“Kevin! Come on already!” Dongho dragged a tired Kevin all the way to school, “you should really stop staying out so late. I'm running out of things to tell my mom.”

Kevin yawned, “I don't mean to. It just happens.”

Kevin had moved in with Dongho's family around the time that his parents split up. He tried living in two different houses which were in two different cities, but he hated it. He missed Dongho too much and his parents could see he was heartbroken to not have his best friend around over something that didn't even involve him. He liked living there. It was peaceful and there wasn't any fighting at all. A few months ago Dongho met and started dating a boy named Soohyun Shin, who had a friend named Kiseop Lee that Kevin started dating around the same time. Kevin was happy that Dongho had found someone to make him happy, but he always felt something was off with him and Kiseop. He couldn't figure out what so he usually let it slide even though the two of them had been fighting so much recently.

“Hey! There they are!” Kevin snapped out of his zombie trance and looked up to see Hoon waving at the top of the cement staircase with AJ leaning against the wall behind him, “we thought you two weren't going to make it!”

“Oh trust me we weren't with Zombie Kevin here,” Dongho nudged him a little chuckling.

“Bad day to be a zombie Kev,” AJ patted his arm lightly, “we got a new student coming today, so Kiseop might have some competition.”

Kevin shook his head, “I'm not like that AJ. Definitely not that easy.”

AJ put his hands up in defence, “alright. I wasn't saying that you were.”

They made their way into the classroom and took their rightful seats. Kevin saw Kiseop in the corner talking with the popular girls who were laughing like a bunch of crazy hyenas and flipping their hair every chance they got. He rolled his eyes and started unpacking his books for the day. Plastic girls annoyed him.

A shadow loomed over him after a minute or two. He looked up to see Kiseop standing over him, “hey there cutie. You look a lot like my boyfriend. I miss him.”

“Hm. That's funny. I thought he was over there with you. Oh wait. Those are girls,” Kevin rolled his eyes.

“Ice treatment today Kev? What did I do now?”

Kevin shook his head, “I definitely do not want to talk to you. Just go and sit down over there.”

Kiseop nodded and went over to sit in his desk looking at Kevin every few minutes to see if he would look back. He didn't. Not once.

The teacher came in to start the day and introduce the new student to the class. He wasn't really paying attention until he heard his name.

“You'll be sitting over there beside Kevin.”

Oh great. I hope he's not a jerk. Kevin looked up to see the new student sit beside him. He looked over and waved, “Hi. I'm Eli.”

“Kevin.”

“Nice to meet you, Kevin,” Eli smiled a bit.

“Kevin,” his teacher interrupted them, “why don't you let Eli borrow your notes for the pop quiz today?”

Kevin nodded and passed over some of his neatly kept notes to the other boy, “more than likely it's all of these.”

“Thank you,” Eli smiled, “hey. Want to hang out at lunch? Since I'm new and all.”

Kevin nodded, “sure. I'll introduce you to my friends and maybe you can be in our group.”

The next three hours of class were extremely long and boring. Kevin almost fell asleep three times as the background noises all started to bleed together. Oh how he wished for his pillow right then. Finally the bell rang which woke him up. He started gathering up his books and putting them back in his bag. He heard squeals coming from the far table and he knew which one.

“Oh he's so hot!”

“I wonder if he works out...”

“Do you think he'll take me to prom?”

Eli looked over as one of the girls came up to him, “Eli, you should come and hang out with us. You'll fit in nicely with our group.”

Eli smiled and shook his head, “no thanks. I've got plans already with Kevin.”

Kevin dropped his bag. It landed with a thud. He stared at Eli open-mouthed and wide-eyed. Did he really just say no to the popular girls to hang out with him?

They should make me feel special.

No brain. Stop over complicating this situation. You're hungry and tired.

Kevin walked over to where Eli was and lead him to his group of friends, “you can hang out with them if you want Eli. I'll understand.”

Eli shook his head, “no way. I made plans with you already.”

Kevin blushed a bit and turned to his group, “well these are my friends Dongho, Hoon and AJ.”

Dongho waved, “pleased to meet you Eli. I'd love to stick around but I have a date with Soohyun which I am late for. Try not to have too much fun without me!”

“Well I guess it'll be the four of us,” AJ put in, “I'll go save us a table.”

Dongho and AJ both left the room at the same time. Kevin shifted his bag strap on his shoulder.

“What's up with those girls anyways? Not enough boy toys?” Eli frowned, “they're annoying.”

“They beat Kevin up once,” Hoon said, “I felt so bad for him, and his boyfriend didn't do anything.”

“He didn't? Wow he sounds charming,” Eli rolled his eyes, “so what they beat you up because you're dating the guy they're all fighting over?”

“That. Amongst other things,” Kevin said quietly and looked away.

He remembered that night. They cornered him and beat him so badly trying to ruin his good looks. It wasn't his fault he looked so girly. He did tell Kiseop about it when he was crying and bleeding, but Kiseop said maybe they were just jealous and that he should stay away from them. He didn't know how he was supposed to do that since Kiseop was always there and not with him.

“We should go and meet AJ before he starts wondering what's taking us so long.”