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Kim Byungjoo was not especially extraordinary on the surface, aside from his hair, which gained the most attention. He was currently sporting silver hair that fell into a side parting in a way that neither looked deliberate nor totally effortless. He wasn’t the loudest person ever and didn’t necessarily trouble to make his presence known unless he felt he needed or really wanted to.
Which begged the question, why the loud and boisterous kid out of everyone in this hall had been the one to approach him while he was eating his breakfast on his first morning at this school that was apparently only for those skilled and wanting to go into some line of work within the arts –although acting had an entirely different section that was for the most part cut off from the rest from what Byungjoo had been able to tell just from what he saw as he was arriving.
"Ooh Ooh look, Hyung, there's a new one~ There's a new one~! What's your name, new-guy-ssi?" The loud and boisterous stranger felt the need to shout to one of his friends as if Byungjoo was a particularly cool looking animal in the zoo.
"Well it's definitely not 'New-Guy-Ssi'- It's Kim Byungjoo, nice to meet you~" Byungjoo said, dipping his head to the other since he couldn’t really bow while sat at a table.
"Hmm...nice to meet you too, Kim Byungjoo-ssi, what year are you?"
"Me? '94 liner, what about you~?"
"I'm '93~ So I'm older than you, Byungjoo-yah, you'll have to call me Haesung-hyung 'cause that's my name~" Byungjoo was surprised by this. So this kid was actually his hyung? He most certainly didn’t look like it.
"Well, nice to meet you Haesung-hyung~" He said, bowing his head once again then turning to the other three down the table sitting where Haesung had just come from. "Is he always this informal and excited this quickly?" He asked them.
"Yeah, Haesung's always like that, you get used to it I promise~" One of them, the one Haesung had shouted to a minute ago, responded with a small laugh. Haesung’s hyung then motioned for Byungjoo to come over closer to them so they could talk once Haesung had gone off, having finished his breakfast and was now presumably preparing for class. He obliged, picking up his food and moving over three or four seats until he was sitting in front of Haesung’s hyung. “The name’s Kim Taeyang-” Haesung’s hyung began before being cut off.
“-Seriously though, no one actually calls him that-” The kid sat next to Taeyang said.
“Yeah, we all just call him Jenissi-hyung, it’s been so long since I’ve heard his actual name it sounds kinda weird to hear it~” Added the last of the three, whom Byungjoo was now sitting next to.
“Well, yeah, that’s what most of our friends call me~ If you’re younger than Haesung then you’re definitely younger than me, I’m the oldest of our group, ’91 liner. That-” He pointed to the one sat next to him, “-is Jiho, you said you’re ’94, right? That makes you two the same age. The one you’re sat next to is Sangwon, he’s the youngest of all of us, ’95 liner~” Taeyang –or Jenissi, as Jiho and Sangwon had said– explained, Byungjoo simply nodding while Sangwon groaned.
“Another hyung? How many is that now? I’m losing track, why is there even such a big group of us?” He said, in a mildly whiney voice before continuing. “That aside, call me Yano, seriously, it feels almost as weird to be called Sangwon by anyone but a teacher as it does to hear Jenissi-hyung actually use his own real name~” Yano said, now bowing his head a little to Byungjoo since he also couldn’t properly bow due to being sat down.
“Same goes for me, Just call me Xero, it’s what I’m used to, I think even the dance teacher has started calling me it sometimes~” Xero said, nodding towards Byungjoo also. “Oh and since Haesung-hyung’s being informal, is it cool if I drop the honorifics too?” he asked, tilting his head to the side questioningly.
“Sure, it would feel weird if I was going to be friends with someone and they kept speaking to me as if I was a stranger~” Byungjoo said, nodding and continuing on with eating his breakfast, though there wasn’t exactly much left.
“Great, so, what department you in, Byungjoo-hyung~?” Yano asked, leaning over on the table, his chin in his palm.
“I’m majoring in dance~” Byungjoo responded simply, at which Xero got excited almost impossibly quickly.
“Ooh~ What’s your minor then, Hyung? Because for both Rap and Vocal you get to take it on its own but apparently, to dance, you have to do one of those two as an extra. Of course, there are people who do both Rap and Vocal and some people who do all three but it’s not compulsory if you pick one of those two as your main, because apparently you can’t get famous for just dancing, shame~” He said, shaking his head and ending his rant there, lest it go on for hours like it had done on previous occasions where someone had gotten him ranting on the fact that if you chose dance as a main, it was compulsory to do more than one.
“My minor’s in Vocal~ I’m not amazing but I can sing alright~ What do you guys do?” Byungjoo asked, looking at the three of them in turn.
