Lee Byunghun sighed as he stepped through the school gates onto the dreaded school grounds. All the students nearby who had been merrily chatting amongst themselves abruptly stopped their conversations to stare at him. Byunghun’s whole body started heating up. Embarrassed, he lowered his head and made his way through the hallways to his locker. The buzzing whispers that had been haunting him since he started school at Stursaby High increased ten folds as he got nearer to his locker.

“It’s not you Byunghun, they’re not looking at you…”

As much as he tried to comfort himself, he knew that the attention was indeed for the new kid on the block.

“It’ll stop soon, it happens to every new kid, no need to worry so much about it…”

But then he sighed again. He knew better than that. New students only got the whole year group riled up for the first few days, after that, no one would care about you, and you’re left in the cold, cold, world by yourself. Byunghun had been in the school for two and a half weeks already, he was still the new kid, but no one made a fuss about it anymore. After all this time, you would be expected by both teachers and students to be familiar with the school. It was impossible of course, but such is the way of the world.

So he knew. He knew that the attention wasn’t based on him being a new kid. He had caused a much, much bigger scandal, a scandal he didn’t regret, but he wondered if he should.

He undid his lock as he thought about that eventful day. That very day that changed his life.

It was just another ordinary day for Byunghun. Not being able to sleep the night before, feeling like a walking zombie, going to school just because he was forced to, attending class because he needed a job to feed himself when he graduated from university. Although time passed very slowly for Byunghun, it was two weeks since he started school in Stursaby High.

He dragged his exhausted body over to roll call, wanting to get over with school and go home to have a nice sweet nap.  That is, if his mind would finally give him some peace.

He saw students gathering together, sitting in groups, shouting out their conversations and laughing their hearts out.

He was the only one alone.

In his roll call class, Byunghun didn’t exactly have any friends. The very little amount of friends he made were all in other roll call classes, so their lockers were in the other blocks, which meant that he didn’t get to see them at the start of school or after school, only during some classes he shared with them, or during recess and lunch time.

To make this short, he was a loner.

In year 5, he went to America, and only came back to Korea very recently, so he didn’t know anybody. What’s worse is that he started school half way through high school, so everyone was already set up and ready to go, and he’s still struggling to get his locker code right.

He looked like a ghost today. Not like he didn’t in the any other days, since he couldn’t get much sleep either, but he especially looked like one today. He was worrying too much.

“L.Joe~!” A classmate of his said in a sing-song voice.

“Don’t call me that.” He snapped back.

“Why not? L.Joe, is your name…” To that, he had nothing to say.

It wasn’t his name, it was his nickname! How many times did he have to tell everyone that?! His peers in America called him L.Joe because Byunghun was too much of a tongue twister for them. He didn’t want people in Korea calling him that too…. It reminded him too much of his days in America, he would try his best to avoid thinking of his time spent in America, he didn’t want to remember.

“L.Joe!” The same person called out again, raising his voice a little.

“I’ll let it slide this time….” He mumbled.

“Were you listening? I asked you a question!”

“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention. What was it again?”

“You have runner’s duty today! Do you remember?” Their teacher marched into class, causing the latter to lean in closer to Byunghun as he spoke.

“Well I didn’t forget, if that’s what you mean.”

“That means you have to skip a whole day full of classes! Poor you, I know you don’t want to...” He made a scrunched up face that was supposed to look like Byunghun upset, and trailed off into a loud cackle. He backed away when the teacher glared at his direction. Byunghun sighed once again.

“You don’t have to be jealous that I’m smarter than you….” Luckily, none of his classmates heard him. Byunghun was a smart student, but you couldn’t tell on first sight. His raven black hair wasn’t styled in any way, and was just left the same as how it was when he woke up. His squinty eyes and bad eyesight had him wearing a pair of full frame glasses, and his small and petite or short (L.Joe hated being called short) figure wasn’t built like any of the guys of his age in this school. You would just think that Byunghun was just some dude who didn’t get enough nutrition as he grew up, and came from a poor family.

But, if in each class, you score full marks for all the pre-tests, the smart will definitely pop out whether you like it or not. The word ‘smart’ was tattooed in large prints on his forehead! Being smart is a good thing, but if you’re like Byunghun, who doesn’t talk much in school, and you’re  looking haggard 24/7, you’re bound to be considered a nerd.

