Archive of Our Own

By all means, Hyunjin, instead of sitting beside hundreds of screaming students, would love to stay in his room to review all of his remaining notes. He was never really fond of three-point talks, jerseys, and the stench that the players give out from too much running. Even the squeak of their shoes is enough for Hyunjin to complain for days. It's just how it is; rather than succumbing to the sports, he would rather be cooped up in his own room. But then again, Hyunjin appreciates his school too much to forget about school pride. It seems like watching the interschool finals in their home court is part of it. 

He continues to scowl at the scattered cheering around him as he looks over to his friends sitting beside him, so immersed by the game. Seungmin has his phone in portrait mode, following the movements of the players. Felix certainly looks serious for someone who has no idea how to play basketball. He looks worried for some reasons. 

"Seung, are you livestreaming this?" Hyunjin asks Seungmin when he noticed how silent he's been. 

"Um, no. Why?" His good friend answers, eyes not leaving the court. 

"You've been recording since the game started, ten minutes ago." Hyunjin squints his eyes, deciding to peek at Seungmin's phone screen. He begins to roll his eyes. "Come on. They will definitely post a highlight reel on the official page later." 

"Yeah, and Changbin hyung will most definitely be on it." Felix continues, surprising Hyunjin that he's even paying attention to them. 

"Shut up." Is the only thing Seungmin had to say before he quiets down again when Changbin gives their team a few points. Hyunjin knows his friend probably have those recordings stored for later, to post on his Facebook and Instagram stories. 

After a few minutes, Hyunjin focuses on the game he knows nothing of. The rules don't make sense for someone who's not interested. Everyone is running around, and the other players sitting on the benches below are angrily screaming. He cannot comprehend a word they're saying, but it looks like it's targeted to one person. Particularly, someone from their varsity team. Hyunjin narrows his eyes, following a brown hair guy. His eyes, that are quite slanted, are currently furrowed with some kind of worry? nervousness? 

"He's slacking off." Hyunjin blurts out, not intending for it to be heard by anyone. But his friends caught up with him; they stared at Hyunjin for a while before asking. "Who's slacking off?" 

Hyunjin points with his lips instead of verbally answering Seungmin. 

"Jisung? Oh, I guess. But he's usually not like that..." Seungmin pouts, pausing from recording as the second quarter ends. The visiting team won this round, Hyunjin is somehow affected by this Jisung guy slacking off. 

Someone plops down on his left side, Hyunjin turns to the intruder, and his frown deepens. "You're late." 

Minho shrugs, opening a bag of chips as he looks over the score board. "Better late than never— they lost? Dammit." 

"Yeah, that Jisung guy wasn't able to toss the ball to Chan hyung." Hyunjin explains, his terms slightly incorrect. He knows that. 

"Pass." Minho corrects him, taking another chip to chew at. "But that's very unlikely of him, don't you think?" No, Hyunjin has no idea. "I wonder what's wrong." 

Hyunjin doesn't wonder. But his eyes does wander to Jisung when their coach scolded him to sit on the bench until the games are over. He sees the others looked at their teammate with concern instead of anger. Hyunjin guesses this doesn't happen often. 

Jisung has his head down, his fingers play with the strings of his shorts as the game continues and their team recover from the previous lost. The game ends. Hyunjin didn't know what else happened after Jisung was called to sit out for the rest of the game, but he does know they won. 

As the people pile up to congratulate the winning team, some immediately went for the exit. They talk about how cool the basketball players were, and how Jisung was awfully lost in today's game. Seungmin and Minho stand up from their seat, waiting for the right time to congratulate their boyfriends. 

Hyunjin, on the other hand, cannot get it out of his head how they could've avoided losing the second quarter if Jisung had his thing together. "That was unprofessional, don't you think?" Hyunjin turns to Felix when his friend walks beside him. 

"Hm?"

"That Jisung dude. If he thinks he can slack off on finals then that's a problem."

Felix raises a brow, confused why his friend suddenly is so into basketball. "Don't you think you're being unreasonable?" 

"I don't know. I feel like I can do a better job than he did just now." Hyunjin blurts out. His mouth has no filter; it's amazing how much bluff he speak in a day. 

It made Felix cackle, holding onto Hyunjin's shoulder for balance. "You're not even sporty! What makes you think you can do a better job than Jisung?!"

He feels mildly offended by that statement, so Hyunjin scoffs slapping Felix's hand from his shoulder. "Excuse me? I'm sporty! I used to be a swimmer." 

