“So all this time, you were Robotoid?”

“No,” Jinki bluntly said. If there was one thing she learned from reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, it was to always deny, deny, deny. Even if they've caught onto you, you should still continue to deny. Not going down without a fight, Seunggwan pointed to the screen once again. His finger hovered above the window that was open to her Xbox LIVE account management, “Yes you are! It says so right here! Logged in as Robotoid,”

“No?” she raised her voice to make it sound like she had asked a question.

“Oh so now I'm just seeing things, right? Is that it?” Seunggwan stood up from her office chair, still pointing at the screen. Jinki's head immediately went upwards as she looked at the taller boy. My, how much he had grown. It was as if it was only a year ago that she was taller than him by an entire head. She clasped her palms together and slowly nodded, “Yes? Yes. Yes you are,”

Seunggwan was dissatisfied. His face pulled into a rather blank expression as his usually round, doe eyes now seemed like lines and his thin lips went completely straight. Now she was pushing his last buttons. Jinki grinned goofily at him and backed up onto a seat near the door. There was nothing but the spell of silence cast down before them as they exchanged awkward stares at each other, not saying a word. Seunggwan started to make faces at her, hoping that it would break her into telling him what was actually going on. Jinki just sat there stupidly smiling.

“You know what? Forget it,” Seunggwan threw his hands up into the air and brought them back down on his thighs with a loud clap. The smile on Jinki's face was immediately wiped off; the sudden noise scared her. Sticking his hands in his short pockets, he wagged an accusing finger at Jinki's face threatening her, “I'm just going to call Chan and tell him that it was you all along and that you were faking your whole cutesy act with him so you can find out his gaming strategies!”

Jinki raised an eyebrow as she watched Seunggwan pat around his waist looking for him phone. Her eyes found their way onto the floor where the pile of his dirty clothes were. She realized that he had changed out of his uniform and into the clothes she had given him. She could see the thin outline of the phone along the stiff navy material, eyes widening. Seunggwan must have noticed that as well because when she dove towards the pile, he came down onto the floor as well.

“Give that back, that's my phone!” Seunggwan girlishly shrieked into her ear as she snatched the phone out of his hands. Luckily for her, he had unlocked it already so there was no need to waste time trying to figure out the combination. Scrambling up to her feet, Jinki jumped for the bedroom door only to come crashing back down. Seunggwan had his hands tightly wrapped around her left ankle. He continued to scream bloody murder as she proceeded to kick him in the face, 'When I tell Chan, you're going to be so dead!”

“Let go of me, you idiot!” Jinki struggled to squirm out of his grasp but there was no use. He was definitely a fighter, this one. Dragging her across the floor on her stomach, Seunggwan made sure that there was no way she was going to get up, “Why did you do it? Why did you hack into the system and knock Chan down, huh?”

“That's none of your business!” she yelled back, trying to flip over on her back. They looked ridiculous right now. Seunggwan was backwards wheelbarrowing her while she clawed at the dust-free floor for anything to help her get up. Darn her parents for being so clean. Seunggwan continued to slide her across the floor with no regrets, “Why did you pretend to be so goody-two-shoes with Chan?”

Refusing to answer, Jinki hurled the phone in her hand across the room and watched it sail into the wall and fall to the floor cracking the screen. Seunggwan immediately stopped in his tracks, dropping her ankles. A bloodcurdling screech came from his mouth as he ran over to where his phone pieces were lying. Jinki sighed in relief and quickly stood up so that she wasn't taken advantage of again. Trying to piece his phone back together, Seunggwan mumbled to himself about how his parents were going to kill him.

“Well maybe if you weren't snooping around in my room, this wouldn't have happened!” Jinki spat at him, furious that he had found out what she had been doing. Ditching the pieces, Seunggwan got up from the floor and slumped down on her bed. He seemed pretty stressed. Curious, Jinki stretched her neck to see if he was okay; he didn't sound like he was crying or anything. Taking a few steps closer to her bed, she peered over the footboard, calling out his name.

When Seunggwan didn't respond, she went around and stood at the edge of her bed, but still a few feet away. She watched his chest slowly rise up and down as he breathed normally; maybe he was sleeping? Jinki didn't understand how all of a sudden, he just went to sleep after his phone broke. Then again, maybe it was something like what her mom had told her about. Some people had these self-defense mechanisms that they would retreat to if something bad happened. Maybe sleeping was Seunggwan's?

