"Ow!" I said as I fell to the ground, landing on my left hand.

"I'm so sorry!" came the voice of the guy I had collided with as he bent over to try and help me.

"It's alright," I said, taking his hand with my good one and standing up. "It's my fault."

Which was true. It was Monday again and I had overslept for class and was moving down the halls much faster than I should have been. While he hadn't really seemed to have been paying attention, I wouldn't have actually fallen down from the collision if I hadn't been practically jogging to class. Which, having finally glanced at the clock on the wall to see how little time I had left, I wasn't actually running late for anymore.

"Are you alright?" the guy asked.

"Yeah, I just landed on my hand," I answered, adjusting my bag and cloths with my good hand.

"Is it sprained? Did you break it? I should take you to the nurse." The words rushed out of his mouth and he seemed to be more worried about me than he really ought to have been.

"No! No, nothing like that. It just hurts is all," I said before he could get himself much more worked up.

"Are you sure?" I nodded. "Then let me at least walk you to class. I'll carry your bag for you. I'm really sorry I bumped into you like that."

"I'm fine. Really. You don't have to do any of that," I said, attempting to walk around him but he walked with me and asked again.

"Please? Just let me carry your bag for you. I feel really bad."

"Okay," I conceded, somewhere between being glad someone else was carrying the heavy thing for me and feeling bad about the fact that my bag was so heavy while someone else was carrying it. "But you don't have to feel bad. I was practically running down the hall, so it's more my own fault than yours."

"No, I wasn't paying attention," he countered as I handed him my bag which had a strap at the top that he grabbed since his own bag was already on his back. "I was the one who walked into you."

I didn't say anything at that, feeling like we weren't getting anywhere with this. I did appreciate his concern, though, and it was nice to be treated so kindly.

"My name is Lay, by the way," he said as we walked down the hall.

"Soo Young," I said back, suddenly realizing it would take a few minutes to walk to class and this guy seemed like the type to want to talk the entire way there.

"What year are you in?" he asked, a smile coming up now, seeming to be more at ease now that he was assured I was not injured and he could do something for me.

"Year 10," I answered.

"My brother is too. Maybe you know him?" He asked, looking excited. I almost commented that the likelihood of that was pretty low since you could count the number of kids I knew from my grade on one hand, but he kept talking before I could. "His name is Zitao? Goes by Tao?"

The name struck me as familiar and I thought about it for a second before I remembered.

"Oh, yeah, I met him yesterday," I said, remembering the guy with the dark circles under his eyes. I thought for another second and remembered something else. "He's in my first class, the one we're heading to."

"He is?"

"Yeah. Wait, are you on the student council?"

"Yes!" He said, seemingly excited that I knew something about him before he told me. "He told you?"

"Oh, no, I overheard him talking to-" I hesitated, realizing I had already forgotten the girl's name "-to a girl yesterday."

"Hye Rim?" he asked, some of the excitement leaving his face, but he still kept up the smile.

"Yes," I said, recognizing the name and wondering for a second about the reaction, but then remembering the whole weird thing about Hye Rim and Suho.

"Wait, she talked to him at lunch, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," I answered, wondering where he could be going with this.

"So that means you were with him during lunch," he said, looking like he was figuring out something difficult and he was feeling smart with his progress.

"I did sit at the same table as him," I said, holding back from saying something sarcastic. It wasn't that I was wanting to say anything mean, but he seemed too nice to be talked to sarcastically, even if I meant it in a friendly way.

"So that means you're Kai's new girlfriend," he finished, smiling, proud of himself.

I couldn't help but laugh at this. How many friends did Kai have? And how many people were going to address me like this? At this rate my concern when people started talking to me wasn't how I was going to keep up a conversation with them, but whether or not they knew Kai and I were dating.

"Yes," I said, still smiling. "That would be me."

"Well it's very nice to meet you. And now I'm even more sorry that I knocked you down."

"No, no! We were both at fault. Let's just not even worry about it anymore." I said as we reached my class.

As we came up to the door I noticed someone standing beside it, and was surprised that it was Kai. He was leaning against the wall on the other side, watching us. Watching me, actually. His eyes were trained on me, calculating, as if he were trying to puzzle something out.

"Kai!" Lay exclaimed from beside me. "Is this your class?"

"No," he answered, shifting his focus to Lay, his look changing to a friendly expression. "I was actually waiting here for Soo Young."

"Oh! So this is your class?" Lay peered inside the classroom, and seeming to see what he was looking for called, "Tao!"

There was an audible groan from inside the classroom as a boy, presumably Tao, called back;

"What are you doing here?"

"Can't I come visit my little brother?" Lay questioned as he walked into the classroom, only to be met with another groan.

