The next morning in school, Kai made it clear that he was avoiding Kyungsoo like the plague.

Jongdae and Kyungsoo stood together in the hallway, performing their daily ritual of homework snatching when Baekhyun walked over in their direction, engaged in conversation with Kai.

Baekhyun cut off his discussion with Kai to shout, “Hey, Kyunggie!”

As he walked up to Kyungsoo and Jongdae, Kai trailed along quietly behind him.

“Hey, Jongdae, I left my phone charger at your place, do me a favor and return it to me tomorrow.”

Jongdae scratched his chin thoughtfully.  “You know, I might just keep it, I’ve been sharing with my mom since I lost mine a while ago.”

“Kim Jongdae, I swear to God, if you don’t give it back, I will set Kyungsoo on you like a mad dog!”

“What?” Kyungsoo finally began to pay attention to the conversation.  Before his name was said, he had been more focused on watching Kai who was standing uncomfortably slightly behind Baekhyun, clearly waiting for his friend.

Kyungsoo found it strange behavior for Kai.  This wasn’t the first time he and Baekhyun had been together when Baekhyun came over to talk to him, but usually he would leave after making sure to mouth “” at him and flick him off once he was sure he was outside of Baekhyun’s line of sight.

“I said make sure Jongdae gives me back my charger, okay Kyunggie?”

Kyungsoo punched him playfully on the arm in retaliation for the unwanted nickname, but agreed to make ensure that Jongdae brought it back anyway.

“Thanks Kyunggie, you’re the best!” Baekhyun shouted, already halfway down the hall with Kai so that Kyungsoo could do nothing more than flick him off.

“That was weird,” Jongdae said once Baekhyun and Kai were out of sight.

“What was?”

“Kai didn’t even call you a once!  And he stuck around the whole time Baekhyun was nagging me.  Do you think he feels bad about knocking you out in gym on Friday?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Kyungsoo said with a noncommittal shrug before he too walked down the hall to his homeroom.

The rest of the day passed rather uneventfully.  Anytime Kai passed Kyungsoo in the hallway, instead of his usual taunting he would just turn away and pretend like he didn’t see him.

Kyungsoo was rather grateful for the lack of insults being thrown in his direction, but that didn’t stop him from feeling uncomfortable at the shift of the routine.  Unsure of what to do, Kyungsoo just let Kai be, hoping that it wouldn’t be too awkward between the two of them during English.

After lunch and biology which passed by as usual, Kyungsoo made his way towards English.  He could feel his gut twisting into knots with sheer anticipation of the way Kai would treat him upon his arrival.

When he entered the classroom, he saw that Kai was not yet there.  Grateful for this, Kyungsoo sat down next to his desk partner as the rest of the students began filing in.

Kyungsoo had just begun taking his class materials out of his backpack and putting them on his desk when he heard the chair behind him squeak against the floor as it was pulled out, and then scooted back in.

Not really knowing if he was expected to greet Kai or not, but assuming based off of his earlier behavior that he was not, Kyungsoo merely zipped up his backpack and propped his head on his hand, waiting for the teacher to get up and begin the lesson.

Once everyone had arrived and the bell had rung signifying the start of the lesson, the teacher looked up from what she had been working on at her desk and announced:

“Today is a work day.  Sit with your project partners and try to get something done.  If I see any of you messing around, you’re getting sent straight to the principal’s office, I have no desire to deal with anybody’s shenanigans today.”

The end of her announcement was met with open chatter and shifting bodies as everyone stood up to go find a spot with their project partner.  Kyungsoo began to gather up his notebooks to stand up and join Kai, but before he could leave his seat, Kai was already settling himself down in the vacant chair beside him.

“Uh, hey,” Kyungsoo greeted uncomfortably.

“Hi.”

They both just sat there, not looking at each other, both unsure of how to begin a conversation.

Kyungsoo figured he would be the one who would have to take the initiative and tentatively began, “Uh, so, um, I guess we should start on this.  How should we go about writing it?  I can write the first half and then switch it off to you for you to complete, or I guess we can just write it together at the same time?”

“Whatever.”

“Okay, no seriously,” Kyungsoo began, gaining confidence, “I really need to know how you want to go about this.  Both methods have their strengths and weaknesses, and I need your opinion on the situation.”

“Uh, I guess we’ll write it together then so neither of us looks like we’re slacking in class.”

“Okay, good call.”

And with that decision made, the two of them began working on their short story, quickly slipping back into the comfort of their discussion of ideas from the previous day.  Both of them had strong opinions on the story, which at times made for some annoyed bickering, but overall, they worked well as a team.  Kyungsoo’s precise and poetic way of writing nicely complemented Kai’s creative ideas.

Soon enough, they found the period to be nearing its end.

“Wow, that went by quickly,” Kyungsoo remarked after glancing at the clock and realizing it was already time to pack up.

“Yeah,” was Kai’s noncommittal response.

“So, I think we just need to spend another hour or two on this and our writing portion of the project should be complete.  Do you want to meet up after school today to finish it?”

“No.”

“Look, I know you hate me for some inexplicable reason, and I know I hit you in the head with a Frisbee yesterday, but we really need to cooperate for the sake of our grades on this project,” Kyungsoo was frustrated.

“I know that head, I have dance later today. I’m bu-sy. Now off, we can meet up tomorrow instead.”

“And thus crumbles the small trace of camaraderie we had built up.”

Kyungsoo’s received response was in the form of Kai grabbing his stuff and walking out the door as the bell rang.

“Fabulous.”