Chapter Text
"Alrighty, she's ready for you! You can head on back there now!"
Why was it a universal rule that all high school secretaries were either chipper as hell or meaner than the devil? There really was no in-between.
Xiaojun slung his backpack over his shoulder and nodded politely at the secretary, making his way to the guidance counselor's office. Four schools in under a year must be some sort of record. His Dad had promised that this would be the last move until he graduated high school, but the likelihood of his family staying ANYWHERE for another 2 years seemed laughable. Seattle, Washington wasn't exactly the cultural hub for any teenager, but Xiaojun was determined to make the best of it...kind of.
He knocked at the door to the office.
"Xiaojun, come on in!"
Oh great, this lady sounds even MORE hyper than the first, he thought to himself. He opened the door, ready to slide into the seat nearest the desk, but was surprised to find that it was already occupied. Dark chocolate eyes met his milk chocolate ones, and for a second Xiaojun questioned what he'd gotten himself into.
Sitting in the chair was the single scariest man he'd ever seen. Yes, technically, the guy HAD to be a fellow high school student because he had a backpack next to him, but there was no way Xiaojun could call this guy a classmate. The man had shoulder length wavy brown hair, piercings on both ears...a FEW piercings on both ears, not to mention dressed head to toe in black, complete with combat boots. Was there an apocalypse happening sometime soon?
And then there was the glare. The man looked at Xiaojun like he was the reason for every misfortune that had ever occurred to him. Luckily the guidance counselor was there, although Xiaojun didn't think this guy would blink twice to knock him out in front of her.
"Mr. Nakamoto, we're done in here," she said firmly. "Please take this as my FINAL warning. Let's try to make it to graduation with no more of our little chats, hm? It's only two more months, even I have faith in you."
Nakamoto Yuta rolled his eyes but nodded his head. He was a frequent flyer in and out of detention, even though he'd just transferred a few weeks prior from upstate. Maybe if people didn't treat him like such an outlier, a "scary" guy, he wouldn't act like one. But damn if people were gonna whisper, he'd give them something to whisper about.
"For the last time, it was a hotdog. I didn't even pull my pants down," he said flatly.
Xiaojun felt his eyes bug out of their sockets. Um, excuse me?
"Be that as it may, the lunch lady that nearly fainted didn't think your little prank was all that funny," said the guidance counselor with a serious tone. "Just keep everything nice and zipped up for the rest of the semester, and we're golden. Dismissed."
Yuta tsked, but grabbed his bag and turned to leave the room, bumping into Xiaojun as he left.
The guidance counselor quickly fixed her face when she turned to look at Xiaojun once more. "Sorry about that! Some of our seniors express their senioritis in ahem, unique ways. Please take a seat!"
Xiaojun sat down, feeling beyond uncomfortable. The guidance counselor, who introduced herself as Ms. Taeyeon, talked to him about his class schedule, choices in electives, student life, yadda yadda yadda. He had heard it all before, and he sort-of zoned out halfway through, staring out the window behind her into the campus courtyard. It was then that he saw her.
She had her hair in two brown braids, each nearly reaching halfway down her back. She was wearing a summer dress, white with purple and pink flowers. Golden hoops in her ears completed her look. She was laughing, one of her arms outstretched. It looked like she was racing after one of her friends, loose tendrils of her hair fluttering around her face. She glowed.
"Will that be alright with you?"
"What? Yes. Hm?" Xiaojun snapped back to reality, Ms. Taeyeon eyeing him warily. "I said, someone from the student council will be coming by to show you around, is that okay? Normally I would do so, but I have some pressing matters to attend to."
Xiaojun nodded his head vigorously. "Yep! Yeah that's fine."
Someone knocked on the door.
"Come in!"
In walked a girl wearing a grey shirt with a long black skirt. She pushed her short dark hair out of her face and fixed a pointed stare at the two occupants in the room.
"You wanted to see me?"
"Yes! Y/n! Come on in! Xiaojun, meet Y/n." Xiaojun swallowed nervously as the girl stared at him with an unreadable expression. Were all the students here so scary?
"Are you--Is--Is she the person who will be showing me around?"
"Oh heavens no! Y/n is just a senior who has a habit of sharing her...opinions...with others! This tends to lead her to my office for our little chats," Ms. Taeyeon explained.
Y/n rolled her eyes. "You don't have to sugarcoat it ma'am. Everyone calls me a bitch, and I'm fine with that."
Ms. Taeyeon laughed awkwardly while Xiaojun wondered if it was too late to run.
"Anyway, Hendery should be waiting for you outside your homeroom. Have a great first day! Y/n, take a seat."
Xiaojun didn't need to be told twice. Grabbing his backpack, making sure he passed a wide circle around this Y/n chick, Xiaojun hurried out of the front office.
His homeroom was on the opposite side of campus, and Xiaojun kept glancing around at everyone, hoping that he'd see another glimpse of that girl from earlier. No such luck.
"Hey!"
Xiaojun turned around and came face to face with a smiling boy, dressed plainly in a blue button down and khakis. "My name is Hendery, Ms. Taeyeon said that I'm supposed to show you around?"
Xiaojun nodded at him, looking him up and down. Okay, this guy seemed normal...maybe.
"Come on, let me show you around." Hendery got close to Xiaojun suddenly, whispering.
"We have a free pass for the entire day, we can walk for a little bit then go hang out behind the bleachers."
Xiaojun laughed. Okay, at least he could make one new friend here.
Hendery led Xiaojun on a short tour of the campus, the library, and the cafeteria. They got some ice cream and went to sit out at the football field. Xiaojun learned that Hendery was the youngest of four, the last of his family to still be in high school. He was a self-professed gamer, really good with numbers, and already decided that he wanted to be a business major in college.