He leaned back on his seat, waiting for the teacher to call out his name to mark the rolls.

“Sungjae?”

“Here!”

“Chanseob?”

“Present!”

“Byunghun?”

“Here.”

“Eun- Hold on!” The teacher turned to look at him.

“Byunghun! You’re up for Runner’s Duty today! After roll call, make sure you report to student services.”

He mentally punched the teacher.

Why was everyone reminding him of the Runner’s Duty?! He was already so stressed out about it, and yet the whole world keeps going on and on about it like it’s the best thing that could happen to a student.

The teacher finished marking the roll when the bell rang.

“Class dismissed!” The other boys flew out of class, hurrying to their next lesson. Byunghun on the other hand, took his time gathering his equipment. He wasn’t in a hurry for his Runner’s Duty. It said on the paper to be there after roll call, but he was certain that they wouldn’t expect him to be so punctual.

“Byunghun, shouldn’t you be on your way to the office?” The teacher asked, not bothering to look at him as she tidied the room getting ready for the next lesson.

“I don’t see the point in hurrying.” He said, feeling weary.

“As a student of this school, you must uphold the customs of the school and serve the school! The Runner’s Duty isn’t there for any reason. It’s to make sure students like you, Lee Byunghun, do community service.” He rolled his eyes at her. Annoying much?

“Miss, would you be so kind as to let me off this once? Just this once! Let me skip Runner’s Duty, and I’ll score full marks for Personal Development.”

She looked at him sceptically.

“Fine. I’ll score full marks for every subject! And if I don’t you can assign me to Runner’s Duty again!” He begged. Just a little more, a little more and he’ll be off-

“No.”

“Plea-“

“No.”

“Plea-“

“A no is a no, Byunghun. I’ve got another class coming. Other than annoying me, if you do not have any business with me, get out.” She sent a glare, and this time, it was for him.

He trudged out of the classroom, heading towards the main office. He already knew begging wouldn’t work, but at least he tried.

The lady at the desk was arguing over the phone when he arrived. He waited patiently for her to finish off her conversation.

‘The longer she takes, the better it’ll be...’ He thought to himself. He could kill more time; do less ‘community work’.

It took the lady a few minutes to realize that he was just standing there boring holes into her head. She waved over some other woman and mouthed ‘Runner’ to her.

‘How did she know?’ He questioned himself, a little surprised.

“I’m Ms. Abermug and I’ll be attending to you first since Ms. Kan is busy at the moment” She glanced at her colleague. “Don’t mind her, once she starts, it’s impossible to stop her.”

He blanked out, ignoring her words, he just wanted to get this over with, quick.

“.....Come with me, I’ve got a few jobs for you.” When Byunghun snapped out of it, Ms. Abermug already wandered off to somewhere. From the corners of his eye, he saw a faint shadow and settled with going in that direction. Being in a haste, he clumsily knocked his head against the door frame. Ms. Abermug popped her head out of the printing room having heard the loud noise.

“You okay there?”

“I’m fine, miss...” He muttered. He didn’t bump his head too hard, but the pain was numbing, and he couldn’t feel his head. If he wanted to, he could’ve used his injured head as an excuse to escape from the dreadful Runner’s Duty, but he was already in the office, and he had decided to just get over with this and go home. He couldn’t back out now, not after he had bumped his head in order to ‘serve’ the community.

At the start, Ms Abermug gave him heaps of files, and all he had to do was pick out all the attendance documents, give it the Ms Kan, and neatly returned them to its original homes. When he was done, he sat in a corner of the office reading while waiting for more orders to come his way.

“Maybe Runner’s Duty isn’t too bad…” He smiled to himself.

Just as he spoke, Ms Kan paced over to him with a few sticky notes in hand. Of course things wouldn’t suit him smoothly, it never did.

“Byunghun, a few reminders came in from these students’ parents just now. Go to each of their classrooms and inform them about these can you?” She pointed to another row of students’ name. “Also, ask these students to report to Student services please. Off you go!”

