For the next hour, EunMi accompanied ChangMin to his house patiently, her smile never leaving her face. When they arrived at ChangMin's house, Mrs. Shim answered the door and immediately began fussing over her son, whose face was flushed with embarrassment the whole time.

"Mom, stop it..." ChangMin mumbled, glancing at the smiling EunMi.

Finally realizing the girl was present, Mrs. Shim instantly hugged her tightly and exclaimed, "Aigoo! My clumsy son has gone and hurt himself! Thank you, EunMi-yah, for taking care of him. Omo... What would've happened if you weren't around? What if ChangMin-ah had to have his foot amputated?!"

"Mom... It's just a sprain," ChangMin grumbled, embarrassed that his mother was talking about him in such a way in front of his classmate--no, his rival. Mrs. Shim gave her son a sharp look and said monotonously,

"Yes, it's just a sprain now, but with your attitude, I bet you tried to use the stairs instead of the elevator. If EunMi-yah hadn't helped you out of the kindness of her heart, your condition might have worsened to the point where the doctor would've had to cut your foot off!"

"Mom, I'm fine!" ChangMin protested, but his mother kept talking to him as if he were still seven years old. EunMi giggled silently at the scene before her and took a mental note that ChangMin looked exactly like his mother, but she also realized their personalities were completely different. ChangMin was uptight, cold, and just plain rude, while his mother was kind, affectionate, and overall a pretty cool person for a parent. EunMi wondered for a moment that maybe ChangMin got his personality from his father. And then, she realized that she'd never actually seen ChangMin's father before. Even at the first dinner Mrs. Shim invited her and her family to...there was no Mr. Shim around. EunMi would've pondered on the subject longer, but the bickering before her had stopped as Mrs. Shim turned to her and beamed,

"Thank you, EunMi-yah, for helping ChangMin. ChangMin-ah, say 'thank you.'"

"I already did," ChangMin mumbled, his ears pink with embarrassment.

"When?" his mother quickly countered, crossing her arms.

"Back at school, when she took me to the nurse," ChangMin whined. EunMi wouldn't have been surprised if he started stomping his feet and puffing out his cheeks.

"Well, thank her for helping you get home safely," Mrs. Shim responded sternly. ChangMin sighed quietly and asked,

"Do I have to?"

"Yes. Now. Or else I'll confiscate your graphing calculator."

"But Mom..! That's my life!" ChangMin sputtered. Mrs. Shim kept a serious look on her face and commanded,

"Say 'thank you.' Nicely, might I add."

"Thank you..." ChangMin murmured, his voice barely above a whisper. Having heard it clear as day, EunMi smiled and replied,

"You're welcome."

She bowed to the two and politely took her leave, but only after Mrs. Shim had given her one last hug. With a smile on her face, EunMi walked to her house next door, knowing tomorrow would be a good day.

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ ==== ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ ==== ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

How did it come to this?

Why wasn't ChangMin informed that the end of the world was today?

All ChangMin wanted was to walk to school--by himself.

But no. No, the universe had other plans.

He was almost out the door when his mother had caught him and insisted that the chauffeur take him, but ChangMin politely refused. After a good three minutes of bickering with her son, Mrs. Shim noticed EunMi heading out of her house and called out to her, asking that she walk with ChangMin to school. With a pleasant smile and a small bow, EunMi agreed to do so, much to Mrs. Shim's delight.

So here he was now, walking to school--with Choi EunMi.

As they made their way down the hallway, the students began to murmur, not making much effort to hide the fact that they were staring. They even turned their heads as the two students passed by, and none of them bothered to give them much privacy.

"They walked to school together. They're official!"

"I guess they're the on-and-off kind of couple."

"They're so cute together!"

Only when ChangMin glared at every student in the vicinity did they finally turn around, but their whispering never wavered. ChangMin was about to yell at EunMi and blame her for whatever was going on but stopped when JunSu came stumbling into the classroom, rushing to his seat next to EunMi. Gasping for air, the red-faced boy explained,

"My alarm clock...didn't go...off..."

EunMi laughed a little, but their conversation was cut short as Mr. Kang strode into the room, calling roll. Homeroom proceeded as normal, save for the constant whispers of the student body, some of them even texting the news with their cell phones hidden under their desks. After homeroom, the students and teachers had a five-minute break to change classrooms if they had to, and after the second minute, SoonLi had managed to make it to class from the opposite side of the building and immediately ran to EunMi.

