He was in class when he got the call. At first he was just plain embarrassed to have his phone going off like that. He'd been going to reject the call and just step outside, but one look at the screen told him it was L. Joe. To a certain extent he still wanted to just reject the call, and call him back later.

But L. Joe only called him when he needed him.

If L. Joe was calling him now, then that meant he needed something now. Chunji couldn't just abandon him; he couldn't leave him waiting. L. Joe was a friend.

So, with only a small bit of reluctance, Chunji scampered out of the classroom, leaving all of his possessions scattered around the seat he'd been sitting in. He wondered vaguely, whether or not he should be concerned that somebody would steal his things. But the lecture was ongoing; the lecturer would see if anyone tried to take his things. He was lucky that no one sat near him during lectures; there being only a few people in attendance, enabling them to spread out around the room.

He pressed the phone to his ear, “Hey, what's up?” he questioned, finding his anxiety mounting the longer there was only silence meeting his ear.

“Is this a mister Lee Chanhee?” an unfamiliar voice, queried, and immediately Chunji's heart leapt into his throat. What if this was one of those cases where L. Joe had died or was in the hospital and they were looking for a friend or family member. His heart lurched painfully at the thought of L. Joe being in pain; being injured.

“That's me.” Chunji confirmed, nodding hurriedly, all thoughts of his things and his lecture now far from his mind as he started to cycle through the possibilities of all that could have gone wrong and what he should do in each case.

“Ah, good. This is the school, we are calling to find out if you'd be able to come and collect Lee Byunghyun from school, to take him home as soon as possible?” the woman enquired, sounding like this was only one of a number of things she had to do this second.

Chunji had to swallow the lump of relief in his throat at her words before he was able to find the words to answer her. If it was the school, wanting him to take L. Joe home then that meant the other boy was okay. At least compared to his visions of impending doom from a moment earlier. “Of course. I'll be right there.” he assured the woman, snapping his phone shut when he heard a dial tone in response.

He dashed back inside the room, to pack up his things, a little unhappy to find that he had to leave his last lecture of the day early. He hated leaving class early. But he'd clearly needed to go get L. Joe right away.

L. Joe had to take priority over a single class.

Besides, the lecture slides would be up on the internet within a day.

With that he left, vaguely wondering what his classmates must've thought of that whole scene. He could only imagine what they would think had happened. He wondered if his sudden departure would make any impressions on his lecturer, but he doubted it. He didn't think the man even knew his name.

He couldn't help wondering what could have happened that would require him to come and collect L. Joe from school in the middle of the day. He could only think of two possibilities; fighting and injury. With L. Joe, which was it more likely to be?

- -

Chunji wandered into the school office a little reluctantly. He was afraid by the response that he'd be met with when he tried to collect L. Joe. The whole place was silent, making him feel uncomfortable. Then there was the fact that they'd called him to come and collect L. Joe, like he was his guardian or something.

Why did L. Joe always manage to make him feel like a pedo?

He stalked up to the front counter, tapping on the surface anxiously as he waited for someone to approach him. There were at least 5 office ladies in the room, but all of them were in the middle of different tasks. Even when they raised their heads and caught sight of him, they would just look back down, pretending that he wasn't there.

That annoyed him a little, and yet there wasn't anything Chunji could really do about it either. A woman briskly stormed past the desk, with some papers in her hand, setting them down at a photocopier nearby. While she was waiting for the copies to be made she turned to Chunji, “Can I help you?” she enquired politely.

“Ah, I'm here to pick up Lee Byunghyun. You guys called me about 20 minutes ago to ask me to take him home.” he explained, not too sure what to say to the woman. He'd never had to do something like this before. He was the baby of his family; he'd never been in a position to get someone else out of school.

Who knew what L. Joe had told them about him, that would enable him to come and get L. Joe. He didn't want to risk saying something incriminating, that would ruin whatever he was trying to do.

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion for a moment, but then she nodded, pulling a book out from underneath the counter. “Ah yes, Byunghyun. Please sign this, to show that you're signing him out of school for the day, and then the two of you can go.” she informed him helpfully, turning back to the photocopier, while Chunji filled out the book.

Thankfully, it didn't ask him anything too complicated. The date and time, his name and the name of the student he was signing out. He hadn't realised that it was so easy to get a kid out of high school.

That thought only made him feel creepier.

He put the pen down, pushing the book back across the counter, to the office ladies' side. He stood there, waiting patiently for the woman to notice, but she was entirely focused on the photocopying again. Another lady came over, putting the book away, and telling him “Just wait outside, Byunghyun will be round in a moment,.” before walking off.

