A:N/ Sorry it's another short one! Still, hopefully you'll enjoy it!

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“So, did you spend the night with Byunghyun?” Chunji's mother chirped excitedly eyeing her younger son.

Chunji's cheeks turned a light pink colour at the way his mother was looking at him. He just knew what she would ask him, if he said that he had; there was a mischievous glint in her eyes, that he couldn't ignore. He felt nervous at the look, and loudly exclaimed, “Mum! Of course not! I had my shower, and I went home again.”

She gave her son a look that just screamed that she was a little disappointed that he hadn't loosened up a little and just done something for the hell of it for a change. All of the men in their family seemed stiflingly rigid. Chunji had always seemed the most relaxed of them all; she would've thought that he would be able to get up to something interesting, to give her something to gossip about, for a change.

“Don't give me that look!” Chunji chided, pointing at his mother warily, “There are a million reasons why I couldn't do anything; why I wouldn't do anything, any one of which should be good enough to satisfy you.”

“Such as?” she questioned lightly, taking a sip of her drink as she eyed her son across the table.

“The fact that he's still a school kid? I kind of feel like a pedo just hanging around him.” Chunji confided, a small tremor of disgust racking his form.

“The things you come up with. He's six months younger than you Chanhee. An like that is meaningless!” She commented, waving off his concern.

“Or how about the fact that his mother would have come home to find some random boy she's never met staying at her house. I can just imagine the phone call you'd get for something like that! Not to mention the fact that I'd never be able to show my face around their house again. It'd make formal night so uncomfortable!” Chunji stated, trying again.

“I don't think that his mother would have been as concerned as you make out. Besides, the moment that you told her who you were, she'd probably be delighted to hear that Byunghyun invited you to stay over. From what I can gather, there's been a lot of concern on her part about whether or not Byunghyun would agree to this whole formal thing.” Chunji's mother explained, whispering conspiratorially as she revealed all of the gossip to her son. “Now care to tell me the real reason you said no?”

“It would have been awkward.” Chunji stated, with a ragged sigh. “You guys not getting along?” His mother enquired, sympathetically, giving her son a light pat on the arm to convey her empathy for the situation.

“I really have no idea about that kid, mum. He runs so hot and cold, you have no idea where you stand with him from one moment to the next. Even if you tried to ask him about it, he's so strange that the answer he'd give you would only make sense to himself, if he even gives you one at all!” Chunji huffed.

“So I take it that your attempts to make friends with Byunghyun haven't been going well?” she pushed gently, carefully observing her son's reaction to her statement.

“You could say that.” Chunji answered. “Thus far he only seems to acknowledge I exist, whenever I serve some purpose; when he can get something out of me. Someone to help with his school work, or his own personal taxi service. I'd think that he didn't care about me the slightest bit; that he was just using me. But he talks to me. I'm not sure that he's saying anything particularly important when we talk, but he is always talking with me.” he explained.

“His mother did say that Byunghyun has a hard time opening up to other people. But it sounds as though he likes you; give him some time, I'm sure he likes you. He would've said something by now, if he didn't.” Chunji's mother commented, trying to give her son some hope about this new friend of his.

“Maybe he already did.” Chunji commented, distractedly brushing his fringe away from his eyes, before rubbing at the corner of his eyes, annoyed.

“We would have been told if L. Joe had changed his mind about the whole thing.” Chunji's mother assured him.

“Changed his mind? I thought you said his mother said he had been pretty stubborn about this whole thing?” Chunji questioned, convinced that his mother must have misspoken. He knew that this whole plan had been something their parents had arranged, without consulting either of them. He knew that L. Joe was going along with it, from their conversations together. But L. Joe hadn't seemed to particularly care about the whole thing one way or the other.

“She did. But that was before. You mean I didn't tell you? Your father told me that L. Joe's mum contacted him the day after you first drove him home.” Chunji's mother explained. Chunji groaned, hiding his face in his hands, “Don't remind me about that. He made me feel like a complete idiot.” His mother smiled at him kindly, despite knowing her son couldn't see the look, before she continued. “Apparently, when his mother came home from work that evening, he told her that he would go along with the whole thing. You might've felt stupid, but it seems like you won him over.”

The news stunned Chunji, since he'd thought that L. Joe was just going along with this whole thing, silently; unwillingly. He'd thought that he had humiliated himself in front of L. Joe that day, what with the way the other boy looked at him; . But really L. Joe had agreed to the whole thing after he'd started talking to him?

But then he tugged at his hair, irately, more confused than ever. “I really don't understand that kid, now!” he exclaimed, drawing a ragged breath to try and suppress his frustration. “I don't even get why all this is happening in the first place!” Chunji huffed.

“Chanhee, we've already discussed this. His mother asked if you would take Byunghyun to his formal, because he is new to the country and has difficulty making friends.” his mother explained, unsure what Chunji found so difficult to comprehend about that concept. Chunji eyed her for a moment, “There are already several things in that statement that I find confusingly suspect, but you don't get it mum. If you saw him...” Chunji tried to explain but his words left him in a rush.

“If I saw him?” she murmured, trying to understand what her son could have meant by the statement. Her gaze flashed about, as she tried to think of an appropriate solution, her face lighting up with recognition when she found one. “Oh you mean he's good looking?”

Chunji nodded, distractedly. He'd thought the same thing to himself many times since he first met L. Joe, and yet the words seemed to assume some sort of deeper meaning all of a sudden. He found L. Joe attractive? How could he not have paid this any real amount of attention before? “He's got a kind of slight build, and he has blonde hair that's all in his eyes, but you just get this vibe from him that makes him seem ten times as big. You just get this vibe of a really confident, devil-may-care type of lonerish teenager. But when you talk to him, he's kind of...deep.... He's cool.” Chunji shrugged, that last word striking something within him.

How had he never really noticed that he found L. Joe both attractive and cool until now?

“Just because someone's attractive, smart and cool doesn't mean that they get a date for their formal you know. You are the most attractive boy I know, and the smartest too. I'm not sure how far those traits go towards coolness in this day and age, not that I find coolness to be a reliable judge of character anyway. But you didn't have a date either!” his mother pointed out, cooing defensively over her youngest son.

“Mum!” Chunji exclaimed, rolling his eyes. “We've been over this. My formal wasn't that big a deal; only people that were dating someone at the school took a date to the formal. Besides, being smart has never translated into being cool in the history of the universe.”

His mother huffed at her son's admonishment, but noticed the way he smiled a little, when he considered what she had said. “Did he really say that he wanted to go to the formal with me?”