Before I start this chapter, I want to say that I am just so so happy about Infinite winning 2 awards at MAMA! It seemed like just yesterday when it was OGS Manila, and now they're Worldwide Performer and Best Male Group of 2013!!!!!

Infinite needless to say was last in all voting polls due to larger fandom turnout, but voting only counts for 20% of the decision. Which means that beyond all the voting other fandoms did, it wasn't enough to compete with the amount of work, achievements, and dedication Infinite had this whole year. And the MAMAs saw that. I was crying and a hot mess when they won. 

The future is bright for Infinite. They are the first winners since 2007 that did not come up from the top 3. I am such a proud inspirit T___T

"Hey, you came to homeroom early again."

Myungsoo walked into homeroom Monday morning, surprised that Sunggyu once again came in early for attendance. He stood next to him and tried to get his attention. Sunggyu was too busy immersed in his song, singing and humming to lyrics to Kanto's "What You Want" while searching for something on his phone. He had his studio headphones on, soundproofed to anyone in the area. 

Sunggyu," Myungsoo called out.

"What, what, what you want baby." Sunggyu lipsynced.

Myungsoo snapped his fingers in front of him, and Sunggyu still had no idea he was right there. He started bobbing his head, tapping his hand on the desk without a single worry in the world. "Hey, Sunggyu."

"Ay girl, naege malman hae," Sunggyu continued to lipsync.

Myungsoo grabbed onto his headphones and tore them off his head. Sunggyu jumped up frightened, turning around and realizing that his friend was right behind him. Sunggyu took a deep breath and grabbed onto his chest. "Dude!"

"Finally," Myungsoo grunted. He passed the headphones back to Sunggyu. "Took you long enough."

"Ya, don't touch my things," Sunggyu warned him, ringing his headphones around his neck and taking a seat back down. He continued to swipe his finger on his phone, searching for something on it.

Myungsoo joined him, dropping his backpack on the floor. He leaned back in his chair and looked around; almost no one was in the classroom except for the two of them and five other people scattered around, and Sunggyu was one of them. This came as a surprise to Myungsoo, always coming to homeroom early because his previous class was only across the hallway. Knowing his schedule, Sunggyu had PE before this class and he always used it as an excuse to lollygag around and take a smoke behind the gym before coming to homeroom, if he ever came to homeroom.

This was now the second time in a span of a few days that Sunggyu actually came to homeroom on time. Sunggyu was smelling really good, once again his outfit impeccable and dashing.

Myungsoo was not sure if he liked it or not.

"Dude, you smell like strawberries," Myungsoo remarked, leaning over to take a sniff of his shoulder.

Sunggyu ignored his comment, busy trying to find something on his phone web browswer.

"Hey," Myungsoo whacked Sunggyu's shoulder. "What are you doing right now?"

Sunggyu was startled, distracted by his phone. "Trying to find a new job," he said bluntly.

Last Saturday's dance was the biggest fiasco that the school had ever seen since the big football incident of 2004. The school administration was less than amused, implicating both Sunggyu and Woohyun to a week's worth of after school detention. It was the hottest topic the following school day, everyone wondering what would bring the school president and bad boy together into a huge fight that would destroy everything around them. While some people were disappointed with the dance turnout, the moment went down in history for many people at Woollim High as the most exciting thing that would ever happen in their school. 

Sunggyu knew that stealing the money was not the best route to go, especially for his first real job, but he needed a quick fix to deal with Hak Yeon at that time. After getting kicked out of the dance and of course getting busted by his parents again, Sunggyu was only allowed to go to his job after school for the following week for punishment. Of course, the worst was coming for him at Guk Pan. He knew for a fact that Woohyun told his brother about him stealing the money, and he mentally prepared himself for a firing by trying to find a new job. Sunggyu still needed to make his deadline in two months.

"Have you talked to Woohyun ever since?" 

"Mr. President? I've been avoiding him like the plague," Sunggyu scoffed.

