“Alright. That’s it for today. Don’t forget to do the reading,” the professor said from the front of the lecture hall. 

I let out a sigh and began shoveling my books into my bag. I stood up and followed everyone else as they left the hall, moving my feet back to my room.

Usually I would be relieved because it was Friday and this happened to be my last class. Normally, I would head back to the dorms and get ready for a long night of video games and Netflix. But not today. 

Today was my first day working at my brother’s pizzeria. He had recently opened up the place and instead of hiring people normally, Himchan complained about not knowing who to trust and seemed to find faults in everyone who applied for the pizzeria’s delivery boy. After nagging at me for about two weeks straight that I would be the perfect person for the job, I finally gave in. Not willingly, mind you. He just threatened to tell our mom that I had skipped a couple of classes when the semester first started. 

But seriously, it doesn't even make sense for him to want me working there. I can’t drive, which totally defeats the purpose of being a delivery boy, and I’m not a people person. I bet he just wanted to hire me so that he could pay me cheaper. Tch. The bastard. 

Coming to stand in front of my room in the sophomore dorm building, I opened the cheaply painted door to find my roommate and best friend sprawled out on the floor in front of our little television set. With the theme song playing, I automatically recognized the flashy cartoon as Tom and Jerry. Daehyun sure knew how to act anything but his age. 

When he noticed me kicking off my shoes, he looked over. “Hey. Just a heads up, I ate the last cup of ramen.” 

I rolled my eyes. “Why am I not surprised?” 

I stepped over him and went to the little desk set up beside my bed, setting my bag down. I began changing out of the polo I had on, slipping on something much more loose and comfortable, which so happened to be an pac man t-shirt. 

“Where yah headed?” Daehyun asked curiously from his spot on the floor, using the remote to mute out Tom and Jerry. 

“Over to Himchan’s pizzeria. Remember, I told you I would start working there.” I ran my hand through my hair, using a thin black head band to hold my bangs out of my face since they had been poking me in the eyes all day. I would have to get them cut soon. 

Daehyun pulled himself off the ground, shutting off the tv. “That was today?” he asked, moving to sit on his bed across from mine. “Can I come with?” 

I turned to him, scrunching up my nose in distaste. “Why would you wanna go there? If you think Himchan’s gonna feed you free pizza then think again. He’ll probably just chase you out with a broom.”

Daehyun shrugged absentmindedly. “I don’t know why he hates me so much. I mean, what did I ever do to him?”

I shook my head and threw my sweaty polo at him, hitting him square in the face. “It probably has something to do with that prank you pulled on him Christmas week.” 

He threw my shirt back across the room where it landed on my bed. “You gotta admit his face was hilarious.” He said, laughing and at the same time trying to imitate the horrified look my brother had pulled when he had woken up to find a terrifying clown mask laying on his bed next to him. 

“And you wonder why he doesn't like you,” I said, rolling my eyes and moving to stand in front of the mirror hanging on the back of our room door. 

“Oh, please, it wasn’t that bad,” Daehyun said. Through the mirror I could see him hop off his bed and begin changing out of the sweats he was wearing, pulling on a pair of blue jeans and a simple white t-shirt.

Ready to leave, I hovered by the door with my shoes on, waiting for Daehyun. He ruffled his hair messily and grabbed his phone before coming to pull on his own shoes. 

The pizzeria that Himchan had opened up was a twenty minute walk from campus. Normally I would’ve opted to take the bus, but with the weather warming up, it was almost too beautiful outside to not walk. And so that’s what we did. The sun hit my face at a sharp angle and the cool spring breeze nipped at my skin delightfully. It was a pretty calming feeling compared to being locked up inside all week. 

The entire time, Daehyun filled the air with stories of his odd adventures in his chemistry lab class this week. I listened patiently, nodding every now and then, finding comfort in the way Daehyun talked like if the sun would cease to rise if he stopped. 

Daehyun was pretty much my only real friend. We got to know each other on the first day of college during freshman orientation. He had been the idiot who had accidentally knocked over our tour guide into the main fountain on campus. Actually, now that I think about it, he probably pushed the guy just for the fun of it and claimed it was an accident. When I found out I would be rooming with him, I was expecting some air head jerk. But after a week of living together, he just proved himself to be a big goof ball that acted like he belonged in middle school learning about the primary colors instead of someone studying to be a lawyer. 

Sure enough, after twenty minutes, we both came to stand in front of ‘Channie’s Pizza’. It was a dinky little place that was made of dark red brick with floor to ceiling windows covering the entire front. 

