Super Junior AU; Hanchul; The Best Days of Our Lives
Title: The Best Days of Our Lives
Chapter: 1/25
Fandom: Super Junior AU (High School)
Pairing: Hankyung/crossdressing!Heechul (main), Kangin/Eeteuk, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kyuhyun/Sungmin, bestfriends!Eunhae.
Word count: 3,694
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Coming into a strange new world can be strange enough. Unfortunately, someone’s forgotten to tell Hankyung something Very Important.
A/N: *Cowers* I can’t believe I wrote a High School AU. I can’t believe it’s multiple chapter. I can’t believe any of this.
Inspired by my asking my sister for a prompt, and she replied “High School Musical!” After I hit her, I thought crossdressing!Heechul! And this came out. My kink: let me show you it.
Disclaimer #1: This is strictly AU. Some of the characters in this fic may seem completely OOC and this is probably intentional. They are not in the same world, and this is how I see them if they actually were high school students. I have tried to keep the essence of the character, but situations and different things will make them different to how they are usually portrayed.
Disclaimer #2: Not being American, I know next to nothing about high school. The school seen in this fic is based partly on the British secondary school system, and partly on Japanese high schools. There are three years, four classes in each, and there are elective subjects, P.E (or Gym) being one of them.
Disclaimer #3: For the purposes of this fic, the age of the members have been messed up slightly. Kangin and Eeteuk are the oldest, Eeteuk is slightly older, and they are in their last year. In their second year are (in order of age) Siwon, Heechul, Hankyung, Yehsung, Eunhyuk, Donghae and Shindong. In their first year are Sungmin, Ryeowook, Kibum and Kyuhyun. Because it would give away Heechul, none of the characters use formal language.
Disclaimer #4: Presume that when the characters use 'she' or 'her' with regards to Heechul, they are actually using a gender neutral term, which Hankyung is assuming to mean female. I know this does not exist in English, and I'm unsure about Korean, but it does exist in Spanish, and possibly Japanese. I say this only because it's a major flaw that I have no way of getting over - the characters are not saying that Heechul is a girl, they are using gender neutral terms that Hankyung is assuming to be feminine. Yes. That makes sense. This is the only way to get around something that I haven't quite thought through.
Disclaimer #5: And I apologise right now for all the gratuitous references in this thing. They are made knowingly, and are my poor attempts at humour.
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2
There's nothing stranger than a new life, and Hankyung's came as a shock. A country boy who's used to intimate neighbourhoods and small communities, Seoul seemed huge and impersonal; he doubted he'll be able to know half the people on his street, when he was used to knowing the life story of every person in his village.
The school in front of him looked as though it could not possibly be big enough for the amount of people that streamed through its gates: girls screaming and laughing with their friends, boys chasing each other, couples holding hands and being forced to split apart by the member of staff on duty. It was loud and unruly and just plain chaos. Hankyung stood just inside the gates and off to the side, where he could watch what was going on around him without interrupting it, and stared in disbelief. There was something slightly surreal about the whole thing and he wasn't too sure whether he wanted to get involved. To be perfectly honest, all he wanted to do was run back to his house and hide under his covers, where it's silent and there's no one else around.
"Hey," said a voice behind him, and Hankyung glanced over his shoulder and saw a tall boy standing there and seemingly smiling at him. He looked around himself, but no one seemed to be waving or shouting or coming over to him. Hankyung gave a slight smile, just enough to be noticeable if it needed to, but not enough to embarrass him if the boy turned out to not be speaking to him. He didn't want to look stupid, after all.
The boy broke out into an even wider smile, revealing large dimples and a kind face. "Hankyung, right?" He asked, and stuck his hand out without even waiting for a reply. "I'm Siwon," he said. "I'm with the student council, I'm supposed to be showing you around, getting you to your lessons, things like that." He paused expectantly, as if waiting for Hankyung to say something. Hankyung was actually a little surprised and unsure - he hadn't expected to be met with a student. He'd been expecting a grey haired teacher, who had an easily forgettable name, and who walked without talking. He'd have liked that.
"Um," said Hankyung.
"Siwon!" A boy with bright red hair was waving and jogging over to meet them, while one with cropped, light brown hair walked behind them, reading something off a slip of paper. The red haired boy stopped next to Siwon and looked at Hankyung curiously. "Who's this?" He asked. Hankyung decided that he really would have liked a teacher. Someone who didn't have friends, at least. That would have been nice.
"A new student," said Siwon, and gave the red head a tap on the shoulder. "Hankyung, he's just moved here from the country. Be nice." The red head just grinned. "Eunhyuk," said Siwon, pointing to him. "And Donghae," pointing to the boy who had finally reached them but still hadn't looked up from the sheet of paper he was studying as if it contained the answer to life or something. From what Hankyung could see, it was just a print out of a web page, with a dark picture that didn't look much like anything. Siwon spotted him looking. "What you got there, Donghae?" He asked, deceptively casual.
