After the way their first day together had played out, Chunji couldn't say that he was particularly surprised that when the week was over L. Joe refused to leave them alone. L. Joe seemed to have stuck to him like glue, and while his dislike of the other boy's attempts to had not dissipated it was their other conversations that really irked him. He found himself constantly trying clear the younger boy's suspicions about his feelings for Minsoo, but his words had made no impression whatsoever.

L. Joe hadn't even tried to make friends with the other students, as Chunji had hoped that he would. The mystique of the new boy, had drawn many other students towards him, but L. Joe had ignored them all. Even though he seemed to like Niel as well, Chunji got the impression he was the one that L. Joe really seemed to have latched on to, though that may simply be because of the number of classes they shared with one another.

The only other person L. Joe seemed to have made friends with at their school was Minsoo, and as much as Chunji would have both loved and hated it if he had, L. Joe seemed disinterested in Minsoo's offers of friendship. The only reason he even thought to call him one of L. Joe's friends in the first place was because of the amount of time they spent talking with one another. And even that was only thanks to Minsoo's persistence.

The way L. Joe acted, Chunji was pretty sure that L. Joe wouldn't have cared if Minsoo had dropped off the face of the earth and died.

The knowledge that L. Joe was so disinterested, but still received warmth and friendship from Minsoo, only served to irritate Chunji more. He'd been fighting over nothing; over mere scraps of affection, and L. Joe got them thrown at him and shoved down his throat. It wasn't fair.

But Chunji had to be honest, he'd kind of gotten used to the fact that L. Joe always seemed to be around these days. After a few weeks, he'd gotten so used to it, that he would sit there frowning, trying to work out what was missing at lunchtimes or in class, whenever L. Joe was running late, or went to the canteen or the bathrooms or whatever else he did when he wasn't glued to his side.

In a way, he kind of felt like he could feel relieved knowing that he would have someone he knew beside him in almost every single class in his day. Even if that one person happened to be L. Joe.

But that didn't mean that he liked L. Joe yet. Or that he considered them close friends or anything. But they were getting better. That was something, at least.

- -

“Ah this is so exciting. It's game time now.” Chunji mumbled, his attention entirely focused upon his folder as they settled into their seats in the English room. L. Joe couldn't help but overhear what the other boy said, sending him an odd glance, but Chunji ignored him. He might've thought that he'd done something to anger the other boy again, but he'd been acting that way all week.

Niel had just told him to ignore his obsessive behaviour. But he had been finding it easier said than done. He couldn't ask Niel what he was on about right now, because Niel seemed disinclined to answer him, preoccupied with his own matters these days. His best chance for an explanation was probably from Chunji himself, who he'd come to realise wasn't anywhere near as hostile as he had been when they'd first met, and was thus quite likely to answer him.

Except for the fact that ever since he'd started acting strangely, talking to himself, eyes glued to his precious folder, that he carried around with him everywhere, he'd sort of started ignoring Niel and himself. It was like he'd just faze out, and genuinely forget that he was in a classroom; around other people. Every now and again he'd come back to himself, blinking rapidly, looking adorably confused, but he'd be gone again within 20 minutes.

But this time, he happened to have his precious binder open, while he was talking to himself. He was staring at some sort of table that the boy had obviously drawn up, with letters and dates and numbers all over the place. L. Joe couldn't understand what the image was supposed to represent, but whatever it was, it was clearly very important to Chunji, and was probably related to his strange behaviour as of late.

Taking a chance, he asked Chunji, “So what's that?” who startled him by immediately slamming the folder closed when he realised that there was someone next to him. Chunji looked as though he were going to deny the fact that his binder contained anything whatsoever, but one look at their close proximity killed the words on his tongue.

Slowly, he opened the folder, revealing the table once again, but the table made no more sense the second time he looked at it, than it had the first time. “This? It's an assessment plan.” Chunji answered, seemingly very reluctant to tell L. Joe anything about it.

“An assessment plan?” L. Joe questioned, not having seen something like it before. It certainly wasn't the sort of thing their teachers gave to them, so Chunji must've constructed the whole thing himself. Still, having a name to put to it, didn't make the table make anymore sense.

“Yeah. I went through all the unit outlines the teacher's gave us on the first day of semester, and wrote out the information into this table. This way I can see all my assessments at the same time.” Chunji explained with a slight shrug, looking as though he suspected that L. Joe was about to over it or something.

“Why would you need something like that?” L. Joe questioned, trying to get the gist of what the table said, as he continued to scan it. Chunji frowned slightly, clearly not happy about L. Joe's interest in his assessment plan, but he made no moves to close his folder, or move it away from him, to prevent him from looking at it anymore.

“So that I can see in advance when all my assessments are coming up, and plan my time accordingly.” Chunji explained, as though he thought that L. Joe was stupid. Wasn't that obvious? The tasks were arranged by date, were they not? Clearly it was designed to act as his own personal calender.