"Yeah well, you cant actually do a butterfly stroke on court." Felix continues to laugh at his friend while Hyunjin leaves him to follow the two down to meet Chan and Changbin. 

From their seat awhile ago, you can't really smell anything aside from the barbeque flavor coming from Minho's chips. But from this area, Hyunjin couldn't avoid the stench of sweat he's warned himself earlier. It's too much that he had to back away a little. A few panting players pass by them until Changbin swoops in to hug Seungmin. Minho stands behind Hyunjin, and he hears him talking to Chan. 

"Later." Chan mumbles, opening the door to the locker room. Hyunjin raised an eyebrow at the familiar figure beside Chan. 

"Aw, why?" Minho whines behind him, and honestly, honestly, he wants to get out of here. 

Chan, instead of answering, points to Jisung whose occupied with his own thoughts to noticed he's the reason why the two can't talk right now. Hyunjin scowls again. What's up with him? 

Walking over to Seungmin and Changbin, because it looks like they're having a normal conversation; he gives the older a high five. "Congrats. You did good, hyung." 

Changbin smiles at him, patting his arms in return. When he was about to open his mouth again, Chan calls him from behind the door. 

"Bin. Come on." 

"Oh, right." Changbin smiles sheepishly at them— more on Seungmin if Hyunjin would be honest. "I have to go. We need to talk to Jisung first. See you later?"

"Uh, yeah. But what about Jisung?" Seungmin side eyes Hyunjin when he says the player's name.

"Later. Later, I promise." The older kisses Seungmin before running off to the locker room. 

-

They went to have lunch after the game. Only in the cafeteria near the marketing building, because they still have afternoon classes. The morning shift were probably over the moon when their classes were cancelled since the basketball finals got in the way. And they won. Hyunjin thinks of what the incentive they might get now that that happened. 

Minho left as soon as they went out of the gym, and they have no idea where he left off. Changbin joins them a few minutes later, when Hyunjin was talking to Felix about a course subject they both have for the semester. "Why aren't we classmates?"

"You probably have a different syllabus. I don't know, man." 

Hyunjin grumbles, because last semester he had at least one class with Minho. It appeased him that he could see at least one of his friends in class. But now, even Minho doesn't have a free day. Everyday, he at least have one class to take. And as he proceeds to think about the forsaken semester, Hyunjin hears Changbin explain to his boyfriend what happened to Jisung. 

He keeps quiet, minding his own business and his own bibimbap. But his ears continue to listen to what the older is saying. 

"He's very worried of his standing." 

"Why?"

"He's not that good in math. This course happened to have a lot of math he's not good at."

"And this one's a major?"

"Yeah." 

He hears Changbin sigh sadly all the way from his seat across Seungmin. When he noticed he's picking on his food, Hyunjin stops to grab Felix's water bottle. 

"Hey, Hyunjin." Seungmin calls his attention before he can open the bottle.

"Yeah?"

"You're awfully good at math, right?" 

Hyunjin narrows his eyes, because he knows this is about Jisung but, he doesn't know the connection between that and his math skills. At least, he tries not to know. 

"You can teach him. It's kind of important to him." 

He doesn't seem to get Seungmin's point. "Is he an engineering student, too?" If he is, then Hyunjin would get it.

"No, he's taking psychology." Changbin chimes in. 

In a different situation, it will be a problem. Because how can Hyunjin, an engineering student, tutor Jisung, a psychology student. They have different course requirements, and that means they have different syllabi. He's heard the two talk about how important this subject is to Jisung, but they should also know how stupid Hyunjin feels for mocking Jisung's actions back on the court. So yes, without thinking, he agrees to tutor him because he feels guilty. He felt like a total prick for telling he could do better than a varsity player just because he didn't know what's going on. 

Maybe, Hyunjin's blaming himself too much. But he's a good person. He couldn't let his guilt eat him up. Maybe, helping Jisung won't be a lot of work anyway. 

-

Two days later, Hyunjin finds himself at the science building for his next class. Changbin texted him Jisung's number after he accepted the offer to tutor the other in math. He isn't quite sure what math he's going to teach Jisung, but whatever it is, it's going to be fine. He commends himself for his math skills specifically. 

Stepping on the first flight of the stairs, Hyunjin hears someone call his name. "Hyunjin-ssi." He hears it again, louder this time. Hyunjin scans the few students walking back and forth in the hallway. 

