“Yah”, Chunji said after swallowing another roll of scalding hot noodles. He eagerly waved his hand in front of his face to cool his burning tongue down.

“What?”, L.Joe asked with his own mouth filled with noodles.
“What are we even doing?”, Chunji chuckled and grabbed L.Joe's wrist to prevent him from stressing down the food. L.Joe gave the boy a surprised look.
“Wae? I'm hungry too...”, he lied, but put down the chopsticks to sigh. “Fine, let's stop this then”.
“Good!”, Chunji laughed and raised his hand in the air. “Ahjumma, one bottle of soju please!”, he hollered.
“Yah, what soju? I don't like drinking and you definitely can't drink. We both know what happens whenever you drink anything with alcohol in it”.
“Oh come on! It's such a lovely night! And I haven't hung out with you alone for such a long time. Let's enjoy this to the fullest, eh?”.

To that, L.Joe couldn't say no. He hadn't hung out and had such a nice time with his old friend in years. Though he still was a minor, was alcohol something he had drunk many times before. Most of those time had things ended up pretty bad, since Chunji couldn't handle alcohol at all. Soju in particular.

“Fine. One drink. You heard that? ONE. O-N-E”.

But that number was one Chunji hadn't been taught in school, it seemed, as he filled his cup over and over again. The same went for L.Joe's. Everything turned out pretty smoothly however and the two shared stories only they knew of. It was beyond nice and easier for both of them to talk.

“You know...”, Chunji suddenly said and raised his empty glass in the air, making L.Joe laugh at the boy's stupidity.
“What?”, he said and brought Chunji's hand down to fill the cup. The boy chuckled cutely before emptying the cup in one shot.
“I never stopped loving you”, Chunji confessed after letting out a ksch sound with his teeth gritted together. “Not when you rejected me the very first time nor the time you said you liked girls and would rather be together with Hyuna. Nor did I stop loving you when I found out you had hooked up with Ricky”.
L.Joe swallowed and stared out in space. Here it goes, he thought and noticed how the bottle of soju they'd shared was now in Chunji's hand and he drank the last of it up.

“Chunji-ah”, he complained and grabbed the boy's wrist. “Don't go there. You know how I feel... about everything”.
The boy just smiled widely at him and patted him affectionately on the head, as if he had been the one rejected, and not Chunji. L.Joe cleared his throat and figured it was best to bring up another subject the two could talk about.

“I saw you with Changjo last week. Are you guys close?”, L.Joe asked with a sincere interest, but was ignored and instead brought back to the awkward subject about feelings.
“You know... I never gave up”, Chunji continued and yelled at the woman in the stand for another bottle of soju. “You got my letter, right? My letter of confession... again”.
L.Joe gulped and nodded. “I did”.
“You didn't reply to it though”, Chunji said with a pout as the older woman with black curls placed the bottle on their table, quite violently. The bottle let out a thump and the liquor inside shook from the small earthquake.
“Chunji, jebal”, L.Joe muttered and shut his eyes close.
“I don't understand what you see in Ricky, honestly. He's blunt, careless and... did you know about his family situation? His parents gambling, debts and what-not?”.
L.Joe's ears sharpened and he stared directly at the blond haired boy. What was he blabbering on about now, L.Joe thought. Though he doubted Chunji; that kid was one heck of an actor. He knew how to lie and how to make it sound real, it was a wonder the kid hadn't debuted as an actor.

“Don't lie”, L.Joe sighed and felt how he tensed up, just by the mention of Ricky. He felt himself drawn towards the curious direction, but the knowledge of Chunji's lies was also running on and off inside his head.
“I'm not”, Chunji said sternly and reached for the bottle, but L.Joe was a tad faster and placed it further away from the already drunk boy. “L.Joe-yah... I need to fill my empty heart with something, since my love has been rejected”.
“Don't joke around”, L.Joe hissed, feeling irritated with the boy. Sweat performed on L.Joe's forehead and he leaned closer to Chunji to give the boy a murderous eye. “Listen to me; you don't know about Ricky. Don't be nosy and remember; I'm in love with him. I will never accept your feelings, and if you're going to be like this, then I don't want us to be friends either. Understood?”.

A heart-breaking sound left Chunji's lips and he pouted. “I-I never meant to hurt your feelings, Hunnie-ah! I'm sorry, I won't ever do that again. Please forgive me”.
It was hard for L.Joe to tell whether his friend was acting or not, but his heart was somehow weak for Chunji, so he decided to trust in him. If that was a smart move or not would he find out sooner or later.

