Tell Me No Lies

『Primary & High School Beginnings』

Primary School 

"Can you stand and introduce yourself to the class?" I gaped wide eyed at the tall woman standing in front of the classroom, mouth that was painted in cool toned red lipstick stretched into a tight smile. Bags lined her eyes darkly and it was clear she was just about as over being here as the rest of the anxious faced kids sitting in front of her were.

Her beady eyes were fixed on me, smile beginning to stretch further the more seconds that passed until it was more of a grimace than a smile.

"Now." She added, tone far less friendly than earlier.

It was clear that the clock was ticking, that the longer I sat cross legged and frozen on the ugly carpeted floor, the worse I was making it for myself. But all the courage that I'd forced into myself this morning when Mum kissed me goodbye with promises of how great my first day of Year 3 was going to be had dissipated into the humid air.

Someone cleared their throat from beside me and one of the gangly legged boys stood slowly, reedy voice ringing out through the classroom.

"Hey everyone, I'm Yeosang. Kang Yeosang." He smiled out at the sea of faces around him and a few of the other kids clapped their hands together softly, greeting him back. Yeosang cast me a sideways glance as he sat down, an encouraging and friendly smile on his lips.

Courage warmed my chest again and I forced my legs out from under myself, standing carefully and facing the rest of the class, shoving my chin out with as much confidence as I could muster.

"I'm Y/N."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

High School 

"Hey, Y/N. Slow down!" I slowed my pace slightly, not bothering to turn to see who was calling out to me. It was the first day of high school, there was nobody else in this place that knew my name except for Yeosang, the only other student from my primary school to be coming to the same high school and ironically also my only friend.

He arrived at my side with a few pants, dark hair as messy as it had been the first day we met in grade 3 where he'd saved my ass and kicked off our friendship.

It had been us verse the world since that day.

"You seriously didn't even wanna respond to my texts last night?" He asked when he'd finally caught his breath, throwing me an offended look when I paused to hold the door to the administration building open for him. I shrugged, smiling a little at the thought of the ten messages that he'd sent me over the course of the previous night, all of which I'd firmly ignored in favour of trying to get some sleep.

I say trying because no matter how deeply I buried myself below the covers of my beloved bed, and no matter how many pillows I piled around me or how many of the slow playlists I'd played that Yeosang had made for me to help me with this exact problem, sleep had somehow managed to almost completely evade me until 3am.

"You just kept asking the same thing." I said simply in response, waiting for him to slip through the door before stepping after him. He muttered something below his breath that was lost to my exclamation of shock at the interior of the building we'd just entered.

I'd known that this was one of the more highly paid for and luxurious high schools in our area long before this moment, but staring around at the high ceiling decorated with gold and silver paintings and marbled floors that seemed to stretch for miles felt a world away from what I'd been expecting to walk into this morning.

"Stop drooling, Y/N." Yeosang whispered into my ear, tugging playfully on the end of my carefully constructed braid, pulling a few of the difficult to capture strands from the binding. I cast him a acidic glare, flicking the soft skin of his wrist.

"I'm not drooling."

"Are too, be careful none of the boys will think you're cute if you don't wipe it away."

My chest tightened and I looked away from him quickly, hiding the brilliant red blush that would surely darken my cheeks.

It couldn't have mattered less how the other boys looked or thought about me.

I was only interested in one... Yeosang just chuckled, turning his head to watch a pair of taller boys crash against each other with yells of joy that filled the hallway... and he was completely oblivious.

"Oh hey! Are you two new as well?" The taller of the two boys grinned over at us, his eyes sparkling and dark hair covering most of his forehead. His easygoing smile reminded me somewhat of a joyful puppy, whereas his friend would've come off intimidating if not for the similar friendly smile stretching his tanned face.

"Mhm." Yeosang affirmed, slinging an arm around my shoulder and drawing my body closer to his. It was a power move in its own right, meant to ward off any advances of unwanted male attention or keep nasty words from being directed my direction.

But for once I didn't need a protector and these guys weren't exactly on the offensive anyway.

I shrugged out of his arm, stepping forward and boldly slinging my hand out to the taller, forcing a smile onto my face.

"Hey! I'm Y/N!" I greeted. The two smiled brightly back, each introducing themselves. The first to have spoken was Yunho, his falsely intimidating friend was Mingi. Their friendly banter carried Yeosang and I through the day, and somehow we managed to make a good group despite the complete opposite personalities between our two seperate friendships.

Yeosang with his soft voice and quiet ways, Yunho with his bright smile and joyous exclamations, Mingi with his eager ways and idiotic jokes.. and me, shy and terrified me that hadn't trusted anyone besides Yeosang for as long as she could remember. 

It really shouldn't have worked, but it did.

"Y/N?" A shocked voice broke the comfortable silence between the four of us as we crowded around the table we'd chosen for our lunch meet up and I lifted my head to peer over Yeosang's dark hair, eyes searching for the owner of the voice.

"Hongjoong?" I choked, my own voice as shock filled as his expression was, the two boys standing either side of him looked almost comically confused, their handsome faces flickering between the shorter figure to me.

Hongjoong's face split into a wide smile and he crossed the distance, shoving himself between me and Yeosang to throw his arms around me in a tight, inescapable, suffocating embrace.

"Wait, who the hell are you?" Yeosang asked, hostility written clearly over his features as he stared incredulously at the much smaller male squeezed between us. Hongjoong blinked, releasing me to turn and extend his hand towards my best friend with a warm, friendly smile.

He'd always been brave.

"This is Hongjoong, our parents used to meet up a lot for work dinners, so we'd coincidentally be forced to hang out a lot too." I hurried to explain when Yeosang remained motionless and staring pointedly at me over the extended hand.

Hongjoong's smile slipped slightly and he glanced at me helplessly, small hand dropping slowly onto his lap.

"You say that like seeing me was all bad." He muttered, looking somewhat hurt. I doubted it was my words that had caused the pitiful look in his eyes though.  Hongjoong was used to people being eager to talk to him and returning the bright smile he wore, he didn't often get the reaction that Yeosang was giving him.

I didn't bother to answer, instead fixing my attention over his head at Yeosang, eyebrow raised questioningly. It wasn't unusual for him to be on edge around new people, but he'd seen that I knew Hongjoong, surely the hostile look in his gaze was unwarranted towards an old friend?

"Hongjoong right? I'm Yunho." Yunho smiled over the tabletop, reaching out to grasp Hongjoong's hand. In a simple sentence he'd eased some of the tension and Hongjoong smiled cautiously back at the taller male.

"Well I'm San and this is Seonghwa." The shorter of Hongjoong's companions seated himself confidently on the other side of me, wearing a smile that was somewhere between a grin and a smirk and the one he'd introduced as Seonghwa perched himself uncomfortably beside Mingi who cast him a curious look before introducing himself to the rest of the newcomers.

And just like that, our group of four became six.