”Oh yeah? Then why did you choose Lee Byunghun over me?”.

Ricky stared at the girl with disbelief in his eyes. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. Maybe... he had heard it all wrong? Yes, that must be it. He had heard it wrong. But then... why did she look so hurt and so fragile? She looked as if she had just revealed a big secret that had haunted her for a long period of time.
Ricky didn't know what to respond to that. There was nothing he could say that would take the pain away from her, nor would it make her happier. If it had been two months ago, he could answer that question without a single doubt. He would've let Eunhee know that what he was feeling towards L.Joe was nothing but a friendship. But now... he honestly had no idea what to answer her.

“Eunhee-yah”, he started with a low voice and reached for her hand. He had no idea what he was doing nor why he was doing what he was doing. It was an unconscious feeling inside of him that told him what to do.
“It wasn't a choice I made. If it was, then I without a doubt would've chosen you. I can't control my feelings towards him and it drives me crazy”.
The crack in his voice at the end of the sentence made Eunhee shiver, because she could relate in what Ricky was telling her. Even though it was clear that she didn't want to. Ricky squeezed her hand and noticed how his sight turned slightly blurry.

“You love him... don't you?”, Eunhee whispered with a soft voice and gave Ricky a small, yet gentle smile.
A blush appeared over his cheeks and he looked away. Even though what she had said was more of a statement than a question, it had startled him. But hearing it made Ricky realize that maybe that was what felt for L.Joe. Love.

“I guess I... have to let go of you, Ricky”, Eunhee sighed suddenly and let go of Ricky's hand. Her face was pale and her eyes gossiped that she at any time would burst out in tears. But there was also a knowledge inside of the shiny eyes. She knew that Ricky would never look at her the way he looked at L.Joe.
And what came like another surprise, was when she smiled and looked down at his books. Ricky saw how she ran the back of her hand against her nose and then looked back at him.
“Let's study hard till lunch, arasso?”, Eunhee suggested with a friendly voice.

When the two had studied for another hour and helped each other out with whatever they needed help with. In Ricky's case, it was English. When getting a few pointers on how to improve and memorize the different words that was rather difficult in Ricky's opinion, it felt a little like he was betraying his L.Joe who had lived in the States for such a long time.
Eunhee stretched out her arms in the air and made a little grunt. Ricky chuckled and leaned back in the chair.

“Sick of helping this retard already?”, Ricky chuckled and nervously scratched the back of his head in a gesture of pure innocence.
Eunhee rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You're not a retard, Ricky-yah. Everyone has their areas in where they find things difficult. But I know how you feel, I've been there too. You just... need to encourage yourself and believe in yourself”.
The soft words that Eunhee said brought a smile over his lips and he nodded. She was right, if he believed in himself, then he could do it.

“Arasso Eunhee seongsaengnim”, Ricky teased and giggled. “Yah, I'm starving. Let's get lunch”.

He rose from the wooden chair and piled the books up in a tidy pile before he grabbed them and held them against his chest. Eunhee did the same, but walked over to one of the librarians to leave her books. The lady gave Eunhee a tired look but that changed when she realized that the books were in different languages. But before the lady could say something, had Eunhee spun around and jogged back to Ricky.
Ricky shook his head over her cute expression when she arrived and the two left the library.

After leaving the books in his dorm, Ricky and Eunhee walked straight to the school's cafeteria. They were welcomed by Kai who stood in the line to get his lunch. The taller boy waved at them to stand after him, but by the look of the students before them, they shouldn't.

“Yah, you wanna die?”, Kai sneered to the older students and dragged Ricky over to him in the line. “Or no, let me rephrase that: you want L.Joe-ssi to kill you?”.
Ricky pouted at his dramatic friend, but decided not to say anything. He was too hungry to do so. When it finally was their turn to grab their tray, Ricky was so hungry that his stomach let out an angry growl, reminding him how hungry he really was. Kai heard this and patted his head.

