A:N/ Let me just say that I love L. Joe in this story.....I've been holding that in just waiting for when he shows up to be able to say so. Anyway, enjoy the story!

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Chunji sighed unable to believe that he was actually about to do this. His parents had made it very clear to him that he wasn't going to get out of this favour. Chunji knew it had been kind of naive to hope that they might change their mind or that something else might come up, but he hadn't been able to suppress the wish all the same.

Just how pathetic did this guy have to be, for him to know months and months in advance that he wasn't going to be able to get a date of his own? He wouldn't have thought that boys in high school would have enough forethought to ask someone to be their date this early in the year. The formal was still months away.

Just how unpopular did a guy have to be in order to know this early that no one would ask him?

And for that matter why did he have to go with him? Yes, Chunji was the gay boy amongst his friends. But why would someone actually want to go to their formal with someone like him? He wasn't exactly an amazing catch or anything. Besides, weren't these events very uncomfortable? Why would this Byunghyun kid set out to make himself more of an outcast than he already was, by bringing another guy to his formal as his date?

There was so much about this whole thing that didn't make sense to Chunji. He found himself sitting there, picturing what this Byunghyun kid must look like. Trying to figure out what features he must've had that would make him so unattractive to the other kids at his school.

He knew absolutely nothing about him, except for the fact that he apparently had pink hair right now. His parents had let that one, little detail slip when he asked them where he'd be able to find Byunghyun. He didn't really know what to expect from the sort of boy that dyes his hair pink. But he knew it would have been childish, pointless and immature of him not to try and make a connection with the other boy.

It wouldn't make any of this easier to detail with, if he just pretended the other boy didn't exist; that the favour he was supposed to extend to him, didn't exist. As his mother had pointed out, if they started talking and became friends, it might even make the whole situation much easier to deal with when the time came.

Chunji didn't really have any friends of his own. He'd lost most of them when he'd decided to go to university. He was a lot smarter than the kids he'd hung around with at school, and so he'd been able to get accepted to a better institution than they had. He could have attended the local university anyway, but there was something about the idea of independence and freedom awaiting him in the city that had called to him.

He had always just assumed that he'd make more friends at university. However the environment wasn't exactly what he'd call conducive to the formation of friendships. Classes had several hundred students in them, and everyone seemed to have their futures mapped out. The kids he'd see in one class this semester, he'd never see again, their plans pulling them in an entirely different direction, than Chunji was headed. He felt like he was the only kid doing what he was doing in the entire place.

Maybe it'd be nice to make a new friend. It'd be nice to have someone to talk to for a change.

So that was how Chunji managed to find himself in his current predicament. He was waiting out the front of this Byunghyun kid's school, waiting for the kids to leave for the day. He scuffed the ground with the toe of his shoe, wishing that the kids would just hurry up and leave. This was going to be awkward enough as it was, him never having spoken to this Byunghyun kid before.

He'd been at university earlier in the day, and he had more classes tomorrow. It was still going to take him a while to get home even when he had finished speaking with Byunghyun. And he had some work he needed to do this evening. Why couldn't this weird, unpopular pink haired kid just hurry up and get out of school already?

The bell rang, but the kids seemed sluggish about leaving the place. Chunji might have been a nerd in his days at school, but he didn't think he could remember ever taking this long to leave the school grounds at the end of the day. Didn't these kids understand that they were now free? Why weren't they running for their lives?

Kids today! They were only a year younger than Chunji himself, and yet he felt like they were living in parallel universes or something. He couldn't understand these kids. His heart raced as he realised this was the moment that he'd been waiting for, as he spied the sea of kids making their way towards the front gate. A momentarily horrified thought wandered into Chunji's brain that perhaps Byunghyun used the back gate to get out of the school.

As he tried to observe the heads of all the students as they walked past, all he could see was black hair. Occasionally he'd spy the odd person with bleached hair, but there was nothing else to be seen. Row after row of black haired school kids.

Chunji was starting to think that he must've gone to the wrong gate. That he'd just have to come back the next day and go to the other gate next time. He felt a little relieved that he wasn't going to have to speak to this pink haired Byunghyun boy today. He'd always been really bad at speaking to people when he first met them; he felt awkward and nervous and it made his throat stop working properly.