"Aliens," said Donghae absentmindedly.
"He found it last night," elaborated Eunhyuk. "Someone in America claims to have spoken to some, and he's all in a tizz because it proves something, but I can't quite work out what it's supposed to prove other than someone in America hasn't been paying his therapist."
Hankyung stared at them. They were seriously taking about aliens, or at least, one of them was. Someone in this school honestly believed in aliens, and that scared Hankyung, because he would have to spend another two years with a madman. This prospect was not a good one, and he took an unconscious step away from Dongwhathisfacemadman.
Said boy looked up at that moment and smiled at him with clear eyes, and Hankyung was suddenly reminded of that boy he used to play with when he was younger who claimed to see ghosts but was perfectly normal in every other way. Donghae looked him up and down and then turned to Siwon with a thoughtful expression. "We'll play nice," he said. "I think it's going to be Heechul who doesn't play nice."
Siwon laughed and Hankyung swallowed hard as a slight panic-y fear seeped into him. "I suppose you're right," said Siwon, and quickly motioned for Hankyung to follow him. Hankyung felt dizzy and fearful and wanted to go home even more - a feeling that didn't lessen any when Eunhyuk called after him, "No, seriously, beware of Heechul!" And Siwon wouldn't tell him anything.
*
They laughed at him in lessons because of his accent - made him stick out, the other students claim, made it obvious that he was from the country. It wasn’t mean or anything like that, and Hankyung knew that it wasn't, but it stung a little, because he's self-conscious enough as it is. He was lucky, in a way, to only have to suffer it until break, because Siwon stuck his head in the room then and asked after him, and after that, all the girls want to know how he knows Siwon, and all the boys look at him with newfound respect.
"Is Siwon really that popular?" Hankyung asked the girl who sat next to him, who initially had whined about having to sit next to the new weirdo, and then had been all over him when it turned out that he was in-a-way-sort-of acquainted with Siwon. She looked at him with wide, shocked eyes.
"Siwon-oppa? Of course he is!" She looked as though she'd have hearts in her eyes if it was physically possible. "He's the greatest boy in the entire school. Everyone knows it."
"Yeah," added in the girl in front of him, who had glasses, and had previously had her nose in a book and did not look like the type to gossip. "He's so smart too - he's going to be student council president next year, everyone knows so."
"He's so hot, as well," said a third girl, from half way across the classroom. "I'm so jealous when I think about those girls who get to be in his class." This statement was met with general agreements and threats of death for whoever touched "their" Siwon, apart from a girl who was sitting in the corner by the window, and who hadn't spoken at all during the exchange. She snorted loudly, which drew annoyed glances and mutters from the girls around him. Hankyung glanced at her, filed the incident away for future notice, and went back to wondering how someone as nice as Siwon could possibly be so popular, because clearly those movies he'd watched had lied.
He sat by himself for a few minutes when lunch came, as everyone around him milled around and wandered in and out of the room, shouting and laughing, and completely forgetting about the new boy who didn't have clue what he was doing. He didn't even have any food with him, because his mother had pushed him out of the door empty handed that morning, claiming that he'd make a friend that he could sit and eat with in the cafeteria, like he's an eleven year old on his first day at the big school. Thanks, mother, he thought, and continued sitting there, feeling more and more stupid with every passing second. By the time Eunhyuk walked into the room loudly and not-inconspicuously at all, Hankyung felt like he should really have a dunces cap on, just to complete how he was feeling.
"Hey!" Eunhyuk called, and waved his arms around to get his attention, while Donghae jumped around behind him. "Siwon sent me to get you; he says you can sit with us." Hankyung nodded slowly and stood up, torn between two minds. On the one hand, he was glad to have someone to eat with; someone to show him what to do, and Siwon seemed nice enough, even if he did have weird friends. On the other, he still wished his mother had just given him a sandwich, because he could be sitting on the roof right now in absolute silence.
On his way out the door, he noticed that there were girls on the other side of the windows, looking in at, presumably, Eunhyuk and Donghae, who were laughing loudly and pushing each other. When they left the room, they walked straight into a gaggle of girls who were talking to a boy with styled black hair and earrings, who was leaning on the wall outside the room with feigned casualness, and who looked at him appraisingly as he walked out. "Is this him?" He asked in a low, husky voice, that Hankyung would have associated with a smoker if everything in the city wasn't so strange. "I see what you mean," said the boy after a couple of uncomfortable seconds for Hankyung because of feeling like he was a piece of meat on a slab. "We will have to keep him away from the whirlwind in a skirt."
"She'd kill you if she heard you say that," said Eunhyuk with a grin.
"Oh!" Donghae said suddenly. "I forgot!" He poked his head back into the room, looked around him, and then retreated with an unhappy frown. "Not there," he said. "She must have already gone."
