Chapter Text
Please please please, Taehyun thinks as he passes yet another occupied table, please please please just one.
No luck. This floor is also full to burst with students.
Trying to reign in a frustrated scream, Taehyun turns around and heads for the stairs. There’s only the last floor of the library left to cover. Taehyun has already combed through the first two, looking for an empty seat to complete his graphs in—due today, someone please kill him—but the forces of the universe seem to have aligned today of all days to ensure Taehyun doesn’t have a place to work in his favourite library.
He climbs the stairs two at a time. On a good day, he would try to climb them three at a time because, well, he isn’t a weak bitch. But it probably wouldn’t be a good idea while trying to balance his coffee with his binder, his computer, and his jacket.
Now, Taehyun isn’t usually this disorganised, and he curses himself one more time as he opens the doors to the third floor.
He usually completes his assignments way ahead of time and has no problem keeping up with deadlines. He’s also got the library’s busiest hours memorised and has his visits perfectly scheduled around them. He hates being crammed in next to stressed out students who smell strongly of sweat, caffeine and hopeless despair.
And yet, here he is.
This is all Kai’s fault.
And Beomgyu’s. Somehow, everything is always Beomgyu’s fault one way or another.
The buzz of conversation on this floor is lower than on the first two, which gives Taehyun some hope. But as he starts down the aisles and only finds more occupied tables, that hope becomes smaller and smaller. Taehyun doesn’t come up here often, since he usually prefers to stay in a secluded corner on the first floor, with his friends scattered somewhere in the vicinity.
The lighting here is a little dimmer—probably due to the odd, almost maze-like distribution of the shelves, which block most of the light coming in from the windows.
He goes on, trying to find a table hidden between the aisles that people have overlooked, but after a while of only finding students passed out on their textbooks or staring blankly at their computers, he’s beginning to feel truly desperate. And lost. Whoever designed this place had clearly never heard of cosmos.
Kai owes him one for this, he decides. A big one.
Kai has a crush on someone—which normally wouldn’t be noteworthy, since Kai always has a crush on someone. Except apparently this time it was the most perfect senior, whom Kai was absolutely whipped for and who he claimed was completely out of his league.
The only thing worse than Kai with a crush is Kai being dramatic about a crush.
Beomgyu had introduced them last week at the party Taehyun didn’t go to because he had to study and, frankly, he just hadn’t wanted to. But he’d apparently missed something big because, according to Kai, he and Choi Soobin had an instant connection.
He takes a left between two shelves with no idea where he’s going and the grim determination of a desperate man.
The thing about Kai is that he doesn’t do things halfway, which is something that Taehyun normally loves and admires about him. When he likes someone, he dives into it headfirst, bottom of the pool deep. He’s a theatre major, and Taehyun has always thought that he approaches love the same way he approaches the stage—Kai needs to learn everything about a person to fully “immerse” himself: go to the places they go, eat the food they like, listen to the music they listen to. It’s like he is preparing for a role, except the role is love.
When they first met, Taehyun had thought it was dependent and clingy. Now he knows it’s just Kai being sweet and earnest. He also usually slips out of love like he slips out of character at the end of a play, so it’s all fine in the end.
Or it should have been, if it weren’t for the fact that this time Kai seemed more serious about it. Which is all well and good, and shouldn’t suppose a problem at all, except that apparently it is now mandatory for Taehyun to accompany him in every single one of his little quests of love.
Taehyun rounds another aisle and comes across a table of six with all its chairs taken and the entire surface covered in papers and empty coffee cups. A girl snaps awake when he comes up behind her and almost falls from her chair. A terrified looking first year stares at him with wide eyes. Taehyun had been trying not to scowl too much. He doesn’t seem to be succeeding. He bows in apology and continues his prowl.
As a good best friend and roommate, Taehyun had gone along to every Mission Choi Soobin (Kai’s idea) during this past week. Kai had insisted it was important, this time was different, I want you there with me, with his excited puppy eyes and soft cheeks, and what was Taehyun supposed to do, say no?
So Taehyun has been dragged all over campus to every spot Choi Soobin frequents. They’ve tried the guy’s favourite restaurants, his favourite ice-cream (thank god he at least didn’t like mint choco), they’ve listened to his favourite songs and even gone to the café he works at like a pair of stalkers. (When Taehyun had asked where Kai was getting all this information from, he’d simply shrugged and said Beomgyu. So that was another thing to add to Tahyun’s list of Beomgyu aggrievances).
