Chapter Text
“Hyunjin!” Jisung kicks the ball over to him and Hyunjin expertly receives it and runs past the defenders to score the winning point with just a few minutes left.
The crowd and his teammates go wild, Jisung and Felix yelling in his ears as they jump around him and lift him up. Hyunjin laughs and strikes a pose for the audience before they continue the game, but Hyunjin is confident that it’s already over for the other team.
He’s right, and the game ends with the supporters of their college team celebrating and cheering. They thank their opponent for playing, but they all look a bit sour — Hyunjin understands, though, their opponent had to play against the Snob College, as Hyunjin likes to call it in his mind. Their college is filled with snobby, judgmental rich people except for most athletes, who got in with a scholarship, like Hyunjin, Felix, and Jisung.
Hyunjin dislikes a lot of his classmates (he unfortunately doesn’t share any classes with Jisung and Felix), but at least his team is nice and he can play soccer all he wants, and that’s all Hyunjin cares about. Their supporters are mostly nice too, and they consist of parents or family (not Hyunjin’s) or friends of the athletes, and a few college students who don’t look down on people with less money and a passion for sports (there aren’t many, unfortunately, but they do exist).
He happily receives some congratulations from some of their supporters when he notices someone seemingly eager to get off the bleachers and leave but being obstructed by other supporters taking their sweet time to talk to each other, blocking the way down. The guy is wearing a cap that is partly obscuring his face and he’s impatiently tapping his foot, but he’s not asking anyone to get out of the way. When the way finally clears and the guy basically thunders down the steps, Hyunjin gets a good glimpse of his face— Kim Seungmin?!
Kim Seungmin, son of the Kims who ruined Hyunjin’s parents’ business, is the perfect student, always disgustingly diligent, always dressed in dry-cleaned, posh, designer clothes, and always the one Hyunjin is getting compared to by his parents. As far as Hyunjin knows, Kim Seungmin is like his parents and thinks athletes are lowlifes leeching off of college resources, so why the hell was he at Hyunjin’s soccer game? Had he been there the whole time?
Hyunjin scoffs to himself, thinking, He was probably here to judge or to feel better than everyone else.
If you couldn’t guess yet, Hyunjin dislikes Seungmin, and he’d rather avoid him, but if Seungmin thinks that he can just show up to their games and feel all smug about it, he better think twice about expecting Hyunjin to just let it slide. Right now Seungmin is already out of sight, but Hyunjin will definitely confront him later.
“Wow, Hyunjin, we won the game! What has you scowling so much?” Felix asks after they’re done changing and head back to their dorm.
“I think I saw Kim Seungmin at the game,” Hyunjin grumbles. He can’t believe he let that guy ruin his mood after a win, but he can’t help but get angry at the thought of Seungmin making fun of the team with his snobby friend club.
“Kim Seungmin? Who is that again..?” Jisung wonders slowly. “Sorry, I mostly know people from the soccer team and the science majors.”
“It’s just one of the people who think we don’t belong here,” Hyunjin explains. “He hangs out with the people who insult us, but my parents also know his parents and they dislike each other– it’s a long story.”
“Oh, yikes,” Jisung comments with a grimace. “Why do you think he was at the game, then? I didn’t hear any insults or boos coming from our side.”
“I don’t think he wanted to be seen, he was, like, in disguise and ran away after the game.” Hyunjin shrugs. “But whatever he came to do, I imagine it’s not to support us.”
“What if he’s embarrassed to admit to his friends that he actually likes watching his college team play?” Felix offers, and Hyunjin chuckles and shakes his head.
“Oh, Lixie, you’re too kind for this world.” He ruffles his friend’s hair, and Felix pouts at him. “I hope you’re right, but I think the chances are disappointingly low. I’ll confront him about it tomorrow, though.”
“Damn, you’re courageous,” Jisung mutters and Hyunjin laughs. He does agree with Jisung, but Hyunjin also really wants to see Seungmin’s face when he tells him he’s onto him and what kind of excuses Seungmin’ll throw around. There’s also a chance that Seungmin will own up to it and insult him while he’s at it, but since he was hiding himself, Hyunjin feels like he doesn’t want anyone to know.
“I’ll show him that I won’t tolerate any slander of our team, and that he’s not invited if he isn’t there to support us.”