"Hey, Hyunjin-ssi." Jisung pants in front of him, and Hyunjin's eyes widen.

"Hey. Uh, just call me Hyunjin."

"Right, right." Jisung nods, eyes looking determined for some reason. "You're the one hyung said who'll tutor me, right?" 

"Yeah." 

It's weird, suddenly, verbose Hyunjin doesn't have anything to say other than stare at Jisung. He wonders if Jisung was trying to catch his attention, but since Hyunjin walks quick. He wasn't able to follow along. Hyunjin observes the other as he continues to pant. "Are you free today?"

Hyunjin clicks his tongue, he points his thumb up the stairs. "I have class in five minutes. Maybe later?"

"Oh, okay. Your dorm? You stay on campus, right? Our quarters are damn loud, we wouldn't be able to concertrate there." 

"Uh, sure. I'll text you. I have to go." Hyunjin nods, running up the stairs towards his next class. He's thinks he heard a faint thank you but he isn't sure. There were many students chattering around them. 

-

After class, Hyunjin let's himself text Jisung to tell him his building and room number. He tells himself it's better to start early, and besides, it can help him review for his lessons too. He still has no idea what Jisung's syllabus is, and he makes a note to himself to ask him that later. Hyunjin likes to think he's organized, though, not as organized as Seungmin. But he follows a schedule. It's nice to know that everything is well in its place. 

When he enters his dorm, he smiles, smelling the calm scent of newly washed sheets and clean surroundings. He make sure to clean his room every Sunday. He's always been taught that way, to fix his clothes, separate the colors and the white. Always wash the dishes after eating. Clean your desk if you're not using it. With that in mind, Hyunjin puts his bag down beside his study desk, just like any day. 

He changed into comfortable clothes, a sweater and jogger pants. He grabs his glasses and opens a textbook, before Jisung arrives. It only took him two pages when a knock on the door interrupts. When he opens it, Jisung practically mirrors how Hyunjin looks. Instead of black rimmed glasses though, Jisung has a semi-round gold one. 

As Jisung enters his room, Hyunjin opens his mouth to ask. "What exactly am I supposed to teach you?" He guides Jisung to his desk, waiting for an answer. 

They both sit down, and Jisung opens his bag. "I have Math 54 right now."

Hyunjin narrows his eyes at nobody, preferring it this way than looking at Jisung. "Isn't that a Gen Ed class?" 

"It is?!" Jisung gasped, confused at this new found information. Hyunjin is also confused why Jisung doesn't know his course subjects. "I mean, still. I'm not good at math and science. I guess I need a lot of help." 

Hyunjin backtracks a little, remembering at what happened a few days before he got into this situation. He mocked Jisung for slacking off on something so important, that it required the school to cancel all the classes, that took place at the same time as the game. Hyunjin felt guilty when he found out through Changbin that Jisung was worried about his major class, and about failing it if he doesn't get help from anyone good at math. And now he's here, finding out Jisung's problem is Math 54 which happened to be a general education class and won't affect his standings that much. 

"So what you're saying is, you need help not just in math?" Hyunjin let's out a sigh before sitting properly beside the guy. He doesn't look at the other, only opened the books in front of them. "It might be better if you take some notes." He continues, tiredly. 

They go over Alegbra for a while, and as it turn out, Jisung is having a particularly difficult understanding on this one. Hyunjin finds that it's just high school Algebra he's worried about. It's not his fault, the subject will be quite confusing if it's not something a person is good at. Fortunately, Hyunjin is in love with math. It's probably the only thing he's been in love with all this time. Science, too, but math is ranked one. 

When they finish going over to that part, they continue to Statistics. He's only explaining the basics to Jisung before they start going over the problems. As it turn out, Statistics is a big part of his subject requirement. "Maybe we should go over this one more, don't you think?" Hyunjin speaks up, looking over at Jisung as the guy writes down whatever Hyunjin says. It made him smile when he reads a little of Jisung's notes, but went back to being serious when Jisung glanced at him. 

"Yeah, I think so, too. We have a quiz next week." 

"Speaking of quiz," Hyunjin sits up straight, arms crossed in his chest. "Changbin hyung said, you were bummed out about a quiz you had before the finals?" 

Jisung's mouth turns to an O before diving down to get the paper from his bag. He hands it to Hyunjin carefully, his eyes looking at the other as if he's about to scold Jisung. 

15/80 

Ah. 

