I did not really expect anything to change after that night but it did. I did not notice it until I entered the class for Java one day, though. As I usually do whenever I had classes with the girls in the same year level as me, I walked inside the huge classroom alone, meeting eyes with Moonbyul, who gave me an apologetic look. There was no way I was sitting beside her and Lizzy, especially when the latter talked a little bit loudly when I passed their row.

"You should have invited us, too," Lizzy was saying to Hongbin. "Or were you looking for someone easy?"

Ignoring it, I sat on the opposite side, taking out my notebook laptop and turned it on. I could still hear them, though.

"I'll call you when it's my birthday," Hongbin assured her. "But it won't be in my house, though. I'm thinking of going to the club. Or, maybe that beer house Kihyun's cousin owns. Of course, everyone's invited."

"Is this seat taken?"

I turned and found Mark placing his bag on the seat next to mine, flashing me a smile. This was new. I did not remember him being this openly friendly to me before. Of course, when we're both behind headphones and game microphones, we sound like the best of buddies, or the worst of enemies, depending whether we were playing on the same side or not, but never in person. The corners of my mouth went up without me telling it to.

"Now it is."

Someone scoffed. "I knew it. She was going to snatch a guy right after. I just knew it."

"Stop it," Moonbyul complained, nudging Lizzy.

Mark cleared his throat and pulled his phone out. "Did you see last night's livestream?" he asked, talking about a DotA 2 pro team. "That 'iceiceice' guy seems good."

"Sylar is still the best," I countered, secretly heaving a sigh of relief to be talking about something familiar, and of my interest. It also happened that I had been dying to talk to someone about the change in the lineup of players of one of my favorite teams. "Vici should have managed him better."

"You said you don't like your Chinese descent," Mark commented. My mother was part Chinese, which meant I am, and he knew about my aversion to anything Chinese. "But most of your favorite teams are from China."

"Well, they are good," I said. "Chinese players are naturally good at almost everything. Who said I hate my Chinese descent?"

He laughed. "I would agree that we, Chinese players are good at almost everything."

I playfully pushed him away. "You're Taiwanese."

"Hey! Racism!"

The two of us were laughing, and I could see Lizzy seething a row away from us. Whatever I did wrong for me to deserve her hate I did not know, and did not care. All I cared about at the time was that it was super easy to talk to Mark like the way we did when we were only communicating through game comms. It was refreshing.

***

"What's up with you and Lizzy-sunbae?"

It was lunch time and my usual lunch buddies still had classes. I was too hungry to wait for them and just ordered food in the cafeteria. Just when I thought I would be able to eat quickly and find a quiet place to be alone (probably the Arts building's rooftop), Mark pulled the chair right across from me and joined me at the long table.

"Nothing," I said, hurrying to finish my seolleongtang. It was my favorite, so it would be a waste to not finish it just to get away from this conversation.

Mark shrugged, easily giving up, and started on his food. I sneaked a peek at what he put on his tray and was surprised when I found sliced green peppers on the side. These he picked up and dumped in his seolleongtang