6:02. It's 6:02 am and Eunjae is in school. School? That starts at 8. To be honest, she doesn't really know why she likes going to school early so much. Empty schools just seemed to interest her. Everything seems much prettier. School looks so much better when it's empty, she'd think every single morning. Although she's definitely not as grumpy as Myungsoo is, she hated the place almost as much as he does. 

Guys who act like dickheads, girls who act like baby es. It's all very annoying, actually. Maybe she just came early to see what it would feel like if school didn't . She was sitting on the bench where Myungsoo and Sungyeol usually stayed. Myungsoo's really something, she thought. He's silent and sometimes you notice during class that he spaces out and when he does, you never know what he's thinking about. But whatever it is.. he looks really sad whenever he thinks about it. Well, as sad as he can get. She pouted and put her face in her hands.

What the goes on in that guy's head?

"You thinking about patbingsoo?" She heard a low voice ask. She looked up and stared at the person who asked with wide eyes. He smirked.

"Y-- W-- Huh?" She asked in complete shock. She blinked several times to make sure it wasn't another person. Even pinched herself to make sure it wasn't a dream. But, no. It's Kim Myungsoo. 

--

So. What is Kim Myungsoo doing at school at 6:10 in the morning? He woke up really early for some odd reason and he found that he couldn't go back to sleep. He kept thinking about the band, the song, patbingsoo, his best friends, patbingsoo, the song, the rock competition, patbingsoo, how much school , patbingsoo, his dad, patbingsoo, the rock competition, patbingsoo. He started cursing his brain for being so ing annoying when he was trying to go back to sleep and he sat up and the first thing he saw was the note they passed to each other yesterday, sitting mockingly by his trash bin. 

Patbingsoo. He sighed and ruffled his hair in annoyance. God damn that girl.

He then remembered the fact that she loved going to school early and he spent the next five minutes contemplating what he's going to do. 

So he ended up walking to school early, earphones in his ears as usual, listening to the song. He looked up at the sky. The weather didn't look too good. It looked like it was gonna rain but, well, who cares, he hoped he got wet and got sick so he'd have a reason not to go to that hellhole we all call high school. He spotted her sitting on the bench they were sitting on yesterday. He remembers the rubix cube episode. He saw her pout and mess up her hair in frustration and he chuckled a bit. She's strange but definitely cute.

He walked up to her. "You thinking about patbingsoo?"

She looked at him with those puppy dog eyes in confusion and shock. "Y-- W-- Huh?"

"What?" He asked in amusement. "You're looking at me like I'm some kind of creature from another planet." She blinked a few times more and finally, composed herself.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"What? It's my school too." He said, casually taking a seat beside her.

"No-- I mean, you don't talk to me." She stuttered.

"Okay, so you want me to go back to not talking to you?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.

"No." She said instantly.

He smirked. "That's what I thought." 

"Why are you here early?" She asked. "You don't seem like the kind of guy who'd go to school early. You'd rather drink your own piss than be here." 

He sighed and leaned back and stretched his legs with a yawn. " While that is true.. Patbingsoo." 

She raised her eyebrows at him. "Isn't that my line?" He looked at her and for the first time, smiled. With teeth and all. Which made her smile bigger than he's ever seen her smile.

"You just smiled at me." She said in a small voice, pointing at him with a shaky finger.

"Uh.." He said, holding her finger, and setting her hand down on her lap. "I'm a human. I have emotions. I come in peace."

She shook her head a bit and rubbed her temples, trying to compose herself for the nth time since their conversation started. Is this really how quiet I am that when I actually speak, people think they're going insane, he thought.

"What do you mean by patbingsoo?" She asked after finally calming herself.

"I'm here to get you your patbingsoo." He said. She looked up at him with eyes full of hope and joy.

"REALLY?" She screamed, excitedly.

"God, keep your voice down, will you?" He asked, flinching at the volume of her voice.

"Sorry." She said, clearing her voice. "Like.. right now?" 

He nodded and stood up. "Like, right now." 

