“What do you mean you’re not taking it with me?”

I stared at my best friend in disbelief, watching as he shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant manner, as if he hadn’t just announced the news of my downfall. 

“Mara, I told you, I can’t take the class, I already tested out of it.” Kyungsoo continued typing away on his keyboard. “Stop worrying so much, if it's hard, I’ll help you out.”

I groaned while plopping down onto his mattress, it was moments like these where I really hated that my best friend was a genius. 

Kyungsoo and I have been friends ever since I could remember, it started all the way back in the fifth grade. Kyungsoo had just moved back from overseas and had no intention of making any friends at all. The kid would just sit by himself and read, like all the time. If he wasn’t reading, then you’d find him in the computer labs, typing away in his own little world. I was always the loud and funny one, I took pride in being friends with everybody in class, and didn’t like the fact that Kyungsoo thought he could be the exception. 

I began sitting next to him in class, but every time I attempted a conversation, the kid would only shrug or respond in one syllable words. It wasn’t until I was looking for Kyungsoo during recess, when I caught a couple of boys in our grade teasing him for reading during recess. I wasn’t going to allow them to make fun of him, especially because he looked scared and uncomfortable, so I walked up and gave those boys a piece of my mind, until they ran away before I could tell the teacher. 

Ever since then, Kyungsoo never left my side.

“It’s not about the class being hard.” I mumbled, “I just feel lost if you’re not there to explain it to me.”

I watched as he rolled his eyes, but his fingers never left the keyboard. “You act like the professors don’t explain it well. They are professors, Mara, their job is to teach.”

“Yeah but you explain everything so much better, and you know I have a short attention span! I can’t focus on a lecture long enough!” I whined. 

Kyungsoo was always with me all throughout our school years, even though the kid was a genius. He was offered to skip grades and go on ahead many times, but Kyungsoo always stayed. 

“Making new friends will be bothersome.” He would always say, and so I tried my best to follow Kyungsoo everywhere, he always helped me study and ace my exams, and I was able to go to Seoul National University with him. 

But in reality, Kyungsoo chose to go to SNU with me. The kid could’ve gone anywhere he wanted. 

But that was the con of having a genius for a best friend in college, all the classes we were supposed to take together, Kyungsoo would always end up testing out of. So, I’d always end up alone.

“You always make friends everywhere you go. You’ll find people in your class.” Kyungsoo mumbled out mindlessly.

It was true, I tend to make friends with everyone, I was a very outgoing extrovert, whereas Kyungsoo was my cold opposite. However, even though I made many friends, it was only on the surface, I was never able to open up to anyone other than Kyungsoo.

“Are you forgetting I’m a computer science major? Ninety-five percent of the people in our major are introverted geeky dudes.” I huffed. 

I stood up, walking over to Kyungsoo’s desk, it was always huge and took up most of his room, I mean the kid used four monitors. Kyungsoo was a tech prodigy, at age 12 he taught himself how to hack his neighbors wifi, by 13 the kid taught himself at least four coding languages, and by age 15 he had already created his first app. 

“What are you doing?” I asked, trying to figure out all the displays in front of him. 

“Do you remember that one case about the kid who started leaking nudes of all the women he’s dated?” He finally stopped typing and turned to see my reaction.

“Oh my god, yeah! I knew one of the girls, she hasn’t been on campus all week ever since.” I recalled the big news that was buzzing around campus all of last week. “They couldn’t do anything because I heard the police couldn’t trace back the IP address of who kept leaking them.”

Kyungsoo nodded, before turning back and pressing enter on his keyboard. “Well I just leaked every information about this kid. His name, address, where he works, his class schedule, oh! And also found his search history, it was very disturbing.” Kyungsoo shook his head. “He should’ve known better to use incognito.”

My eyes went wide as my phone started buzzing, all the different group chats I was in started going off the rails, everyone in campus had received the information that Kyungsoo had just found with ease, and people were finally relieved that the predator’s name had been revealed.

“You know, sometimes I think you belong in those thriller movies, like an anonymous hacker doing God’s work.” I joked as I nudged him.

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes, “Your classes start on Monday, don't miss them. You enjoy skipping class too much and then proceed to complain that you are unable to understand the content and fail to pass.”

“I skipped class because I don’t understand.” I huffed.

A knock came on the door, and Kyungsoo’s mom popped her head in, sending a warm smile my way before asking, “Mara dear, you’re going to be staying for dinner, right?”

I shook my head, “Sorry auntie, but not tonight, I should probably head back and prepare for classes that start Monday.”

Mrs. Do looked a bit sad but nodded anyway, “You’re right, then let me pack some food for you to take.”

I