“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.” 

--William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

--
 

5.

Cho Kyuhyun felt guilty.

He was supposed to be working on a project with his partner, but instead, he was seated on the chair opposite his partner and doing nothing. The sight of Seohyun furiously writing down points after points from the fat and thick reference book made the former even guiltier.

He blamed it on his brain for being a total moron at the moment. He had wanted to help, he really did—but every time he offered his hand to help, he ended up screwing the simple task. In the end, Seohyun had been the one who had fixed what he had screwed and he had then decided that it was best for him to do nothing.

Seohyun didn’t seem to mind though. She had always preferred working on projects and assignments alone for, being the quiet person she was, it was hard for her to communicate with her partner for any projects ever assigned.

“Umm…” Kyuhyun cleared his throat after a long silence, and Seohyun looked up from her work slowly. “Are you sure you don’t need any help?”

Seohyun glanced from her partner to the piece of paper she had scribbled, unsure of what to reply. “I’m almost done copying, actually.” She finally said.

Kyuhyun shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “Is there anything else I can do after you’re done with that?”

The demure young lady furrowed her eyebrows in concentration, wondering if there were any other tasks that she might be able to hand over to her partner. Their project was due next month and she was determined to finish the project in two weeks’ time.

“Well…I’m not quite sure…” Seohyun said nervously.

“It’s okay, just tell me when you need me to do anything,” Kyuhyun quickly replied, realizing that Seohyun had a difficult time trying to think of something for him to do.

“Just remember though, Seohyun-sshi…this is a pair project, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I really want to help.” He continued, slightly shocked at what he had just said. Why was he asking for trouble? “Let’s do this project together, okay?”  

Seohyun nodded her head slowly after a few seconds. “Okay.”

--

3B was no exception from the project everyone in their grade had to do. Just a day after 3A was assigned to their projects, 3B had also been surprised by their language teacher as she walked in that day to announce the compulsory project they had to do. Like 3A, most complaints from the students were that school had just started, that they shouldn’t be tortured like this.

So when the teacher added that this project was supposed to be done in pairs, Yoona felt her heart raced a mile as she realized the slight probability of her getting paired up with the last person she wanted to. She gasped unexpectedly when Sooyoung’s name was called out alongside Min Sunye, and Yoona felt a jolt of jealousy forming in her heart.

She eyed the paper in the hands of their teacher, glaring at the piece as if trying to figure out who her partner was. Anyone but him! Anyone.But.Him!

“Im Yoona and Kim Jongin—“

Yoona let out a sigh of relieved before breaking into a grin as she glanced at her new partner three seats in front of her. Jongin, or also known as Kai, turned around from his seat and gave a thumbs up at her, smiling.

“—Xi Luhan and Oh Sehun—“

Sehun nodded, turning his head swiftly to where Luhan was seated and realized that he probably doesn’t even know who his partner was. Making a mental note to introduce himself later, Sehun turned his head back in front and patiently waited for the teacher to finish dividing them to pairs.

After a few more pairs, Mrs. Kang then proceeded on explaining about the project in detail. After tons of scribbling on notebooks and some jolted mentally on their mind, Mrs. Kang announced for her students to be seated according to their pairs now and everyone scrambled to their respective partners.

Because Sooyoung had left to sit beside Sunye, Kai then sat on her place beside Yoona, both of them gave a high five to each other.

“Thank God my partner is you, Kai!” Yoona said and Kai laughed.

“At least we can work well together.” Kai agreed and nodded his head.

Curious, Yoona tried her best to not seem too obvious—but she turned around slowly to look at that certain young man that she had hold a slight grudge on, frowning when she realized that Sehun and him were getting along just fine. Both of them were engrossed in a topic Yoona had no idea of, but judging from their expressions, it was something they both had interest on.

The young lady crossed her arms, slightly annoyed. “That kid! He treats me and Sehun so differently!” Stealing another glance at Luhan, she found herself frowning again. “And he’s paying a hundred percent on what Sehun is saying!”

“Bias!” Yoona hissed softly and earned a stare from Kai.

“What’s wrong?”

Realizing that she had said that out loud, Yoona quickly shook her head and hand at the same time. “Oh, nothing. I was just thinking.”

“Can a representative from each pair come forward please?” The voice belonging to Mrs. Kang was heard again and both Yoona and Kai looked briefly at each other.

Kai gestured his head towards the teacher in front and gave a grin. Yoona, knowing exactly what he had meant by that laughed before standing. She made her way towards the front slowly, realizing immediately the crowd that was forming around their teacher.

“There are a list of topics ranging from literary, geography and history here—“ Mrs. Kang shook a paper filled container, “—and there will be at least two pairs having the same topic.”

The teacher flipped the container open and placed it on the desk. “You may take only one piece.”

One by one, the crowd dispersed slowly with a piece of paper in their hands. Yoona, who couldn’t be bothered to fight for the topics stood slightly away from the crowd, waiting for the amount to decrease before heading towards the medium sized container in front of Mrs. Kang.

Just as she reached out to choose a topic out of the last few pieces of paper, a hand shot out in front of her and swatted her delicate hand away.

The doe eyed angel glared at the classmate right beside her, having half her mind to yell at him. However, she stopped herself when she realized the quest