I was struggling to hold back my laughter when I turned to look at Kai to see him peeking into the classroom as well but in no better condition. His eyes flickered to me and his smile softened a bit as he relaxed back against the wall again.

"Do you have siblings?" he asked, examining my face, making me feel a little exposed.

"I have an older sister."

"I have two older sisters," he said, glancing back into the classroom.

"People always say it's the younger sibling that embarrasses the older sibling, but older siblings can be just as embarrassing," I commented, looking through the doorway myself to see Lay had set my bag, which I had momentarily forgotten he was carrying for me, at my desk, and was now pestering Tao having amped up his cheeriness.

"I don't think I've ever seen you laugh before," Kai suddenly said, making me turn to look at him, wondering where that had come from. He glanced back at Lay before looking at me. "Just before, when you were walking this was with Lay, he said something and you laughed."

I didn't say anything, just looked at him confused. Why was that a big deal? So I hadn't laughed around him. I didn't remember him really making many attempts at it.

"Wait, yes I have," I said, remembering Saturday when we were leaving the restaurant. "I laughed when you made that erted comment."

"You were the one who made the erted comment, I only pointed out the erseness of it," he countered. "And that wasn't a real laugh, it was a sound of disbelief. It doesn't count."

"'Sound of disbelief'?"

"This whole reading thing has seriously messed with the way I talk."

"Probably improved it."

"Unfortunately. Now people expect stuff from me. It's very debilitating."

"Anyways," I said, realizing that conversation wasn't getting us anywhere. "What's the big deal if I haven't laughed in front of you yet?"

"How long have you known Lay?"

"I just met him," I said after hesitating from confusion.

"So you just met him and you're already laughing for him, but you've known me a week and I'm your boyfriend and you haven't laughed for me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at me. I couldn't tell if his look was serious or joking, but then I realized what he was actually getting at.

"You're jealous?"

He glanced down for a second, fidgeting. Kai then turned his gaze to look somewhere off down the hallway, biting his lip. After a second he looked directly at me before releasing his lip, looking at me intently, waiting for my reaction to this apparent confirmation.

"You're not going to be one of those boyfriends who're possessive and tell me not to smile or laugh around other guys, are you?" I asked, thinking back to some of those shows I had seen on T.V. where the guy got upset and jealous over silly little things and got all controlling, but it was portrayed as romantic. At first I believed it was, because that was how it was presented, and also because it would show that the guy cared. It didn't take too long for me, though, to realize just how ridiculous it all was. If anything, that kind of behavior showed a lack of trust in the woman they were with whether or not the girl deserved it. In reality, that would be the surface of a whole slew of problems.

But Kai shook his head and continued to look at me with that same serious face.

"I just want you to smile more for me and laugh more for me than for the other guys. I won't be jealous if I know I see them the most."

I felt my cheeks heat up at this, and I didn't know what to say. Responses flittered in and out of my head, but the statement had left me so shocked I didn't know which was most appropriate to answer with. I wasn't even sure how to feel about it, not in a logical way.

"Class is about to start!" Lay called as he dashed between us, speedily making his way down the hall to his own classroom.

"See you at lunch," Kai said, smiling at me.

I nodded and started walking into the classroom as he moved to walk past me, but before he did he reached out and grabbed my hand. I was surprised and stopped walking for a second as he gently squeezed, then dropped my hand, not looking me in the eye before walking away. I was frozen in place for a moment, but then I saw the teacher rushing down the hall to my class and I hurried to my seat, feeling a little dazed.

As class started I reflected on what he had said. In way, it was similar to the shows, but all the flaws that bothered me were gone. He hadn't commanded me on anything, just stated what he had wanted. He didn't want to inhibit, or 'debilitate', my relationships with other guys, just wanted to be treated differently. Better, in a way, which wasn't a lot to ask since our relationship was different than mine with any other guy. It was still a comment made from jealousy, but it wasn't possessive or crazy. It made me smile, now that I had time to let myself think over the idea that a guy was jealous over me, even though I really should have been paying attention to the teacher.

In all truth, Kai really didn't have anything to worry about in that area. Being so antisocial usually meant guys didn't flirt with me often, or acknowledge, or even notice me. I was also extremely picky about guys that I like, and honestly Kai didn't even live up to my usual standards, at least not from my understanding. I typically liked really smart guys, but it seemed he was average on that front, but it didn't really bother me. If anything, I should be worried about Kai, but I wasn't. The way he has behaved and treated me, and knowing he still said he liked me even after seeing Ga In, made me more inclined to believe that he not only liked me, but that he wouldn't be easily swayed, either. He had sought me out, it wasn't something that just happened.

That thought made me want to try a little harder to get to know Kai.