Kyungsoo was reluctant to go back to school the next day, but he knew that it was unavoidable.  When he got there, he met up with Jongdae, as usual.

“Hey, Kyungsoo, what happened yesterday with Kai?”

“Why did you give him my homework?”

“He asked me for it. I wasn’t going to let him at first since he’s such a giant douchebag, but he kept bothering me saying that he needed to talk to you about your English project anyway.

“I didn’t really trust him about it, but what was I supposed to do? Was I wrong, did he do anything to you? Kyungsoo, are you okay?”  Jongdae’s face showed nothing but concern for his friend, and Kyungsoo didn’t have the heart to tell him what happened.

“It’s fine, Jongdae, he just wanted to see if I had gotten my half of the work done.”

“What a prick, he could have just texted you.”

Kyungsoo merely shrugged his shoulders before handing Jongdae his biology homework to copy.

“You’re a lifesaver, Soo, you should have seen me trying to frantically actually do this yesterday during homeroom.  I only got about a third of it done, and I thought the teacher was going to skin me alive for not completing it.

“’How could you not do this, Kim Jongdae!?’” Jongdae imitated in his best impression of their shrill biology teacher, “’This was the easiest assignment I’ve given you yet, how could you be so irresponsible blah blah blah,’ you know, the usual.  She’s such a , oh my God.  I mean, come on! This is the first assignment I’ve skipped!  She seriously needs to unknot her before she ends up going postal.”

Kyungsoo laughed half-heartedly, but Jongdae was too caught up in his rant to notice his friend’s lack of enthusiasm.

“Hey Dae, I’m going to head out now.  Don’t forget to give me my homework back later.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jongdae flapped his hand at him as he too left for class.

The rest of the morning and up through lunch was pretty uneventful.  Kyungsoo only caught a glimpse of Kai in the hallway once and managed to duck behind a corner before Kai could spot him.  He was really dreading English class, but as he was not a creative enough of a liar to find a way out of class, he knew he’d be stuck going.  He could only hope that they wouldn’t be working on their projects again today.

The first half of the day passed too quickly, and Kyungsoo drug his feet to the room that was to be his own personal Hell for the day.

Kyungsoo kept his head down as he entered the room and completely avoided looking anywhere but at his feet as he proceeded to walk to his desk and put his stuff down.  As soon as he was situated in his chair, he stared unblinkingly towards the front of the room, waiting for the teacher to begin the lesson.

The class settled down, and it was as Kyungsoo had feared, they were working with their partners today.

Well, that’s just peachy, Kyungsoo thought to himself. I am not leaving my goddamned seat, and nobody can make me.  He continued to stare lifelessly towards the blackboard as he felt Kai sit gingerly next to him.

“Hey.”

Kyungsoo didn’t respond.

Kai didn’t say anything further, so Kyungsoo thought he was in the clear, but a few seconds later, a tanned hand was reaching over into his half of the desk and depositing a shiny smooth, and well-polished red apple in front of him.

Kyungsoo looked at the apple, then looked over at Kai.

“The hell’s this?”

“Sagwa.”

“What kind of bull is this?”

Kai blushed slightly and rubbed the nape of his neck as Kyungsoo was learning was his habit.

“Look, I’m really ty at apologies, can you please just accept mine?”

“I don’t think so, Kai. An apple, albeit a very pretty one, does not constitute as an apology in the real world.”

Kai took a deep breath to steady himself before he spoke again.  Looking Kyungsoo square in the eyes, he said:

“Kyungsoo, I am deeply apologetic of my actions towards you.  They have been completely uncalled for, and no person deserves to hear them.

“I’m not going to say that I didn’t know the effect they had on you when I said them because it is what I intended.  However, actually hearing about how ty they made you feel, it has become more real to me, and I sincerely regret it.

“I know that the way I treated you would be shameful to my mother if she ever found out, and after seeing you cry like that in front of her, well, just suffice it to say that I never want to see it again.  It made me feel so bad about everything I’ve done to you, and if I could take it all back, I would.  I can’t, and I know you will probably never forgive me, nor should you really, but I figured an apology was in order anyway.

“I’m not saying ‘let’s be friends,’ because I know that’s something neither you nor I particularly want, but I would like for us to be able to move past this and become like any other strangers that were forced into unwilling partnership on a project.”

Kai finished his speech and took another calming breath, meanwhile Kyungsoo continued to stare him down.

When it occurred to Kai that Kyungsoo wasn’t about to say anything, he tried to change the course of conversation.

“Uh, how ‘bout you come over again tonight to work more on the project?” He asked, unsure.

“Sorry, can’t,” Kyungsoo said, finally turning away to read his book.

“Why not?”

“Don’t want to.”

“Come on, Kyungsoo, I know you hate me now more than ever, but we do need to do this project!” Kai pleaded.

“Nope.”

It was apparent to Kai that he wasn’t going to get anywhere with Kyungsoo for now, so instead of uselessly begging, he too began to read a book.

The two of them continued in silence like this until the bell rang.

Kyungsoo stood up and slung his bag over his shoulder, walking out the door.  Kai, however, quickly caught up with him and called out:

“Hey, Kyungsoo!”

Kyungsoo blatantly ignored him, but Kai approached the smaller boy anyway.

“We have gym today, right?”

Kyungsoo continued to verbally ignore him, but pointed at the sneakers on his feet in confirmation.