"So, what exactly are you going to get fired for? I remember Woohyun told you that night to 'give back the money'," Myungsoo tried to inquire.

Sunggyu had not told a single soul, not even his closest friends, the reason for Woohyun's attack that night. "Um. Woohyun made me mad on Saturday... and... I..." he stumbled his words trying to create a decent lie. "I took his paycheck." Good job Sunggyu, that was a good lie.

Myungsoo chuckled, covering his mouth to keep his thoughts to himself. He loved his friend, but he was also the biggest idiot he knew. "I knew you wouldn't last long. Hoya owes me," he mumbled.

"Thanks." Sunggyu rolled his eyes, going back to job hunting. "Check this out." He passed his phone to Myungsoo and pointed at the screen. "I bet you I can get this job."

Myungsoo raised an eyebrow, reading the job description Sunggyu showed him. "Do you even know what an accountant does?!"

(((())))

Sungyeol waited for Woohyun in between class to talk to the school principal about last Saturday's incident, which took a lot longer than he initially expected. The principal reprimanded Woohyun for his actions at the school dance by giving him a week long detention as well as suspending him from the baseball team for two weeks. His actions were thought to diminish the reputation of the dance, students, administration, and institution of the school and would not be taken lightly. Woohyun was scared that his presidency or role as baseball captain would be taken away from him permanently, but his punishment was light because Woohyun's record did not reflect his actions last Saturday. The teachers and administration took notice that Woohyun has generally been a good student, excusing this for once and serving him an easy sentence.

Now, the both of them hurried to get to homeroom on time.

"So, no baseball?" Sungyeol asked, huffing and puffing as they jogged to class.

"Not for 2 weeks, but that's fine." Woohyun took a deep breath. "I'll be back for the big game against Yang High."

They ran up some stairs, Woohyun skipping steps while Sungyeol trailed from behind following every step to get from the first floor to the third floor.

"Damn, these stairs!" Woohyun called out.

Sungyeol was struggling, pulling himself up the railing to their destination. "What's going on with you and Sunggyu?" Sungyeol asked. He had yet to fill his friend in on Sunggyu's deal with Hak Yeon, but he was planning on telling him soon especially after Woohyun physically attacked him at the school dance. 

Woohyun did not explain to Sungyeol since the incident what was going on between him and Sunggyu. On top of that, Woohyun knew that his brother was not going to fire him. It was something he did not want to deal with at the moment, especially since he was running late to class. He planned on avoiding talking Sunggyu until he had to face him at work, and that was mostly because Woohyun had yet to put into words what he wanted to tell Sunggyu. "We're not going to talk about it right now," he finally spoke.

They finally reached the third level, but at that moment Sungyeol ran into Dongwoo, who was holding a stack of papers. All of the papers went flying in the air and down the stairwell onto different steps, some of them falling all the way back down to the second level they just climbed. Woohyun and Sungyeol looked at Dongwoo, out of breath from running and trying to get to homeroom on time. Another detour.

Dongwoo looked at the both of them, placing his hands behind his head and close to pulling out his pink hair. "The papers!"

Sungyeol placed a hand on Woohyun's shoulder. "Go to class, it was my fault."

Woohyun nodded, running down the hallway to get to class. "Sorry Dongwoo!" he called out before disappearing into his homeroom.

Sungyeol watched Dongwoo, who was panicking to pick up the papers around him. To help things move faster, Sungyeol ran down the stairs to help him pick up papers, and even though he was going to be late for homeroom he wanted to help Dongwoo. "I'm so sorry Dongwoo. Woohyun and I were going to be late to homeroom, so we ran."

Dongwoo shook his head. "It's fine. I was bringing these papers to my homeroom also." Dongwoo let out a nervous laugh. "I guess we're both going to be a tiny bit late."

"Nonsense! We just have to hurry and pick these up," Sungyeol yelled from the second floor, climbing down to pick up the papers that fell there. 

"Thanks for helping me out." Dongwoo ran down the stairs to reach Sungyeol's level, picking up papers along the way. "I didn't mean to do that."

