Chapter Text
"Hm…" Kang Sol A furrowed her brow, staring in the direction of her roommate, Kang Sol B, and one of their fellow study mates, Seo Ji-ho. She was in the library, and was supposed to be doing her homework for her Criminal Code class, but she couldn't take her mind off of how close those two seemed. "Something feels.. different?" Sol A said to herself as her roomie and Ji-ho talked.
"What feels different?" a voiced called out. It was Han Joon-hwi, one of her good friends and roommates with Ji-ho. He sat in the chair next to her. "And shouldn't you be working right now?"
"That can wait," Sol A put her arm around Joon-hwi's neck and pulled him in closer. "You see them two, Sol B and Ji-ho?" she said, pointing her index finger in their direction. "Don't they seem a little…"
"Close? Lovey-dovey, even," Joon-hwi finished for her.
"Mhm, so it’s not just me? You notice it too?"
"I've noticed it for a while actually. You don't think that they're dating do you?" He turned his head to look at Sol A, and they made eye contact. Because of Sol A's hand still wrapped around his neck, their faces were only inches apart.
Sol A was silent, she had completely forgot what Joon-hwi had asked her. His eyes were making her mind go blank. She looked at him for what felt like forever, but was in reality about a minute. The longer she looked at him, however, the more she'd realized, he was kind of cute. His eyes were so pretty, and his skin looked so soft. "When was he ever this attractive?" she thought to herself. Before she knew what she was doing, her hand was on his face.
Once she had realized, it was too late. Joon-hwi had placed his hand on hers, and she could feel a grin beginning to spread across his face as he caressed her hand. Sol A froze as he began to close the distance between them.
"Woah!" someone yelled. Immediately, Kang Sol A pulled herself off of Joon-hwi. "Ye-beom look, they're gonna kiss!" it was Min Bok-gi, his mouth agape.
Sol A looked down and fiddled with her fingers. She had very much screwed up. "You guys are always offly close, is there something going on?" Cho Ye-beom asked, smirking. Sol didn't have an answer to his question, though she did know one thing. And that was that she needed to get out of here.
Promptly, Sol A cleared her throat. "W-well, would you look at the time, I have to go… to bed!" She made sure not to look anywhere near Joon-hwi. She knew it was a sucky excuse, and she could've made up a better one, but her mind wasn't in the best place now. "Uh yeah, it’s my bedtime now, so yeah, bye guys," she said as she quickly ran off.
Sol A took off, Ye-Beom and Bok-gi surrounded Han Joon-hwi. "That was such an obvious lie! So, are you guys dating?" Bok-gi asked.
Ye-Beom nodded, "It'd make so much sense, they’re always together."
"Yes, you saw them?" Bok-gi giggled, like a little girl. His voiced fell to a whisper, "Sol A was all over him."
"She did make up that horrible excuse to get out of here, too."
Han Joon-hwi didn't know what to make of this situation of this, either. But no way was he going to tell either of these two that. Something was always different with Kang Sol A. She made him feel some type of way, at first he thought it was just that he wanted to protect her, but now... Now he knew. As his thoughts continued to drift, his eyes landed on something on the table. Sol had left her notebook.
"Is he even listening to us?" Ye-beom asked Bok-gi, who just shrugged his shoulders.
Joon-hwi sighed and stood up. "You guys have got it all wrong, it was nothing." He told them as he grabbed Sol's Criminal Code notebook and left. But as he did, he couldn't help but smile.
----
Sol A made a beeline for her room. As she hurried, the only thing that she could think of was Joon-hwi and the fact that they had almost kissed. "What is wrong with you," she cried as she shook her head, still running to her dorm. "Stupid Kang Sol, stupid me!"
Finally she made it to her room, gasping, she opened the door to her room. She took her shoes off and got in her bed. "This is all just a bad dream," she told herself. "I'll wake up in there morning, and everything will be fine. Normal." With this affirmation in mind, she went under the covers to fall asleep.
