041320

When I looked up, I saw Suho talking to a group of people with a big smile on his face.

"You aren't nervous? Because I'm super scared," a girl whined, grabbing onto his arm. Her long, straight hair had highlights streaking down it. She was naturally beautiful. Standing next to Suho, she seemed to be on his level according to looks.

"No, and you shouldn't be either. I mean, look at this group, you already have friends to help you." Suho glanced in my direction before smiling and waving me over. "Sujin! Come meet them, they're in our year." I nodded with a smile and closed my notebook.

"Everyone, this is Sujin, I met her over the summer," Suho said when I made it over to the group.

"Hello," I greeted with a smile, "I hope we can all be friends."

"Oh my gosh, you're so cute!" one of the girls squealed, "My name Jisong, it's nice to meet you Sujin."

After her, everyone else introduced themselves. They were all really nice about it, but Suho was giving me a feeling that I shouldn't trust them quite yet. Even he was smiling, and compared to the Suho I knew, he was trying to get them to like him.

"Alright guys, class starts in like, two minutes, so let's get to our seats. We can talk at lunch, yeah?" Suho suggested, making his way towards me.

"Sure, talk to ya then," one of the boys said, who I now knew was Taeil, before he and the rest of the group either went to their seats or out of the classroom.

"Alright," Suho walked with me to the back of the room, stopping in front of his desk. "Sujin, over the summer we met at a park. I was practicing soccer alone and you asked to join, we played and talked, exchanging numbers when you had to leave. We kept in touch, and met a few more times-"

"Wait, what are you talking about Suho?" I asked, confused with what he was saying.

"I thought of this to keep the whole... 'incident' a secret. So, if anyone asks you how we met, which is bound to happen, that is how we met. Also, Sujin, that group that I introduced you to is a popular group, don't tell them anything too personal and don't trust them with anything because they'll gossip. If you have anything else to ask me, write a note and put it on my desk. I'll tap your shoulder when I have a response, it'll be on the right corner of my desk, I want you to take it when the teacher isn't looking okay?" he quickly explained, motioning to my seat.

I sat with a nod. "Uh, okay. Yeah."

He nodded. "Okay."

He took a seat as well, and started getting his supplies out when I finally took notice of his gloveless hands.

"Suho, where'd your gloves go?"

"Oh," he stopped what he was doing and smiled at me, "I'm not wearing them, of course."

"But why?" I asked.

"Because, until I gain the favor of the popular kids, I can't wear them. I hate to admit it, but this is the best option for the time being. If I give them anything to work with, I won't be one with their group. And as I've learned, you want to be with the popular kids in school if you don't want to get picked on, and to be one of them, I have to fit in. Wearing gloves separates us, so I can't."

"That's stupid," I remarked, tapping my desk, "if only school was different."

"It may be stupid, but that's how it is. We have to stop talking now though, the bell's about to ring."

The whole class was an introduction to the course, which was English 1. I was actually excited to learn a new language other than Korean, and especially since almost everyone here in Korea learned English at one point, I couldn't wait to start. Namjoon knew English very well, and the other boys were learning, so I knew this course was hopefully going to be pretty easy. Not to mention, the teacher, Mrs. Moon, was chill.

The class ended quickly, and it was time for Chemistry. Suho had told me during class that he was taking almost all AP required classes, which meant we didn't really have much together until after lunch. How the school had it set up, was that in the morning, I had all my academic and required classes. These included Math, Science, History, and Korean Language Arts, along with English. After lunch was where I got to the music. I had signed up for dance, music theory, music production, and vocal lessons, specializing in rap. We also had a free period somewhere in the afternoon. Compared to mine, Suho had all the same afternoon classes, and also English with me. The rest, he was taking AP while I stuck with grade-level, since I was already a grade ahead.

The class, as well as the following academic classes I had before lunch went fast, as they were only 40 minutes long, and the first day was really just about expectations, materials, and a preview of the course. A few of the classes were daunting to me, considering I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up with my peers. But, by the time lunch rolled around, I was mostly excited for the rest of the year. I was even more excited about the classes that were coming up later in the day, which were all of my musical art classes.

