i lied surprise everyone
in all seriousness though, I didn't think I'd be able to finish but then I felt bad leaving a half-finished chapter because i'm fickle like that so...enjoy the very short update!
 

For a library, it sure was noisy.

It was mostly upperclassman, less concerned with studying than fooling around with their friends while the librarian wasn’t around to keep them quiet. They chattered relatively quietly –considering that they might’ve had some brains – but occasionally one would burst into laughter and the rest would follow.

Must be nice, I thought, annoyed, that they can become so unfocused even in a room filled with study materials.

I was in study mode at a table near the window, all by myself. It was after classes had ended for the day. I decided on the off-chance that the drama with Minwoo’s family had only proliferated, I’d study in the library instead of in the dorm building.

Lucky for me, the material was pretty easy. Otherwise, there was no way I could have tolerated being in such an environment.

Hopefully things had died down a little. It wasn’t much fun having everyone so preoccupied with mending their families’ ties. The past me would slap me for saying so, but it seemed like forever since Minwoo and Dongwan had last pulled me off campus.

“Fancy meeting you here.”

I looked up to find Andy in the middle of sitting down across from me, dropping his backpack on the carpet floor. I shot a quick glance around. There were countless empty tables that he could have chosen to sit at instead. Yet he had to pick the one that I was at?

Well, this was going to be interesting.

He began taking out textbooks and notebooks from his backpack and placing them onto the table. He was planning on sticking around for a while.

“Can you help me with math?”

I stopped in the middle of writing to look up at him again. Unperturbed, he flipped open a notebook. Was this Andy? Or was this some kind of robot-alien pretending to be him and failing miserably?

“Sure,” I said, still estranged. I guess I’d study math for the day instead, then.

“In this problem,” he said immediately, turning his notebook 180 degrees toward me. “Why does ‘x’ equal that?”

I read over the problem and looked back at Andy. He didn’t seem like he was kidding…not that I’d be able to tell even if he were. But to be perfectly honest, he was asking for help on a problem that was gone over in high school?

“Well,” I started. I used the tip of my pencil as a pointer. “First you do this. And then –”

“Why,” he cut in. “Why do you do that?”

I remained silent. He remained silent.

He was serious.

“Didn’t you learn this before?” I asked, completely baffled. “I mean, in high school, right?”

“Maybe.” He paused, staring at the sloppy numbers and work scrawled on the paper. “I’ve forgotten.”

He’d…forgotten?

To me, there was nothing scarier than having forgotten everything you had learned in school. Formal education was all about memorization.

“Are you passing all your classes?” I blurted out.

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Kind of.”

He wasn’t.

“You’re wondering why I’m in this school, aren’t you?” he asked, still sounding indifferent.

I swallowed. That was an insulting question, but…

“It’s because of my parents,” he said. “They wanted me to go here and hoped that it would make me a better student if I was around a bunch of geniuses. But clearly, that didn’t happen.”

He met my troubled expression and smirked. It was uncannily similar to the way Eric looked when he put on the same smile, but somehow extraordinarily different at the same time.

“In other words, money,” he said. “Money is how I got here.”

Ah. Money.

“So you didn’t want to come here,” I guessed.

“Not really.”

“Why didn’t you just say so?”

He stared at me, unblinking. “What?”

It struck me that maybe although Andy seemed much more knowledgeable than his older brother, he was the same type of clueless idiot underneath. “You don’t seem like you told them that you didn’t want to come here.”

“I didn’t want to, but I didn’t care enough to tell them.”

I wet my lips and said, “Once in a while, I think you should care. My mom used to tell me that passion is what makes someone human.” Wow. Never thought I’d be quoting my mother’s life lessons. “Are you happy living like that?”

Huh. When I thought about it, that sounded kind of harsh. Stammering, I said, “S-sorry, I didn’t mean –”

He crossed his arms across his stomach and laughed. “So you are interesting sometimes.”

…What? “Huh?”

“I was wondering what the fuss was with everyone when they lost their minds over helping you. To me you just seemed like a helpless guy.” He sighed upon recalling something. “It was annoying, to say the least.”

Oh. I stiffened up. How were you supposed to respond to someone if they called you ‘annoying’?

“Remember when you first walked into the dorm building?” Andy said. “At that point I was thinking that you were definitely screwed.”

When I…? The memory of when I first arrived on campus came back to me. That’s right…Andy was the first member of the dorm that I had ever met. And he was the one who found it funny when I told him that I was introverted.

“But I guess you’re strange enough,” he said now.

I returned my attention to him. “Strange enough for what?”

“For my brother,” he said, as if it were obvious. “If you couldn’t even survive the other dorm people, I didn’t think you’d be able to handle Eric.”

He was right. I didn’t think I could keep from going insane living alongside Eric, either. But there I was, alive. Maybe I’d lost my senses in the process.

“What are you two doing?”