Eunhyuk patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry," he said. "If she's not down there, you'll see her after school anyway." As if on an unspoken cue, the three turned and started down the corridor. Hankyung just stared at them, feeling more confused than ever before in his life, and yet not daring to ask what the actual hell are you on about. Eunhyuk glanced back at him. "Come on," he yelled. "Siwon's keeping us seats." Hankyung sighed deeply and followed them.
He learnt that the boy with the earrings was called Yehsung, and was in Eunhyuk's and Donghae's class. He didn't really say much, but Hankyung doesn't think that that has anything to do with shyness; more that he simply didn't talk. The few things he did come out with were weird jokes, that barely even registered for Hankyung, who was far too busy watching Donghae and Eunhyuk argue over whether aliens did exist, while another boy called Shindong jumped in every minute or so with facts for or against the argument, and his stance changed every time. Siwon sat next to him, laughing at the three, and seemingly ignoring the girls who kept walking very close to them and smiling and talking loudly, as if to get their attention. It seemed that only Hankyung noticed this. He noticed this because he felt like everyone was staring at them, and it wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling: it kept distracting him, and he found it hard to eat with so much attention. He bowed his head over his plate and tried to become as inconspicuous as possible, whilst wishing that Eunhyuk and Donghae would learn the meaning of the word discreet.
"Ryeowook!" Yehsung screamed, just as Hankyung thought this, and stood up and started waving wildly at the other side of the room. "Ryeowook, Kyuhyun, we're over here!"
Two other boys came over, laughing, and Hankyung's head started spinning, because there was simply no way he was going to be able to learn all these names, and while it was nice that Siwon was taking him under his wing, so to speak, he had far too many friends, and that wasn't a good thing. It was Bad, because there was a sudden steady pounding behind his eyes.
The two newcomers looked at him curiously as they joined the table - the one with spiked orange hair slipped into the chair next to Yehsung and collapsed with his head on his arms. "So tired," he moaned, the sound muffled by his sleeve. "So bored, too." Yehsung chuckled and patted him lightly on the back.
"Who's this?" The other boy asked, pulling out the chair opposite and looking at him openly.
"Hankyung," said Donghae, before Hankyung could answer himself. "He's new, and we're looking after him." He joined back in with his argument with Eunhyuk.
"Be nice," added Siwon.
"Why are you saying that to Kyuhyun?" Yehsung asked, sounding slightly amused but more than a little confused.
"Habit," said Siwon, with a shrug. "I'm too used to having to tell you to do it. It should just be your natural state, you know that?"
"Come back to me when you've told Heechul that," said Yehsung, and started to rub his hand lightly over the back of the boy next to him, who appeared to be asleep.
"Hi," said the boy opposite, and gave a little wave. "I'm Kyuhyun." Hankyung ducked his head in a pathetic imitation of a nod, and half-smiled. Kyuhyun seemed to accept this as a perfectly fine introduction, because he smiled back, and left the conversation at that: he pulled a box from his bag, a homemade lunch, by the looks of it, and started eating. The one who must have been Ryeowook gave a little snore, Eunhyuk hit Donghae over the head, and Hankyung covered his face with his hand.
"Where's Sungmin?" Siwon asked.
"He's helping Kibum with his project, it's supposed to be in tomorrow," answered Kyuhyun, and Hankyung heart sank, accompanied by a feeling that translated as oh god, there are more?
"That's a shame," said Siwon, with a frown. "I wanted to introduce everyone to Hankyung before the end of the day."
"Kangin and Eeteuk are still in class, you might be able to catch them just before they leave." Hankyung added two more to the tally at Kyuhyun's words.
"And no one knows where Heechul's gone," sighed Siwon. "Great."
Great echoed Hankyung, because in total, there was twelve, and he had to remember everyone's name.
He found that his popularity had shot up again in the hour he was away from his classroom, and when he re-entered, he was immediately accosted by girls demanding to know how he knew the Flower Boys, or if 'Siwon-oppa' had spoken about them, or if Eunhyuk and Donghae had a new dance yet. The boys were no better, grinning and slapping him on the back in a friendly fashion. By the time he reached his desk, both his shoulder and his ears were hurting.
"What," he asked the girl in front, who was the one screeching about the 'Flower Boys', "are you on about?"
"The Flower Boys," she repeated. "The boys you were with! You mean you don't even know them?" Hankyung shook his head, and the girl slumped down in her seat and seemed to lose interest in him somewhat. "Oh," she said sullenly. "I was hoping you'd be able to introduce me to them."
"Why?" Hankyung asked, because as far as he could tell, it was a group of boys who seemed to believe in aliens, were far too loud for their own good, and there was far too many of them on top of that. He certainly wouldn't want to be introduced to them, because he actually cherished his sanity.
"They're the most popular boys in school," said the girl behind him, who mustn't have cared that he didn't really know them, because she still was looking at him like he was the man of his dreams. It was a shame that the look sprung from a misunderstanding, because she was quite pretty. "They're all gorgeous and nice and kind. They're happy to talk to you, and they're involved in so many things. It's so hard to decide which one you like the most."