"It's no one's fault," Sungyeol smiled, picking up the last piece of paper.

Sungyeol turned around to hand it back, but as Dongwoo approached him Sungyeol accidentally shoved the paper into his chest and pushed him in the process. Dongwoo was a little shocked, almost falling back.

"No!"

Sungyeol leaned forward and grabbed onto Dongwoo's waist, pulling him back with all the strength to prevent him from falling down with the papers for a second time. He closed his eyes, hugging Dongwoo to get him back in balance. Dongwoo kicked the air and landed in front, saved from tripping back into the stairs.

Dongwoo had his eyes shut the whole time thinking that he was going to fall, so he finally opened them and to his surprise he saw Sungyeol bent over hugging his waist. With his head in a very interesting spot. "Woah," he finally let out.

Sungyeol also had his eyes closed, opening them up one-by-one until his vision came in clear view of Dongwoo's crotch. Freaked out, he let go and took a step back to act like nothing happened. He raised up the stack of papers he picked up and passed them to Dongwoo, hoping to avoid the subject of embarrassing himself once again with Dongwoo. "Here you go!"

Dongwoo was amused by Sungyeol once again. He could not pinpoint exactly why he liked being around him or why he thought Sungyeol was so funny to him, but that was something to be discovered as he grew closer to him. Dongwoo took the papers and waved his pile. "Thanks. We should go now. Class is going to start soon!"

The bell rang for the start of homeroom.

"And it did," Sungyeol complained. 

(((())))

Woohyun stood by the counter of Guk Pan, staring at a clipboard right next to the cash register. He observed the contents of the paper, showing a list of money inventory dating up to a month. In one column, it listed the starting money of that day inside the cash register. In the second column, it listed the ending money of that day after the restaurant's final transaction. He looked back to last Saturday's listing, showing that the restaurant made a 400,000 won profit. Of course 250,000 won of it was missing, and he had yet to solve that problem.

Boohyun was originally going to check out the money the Sunday after, but he was sidetracked with buying different ingredients and shopping for new types of meat for the store that he had completely forgotten to follow up and compare money. He told Woohyun he would do it Monday night. 

Woohyun took a deep breath, remembering what his brother told him the previous weekend about Sunggyu.

"Deep down inside, Sunggyu is a good kid."

But why would a good kid steal this much money for whatever reason he wanted? Woohyun had a lot of unanswered questions, and he felt in the dark for long enough of Sunggyu's intentions of working at his brother's restaurant. And do I give him the benefit of the doubt? That he can be like old times? Only two days working at the restaurant, and he's going to give me a migraine.

Woohyun wanted to beat himself up for what he was going to do next.

He reached his hand into his back pocket, grasping in his palm a full stack of money rubberbanded together. The bills were not perfectly aligned, some of them more wrinkly than the others. Woohyun played with the money in his hand and flipped the unaligned corners with his thumb.The stack of money was a combination of a 50,000 won, 10,000 won, 5,000 won, and 1,000 won bills that he had kept in a box under his bed called his emergency fund. He had kept this money for so long, saving it for two years since he started working at his brother's restaurant. There was close to almost 1,000,000 won when he started, and after replacing the stolen money he still had a little over 700,000 won left. He carefully organized each bill into its rightful place in the cash register, slamming the register closed in disappointment after he solved the problem.

Woohyun placed his hands at the edge of the counter, hovering his head over the cash register and staring it down in shame.

How could I help this ? Why am I helping this ? Everything would be better if Boohyun just fired him. Hell, this would be better if Sunggyu wasn't hired in the first place.

The restaurant doors flung open, and Sunggyu walked into the restaurant warily. He blinked his eyes several times, taking a nervous step forward to get to the counter. Sunggyu convinced himself that day he was going to get fired for the job, and quite honestly he was preparing himself for Woohyun taking a butcher knife and slicing his head off.