But then a tuft of curly pink hair caught his eye, and he felt like he couldn't breathe. It was a darker shade of pink than he'd been expecting, but for that he felt relieved. When he'd heard that this boy had pink hair he'd immediately started picturing a boy with hair as pink as a highlighter. For some reason he just couldn't see that suiting this kid. Or perhaps a really bright hot pink or something, but again, he'd been worried about how it would look.

This was softer; duller, but in a way it made it seem almost natural. Even with pink hair, it seemed as though it just blended and mellowed with the crowd of people surrounding him. How was it possible for a person with pink hair to nearly seem invisible in a crowd of people?

He gave this Byunghyun kid a thorough once over, unable to help himself. He wanted to size up the boy that he'd be taking to the formal. He noticed immediately that the boy had a very delicate frame. He was shorter than the other students around him, so that it was easy to lose sight of him. He had a slight build and narrow shoulders. He was so tiny that it made him look kind of adorable. His face wasn't bad either.

Why would a kid like this need a favour to get a date to his formal?

He could vaguely recall his parents mentioning something about being new to the country. Something about finding it difficult to make friends. But one look at him told Chunji that this still shouldn't have meant that he needed to take Chunji with him to the formal.

To be honest, Chunji felt a little embarrassed at the thought of being introduced. Byunghyun was kind of cute. Kind of really cute. The sort of person that didn't look as though he'd need to rely on his mother to ask her friends to find him a date. So what if he didn't have any friends and was new to the school? He was cute enough that there must've been at least a few girls or guys in his grade prepared to go with him.

What was Chunji compared to a kid like that? Byunghyun looked as though he should have been really popular, because of how attractive he was, whereas Chunji knew that he himself was not. He was a kid so nerdy that he had no friends at university. He wasn't much to look at. He felt more like a nobody than usual, just from looking at this kid.

How was he supposed to talk to him?

If he didn't move quickly Byunghyun would walk past him. He'd miss his chance to speak to the younger boy. That was the only reason that he was out here in front of the school in the first place.

Still he hesitated, unable to force his vocal chords to start working immediately. Did his parents have any idea how embarrassing this was for him?

“B-B-Byunghyun?” he questioned. This was the only pink haired kid that he'd seen leave the school, but it still occurred to him that he might've gone to the wrong gate, or that Byunghyun may not have attended school that day. He had no idea what Byunghyun looked like; he could very easily have gotten him mistaken for someone else.

This whole thing was embarrassing enough without adding in mistaken identity.

Chunji wondered if he'd spoken loudly enough, or if he'd even spoken at all. Perhaps he'd completely imagined saying anything to the other boy. He was about to call out to him once again, a little louder, to check whether or not he'd gotten the right person, when the boy's steps slowed.

He eyed Chunji thoroughly, gaze curious as he observed the boy, clearly trying to work out whether he'd seen him somewhere before or not. Chunji could see in his eyes that the boy didn't recognise him, a fact which didn't surprise him. They had never met after all. He would have been more confused if Byunghyun had recognised him. Clearly having decided that he didn't recognise the boy before him, the younger boy looked as though he were going to question him.

“Byunghyun?” he tried again, wondering if the other boy was indeed called Byunghyun or not. Perhaps he'd just realised that Chunji was trying to talk to him, and had stopped despite the fact that his name was not Byunghyun.

The shorter boy rolled his eyes, irritation seeping into his look, as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, clearly unimpressed with Chunji. He wondered if that meant that this was indeed Byunghyun, or if the boy was sick of being referred to by a different name. Either way, Chunji was pretty sure that this would be a good example of a bad first meeting. He'd only said two things and already things were not going well.

“Stop calling me that! I go by L. Joe, okay?” the younger boy muttered softly. Despite his soft voice, Chunji still flinched slightly hearing the anger in his tone. Clearly he'd managed to make a bad impression on the other boy, if he was angry with him already. Suddenly this idea seemed even more stupid than it had before.

Somehow he doubted that he'd be making friends with the boy before him any time soon.