Wow, thought Hankyung. It's like they're a band or something. Next thing, they'll have a fan club, or something stupid like that.
"See that girl down there?" The girl behind him pointed to a petite girl with short black hair. "She's the president of the fan club. I'm in it too." The element of pride in her voice made Hankyung lay his head on his desk and contemplate the Hell he had found himself in, where high school boys who didn't seem quite sane had fan clubs.
The girl in front of him ignored his very existence; the girl behind him threw him ambiguously worded notes; the boy to his left kept nudging him playfully; the girl on his right stared at him thoughtfully for the rest of the day; and Siwon came to meet him, amid squeals, before he could escape. "This is Hell," Hankyung told him as they walked down the corridor, and Siwon laughed and said hello to a girl that had waved at him, who then started giggling with her friends.
"You'll get used to it," said Siwon cheerfully, and Hankyung didn't like the threat implied in that sentence.
Siwon stopped suddenly when they turned the corner near the stairs, and Hankyung almost ran into his back, which would have been embarrassing and he was very glad to have not done it. He took a step to the side and saw that they'd stopped in front of a girl, with her back to them and long black hair tied back into a ponytail, and a boy who was grinning at them with dimples which were possibly bigger than even Siwon's - who was tapping the girl on the shoulder. "Hey, gorgeous," he said with an amused grin, and waved at the boy.
"Did you hear something?" The girl asked the boy in front of her, without turning around. "I could have sworn that something just made a noise."
"She's annoyed at you," interpreted the boy.
Siwon gave a mock, heavy sigh. "What did I do now?" He asked, with an air of being put upon.
The girl spun around, to reveal heavily made up eyes and a smirk on her face. "I'll tell you what you did," she said, and poked Siwon in the chest. "You introduced everyone to the new boy before me, and everyone knows that I'm the most important."
"I haven't been introduced yet," said the boy helpfully.
"And I told you, you don't count because you're old."
"Fine, fine, I get it," said Siwon with a laugh. "'Rella, this is Hankyung. Hankyung, Kim Heechul, and Park Eeteuk."
"Oh!" Hankyung said, finally recognising the girl as the one who had laughed at the other girls that morning. "I know you, we're in the same class." He put out his hand to shake hers, and smiled widely at her, because even if she was friends with maniacs, she was still good looking and he needed someone to talk to in his class who didn't think he had ties with the popular crowd. She didn't take it: she stared at him with a frown until his hand dropped to his side and his smile had faded away to nothing. Then she laughed hysterically.
"I like him." She said to Siwon. "Can we keep him?"
"If you're nice to him." He answered.
"I'm always nice." She said, and grinned wickedly at Hankyung. "You're right, we are. I would have introduced myself earlier, but it's more fun to watch Siwon squirm."
"Kim Heechul," said Siwon pleasantly. "You are so dead."
"Keep telling yourself that," said Heechul, and patted him condescendingly on the cheek. "I'm going to go now," she said slowly. "I want you to think about what you did today, and I want an apology for it. Possibly with flowers. Flowers are always good." She hit Siwon slightly harder on the cheek, and ran off before he could even think about reacting. Siwon watched her go with a fond smile, before he turned to Eeteuk.
"Kangin's got detention, Sungmin's gone already, and Kibum's waiting outside," said Eeteuk, before Siwon could open his mouth. "Donghae and Eunhyuk are staying behind with Shindong, Yehsung and Kyuhyun are practising something." He paused for a moment, and gave a show of thinking heavily. "And Ryeowook said there was a meeting at four, which means that you're already five minutes late."
Siwon cursed. "I forgot," he said, and pushed Hankyung forward. "Look after him, please?" He asked, and Eeteuk nodded happily and wrapped an arm around Hankyung's shoulders. Hankyung pushed it off lightly.
"I can get home by myself," he said, because it was true, and it wasn't as though he was five or anything.
"Eeteuk's got a car," said Siwon, and rushed off before Hankyung could ask what difference that made.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Kibum turned out to be a boy with thick rimmed glasses and an easy smile, which currently wasn't showing as they got into Eeteuk's car. "Most people have to train for months before they get into a car with Eeteuk at the wheel."
"Oh," said Hankyung. "In that case, I want to get out." But as he put his hand on the door handle, the car jumped forward with a start and after that all Hankyung could do with cover his eyes with one hand and hold on tightly to the seat in front with the other. "Why do you let him drive?" He asked Kibum desperately, but Kibum couldn't actually hear him under the song that he was singing very loudly to distract himself from his impending death.
"Kangin will pick you up tomorrow morning," said Eeteuk cheerfully when Hankyung was getting out of the car with shaking legs, and he drove off before Hankyung could tell him to not bother - he didn't care what difference having a car meant, he was never getting into one with any of Siwon's friends ever again. He valued his life, pathetic as it may be, too much.
"How was your first day?" His mother asked, as he slipped off his shoes and made his way upstairs.
"Fine," he said.
"Did you make any new friends?"
