After School, 10 years ago

L's POV

I have my phone out.

Where the heck is L.Joe?

I'll text him.

'Yah, where are you?'

'I'm asking someone about math.'

'You're good at math.'

'Not if it's a girl helping me.'

'Come ON!'

'Anywhere for you, Myungsoo. <3'

'Ew.'

I pause my texting to look up.

A weird, black object is flying towards my face.

Faster.

Closer.

It's a ball.

Why is a ing ball flying towards my face?

I have slow reflexes.

Always have, always will.

I just stand there, waiting for the ball to smash my face in.

Something- no, someone, dives over my face and the ball hits their back instead.

If someone saw, they'd think L.Joe and I were gay.

He has me in a sort of backhug.

"That hurt like a ." He grumbles and dusts himself off.

The people who kicked the ball at me bow down and say sorry.

I'm about to say something, but L.Joe sends me a warning glare.

"Be careful," he says instead. "If the ball had hit his face, you would have had to sold your house to pay for the insurance."

They nod, and we walk away.

"You okay?" L.Joe asks me.

"You shouldn't have let them go." I mutter.

"They're freshmen. Let them off a little easy."

"If this was like the past, you'd have beat all of them up. Now you're ignoring my messages. Your affections for me have lessened." I pout.

"What about you? Why aren't you ringing my Love Alarm? I'm disappointed." He laughs.

"Friendship doesn't ring it, you idiot." I laugh too.

"So our affections for each other were just friendship? I'm hurt."

"Be hurt." L.Joe glares playfully at me.

"Did you even get the app?" I ask him.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because if I got it, you'd go to the ends of the earth to find the person who rung it."

"Get it. That's why I want you to get it."

"What would you say to her if you did find the person who liked me?"

I turn to him. "Who are you to like L.Joe? He deserves better."

L.Joe can't stop laughing.

But I wasn't joking.

"I heard your Love Alarm sounded like a orchestra all day." He says, finally getting his laughter under control.

"Mmm." I mumble back.

"Come on, I want to be loved by girls too." He nuzzles into me.

"Geroff." I groan.

Then I stop.

L.Joe stops too.

"No, go away!" A girl is shouting.

I know that girl.

She's the girl I ran into on the staircase.

She's pushing a guy.

"Come on. Fine, then tomorrow." He pleads.

"No!" She yells.

"Tomorrow it is!"

"Ugh, go away, Yong Junhyung. I don't want to go play billards." She sighs.

A man is leaning on our car, smoking.

He looks at us and jumps up.

"Oh, you're here!" He hides the cigarette behind his back.

"Hyung, we saw you smoking." L.Joe says getting in the car.

"No, it's just because you guys were so late." He pleads. "Don't tell your mom, okay, Myungsoo?"

"If I start smoking again, I'm blaming you." I grumble.

"Why're you blaming your nicotine addiction on me?" He fires back.

"And, if I get fired, are you paying for my little brother's school fees?" He says, driving our car.

I stare out the window.

There's that girl again.

"Hyung, can you follow her?"

He glances at her.

"The back of her looks good." Hyung says and trails after her with the car.

"Dude, what're you doing?" L.Joe asks angrily.

I ignore him.

"Not so fast, hyung, slowly."

"How do I follow a walking person with a car?"

"Stop, then go again, then stop... Do I really need to explain this?"

"Is she pretty?" Hyung asks.

"Pretty, my ." I snort.

"Who is she?"

"The girl L.Joe likes." I reply.

"That's not it!" L.Joe exclaims.

"Then shut your ing mouth and be quiet!" I yell.

"L.Joe, why'd you get caught?" Hyung shakes his head sadly.

"I don't like her." L,Joe mutters.

"Just tell her you'll give her a ride, ." Hyung mumbles.

"No." I reply.

She's looking at her phone, reading something.

"She's not good at studying, is she?" Hyung asks. "My little brother is always like that on the streets and he has bad grades."

"She's good at studying. Ji-Eun's good at studying." L.Joe mumbles.

He's so quiet that I almost don't hear him.

Almost.

"Ring, ring!" Hyung's phone has a incoming call.

"Yes, Madam?" He picks up.

"Why isn't Myungsoo home yet? He has tutoring!" Mother shrieks.

"I'm sorry, madam. Lots of traffic." Hyung says nervously.

I motion for him to hang up.

"I'll get him there as fast as I can, madam." Hyung hangs up.

"The things I do for you, Myungsoo. I swear." He grumbles.

"Speaking of the things people do, why is she walking, like a kilometer?" Hyung asks.

He U-turns as Ji-Eun stops in front of a convenience store.

She says something to the person inside, then bounces up the stairs on the side of the building to the second floor.

"Is she like, the daughter of the owner of the building?" Hyung asks.

I ignore him.

Then hyung notices a girl getting out of a cab.

"She's hot." Hyung points. "Right, Myungsoo?"

"So-so."

"Ooh, you actually replied! You like her!" Hyung says.

That's Bae Suzy.

Like her?

Is that humanely possible?

She walks up to the second floor and enters using the same door as Lee Ji-Eun.

"Let's go home." I say.

"L.Joe, go up there and buy me some time. I'm staying down here as long as I can." I say as hyung parks in our basement.

L.Joe hops out and looks back at me.

"It's for your own good. Come up soon." He says and takes the elevator up.

Yes.

My house has an elevator.

Be jealous.

"Hyung, I have a favor." I say.

"What?"

"You know the road the girl took home, right? Find the most creepiest road there and tell me where it is."

"Creepy?"

"You know, the kind where no one would eve notice if someone died." I say nonchalantly.

"What the hell?" Hyung looks at me with scared eyes.

"I just want to hurt someone a little. Just... knock them off their high cloud."

"Myungsoo, you're going to give me a heart attack before my dongsaeng even goes to college." He sighs.

"What do you want me to do about it?" I mutter.

"If I do this for you, what are you going to do for me?"

"I won't tell mom what you and your ex girlfriend did in mom's car."

Hyung freaks out.

"How'd you know? I erased the blackbox camera and-" I cut him off.

"I didn't know. You just confirmed it."

"YAH!"

"Message me where it is." I get out of the car.

"Aish."

"And whatever you do, hyung." I lean down a little to see through the window.

"Don't tell L.Joe."

"Who are you going to hurt?" Hyung asks.

I think of Ji-Eun.

"Someone who's really bothering me."

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