Stepping inside, a little bell attached to the door chimed lightly. I have to admit, Himchan managed to clean up this place pretty good. Even more impressive was that he had done most of it himself. When he first bought it, the walls had been a chipping grey color and there was broken tiles on the floor and the overwhelming smell of mold was pretty intense. But now, it was the perfect little pizza shop. 

Because the place had recently opened up, no one really knew about it yet so the venue was bare and quiet. The only voice was coming from behind the counter where my older brother was leaning up against the wall with a hand held phone wedged between his ear and his shoulder. He spotted me coming in and brightened instantly, but held up a hand for us to give him a minute. “Uh huh. Yes, yes… Alright that’ll be twelve ninety five. We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

Putting the phone back to it’s place on the wall, he moved around the counter and came rushing at me with his arms stretched out wide. He tackled me in a bear hug, squeezing me unnecessarily tight. “Jae~ I haven’t seen you in forever! I was starting to miss my cute baby brother,” he gushed excitedly. 

I cringed in his hold from the way he was blowing out my ear drums with his loud, scratchy voice, but returned his hug nonetheless. “Geez, Channie. You’re acting as if you haven't seen me since I started school. I saw you two weeks ago when I went home for the weekend,” I reminded him. 

Yup, Himchan was that type of brother. The clingy type that thought it was his life goal to protect his ever helpless younger brother. Most of the time it wasn't too bad, but there were just some times when I wanted to punch him in the face. Now happened to be one of those face punching moments. Not only was I annoyed that he forced me into this job, he was also taking away my weekend that had been reserved for free time. But now, I was going to be stuck here. 

Our little moment was interrupted when Daehyun decided to stop peering into the humungous fish tank by the front. “Oh, it’s so lovely to see you too, Channie~” He cooed playfully.

Himchan let go of me to scowl at Daehyun. “Sorry, if I knew you were coming I would’ve called idiot control before hand.”

“I can feel your love from all the way over here,” Daehyun drawled and Himchan looked ready to bite his head off.  

He put his hands on his hips and glanced down at me. “Why’d you have to bring him along,” he whined.

I shrugged, looking over at Daehyun. “I’m pretty sure he was hoping to get some free food.” 

Himchan opened his mouth to snap at Daehyun, but a voice from somewhere at the back of the pizzeria hollered out for Himchan, asking how to use the brick oven. Himchan rolled his eyes and grabbed me by the shoulders from behind, propelling me towards the swinging double doors that lead into the kitchen area. 

When Daehyun started to follow, Himchan barked at him to stay put. Daehyun tsked and moved back to the fish tank, this time poking his hand inside. 

In the back of the pizzeria, there was a fairly large kitchen designed to look vintage, except for the sleek modern appliances. Veering off from the kitchen, there was a lounge area for the staff members. Himchan pushed me over to where an extremely tall person was hovering uneasily by the brick oven. 

“Geez, how many times do I have to tell you,” Himchan nagged, going over to show the boy how to light the oven. When they were done, Himchan brought the boy’s attention to me. 

“Zelo, this is my brother I was telling you about, Youngjae. He’s going to be doing deliveries,” Himchan introduced me, and this Zelo kid smiled and nodded in understanding, giving me a salute and a friendly ‘hi’. I returned his greeting with my own sheepish grin and waved before Himchan was dragging me over to another end of the kitchen. 

He ducked down and pulled something out from a cupboard below. “Here. Wear that,” he demanded, shoving the thing into my hands. 

It was a black apron with the pizzeria’s name printed in ugly neon colors across the front. “Really? Do I have to wear this? I mean, I shouldn’t have to if I’m just doing deliveries, right?” 

“Oh shush. Stop making such a fuss and put it on. It’s part of the uniform,” Himchan chided and I made a face, but did as he said. 

“Don’t you have a hat that I can wear instead? You know, like normal pizza places give their delivery boys?” I asked, feeling uncomfortable in the apron. 

“I do,” he admitted. “But you look so cute with your hair pushed back like that.” He reached over to pinch my cheek and I slapped his hand away. 

Himchan reached out and tugged at my apron to smooth it out before ushering me back out of the kitchen. When Daehyun saw me, he looked ready to make a remark, but I shot him a glare and focused my attention back to Himchan when he shoved a pair of keys into my hand. “You’ll be needing that for the deliveries,” he stated. 

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you forgetting the fact that I can’t drive. Or are you just hoping that I’ll drive myself into a ditch somewhere?”

