"Good morning class." said the teacher as she entered the classroom. The freshman students, with the manners they have learned, stood up and greeted the teacher in sync.

"My name is Ms. Choi and in this class I expect everyone to behave and pay attention during lessons. Being foreign isn't accepted as an excuse for failing," said Ms. Choi, the science teacher, as she finished writing on the board.

Despite the fact that Ten's Korean was spectacular, his writing nor reading wasn't the best. Luckily, he wasn't alone with that since his deskmate, Johnny was also struggling with that. The teacher was mumbling the words and for many foreign students, it was an ancient language they never heard of.
By the end of the lesson, Ten's notebook was a complete mess. Maybe he had taken the Korean language exam, but for him, this was another level. His notebook was filled with crossed-out words, words that weren't written correctly and a few paper rips here and there.
His next class was the chosen main subject which was Dance and he saw that none of his friends were there and even though it made him anxious he was glad that he could dance and learn how to dance like a professional.
They all changed into their practice clothes and were ready to start the lesson.

"My name is Mrs. Lee and I shall welcome all of you. I would like everyone to enjoy every minute of this lesson, but you have to work really hard and suffer to see satisfying results." said the female teacher as she was examining her new students by walking opposite them. "I shall not continue talking, let's start our double lesson by stretching on the parallel bars."

After some stretching and warming up, the teacher told them that they'd be learning contemporary dance at first, saying it was somewhat of basic knowledge. Ten was confident in that type but he wasn't alone in that. It was rumored that one of the Chinese students was amazing at Chinese Traditional dancing and it showed. He was asked to show the first steps they had learned and his balance along with his moves was perfect.

"Thank you Sicheng. I would like all of you to dance with this much elegantly and balance. Now back to our choreography." said Mrs. Lee.

Ten was struggling a bit with the pace of learning the dance but wasn't pressured. His body moved to the rhythm of the music perfectly as if he was telling a story he was feeling the music. It was a Beethoven symphony but in reality, it seemed like he made the song, that's how good he was.
They had a 10-minute break after their first advanced dance lesson. Ten went to the restroom to fill his water bottle. As he was standing at the sink waiting for his bottle to be filled, one of the dance guys came out from one of the stalls. He didn't look Korean nor Chinese.

"Your dancing is amazing." said the tall boy.

"Oh thanks, it just came naturally," answered Ten as he closed the tap and looked at the boy. "You don't look Korean but you can speak the language well."

"Same to you." smiled the guy. "I'm Yuta, one of the rare Japanese students."

"Well, I'm Ten, one of the two Thai students," said Ten as he chuckled.

"Thank God we, Japanese students, aren't the only extinct nationalities," said Yuta as he washed his hands.

The next dance class was a bit more difficult as the teacher showed them the other half of the dance. She didn't want to show much mercy towards, she didn't seem like an easy and chill teacher but was still likable somehow. Ten was struggling at this point, all of his energy was drained on the first class and he could barely focus. The teacher said they would get a grade at every end of the second dance class that would be added up by the end of the week and would form a big main grade that would be registered in the school system. This gave a big pressure on everyone's back but also a motivation for improvement. All of the boys were trying their hardest but the teacher pointed out even the tiniest flaws which brought down their moods.
As the lesson ended by the ring of the bell everyone just dropped down to the wooden dance floor as if their souls just left their bodies. The teacher was strict with the grades as everyone got either a C or maybe a B.
Ten, Sicheng, Byeongkwan and Moonbin were the only ones who got Bs.

"I won't be teaching dance for soft boys. I am not that type of teacher if you ask that. If you feel like ever giving up, sign to another course but I won't be gentle with my teaching method. Have a good day, I can say you did quite well but definitely need some improvement."

"This was extreme. I knew it would be hard but not this hard." Ten heard some people speaking Chinese.

"I mean, the first lesson wasn't that bad but the second one was lethal." said another Chinese guy. Ten looked at them and he saw that one of them was that Sicheng person.

Some of the students were getting up after getting themselves together. A shower was impossible in that ten-minute break so they just sprayed a dozen amount of deodorant on themselves.
They were having Arts after their Main class, it would make their brains relaxed but focused on something rather calm than stressful.

Ten was walking towards the classroom, alone, and he was about to step in but someone hugged him from behind, making him stop and jump in surprise. From the tight hug, he somehow knew who it was.

"Jungwoo!" said Ten trying to release himself from the tight grip. "You scared the hell out of me, geez."

Ten couldn't be angry at Jungwoo, his puppy-like face was too cute for him.
Ten was finally released from Jungwoo's hug and met with the younger boy's gaze.

