“I forgot to give this to you earlier,” Inyoung says as I sit down across from her at the lunch table. We usually eat with a group of girls from Inyoung’s soccer team, plus Byunghun and a few of his friends, but today she’s taken a small table in the back corner of the cafeteria.

I’m still feeling a little bummed about getting detention, but I’m determined not to let it ruin my day. “What’s up with the change in locale?” I ask, setting down my sack lunch.

“I’m trying to keep a low profile,” she explains, fishing into her backpack. “I want to stay out of the public eye until this whole Geek Stink Breath thing blows over.”

“Inyoung! You’re being paranoid. It’s already blown over. It’s not like anybody even saw it.”

She shakes her head. “You don’t know that for sure. Oh! I almost forgot.” Inyoung fishes in her backpack and then hands me a boxed set of Alias DVDs.

“Oh, thanks!” I place them in my bag. I can’t wait to watch the show. I bet I’ll pick up all kinds of excellent spy tips. Not that I’ve needed them thus far. Our bizarre meting aside, Chanhee’s stay has been pretty eventful. But I’ll probably be seeing more of him soon, considering he’s going to be starting school any day now.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you what the deal is with your mom’s pregnancy. Did you find anything out?” Inyoung takes a bite of her yogurt.

“Not yet.” With all the Chanhee excitement, I haven’t gotten the chance to confront my parents yet. Truth is, I’ve been a bit preoccupied. “I guess I’ll find out eventually.” I take my turkey sandwich out and begin tearing it into little pieces. “How’s your food?”

Inyoung raises an eyebrow. “You don’t seem too worried anymore. Was it a false alarm? What happened with all that business about the house being more crowded and stuff?” She stirs her yogurt with a plastic spoon.

Realization dawns on me, and I breathe a huge sigh of relief. “Oh, that’s easy,” I start to say, and then stop myself. Now it all makes sense. How could I have been so dumb? Mom isn’t pregnant! She must have been talking about having Chanhee stay with us. Some spy I am. I put two and two together and I get six. I can’t figure out clues that are right under my nose.

Of course, there’s still the issue of Dr. Gifford… There’s no way that could have anything to do with Chanhee. For the life of me I can’t think of a single reason why a guy would go visit an ob-gyn doc. Ick.

“What’s easy?”

I scramble for something. “Mom just bought a bunch of new furniture,” I lie, “and the house is going to be pretty crowded until we get rid of the old stuff.”

Inyoung scrunches up . “Uh… okay. No offense, but your parents are kind of odd sometimes.”

“Sometimes?” I tease. “More like all the time.” I take a sip of my bottled water.

She laughs. “I guess that’s true of all parents.”

“Puh-lease, you mom’s like the coolest woman on the planet.”

“Most of the time. Although she wasn’t so cool with me going to the movies with Byunghun on Saturday. She wigged out completely when Byunghun suggested we see a late showing. Mom said I had to be home by eleven or else.”

“That ,” I agree.

- - -

Most days after school I go straight to the Copperfield Courier newsroom to put in an hour of work before heading home. But thanks to Mr. Jung I’m stuck in detention all week, which means my newspaper work will suffer. I suppose it’s not fair to place all the blame on him. Much as it pains me to admit it, I got myself into this situation. I guess he was just doing his job. Although, did he really have to get so much joy out of seeing me suffer?

Detention isn’t a picnic, but it’s definitely not as bad as I expect. The crappy part is that you’re not allowed to read or write, which means schoolwork is off limits. Sleeping is out, too. You basically have to sit there for an hour and stare off into space while watching the minutes tick by on the clock. I have never understood this. Most people wind up in detention for cutting class or not handing in their homework. The room is packed with kids who are barely pulling Ds. So if they want to spend their detention time studying, then shouldn’t that be encouraged? This is a school, after all. Anything that brings up our grades is a good thing, right? But since I can’t change the rules, I have to find other ways to kill time.

My plan is to spend the hour daydreaming about Lee Sungyeol, but before long my thoughts start drifting to Lee Chanhee. He’s such a mystery. I know he’s from Texas and that his father is, gulp, a billionaire, but other than that I know virtually nothing about him. I don’t know what kind of music or movies or food he likes. I don’t know if he has any hobbies. Geez, I don’t even know his age! There are so many questions I want to ask. Does he play sports? Does he have a lot of friends back home? Does he have a girlfriend?

I push that thought out of my head and go back to dreaming about Lee Sungyeol. Before long the hour is up, and it’s time to go home.

- - -

I walk in the front door around four o’clock and find Chanhee camped out in front of the TV watching Spider-Man 2. Okay, so he likes action films. One question down, a million to go.

“Hi Heejoon!” he says, hitting pause on the DVD. “How was school today?”

“Not so great,” I admit, setting down my backpack. “I was late to homeroom so I got stuck with detention for the week.”

“Raw deal,” he says. “You want something to drink? I was just going to get something from the kitchen.”

“Sure.” We make our way into the kitchen and Chanhee opens the cabinet and takes out two glasses. “What would you like?” He opens the refrigerator and glances inside. “You have Coke, iced tea, orange juice—“ He breaks off. “Why am I telling you this? You probably already know!”

I laugh. “Here, let me.” I walk over and attempt to take the glasses from him. “You’re our guest. I should be fixing you a drink, not the other way around.”

“Nonsense! You’ve had a rough day. I, on the other hand, have been sittin’ on my all afternoon. Let me take care of you.” I start to object, but he cuts me off. “No arguments, you got it?”

