He failed miserably Monday. Before he knew it he was in dreamland and suddenly the day was over. Hoodie-guy woke him up with a smile and left, before Yongguk could say anything. When he realized he had wasted a day he facepalmed. And when he got home, he found his notes not as he left them once more, with a small note. Hyosung scolded him for sleeping so deeply that evening, as she was the only one online, before she went on to talk about Trudi Canavan’s new book, which was ‘absolutely brilliant’. She then went on talking about how ‘you have to read this series’ and ‘ why is the next book not out yet’ and ‘it’s just not fair how she leaves off with a cliffhanger’. And Yongguk promised he would read them as soon as the last book was out, because he was of the sensible kind that didn’t read anything before all the books were out. He had learned that lesson from Patrick Rothfuss.

Tuesday he tried to stay awake. He really did. But they had math, and though he didn’t have anything against math, the teacher was a bore. When he talked, it was on a monotone note all the way through and then suddenly Yongguk was napping. The rest of the day was spent in a blur that he wouldn’t be able to remember, even if he tried. So he had to report back failure to Youngjae that evening.

The next three days didn’t get better. He ended up napping a little bit too much the rest of the days of the week, which led up to him sitting in front of his computer looking sheepishly into the camera. On his screen were his three very unimpressed friends, their faces almost copies, with their right eyebrows raised in disapproval. It would have been very funny, if it wasn’t for the actual purity of their feelings that they expressed.

Youngjae sighed heavily. “Did you even try?” he asked and rubbed his head like he had a headache.

“Yes!” Yongguk answered immediately. “I just couldn’t help it. I was so tired and the teachers are really boring.”

“Yongguk,” Daehyun started.

“I know,” he interrupted before his friend could get further. “I know I should go to bed earlier, and I did! I just couldn’t fall asleep.”

“Yongguk,” Daehyun said again.

“Turning around your sleep pattern is really hard!” Yongguk defended himself.

“I say he doesn’t get to know yet, raise your hand in favor,” Hyosung suggested and Yongguk saw all three of them raise their hands.

“Wait, but,” he started.

“No buts,” Youngjae interrupted.

“But,” Yongguk protested.

“No buts,” Youngjae repeated.

“Yeah, no butts for you,” Daehyun grinned. “Only for me. And a fine one it is,” he continued, winking at them.

“Oh shut it, you have no ,” Hyosung laughed.

“I have a little!” Daehyun protested. “But it wasn’t that one I was talking about. I was talking about the gorgeous Youngjae baby carries around.”

Hyosung facepalmed and Yongguk shook his head.

“My isn’t yours!” Youngjae exclaimed.

“I’ve claimed it as mine though,” Daehyun grinned.

“It’s still mine!” Youngjae protested.

“Nope,” Daehyun shook his head. “Go check it out in a mirror and you’ll see that I’ve claimed it.”

“Okaaay,” Hyosung interrupted them. “I think we’ve heard enough of that conversation.”

Daehyun grinned and Youngjae glared.

“Thank you,” Yongguk thanked Hyosung, who smiled in return.

“Back to the matter at hand though,” Youngjae started, with Daehyun throwing in a hopeful ‘my ?’, “I’m thinking we’ll give you another week. Get a clue and we’ll tell you, or we’re postponing it once more.”

“I second that,” Hyosung nodded.

“Anything my baby says,” Daehyun nodded with a smile.

“But,” Yongguk started.

“Yongguk, you can’t just go the easy way around this,” Hyosung told him. “Try to use your brain for once.”

“Hey! I use my brain all the time!” he protested.

“Yes, but you rarely use it for social matters nor for things like this,” Hyosung smiled softly. “It’s like it simply turns off and you turn into an oblivious idiot.”

“Well aren’t you nice,” Yongguk grumbled to himself.

“It’s true though,” Youngjae said and Daehyun nodded along.

“Gee, thanks,” he said with sarcasm thick in his voice.