--

For some reason, Eunjae ended up walking with Kim Myungsoo to a patbingsoo place. Oh my ing god, how did this happen?  She asked over and over in her head. She has made so much improvement with him in a span of three days. He's known his classmates for probably four years or more and he's only known her for 3 days and she's here walking with him to a patbingsoo place where he's gonna treat her. They were walking in complete silence, side by side. He had two of his earphones in his ears and she could hear it because of the loud volume. It was that song that he got all sensitive about. So at this point, she knew better than to listen with him. It didn't take a genius to see that he does not like talking about that song. She glanced at him and saw the look on his face while listening to the song. There's something different about his face when he's listening to it than his usual emotionless face.

Well, it's honestly still pretty emotionless all in all, but there's a hint of sadness and.. anger? Emptiness? There's something in his eyes that she couldn't understand. He noticed her staring at him, and looked at her with those scary eyes of his. She looked away instantly. Well.. wasn't that awkward? He noticed her discomfort and he sighed. He took out one earphone and put it in her ear forcefully.

Nae saranghaneun geudaeyeo
Mujakjeong dallyeoga neoreul anneunda
Na saenggindaero ireoke
Geobeobsi dallyeoga neoreul anneunda
Areumdaun neol bolttaemyeon nae nae nae gaseumi teog

The song really was beautiful. It was her type of music. Something she can listen to before she sleeps, to make her feel better, while walking to school, while riding the bus.. and it's a song that reminds her of Myungsoo. She really wanted to know what the name of the song is and who sang it but.. 

His emotions were more important than her curiosity. 

"You're wondering about the song, aren't you?" He asked suddenly. She looked up at him quickly. 

"Yeah, you caught me. But you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." She said with an understanding smile.

They walked in silence for a few seconds as they listened to the guitar solo part of the song.

"The guitarist is really good." She complimented. "I really like it."

Eunjae loved guys who could play guitar. Whether it be acoustic or electric. She can't really say guys who can play guitar is her ideal type or anything in that category, since she always said she didn't really have an ideal type. She's never had a real crush on anyone before so she never knew. I guess if I like you, I like you and that's that, she'd explain to her friends.

"You.. you really think so?" He asked quietly.

She nodded. "It's one of the best I've ever heard."

"We're here." He said. They walked up to the store and he asked her to sit down in one of the chairs. She watched him order and pay and he sat down on the chair across her own.

He took off his earphones and stuffed it in his hoodie's pocket. They sat there in silence, waiting for their patbingsoo until..

"The song is called Jaywalking." He said. "It's not any famous singer's song or anything. Me and my-- friends from before.. we composed it."

She looked up at him. This guy.. he had a band?

"You--"

"There were 5 of us. Me, Sungyeol, Jungsoo, Sungjoon and Hyukjae. We've known each other since we were in diapers." He chuckled sadly. "We played for fun. Me and Sung Joon wrote a song for a rock competition. I played guitar. Then---" 

His voice wavered when he said the last word and it looked like he wouldn't be able to continue talking.

"It's okay. You don't need to tell me everything." She quickly said. "It's okay." He nodded gratefully, still not being able to say anything.

The 2 patbingsoos arrived.

"Thank you, auntie!" Eunjae said, smiling at her and thanking her on behalf of Myungsoo who still wasn't talking.

"You eat first." She said to him. He picked up his spoon in silence and stuffed patbingsoo into his mouth.

Eunjae did the same. They ate in silence for a few minutes until Eunjae decided to speak.

"Thank you." She said. "For the patbingsoo and-- for trusting me with a small part of your story." 

He looked up from his patbingsoo, his cheeks all puffed out, his mouth full of patbingsoo. He nodded in acknowledgement.

"You're.. a really amazing guitarist." She said. He looked down and nodded again. "Thanks." He said softly.

"Why don't you play at school or anything? Or do you..?" She asked. He stopped chewing for a second, but continued. He shrugged. "Don't feel like it anymore."

She tilted her head, looking at him eat, stuffing patbingsoo in the way he did. There's no way that that's the real reason. He sounded amazing! 

"Oh really?" She asked. "But you sounded so great playing. Can you perform it for me live once?" She asked.

He shook his head. "Nah, I'd rather not."

She sighed. "Or.. was it really you playing there? Are you lying to me?" She asked.

"Think what you want." He said, eating his last spoon of patbingsoo. He put his spoon down and leaned back on his chair. "Hurry up." He said simply, putting earphones in his ears again, probably playing the song one more time.