“Kim Seungmin!” Hyunjin finally manages to catch him during lunch break. They share a few classes (too many, in Hyunjin’s opinion), but Seungmin is always early and he sits in the front, surrounded by others, and Hyunjin is always late to class, so he didn’t get the opportunity to talk to him yet.
Seungmin and his friends turn to him with raised eyebrows and judgmental expressions, and Seungmin answers slowly, “Yes..?”
“Why were you at the soccer game yesterday?” Hyunjin crosses his arms and smirks at the way Seungmin’s eyes widen and his friends gasp. Seungmin quickly schools his expression, though, and he huffs at Hyunjin.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he claims, and Hyunjin sighs.
“Don’t try to play dumb, Kim. I saw you.”
“Excuse me, but who are you even and what is your problem?” The girl at Seungmin’s table asks Hyunjin mockingly before she looks at Seungmin with a sickly sweet smile. “I don’t know who you think you saw at that dumb game, but I can assure you that it wasn’t Seungminnie. He would never do that.”
“Yeah,” Seungmin agrees in a low voice and clears his throat. “Why would I even be there?”
“I am wondering the same, yet I definitely saw you there,” Hyunjin argues, but Seungmin and his friends ignore him and focus on their food, making more anger bubble up in Hyunjin’s stomach. Gosh, these people think they can get away with anything, huh? “Sure, ignore me, Kim. I know what I saw, and if I catch you disrespecting my team, it won’t be so easy to ignore me.”
Seungmin doesn’t even flinch at his words, no reaction at all, and Hyunjin has to hold himself back from throwing a frustrated fit right then and there, but these spoiled kids aren’t worth it, so he just turns around and stomps away, but he can still hear the conversation at Seungmin’s table.
“Wow, rude. Do you know him, Seungmin?” the girl asks.
“No. No idea who he is.”
Fucking liar, Hyunjin thinks as he continues to where Jisung and Felix are sitting, startling them with his anger when he plops down.
“They are so annoying! Entitled snobs,” Hyunjin grumbles as he slams down his lunch on the table. “They asked me who I was before they fucking ignored me, and Seungmin denied that he was even there— He even denied that he knows me! But I at least hope I scared him off.”
“I hope so too if he makes you this angry.” Jisung lets out a low whistle and Hyunjin huffs.
“He’s not worth my energy,” Hyunjin sighs and starts eating his food, but he can’t help but think about how Seungmin just straight up lied. Twice, because Hyunjin is quite sure that Seungmin’s parents have talked shit about him and his parents after seeing that Hyunjin got accepted for the college with a scholarship, so Seungmin should definitely know him. Their parents have been rivals for as long as Hyunjin can remember, but if Seungmin’s parents didn’t tell him about Hyunjin, then Seungmin knows him from watching the soccer team.
Hyunjin tries to shake the thoughts away, he doesn’t want to make himself even angrier than he already is, so he distracts himself by talking to his friends, and Jisung and Felix’s jokes manage to cheer him up a bit again. He decides that, unless Seungmin actually has the audacity to show up again, he will just pretend that Seungmin and his friends don’t exist, because usually those snobs are too busy being on their high horse to pay attention to them. They already made clear what they think of the people on sports scholarships during the introduction week, so Hyunjin hopes that they can live their lives in peace, separated from each other.
That plan turns out to be more difficult to execute than Hyunjin had hoped, though, because he feels like Seungmin is looking at him constantly, although he pretends to not have been looking when Hyunjin catches his gaze. He also always manages to stand, walk, or sit in Hyunjin’s field of view, so it’s hard to ignore him, especially during class when he sits in front and he sits all prim and proper and it gets on Hyunjin’s nerves.
What’s even worse, is that when they get their first set of grades back from the semester and the professor goes on about how hard Seungmin worked and how it paid off and all that, Seungmin acts all humble and like he doesn’t hear it all the time.
Hyunjin rolls his eyes at it and shoots Seungmin a glare when he has the audacity to turn around and look at Hyunjin, probably wanting to gloat. Hyunjin’s own grades aren't the best, but he did pass all his courses up until now with only one retake.
