[Warning] Chapter is unedited. There's bound to be a lot of mistakes in terms of grammar, missing or extra words, etc.

Maybe this wasn’t such a bright idea, Namjoon thinks as he follows the coffee shop guy – no, Seokjin – up the odd, dimly lit staircase. The two of them exchange not a single word and Namjoon is glad. He thinks about quitting for a second but then is reminded of the amount of money he’d be getting for literally translating stuff from Japanese to English which he had been doing for years for fun anyway. In the end, he just accepts it as he takes a seat in Professor Park’s small office.

“Professor will be back soon from his lunch break. If you need anything, please let me know. I’m working in the office next door.” Seokjin says as he gives a small smile and leaves.

Namjoon coughs to get rid of the strange feeling regarding this Seokjin guy. He is definitely a guy!

Professor Park enters the office and Namjoon gets up to greet him but is told that he doesn’t need to be so formal since the professor works very informally. Professor Park looks relatively young, Namjoon notices. But the thing that’s even more fascinating is his bright red hair and Namjoon thinks that maybe working wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Of course, that isn’t true because soon after his little meeting with the professor, he’s told that he’d be working with Seokjin in the office next door.

“Please, call me Jin.” He says as he brings his hand forward.

Namjoon hesitantly reaches for it. Why is his skin so soft, oh god! He musters up an awkward smile as to hide his embarrassment at his current thoughts. “Then you can call me Joon,” he decides that since the other is going to shorten his name, then why can’t he?

-

Jin sits back on his seat and faces the computer in front of him. Something about the Joon guy has been bothering him ever since he laid eyes on him. Is it the scary eyes? Jin laughs at himself for that thought.

“Pardon?” Joon says and Jin’s eyes go wide.

He can read my mind?

“I-it’s nothing!” Jin quickly pulls up his spreadsheet to continue working. He’s been too distracted. He isn’t getting paid to make fun of his co-workers, he tells himself.

-

The video Namjoon had to translate was boring the wits out of him. It wasn’t so much the video itself but rather the tedious process of pausing every two seconds, translating each sentence and then finding the perfect timing and inputting the translation. It took forever to do just 5 minutes – well, 3 hours and 45 minutes to be exact. Only 15 more minutes and Namjoon could finally go back to his dorm and crash.

Namjoon couldn’t exactly blame the process for making his progress extremely slow. The fact that he kept pausing every few minutes to look to his right at a certain someone, examine him, and then wonder why some people are born so beautiful, took quite some time as well.

He finally gets up from the chair when it’s time to leave and so does the other. Jin grabs his jacket and flings it over his wide shoulders. Namjoon suddenly recalls the image of Jin he had been completely forgetting all this time – what he saw that night. This guy could have jumped out of a manga for all he knew.

“You want me to show you how to get back to the main building?” Jin asked, ready to leave.

Namjoon nodded, “That’d be great. And since we live in the sa-” Oh , Namjoon scolds himself for saying too much. He would totally come off as a creep.

Jin raises his eyebrows, “we live in the same dorm? How- wait, did you see?”

“You mean you fighting a bunch of guys by yourself?”

Jin let out a small laugh, “so you did,” he rubbed his nape as he looked at the ground. “Then let’s just go together.”

“Sure.”

-

The pair walk into the building of their dorm. Namjoon heads towards the stairs as Jin goes for the elevator. He gives Namjoon a small bow as he realizes they’re parting ways and Namjoon does the same before he runs to the second floor.

He’s about to turn left when he gets to the second floor but then for some reason, he finds himself rushing to the right, where the elevator is. He looks at the number on the elevator moving higher each second. When it finally stops on 7, Namjoon figures that’s where Jin lives.

Namjoon blinks as he looks around. Wait, am I stalking this guy? He mentally slaps himself as he walks towards his room. How pathetic man.

-

It’s Monday and Namjoon wants coffee more than anything at 9 in the morning. Even though it’s in the complete opposite direction of his class, Namjoon finds himself in line for coffee at the cafe where he knows a certain someone works. The entire time he’s in line, he thinks of excuses he could make to justify his reasoning for coming to this place for coffee. Unfortunately, when it’s his turn, the worker who takes his order isn’t Jin. Jin is taking another customer’s order and Namjoon feels more disappointed than he should. He bitterly orders his coffee and stands to the side to wait for it. He pulls out his phone and looks at the map of campus one more time – he really is bad with directions and maps, despite having such a high IQ.

“One medium dark roast, no sugar, no milk.”

