Days and weeks have passed by, classes and practices got harder every day. Ten had gotten to know his class more, talked a few words at least with everyone but it seemed like cliques were formed. The Chinese students didn't want to socialize with the others, they seemed fine in their own group.
Ten got along with Bambam pretty well, even though he was one year above him. There were a few times when Bambam invited one of his friends to their dorm room and Ten didn't mind it, if it really bothered him he just went to Johnny's or Jungwoo's dorm to hang out or to the library to study.
A few students asked others if they could tutor them in subjects, mostly language subjects. Ten got help in Korean a lot of times from Jungwoo and Doyoung and in return, he helped them in English.

A few of the boys joined the soccer team of the school, including Jungwoo and Yuta. Some of them took instrumental classes, many people played the piano and the guitar but, for example, Doyoung was playing the bass and Mark tried to play the flute.
For the weekends, many of the Korean students who were living in dorms went home to see their families whilst the foreigners stayed and had a good rest. They mostly hung out or tried to study and practice if they were behind or needed improvement. The group of boys mostly hung out in Johnny's dorm room and his roommates didn't mind it.

It was the beginning of May, the weather was getting warmer and warmer and flowers have finished blooming. Along the Han river, cherry blossoms were seen beautifully blooming. Their petals fell into the river which made it even prettier. The wind was blowing lightly, taking a few flower petals from the trees. This was what Ten saw from Johnny's dorm window as he was sitting on his chair. It was a Saturday and the boys were hanging out at Johnny's room, trying to suggest things to each other because all of them had nothing to do and were bored.

"Is there anything in this town that barely requires money?" asked Yuta.

"Is that seriously a question?" Johnny turned his head towards Yuta as he was lying on his bed. "It's even hard to find a cheap place."

"Does anyone know a good place here? Maybe like, outside of the dormitory area?" asked Mark. Yuta and Johnny shook their heads in response but Ten was still staring out of the window.

"Wait, I know!" said Johnny out of the blue as he sat up in a blink of an eye. "I know someone who knows Seoul pretty well."

Johnny took out his phone and tried to find that certain person in his contacts. He pushed his thumb on it and then put the phone next to his ear. It was ringing for a few seconds then it seemed like the person picked it up.

"Hello?" said the voice on the other line.

"Hi, it's Johnny. Are you busy right now?" asked Johnny.

"Not really. I was just playing some games." answered the other boy back.

"Cool, would you like to go somewhere to eat with us. We are pretty bored and thought we'd go somewhere but we barely know Seoul and I know you know this place like your hand," suggested Johnny.

"Yeah, would be fun." a reply was heard. "Well, you're exaggerating that a bit, I don't know Seoul that well, but I know a few good places."

"Cool, cool," said Johnny. "Then what about meeting in front of the school in 20 minutes?"

"Let it be 30 minutes, I need to get some clean clothes on." suggested the other.

"Okay then, see ya there." said goodbye Johnny as they hung up. "Well then boys, we just got our tour guide."

"Who to be exact?" asked Yuta.

"Taeyong hyung."

Ten's eyes were wide open. He knew Taeyong as the scary guy in their class, he was a leader type and he knew everyone in their class. Ten didn't talk with him yet, the only conversation they had was about getting to know the other a bit.

A few weeks ago

"Taeyong, your partner is going to be Ten. Please sit next to each other and bring one tray of chemicals," said Ms. Choi.

Ten was anxious because a person was going to sit next to him who looked scary in his eyes and he never talked with him so he didn't really know what to expect. He was sitting on his seat tightly waiting for Taeyong to bring the ingredients for the experiment. He saw him walking closer and closer and he became more and more stressed.

"Hi," said Taeyong as he put down the tray and sat down next to Ten. "I don't think we've talked before but I'm happy to be partnered with you."

"O-oh, thank y-you." Ten was taken aback by the light compliment. It made him feel a bit more comfortable but he was still nervous.

"So, how are you with Science, how much do you get it?" Taeyong asked with hand gestures.

"Well, to be honest, it's not my strongest a-ability but if I have to do it, I'll do it," answered Ten.

"What positive thinking," Taeyong replied. "I like that."

The two boys started the experiment just by dropping drops of liquid into one test tube. This brought them the conversation.

"So, where are you from?" Taeyong asked Ten who was concentrating on putting the exact amount of liquid into the tube.

"Bangkok, Thailand. Not really from the neighborhood," answered Ten as he put down one of the tiny bottles.

"Wow, that's cool. I thought you were maybe half Korean at least according to your Korean," said Taeyong.

"And what about you? Which part are you from?" asked Ten.

"I live in Seoul and was born here as well. I never really thought of moving away, I really like it here," said Taeyong gazing away a bit. "And which main class are you in?"

