Kyungmi found herself the next day once again pressing against her locker, wishing more than ever that she could just become one with the metal and melt away.

"So, you're the smartest girl in school?" Dongwoo asked curiously, leaning in way too close into her personal bubble for her liking. "How do you get such good grades?"

"You know, you have very expressive eyes," Woohyun added, leaning in closer to inspect her face. "A pretty good shape. You should take off your glasses sometimes."

"Why did you go to Myungsoo for help?"

"Do you like Myungsoo?"

"What's your plan on getting rid of Son Nara?"

"What do you do other than study?"

Kyungmi made a strangled squeak and tried to fit herself completely inside her locker. There were two other boys there besides Dongwoo and Woohyun. Sungyeol was, as usual, hiding and trying not to look at her, and another boy, a quiet one they called Hoya. He wasn't doing much to help her, much to her chagrin.

"Hey, what are you two doing? Get lost!"

L came running down the hall, looking embarrassed and annoyed. "Stop bothering her already! She's not good with people!"

"Aww, we weren't scaring her!" Dongwoo complained. "Right, Kyungmi?"

"Fear is an emotion induced by a perceived threat which causes entities to quickly pull far away from it and usually hide it is a basic survival mechanism occuring in response to a specific stimulus such as pain or the threat of danger," Kyungmi babbled shakily.

"See? She's fine." Woohyun rolled his eyes but backed away all the same. "Well, since Myungsoo is here and ruining my fun, I'm off. I'm going to meet Baehi before classes start. Later, single men!"

L just glared at him as he walked away. "Whatever."

"Another girlfriend?" Dongwoo said, in both alarm and amusement. "Man, he gets around."

"That's not funny, Dongwoo," L snapped. "He never takes them seriously. I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired having to see every single girl burst into tears and come to us to ask why he hates them."

Dongwoo winced, immediately not smiling. "Oh, right ... poor Jihyun, she just wanted a guy to say she's pretty and like her."

Kyungmi slowly peeled herself off of her locker. 

"You alright?" L asked her. 

"I've felt better," Kyungmi said shakily. "Although, I must admit, your acquaintances are ratheAAAAAARGH!!!"

She suddenly paled and jumped behind Hoya. L was just about to ask why when he heard a high-pitched call.

"L-oppa!!!"

He closed his eyes and groaned as Son Nara came running down the hall. She vaulted herself at him. "Good morning, oppa!"

Dongwoo rolled his eyes. Sungyeol mimed gagging and they both sniggered. L shot them death glares.

"Please don't let her see me," Kyungmi whispered frantically to the man she was hiding behind. "I don't want to get locked in the girl's bathroom again, or have my lunchables eaten!"

Hoya, to her thanks, did not move a muscle.

"Oppa, did you think about the costume party yet? Are you going to go?" Nara clung to his arm.

"Uhh, no. No, I can't go, Nara. I told you, I have to ... uhh, s-study! With Kyungmi!"

Nara pouted. "But that's no fun, oppa! Come oonnnn! What, you like her more than me?"

"Uhh ..." L suddenly blanked out and began to stammer. Dongwoo and Sungyeol instantly stopped laughing behind his back and tensed up, looking frightened. Hoya shifted ever-so-slightly so he was completely blocking Kyungmi from view.

"Oppa, what's with you?" Nara was suddenly turning louder and more panicky-sounding. "Why are you suddenly hanging out with Kyungmi so much?!"

"Nara, it's not like that --" L began to say, but Nara had already lost it. Sungyeol slowly began to slide down the hallway as Nara's voice became more and more hysterical.

"I-is it because of me? Am I doing something wrong? Do you want me to change something? My wardrobe? My attitude? My personality? I-I'll do it, if you want, oppa! If you need to hang out with another girl to be happy, then I can change myself so you'll --"

"Nara!" L exploded. "It's fine! Seriously. She's just ... I really need to get my marks up, okay?"

"B-b-b-but," Nara's lower lip began to quiver. "Don't you care about me too? Don't you want to spend time with me?"

This conversation was getting real ugly real fast. Kyungmi felt like she needed to do something. Then again, she also really wanted to hightail it out of there. 

Finally, Kyungmi stepped out from behind Hoya. Nara turned to her. Kyungmi shakily adjusted her glasses, took a deep breath, and spat out, "Did you know that ninety percent of our body is in fact stardust? Because all the elements except for hydrogen and helium are created in stars."

Nara paused. "What?"

Kyungmi took this chance to continue on blabbering. "Each human eye is composed of 130 million photoreceptor cells. In each cell, there are 100 trillion atoms, which is more than all the stars in the milky way galaxy. But each atom in each cell in each eye were formed in the core of a star billions of years ago, but now they are being utilizied to capture the energy released from that same process. All to expand the consciousness that creates us. Essentially, we are the universe experiencing itself, which makes us simply a thought."

Everyone stared as Kyungmi gasped for breath, looking rather pleased with herself. L looked semi-interested in what she was talking about.

"... What?" Nara deadpanned, looking clearly disconcerted. Kyungmi just shrugged her shoulders. The bell rang. "I don't want to be late for class!" She said, grabbing books from her locker and shutting the door. "You know me, I loooove studying and ... other nerdy things. Bye!" She immediately skipped away without a backwards glance.

