"a hell of a note"
— surprising news, typically that which is negative or bad.
— a surprising or amazing piece of news

Kyuhyun knew from the start that college would be a busy part of his life. He grew up in a family of academics and knew that he had to meet his family’s expectations (not that his parents who were professors were very vocal about it; the pressure really comes from Kyuhyun himself because they are actually very supportive of whatever he does). His inclination to math put him on a path similar to the one his father went through, which meant he knew he was going to have a lot more math classes to go through. He knew he would have to be busy with all the school requirements and organizations he was going to join. He knew he was going to learn how to balance whatever social life he builds and all the academic things he has to do.

He just didn’t know that he’d be spending a good part of his college years pining after one of his classmates.

To be honest, they’re not even classmates anymore! And they’re way past being just classmates. They’re best friends now (insert half-genuine, half-forced smile because he really values the friendship, but he also always wished for something more, but he doesn’t want to pressure the other — it’s a whole thing, keep up). Kyuhyun would say he spent most of his time with this person than anyone else in college, which is weird since they aren’t even in the same course. They were pretty inseparable ever since they met.

The first time they met was during a Precalculus class that everyone was required to take in their first year. Kyuhyun was just quietly sitting and listening to the professor speaking in front when someone behind him tapped his shoulder and asked for clarification on one of the things mentioned five minutes ago. Since the topic was something Kyuhyun was already familiar with, he just handed the notebook over to his classmate without a second thought, ignoring the other’s whispered protests of ‘how are you going to take notes then?!’, and choosing to just pay attention again. That classmate hesitantly muttered his thanks instead of making a scene that might get the professor’s attention, and ended up using the notebook for the rest of the class.

As mentioned earlier, Kyuhyun was already familiar with the topic — hooray for the advanced math lessons he learned because of the math competitions he joined! But the other student kept apologizing when he returned the notebook and started talking about how he felt like the teacher hated him as they walked out of the room. Kyuhyun only laughed and offered to help the other on the subject whenever he needed it. His classmate ended up thanking him without end and offered to buy him a meal as thanks, which Kyuhyun did not reject.

(It’s probably a rule for college students to never reject a free meal being offered to them.)

So they went for lunch at a small restaurant near the campus. It was a pretty good meal, but the conversation they had was more enjoyable. They jumped from topic to topic and ended up almost forgetting they both had another class to attend. They quickly said their goodbyes and ran to their respective buildings.

It wasn’t like they had to worry much about seeing each other again.

Kyuhyun and Ryeowook had another precalculus class together on Wednesday anyway. 

So they saw each other again during class. Ryeowook took the seat beside Kyuhyun as soon as he arrived and immediately brought out his phone to get Kyuhyun’s number because he ‘was studying the lesson from the other day and I didn’t get it and I didn’t know how to contact you and ask for help!’. Kyuhyun spent a few minutes before class explaining one of the concepts in easier terms. Then they ended up joking about something and had to hold in their laughter when the professor walked in the room. Kyuhyun was practically tearing up from trying not to laugh when the professor called Ryeowook out of nowhere to answer one of the questions. Ryeowook looked like he was ready to hit Kyuhyun but only decided not to because the math genius was kind enough to subtly scribble the answer on the edge of his notebook so Ryeowook could read it.

By the end of the month, they would casually greet each other when they were outside of class, had several inside jokes, and made sure to save a seat for the other in case one of them was running late. They were given homework by the professor which required a presentation to be done in pairs and, without needing to ask, they became partners. That meant extra time together spent out of class where they got to know each other more, took time to eat together, and became more familiar with each other.

Ryeowook was a music major so he often had complaints about why he even took the class when he had no plans whatsoever to pursue math, but Kyuhyun was always patient in explaining every single thing. When the day of the presentation came, Kyuhyun had to keep reassuring Ryeowook that they prepared well and that they were going to do well even after the class was over. Unfortunately, Kyuhyun was suddenly called by the professor as they were about to leave the classroom and it lead to a very interesting conversation once Kyuhyun was dismissed.

Kyuhyun stopped in his tracks as he looked at his friend. “Did you wait for me? Don’t you have class?”

Apparently, all the reassuring that Kyuhyun did earlier had gone down the drain since Ryeowook was now pacing back and forth and wringing his hands while sounding very panicked. “What did the prof want? Did he say something about the presentation? Oh my god, did I mess something up?”

Kyuhyun slowly walked up to him and watched him pace. “If it was something about the presentation, don’t you think he would have called the both of us?”

“Well, I thought maybe he thought you were always a top student but now something is going to bring your grades down, and now he blames me or something? I told you he hates me!”

“He doesn’t hate you. He thinks our presentation went well.”