“Geez, did that Blondie forget to feed you or something?”, Kai asked jokingly and filled his tray with two bowls of rice and two bowls of instant noodles. As he grabbed his chopsticks, he turned to Ricky and wiggled his eyebrows. “Or maybe... he didn't feed you Enough?”.
Ricky blushed and gave the boy a punch in the side. “Y-yah... s-stop it already...”.
Instead of grunting in pain, Kai only laughed and walked over to an empty table. Ricky swallowed and one bowl of rice on the tray, some kimchi, coiled beef and added an empty bowl so that he could get himself some tofu soup later.
After filling his tray with the delicious food, he walked up to Kai and sat as far away from the boy as possible. He was still quite... embarrassed by what he had said and... even though he was innocent, he knew that Kai's brain wasn't the cleanest. In fact, it was filled with sinful thoughts and dirty things.
Eunhee joined them only seconds later and sat down beside Ricky. Her tray was almost empty. There were some kimbap rolls – or more correct, there were eight of them.

“Eunhee, you're gonna get fat if you eat so much”, Kai said sarcastically and stuffed his mouth full with noodles.
Ricky gave her a concerned eye. “You're... really not going to eat anything more?”.
Eunhee stuck out her tongue and picked one roll up and ate it whole. She finished the kimbap roll and stared directly at Kai with a dark glare. “You should think before you open your mouth to say something to me. Because last time I checked, we decided not to do so”.

Ricky raised one eyebrow at the drama in front of him. What had he missed?
Kai scoffed and swallowed. “Yeah, we did. And once again, I am reminded why we shouldn't. Because the bull that comes out of your mouth makes the blood in my veins to boil”.

“Shut up, Kim Jongin. The only one talking bull is You. Bragging about how you've slept with every girl in campus, when that's only to get back at your Nicole”.
Kai's eyes flashed pinch black and he leaned over the table to get closer to Eunhee. “Are you really in a position to judge me, Han Eunhee”.

Ricky saw how Eunhee froze and something pleading filled her eyes, begging Kai to stop. Ricky cleared his throat and broke the chilly atmosphere.
“Uhm...”, he began but noticed a certain blond haired boy walking inside the cafeteria. A smile formed his lips and he waved his hands to grab the boy's attention.
It only took L.Joe a few seconds to spot Ricky and once he did, he smiled brightly and hurried over to them and squeezed down beside Ricky and Eunhee, earning a sigh from the girl.

“Hi”, Ricky said with a shaky voice and felt L.Joe's arm around his neck and a soft kiss on his cheek. “Y-yah... there's people...”.
L.Joe chuckled. “So?”.
Kai wrinkled his nose over the scene in front of him, but then wiggled with his eyebrows again. Ricky noticed and blushed and scooted away from L.Joe a little bit. “And then there's byuntae Kai”.

L.Joe pouted at Ricky and grabbed Kai's tray. “Thanks for getting my food for me”. Kai widened his eyes and stared in disbelief at the blonde.
Ricky chuckled and saw how Kai bit his lips, rose from the table and walked back to the line and got himself new food. L.Joe rolled some noodles around the chopsticks and turned to Ricky.
“So, who was your study-buddy for today?”.
Ricky blinked a few times, then opened his mouth to get it filled with L.Joe's, or Kai's, noodles. He chewed and smiled with his eyes at his boyfriend and made an “ok” sign with his fingers.
“I helped Ricky oppa”, Eunhee answered and shot Kai a deadly glare when he returned to the table with his food, only this time he had got a bowl of rice and some fried chicken.
L.Joe nodded and twirled some more noodles around the chopsticks, but ate it himself.
“Well, at least you're being tutored by someone smart”, he said with his mouth full and shook his shoulders. “I'd be worried if it was Kai that were helping you out”.
Kai opened his mouth to comment that, but shut up and pouted instead. “Yah... I'm smart”.
L.Joe laughed. “And that's why you're failing in all of your classes? Because of Ricky's help, I'm getting straight B's and C's”.
Ricky smiled and felt happiness spread inside of his body. He hadn't really done much for L.Joe, and he could get straight A's if he had Eunhee to help him.