"How was vocal class?" asked Ten as they started to walk inside.

"My throat is sore a bit but it was fine, I put my blood and sweat into it." told the cute boy. "The teacher served us a little bit of warm tea after class which helped us but told us that if we misbehaved or didn't pay attention or showed no improvement, she would take away the reward tea and would make us practice 100 times harder."

"And, weren't you scared or nervous?" asked Ten as they took their seats next to each other. They had those artistic seats with tilted boards.

"I mean, I can't say I wasn't but I need to be strong mentally, if you guys are with me then there won't be anything wrong." finished Jungwoo with a slight smile on his face.

The rest of the class was coming too, and Ten barely knew half of them which made him feel anxious as he saw how many people they had in their class. He started to pick his skin at the corner of his nail with his thumbnail which was one of the signs of his anxiousness and he couldn't stop it as he was trying to stay calm.
The teacher later arrived in the classroom as well and after a quick introduction, Mr. Hwang revealed the flower vase, which was decorated with a few lines, that they would be drawing. Ten was focused on the smallest details and tried to draw it perfectly on the canvas. As he was drawing the petals of the Lilium, his hands became more and more sweaty which caused the graphite pencil to fall out of his hand. As it hit the floor it caused a few people to fall out of their focus zone but they went back in there in that second. Jungwoo quickly picked it up and handed it to Ten. Ten thanked him and as he was taking the dark pencil back when he saw a boy so focused on his work, he thought he was an artist. It was the same tall boy with dark brownish hair he saw on the registration day. He was surprised to see him in the same class. As he was focusing on his work, his tongue was out a little bit showing concentration. Ten quickly took his pencil back and put effort into his masterpiece.

His sub (second main) subject was vocal. He didn't have this lesson with any of his friends either but he was feeling well walking alone, he was enjoying himself in his own world.

Vocal class wasn't that hard either, maybe because it was just a lead subject for some. They just sang a few notes and were tested if one could sing a high or low note. The teacher wasn't so strict with them but you could sense the judgment in his eyes. Ten tried to focus on his vocal cords but as he heard the others his self-esteem sank low, thinking everyone was a lot better. Surprisingly, he wasn't the only one feeling this way. He looked to his right side and saw a boy, who looked younger than him, suffering as he was trying to sing in the right tone. It looked like he was going through puberty, hard in fact. His voice was trembling, switching between high and deep but failed to make the perfect tone for the easy song that they were singing. He was sweating a lot and tried to wipe it off but he was under a decent amount of pressure.

The 50-minute lesson came to an end which Ten was thankful for and as everybody was leaving for the lunch break, he decided to go the young boy to check if he was fine.

"Hey," said Ten as he reached the small boy. "are you okay? I saw you were having a bit of trouble there."

"O-oh, uhmm..." mumbled the Canadian. "ye-yeah I'm fine, thanks. Vocal isn't just my best at the moment."

"It's fine, you still have time to practice and improve. You aren't the only one suffering from this, don't worry," said Ten as they started to walk to the cafeteria together. "What's your name by the way?"

"I'm Mark from Canada." said the boy as he bowed down but not fully.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Chittapon from Thailand but just call me Ten." slightly bowed down Ten. As they were walking along the corridor towards the cafeteria Ten felt a heavy arm hitting the behind of his neck so suddenly he almost cursed himself.

"Yo whaddup." greeted the American.

"Jesus Johnny," sighed Ten. "didn't have to give me a heart attack."

"Didn't mean to." chuckled Johnny. "Do you guys want to join us at the cafeteria?"

"Who do you mean by 'us'?" asked Mark.

They reached the cafeteria and so many kids were eating and talking loudly. The boys could easily spot the people they knew already, they were sitting near the corner.

"Hyung, you're finally here!" said Jungwoo.

"Yeah, don't even say," said Ten as he, Mark and Johnny sat down next to each other.

"Also, we met new people who are from the same class as us. Guys, this is Taeil and Jaehyun. We were in the same vocal class." told Jungwoo with a big smile on his face.

"Wait," said Johnny as he squinched his eyes and pointed at Jaehyun and Taeil. "aren't you guys in sub dance?"

"Yeah, we are there," said Jaehyun with a questioning look.

"I knew you looked familiar," said Johnny as he sat down. "By the way, this is Mark. He is that small kid who tries to rap-"

"Bro," said Mark with an annoyed look with soon changed into a light chuckle.