"Yes," he said, and threw up into the toilet.
Chapter: 1/25
Fandom: Super Junior AU (High School)
Pairing: Hankyung/crossdressing!Heechul (main), Kangin/Eeteuk, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kyuhyun/Sungmin, bestfriends!Eunhae.
Word count: 3,694
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Coming into a strange new world can be strange enough. Unfortunately, someone’s forgotten to tell Hankyung something Very Important.
A/N: *Cowers* I can’t believe I wrote a High School AU. I can’t believe it’s multiple chapter. I can’t believe any of this.
Inspired by my asking my sister for a prompt, and she replied “High School Musical!” After I hit her, I thought crossdressing!Heechul! And this came out. My kink: let me show you it.
Disclaimer #1: This is strictly AU. Some of the characters in this fic may seem completely OOC and this is probably intentional. They are not in the same world, and this is how I see them if they actually were high school students. I have tried to keep the essence of the character, but situations and different things will make them different to how they are usually portrayed.
Disclaimer #2: Not being American, I know next to nothing about high school. The school seen in this fic is based partly on the British secondary school system, and partly on Japanese high schools. There are three years, four classes in each, and there are elective subjects, P.E (or Gym) being one of them.
Disclaimer #3: For the purposes of this fic, the age of the members have been messed up slightly. Kangin and Eeteuk are the oldest, Eeteuk is slightly older, and they are in their last year. In their second year are (in order of age) Siwon, Heechul, Hankyung, Yehsung, Eunhyuk, Donghae and Shindong. In their first year are Sungmin, Ryeowook, Kibum and Kyuhyun. Because it would give away Heechul, none of the characters use formal language.
Disclaimer #4: Presume that when the characters use 'she' or 'her' with regards to Heechul, they are actually using a gender neutral term, which Hankyung is assuming to mean female. I know this does not exist in English, and I'm unsure about Korean, but it does exist in Spanish, and possibly Japanese. I say this only because it's a major flaw that I have no way of getting over - the characters are not saying that Heechul is a girl, they are using gender neutral terms that Hankyung is assuming to be feminine. Yes. That makes sense. This is the only way to get around something that I haven't quite thought through.
Disclaimer #5: And I apologise right now for all the gratuitous references in this thing. They are made knowingly, and are my poor attempts at humour.
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2
There's nothing stranger than a new life, and Hankyung's came as a shock. A country boy who's used to intimate neighbourhoods and small communities, Seoul seemed huge and impersonal; he doubted he'll be able to know half the people on his street, when he was used to knowing the life story of every person in his village.
The school in front of him looked as though it could not possibly be big enough for the amount of people that streamed through its gates: girls screaming and laughing with their friends, boys chasing each other, couples holding hands and being forced to split apart by the member of staff on duty. It was loud and unruly and just plain chaos. Hankyung stood just inside the gates and off to the side, where he could watch what was going on around him without interrupting it, and stared in disbelief. There was something slightly surreal about the whole thing and he wasn't too sure whether he wanted to get involved. To be perfectly honest, all he wanted to do was run back to his house and hide under his covers, where it's silent and there's no one else around.
"Hey," said a voice behind him, and Hankyung glanced over his shoulder and saw a tall boy standing there and seemingly smiling at him. He looked around himself, but no one seemed to be waving or shouting or coming over to him. Hankyung gave a slight smile, just enough to be noticeable if it needed to, but not enough to embarrass him if the boy turned out to not be speaking to him. He didn't want to look stupid, after all.
The boy broke out into an even wider smile, revealing large dimples and a kind face. "Hankyung, right?" He asked, and stuck his hand out without even waiting for a reply. "I'm Siwon," he said. "I'm with the student council, I'm supposed to be showing you around, getting you to your lessons, things like that." He paused expectantly, as if waiting for Hankyung to say something. Hankyung was actually a little surprised and unsure - he hadn't expected to be met with a student. He'd been expecting a grey haired teacher, who had an easily forgettable name, and who walked without talking. He'd have liked that.
"Um," said Hankyung.
"Siwon!" A boy with bright red hair was waving and jogging over to meet them, while one with cropped, light brown hair walked behind them, reading something off a slip of paper. The red haired boy stopped next to Siwon and looked at Hankyung curiously. "Who's this?" He asked. Hankyung decided that he really would have liked a teacher. Someone who didn't have friends, at least. That would have been nice.
"A new student," said Siwon, and gave the red head a tap on the shoulder. "Hankyung, he's just moved here from the country. Be nice." The red head just grinned. "Eunhyuk," said Siwon, pointing to him. "And Donghae," pointing to the boy who had finally reached them but still hadn't looked up from the sheet of paper he was studying as if it contained the answer to life or something. From what Hankyung could see, it was just a print out of a web page, with a dark picture that didn't look much like anything. Siwon spotted him looking. "What you got there, Donghae?" He asked, deceptively casual.
"Aliens," said Donghae absentmindedly.