"What is this crazy news I'm hearing?!" SoonLi frantically asked, panting heavily. 

With an innocent look, EunMi asked, "Oh, you mean Lee ByungHun? He dyed his hair blonde, right?"

"Actually, he dyed it pink, but that's not the news I was talking about!" SoonLi whispered in a panicky tone.

"Then what is it?" EunMi asked, not knowing what other "news" her friend would be fretting over.

"Don't act like you don't know! Everyone's saying you're dating again. You and...that guy," SoonLi whispered the last part, glancing at her friend's cranky desk partner.

"We've never even dated once," EunMi calmly said. "Besides, just let them think what they want to think."

The other girl's mouth hung slightly open as she started at her friend in disbelief before whispering,

"Are you crazy? The whole school thinks you guys are together!"

EunMi just smiled and said to her, "That's okay."

Sensing a hint of mischief in EunMi's voice, ChangMin turned to ask her something, but before he could say one word, the bell rang, and Mr. Kwon, the history teacher, came into the room soon after, starting the day's lesson.

Throughout the lecture, ChangMin tried to concentrate, but EunMi's words kept surfacing, making him wonder why she was letting the rumours spread this time. In the middle of writing a word, his pen suddenly stopped working, and he realized it was out of ink. Quietly, ChangMin rummaged through his schoolbag, but found that he had no extra pens. He had pencils and highlighters, but using them on a pen-dominated paper was just wrong. Pencil and pen didn't belong on the same sheet of paper, and ChangMin firmly believed it should have been illegal to write with a highlighter. Noticing the other's dilemma, EunMi pulled out a pen from her own schoolbag and held it out to her desk partner, whispering,

"You can borrow it for today."

"Do I look like a charity case to you?" ChangMin harshly whispered back, looking at the Monokuro Boo pen in disgust.

"All right then..." EunMi said, slowly taking the pen back. "Don't blame me when you can't remember that Kim YangSang murdered King Hyegong and took the throne as King SungDok in 780 AD."

For a long moment, ChangMin stared at the pen with a dangling charm of a cartoon pig. If he took it, he'd look like an idiot. What dignified man would dare to use such a monstrosity? Not ChangMin. No, not him. He was beyond using such childish writing utensils. He was better than that.

...

"Give it to me," ChangMin muttered under his breath, snatching the pen from the smiling EunMi. Trying not to get distracted by the annoying pig charm that wouldn't stop swinging, ChangMin put all his efforts into concentrating on King SungDok's usurpation of the throne.

And then, he heard something. It was subtle--so incredibly subtle, like the beating of a butterfly's wings...but ChangMin heard it.

EunMi's soft laughter.

I'm really sorry ror not updating sooner and for lying to all of you. I said that this chapter was going to be hilarious, but this was really just a very boring chapter... It's just that I really needed this chapter to get things going for the next one, when the real fun starts~ So please forgive me.

Here's Lee ByungHun's new hair: http://media.photobucket.com/image/ljoe/gabyteen/166464_178573975516476_131758246864716_421661_2988367_n.jpg?o=125 

Some of you may know him better as L.Joe from Teen Top. Haha. I laughed so hard when I first saw it.  Oddly, I like his hair better blonde than brown, and I think I'd like it even more if it were just kept in its original black. Haha. Oh, well. I'm not his stylist.

Ah, and Monokuro Boo is a Japanese brand of stationery. Their merchandise is sooo cute~ Go check it out! Available at any Asian mart nearby~! Hahaha.

Hm... I think that's all I have to say. Oh, it snowed here earlier this week, and the roads are covered in ice. So, lately school days have been being cancelled. I didn't know they'd be cancelled four days in a row though... I miss all my friends...

I'll be working hard on the next chapter, so please look forward to it! Also, a huge thank you to all of you who are still reading this fic. I know I'm not a fast updater, but it makes me so happy when I see that some of you are commenting and letting me know you're still here. Thank you... And now~

Super delicous magic cookies to:

aiahshim
kyuhyunswifey
gnoulnasus
Melee123
daiiisypark
cookieghost341
captaintangerine
hellobreenuh
Asian_Innocence (EEK! :DDD)
dream_keeper88
Moving2TheMusic
blacknightsky

Thank you all so much. Without you guys, I wouldn't be able to go to sleep every night with a smile on my face.