A Caged Bird | Minjoon

1

namjoon walked into the classroom. it was big and scary- just like he'd always imagined a college classroom to be. the seats filling the room seemed infinite as he glanced up at all the possible places he could sit. while he was up all night thinking about his first day, he planned to sit right in the front, wanting to be alert and hear everything his professor would say. but now, actually standing there, he knew he wouldn't have the courage to sit front row. there were already so many students there and he didn't want to come off as a nerd or a try hard. he just wanted to blend in with everyone else. he wanted to be normal. but, with what felt like a thousand students staring down at him, he couldn't help but feel like a complete outsider.

he began to panic slightly, quickly trying to figure out where he wanted to sit. he was about to just run up the stands and plop down somewhere, but a hand grabbing onto his shoulder stopped him, causing him to jump slightly.

he turned around and was face to face with a tall man- almost as tall as himself.

"you must be namjoon. i'll be your creative writing professor this year," he said, with a big smile.

"yes, of course. nice to meet you professor kim," namjoon said, bowing.

"yes, you too," he said.

namjoon just smiled and quickly turned back around, heading to find a seat.

-

he ended up just sitting down towards the back, purposefully avoiding sitting directly beside anyone.

namjoon was a bit early, so he pulled out his book from his book bag and began reading, doing his best to block out all his worries and the students around him

-

he managed to get lost in his book- not even noticing as ten more minutes passed by.

reading was always namjoon's favorite pastime. it was the one thing that could pull him away from his anxiety or whatever stressful situation he was in and place him in a new world.

it was an escape.

that is- until he heard a soft voice speaking to him.

"mind if i sit there?"

namjoon looked up and immediately felt heat rush to his cheeks.

it was- quite possibly- the most beautiful boy he'd ever seen.

he was so... angelic. he had a round shape to his face, which portrayed a look of innocence. his lips were pink and plump, puffed out in a slight pout. his facial features were soft, with rounded eyes and a button nose. he had a small, yet strong figure. having muscle, but also being shorter, made him look both manly and adorable at the same time.

"it's fine if you don't want me to," the boy said, laughing awkwardly, "i can just go sit somewhere el-"

"no!" namjoon said, way too eagerly.

"no?"

"u-uh... sorry. of course. sit," namjoon said, moving his bag over to create more space for him, dropping his book in the process, and losing his page.

if it wasn't obvious enough, namjoon had awful social anxiety. and if you mix already being terrible at communicating, with being flustered by a cute boy, you end up with a namjoon system overload.