"He found it last night," elaborated Eunhyuk. "Someone in America claims to have spoken to some, and he's all in a tizz because it proves something, but I can't quite work out what it's supposed to prove other than someone in America hasn't been paying his therapist."
Hankyung stared at them. They were seriously taking about aliens, or at least, one of them was. Someone in this school honestly believed in aliens, and that scared Hankyung, because he would have to spend another two years with a madman. This prospect was not a good one, and he took an unconscious step away from Dongwhathisfacemadman.
Said boy looked up at that moment and smiled at him with clear eyes, and Hankyung was suddenly reminded of that boy he used to play with when he was younger who claimed to see ghosts but was perfectly normal in every other way. Donghae looked him up and down and then turned to Siwon with a thoughtful expression. "We'll play nice," he said. "I think it's going to be Heechul who doesn't play nice."
Siwon laughed and Hankyung swallowed hard as a slight panic-y fear seeped into him. "I suppose you're right," said Siwon, and quickly motioned for Hankyung to follow him. Hankyung felt dizzy and fearful and wanted to go home even more - a feeling that didn't lessen any when Eunhyuk called after him, "No, seriously, beware of Heechul!" And Siwon wouldn't tell him anything.
*
They laughed at him in lessons because of his accent - made him stick out, the other students claim, made it obvious that he was from the country. It wasn’t mean or anything like that, and Hankyung knew that it wasn't, but it stung a little, because he's self-conscious enough as it is. He was lucky, in a way, to only have to suffer it until break, because Siwon stuck his head in the room then and asked after him, and after that, all the girls want to know how he knows Siwon, and all the boys look at him with newfound respect.
"Is Siwon really that popular?" Hankyung asked the girl who sat next to him, who initially had whined about having to sit next to the new weirdo, and then had been all over him when it turned out that he was in-a-way-sort-of acquainted with Siwon. She looked at him with wide, shocked eyes.
"Siwon-oppa? Of course he is!" She looked as though she'd have hearts in her eyes if it was physically possible. "He's the greatest boy in the entire school. Everyone knows it."
"Yeah," added in the girl in front of him, who had glasses, and had previously had her nose in a book and did not look like the type to gossip. "He's so smart too - he's going to be student council president next year, everyone knows so."
"He's so hot, as well," said a third girl, from half way across the classroom. "I'm so jealous when I think about those girls who get to be in his class." This statement was met with general agreements and threats of death for whoever touched "their" Siwon, apart from a girl who was sitting in the corner by the window, and who hadn't spoken at all during the exchange. She snorted loudly, which drew annoyed glances and mutters from the girls around him. Hankyung glanced at her, filed the incident away for future notice, and went back to wondering how someone as nice as Siwon could possibly be so popular, because clearly those movies he'd watched had lied.
He sat by himself for a few minutes when lunch came, as everyone around him milled around and wandered in and out of the room, shouting and laughing, and completely forgetting about the new boy who didn't have clue what he was doing. He didn't even have any food with him, because his mother had pushed him out of the door empty handed that morning, claiming that he'd make a friend that he could sit and eat with in the cafeteria, like he's an eleven year old on his first day at the big school. Thanks, mother, he thought, and continued sitting there, feeling more and more stupid with every passing second. By the time Eunhyuk walked into the room loudly and not-inconspicuously at all, Hankyung felt like he should really have a dunces cap on, just to complete how he was feeling.
"Hey!" Eunhyuk called, and waved his arms around to get his attention, while Donghae jumped around behind him. "Siwon sent me to get you; he says you can sit with us." Hankyung nodded slowly and stood up, torn between two minds. On the one hand, he was glad to have someone to eat with; someone to show him what to do, and Siwon seemed nice enough, even if he did have weird friends. On the other, he still wished his mother had just given him a sandwich, because he could be sitting on the roof right now in absolute silence.
On his way out the door, he noticed that there were girls on the other side of the windows, looking in at, presumably, Eunhyuk and Donghae, who were laughing loudly and pushing each other. When they left the room, they walked straight into a gaggle of girls who were talking to a boy with styled black hair and earrings, who was leaning on the wall outside the room with feigned casualness, and who looked at him appraisingly as he walked out. "Is this him?" He asked in a low, husky voice, that Hankyung would have associated with a smoker if everything in the city wasn't so strange. "I see what you mean," said the boy after a couple of uncomfortable seconds for Hankyung because of feeling like he was a piece of meat on a slab. "We will have to keep him away from the whirlwind in a skirt."
"She'd kill you if she heard you say that," said Eunhyuk with a grin.
"Oh!" Donghae said suddenly. "I forgot!" He poked his head back into the room, looked around him, and then retreated with an unhappy frown. "Not there," he said. "She must have already gone."
Eunhyuk patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry," he said. "If she's not down there, you'll see her after school anyway." As if on an unspoken cue, the three turned and started down the corridor. Hankyung just stared at them, feeling more confused than ever before in his life, and yet not daring to ask what the actual hell are you on about. Eunhyuk glanced back at him. "Come on," he yelled. "Siwon's keeping us seats." Hankyung sighed deeply and followed them.