Inching closer, Jinki hovered over him and waved her hand in front of his face to see if he was responsive. Nope, he was dead as a doornail. She let out a deep breath and peered over her shoulder at the pile of scraps that was previously his phone. Now she felt bad. Maybe throwing his phone as a last resort wasn't a good idea, but it did get him to stop dragging her around. Suddenly, she felt a pair of hands harshly pulling her down. Air escaped her lungs when she was flipped onto her back against her black and white polka dotted comforters. Her heart skipped a beat as she looked up at the mischievous eyes of Seunggwan's, “Seunggwan what the - ?”

“Tell me why you would do that to Chan!” he held her wrists down above her head, “He never did anything to you!”

“Let go of me!” Jinki attempted to kick him in his lower groin area but he had another hand holding down her legs. She stayed squirming for a while but finally, she realized that she wasn't going to go anywhere. Blowing her bangs up frustratingly, she confessed, “Alright, fine! I did it for attention, okay? Now let go of me you insect!”

“Well you definitely got attention,” Seunggwan rolled his eyes, “But that's not all of it! I can see it in your eyes! You're not telling me something!”

“What if I don't want to tell the second part to you?!” Jinki's face was quickly turning red the harder she wriggled around. Her cheeks slightly puffed out as she held her breath, hoping that she could just miraculously poof herself out of his hold. Frowning, her eyebrows furrowed together. She looked like an angry blowerfish. Seunggwan tightened his grasp on her wrists, “Then you're not going to get out of here. Now tell me!”

“I like Chan!” Jinki squeaked out, nose wrinkling as she tightly closed her eyes so that she wouldn't see Seunggwan's judging gaze. She had never told anyone about her crush on Chan, not even her best friend. What made it more embarrassing was that she just admitted it to Chan's best friend. Her heart had harboured a crush on him ever since she met him on the elementary school playground. They were fourth year elementary school students and it was recess to be exact. In that year, the school had added a spider web to the playground and it was everyone's mission to sit at the very top. If you did, you were immediately cool. Well she had crawled her way up there, but she had no idea how to get back down.

Everyone was telling her to jump down from one of the holes but she was terrified of heights. Chan was the one to climb up there and lead her back down. She could remember his bun-like face smiling at her with a giant space where his front teeth should have been. Chan had knocked them out when he walked in front of a swing and it hit him straight in the face in second year. They still hadn't grown back at the time. Ever since then, she considered him to be her knight in shining armor, or at least, her toothless hero.

Seunggwan abruptly let her go and backed away, looking down at the floor. Finally free, Jinki sat up on her bed and turned away from Seunggwan, burying her face in her pillow. Seunggwan could hear her muffled scream as she vented into her pillow. He had no idea what to tell her with the new information he had. Should he pat her on the back? ? Awkwardly walk out and leave her there? Clearing his throat, he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, “Oh um, I'm sorry...I didn't know,”

“Yeah, no one knew!” Jinki hurled a pillow at his head, just barely missing. Seunggwan looked like a deer in the headlights when he saw her pencil holder crash onto the floor. Exaggerating her cries, Jinki covered her face with her hands and continued to sob tearless sobs, “But now you're going to tell Chan and my entire life will be ruined!”

“No wait, maybe I can -”

“Haven't you done enough?!” she shot one of the scariest glares she could make at him. Again, her face was still tearless and her voice was quite dramatic. Seunggwan wasn't sure whether he should start laughing or if he should high-tail out of there. Once more, Jinki flopped down onto her pillow crying her tearless cries again. Seunggwan couldn't help but think that she deserved to win the non-existent, 'World's Worst Actress' award.

Pacing around the spotless, scarily organized room, Seunggwan whistled to himself as he listened to the constant wails and groans Jinki was making. Picking up a pencil off the floor, he turned it in his fingers to occupy his hands, “You know, I'm Chan's best friend. If you want, I can put in a good word for you and -”

“Would you really do that?” Jinki brought her head up so quickly that she almost fell off her bed in excitement. A large grin was plastered on her face as if she had never been sad or mad in the first place. Nodding, Seunggwan placed the pencil down on her desk top and took a seat in her office chair. Her arms flapped around as she slightly bounced on her bed, entering her fangirling mode, “Oh my gosh, you're kidding, right?”