Honestly, he's just here to play soccer and he's simply lucky that he got a scholarship to such a prestigious college and could get his parents off his back for now. Unfortunately, his parents are constantly asking him if he has his grades back yet, and he's dreading telling them about his mediocre results and being compared to Seungmin again, not because they want him to be like Seungmin, but because they want him to be better so they can rub it in the Kims' noses. In the meantime they don't really care about what Hyunjin wants, which is to just be happy that he passed and he can keep playing soccer.
"You need to get your grades up, Hyunjin," his mother tells him when they call him because they heard the grades were released. "Maybe you should think about getting tutoring, or spending more time on studying and less on fooling around on the soccer field."
"Really? It's only the first semester and I passed everything!" Hyunjin protests. "I just got used to the college life, so it can only get better from here on."
"That won't get your grades up enough to rival the Kims' kid, though son," his father says, and Hyunjin holds back a groan. "We're putting you on tutoring and that's it. We already contacted the school."
"Oh, great, so I'm not even going to have a say in this?" Hyunjin is not surprised, but he had hoped that, now that he’s an adult, his parents would at least warn him before they would make decisions, even if they wouldn't listen to Hyunjin’s opinions anyway.
“We’re just doing what’s best for you, sweetie,” his mother tells him, and Hyunjin rolls his eyes. “This way you don’t have to do it yourself and you can play more soccer, aren’t you happy?”
“Sure, but won’t the Kims make fun of me for even needing tutoring?” If he can’t convince them with what he wants, maybe he can convince them with what the Kims will think, since that seems to be the most important.
“If your grades aren’t up, it’ll be like that either way. See it as having study sessions!” his father tries. “It just means that you’re dedicated to working on your grades, like the Kims’ son is too.”
“Anyway, professor Choi said she’ll get a classroom for you to study with your tutor, and she’ll set you up with the tutor tomorrow after class so you can arrange a date and time to have your study sessions.” His mother gets right to the point and doesn’t give Hyunjin time to protest. “It was nice talking to you, son. Good luck with your studies, love you.”
“Thanks, love you,” Hyunjin grumbles half-heartedly before his parents hang up and Hyunjin flops down on his bed with a groan. It sucks, but he guesses he’ll just have to deal with it, and it’ll also be nice to be a little more sure that he’ll pass all his courses so that he doesn’t lose his scholarship, so whatever. Maybe it’ll even distract him from seeing Seungmin and his friends everywhere.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” Hyunjin exclaims when professor Choi reveals Seungmin of all people to be his tutor. “Couldn’t I get someone from the years above me?”
“Be happy that someone volunteered, Hwang,” professor Choi tells him. “Everyone is busy studying for themselves, but Seungmin was the only one who had some spare time to help a fellow student. You share many classes, so he’s the perfect person to tutor you. And don’t worry about his capabilities, he diligently studied ahead already.”
Hyunjin suppresses a scoff and glares at Seungmin, who presses his lips together and shrugs innocently. It pisses Hyunjin off.
“Either way, you can use room 325 for your study sessions. Good luck.” With that, professor Choi leaves, and a tense silence falls over them.
“You volunteered? What, because you want to see how dumb I am from up close?” Hyunjin usually isn’t this snappy, but it just rubs him the wrong way that Seungmin first pretends to not know him and then volunteers to tutor him.
“Do you really think of me like that?” Seungmin asks incredulously. “What is your problem with me, Hwang?”
“What is my problem with you?—” Hyunjin grits his teeth in annoyance. “The fact that you don’t even know is disappointing, but not surprising.”
Seungmin’s eye twitches, but he’s obviously trying to keep his cool. “We barely even talked to each other and you already have your judgment ready. I guess my parents were right about you.”
“Look who’s talking!” Hyunjin throws up his hands in frustration. “The people you hang out with– the fact that you let them do what they do– You showing up at the game and then lying about it, ignoring me, and claiming you don’t even know me tells me enough.”
“I don’t like the way you talk to me, Hwang,” Seungmin tells him as if he’s a teacher or as if he’s one of Hyunjin’s parents, and gosh Hyunjin hates it.
“Because I’m right and you don’t like facing the truth?” Hyunjin challenges. Wow, Seungmin really brings out the worst in him, huh? “Why are you even tutoring me then?”
“I am seriously considering quitting.” Seungmin’s cheeks have gone red in anger, much like Hyunjin’s have. “But I gave professor Choi my word and I won’t break it that easily, especially because no one else is willing to help you.”
