It's a cold morning. I couldn't sleep last night, so the cold seems colder. I check my phone for the thousandths time in the last 12 hours. Myungsoo hasn't returned my calls, and his phone is still turned off. Omma opens the curtain and looks at me, her old body barely hanging onto the ladder rungs. "The reporters are all gone, Jae-ah. Get up, time for school."

I dust off my uniform after it's on. Omma straightens my tie. "Are you sure you don't want me to do your hair?" she asks for the seventh time. "No, Omma, I'm fine."

she knuckles me in the head, "Aish! I'm doing it anyway! Don't you know when your Omma wants to do something for you?" she grouches and starts attacking my hair. When she's done at long last, my hair is french braided around my head and falls neatly down my shoulder.

"Mom, I look like I'm going to a wedding..." I say, turning my head this way and that for a better look.

"Well you've got yourself a boyfriend now! You need to dress up for him!" she pats my shoulders and hustles downstairs.

Will Myungsoo be at school today? Does he like this sort of thing? Maybe I should put some makeup on.... I reach for my drawer, then stop myself. I won't change myself entirely for a guy. This is good. This is enough.

Omma's right, the reporters are all gone. Looks like Appa got the local police officers to handle the situation. "Oh no..." I groan. My precious bike, my only present from Kat has been destroyed. The wheels are bent awkwardly and the thing looks as if it's been run over by 6 cars. Tears well up in my eyes at the sight of my most precious possesion in such a state, but I try to blink them away. It's just a bike. It's not important. It's better the bike dies than the person who gave it to me.

I walk in a sulk to school. As soon as I get there, girls surround me.

"Is it true?"

"Are you really dating L?"

"Since when did this happen!"

"He's mine!"

"I liked him first!"

Faceless girls shove me around and grab at me. A familiar voice yells in the distance, and comes crashing through the crowd.

Sungjong stands in front of me and glares at the girls, "Are you done yet?" he says it so calmly, like a father chastising his unruly child. But it's terrifying. His voice is low, dark, and threatening behind a mask of patience. The girls shoot me one last angry look and run off, I'm sure they're just as scared of Sungjong as I am right now. He turns around and his expression changes. His eyebrows ease back into place, his eyes soften, he lowers his glare. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Nothing I'm not used to."

Sungjong's soft expression hardens again, not as much as last time, but hard none the less. "Is it true?"

I can see pain reflected in those brown eyes. I knew. All this time I knew, so why did I act like I didn't?

He knows that I know how he feels about me. It's not written on his face, but I can hear it in his voice, blaming me for betrayal. Begging me it's a lie.

"I-I didn't agree to it!" yet, I save the last part for myself, "He announced all of that on his own!"

"So he made it up, then?" Sungjong practically growls. He storms away from me. Oh no, this can't be good. I follow behind quickly.

Sungjong rages through the school, students duck out of his way and whisper as he stomps past them.

"What is he doing?"

"What's going on?"

I pick up words and whispers here and there.

Sungjong turns steeply around a corner and stops in front of the abandoned music room. I didn't even know he knew about this. A small crowd has gathered behind us by then, tip-toeing from behind like we're a drama on TV at the best part. Sungjong tears open the door, ing it back with all his strength. From inside, I see Myungsoo look up from where he's sitting hunched over on a chair with his elbows on his knees. He sees me behind Sungjong, and our eyes meet just for a second. My hip buzzes. I tug my phone out of my pocket and look at it. From Myungsoo.

Meet me in the music room as soon as you get here

-L

I was just a second too late.

"You lied about it?!" Sungjong shouts, "Made it up for fun!?"

I can hear anger rising in his voice. Myungsoo stands up and walks over, trying to calm him down. "Shut up!" Sungjong throws a punch and hits Myungsoo right in the cheek. Myungsoo falls backward. Myungsoo opens his mouth to speak, but Sungjong ignores him and looks at me.

"No more excuses," he says to L, while staring into my eyes, "Whatever."

He stops in front of the crowd, and they part for him. All I see is his back disappearing around the corner. About half the crowd runs after Sungjong, probably his fans wanting to comfort him. They probably hate me now. The other half is still waiting hoping for a romance scene or something.

Too bad they aren't getting one. I step inside the music room, close the door, and lock it. Girls press against the window but there's no way they'd be able to see through the foggy glass windows. I crouch next to Myungsoo, and he wipes some blood from his mouth. "Man," he laughs, "that kid hits hard."

I open my bag and start going through it. I manage to find some ointment and a band-aid. "Why do you have a first aid kit in your purse?" he asks.

"My bike has a tendency to crash."

He opens his mouth to say another word but I start applying ointment to the corner of his mouth. He flinches from the sting. "It'll sting a bit," I warn him. He holds my away from his mouth so he can say, "thanks for the warning."

He moves his hand over mine, then pushes his finger between mine and intertwines them.

"I need to, uh, y-your lip..." What is he doing? I peek up and he's staring at me. He has a tendency to lose his mind sometimes. You may not see it if you don't know him well, but if you do, and you watch him, you'll see him do the strangest things. Play games by himself, talk to inanimate objects. But, it's something I love about him. He's crazy, and it makes me crazy about him.

I look away again. I can feel his eyes on me, heating my cheeks like a lazer. I jerk my hand a little, but it's no good. He has me locked. Not that I truly want to escape, anyway. I've fallen.

He leans forward and his lips brush my cheek, I feel the spot of rough skin on the corner of his mouth. I hope it's not bleeding still. He kisses my cheek again, but longer this time. Whatever, it can wait. I close my eyes. I don't care about anything. I don't care about the girls outside the door still trying to find a way in, I don't care about the reporters or the cameras or what the next news headline will be. All I care about is Myungsoo.