“You don’t need a driver’s license for that baby,” he said, pointing outside to a white scooter that was parked in front. And I was caught sputtering nonsense about how there was no way I was getting on that thing. Just imagining myself on it was embarrassing enough. Ugh, I wanna go home. 

“Oh, quit your whining,” he said, giving me a stern look. “Go start it up. I have to help Zelo finish the pizza.”

Reluctantly, I went outside to inspect the contraption. Daehyun, obviously having heard our conversation, followed right behind me. 

I unintentionally pouted and got on to test out how the scooter felt. 

And as soon as I did, I snapped my head to glare at Daehyun, who started cackling hysterically, doubling over and clutching at his stomach. When he caught himself, he whistled. “Wow. Lookin’ good, y!” he managed before doubling over a second time. 

Just when I was about to get off the scooter and throttle him, Himchan came outside holding a blue and white pizza box. He smacked Daehyun on the head as he passed him before coming to put the pizza box in a bulging storage compartment in the back. He also handed over a piece of paper with his scrawly handwriting, declaring that it was the address of the delivery. He then moved on to give me some instructions of how to get there and they seemed simple enough. 

As I started up the scooter, Daehyun threw another comment my way and I contemplated flinging the pizza box at him but settled for giving him the middle finger before I slowly pulled off the curb. 

The scooter wasn't too bad to drive and was actually pretty comfortable, but there was no way I would ever get use to the looks of it. 

Indeed, the instructions Himchan gave were fairly easy and after ten minutes, I was pulling up in front of a relatively small apartment building five stories high. I slowed the scooter to a stop and tried to park the god damned thing, but it kept threatening to tip over. After a while, I found out how to make it stand properly and hurriedly moved to get the pizza out of the tiny trunk. The faster I get this over with, the faster I can go back to my room where I don’t have to worry about embarrassing aprons and scooters and other people. 

Inside, I pulled out the paper Himchan had given me and checked for the apartment number. 

506. 

And I found myself grumbling unhappily because there was no elevator. So I ended up walking up five flights of stairs, and by the time I was on the last level, I was huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf on steroids, struggling to catch my breath. I really need to start working out. If not, I’ll be the first one to die in a zombie apocalypse. 

I started moving down the hallway, on the lookout for the right apartment. And as I came closer and closer, my palms started to get sweaty and I felt my pulse speed up because of my social anxiety every time I meet someone new. Why did Himchan have to give me this job? I swear he was just trying to make my life miserable. 

Finally finding apartment 506, I was pretty much ready to just leave the pizza by the door and run. But that would just be stupid, so I mustered up some courage and knocked cautiously on the door. When I did, I could hear thuds and shuffling coming from the other side. 

And when the door pulled open, I blinked owlishly, not really believing if the person in front of me was actually there or not. 

Dressed in black jeans with a matching tight fitted tank top, hair ruffled into a seductive mess, stood Bang Yongguk, the devilishly handsome TA from my linear algebra class. A class that I admittedly was failing in because I spent too much class time sneaking glances across the room at Yongguk. And I was too afraid to go to office hours for help because that would mean talking to him and I wasn’t ready for that type of action. But now here he was, standing in front of me. 

I couldn't help noticing the way his taunt muscles bunched and flexed as he moved his hand against the door. I’m pretty sure I was caught in a dumb moment staring and probably drooling at him. 

“Hey, I know you,” his deep voice broke my staring. “You’re in professor Lee’s 12:30 class, right?” He asked, looking surprised. 

Oh my god. Did Bang Yongguk recognize me? Oh gosh, I must’ve died and went to heaven. I never thought I would see the day that he recognized me. He actually noticed me! That's pretty unexpected seeing as how I sat in the back of that class and didn't speak at all. 

Bang Yongguk was staring at me, waiting patiently for an answer, but my mind was blank and I ended making some weird sounds before shoving the pizza box at him, mumbling the price and keeping my eyes off his gaze and instead, trained on those rippling muscles beneath his tank top. 

I heard him chuckle and I felt myself blushing ridiculously, getting embarrassed. He probably thinks I’m an idiot. 

I fiddled with my apron as I watched him reach into his back pocket to pull out a twenty. He handed it over and I timidly took it. But before I could begin to reach for my wallet to give him back his change, his deep voice rumbled again.

“Keep the change,” he smirked and then winked before shutting the door on me. 

… 

I stared at the door feeling the most flustered and embarrassed I’ve ever been in my entire life. 

Oh gosh, I really must’ve died and gone to heaven. 

Bang Yongguk actually knows who I am. 

… And did he just flirt with me?

Oh no. Someone catch me, I think I’m going to faint.