That hits a nerve, but Hyunjin manages to stop himself from exploding and just scoffs sarcastically, “How heroic of you.”
“Whatever. Let’s just agree on a time and day to do our tutoring sessions, and try not to insult each other every other second?” Seungmin suggests with an irritated edge to his voice.
“Fine. Well, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I have soccer practice, and on Tuesdays we both have class until late, so let’s do Thursday after General Literature?” Hyunjin isn’t really looking forward to it because he’ll probably already be exhausted from the week, but he isn’t going to spend his free time in the weekend to study with Seungmin.
“Deal. See you then. Don’t be late like you are to class.” Seungmin presses his lips together in a forced smile before he’s off, leaving Hyunjin seething and feeling lowkey humiliated.
He’s really dreading the tutoring sessions now, not feeling like getting told that he’s not smart enough or not working hard enough by more people, so he’s glad that he has soccer practice this afternoon, because that always helps him get his mind off things and blow off some steam. Especially today he has a lot of steam to blow off, and it doesn’t go unnoticed by his teammates, but he doesn’t want to complain too much about his parents and Seungmin. He hasn’t told Jisung and Felix about how his parents’ business crashed because of Seungmin’s parents and that they used to have a lot of money and his parents like to live in the illusion that they still do, so he just tells them about the tutoring and leaves out the part why he has to do it in the first place.
His friends always cheer him up with their hugs and support, and Hyunjin is glad that he has Jisung and Felix. It makes him wonder whether Seungmin has friends like them, people who he can talk to and who will genuinely support him if he ever has something on his mind, or if he has nobody to go to with his troubles— what am I even thinking about? If Seungmin is troubled, he probably deflects by laughing at others who have it harder than him.
Once Thursday rolls around, Seungmin waits for him after class, surrounded by his little friend group, who give him shifty eyes when Hyunjin approaches them.
"Good luck, Seungmin." One of the guys claps Seungmin on his shoulder, and the girl agrees before she turns to Hyunjin.
"You're lucky to have Seungminnie as your tutor, he's really smart," she says with that sickly sweet voice of hers. "Though, I guess you're less lucky to need the tutoring in the first place." She and the guy laugh and they and Seungmin’s other, quiet friend walk away.
Seungmin just lets it happen, his face blank and without emotion. Hyunjin guesses that it's better than him laughing along. They silently head to room 325 and set up their stuff.
"So… what do you want to get help with?" Seungmin asks awkwardly.
Hyunjin shrugs, not sparing Seungmin a look. "I don't know, we just had the first few lectures of the semester so I don't know what to expect yet."
"You don't study ahead or read through the lecture notes to prepare for a course?" Seungmin asks him, seeming genuinely surprised.
"No, why would I? I don't have time for that because I don't spend all of my free time studying," Hyunjin explains, feeling a bit belittled by Seungmin’s surprise.
"That way you can assess how much effort you need to put into the course to get a good grade," Seungmin answers, and Hyunjin rolls his eyes.
"I can do that as I go as well, and I also don't really care about my grades." Hyunjin shrugs and Seungmin’s expression is judging, one eyebrow raised. Hyunjin knows that he is exactly who the snobs claim to despise: not studious for subjects he doesn't care about but also not talented enough in the brain department to not have to put in any effort, he doesn’t use 'proper' language, he loves sports, and so on.
"Then why are you even here?" Seungmin looks puzzled, and with how Seungmin’s parents are (or at least, how Hyunjin imagines they are: similar to his own), Hyunjin is surprised that he doesn't understand. Then again, Seungmin does actually seem to want to put effort into studying.
"Why do you think ?" Hyunjin huffs and shakes his head. "Whatever. Let's get this over with."
Seungmin just takes him through what he would do as preparation for a course for the two classes Hyunjin thinks will be the hardest on him, and it's actually pretty okay. Don't get him wrong, he'd rather be anywhere else right now, watch a drama or hang out with friends or something, but Seungmin is not being an asshole at the moment. He's just reading the lecture notes out loud while Hyunjin reads with him.
“Okay, is there anything you want to go through in more depth, or do you want to read through lecture notes for another course?” Seungmin asks when they’re done.
“Uhm… I don’t know, my brain is kind of fried from the week.” Hyunjin shrugs. If he’s honest he didn’t pay too much attention while reading even if he considers himself a quick reader like Seungmin.