“Nope, not at all,”

A high-pitched squeal escaped her lips as she left her bed and pounced on Seunggwan, pulling him into a choking hug. Showering him with 'thank you's she continued to bounce around her room clutching her heart like those girls in those romcom dramas. When she finally calmed down, Jinki's eyes fixed onto the broken iPhone on the floor. Biting her lip, she sat back down on her bed and gave Seunggwan a hopeful look, “So...how about I fix that phone for you?”

“Nice body, but totally not my type,” Hansol pointed out a girl in the lunch line who was busy texting away on her phone to even notice that it was her turn to pick up a tray. He recognized her as the cheerleading team captain; he had to admit, the cheerleaders had the best bodies in Kyung Rim hands down.

Chan pointed out a third year student who was sitting near the soft-serve ice cream machine reading her textbook, “How about that one?”

“Noonas are nice and all, but I find that the third year girls are always too worried about getting into college. Definitely not fun dating material for a boy my age who just wants a relationship just for the heck of it,” the older boy explained. The other two parties shook their head at him Hansol was pretty popular in their school, or their grade at least, because he was a halfsie. His foreignness attracted the attention of many girls, upperclasswomen too. Though, no matter how many girls threw themselves at him, he hadn't actually asked anyone out. He was super flirtatious though.

Chan's eyes wandered around the room looking for someone else that would catch their interest. They were obviously bored enough to be talking about girls. Usually, they would only talk about girls as a last resort. His eyes skimmed over his classmate Choyoung, who was once again with their student council president Soonyoung with a whole pile of books open between them as they ate. In his head, he named off every girl in his class: Joon Jihee, Li Meiling, Kim Minah, Jang Eunmi, Kang Hyojin...none of them were his type really.

“Oh Chan, what about Jinki?” Seunggwan cleared his throat to catch his attention. The trio looked at the lost girl who was standing in the middle of the cafeteria looking for an empty table. Sunwoo wasn't at school today to save them a table and now there was no where else to sit. She caught a few students sitting near the back of the room on the floor. Sighing, she decided to head over and claim a spot on the floor before that ran out of seats as well. It wasn't the first time she was going to be sitting on the floor, but it was the first when she would be sitting without someone with her.

Chan shrugged and turned back to his lunch tray to take a drink of his milk, “Eh, she's okay, I guess. I don't know her well though. Girl never talks in class so...”

“Why don't you ask her to sit with us?” Seunggwan suggested, as he stuffed a chocolate cookie in his mouth. Chan raised a questioning eyebrow at the older boy, earning his a casual shrug. Swallowing, Seunggwan wiped his hands on his pants, “I don't know, you said you don't know much about her so I thought this might be the time to get to know her,”

“Yeah, why not?” Hansol lightly punched Chan in the arm, “Besides, it'll be fun to get to know another girl,”

“Yeah but why does it have to be me?” Chan whined, slumping in his chair. Every time the older two wanted to talk to a girl or whatever, they always sent him out to call whoever that girl was. The reason they gave him was because he was small, and cute, and everyone wanted to put him in their pocket. No one could refuse an adorable boy like Chan. It irked him though. He wanted to be known as a man, not a little boy. Hansol patted him on the shoulder, “C'mon man! Tell you what, I'll buy you an extra cookie,” He held up a dollar to assure Chan he had money to pay for one.

“Alright fine, but for the sake of getting a cookie,” the younger boy hesitantly stood up from his chair, and made his way over to the back where people were sitting and eating. He bowed and apologized many times as he stepped over a maze of trays and textbooks. You would think that they would study overnight instead of ten minutes before their tests or whatever. Chan spotted her typing away on her laptop that she was balancing out on her outstretched legs. He chuckled when she stuffed an entire cookie in , “Wow, I bet you could down an entire pack of cookies in one sitting,”

Jinki almost choked on her cookie when she realized who was talking to her. Covering with her hand, she looked up and closed her laptop screen, “Oh my gosh, Chan! You scared me!”

