After his initial mortification wore off, the feeling of being insulted set in.

'He thinks he's so high and mighty that I need his help?' he thought to himself.

He tried to grade papers, but he was so irritated that he began slamming the papers into his bag so he could take them home. He was so ready to get out of there.

After he gathered his things, he made his way out the door. He locked the classroom door behind him, only to turn around and find Yongguk there waiting for him.

Himchan jumped back and did a little taekwon-do-self-defense move.

"Easy there. I'm not going to attack you," Yongguk said, chuckling.

"What do you want from me?" Himchan asked, subconsciously bringing his hands in closer to his body.

"I just wanted to apologize again. I just couldn't help but notice the way you hesitantly shook my hand and then kept pulling the wrists of your gloves closer to your skin, I'm guessing in order to keep things, like me, out. Am I correct so far?" Yongguk asked.

Himchan slowly nodded his head, keeping his gaze to the floor and away from Yongguk's eyes.

"Can I see your hands?"

Himchan snapped to attention.

"What?" he choked.

"Can I see your hands?" Yongguk repeated.

"You mean t-take off my gloves?" Himchan stammered.

"Well, I can't see your hands with the gloves on them very well, can I?" Yongguk asked.

Himchan shook his head. He glanced back and forth between his own hands and Yongguk's eyes, much like he had glanced between the clock and the door earlier while waiting for Yongguk to arrive.

"It's okay, I won't touch you," Yongguk promised gently.

Himchan gulped and brought his right hand to his left wrist. His fingers slowly began to fumble with the latex gloves, pulling them off at a painful pace. With the first glimpse of skin, Yongguk could already tell that Himchan's hands were covered in cracks and sores due to over washing. As he watched Himchan pull the last of the glove over his fingers, Yongguk smiled reassuringly.

"Thank you, Mr. Kim. I know that took some bravery to do," Yongguk said.

Himchan nodded and tried to cover his hand with his gloved one. He began looking around in a panicked mode, desperately wishing for soap and water and his glove back.

"Tell me, Himchan-is it fine if I call you 'Himchan'?- is it hard for you to touch doorknobs and things like that?" Yongguk questioned.

Himchan nodded, still covering his hand.

"Have you ever tried to turn a doorknob with your bare hands?" he continued.

Himchan shook his head.

"Do you want to try it today?"

"But my classroom door is locked," Himchan pointed out.

"Then unlock it," Yongguk suggested.

Himchan shook his head.

"I-I just want my glove back on," Himchan admitted.

Yongguk sighed.

"I'm sorry for pushing you. You can put a new glove on. We don't have to do this today," Yongguk said.

Himchan nodded absent mindedly while rushing to put his glove on before he really caught what Yongguk had said.

Wait, what did he mean by 'today?'

"Himchan, can we be friends? I really want to be friends and exchange numbers and get to know each other and even get over your mysophobia together," Yongguk suggested.

Himchan was a little taken aback. First, he had been called out on his disorder, and then he had to take his thin layer of protection off. Now this guy wanted to be friends and cure his mysophobia? This kind of stuff didn't happen to Himchan.

"I don't know," Himchan said reclusively.

"It's okay if you don't want to. But at least exchange numbers with me so you can tell me what to decide," Yongguk said, smiling.

Himchan reluctantly tells him his phone number. Yongguk texts him his own number before taking his leave, saying something about needing to rush home to feed Junhong.

Himchan took a moment to recap what had just happened. In all honesty to himself, he was going to call the number on the card when he got home. He really did want to attempt to cure his mysophobia and attempt to be normal, but here was someone offering to help him, and he was having a hard time accepting his offer.

After two hours of fighting with himself at his apartment later that night, Himchan decided ultimately that sending a text couldn't hurt.

'Hey. I think I may want to try it out. The friendship, I mean.'

A/n:

Chapter two is up!  Thank you soooo much for reading.  Sorry it's starting a little slow.