“I was waiting to receive a message from you all week.” Suzy couldn’t tell if her project partner was angry or just disappointed. Anyway, this was the most serious she had ever seen Park Chanyeol.

“Sorry, I was, uh, preoccupied with other things,” she lies. The truth was, she had forgotten all about their Social Sciences project, or maybe just actually texting him back. She usually doesn’t feel bad about things like this, but seeing Chanyeol purposely sit beside her during Asian Literature just to discuss the matter with her, in a serious manner too, made her anxious.

“Really?” Chanyeol asks skeptically while raising an eyebrow. His face suddenly lights up. “Was it about the thing you were so worried about last time?”

Suzy knew what Chanyeol was talking about. ‘Last time’ was when she lost Kai, well, accidentally told him off. “Uh, yeah,” Suzy smiles trying to hide her nervousness. “That.”

Chanyeol leans towards Suzy’s side, giving her a curious expression with those big eyes of his. “How did that go for you by the way?”

Kai furrows his eyebrows upon seeing that sight. “Geez, this guy’s annoying,” he mutters so that Suzy won’t hear it clearly.

“It’s okay now,” Suzy steals a glance towards Kai who was in front the both of them. Kai sees her do so and notes her give off a warm smile as she turned back to Chanyeol.

Chanyeol crosses his arms in one big and cute movement. “You could have texted me about that. I was worried for you too, you know.”

Kai scoffs. “Hey!” his first word comes off more aggressively than he thought. “What are you -,” he pauses for a while realizing he shouldn’t give Suzy any hints that the guy she was talking to was acting all ‘charming’ to get her attention. Instead he squints his eyes towards the tall boy who couldn’t even see him. “Weird ears,” was the only thing he said out loud, but inside, he was cursing Park Chanyeol for flirting with Suzy.

“Ah, well,” Suzy didn’t seem to know how to react to what Chanyeol said. After all, she did feel like she dragged Chanyeol down with her irresponsible actions. She bows and mutters an apology.

The boy with the messy dark brown hair sneers. Obviously pleased by Suzy’s indifference to Chanyeol’s attacks.

“W-what are you apologizing for?” Chanyeol asks, definitely not expecting that reaction from Suzy.

“It’s my fault we couldn’t start the project earlier,” Suzy says earnestly. “If you want I could start on it by myse-,” she was cut off by a now flustered Chanyeol who had one hand up, gesturing her to stop.

“It’s okay,” he says, gathering his nerves. “I didn’t mean it in that way…”

Kai sees Suzy furrow her eyebrows and pout. She was too cute for her own good.

“Then, what did you mean by…”

“Nevermind,” Chanyeol waves the topic off and reaches down for his backpack on the floor. He opens it and retrieves his iPad. Its casing was black and white with gold and silver letters.

He places the device on his desk and turns it on. “I’ve already narrowed down some possible topics.” He flips through the applications and opens a list. He hands over the iPad to Suzy and says, “Pick a title you’d like to work on.”

Still with his arms crossed, Kai walks over to Suzy’s side and reads the list. Suzy just kept scrolling down. There were a lot of titles there to choose from. Well, at least weird ears was good for something, Kai notes.

“See something you like?” Chanyeol peers over.

“There are a lot,” Suzy comments. “I feel bad that you had to do all the research without me.”

“I really don’t mind,” Chanyeol leans back on his chair.

“Still… ”

 Chanyeol puts one elbow up his desk and props his head up on one hand. His lips pull up to a smile only Kai sees. “Consider it a favor.”

Suzy innocently nods, her eyes still browsing the list. “I guess I owe you one then,” she absentmindedly notes.

Chanyeol smirks, much to Kai’s displeasure. There was definitely something up with that smug look on his face. Kai didn’t like it. Still, he didn’t want to tell Suzy. If he did, he’d have to explain the whole ‘dream girl’ ordeal. The last thing he’d want to do is be a binding force to link these two together. Especially since Chanyeol seems to be doing a good job of that by himself.

Suzy pauses when she sees a possibly interesting article. She opens it and reads the abstract. She liked it and tells Chanyeol. He agrees.

“How about we meet up after classes to discuss this later?” he suggests. “I get off at 5:30. How about you?”

“My classes end at 4 today,” Suzy recalls. “I don’t think I can wait for you that long.”

Chanyeol nods. “Right, how about this then,” Chanyeol opens an application to an online messaging network. “Do you have an account here?”

“Yes,” Suzy answers and Chanyeol hands her his iPad.

“Great! I’ll send you the article, just type in your username here,” he says pointing to a text box.

Suzy obediently follows his lead, while Kai shakes his head.

It was a good thing Suzy didn’t suspect a thing. Unlike Kai who thought this was another of Chanyeol’s ways to ‘flirt’ with a girl.

Suzy hands back the iPad to a grinning Chanyeol. “Alright…” he pushes one of the buttons there. “Sent!”

“Now, you can read the article at home and we’ll just meet at a later time,” Chanyeol explains. “How about tomorrow? I get off at 4:00.”

Suzy scowls. “Friday? My classes end at 5:00”

“No worries,” Chanyeol waves. “We still have the weekend,” he notes. “Are you busy then?”

“No.”

“Okay, good, we’ll meet up on Saturday,” Chanyeol sets a bit too enthusiastically. “That okay with you?”

Suzy nods. It was the least she could do.

“Alright,” Chanyeol grins in satisfaction. “Let’s sit beside each other later for Social Sciences too,” he suggests. “So we can ask the professor if he’d approve of our topic.”

“No, no no!” Kai blurted out in a panic, making Suzy turn to his direction. He quickly covers his mouth with both of his hands. Suzy gives him a questioning look upon seeing this.

Waiting for Suzy’s answer, Chanyeol was a bit taken aback by Suzy’s sudden head jerk. “Is something there?” Chanyeol looks at the same direction Suzy did.

Suzy shakes her head vigorously. “Ah… It’s nothing, just a shadow,” she fibs, hoping to lift Chanyeol’s suspicions. The last thing she wanted was Chanyeol thinking he got paired up with a lazy weirdo.

“Oh,” Chanyeol merely turns his gaze back to Suzy’s flustered face. “So how about it?”

“Yeah, okay,” Suzy agrees to it immediately, just so she could change the topic. “Sure,” she says with more composure now, making Kai hopelessly drop his hands to the sides and sigh.

Park Chanyeol was a sly, sly man.