A:N/ I know I know I'm late, I'm so so sorry guys. Today has just been... Well... Yeah, not good....But it was making me sad to think that I might be making you suffer because I'm such a bad procrastinator, and so I'm updating this chapter in my lecture... I have a few minutes before my 2 hour elcture starts, and I've dedicated that time to thinkign about you guys. Love you and I'll answer you guys later. Sorry.

- -

“Oh God.” Chunji moaned to himself, fingers raking tersely through his hair, probably messing it up. He'd have to fix it using his reflection in something soon, but right now he couldn't bring himself to care about it too much. He couldn't believe that L. Joe had managed to make things even worse.

He had only just forgiven Minsoo, things were supposed to be picking up for the two of them from now on, not getting worse. His face was probably flushed horribly, and he kind of wanted to cry. He had never heard Minsoo talk about him like that before. Every insult stung, but he'd tried to keep his pain to himself.

He deserved the very cruel words Minsoo gave him. His behaviour had been unacceptable.

But why did Minsoo have to be paying attention to them right at that moment to be able to witness it? It wasn't fair! Minsoo hardly ever paid him any attention, coming over to speak to him was a bi-monthly event at best. Why did that one time have to come right when he'd been insulting L. Joe?

Why did life have to be so unfair? It wasn't his fault that he was going off at L. Joe. It's not like L. Joe was an innocent bystander. Minsoo didn't know anything about what had been going on between them. He didn't understand what Chunji's motivations were, for the way he treated L. Joe, or anyone else for that matter.

Why did Minsoo care anyway? Niel had tried introducing Chunji to dozens of people before. He'd never even seen Minsoo look at any of those people. He'd never cared about the way Chunji acted to anyone else before. Why did he care now that it was L. Joe?

And telling L. Joe about his nickname, just like that. What was that about? Chunji had never even heard about that nickname before. He'd liked Minsoo for over a year, and he'd never heard one word about Minsoo having a nickname, now all of a sudden L. Joe's all friendly with Minsoo, being told about his nickname and who knows what else, after a few minutes? How was that fair?

Suddenly, the class Chunji had been anticipating so excitedly all day, was quickly becoming tortuous. There was no way that this class could end too soon for his liking. Just looking up and seeing L. Joe sitting next to Minsoo only compounded his misery.

He was all alone. His crush hated him. His best friend had abandoned him, probably already having made some new friend to replace him. The only person he'd had in this room with him who cared enough to know his name, was L. Joe and now he was gone too. Whisked away by Minsoo. How could today get any worse?

Did CAP know that he had a nickname too? Did he even care?

He rubbed at his face irately, opening up his binder, staring down at a piece of blank paper thoughtfully. He'd moped about the situation for long enough. He needed to get himself together. He needed to do what he did best. He needed to make a plan. He needed to start brainstorming; he needed to find a way to rebuild his image in Minsoo's eyes.

Minsoo saw him as rude and unfriendly towards L. Joe. If he could find a way to prove to Minsoo that he was both polite and friendly, then everything would be okay. He would recover the ground he'd lost in this class and his plan to win over his love, would be back on track.

Now, what could he do to fix this?

- -

The bell signalling the end of class startled Chunji. He'd been so busy trying to brainstorm ideas to fix his image, that he hadn't heard the sounds of the class packing up. His head shot up noticing the way the others were putting their things away, and he quickly began to do the same himself.

L. Joe bounced on the chair in the row in front of Chunji, leaning across the back of the seat to be able to get a good look at Chunji. He'd been a little worried about the other boy, given the weird expressions he'd seen him making when he'd been sitting with CAP. Then Chunji had taken to scribbling in his binder, furiously, only adding to his concerns.

“Are you ready to go?” He enquired, when he saw Chunji hesitate, about getting up, his gaze quickly falling on the boy before him. He frowned at the other boy, looking as though he were going to give him the silent treatment. He supposed that was probably a safe option given how his hostility had played out earlier. “Don't worry, CAP already left. You're not going to get in trouble for speaking to me. Be as rude as you like.” L. Joe invited.

Chunji relaxed slightly as he stood, collecting his bag and heading out of the room, L. Joe making sure to stay by his side. Chunji was apparently deciding that he should keep playing it safe, by being at least a little less cold to L. Joe by speaking to him. “Why were you waiting for me?” Chunji asked, eyes fixed firmly ahead, as he quickened his steps, fearing the repercussions if he were to come to his next class late.

“Because. Niel told me earlier that I had P.E. with you 4th period.” L. Joe answered simply, quickening his steps so that he wouldn't lose track of the other boy. If Chunji ran off on him now, then he'd never be able to find his way to their class. Niel hadn't shown him where it was, telling him that Chunji would be more than capable of taking him there, since they were all going to be in Music together for the class before it.

