Lmao, I think this is 2 times the amount of the previous chap... anyway, Dong's perspective here, just as I said in the foreword. 

Donghyuk’s fully aware how most people in the university perceived him. They say he’s a “genius” (he’s one of the top students in his year for his Biology program course), a “literal angel” (he shares his notes and gets along with almost all kinds of people), and a “y nerd” (he’s been promoted to main dancer and choreographer in the Performing Arts Society after Seunghoon-sunbae graduated).

Just to make things clear, he’s not an angel, both in the literal and metaphorical sense. He was just raised to be kind and warm to others. He’s also not a genius and is only able to pick up concepts faster than most students. As for the “y nerd” thing, he does admit he’s a nerd but he can’t see what’s y about his dancing when he’s not purposely trying to look like it. Not that being seen as y is bad, but he’d rather be called cool among anything else. (Yet aside from y, it’s always “cute”, “adorable” etcetera…)

He knows he’s far from perfect but he’s grateful for the positive attention given to him by the general student body. It makes university life so much fun and easier, and professors are more lenient to his extracurricular activities due to his positive reputation. But maybe he’s being too used to how liked he was because he was shocked when a classmate of his in Advanced English had shown clear distaste for him since day 1.

“Oh, you have Advanced English too?” Kim Jinhwan, the nice senior in Linguistics had told him when they met up at the Admin Office, two days before classes start. They’d been helping out in there for the extra credits. “My dongsaeng from high school will also take it in the same timeslot. The name’s Goo Junhwe.”

Donghyuk is vaguely aware who Goo Junhwe is. Some girls in his club often gush about him because he is supposedly the Business Administration program’s “hottest guy” even though he apparently only shows positive facial expressions when he’s with his social circle. He didn’t know Jinhwan is part of it.

He would have taken what Jinhwan said as just small talk, but then his sunbae had smiled up at him in an exaggeratedly bright way, then tried to wrap an arm around his shoulders only to end up just resting a hand on the base of his neck.

“I’m not forcing you or anything Donghyukie, but I’ll really appreciate it if you could befriend him in class. He only has a few same-aged friends you see.” The senior says then proceeds to retrieve his phone from his pocket and show him a picture of a guy somewhat scowling at the camera.

Donghyuk had understood right away why his female club mates have crushes on him. The guy has the dark hair and dark eyes combination. There’s also something about the scowl and obvious cold image…

“Really, it’s okay if you think you can’t be friends with him. But if there are group assignments, can you at least partner with him?”

With the way Jinhwan had spoken about Goo Junhwe though, it looked like the coldness runs deeper than the surface. Still, he had told his sunbae he’ll keep an eye on the guy. There’s no reason to disagree when Jinhwan had explicitly told him he’s not being forced.

But when first day came and he saw Goo Junhwe making faces at him behind his laptop, Donghyuk had felt like he won’t be able to tolerate even exchanging greetings with him.

Donghyuk didn’t even go out of his way to find him among the 40-something students in the classroom. It just so happens that the seat he chose is angled in front of the glass-like panel that served as some sort of architectural decoration for the front wall. The first time he glanced at the panel, he immediately saw Goo Junhwe reflected on it. He would have gone up to introduce himself or sit beside him but the professor chose that moment to arrive.

20 minutes later, Donghyuk sees his classmate open his laptop, scowl like he’s been offended big time, and then proceed to make faces as soon as he sits back after sharing his interpretation of Les Misérables. Fact of the matter is, it’s obvious Junhwe opened his laptop so it could serve as a shield to his facial mockery, but from Donghyuk’s unfortunate position, he can clearly see him pull off those scowls, frowns and faces at a side angle.

He gave Junhwe the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he wasn’t actually mocking him and it’s just weirdly timed. But after three days of observance, all doubts disappeared. Junhwe only makes faces when he was the one reciting. When it’s other people, he doesn’t even react. Donghyuk has no idea what he did to make Junhwe dislike him so much when they haven’t even said one word to each other. It’s been so long since he was faced with such a thing and it’s definitely not a pleasant situation, but Donghyuk decided not to be so affected by it. For the sake of his family motto, he’ll be the bigger person… As much as he could.

So what did he do? He does a “social experiment” on Goo Junhwe. He became more active on class, and purposely debates with their prof and some of his classmates just so their class time would extend. For what purpose? So he could annoy Goo Junhwe further and track the kind of faces he pulls using most of his actions as variables. After almost 3 weeks, he already has a chart of it and he’ll think of a proper scientific title for the study soon.