"Well, obviously, this isn't good." It was all Hyunjin was able to say. Scanning the questions thoroughly, because, it might have been really hard questions. Who is Hyunjin to judge? Not everyone is good in the things he's good at. Felix's you don't even know the difference between two points and three points rings in his mind. "Huh."

"I know, I'm dumb."

"You're not. You're just not good at this."

Jisung scoffs, rolling his eyes, facing away from Hyunjin. "Same thing, you just rephrased it." 

"Let's just, study. Okay?" 

It's kind of draining, in Hyunjin defense. He had tutored a lot of people in his lifetime. Kids, second graders, were exemplary hard to deal with. They question everything, but it's mathematics, not philosophy. If those kids want to question everything they should've learned philosophy instead. But Jisung, he doesn't question anything at all. He nods at everything Hyunjin says, and just takes note of the things that comes out of Hyunjin's mouth.

He's tired, so he doesn't ask Jisung if he gets it. They only have fifteen minutes left anyway, Hyunjin doesn't want to extend it. He also wants to sleep; he has Calculus in the morning. 

"Hey, I think we should wrap this up." After a few minutes, he speaks, when he finds Jisung dozing off. His pen close to dropping from his fingers, and his face sliding off to the edge of the desk. 

"Oh, yeah. Sure." 

Jisung finishes fixing his things but tells Hyunjin he'll leave his quiz to him for some reasons. Maybe you can review me with that? They walk to the door, and Hyunjin opens it for Jisung.

"Thanks for the help, man."

"I think, we should study at the library next time. You were dozing off just now. It might be best to do it somewhere bright, you know?"

Jisung nods, smiling at him. "Sure, sure. That's fine by me. Thanks again."

Hyunjin gives him a tight-lipped smile, closing the door lightly. He hears someone call Jisung's name from outside the hall, and Jisung greeting them back. 

Groaning, Hyunjin jumps down on his bed. Not caring about the mess of papers on his desk, and his desk lamp still turned on. 

-

It wasn't really hard to bump into Jisung after last night. The campus might be wide, but where can you find a basketball player whose still disappointed about his actions during their biggest game this season? A basketball court. Of course. 

It was when Hyunjin was on his way back to the dorms after his morning class when he spots a few guys playing at a small court just outside the school gym. Funnily enough, he was able to find Jisung amongst the group of boys. And Jisung, surprisingly, found him on the sea of students walking left and right along the pavement. He sees Jisung's eyes brighten, waving a hand at Hyunjin. 

How weird is it that, he cursed Jisung a lot in his mind last night because he couldn't get a mathematical problem. But here is he, smiling brightly at Hyunjin like they're best friends. Hyunjin's never going to get out of his guilt phase if Jisung keeps treating him nicely. 

Nodding to himself— which made Jisung wonder what he was thinking— Hyunjin struts to where Jisung stands. Some of the guys he was with a few seconds ago were drying their hair and fixing their bags. 

"Are they done?"

"Hm?"

Clearing his throat before staring back at Jisung, he repeats, "Are you done playing?"

Jisung shrugs, "We've been playing for awhile. Why?"

Sometimes Hyunjin would regret his decisions, and sometimes he's unsure whether or not he chose the wrong one but ends up liking it either way. This time, he doesn't know what's right or wrong. "Can you teach me how to play basketball?" 

It made Jisung let out a chuckle, which made Hyunjin's cheeks redden. A little. 

"Sure. It's the least I can do. You're helping with my academics." The other never forgets to smile after he speaks. 

No, Hyunjin thinks, this is the least he can do for always judging Jisung by the way he approach him. 

"This," Jisung starts, jumping on his spot beside Hyunjin. The ball enters the basket, and the shorter of the two runs to grab it. "Is a three-pointer. If you step here, it'll only be two points." 

"Uh, yeah, sure. Maybe teach me the basics first?" Hyunjin admits, scratching his nape in embarrassment. "I don't even know how to dribble." 

Jisung laughs— not in a mocking way, but more of fondness. His eyes turns into crescent as he pass Hyunjin the ball, and grabs another for himself. He leads Hyunjin to it, telling the taller to bounce the ball in place. After getting a hang of it, Jisung tells him to walk while dribbling the ball. 

It took Hyunjin a few more tries to follow Jisung's instructions. But when he hears Jisung clapping, ball situated between his side and right arm, Hyunjin thinks he did it. 