The boys walked over to a massive hall over the other side of the grounds, Chunji leading him into a dingy room, labelled 'boys' without a word of explanation. L. Joe had been about to question him about why they were going into the boys toilets, only to see a group of boys changing into their P.E. uniforms.

Chunji kept his gaze firmly planted on the ground, walking to the back of the room, putting his bag down on a seat, and pulling out his uniform. Realising that this was his cue to get changed as well, L. Joe proceeded to do the same, putting his own bag next to Chunji's.

The two boys didn't speak while they got changed, keeping their eyes firmly focused on their own bodies as they changed their clothes. It was like an unwritten code of conduct, while in the change rooms. Keep your eyes to yourself, and everyone else will do the same. L. Joe hurried to get changed, not wanting Chunji to run off without him. He had no idea where they were supposed to go once they got changed, and the other boys were quickly vanishing, making him feel uncomfortable at the thought of being left alone, as he struggled to tie his shoelaces quickly.

Chunji led him out onto the sporting field, L. Joe noticing that a fair portion of the other boys he'd seen in the change rooms had joined them. Apparently they were all in the same P.E. class. L. Joe shuffled about beside Chunji, awkwardly, as they waited for their teacher to announce what they'd be doing that day, as they baked in the midday sun.

“Okay boys. Welcome to your first official P.E. Class. During the course of this year we're going to play a lot of different sports together. To start the year off with a bang, we're going to do 3 weeks of Cross Country running.” the teacher shouted, knowing it was the only way to be heard over a group of rowdy teenage boys.

Most of the other boys were not very well acquainted with one another, and so most of them were standing off by themselves. When Chunji considered it, this was probably the best time to do cross country running. They'd be at their most competitive, before they made friends in the class. Their times would be much better if friendship was postponed for a few weeks, until they began team sports. But his objective assessment of the situation was drowned out by the loud shouts of his classmates, who were clearly less than thrilled at being told they would have to run.

He found himself feeling oddly comforted by the knowledge that he didn't look anywhere near as uncomfortable as those other boys did. He supposed he had the warmth at his side, that was quickly becoming a familiar presence in his life. It felt oddly comforting to know that he was standing with someone he knew, when no one else was.

He felt special. Which was odd, because he still didn't like L. Joe that much. But his earlier encounter with Minsoo had brought that dislike into sharp perspective for him. He certainly wouldn't go anywhere near saying that he hated L. Joe again any time soon. He just, hadn't made a very good first or second impression on him, is all. He slightly disliked him. Or maybe he was still neutral, given how little time they'd actually spent with one another. Either way, hate was clearly too strong a word for his feelings towards the other boy.

All he knew for sure was that now it didn't seem like torture to consider the idea that he might be stuck with L. Joe for an extended period of time. Maybe they could talk while doing their run, together? He only really started considering that point intently, while the teacher began outlining their path.

L. Joe didn't look like much, but then again, he was enrolled in a fitness class. The class could by it's very nature, serve no purpose other than providing daily exercise. So maybe L. Joe was more athletic than he looked. Maybe he'd be ultra-competitive, and take off, trying to come first in the race. Or maybe he was a complete slacker, and would walk the entire thing, hoping to come last. Maybe L. Joe would prefer to listen to his iPod as he ran. Maybe he'd prefer to run alone.

When he had nothing to look forward to but an arduous and painful run, the prospect of silence and loneliness was unappetizing to Chunji. All things considered, he'd much prefer to have some company. But the realisation that he didn't mind the thought of having L. Joe for company left him feeling disconcerted.

L. Joe nudged him, forcing him to pay attention to the path the teacher told them they would be following, for which he was grateful. With his navigational skills, he would probably have gotten lost, if it weren't for him. Chunji wasn't prone to getting lost in his thoughts, but he wasn't exactly used to taking a P.E class either. His talents were more scholarly in nature.

The boys lined up on the starting line, waiting for the teacher to tell them to start. Chunji tensed in preparation for the sound, trying to keep his heart from speeding up in his anticipation. The teacher yelled and they took off, all the boys seeming to be on par with one another at the beginning, most boys struggling to sprint the distance, in order not to be left behind too early, vying for the lead.

After the first hundred metres or so, almost everyone was tired, clearly having exhausted their immediate reserves. But no one dared to walk, even as they slowed down, their almost solid line of boys, quickly forming into an almost single-file line. The teacher would still be able to see them until they went around the side of the school.

