Two Worlds Collide - Chapter 2
Two Worlds Collide
Authors: amalious & paradigm_twist
Chapters: 2 of 20
Pairing: Eunhyuk/Henry
Rating: PG-13
Genre: School!AU
Summary: Two people. Two worlds. Same goal. Same dream. Their similarities lay in their differences. They just don't know it yet.
A/N: More info about the collaboration fic here.
1
Chapter 2
Well You done done me and you bet I felt it.
I tried to be chill but you're so hot that I melted.
I fell right through the cracks, now I'm try-
A pale hand reached out from underneath the thick blanket, fingers searching for the snooze button before the palm came down smashing hard on the button.
A soft groan was heard as the body in the bed shifted and buried itself further into the bed, as if wishing that the bed would swallow him whole and never let him out.
A rapid succession of knocks of his room door prompted an even louder groan from the occupant of the bed.
"Go away Siwon. It's too cold and early to get up."
Silence reigned and the man celebrated the small victory in drowsiness as he slowly drifted back into sleep again. However, his short peace was interrupted once more when his alarm rang again. Mentally cursing, he turned around and sat up, one hand pulling at the blanket to wrap himself in the cocoon of warmth, the other reaching for the ringing alarm before another hand beat him to it and switched off the alarm.
He looked up to see the usually smiling man frowning down at him.
"When did you get in here?"
"Hyukjae. If you don't get up this instance and get ready, you will be walking yourself to university. Yes. Walking. Since I won't be waiting for you. You won't want to plaster yourself against the cranky sweaty people on the bus during the morning rush hour now would you?"
That got his attention and his once sleepy eyes shot up and stared at the man with rapt attention before narrowing his eyes at him.
"You wouldn't."
"Watch me." His housemate said with a smile as he walked out of the room. He turned back and stared at the tousled hair man sitting on the bed, blinking sleep away from his eyes.
"Remember. 8:40am. Be there or you're walking."
Hyukjae just shook his head and ignored the thinly-veiled threat. He puffed his cheeks in frustration before groggily getting out of his bed. Despite Siwon's nice and helpful personality, he was also a man of his words. And if he said he was not going to drive him to university just because he was late, he really would. Hyukjae was not willing to run the risk of sprinting to campus and arriving all sweaty and sticky to his first class so early in the morning.
He groaned again as shivers raked through his whole body from the full scaled effect of the morning cool air in his room. The problem here really, was not that he wasn't a morning person. In fact, he was one of those few blessed ones that would work well getting up at any hour of the day. His mind was usually quite alert after a few minutes of being awake. It was the in between process of drifting back to fantasies and being dragged into reality that was the real problem. In that half awake state, it was always easier to just float back into the arms of the nice sweet Sandman. Especially with the late autumn weather. It certainly didn't help at all as any form of motivation to get up in the morning.
He walked out of his room, refreshed and dressed, at 8:10am, just in time to grab a light breakfast before heading out. He walked into the kitchen only to see Siwon had already finished his breakfast and was reading the English newspaper that he had delivered to the apartment every morning.
"There's toasted waffles left in the oven. Remember to turn it off. I kept it on just to keep the waffles warm for you." Siwon said as he drank some of his black coffee, eyes never leaving the article he was reading.
Hyukjae merely hummed a response. This was their morning routine. He slept in as much as he can, relying on Siwon to wake him up and for breakfast because Siwon always nagged about the importance of breakfast while he couldn't be bothered if he missed it or not. It had gotten to the point where Siwon had decided that it would save them both the trouble if he just made breakfast for two and made Hyukjae eat it. Not that he was complaining. Who said no to free food?
Grabbing the remaining waffles from the oven, he poured himself a glass of strawberry milk and sat himself down comfortably at the kitchen table. He gave a little sigh of bliss as he bit into the waffles. Waffles with just the perfect amount of honey in it. He didn't know how Siwon did it, but he was glad that he had someone on hand who could make the most amazing food out of the simplest of things.
At 8:25am, Siwon got up from his seat and rolled the newspaper up before placing it in his messenger bag. He grabbed his keys off the counter and called out to Hyukjae as he was walking out of their shared apartment.
"5 more minutes. If you're late, no ride."
Hyukjae rolled his eyes. He was beginning to sound like his mother. He washed up the dishes as he headed to his room to grab his bag, along with a book he needed to read for class. After making sure he had taken all the things he needed, he locked up the apartment and headed straight towards the elevator. He might be living on the fourth floor, but it was still easier to just take the elevator rather than the stairs. Besides, it was Wednesday. He might see that brown-haired boy again.