"All my older sisters are business majors, and they say their class load is easy," Hendery explained as he finished his vanilla cone.
"I'm just trying to graduate high school first; I can't even think about college yet," Xiaojun muttered, his mint chocolate cone going untouched as he thought about the next two years.
He was an okay student, not excellent, but not horrible. But there was nothing that he really saw himself doing with his life.
The final bell rang, and the two boys stood up, jogging back to the front of the school. Classes were done for the day, and the student body was quickly exiting from the building, some milling about, laughing, yelling, calling out to each other.
"You'll get the hang of this place in no time; we have your regular cliques, just like any other school," said Hendery.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we have your jocks..." Hendery nodded to a group on his left. A group of muscular boys stood in a circle.
"And that's when I knew I had to increase my protein intake to 50 grams per day, it really did wonders for my muscle mass," said one dark-haired boy to another.
"Wow Jeno, that's amazing!"
"Yeah," the boy nodded, "wrestling tryouts for next year will be a breeze."
"And then you have the nerds, geeks, weebs, whatever you wanna call them...I guess that's MY crowd," admitted Hendery as he and Xiaojun made their way past another crowd of people.
"...and that's when I told Kun, ‘No! The superior drone is the 2019 model, obviously.’ With opinions like that, there's no WAY he's gonna be valedictorian," snickered a boy wearing a big pair of glasses with thick black frames.
"Doyoung, you and Kun have this debate every week, PLEASE give it a rest," begged a taller boy with big puppy dog eyes.
"No can-do Jungwoo, not until I get first in class placements."
"And of course, who can forget the stoners? Or bums, whatever you wanna call them," said Hendery, gesturing to the next group of kids.
A boy was laying down on the ground, looking up at the sky, seemingly staring at nothing. Hendery called out to him.
"Taeil! Hey! You good?"
The boy blinked slowly, then leisurely raised his thumb up. Hendery shook his head.
"It's best to just let them do their own thing."
Xiaojun looked at each group of students, his fellow classmates. Were these really his only options?
"Well, thanks for showing me around--" started Xiaojun, before stopping suddenly in his tracks.
Coming towards him were a pair of girls, seemingly making their way to the parking lot. One was taller with short bobbed black hair, and she was nodding along to whatever the shorter, more animated girl, was saying. Xiaojun did a double take. The girl from earlier!
She had her hair in the same pigtails, and she was laughing at whatever the taller girl had whispered to her. She glanced up to watch where she was going, her eyes meeting Xiaojun's...before quickly moving past him, onto someone else behind him. Xiaojun turned to see what had grabbed her attention...or rather who.
Standing amongst the group of jocks was a guy, he looked like a senior. Xiaojun could see why the girl was distracted. This guy was TALL and built, his physique obvious even under the white tee and jeans he was wearing. The boy lifted a toned arm to push back his long blonde hair--hold on, did he just flex his bicep on purpose? Ugh-- and proceeded to wink at the pair of girls, adjusting the toothpick in his mouth.
They of course ate it up, blushing as they walked past him, giggling. The tall boy turned to the guy next to him and said something, both of them laughing loudly. Xiaojun's eyes continued to follow the pair of girls though, specifically pigtails girl.
"Oh dude. No. Nooooo. Nope. Do NOT go down that path," warned Hendery as he took in the sight of his new friend.
"What are you talking about? I wasn't looking! I was just..."
Hendery fixed a hard stare at Xiaojun, who sighed miserably.
"Can you just tell me her name?"
Hendery paused. "Ningning," he said finally. "Her name is Ningning. She's a sophomore, just like us. And she is off-limits."
"And what group does she belong to?"
"What do you think? The preppy popular crowd, obviously. Johnny's had his eye on her since the start of the school year."
"Johnny?"
"The tall dude that she was eye-banging a few seconds ago? He's the most popular guy in school, a senior. He models part-time, and he basically has his pick of the girls here," Hendery explained.
"Besides, girls like Ningning are a dime a dozen. Just stare at her when she walks past you, have your little daydreams about her, and keep it moving."
Xiaojun was shaking his head before Hendery had even finished speaking. "No, no, you're wrong about her. She's completely pure. Did you see the way she smiled? Her laugh? She's special, and I want to get to know her."
Hendery blew air out of his mouth, eyeing his friend up and down. "There's really no getting through to you, is there? Well alright then. She's in my French class, and I happen to know that she needs a tutor."
Xiaojun pumped his fist. "Perfect! I can totally do that! I'll swing by the language department tomorrow morning and put my name down on the tutoring roster."
Hendery gave him a funny look. "Dude...I saw your class schedule. You're taking Spanish. Do you even know French?"
"Well, no, not right now...but I will!"
"And so it begins," said Hendery solemnly.
"Hey!"
Xiaojun and Hendery whipped their heads around at the sudden sound coming from across the quad. A girl was ripping down a prom poster from the outside bulletin board while another girl threatened, "I'm going to tell the principal! You can't keep doing this Y/n!"
Xiaojun recognized her instantly. "Hey, I know that girl. She was in the office talking to Ms. Taeyeon before you arrived."
"Ah yes, your future sister-in-law."
"Huh?"
"Ningning's older sister, Y/n."
"THAT'S her sister?!"
"Yup. Still interested?"
Xiaojun ran his hand down the side of his face. Where Ningning was soft, Y/n was rough. Even though she was wearing a skirt, and was currently laughing with her friend as they waved the poster around, and was actually, objectively beautiful, he remembered the look on her face from earlier. How the room felt like it had all the air sucked out of it. Was that dramatic? Maybe. All he knew was that he didn't want to get on her bad side.
"Well, it was nice meeting you. I'll see you in first period tomorrow," said Hendery as he unchained his bike from the post.
"See you," Xiaojun called out.
Some first day.