“Jenissi-hyung and I rap, and Xero-hyung dances too but his minor is in Rap~” Yano said, motioning to each of them and himself as he spoke. Byungjoo looked mildly surprised at this, which made the three of them laugh. “I know, I know, we don’t look like rappers~” Yano added, shaking his head.
“You should hear the two of them though, They’re amazing, completely different styles too, so to hear them together is just amazing too~ Gotta warn you though, Hyung, Yano doesn’t look like it but he has such a foul mouth when you get to know him, especially when he raps-ow!-” Xero said, a look of something close to awe passing his face before a pout took over and he rubbed his upper arm, having just been hit by Yano. “Yah, since when was it cool to hit your hyung?”
“Since when was it cool to feel the need to inform people on my foul mouth after we’ve barely met them?”
“But you’re supposed to respect me, Yano, it’s how the hyung-dongsaeng thing works in case 20 years wasn’t enough for you to figure this out~”
“Don’t know what ever you mean, Hyung, I-” Yano said, leaning closer to Xero over the table and changing his position so his chin was now resting on his now laced together fingers instead of his palm. “-am a fucking amazing dongsaeng that you should love and adore because I’m that perfect~” He said, a shit-eating grin taking over his face as he spoke, that Xero simply rolled his eyes at and pushed Yano’s face away.
“See, what did I tell you? Such a foul-mouthed maknae~” Xero said, shaking his head at Byungjoo and pointing to Yano. The latter then stood, picking up his tray and sticking his tongue out like the oh-so-mature 20 year old he is before beginning to walk off.
“We have class soon, even Haesung-hyung already left to get ready and he has Dance Theory first today, and you know how he’s always late to theory classes~” He said and the other two nodded, also getting up and taking their breakfast trays, leaving Byungjoo to follow suit a few moments later. Jenissi and Yano then said their goodbyes and headed off to go to their class while Byungjoo followed Xero, since he wasn’t entirely sure where he was going yet.
“You got your time-table with you~?” Xero asked, turning his head back to look at Byungjoo as he spoke.
“I think I left it in my suitcase, and I’m not even sure exactly where that is- I only got here this morning and someone took it to my room for me, I have my room number written on my hand though~”
“It’s cool, don’t worry about it, dorms are split up by your majors, and then again by your minors so you’ll probably be rooming with Haesung and another friend of ours, Hojoon, and I’ll only be down the hall from you if you are~ I’m with a couple of the other Dance students who take Rap for a minor~” Xero said, explaining the rooming systems to Byungjoo and pausing for a moment before continuing. “Jenissi-hyung and Yano are in another section of the dorms not too far from me but for those who take Rap for their major, they’re with another friend of ours –A-Tom, he takes dance for a minor by the way, his real name is Kim Sanggyun but I don’t even remember the last time I heard someone use that- and Kidoh-hyung –Jin Hyosang but I doubt I need to tell you again that literally no one calls him that.” Xero finished, listing each of his friends off on his fingers as he spoke. “Oh and we have a few friends in vocal too but I’ll introduce you to them another time, you minor is Vocal right? You might meet a few of them then~” he added as an afterthought although by this point they were in front of one of the doors and Xero was already getting his keys out, looking for the right one before pushing the door open.
“We had keys cast for each other a year or two ago so we can all get into each other’s rooms whenever we want to~” he explained, motioning for Byungjoo to enter first. Byungjoo nodded and entered the room, going straight to the bedroom, taking a look around and almost laughing. One of the beds looked relatively plain aside from the small collection of band posters pinned to the wall beside it but the other was covered in a wide array of plushies of all kinds and even having not met Hojoon yet, it wasn’t hard to guess whose bed was whose. Honestly, Byungjoo found it kind of cute in an endearing way.
“Your time-table in there?” Xero shouted from the doorway.
“Hm? Oh, yeah it’s right here~” Byungjoo shouted back, finding it placed folded up on top of his suitcase which had been left by side the only clear bed in the room. “I’ve got dance theory~” he added after taking a look, walking slowly back through to the hallway where Xero still was while he read through his timetable for the first time properly since he’d gotten it.
“Hmmm…does it say which room~?” Xero asked, tilting his head to the side and leaning over Byungjoo’s shoulder to take a look. “Ahh, yeah, we’re in the same class so follow me and we can at least hope we’re not late~”
“What happens if we are?” Byungjoo asked, tilting his head just slightly upward to look at Xero.
“Nothing much, I’ll put it down to it being your first day and I needed to help you find your room to find your timetable because that’s just how much of an honourable, respectable, rule-abiding, polite citizen I am~” Xero said, grinning and Byungjoo somehow felt like he should doubt that, a small smile tugging at the corners of his own lips as he followed the other to class.