Hyukjae grinned slightly at that thought. He hadn't missed the fact that the boy had been showing up for his Korean Society and Culture lecture every Wednesday afternoon for the last five weeks. Though the memory of their first meeting still made him want to hide his face in embarrassment.
It was just his luck that the one time he actually fell asleep in class, the first time he had met him, was the day after they had a celebratory party at the apartment for Kyuhyun, insisted upon by Heechul, for surviving his first month in university. Not that he didn't have any confidence that Kyuhyun wouldn't. He was already smart enough without trying hard, probably residue effects from the years of harsh studying session implemented by his educator father. But Heechul insisted and Siwon couldn't refuse. It also didn't help that Siwon had purchased the latest xBox and had let that fact slipped out a few days before. And that was how they wound up having the party at the apartment, accompanied by Sungmin, who was busy mixing drinks, impressing everyone with his fancy moves, courtesy of his part-time job at the Azure House. One drink too many and a gaming competition that went on through the dead of the night, had resulted in a very grouchy and sleepy Hyukjae. He was even more grouchier when he realized that Siwon was all sunshine and smiles the next morning when he had managed to drag Hyukjae out of bed and handed him a cup of steaming coffee.
As he was waiting for the elevator to reach his floor, he opened the book he held in his hand and started on his assigned reading for the week. He was doing a double major at university: Asian Studies and English. While he did fairly alright in English back in high school, university-level English was no walk in the park. He had quite an eccentric professor; a Professor Daniel Armand Lee. So far, he had gotten the class to read Enid Blyton and several stories from Grimm's Fairy Tales collection before conducting several book club-like sessions and asked for a 1500 words report on the assigned reading. He wasn't sure how exactly reading children tales and fairies would be able to help in English, but he wasn't going to whine about it. At least his assigned readings have been interesting so far. This week, he was assigned to read Lewis Carroll's Alice in the Wonderland. Of all the books he had been reading so far, this had to be his least favourite. The whole story seemed so whimsical that he almost felt like knocking Alice with his copy of the storybook.
He vaguely registered the soft 'ding' signaling that the elevator had reached his floor as he was too absorbed reading about the tea party Alice was at with the Mad Hare, Hatter and a sleepy Dormouse. Hyukjae snorted. Somehow the Mad Hare reminded him a lot of Heechul. Not that he was going to tell him. Heechul would diagnose him with some psychological disorder and would insist on performing all sorts of tests on him. Apparently the concept of obtaining the consent of his subject before performing any form of testing on them was lost to the psychology student. Considering that it was one of the major ethic codes in the psychology field, he was surprised no one in his faculty had kicked him out of the course just yet.
He was so absorbed into his internal debate about the Mad Hare that he had all but forgotten about the elevator until a voice spoke up and snapped him out of his reverie.
"Excuse me. Are you coming in?"
Hyukjae looked up from his book and blushed just a little. It was that boy again. He mentally face-palmed himself. That was not how he was planning on making any progress with the boy. The initial plan was to say hi this time together with a smile. Curse Heechul and his ability to wreck things without even being here physically.
Trying valiantly to hide his reddening cheeks behind his book, he merely nodded his head in response before entering the elevator. He stood next to the boy this time, pretending to be absorbed by Heechul's counterpart in his book while checking out the person standing right next to him. It was always only the two of them every Wednesday morning. Dressed in the usual dark blue blazer, white shirt and tie, Hyukjae had long figured out that he was a high school student. Though up till now, he had never managed to find out which school he was from because his bag strap had always covered the school badge. He only knew that he was a riveting character. After all, how often would you find a high school student secretly attending a lecture at university?
As soon as the moment came, it had ended just as swiftly. The elevator let out a soft 'ding' as it reached the ground floor. Hyukjae hurried out of the cramped space. Siwon was already waiting outside with the car after all. He really didn't want to be late. As he sped out of the building, on impulse, he turned his head back and yelled to the boy.
"See you later in class!"
He was glad that he managed to catch the look of surprise on his face. It left him grinning that he managed to save his initial plan at the very last minute. Not even Siwon's mock whine about how he was late for 2 minutes could wipe the silly grin off his face.
---
It was only a 15 minutes drive from the apartment building to SM University. Truth to be told, he loved his university. Already fell in love with the Arts and Social Sciences Department when he had first seen it in the glossy prospectus at the tender age of 13. The only thing he didn't like about SMU was the high school next door.