And most of the time the guy wasn’t even there, so it’s not like Kai was getting anything out of it.
And, to make matters worse, all that gallivanting around had resulted in Taehyun forgetting his deadline entirely, meaning he now only has about three hours left to complete his graphs. And there are no fucking seats left.
Great.
This was not how he’d imagined his Thursday going.
Also, he’s pretty sure he’s passed this bookshelf at least twice. Yep, he is definitely lost.
He throws his head back and tries to take deep breaths. He’s normally amazing in a crisis and all his friends always praise his ability to keep a clear head in any situation, so he tries to channel that power now.
He notices the ceiling becomes slanted up ahead, which should indicate the end of this cursed floor.
Okay, he’ll just check there once and if there isn’t any luck, he’ll figure something out.
As he winds through more haphazardly put together shelves, he notices he is actually closer to one of the side walls than he’d first realised. Long lines of sunlight filter in from the windows through the books in the shelves.
He finally reaches a tall bookshelf, and behind it he finds paradise.
A perfect dark wooden table with four perfect dark wooden chairs, tucked between the bookshelf and the end wall, with a big window pouring golden light onto it like it’s the Holy Grail.
He can’t help the little almost-whimper of relief he lets out before he sets his things on the table. He stretches his arms—they’d been getting tired, maybe he should double his lessons at the gym…
“Excuse me,” a voice drawls, “you’re in my seat.”
Taehyun raises his head, startled. And promptly drops his jaw.
He’d been so glad to have finally found an unoccupied table that he hadn’t noticed the table wasn’t actually empty. A boy is already lounging in the chair closest to the window. His back is leaning against the wall, which makes him difficult to spot from where Taehyun had come in.
He’s got faded pink hair with grown black roots, tight jeans that accentuate his kilometric legs, a stylish black coat, and a scowl on his face.
And Taehyun knows that face.
Choi Yeonjun.
Taehyun isn’t the most social person, and he also isn’t very up to date with the gossip on campus, but even he knows Choi Yeonjun.
Or, rather, he only knows the things that others say about him. He’s a last year. He is insanely popular. People constantly post about him on the university’s Instagram page about campus crushes (which Taehyun only knows about thanks to Beomgyu), and they say he’s fucked half the school. People claim he was absent last year because he was in jail. They say he got involved in a gang, he’s dating two idols at the same time, he’d gone to North Korea and come back.
The rumours get more and more ridiculous the more people you ask, which is why Taehyun never bothers. Taehyun is the kind of person who only deals in facts.
He doesn’t even know the guy, why should he care?
Except now that same guy is openly glaring at him.
“Uh…” Taehyun says, eloquently. “Sorry, what?”
“You’re in my seat” Choi Yeonjun repeats. He uncoils himself from his position against the wall like a cat, linking his hands on the table and facing Taehyun head on. “Get another table.”
Taehyun frowns.
“All the other tables are full. And I’m not trying to take your seat, I’m just trying to sit on one of the other three free seats on this table.”
Choi Yeonjun smiles at him, and it looks sweet like the edge of a knife.
“I don’t care. This is my table. Go sit somewhere else.”
Now, usually Taehyun is perfectly polite to strangers, but only if they are polite back and if he doesn’t happen to be stressed out of his mind.
“No.” He says as he sits down as far away from the other as possible.
Yeonjun straightens back. Taehyun doesn’t know if he’s surprised or if he’s preparing to strike. “What do you mean ‘no’?”
Taehyun starts arranging his things on the table. “No, I’m not going to sit somewhere else, because there is nowhere else to sit. I told you.” He turns on his computer.
“Listen, kid, this is my spot-“
“I don’t see your name on it.” Honestly, who does this guy think he is? Taehyun just wants to finish this assignment and go home to sleep for ten hours.
“Maybe the fact that I’m sitting alone while all the other tables are full means that I want to be, oh, I don’t know, alone.”
“Then you shouldn’t be sitting in a public space.” If Choi Yeonjun thought he was gonna beat him with logic, he was sorely mistaken. Taehyun was great at logic. He opened the file that said Professor Lee--> Graphs.
