Dark to Baby: A Changjin Story

Chapter 1

Hyunjin just nodded and said, "you too," with his limited English knowledge. Jisung laughed.

"Cute." He said before removing his hand from Hyunjin's shoulder and putting his attention on the front of the room where the teacher was going over what they were going to do that day.

"Alright, guys. We read the first act of Hamlet last class, so now we are ready to move on to act 2. Everyone get out your books and turn to page 135."

Hyunjin internally panicked. He had never heard of Hamlet, and as he looked around, it seemed like he was the only one without a book.

He sat in tense silence until Jisung once again scared the living daylights out of him by popping up smack dab in his face.

"We can share! Here!" He pulled his desk over so that he could place the book between them. Hyunjin felt grateful, but also a little uncomfortable, since Jisung's shoulder was literally touching his while they read. It was a little overwhelming for the first day if he had to be honest. Was he this friendly with everyone? He had to be for him to not feel awkward right now.

However, it wasn't only Jisung that made him feel weird. Everyone, well mostly the girls, kept stealing glances at him throughout the class. It made him want to pull his hood over his head so they would quit.

Why did his mom think it was a good idea to move at the beginning of his second year of high school?

He was already well-established in his old school. He was the definition of handsome, book smart, hardworking, but also somehow humble and socially awkward. It was the perfect combination for popularity. Why did he have to start over?

He was already awkward from growing up home-schooled and suddenly having to interact with people in high school was probably the weirdest thing he had experienced in his whole life. It made him miss the days when he only had his dog Kkami to keep him company. Human friends were so complicated, but dogs just loved you.

Yeah, he was a dog person. Well, animal person, but dogs especially.

That's why he wished he could just go back to being home-schooled when they moved, but of course his mom said no, so here he was back to square one and making friends.

"Hyunjin!" Jisung whisper-yelled beside him. Hyunjin's shoulders jumped slightly as he fell out of his daze. The class giggled as he blushed a deep crimson. He looked at Jisung with questioning eyes.

"It's your turn to read." He said while pointing at the paragraph in the book.

Thankfully, since this class was world literature, the play from England was translated to Korean except for the first line that Hyunjin felt confident he would get right.

He began reading, but was quickly told to speak up, so he was forced to start again.

"To be or not to be, that is the question."

His real question was why his paragraph was ten times longer than any of the previous ones, but he decided to keep that one to himself.

When he neared the end of the paragraph, he heard something that sounded like snoring coming from behind him along with a few snickers. He read the last two sentences as quickly as possible and looked up with red cheeks, thinking that people were making fun of his boring reading.

"Thank you, Hyunjun." The teacher raised her voice to reach the back of the room before saying, "Changbin, would you mind telling us what Hyunjun just read?"

The guy in front of Changbin turned around in his seat and smacked the back of the snoring boy's head. Changbin slowly lifted his head off the desk while reaching over to push the guy who just smacked him.