Chapter Text
“I’m not big on relationships right now; I want to focus on my future career,” Seolhwa plainly said to the person next to her.
“Mh.”
Joonghyuk spoke little, so this would have mean that he didn't dismiss the conversation, or at least that he was paying attention. If you weren’t as perceptive or knew him as well as Seolhwa did.
Joonghyuk’s body language for what he thought in that moment seemed as plain as the ability of Seolwa’s accuracy to seamlessly puncture needles into veins.
In this instance, Seolhwa traced where his side gaze has been for the past few minutes, to where Kim Dokja has been talking animatedly with Han Sooyoung’s latest webnovel update.
Seolwa’s eyes glanced back to Joonghyuk, towards his eyes.
Joonghyuk had never had that same softness in the creases of his eyes, this unique fond exasperation, for anyone else. Seolhwa never expected him to.
In that moment, Dokja slightly turned and tilted his head towards Joonghyuk’s direction.
Maybe it was the feeling of being watched, or it was an automatic response to wanting a certain companion’s opinion, but Seolhwa could already tell Dokja’s eyes never strayed from the man next to her.
It rarely ever did.
Then Dokja had been shoved by Sooyoung, attention being stolen back to their conversation, telling him off from showing ’PDA in front of my young virgin eyes,’ and to ‘Keep that to yourself!’
Joonghyuk snapped his head back to look at Seolhwa, a soft shade of red blooming from the back of his neck to his ears.
“I didn’t hear,” Joonghyuk, probably apologetically, said.
Dokja glanced back towards them, apparently having heard, and smirked while raising his eyebrows in question to Seolhwa. She could feel the way Dokja’s eyes rolled teasingly in her direction, hearing a voice similar to his in her head, “This bastard, is he serious?”
Seolhwa could only smile back hopelessly, shrugging back as a response. She saw from the corners of her eye as she turned back to Joonghyuk as Sooyoung stole back Dokja’s attention about her latest paper stack of a new chapter needing a reader to proofread.
“It wasn’t too important. I’ll visit soon to see Mia-yah,” Seolwa smiled.
“Though, perhaps you also need to be checked up on? You look like you’re running a high-fever,” she tacked on.
Seolhwa couldn’t help but think back to when she first met Kim Dokja.
The first time Seolhwa met Dokja, was as bright as Dokja’s ability to emotionally communicate with someone was. That is to say, it went a little like a ship slowly sinking, bound for a land barren of a shore. Or a fast passing whirlwind.
Dokja, a barely passing student with too little free time, was running late for his part-time job as an office assistant TA and cutting corners to make it.
The wind was chillier than it usually would be during the end of April, a little below the negatives in temperature.
Joonghyuk, the star student if only so he can play video games without any distractions, had been walking next to the bleached-white haired star student of anything that included science and math.
They were supposed to go to a nearby library to study for the practice exam coming up. Something about Korean History and Culture, if she had to guess, though it had been long enough that she wasn’t sure anymore.
The collision between them had started with a trip, not from Joonghyuk or Dokja as the love stories should’ve gone, but from Seolhwa. She was too distracted from her intense focus, on standing upright on her first use of heels, to realize the uneven level in the sidewalk that caught onto her heel.
With no option to be able to fly away from the embarrassment, Seolwa had readily decided to wish her family well while falling.
That was, until Dokja had the brilliant—unlucky if you asked him—timing to be turning onto the sidewalk at the same time she came down.
She landed heavily onto this frail teen, slightly less disoriented than Dokja who took the brunt of the fall and most likely had a bruise.
“Are you alright? I'm so sorry! I didn't see where I was going.”
“No, that's fine,” Dokja smiled tensely with a wince.
Seolhwa eyes quickly accessed for where he must’ve gotten hurt, while Joonghyuk helped her up. She then dug through her pockets in her woolen sweater, bringing out a miniature zip-bag.
“Here, I bring bandages everywhere with me. If you could let me see your arm?”
Seolhwa held out her hand, but Dokja looked at her unstable legs and just awkwardly waved her away.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I have to go, thank you.”
Seolhwa made a point to poke at his arm when he fully stood up. She didn’t suppress her pointed look when Dokja winced again, to which he looked away from while rubbing his arm.
A scoff came from behind her then, “Just let her.”
Dokja glanced to her side, just now noticing the taller guy, and smiled widely with ridiculously upturned eyes in recognition.
“If you really want to make it up, help me out with the next essay assignment, alright, Joonghyuk-ah?”
Joonghyuk came up a few steps towards him with an annoyed tick in his brow, “Usually, normal people will ask out of social respect.”
Seolhwa, thrown-off by Joonghyuk allegedly knowing someone that isn’t her, looks more closely to the guy she had tumbled earlier.
Usually, people would wilt back in shame or fear in Joonghyuk’s circle of space. Especially since he came closer by his own volition. Yet, Joonghyuk’s comment and subsequent space-bubble popping only made Dokja somehow smile brighter.
“It's good to know what you usually lack, Hyuk-ah! Anyways, see you tomorrow, buddy!” Dokja patted *Hyuk-ah’s* shoulder, saluting to Seolhwa while taking impatient steps backwards.
Joonghyuk scowled and winded a fisted hand forward to grab the guy.
Before Seolhwa could do or say anything, Dokja had already sprinted away like a devil dog was following him, which some might say it could have been with how deadly Joonghyuk’s glare was.
Seolhwa laughed despite herself, and was about to calm Joonghyuk down until she noticed the slight redness to his ears and his twitching mouth.
She abruptly stopped, staring and slowly feeling her heart skip a beat in a faint crawling dread.
“I forgot to give him the bandages.”