The following Tuesday, our chemistry class had its first experiment. As we had agreed earlier, Junhyung and I were lab partners. A pretty boy whose name I didn’t know was teamed with Joon, and he was in this element, using the same technique he’d tried on me. I should have been glad to see that our plan had worked so well. Then the thought occurred to me that Junhyung might want to end our arrangement two weeks early, since it looked as if we’d already achieved our goal. For some reason, I hoped he wouldn’t.

      Mr. Jeon, our chemistry teacher, gave each lab team a handout listing the lab equipment needed for the experiment and describing the procedure we were supposed to follow. Junhyung and I were assigned to a table with a tiny sink and three drawers containing lab equipment and glassware.

      Our experiment was very simple. We were to weigh out sodium hydroxide pellets on a balance and mix them with water, making a solution that would be used in later experiment. I located our lab equipment in the top drawer, then leaned forward to watch as Junhyung carefully placed the small white pellets in the balance.

     Our experiment progressed uneventfully until the lab team working at the table behind us asked to borrow a beaker. When I turned around to give it to them, the drawer containing our glassware flew open.

    “Yoseob! Watch out-“ Junhyung began, but it was too late. The drawer flew off its track, dumping its contents onto the floor with a resounding crash. I realized that when I had closed the drawer after taking out our lab equipment, I had somehow gotten the strings of my lab apron caught in the metal track that ran down the underside of the drawer.

    The rest of the kids in the class thought the accident was hilarious, but I didn’t. Neither did Mr. Jeon.

    Five minutes later, Junhyung and I waited nervously in the hall while Mr. Jeon met with the principal behind closed the doors. Junhyung leaned forward and pressed his ear to the door.

    “Can you hear anything?” I whispered.

    Junhyung grimaced. “Plenty,” he whispered back. “I didn’t know Mr. Jeon could yell like that.”

    “What’s he saying?”

    “Something about juvenile delinquents and reform school.”

   “I’m sorry I asked.” I groaned.

   Junhyung puts his arm around my shoulders and gave me a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry, all the really famous scientists were misunderstood.”

  “Yeah, and some of them were executed.”

   At last the door opened, Mr. Jeon stormed out and we were ushered into the principal’s office.

   We stood before Mr. Kang in total silence. Mr. Kang, seated behind his massive desk, merely looked at us and shook his head in disbelief. Finally he spoke.

  “I’ve taught in public schools for over twenty years and served as principal for almost ten,” he said quietly, “and in my thirty years in the field of education, I’ve never heard a story like the one Mr. Jeon just told me.”

 “That Mr. Jeon is a card, isn’t he?” Junhyung said nervously, making a pitiful attempt at humor.

  Mr. Kang was not amused, “Mr. Jeon described the two of you in more colourful terms,” he said, “he seems to think you were playing some childish practical joke. However, I’m inclined to give both of you the benefit of doubt. Mr. Jeon and I have discussed the matter, and we have agreed that when school is over for the day, the two of you will go back to the lab, where you will find the floor exactly as you left it. In addition to cleaning up the mess you made, you will be given a list of other tasks to perform. You will stay until everything on the list has been completed. Are there any questions?”

  There weren’t.

 “Mr. Jeon feels that you two should be assigned to different partners for the rest of the year,” Mr. Kang added, “and he’s probably right. But believe it or not, I was young once myself, so I have persuaded him to give you another chance. You may go.”

 Once we were back in the hall with the door safely shut behind us, I rolled my eyes and heaved a sigh of relief. “I think he was pretty on us, but why do I feel so lousy?”

 “It’s Mr. Kang,” Junhyung answered. “He’s an expert of guilt. He makes you almost wish he’d sentenced you to five years of hard labor in army.”

 As Junhyung walked me to class, Doojoon and Dongwoon joined us.

 “Hey, Hyung, want to go to the mall this afternoon?” Dongwoon asked as soon as they left for football practice.

 “I can’t today,” I told him. “I have to stay after school.”

 “What for?”

 “We had our first experiment today and I was sort of cutting up with Junhyung in the lab, and we kind of had an accident. We broke a lot of glassware, so we have to stay after school and clean up.”

  Dongwoon grinned. “Let me get this straight. You made a mess in the lab, and for punishment, you have to spend the rest of the afternoon alone with Junhyung. For that kind of punishment, I would have trashed the lab, too.”

  “I didn’t trash the lab,” I said, defending myself. “I told you, it was an accident. And I couldn’t care less about spending an afternoon with Junhyung,” I added. “I’d much rather go with you.”

  “Then you need to have your head examined!”

   I didn’t argue with him. The prospect of spending several hours with Junhyung did have its appeal. But if I so much as hinted at such a thing to Dongwoon, he’d be saying “ I told you so” for the rest of the year. I kept my mouth shut and reminded myself for the hundredth time that I was an actor playing a part, and a smart actor never gets emotionally involved with his leading man.

  I remembered telling Dongwoon that I was a good actor. Unfortunately, I had never claimed to be a smart one.

Since no one used the chemistry lab, I found it exactly as Junhyung and I had left it an hour before. I picked my way across the room to the closet and found a broom and dustpan.

“Watch your step,” Junhyung warned as he entered the room a few minutes later.

“No kidding,” I said, frowning at him. “I think we’d better sweep the floor first, don’t you?”

Junhyung agreed and I swept while he held the dustpan. When we had cleaned up all of the mess, we tackled Mr. Jeon’s list which proved to be long and tedious.

It was almost four thirty by the time we got everything done. Junhyung offered me a ride home and I accepted it. I climbed into the passenger seat of Junhyung’s gleaming Mustang, and soon Jeju National High School was far behind us.

“Turn left at the second caution light,” I instructed. “It’s the fifth house on the left.”

“I know, I’ve been there before, remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” I said. I smiled as I remembered the infamous blind date. That reminded me of a question I’d been wanting to ask.

“Junhyung, why were you willing to go on a blind date, anyway? You don’t seem like the type.”

He shrugged. “I’m not crazy about blind dates, but Doojoon had been after me to me Dongwoon’s cousin, so I agreed just to shut him up.”Junhyung wheeled his Mustang into my driveway and parked it behind my car, “Hey, you got your bumper fixed!”

“Oh, it’s been fixed for about three weeks now,” I said without thinking.

“Three weeks?”  Junhyung echoed. “Then why haven’t you been driving to school?” he looked at me closely. “Are you scared?”
“No!” I protested much too strongly. “Why should I be scared?”

“Because you just had a wreck with a loud mouthed jerk-no, make that Neanderthal-who really lit into you about your driving,” he suggested. His tone was gentler than usual.

“Well, that much is true,” I said, making feeble attempt at humor. “But I’m not scared, exactly.”

Junhyung gave me a measuring look that made me extremely uncomfortable. “Whatever you say. Suppose I come by tomorrow morning, and we can ride to school together, okay?”

“Fine,” I agreed.

“I’ll see you about seven thirty, then.”

“I’ll be ready.”

Sorry for not elaborating the lab scenes. Sorry. Really. :((

I still hope you like it. :)