“Don’t sulk, think about that art museum they’re opening in your city,” Hyosung laughed.

Yongguk couldn’t help but smile. They were opening a new museum just twenty minutes away with bus. He looked forward to going there. It was a shame his friends couldn’t come, but seeing as they lived in other places that were too far away, it couldn’t work out unless it was vacation.

“Now about my history assignment, could you guys help?” Daehyun smiled widely, with his most pitiful puppy eyes.

Saturday morning, Yongguk was woken up by his mother before she was off to work. She shook his shoulder while saying his name.

“Whazzat?” Yongguk mumbled, after identifying the body next to him as his mother.

“You have a guest,” she told him, looking a little like she was judging him for something. The small smile on her lips, told him she was also amused by the situation.

“A what?” Yongguk asked in confusion. What was a guest?

“A guest, Yongguk,” his mother told him again. “There’s a person in the living room who has come here to see you,” she continued, spelling it out for him.

“Oh,” he said, finally getting the concept.

“And you’re lying here sleeping!”

“Yes?”

“So, get up and put on some clothes! He’s your guest!” his mother exclaimed, her tone slightly exasperated.

“Okay,” he sighed and closed his eyes again. He had a guest.

Wait. He had a guest! Who was visiting him on a Saturday morning? Sitting up in bed he looked around in panic.

“Mom, who’s my guest?” he asked as he looked around his room for clean clothes. He knew three of the piles were dirty, but what about the last two?

“Himchan,” his mother answered. Yongguk looked at her in confusion.

“Who?”

“You don’t know him?”

“Uhm… I don’t know?” he answered sheepishly.

His mother chuckled. “He’s your height, has bunny teeth, black hair that you can only see a little of because of his hoodie,” she listed up.

“Ohhh, I know who he is,” he interrupted. It was hoodie-guy.

“You should start learning your friend’s names,” his mother told him and stood up. “Also, get dressed, you don’t want to keep your guest waiting.”

“Oh yeah, ,” he said as he jumped out of bed and picked up a shirt from one of the piles of clothes that might be clean, and smelled it. It didn’t stink, that was the clean pile.

“Remember to brush your teeth,” his mother told him as he struggled to put on a pair of jeans and she went out. With clothes on, he brushed a hand through his hair and hoped it looked okay. With that he went to the living room where hoodie-guy was sitting in the couch.

“Hi,” Yongguk greeted him a bit nervously.

“Hey,” hoodie-guy smiled back.

“Sorry about that, I forgot to set up my alarm last night,” he apologized to the other.

“It’s 3 o’clock, when did you even go to sleep?” the other asked, amusement clear.

“Uhm, at 8,” he answered.

“That early in the evening?”

“Uh, no. In the morning,” Yongguk answered sheepishly while scratching the back of his neck. Hoodie-guy let out a joyful laughter.

“I’m not even that surprised,” hoodie-guy told him between laughs. “I’m guessing you don’t go that much earlier to sleep on school days, with the way you sleep the day away?”

“Not really,” he admitted to the other.

“How do you keep up with school?”

“I study at night. I don’t like being awake during the day, the sun makes me sleepy,” Yongguk told hoodie-guy who nodded, smile still present on his lips.

“Should we eat before we start then?” hoodie-guy asked.

“Nah, I’m fine,” Yongguk waved him off and the other nodded and pulled a backpack up from the floor.

“I have the books with me again, so we can look through them again,” he told Yongguk as he dug out the books.

“Great,” Yongguk nodded and went over to sit next to the other.

They worked in silence for a while, reading and noting down things in their notebooks. It was comfortable like last time and Yongguk almost forgot the other was there. There were moments where they would share a detail and it was just really comfortable. He was surprised he found it that easy with the other.

When they had read everything in the books, they switched notes and read through them. Hoodie-guy had a pretty handwriting. It was a lot prettier than the one he had. But somehow hoodie-guy could read most of what Yongguk had written. It was only a couple of times that he needed help to figure out what word was scribbled.