“I think we've drank enough today. Let's get going”, L.Joe said, not suggesting anything, but rather stating a fact. He got up from the plastic chair and pulled Chunji along with him. Though Chunji had insisted on paying for that meal, did L.Joe end up getting out his wallet to pay for the rather expensive meal, soju taking up ¾ of the prize.
He let out a sarcastic laugh and paid for the food and drinks, together with a huge tip almost twice the prize.
The old woman thanked him and looked suspiciously at Chunji. “That boy sure likes to drink... you should take him home to make sure he don't do anything stupid”.
L.Joe nodded and gave her a half halfheartedly bow before muttering that he wouldn't let Chunji out of his sight, which was something Chunji heard and smirked.

 

The next day, did Ricky slowly walk to school with his navy-blue backpack on his back and a sulked expression spread over his face. He was embarrassed and a little scared that he had hurt L.Joe's feelings by not calling him. He knew what was waiting for him inside the gates of the school; a furious platinum blonde boy. Some people liked their partners when they were angry, they found it cute. Ricky was not one of those people.

“Cheer up, smurfie!”, someone yelled from the other side of the street. Ricky looked to the side and met with a quite happy Changjo that strutted up the street in a pair of casual denim jeans and loose, white t-shirt with V-neck. “This day is waaay to beautiful to be destroyed by that face”.
Ricky made a grimace at the supposedly same-aged boy. “Yah, I'm not making a face. Who is ever happy about going to school?”.
Changjo responded with an even uglier grimace that made Ricky laugh. “Judging by the little I know about you, you like school. You are one of those who've never come late to class, scolded by your teacher or broken any rules”.
A blush spread out on Ricky's face and he stared at the kid who snickered in victory. “Y-yah, that's n-not true! I-I totally have broken the rules! And scoldings...”.
Changjo just waved his hand and out-voiced Ricky. “Yeah, yeah. Tell L.Joe hyung to make sure you keep smiling, otherwise, will he be in trouble. Bye Ricky!”.

With that, did the boy enter an alley, that in Ricky's eyes seemed pretty dark and not safe for a sophomore kid to walk through. Unless of course, Changjo was a part of a gang that was going to steal things. Or maybe he just didn't fear anything. No, that kid was too much of a softie to be a gang member, Ricky decided and glanced down on his wristwatch, only to receive a heart attack.

“AISH, TEN MINUTES UNTIL CLASS STARTS!”, he shouted panically and started running the last meters to the school. If he came in late, then Changjo was going to be in trouble.

However, Ricky just made it and walked in panting to the classroom. “Sorry I'm late”, he excused himself but only received a warm smile from his teacher Mr. Park.
“Actually... you're just on time, Changhyun-ssi”, the man said and pointed at an empty seat. “Please sit down. Everyone, take out your history books and start reading page 301”.

Ricky walked up to the only free seat that was, surprisingly enough next to Kevin. Ricky blinked a couple of times. Kevin wasn't in his class. What was going on?

“Hey, I didn't hear from you after Baek's party. Something happened?”, Kevin whispered with an almost inaudible voice.
Ricky thought for a while before the words got to him and he nodded. “I had some things to take care of, don't worry about it”.
Instead of asking any more questions, did Kevin nod and starting reading the said page. Ricky did the same after looking around the classroom, unknowingly looking for Baekhyun and Kai, only to mentally facepalm himself. Those two had gone to Seoul...

“I miss them too”, Kevin whispered as if he had read Ricky's mind. “Though I'm happy they've gone to fulfill their dreams... it's so quiet in the dorm”.
“Oh. It's only you, me and Chansung left”, Ricky stated with a slightly sad tune. “Chansung must be happy that Kai ain't there to trouble him though”.
“Actually”, Kevin replied. “Chansung changed dorm to Jonghyun's, so it's just you and me”.
Though Ricky wasn't surprised, he felt a little hurt that Chansung had done that. He had thought they were friends, or at least, okay with living together. Guess I was wrong, Ricky thought.

The class came to an end, and Ricky walked down the hall together with Kevin. It was nice being with Kevin. That calm and confident boy radiated happiness, though not quite as much as Baekhyun had done.

“Well, I have English now. See you at lunch, Ricky”, Kevin said cutely and continued down the hall to the last classroom where you learned advanced English, a class for “smarter” kids. Eunhee for example, and obviously Kevin. And L.Joe, since he'd lived in USA.

As for Ricky, he had the English for beginners, with... non of his friends, since Baek and Kai had gone to Seoul. Oh, how depressing Ricky thought. That meant he was going to sit by himself. Awesome.

He entered the classroom and sat down in the middle of the classroom, where he usually sat when he had English. He sighed, oh what fun it wasn't going to be from now on, he thought. Baekhyun and Kai were the crazy kids that weren't too serious during English, which probably was why he in the subject.
When suddenly, the chair next to him was being pulled out, did Ricky's depression-mode turn off and he turned his full attention to the brave, or stupid kid, who'd decided to sit down beside him, only to receive another shock when the familiar face of Changjo reached his brain.