Considering this new information, L. Joe reflected back on the week. All week they'd been receiving notifications of their first assessment tasks in each of their subjects. Chunji had seemed really excitable ever since he'd started receiving his notifications. That combined, with this assessment schedule, led L. Joe to draw an unexpected conclusion. One that made him eye Chunji carefully, to check and see whether his thought could feasibly be possible.

He only had Chunji in three classes. They did Music together, but CAP and his friends, tended to try and drag L. Joe away from Chunji. When they failed, they'd bicker a lot, but the other boy seemed to do his work all the time. In P.E. They didn't have to do any work; they just ran around playing different sports. Then there was English class, and Chunji spent portions of that class, trying to sleep on his desk, stare secretively at CAP or else staring off into space.

Could Chunji really be a nerd?

Based on his behaviour the possibility had never really entered L. Joe's mind, but now that they had all settled into the new semester, and were getting their first assessable tasks, Chunji's behaviour had completely changed. He looked like a man possessed; transfixed by every word their teachers said, scribbling away in his workbooks, and writing in that folder of his, the one with his assessment plan, whenever he had a spare moment.

“You must really care about your grades.” L. Joe stated, uncertainly, trying to gauge Chunji's reaction to his words. Chunji seemed a little hesitant to answer him, before responding, in a very humble tone, “Well, this year is very important.”

“And why is that?” L. Joe asked, staring at Chunji intrigued. His words implied that he was only acting like this for the first time; being one of those students that doesn't take their work seriously until his final year of high school. That might explain his relaxed approach to the day to day classwork up until recently, but it still didn't strike L. Joe as his being truthful. If it were only the first time, then why did Niel seem completely unfazed by the behaviour; as though he were used to it.

“Everyone knows that the last year of high school is the most important. You have to study hard in preparation for the university entrance exams. To slack off in this year could jeopardise your future.” Chunji answered, sounding mortified and piteous at the same time. But the words flowed off his tongue far too easily for L. Joe to believe him. He'd clearly rehearsed the answer at least a hundred times, in the event that someone ever bothered to ask him.

“Maybe so, but to take this year too seriously could jeopardise your future too you know. With how weird you've been acting they might have you committed instead.” L. Joe commented, earning himself a reproachful glare from Chunji, who smacked him in the arm, for his flippant remark. L. Joe rubbed his arm, glaring at Chunji slightly only to break out in a grin a moment later.

Chunji couldn't work out why L. Joe would be looking so amused, only to realise, as he turned back around, that CAP had seen the whole thing go down. He groaned to himself, half collapsing onto his desk, as he covered his face, seeing the way CAP was glaring at him. Clearly CAP had seen that, judging by the way he shook his head in disapproval.

Chunji had a feeling CAP would try and steal L. Joe the next day, so that the annoying boy was kept on the opposite side of the classroom, away from him. The thought that the longer he hung around L. Joe, the worse his reputation seemed to get with CAP hadn't escaped him. Though to be fair, it was far more episodic than he made it out to be. CAP only seemed to give him looks like that, or say mean things at the time that he did them.

Any other time, CAP didn't seem all that interested in whether Chunji and L. Joe were around one another or not. He hardly even looked at them, he was pretty sure. Maybe L. Joe had said something to CAP about him, to make the other boy stop glaring at him over the little spats that he'd witnessed.

It wasn't fair, anyway. L. Joe was tougher than he looked, he could handle their little squabbles, and the mild violence that resulted from his attempts at teasing Chunji. Besides, it wasn't like Chunji was actively trying to injure the other boy. He was just, venting. L. Joe was fine. CAP made a big deal over nothing.

He had tried asking what L. Joe and CAP spoke about quite often, but he never really got much of an answer out of L. Joe. From what he'd seen, CAP was about as unsuccessful as he was, so he'd decided that it must just be L. Joe's nature. He wasn't much of a talker, he guessed. He didn't seem the type to open up to others a lot, from what Chunji had witnessed.

But maybe that was because they talked about him, and he didn't want Chunji to know. Just the thought made his heart soar elatedly. No wonder CAP wanted to spend so much time with L. Joe. He figured the two of them were close, because he always saw them sitting together in class, and so he was trying to get L. Joe to help him ask him out.

Okay, maybe that was a little bit of a stretch. He was probably still trying to find out all about him. He needed to get to know Chunji better to be able to fall in love with him completely. Niel was too much of a social butterfly; always surrounded by other people, and disinclined to talk about one friend to another. He'd probably realised he'd get nothing out of Niel, and just been biding his time, waiting for the right person to come along and help him out.

It was early days yet. Chunji hadn't even had his chance to impress him. That's what this first assignment was supposed to do. If CAP thought he was intrigued as it was, just wait until he saw what Chunji was going to do for these assessments.

The moment he'd been waiting for impatiently, for the last few weeks, had finally arrived.

Game on.