“That doesn’t give me much to work with, now, does it?” There Seungmin goes already with the condescending tone. “We can’t just do what I do, because what works for me may not work for you.”
“I don’t know what works for me, otherwise I’d be getting good grades, wouldn’t I?” Hyunjin is too tired for this, he just wants to go home.
Seungmin sighs. “Okay, smartass. Let’s just do some practice exercises and wrap it up?”
“Fine.” Hyunjin reluctantly joins Seungmin in doing some practice exercises from the back of the textbook, but he has to consult the book for basically every question, and he can hear Seungmin’s poorly masked annoyance in the clicks of his tongue and his soft sighs.
“Do you know why the answers your filling in are the right ones?” Seungmin seems to be done with his own exercises, so he has apparently decided to bother Hyunjin.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, if I ask you to explain your answer, would you be able to do it? Do you think they make sense?” Seungmin clarifies, and Hyunjin shrugs.
“I guess they make sense.”
“It’s important to try to understand the theory rather than memorize the answers, otherwise you won’t be able to apply your knowledge,” Seungmin continues as if Hyunjin didn’t just tell him that he thinks the answers make sense. “It’s crucial if you want to get a good grade.”
“It’s not that easy for some. I’m sorry I don’t get it as quickly as you,” Hyunjin defends bitterly. “It’s just all new to me, I can’t all get it on the first try, okay?— and why am I even explaining myself to you? You think I’m dumb anyway.”
“I never said you’re dumb, don’t put words in my mouth.” Seungmin scoffs.
“Well, you sure act and sound like you think so,” Hyunjin grumbles, focusing on the last few exercises so he can get the hell out of here as soon as possible.
“I’m just here to help.”
“Whatever you say.” Hyunjin doesn’t feel like arguing right now, but he does sarcastically mutter to himself, “Making me feel like shit about myself helps me tons, yeah.”
Seungmin huffs softly and Hyunjin’s heart drops in fear that Seungmin heard him — he doesn’t want Seungmin to hear that his words actually affect him this much — but Seungmin doesn’t react, so Hyunjin assumes he didn’t hear anything. He finishes up his exercises and compares his answers with Seungmin’s.
“Well, you looked most of the questions up in the book, so you have them correct,” Seungmin comments flatly, and Hyunjin swallows away a snarky comment. “Next time we can maybe try to do it without consulting the book. Or work on another course if you prefer that.”
“Sure. We’ll see then. Let’s wrap up.” Hyunjin blindly reaches out for his textbook to close it and put it in his bag — he just wants to leave this suffocating atmosphere — but instead of the book, he full-on grabs onto Seungmin’s hand. He immediately retracts his hand as if he touched fire and flushes.
“Uhm– it’s my textbook,” Seungmin says, his voice the slightest bit uneven and his eyes wavering a little, definitely rare for Seungmin, and Hyunjin flushes even more at his blunder of forgetting that they were using Seungmin’s textbook.
“Right– sorry,” Hyunjin mutters, quickly packing his stuff and standing up. “See you next week, I guess.”
“Yeah. See you next week.”
As soon as Hyunjin is out of the room, he speedwalks toward the stairs and basically runs down. He feels all jittery and weird and awkward and he hates it. He hates how Seungmin makes him feel angry and shitty and he just turns into a bitter cynical teenager or something. It reminds him of how he is with his parents, which is bad , even if at the same time he feels like he can hear his parents and all his past bad experiences in his head, warning him . It’s as if his brain is just overloaded with signals telling him to defend himself, telling him to be careful of Kim Seungmin and he can't think normally.
He basically runs toward his dorm room and dials his parents' number in hopes of hearing that he can quit this tutoring arrangement because he's feeling worse by being tutored by Seungmin than he would if he would fail all his classes. His parents, however, don't care about how Hyunjin feels, they only care about his reputation and how now he has the opportunity to surpass Seungmin while being tutored by him and that that would make it even better (for his parents, of course, not for Hyunjin, though he definitely would like to see Seungmin’s face would he manage to surpass Seungmin’s grades). So, he has to survive this weekly terror for a while longer, but at least he hopes to get some better understanding of his courses out of it (if his brain isn't too focused on being annoyed or feeling belittled by Seungmin).
End of Chapter 1.