"I need your help."

"Huh?" Kyungmi stared at L as he stood in front of her at her locker. People passing by muttered nervously to themselves, wondering why the school's most infamous (and best-looking) hooligan was once again talking to that smart girl everyone forgot the name of. 

"Does she owe him money?" One whispered.

"Maybe he's forcing her to help him with his homework," another added, scared.

L rolled his eyes at their comments. "I said, I need your help. Can you come over to my house now?"

"W-what? I don't ..." Kyungmi looked nervous as she clutched a fat textbook to her chest. "I-I've never been to anyone's house before ... except for Sungjong's ..."

L felt himself soften a little over how awkward she was, but on the outside, he just rolled his eyes again and sighed deeply. "It's not like I'm kidnapping you or anything. It's just, well ..."

Here, it was his turn to feel awkward and embarrassed. 

"I kind of ... need some help ... you know, for the math contest coming up?"

Kyungmi's eyes widened. "You ... you want my help?"

"I sure as heck will not ask Sunggyu," L replied bluntly.

"O-okay! Sure thing!" Kyungmi looked delighted as she grabbed more texbooks out of her locker. "I'll bring this for reference ... and this one, it has good examples ... and this ... and this one ..."

L stared warily as she pretty much loaded half her locker's books into her arms. "I'm not asking you to turn me into freaking Stephen Hawking overnight, Kyungmi. I just need to grasp the basics, that's all."

Kyungmi looked disappointed. "Not even this?" She held out a university-level textbook deploringly.

"Definitely not," L said firmly. "Let's just keep it at second year level, alright?"

Kyungmi hung her head and returned the textbooks. All of them.

"Whoa, wait, you aren't bringing any?"

"Second year is baby stuff. I don't need a book to teach you that."

L shook his head at her superiority. "My apologies, your highness. Now hurry up and let's go, before those idiots find us."

"Your friends?" Kyungmi asked, as she quickly replaced her lock and stumbled along after him.

"Yeah, what other idiot would I talk about?" L gave her a sideways glance. "Are they still bothering you?"

"N-not really, I adapt easily to change." Kyungmi gave a shaky laugh and readjusted her glasses. L briefly considered buying her some glasses-cleaning stuff and wondered how she could even see through the smudges. 

"That's not a good enough answer," L snapped. "Look, I don't like it when people are upset because of me. If my friends are seriously scaring you, I'll force them to back off."

"No, really, it's fine!" Kyungmi insisted. "I mean, Woohyun and Dongwoo are still a bit scary, but Hoya and Sunggyu are really nice!"

"You only like Sunggyu because he's smart!" L complained grumpily, knowing he sounded like a jealous brat and not caring at that moment. He kept forgetting his cool, cold demeanor around this girl.

"Yes!" She declared huffily.

"Seriously? That's it? You just ... okay. Whatever." They left the school out into the bright sunshine, students chattering around them. Kyungmi was just about to cross the street when L grabbed her arm and yanked her back. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I was going ... oh ..." Kyungmi trailed off. "I don't know where you live."

L snickered at how lost she seemed to be. "Just follow me. It's down here."

They walked down a few blocks and turned right. L's home was just like any other apartment block on that street, and Kyungmi followed behind curiously. 

"Wow," Kyungmi marveled as she took off her shoes and stepped inside. "It's so big ... and clean ..."

"It looks like any other boring old house," L scoffed, lazily tossing his backpack onto the couch. "Why? What does your house look like?"

"Um, it's pretty messy, unless our neighbour -- we call her The Nosy One -- comes by. Then she complains to us about her facial wrinkles and cleans up for us. Then Halmeoni and I laugh later."

L burst out laughing -- it shocked Kyungmi a bit. It was the first time she heard him laugh so openly and warmly. "Are you serious? That's hilarious! Your halmeoni is the . Are you parents just as kooky as you?"

"I don't know," Kyungmi said. "They're dead."

L stopped laughing, and the smile slid off his face. "Are you ...? Oh man, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to --"

"It's fine," Kyungmi interrupted, shrugging. "They died a long time ago. I can't even remember them. It's always been me and Halmeoni. And Sungjong."

L still looked upset at himself for bringing it up, and Kyungmi secretly decided she liked his smile better than his frown. "And Halmeoni is just as crazy as me. She keeps European medieval weapons in the kitchen. Scares anybody who comes over."

This proved to be a good distraction, because L stopped brooding. "Are you serious? Wow, I have to see that! Oh, you want water or something?"

"Sure! Uh, I mean, yes p-please." Kyungmi gingerly sat on the edge of the couch, afraid to break anything, and looked around some more. She saw a line of photographs along a shelf, and got up to look closer at them.

