academy | minchan

1 | first day

Minho sighed, his hands running through his hair in an attempt to comb it. Today was not a good day. For starters, he was late, hungry, and tired. Oh, and this was his first day in Phillips Exeter Academy, a boarding school located in the U.S. If this was just a nightmare, someone wake Minho up right now. He was getting frustrated just looking at the huge hallways that seemed to loom at him.

"Hey!"

Minho blinked looking at the boy in front of him. He looked Korean but his accent was unique, and Minho didn't know where to place it. The boy smiled at Minho.

"You look lost, follow me?"

Minho scrunched his nose processing the words and trying to figure out how to answer.

"It's just an expression", the boy laughed, his eyes creasing. "Anyways, seriously where do you need to go?"

"Room 909", Minho said. He winced, his English sounded weird even to him.

"Oh that's great! I have that class first too. Follow me."

The boy motioned and started walking, Minho following right behind him.

When they reached the class Minho breathed out a sigh of relief. The boy smiled amused. "New day's always the worst huh?" Minho smiled, "Yea."

The boy sat down and motioned for Minho to be his seatmate.

Minho sat and sighed happily. Maybe today wasn't too bad after all.

After class, the boy dropped Minho to his next class and waved goodbye. Minho waved back enthusiastically and opened the door to the classroom.

His happiness level started decreasing as he looked around the huge classroom for a suitable place to sit. He made his mind up to sit next to a boy with big, round, glasses who was reading a book. The boy looked up and smiled. "I'm Seungmin, what's your name?" "Minho." "Where are you from?" And so a steady conversation was built and at the end of class Minho was proud to say Seungmin and him were friends. Now, the two boys were walking to Minho's next class chatting. "How did you do in the morning?" "Not so great", Minho laughed. "But, a boy helped me." Seungmin raised his eyebrows amused, "You don't know his name?" Minho shook his head. "No, but he's asian and has blonde hair." "Ohh, does he have a slit in his eyebrow?" Minho nodded. "That's Chan, aka a fuckboy." "What's a fuckboy?" Minho said confused. He was from South Korea and of course even with all his English classes he never learned slang. Seungmin opened his mouth to try and explain but decided against it. "Ah, don't worry about it. It's not important." Minho nodded and waved Seungmin a goodbye.

His eyes instantly brightened as he spotted Chan. He walked over to him and took a seat. Chan looked up and smiled, "What a coincidence!" Minho smiled back and tried his best to reply in perfect English. "How was your day so far?" Chan leaned back in his seat, "Same as always, to be honest. How was yours?" "Good, I met a new friend." "Oh, yea that reminds me. Why don't you sit with me at lunch? I'll introduce you to some of my friends." "That would be great!" Chan smiled, "I'm Chan, you?" "Minho." "Where are you from? Your accent's cute." "I'm from South Korea. I like your accent too, where are you from?", Minho said tilting his head. "Australia."

After class finished, Chan walked Minho off to his next class. They waved bye and Minho took a deep breath, walking into his next class. Why is it so hard to find a place to sit? He decided to sit closest to the window and sat in the only available window seat. A purple-haired boy turned his head to look at Minho. Minho shifted nervously, "Hi, my name's Minho." The boy's face brightened. "I'm Wooyoung. Hey, you're from South Korea right!" Minho nodded excited, Wooyoung had a South Korean accent! "Me too, this is great." The boys spent the rest of the class chatting in Korean and Minho felt relaxed, a little less homesick. The rest of the classes passed like a blur and before he knew it, it was lunchtime. Minho eyes scanned the large cafeteria and his anxiety shot up tenfold. There were people everywhere and the room was loud with conversations of every imaginable accent intermingled. Minho looked for a familiar face wishing he hadn't stopped by the lockers leaving Jisung and his new friends to go on ahead. He was regretting his whole life right about now.
"Hey Minho!" Chan jogged up to him panting. Minho was so happy he could cry. Chan led Minho over to a table of unfamiliar faces. The boys took turn introducing themselves and Minho eased up. Chan's friends seemed intimidating but Minho managed to hold conversations with them. A boy named JB leaned over and whispered in Chan's ear. Chan laughed and smirked. He walked off to a table where Minho saw a bunch of pretty European girls sitting. Minho leaned into Hyunjin's shoulder confused. "What is he doing?" Hyunjin smiled, "Just watch." So Minho did. He watched Chan greet a particularly beautiful brunette and wink at her. He saw them exchange numbers and watched as Chan made the walk back to their lunch table. However, Minho was still confused. He looked at Hyunjin for an explanation. "School gets pretty boring so to spice things up we have a bet in this lunch table." Felix snickered, "Basically, any one of us can dare each other to sleep with a girl. And if you do, the person who betted pays up!" Minho scrunched his nose still confused. "Sleep with means to have sex", Hyunjin explained. Oh. Well this was weird Minho thought. "Are all Americans horny?" Hyunjin and Felix laughed throwing their heads back. "Living in America does this to you." "We love to party!", Felix said excitedly. By now, Chan had already walked back to their table. "Don't scare him. It's just for fun, everyone knows there's no feelings attached." Chan shrugged his shoulders. Minho let out an understanding hum. Chan slung an arm around Minho's shoulder. "What room are you in by the way?" "Room 223", Minho replied. Felix let out a gasp, "Oh my god, and they were roommates!"