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season 2 episode 4

"Hello..."

Dilol's greeting seemed to catch Milla by surprise since she had obviously expected him to speak Chinese, but the fact that he spoke Korean surprised her even more. "I'm sorry, I thought that you were Japanese…"

"My parents are American… But I grew up here, so I'm pretty good at speaking Korean."

She nodded and then said: "Well hello, I'm Milla."

"Nice to meet you, it's nice to meet you too. My name is Doyoung."

Milla nodded again and then went ahead to pick a seat so that she could sit down with them. When she sat down, she immediately grabbed a pen out of her backpack and started writing something, apparently deciding that she needed to write something down on her notebook before they start their lesson. Dilol didn't mind, but he couldn't help wondering what she was writing, and as soon as he saw her writing on the paper he decided to try to read what she wrote.

"Hi, I'm Mark."

"Hi, I'm Milla."

"Hello, I'm Doyoung."

Milla then wrote something else on her notebook, which made Dilol curious since he didn't seem to remember signing up for an English test, or a history exam or whatever he'd need to take later. But he didn't ask her about it because he knew that it probably wasn't any of his business.

When the teacher entered the classroom, everybody stood up to introduce themselves and then the bell rang, indicating that their lessons were about to begin. They all took their seats, including Milla and Mark and once the teacher started his lesson they didn't pay attention anymore to what he was teaching and instead focused solely on their phones.

Dilol was busy texting Taeyong, Johnny, Ten and Jaehyun, but every once in a while, he would look up from his phone to look at Milla, who was writing a message and then putting down her phone again. From time to time the girl looked at him for a brief moment and then averted her eyes, but he didn't find it weird because that's what he usually does in situations like that. However, today it felt different somehow, and he wondered what was wrong.

"Dilan, why are you staring at her again?"

Mark suddenly asked him, but this time Dilol just shook his head and then replied: "Nothing, I swear… She is just… strange… Maybe I'm just imagining things."

"Oh, well… Anyway, it doesn't matter if you stare at her again or not. I don't mind, I promise."

The younger boy smiled and nodded, but he still kept looking over at the girl who kept stealing glances at him occasionally. He tried hard to ignore her gaze, but eventually he gave up and looked back to his phone. But as soon as his eyes met hers, he froze and stared at her, making sure that he hadn't imagined it. There she was, staring back at him and blushing slightly. And even though he had seen many people blush before, it had never looked quite as beautiful as it did right now. She raised one of her eyebrows and asked him with her eyes if something was bothering him, and when he didn't answer he just shook his head to assure her that everything was fine.

Once he saw that she stopped staring at him, Dilol sighed in relief, thinking that maybe it was just his imagination again. If he had imagined everything, then why would Mark act that way? What was he doing? Did he even understand what he was doing?

Dilol didn't know, nor did he care, and he honestly preferred not to think about it, so he returned his focus to his phone, focusing back into the conversation that was happening with the others.

*~*~*

"Hey guys!"

Everyone immediately gathered round when Taeil, Jaemin and Kun arrived in front of them and greeted them. Mark smiled and said: "Good morning, Taeil! How are you?"

"Not good actually, I feel like shit."

Taeil groaned before continuing: "But I'll survive. You've already forgotten me, haven't you? It's been days since we last talked."

"I didn't forget you, of course not. But I'm afraid that if I talk about you, someone might notice that I don't remember what you told me yesterday!"

"Okay, fine, I get it. Just forget about me. I can deal with being forgotten."

Kun laughed and said: "Anyway, are you ready for school?"

Mark nodded and replied: "Yeah, let's go."

The group then proceeded to walk along the corridor, and as soon as they arrived in front of their classrooms, Taeil opened the door and everyone followed him inside, sitting on their respective desks. Kun sat next to Taeyong while Mark sat across from Dilol and then they started talking to each other and started discussing their studies.

"So, I guess it's my turn to say something," Mark started talking. "Since it's my first day and I'm not familiar with anything here, I hope you will tell me everything that you know about our classes. Otherwise I won't be able to understand everything that you say."

"Sure, alright… I guess it depends on what you want to learn."

The young man nodded his head. "Well, you already know most of the rules of this school, so I assume you are going to teach me how to conduct myself properly here. I want to learn how to behave naturally, without being overly cautious about my actions, and also to make sure that I have the same attitude towards all the other students as I do with you."