Ryeowook paused then turned to him with furrowed eyebrows. “Okay… Why didn’t he tell both of us that?”

“Oh, the presentation comment was just made in passing. That wasn’t why he talked to me.”

“Why did he talk to you then?”

“He asked if I remembered that we have dinner tonight.”

Ryeowook blinked three times then tilted his head. “What?”

“My sister’s going to be back in the city for a couple of days so we’re going to have dinner.”

“With your sister?” Ryeowook asked hesitantly. “And the prof?”

Kyuhyun smiled. “And my dad.”

“Your dad?”

“Yes.”

“The prof and your dad are friends?”

“No. The prof is my dad.”

Ryeowook stared at him quietly for ten seconds before slowly laughing. “No, he’s not.”

“Yes, he is.”

“He’s not.”

“He really is.”

“He really isn’t.”

“His name is Professor Cho.”

“...oh my god.”

“Yup.”

Ryeowook’s confused expression suddenly turned terrified. “Oh my god, I always tell you how terrible this subject is! Did you tell your dad? Oh my god! Your dad hates me!”

Kyuhyun laughed. “He doesn’t hate you!”

“How do you know that?!”

Kyuhyun sighed and moved to hold Ryeowook’s hands to stop him from wringing it again since the music major student was obviously spiraling again. “He does not have a personal agenda against you, okay? And you’ve been doing well for the past few weeks! He has no reason to hate you.”

Ryeowook looked up at him and, for some reason, looking back at his brown eyes somehow stopped Kyuhyun’s breathing. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Kyuhyun breathed out quietly when he snapped out of whatever trance he just fell into. “No need to worry.” He cleared his throat and stepped back, (reluctantly) letting go of the other’s hands. “You should be more worried about being late for your next class.”

“Oh! You’re right!” Ryeowook glanced at his watch and immediately turned to run in the direction of the exit. Before he could go too far, Ryeowook suddenly turned back to him and waved his hand. “Bye, Kyuhyun! See you again soon!”

Kyuhyun numbly waved back with a smile until he was sure that Ryeowook had left. In the empty hallway where everything was quiet, Kyuhyun felt like he could hear his heart beating faster and louder than it ever has before. As much as he wanted to pretend that it was a medical issue, he couldn’t really deny the realization he just had.

The realization that Ryeowook had suddenly become special to him.

He’s not even sure if it Ryeowook suddenly becoming important or if Ryeowook had been important for a while now and he was just now realizing it very suddenly. But Ryeowook is just… He’s special now. And his brain was trying to figure out the facts.

Was it the way he animatedly talked about his stories? Was it his laughter that made Kyuhyun torn about wanting to laugh with him or keeping quiet so he can listen to the pleasing sound? Was it the nonchalant yet kind way Ryeowook was quick to notice whenever he needed some help or a bit of company? Was it the way his hands felt when he held it earlier? He’s not sure. Maybe it’s all of the above. Maybe it’s something else.

But he does know that he’d like to see Ryeowook more often.

That isn’t much of a problem, considering they did have a class together. Precalculus became the subject Kyuhyun looked forward to the most because it meant he spent an hour sitting beside Ryeowook and talking with each other. (They did get into trouble once for chatting too loudly, which caused Ryeowook to ignore him for one class because he got scared of the professor again, but they went back to talking normally when Kyuhyun bought him lunch the next day.)

They ended up having another class together the next semester — a basic history class that Ryeowook was a bit better at so the roles were kind of reversed, but not that much. Neither of them were geniuses at memorizing the dates, but Ryeowook was just a bit better at remembering the stories and the names. They ended up working together in a group and, later on, as a pair, and that was enough to cement a routine that they managed to keep up for the next two years even when they weren’t classmates anymore.

Once a week, they would meet up for lunch.

They say once a week, but that usually turns into at-least-three times a week deal. One of those days, it’s the lunch that they both agreed to meet up at. The other times are when they just casually text each other and ask where they are and then just show up because they had no other plans but they were hungry. Do NOT ask who started the spontaneous lunches and do NOT ask who looks for the other more often because the answer for both is Kyuhyun and he’s not exactly proud of it. (He’s not sorry, but he’s been told it’s a bit sad. Kyuhyun would disagree. The result is lunch with Ryeowook, what’s sad about that?)

Today, the lunch is one of the unplanned ones and it’s Ryeowook who went looking for him this time. Kyuhyun’s happy about the whole thing as he always is, but Ryeowook coming to meet him for lunch means he had to get his other friends under control.

“Ooooh, Ryeowook’s going to be here.” The two friends he was already eating lunch with started sending each other knowing looks.

“Oh my god, shut up.” Kyuhyun groaned. They always get like this, but thankfully managed to hold back whenever Ryeowook is actually around. 