“L. Joe?” he questioned, fumbling with the unusual name. Chunji wasn't used to saying foreign sounding words, and he wanted to make sure he was saying it correctly, since it was apparently the boy's name.

L. Joe just shook his head, scoffing to himself lightly as though he thought Chunji was some sort of idiot, struggling to pronounce his name. Chunji supposed that was understandable, it wasn't often that people had trouble pronouncing their own names at their age. “Yeah, that's right.” he commented, regarding Chunji like he was a crazy person or something. “What? You've never had a name you were called other than your given name?”

“Yeah I have. My friends always called me Chunji, even though my name is Chanhee.” he responded, feeling awkward and uncomfortable. Who did this kid think he was interrogating him like that; making him feel weird. He was doing this kid a favour and all he wanted to do was give him attitude.

The conversation lulled, and Chunji wondered what he should say next. It seemed as though L. Joe had recognised his name, but it was only a flicker and then it was gone, and he said nothing. Perhaps L. Joe didn't even know why Chunji was speaking to him? He wasn't sure what he was waiting for, but the silence felt too strained to him; too tense, as though L. Joe was waiting for something. “Ah... I'm not sure how to put this, but.... I think our parents are friends... they told me... you... ugh... about formal...?” Chunji trailed off, gesturing awkwardly when he was met by no response from L. Joe.

L. Joe sighed, seemingly taking a little bit of sympathy on the boy before him. “Formal is months away yet. Why did you want to speak with me today?” he pressed, clearly wanting a quick, simple answer from the other boy. Chunji shuffled slightly, feeling extremely uncomfortable with the way this meeting was going.

“Well I mean, we haven't met each other, and we don't have any way of contacting one another or anything, and I figured, if anything came up we... yeah, so... can we exchange phone numbers or something?” Chunji questioned. It was so hard asking someone that he didn't know to give him their number. He felt like he was hitting on L. Joe. Something about that action taking place in front of a school felt very wrong.

“Make it quick.” L. Joe commented, gaze floating around their surroundings, as though he'd forgotten that Chunji was even still there. Chunji felt like pouting realising that L. Joe wasn't the slightest bit interested in talking to him. If the boy was this cold to someone that was doing him a favour, no wonder he had trouble making friends in school; no wonder no one wanted to take him to his formal.

He fumbled about, struggling to withdraw a sheet of blank paper and a pen from his bag to write his number on, at such short notice. He nearly dropped everything multiple times, the items slipping between his fingers several times. He could feel his face darken at the thought of acting so uncoordinated in front of this L. Joe boy. L. Joe seemed so cool and laid back. He felt like he was humiliating himself.

But then again, he kind of was, wasn't he?

He quickly scribbled his number on the piece of paper, carefully tearing it, to give to the younger boy. He kept the paper and pen out, ready to pass over to L. Joe so that the younger boy could write his own mobile number on it, to give to Chunji. But instead the younger boy gave the digits a cursory glance, before folding the scrap of paper, and stuffing it into his pocket disinterestedly, and turning to walk away without so much as a goodbye.

“L. Joe? You didn't give me your number?” Chunji commented, wondering if the younger boy had forgotten that they were supposed to be exchanging mobile numbers right now, in his eagerness to leave Chunji behind. He expected L. Joe to start walking back over, after he was informed about his mistake. At last it was L. Joe stuffing up, and not Chunji himself. He'd feel a bit better about it, if he knew he was in similar company. Who knows, L. Joe's face might turn pink too, though it wouldn't have surprised him if his features remained as blank as they had ever since he first laid his eyes on the younger boy.

Instead, L. Joe turned around, walking backwards slowly, voice raised slightly to ensure that Chunji would catch his still slightly mumbled words. He even threw in a cocky grin to complete the look, “I don't give my number out to strangers.” before he continued on his way without a second glance.

Chunji felt like he'd been tricked. He felt like you did as a kid, when someone would hold out a treat to you, but the moment you went to grab it from their hand, they'd pull it away. He felt like he was being picked on by this boy. Just who did this L. Joe think that he was, humiliating him like that?