This guy has more mood swings than an old woman with menopause, she thought. She quickly finished her patbingsoo and once she put her spoon down, he stood up and started walking. She quickly caught up to him. The ing audacity of this .

They walked in silence again and she looked up at the sky. It's been grey since she was in school and now, tiny raindrops started falling. It was drizzling. Great.

--

"Oh my ing god." Myungsoo muttered to himself, as he stuffed his phone and earphones into his pants pockets. 

"This cannot be happening." She muttered too. They quickened their footsteps, praying that the rain wouldn't get any harder. But no. The day seemed to really hate them.

The rain poured harder and both their uniforms were completely soaked and he took a glance at her. Holy , she looked like she came right out of a Carribean Bay CF. 

Myungsoo absolutely hated it when girls were like that. They look all pretty and nice without them even trying and then guys like him just look at them and even if he doesn't like her that way well-- what, with the wet long hair and milky skin and everything he doesn't know what to do. He's still a guy. 

"God hates me." She said, her quick footsteps becoming a full out sprint. He sprinted after her and ended up running ahead of her. But being the gentleman he was (he claims), he couldn't just run ahead of a girl. He sighed. But if he did what he was thinking of doing, it would be violating his Rule #1 Don't care. He contemplated on what to do for a minute.

. it.

He groaned loudly, turned around and crouched down in front of her. 

"Get on." He said in a low voice. She stood there for a few seconds in shock, like a statue. 

"Get on or I'm never going to talk to you ever again." He said, glaring at her. She awkwardly got on him and he was able to stand up with ease. Thank God she's light as a feather, he thought.

They arrived in school. 7:06 am. 

--

Myungsoo put Eunjae down when they reached the hallway. He put his hands on his knees, breathing really hard. They had created a puddle on the floor they were standing on and they knew they had to clean that later on. She put a comforting hand on his back.

"Are you okay?" She asked. He nodded still panting hard. 

"You need water?" She asked again. He stood up properly and shook his head.

"You sure?" She asked. 

"Stop talking." He said. "I'm tired.. and wet." He said. She chuckled a bit. Wet.

"Don't.. make it sound dirty, it wasn't meant to be dirty." He said.

They walked inside the classroom and couldn't sit down on their seats since they were pretty much soaked. So in the end, they ended up sitting on the floor at the back of the classroom.

He was still obviously tired from running too much and his eyes were closed.

"You're tired." She said. He opened his eyes and gave her a  "no , sherlock" look.

"Stating the obvious?" He said leaning his head on the wall. 

"Sorry." She muttered. "But you didn't have to give me a piggyback ride." 

"Oh, so you expected me to leave you there and run ahead to school without you?" He asked. "I'm a bastard, but I'm not that big of a bastard."

"Okay, okay. Sorry." She said.

"Don't. It's not your fault it rained." He said, rubbing his shoulders. 

She sighed. "Am I heavy? Sorry."

"Stop saying sorry." He groaned. "You're not heavy, it's just-- I carried you while running." 

Eunjae stood up and grabbed a water bottle from her wet bag. She handed it to him.

"Here." She said. "Drink. You might get dehydrated."

He took the water bottle from her hand, drank, and gave the water bottle back with his usual 'glare'.

"You're ing welcome." She said sarcastically, rolling her eyes and taking the water bottle. He rolled his eyes and continued rubbing his shoulders.

She groaned. God, she hated feeling guilty more than anything. She grabbed him by the shoulder, maybe a bit too harshly.

"Ouch." He hissed. She winced.

"Oops. Sorry." She chuckled. She put both her hands on his shoulders and started rubbing them gently, with just the right amount of pressure. She knew she was fairly good at massages since her parents used to pay her when she was a kid to give them massages after a tiring day at work. 

And she knew he liked it since if he didn't, he would've already shrugged her hands off him and said "I'm fine."

But instead, he just let her rub his shoulders for a few minutes in silence. Eventually, he muttered a small "I'm alright now" and Eunjae let go of his shoulders.

"Alright." She said.

He stood up.

"Let's go dry ourselves." He said, holding her wrists and pulling her up. "We're really ing wet."

She chuckled again.

"Clean your mind, Eunjae."

--

"How was school?"

A shrug. "Fine."

And for the first time in a long time, he genuinely meant it.