Myungsoo knows he should stop loitering near Minhee’s house. Myungsoo knows maybe he should be the one taking the initiative already. However, he does nothing. Deep inside, he wanted to feel like he wasn’t the only one concerned about their relationship and desperate to solve their current conflict. He didn’t want to feel like the only one affected all the time. In addition, he felt that it wasn’t his fault at all. Although, he knew the date Sunggyu and Minhee had probably held not much of a meaning, he still felt bitter about it. Especially the look Sunggyu had on that day, it made his blood boil. He was challenging him, from the start till the end. His actions say it all and L hates to be challenged.

Minhee’s bedroom lights went off and Myungsoo stood up. He sighed and fought back the urge to text her. He missed her and it pained him to know that maybe, just maybe, she didn’t feel that way. She was so preoccupied by revision and L hated so much to be placed in the second place, once more. Minhee closed the window and spotted the familiar figure disappear down the lane. She picked up her phone and placed it right beside her pillow. It took her longer than normal to fall asleep for she kept looking at her phone. She wished he had called.

 “You should just text her.” Sungyeol advised, putting the magazine down.

“Mmmm…” L responded, flipping to the next page of his textbook.

“Your sudden motivation to study… What is it?” he continued the conversation.

“I don’t know.” L said, putting his pencil down.

Looking out of the window, he said, “I only know that at the end of the day, I want to prove a point. I want to prove that it isn’t because I am dumb that I’m in the F class, but because I didn’t want to try in the past. ”

“You too, think that being in the F class is an embarrassment now?” Sungyeol didn’t realize that he raised his voice a little too loud.  

“Frankly, I don’t know anymore, Sungyeol.” L admits.

“What do you mean by ‘you don’t know’?” Sungyeol picked on his words.

“The teachers, the students, all of them look down on us because we’re from the F class, isn’t it?” L pointed out.

“I thought it didn’t matter to us. Their shallow thinking, I thought you didn’t care.” Sungyeol confirmed.

“Maybe, we should try to prove their thinking wrong instead of not caring and living by the days.” L replied.

“Wow. The L in the past wouldn’t say such things.” Sungyeol drops those words and the magazine in his hands before walking out.

Myungsoo sense the disappointment in Sungyeol’s words. However, he did not say anything. Since that day, Myungsoo stopped going to Minhee’s house as he made full use of the time he had remaining till the major exams. Sometimes, he found himself sleeping before the study table with his table lamp still on. And when he woke up, he continued studying. At a point of time, he realized there were so many things to learn from scratch and he wished he had listened in class. Myungsoo wanted to beat Sunggyu, so badly.

“Wanna come along?” Woohyun asked over the phone.

“It’s the exams tomorrow. Count me out.” Myungsoo replied.

“Alright.” Woohyun answered.

“L is not coming, again? Wh-”

The phone call ended and the protests from the other end faded away. Myungsoo had once questioned himself why he was doing all this for. He knew he was changing into another person, doing things he would never ever do in the past. He felt as if he was leaving his friends behind and running forward to catch Minhee. He knew that his friends didn’t like his change either. However, he was determined to run because in the imagery, Myungsoo could see Sunggyu leading Minhee away, and he hated it.

“Why must he always be in the picture?” he thought to himself.

Myungsoo switched off his phone and practiced the list of probable examinable questions he had analyzed. Suddenly, Myungsoo really wish there was more than 24h to a day. However, the next day still came about really quickly. The caffeine effect was wearing off as Myungsoo yawned. He changed into his uniform and leaves home. The eye bags beneath Myungsoo’s eyes were an evident sign of him not sleeping a wink. He could already foresee Dongwoo laughing at him.

Myungsoo parked his bicycle by the bicycle stand and walked quickly to the classroom when he realized it was getting late already. He was just in time for the paper and when the clock struck the hour hand, the F class which used to be noisy as hell became abnormally quiet. The discipline master was the invigilator and perhaps that better explain the scene.

After the paper…

“Oh my gosh. Myungsoo, you look like a panda! Wahahhaha!” Dongwoo laughed out loud, as expected.

Myungsoo twisted his mouth and ignored his crazy laughter as he looked at his question paper. He checked his answers against the right answers which had been given out after the paper and heaved a sigh of relief. There weren’t much errors and he was glad. L looked up to find many pairs of eyes staring at him in amusement. He scanned them and realized Sungyeol was playing with his phone. It was pretty unlike him, for he was the one who always said it was not right to play with one’s phone when they are in a group.