SM International High School, or commonly known as SMISH among the university students, was owned by the same group that owned the university. Same owner. Different administrators. The students of both institutions could have developed an easy rapport between them, except for one tiny detail.
Students from both education institutions hated each other.
SM Group was looking to expand its empire and had decided to set up a few education institutions. By setting up the schools next to each other, they had ensured that both schools would be dependent upon each other in some ways. Students from both schools were allowed to use the facilities provided on both campuses because some of them were better one campus than the other and vice versa.
While SMU was considered a top university in the country, SMISH was a high school for international students studying under the International Baccalaureate system. This meant that all of their students were of foreign nationalities and could speak English. Under normal circumstances, this would have been beneficial for the SMU students because not only would they be exposed to foreign cultures, it also gave them the opportunity for students such as the English majors to practice speaking English more often, aside from the fact that positions as teaching assistants and tutors for the university students at SMISH paid well and were readily available.
The problem lied in the student relations. The high school students were either ambassador's children or children born with a silver spoon in their mouth. The ambassador's children were mostly nice kids because they were used to moving around a lot and hence had developed adaptation skills over the years. They were generally polite and nice to any of the students who spoke to them, listening patiently when yet another Korean student attempted to speak in halted English to them.
Hyukjae never had any problems with those students. In fact, he had genuinely liked them and actually missed them when he found out that they had been transferred again. It was those snotty rich brats that he couldn't stand. Money shouldn't be flaunted around and rubbed into people's faces. While they wasted their money on useless things, half the students at SMU were from middle-income families and had to either work part-time or apply for a scholarship to study at SMU. And because students who graduated at SMISH were usually guaranteed entrance to top schools like Yale, Harvard, Cambridge and the likes, it seemed to have inflated their egos and pea-sized brains about their self-importance and their place in this world; that is sitting on top of the halo steps, while the lesser beings were only around to serve them.
Hyukjae was recommended by his lecturer to tutor a few students from SMISH the previous semester who were failing Chinese History. While the job had paid well, he found the experience itself to be degrading to say the least. He had to put up with the students' whines about how the subject was useless and that people like him should even be glad that he was even allowed to bask in their presence.
It was one thing when Heechul did it because he was naturally charismatic that way. It was another to have a bunch of immature brats telling him that he was no better than the dirt beneath their shoes.
His general hatred for the high school students next door aside, he was still struck with that same sense of amazement whenever he saw the campus. Bathed in the soft light of the autumn sun, it illuminated the various buildings scattered around small campus, giving it a touch of timeless grace in the midst of modernity. The buildings on the university campus were an eccentric mix of old brick stone buildings and modern steel that somehow managed to blend well together. The Arts and Social Sciences Department where Hyukjae spend most of his time in was found in one of old fashioned ivy-covered brick stone building located at the back of school. Somehow, walking through those double oak doors gave him the sense of travelling back in time, like that old movie he had watched in class once, back to the time when being able to attend university was a privilege and not a necessity. The smell of old books, wood panels and students chattering about assignments, professors and classes had spread tiny warmth of comfort every time he walked down its hallowed hallways. In the one year he had been attending classes at SMU, this building had already felt like home to him.
After he finished his morning classes, he headed towards a little run down cafe hidden behind the bright welcoming shops that were facing SMU. It was where he usually would meet up with his friends and have lunch there. Sometimes, he would find Heechul and Kyuhyun; the former bickering and distracting the latter from studying, all the while flirting outrageously with all the waitresses working there. Sometimes, he would find Siwon pouring over the business section of the newspaper, keeping up in time with the latest news as he prepared for his class at the Business School in the afternoon, while downing more black coffee. Today, he had found Sungmin typing furiously at his laptop while munching on a sandwich.
"Min-hyung. What are you doing here?" Hyukjae asked as he pulled up a chair to sit at the table.
"Oh Hyukkie. Didn't expect to see you here at this hour." Sungmin replied distractedly as he stopped and stared at his laptop screen.
"I should be saying that to you hyung. I'm always here at this hour on Wednesday. Shouldn't you be at class right now?" Hyukjae asked once the waitress had taken his order.
"I skipped lecture. Figured I should start working on my assignment now. I'm pretty busy with work for the next two weeks. The House is pretty booked for Halloween week. I won't have time to finish it otherwise."
