Because this is all on such short notice, your uniforms won’t come in until next week.” She glanced at the folders that were sitting on her desk and flipped through them, performing a scan of the pages with her dark eyes. “So, you can wear what you like to class, but please remember to follow the school dress code as closely as possible. The guide is online as well, if you need to recheck it.”

“Okay.” Jihoon really didn’t want to wear his own clothes to class, as that would cause him to stand out so much more, and in addition to that- he had pink hair. He suddenly felt his nervousness double.

“Here is your student ID, a map of the school and a folder of your personal files and miscellaneous. Your roommate should be here any minute now, he will explain everything else to you and show you to the dorm rooms.” She closed an extra folder and set it aside, clearing . “Usually students with the same unit talents are paired together so you might have a lot in common.”

It was awkwardly quiet as the lady excused herself to turn back to doing whatever it was that she was doing before he walked in there. “Wow! Nice hair!” Someone yelled, half of the words spoken in attempted english. Jihoon looked up to see a bright eyed kid sauntering towards him. Jihoon took a quick look at his uniform, he had on a purple striped tie with purple accents all down his uniform. Jihoon suddenly realized that it probably signified their class rank or year. “I’m Seungkwan, and you’re Jihoon right?” He asked happily and Jihoon was at a loss for words. If everyone was this welcoming, he didn’t think he’d have a hard time adjusting at all.

“Yeah, that’s me.” Jihoon smiled.

“Cool! We have a lot to talk about.” Seungkwan slung an arm around Jihoon’s shoulders and ushered him to the front glass doors. “I’ll show you to the dorms and then we can go around campus. Don’t worry about your stuff, they’ll send someone to bring it to the room.” Jihoon didn’t say a thing as they were halfway out the door. The lady from the front desk suddenly called out.

“Welcome to Pledis Academy Jihoon! And Mr. Seungkwan, behave!” She then turned and went back to her work.

“Thanks…” Jihoon said quietly.

Seungkwan laughed, “Bye Miss Kim!” he called and then they were out the door, beginning to walk straight to the middle of campus. They walked right by a huge garden, and then past a fountain that wasn’t .

“There are no students out right now because they’re in required classes, which basically means ‘boring subject’ class. But some students are having “late breakfast” which means food for the early class students.” Seungkwan explained but Jihoon was already having a hard time following. Seungkwan caught on to his confusion quickly and grinned, “Early class basically means kids who have a different schedule than ours. So they have late breakfast, late lunch and late dinner. But late dinner is offered to all students. So people who want to study before dinner or have other responsibilities can skip early dinner and go to late dinner, later. Make sense?”

“No.”

“You’ll get used to it.” Seungkwan reassured with a smile.

“Hopefully. Oh, and...what do the color of your ties signify?” Jihoon brought up the question that was burnt in his mind ever since he seen that tall kid in the office.

“Oh! That’s our school ranks. We don’t really have a strict class year system since a lot of the students here skip years, so our colors signify our status. I’m purple, so that means that I’m in the 3rd rank. Some students are ranked by age, and others are ranked by their experience, talents and achievements. So, I wouldn’t judge somebody by their age until you know their rank. I know a kid who is younger than me but has a higher rank.” Seungkwan ranted on and Jihoon smiled at how joyful and talkative the kid was. “Since you’re basically a prodigy, you’re ranked in blue. Which means the first rank, then 2nd rank is red.”

Jihoon nodded his head at the explanation but then his eyes suddenly widened. “Prodigy?” he asked and Seungkwan laughed softly to himself.

“Yeah, the whole school knows about you. Lee Jihoon, genius kid. This school doesn’t get very many, you know. There are a lot of talented kids here, but you’re on a whole different level if you ask me.” Seungkwan said, tilting his head to stare at Jihoon. His heart suddenly sank. “I think it would be best if you stayed out of the spotlight. A lot of kids here get jealous, so...just a fair warning.”

Jihoon expected that much at least, it didn’t bother him hearing the unfortunate news, but he would have preferred if he stayed out of the limelight anyways. Then he remembered the kid in the office who had a blue tie on as well. “So that guy in the office...?”

“In the office…? Oh! Zelo?” Seungkwan asked and Jihoon still looked lost. “Yeah, Junhong is ranked blue as well, he’s a dance genius. But don’t worry about him, he’s a gentle giant.” Jihoon nodded, still bitter that there was a guy who had good looks, with a 1st rank, who was that tall and had the title ‘dance genius’. It just wasn’t fair.

Both Jihoon and Seungkwan walked across campus, the school was absolutely huge. Seungkwan even explained that they had a few restaurants and shops that sat at the edge of school grounds. Seungkwan then went on to say that mostly the higher ranked kids went there. Jihoon just couldn’t stop staring at the beautiful architecture of the buildings and the lawns, balconies, trees and gardens.

“Okay! So. On this side, are the male dorms.” Seungkwan motioned with his whole body to 5 huge dorm houses collected off to the side and isolated from the main school. It was quite a lot of walking but Jihoon liked the placement of the houses. Then Seungkwan motioned to the opposite side of the school where there was another collection of houses quite a ways away. “And that is the female dorms, but a word of advice: don’t ever go to that side of the school unless you want to be kicked out.” Jihoon nodded quickly and Seungkwan clapped his hands like he was about to start a lecture.