Woohyun looked up and saw Sunggyu walking up to him. His heart stopped beating, and not a single emotion in his body could explain how he felt about Sunggyu being in the room.

Sunggyu closed his eyes, inhaling the smell of beef broth and opening his eyes as he exhaled. He had the situation all thought out in his head. I'm going to get fired, and I'll apply for that job as an accountant. "Hey Woohyun."

Woohyun stared back at him blankly. This was the first time the two of them talked since Saturday. "Hey."

"Am I fired?" Sunggyu asked, getting right to it. 

I would like for you to get fired. Woohyun did not answer him immediately.

The prolonged answer concerned Sunggyu, tensing up just like when his parents confronted him about school. He took a big gulp and his lips. Woohyun was testing his patience, and he did not like it one bit. "Am I getting fired?"

Woohyun stood motionless watching Sunggyu wait for his answer. Sunggyu was scared of him, and Woohyun had a slight pleasure of watching him have the upper hand for once. He enjoyed watching Sunggyu squirm and not get what he wanted. After a long pause, he finally answered. "No, you're not getting fired."

Sunggyu opened his eyes in shock. "I'm not?"

Woohyun shook his head. "Nope. And don't worry about the money."

Sunggyu looked from side-to-side, no one else was in the restaurant. He was expecting someone with a hidden camera to come out and tell him everything was a prank. "This is a joke?"

How many times do you want me to repeat this?  Woohyun had to accept the fact on his own that Boohyun wanted to keep him at the restaurant. "No, you're not fired, and the stolen money never happened."

"How do you want me to make up for the money?" Sunggyu wondered.

"Just take a few shifts until you've paid it all back, and pay it all back to me," Woohyun responded.

"Oh." Sunggyu scratched his head, accepting the terms with great confusion. He was grateful that he still had his job, and doubtful at the same time. Especially since he stole money from the restaurant. "Ok," was all Sunggyu could get out. I mean, I was fine with being an accountant. Even though Myungsoo told me I was the biggest moron he ever knew in his life. Sunggyu shrugged his shoulders and turned around to walk to the restaurant entrance and grab a stack of menus.

Woohyun analyzed Sunggyu from head to toe. There was something he was unsatisfied with, and before he could get passed this hump there was something he wanted to know. "Why did you apply for this job?" Woohyun asked.

Sunggyu stopped in his tracks. . That was something he did not want to explain to Woohyun at all. He turned his head, looking over his shoulder and taking a glimpse of Woohyun straight at him with curious eyes.

"Tell me the real answer, not the bull one you told my brother," Woohyun declared.

Sunggyu looked up at the ceiling, shaking his head and avoiding any direct eye contact with him. "I owe money to my parents. I crashed their car, and they told me I needed to pay off the accident."

Woohyun put his head down, staring at the cash register. 

"It will take me about 2 months to get the money and pay everything back, and after that I promise I will quit."

Woohyun looked up, shocked at Sunggyu's confession. He had no idea how to take his promise. "You're going to quit?"

"Yeah, I'll quit." Sunggyu still had his head turned, watching Woohyun's reactions at the corner of his eye. Sunggyu was serious about everything he said, except for his lie about the reason why he took the job in the first place. In a way, Sunggyu thought his lie was good enough for Woohyun. I did crash a car, so it's half correct. 

Woohyun felt Sunggyu being sincere with his words. It was too weird for Woohyun to take in. It's been a while since I've seen this side of you. "Maybe for the rest of the 2 months here, I will try my best not to get in your way. You try your best not to get into my way. We don't have to talk about anything at all, really, except for work. And hopefully, these next couple of months will pass by quickly." 

Sunggyu nodded his head. He never took this job to be friends with Woohyun, and clearly Woohyun did not want to be his friend either. After all, if any of them suddenly felt emotionally invested for one another, it would involve the class president in his money problems with Hak Yeon. In that aspect, Sunggyu wanted to make sure that he never associated Woohyun into anything he did. The terms were fine with Sunggyu. "Fine."

Monday was almost over. The week was still ahead of them.