Hoodie-guy had a good humor as well. There were a lot of little comments throughout everything he had noted down. Most of them held a rather dry tone in them, that made Yongguk smile to himself. Some of it probably shouldn’t be mentioned in their project, but it was enjoyable all the same. Hoodie-guy seemed like an increasingly nice and funny person. And comfortable. It was really weird.

“Okay, so before we start discussing what we should include and what not, I think we should get something to eat,” hoodie-guy said.

Yongguk looked up from the paper in his hands. “Yeah sure, you hungry?” he asked.

“Yes, but not as much as you,” hoodie-guy told him and Yongguk raised an eyebrow in question. “Your stomach has been growling for the past fifteen minutes without you noticing,” the other explained.

Yongguk could feel a slight blush warming his cheeks. “Oh,” he said.

Hoodie-guy chuckled. “You are oblivious to many things, aren’t you?” he smiled softly, the words fond instead of mocking.

“Well, I just don’t notice some things when I’m occupied with other more important things,” Yongguk tried to explain.

“I figured you were a fan of history last time, but it seems like you’re interested in politics as well from what I’ve read on these papers,” hoodie-guy said and held up the papers.

“More like interested the country is lead in a good direction instead of ending in a government ruled by corruption,” Yongguk said.

“That’s also a good reason to involve yourself in politics,” hoodie-guy nodded. “I’ll have to admit I don’t follow a lot of politics, but someone like you could make a difference in the world someday.”

Yongguk could feel a warmth spread throughout his entire body at the thoughtful comment. That’s what he wanted to do. Make a difference. A difference that led down a path of diversity and open mindsets and less corruption. It was a rather hard goal to reach, but he was going to try.

“I, on the other hand, only want to change one thing right now,” hoodie-guy smiled. “And that’s to change my stomach from being hungry to being full, and yours too.”

Yongguk laughed. “Our fridge is full, so that won’t be a problem,” he told the other.

That night (midnight and later), as he talked to his friends, he retold his day with hoodie-guy. He had really enjoyed his time with the other as they worked on the project, so naturally he wanted to tell someone about it. And not his parents as they had gone to bed as soon as they got home from work.

“Youngjae, Hyosung,” Daehyun stage whispered, interrupting Yongguk. “I smell something.”

“What?” Hyosung asked, looking like she was expecting the worst. Yongguk was just a bit irritated that he was interrupted again, but it was fine really. His friends were like that, when he started a long monologue.

“It’s a sweet smell,” Daehyun said as he sniffed around.

“Is your father stress baking again?” Youngjae asked, looking interested. “If so, I’m coming over tomorrow.”

“No, no, that’s not it,” Daehyun shook his head. “I think it’s coming from Yongguk.”

“What? You can’t smell through a screen?” Yongguk replied, feeling very confused.

“Yes, yes, it’s from Yongguk,” Daehyun nodded to himself. “A sweet, crushing smell.”

Youngjae looked like he got what was going on and started sniffing around as well. “Yeah, I get what you mean. It’s definitely from Yongguk,” he nodded.

Now Yongguk felt really confused and Hyosung looked like she was lost as well.

“Hyosung, it’s a crushing sweet, lovely smell,” Youngjae said, as if that explained everything.

“Ohhh,” Hyosung said as she smiled, obviously getting what was going on. Yongguk was still confused.

“What?” he asked his friends, still confused.

“Ahh, the young,” Hyosung smiled smugly. “So innocent.”

“What?” he asked again.

“You’ll know when you’re older,” Youngjae told him with a grin.

“Guys, what?” he asked once more, still confused.

“Don’t worry Yongguk, you’ll figure it out eventually,” Daehyun laughed. “Nothing gets past you.”

The two others burst out laughing as Yongguk scowled at them. He needed better friends.

And there is chapter 4.

Would've updated this weekend, but I forgot. Oops?

Anyways, I hope you have a nice day, I've certainly had one. ^^

Peace out (^_^)v