Lol, yay Niel!

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“Okay, I think I've this all sorted out.” Chunji commented animatedly, staring down at his open binder gleefully, while talking to his best friend as they made their way to their first class. “Mhmm. Sure you have.” Niel answered, nose buried in a road rules book, only half listening to what his best friend was saying.

“No, I'm serious. Last year, was out of my hands. But I'm more prepared now. This year, nothing is going to stand between me and first place.” Chunji stated, adamantly, while eyeing his chart once again. “You take this way too seriously. It's first semester and we haven't even received our first task yet.” Niel commented easily, rolling his eyes when he bothered to take a sidelong glance at Chunji, as they turned into their classroom.

“Not true! Don't you realise how important this is? It's our last year, Niel! This is going to be the one that decides what university we get into. This is the most important year of them all.” Chunji sighed, exasperated with his friend as he sat in the seat he'd claimed the first time he set foot in the classroom, 2 years ago.

“Yes and I would agree with you wholeheartedly, if that were the reason you cared.” Niel hissed, dumping his bag down on the floor, as he settled beside Chunji. Chunji grabbed his arm, whispering, concerned “Not so loud, Niel!”

“What? Worried he's going to hear us? He isn't even in the room yet!” Niel groaned, resting his head in his hand, idly staring out the window, as he waited for the teacher to arrive, not really in the mood for all of Chunji's obsessive energy this early in the morning.

“But the noise echoes out into the hallway. He could still hear you!” Chunji whimpered, worriedly.

“I thought you said that you were giving up on him altogether, after yesterday?” Niel queried, eyeing his friend confused. It took his brain a while to warm up, and so it had taken a while for their current topic of conversation to jog his memory. He was so used to them talking about this; it was pretty much a daily occurrence, so in his sleepy state, he hadn't questioned it.

Chunji flushed, at the reminder, as a pained look crossed his features momentarily. “Ah, that. Well, I did say that.... But then I saw him on my way through the gates this morning and he smiled at me, and I just...”

“You forgave him again.” Niel stated flatly, rubbing his eyes at how forgetful Chunji could be when it came to this matter. All it would take was a smile or a wave and Chunji was prepared to let every heartbreaking moment disappear into nothing.

“You make it sound like a bad thing. I thought forgiveness was a virtue.” Chunji stated grumpily, as their teacher wandered into the room, starting the class by getting the students to copy notes from the board.

While they wrote, the two boys continued to talk to one another, as did the other students in their class. All the same, they tried to keep up to the same speed their teacher was writing, as they knew that she would erase the earliest notes when she ran out of room. “It is, but not regarding this. You've got to draw the line somewhere.” Niel whispered.

Chunji didn't say anything to Niel in return, on the matter. They'd had this argument a hundred times already, and the outcome never changed. Niel would leave him no room for rebuttal, but he would continue to ignore Niel's advice. It's not like it would be as easy as Niel implied, anyway. What was he supposed to do if it happened again?

He considered complaining to Niel about what had happened to him the previous day, but he couldn't really bring himself to mention it. The boy had been so irritating and frustrating, and he'd found the whole thing rather embarrassing. Normally that would mean that Chunji would complain about it to Niel during class, but there was something about this that bothered him more than normal. He had a feeling it was because, he ended up following that strange boy's advice, and he did, indeed feel better.

The boy had managed to become even more irritating than he had been the day before.

“Oh, right. I met someone yesterday, he seems pretty cool, I invited him to come sit with us at recess and lunch.” Niel informed him, distractedly.

“What? Again? What is it with you and picking up random people all the time?” Chunji groaned. Niel was far more friendly and outgoing than he was, and so he had a tendency to make friends wherever he went.

“What's wrong with it? There's nothing wrong with Ricky or Changjo, so it's not like I pick bad people or anything.” Niel stated, defensively, as he tried to rule a margin on his new page, only for the ruler to move while he drew the line, leaving a wonky line in its place, making him frown.