"That's good. Nice," He starts dribbling again, to Hyunjin's direction this time. "Now,  defense position." Jisung continues, applying pressure to Hyunjin's shoulder. 

He tells him to squat a little and start dribbling again. Jisung stands behind him, talking about what he should do. "I'll be on defense behind you. This is when your opponent wants to steal you ball. But," Jisung leans in closer. His breath fanning the spot between Hyunjin's neck and shoulder. "don't stop dribbling. While the ball is in your hands, you can either pass it to your teammates, or get out on your own." 

The sun is shining annoyingly bright up there, and there is little to no air coming their way. It's past lunch time, which further explains why there's not much people walking by. Yet, Hyunjin gulps at their proximity, and Jisung's breath on his skin. He starts dribbling nonetheless, and successfully shoots the ball on the basket. 

He hears a clap coming from somewhere, but it certainly didn't come from Jisung. His eyes shake, was someone watching them?

"Nice shot, Hyunjinnie." Chan gives them a warm smile, walking towards them with a duffle bag at hand. "Was Jisung teaching you?"

"Just for fun. But at least I know how to dribble." Hyunjin says, goes to where he placed his bag, by the bench to sit. "I guess that's all for today. I'm tired."

Jisung pats his shoulder, "Sure, see you tomorrow?" 

"Yeah, tomorrow." 

-

His shirt clings to his sweaty chest, even as the air condition of the lobby hits him. Hyunjin easily takes the stairs to his room. He has no classes tomorrow, but can at least prepare to teach Jisung about the subjects he's worried about. They didn't speak a lot today, but he's guessing bonding over something the other loves is enough to get them a little closer. 

As he opens the door to his room, he noticed a pair of shoes beside the trash can. He looks up to see Minho sitting on his bed. "What are you doing here?" 

Minho continues to look out the window as he replies, "You're not so smooth there, Mr. Hwang. I, too, asked my dear Channie if he could teach me how to play basketball." 

Hyunjin rolls his eyes, walking closer to where his friend sat. Placing his bag on the desk, before plopping down his bed— still in his sweaty attire. "What do you want?" He says, nonchalantly. 

The older looks back at him with a frown. "I need your book for 26!" 

"Of course you do." It seems like Hyunjin can't get enough of eye rolling because of Lee Minho. "Hey, didn't you take that last year, though?" 

"No," Minho scoffs, scanning Hyunjin's shelf of engineering books. "I took Math 54 late, remember? Stupid Park had to fail me for the fun of it." He continues to complain until he found what he's looking for. "Methods, right?" 

"Yeah." Hyunjin nods, his mind thinking about Math 54 and Jisung suddenly pops in his head. "But make sure to bring it back on Saturday. I need to study for class." 

"Sure, sure." 

With that, Minho slams the door without looking back at Hyunjin. The younger sighs, eyes dropping from exhaustion. How does one play basketball? 

-

The next time he meets Jisung it's in the library inside the Psychology thread of the science building. The building is quite big, and it's situated far from where the rest of the buildings were. Hyunjin never wandered over here, since most of his friends are from the same building. Seungmin's building was just across theirs. This is a faintly new place for him, and considering the fact that most of the students he see inside the library are wearing white uniforms and coats; he finds it awkward. 

Come to think of it, Hyunjin has never seen Jisung with that kind of uniform. When he saw him the other day, he was wearing casual clothes. He doesn't know when the uniforms should be worn, and it's not like he  would love to see Jisung in those clothes. 

Hyunjin gets a text from Jisung saying he's on his way to the library. He replies him an okay, a thumbs up and smiling emoji. And when Jisung enters the library wearing the same white uniform, fifty percent of the occupants also wore, and his brown hair falling just above his eyes. Hyunjin kind of lost some of his senses. 

"Hey," Jisung speaks once he's in front of the table and sits across Hyunjin. "Have you been waiting long?" 

Hyunjin decides to blink, clearing his throat before looking down on his textbook. "No, not really." He says, voice unconsciously cracking. "It's fine, let's start." 

They went over what they talked about the other day, and Hyunjin told him they're going to start with Statistics since that's a big percentage in this subject. They have enough time to tackle almost all the remaining topics, anyway. He didn't have classes today, and Jisung only had morning classes. In which they decided they would study in the library for four hours. In fact, four hours isn't that long to study if they're running out of time. 

"I have a quiz on this tomorrow." Jisung whispers, writing down the highlighted words from Hyunjin's book. "I supposed this can be a good review time for me." He looks up to give Hyunjin a genuine smile. 