He learnt that the boy with the earrings was called Yehsung, and was in Eunhyuk's and Donghae's class. He didn't really say much, but Hankyung doesn't think that that has anything to do with shyness; more that he simply didn't talk. The few things he did come out with were weird jokes, that barely even registered for Hankyung, who was far too busy watching Donghae and Eunhyuk argue over whether aliens did exist, while another boy called Shindong jumped in every minute or so with facts for or against the argument, and his stance changed every time. Siwon sat next to him, laughing at the three, and seemingly ignoring the girls who kept walking very close to them and smiling and talking loudly, as if to get their attention. It seemed that only Hankyung noticed this. He noticed this because he felt like everyone was staring at them, and it wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling: it kept distracting him, and he found it hard to eat with so much attention. He bowed his head over his plate and tried to become as inconspicuous as possible, whilst wishing that Eunhyuk and Donghae would learn the meaning of the word discreet.
"Ryeowook!" Yehsung screamed, just as Hankyung thought this, and stood up and started waving wildly at the other side of the room. "Ryeowook, Kyuhyun, we're over here!"
Two other boys came over, laughing, and Hankyung's head started spinning, because there was simply no way he was going to be able to learn all these names, and while it was nice that Siwon was taking him under his wing, so to speak, he had far too many friends, and that wasn't a good thing. It was Bad, because there was a sudden steady pounding behind his eyes.
The two newcomers looked at him curiously as they joined the table - the one with spiked orange hair slipped into the chair next to Yehsung and collapsed with his head on his arms. "So tired," he moaned, the sound muffled by his sleeve. "So bored, too." Yehsung chuckled and patted him lightly on the back.
"Who's this?" The other boy asked, pulling out the chair opposite and looking at him openly.
"Hankyung," said Donghae, before Hankyung could answer himself. "He's new, and we're looking after him." He joined back in with his argument with Eunhyuk.
"Be nice," added Siwon.
"Why are you saying that to Kyuhyun?" Yehsung asked, sounding slightly amused but more than a little confused.
"Habit," said Siwon, with a shrug. "I'm too used to having to tell you to do it. It should just be your natural state, you know that?"
"Come back to me when you've told Heechul that," said Yehsung, and started to rub his hand lightly over the back of the boy next to him, who appeared to be asleep.
"Hi," said the boy opposite, and gave a little wave. "I'm Kyuhyun." Hankyung ducked his head in a pathetic imitation of a nod, and half-smiled. Kyuhyun seemed to accept this as a perfectly fine introduction, because he smiled back, and left the conversation at that: he pulled a box from his bag, a homemade lunch, by the looks of it, and started eating. The one who must have been Ryeowook gave a little snore, Eunhyuk hit Donghae over the head, and Hankyung covered his face with his hand.
"Where's Sungmin?" Siwon asked.
"He's helping Kibum with his project, it's supposed to be in tomorrow," answered Kyuhyun, and Hankyung heart sank, accompanied by a feeling that translated as oh god, there are more?
"That's a shame," said Siwon, with a frown. "I wanted to introduce everyone to Hankyung before the end of the day."
"Kangin and Eeteuk are still in class, you might be able to catch them just before they leave." Hankyung added two more to the tally at Kyuhyun's words.
"And no one knows where Heechul's gone," sighed Siwon. "Great."
Great echoed Hankyung, because in total, there was twelve, and he had to remember everyone's name.
He found that his popularity had shot up again in the hour he was away from his classroom, and when he re-entered, he was immediately accosted by girls demanding to know how he knew the Flower Boys, or if 'Siwon-oppa' had spoken about them, or if Eunhyuk and Donghae had a new dance yet. The boys were no better, grinning and slapping him on the back in a friendly fashion. By the time he reached his desk, both his shoulder and his ears were hurting.
"What," he asked the girl in front, who was the one screeching about the 'Flower Boys', "are you on about?"
"The Flower Boys," she repeated. "The boys you were with! You mean you don't even know them?" Hankyung shook his head, and the girl slumped down in her seat and seemed to lose interest in him somewhat. "Oh," she said sullenly. "I was hoping you'd be able to introduce me to them."
"Why?" Hankyung asked, because as far as he could tell, it was a group of boys who seemed to believe in aliens, were far too loud for their own good, and there was far too many of them on top of that. He certainly wouldn't want to be introduced to them, because he actually cherished his sanity.
"They're the most popular boys in school," said the girl behind him, who mustn't have cared that he didn't really know them, because she still was looking at him like he was the man of his dreams. It was a shame that the look sprung from a misunderstanding, because she was quite pretty. "They're all gorgeous and nice and kind. They're happy to talk to you, and they're involved in so many things. It's so hard to decide which one you like the most."
Wow, thought Hankyung. It's like they're a band or something. Next thing, they'll have a fan club, or something stupid like that.