Hyukjae nodded in understanding. Sungmin was a second year student just like he was; majoring in Sociology. He worked part-time as a bartender at the Azure House, an up-and-coming club that was really popular with the university students. Given that Sungmin worked till the wee hours of the morning, mixing and serving drinks to customers for five straight hours, pulling an all-nighter was not a good idea at all. It was hard to concentrate on writing a somewhat coherent essay when you were sweaty and tired from the sheer intensity of working at a bar. But Sungmin always did say that working at the House was akin to real life application of the Sociology theories he studied in class: it was all about group interactions and mating rituals when the night is young and it was easier to let down your inhibitions with a couple of drinks.
As Hyukjae started on his lunch while Sungmin went back to his assignment, he couldn't help but think about his Korean Society and Culture class later in the afternoon. After what happened this morning, he was determined to push pass the invisible barrier between the two of them. Even if they were not talking to each other, at least the physical distance between the both of them could be narrowed down. He had noticed that the boy had always sat two rows behind him for the past few weeks. That and he had always came in five minutes before class started.
Hyukjae's game plan: to get to class at 3pm on the dot. That way, he was guaranteed to be able to sit right next to the boy.
Just as he mentally patting himself for the simple yet brilliant idea, Sungmin started snapping his fingers right in front of his face, trying to get hold of his attention.
"Earth to Lee Hyukjae. Hello? Anyone in there?" Sungmin asked mockingly with a light rap on his head with his knuckles.
Hyukjae swatted Sungmin's hands away. "Hyung. What are you doing? Weren't you focusing on doing your assignment?"
"I changed my mind. It's lunch. There's food. I'm not wasting any of my precious lunchtime on feminism. Not when I should be enjoying all these meals like it's my last. The paper is starting to give me a migraine. Why exactly do some women expect equal rights as their male counterparts, and then turn around saying that chivalry is dead and all men are chauvinistic pigs? The fact that my lecturer is a woman makes it all the more harder to write the stupid essay without offending anyone with any sort of critique or analysis." Sungmin said with a sigh.
"I'm sure you'll be fine hyung. Or you can just give your lecturer the classic Sungmin-aegyo. You're not nicknamed 귀요민 for nothing you know." Hyukjae said with a knowing grin.
"And that my friend, is the reason why feminism exists." Sungmin said with a dramatic sigh before smacking the back of Hyukjae's head with one of his books.
"Ouch! Hyung. That hurts." Hyukjae complained, wincing as he rubbed the sore area.
"Good. Maybe that would teach you how to treat a girl right the next time you attempt to pick up one." Sungmin said smugly as he ate some of Hyukjae's lunch. "So now tell me. What were you thinking about just now?"
Hyukjae was about to reply when Sungmin interrupted him. "And don't tell me nothing or you'll be facing the wrath of all the feminists from Seoul all the way to Busan."
Hyukjae sighed. Why did he even bothered trying he didn't even know.
"You know that high school kid I was telling you about? The one who has been sneaking into one of my classes?"
Sungmin nodded as he stole more food off Hyukjae' plate. Hyukjae scowled and attempted to poke Sungmin in the side with his fork.
"Well it's today. He usually sneaks into my Wednesday afternoon lecture. You know? The Korean Society and Culture class with Professor Yong? Planning to sit right next to him this time instead of having this weird prickly feeling of someone burning holes at the back of my head throughout the lecture."
Sungmin snickered. "As if you don't enjoy the attention Monkey. And isn't he a bit too young for you?"
Hyukjae choked on his food at Sungmin's flippant comment.
"I am not planning on dating him. It's just nice to know someone else in the building that isn't Siwon. You've seen that weird cat on the second floor right? That's just intimidating alright?" Hyukjae defended.
"Alright. Don't be such a girl. I'm just saying. You won't know till you try." Sungmin said with a wink and a chuckle.
"Whatever hyung. I hope your lecturer eats you for breakfast. Then I won't have to put up with the likes of you ever again. You're no best friend. You're just this person who owes me another lunch since you ate all of mine."
And that was how Hyukjae spend the rest of his break, exchanging insults and bickering with his best friend; letting the thought of the cute brown haired boy, who tried to hide his high school background by changing into a hoodie and jeans every time he came to class slide to the back of his mind.
Always there. But not forgotten.
-----
A/N: 귀요민 is actually a play on words. It's a combination of 귀요미 (meaning 'cutie') and 성민 (Sungmin's Korean name). It basically means Cutie Min, a nickname that SJ keeps calling him. Ridiculously cute I tell ya.
Also, this felt like it took forever and a day to write. Hopefully the progress isn't really that slow for you guys. Just in case you're wondering, amalious is writing it from Henry's POV while I'm writing it from Hyukjae's.