“I never claimed there was anything wrong with them. They're alright enough, I suppose. But I don't see why you had to go get another one. I tell you I'm never letting you near the RSPCA. You'd rescue every single bloody animal they have.” Chunji commented with a laugh, only to have Niel jab him with his elbow, while he was writing, leaving a giant scribble in the middle of his sentence.

“I hate how you always have to be so unfriendly. I know I'm one of a kind and everything but you really need to be nice to other people too, you know. I mean we only have a few classes together this year. I don't want you being lonely, and L. Joe seems like a cool guy.” Niel said. “And I don't see what you don't like about Ricky and Changjo anyway.” Niel continued.

“I don't mind Ricky, he's cool enough. But Changjo and I just don't get along. And he and Ricky are always, together you know? Ergo I don't like Ricky and Changjo.” Chunji commented with a shrug.

“That's only because you both try and act all macho tough and want to be the silent type around one another. Changjo's really cool. You know he's pretty smart too, so you've got some things in common at least.” Niel chided, with a hushed laugh at Chunji's raised eyebrow. Chunji never thought he tried to act tough, and even if he was kind of quiet that didn't mean that he was silent around Changjo.

“Really? That kid is smart? Huh, who would've thought it.” he commented, surprised. He and Changjo never really spoke, so he'd never heard anything about this before.

“Yeah. Just the other day he helped me with my Math homework.” Niel informed the other boy proudly.

“You're getting help from a kid in the grade below you? You should feel so ashamed of yourself.” Chunji stated, only able to shake his head at his friend's openness. It was like Niel couldn't stop himself from saying anything, sometimes. Still, he'd never told anyone about Chunji's little secret so he could tolerate that little flaw.

“Why? He's good at Maths!” Niel exclaimed a little too loudly, the teacher turning to give him a warning glare. He flushed, ducking his head down in an apology to his long suffering teacher. She usually had to warn him at least 3 times per class to keep his voice down. It had barely taken 20 minutes, and he was already on warning number 1 for the day.

“So, this L. Joe kid. Is he new?” Chunji questioned, returning to their earlier conversation, a moment after Niel got his reprimand from the teacher. He only tended to behave himself for about that long anyway; with or without Chunji's influence. “Yeah. He's only just moved back to South Korea a few days ago. Yesterday was his first day.”

“Oh. Where was he before that?” Chunji asked, not so much because he was interested in the new boy Niel was planning on introducing him to, but because he was even less interested in paying attention to the work they were studying.

He might have his sights set on coming first, but he didn't need to pay full attention to every class he took. At the end of the day, all that mattered were the assessments. If he could learn the work for those, then he was set. For some classes like Maths he needed to pay attention or else he wouldn't be able to understand the work in order to be able to replicate it later. But in subjects like this, where there was just a large volume of information, he didn't need to worry too much about the day to day work. He could relax a bit, while he was in class.

“He comes from America.” Niel answered him, excitedly. Niel always thought it was so cool that other people's parents were able to afford to send their kids overseas. He'd wanted to go overseas to study himself, but his parents had long since robbed him of that dream. He was going to have to wait to go overseas until he could afford to go on a holiday, which wouldn't be for a few long years, yet.

Chunji had to admit, that was pretty cool. “Well, I guess he can hang out with us then.” he conceded, finally. Niel looked at him like he thought Chunji had blue skin and he'd only just noticed it. Chunji wasn't exactly well known for being friendly to people he didn't know. The only exception to that, was him, although if anyone were to ask Chunji he'd try and say that was because they did in fact know one another.

But Chunji could see where he should give in. This way, he'd get Niel off his back, about being cold and unfriendly, while simultaneously not having to get to know the other boy. A few days with them, and this L. Joe boy would realise that they were unpopular and boring, and would find his place amongst the other popular kids, forgetting all about their existence. That was the true place for an Americanised Korean high school kid, after all.

Case closed.