"Dancing," said Ten as he opened another tiny bottle which gave out a really strong smell which caused the boys to put their hands over their mouths and noses.

"Damn that's strong," mumbled Taeyong. Ten quickly dropped the drops in the tube then closed the bottle. "So dancing, eh? How come?"

"I have been dancing since I was born, well that's what I was told," chuckled Ten. "and I can't remember a day when I didn't want to dance. It's been my passion and my motivation for things. When I heard about this school I then started learning Korean to get applied and study something that I truly love. And here I am."

"I see what you mean there. At least you had an easy choice. I love dancing but I also have a passion for rapping and I had to choose, it took me one month to make my decision to the fullest. To become not only a good rapper but a good dancer I've decided to join the secondary dance classes in the afternoon, I hope I can accomplish my expectations." told Taeyong.

"Well, I can imagine it must have been difficult to do that," replied Ten, pouring water into the tube. "My mom always told me I had to work extra hard for my dreams and since then, I always try my best even in things I know are unnecessary and just don't interest me, like Science."

"Well, with a bored yet focused face you had on while doing the experiment, I can imagine that." laughed the two boys lightly.

"Do you want to take part in it and shake the bottle lightly?" asked Ten as he was handing Taeyong the test tube.

"Yeah, sure," he answered. He moved his hand towards the tube that Ten was holding and as he took it, their fingers slightly brushed against each other. Ten quickly pulled back his hand after the sudden small skinship.

Since then, they didn't really talk, mostly small talk if they had to. Ten felt anxious around him but he didn't exactly know the reason, his anxious thoughts were lurking in his head saying he only talked with him because he was forced to and that he actually didn't like him at all. With these thoughts, Ten was somewhat ignoring him, trying not to be an unnecessary weight on Taeyong's shoulder.
Whenever their gaze met in the hallway Ten put a tiny smile on his face and waved a little but Taeyong smiled and greeted him friendly. Thinking that they had to be in the same place at the same time made Ten worried that he might question him about his behavior. At least they didn't have to be together as two only.

30 minutes seemed to pass quicker than before or so Ten thought. The boys changed into something more casual other than their sweatpants and comfortably big, dirty shirts. The four boys were walking to their school and were talking loudly as they were sharing their opinions on something.

"No, I told you that it's not the same. My hair is a dark shade of fancy brown while Marks's is pure black," explained Johnny.

"We all have black hair, can't we just agree on that?" said the desperate Yuta as Ten laughed.

"No! I insist!" said Johnny as he held his head up high.

Soon they arrived at the school gates and didn't have to wait longer than 5 minutes for Taeyong to arrive. He wasn't walking alone, he brought Jaehyun along and the others seemed to be happy about it.

"The bigger squad, the better," said Taeyong as they arrived at the same spot. "So all of you are hungry, right? Because the place that I know gives food, a lot of food, at a very fair price."

The boys started following Taeyong who knew the way towards the restaurant. He, in fact, did look like a good leader of a group as Ten thought. The boys continued talking on their way and Johnny continued pursuing the others of his right opinion.

"What are you fucking gay that you care about it?" asked Taeyong as he turned around and started walking backward. This made people laugh, only Ten chuckled at it. "Is everything good Ten? You seem quiet."

"Oh uhmm," Ten was speechless, he didn't know how to reply to that comment. He got this a lot of times and could somehow escape the awkward tension, but this time everyone's gaze was upon him." I'm just more of a listener than a talker."

"I disagree with that," said Jaehyun. "Yesterday in Maths class you talked about how unfair it was that boys weren't allowed to have piercings and such. If the teacher didn't tell you to quiet down, you'd still be reasoning," smirked Jaehyun.

"But you can't tell me I wasn't wrong," said Ten.

"Well-"

"I think they're pretty cool," spoke Taeyong all of a sudden. "I'm planning on getting an earring soon in the future then a helix."

The boys didn't know how to respond to that since they didn't expect that.

"We should decide by rock paper scissors who would pierce their ears," said Johnny.

"Bro," said Yuta. "you're a genius."

"Can we at least decide what kind of we want?" asked Ten.

"Maybe, but you're definitely getting a neon pink-"

Jaehyun suddenly tripped on something, as he was facing the group while walking, and fell on his back. Ten's reflexes didn't seem to work so he was slow to react and that caused him to trip on his foot and fall on top of Jaehyun. He put his arms beside Jaehyun's head to balance himself but then he was met with Jaehyun's handsome face. He felt nervous and awkward and felt the need to do something that would make the tension go away.

"No homo though," said Ten as his face turned into a light shade of red and he was proud of himself for not stuttering. The boys started to laugh at what happened then Ten got up and helped Jaehyun as well.

"Are you okay?" asked Mark.