“There are four main male houses with that extra one for special case students. The first dorm house right there,” Seungkwan pointed to the first house that had a number 1 on it, “is for dance students.” Jihoon looked at the house longingly and knew that he would have been there if he had a choice. “The next one, is for rap, vocal, and producing. The third is for the instrumentally talented, and the last is for visual arts.” Seungkwan took a deep breath and continued, “There are 60 students to a house, and 2 per dorm room. But the last house is not included in those calculations.” Jihoon listened as Seungkwan kindly mentioned that everyone who attended the school was a mixture of everything. The school was apparently all about art expression but since they were an elite boarding school they had to make sure every school subject was well balanced, both arts and regular classes. Which, of course, explained the required morning lessons. The school was really no joke and often demanded to be taken very strictly and seriously by everyone. “Okay! This is boring, let’s go see our room now! We’re assigned to the second dorm.”

“How is the second dorm?” Jihoon asked and Seungkwan laughed quietly to himself.

“It’s okay. It’s often loud because people have to practice and produce, you know, but you’ll get used to the noise. It quiets down around 2 am. Our dorm supervisor isn’t strict at all, he doesn’t tell anyone to be quiet so they’re all loud.” Seungkwan stopped to laugh to himself again and Jihoon was currently inwardly questioning the weird kid as he trailed behind him, “Oh, but you don’t have to worry about me, I’m really quiet...sometimes.”

“So, we’re sharing a room right?” Jihoon asked, opting to ignore the “sometimes” part, and Seungkwan nodded his head quickly.

“That’s right.” He began stretching his arms above his head, “My other roommate graduated last year, and they didn’t assign me a new one until now. I was stuck with that guy for a whole year, I’m glad he graduated because I didn’t really like him anyways...he was mean to me. Actually, I like you better only knowing you for 30 minutes than knowing him for a whole year.” Seungkwan joked and Jihoon smiled gratefully.

“Thanks.”

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Seungkwan left Jihoon alone to unpack his stuff while he went to deliver an assignment to his teacher. When Jihoon first walked in the room he was satisfied by the size of it. It wasn’t very big, but it was a decent size. Seungkwan’s bed was on the left side of the room and Jihoon’s was on the right. He immediately put on the bed covers so it wouldn’t look so sad. Then he hung up some art posters and put up a picture of his sister on the desk and set up his laptop and music equipment. He glanced over at Seungkwan’s side and noticed that he had a lot of papers strewn all over his desk, some crumpled up. The closer Jihoon looked, he realized that they were lyrics. He smirked to himself, glad that he had some things in common with his roommate. He suddenly thought of something and looked to his desk, he took a relieved breath, glad that it was facing away from Seungkwan’s side of the room. Now when he logged into his music blog, his roommate wouldn’t accidentally see his screen. He wasn’t sure if he would know who Woozi was, but seeing as Seungkwan was a vocalist and into music, he wouldn’t be surprised if he did. Jihoon got on his computer and logged into the school’s wifi with the code that they provided him in the folder that the front office lady, Miss Kim, gave him. He quickly went to the school’s website to check the schedule.

5 Day Schedule/ Month of October

5:30- First wake-up bell/early class students

6:30- Second wake-up bell

6:45- Dorm supervisors sent to assure that students are awake/accounted for

7:00- Breakfast bell

8:00-9:00- Breakfast late bell/early class students

8:00-11:45- Required classes, 5 minute breaks between, 15 minute break after

12:00- Lunch bell

1:00-3:00- High-priority classes, 5 minute breaks between

2:00-3:00- Late lunch bell/early class students

3:00-4:00- Practice/Homework/Free time/Meetings must take place, no dorm-returns until 3:30

4:00- Official P. Academy- School finished for the day

5:30-6:30- Dinner bell/Dinner

7:30-8:30- Late dinner bell/Dinner

Saturday: 9:00/wake-up bell /Practice rooms/Rec rooms/Library/ and Common rooms open at 8:30. Breakfast is served at 8:00 and 10:00, Lunch at 12:00, Snack at 3:00 and Dinner at 6:00.

Sunday: 9:00/wake-up bell /Chapel opens at 10:00/Services are held/Practice rooms/Rec rooms/Library/ and Common rooms open at 8:30. Breakfast is served at 8:00 and 10:00, Lunch at 12:00, Snack at 3:00 and Dinner at 6:00.

Activities and Sports games are held both days.

Students please take note,

.All must be in the dorms by 9:00. If given special permission to be in practice rooms, library, or common rooms, please have signed note. All students must be accounted for by 9:30 pm. Supervisors will check.

.If students are sick, or for some reason cannot attend class, their names will be written down and submitted in a form to the front office. Must have a note from the nurse’s station prepared in order to be excused from classes.

.Nurse’s office is open 24 hours, if it is an emergency then please do not hesitate to make your way to the stations.

.Breakfast is held in dining hall, if attending breakfast, students must eat in dining hall.

