"I give up!", Taeyong threw his hands in the air and continued to shout, blatantly ignoring library rules. "There's no right or wrong way to study, there's only pain and agony and this world is cruel-... Ouch!". Doyoung smacked the back of his head with the textbook to shut him up but it completely backfired.

"Will you stop ing hitting me? Do I look like a punching bag to you?", Taeyong protested even louder than before.

"No!", Doyoung responded, equally loud and annoyed, "You look like a soggy sock that can't even keep his voice down, let alone pass a ridiculously easy exam!".

"You're shouting too!", Taeyong pointed at the frowning boy with a victorious, smug grin in a vain effort to defend himself, "so stop acting like you're better than me and teach me something already!".

"What the actual do you want me to teach you?", Doyoung slammed his fist on the table. "You can't even read half a page without complaining like a little - wake up princess!", he mockingly waved right in front of the blonde's face, "It's impossible to achieve anything without actually trying!".

"I can make you bleed without even sweating", Taeyong growled and stood up right in front of Doyoung to intimidate him.

"I'd like to see you try", Doyoung scoffed and stood up as well, grasping the textbook. "I don't know what kind of weak babies you've scared with that kind of threats but I'm not one of them", he smirked and provocatively moved his face even closer to Taeyong's.

I can't back out now, Taeyong thought and ground his teeth; he didn't expect Doyoung to be much of an opponent but he had obviously miscalculated. He could feel the other's breath on his lips - is he moving closer to me? No I'm just imagining things, focus Lee Taeyong! But focus... where? On Doyoung's challenging, slanted eyes, his chubby cheeks or his... 'No!', Taeyong screamed internally, 'DEFINITELY not his lips!'.

Thankfully, a firm grip on his shoulder brought him back to reality. "No fighting or talking in the library", the librarian glared at both of them before pushing them away, "Get out!".

"Great", Doyoung groaned as he stretched his arms outside the library building. "We lost our only place to study because of your habit of being a failure. What are we going to do now?".

Taeyong snickered and rolled his eyes. "What do you mean 'we'? I'm leaving", he groaned and begun to walk away. "Thank you very much for your ty tutoring but it's obviously not going to work. I'm going home".

"Do you live alone?". Why was Doyoung following him? Taeyong definitely didn't see that coming and the mysterious sparkle in the other's eyes made him uncomfortable, to say the least.

"No, I have a roommate", he mumbled, still taken aback by Doyoung's sudden friendliness. "His name is Taeil, he's a senior".

"Are you dating him?". The absurd question almost made him trip before bursting into laughter. 

"No, I'm not dating him", he managed to mutter in between his laughter and for some reason, his response made Doyoung's face lit up. Huh, he's kind of cute when he smiles.

"Oh wait", Doyoung suddenly frowned again. "Does that mean you're straight?".

"No, I just-... Wait", Taeyong stopped walking in the middle of the street. "Why am I answering? Why are you asking me all this? It's none of your business, ".

"There you go, being a again", Doyoung stuck his tongue out, seemingly unfazed by Taeyong's harsh words, still following him. "I'm coming back to your place, we can continue there. I think we can-...".

"Whoa whoa, hold up there, mi amigo", Taeyong placed his palm on Doyoung's shoulder, "Don't you understand? There is no 'we', you're not helping me anymore. You're free to kindly off, please".

"Well too ing bad", Doyoung slapped Taeyong's hand off his shoulder, "I didn't agree to any of that so naturally, I'm coming. Make your peace with it".

What is that er thinking? Does he actually think he can-...

"Why do you want to pass this exam so badly?", Doyoung asked out of the blue. For the first time, his expression seemed serious instead of annoyed or mischievous and maybe that's what compelled Taeyong to answer honestly, without even giving it a second thought.

"I want to go on a trip with Sicheng... And the others", he quickly added. "But I won't be able to go if I don't pass this class". His own sincerity surprised and embarrassed him; he didn't feel like he could face Doyoung at that moment but he did it anyway only to be perplexed by the boy's expression. Doyoung was serious alright but for a split second there he could have sworn he looked... hurt?

"Huh", Doyoung finally smiled, "As expected from someone like you, it's such a lame reason". 

"That's why you're free to kindly off into extinction, you piece of-...".

"Alright!", Doyoung exclaimed, cutting him off. "I've decided that I'm going to help you. You will go on that trip and it's going to be because of my kind nature and my intellect, make sure to remember that. If you have any objections, I don't care, it up. I will make you pass this exam, so prepare yourself; this week is going be your worst nightmare whether you like it or not".

Taeyong wasn't sure if it was Doyoung's sudden decisiveness or the passionate flame sparkling up his eyes but before he knew it, he was full of determination. "Deal!", he nodded, glad that someone finally acknowledged his desperation and was willing to struggle with him. "You're a lot nicer than I thought", he mumbled skeptically, feeling grateful and slightly touched by this unexpected turn of events.

"Oh no", Doyoung shook his head in denial, unable to hide his cheeky grin. "If I made you think I'm nice, I'm very sorry".

"Why?", Taeyong frowned.

"Because I'm a ing monster".

"Huh", Taeyong awkwardly snickered. His reply was ready to escape his lips but something stopped him and made him swallow it back down at the very last second.

I guess we're the same then.

He had absolutely no idea why Doyoung decided to help him and his own decision to naturally play along with it baffled him as well. And yet, this whole situation just felt right. Maybe it was instinct or desperation or his third ing eye telling him to accept this impulsive and admittedly annoying boy into his life; whatever that little voice in his head was, Taeyong knew one thing- he had to listen to it.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Author's Note: Do you feel the moderate amount of angst coming? Because I do! I decided to keep the chapters small so the updates could be more frequent instead of taking half a week to write and proofread every single thing and ending up with an actual novel by the end of this fic, I hope you don't mind

Also, do you have any other ships in nct 127 you'd like to see? I'm thinking of adding a few more ships in the story to make the plot more interesting but other than yuwin and dotae, I don't really have any faves so anyone's game, don't hesitate to comment!

Comments, Upvotes and Subs warm my little fangirl heart