Stray Kid's 9th member

Chp 17- Childhood friend

"Banana?"

"Jung Dung?"

"JAEMIN!"

"CHAERIN!"

"WAHHHHHH!!" We both shouted, jumping up and hugging each other.

"Yah Chaerin, when are you going to get rid of those glasses of yours?" He said when we finally released from our hug.

"What? I don't like contact lenses. Even when I practice, I wear glasses, except for when I have to perform." I said, pushing up my glasses and looking at him haughtily. I grinned. "Also, when did you get so small. Your almost the same as Changbin!" I laughed. "Yah!" He said, smacking my head. "Ah!" I cried. "Respect your elders." He chided.

"What now? Elders? I thought we were the same age?" I asked, with my big round eyes, trying to look innocent.

Me and Jaemin have this thing where even though he's 5 years older than me, we are like friends of the same age so I don't have to say things like "Hyung" etc.

Jaemin opened his mouth but got cut off by the sound of the bell. "Oh no!! I'm late and I haven't even found my class!" My eyes widened even bigger than ever as I glanced at my watch. I quicly looked around. "Yah Jaemin ah! Where's the office. Teacher's office of principal's office or whatever office I need to go to?" I asked him. He just stood there and laughed, with his arms folded. "Yah! Aren't you going to be late. Hurry up go to your class after you tell me where I need to go!" I smacked his arm. "Ouch! I forgot how painful your smacks are. Alright alright. The general office is down there. Go collect your schedule and all that stuff. Bye." He said rubbing his arm and waving. The halls were already empty. "Aishhhh." I ran down the hallway to the office.

When I got inside, there was a lady at the counter. "Uh, hi! I'm a new student here, uh my name is"—

"Jung Chaerin. Here is your schedule. Your class is 8D. It's just around the corner." The lady said, handing me a nametag as well as a sheet of paper with all the different classes on them.

"You're the last one to arrive." She said, clicking her tongue as she looked up at me."

"Uh..." I started. "Run along now. You're late. You're first period's teacher is called Mr Han. You're lucky he's nice." She said before turning back to her computer.

I nodded quickly and turned but stopped a little before the door. "Thank you Mrs..." I turned around.

"Mrs Kang. Quick, now." She said with a smile and a dismissive wave of her hand. I smiled and gave a small bow in form of a nod and ran off the my classroom.

She seems nice I guess. Kind of like my mother, I smiled.

( ^ω^ )

When I got to class, I barged through the door, only to find dozens of pairs of eyes focusing on me. Uh......

The teacher looked at me questioningly. "Ah, of course! Class, this is our new student! Do come in!" He waved beckoningly. I slowly walked up beside him and faced the class. The class was pretty big, about thirty people or so, in pairs, with some empty seats here and there. "Maybe you want to introduce yourself?" The teacher asked.

I quickly cleared my throat. "Hello everyone, I am Jung Chaerin, and I hope to make good memories with everyone!" I said in the most confident tone I could, and tried hard not to stutter. "Are you from Stray Kids?" Someone shouted. I hesitated. "Yes...I'm from Stray Kids." Did they know Stray Kids already?

The class erupted into a loud chatter. The teacher banged the table a few times and asked for silence. "Ji eun? Please raise your hand." A girl from somewhat the middle row raised her hand, the seat beside her was empty. "Chaerin, you may sit beside Ji Eun." He pointed to the girl who was raising her hand.

I walked over to her and sat down. She faced me with a nice smile and held out her hand. "Hi! I'm Ji eun! I hope we get along!" I accepted and smiled back at her.

The morning passed by like a blur and before I knew it, it was lunchtime. Ji eun is really nice and helpful. She introduced me to a lot of classmates as well as all the different teachers I had, and brought me around the school. Nothing much happened during lunch, just a bunch of people eating and the food wasn't too bad. If there was even anyone managing crowd control, they were horrible at it. Not that there usually were people handling crowds in school but I guess this school really needs it.

We were working on our upcoming mini album, I am WHO, and things were coming about nicely. After each day at school, we would head to the JYP building, practice, choreograph, produce, record, film, etc. There was a lot to do each day. We even confirmed a fan name for our fans. We decided to call then STAYs because they make Stray Kids stay, and between "Stray" and "STAY" the difference is the "r" which stands for "reason". So STAYs are the reason that Stray Kids stays. I really liked it and thought that the reason behind the fan name was really meaningful.

Although I was busy, I did try to catch up with Jaemin. I got quite close to Ji Eun, I would say, and if I didn't go lunch with Hyunjin or Jeongin, I would go with Ji Eun since Jaemin always went with Jeno who is a member from his group.

Sometimes, Jaemin would join me and Ji eun for lunch along with Jeno whom he had introduced to us. We would meet up at cafes as well, sometimes, to study together or just catch up. But we did it less than once a week due to our heavy schedules.

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Sorry, I didn't really know what and how to write this. Basically:

Chaerin got into SOPA. Met Jaemin who was her childhood bestfriend. Made new friends like Ji Eun and Jeno, and hangs out with Jaemin sometimes. She also realises how many fans Jeongin and Hyunjin have at school. And also, she wears glasses.

Thats all. Thanks for reading.