The next day afterschool, Sungjong decided to go back to hill close to school as nobody from his primary barely passed the place since they all lived on the other side of town. He quickly found a hobby of skipping pebbles across the spaciously wide river that travelled along the entire area. He liked it when the pebbles skipped across in light jumping steps and landed with a large splash when the pebble finally sunk.

Just as he lifted up a hand to aim a throw, another pebble was thrown into the river, only failing to skip and submerged into the water straight away.

“Damn it. How the hell do you do this?” questioned an irritated voice behind him.

The petite boy blinked and turned over to be faced with a boy with hair the same shade as an apple.

“Well first of all, you’re throwing it wrong.” Spoke Sungjong under his breath, rolling his eyes.

“Hey, I heard that!” retorted the boy, crossing his arms.

A few moments passed before he stepped forward towards Sungjong, extending his hand at him with a pile of pebbles. Sungjong looked down at it in confusion. “Well since you’re so good at it, you should teach me.” Said the boy, pressing the pebbles into Sungjong’s hands.

Sungjong took the moment to observe the boy that stood close in front of him.

Other than the vibrant red hair that stood out in the town, the boy also had distinctively small eyes that reminded him something of a rodent, a hamster perhaps. The boy’s body structure looked too masculine to be a sixth grader yet Sungjong had sworn he saw the boy in his school before. The boy’s lips instantly lifted up into a smirk when he noticed the brunette ‘checking him out’.

“Are you going to teach me how to skip pebbles or just stare at me all day? Not that I mind it of course.” Noted the boy in a tone full of pride.

He must get it a lot, thought Sungjong briefly. “I believe I should know the name of the person I’m going to teach, shouldn’t I?”

“Oh, right!” replied the boy quickly, rubbing at his hair in embarrassment however swiftly regaining his posture. “My name is Kim Sunggyu.” He declared, reaching out a hand that Sungjong took to shake.

“My name is Lee-“ he begun, being cut off by the other.

“Lee Sungjong, Yea, I know.” 

“How?”

Sunggyu scoffed while pulling out Sungjong’s nametag from his pocket. “ Well, Someone threw this at me while I was walking on the streets yesterday.”

Immediately grabbing the nametag back, Sungjong stared at it before remembering his attempt to get rid of it. “Sorry about that.”

“Ready to teach?” asked Sunggyu looking impatient.

“No.”

“No?” repeated Sunggyu as if he heard the dumbest reply in the world.

“No.” confirmed Sungjong, nodding his head. “I don’t teach things to people I don’t even know and I dislike people with arrogant attitudes.”

“Fine then,” responded Sunggyu. “I guess you don’t want a prize for teaching me.”

Sungjong had already decided not to respond but couldn’t help become curious over the idea of a prize. “What’s the prize?” he asked, forgetting to hold it back.

“Teach me first and I’ll tell you.” exclaimed Sunggyu, noticing that he got the boy motivated.

Sungjong thought for a while, weighing on his own pride and the mysterious prize that the redheaded hamster probably had no intention of telling him unless he was taught how to skip pebbles. What kind of prize can be in store for teaching someone how to skip pebbles anyway? Shaking his head, he reassured himself that the prize would be nothing of great value. “I’ll pass.” He announced loudly.

“What?” Spoke Sunggyu raising his voice as he furrowed his eyebrows in doubt. He was so sure that the boy in front of him was giving into his plan yet he had denied the prize as a no-go.

Sungjong almost laughed at Sunggyu’s reaction as he tried to keep a straight face. “Why don’t you try become my friend first?” started the boy, “And then I’ll think about teaching you.”

“Deal!” replied Sunggyu almost instantly after Sungjong had finished speaking. “It’s almost impossible not to be friends with me, so you better be prepared.”

“Right.” Spoke the younger boy in a nonchalant voice. “Why don’t you start off by buying me some food? I’m hungry.”

“How about you get your own food?“ began Sunggyu but then quickly rephrased.

“No problem!”

He watched as Sunggyu ran up the hill and down the road to the closest convenience store. Sungjong wondered why the boy would even want to try becoming friends with him in the first place. Surely skipping pebbles isn’t something that’ll save his life, right? It was probably out of boredom, if worse, out of pity. Sungjong shuddered at the word, pity. It sounded dark and it was no better than the people who looked at the injured out of sheer amusement.

 He hated being pitied but it was a human trait that comes naturally so people can’t really be blamed. Out of the many that felt pity for others, only a few had sincere feelings. Sungjong wasn’t so sure that Sunggyu was one of those people but shrugged. At least interacting with him would help pass time.