Cross-posted at my_prection and sapphiresuju.
Authors: amalious & paradigm_twist
Chapters: 2 of 20
Pairing: Eunhyuk/Henry
Rating: PG-13
Genre: School!AU
Summary: Two people. Two worlds. Same goal. Same dream. Their similarities lay in their differences. They just don't know it yet.
A/N: More info about the collaboration fic here.
1
Chapter 2
Well You done done me and you bet I felt it.
I tried to be chill but you're so hot that I melted.
I fell right through the cracks, now I'm try-
A pale hand reached out from underneath the thick blanket, fingers searching for the snooze button before the palm came down smashing hard on the button.
A soft groan was heard as the body in the bed shifted and buried itself further into the bed, as if wishing that the bed would swallow him whole and never let him out.
A rapid succession of knocks of his room door prompted an even louder groan from the occupant of the bed.
"Go away Siwon. It's too cold and early to get up."
Silence reigned and the man celebrated the small victory in drowsiness as he slowly drifted back into sleep again. However, his short peace was interrupted once more when his alarm rang again. Mentally cursing, he turned around and sat up, one hand pulling at the blanket to wrap himself in the cocoon of warmth, the other reaching for the ringing alarm before another hand beat him to it and switched off the alarm.
He looked up to see the usually smiling man frowning down at him.
"When did you get in here?"
"Hyukjae. If you don't get up this instance and get ready, you will be walking yourself to university. Yes. Walking. Since I won't be waiting for you. You won't want to plaster yourself against the cranky sweaty people on the bus during the morning rush hour now would you?"
That got his attention and his once sleepy eyes shot up and stared at the man with rapt attention before narrowing his eyes at him.
"You wouldn't."
"Watch me." His housemate said with a smile as he walked out of the room. He turned back and stared at the tousled hair man sitting on the bed, blinking sleep away from his eyes.
"Remember. 8:40am. Be there or you're walking."
Hyukjae just shook his head and ignored the thinly-veiled threat. He puffed his cheeks in frustration before groggily getting out of his bed. Despite Siwon's nice and helpful personality, he was also a man of his words. And if he said he was not going to drive him to university just because he was late, he really would. Hyukjae was not willing to run the risk of sprinting to campus and arriving all sweaty and sticky to his first class so early in the morning.
He groaned again as shivers raked through his whole body from the full scaled effect of the morning cool air in his room. The problem here really, was not that he wasn't a morning person. In fact, he was one of those few blessed ones that would work well getting up at any hour of the day. His mind was usually quite alert after a few minutes of being awake. It was the in between process of drifting back to fantasies and being dragged into reality that was the real problem. In that half awake state, it was always easier to just float back into the arms of the nice sweet Sandman. Especially with the late autumn weather. It certainly didn't help at all as any form of motivation to get up in the morning.
He walked out of his room, refreshed and dressed, at 8:10am, just in time to grab a light breakfast before heading out. He walked into the kitchen only to see Siwon had already finished his breakfast and was reading the English newspaper that he had delivered to the apartment every morning.
"There's toasted waffles left in the oven. Remember to turn it off. I kept it on just to keep the waffles warm for you." Siwon said as he drank some of his black coffee, eyes never leaving the article he was reading.
Hyukjae merely hummed a response. This was their morning routine. He slept in as much as he can, relying on Siwon to wake him up and for breakfast because Siwon always nagged about the importance of breakfast while he couldn't be bothered if he missed it or not. It had gotten to the point where Siwon had decided that it would save them both the trouble if he just made breakfast for two and made Hyukjae eat it. Not that he was complaining. Who said no to free food?
Grabbing the remaining waffles from the oven, he poured himself a glass of strawberry milk and sat himself down comfortably at the kitchen table. He gave a little sigh of bliss as he bit into the waffles. Waffles with just the perfect amount of honey in it. He didn't know how Siwon did it, but he was glad that he had someone on hand who could make the most amazing food out of the simplest of things.
At 8:25am, Siwon got up from his seat and rolled the newspaper up before placing it in his messenger bag. He grabbed his keys off the counter and called out to Hyukjae as he was walking out of their shared apartment.
"5 more minutes. If you're late, no ride."
Hyukjae rolled his eyes. He was beginning to sound like his mother. He washed up the dishes as he headed to his room to grab his bag, along with a book he needed to read for class. After making sure he had taken all the things he needed, he locked up the apartment and headed straight towards the elevator. He might be living on the fourth floor, but it was still easier to just take the elevator rather than the stairs. Besides, it was Wednesday. He might see that brown-haired boy again.
