127 Records (Dropped)

Chapter 11.1: the new exchange student

Today I published a special because it is a very special someone's birthday... Yes, I just turned 18! Just kidding.
Congratulations to my bias Ten🎉🎂❤

I hope he will be even more successful and be happy throughout the 23rd year of his life! In celebration of his birthday, enjoy this chapter about the formation of Ten's friend group.

(by the way, I wasn't kidding. It's actually my birthday)

"See you next week, Ten!" Hye-joo called out to him and waved. Ten waved back with a bright smile and watched her and the other students disappear down the stairs.

Alone. He was once again completely alone. He had been here almost two months now but he had still not made any friends.
He was still the new exchange student.

Ten was really open and sociable but he was a little insecure to talk to someone in a language he had started learning before summer break.
And he didn't really improve either. Especially, when there was no one to talk to.

Sicheng came out of the building and greeted Ten silently before he left as well. He was a new exchange student from China but he didn't talk a lot. Or he didn't talk to Ten.

Ten had seen him with some Chinese exchange students from other departments and he seemed pretty talkative with them.

Ten knew none to no Chinese and had tried his best to talk to Sicheng in Korean but was forced to realize that Sicheng did not speak any Korean yet. There were no other Thai exchange students either so Ten was still by himself.

He had managed to talk to a few people here and there but nobody had stuck with him. Or he hadn't been able to stick with anybody. Whichever way you put it.

Ten let out a long sigh and slowly made his way down the stairs as well. He crossed the campus ground lazily to get to the main gate.

It was still early, barely 1 and he didn't know what to do. He didn't want to go to his dorm and spend all day switching channels without watching anything. Maybe he could go back and look for an empty practice room.

"Excuse me." A guy had suddenly emerged before him.
He was tall and broad-shouldered. He looked like he had jumped out of a fashion magazine although he was wearing a simple blue jeans, white shirt combo paired with a beige jeans jacket. He seemed kind of familiar but a huge pair of sunglasses made him unrecognizable.

"Do you happen to know where the building for the college of Music is? The arts departments are here, right?"
Ten understood what the the stranger was looking for and answered half-english, half-Korean, "If you want, I can take you there."

"Really? I don't want to be a bother," the stranger answered in perfect English.
"Don't worry about it. I'm free anyway," Ten shrugged and waved for Sunglasses to follow him.

"Thank you for your help," Sunglasses smiled. As soon as the corners of his lips raised, two dimples appeared, one on each side of his face.

Ten smiled back, "I don't mind at all. By the way, I'm Ten. I study dance. I'm guessing you're not a student here? Or are you from the farther departments? Maybe one of the sciences?"

"Oh, I don't attend this University although I'm looking into joining next semester. I'm just here to visit," Sunglasses replied as they reached the right building.

"This is it. Do you need help finding the lecture hall?" Ten asked.
Sunglasses seemed to be contemplating Ten's offer. He probably didn't know the building's interior if he couldn't even find the building itself.

"I don't mind showing you there. I don't have anything planned anyway," Ten added in case Sunglasses didn't want to bother Ten more. "Then I'll accept your offer," Sunglasses smiled sheepishly. "You're really so kind, Ten-shi."

"You can just call me Ten. No need for honorifics."
"How could I do that? Should we compare our age so we can be sure who's older?"
"Sure, I was born in early 96. What about you?"
"I was born in early 97. You're my 'hyung'."
"You can call me that if you want. But, you don't need to talk to me in formal language. I'm not used to it anyway. We don't have honorifics in Thailand."

"Ah, you're from Thailand? How long have you been here? Your Korean is not bad."
"Thanks. I try but it's so hard to communicate because not all people speak English. I haven't talked to anyone beside people in my classes and a student who came from Chicago and could therefore speak English. It's hard to make friends." Ten sighed.

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to talk so much. I was just so glad to have met someone I could talk to," Ten apologized. Not having to think about every word said was so liberating.

"Don't worry about it. It must be hard to live in a foreign country. Besides, it's fun to talk to you. You're funny and you're friendly."
"Thanks, really. Oh, we've arrived," Ten stopped in front of a double wing door.

"Thanks for bringing me here."
Ten nodded and turned to leave.
"Wait!" sunglasses stopped him. He held out his phone. "Do you want to exchange numbers? I'll be your friend here. Call me if you want to talk. Let's meet again."

Well, what could happen? And Ten was in dire need of a friend anyway.
Sunglasses seemed like a normal, friendly guy.
Ten smiled back and took the phone. He handed his own phone over and proceeded to save his number in sunglasses' phone. He got his phone back and said goodbye again. This time the guy took off his sunglasses so Ten could actually see the face of his new friend.

He had a handsome face with prominent cheekbones and almond shaped eyes accentuated by noticeable tear bags.
He seriously looked familiar but Ten couldn't recall to ever have met him.

He smiled back and finally left for real. He looked down at the new contact saved in his phone.

"Jaehyun-ah"
.
.
.
Two weeks later Ten had finally mustered up the courage and asked Sicheng to work with him on the next assignment. Sicheng was a very talented dancer but had a completely different style compared to him. Still, they worker well together.

Sicheng and him mostly communicated using body language, fragments of Korean sentences and the electronic dictionary. He had gotten to know that Sicheng's English was on par with his Korean.

Spending time with Sicheng, Ten felt like he was learning more Mandarin than Korean but he had met up with Jaehyun once and met Johnny on campus sometimes so it was fine.

Now, he once again feared that Sicheng had gotten lost once more.
Sicheng lost his way pretty often. But how hard could it be to find a person on a bench on campus?
He looked at his clock. Sicheng was already twelve minutes late.

"Ah, it's Ten!" a voice suddenly exclaimed which caused Ten to look up.