The boys kept talking and joking as they were having their lunch. After a while, Ten saw a familiar Japanese face. He waved at the boy's direction and motioned him to sit with them which he gladly accepted.

"Hi." said the shy Yuta. "I'm-"

"Wait!" said Jungwoo as he heard the new boy's voice. "You are Nakamoto Yuta?"

"Yeah?" he said awkwardly.

"You are that amazing soccer player!" said Jungwoo with a smile on his face. "Oh my gosh!"

"How do you know him?" asked Johnny.

"My soccer coach had mentioned and talked about him a lot," explained Jungwoo as he was jumping up and down. "He said he had gone out to Japan and had said there was a guy named Yuta who played better than Messi himself." as Jungwoo was talking it seemed like his eyes shone up.

"Oh I know who you are talking about!" said Yuta with a big smile. "Byeon Coach right?" Jungwoo nodded. "Oh my gosh! He was like all over us. Whenever I kicked the ball he just cheered for me like a proud dad. He said things like I could go for the World Cup and beat Ronaldo and things like that. He was overreacting too much. One of my teammates heard that he loved our culture and Japanese people indeed. I think he was like a Japan fan or whatever." Yuta laughed and the others chuckled along with him. It seemed like he was getting, slowly, part of the group.
He sat down with the others and they got along with him well.

History was the next lesson. The group of 8 friends went to their classroom together. It was a good thing that the rappers, the dancers and the singers didn't form their own cliques. As they walked in they saw the others sitting and talking. There was a group of people who seemed to be only Chinese and the other group of people mostly contained Koreans.

"I've heard that the History teacher is pretty strict," said Yuta.

"Well, to be honest, which one isn't?" replied Johnny.

"I heard one of the history teachers isn't that bad. We might get the chill one, I have high hopes for that," said Doyoung.

They all sat down near each other and put out their books onto the desk. Everyone fell silent when the teacher slammed the door shut and walked to the desk. The sound of his shoes hitting the ground made everyone feel uneasy as if a life mattering question was about to be asked.

"I see." the teacher interrupted the deadly silence. "This is the class that has the most international students. Interesting."

He wrote down his name onto the board and turned around in the blink of an eye and pointed towards one of the Chinese guys.

"Which nation took over Korea in the medieval times?" he said.

"Uhmm..." the guy was lost for words.

"The Mongols." said the teacher as he straightened his back. "Coming to South Korea, without basic knowledge of the country's history, is truly disappointing. I was naïve thinking that at least you know our national anthem. Now I know I shall not teach easily." the foreign students were a bit scared at this point. They knew the History teacher had an eye on every single one of them and if they said one wrong word, they'd fail in that second.

"I think I just shit my pants." said the small Canadian guy behind Johnny.

The lesson itself was calm until Ten decided to take a sip from his water and the teacher looked at him with a deadly glare as a warning sign. In that minute, Ten didn't feel thirsty. It felt like a dreadful 50 minutes.

"What do we have until we need to study?" asked Jaehyun.

"Double language," said Taeil. "We are all going to have Korean but you are going to have English or Japanese or Thai or whatever your mother language is."

Johnny wasn't worried because he knew he would be in the same group as Mark, Yuta had a Japanese mate with him but it seemed like Ten was alone.
They bid their goodbyes as everyone started walking to their classrooms. Ten found his claasroom and it was a really small one, it had a minimum of 8 chairs. He put down his bag next to one desk and sat down slowly. He was analyzing the classroom: it had a few geographic pictures of Asia, some articles in different languages and the desks had a bit of art on them.

"Chittapon Leechaiyapornkul?" said a female voice behind Ten.

"Yes." he tried to sound confident as he stood up but it didn't really seem to work.

"No need to be scared." said the teacher as they greeted each other then she pulled a chair from the desk in front of Ten's and sat down on it.
"My name Ms. Srisuk, I'm half Thai in case you were wondering. I also teach the main Vocals and sub Rappers."

The woman looked young for a teacher, too young as Ten thought. She must have been in her early 20s.

"So," she said as she opened her book. "let's do literature, starting with the basics."

The lesson was better than Ten ever thought. It might have been because of how young she was but he could understand everything she said. Her voice was like a lullaby for newborns, melody like. It felt like she knew what she was talking about and teaching about. Speaking with another Thai person, other than his roommate, made him feel home in the foreign country and made him forget about the stress of speaking and learning in Korean.
This double lesson, despite the enjoyment, drained the leftover energy from Ten's brain. All of those facts, book analyzing and new words seemed to make Ten dislike the subject a bit.