Hyukjae grinned slightly at that thought. He hadn't missed the fact that the boy had been showing up for his Korean Society and Culture lecture every Wednesday afternoon for the last five weeks. Though the memory of their first meeting still made him want to hide his face in embarrassment.
It was just his luck that the one time he actually fell asleep in class, the first time he had met him, was the day after they had a celebratory party at the apartment for Kyuhyun, insisted upon by Heechul, for surviving his first month in university. Not that he didn't have any confidence that Kyuhyun wouldn't. He was already smart enough without trying hard, probably residue effects from the years of harsh studying session implemented by his educator father. But Heechul insisted and Siwon couldn't refuse. It also didn't help that Siwon had purchased the latest xBox and had let that fact slipped out a few days before. And that was how they wound up having the party at the apartment, accompanied by Sungmin, who was busy mixing drinks, impressing everyone with his fancy moves, courtesy of his part-time job at the Azure House. One drink too many and a gaming competition that went on through the dead of the night, had resulted in a very grouchy and sleepy Hyukjae. He was even more grouchier when he realized that Siwon was all sunshine and smiles the next morning when he had managed to drag Hyukjae out of bed and handed him a cup of steaming coffee.
As he was waiting for the elevator to reach his floor, he opened the book he held in his hand and started on his assigned reading for the week. He was doing a double major at university: Asian Studies and English. While he did fairly alright in English back in high school, university-level English was no walk in the park. He had quite an eccentric professor; a Professor Daniel Armand Lee. So far, he had gotten the class to read Enid Blyton and several stories from Grimm's Fairy Tales collection before conducting several book club-like sessions and asked for a 1500 words report on the assigned reading. He wasn't sure how exactly reading children tales and fairies would be able to help in English, but he wasn't going to whine about it. At least his assigned readings have been interesting so far. This week, he was assigned to read Lewis Carroll's Alice in the Wonderland. Of all the books he had been reading so far, this had to be his least favourite. The whole story seemed so whimsical that he almost felt like knocking Alice with his copy of the storybook.
He vaguely registered the soft 'ding' signaling that the elevator had reached his floor as he was too absorbed reading about the tea party Alice was at with the Mad Hare, Hatter and a sleepy Dormouse. Hyukjae snorted. Somehow the Mad Hare reminded him a lot of Heechul. Not that he was going to tell him. Heechul would diagnose him with some psychological disorder and would insist on performing all sorts of tests on him. Apparently the concept of obtaining the consent of his subject before performing any form of testing on them was lost to the psychology student. Considering that it was one of the major ethic codes in the psychology field, he was surprised no one in his faculty had kicked him out of the course just yet.
He was so absorbed into his internal debate about the Mad Hare that he had all but forgotten about the elevator until a voice spoke up and snapped him out of his reverie.
"Excuse me. Are you coming in?"
Hyukjae looked up from his book and blushed just a little. It was that boy again. He mentally face-palmed himself. That was not how he was planning on making any progress with the boy. The initial plan was to say hi this time together with a smile. Curse Heechul and his ability to wreck things without even being here physically.
Trying valiantly to hide his reddening cheeks behind his book, he merely nodded his head in response before entering the elevator. He stood next to the boy this time, pretending to be absorbed by Heechul's counterpart in his book while checking out the person standing right next to him. It was always only the two of them every Wednesday morning. Dressed in the usual dark blue blazer, white shirt and tie, Hyukjae had long figured out that he was a high school student. Though up till now, he had never managed to find out which school he was from because his bag strap had always covered the school badge. He only knew that he was a riveting character. After all, how often would you find a high school student secretly attending a lecture at university?
As soon as the moment came, it had ended just as swiftly. The elevator let out a soft 'ding' as it reached the ground floor. Hyukjae hurried out of the cramped space. Siwon was already waiting outside with the car after all. He really didn't want to be late. As he sped out of the building, on impulse, he turned his head back and yelled to the boy.
"See you later in class!"
He was glad that he managed to catch the look of surprise on his face. It left him grinning that he managed to save his initial plan at the very last minute. Not even Siwon's mock whine about how he was late for 2 minutes could wipe the silly grin off his face.
---
It was only a 15 minutes drive from the apartment building to SM University. Truth to be told, he loved his university. Already fell in love with the Arts and Social Sciences Department when he had first seen it in the glossy prospectus at the tender age of 13. The only thing he didn't like about SMU was the high school next door.