Jaehyun ignored him. “I should move seats, huh? Kyuhyun definitely needs Ryeowook to sit beside him.”

“If you move, Ryeowook’s going to end up sitting in front of me.” Donghae pointed to the seat that Jaehyun vacated in favor of the seat in front of Kyuhyun instead. “Are you going to be jealous?”

“You can’t do this to me,” Kyuhyun whined when Donghae just laughed at his betrayed look. “If you tease me too, no one’s on my side!”

Donghae shrugged with a teasing smile but said no more.

“That’s why you have to ask Ryeowook to be by your side forever and ever and—” Jaehyun ducked when Kyuhyun suddenly threw the cap of his water bottle at him. Jaehyun laughed as he stood up to pick up the blue bottle cap from the floor and flicked it back to Kyuhyun. “You see?”

“See what?”

“How slow you are?” Jaehyun clicked his tongue in disapproval when Kyuhyun rolled his eyes at him. “I’m trying to teach you a lesson here! If you throw bottle caps too slowly, it’s not gonna hit your target. If you take your time making a move on Ryeowook, someone else is gonna get him first!”

“Ahn Jaehyun, I’m going to murder you—”

“Hi, Ryeowook!” Donghae’s loud greeting stopped Kyuhyun from tackling Jaehyun to the ground. “We saved you a seat.”

“I saved the seat for you actually.” Jaehyun grinned smugly at Kyuhyun before turning to Ryeowook with a genuine smile. “But you just saved my life, so we’re even.”

Ryeowook was, thankfully, used to how weird his friends could be and just sent Jaehyun an amused look. “I didn’t realize I was a hero.” He took the seat beside Kyuhyun and put the books he was holding on the table. “Can you explain?”

“Just a few seconds ago, Kyuhyun was going to kill me.” Jaehyun pointed at Kyuhyun, like a five-year-old telling on his sibling. “But you’re here now, so you can calm him down.”

Kyuhyun groaned. “Ignore him, he’s being annoying today.” He kicked Jaehyun’s leg under the table then turned to Ryeowook with an innocent smile, ignoring Jaehyun’s shout of pain. “Hi, your class finished? How was your presentation? That was today, right?”

Ryeowook raised an eyebrow at their antics, obviously knowing what just happened but choosing to let it go. “Yeah, I’m so done with it all. It was so stressful preparing for it this past week, but I got through it. It was easier than I thought.”

Donghae sighed exaggeratedly. “Well, that’s honestly great! I hope you weren’t too worried about the presentation because Kyuhyun was doing all the worrying for you.” He turned to Jaehyun and they both simultaneously started mimicking Kyuhyun’s voice.

“Oh, Ryeowook needs to prepare a piece for one of his classes. I should let him know about this one!”

“Hey, do you guys have any recommendations on songs with a nostalgic vibe even though you’ve never heard the song before? Ryeowook needs some songs.”

“I gave Ryeowook 15 songs already, but he might need more!”

“I wasn’t able to do my homework because I was searching for a song that I couldn’t remember the title of, but I wanted to recommend it to Ryeowook for his project.”

“Stop it!” Kyuhyun shook his head at his two friends. He’s trying to keep himself calm but he knows that his ears must have turned red already.

Ryeowook suddenly turned to Kyuhyun, a concerned look on his face. “You didn’t do your homework? You should have done your work first before you even worried about mine! You didn’t have to—”

“Oh, no. Don’t worry about that.” Jaehyun waved off his concerns. “He did the homework five minutes before class and got a perfect score. It’s actually annoying.”

Ryeowook glared at Kyuhyun one last time before calming down. “I guess that’s what comes with growing up with professors as your parents.”

“You know, I was just going to congratulate you on doing good on your project, and I was going to tell you that the cafeteria is probably celebrating for you as well because they happen to be serving your favorite food but—” Kyuhyun cut himself off at the sight of Ryeowook grinning widely as he looked to where the food was. 

“Do you mean what I think you mean?!”

“What do you think I mean?”

“They have the kimchi fried rice that I like?”

“Yes, and the yogurt that you like as well.”

With an excited squeal and a rushed ‘please watch over my things’, Ryeowook ran across the room to get his lunch. Kyuhyun was too focused on watching him get in line and look at all the other menu options that he almost didn’t notice his two friends staring at him.

“Look at that smile.” Donghae smiled at him like a proud parent. “He looks so happy.”

Kyuhyun frowned at him, suddenly realizing that he must have been grinning like an idiot while watching Ryeowook. “Shut up,” he grumbled, double-checking to see that Ryeowook didn’t notice.

