"Wow, you're early today."

Haechan lifted his head up from his desk, blinking blearily. As the haze in front of him cleared, he saw Mark's smiling face. Something warm blossomed in his chest and he sat up, awake now. "It's the big day." He sighed.

Mark chuckled and gave Haechan a pat on the shoulder. His hand lingered on Haechan's skin, where the boy's loose shirt had been pulled to the side, and Haechan felt himself grow warm for an entirely different reason.

"We can do it." Mark murmured, taking his seat next to Haechan.

"Of course we can." Haechan replied, glancing over to the door as Hana walked in. "If we win this, we're pretty much guaranteed a spot in provincials. The other teams are easy."

"Morning Mark!" Hana said brightly as she took a seat in front of Haechan, flipping her skirt out.

"Morning," Mark said distractedly, giving her a brief smile before turning back to Haechan. "We only have one more game after this, right? Next Tuesday?"

"Yeah." Haechan replied, glancing to his left as he felt somebody tug the sleeve of his t-shirt. "What's up, princess?" He asked Hana, who was giving him a pouting sort of look.

"Did you finish your chemistry homework?" She gave him an odd look, like she was expecting him to answer a certain way.

"Of course." Haechan said, wondering if that was what she'd hoped for.

"Oh yeah," Mark said suddenly, reaching into his backpack. "I forgot! I was so excited for today's match." He said sheepishly, rummaging through his pencil case for something to write with.

"You can borrow mine," Haechan offered, realizing a second too late that Hana had taken out her notebook too.

"Thanks… Capta-chan." Mark grinned at him and Haechan felt his lips twitch into an embarrassed smile.

"I told you not to call me that." He said, unable to thoroughly enjoy his laugh as he was aware of Hana frowning beside him.

Since they had arrived five minutes early, Mark managed to finish transcribing their homework before their pop quiz on Hamlet started. Haechan, having completely neglected their reading assignments, wrote nonsense for every single question and finally handed in his quiz forty minutes later, eight minutes after everybody else was finished. Mrs. Park gave him that look of dislike again and he smiled back at her – then she pursed her lips and turned around to continue yesterday's lecture.

At nine o'clock Haechan couldn't wait to get out of his seat – Chemistry was one of the only classes he had with Mark – but as he was following the boy out the door, he felt somebody grab his arm.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" It was Hana, speaking in a low voice, her brown eyes glistening with rare seriousness.

Haechan raised his eyebrow and looked at Mark – the boy glanced back, then lifted his arm to indicate that he understood and kept walking. Pulling Hana to the side, Haechan leaned against the wall and stuck his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, sure. What's up?" He frowned, concerned, but half expecting what she was going to say anyway.

"You and Mark…"

Thought so. Haechan sighed and braced himself.

"…Aren't you supposed to be helping me get close to him?" Hana said, sounding hesitant.

"Yeah… well, I'm trying…" Haechan said doggedly. "But I gotta be friends with him first, don't I?"

"I know, but," Hana scrunched up her face, looking pained. "He was so hung up on the game that he even canceled the movie with me! You're always getting in the way now."

Haechan felt his mind reel for a second and he blinked at her in shock. "Excuse me?" He said incredulously.

Hana bit her lip, avoiding his gaze. "Mark's more interested in you than he is in me. I'm not a guy, and I don't play soccer, I don't understand what you guys are talking about. Can't you just… leave us alone sometimes?"

"You're saying –" Haechan broke off, forcing himself to take a deep breath. Now you're blaming me for sacrificing myself to get you what you want? "Look," he said slowly, feeling his fists curl in his pockets. "Don't you think it's a little weird that you're getting jealous? I'm a guy, Hana, it shouldn't matter if I get close to Mark, he won't date me anyway." Haechan blinked, wondering why it felt like he was lying.

"But I don't have any chances to talk to him because he wants to talk to you," Hana complained. "Can't you give him a break?"

"I'm not the one starting conversations with him, Hana." Haechan snapped, regretting his tone a second later when Hana's eyes narrowed.

"Fine! I was just asking." She retorted spinning and walking quickly down the hall.

..................................

Mark's dark eyes were anxious as he met Haechan's look from across the room. Grimacing, Haechan skirted the edge of the classroom and took his seat next to the boy at the back, scavenging for his notebook even though he didn't feel like taking notes.

"What happened?" Mark murmured, glancing briefly at the whiteboard to copy Mr. Kim's diagram before turning his blazing gaze back to Haechan. "You don't look so happy…"

"Oh, it was nothing," Haechan lied. "I copied my chemistry homework from her so she was mad that I let you copy it without giving her credit." He chuckled. "She's got a point, I mean, she did all the work."

"Oh dang, I'm sorry." Mark said, looking genuinely sympathetic. "Seems like I'm always messing you guys up."

"No, what are you talking about?" Haechan laughed and gave him a shove, searching for a quick subject change. "Hey, can I borrow your notes later?"

"Huh?" Mark looked down, like he'd forgotten that he had taken notes. "Uh, yeah, sure." He paused, then his face blossomed into a smile.

Haechan shifted away, giving him a mock look of caution. "What's with the grin?"

Mark closed his eyes and his smile broadened as he shook his head. "Nothing." He said mysteriously, and turned his concentration back to the lesson.

.....................................

Why did he lie? Haechan puzzled over it the whole rest of the day. It really wasn't been a big deal – Mark knew that Hana had asked him to set them up. So why hadn't he wanted to