"Aren't you going to fix it?" Myungsoo whispers.

"what?" I mumble. Slowly I open my eyes. He's pulled away, and is pointing at his mouth.

"Fix it." he orders.

"Yah!" I shout, and raise my hand to slap him upside the head. He raises his arms in defense. "Don't order me around!"

I lean in to start applying ointment again, he dodges me and kisses me on the cheek again. At first I don't move, stunned. "Hurry up and fix it already!" Myungsoo demands, acting like it never happened. "Yah, Kim Myungsoo! Are you messing with me?!"

"What?" he fakes innocence, shrugging, "I didn't do anything! What are you imagining?"

I smile evilly and race in to apply the ointment, he swerves under my hands and kisses my cheek again. "Yah!" I nearly tackle him, but he finds his way around me again. This time he kisses my forehead. "Kim Myungsoo don't you move!" I nail him to the ground, pinning his arms down with my elbows. I start applying the ointment on his mouth, and he lifts from the ground, and kisses my lips. My widened eyes slowly close, and I sink into him. He sits up with me on top of him, and wraps his arms around my lower back. He pulls away and presses his forehead into mine, looking into my eyes.

"Kim Myungsoo," I whisper, "When did you become this romantic?" I ask.

"The moment I saw you," he whispers back.

"Gah stop! You're giving me goosebumps!" I shout and stand up, covering my ears.

He pushes himself up and pulls my hand off my ear, and leans in. "I know it's a bit late," out of the corner of my eye I see him looking at me, "Will you be my girlfriend?"

I playfully push him off and step away. "Do I have a choice?" I shout, "It's all over the news!"

He takes a step towards me and I take a step back. "I guess you don't then," he smiles.

This smile is real. Oh god I love his real smile. Parted lips, teeth barely showing, eyes all aglow. God, If I could see that smile everyday then I would never aks for anything else in my entire life. A thought suddenly pops into my head, I want to kiss him.

Not like he hasn't kissed me five times in the past twenty minutes, but I want to kiss him again. Is this being in love? Wanting to touch that person, talk to that person, look at that person all the time. I can't take my eyes off him, if I even looked away for a second, I'd miss him like hell.

A bell rings, and the girls outside waiting for us to come out scatter. I lean against the wall and sink to the floor. Myungsoo sits next to me.

This is getting bad. I'm even skipping class for him.

"When did it start?" I ask, trying to summon my American blunt bravery.

"When did what start?" he asks, tilting his head to face me.

"You...you liking me," I whisper, getting nervous.

Maybe my nervousness rubs off on him, or maybe he's been nervous this whole time, but he clears his throat and blushes. "Since that night..."

Our first kiss flashes in my head. It was my fault, I initiated it. Just a few minutes ago was the first time he kissed me. Our REAL first kiss.

Butterflies flutter in my stomach just thinking about it. "About that...sorry," I try to brush off my nervousness with a laugh.

"Don't be," he smiles at me, "I like you."

My heart skips a beat. Myungsoo! I shout in my mind, Why do you have to say it so blatantly?! What am I supposed to say?

He looks at me expectantly. After a minute of silence, he raises his eyebrows.

"I-I...You already know!" I shout and shove my hand at his face. He grabs my hand and stands up, pulling me with him. "After school, do something with me, okay?" he says casually.

D-Date!? My thoughts scream.

"Like what?" I ask, trying to maintain my calm appearance.

"You'll see," he flashes one more smile that could put the sun to shame.

"See you later," he waves once and leaves the music room, leaving me breathless.

****

AFTER SCHOOL

The girls at school clearly aren't used to this yet. They mostly hate me, but I guess some are starting to 'ship' the idea that a normal girl and their beloved L started dating. According to Hae Sung our couple name is now LJ.

My heart thrums in my chest, excited for whatever Myungsoo has in store for me. Sungjong is at the gate, leaning on the brick wall. Heart thrumming stopped. I'm pretty sure I just died.

In fact, I hope I'm dead. At least that way I don't have to let him down any more.

Sungjong looks at me, and the pain in his eyes is gone. He smiles apologetically. "Sungjong?" I ask.

"I don't want to cause you problems. You have enough already," he laughs, "I'll only be angry once, just once. Then I'll go back to being normal, okay?"

Silence. How could he be this good of a person?

"You could at least grant me this, couldn't you?" he interrupts my thoughts. Tears swell under my eyes, and I hug him. "Thank you. Go ahead, get mad, hit me, yell at me. I don't care."

He pulls me off, and he's still smiling. A tear rolls down his cheek. I hate that this is my fault. I wish I could beat up the person who hurt him, but I hurt him. I can't change that.

"You should have told me," his voice is quiet, "then it wouldn't have hurt this bad."

I keep quiet. Saying I'm sorry won't fix anything.

He looks up and blinks away the tears then looks back at me, "I can't get mad at you, what am I doing? I know better than anyone else, you can't help it. See you tomorrow," he walks away. There's nothing I can say that will help. What happens next is up to him. I wish he would have yelled at me, or hit me, he could have at least punched me like he punched Myungsoo. Maybe then I wouldn't feel this awful.

Something presses into my hand and wraps around it, I look up. Myungsoo smiles at me."Shall we go?"

I wrap my arms around him and squeeze him. Maybe some of my pain can melt away in his arms. I swear I hear a girl faint behind me. I forgot we're in public.

"Aren't you trying to act a little too couply for the first day we're dating?" Myungsoo jokes. I nod and pull off him. "Sorry," I whisper, raising a hand. He catches my hand and holds it. "This is what normal couples do," he smiles.

I blush. Right, we're a couple now. So why does it feel like nothing's changed other than the fact we do things like holding hands? It feels like just a step further into the inevitable.

"So where are we going?"

"You'll find out."

-------

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