The school was a very complicated place, in Byunghyun’s eyes at least. He wasn’t acquainted with the school grounds, and even couldn’t find his way to most of his classes. He was most familiar with Block D, where you could locate his locker, and yet he only knew the hallways of the 1^st floor. Not the classrooms, not the second floor, but ONLY the HALLWAYS of the 1^st floor. Because he started his journeys to his classes mostly from Block D, he would make a U-turn back to the building when he’d gone astray.

With the help with his favourite landmark, Block D, he successfully directed himself around the school and finished his task. He took much longer than he should have, since he had to make several inconvenient trips back to Block D to re-locate his position and start off from there.

He strolled back to the office, not wanting to get bombarded with more troublesome jobs. It was then he saw a tall figure staggering around the playground. Finding it weird that a someone was alone in the playground during school times, he went to check out the mysterious boy.

His eyes widened, and Byunghun gaped at the young lad. His seemingly soft golden pile swayed in the strong wind, but his face was as pale as a sheet, with matching lips that were unusually purple. His frail body swayed from side to side as the wind coiled, Byunghun was amazed that the boy was still standing on his two feet.

Byunghun watched as he wobbled his way into another building, and started to panic.

“What do I do?! What do I do?!” He was obviously sick to his bones, and needed emergent assistance. Unable to think straight while fretting, Byunghun dashed into the building, afraid of what might occur to the boy.

He was gone.

Byunghun revolved, eyes busily searching for the little boy. How could a person as ill even budge in the first place? Moreover, the little boy could move so quickly! He messaged his head, a headache would follow after this, he was sure of it.

Then it hit him.

Why did he even bother with the boy? He was none of his business. Sure, the boy had this sick-near-death look, but Byunghun was sure he had friends of his own to look after him, what with that pretty face he possessed. He didn’t have time to answer his own question as he spotted the boy lying against the stairway to the second floor of Block A. Without thinking, Byunghun swooped down and cradled him in his arms.

He half-jogged his way down to the office, now in a hurry since he had an unknown patient in his arms.

‘His life is in my hands, like literally…’ Byunghun silently laughed at his own joke. The rumble that came off his chest woke the boy.

“W-what’s s-so f-f-funny….?” He tried his best, but could only manage out a mumble in his current condition. Byunghun, unaware that he was awake, jumped a little when he heard his soft voice.

“N-nothing.” He mentally slapped himself for stuttering.

“Then could you please walk slower? I’m trying to sleep here…” His voice slurred from each syllable to another as he snuggled closer to Byunghun’s chest.

Byunghun wanted to comply, seeing as the boy was so tired, but when his forehead merely touched his chest, a burning sensation spread, and he could feel his whole body warm up.

‘Oh God. Why didn’t I notice his fever was that bad?’ He fastened his pace instead, ignoring the other boy’s request.

“Hey,” The boy said as firmly as he could. “I said to slow down. Are you deaf?”

Byunghun grinded his teeth together, annoyed with the boy. He went through all this trouble trying to help him, yet he’s acting like a spoilt brat, what was his problem?

“I could just drop you down here and leave you to rot and die for all I care, but I decided to help, so shut up and be happy.” He felt the need to give the boy a piece of his mind.

“You’re talking to a sick patient here.” He weakly nudged Byunghun with his elbow.

“Are you faking this? The last time I checked, sick people can’t argue, nor fight.”

“If they have to deal with ignorant people like you, how can they avoid it?” He retorted.

“Who are you calling ignorant, pretty boy?” Byunghun realized his mistake, and was stunned where he stood. He mentally face palmed at his own stupidity.

‘Why did I do that? It’s over… It’s over…IT’S ALL OVER.’ He thought nervously. ‘Wait. What’s over? There wasn’t even a beginning to start with!’

After giving it some thought, Byunghun realized that he was overreacting. The boy was pretty, you didn’t need eyes to see it, the boy himself was obviously overflowing with self-confidence that you could sense it a yard away. Byunghun did nothing wrong, and was just simply complimenting the boy about what he already knew. Nothing special, just a casual conversation starter, they weren’t even friends, so there wasn’t a reason for Byunghun to be fretting over this.

Right?

As much as he tried to convince himself, Byunghun knew he couldn’t trust himself. So who should he believe? Why was this supposedly arrogant young lad making him feel this way? Byunghun was puzzled.