.Lunch/Dinner is held in dining hall, food can be taken back to dorms/practice rooms/common rooms/and rec rooms. Do not eat in the Library. If eating lunch on the lawn, please clean up after yourself, if you fail to do so, punishment will be organized.

.Students are allowed to return to their dorm at breakfast, lunch and dinner, but never in between unless special privilege is given.

Jihoon memorized the schedule and it reminded him to take a look at his outfit. It was rather plain, a light grey crewneck sweater with a dark grey beanie, jeans and white sneakers. It fit into the dress code for Saturdays and Sundays, so he was fine but Jihoon really didn’t want to take off his beanie once he got into class but he didn’t think he would have a choice. Hats were only allowed outside. Jihoon took a deep sigh and then spent some more time listening to music on his laptop while he calmed himself down. So far things weren’t bad but he had only met two students and a woman named Miss Kim.

Awhile later Jihoon was unpacking his stuff in his shared spacious room when he was startled by a loud bell that rang three times. Seungkwan entered the room shortly after and greeted him.

“Hey, that was the lunch bell by the way.” He mentioned.

“Oh, so that’s how it sounds?” He asked and chuckled softly.

“Yeah, you’ll have no trouble waking up in the morning when that bell goes off. It’s much louder when you’re running on 3 hours of sleep, trust me.” Seungkwan wandered over to Jihoon’s side of the room and sat on his bed, “By the way, it might get a little loud. A lot of the kids in second house like to bring their lunch back and practice with their friends. Today especially since a lot of them have projects due in their next classes.”

“Oh, that’s okay, I have to go to a class after lunch, right?” Jihoon finished putting his clothes away and Seungkwan nodded.

“Yeah, those would be your high-priority classes. I like to call them the fun ones. I’m sure were in at least one of the same classes....what do you have after lunch?”

“Uh, I have Musical Performance, then Music Study and Composition and my last class is Instrumental Advanced.”

“Wow, okay. I don’t think we’re gonna be in the same classes. Those are all really high-level, I’m just a purple tie!” Seungkwan threw his hands in the air dramatically. “But at least were both vocal and music students.” He grinned brightly and Jihoon laughed softly.

“Yeah, oh, now that I’m done packing, can you show me to the dining hall?” He asked and Seungkwan jumped up.

“Of course! Follow me, let’s eat lunch together!” He opened up the door and Jihoon followed. They both walked down the hallways, Jihoon trailed uncomfortably behind his roommate as people stared at him, some even began to talk about him right as he passed.

“That’s Lee Jihoon.”

“Who?”

“The new prodigy. Well, that’s what everyone keeps saying.”

“He doesn’t look like a prodigy.”

“Yeah, what’s with his hair?”

Seungkwan glared at the gossiping kids as he passed, then he slung an arm around Jihoon's shoulders and walked down the hallways side by side. “Told ya you’d be famous.” Jihoon rolled his eyes at that but smiled at the way Seungkwan joked about the situation. Suddenly one of the blue tie students caught his eye as the pristinely dressed teen ran down the hallways towards both Seungkwan and himself, he darted right past them and shoved Jihoon’s shoulder as he went. Jihoon looked back and glared at the pretty kid who continued to run towards the end of the hallway.

“What the hell?” Jihoon muttered and Seungkwan patted his roommate’s shoulder.

"Don’t worry, that's Jeonghan and he's usually really nice. He’s probably just in a hurry to get to his room-” Seungkwan suddenly gasped as he caught sight of someone holding a hamburger in their hands. “They're serving hamburgers today-!” Jihoon stopped in his tracks.

“Wait. What did you just say?” He asked in disbelief and glanced down the hallway again where the pretty boy had slowed to a walk before he reached the corner of the hallway.

“Hamburgers? I really like them that’s why I-”

“No! Before that! What’s that guy’s name?” Jihoon asked and gripped Seungkwan’s shoulder tightly.

“Jeonghan. Well some people call him Angel Jeonghan but I don’t because it’s kind of weird.”

“Oh no...” Jihoon whispered to himself.

Yeah, he has long, straight brown hair that reaches his shoulders. He’s the prettiest guy that I have ever met. A lot of people even call him angel and I think I might like him, but I don’t know. He’s just really beautiful and perfect and-

“No way.” Jihoon said and Seungkwan furrowed his eyebrows at his suddenly panicked friend.

“Uh...are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine...” Jihoon composed himself just in time to catch Jeonghan poke his head from around the corner with a bright smile on his face and a hand raised at both of them.

“Hey! Sorry!” He yelled. Seungkwan smiled back at Jeonghan. Jihoon suddenly felt sick to his stomach the more he analyzed the pretty man’s face. If, somehow, that was the Jeonghan that Coups knew then Woozi’s internet friend was around here somewhere. At this exact school. A boarding school. His new home.

Jihoon glanced around the area quickly, suddenly very paranoid.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Seungkwan asked worriedly, “I know this can be really intimidating at first but it will settle down soon enough.” Seungkwan assured and Jihoon stayed quiet but nodded. They began to walk down the halls again and although Jihoon knew that Coups had no idea what Woozi looked like, the famous internet composer kept his head down and away from prying eyes.

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