(((())))

Sungyeol waited outside of the gates of school on Friday afternoon, looking on his phone for a place to go on his next date with Hayoung. He was debating between a couple different places; going to a movie, going to the mall, or going to a museum. His heart felt giddy thinking of all the different possibilities, and he was leaning towards choosing the Seoul Museum of History for their next outing together. It was only a matter of minutes until Hayoung finished tutoring. As school ended for the week, many students waved to Sungyeol on their ways out.

Coming out to leave the school were Hoya and Sungjong, spotting Sungyeol to the side as they walked through the courtyard.

Sungyeol stopped his waves at the displeasure of seeing their faces. Not them. 

"How's it going Sungyeol?" Sungjong asked, walking towards Sungyeol and placing his arm around him.

Sungyeol hated when any one of them touched him, always assuming something bad was going to happen to him. Even though Sungyeol was the taller one, he did not have a bad record of any kind unlike Hoya or Sungjong. He tried to muster all the courage he had in every inch of his body to deal with the both of them. "I'm good. I'm waiting for Hayoung." 

"You two have been hanging around with each other a lot recently," Hoya said, taking out a cigarette from his pocket and putting it in his mouth. "You guys got anything planned?"

When are they going to leave me alone? Sungyeol shrugged Sungjong's arm off of his shoulders and stepped forward to separate himself from them. He brushed his blazer off. "We're going to head out to a museum and that's about it."

Leaving the school next was Dongwoo, confident in every step. With many students walking the same way, they took notice to Dongwoo's radiating charm walking down the courtyard to the school gates. From far away, he saw Hoya, Sungyeol, and Sungjong hanging around by the gates. "What's going on!"

The three of them turned around and saw Dongwoo running towards them to join their party.

"This guy," Hoya groaned.

Dongwoo slowed down his run when he arrived to the three of them and placed his elbow on Sungyeol's shoulder and leaned on him. The main reason he got to them was to make sure Hoya and Sungjong were not giving Sungyeol a hard time. After one week of being a new student, he found out the good crowd and bad crowds around campus. Dongwoo did not particularly like Hoya and Sungjong or people of their kind, and he knew of the best way to get on their nerves and annoy people like them: killing them with kindness. "What are you guys doing after school today?"

Sungjong pointed at Sungyeol. "This guy is going out with Hayoung today!"

Dongwoo raised an eyebrow. He had no idea Sungyeol liked Hayoung, but then again he only knew him for a week. "Like, a date?"

Sungyeol shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know if I like her yet. I'm trying to get to know her more."

"Cool," Dongwoo laughed. That's cool I guess. 

Hoya felt the sides of his messenger back to retrieve a lighter in a small pocket inside. He brought the lighter close to his night, flicking it for a fire to light up his cigarette.

Swiftly, Dongwoo took his fingers and grabbed the cigarette like a chopstick just as it was seconds away from being lit up. He twirled it between his fingers and placed it behind his ear.  "You shouldn't be smoking that while we're so close to school, you know!" Dongwoo scolded.

Hoya and Sungjong both looked at each other in utter surprise, then back at Dongwoo who was still casually leaning against Sungyeol's shoulder like nothing happened. Hoya clenched his fist. "You are really asking for it right now, huh?"

Dongwoo smirked at Hoya, pinching his cheek. "I promise, I'm doing this for you."

Sungyeol watched as Dongwoo singlehandedly take on Hoya and Sungjong like it was not a big deal, not even trying to insult them in any way or do anything physical with them. Wow, I wish I could be as cool as you Dongwoo.

Hayoung walked through the school gates to find Sungyeol hanging out with Dongwoo, Hoya, and Sungjong on the side. "Sungyeol!" she waved.

Sungyeol was distracted by Dongwoo's boldness that he did not see Hayoung to the side trying to get his attention. "Hayoung!"

