It was loud and bustling as Jin-woo and Seong filed out of the auditorium with the other first-year students.
"Don't you think that speech the principal gave was a complete waste of time? At least that person who came first in the Entrance Exam speech wasn't so bad."
Seong said as he intertwined his fingers behind his head.
"But now that it's over, we'll get to see which class you and I get to stay in for our first year. Hopefully, it's one with a lot of potential friends."
In the crowd, Jin-woo tried to ignore Seong.
He moved from the auditorium and entered the main school building in no time.
The names and class positions of the first years were placed in the first hall. Numerous students could be seen sandwiching together to get a better look at the noticeboard.
Jin-woo could barely make out his name from the edge of the crowd.
"Hey! It looks like we'll be in Class 1A, that's on the second floor. I think they organize the classes on how well students perform in the Entrance Exams. You didn't get the top grade but you're still a bookworm in my opinion."
Seong tried to punch Jin-woo's shoulder, but he instinctively dodged it before saying.
"I'm leaving, I don't like crowds."
"Mom, you don't have to stay any longer, the Entrance Ceremony is over so you can go to work now."
Before Jin-woo could take the stairs nearby leading to the second floor, he overheard a boy talking to his mother in a depressed tone.
Jin-woo stopped to look at them.
Parents were allowed to accompany their kids to the Entrance Ceremony, but his own parents didn't come. His mother thought this was his first day of school, somehow forgetting it was just his Entrance Ceremony.
While looking at the mother and son, Jin-woo heard Seong from next to him say.
"You're fine, let's go. You don't need to look so glum every time you know? You need to cheer up, try and make some new friends in high school."
Without looking at Seong, Jin-woo's expression became unnatural as he responded.
"Everyone in the entire school thinks I'm a freak, I can't see how I'll make any friends here."
As soon as Jin-woo said that two youths, one wearing glasses and the other a bit on the chubby side, walked past while staring at him with the same strange expressions the girls at the school's entrance had.
Jin-woo groaned inwardly at that and decided to keep his mouth shut.
Seong glared at the two youths before he turned to Jin-woo and said.
"Look Jin, not everyone thinks you're crazy. Plus, who cares about their opinions anyway?"
Jin-woo tried to ignore Seong, but as they headed up the stairs he didn't hold out for long before he responded.
"Everyone was there, so yeah, everyone thinks I'm crazy. It doesn't help that they've also seen me talking to you."
No students were walking along the stairs.
Jin-woo suddenly stopped, and next to him was a plain floor-to-ceiling glass window. He turned to look at the soccer field that was visible from here, but he also saw his blurry reflection in the glass window.
But only his reflection.
Seong didn't have one.
Looking away from the window, Jin-woo continued up to the second floor by himself.
"Not cool Jin, how can you talk about your best friend like that?"
"You're not my friend, he's dead. You're just a hallucination that won't go away no matter how many pills I take."
Jin-woo immediately clapped back in a harsh whisper. However, they had reached the second floor, and a few kids walking pass overheard his mumbles.
Familiar looks appeared in their eyes, but Jin-woo ignored them and took a corner. However, after several more minutes of absentmindedly walking around, fewer and fewer students came into his view.
With another corner, Jin-woo paused as he saw no one walking along this hallway.
Seong sarcastically asked from the side.
"Are you lost? Seriously, didn't we go to middle school here? You even took the Entrance Exams in this building so how can you not know your school layout by now?"
An annoyed look came over Jin-woo's face and he responded.
"The middle school and high school are on completely different sides of the campus. Even then, the high school is split into the west wing and the east wing. Also, did I get the chance to look around after the Entrance Exams? No, I saw you and freaked out remember?"
Jin-woo ignored Seong and began searching around until he found a map on a wall nearby. After examining it he realized that he had somehow ended up on the west wing.
Class 1A was on the east wing.
He found this absurd as he would need to climb to the fourth floor and cross a bridge connecting the two wings. At what point did he climb those steps and cross that bridge?
"Damn it."
"Ha, way to go scatterbrains, do you know how long you've been walking?"