“What did you say?” The boy shifted in his arms, turning to get a better look at Byunghun’s face.

“Nothing.” He muttered, and continued to the office.

“I heard you say something, it’s not nothing.”

“It’s nothing.” Byunghun insisted.

“Unlike you, I’m not deaf, I can hear, and I heard you say something.” The boy pressed him for further information, refusing to believe Byunghun.

“Like I said, I didn’t say anything!”

“Stop lying and repeat yourself already!”

“I SAID YOU WERE PRETTY, OKAY?” He shouted unnecessarily loud.

Both boys glared at each other, the anger from before lingering in their bodies. The boy broke the silence first. He started giggling, which Byunghun found really addictive.

“What’s so funny?” It was Byunghun’s turn to ask this same question.

“Thanks~” Despite sickly look the boy had, he smiled cheerfully at Byunghun, who couldn’t help but smile back.

“You’re welcome?”  He said awkwardly.

The silence went on, but they both felt unexpectedly comfortable with each other.

“Hey.” The boy started.

“Yeah?” Byunghun answered, not bothered to look down at the boy.

“It’s only polite to look at someone when they’re talking.”

“Whatever, just get straight to the point already.”

“Why aren’t we at the office yet?” Byunghun looked down at the boy. He was smiling innocently at him. He turned away, feeling flushed. He couldn’t say anything. The boy’s face dazzled him.

“Don’t just stare at me!” He frowned. “Why is it taking forever to reach the office?”

“…..”

“Hey! I’m talking to you, not the walls, not the trees, you!” The boy sighed, getting ideas of Byunghun as a strange person.

“Are we even going to the office?” Tired of getting ignored, the boy waved a hand in front of Byunghun’s face, putting him to a halt.

“Yes, we are going to the office.”

“Then why is it taking so long?!” He whined.

“…… because I’m lost, and I can’t find Block D.” The boy gaped at Byunghun.

“I.. Can’t believe you.” He was lost for words. That, was exactly how astonishing Byughun’s sense of direction was.

“I’m new here, so I didn’t have years of practise navigating my way around this maze like you did!” Byunghun tried defending himself.

The boy looked taken aback. “You’re the new boy?” A raised brow following soon after.

“So what if I am?” Byunghun prepared himself for all the insults or scolding or whatever he thought the boy was going to do next, but instead, he flashed a charming smile right at him.

“Welcome to Stursaby High~!” Byunghun was shocked, no one reacted this way before. “I won’t ask you how you like school, since I’m pretty sure you hate it, but you’ll get used to it, only time will tell.” He laughed again, and Byunghun found himself laughing along.

“True.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t come to greet you earlier.” He bobbed his head, hoping to imply his regret. “I’ve heard of you, but I had certain people, or I’d rather say, things, to take care of.”

“It’s okay, I don’t really mind.”

“STOP!” The boy screeched. “We’re really near the office now. There’s a shortcut nearby, we don’t want to make more U-turns now do we?” His tinkling laugh ran once again. “Go through the toilet, keep going straight, and we’re there.”

Following the boy’s instructions, they finally reached the office. Byunghun placed him down carefully, feeling oddly empty after doing so.

“Thanks,” Byunghun uttered without looking at the boy. “I’ll see you soon?”

“I should be the one thanking you, really.” The boy cringed. “How did you even carry me around the school for so long? I’m really heavy… Sorry bout that.” Byunghun wondered the same. When he picked up the young boy, he didn’t weigh a pound to him, so he somehow managed to carry him all the way here.

Weird.

“You’re really light.”

“I’ll believe that.….” And the boy started laughing again.

 ‘Gosh, what’s with him being so happy all the time?’ The boy went over to the desk to speak to Ms Kan, Byunghun tailing after.

“I’ll ring your mother, so hold on for a sec, sweetie.” She dialled the number and started talking over the phone. The boy turned back to Byunghun. “Don’t you need to go to class?”

“I have Runner’s Duty today, so I’m helping out at the office.” He explained.

“I see. I didn’t catch your name when my friends were talking about you… ”

“Byunghun. Lee Byunghun.”

“Nice to meet you, Byunggie~!” Byunghun twitched. No one ever nicknamed him that, the boy was the first. In a way, it seemed less annoying compared to L.Joe, so Byunghun permitted it.