"You did quite well," said Ms. Srisuk as she closed everything and put them in her bag. "At least you could focus a lot more than Kunpimook."

"Oh thank you," said Ten, not expecting the compliment.

This day just made Ten so exhausted mentally, he could just lay down on the floor and fall asleep there. He thanked God that his dorm was close to the school, but despite that, he almost forgot that they had to stay in until 7-8 pm to study and do homework.
On his way to a classroom, he met with Johnny and Yuta who were also looking for a classroom to study. Soon they found their own and it looked almost empty. Only two boys were sitting there, studying on silence. The three who just entered the room conquered 3 seats which were next to each other and they took out all of their books they needed to work in.
The boys tried to do their Science homework together and let's just say they tried their best, but since it was only the beginning of the year, it wasn't too hard. When it came to History, all three foreigners were suffering. The task was to read and study one or two chapters from the book and other than the fact that they spoke Korean very well, they found a 'few' new words which their vocabulary couldn't identify. They looked around to see if there was at least one Korean student. They didn't know if the other two boys were Korean but to their luck, Doyoung entered the classroom with Jaehyun. They were talking but as they stepped into the classroom, they silenced themselves at that moment. The three suffering boys' eyes shone up at that exact moment.

"Doyoung hyung!" whisper-yelled Ten which made Doyoung turn his head in his direction. He answered a quiet 'yeah?'.

"Please help us, we have come to a uhmm crash with History," said Ten.

"Do you think I know History?" replied Doyoung with a confused look.

"We just found some words that we don't understand, we don't get History itself either," said Johnny with a funny look on his face.

The two Korean boys made their way towards the desk to try to help the innocent sheeps. They were surprised to see how many words they had written out from one textbook. They decided to bring themselves chairs and sit beside them, knowing it would take a while and they were right. They explained the words rather than telling what it exactly meant by a dictionary. They were struggling to explain it simply but the others suffered to guess it even with the context.

"I think I'm going to practice dance, need to know the choreography." said Ten after an hour of word guessing. As he stood up packing his books, Yuta decided to join him as well, knowing he needed improvement.

The two boys were walking down the hallway, towards the practice room. Not many people were walking on the corridors and they thought they would be the only one conquering the dance practice room, but to say the least, they were wrong.

"And so how did your mother react?" asked Ten as he was still chuckling.

"She hurried back into the room with a camera in her hands, yelling for dad to come too as I was the 'singing angel'. She shredded a few joy tears, but remember I was only like 5-6 years old, and then dad came thinking something really big happened but when he saw me singing an old folk song he just smacked himself on the forehead and looked at mom who was recording the whole and saying things like 'He is going to become a singer!' and dad just shut her off saying 'It's just old folk, everyone can sing that.'. Mom looked so done with him." told Yuta as they were laughing.

They were walking closer and closer to the practice room when noises were heard and they guessed someone was already in there. It didn't sound like someone was struggling with a choreography, it sounded more like erotic moans. The boys just stopped there, unsure of what to do when they heard more.

"Ming...Minghao..." heard the two freshmen the moaning boy inside. It seemed like the person had a Chinese accent.

"You like it, don't you?" said the other, who was indeed Chinese.

Hot moans were heard outside of the room as if it was nothing else and nothing bothered those in there. The moans got louder then quieter from time to time, slapping sounds were also heard. The breathing of the two people got heavy and fast and the slapping sounded fast as well, he must have picked up his pace.

"I think we should find another practice room," suggested Yuta as Ten nodded as a response. They started walking away slowly, making sure the two wouldn't hear them.

"What the actual fuck," said Yuta as they left that area. "Who has sex in the middle of the school?"

"I don't even know." Ten answered still surprised.

"Some boys really can't keep their dicks in their pants, even for other boys." chuckled Yuta.

The two found another dance practice room on the second floor and thankfully no-one was there. They put down their bags and changed into their dance clothes which were more comfortable. The teacher said it was rather a minimum to dance to this perfectly so they had no choice but to learn the choreography to the fullest, not even leaving out the smallest details.
The boys tried to help the other as much as they could, pointing out mistakes here and there, teaching the move they might have forgotten and memorized everything. They practiced for almost 2 hours, they were interrupted by Mark who seemed to be looking for them. He advised them to rest for now as the day had come to an end.

The sun had set and the moon was up now along with starts that were barely visible. Chittapon was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. His first day in his new school was fun as he met some new people. Knowing that he wouldn't be suffering alone as a foreigner made him relieved. He closed his eyes trying to fall asleep, but something didn't let him fall asleep immediately.