"You need to relax your shoulders," Joon told her as she bent, cue in hands, over the table. "Just let them flop."

Hyomin tried to do as he said, but it was difficult to relax with a demi-god beside her.

Joon laughed. "You'll get the hang of it," he said, picking up his bottle of soju and taking a swig.

She trained the wooden cue to line up with the white ball. Hyomin knew she needed to hit it against the red ball so that it rolled into the corner pocket. She took a clumsy shot and the ball bounced off the side of the table and on to the floor. She grunted impatiently.

"I'm a most unsatisfactory pool partner." She looked apologetically at Joon. "I should have warned you that I'm not the most coordinated person in the world." She went over to pick up the ball and as she straightened up, caught him watching her carefully. "Feel free to play with someone else."

"I don't want to play with anyone else," he said, smoothly. He finished his soju. "But I'll get us another drink and we can have a break."

"Great." As Joon walked over to the bar to get himself another soju and a Coke for her, Hyomin looked around the crowded room to find somewhere to sit. Against a wall was a soft leather couch, unoccupied and inviting. She headed for it, sat down and curled up with her legs tucked under her.

Hyomin's POV

We'd driven out a few miles to this pool hall. It was mostly men, boys. A few girlfriends stood around, looking bored and swigging at bottles of soju, dressed up to the nines on a Saturday night.

I'd spent two hours hurling my dismal clothing around my bedroom. Eventually I'd cut the sleeves off an old tight black T-shirt and turned it into a mini-skirt over black tights and newly washed white Converse plimsolls. Then I'd ironed a white cotton shirt and put that on top. I washed my hair and let a dry in big glossy curled. Looking in the mirror, I was relieved to see that I didn't look like a complete mess. Atleast my legs were long and the shirt disguised my burgeoning chest. The last thing I wanted was to look like I was showing off my body. I didn't like it enough to do that.

"You look great," Joon had said, when I'd arrived to meet him five minutes early. Amazingly my mother had been pleased I was going out. With a boy. Hwayoung had obviously convinced her he wasn't an axe-murderer and when I'd finally got the courage to tell her and Dad I had 'a sort-of date', she'd not batted an eyelid. Dad had muttered something about the years flying faster than I rat out of a trap. But Mum had shushed him, telling him he should be glad I was just doing what all sixteen-year-olds do.

She'd insisted on giving me a lift in her car as far as the main street, leaving too much time to get there of course. I was pretty sure she'd spy on us for a while before driving off again. But I was too grateful for her good mood to mind if she did. It made a nice change from the gloom and doom she'd been spreading lately.

"It's good to see you have legs," she said, giving one of them a pat. "Great legs, too." She'd smiled wistfully. "Your grandmother had a great pair of pins."

"You think there's too much leg?" I said, worried, pulling down my skirt.

"At your age, there's no such thing." She leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek. "Have fun. And tell this Joon we'd like to meet him sometime."

"Eomma." I rolled my eyes. "Are you trying to get rid of him already? 'Cause he's kind of got a history of running away."

She laughed. "I'm sure that''s all behind him now."

We had pulled up just behind the main road, in accordance with my specific instructions.

"Go on. And I'll see you back home by eleven, araso?"

"Okay." I opened the car door, nerves gripping my stomach. "But don't be surprised if I'm back in half an hour."

As I shut the door, I left Mum shaking her head, smiling, waiting a bit before she started the engine. I wished I shared her confidence about the evening. Honestly, I was terrified.

And sitting curled up on the leather sofa, looking at these other girls, I felt immature and clueless. What the hell does he see in me? I thought, watching as Joon joked with the barman and collected our drinks.

He smiled as he came over and handed me a drink. Sitting back with his legs apart, he took a mouthful of soju and then turned to me.

"I'm not much of a people person either," he said, quietly. "I spent a lot of my childhood in Japan messing about by myself on the beach, playing alone." He drummed his bottle with one finger. "I never felt like I connected with anyone."

"Like an outsider?" I took a drink. "Like everyone else was in on some private joke and you didn't get it?"

He laughed. "Something like that." He scrunched his eyes, thinking. "My mother was always on to me to get out and play football, hang out with people I went to school with. But the things they talked about ... didn't interest me. I sometimes felt I had more in common with our dog than boys my age."

"Oh me too." I leaned my head back. "I still feel like that .... Well, I did." I looked across at him.

"So, what happened?" I said bodly. "Why did you run away?"

For a split second his expression was sharp, defensive.

"Stuff," he said, pinning the bottle to his lips. "I just felt trapped. There were places I wanted to go .... It was complicated." He looked awkward. "Let's just say I had to get away. I wasn't going on too well with my mum." He shrugged. "I could have handled it better, I guess ...."

"I can understand," I said, though the explaination seemed a bit flimsy to me. He obviously didn't want to tell me the whole story.

Joon rolled the soju bottle in his palms, more animated now.

"When I was fifteen, I looked on a map of the world, and I saw it all out there." He sat forward. "And I thought, there are so many different kinds of people, and cultures, and beliefs in all these countries." He looked across at me. "It's like you can be whatever you want, wherever you happen to be, make up your own story."