“It’s like we suddenly disappeared.” Jaehyun dramatically sighed before leaning back on his chair. “It’s like they’re the only two people in the room.”

“That’s what happens when you’re in love,” Donghae chuckled when Kyuhyun glared at him but said nothing and chose to look through Ryeowook’s pile of books instead.

Jaehyun stole a piece of broccoli from Kyuhyun’s plate that he hadn’t eaten yet. Kyuhyun tried stopping him, but Jaehyun just stuck his tongue out childishly before putting the food in his mouth. “Must be nice to be in love. It would be better if it was reciprocated, huh?”

Before Kyuhyun could say anything, Donghae gasped loudly. “Kyuhyun? Is there something you want to tell us?” Donghae held up a post-it note that he must have gotten from Ryeowook’s book. Kyuhyun was about to read what it said when Jaehyun snatched it up and read it.

“Oh my god. Here I am, teasing you about being slow when you’ve actually been doing something!” He put the note down on the table, which Kyuhyun quickly took. “I’m so proud of you!”

Donghae must have noticed how quiet Kyuhyun became and figured out what happened. “Did you not write it, Kyuhyun?”

“What do you mean? It’s signed KH! Kyu. Hyun. Of course, he wrote it.” Jaehyun replied, sounding sure of himself until he caught sight of Kyuhyun’s expression as well. “Oh, . It’s not you?”

Kyuhyun suddenly felt cold and he passed the note back to Donghae without another word. The math major silently watched his friend put the book back in an art history book. But even as the note was out of his sight, it was like it was imprinted in his brain and he could see it wherever he looked.

‘ Hi, babe! I remember you said you might need a book like this for a project, so I got it for you. Let’s go on another date soon, okay?

— KH ’

“I didn’t write that.” He said plainly.

“Kyuhyun,” Jaehyun started, but Kyuhyun shook his head.

“Please do not tell me ‘I told you so’. Please.” Kyuhyun’s voice cracked at the last word.

Jaehyun pursed his lips. “I wasn’t going to. I wouldn’t do that.”

“Heads up. Ryeowook’s coming back.” Donghae whispered. “Jaehyun and I are going to go. You should talk to him.”

“No–”

“Kyuhyun, listen. We just found a note, okay? Can’t be sure yet, right?” Jaehyun interrupted before he could protest. “Talk to him and make sure.”

“I have kimchi fried rice! And bulgogi! And yogurt!” Ryeowook announced in a sing-song voice as he took the seat beside Kyuhyun. He was quick to notice the lack of reaction from the others and the sudden mood shift at the table was hard to deny. “Is something wrong?”

Donghae sent Kyuhyun another meaningful look before turning to Ryeowook with a smile. “Jaehyun and I have to go. One of our professors just messaged us about a project and it doesn’t sound good.”

“Oh,” Ryeowook frowned. “Alright. Good luck! I hope everything turns out well.”

Jaehyun let out a short laugh that sounded a bit forced to Kyuhyun but Ryeowook didn’t seem to notice it. “Yeah, I hope it does too.”

The two friends quickly gathered their stuff and left without another word. Kyuhyun saw them send supportive looks to him before they exited the building, but he felt too tense to gain any encouragement from it.

“Guess you wouldn’t have problems with the profs, huh?” Ryeowook’s voice held its usual teasing tone that Kyuhyun felt he couldn’t immediately match, but he had to try.

“Just because my parents are professors, doesn’t mean every other teacher liked me.”

“Mhmm, and when have you gotten in trouble with a teacher?” Ryeowook sent him a knowing look after a moment of silence. “See? You can’t even think of one example on the spot!”

“Actually, I can enumerate a bunch of times I got scolded by my parents, but I know that’s not what you meant.” Kyuhyun nervously laughed before switching the topic. “Enough about that though. How have you been?”

Ryeowook almost choked on the spoonful of food he was eating when Kyuhyun asked the question. Kyuhyun immediately handed him some tissue and placed a bottle of water in the other’s hands.

“Why are you suddenly asking that?” Ryeowook laughed once he had calmed down from the coughing fit. “It’s not like you! Are you going through a list of conversation starters or something?”

His laugh always makes Kyuhyun feel a bit lighter, but it didn’t do much to lift this weird heaviness that was draped over him. “I was just trying to see if there are any updates on your life since we last saw each other.”

“We last saw each other two days ago. How much difference could there have been?”

Kyuhyun shrugged. “A lot can happen in a day.”

“Hmm, true.” Ryeowook sent him one last suspicious look before turning back to his food. “But there’s really nothing much. Just that annoying project that I finally finished today.”

The ‘another date’ that he read from the note kept circling Kyuhyun’s mind, so he tried subtly directing the conversation there. “Well, what about o