Dongwoo took his shoulder off Sungyeol to allow him to walk with his potential lady. He took the cigarette behind his ear and shoved it down his back pocket to hide from Hoya and Sungjong, who were both silent as they watched Sungyeol and Hayoung walk away. He followed his eyes as the first two people had ever formally met at the school were apparently an item. They're pretty cute together. Dongwoo smirked, wishing that Sungyeol and Hayoung have a good time together.

At the same time, a tiny bit of him felt weirded out after finding out Sungyeol liked her. 

Sungyeol and Hayoung smiled at each other sweetly and went off to cross the street for their hangout.

(((())))

It was an eventful week for Sunggyu and Woohyun at work.

The most eventful thing at work was the fact that Sunggyu and Woohyun successfully survived their shifts without laying a single hand on each other or saying a single word to each other. The both of them stayed true to their deal on Monday night to minimize any interaction with each other. 

Since his first day, Sunggyu mellowed down his attitude while working at Guk Pan. He took seriously the unwritten promise he made with Woohyun about not crossing paths with him, and because of that he never had a reason to annoy him or try to make him mad as usual. He tried harder to do things correctly, feeling like he was walking on eggshells after the school dance. It also boosted his motivation when Boohyun actually went out to the restaurant floor more often to watch over Sunggyu and Woohyun.

Sunggyu was getting used to balancing bowls to their different customers. It was still taking a long time for him to remember orders correctly, but he was succeeding in carrying soup without spilling its contents all over the floor. It ended up being his most preferred job out of the three was trained for because it required the least amount of thinking.

Woohyun appreciated Sunggyu's efforts in trying to be a better coworker, even though it really made no difference around the restaurant. He played to his strengths and put him on task to do what he did best, managing the floor for efficiency between the both of them. Things were different at work now that they no longer talked to each other at all.

Everything was on a one-word basis and things were rather harmonious at Guk Pan, and all they needed to get through now was closing up the restaurant on a Saturday evening. 

Woohyun came out of the kitchen carrying out a mop and bucket. "Do you want to mop?" he asked Sunggyu.

"Sure." Sunggyu finished closing a window blind before walking over to Woohyun and finishing his next task. This was supposed to be my job last week. Until I left with the money.

Sunggyu took the bucket and placed it on the floor. He started with mopping the floor around the counter, the stick making a high-pitche squeaking noise any time it grinding against the floor. Woohyun once again took it to the cash register to count the money for profit made. Both of them went about their own tasks quietly and kept to themselves for the rest of their closing shift

Everything was peaceful at Guk Pan on Saturday night.

And it was boring.

Woohyun could not stand the silence with the only sound around him being the squeaking of the floor mop. 

For such a menial task, Sunggyu wanted it to be a little more exciting. 

"Can we play some music in here or something?" Sunggyu hollered from the corner of the restaurant.

Fantastic idea, if I have to hear that mop squeak one more time... "Hold on." Woohyun crouched down to look at his mp3 player, which was plugged into an auxiliary cable to play through the restaurant speakers during dinner. He had his mp3 player on 'pause' since the restaurant closed, and he pressed a button to play it back. After pressing 'play' the speakers caught the end of a song as it was fading out.

Sunggyu was unsatisfied. "Play another song," he demanded.

"Jesus, can you wait 10 seconds or something?" Woohyun snided, counting the last of the 1,000 won bills in the cash register.

After a couple of seconds of faded instrumentals and white noise, a new song started on Woohyun's mp3 player. The song started off with a soothing, jazzy intro that was very familiar to Sunggyu's ears.

Sunggyu stopped mopping and recognized the song. Wait a minute.

"What, what, what you want baby. What, what, what you want baby."

Sunggyu glanced at the counter and listened to Woohyun mumble the lyrics of Kanto's "What You Want" to himself as he counted the money. This song was Sunggyu's current favorite song, and anytime he heard the song he always felt the urge to sing along to it. This was one of those times, but there was only one problem:

Woohyun was in the same room.

Sunggyu pinched his wrist, acting smoothly and continuing to mop the floor. I doubt he's going to sing more.