I got slightly nervous because I wasn't sure which way was best to get to the cafeteria, and I was struggling with my locker a bit, so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find Jungkook waiting for me in the cafeteria, but sure enough, as soon as I made my way down there, he met me with a smile and a pat on the back.

"You made it, sis. Halfway through the day. How was it?"

I was about to respond as we walked down the isles of tables full of students eating, and then flinched away from his touch as soon as I realized everyone was looking at us. "Remember? Low-key?" I reminded him.

"Oh." He took his hand to himself. "Sorry."

"Anyways," I sighed, "Classes were somewhat boring, at least compared to what I'm looking forward to later in the day. But I'm mostly excited for the year, and I survived, so that's a good thing."

"Indeed." We continued down the rows until we reached the back of the Cafeteria. "My friends are over here. Do you want to join us?"

"Yes please."

A few of Jungkook's friends waved him over as we came to sit, but then another voice called my name, catching my attention.

"Hey, Sujin!" I looked over in the voices direction to see Suho smiling at me, "You can come sit with us if you want,"

"Oh, uh, Jungkook? I'm gonna..." I pointed to Suho. "Less suspicious, you know?"

He laughed, "Of course you can sit by your friends. I'm not offended."

I gave him a quick hug. "Thanks, I'll check in with you before our next class." With my lunch sack in hand, I followed Suho, and Daehyun who'd found us, down to a table in a farther corner. There, I could see the people he'd introduced me to earlier already sitting, waiting for us.

"Thank you, Suho, I actually wasn't so sure about sitting with my brother's older friends and all. It would have been awkward. Not to mention, you know, I don't want people noticing me sitting with 'The Jeon Jungkook'," I mocked.

Suho shrugged and motioned to the table, "It's not much trouble for me, let's go sit, yeah?"

As I was about to find a place to sit among Suho's friends, a hand grabbed my shoulder. "Sujin, I found you."

"Oh!" I gasped, "Jiho, it's nice to see you."

"Yeah! I wasn't sure I'd be able to find you here, I mean I've been watching for you all day."

"Really? I was worried I just wouldn't be able to find you. The school is large and we're two years apart."

"Well, that aside, we have lunch together. Want to come sit with me?"

"Oh," I looked back at Suho and his friends at the table I was about to sit down at. I didn't want to leave Suho, so I decided to kindly decline the offer. "Not this time, maybe tomorrow? I already promised Suho-"

"Oh, but my friends really want to meet you. Why don't you come say hi to them, at least?"

"I mean..." I looked to Suho who was watching the scene. "I could come say hi, but I should come back here, at least for today."

"Alright, no problem." He grabbed my hand, and I turned to Suho and Daehyun. "I'll be right back, then."

Jiho wasted no time in walking me through the crowd, hand in hand, which made me very self-conscious. I hadn't even had time to think about how handsome I thought he was, and I wasn't the only one thinking about his stunning looks. I almost couldn't believe he was still talking to me.

For the third time that day, I approached a group of people waving over my friend. Jiho waved back, and then took a seat in an empty spot leaving me standing awkwardly over everyone.

"Don't just stand there, sit," one of the girls told me. I could tell she was about his age, and had overdone her makeup a little bit.

"Yeah," another one said. Her designer-made outfit told me she was the one who had it all.

"I promised-"

"Yeah, but you could stay here for a little," Jiho said. I looked past the large crowd of students in the cafeteria, all the way to Suho and Daehyun. Dae was looking back, watching me. I could tell he was waiting for me.

I laughed, "Well it's nice to meet all of you, I'm Sujin."

"Yeah, Jiho's told us all about you."

"That's nice." I looked back at Suho. "I hope to get to know you all, really, but I promised my other friends-"

"Oh, other friends, Jiho? She got another boy her eyes are on?" At that comment by his friend, Jiho's table roared with laughter. I turned red.

"No, I met him over the summer and he invited me. We have classes, we were going to discuss them," I lied, only wanting to leave them. They weren't as fun or chill as Suho's friends, and I hated how much older they were.

"Sweetheart," one of the boys sitting next to Jiho said, before creeping a hand to my waist. I pulled away, panicked. "Oh, scared you?"

I gave Jiho a confused look. He didn't seem bewildered that his friend had tried to touch me. I gave up on trying to convince them to let me go, so I turned on my heels and headed back to Suho's table. I was not comfortable there anymore.

