"Are you kidding me?" I said. I was in the laundry room with Kangin, working out what on earth had possessed my parents to take in a foreign exchange student. "What if he finds my blood stash?"

                "We put a lock on your mini fridge. It's all taken care of. Didn't you tell us before that you wished you had a brother?"

                "Yeah. A brother. Like Donghwa and Donghae. Not some sort of weird Chinese kid."

                "Well, I'm sorry, but we can't exactly take it back now. We thought you'd be excited."

                "I might be, if I didn't already hate this kid."

                "Huh? He seems so nice, though."

                "Yeah, that's what you think. But he was totally bragging about all his boats and sports cars in class today. Where did he get that car anyways? Did he really buy it out here just so he could look cool? Who does that?" I began to rant. It felt nice to get it off my chest. "Oh, and when he came into school, everybody was all, 'oh, how cool' he's so mysterious' 'maybe he's a vampire.' A vampire, dad."

                "But they never said anything like that about you."

                "That's exactly the problem! And Sohee was all over him today."

                "The one you like?"

                "Yeah! She was all 'Wah, you are so cute'. To him right in front of me." I complained.

                "Maybe she was trying to make you jealous."

                "Please. She hardly even registered that I was there. Giving the new kid all these starry eyes like he's something special. And it's not just her. It's everyone. Everyone loves him. And if I try saying one thing to him, they all gang up against me."

                "I understand. That would be hard. So what do you want me to do?"

                "Nothing." I sighed. There was nothing he could do. "Just don't expect me to be best friends with him or anything."

                "Okay, but please at least be civil with him. He is a guest in our house."

                "Fine." I huffed. When we walked into the kitchen though, he was drinking my cookies and cream milk.

                "That's mine!" I screeched, grabbing it out of his hands. "Dad got that especially for me, from Toronto. Don't touch it." I held it in my hands possessively.

                Dad looked at me disapprovingly. "What did I just say, Heechul?"

                "He can't just come in here and take my milk! It's not okay!"

                "I am sorry." Hankyung interjected, looking abashed. "I did not know."

                "You don't need to apologize, Hankyung." Dad said to him, which only made me angrier.

                "Yes, he does, Dad. I don't have a lot of foods I can eat, let alone that taste good. This is one of the few things I can enjoy. And he just waltzes in and takes it. I'm not okay with that." I tried to explain. This was the second time today the foreign exchange student made me look like a total brat.

                "I am sorry. I not drink." Hankyung apologized again. He hung his head, face red. Aish, stupid, stupid, stupid. Can't you do anything right? Five seconds in and you steal his favorite drink. You should've asked fist. Argh, I hate myself. Why can't I do anything right? I instantly felt bad. It's not like he meant to do it. But I couldn't exactly apologize now, so I just instead said,

                "As long as you don't." and escaped to my room, clutching the milk bottle to my chest.

                "Sorry about that, Hankyung. He's just in a bad mood today." I heard dad apologize.

                "Why can he not eat food?"

                "It's a digestive problem. He can only drink liquids. So that’s why you'll see so many liquid things around—protein shakes, melted popsicles, juices. You can have everything else you want. The cookies and cream milk I can only get in the city, though, so he's kind of possessive of it. I'll talk to him."

                "That is fine. Do not talk to him." There was a pause, and then Hankyung added. "He does not like me."

                "Oh, don't worry about that. He doesn't like many people right from the start. And it doesn't help that the girl he's crushing on likes you." Wow. So much for family loyalty. See if I'll tell you anything again, Dad.

                "The girl he crushed?" Hankyung was an idiot, though, so he didn't understand.

                "The one he likes." Unfortunately, My dad was determined to screw me over.

                "He likes girl?"

                "So—"

                "ARGH! STOP TALKING ABOUT ME WHEN I’M NOT THERE!" I yelled from my room. My dad just laughed.

                "I love you to, Hee Hee!" I buried my head into the pillow and screamed. "He's such a girl." My dad laughed. Hankyung also laughed nervously, and I hated him even more for it.

                He came upstairs, then, to unpack all his things. I didn't look up from the blog post I was writing. He began to set his perfectly folded clothes on the bed next to mine, and I glared at them. Who folds their clothes nowadays? I knew I didn't. I turned back to my blog post.

