As the teacher instructed, the class has split into groups to work on the five equations written on the blackboard. Most of the students were mumbling under their breath trying to figure out the difficult answers, others were having heated discussions on how to go about working on the problems; either way the classroom was rather noisy and it only made it much harder to concentrate. It was by great chance that Key had already covered this section while at his previous school during his homebound period. Although the equations were indeed difficult, he finished them off before anyone else and was using the final ten minutes of the class to sit back and relax.

Seated in the back of the classroom in the last row, Key had his eyes lowered towards his lap where he was hiding his cell phone under the desk. He’d been rather pleased when Heechul had bought it for him a week ago, even if it had been given to him with strict instructions to not use it in class but for emergencies. What Heechul didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, though, and Key was sure that what he was doing with it was of good use. He was on Pinterest scouring Mir’s boards in search of an idea as to what to get for his birthday.

Once I decide what to get I’m not telling anyone, he declared to himself fervently. Last week he had told Donghae that he was going to get Mir a set of dog coats because he’d been going on for a while about how his tiny dogs were miserable because of the cold weather. Much to his annoyance, Donghae thought it was a grand idea and had gone out to buy exactly that; Key didn’t speak to him for two days.

Not finding anything of value, Key frowned and moved onto Mir’s next board that was full of artistically made cakes, cupcakes, and pins of huge bags of candy. It was duly noted; if all else failed he would just buy a five pound bag of gummy bears for the kid and call it a day.

“Hey, can you ignore your phone for five seconds and help me?” whined the boy sitting next to him.

Key looked up and grinned, stuffing the phone back into his pocket. He shifted around to face his recently made friend, Dongho. After discovering they had a majority of their classes together, they’d taken to talking every day and soon enough it was as if they’d been friends forever. As soon as Key had gotten his phone, they were texting nonstop whenever they were apart.

Key reached over to grab Dongho’s paper and raised his eyebrows at the sight of scribbles, eraser marks, and faded numbers. Not a single question had been answered yet, and here he had been under the assumption that Dongho had one of the highest grades in the class.

“Shut up,” Dongho complained, punching Key in the shoulder when he started sniggering.

“Okay, okay, sorry. Look, just copy mine,” Key said, sliding over his paper.

“I can’t copy your work! Not only is that wrong and I would definitely get caught and get in trouble, but how else am I supposed to learn this stuff? I’m going to keep my good grade by my own hard work! Just help me solve these, yeah?” Dongho said hurriedly, tapping his pencil impatiently as there was only five minutes of class left.

“Look, why don’t we go to the library after school and I’ll help you then? There’s not time now and I’m not helping you during lunch,” Key suggested, grabbing his paper and closing it in his text book.

Donghae shrugged and crumpled up the paper; there was no use in it anymore. He pulled out a fresh sheet and quickly jotted down the equations before copying Key’s actions and closing the paper in his text book. Key watched him with a grin; it was great to finally meet someone as determined as he was.

“So do you want to skip the cafeteria and have lunch in the music room?” Dongho asked as the bell rang and they stood to leave.

“I’ll meet you there,” Key said, leading the way towards the door. “I’m buying lunch today and I need to find the kid because he has our money.”

With a swift nod, Dongho sauntered off towards the music room, leaving Key standing behind watching him leave. He didn’t realize there was still a smile on his face as he turned and headed in the opposite direction. As he went to his locker to deposit his book before heading to the cafeteria, Key couldn’t help but think about Dongho. He didn’t know what it was about him, but the kid was just…amazing, basically. It wasn’t that they had too much in common; they were really almost opposites of each other. Dongho was calm and collected while he was flamboyant and outgoing. But it didn’t matter. A friend was a friend and Dongho was a great guy.

I wonder if I should bring him home to hang out, Key pondered as he entered the cafeteria. He doesn’t seem like the type of person who does anything other than study but I want to spend time with him.

Shrugging his shoulders, he decided it was worth a try and let the thought drop as he looked around the cafeteria to find Mir. Most of the tables were half full but he knew that the younger boy never ate in there; he always got his lunch and headed over to