“Let’s mix you up, shall we? Yeah let’s do it, stand up everyone, new seating arrangement!” Professor Kim enthusiastically clapped his hands, signaling the students to stand up.

Donghyuck gets to his feet lazily. Jaemin on his side is already cursing though.

“I just wish I won’t seat beside Jeno.” His friend whispered. “Not only is he annoying but he’s also a hypotenuse , he would surely laugh at me if I can’t excel in Math.”

He shares the same worry as Jaemin, he wouldn’t want to sit beside Mark Lee as well. Though the chances of them being placed beside each other are unlikely, he also knows that he’s lucky at being unlucky.

“My Joy noona said he lets them sit wherever they like but if he finds out some people aren’t going along well, he goes on and makes them sit beside each other. She said Professor Kim is updated to the latest rumor mill.” Said Class B’s Park Wonbin and that seriously made them nervous.

“Oh my God!” Jaemin said dramatically. He raised a hand, getting their teacher’s attention. “Professor Kim, please don’t let me sit beside Park Wonbin or Uchinaga Aeri! I hate them.” Then he smiled apologetically at the two.

Donghyuck hissed at his friend’s drama as he elbowed him in the side. “What are you doing?”

Jaemin giggled and whispered. “I don’t think Professor Kim will let me sit beside you so my target is the top one or the cute guy.”

“Oh don’t worry, I have other plans.” The cute professor smiled and took out his seating plan. “Lee Minho, Choi Jisu, go to the second row. Han Jisung, take the seat behind Lee Minho.” 

It was a known fact that Lee Minho and Han Jisung were both pursuing Choi Jisu but recently, things have been changing. There’s a rumor that the two boys were seen going out together on an alleged date.

Professor Kim Minseok is sure to have a field day as he arranges the seat. Some were laughing, some were complaining. When it comes to Jaemin’s turn he smiles at his student teasingly. “Na Jaemin, Kim Min Jeong, Lee Jeno. Play rock, paper, scissors and the losers will sit beside each other.”

Before they went on with the game, Jeno made a subtle gesture at the two saying he would play paper. It’s as if he’s telling them for Jaemin to play scissors and Min Jeong to play the same as him and lose too.

Jaemin snickered at that. Just like him, Jeno doesn’t want to sit beside him, it’s fair for both of them to hate each other but his pride couldn’t take it!

“Did you see what he said?” Min Jeong asked, unable to catch Jeno’s gesture. Jaemin, as the menace he is, saw this as a chance to upset Lee Jeno. 

Sometimes, he gotta ignore what’s convenient for him just to on his enemy.

He smiles at the girl. “I think he was saying he’d play scissors… I’m not sure. Just copy him, I want to sit beside someone else anyway.”

The girl nodded.

“Kai, Bai, Bo!” Everyone chanted and the three of them made the throw. Min Jeong had scissors, Jeno had paper, and Jaemin pretended to gasp when he “realized” he was also playing paper.

“Eh! Wait! I thought you’d play scissors! I misunderstood…” He pretended to gasp at Jeno, then he glanced at Professor Kim. “Can we give it another—”

“It’s decided. Lee Jeno, Na Jaemin—seatmate.”

Jaemin knew he would regret this but seeing Jeno’s glare as they walked towards their seats made everything worth it.

Since this has become a game, most of the students are starting to enjoy it too… unless they get seated beside someone they don’t like then they’ll start to whine.

 

“Lee Minhyung, there.” Professor Kim pointed at the seat next to the window. “Here’s the next game. If you answered this correctly, you’re gonna sit next to Mr. Lee… on the board, Lee Donghyuck.”

Donghyuck flinched at the mention of his name. Professor Kim Minseok is certainly cute, but he can be such a gremlin! He had no choice but to walk up to the board.

“If the surface area of a right angle cone A is 48π, and the distance from the tip of the cone to a point on the edge of the cone’s base is 8, what is the cone’s radius?”