“Great, let’s walk together.”

“ off Kai, there’s no need for this.”

“No, you know what? I’m going to keep pestering you until you give me a chance.  I already said that I’m not trying to suddenly be your friend, can’t you just accept me as a benign acquaintance?”

“Nope,” Kyungsoo replied, popping the ‘p.’

At that point, the two of them walked into the locker room where Jongdae and Baekhyun, who were already there, looked at the two of them inquisitively.

Kyungsoo walked over to his friends, completely ignoring Kai and the questioning look on their faces.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okaaay…” Jongdae drew out, clearly not willing to drop it.

Before he could prod further, however, Kai’s voice once again reached Kyungsoo’s ears.  Fortunately, this time his words weren’t directed at him.

“Hey Baekhyun hyung, can I talk to you?”

“Of course Kai!” Baekhyun replied enthusiastically, only too excited to be called on for help.

The two of them continued on to the back of the locker room while Kyungsoo and Jongdae changed in silence.  Silence that Jongdae felt had to be broken.

“Kyunggie, are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?”

“If I wasn’t sure before, I certainly am now.”

At Jongdae’s crestfallen expression, Kyungsoo just sighed and said, “Look, Jongdae, it’s nothing important."

"Kai didn’t do anything to me, I’m just sick of being around him so much for this blasted project, okay? It’s nothing you need to worry about.”

Jongdae didn’t look completely convinced, but he agreed anyway, slinging his arm around Kyungsoo’s shoulders as he was wont to do, and leading the two of them out of the locker room and to the gym.

As soon as the class had all gathered around, the gym teacher explained that they were going to be playing partner tag and they would be given free will to choose who they wanted to team up with this time around.

Kyungsoo began to reach out for Jongdae as he usually did for partner activities in gym, but before he could grab him, Baekhyun jumped in out of nowhere and yanked him away from Kyungsoo.  As he lead Jongdae away, Baekhyun called out over his shoulder, “Sorry Soo Soo, it’s for the best!”

Before he was given a chance to decode Baekhyun’s hidden meaning behind stealing away his gym partner, Kai stepped up behind him.

“Looks like we’re partners again.”

Kyungsoo whipped around and found himself a lot closer to Kai’s face than he ever thought he’d be, once again finding himself thinking about how truly handsome Kai was.

Snapping himself out of these unwanted thoughts, Kyungsoo exclaimed indignantly, “Oh hell to the no!”

“Too bad, everyone else is already partnered up.  You’re stuck with me,” Kai smirked slightly as he said his words.

Kyungsoo spun his head around, frantically searching for somebody, anybody, that didn’t already have a partner.  As the sinking realization came that it was too late, there was no getting out of it, he was yet again stuck with Kai as his partner, the whistle blew to begin the game.

Kyungsoo looked at Kai, and then looked down at his hand.  Realizing what he was thinking, Kai blushed furiously.  It occurred to Kyungsoo that Kai hadn’t really thought this out thoroughly, and it had never occurred to the boy that he would have to actually touch Kyungsoo, let alone hold his hand.

As Kyungsoo was contemplating his next maneuver, he felt Kai timidly take his own small, soft hand into his rough and large one, leaving Kyungsoo in a state of shock.

In the seconds after Kai took his hand, another team ran up and tagged them, putting them out of the game.  Kai instantly dropped Kyungsoo’s hand as if it had burned him as the team that tagged them called out “Get off the court, losers!”

Remembering where it was they were, Kai and Kyungsoo shuffled off to the side to sit on the bleacher that was pulled out for those who got tagged.  Kyungsoo sat down first, and Kai followed shortly thereafter, making sure to leave plenty of distance between the two of them.

“So, what was the purpose of forcing me to be your gym partner, dare I ask?”  Kyungsoo watched Baekhyun and Jongdae run around, laughing like lunatics.

“I just – I don’t know really.”

“Genius. Clearly very well thought out.”

A few seconds of silence.

“I just want to make things right. I know you don’t believe me, but it’s the truth.”

“You’re right, I don’t believe you.  And why the hell should I?”

“I don’t know,” Kai looked to his feet as if his shoelaces could give him the answers he was looking for.

“That’s what I thought.”

The two sat in tense silent for a few more minutes.  Suddenly, Kyungsoo’s shoulders drooped and he said, “I’m not going to forgive you.”

“I know,” Kai turned his head towards him.

“I’m not going to forgive you, but I guess for the time we’re stuck together, it’ll be easiest if I just pretend you’re some random classmate I never talked to.”

“That’s all I ask.  Now, about tonight…”

“Fine, what time?”

A/N:

Hey guys, I know I haven't done this yet, but I felt like it was about time I did.  I just wanted to thank you all for reading my story thus far and liking it.  I can really feel all the love and support you are sending my way, and I just wanted to say that it makes me feel really good, and truly inspires me to keep writing what likely would have otherwise been a project I dropped shortly after starting.  I can't believe that after only three days, I already have nearly 50 subscribers, and so many positive comments that just make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside whenever I read them.  I may not actually know any of you who are reading my story, but I love you nonetheless. I hope that my fic will continue to bring you the happiness it would seem it has brought you already.

P.S. I am aware that this is not exactly how partner tag works, but I'm pulling the "creative licensing" card because it suited my purposes to write it this way.

Once again, I love and thank all of my lovely readers!