“Omo! What are you doing here?”, Ricky almost squeaked and stared with wide eyes at the grinning brunette.
“Obviously, sitting beside you”, Changjo said his voice filled with sarcasm. “Wae?”.
“No, no, not that”, Ricky whined. “Why are you here? In my school? Aren't you suppose to be in your own?”.
“Oh that. Meh, I got bored. My teacher kicked me out of the classroom, since she thought I was too much of a nuisance”.
Ricky rolled his eyes, but nodded at Changjo to carry on. “So, I called her some things that made her angry, so she called the janitor who dragged me out school and said he was sick of me, and that he was going to discuss this with the principal”.
“Aish, Changjo”, Ricky growled and hit the boy on the back of his head. “Why are you being such a troublemaker, huh? Don't you want a good future?”.
The boy just laughed, after gritting his teeth and letting out a “yah”. “Well... I like it here. I don't mind staying with Chunji hyung forever”.
“Who says Chunji will want to be with you forever?”, Ricky asked and twiddled on his chair in an uncomfortable way, because the glare he received from the boy was quite threatening.
“He loves me. Just like everybody else; only difference is everybody except him, are in denial of that fact”, Changjo said, in an attempt to sound smart, which failed miserably.
Ricky gritted his teeth and bit the insides of his cheeks in order not to laugh out loud, because damn, that boy was full of himself.

“Yeah, denial...”, Ricky grinned. “You should go, I don't want to get in trouble”.
The boy smirked before obediently getting up from the chair, just when Mr. Jung entered the room, a smile that took all the female student's breaths away and male student's to roll their eyes.

“Hello class”, he said in a perfect American accent. “Oh, I haven't seen you around before. Are you new?”, Mr. Jung asked Changjo, who just shook his head.
“Nope. I just came to visit my friend Ricky for a short while. Carry on with the class”, Changjo said in a weak attempt at English, which made Ricky giggle. Oh, how cute the Korean-English accent was, he thought, especially the one Changjo used.
Mr. Jung gave him a warm smile and nodded. “I suggest you hurry before your class start, student. Wouldn't want you to get absence for nothing, eh?”.
That, did Mr. Jung talk in Korean, which Changjo thanked God for. “Ye, ssaeng. Will do. - And Ricky, don't joke around anymore. Your jokes aren't even funny to begin with”.

Thank you, Ricky thought as he gritted his teeth. Now did everyone in his class think he was someone who tried to be funny, but wasn't. But instead of growing a hature towards Changjo, did Ricky just smile. Maybe he could take Baekhyun's role, or something like that?

Like always, did the English class end very quickly and everyone had a good time listening to Mr. Jung's adventures in USA. He sure lived up to his reputation of being an angel-teacher. Not that Ricky understood everything that the man said, only some parts, like the one where he had gone on a road-trip through America with a couple of friends. Someday, Ricky thought, am I going to that with my friends.

He walked out of the classroom only to realize that Mr. Jung had let them go earlier, he bit his lip and wondered if maybe he should wait for L.Joe outside the advanced English classroom. Or, he could just... no, Ricky thought. I have to explain myself, L.Joe would surely understand.

He began to short promenade down the surprisingly empty hall to the last classroom, C305. Just being outside the classroom, made Ricky shiver. Not because he feared L.Joe, but he could feel that he did not belong there. Ever. The smartness radiated from the inside and out, slapping Ricky on the cheek.
Suddenly, did the door open and Kevin walked out of the classroom alongside with L.Joe, which was quite the sight, since they weren't really on the best terms. Or, maybe they had sort things out.

“Oh, Ricky”, Kevin said with a friendly smile. “I'll leave you two love-birds alone. Bye!”.

No, Ricky thought and awkwardly looked down on his feet. How do I even start, he wondered.

“Sorry for yesterday”, L.Joe said suddenly, making Ricky look up at the blonde wide wide, innocent deer-like eyes. “I ugh, I totally forgot. I was out with Chunji, and I forgot the time”.
Ricky felt a sudden relief wash over him and he grabbed L.Joe's hands, because judging by the said boy's expression, he truly was sorry.
“It's okay. I went out with Changjo and later found out it was his birthday; I'm sorry too”, Ricky said and heard a gasp leave L.Joe's lips.
“Damn! I totally forgot!”, he muttered and bit his lip. “I should buy him something...”.
“How about we get him something after school, hm?”, Ricky suggested and received a happy smile from the blonde.
“Sure! I really hate shopping, but since you're with me, I think I'll endure. Let's call it a date”.

Ricky just chuckled and allowed L.Joe to lay an arm around his shoulders while the two together walked to their third class.