“Yeah well, I'm getting there”, Kai muttered. “Our Ricky didn't come home last night. Care to uh... explain that?”.

Ricky blushed and had a feeling that L.Joe would... fill Kai's mind with more dirtiness. And ofcourse, he was right.
He smirked over at Kai, and wiggled with his eyebrows. “Well... what other explanation is there other than us being in bed? My princess makes the iest sounds there. And he's really letting one know how he wants things done”, L.Joe said and grabbed Ricky's hand. He smiled gently at him and looked back to Kai. “If it wasn't Ricky, I'd fill you out on all the details, but he's mine and only mine”.
Ricky felt his heart skip a beat. The memory of the morning struck his mind. It had been perfect. They had given their everything to each other and Ricky had gotten to know what L.Joe really felt about him.
Eunhee wrinkled her nose and rose from the table. “I'll uhm... see you guys later”.

The three boys finished their meals, and made their way out of the cafeteria. Down the hallway, they could hear two familiar voices – Baekhyun and Kevin – arguing with each other like a dog and cat. Ricky rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe that those two were still fighting with each other. It was so stupid.

“Your ugly haircut makes you look fat”, Baekhyun sneered.
“You being short makes YOU look like a fat dwarf”, Kevin replied with a monotonous voice.
“YAH!”.
“Why are they still fighting?”, Ricky asked himself. “They are best friends for crying out loud...”.
Kai sighed. “Best friends fight too. Just like me and Eunhee. Only those two fight like that for an entire day, non-stop. Then, they get back together like a loving couple. Minus the loving”.
“Are you sure?”, Ricky asked, his voice filled with concern.
Kai nodded. “Yes. Being together all the time 24/7 does that to you. I'm glad I don't have a “best friend” anymore”.
Now, it was L.Joe's time to sigh. “You... are such a loser. I totally understand why you don't have a best friend”.

Ricky made a face to L.Joe, but was ignored. “And you're quite pathetic too, hoping that Nicole will fall for you. Listen to me when I tell you: she wont. Even though she doesn't show much appreciation to Jonghyun, she loves him and you're just someone she can have fun with. You said you were smart... but if that was the case, then you would've never fought for her, but for your friends instead. I'm just saying”.
The sharp tone of L.Joe's voice made things very clear, and Ricky felt sorry for Kai who had to hear that. Even though what he had said was true, it probably came out like a punch in the face instead of words of wisdom.

“Don't get me wrong, L.Joe-ssi”, Kai then said and swallowed. “But what I do and what I don't, is non of your business”.

Having that said, he quickened his pace down the hallway and turned to the left, where the gates were. Ricky blinked a few times then looked at L.Joe with something strict in his eyes, earning a bright smile.

“Why are you smiling?”, Ricky asked with disbelief in his voice. He couldn't understand how he could smile like that after saying those harsh words to Kai.
“Because I bet one million dollars that Kai went straight up to Eunhee”.
 

– author's note
I'll... leave it up to you guys on what RickJoe did. ;) Thank you guys for subscribing to this story. I know it's
not REALLY that great, but you've sticked around for 31 chapters already and... I'm so touched by it. And
I'm happy to be sharing this crazy story with you and reading all your comments... TEHE, always makes me
happy. :D
Mm... I wasn't going to write much down here, but I guess I did anyway. kekeke. AND it's christmas soon! I
bet yall are going to spend it with your families and relatives, right? *pouts* Well... for the first time ever,
I'm just going to be with my folks and my siblilngs. AND THAT'S SO SAD. *cries* I want to be with all of my
cousines, my aunts and their husbands and grandma and grandpa. gah, so sad. :'c
KYAAAAA, this gif just... drives my fangirl mind crazy. >w<