Chapter: New classmate

The birds chirped in the trees early in the morning. It was spring. April to be exact. Here in Germany, the last period of suffering had begun before the summer vacation. Thank God! Yong-Jun had just arrived at the school grounds. Every day was torture, he hated even walking in this building. His grades were bad, his classmates hardly paid any attention to him and he had no friends. He didn't know why himself.
The Korean shuffled through the corridors with his eyes down, he knew exactly where his classroom was. Without a word he entered the room and sat down in his seat. The chair next to him was vacant. He's always had a hard time connecting with it, but since his family moved to this city, he's been completely on his own. His grades used to be better too, he wanted to do his Abitur, now he probably wouldn't even pass the exams.
Yong-Jun wore glasses with thick, black frames, his clothes were casual and sporty, but still rather plain. The less he noticed, the less they made fun of him. He was still listening to music, his headphones pounding the comforting sounds of his favorite band in his ears.

The lesson began with the monotonous noise over the loudspeaker systems. Yong-Jun took the headphones from his ears and put everything in his school bag. The teacher walked into the classroom a little later, but he wasn't alone as usual. At his side was a blonde girl. A new classmate. Occasionally girls and boys whispered to one another. Her chocolate brown eyes wandered the entire classroom once.
"Good morning," greeted the teacher. "Tomorrow, Mr. Berger", the class replied the greeting, but then everyone looked at the new classmate. "You can introduce yourself," instructed the teacher. "Okay," she nodded politely to him. "Hello everyone," a bright smile stole onto her lips. "My name is Melanie and I'm 16 years old. My family has moved and that's why I'm going to school here," she said in a friendly manner. A girl held up her hand and received permission to speak from Mr. Berger.
"Hopefully you are good at school. You can sit next to our good-for-nothing, but if you like we can slip together and you can still squeeze in here," said Amanda, a girl with short red hair, in an appraising tone and was more than serious about the offer. "I don't want to hear anything like that in my class," the math teacher warned her immediately. "That's okay, I like to sit in the free space back there," replied Melanie and waited for an instruction from the teacher that asked her to sit down.
"Please sit next to Jun," asked Mr. Berger and pointed in the direction of the Asian. Yong-Jun had become Jun among the teachers because the name was simpler and shorter for the European population.He liked the name Key-Jay better, but that was too informal among the teachers. Melanie sat down next to Yong-Jun and smiled at him with a warm and honest smile. The Korean was no longer used to this and was a bit irritated.
"Hello, Jun. Nice to meet you," she greeted him. "Yes, thank you. I'm happy too," he said softly and looked ahead. Several classmates gave him suspicious looks, as if he were some monster who would ruin poor new classmates. While Mr. Berger was already starting math lessons, the two were still talking in whispers.
"Hm, Jun. You're Japanese, aren't you?" She asked. "No. My name is Yong-Jun Kim. I'm Korean," he corrected her and looked at her briskly through the glasses of his horn-rimmed glasses before he realized that maybe he should be a little friendlier since she was the only one with him at all talked. And who knew how long? "Sorry if that sounded nasty, you couldn't have known that," he looked at his homework, which was 90% wrong. "It's okay. No problem," she beamed again up to both ears. Melanie was a really nice girl.

Does Yong-Jun finally have a chance of a friend at the new school or can Melanie also be influenced by the other students? You will find out in the next chapter. ;-)

LG Kim