Soojung’s breathing hitched as Hye Jun and Yonghwa entered the venue with their arms linked. Proving her intentions, the female newcomer sent a sarcastic look towards Gyeonggi Sci’s queenka and smirked, as if tauntingly saying ‘Yeah, , I still got Oppa.’

Kevin noticed that something’s wrong when his partner won’t write anything at the tablet. His eyes then followed her gaze and saw the rude girl from earlier, with a new guy who he thought has something to do with them both.

“Are you okay?” Kevin whispered as half of his reverie paid attention to solving the math problem they needed to supply an answer for. “Hey…” he nudged her.

But to no avail.

The queenka’s grip on the stylus was shaking. She had managed to tear down her gaze off the couple but she couldn’t pacify herself. Her lips were quivering and her lips were beginning to pale.

And Kevin knew it’s no longer panic attack. It was anger.

It was a really good thing that they were nearing the end of the category and so Kevin decided to answer all the remaining questions by himself. Sadly, he didn’t get all answers right. It’s not like he couldn’t. It’s just that he was too distracted.

So in order to calm his partner down, and himself too, he instinctively reached for Soojung’s hand and intertwined their fingers under the table. As he stared at the MC trying to concentrate on the question on History (because his heart was thumping wildly at the contact,) his thumb was caressing the back of her palm. And like a ventriloquist, he was whispering her name in an oh-so-lovingly manner without anyone but her to hear.

“Soojung-ah… Soojung-ah…”  he chanted as he squeezed the queenka’s hand tighter.

A few minutes passed Kevin was almost reaching his own state of panic because they were down to the #4 spot. He was beginning to lose composure as the last question for the intermediate category was asked.

But more than the win, Kevin was more worried about the girl whose hand he’s still holding. She didn’t get any better. She was still fuming with rage as her eyes repeatedly darted with poison to the couple who had the nerve to actually sit in the front row of the audience, just in front of her.

Alas, Kevin managed to answer the final question correctly and that landed them to (at least!) the third spot. They were given a 5-minute break before the difficult category begins and the kingka, thankful for the opportunity, immediately stood up and dragged his partner to the backstage. There were some gasps at the sight of their intertwined fingers, but that was the last of his concerns already. All h