“Are you stupid? Genuine question. If you don’t-“
“Listen” Taehyun says, finally facing him. Choi Yeonjun really is quite attractive—no wonder he’s so popular. Shame that he also seems like an asshole. “We could sit here arguing all day, or you could let me finish my assignment in peace. Because, frankly, I’ve had a shitty day, and if I don’t finish this in time, I’m this close to killing my dumb best friend and then myself. So if you don’t wanna be caught in the crossfire, I suggest we just sit here and ignore each other. Quietly.”
Choi Yeonjun observes him for a few moments, assessing him. People tend to assume that because Taehyun is quiet and soft-spoken, he doesn’t have a temper. Choi Yeonjun finally seems to come to a conclusion, even if his face remains impassive. He gives Taehyun a curt nod and slides back against the wall.
Taehyun suppresses a sigh of relief. Maybe Yeonjun isn’t a complete asshole, after all. He focuses on his screen and finally gets to work, determined to keep his word and ignore the other.
Taehyun is on his second year of mathematics, and he is quite happy with his choice of studies. He’s always been a good student, but he discovered pretty early on that, while most other subjects always ended up boring him, maths never did.
There was always a right answer in maths, no matter the kind of question you were asking. He likes that. He likes the question part and the answer part, and he wants to spend the rest of his life deciphering and studying things most people don’t want to bother with.
In other words, he is a nerd, and he’s pretty okay with it.
He’d chosen SNU because it had the best maths program in Korea, and with his grades, he’d had no problem getting in. Gwanak Campus had a great reputation, but it was almost 2 hours away from his parents’ house. After a lot of discussion, he’d been able to convince them to let him live in the university’s dorms—like he said, Taehyun is amazing at logic.
But it was never about the distance, not really. Taehyun has always thought of himself as a very independent person, and he knew that if he wanted to truly grow into himself and reach his full potential, he had to do it on his own.
That’s how he met Kai, the first day he came to the dorms. They’d been paired together, and by the time Taehyun got to their room Kai had already unpacked and was waiting on one of the beds. “Hi, my name’s Huening Kai. Do you think they’ll let us get a pet snake?” And they’d been inseparable ever since.
They still haven’t succeeded in the snake thing, though. (They almost made it once: With Beomgyu’s help, they got one and hid it in Kai’s bag, and they almost made it to their room before they got caught. Now Daniel is happily living with Taehyun’s parents, who are not quite as happy).
He and Kai met Beomgyu on their first months here, at a party Kai dragged Taehyun to. Or rather, Beomgyu met them, because Beomgyu knows everyone. The three of them had hit it off straight away even though Beomgyu was a year older. And the rest, as they say, is history.
So, all in all, Taehyun is happy with his life here, even if he sometimes has to deal with a too-full library and territorial assholes.
“Why are you killing him?”
Taehyun blinks away from the screen. When he looks up, he sees that Yeonjun has a book in his hand, though he’s staring at Taehyun.
“Excuse me?” he asks. His eyes hurt. His eyes always hurt when he’s looking at graphs. He rubs his hands over his face.
“Your best friend. You said you were going to kill your best friend and then yourself. The yourself part I get, but why them?” Yeonjun is watching him with a raised eyebrow, but his posture is still lazy, indolent, like he doesn’t really care. He’s got kinda intense eyes.
“Thanks for seeing why I’d wanna kill myself.” He says without heat. He looks at the clock in his computer—it’s already been more than an hour and he’s doing well, he can take a small break. “It’s kind of his fault that I’m stuck here, actually. And my own, for not being able to tell him no.”
Yeonjun makes an inquisitive noise, tilting his head but still making an effort to seem nonchalant.
“He’s got a crush on this… person.” Though most college students tend to be a bit more open minded about these kinds of things, he wouldn’t want to accidentally out Kai to a complete stranger. “He dragged me all over campus for them this week, and I didn’t have time to finish my assignment.”
Yeonjun scrunches his nose and leaves his book on the table. “Like, following them around?”
“Nah, just going to the places they like to feel closer to them.”
“That’s… sweet. Still feels kinda stalkery to me, though.” The corner of Yeonjun’s mouth ticks up a little. His lips look nice. Like, their shape. Is interesting
“Yes. Very stalkery.” Taehyun says seriously. “Extremely creepy. So creepy, in fact, that you should run away and leave this table to me.”
“Nice try. May I remind you that you’re the one who invaded my table?” Despite his words, Yeonjun’s smirk stretches wider.