The whole time he ran, Chunji felt intensely physical. Everything he knew existed for those long moments, existed around himself. The jostling of the other boys, clearly too close to one another to avoid bumping shoulders as they ran. His own breathing, in and out. The harsh thud of his feet making contact with the ground, sending tingles up his legs. And one boy, whose dark hair, flopped into his eyes every few steps, keeping pace with him.

He couldn't tell whether L. Joe was slowing down or speeding up to be able to keep pace with him, and the other boy gave no indications that would confirm it for him one way or the other. In a way, Chunji was tempted to speed up, just to see what sort of reaction he'd get from L. Joe, but he didn't think the reward would be worth the effort it would take to do so. They'd only just begun, and already, speeding up was easier said than done.

The moment they passed the building, L. Joe tugged at his elbow lightly, forcing Chunji to slow his steps or risk tripping over. There were a lot of branches from the surrounding trees on the ground, so trying to struggle out of L. Joe's light grip here, could cause him quite a bit of pain. “What do you want?” he gasped, struggling to form a coherent sentence. Chunji might not have been athletic, but he certainly tried to give his all into P.E classes. What he lacked in muscle he tried to make up for with enthusiasm.

But he was tired.

Running that distance had already robbed him of his strength, and they weren't even a third of the way through yet. He'd worn himself out so badly that he was struggling to breathe. L. Joe seemed a bit out of breath too, but he seemed to be handling it better than Chunji was. He wondered if that meant L. Joe was in fact more athletic than he was, and had slowed down so that they could run together, after all?

That was kind of..... sweet.

“He can't see us from here. We can walk for a little while, until we get our breath back.” L. Joe advised, sending Chunji a cheeky smile. They were by no means the last of the boys, many boys having by now been reduced to walking, like L. Joe suggested.

He wasn't about to complain about a chance for a rest. “So, why did CAP call you Chanhee?” L. Joe asked, clearly feeling around for an acceptable topic of conversation.

That wasn't it.

“Because it's my name. The one that appears on the roll; the one all my classmates know. Chunji is just a nickname Niel concocted a few years ago. It's kind of private. You know, special.” Chunji explained with a sigh, his breathing slowly returning to normal.

But just hearing L. Joe mention Minsoo's nickname, sent a spark of irritation rushing through him. It just reminded him of everything that had gone down in the music class, and how it was technically L. Joe's fault that Minsoo thought badly of him now, even if he had tried to fix things between them, at first. The new annoyance, just reminded him of his earlier anger towards L. Joe, for teasing him so openly in front of Niel.

L. Joe just seemed to do a really good of putting him in a bad mood today. L. Joe had nodded in response to Chunji's explanation telling him that the other boy was listening to him. “What did you talk about with Minsoo?” Chunji asked, his tone probably sounding brittle, now that he was feeling a little annoyed again.

“Nothing much. Him and his friends just wanted to know about me. They were curious about my interest in music. About what classes I'm taking. Would I like to hang out with them. You know, normal stuff.” L. Joe answered with a shrug, as though he couldn't care less about anything he'd just told him. Chunji stared at him, mortified. “What?” L. Joe asked, wondering what he'd done wrong now.

“How can you talk so flippantly about being asked to hang out with them? That's like everyone's dream come true.” Chunji exclaimed, astounded. “Not mine. I told them I wasn't interested.” L. Joe stated.

Chunji gawked at him, almost tripping over, having been so confused and horrified by L. Joe's statement that he got his legs tangled up in a tree branch, lying on the path. He considered yelling at him, but he had a sneaking suspicion that it would get him nowhere. L. Joe was strange. “I can't believe it. Minsoo tells you about his nickname, and invites you to sit with him, and you just...” he groaned, rubbing at his forehead in agitation. If he didn't do that, he might start shaking L. Joe in the hopes that it might knock some sense into him.

“You seem to think it's a big deal that this CAP guy was talking to me. Just who is he anyway?” L. Joe questioned, like they weren't discussing something of the utmost importance. Chunji nearly spat something mean at L. Joe again for being obtuse, before he reminded himself that L. Joe was the new kid.

He didn't know any better.

“He's lots of things. Minsoo is pretty much the biggest name in our grade. He's our school captain, so he always gives speeches and things at formal assemblies. But he's also a really sporty person. He's the captain of half a dozen different sports teams. He's the backbone of the teams, and the only one that can really play the games. They always say that the only points the team scores are ones Minsoo gets himself, and the rest are all set up by him.” Chunji gushed explaining. “Besides all that, he's normally a petty nice guy, so he's really popular.”

“So you thought that by taking this P.E. class you'd get to spend some more time with him?” L. Joe questioned, hazarding a guess as to why someone like Chunji would be involved in the P.E. class given his clear lack of aptitude or real interest.