Donghyuck bit his lip, just hearing ‘area’ and ‘pi’ in one sentence almost shoots him to the moon in an instant. He’s got A & B everywhere but Math is the only subject where he has C+… and even the latest topic, he wasn’t able to catch the gist of it. Although it’s alright, answering wrong here will actually work for him. 

Even if he knows the formula and the answer, it’s not like he will put down the correct answer anyway. Maybe for others, it is, but for him, sitting next to that lizard isn’t a winning prize.

“Remember, we’re getting the radius, not the surface area, Lee Donghyuck.”

He scratched his nape at his professor’s reminder. He sighed halfway through the formula, couldn't make out whatever he was writing anymore. He just put down ‘4’ as an answer.

“You sure about this?”

Donghyuck nodded.

“Hmm.” Professor Kim scanned his formula for a moment. “Now, Lee Donghyuck—you are…” the whole class made a ‘tantararan’ sound to make it more exciting. “GOING to sit next to Lee Minhyung.”

“What?!” He blurted out and everyone laughed heartily at that.

Mark on the corner was already sighing while his friend Jeno was laughing his out. Jaemin looks like he is holding back a laugh for the sake of their friendship.

“Okay, settle now.”

“Professor Kim…” He pouted sulkily, but in truth, he was almost close to seething.

“That’s cute… now, let’s get going.”

He reluctantly traveled to his seat, looking petulant and defeated. Why is he so lucky when it comes to being unlucky?

 

“Hey…”

The whole class was quiet, Professor Kim was discussing something and Donghyuck was taking some notes when out of the blue his seatmate spoke up with a soft and hesitant voice. He widened his eyes ‘Is he calling me?’ 

He decided to ignore it and put more focus on what he was doing.

“Hey!” This time, Mark patted his arm making him look at the motherer with confused eyes.

“What? Can’t you see I’m writing notes?” He was shooting deadly glares.

Mark sighed as if the next things he would say would mean his own death but after that, the guy caught his gaze and for a moment, Donghyuck had forgotten that he was having a staring contest with the school’s most displeasing soul because all he see is the sincerity that was written in the guy’s expressive eyes.

“Look, I’m sorry for what I said yesterday… about your parents. I really am. I shouldn’t have made fun of them too, I just really wanted to piss you off…” 

Donghyuck immediately avoided the other's eyes. He decided to let it pass, not wanting any more words from the other and considering the fact that Mark didn’t know what happened to his parents.

“Fine. Let’s forget about it.”

Mark nodded but then he remembered something. “Me, saying sorry doesn’t mean I’m befriending you. I just feel sorry for your parents, okay?” 

That made Donghyuck roll his eyes. Heck! Of course, he knows that! It’s not like he’s hoping they’d be friends just because the other apologized to him.

“Right. I know that. You’re Lee Minhyung and I’m Lee Donghyuck, we will never be friends.”

“Yes. And that means we still hate each other.”

Donghyuck shook his head. That’s a fact he knows very well, why the should Mark remind him of that? Every ing time he sees this guy, it’s the first thing that always crosses his mind.

“I know, I know.” He tried his best to act like what Mark said was nothing. “Could you just shut up now? I don’t want to flunk Math just because my seatmate is such a stupid whiny cow!”

“What did you just say?” His seatmate’s frown was deep, obviously very offended!

“I said you are a stupid whiny cow, is there any problem?” Donghyuck looked straight to his eyes as if challenging the other, trying his best to not look away.

“Stupid whiny—?” Mark let out an exasperated laugh. “I just apologized to you.”

‘Gaslighting bastard!’

“You’re ridiculous. After asking for forgiveness, you’re back to your self and you think it makes sense?” Donghyuck snorted. “You are stupid, that’s a fa—"

Mark was about to say something to contradict his words when a slight smack on their heads shut both of them up. They turned to see it was Park Jisung.

“Hyungs, I can’t hear the lecture.”

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