SM International High School, or commonly known as SMISH among the university students, was owned by the same group that owned the university. Same owner. Different administrators. The students of both institutions could have developed an easy rapport between them, except for one tiny detail.
Students from both education institutions hated each other.
SM Group was looking to expand its empire and had decided to set up a few education institutions. By setting up the schools next to each other, they had ensured that both schools would be dependent upon each other in some ways. Students from both schools were allowed to use the facilities provided on both campuses because some of them were better one campus than the other and vice versa.
While SMU was considered a top university in the country, SMISH was a high school for international students studying under the International Baccalaureate system. This meant that all of their students were of foreign nationalities and could speak English. Under normal circumstances, this would have been beneficial for the SMU students because not only would they be exposed to foreign cultures, it also gave them the opportunity for students such as the English majors to practice speaking English more often, aside from the fact that positions as teaching assistants and tutors for the university students at SMISH paid well and were readily available.
The problem lied in the student relations. The high school students were either ambassador's children or children born with a silver spoon in their mouth. The ambassador's children were mostly nice kids because they were used to moving around a lot and hence had developed adaptation skills over the years. They were generally polite and nice to any of the students who spoke to them, listening patiently when yet another Korean student attempted to speak in halted English to them.
Hyukjae never had any problems with those students. In fact, he had genuinely liked them and actually missed them when he found out that they had been transferred again. It was those snotty rich brats that he couldn't stand. Money shouldn't be flaunted around and rubbed into people's faces. While they wasted their money on useless things, half the students at SMU were from middle-income families and had to either work part-time or apply for a scholarship to study at SMU. And because students who graduated at SMISH were usually guaranteed entrance to top schools like Yale, Harvard, Cambridge and the likes, it seemed to have inflated their egos and pea-sized brains about their self-importance and their place in this world; that is sitting on top of the halo steps, while the lesser beings were only around to serve them.
Hyukjae was recommended by his lecturer to tutor a few students from SMISH the previous semester who were failing Chinese History. While the job had paid well, he found the experience itself to be degrading to say the least. He had to put up with the students' whines about how the subject was useless and that people like him should even be glad that he was even allowed to bask in their presence.
It was one thing when Heechul did it because he was naturally charismatic that way. It was another to have a bunch of immature brats telling him that he was no better than the dirt beneath their shoes.
His general hatred for the high school students next door aside, he was still struck with that same sense of amazement whenever he saw the campus. Bathed in the soft light of the autumn sun, it illuminated the various buildings scattered around small campus, giving it a touch of timeless grace in the midst of modernity. The buildings on the university campus were an eccentric mix of old brick stone buildings and modern steel that somehow managed to blend well together. The Arts and Social Sciences Department where Hyukjae spend most of his time in was found in one of old fashioned ivy-covered brick stone building located at the back of school. Somehow, walking through those double oak doors gave him the sense of travelling back in time, like that old movie he had watched in class once, back to the time when being able to attend university was a privilege and not a necessity. The smell of old books, wood panels and students chattering about assignments, professors and classes had spread tiny warmth of comfort every time he walked down its hallowed hallways. In the one year he had been attending classes at SMU, this building had already felt like home to him.
After he finished his morning classes, he headed towards a little run down cafe hidden behind the bright welcoming shops that were facing SMU. It was where he usually would meet up with his friends and have lunch there. Sometimes, he would find Heechul and Kyuhyun; the former bickering and distracting the latter from studying, all the while flirting outrageously with all the waitresses working there. Sometimes, he would find Siwon pouring over the business section of the newspaper, keeping up in time with the latest news as he prepared for his class at the Business School in the afternoon, while downing more black coffee. Today, he had found Sungmin typing furiously at his laptop while munching on a sandwich.
"Min-hyung. What are you doing here?" Hyukjae asked as he pulled up a chair to sit at the table.
"Oh Hyukkie. Didn't expect to see you here at this hour." Sungmin replied distractedly as he stopped and stared at his laptop screen.
"I should be saying that to you hyung. I'm always here at this hour on Wednesday. Shouldn't you be at class right now?" Hyukjae asked once the waitress had taken his order.
"I skipped lecture. Figured I should start working on my assignment now. I'm pretty busy with work for the next two weeks. The House is pretty booked for Halloween week. I won't have time to finish it otherwise."