She lied there for what felt like hours. She had even heard Kang Sol B come in and go to sleep. She was tired, exhausted, but she couldn't fall asleep, her mind was racing. She was suddenly overanalyzing everything about Joon-hwi. The almost kiss, past interactions with him, small things he'd do or say. Sol A tossed, turned, sat up and then lied back down until she had given up. "If I can't sleep, then I'll just study," she thought. She hadn't done her homework for Prof. Yang's class anyways.
Sol A got out of bed and began to search her bag for her notebook. Once she realized it wasn't in there, she began to panic. She looked in her bed, under her bed, on her desk, until it hit her like a train. She'd left her notebook in the library, with Joon-hwi.
Sol A woke up to a shove. "Get up." a stern voice demanded. She opened her eyes, it was Sol B.
"Sol B?" she said, half-asleep.
"Why were you sleeping at your desk?" her roomie asked her. "You were in bed when I got here."
Sol A began stretching, then swiveled her chair to face Sol B. "I think I fell asleep while looking for my notebook."
"Did you find it? Also I think you should hurry up, Professor Yang's class starts in about 5 minutes."
"Huh?! And it was the notebook for his class, and no, I did not find it!" Sol A whined. Kang Sol B headed for the door, but Sol A grabbed her arm. "No way, roomie? Are you leaving me?"
"Yes, you can be late on your own. Make sure you eat something first, bye," Sol B waved before leaving.
----
"So, do you think that the defendant is guilty?" Yang asked the class. "Do you think that the Supreme Court should've ruled as they did? Anyone brave enough to answer?" Sol A could hear his booming voice through the door. She felt shivers go down her spine as she opened the door as quietly as could, and stepped into the classroom.
"Kang Sol A." As Professor Yang called her out, she flinched. "Your roommate was here on time, so why weren't you?" Everyone turned to her as she tried to take her seat, but Prof. Yang stopped her. "You can take a seat after answering my question. You did the reading, correct?"
Sol A avoided eye contact with the professor and bowed her head, "I'm sorry, I didn't have a chance to do it."
"So, you're telling me that you not only walked into my class 10 minutes late, but you also failed to complete the assignment? If you're not going to take my class seriously, leave."
"But, I can't. I'll do the reading next time, just please don't kick me out," Sol A plead. She couldn't miss this class again, her grade depended on it.
"This isn't the first time, Kang Sol A. At this point, you might as well retake my class, because it seems that you've learned nothing."
"Professor Yang, I think that's a little unfair," someone behind her said.
When she looked behind her, it was Joon-hwi. Her face went red the moment their eyes met. Joon-hwi looked completely unfazed, and he had his usual, smug, smartest guy in the room, grin on. He seemed so normal, that it nagged at her. "It's my fault she didn't get her work done."
"Then you both can leave. I made things very clear at the beginning of the year." Professor Yang looked back at the screen. "Now continuing where we left off…"
Knowing that there was no way Prof. Yang would change his mind, Sol A dragged her feet to the door.
She left out a heavy sigh as she left the classroom. "Ugh, I'm so dead and that was so embarrassing," she covered her face with her hands, but someone pulled them off. It was Joon-hwi, again.
"Hey, everyone'll forget about it eventually," said Joon-hwi.
Sol A looked to the side and sighed, "Sorry for getting you kicked out, too."
"If you're going to apologize then you should do it facing me." Joon-hwi joked.
She pouted and started speed-walking away from him, but Joon-hwi caught up. "You haven't apologized yet. Where you hurried off to?" he asked, walking with her.
"To-," she turned to look at him. Big mistake. As her eyes met his, she lost all track of thought. "I mean.. UGH!"
Sol A turned her full body around to face him, with an angry look on her face. "Hey, Han Joon-hwi!" she yelled. "This is all your fault, you know that right? And, here you are, acting so normal and smart! I shouldn't even be apologizing, but I can't help it because I'm a nice person." She punched Joon-hwi in the arm. With that, Sol A stomped away.