"Never been better," said Jaehyun as he swept the dirt off his shirt with his hands.

The boys seemed to arrive at their location faster than they thought. The restaurant looked a little bit old but still had costumers even though it was hidden. Taeyong stepped in with confidence and had his reasons for it. As the others followed him they heard some trying to get Taeyong's attention.

"Taeyong!" said a blond-haired boy who seemed to be one of the waiters. He held out his hand for a bro hug.

"Jinhwan!" said Taeyong with a smile on his face as he went in for the bro hug. "How have you been?"

"Pretty good. Just as the school season started the kids started coming, they were storming in after the first day. What about you?" answered Jinhwan.

"Same with me. I had good weeks at the performance school. My friends asked if I knew a good place to eat at and so I led them here." replied Taeyong.

"Hi everyone." bowed Jinhwan. "My name is Jinhwan and welcome to Noodleland, the best Korean noodle restaurant in Seoul."

"Don't go overboard with that." joked Taeyong who then got elbowed near his ribs by Jinhwan.

"So," started Jinhwan as he got his little notebook out. "I shall give you a table for 6 I suggest. Follow me."

Jinhwan led them to a circular table that had six chairs. All the boys took their seats and, as Taeyong sat down across Ten, Jinhwan gave them the menus. The restaurant only served noodles but at a very decent price despite that, the noodles were homemade. The boys had a hard time deciding what to eat almost as if it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. When Jinhwan came back Taeyong gave out their orders: two Japchaes, Ramen noodles with Kimchi, Ramen with spicy rice cake (Tteokbokki) and two Korean cold noodles.

"How do you know him?" Yuta asked Taeyong.

"Oh, Jinhwan? My family used to take me a lot to this place and I basically grew up with Jinhwan because when my family was working overtime, they dropped me off here and Jinhwan was taking care of me. He is only 5 years older than me." answered Taeyong. "It's a family business restaurant and it got to him very quickly after his family was in deep debt. He was working a lot but he was also studying. He plans to go to university after he paid back the debt."

"Wow, he then has a lot of motivation," said Mark.

"And passion for cooking. He makes the noodles himself." boasted Taeyong about his friend. "But enough of him, I don't really know a few people here. One of them is Yuta, who, I heard, is the manga boy if I'm correct."

"Well, you're not lying." chuckled Yuta at the compliment. "They don't call me handsome for nothing." The boys just laughed it off. Taeyong brushed off the heavy tension quickly enough, which was impressive. He was extroverted and friendly towards people he found sympathetic. Yuta and he found their chemistry quickly as both of them started to joke with the other.
Their noodle dishes later arrived and the boys started to dig in. The food just melted in their mouth, that's how good they were. It felt like heaven, they said. They agreed on going back regularly. The place was cozy and had its vibe for the young people. Some people were enjoying the food with their friends, some were doing their homework and studying hard and some were with their families.

"So Ten," said Taeyong. "I don't really know much about you other than you are a dance enthusiast who is from Thailand. So I will ask some random questions, firstly, what do you like about Seoul?"

"Hmmm, the food here is good, not too much pressure yet and the people are nice too," said Ten but before he could say anything else Taeyong interrupted him.

"Have you ever written a song?" asked Taeyong as he rested his head on both of his hands.

"Not yet, but I'm planning to," said Ten which made the guys put their attention on him. "What about you?"

"Me?" the question Ten asked the surprised Taeyong. "I have written one but I'd rather not show it to anyone. It just sounds so ridiculous, it needs a lot of improvement."

The topic between the six males were songs and songwriting as they found the spark between each other. It was visible who was more of a rapper and who was more of a vocal singer. They soon finished their noodles even though they talked a lot between each other.

"Yeah, I felt the same when I heard it first," said Ten as he pulled his head up to reply from eating his last noodle. He slurped it up but then looked at him, smiling and chuckling.

"You got some tteokbokki on your cheek, wait let me just," said Taeyong as he leaned towards Ten a bit and wiped the leftover ttokbokki away from the corner of his mouth. Ten was taken aback and was sitting still until Taeyong sat back as well. He was flustered and didn't know how to react, he wasn't used to skinship from someone this fast. Taeyong sat back and licked the sauce off his finger which made the others react in disgust.

"Ewwww dude," let out Jaehyun along with Johnny.

"What?" reacted Taeyong. "We can't waste any of the food, we paid for it."

"Bruh you gay." joked Johnny as he threw his crumpled napkin at Taeyong across the table. The others just laughed at the scene.

"It ain't gay between guys if the other says no homo," Taeyong said as he licked off all of his fingers on his left hand in a seductive way. Ten was the only one who found it strange that he did this all of a sudden. "So no homo Ten." smiled the Korean. Ten only responded with a light chuckle.