As they go along the formulas and methods, Hyunjin's mind falters to why Jisung chose this major if he specifically said he's not interested in math and science. He knows it's not his business, lots of kids are being forced by their parents to apply for something their kids do not want. But upon observing Jisung, he seems determined and it's like he wants to do this. Still. It makes Hyunjin wonder. 

"What lead you to take Psychology anyway?" He couldn't help but ask. Though it seems, Jisung is more than happy to continue the conversation, when he looks up and straighten his posture.

So he tell him, he tells Hyunjin his petty mistake of enrolling to BS Psychology instead of BA. He laughed when the words came out of his mouth. Hyunjin guessed, he's over it now. "I didn't look twice when I registered. It's also too late to shift, anyway, they're both psychology." 

"Oh, so you did want to take psychology?" Hyunjin asks carefully.

Jisung shrugs, "Yeah, can I tell you something?" 

"Sure." 

"I guess it was in eighth grade," Jisung starts, jotting down the answer from his calculator. "I was in a really good mood that day, but then I heard somebody laugh. I don't know who and why they're laughing— didn't even think it was because of me or anything. Just. It made me frown." He smiles sheepishly, looking at Hyunjin from below his eyelashes Hyunjin smiles, telling him to go on. 

"Lots of things occurred after that. I got too scared to play the lead role for a class play— in fact, when it was mentioned I wanted to play the part. I don't know, long story short, I was diagnosed with anxiety. Though, instead of locking myself, I said maybe I should learn more about it, you know?" 

"Then, I guess it's perfect that you accidentally clicked BS instead of BA." Hyunjin interrupts making the other snort, doodling something on his notebook. 

"I guess."

"But are you, okay, now?" 

"Sure, I am. There are times I get the feeling, but I try to calm myself down." 

It was really something Hyunjin was thankful for, really. Jisung, even when they only knew each other for a few days, trusted him. Told him something important about himself. It took him months for Seungmin to open up to him, and to get close enough to Minho before they start talking casually. It's not always that a friend open up to him. 

Jisung is his friend, right? 

"How about you? What's your story?" 

They still have enough hours left to finish one more topic, so it's not a bother to open up to each other.

"It's nothing special, really."

"Tell me." Jisung leans in, resting his chin on his palm. 

"Oh, well, um. I originally wanted to be an interior designer, because my cousin is one. Her design are really amazing. But, my teacher noticed back in high school my proficiency in math. I guess, when mom found out she told me I should go for engineering. I wasn't against it, I found engineering interesting too. So, here I am." 

He looks at Jisung, and see him pouting. "Seems like you don't think highly of yourself, Hyunjin-ssi." Leaning back to his chair, Jisung stares at him. "Why don't you have more faith in yourself? You said you're proficient in math? Why don't you use that as an advantage."

"Yeah but-"

"No buts, Hyunjinnie." Jisung frowns, placing his hand on Hyunjin's own. "You're smart, and believe it or not, you teach better than my professor. I actually get all of this." He gesture to the books scattered on the table. "Thank you." 

-

Monday morning, he was invited to have breakfast by his three unfortunate friends who happened to have morning classes. He spots them at their usual table, so Hyunjin plops down beside Felix. Also his usual spot. "Where are your other halves?" He asks them, giving Felix extra sausage from his plate. The younger thanks him. 

"Probably not awake yet, why?" 

Hyunjin just shrugs. "Hey, why are basketball players so nice?" He asks so casually that Minho had to pat Seungmin when he choked on his bread. 

"Why are you asking that?" Felix tells hums, accussingly. "So early in the morning. Did something happen?" 

"Is it that controversial?" Hyunjin answers, eyes wide from confusion. 

Then Minho makes a tsk sound, it made the three (even Seungmin who's recovering from his near death experience) look at him. "Isn't that the same question you asked when Seungmin was complimented by Changbin?" 

Oh, right. He remembers that. "But, is there something wrong?"

"What did Jisung tell you?!" Felix screeches; he obviously has had enough of the teasing. "Tell us." 

"I mean," He's looking down again, picking on his food as his friends awaits for the answer. "He told me I'm smart, and I should have more faith in myself." 

Minho covers his face with both of his palms, and Seungmin stares at him with big eyes. Felix, he's probably forcing a sob. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Minho mumbles after getting over whatever he's feeling. "Just reminding you of how Seungmin and Changbin happened." 

