Lucas was roaming the school while thinking about the new football season. He was looking forward to it so much because it was his time to shine this year. He was hoping to make team captain next year, but he still had to follow Johnny for another year. He was happy Johnny was his mentor in everything, he often took out the time to learn him the ropes of everything. The boys on the team were already on board with this idea too, but of course he still had to earn it. There was nothing he desired more than being team captain of these guys. Even with the new recruits coming in later that day. 

He had training camp over the summer and had bonded greatly with everyone on the team. There had even been some rookies to join them in their training, chosen by the coach himself during the year in middle schools. They were a hand picked bunch, but showed lots of talent. Lucas had taken care of most of them during the camp too. He had earned some respect from them all and it made him smile to think about leading them. 

"You're here!" Johnny said while walking with him into school. Lucas smiled. He really thought of Johnny as his older brother. The family he never really had to part take in. Johnny always took his big brother role very serious too. He took him everywhere with him whenever he had time. It felt great to belong somewhere.

"Ready for try-outs later on?" Lucas joked while they walked the halls. 

"Of course. There is some really promising talent this year! I hope to have some new recruits to strengthen the team so I can hand it off properly next year", Johnny said this with great proud and it made Lucas a bit envious. Johnny had become team captain very early on, because they really needed one. He has been the team's backbone for so long. 

"I hope to be of help!" Lucas smiled and went into another corridor. He still needed his new books before class started. His locked had changed hallways over the year and it was a bit out of the way. He was lucky enough to be close to the bathroom here. No one really came down this corridor unless they really had to come get their books. That's why he felt a little at peace here. 

He went into the bathroom before trying to make it to class. It was completely desolated except for one stall. He heard a little scuffle behind the door, shuffling of shoes. He saw some special edition All Stars underneath the door. He didn't really think a lot of it and went about his business. After being in there for 5 minutes he heard some sobbing? Was someone really sobbing? 

"Hey, are you okay in there?" He asked while knocking on the stall. He felt very strange for some weird reason. He just stood there, in front of the stall. 

"I'm fine", he heard someone say softly. It made him even more anxious because it sounded like the person had indeed been crying. 

"Are you sure? You don't sound fine..." Lucas tried again, but there was no more response. He then left the space, it felt very strange to leave a crying person. That person had probably thought the same as him, that the place would be isolated. And now Lucas felt bad for intruding. Why did he have to go to the bathroom over there? 

He shook off the feeling while walking to class. He had to focus now, this year was going to be hard enough as it was. He didn't need more distractions. 

Meanwhile the boy exited his stall after the other boy had left. Jungwoo felt very bad because someone had caught him crying. At least they hadn't seen his face, that was a plus. Thank god for the stall he was in. Normally no one ever came to that bathroom, why would there be someone on the very first day of school? 

Jungwoo wiped his tears and re-did some of his eyeliner before exiting the bathroom. He was going to be strong for this first day. The crying was something of the past. He had to overcome this social anxiety of his, it was getting out of hand. It, of course, didn't help he didn't have any friends. Anywhere. He had no one to talk to ever. Which meant he just had to keep it all inside all of the time. At home no one was ever there to really care about him at all. That's why he had to be strong at school, at least keep up appearances. 

He made it to class without a lot of people trying to talk to him. He just totally clammed up whenever someone tried talking to him. It was weird he'd answered to the boy on the other side of the door. That boy had been wearing some very special Jordans. While coming into class he sat down at the back. On his right was Lucas, very popular boy with the girls. He was the epitome of what he could never be: social. The boy didn't have any problems conversing with everyone. Jungwoo was often very jealous of him. 

Lucas looked over to the boy next to him. He was ashamed to admit he didn't even know his name after being in so many classes together. But he always saw him alone, never talking or even trying to contact someone. It was weird for Lucas to observe this boy. In his daydreaming he dropped his pencil and reached over to the floor to get it. That's when Lucas recognized the shoes the strange boy was wearing. They were those very special All Stars he'd seen in the bathroom earlier. So this was the boy who was crying? Lucas felt a strange pull towards the boy for some reason. 

Jungwoo looked at Lucas. He felt the boy staring at him for some very weird reason. He looked back with a very fierce stare. This was his way of keeping people at a good distance from him. Most classmates avoided talking to him because they thought he was kind of scary with all of that make-up and black clothing. Jungwoo couldn't care less, that's the way he dressed to get people off his back. But this Lucas kid did not look away, instead he looked even more interested. This was scary, because Jungwoo felt like he was an animal in a cage. He felt like his heart was going to stop beating from the suffocating feeling he had. That's why he stood up and left the classroom. Only to notice Lucas had done the exact same thing and was following him. 

Jungwoo made a left and went into a bathroom again, he locked himself in a stall. Lucas entered and stopped in front of the one he was in. 

"Look, I know it was you earlier..." He said against the door. Lucas leaned his forehead against the door in defeat. "I want you to know I'm sorry, okay? It was something very personal I intruded on." 

Jungwoo was confused. Instead of asking why he had been crying, he was apologizing of intruding? What kind of guy was he even? 

"It's fine", Jungwoo whispered, trying not to be too loud and attract attention he didn't want at all. 

"But why? Why were you crying? It's not like I could probably ever understand, but I just wonder why?" Lucas turned around so his back was against the door, that's when he slid down and sat down against it. 

"You would never understand..." Jungwoo said in a low voice. 

"Try me?" Lucas asked and leaned his head back against the door. He was somehow desperate to know why this boy felt so sad. It was strange for him to feel this pull to anyone. 

"Have you ever felt alone? Like no one cares?" Jungwoo asked. "I have social anxiety and can't talk to a single soul." 

Lucas turned around to watch the door. He was surprised about that. He looked like he chose to be alone all of the time, but apparently there was much more going on with him. "You're right, I could never understand.. But I do know a few things about feeling alone..." Lucas let that out. He had never talked to anyone about his issues before. "But it sounds to me like you can talk to me for some reason?" 

Jungwoo thought about that for a little while. Of course no one really ever had it easy in life, but to think that someone as popular as Lucas even had issues... That's when he decided to open the door and literally let Lucas in. For some reason it felt okay to talk to him. Lucas looked very confused for a second, but recovered pretty quickly as he looked pleased. 

"I'm Jungwoo", he said because he was sure Lucas didn't know his name. No one ever did. 

"I'm Lucas", he said and shook Jungwoo's hand without thinking. But for some reason Jungwoo did not retract his hand. It felt good. It didn't feel forced at all. It was the beginning of a very beautiful friendship, that was for sure.