Chunji walked out of the office again, waiting awkwardly. He guessed that she must've been going to get L. Joe.

A moment later, L. Joe came shuffling out of the other side of the office, his fringe flopping into his eyes, and his bag hanging limply between his fingertips as he made his way over to Chunji. Chunji wasn't really sure what he was supposed to say or do with the other boy now.

But standing outside of the front office of L. Joe's school didn't seem like the best place to ask. His fingers, attempted to wrap around the strap of L. Joe's bag, in order to help him, but L. Joe resisted. “Don't. It's too heavy for you to carry.” he informed the older boy softly. He sounded like he was in pain, but trying to ignore it.

Chunji wanted to argue with the shorter boy, but he had a feeling that L. Joe would be stubborn about it, so he just sighed, withdrawing his fingers. They crossed the road, making their way over to Chunji's car. L. Joe winced as he sank into the passenger seat, making Chunji worried. “So what happened? What's going on?” Chunji enquired, trying to sound calmer than he was feeling at the moment.

L. Joe didn't answer him right away, gaze distractedly fixed on the vents for the temperature controls of the car. “Can I stay at your place for a few days?” L. Joe asked, making no attempt to look at the other boy, as his fingers drummed on his right thigh, while he waited for an answer.

Chunji wanted to complain about L. Joe hiding what had happened from him. He wanted to demand that L. Joe answer him first, but he could tell that L. Joe was not in the mood. If he were to try saying anything like that, he would just ignore him; obstinately waiting for Chunji to answer him. “I'm not sure what your mum would think about that.” he sighed, observing the younger boy's response to his words.

L. Joe took a deep breath, his Adam's apple bobbing wildly, as he tried to answer as calmly as he possibly could, “She... She's really busy with work right now... I... The school says I need to stay with someone, so please... can I please stay with you... she won't mind, I promise.”

L. Joe didn't say please.

“Of course, you can.” he murmured, unable to stop the words from slipping between his lips. He still felt uncomfortable about the idea of bringing L. Joe back to his apartment, but he couldn't say no when L. Joe asked him like this. “Now, why did you get sent home?” Chunji asked.

“I should think that you'd want to know why they called you more.” L. Joe commented, glancing out of the passenger side window. “I want to know that too, but you haven't answered my first question yet.” Chunji answered with a shrug.

The silence that met his words, told Chunji that L. Joe had no intention of responding to him right now. The thought made him a little annoyed. Why did L. Joe take so much delight in aggravating him like this? Couldn't he tell that Chunji was worried about him? That he'd rushed right over to collect him, at a moment's notice? Did he really not care?

But then he caught L. Joe brushing away a few stray tears that were trickling down his cheeks, his gaze now fixed on the front windshield. “What's wrong?” Chunji murmured, not really expecting an answer to his question. L. Joe's eyes slid over to the older boy, who was focused on the road before him before he answered, fiddling with the coins Chunji had left in between the seats. “If you repeat this to anyone, I'll deny it...but this really hurts.”

Chunji mentally scoured L. Joe's body, unable to recall the sight of anything in particular that would indicate the younger boy was injured. He saw no blood or cuts or bruises. He didn't have a broken bone and he wasn't on crutches. He'd noticed all of that back at the school. He'd had no idea why L. Joe was leaving school at this time of day, and he'd suspected injury might've been the reason why. But he couldn't see anything to indicate that L. Joe was injured.

“What hurts so much?” Chunji questioned, wondering if L. Joe might not have been referring to physical but rather to emotional anguish, with that statement. He saw the way that L. Joe's lips turned up, in a small grin as he answered, “You'll see soon enough.” But he winced, when the car went over a speed bump.

He eyed their surroundings, intrigued, before waving Chunji off. “We don't need to go to my place.”

Chunji's eyebrows shot up in his confusion, and he slammed on his brake, knowing that he wasn't paying his full attention to the road, and not wanting to have an accident as a result. “But you're staying over my place now, because of your injuries. Won't you need clothing and stuff?”

L. Joe just grinned. “I already brought some things with me.” At Chunji's curious look, he simply shrugged, happily informing the older boy, “I was planning on staying over at your place today whether you liked it or not, so I came to school prepared.”

“You know it's not to late for me to just take you home.” Chunji informed the other boy smoothly, irritated by how cocky the younger boy was. “You can't do that to me Chunji! I'm injured; I need your love and care to get better!”

Surely, L. Joe had to know how uncomfortable he made Chunji feel when he said things like that, right?