On their way back, they continued to just joke around and get to know the other a lot. Soon, without realization, Taeyong became a part of their group and finally, the thought reached Ten's head that Taeyong didn't hate him which made him relieved.

It was time to say their goodbyes as they arrived at the dormitories. The foreigners gave the Seoul boys bro hugs and then the two groups went on their ways. The hallways echoed from the boys' laughter but no-one complained. When they got to the second floor they went to their own rooms to rest for the day.

As Ten closed the door, his smile fell into a frown. He let his head fall and make his forehead hit the door. He was resting his head, thinking back at the jokes Taeyong and the others made. Gay jokes were Ten's weakness, at some point. He knew homosexual people were heavily judged and weren't accepted into society and he never told anybody that he was gay, scared of the judgment and disinheritance. So people joking about this heavy subject just made him feel miserable. He was scared they would bully him and make fun of him and he didn't know what to expect from them because they had only known each other for two months or so. Thoughts came after thoughts when finally Ten let out a big sigh and got himself together.

He changed into something more comfortable and jumped onto his bed. Bambam was outside somewhere with Jackson and Yugyeom so the room was in only Ten's hands. He didn't have many plans so he just turned on some music and was scrolling through Twitter to see if there was anything interesting. He knew he should have been practicing or studying but he didn't have the motivation for it at all.
Boredom soon hit him and as a result, he put his phone down and decided to let his creativity spread on paper. He grabbed his sketchbook along with a graphite pencil and eraser and started to draw something starting with a doodle. The drawing became bigger and made more sense after some time. He was so concentrated on his masterpiece he jumped when someone knocked on the door. He clenched on his chest as he almost let out a scream but then eventually stood up and walked to the door. As he opened it, to his surprise, he saw Johnny standing there in a white tank top and grey sweatpants.

"I'm not bothering you, am I?" said the American.

"No, of course not. Come in," said Ten as he gestured his friend to step in. "What brought you here?"

"I was pretty bored and my roommates are practicing so I was feeling a bit lonely," said Johnny as he sat down on Ten's bed.

"Same here. Bambam is out somewhere and God knows when he is coming back," said Ten as he let himself fall on his bed next to Johnny. His face was in his pillow as he was too lazy to get up.

"I was trying to find something interesting on YouTube but it felt like I have already watched everything," replied Johnny. The boys continued their conversations about everyday topics and student life.

"You look hilarious with braces, look," said Ten as he showed Johnny the filtered picture he just made. They were sitting opposite of each other, comfortably.

"Bro I look 5 years younger," said Johnny with a funny yet surprised face which made Ten laugh louder. After a few minutes, the laughter died away and it was Johnny's time to speak.

"So Ten," he said as Ten put his attention on Johnny again by turning his head to face him." Is everything okay?"

"Uhmm, yeah?" smiled Ten awkwardly as he looked at Johnny with a questioning look. "Why?"

"I noticed that you were unusually quiet today when we hung out," replied Johnny with a serious look.

"Sometimes I tend to be but don't worry, everything is good." Ten gave Johnny a reassuring smile, hoping he would drop the topic.

"You sure? I'm just a bit worried," said Johnny with saddening eyes.

"Yes Johnny, things are fine." Ten put his hand on Johnny's shoulder to show he was feeling okay which wasn't entirely true.

"I can hardly believe you, I saw your face when Taeyong and I made those gay jokes. Were you offended?" asked Johnny as he put his face a bit closer to Ten.

"What?" said Ten with a confused look on his face.

"Are you maybe gay?" asked Johnny as both of his hands were next to Ten's folded legs, right at their sides, as he leaned in more. His eyes were wide open, wanting to hear the answer.

"Johnny, for fuck's sake-" Ten closed his eyes in annoyance.

"Okay, okay." Johnny backed away and sat normally. "Don't have to be a bitch about it- Ouch!" Ten gave Johnny a flick on the forehead.

"Says the person who is one," said Ten.

"What was that for?" asked Johnny as he put his hand on the spot where he was hit.

"To teach you a lesson about personal space," said Ten, almost losing the control of holding back his laughter.

"But I'm older than you!" said Johnny.

"That doesn't allow you to lean so close into my face so they are only 3 cms apart from each other." Ten looked at his nails like a diva and folded his arms, giving the older a sassy look. "Also, you looked scary with those wide eyes."

"Oh, you mean this," Johnny opened his eyes as wide as he could which caused Ten to let go of himself and laugh at his friend.

The night ended with both of them laughing and talking so Ten considered this as a fine day. Yet when Johnny left the room to go to sleep, he somewhat felt like the pressure was lifted up from his back. The fact that Johnny asked if he was gay scared to death. He didn't want anyone to know about his sexuality and didn't plan to tell to anyone. He was hoping that some secrets actually remain as secrets for eternity.