She smiled at the pictures: a beautiful woman and a man, which must have been L's parent's at their wedding; a baby with L's glittering eyes and a smile she couldn't believe would ever appear on his face; a child L, now wearing his signature scowl as he seemed to be upset at a cute older boy, who was grinning mischieviously at him; a graduation picture of that same older boy, now a handsome young man.

She liked the last one best. It was L from maybe one or two years ago, playing video games with his friends and eating popcorn. He looked pretty much the same, but had a slight awkward cuteness to him. The others looked younger too, and they were all laughing and joking around. Judging from the banner and balloons in the background of the photograph, it was L's birthday. She never would have expected to see L smiling and laughing so openly like that.

L walked out from the kitchen, holding two glasses of water. He stared at Kyungmi as she grinned over the pictures. He's never seen her smile like that before; relaxed and easygoing. It still looked goofy, but it was also strangely endearing. He shook his head and cleared his throat.

"What are you doing?"

Kyungmi was so shocked she almost knocked over one of the pictures. "Ah! Oh no!" She caught it and carefully placed it back. "Don't do that! I nearly died!"

"I'm sure you did," L snarked, placing her glass of water onto the table. "Why are you looking at those stupid pictures for?"

"Is that your brother?" Kyungmi pointed to the graduation photo. L scowled.

"Yeah, that's my hyung. He's an , don't go near him."

"He's pretty handsome," Kyungmi said, returning to the couch.

"I'm way better looking than HE is," L muttered, and Kyungmi snickered.

They stayed that way for a bit, in awkward and nervous silence. They had gotten comfortable with each other at school, but this was a whole new setting entirely. 

Finally, Kyungmi said, "Uhhm, why don't you get your homework out? We'll start from there and branch out."

"Y-yeah, sure." L stammered, reaching into his backpack and pulling out a binder. It took some difficulty, because it seemed like he stuffed just about everything in there. Kyungmi's eyes narrowed.

"What is this?" She demanded. L stared at her. "What?"

"You heard me! What is this ... um, how do you say ... this CRAP?!" She grabbed his backpack and peeked inside with disgust. "Ugh, do you EVER clean it?"

"I don't have time," L said defensively. Kyungmi shot him a look and turned the backpack upside down, dumping the contents all over the floor.

"I thought we were going to study for the math contest," L sullenly muttered as he slid to the ground, Kyungmi copying. 

"Not until we sort out your organization skills," Kyungmi said firmly. "It is scientifically proven that the more organized you are, the better you'll feel and act, personally and professionally. Now come on, slugbrain!"

L made a face at her lame insult and sorted through the papers. He grabbed a whole stack of crumpled papers and tossed them aside. "Fine, let's just throw these out!"

"You can't!" Kyungmi looked scandalized. "What if one of those was an important note? Or a homework assignment?"

"I never do the homework anyway," L snapped.

Kyungmi's eyes widened and stared at him in horror. L glared defiantly back. They held that gaze for almost a minute before L grew uncomfortable and looked away. He just couldn't stare at someone for that long.

Kyungmi finally found her voice, and when she spoke, her voice was shaking with fury. "You will finish every single bit of homework you have been given this year!"

"What? Are you kidding me?" L yelped. "Do you know how long that'll take? That's not fair! I don't have time for that!"

Kyungmi glared right back at him -- if L wasn't so irritated over how unfair and overexaggerated she was being, he would have been amused at her sudden energy and anger. "You asked me for help, but if you aren't even willing to do practice work, then you aren't serious about this! Why should I help you with anything if you aren't willing to work hard on it?!"

L gritted his teeth, his infamous temper flaring. It was the first time he's ever felt mad at Kyungmi; normally she was too weird and awkward to ever get on his nerves. "Well, I'm NOT, so what are you going to do about it?! I'm not a total complete NERD like you who probably ASKS the teacher for extra work! At least I can deal with my issues -- you can't solve a single problem on your own if it's not a math equation! You just find someone to do it for you! That's why you don't have any fr --"

L abruptly stopped himself, realizing with growing horror what he was saying to her. Kyungmi no longer looked angry and upset at him; she just looked sad.

There was a short silence as L struggled with his inner turmoil, and Kyungmi finally said, "You're right." Her voice was quiet and shaky. "I don't solve issues on my own. Because I c-can't. I don't know how, so I give up. My only f-friend got hurt, and I couldn't think of any way to help other than getting someone else to do it f-for me."

She stood up, her messy bangs hiding her eyes. L was glad for that, he didn't want to look at them and see how much he hurt her with his cruel words.

"And I do ask teachers for extra work," she added softly, before putting on her shoes and walking out the door. L closed his eyes as the door clicked shut and buried his face into his hands, knuckles digging into his skull.

