Seunghyun frantically slid a collection of empty pizza boxes off the kitchen counter and into the trash, grabbing the dirty silverware and plates underneath and adding them to the pile in the dishwasher.  His student would be there in less than an hour and the place was still an absolute pigsty.  Carefully picking through half a dozen beer cans abandoned on stacks of library books, he poured the soured contents in his sink, gagging at the smell.

“When did I turn into this gross college stereotype?” he wondered, knowing it was probably when Daesung left for his internship.  Seunghyun’s roommate was no neat freak, but at least the social responsibility of living with another person had kept him in check with his trash and dirty dishes.

They wouldn’t need the bedroom, so he threw old sneakers and clothes from the living room floor inside without consideration for where they landed and closed the door.  The bathroom he’d finished earlier.  The only most important thing now was to find the vacuum cleaner, disappeared somewhere for the last month or more. 

To his relief, he found it under a mountain of coats in the closet.  Seunghyun considered putting them on the empty hangers above, but opted to force the door shut instead.
He was leaning to plug in the sweeper when the knock came at his apartment door.

“Crap!”  He scrambled to rewind the cord, horrified by the carpet that now seemed to be alive with lint and food particles.  “He’s early.  Why would he be early?!”

——

Outside the door, Jiyong adjusted his shirt and jacket nervously, smoothing imaginary wrinkles and checking his hair with his hand one last time.  It had been windier than he expected walking uptown to Seunghyun’s apartment, and the metal walls of the elevator had only given him the faintest of reflections to primp himself. 

He mentally chided himself for the nervous knot in his stomach.  “He’s just an instructor…” he told himself.  “I don’t even think he gets paid to teach.  Just some grad student.  Student.  Like me.”

A tall, handsome grad student with fantastic taste in shoes, and he bit his lip to contain his smile.

The door swung open before he had completely swallowed the grin, so he deftly turned it into a polite greeting.  “Hi!  I hope I’m not too early.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine!”  Seunghyun assured him.  He seemed out of breath, like he did in class most mornings after darting in at least three minutes late.  “Come on in.”

Jiyong removed his backpack and nodded in thanks as his instructor took it for him, placing it gently on the couch after starting to set it on the floor.  The dirty carpet strangely put him at ease, reminding him of the constant battle in he and Youngbae’s dorm room to try and keep the place presentable.  Jiyong liked a clean living space, but with class and studying and work and well, partying…

Seunghyun headed for the fridge while Jiyong unpacked his textbooks.  “Do you want something to drink?  Coke?  Beer?”

Jiyong laughed.  “Are you trying to get kicked out of the department?”

But Seunghyun only looked confused, a cute face Jiyong enjoyed seeing him make when someone asked tough questions in class, like when his office hours were.

“I’m not 21 for a few more months,” Jiyong explained.

“Oh, sorry,” Seunghyun said and opted for a couple sodas.  “I didn’t even think of that,” he admitted.

Jiyong patted the spot on the couch next to him and crossed his legs.  Seunghyun came to join him hurriedly.

“So, about that reading from Monday, I have some questions…”