Dilol chuckled lightly at that statement as he looked back at the young man in front of him. After seeing Mark's expression and understanding that he didn't intend on repeating himself, he replied: "Don't worry, no worries at all. Everything here is simple; there is no reason to treat anyone any differently than you normally would."

Mark nodded his head and then looked at Jeno, Jisung, Yuta and Renjun, saying to them: "I am very happy that we were able to meet again. We didn't have the chance to talk before, and it's good that we are able to meet again."

"What happened?" Yuta asked curiously as he looked at Mark while nodding his head. "Did somebody bully you?"

"Actually, it's nothing like that," the latter replied, and then added: "But that's not the only thing that has happened. In fact, my family got sick and we lost a lot of money."

Jeno asked: "Do you live nearby?"

"No, we're just outside of town, near the forest. Our house is located in the opposite direction from yours."

"That's unfortunate…" Kun remarked, and after that everyone fell silent again until Chenle asked Mark: "Is it true that you have to attend the University of Seoul?"

"Yes, I suppose so, although I didn't really know that I had to enroll in it until I received my acceptance letter."

"Have you been accepted there yet?"

"Nope, I've yet to hear anything about it. So far all I've done is buy a ticket to Korea for the day. My father and mother decided to accompany me, but they both passed away recently, and it seems like they would have come along with us, but unfortunately they couldn't afford the journey so I was sent to Seoul alone, despite being only thirteen years old."

As soon as Mark finished speaking, Mark suddenly felt tears starting to form in his eyes, and although he was trying to keep them from falling, it was hard to do so when he was feeling so emotional.

He sniffed, wiping some tears off his cheeks with the sleeves of his jacket, and as soon as he managed to collect himself again he turned to Jisung and Jeno and said: "Sorry for crying like that. It's just that… my parents are dead and I can't see them ever again. I miss them so much..."

The three boys didn't really know what to say to that since they had never had anybody cry in front of them before, and therefore they didn't know exactly how to react to such a situation. Even though Mark wasn't crying anymore, they still found it a little weird. It didn't really look like a normal reaction for a person whose parent's died.

After a few more minutes of silence, they finally noticed that there was a knock on the door and Mr. Lee entered the room. The class immediately quietened down, and he spoke as he walked around the room: "Alright, we should continue with the lesson now. Please pay attention, I'm not going to repeat myself twice."

With those words spoken, he started explaining the material that he had been working on for the past couple of weeks. Mark listened attentively, even though he couldn't really understand what he was saying, but he still enjoyed the lecture anyway.

Ten, who had been listening carefully to the lectures that his teacher had given for the past two months, suddenly asked: "Can I ask a question?"

Mr. Lee turned around and said to him: "Of course you can."

"Can I know why Mark hasn't been taking notes? Everyone knows how important the importance of knowledge is for learning."

"Why does he need notes? His grades aren't that bad, are they?"

"No… I just wanted to ask because he always writes them down, but I couldn't see him writing them, so I thought that maybe he left the notebook somewhere else. But if he doesn't want to use it, can I please take it for him to help him out?"

"Oh, alright, but I'll remind you, Mark, that your teachers are required to give you permission to borrow the book, and they have no authority to stop you."

"Understood… Thank you very much." Ten smiled brightly before asking his other friends: "How about you? Anyone wants to borrow a notebook for the rest of the week?"

Jaemin answered him: "You know what? Since we're going to spend so much time together, I'm gonna lend you mine instead… I don't need a notebook anyway."

Renjun giggled and said: "Me too. I'M borrowing it."

"Wow, really? Thanks so much! I'm glad that you all agree on lending me your notebooks," Ten exclaimed happily, and the other two boys giggled once more.

Soon afterwards, they started discussing their plans for tomorrow's lessons, deciding that they would go to the library to get books and that they would study as much as possible before the next period began. While they were busy planning out their schedule for the day, Mark kept looking around and observed everyone that seemed to have changed a bit during the years since he'd last seen them.

Chapter 3

After the lesson ended and they went their separate ways, Taeil and his brothers went home and Mark returned to his home. He took his shoes off and sat down in front of the piano, putting his backpack under his feet, and then began playing the song that he'd been working on for the past two weeks. The sound of the piano echoed throughout the whole living room, filling it up with its sweet and gentle tones.

Suddenly, he heard a voice coming from behind him saying: "It looks as if someone's practicing again." Mark froze in place when he heard the voice, he hadn't expected anyone to enter the room, but as he turned around slowly, he saw Jaehyun standing next to the piano and smiling at him, waiting for an answer.