Jesus. He's such an idiot. He's such an idiot. How could he say those things to her? How low can he get?

God dammit, he thought miserably. God DAMMIT. Should I go after her and apologize? But what would I say? And would she even want to listen to me? But if I don't go after her, she'll think I really don't care. Oh god, what do I say? 'Kyungmi, I'm so sorry I said all those horrible things to you, I'm just a disgusting douchebag of a human being. Please forgive me?' Dammit, I'm just as bad as Oh Saeryun! How do I apologize to her? I've never apologized to a girl before? Should I ... should I buy her flowers? Chocolates? Wait, that's what you would do for a girlfriend. Dammit, nobody ever said anything about a girl FRIEND! But Kyungmi's not like other girls ... ARGH! I'm going to lose her if I don't run after her now!

He tore himself out of his spiralling thoughts and realized he had been stuck in his own mind for at least two minutes. Panic shot through his chest. He really DID waste time. What if he had to wait until tomorrow to find her, and by then she's already so upset at him she won't talk to him anymore? THEN what?

He jumped to his feet and ran to the door, intent on pursuing her even in his socks. He ripped open the door and --

Nearly collided with No Kyungmi.

He quickly stopped, but the force caused him to trip and stumble. Kyungmi staggered backwards in shock.

The two stared at each other for a long time, as if hardly daring to believe they were actually there.

L opened his mouth and closed it several times, unable to put his thoughts into words. Kyungmi fidgeted and gave him a sheepish grin.

"Hehe ... err ... I don't actually know how to get back home from here ... so ..."

*♦*

L thought the second time around after their argument would be even more awkward, but surprisingly, all tensions had disappeared. He actually felt more relaxed when she returned to his house.

Kyungmi stared pointedly at the mess on his floor. L sighed. "Fiiiine." He willingly sat down, though. If Kyungmi wanted him to do his homework, he'll do it. He won't apologize, because apologizing is awkward and embarrassing and L's pride and confusion was kind of hindering this part of his vocabulary, but he'll do the homework instead.

"First, let's figure out what we need or don't need." Kyungmi pulled out a few sheets of paper. "These are homework assignments from the beginning of the school year. We'll start with these." She carefully placed them on the table and returned to the others.

L held up another sheet of paper and made a face. "What the hell?"

Kyungmi peeked over his shoulder. The paper was covered with green, pink, blue, and purple ink, all in bubbly or flowery script. It seemed to be written by different people, but the gist of what they were saying was easy to understand.

"God dammit, I think this is from the girls in my math class," L groaned. "That asshat Woohyun probably stole it and put it into my backpack as a joke."

Kyungmi read some of it out loud. "'OMG, did you see what Hyemin was wearing today? It made her look soooo fat.' 'oMG guys Woohyun totally looked in my direction. Like wow, he's gorgeous.' 'I like L more, he's sooo badass.' 'OMG are you serious? He's so scaryy' ... uh, I think she added a frowney face. It might also be a happy face with no mouth and funny eyebrows, I can't be sure."

L tried really hard not to laugh as Kyungmi read more. "'Well he's totally hot so shut up!' 'Shame he has a girlfriend. I heard Son Nara will rip your eyes out if you even look at him.'" Kyungmi paled. "S-Son N-Nara?"

"Okay, that's enough for now," L quickly ripped the paper out of her hands and crumpled it into a ball. "That's definitely being thrown out. Next one."

They sorted out his mess for almost twenty minutes, but finally all his missed homework assignments were placed on the table and everything that was trash was put away. L stared at the inside of his now empty backpack and remarked, "This is a lot bigger than I thought."

Kyungmi giggled and pulled out a pen from her pocket. "Okay, let's start! Just work through it and if you have any trouble, ask me."

L nodded, determined, and grabbed his own pencil case. He turned to the first question ... and stared ... and stared ... and stared.

Kyungmi watched him shrewdly as he chewed on the eraser end of his pencil.

"... Do you need help?"

L felt his cheeks slowly heat up. "... Yes, please."

Kyungmi sighed and stared at the question. "Right. First, factor it, then group them together. It's very simple."

"Not to me it is," L grumbled. "What do you mean by factor?"

Kyungmi grimaced and tried to keep a hold of her exasperation. "I'll go through the basic formulas with you, okay?"

It took a lot of effort, and L felt a headache slowly come up as Kyungmi tried to shove what seemed to be a thousand different mathematic formulas into his brain. He massaged his temples as he scribbled feverishly along the paper.

"How's this?"

Kyungmi looked it over. "This is wrong. And this. And this. Wow, how did you get this answer? Nope. Wrong. Oh, this one is right, good job! Wrong. Wrong. Whoa, you were so wrong your answer flew right past the question and crashed into the other page."

