Lunch rolled around again and as always Mark and Suzy walked to their usual spot to eat together. Suzy pulled an extra chocopie from her bag and handed it over to Mark.

        “Sometimes it's nice to have a treat,” she commented before hurriedly shoving a piece of kimbap into . The corner of Mark's mouth lifted into a half-smile without him realizing. His eyes locked on Suzy who seemed to be desperately trying to avoid eye contact. A piece of rice was stuck to the corner of . Mark reached a hand out to her face, but she quickly drew back with her eyes finally meeting his. “What?” she asked, her hand reaching up to her face. She knocked the piece of rice off and it fell to the ground, lost in the grass somewhere.

        Mark dropped his arm. “You got it.” He opened his lunch. “Do you want to do something after school today?”

        “Hmm... Like what?” Suzy asked through a mouthful of food.

        Mark looked thoughtful for a moment then shrugged. He hadn't actually given it much thought before he had spoken. He didn't want to go right home after school, it was lonely there with his dad working and his mom focused entirely on being a good housewife. He had never really had friends so he was unsure what people did together. “I don't know. Just something.”

        “Hmm,” Suzy looked thoughtful. “Well, I don't know about you, but I'm always starving after school. We could go get noodles or something. I know a really good place not far from here. Afterward we could go to the park or back to the river. I think there are a few more sounds to be recorded there.”

        Mark nodded his agreement. “Have you ever thought about buying a new tape recorder. Like maybe a digital one or something less bulky.”

        “I don't have the money for that. It would take too long to save up for and I don't have that much time.”

        Mark's brows furrowed in confusion. Time? He was starting to get curious, but didn't want to venture into forbidden territory. He didn't want to poke and prod where he wasn't wanted. Maybe when they were closer. Soon probably.

        Suzy sighed and laid back on the grass, seemingly done eating. Mark was still working on finishing his lunch, but became distracted by Suzy who was looking up at the sky, her hair splayed all around her. She started humming and quickly broke out in a quiet song, a ballad that Mark didn't recognize. He listened carefully to her waning voice, she paused once in awhile, but always continued right where she had let off.

        Her voice was light and full of warmth. She didn't have the nicest singing voice around, but it was pleasant to Mark's ears and admittedly better than he could sing. Suzy closed her eyes and continued her song. Mark's gaze traveled to the tape recorder that she had left sitting in the grass between them. He gingerly picked it up, careful not to alert her top his movements. He pressed the bright red record button and leaned towards her, his arm outstretched towards with his free arm helping him keep his balance. It was probably a strange sight, him hovering slightly above her, but not close enough to alert her to his presence.

        Suzy's song ended and she started to blink her eyes open. Mark moved into full haste mode and tried to push himself off the ground, but lost his balance and landed back onto Suzy, knocking the air from her lungs. She let out a shout that was hastily cut off with a cough. She pushed Mark off of her and sat upright. She glared down at Mark who had started laughing.

        He rolled onto his back and stared up at the sky, too embarrassed to meet Suzy's glaring eyes. He gave one last chuckle before going silent, his cheeks warming under Suzy's intense gaze.

        “What were you doing?” she asked, her tone slightly accusing. She gave a quick glance around the school yard, checking to see if anyone seemed to have noticed them.

        “It's not what you think,” Mark replied back quickly. He reached for her arm and gave it a tug. Taking the hint she laid back down on the grass and looked towards the clouds. “I thought your singing was pretty, so I wanted to record it for you. I fell over once I noticed you were about to catch me. Sorry.” He held the tape recorder out to her and she took it somewhat reluctantly. “Wanna give it a listen?”

        Suzy shook her head, slightly entangling grass into her hair. She held onto the recorder with both hands and held it to her chest. “I used to want to become a singer. It's silly isn't it?”

        “I don't see why you can't do that. With practice you could be really good.”

        “Are you saying I'm not already good?”

        “No. Just that you could be better.” His tone was teasing. Suzy gently elbowed him with a slight smile on her lips. He was glad she didn't seem angry about what he had done – not that he had particularly thought she would be. “But why did you stop?”

        “Stop what?”

        “Wanting to be a singer.”

XxX

A/N: Just a short update since it's been almost a month.  I'll try to work on more shortly, just been struggling with some writer's block T_T