"Uhhm ..." L started to say, but Nara suddenly started giggling.

"Oh, that Kyungmi! She's always been a real weirdo! She used to drive us all crazy back in elementary school, spouting the most random info like some sort of walking encyclopedia or something! Gosh, isn't she just the strangest thing, oppa?"

L paused and glanced at the others. Dongwoo nodded frantically and Sungyeol made flapping motions with his hands.

"Uhh, yes, totally." L mumbled.

"I'm sorry I was being so crazy back there, oppa. I should have known you'd never do anything like that to me. Besides, there's no way you could like a girl like No Kyungmi. Isn't that right, oppa?"

"I guess, yeah," L said, slowly prying her arms off of him. "I have to get to class, so ..."

"Think about the costume party again, okay?" She jumped up to peck him on the lips. "Bye, oppa! See you later!"

L waited until she was gone to glare at his friends.

"Don't you dare say anything."

"I wasn't going to," Dongwoo replied, lips twitching as he tried to hide a smile. Sungyeol was full out laughing already. Even Hoya was grinning.

"Well, you should be grateful, Myungsoo," Dongwoo said, slapping him on the back. "Kyungmi totally saved your back there with her nerdy astronomy-talk."

L shrugged. "Yeah. Can I get to class now, or are you going to stand here and continue talking to me?"

"Ouch, Myungsoo, cold," Sungyeol pretended to shiver. "How is Kyungmi ever going to be your friend if you act like that?"

"I'm serious, you guys, shut your face before I shut it for you."

"I'd like to see you try!"

As the three friends continued to argue, Hoya sighed and quietly made his way to class. His friends were so weird. Except for Sunggyu. Sunggyu was normal.

That Kyungmi girl was very strange, indeed. But Hoya didn't mind strange. He had a feeling that Kyungmi was just what L needed as a friend. 

*♦*

L went to the library hallway at lunch, fully expecting Kyungmi to be there waiting for him with her weird lunches. Turns out, she wasn't the only one there. And she also wasn't waiting for him.

"Surface area of a sphere."

"Four-pi-r-squared."

"Good, good. Volume of a triangle?"

"One-third-pi-r-squared-h."

"This is easy stuff, for you, isn't it?" Sunggyu said with a teasing grin. "Why am I wasting my breath asking you anyway?"

Kyungmi's cheeks turned a light dusting of pink at his compliment. "Just practice, right?"

"What's going on here?" L said as he took a seat next to them. Formula sheets and math questions were scattered on the floor in front of Sunggyu and Kyungmi. 

"We're studying for the math contest next week," Kyungmi explained. "Sunggyu was nice enough to help me study."

"Why do you need to study?" L demanded rather grumpily. "You're the smartest student in the school."

"Yeah, but you never know, right?" Kyungmi stressed, her eyes wide with idealism. L sighed and ate an apple as he watched the two quiz each other. 

After about ten minutes of this, he was starting to feel bored and left out. He was supposed to be working on a plan with Kyungmi, dammit! How was he ever going to break up with Nara at this rate? And it was completely unfair. He was friends with her first, not Sunggyu.

Whoa, wait, buddy! Since when did you ever think of her as your friend?

L stared at her while trying to make it look like he wasn't staring. It was hard, but she was so caught up in testing Sunggyu's knowledge of parabolas and parent functions that she didn't notice L's eyes on her. Her hair was still in a greasy ponytail (she must have forgotten to wash it for the past two days or so), her eyes hidden behind chunky glasses, the lens smeared by fingerprints, her clothes baggy and wrinkled, and with what appeared to be strawberry stains on the sleeve.

And he really did think of her as a friend. Even though he's only really known her for a few days. There was just something about her weirdness and habit of constantly spouting stupid information at the weirdest time that made him want to eat lunch with her and get her to talk again.

He wanted to make her happy by getting revenge on that head Oh Saeryun. He wanted to meet Sungjong again and thank him for all those math help. He wanted her to take control over a bit of her social anxiety so she could relax and have fun with his other friends. He wanted his other friends to like her. With Woohyun, that would be damn near impossible, but he could dream.

He wanted a lot of things.

"Uhh, help me out with them too!" L blurted out before he could stop himself.

Sunggyu and Kyungmi both stopped and stared at him.

"What?" Sunggyu managed to say.

"Y-you heard me!" L said, trying to appear firm in his decision and not wimp out. "Help me study! I want to try the math competition too!"

"Are you kidding me?" Sunggyu looked like he was about to laugh. "Since when did you care about math contests, Myungsoo?"

"Since now, okay?" L growled, feeling the hints of a blush crawl up his cheeks and desperately wishing it would go away. "I want to get my grades up, and ... uh ... a competition is sure to force me to study harder!"

Kyungmi's eyes were practically shining with delight. "T-this is great, L!" She squealed, clapping her hands together. "We can get studying straight away! Ooh, I'm so excited! I can't wait to teach you all that I know!"

"W-whoa, there," L stammered immediately. "Slow down for a second, Kyungmi. N-not everything, okay? Just ... just the basics for the competition." If Kyungmi tried to teach him everything she knew, he was pretty certain his brain would explode.

"Well," Sunggyu grinned. "If you really want to, we'd be happy to help you out!"

"Right ... right ..." L groaned. He was already starting to regret this.