Soojin struggled with the bundle of blueprint copies and assignments as she carefully walked to the Building of Environmental Design, avoiding any obstacles that came across her path.

She grumbled about her bad luck about getting chosen to bring her professor’s papers back to his office. Her professor asked for any volunteers to help him get some papers from the main office and then deliver it to his office. Nobody raised their hand, so he casually picked her who was sitting right in front of the classroom.

“Of all the days I choose to sit in the front, I get picked to do grunt work,” she grumbled as she carefully climbed the stairs.

She successfully managed to reach the top step and turned right into another hallway when she ran into something, or rather someone. Several papers fell off from the top of the stack and fluttered onto the floor.

“Great,” she murmured. She delicately set the stack of papers she had in her arms onto the floor and began to pick up the remaining papers. However, another pair of hands had already gathered them up for her.

“Here,” the person said, handing her several pieces of paper.

“Thanks,” she gratefully said, not paying close attention to the person handing the pieces of paper.

She heard a scoff and the voice continued, “Wow, not even a voice of recognition?”

Soojin grew confused as she lifted her head to face the stranger, except he wasn’t a stranger.

“You,” she growled. “I can’t believe I’m seeing you again.”

He laughed, “I guess we can’t avoid each other.”

It had been a month since she last saw Kim Myungsoo. She kept to her word and didn’t give him a glance of recognition, most likely because she never seen him after that. And for that red string, she didn’t even give it a second glance either. She figured that there was nothing she could do about it, and it became part of her daily routine to ignore it.

She thought she could live the rest of her life peacefully, but apparently that wasn’t the case anymore.   

She grabbed the papers rather harshly, scowling. “Thanks,” she murmured, getting up to leave.

“Wait, let me help you with some of those papers,” he said, moving to grab some.

She turned slightly to the side and shook her head. “No thanks.”

He gasped, “I can’t believe you would reject a kind-hearted stranger’s help.”

She scowled again. Trust him to pull out her stranger’s plea and use it against her. In her limited encounters with him, she already had a sense that he was a sly and sarcastic being underneath his smiley exterior. Oh, the numerous people he must have fooled. Not her.

She dumped more than half of her papers onto his outstretched arms and smiled as sweetly as he did to her.

“Thank you, oh kind stranger,” she said mockingly.

He grinned, “Now, now. No need to be so hostile.”

She grumbled, “Oh, just follow me.”

She walked briskly down the hallway towards her professor’s office. Myungsoo ran to catch up to her. Despite the fact that he was taller than her, he had to walk faster than normal to keep up with her.

“What’s the rush?” he asked, trying hard not to trip over anything.

“The faster I get these papers to the professor, the faster I can rid of you,” she mumbled.

Myungsoo just grinned and obediently followed her.

When she reached her professor’s office, she walked in glancing inside to see if he was in.

“Hi, Professor. I brought you your papers.”

Her professor turned to her and smiled in relief. “Thanks, Soojin. You’re a lifesaver. Just put them over there.”

She nodded and headed to set the papers on his desk with Myungsoo following behind. Her professor took notice of the extra person.

“Myungsoo,” he cried in recognition, “What are you doing here?”

He laughed, “Hey, Professor Jung. I’m just helping out her out." He set his stack of papers on the table. "I haven’t seen you in a while. It’s good to see you.”

Professor Jung got up and patted Myungsoo on the back. “It has been a while, hasn’t it? It’s good to see you healthy.”

“Not at all, Professor. You should have seen me the last month. I was practically dying from a cold a got,” Myungsoo sighed dramatically.

“Ah, I remember the time when your allergies kicked in, and you literally used everyone’s spare tissues.”

Myungsoo grimaced, “Don’t remind me. Now whenever someone in that class sees me, they offer me tissues. I’m never going to live that down.”

Soojin looked at their exchange with some interest, but decided it had nothing to do with it. She didn’t want to interrupt their conversation, so she decided to stealthily sneak out and leave them alone. But Myungsoo caught her intention and grabbed her wrist as she was about to make a break for it.

“Sorry, Professor. I should get going,” he said smiling, still grabbing onto Soojin’s wrist. Soojin, who was horrified that he had stopped, tried her best to loosen his grip without raising any suspicion.

Professor Jung noticed Myungsoo’s hand on Soojin’s wrist and raised an eyebrow.

“Are you guys… you know…?” he asked, indicating his suspicion of a more personal relationship between the two.

