SM SCHOOL: NCT BOYS

CHAPTER 1 [Introducing School Life]

You are casually walking to your school and into the pathway filled with people. This pathway is not only a walkway for normal people but also the popular people. Which one do you belong to? The average group. Like any other stories, you are similar to the "unnoticed" one but you do have friends from the popular group. Although that is a fact, sometimes you don't feel like you fit in. One of your best friends is in the most well-known group, NCT. It is true that the boys are really handsome and they are nice people. The only problem in the school are the girls. They are going crazy over these boys especially the most popular girl group here, RED VELVET.
[no hate, don't kill me ㅠㅠ]

Unfortunately, your other best friend is in Red Velvet- but scratch that. They always think that the boys belong to them. Whenever people like you try to chat with them or the boys ask you for help, they will step in and cut off your conversation. The consequence is they will verbally bully you until they find a new one. Typical.

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As usual, walking to class has always been dramatic. All the girls waiting by their lockers with their "so-called" best friends will scream at the top of their lungs over NCT. You on the other hand, patiently waited for your classmate aka your best friend, Mark. You are trying to shake off the vibration in your ears from the screaming girls but to no avail. Eventually, you had to close your ears with your hands in hopes that the scream would at least soften down.

As you are waiting, someone suddenly taps your shoulder. "Hey, are you ready to go for class?" With your ears still covered, you turn your head to the owner of the voice. You could see Mark smiling brightly at you. Without attempting to talk, you nod and the both of you start to walk to the classroom. "Sorry about the girls back there, Y/N. You know how they are when they see popular guys." He stared at you as he spoke. While squinting your eyes at him, you responded, "You know, I wish I wasn't in this school. These girls are driving me nuts!" He laughs it off but his eyes scanned your face, admiring your features as he did. His eyes then shift to the floor, his elbows nudging you. "I know you don't mean that." You turn to look at him again and stuck your tongue out before quickly running away from him.

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Just like any other school days, your eyes are always focused on the screen projector. Your history lesson is almost over in about 5 minutes time. Mark, who is sitting next to you, crushes a paper before throwing it at your face. "What the-- Mark!" You exclaimed softly at him as you looked at him. Grabbing the irregular ball of paper, you uncrumpled it. As you finished reading the paper, coincidentally, the bell rings. You look at Mark while stuffing your history books into your bag, "No, I'm not going for lunch with you and your boys. Not today." You stood up from your chair before slapping the wrinkled paper to his chest and walking away.

You rejected his offer because of you know who. You brisk walked out of your class to your locker. As you were heading there, you kept looking behind, hoping that Mark did not follow you. With a relief sigh, you open your locker to store your history books. When you are about to close the locker, Mark suddenly appears beside you asking, "Why? Is it because of the girls?" Ignoring his question, you walked away from him but he followed you anyway. "Oh come on, Y/N! Yeri won't let the other girls touch you." You stopped your tracks and turned to look at him. "Even if Yeri is there, the other girls are older than her. She has no power to say anything that could protect me from them." You shouted softly at Mark so that no one else could hear you. He is taken aback by your words. Speechless, he simply stood there.

"I'm sorry, Mark. It has been a rough time dealing with her the past weekend. I just-- I want to have lunch alone today." You said your final sentence and brushed past him. Mark was still standing there without a word. He was confused by your words earlier. He could only  wonder about what had happened during the weekends.

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You take your lunch down to the table near the school garden and you sat alone. Usually, you would sit with the NCT boys during lunch. However, today is not the day to interact with them. The argument between you and Yeri? You could not say that it was bad but it was the worst verbal fight the both of you had. Due to the differences in style and personalities, sometimes the two of you don't match.

While you were eating your lunch, you did not notice Mark walking towards you with his lunch in his hands. "You okay there?" You jump due to his sudden appearance behind you. He quickly takes a seat next to you and repeated the same question but you ignore him and enjoy the greenery instead. Almost immediately after he sat, you could hear the NCT boys' voice from afar.

Haechan started to shout your name across the distance and the others joined in after. "Hey, Y/N! How was class? Was it fun? Tell me." Haechan was always curious about your life in class. He would always ask about what you learnt during lesson before changing the topic to girls. You were tired by the same repeating questions every day. You wanted to zip his mouth for a second but you could not. He was just too talkative.

"Haechan, shut your mouth and eat. Stop asking about girls, you're gonna embarrass yourself." Taeyong interrupts sternly to Haechan which Haechan quietly obey. You look at Taeyong and thanked him for keeping his poor hopeless romantic guy quiet. Although Taeyong stopped Haechan with his questions, the others talked as loudly as him. You were the only girl in the group with other 17 boys would swamp you with questions about soccer and basketball matches. With all those questions thrown at you, you could not answer all of them. Other than that, they would make jokes. Most of them make you laugh like there is no tomorrow but there are ones that makes you speechless.

"So, Y/N, how are you and Mark?" Ten asks you a question that has never gone through your mind. Everyone turned to you and Mark, waiting for an answer. "Oh come on! There must be something about the both of you. I saw you two before the class started. Running around and all."

You and Mark look at each other then make a disgusted face. Instead of you, Mark answered the question. "Ten, don't be silly. We've been friends since young. All of us." Ten looks at him, grinning. "Are you sure?" He and the others laugh at Mark's reaction to the question he gave. "There is seriously nothing between us!" Mark become more nervous when the older boys continued teasing him about his friendship with you. Sometimes, you do wonder what he feels about you. Does he feel like the both of you are more than best friends or really just best friends.

Taeyong, however, did not join the conversation. He sat and eat quietly as he listened to them. Of course, he does smile and laugh but whenever the boys make fun of Mark and you, you realised that he tends to ignore the conversation. He would sometimes laugh at it but most of the time, he would just keep quiet.

When the bell rings, all of them separate into smaller groups before heading to different lessons. Since you and Mark are taking the same subjects, the both of you are always together for lessons. "Are you okay? Don't mind about them. You know how they are." You look at him and smile weakly. "Y/N, is there something on your mind that you're not telling me?" You shake your head and respond, "Nothing. I was just thinking of how far our friendship has come-- I mean since the boys were making fun of it. So...." Mark could only nod in agreement but he knows that you do not feel the same way he does.