"Thanks," L said dryly. "Show me again, one more time. I'll get it this time."

It took a few more tries, but finally, after much erasing and mauling of the paper, L got every single question right. He knew it was simple work, and it embarrassed him to not understand, but Kyungmi was practically glowing when he finished.

"There we go!" She said warmly. "See? You're getting better at this. Now you mastered the basics after doing this sheet, which makes it a bit easier to go through the next one!"

"I highly doubt it," L snorted, but he was surprised to find that he could actually manage a few of the questions on the next sheet of homework without needing help. In fact, he was certain they were correct.

"Is this why they assigned homework?" L marveled as Kyungmi looked through it and noticed he got six questions right the first try. "So you can practice and get better? Like, they spend the class teaching you what they know, and you do the rest yourself?"

Kyungmi gave him another look. "What else? Did you think they did it just to punish you?"

L chose not to answer that.

They worked slowly but diligently through the homework, when the door suddenly opened.

L looked up and groaned. Kyungmi looked up as well, and recognized the guy walking in as L's older brother, the handsome one from the graduation photos.

"Who's this?" L's brother asked curiously.

"None of your business," L snapped.

"Hey, no need to be rude, dongsaeng," he said lazily, looking at Kyungmi. Kyungmi subconsciously sat up straighter, nervous under the sudden attention.

"Who are you?"

"N-No Kyungmi!" She stammered weakly.

"Cool. I'm Kim Myungdo, this loser's hyung." He ruffled L's short hair, who slapped his hand away, blushing in embarrassment. "So, tell me, dongsaeng. Is she your new girlfriend?"

"HYUNG!"

"Hey, I'm just saying. Is she?"

"No, she's not!" L growled, hands clenching into fists. "She's just a friend, okay?"

"Alright, calm down. Just saying though, if she is your girlfriend, you seriously lowered your standards. At least that Nara chick was hot."

L felt like getting into a fistfight with his stupid brother. But Myungdo was in university and could kick his any day. That didn't mean L wasn't going to back down either.

"You shut up! Don't talk about Kyungmi that way!"

"Oh, what are you going to do about it, big boy?" Myungdo mercilessly teased. "Hit me? Better not do that in front of your girl, she might think you're abusive."

"You son of a --" L started to stand up.

"W-WAIT!" Kyungmi shrieked. The two brothers stopped and stared at her.

Kyungmi turned to Myungdo and babbled the first thing that came to her head. "What is the chemical formula for the molecules of candy?"

Myungdo faltered. "What?"

"Carbon-Holmium-Cobalt-Lanthanum-Tellurium!" She spat it out at top speed, looking proud of herself.

L just groaned. "Kyungmi, don't start spouting out information again, that's not really helping at --"

"It wasn't random information," Kyungmi said, looking vaguely insulted. "It was a joke!"

"What?" Myungdo looked at her some more, then his eyes widened. "You mean -- oh! Wait! Hold on a sec!"

He ran down the hall, and a few seconds later, Kyungmi heard him thundering back, this time with pen and paper. He shoved L out of the way, and L landed on the couch, spluttering curse words.

"Give me a second, kid!" He ordered Kyungmi, scribbling down the formula. "Molecules of candy, molecules of candy," he muttered under his breath. He scribbled something else down, then froze.

Then promptly burst into laughter.

L stared in bewilderment as Myungdo roared with laughter. "CHoCoLaTe! The answer is CHoCoLaTe!" He howled, looking delighted. "Oh man, I never thought -- that was hilarious! I never expected anyone to say THAT! Do you have any other ones?"

Kyungmi nodded, looking pleasantly surprised that Myungdo actually understood her joke. "What do you call a joke that is based on cobalt, radon,  and yttrium?"

"Give me a second, I'll get this!" Myungdo scribbled some more formulas down, and burst out laughing again. "CoRnY! Oh man, the gang is going to DIE when they see this! Your name is Kyungmi, right?"

Kyungmi nodded, and Myungdo reached over. She flinched, wondering if he was going to hit her. Instead, he ruffled her hair.

"Kyungmi, I have GOT to keep my eye on you. Thinking of attending the University of Science and Technology when you graduate?"

Kyungmi shrugged. "It's on my list," she said shyly.

"You better consider it, they'd love to have someone like you!" Myungdo was snickering as he looked at the paper. "Well, I'm meeting my friends, little bro. Don't wait for me." He pinched L's nose and backed away when L glared at him.

"Oh, yeah, and I changed my mind. Your new girl is cute as heck."

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" L yelled as Myungdo slammed the door shut, laughing all the way.

There was silence as L breathed heavily, looking irritated and humiliated.

"So, your brother's pretty cool," Kyungmi offered.

L groaned and slapped a hand over his face.