I said nothing for a minute, thinking. "You mean, write you own life script?"

"I guess." He smiled at my thoughtful expression and then leaned back in his seat.

"When did your parents split up?" I asked, feeling more confident.

I watched him shut down a little again, his lips pressing together firmly. "When I was five," he said, without emotion. "He's remarried now. She's in between relationships." His tone told me he wasn't willing to elaborate on that.

"Oh." My eyes darted about the room, trying to find inspiration to change the subject and failing. I felt him watching me as he took another swig of soju.

"And what about you, Hyomin?" He said finally.

"What about me?" I pulled my skirt down self-conciously.

"Am I allowed to ask why you gave up on school?"

I had expected that question and had decided I would tell the truth, leaving out some of the more pathetic details. "I didn't get on with the other kids." I scratched my glass Coke bottle. "One in particular ..." I stopped, remembering that time in my life, recalling Hyuna's pinched, mean face, as she stood blocking the toilet door one day at break-time, watching coldly as I scrabbled around the cubicle floor, trying to rescue my recently flushed belongings. Her two minions, Kim Yoojin and Heo Gayoon, had formed a blockade. When I'd tried to push my way past them and out of the girls' toilet, Yoojin's heel had ground into my foot.

"Where d'you think you're going, ?" Hyuna had snarled. "Did I say you could leave?" She'd grabbed my bag and upturned it again. I'd watch helplessly, knowing this, or something like it, was going to happen the next day and the day after that.

"Girls can be vicious." Joon interrupted my thoughts. He coughed quickly. "I mean, I assume it was a girl?"

I nodded, exhaling loudly. "Well, she had the face and body of a girl." I put the Coke bottle to my lips and then pulled it away again, adding, "But she was more like a monster."

He laughed softly, picking at the label on his bottle. "She made your life hell, then," he said, looking down. "this monster?"

"Yep. Every single day, there was always something. Some way in which I had to be punished."

"She was jealous," he said, looking across me. "Obviously."

Heat flodded my cheeks. "Obviously." I smirked to cover my embarrassment.

"She did quite a job on you, hey?" Joon held eye contact. "You really believe you're a freak?"

I prickled at the sound of that word, one I hadn't yet used with him. It was as though he had read my mind. I wasn't sure whether this made me feel comforted or exposed.

I smiled weakly, suddenly feeling I was saying too much, to someone I hardly knew. I wasn't sure I was ready for this. Or for a boy like him telling me these things about myself. It was all too fast.

"Hyomin, gwenchana?"

"I need to go home," I said quickly, putting my bottle down on the table in front of us. "I've had a great time, but ..." I paused. "I'm sorry."

Joon jumped to his feet. "Of course," he said kindly. "Whatever you want."

As we drove back, I sat, silently as usual, hating myself for not handling the evening as I'd wanted to. Joon turned  the radio on to some country music station. It soothed me. Country music is all about stories. I concentrated on the lyrics and looked straight ahead of me.

I'd ruined the night because I was a lonely freak who couldn't get over Kim Hyuna and didn't trust anyone outside of my family. I closed my eyes, thinking that maybe that wasn't quite true. After what had happened the night of the accident, I trusted Jaejoong. But could I really trust someone I didn't know?

I came out of my thoughts, guiltily. It was Joon sitting next to me, not Jaejoong. One outlandish situation at a time, I told myself. Just be in the moment, Hyomin.

The sound of Joon clearing his throat brought me back down to earth.

"I wish I'd known you back then," he said out of the blue, changing gear. "I'd have put that little witch in her place."

I sighed. "It's done now." I shifted in my seat. "I just want to forget about her."

"Makes me mad," he went on, as though he hadn't heard me. "How people get away with hurting others like that."

I looked over at him, his face taut as he drove. "Well, maybe they don't in the end," I told him. "Maybe things even out?"

"Hope so." He chewed his lip then, realising I was staring at him, relaxed his face and smiled at me.

"You hungry? We could get a burger or something?" We were approaching Fabio's, where the lights were on. On Saturday nights, Eunjung stayed open later than usual. I spotted her through the windows, laughing with a customer by a bar.

I realised I was starving. "Can we stop here?" I said, needing to be somewhere familiar and friendly. "Eunjung does a mean cheeseburger and fries."

"Sure." Joon slowed down and looked for somewhere to park. "Whatever you want."

I smiled. How many times had he said that? Whatever you want. He was truly a nice person. I felt bad for feeling uncomfortable. Joon was on my side.

"Just prepare yourself for an almighty fuss," I warned him, gesturing at Eunjung. "We're going to be a big news item in there. Eunjung's usual clientele is a bunch of geriatrics and bored, loner teenargers buying their little sister milkshakes."

"Hey," said Joon, nudging my arm and grinning as he locked up his car. "I'm going to make sure you're never bored ... or lonely while I'm around, okay?"

I laughed, glad that the evening had turned around. "Okay." I even linked arms through his, and as we walked into Fabio's. I met Eunjung's delighted expression with one of my own.

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Things wouldn't be interesting without any JoonMin moments now, would they :B