“Seems like we’re gonna have a scholar here, huh?” Woohyun joked.

“Let’s have a bet of L’s positioning this time!” Dongwoo suggested excitedly.

“I say within the top 100. You?” Woohyun directed the question to Hoya.

“I say within the top 75.” Hoya snapped his fingers.

“I believe L would get within the top 150.” Dongwoo said.

“Don’t think I don’t know. You’re giving such a wide range to ensure you’ll get it right.” Woohyun saw through Dongwoo and smacked his .

“What do you think, Sungyeol?” the question was finally directed to him.

Sungyeol took a look at his best friend who was looking at him now too.

“We will see.” He replied and stood up.

“Eh~ No fun at all!” Dongwoo jeered.

“Shouldn’t we get going? I believe our scholar L would want to go home and revise for the next paper.” Sungyeol said, staring at Myungsoo.

L swallowed his saliva at the hostile tone Sungyeol held in his words. It was unusual and the rest of the boys realize too.

“Let’s go then.” Woohyun said.

-

Exam period was like a painful period of hell and they were losing sleep and energy. Myungsoo pumped his fist in the air, cheering for himself. It was the last paper tomorrow- chemistry. It was his deadly weakness though and he knew he had to put extra effort if he wanted to do well in this in order to get a good positioning. However, he did not know where to begin from. He couldn’t help but recall this was Minhee’s favorite subject. He wondered if she was doing well so far.

“She probably didn’t realize we haven’t talked for 5 days.” He mumbled to himself.

“Where are you, little bastard?!”

Upon realization who it was, Myungsoo walked over to the door and locked it before he put on his headphones. He wished he would never return. The man whom he called father in the past, he hated him to the core. If there was a death note in this world, L would have written his name in it. Myungsoo ignored the incessant pounding at the door as he flipped through his textbook. The vexing knockings finally stopped and Myungsoo smiled in victory.

Then, the door flung open.

“Didn’t you hear me call you?!” He growled.

Myungsoo shot him a deadly glare as he stood up from his chair.  

“Get out. I want to study.” He demanded.

“You little bastard. You thought you could hide from me in this stinky room, huh?” His father dropped the spare keys and lunged himself forward.

His father punched Myungsoo in the face once, twice, thrice and he had no intentions to stop. L wanted to fight back but a part within him held back. He was his father, after all. Although he had told himself a thousand times a man like him wasn’t his father, Myungsoo still regarded him as one, deep down inside. Myungsoo shoved him away and his fist landed on the wall by accident. It enraged him and Myungsoo knew it was going to be endless if it went on. He ran for the door and stumbled out of the house.

Myungsoo then saw a police officer patrolling the area not far away from him. The officer was staring at him and his wounds with a suspicious look on. He turned away to walk in another direction. Myungsoo could have reported him to a police but if he had wanted it that way, he would have done it a long, long time ago. He has always been holding back because he knew if his mother was still around, she would tell him to. She would tell him to bear with it and remind him that no matter what, he was still his father. Because Myungsoo remembered all this, it hurt himself more. Myungsoo found himself sitting in the park, alone. Silent tears rolled down his cheeks, stinging his wounds.

“I hate him, mother. I really do.” He cried out in exasperation, kicking the chair.

And he knew he was screwed for the Chemistry test tomorrow.

Myungsoo called up his friends but they were all seemingly busy at the hour. He knew Sungyeol probably ignored his call on purpose because he was still upset. He predicted that Woohyun would be in the club having his advance post-exams celebration. Dongwoo was probably helping out in his father’s store. L figured that Hoya was too engrossed in his dance again and so he didn’t hear his call. Myungsoo scrolled through his minimal contact and he stared at a particular one for a good, long time before pressing on it.

“Hello?”

“Are you free now?”

“Tomorrow is the last paper. I am sorry, Myun-”

He hung up.

Author's Note:

Hello guys, I am sorry for taking this long to update this story. D:
I finally got some time to sit down and type this one. :')
Thank you to those who were willing to wait. <3
It's a slightly longer chapter than normal & I'm sorry if it's y. orz
Hope you liked even a small bit of this chapter at least. ^^
It will be nice to receive feedback from you guys. <3

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