Hyukjae nodded in understanding. Sungmin was a second year student just like he was; majoring in Sociology. He worked part-time as a bartender at the Azure House, an up-and-coming club that was really popular with the university students. Given that Sungmin worked till the wee hours of the morning, mixing and serving drinks to customers for five straight hours, pulling an all-nighter was not a good idea at all. It was hard to concentrate on writing a somewhat coherent essay when you were sweaty and tired from the sheer intensity of working at a bar. But Sungmin always did say that working at the House was akin to real life application of the Sociology theories he studied in class: it was all about group interactions and mating rituals when the night is young and it was easier to let down your inhibitions with a couple of drinks.
As Hyukjae started on his lunch while Sungmin went back to his assignment, he couldn't help but think about his Korean Society and Culture class later in the afternoon. After what happened this morning, he was determined to push pass the invisible barrier between the two of them. Even if they were not talking to each other, at least the physical distance between the both of them could be narrowed down. He had noticed that the boy had always sat two rows behind him for the past few weeks. That and he had always came in five minutes before class started.
Hyukjae's game plan: to get to class at 3pm on the dot. That way, he was guaranteed to be able to sit right next to the boy.
Just as he mentally patting himself for the simple yet brilliant idea, Sungmin started snapping his fingers right in front of his face, trying to get hold of his attention.
"Earth to Lee Hyukjae. Hello? Anyone in there?" Sungmin asked mockingly with a light rap on his head with his knuckles.
Hyukjae swatted Sungmin's hands away. "Hyung. What are you doing? Weren't you focusing on doing your assignment?"
"I changed my mind. It's lunch. There's food. I'm not wasting any of my precious lunchtime on feminism. Not when I should be enjoying all these meals like it's my last. The paper is starting to give me a migraine. Why exactly do some women expect equal rights as their male counterparts, and then turn around saying that chivalry is dead and all men are chauvinistic pigs? The fact that my lecturer is a woman makes it all the more harder to write the stupid essay without offending anyone with any sort of critique or analysis." Sungmin said with a sigh.
"I'm sure you'll be fine hyung. Or you can just give your lecturer the classic Sungmin-aegyo. You're not nicknamed 귀요민 for nothing you know." Hyukjae said with a knowing grin.
"And that my friend, is the reason why feminism exists." Sungmin said with a dramatic sigh before smacking the back of Hyukjae's head with one of his books.
"Ouch! Hyung. That hurts." Hyukjae complained, wincing as he rubbed the sore area.
"Good. Maybe that would teach you how to treat a girl right the next time you attempt to pick up one." Sungmin said smugly as he ate some of Hyukjae's lunch. "So now tell me. What were you thinking about just now?"
Hyukjae was about to reply when Sungmin interrupted him. "And don't tell me nothing or you'll be facing the wrath of all the feminists from Seoul all the way to Busan."
Hyukjae sighed. Why did he even bothered trying he didn't even know.
"You know that high school kid I was telling you about? The one who has been sneaking into one of my classes?"
Sungmin nodded as he stole more food off Hyukjae' plate. Hyukjae scowled and attempted to poke Sungmin in the side with his fork.
"Well it's today. He usually sneaks into my Wednesday afternoon lecture. You know? The Korean Society and Culture class with Professor Yong? Planning to sit right next to him this time instead of having this weird prickly feeling of someone burning holes at the back of my head throughout the lecture."
Sungmin snickered. "As if you don't enjoy the attention Monkey. And isn't he a bit too young for you?"
Hyukjae choked on his food at Sungmin's flippant comment.
"I am not planning on dating him. It's just nice to know someone else in the building that isn't Siwon. You've seen that weird cat on the second floor right? That's just intimidating alright?" Hyukjae defended.
"Alright. Don't be such a girl. I'm just saying. You won't know till you try." Sungmin said with a wink and a chuckle.
"Whatever hyung. I hope your lecturer eats you for breakfast. Then I won't have to put up with the likes of you ever again. You're no best friend. You're just this person who owes me another lunch since you ate all of mine."
And that was how Hyukjae spend the rest of his break, exchanging insults and bickering with his best friend; letting the thought of the cute brown haired boy, who tried to hide his high school background by changing into a hoodie and jeans every time he came to class slide to the back of his mind.
Always there. But not forgotten.
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A/N: 귀요민 is actually a play on words. It's a combination of 귀요미 (meaning 'cutie') and 성민 (Sungmin's Korean name). It basically means Cutie Min, a nickname that SJ keeps calling him. Ridiculously cute I tell ya.
Also, this felt like it took forever and a day to write. Hopefully the progress isn't really that slow for you guys. Just in case you're wondering, amalious is writing it from Henry's POV while I'm writing it from Hyukjae's.
Cross-posted at my_prection and sapphiresuju.