Wow, he’s so polite. I wonder if he’s feeling a little stir-crazy after being cooped up in the house for three straight days. “I’ll have a coke,” I tell him.

Chanhee fixes my drink and then pours some iced tea for himself. “Here you go,” he says, handing me the glass of Coke.

“Thanks.” I plop down at the breakfast table and Chanhee sit across from me.

“So you work for the school newspaper,” he says.

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

He dumps a few sugar packets in his tea. “Your mom showed me some back issues this morning after breakfast. She saves all your old newspaper clippings.”

She does? I never realized that. Mom has never seemed super excited about my journalism work—at least not openly. This has always kind of puzzled me, since I thought she’d be happy that I was following in her footsteps. Not that I’m ever going to write about thongs and toe-curling kisses. Never, ever, ever. It’s not that I don’t have any experience with them. Well, okay, the real reason is I’ve never wanted to wear a thong in my life. Inyoung tried one out last summer when we went to Byunghun’s end of summer cookout. She spent the whole day walking around like there was a stick shoved up her . Thanks, but no thanks. And as for the toe-curling kisses… not so much. My ex-boyfriend, Henry, was completely obsessed with trying to get to second and third base. His kisses were all frantic and rough. Lots of lips, teeth, and rapid-fire tongue action. Ewwww. It’s not a pleasant memory.

I must have a really horrible expression on my face, because Chanhee immediately says, “Oh gosh, I hope it’s okay that I read your articles. I didn’t mean to pry.”

“No, I think it’s cool that you did that,” I say, taking a sip of my drink. “Most of my friends don’t even read my stories anymore. I’m glad you liked them.”

“You’ve got real talent,” Chanhee says, downing his iced tea.

I figure this is as decent an opening as any, so I ask, “What kind of stuff do you like to do? Are you a writer?”

He shakes his head. “No. I’ve never been very good at it. But I love to read.”

“What else do you like to do?”

Chanhee leans back in his chair and his get a faraway look in them. “Pretty much anything outdoors. Horseback riding. Water skiing. Hiking. Surfing.”

“Surfing?” I ask, giggling. “In Texas?” I’ve never been to Texas, but I’ve always pictured it being full of dude ranches, cacti, and rodeos. Surfing doesn’t fit my image.

“Oh, yeah, there’s lot of places to surf down on the Gulf Coast. But I never really go there. I like to surf in Big Sur when my family goes to California.”

I take another sip of my drink. “How often do you go?”

“About a dozen times a year. We have a house there.”

“That must be great to travel so much. I bet you rack up tons of frequent flyer miles.”

“We actually have our own plane,” Chanhee tells me and then, suddenly, he looks bummed out.

Great. I should never have asked about his family. It’s obviously a sad topic. I quickly change the subject. “By the way, I was sort of wondering… how old are you?”

“I turned seventeen last November.”

“Hey!” I snap my fingers. “My birthday’s  in November, too! When were you born?”

“My birthday is the twenty-fourth,” Chanhee says.

“You’re a Sagittarius,” I say. “So am I. I was born on the thirtieth.” So we share a zodiac sign. I have to admit I think this is pretty cool.

“Well, what do you know?” He flashes me another toothpaste-perfect smile. “Although that zodiac stuff is kinda lame, don’t you think? Kid stuff.”

I blush. Does that mean Chanhee thinks I’m just a kid? I am a whole year younger than him, after all. I hear the back door opening, and I instantly tense up. It’s nowhere near five o’clock yet. Dad won’t be home for at least half hour and Mom never gets back before six. I try to steady my nerves, but my heart is racing. Why oh why didn’t I study up on spy techniques? What if this is some crazy madman coming to kidnap Chanhee! What if…

“Hello! You guys down here?”

“Dad?” I ask tentatively.

He appears in the kitchen doorway. “Hi, gang.” He turns to Chanhee. “I’ve got some great news for you.”

“Did you catch the people who are after me and my family?” Chanhee asks eagerly.

“Sorry.” Dad’s face falls. “I oversold it. My news isn’t that good.” He sets down his briefcase on the kitchen counter and takes out a large envelope. “Your paperwork was completed today. I’ve got your new license and documentation. And I’ve already spoken with the principal at Copperfield High, so they should have everything ready for you to start classes this Friday!”

Nobody says anything for a minute, so I jump in. “Chanhee has to start classes on a Friday? That’s unbelievably lame! Can’t they let him wait until next Monday so he can enjoy his weekend?”

“I pressed to get this through quickly as possible,” Dad says. “The sooner we get Chunji’s cover established, the better.”

Chanhee and I both stare at him. “Who’s Chunji?” I finally ask.

“This man right here,” Dad says walking over and placing his hand on Chanhee’s shoulder. “For the rest of your stay in St. Louis, you’ll be known as Kim Chunji!” he announces triumphantly.

- - -

Here I am~ Here I am~ With a new chapter~ Haha. :D Song credits to ZE:A. LMAO<3

Anyway~ Thanks for reading, enjoy and don't ever forget to leave a comment, okay?! :D Even better, tell your friends to read this fic too. Haha. /DIEESS

P.S. I'm sure you guys have seen Infinite's Christmas song teaser "Lately", (LMAO. Of course you have (maybe?)) and damn! Howon's and Myungsoo's smile are killing me! Help~! xD Sungyeol's laugh is soo adorable! I literally collapsed on my bed when he showed up on screen. Kkkkk~

P.P.S. Do you have Twitter or Tumblr? Mind following me? Give me a shoutout in your comment if you did follow me, and I'll follow you back.

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Updated on: 6.15pm, 4.12.2011