Salty Sweet

{Chapter 1}

"Go on, introduce yourself." Taeyong smiled at the new guy. He was from China and had transferred as part of an exchange student system.

"M-my name is Sicheng," he replied in accented Korean. This kid would need help.

"Nice to meet you, Sicheng! I'm Taeyong, but you can call me Tae!" He held out his hand to the new student. Sicheng gingerly slid his hand into Taeyong's and shook lightly.

"Now, Mr. Woo told me, your first class is Mrs. Park, right?" The tall boy only nodded. "Alrighty! I'll show you to your classroom!" Taeyong gave Sicheng a small tour on the way, careful not to speak too quickly. The new kid didn't say much. Whether or not it was because he was shy or just didn't understand much, Taeyong couldn't tell.

Once they reached the classroom, Taeyong waved goodbye, leaving Sicheng wide-eyed and nervous. As he walked away, Tae could hear the teacher telling the class why they had a new classmate. Luckily, Mrs. Park was kind and soft-spoken. An easy teacher for an international student. Taeyong wasn't too worried for the new guy.

However, he was worried about his home room teacher. He had Mr. Kwon this year. A hard-ass with a vendetta against Taeyong and his friends. Nobody knew why either. Up until last year, Mr. Kwon had been a nice guy. Maybe he got divorced over the summer or something.

"And just where have you been, Lee Taeyong?" His teacher demanded.

"I was helping the new kid find his home room. I have a pass." Taeyong reached into his back pocket and pulled out a white slip of paper, words scrawled across, explaining the situation. He had barely started to hand it to the snarling teacher before having it snatched from him. Taeyong stood at the front of the room while the teacher scanned the note. Out of the corner of his eye, Taeyong could see his friends trying not to burst out laughing. What? Did he have something on his shirt? Was his hair sticking up? He just sighed. Taeyong didn't have time for their pranks today.

"Well, I suppose you're lucky this time. Have a seat, Taeyong."

Gratefully, he did as he was told. He didn't have a chance to ask his dumb friends what all the fuss was about. He would interrogate them at lunch. As the lesson crawled along, Taeyong found himself paying less and less attention until the bell finally rang.

The rest of the morning went by; something he didn't understand in maths, blowing stuff up in science, and finally lunch.

Ah, lunch. The room where all grades were packed together as close as possible so they could all moan over the disgusting cafeteria food and catch up on the latest drama all together.

Taeyong stood in front of his friend Jaehyun as they waited for their food.

Jaehyun nudged the back of his arm. "Hey, get me mine and I'll save your spot, okay?" Taeyong nodded. The menu today was orange chicken. Wait, that's from China. Sicheng! Taeyong had totally blanked! He peered over the heads of shorter students to look for the new kid. He spotted him standing near the back of the line. He looked like he was trying to make himself as small as possible. His height wasn't doing him any favors. Taeyong removed himself from the front of the line and walked to Sicheng's spot.

"Sicheng! How's your first day going?" Taeyong stood beside his friend, annoying the kid behind them. He didn't care.

Sicheng took a moment to reply. "It's easy, so far. And yours?" Taeyong assumed that this was actually a formality, so he didn't give a serious reply.

"It's alright."

"Just alright?" Sicheng tilted his head slightly and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah... Just alright. I won't bore you with details, man." And it was true. Taeyong wasn't having a particularly bad day, but it wasn't exactly good either.