“What’s your-” Ms Kan interrupted just at that moment, when Byunghun gathered his guts to speak again. “I’ve called your mother, dear. You can go sit at the couch and wait there. The sick bay is full, so you’ll have to bear with it.”

She turned to Byunghun. “Could you help him get his belongings from his class?”

“No Prob-” The boy cut him off. “Actually, I already have friends helping me out with that. I suppose they came by just now?”

Ms Kan furrowed her eyebrows. “No one came with your bag…. I guess they’re taking longer than they’re supposed to?”

The boy gave her words some thought. “I suppose so.”

“For now, just go rest on the couch.” She shook her head in dismay. “Poor you, you must be feeling so tired.”

She paced into the teacher’s lounge and came out with a stack of papers.

“Byunghun, could you please group these papers into groups of 25? When you’re done, just place them in each class’ pigeon hole. Thanks.” She dropped the stack of papers into his hands.

Fun’s over, back to work.

The desk where he sat at the corner of the office was peaceful, and he really liked it. No whispers, no talking, just the occasional parents coming in to pick up their sick child or a teacher walking by.

He felt at peace.

“15, 16, 17, 18…”

“Do you need help?” Byunghun turned to the familiar voice, and shook his head no.

“You’re not supposed to be here.” He stated.

“I’m sick. I’m in the office waiting for my mum to pick me up. Tell me what’s the wrong in that?”

“That’s exactly my point!” Byunghun exclaimed.

“I still don’t see the point!”

“You’re sick; you’re supposed to be resting. Not hanging around the office.” Byunghun distributed the neatly sorted piles into the pigeon holes, the boy coming over after a while to give him a hand.

“I’m fine. You look like you could use a helping hand anyways.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Have you seen yourself in the mirror?” He raised a brow and stared at Byunghun as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You look like the walking dead. Some game addict might shoot you if they saw you walking about town.”

Byunghun chose to ignore his lame joke, but allowed his assistance.

“If it has to be this way… I ought to know your name.” Asking for a person’s name is never a big deal, but Byunghun caught himself calming his heart rate.

“Chanhee. Lee Chanhee.” He flashed him an eye-blinding smile. “But you might want to call me Chunji.”

“Why would I do that?”

“You don’t want to get in trouble now do you?” He laughed nervously.

“What harm does it do to call you by your real name?” Byunghun was genuinely curious.

“Only my friends call me Chanhee. Everyone else calls me Chunji.”

“So?” Why couldn’t Chanhee get straight to the point? It was making Byunghun’s head ache more than it already was.

Chanhee stared off into the distance, giving the situation a little thought. “Do you have friends to hang out with? Be honest.”

He couldn’t lie. He was friendless. He could only protect his pride by standing still.

“Guessed it.” Chanhee muttered, bringing Byunghun back to life. “From today onwards, you’re my friend! I’m going to have to have to introduce you to Niel and Jonghyun~! Maybe Minsoo and….”

Byunghun didn’t hear the rest of him. The thought of someone wanting to be friends with him was overwhelming. Why would he? What did he want from him? Was it based on pity? Byunghun didn’t need pity from a random stranger.

“I’m tired, you do the work yourself.” Chanhee dropped whatever form of paper onto the desk and sat on the couch behind the desk. “I’ll be sleeping now. If two noisy fellows come along with my stuff, tell them to leave it here.”

“O…kay?” Byunghun said, a little unsure. How was he supposed to tell a person’s personality based on their looks?

“By the way, don’t come looking for me tomorrow.” Byunghun’s heart fell. Weren’t they friends?

“Judging by your sense of direction, you might get lost.” He laughed, Byunghun glared. “I’ll come by to get you. He should know where your locker is. Be there early, yeah?”

Byunghun didn’t get the chance to answer, with a flutter of the eyelid, Chanhee fell asleep.

 

---

Firstly, I would like to apologize for taking forever to update. I have this other story that needs updating as well, but I'm still making edits and changes to it, so it's not going very smoothly. Secondly, I apologize for making all of you wait and coming out with a lousy chapter. I'll try better. Runner's Duty was suppose to be a one-shot, but it ended up longer than I expected, so I'm going to have to break it into a few chapters.