“Of course not. Minsoo would never stoop to taking this class.” Chunji commented snidely. “This is the P.E. class for people who just want a chance to run around for a little while each day. He takes more advanced units than this one.” Chunji explained.

“You seem to know a lot about him. Are you two a couple or something?” L. Joe pushed, noting the startled expression Chunji wore at the question, as he quickly shook his head denying L. Joe's claim. But L. Joe didn't fail to notice the way Chunji smiled just the tiniest bit when he asked. He was getting more and more convinced with every additional incident he witnessed, that Chunji liked CAP.

If he could figure this out from one day, how was CAP still oblivious to his feelings? Wasn't it kind of obvious? It's not like Chunji went through great pains to try and hide it and stop anyone from finding out about his feelings, even if he did deny it verbally. His actions betrayed his words. He disliked the thought that Chunji liked CAP after hearing the way the other boy had talked to him before.

“You didn't know about his nickname, did you?” L. Joe questioned, thinking that he might've hit on a sore spot. Perhaps that's the reason Chunji had been kind of hostile towards him since Music class had ended. Chunji stiffened slightly, crossing his arms in a defensive manner, while trying to keep his tone light as he answered. “No I didn't.” he admitted, “But I fail to see why that should matter. He doesn't know mine either. And besides, we're not exactly close.”

“I see.” L. Joe stated, wondering just how much of an understatement Chunji's word choice actually was. He considered trying to push him about it, but Chunji seemed to be displeased again, probably hating the reminder that L. Joe was already closer to CAP than he was after a day at their school. He really didn't mean to get close to CAP. The other boy just seemed to have taken a liking to him; there was nothing he could do about it. Surely Chunji had heard him, he'd tried to reject the other boy's offers as politely as he possibly could, and sided with Chunji when CAP had picked on him.

But L. Joe had a sneaking suspicion that if Chunji had feelings for CAP as he suspected that he did, then his actions probably hadn't really been noticed by the other boy. He would continue to be a bit hurt by the open welcome L. Joe had received, until the sting wore off. It'd only happened about an hour ago; he needed to give Chunji some time to get over it.

Still, apologising now might make that happen sooner. “Look. I'm sorry about what happened in the Music class. I'm sorry that CAP overheard what you said, and was mean to you as a result. Both you and I know why you were talking to me like that, and I really didn't mind. But I know that you care about what CAP said. So I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do to fix this, so will you please just stop being angry with me?” L. Joe demanded.

“You think I'm angry with you because of Minsoo?” Chunji laughed, bitterly, trying to convince L. Joe that he wasn't actually fussed with what Minsoo thought one way or the other. He'd always tried to be careful about whom he told his crush to. Basically, he'd only told Niel, because he knew that he could trust him.

He didn't know L. Joe well enough to let him know about something like that. L. Joe might act as though he didn't really care about it one way or the other, but Chunji was well aware that a secret like this was something he should be careful with. He could get himself into a bit of trouble if anyone were to find out that he liked the most popular boy in their grade. He didn't want to walk around with a target on his back for the rest of the year.

His attempts to make CAP like him, didn't require that same sort of discretion, however. If he was honest he was kind of hopeful that if he just made himself into a better person, Minsoo would notice and approach him. He supposed that he kind of expected that since Minsoo was such a macho tough guy, he would be more than happy to take the lead and chase after him. He wanted someone to ask him out, not to be the one to ask. But he was well aware that with the way things are, right now, he needed to get himself noticed if he wanted to stand any sort of chance of being asked out, he needed to draw more attention to himself.

“No, this is about earlier. This is about what you said to Niel at recess. This is about the fact that you told him about the other day in the rain. You were making fun of me, and don't pretend that we both don't know that we met the other day, out on the street.” Chunji accused, annoyed.

“I wasn't denying it.” L. Joe stated calmly. His patience only seemed to infuriate Chunji more. But Chunji took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. “Now that you've had your fun, I think it would be better if we pretended that we never met the other today. Let's just go on, acting as though we only met during recess today.” Chunji advised.

“Doesn't bother me, it's not like I ever hated you. That really works out better for me, over all. I mean, now you can't be angry with me over it anymore. Since it never happened, you can't hate me anymore.” L. Joe explained, grinning when he realised that Chunji hadn't really thought about the matter that far down the line. Chunji huffed, “Liar. You must hate me. Why else would you go through so much trouble to try and destroy my life?”

“Silly Chunji. Bugging you is fun. Highlight of my day.” L. Joe teased, noting the way Chunji groaned in irritation, deciding that it was time to start running again, in the hopes that he could put some distance between the two of them. L. Joe just grinned at Chunji's escape attempt, quickening his own steps, so that he caught up to Chunji before the boy had covered even 20 metres.