Taehyun huffs. “It’s not your table. If you want to claim permanent ownership, you should take it up with the library administration”.
“Maybe I will,” Yeonjun says, raising his chin like a haughty cat. “And, uh…” he rubs the back of his neck self-consciously, “sorry I yelled at you earlier. I was just being emo, but I shouldn’t have taken it out on you like that.”
“Oh,” Taehyun feels his eyes widen. He hadn’t actually expected him to apologise. “No worries. And I’m sorry too, I guess. I also yelled at you a bit. I was just stressed, but that’s no excuse.”
Yeonjun waves a hand in the air to dismiss his apology. Taehyun hadn’t noticed before, but the sleeves of his coat are wide and silky, and when he moves his arms they follow him like waves. “Don’t worry about it. Does that mean you’re no longer stressed?
Taehyun thinks about it. “I am… not not stressed, but I only have one more graph to finish, so I think I’m getting there.”
“Ah, then I won’t bother you anymore. As you were.” Yeonjun flings his hand elegantly and takes up his book again.
“No, it’s fine-” Taehyun wouldn’t have minded to carry on with their conversation—Yeonjun was being nicer than he’d expected, he’d even apologised—, but he’s always been awkward with these things and he doesn’t know how to lift up the flow of a conversation once it dies off. Besides, Yeonjun is already back to his book—he probably doesn’t want to be bothered by a nerdy second year. He goes back to his graphs.
Forty minutes later, the graphs are finished and sent to his professor. Yeonjun is still reading his book, though he’s moved to sit on the windowsill.
Taehyun checks his phone. 7:49. He should text Kai to let him know where he is—Taehyun usually comes home earlier on Thursdays and Kai will probably be wondering where he is. He stretches his arms above his head and hears his spine crack (is he getting older? Do those 6 months really make a big difference, like Kai says?). He twists his neck to the side to check if that cracks too, and sees Yeonjun watching him.
There’s a pause where they just stare at each other. Yeonjun is the first to recover.
“Are you done?” he asks in a disinterested tone.
“Uh, yeah. Finally.” He huffs out a laugh. “Goodbye stress.” Goodbye stress? Who says that? Certainly not cool guys like Yeonjun.
But Yeonjun just smiles. “If only it were that easy. By the way, what’s your name? I can’t believe we spent almost three hours together and I still don’t know your name.”
“It’s not like we did it willingly.” Taehyun says, and then realises how that sounds. “Not that I hated it or anything, or that I wouldn’t want to spent time with you willingly, it’s just that with what happened before- like, yeah, sorry,” He grimaces awkwardly. “My name’s Kang Taehyun.”
Yeonjun is still smiling, but not like he’s laughing at him. He looks almost endeared. “Hello, Taehyun-ssi. My name’s Choi Yeonjun.”
“I know.” Taehyun says before he can stop himself. He immediately wants to slap a hand over his mouth.
Yeonjun raises a perfectly delineated eyebrow. “You know?” he asks.
“I just meant that I’ve seen you around. On Campus.”
Yeonjun narrows his eyes. “Oh, yeah? And what have you seen me doing?”
Taehyun blanks. Suddenly he can’t remember a single instance he’s seen Yeonjun in his life, even though he’s sure they’ve crossed paths a couple times. He gives up. This can’t be more embarrassing than it already is.
“You’re popular,” Taehyun shrugs awkwardly. “People find you interesting and talk about you. I guess I just know your name from that.”
“Oh, people talk about me, how wonderful. And, pray tell, what things do they talk about?”
Yeonjun’s angry, Taehyun realises with a start. His smile looks different from a minute ago. This one looks like the saccharine sweet knife from when Taehyun first sat down. He’s clearly misstepped, and he doesn’t even know how.
“Uh, I don’t know. I don’t really listen to rumours. I’m kind of what you’d call a hermit, “he shrugs, “and when I do go out people quickly get bored of telling me when they see I’m not paying attention.” He scratches the back of his head. “Um, I guess if you really wanted to know what they say, you could ask Beomgyu hyung? He always knows this kind of stuff.”
Yeonjun is silent for a beat, watching him. Taehyun can’t really read his face, and his stare is starting to make him uncomfortable.
“Choi Beomgyu?” Yeonjun finally asks. “You know him?”
“Oh. Yeah, we’re friends. Do you- ah, of course you know hyung.” Choi Beomgyu, knower of all things, acquaintance of all beings. Taehyun is a little thrown by the change in topic, but he decides to just go with it. “How did you meet Beomgyu hyung?” he asks.