Pathetic? Yes. Uncharacteristic of him? Very much so. But it’s been so long since a person like that appeared in his life so Donghyuk decides to just amuse himself with the situation.

He might have to apologize to Jinhwan-hyung on the long run though. He definitely won’t befriend Goo Junhwe as long as he doesn’t stop what he’s doing and apologize out of his own accord.

♦♦♦

He’s already finished practicing his whole routine for the Performing Arts Society’s showcase when Hayi playfully threw a towel over his head. The other members of his group greeted their club’s star singer and left them two.

“Dongdongie!”

“Noona.” Donghyuk greets with a smile as he took the towel and used it to wipe his face.

Hayi pouts a bit and placed a hand on her hip. “How many times do I have to tell you not to call me noona? It’s just a few months and we’re both sophomores.”

“But I’ve been calling you noona since we’re kids.”

More like, Hayi insisted he call her that forever when they were children, because she always wants to have a younger sibling and those few months apparently justified it. As they grew older though, she preferred he just call her like how a same-aged friend would but he wasn’t able to. It’s just weird calling her without the honorific when he always regarded her as an older sister.

He grins when Hayi playfully pinched his cheek and gestures towards the benches located at the opposite side of the dance room. Some of their club mates moved so they could have more space to sit on.

“Here. I want to hear your opinion.” Hayi hands him her earphones as she navigated on her iPod playlist. “I finished this yesterday. Tell me honestly what you think.”

Donghyuk nods and places the earphones on his ears. Hayi, as a voice major, isn’t required to compose her own songs for practicums and exams. But she has trouble expressing the right emotions for songs written by others so she decided to learn song composition by herself. She’s been on it since first semester and has been working hard on each attempt.

He admires Hayi for it. Her passion for music and singing is undeniable, but if she wants to maintain her high grades for her major…

“Umm…” he takes a moment to construct the words in his head after the song finished. “It’s much better than the last one. But the transitions are still awkward. Some of the lyrics as well…”

He cautiously watched Hayi slump on the wall behind them, afraid that he had hurt her feelings. But she sighs after a moment and sits straight up again.

“I knew it. Just have to try harder I guess. I still have enough time.”

Donghyuk hesitates while he handed her earphones back. “Are you really sure there’s no one in the composition majors you’d like to collaborate with? I think it’s safer to sing songs made by them for now…”

“…There is one.”

“Oh! Really?”

Hayi navigates on her iPod and gives her earphones to him once again. “This is one of that person’s songs. First time I listened, I fell in love with it.”

That made Donghyuk really curious so he concentrated more on the song. Just after the first 30 seconds, he understood right away why Hayi fell in love with it. The lyrics are beautiful, the melody is unique, and the vocals…

God, the vocals.

Deep. A bit husky, but gorgeous. So gorgeous. It’s not the first time Donghyuk heard a vocal tone like it but there’s something about the voice’s color, with the way the person is singing, that makes him want to listen to it all day. And he won’t get tired of it. He’s sure about that.

“H-Hayi-nuna.” He clears his throat because he just stuttered. Over a voice. “This is a really good song. Who’s the one singing?”

“He’s good right? It’s a shame because he’s not credited in there. Apparently, he doesn’t want to be listed as the song’s vocal guide.”

The disappointment is instant with Donghyuk but he held it in. The whole point of the conversation is not about him after all.

“So who’s the song writer? Why aren’t you collaborating with the person yet?”

Hayi pouts before giving out a helpless sigh. “Because he’s off limits. The faculty wants him to focus on his studies because he’s a musical genius and big name agencies are already keeping an eye on him. The only reason I even have a sample of that song is because I begged a prof.”

“Wow. He sounds like a big shot or something.” Donghyuk glances at the song info when Hayi showed him. “B.I? That’s his name?”

“That’s just an alias. His real name is Kim Hanbin. If it’s his song, I think I’ll definitely be able to express myself more. Too bad we can’t collaborate even if I want to.”

Donghyuk raises an eyebrow because Hayi’s voice pitch became slightly higher than normal. He glances at her and grins at the presence of subtle red on her cheeks.

“Aha.”

“What?”

“Is he your type?”

“No.” Hayi answers indignantly, hesitates for a moment, then, “…Ok, a little.”

He laughs as soon as Hayi’s face flushed even more. She smacks his arm hard and it hurt but he didn’t speak on it. He decides not to any further and shifted the topic to the preparations they’re doing for their showcase performance. He’ll just have to dig about this Kim Hanbin guy later.

♦♦♦