“Yeah, sorry. I just don't see that often,” Chan waved his hands around gesturing to her eating habits. Jinki brought her head down in embarrassment and silently chewed the remains of the cookie. Kneeling down, Chan looked down at her tray that had three cookies sitting on it. His mouth started to water at the sight of the treat but he did have a lingering thought in the back of his mind. What was a girl doing with so many cookies on her tray? Didn't females always worry about their weight and stuff?

“I don't really care about my weight, if that's what you're wondering,” Jinki mumbled loud enough for him to hear. Lifting his head, he saw her reach over and break it in half, handing one half over to him, “Here, you can have half of one if you want,”

“Wow, I get half. That really makes a big difference from three cookies,” Chan joked, accepting the half and stuffing it into his mouth. He couldn't help but smile at the sweet sensation of chocolate chips melting in his mouth. Jinki watched his cheeks puff out like a squirrel as he ate and she started to laugh. Raising an eyebrow, Chan stared at her as her eyes curved into little smiles as her chime-like laugh escaped her lips. He didn't get it. Shaking her head, Jinki slipped her laptop back in her backpack, “Oh it's nothing. Besides, you should be grateful you even got half. Half is a lot considering how delicious these things are,” she said as she ate her half.

“What are you doing here anyway?” she asked.

“Oh right!” Chan hit his palm against his forehead remembering why he was here in the first place, “Um, we have an extra spot on our table. If you want, you can sit with us instead of over here,”

The smile on Jinki's face immediately disappeared. Stretching her neck, she caught sight of Seunggwan who subtly winked at her, flashing a thumbs up too as if she didn't get the message. She wanted to roll her eyes at Seunggwan's actions but she didn't want Chan to get the wrong message. She had to give it to Seunggwan for working fast; it had barely even been 24 hours since they settled with an agreement. Averting her attention back to Chan, she shrugged her shoulders as if it wasn't a big deal to her, “Sure, why not. As long as it's okay with the other two,”

“Oh trust me, I don't think they'll mind,” Chan rolled his eyes, recalling how eager Hansol had been on asking a girl over to sit at their table. Just when the two stood up from the floor, Jinki saw Mingming heading over her way. She waved at him and met him halfway so he wouldn't walk so far; Chan was right behind her. She greeted Mingming in Chinese and smiled, “Hey Mingming!”

“Hi Jinki,” Mingming smiled back at her before jabbing his finger over his shoulder at the table him and his friends were sitting at. Jinki waved to Junhui and Seokmin before looking back to Mingming. She peered over at Chan who didn't seem to be paying attention since he was staring off somewhere else. His hands were stuffed in his pockets as he yawned, quite boringly. Jinki pulled off an apologetic look at the older boy, “Sorry Mingming, but I already told Chan that I would sit at their table with them,”

“Really?” his bottom lip pulled into a pout and he made his eyes bigger. His cute charms never failed to run the receiver over with a train of feels. There was a hint of sadness in his tone but Jinki decided to ignore it. She sadly nodded, and placed a hand on his shoulder, “I'll sit at your table tomorrow, I promise,”

“Okay then,” he sighed, “Just don't break your promise, okay? See you...after school?”

The two exchanged their goodbyes and Jinki followed Chan over to their table. Mingming returned to his feeling rather weird. As the others around the table contributed to their conversation about the most hilarious videos they have ever watched on YouTube, he sat on the side thinking. Of course, no one really asked if there was something wrong because he never really talked to them much anyway. Other than Junhui, he didn't really converse with his other classmates because of the language barrier. He could understand them, sure, but it took a while for him to format sentences and actually understand what they were saying since they talked fast.

Every so often he would look over at the other table, and watch Jinki engaged in her own conversation with her friends. Hansol was in charge of entertaining and breaking the ice, Chan was just there, and Jinki and Seunggwan's eyes often found each other's. Mingming bit the bottom of his lip while he cupped his chin with his hand, “Surely Jinki can't be crushing on Seunggwan,”

author's note : hello everybody! so we're finally getting somewhere in this chapter, yay! i'm really sorry for not updating as often as i used to even though i did promise you guys that since it was summer vacation, i would be updating more often. recently, i have been making frequent trips to the hospital and only today did the doctor give me two different options i could choose from for my treatment. my results have gotten me so stressed for the past few days but i'm trying to write as much as i can in my free time. thank you and i hope you enjoyed this chapter!