"Wait, Sujin," Jiho called back at me, I kept walking all the way until I had sat myself right next to Suho.

"I'm staying here," I mumbled.

Suho shrugged and went to eat his lunch. I glanced over to Jiho's table, and saw that his friends had resumed their conversation. I laughed silently to myself. He didn't even care about me.

I decided to put the event behind me and focus on the lunch Jin had made me. Suho's friends made small talk as we ate.

"So, are any of you doing instruments?" Suho asked the group, giving a small smile.

"Oh! I'm doing drums," one of the girls said, a boy replying with 'same.'

"Yumeko and I are doing piano," a boy said, making Suho give them a warm smile.

"I do piano too, if you guys need help feel free to ask. Starting out is pretty hard. This year though I'm doing flute, I figured I needed an instrument change,"

"Yeah, you play the piano too much Suho, this'll be good for you," Dae agreed, punching him lightly on the shoulder. Suho playfully rolled his eyes and nodded.

"What about you Sujin?" Taeil asked me.

"No, I'm not in any instrument classes this year. I do play the piano though," I told them, smiling at her.

From there the conversation flowed naturally, they even included me and Dae in almost everything, which I wasn't expecting. As we went through lunch, I got pretty comfortable with the group, but I was careful with what I told them. I trusted Suho more than I trusted the group right now, and I could see the gossip intertwined in our conversation.

"Suho, babe!" A girl ran over and hugged him in his seat.

"Hey, where were you Yumeko?" he chuckled a bit as she sat down next to him.

"I was in the office helping out a new student," she pulled out a lunch box, tossing her long black hair over her shoulder, "then we heard the lunch bell, but we were on the other side of the school. I finished up her tour on the way here though,"

"That's good," Suho said, and I looked at him confused.

"Wait, I'm lost," I told Suho, causing him to laugh a little.

"Ah, right. You two haven't met," he set down his apple and smiled, "Right, Sujin, this is my girlfriend Yumeko Jabami. Yumeko, this is my friend Kim Sujin."

"Nice to meet you Sujin," she smiled.

"Nice to meet you," I replied, giving a look to Dae who just shrugged.

"I'll text you about it later," Dae assured, going back to the conversation.

I smiled and went back to eating, adding my thoughts in every once in a while. The rest of lunch seemed to go by quickly, the bell breaking our group apart as we all went our separate ways.

We had finished eating in time to head to our next class, which for me was dance. This was the class I'd been looking forward to the most, so I felt a surge of excitement through myself as I headed to the dance room. I knew I was supposed to bring clothes to change into so I grabbed those from my locker on the way. As soon as we got into the room, I felt a weird sense of safety. The room was almost identical to the one at the Bighit Studio, since it had a mirror covering one of the whole walls and the room was bright. The white walls covering three-fourths of the room illuminated the aura, with the floors being the same, but as a rubbery and soft surface. I could tell it was going to be great for dancing on. The room was not as large as Bighit's, but it was close. All in all, it was a dance studio, and I was super excited to get started.

I didn't know any of the other students there, so I took a seat among them as I could see the instructor was waiting as we trickled in to start class. There were mostly girls, but there were also a handful of boys too. I was happy to finally have a class with more people who loved the same thing I did.

The instructor looked kind, as well as strong. He wore a pair of sweatpants, a black t-shirt, and his hair was in a neatly combed sweep on top of his head. He held his hands in front of his stomach as he surveyed the room, almost anxiously waiting as if he were trying to analyze how his class was going to be this year. At one point, my eyes met as his wandered the room, and he gave me a smile. I sent one back in return, and then looked around as the last few students entered. Tucking my legs into my arms like a child, I watched as friends gathered together. I was wondering if one day I'd have a friend in this class.

Soon enough, the instructor cleared his throat and the conversations around the room died down. "Students, you can call me Mr. Hyebin. I specialize in Hip-Hop and Lyrical dance, but I am here to teach you the basics. This includes what you will need to audition for a company in the future. If getting into a company in the music industry is your goal, I will make sure you get there."

Hope this chapter wasn't boring and that you're all doing well and staying safe. More BTS is coming up and I hope you don't mind all this side-character stuff.

See you next week,

Rose