"See that girl down there?" The girl behind him pointed to a petite girl with short black hair. "She's the president of the fan club. I'm in it too." The element of pride in her voice made Hankyung lay his head on his desk and contemplate the Hell he had found himself in, where high school boys who didn't seem quite sane had fan clubs.
The girl in front of him ignored his very existence; the girl behind him threw him ambiguously worded notes; the boy to his left kept nudging him playfully; the girl on his right stared at him thoughtfully for the rest of the day; and Siwon came to meet him, amid squeals, before he could escape. "This is Hell," Hankyung told him as they walked down the corridor, and Siwon laughed and said hello to a girl that had waved at him, who then started giggling with her friends.
"You'll get used to it," said Siwon cheerfully, and Hankyung didn't like the threat implied in that sentence.
Siwon stopped suddenly when they turned the corner near the stairs, and Hankyung almost ran into his back, which would have been embarrassing and he was very glad to have not done it. He took a step to the side and saw that they'd stopped in front of a girl, with her back to them and long black hair tied back into a ponytail, and a boy who was grinning at them with dimples which were possibly bigger than even Siwon's - who was tapping the girl on the shoulder. "Hey, gorgeous," he said with an amused grin, and waved at the boy.
"Did you hear something?" The girl asked the boy in front of her, without turning around. "I could have sworn that something just made a noise."
"She's annoyed at you," interpreted the boy.
Siwon gave a mock, heavy sigh. "What did I do now?" He asked, with an air of being put upon.
The girl spun around, to reveal heavily made up eyes and a smirk on her face. "I'll tell you what you did," she said, and poked Siwon in the chest. "You introduced everyone to the new boy before me, and everyone knows that I'm the most important."
"I haven't been introduced yet," said the boy helpfully.
"And I told you, you don't count because you're old."
"Fine, fine, I get it," said Siwon with a laugh. "'Rella, this is Hankyung. Hankyung, Kim Heechul, and Park Eeteuk."
"Oh!" Hankyung said, finally recognising the girl as the one who had laughed at the other girls that morning. "I know you, we're in the same class." He put out his hand to shake hers, and smiled widely at her, because even if she was friends with maniacs, she was still good looking and he needed someone to talk to in his class who didn't think he had ties with the popular crowd. She didn't take it: she stared at him with a frown until his hand dropped to his side and his smile had faded away to nothing. Then she laughed hysterically.
"I like him." She said to Siwon. "Can we keep him?"
"If you're nice to him." He answered.
"I'm always nice." She said, and grinned wickedly at Hankyung. "You're right, we are. I would have introduced myself earlier, but it's more fun to watch Siwon squirm."
"Kim Heechul," said Siwon pleasantly. "You are so dead."
"Keep telling yourself that," said Heechul, and patted him condescendingly on the cheek. "I'm going to go now," she said slowly. "I want you to think about what you did today, and I want an apology for it. Possibly with flowers. Flowers are always good." She hit Siwon slightly harder on the cheek, and ran off before he could even think about reacting. Siwon watched her go with a fond smile, before he turned to Eeteuk.
"Kangin's got detention, Sungmin's gone already, and Kibum's waiting outside," said Eeteuk, before Siwon could open his mouth. "Donghae and Eunhyuk are staying behind with Shindong, Yehsung and Kyuhyun are practising something." He paused for a moment, and gave a show of thinking heavily. "And Ryeowook said there was a meeting at four, which means that you're already five minutes late."
Siwon cursed. "I forgot," he said, and pushed Hankyung forward. "Look after him, please?" He asked, and Eeteuk nodded happily and wrapped an arm around Hankyung's shoulders. Hankyung pushed it off lightly.
"I can get home by myself," he said, because it was true, and it wasn't as though he was five or anything.
"Eeteuk's got a car," said Siwon, and rushed off before Hankyung could ask what difference that made.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Kibum turned out to be a boy with thick rimmed glasses and an easy smile, which currently wasn't showing as they got into Eeteuk's car. "Most people have to train for months before they get into a car with Eeteuk at the wheel."
"Oh," said Hankyung. "In that case, I want to get out." But as he put his hand on the door handle, the car jumped forward with a start and after that all Hankyung could do with cover his eyes with one hand and hold on tightly to the seat in front with the other. "Why do you let him drive?" He asked Kibum desperately, but Kibum couldn't actually hear him under the song that he was singing very loudly to distract himself from his impending death.
"Kangin will pick you up tomorrow morning," said Eeteuk cheerfully when Hankyung was getting out of the car with shaking legs, and he drove off before Hankyung could tell him to not bother - he didn't care what difference having a car meant, he was never getting into one with any of Siwon's friends ever again. He valued his life, pathetic as it may be, too much.
"How was your first day?" His mother asked, as he slipped off his shoes and made his way upstairs.
"Fine," he said.
"Did you make any new friends?"
"Yes," he said, and threw up into the toilet.