Yeonjun leans back against the windowpane, and it’s not until this moment that Taehyun realises how tense Yeonjun had been holding himself a second ago.
“He studies Fine Arts too, though he’s in Painting and I’m in Design. We run in a lot of the same circles.
“You study design? That’s so cool, you must like it a lot.” Taehyun wouldn’t last a day in Design because, basically, his sense of fashion is a trashcan on fire. A very boring trashcan on fire with stripes and squares all over the place. But he can see it on Yeonjun—his pants are simple but fit like a glove, his coat shimmies and moves like it’s got a mind of his own, and his hair, despite its long black roots, looks intentionally dishevelled and nice.
“It’s very cool, and I love it, even if it sometimes makes me want to throw myself out the window.”
“Please don’t.” Taehyun says, with a pointed glance to the window at Yeonjun’s back. “There are no witnesses here—people would think I murdered you.”
Yeonjun laughs, a short ‘ha’ that makes Taehyun’s fingers twitch where they rest on the table. He wants to hear it again. He wants to be the one to make it happen again.
“That would be unfortunate”, Yeonjun says. “What if I wrote a note saying it was all me?”
“They’d think I put it on you to cover my tracks.” Taehyun says immediately. “I’d have to involve my roommate for a plausible alibi, and he’s a terrible liar. Even though he should be great at it, given he’s a literal actor.”
“Your roommate?”
“The best friend with a crush”
“Ah, he gets more infamous by the second. Now I kinda wanna meet him.” Yeonjun’s eyes twinkle, and Taehyun can’t stop smiling, even if he’s trying to maintain a poker face for the sake of the alleged murder story. It’s just so easy to talk with Yeonjun. Taehyun isn’t usually like this in a first meeting. He doesn’t know what’s happening.
“Kai’s great,” he nods. “But he’ll probably try to convince you to get a snake, so you should prepare yourself for that.”
Yeonjun tilts his head with a confused frown. “Why?”
“I don’t know.” Taehyun shrugs. “Snakes are pretty cool.”
Yeonjun squints at him suspiciously. “Do you have a snake?”
Taehyun sighs. He’s still mad about the snake thing. “We tried. Beomgyu hyung helped us sneak it into the dorm, but we got caught. He’s living with my parents now.”
Yeonjun throws his head back and laughs. Taehyun feels great. And kind of restless, like he wants to do something, even if he doesn’t know what. When Yeonjun looks at him again, Taehyun is scratching the surface of the table to get rid of the weird itch.
“You are nothing like I expected, Kang Taehyun-ssi”. There’s still a lingering smile in the corners of his eyes. He looks so different from the boy Taehyun met just a few hours ago.
He doesn’t know how to respond to Yeonjun’s comment, so he just says “Thanks? And you can drop the formalities, I’m not really a fan,” he clarifies with a scrunch of his nose.
“You’re very welcome,” Yeonjun says graciously. “And, in that case, you can also call me hyung. It’s only fair.”
“Okay, …Hyung.” It’s always a little awkward for him to call someone hyung or noona for the first time, but he likes the sound of it on his tongue.
Yeonjun starts to say something else, but Taehyun’s phone goes off at that moment. He jumps and looks at the screen. Kai. Oh. He’d completely forgotten he’d wanted to text him. He looks at the time and sees that it’s well past eight. It’s not exam season, so the library must be closing soon, too. Shit, no wonder Kai’s worried.
He looks up at Yeonjun. “Sorry, I have to…”
“Sure, go ahead.”
He picks up. “Kai? Yeah, sorry, I’m at the library. Yeah. I know. Yeah, I know, I’m sorry, I’m on my way. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” He hangs up and begins to pack his things. “Sorry, I should go, my roommate- ” he says to Yeonjun, but when he looks up he sees that he’s already hopped off the windowsill and is putting his book in his back pocket.
“Don’t worry, I should go too,” Yeonjun says. He starts rounding the table, but when he reaches the end, he turns around and gives Taehyun a two-finger salute while walking backwards. “I’ll see you later, Taehyun.”
And then he’s gone, like he was never there at all.
Taehyun is left alone under the fluorescent lights, clutching the strap of his bag tightly with his two hands.
“Yeah, see you,” he says, to no one in particular.