Chapter Text
Dowoon starred down at the card that had just been handed to him, made of flimsy plastic and still warm from the printer, it starred back at him through the eyes of his bored ID photo self. Had he always looked so awkward in photos with his growing undereye bags and still bed-tousled hair? He traced a thumbnail over the embossed letters of his name in some failing attempt at psyching himself up for another round of being the new transfer student for the 9th time in a row and let out a dejected sigh. The novelty of being a newbie had worn off probably somewhere around his third school and this being school number 9 was feeling like some sort of sick joke; moving schools so frequently tends to have that kind of affect on someone, even if Dowoon considered himself fairly resillient.
Dowoon slipped the new school ID card into the breast pocket of his blazer and took a deep breath to push away the building thoughts of inadequency that were burning behind his eyes - he had made a thousand promises to himself that this year was going to be different from his previous one. No longer would Yoon Dowoon contort himself into the tiny boxes expected of him, he was going to be himself and hopefully make some lasting friendships. His mom seemed confident enough this year would finaly be the one he developed some life long friendships, or some happy go lucky ideas she came up with.
Dowoon knew somewhere deepdown he shouldn’t blame his mom for his inner turmoil and teen angst but moving schools so often had definetly had some kind of affect on his developing adolenscent brain. Moving constantly was her fault, and Dowoon knew that, but he needed someone to blame for it so naturally it came back to her and she took the blame like a champion. Gosh, it made Dowoon feel even worse that she was just so understanding, internally he screamed every time she tried to empathsise with him.
Crying on his first day was not going to make this any easier.
***
”Hey,” Kim Wonpil waved a hand in front of Dowoon’s eyes to bring him back into the moment “Earth to Woonie - you’re spacing out.” Dowoon felt the blood rush to his face in embarrassment as he scrambled to remember what Wonpil had been talking about while his mind had different else where - damnit why wasn’t he better at paying attention - but Wonpil just steam roller ahead with the tour he was giving him.
It was clear abundantly clear Wonpil was a passionate person, animated and excited by so many little things. He spoke almost too fast for Dowoon to keep up and kept making movie refrences as he explained school rules and filled Dowoon in the histories surrounding particular classrooms and common spaces they encountered. Wonpil’s possitive attitude to everything was starting to feel contagious as it finally pulled the first smile out of Dowoon as he realised Wonpil was someone who just pulled everyone into his bubble like he was immune to being disliked.
As Wonpil continued in the same upbeat animated fashion pointing out school landmarks something horribly akin to jealousy began to stir its ugly head in Dowoon, his only choice was force the feeling down into the depths of his soul to address in his diary some other time. Today was going to be a normal, uneventful first day where no one needed to find out he had issues.
Putting aside his own twisted feelings about school Dowoon decided imediately he liked Wonpil and he hoped they would be able to become good friends.
He had to admit he was enthralled by how Wonpil glided so effortlessly through the school halls, he carried such an air of elegance about him that seemed to command the room and the other students around them embodied it too. Was this what all private schools were like? Full of people who seem so put together and so comfortable? Another thought for Dowoon to push to oneside and ignore until his head met the pillow. This was Dowoon’s first experience with expensive, state-of-the-art private school in the middle of the city and he didn’t want to seem so out of place, he didn’t want to be the fish out of water that would draw everyone in.
Having enough money to throw at this fancy-pants school was a new experience for Dowoon but his new step-dad millionaire tech mogul was footing the bill and Wonpil was succeeding in making Dowoon feel like he had always belonged here - maybe he had always eaten his lunch in grand halls and studied in ornate libraries.
Dowoon found himself smiling even wider as he fell into step with Wonpil.
***