-

He gets a text from Jisung that afternoon to meet him at the oval. Apparently, he has a good news and a bad news for Hyunjin. It's crazy how a week away they didn't know each other, and now they talk so naturally. Hyunjin finds Jisung finishing a lap, so he sits beside the other's bag. He remembers what it looks like; Hyunjin has good memory. 

"Hey, good news or bad news first." 

"Good."

"Okay," Jisung starts, opening his water bottle and taking a long gulp of water before continuing. "I got a perfect score."

Hyunjin smiles, a really big one, and almost stumbles to hug Jisung. But he didn't because Jisung is sweaty, he doesn't like the stench. "Bad?" 

"Prof announced he'll give us long quizzes each month, and it's different from midterms and finals." 

"Who is that anyway? Seems annoying." 

Jisung sits beside him, drying his sweat with a towel. "You know Mr. Lee? Tall, bald guy with glasses?" 

"Kind of muscular?"

"Yeah, him."

Hyunjin groans, remembering him from last year. "That was my prof for a major last year. He is annoying." 

"Right? Anyway, I gotta go change. Meet you in the library?"

"Yeah."

-

After the brief meeting at the oval, they meet again at the science building library. It went like that for a few more days. They go over the lessons Jisung didn't quite get. Hyunjin understands him, since now he knows who his professor is. Mr. Lee is very quick with teaching a lesson. It's more like he wants to end the semester rather than teach his students. So, Hyunjin guides Jisung carefully. 

Everyday, after Jisung and him are done with class, they meet at the library. Jisung would thank him, and Hyunjin would get shy, saying it's not all on him. That Jisung did his best to understand the contexts. It's like that for the next few days until Friday. They can't meet this Friday because Hyunjin has a group project meeting. He kept apologizing to Jisung even when he didn't do anything wrong. 

-

Jisung lays down on his bed, reading Hyunjin's text about not being able to help him before his long quiz the next day. He smiles to himself, thinking that someone genuinely wants to help him. 

"Hey, hyung." Jisung calls Changbin from the top bunk. He hears Changbin grumble below. "What do you think of Hyunjin?" 

"What?"

"I said, what do you think of Hyunjin?"

He could hear Changbin move, considering the rustling of his sheets. "He's a nice guy, why?"

Jisung opens his phone, once again scrolling at the messages fron Hyunjin. "He is, isn't he?" 

-

As he waits for Jisung outside his classroom, Hyunjin thinks of ways to congratulate him for surviving the first long quiz of the semester. It's not really necessary but he thinks, it might make Jisung's day a little better. In fact, having classes on a weekend sucks. Although Jisung is used to it, it's not always that you have to sit through a three hour class for a long quiz on a weekend, when you're supposed to be chilling with your friends. Damn college. 

It's a few minutes later when the doors opened and a flock of students exited the room. He looks for Jisung amongst the students wearing white. He spots the shorter one, looking a little gloomy. "Jisung!" Hyunjin calls out, waving his hand to get his attention.

When Jisung finds him, he immediately goes to his direction. "What are you doing here?" He asked, surprised. 

"Wanted to know how well you did!"

With that, Jisung pouts handing Hyunjin his paper, like a kid passing his report card to his mother. 

78/80

"This is good!" Hyunjin jumps to hug Jisung, and this time he isn't shy about it. He's just happy about this improvement. 

"But I promised a perfect score." 

"What? I don't care about that— come on, you had two mistakes. Isn't that, I don't know, amazing?!"

Sighing, Jisung shakes all his grumpiness away when he looks at a smiling Hyunjin. He smiles too, patting the taller one's hair. "All thanks to you." 

Hyunjin clears his throat, eyes focused behind Jisung for some reasons before speaking again. "Wanna eat? I know a cheap place."

"You had me at cheap." 

-

The two of them entered a diner just a few walks away from the campus, and past the café Seungmin won't stop gushing about. It wasn't buzzing with customers right now since it's three in the afternoon, but there were still a few students sitting here and there. They found a seat at the far back and grab a menu list. 

Hyunjin was busy scanning the food items, to notice Jisung was nervously looking at him. The younger looks away before he can get caught. "Hyunjin?"

"Hm?" He answers, eyes not leaving the menu.

"You ever dated anyone?"

He quickly looks up to Jisung whose eyes are boring holes on his own menu. "Um, I have but, but just in high school. I've never dated since I entered college."

"So, you've never been in a relationship?"

"I have, but not serious. You?"