"Shut up, and don't talk to me when I'm in front of other people. Why do you only show up when I'm at school and nowhere else?"
"How should I know, it's your brain that's making you see me," Seong shrugged as he said that.
Several minutes later, Jin-woo was seen standing in front of a door that had a sign with Class 1A written above it.
He could hear students already inside the classroom, making him hesitate to open the door. If he did open the door, he was about to draw attention to himself as one of the last students to enter. His hand froze towards its handle, his anxiety at the highest it's been in a while.
Seong was leaning against the wall just staring at Jin-woo debating whether to enter.
After a few seconds, Jin-woo let his hand drop and he turned away.
"Let's go, I'll just come back tomorrow, school doesn't start until then anyway."
However, the door suddenly slammed open, and the rush of noise battered Jin-woo's ears. Three boys were seen chatting and laughing as they walked out. When they saw him, they paused and soon, strange smiles came over their faces.
"Freak! Don't tell me you're in this class too? Hahaha!"
The one at the front of the group said before grabbing Jin-woo's shoulder, stopping him in his tracks.
He had ash-brown hair with a bit of black in it. He also had features that made him look menacing even when smiling. His blazer was missing, and his white sleeves were rolled up to his elbow. With this look along with his tie hanging loosely around his neck, he resembled a typical delinquent.
The youth lowered his head next to Jin-woo's ears and whispered.
"Let's have a good year, alright freak?"
The boy was named Park Seo-joon. The leader of Jin-woo's ops.
After raising his head back up, Seo-joon smiled and patted Jin-woo's shoulder harder than necessary before walking around him.
His two followers, who both looked equally delinquent, bumped their shoulders into him as they walked by.
Left standing there in front of the door Jin-woo opted to enter, only to see that Seo-joon's shout had drawn attention to the door.
While squeezing his bag straps, he went to find a seat but realized most of the back seats were taken, leaving only the middle and front ones' empty.
"Seems like you missed the best seats that wouldn't draw attention."
Jin-woo ignored Seong and decided to take a middle-row seat on the far-right side column. The large plain windows next to him allowed him to see the hall outside.
His only hope was that the seats would be rearranged tomorrow and being of average height he might be placed at the back.
After Jin-woo took his seat, all eyes left him, and the chattering of the students started once again.
With nothing to do, Jin-woo took out his phone, opened up a comics app and blocked out Seong.
Time passed like this with more and more students coming in to fill up the seats.
Cliques were already being formed by people who had been in the same class since middle school, while Jin-woo continued to sit alone scrolling through his phone.
Suddenly, the chattering quieted down quite a bit. This drew Jin-woo's attention, and he looked up. What he saw was a mountain of a person barely squeezing through the door.
"Holy shit, that guy's fricking huge!"
Surprise exclamations came from some students in the classroom.
As the tall student walked in, someone suddenly yelled in shock from across the class in fluent English.
"Micah?! What the hell, how did you get so tall?!"
The tall student named Micah smiled and walked over to the one who yelled who were with a few others.
"Are you surprised?"
Micah's British accent was present as he said this with a grin.
"Surprised? Are trying to become the next LeBron, what have you been eating over winter break?"
While the students in the classroom were reeling back from Micah's height, another commotion suddenly occurred.
"Hey look, Kim Mai-sun is in our class."
"What, really?"
As a petite girl with mixed features walked in with an entourage, she drew all the male and females' eyes in the classroom.
Jin-woo hearing this instinctively ducked his head as if to hide.
As the beautiful girl named Mai-sun entered the classroom, she looked around for a seat, but her eyes suddenly landed on Jin-woo who was trying to blend into his surroundings like a chameleon.
She paused before walking over to him with a smile. After tapping his shoulder, she cheerfully said.
"Jin-woo! How was your winter break?"
She also took a seat on top of his desk, her unfettered mid-thigh skirt moving up a bit to reveal she wasn't wearing any shorts underneath.
Jin-woo leaned back in his seat away from her, but from the corner of his eyes, he could see a few people in the classroom giving him disgusted looks, which made him sigh internally.
'Just what I needed… unnecessary attention.'