                "In literature and drama, there is always so much thought put into a first meeting. So much careful consideration is given to how they will meet, what their reactions will be, and whether the two people will like each other or not. This is because such meetings are important. They shape the way you will perceive the other for the rest of your acquaintance. Today I met two new people, and both impressions were so different, I had to post about it…"

                I heard my phone buzz. A text from Siwon.

                Hey, how's it going? :)

                Awful. Hankyung and I are roommates, and now I have to deal with his awkwardness. I pressed the send button happily, then noticed Hankyung watching me like a hawk.

                "What?"

                "That is Siwon?"

                "Yeah."

                "Oh."

                What was with this awkwardness? I peeked into his mind for just a second.

                Please don't text him.

                "Why can't I text Siwon? Is he evil or something?" I asked.

                "No. He is wonderful." Hankyung said shortly, going back to his unpacking.

                He's so awkward. I texted Siwon, watching as Hankyung completely froze anytime I tapped on my keyboard.

                Really? I found him very nice. Maybe it's just that his Korean isn't very good. Hankyung froze again when I read the message. I ignored him.

                He hasn't said much. It's more the way he acts. He seemed to be able to understand quite well, though.

                He can understand way more than he can speak. It was really hard for us to talk because of that.

                Oh, all right. When are we having our jam session? :) I'm looking forward to it.

                Idk. Is Friday good? Oh, and I forgot to tell you. Sungmin is my host family person.

                Oh rly? I don't know him very well. Is he nice?

                Yes. We're getting along very well.

                Sweet.

                I set down my phone and went back to my blog post, glancing at Hankyung every now and then. He was tensely organizing his clothing and putting it into my extra dresser. He kept glancing back at me, but never actually said anything.

                Now, I swear I don't make a habit out of reading people's minds. Usually, I let them keep their thoughts to themselves. But with Hankyung, it was almost necessary to read his thoughts. So I did it again.

                I wish I knew what to say. This is awkward. Should I talk about my family? I should, shouldn't I? What do I say, though? He didn't like it when I said we were rich…

                "So, Hangeng. What do you like doing in your free time?" I asked.

                "O-oh. I like to dance, and…" How do I say cook? Argh, I'm so bad at this "how do you say…um…food…" He made motions with his hands.

                "You like to cook?" I asked, smiling. "That's pretty cool. What kind of dancing do you do?"

                I have no idea how to say anything. Okay. Traditional dance. I learned this.

                "Traditional dancing?"

                "Yes!"

                "Wow. You should show me."

                Show him? Out of the blue like this?

                "I mean, sometime. When you're ready." I amended. "Not right now." I turned back to my blog, uninterested. He finished unpacking and opened a book, reading it intently.

                "Hankyung, dinner!" Eomma called. Hankyung got up, opening the door. But he didn't leave. Instead he looked at me, who hadn't moved.

                "Oh, I don't eat dinner with them. I'll be down in like twenty minutes." I willed him to leave so that I could dig into my blood stash. He did, and I opened my fridge, grabbing a bag of A positive and gulping it down. Mmmmmmm….It tasted like pancakes.

                After I was done dinner, I went down to join them. Hankyung smiled at me, looking relieved.

                "Oh, Heechul. We were just asking Hankyung about his family."

                I have no idea how to say anything. He thought, and I sat down, ready to translate.

                "They're rich, right?"

                "Yes." I shouldn't brag about them. He doesn't like that.

                "Do you have any sibllings?"

                "No."

                "Why are you asking about his family, anyways? It sounds boring." I asked my parents, going over to the fridge and scooping ice cream into the blender.

                "Just to start conversation." Leeteuk Eomma answered noncommittally. "How was your first day of school?"

                "Not the best. But I did meet someone, Siwon, who seems pretty cool."

                Siwon again. Hankyung thought, and I wondered what on earth he had against the poor guy.

                "Siwon? The name sounds familiar."

                "He's the other foreign exchange student. He's from Greece."

                "Oh, wow. Is he cute?"

                "He's pretty attractive, if you're into that. How many times do I have to tell you I'm straight?"

                "Sorry, sorry. So how did things go with Sohee? Did you manage to talk to her?"

                Can we please stop talking about this? Hankyung thought, and I agreed.

                "No. How do you like your new students?"

                "They're the most adorable things ever. I just want to squish them." Eomma said, and began describing each one excitedly.

                Thank you. Hankyung thought.

                I just sipped my milkshake, pretending I couldn't hear him.

----

Meh. It's boring...but their relationship is (sorta) improving.