He looks up and drops his phone in surprise he sees Jin smiling at him with Namjoon’s order in his hand. “!”

Jin laughs but pauses to see if Namjoon’s phone is okay.

Namjoon quickly stuffs his phone into his pocket. Such an idiot! He curses at himself before bringing his hand forward to take the coffee, hands slightly trembling. His fingers graze slightly against Jin’s, and he feels a tingling sensation throughout his body.

“T-thanks!” he quickly turns around and walks as fast as he humanly can.

-

“Dude…” Namjoon stuffs his mouth with a spoonful of his rice. “Have you ever, like, felt weird when you touch another guy?”

“No,” Hoseok replies, “What kind of question is that?”

“No I mean,” Namjoon looks up at his friend who wears a dumb, confused expression on his face. “Never mind.”

“Hoseok!” Namjoon turns around to see another male walking towards them. “Did you finish the essay yet?” The guy pulls out a chair next to Hoseok and doesn’t care about Namjoon’s existence much.

“Nah, I’ll start tonight.” Hoseok picks up a fry from his plate and points it towards the guy. The latter smiles widely and opens his mouth to accept it. Namjoon raises his eyebrow at the two. “Oh, this is Taehyung. My best friend since elementary school. Tae, this is Namjoon.”

“Ah, I’ve heard a lot about you. You came from Japan, right?” Taehyung asks as he finishes the fry in his mouth.

Namjoon nods.

“He’s also working with that hot professor,” Hoseok adds in, “the one with the red hair!”

Taehyung grabs a bunch of fries and rolls his eyes. “He’s not hot, he’s old.”

“28 isn’t old!”

“Too old for an 18 year old,”

As the two have their argument, Namjoon notices the way Taehyung looks at Hoseok and how defensive he gets when Hoseok shows interest in someone else. He obviously likes you, idiot. Namjoon doesn’t say it out loud though, just because that’s for them to figure out and him to not interfere with.

“Anyways, how is it working with the infamous Kim Seokjin?” Hoseok tries to change the topic. It certainly catches Taehyung’s attention.

Taehyung almost chokes on the fries. “The Kim Seokjin?”

“He also works for that professor.” Hoseok says. “Is he scary?”

Namjoon shakes his head. “He’s just like any other student, you know.”

“No way, he’s known for being a complete badass around here.” Taehyung adds. “You don’t want to be on his bad side.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Namjoon rolls his eyes and shoves another spoonful of rice in. He really can’t figure out why people are actually scared of that pretty boy. He seems like a decent guy.

-

“Oh boy…” Jin slumps onto his bed as he looks at the text on his phone. There’s only 2 days before he needs to submit the geography assignment and at this point he has completely given up. The assignment is originally supposed to be done with a partner but Jin just got a text from his partner saying he’s dropping out of the class. The class is huge with over 500 students and of all people that he could have chosen as his partner, he decided to choose the guy who dropped out last minute. How great!

He quickly emails his professor, explaining the situation. Exactly twenty minutes later, he gets a reply back:

Re: GEO130Y Assignment Issue

Hey Seokjin, sorry to hear about that. I will give you a two day extension but this assignment strictly requires you to partner up. Lucky for you, I have another student who had a similar problem so the two of you can work together. How does that sound?

You can contact your new partner at [email protected]

Best of luck,

Dr. Min Yoongi

Department of Geography, Seoul University.

Seeing as Jin has no choice, he quickly emails the said partner regarding what Professor Min said. After receiving no reply despite waiting till 2 am, Jin becomes much too frustrated as he turns off his phone and decides to get some shut eye. He needs to go to work after his never-ending classes tomorrow so he needs the rest.

-

Jin opens his backpack and pulls out his dinner. He can feel Joon’s gaze on the food as soon as he opens the lid of his container. He turns to confirm his suspicion only to see a dazed boy staring at him, eyes fully blank.

“Uh, would you like some?”

Joon seems to snap out of daze at Jin’s words and blinks before shaking his head. “N-no, I ate. Thanks.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah it’s just…”

“Hmm…?”

“…the smell is very familiar but I can’t seem to put my finger on it.”

“This? My mom makes these and sends over a bunch every weekend.” Jin smiles as he looks down at his food. He loves his mother’s cooking. “You sure you don’t want any?”

Jin looks back up at Joon, only to catch him staring again.

“You okay?”

Joon whips his head around and faces his computer, “I-I’m fine!”

Jin shrugs as he takes his fork and digs into his dinner.

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