“No!” Soojin exclaimed, aghast at the suggestion, suddenly reminded of the red string that indicated the same thing, while Myungsoo laughed and just winked.

Professor Jung laughed and turned to Soojin, “No need to be so offended. Myungsoo is one my favorite students. He’s a bright student, and you should consider yourself lucky to be with him.”

“Wait! There’s nothing between him and me! You got it all wrong!” Soojin tried to reason.

Myungsoo dragged Soojin out of Professor Jung’s office.

“Bye, Professor. I’ll try and visit more often!” he called out, his voice overpowering Soojin’s protests.

Professor Jung watched as Soojin struggled against Myungsoo. “They make a cute couple,” he chuckled to himself.

Once they were outside, Soojin angrily yanked her arm from Myungsoo’s grip.

“Did I ever tell you how much I hate you right now?” she asked, shaking her head.

“No. And I hope you don’t plan on either. Hate’s a strong word. And very closely related to love,” he said, his voice coated with amusement.

Soojin simply groaned with annoyance. “Thanks for helping out. I suppose this where we part ways…”

“Oh, hold on a moment,” he interrupted. “You owe me.”

“What? Owe you in what way?” she asked surprised.

“I did help you with your papers.”

“But I didn’t even ask for your help,” she kindly reminded him.

He smiled, “I know, but I still helped you. An eye for an eye, or in this case, a favor for a favor.”

She stared at him, astounded by the absurdity of the whole situation.

“Fine,” she spluttered out, figuring that he wouldn’t leave her alone unless she accepted, “what do you want?”

He put a finger to his chin and gently tapped. “Hmmm,” he mused, “I don’t know yet, but once I find out, I’ll tell you.”

“Are you serious?” she asked, narrowing her eyes, “If you don’t tell me now, I’ll have to meet you again. And you know that I don’t want that.”

He teasingly smiled, “Well, I don’t know about that. I think we’ll meet each other quite more often now.”

“What… what do you mean?” she asked hesitantly.

“You know that Professor Jung is an architecture professor, right? And that we both had him for a class.”

“What are you talking about? What does that have anything… wait,” she paused and widened her eyes.

“No. It can’t be.”

He grinned mischievously, “I knew you were a smart one.”

What Myungsoo was alluding to and what Soojin finally realized was a horrendous thought to her. In that moment, she had realized that both of their majors were most likely related. Which meant they would probably have classes together. Which meant that she would see him more than once, a lot more.

“Your major is architecture?” she murmured.

“Yep. You too, right?”

She shook her head, “My major is landscaping architecture.”

Then she scowled, “Even though they’re different, they basically have the same core courses.”

Myungsoo laughed, “Well, look at that. Wouldn’t you consider this fate? Us having extremely similar majors?”

Soojin glared at him, “No, not at all. Because this is all just a coincidence, a very horrifying one, but a coincidence, nevertheless.”

Then she frowned, “But how come I never saw you in any my classes?”

He looked at her amusedly, “Probably since I’m a second-year and you’re a first-year. But that doesn't really mean anything because I know that it's common for both years to have the same classes.” 

She stared at him, “How did know what year I am?”

“Lucky guess,” he said looking amused.

She continued to stare at him, wondering what exactly went though his head. He was one of the most confusing and unpredictable person she had ever met. He was almost always smiling or laughing, but his words seemed to always have an underlying message, something that didn’t fit with that smiling face.

She shook her head. “Fine, so we might have the similar majors. So we might see each other more often now.”

She pointed her finger at Myungsoo, “But that does not mean we are friends. At all,” she emphasized.

He shrugged, “All right.”

She blinked at him. He wasn’t forcing his friendship on her? That came to be a surprise to her, seeing his persistence wasn’t exactly that subtle.

He chuckled, “We’re not friends right now. But who knows what fate will do to the future.”

He clasped his hands together and nodded. “Well, I must be off.” He threw a salute in her direction and took off in a flash.

Soojin stared at the empty space in front of her. She was flabbergasted at his sudden departure and heaved out a large sigh. Apparently she thought wrong. He seemed adamant on creating a relationship with her. But whether it was friend or enemy, she didn’t know. But what she did know that he wasn’t letting this go. This fate relationship. Something she had tried so hard to forget, but now it all came swirling back.

A/N: And she thought she could avoid him. Silly girl, don’t you know fate doesn’t work that way? I wonder if any of you guys believe in fate. I, personally, think we create our own path, but maybe where we end up is already determined. Who knows?

Thanks again for reading. I hope it isn’t that dreary of a chapter.