Chapter Text
With an exasperated sigh, Kim Seungmin pushed his linear algebra homework papers across the table, folded his arms atop the newly unoccupied space, and dropped his head onto them.
(You have to know the man. He was practically screaming.)
“That doesn’t look like doing homework,” came a deep, teasing voice from the other side of the room.
Seungmin cracked an eye to glare at his roommate’s boyfriend, Felix, who had come over for a study session. “You wanna take a stab at it?”
“What is it?”
“Linear algebra.”
Felix leaned over, pulling one of the worksheets across the table and studying it with a frown. “This doesn’t look like algebra to me.”
Seungmin’s roommate, Hyunjin, chuckled at that. “Linear algebra, Lix. It’s like, super-meta-uber math. Not the kind of stuff you’re learning to teach to fifth graders.”
Felix’s nose wrinkled. “Ew. And this is necessary for civil engineering because…?”
“I have no freaking clue,” Seungmin said. “But I’ve failed the first exam, and I just barely passed the first homework assignment, and now it looks like I’m gonna fail this homework as well.” His stomach twisted uncomfortably. “I need to keep my GPA above a 3.7 if I want to keep my scholarship. I literally cannot afford to fail this class.”
Hyunjin nodded, steepling his fingers. “Minho-hyung is also some kind of engineering major, right, Felix?”
“Yeah, biomedical.”
“Do biomedical engineers need to take super-meta-uber math?” Hyunjin posed this question to Seungmin, for some reason.
“How should I know what those crazy masochistic assholes have to take? Plus, your dance captain is even scarier than these equations,” said Seungmin with a small huff. He wasn’t entirely joking.
“He’s not that bad,” Felix protested. “Look, bring your homework to the dance practice rooms tomorrow. Our practice lets out around 5, and we’ll both be there to talk to him with you.”
…
“No,” Minho said after taking one look at the papers Seungmin held out.
“No, as in, you didn’t have to take it?”
“Oh, I had to take it, all right. Worst semester of my life.” He shook his head. “I always swore I’d never touch that stuff again, but then the universe presented me with the beautiful gift of tensor calculus and arterial wall mapping.”
Seungmin looked at Hyunjin to see if he understood any of that.
Hyunjin raised his hands in a shrug.
“It’s weird that they’re making civil engineers take it, though,” Minho mused. “I can accept that this crap has biomedical applications, but in what world are you going to…like…build a bridge and have to analyze it with a vector space?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.” Seungmin frowned at the offending papers. “Guess I’m back to square one again. Do any of you know when the withdrawal deadline is?”
“Wait, Yongbok,” Minho said suddenly. “Don’t you have that ex who's literally a math major? The one who does music with Jisung?”
Felix slapped himself on the forehead. “Mate. You’re so right, how could I forget?”
“Because I make all your exes completely forgettable by comparison,” Hyunjin said smugly, hooking his chin over Felix’s shoulder as he hugged him from behind.
Minho pretended to gag.
“You really have a math major ex?” Seungmin asked, too desperate to make any of his usual comments on his best friends’ disgusting PDA. “What’s his name? Would he help me?”
“Her name is Chaebin,” Felix corrected. “She is such a sweetheart! And she’d totally help you if Hyunjinnie or I asked her.”
“Yes, Felix, we get it, you’re well-adjusted and stay friends with all your exes,” Minho said with a roll of his eyes.
Felix nodded eagerly. “I am! Can I ask her for you, Seungmin?”
He hesitated for only half a second. “Yes. Absolutely.”