Jisung looks up and shakes his head. "Never. Not once." 

"Really? Why?"

Instead of answering his question, Jisung gives him another question back. "What do you think of dating?" 

After that was silence, not technically full silence. The table behind them were a group of girls talking about how fun the club they went to last night was. And the table across them were a pair of mother and son; the mother asking his son about what happened in class yesterday. There were a few more chatter around them, but it was silence for the two of them. 

I mean, Hyunjin shouts mentally, how can Jisung ask him that random of a question? And why he is shouting in his head anyway. Why is he panicking? 

"I'll order." Jisung stands up from his seat when Hyunjin doesn't give him an answer. Hyunjin tells him what he'll get and proceeds to the counter. Leaving Hyunjin to ponder at the question.

The rest of their stay at the diner was more different than how it started. Jisung changed the topic as soon as he sat down, placed their food on the table. They laugh about a failed project from senior year Hyunjin loves talking about. They talk about other things, away from the heavy question that they couldn't stop thinking. 

The sun was almost setting when they went out of the diner, and it made them realized how they lost track of time by hanging out with each other. Jisung turns to Hyunjin when they moved away from the doors. "Hey, you know what I said about dating awhile ago?"

Hyunjin does, but he doesn't want to get his hopes up or something. "Yeah, why?" 

"Do you want to? Go on a date with me." 

Hyunjin expected it, but hearing it aloud, as Jisung plays with the hem of his uniform, it's kind of like a dream. A good one. "Just a date? Or more than that?" He tries to joke, making Jisung chuckle. 

"Hey, I'm not like Changbin hyung. I do want to go on a date first." Jisung pouts, punching Hyunjin's arm lightly. "That's it, if you want to." 

Hyunjin gives him a shy smile and a timid nod. "Sure, I would love to." 

"Great." Jisung whispers, fixing his posture to walk beside Hyunjin. Even with his taller height, Hyunjin feels so little when he felt Jisung's hand on his. 

-

When Jisung finishes his long quiz for the month, this time, he went straight to the cafeteria. Hyunjin told him to meet them there, and when he arrives Hyunjin's friends and his teammates were sitting with each other. He's been joining them for about a month now, whether lunch or breakfast. Sometimes the seven of them eat out for dinner or play in the nearest arcade. Ever since he's asked Hyunjin out, they were practically inseparable. 

He sits down beside his boyfriend and steals a piece of fries from his food. Hyunjin snaps at him, but smiles when he found Jisung. The younger leans in for a quick kiss.

"Gosh, you're more gross than these two over here." Minho spats, pointing at Seungmin who's practically on Changbin's lap. Hyunjin pulls Jisung closer to him, giving him another kiss on the cheeks. 

Felix arrives after buying food of his own, but instead of sitting in his usual spot, next to Hyunjin, he sat at the table next to his friends. 

"Felix, what the hell?" Minho laughs, looking at his younger friend as he glares at the six of them. 

"What? Even if I sit here or there, I'm still alone." 

Hyunjin snorts, gesturing Felix to sit next to him. "Stop whining. You're gonna get yours soon."

Grumpily placing his tray on the table, he continues to glare at Hyunjin, "Yeah, I wish." 

After the ruckus at the cafeteria, and Felix's continuous glowering to the pair of couples, Jisung and Hyunjin went down to the campus garden for fresh air. Jisung has practice in a few minutes, but he'd rather spend the remaining to be with Hyunjin. 

"I don't think you know how lucky I am." Jisung says, earning a funny look from Hyunjin. 

"What makes you say that?"

"Are you kidding me? My boyfriend is Hwang Hyunjin."

"And my boyfriend, is Han Jisung." Hyunjin sighs, leaning to give Jisung a kiss but the other grabs his neck to deepen it. They move away seconds later, Hyunjin smiles wide. "Imagine that." 

Jisung smirks, leaning forward to continue kissing his boyfriend, but the vibration of his phone interrupts the moment. "Ugh, it's from hyung. Coach is not in a good mood."

Hyunjin hugs Jisung, pouting. "Does that mean you have to go?"

"Yeah, babe. Why?"

"Nothing. I'm just gonna miss you." He frowns even more, that made Jisung lean in to give him a few pecks before pulling away from the embrace. 

Jisung gives him a wink before completely disappearing from his sight. Hyunjin melts onto the nearest bench, and it doesn't occur to him that a few eyes are questioning and looking at him funny. Love is funny.