Minwoo appeared at the head of the table, placing his palms down on the surface. He did not look amused.

“What?” Andy replied coolly. He gestured to the array of books splayed out in front of us. “Studying. Clearly.”

With a look of displeasure, Minwoo plucked the notebook from Andy’s hands with two fingers. “This looks fun,” he said dryly. Another studying hater, I could see.

“What did you come here for?” I asked.

“That’s right!” Minwoo said, reminded of his duty. His face turned stern again. “This isn’t any time to be reading books. Eric’s dad just arrived at the dorm.”

Andy grimaced. “My dad’s here?”

“Yeah. And he’s making a scene.”

‘A scene’?

“Let’s go,” Minwoo said, already stuffing things into Andy’s bag. “Andy, you need to be there to defend your brother. And you, Hyesung…” He paused with a book in hand. “You just need to be there.”

Yeah. I did, didn’t I?

Andy and I finished gathering our books and we scurried off to the dorm building. Minwoo was surprisingly agile for someone of such short stature; he ran ahead of us multiple times before coming back to urge us ahead. I, on the other head, dreaded the arrival.

The three of us burst through the door to find Eric and his father standing alone in the middle of the room, as if a duel was about to commence. Neither flinched at our entrance.

“Minwoo!” Dongwan hissed, practically pouncing on us. He looked like he was on the verge of a childish, tear-filled tantrum. “I was dying here!”

“Sorry,” Minwoo sobbed, dramatically pulling Dongwan into a hug. “I won’t leave you alone again.”

“You guys,” Andy said. “What about my bro and Dad?”

“Oh,” Dongwan said, still clinging to Minwoo. “Right. Give it a listen, then.”

Minwoo and Dongwan became completely silent, leaving us to watch the father-son duo before us.

“-not answer your phone,” Eric’s father was saying. His face was a mask of suppressed anger. “Who taught you to make a habit of ignoring your parents when they want to speak to you?”

Eric didn’t look at his father when he said, “I just didn’t have anything to say to you.”

The redness rose from Eric’s father’s neck. “You good-for-nothing –”

“Wait!”

Everyone gave me a look of combined shock and awe. Of my own stupid instinct, I had jumped next to Eric and faced his father. In his own way, the man was even scarier than his wife.

“Who are you?” he demanded, his eyes narrowed to slits as he stared at me defiantly.

“I-I’m…” Should I say, or try to keep him ignorant? “Th-that doesn’t matter!”

“Dad, quite honestly, you’re wreaking havoc inside an entire dorm,” Andy said as he passed by. “If what you’re talking about doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of the guys here, you shouldn’t be scaring them off by marching in here like this.”

His father gave him a biting glare. Andy pretended he didn’t notice and went off toward his room. The glare turned back to me as he repeated, “Who are you?”

My mouth was completely dry. Even if I wanted to say anything, it probably would have sounded pathetic.

“Are you that kid my wife informed me of?” he filled in for me. The disapproval on his face was growing. “You do seem like a bother, but there’s less to do about you than there is my own son.”

Before I could get feel insulted, Eric said, “Dad, he’s not a bother.”

His dad didn’t want to hear any of it. “Enough about that.”

“Dad.” Eric’s voice was now scarily low. “He’s not. A bother.”

Another tense silence came between them. I felt Eric’s hand move to rest slightly above the small of my back.

“Oh, the whole family’s almost here.”

All of us whirled toward the door to see Hyori standing inside, adjusting her heels while balancing the strap of her purse on her forearm.

“What are you doing here?” Minwoo hissed. He was thinking what everyone else was: she would likely be making things just a little worse than they already were.

She him with the aura of sass and cheek that she always carried with her. “Don’t use that tone with me,” she said. “I only thought that everyone would be interested to here what’s going on with Dad.”

Minwoo’s eyes bulged. “What is going on with Dad?” he demanded eagerly.

Hyori took her time in clearing and fixing her shirt sleeve. “He’s okay now, I think,” she said. “He didn’t even yell at all when he got up today.”

He…he was ‘okay’? If he had lost all the spirit for the fight with Eric’s father, then didn’t that mean…?

“Just yesterday, he threatened to fire me!” Eric’s father protested in confusion. “And now you come in here, claiming that he’s fine?”

Hyori put on a charming grin. “Hey, you know my dad, ahjusshi. He loses his temper and likes to play around with his power too much. But after Mom and I persuaded him that it was no big deal, he settled down a little.” She then looked around the room. “By the way, what’s going on in here? Where is everyone?”

“Hear that, Dad?” Eric said.

He heard it, alright. He gave a lasting look to Hyori, as if making sure she wasn’t playing around. She returned his gaze innocently.

“Do not think,” he said, “that this means I approve of you two.” He eyed Eric and I before looking straight at his son. “Even if your mother does, that does not mean anything if I don’t agree.”

He left the building with careful steps. As soon as the door closed behind him, Eric said, “Yeah, right.”