Despite knowing that Baekhyun was the top scholar in her year and one of the top scholars in her school, and that he was at least ten percent above her grade in every class they had together except physics, Jinsu was not prepared for quite how intelligent he actually was.  She’d never been forced to work with him before (only Kyungsoo, and she was beginning to regret not taking the opportunity to get to know him better during those paired projects, because she found him hilarious), and from what she’d seen, group projects had been the time where Baekhyun kicked his heels back and let other people do the majority of the work anyway.

Not this time.  The glasses and his own computer appeared shortly after lunch, and by the time they were heading down to the kitchen for dinner, Baekhyun could understand rudimentary features of the Tardis coding without any of Jinsu’s help.  Given that his knowledge of coding language had extended as far as italicising text on various websites using html when they’d started, Jinsu was dumbstruck by his progress.

“I’ve just had an epiphany,” he announced to Jinsu as they clattered down the stairs.  Jinsu made a noncommittal noise to show that she was listening.  That was the other thing: Baekhyun did not shut up.  It made her regret attempting to talk to him earlier in the day, because he’d obviously taken that as some kind of sign that they were now apparently best friends, and Baekhyun could honestly have talked the hind legs off a donkey.  The front legs too, given the opportunity.  Jongin had been talkative too, but Jinsu hadn’t minded that so much because he had been nice to her from the get-go, and she’d had him in much smaller doses.  And there had been other people around, so most of the time she hadn’t been required to respond or show that she was listening, because other people did that for her.

“All the rooms have their own separate algorithms and code section!”  Baekhyun jumped down the last three steps for emphasis.  Jinsu came up short, dumbfounded and a little put out.  She’d been coding for years and it had still taken her a while to get her head around enough of the Tardis to be able to tell that.

“Oh.”

“But doesn’t that mean I’ve improved?” he pressed as they walked along the passage towards the kitchen.

“Yes,” said Jinsu, “but you didn’t even know what html was this morning, so technically anything’s an improvement.”

It knocked the wind out of his sails.  “Harsh,” he grumbled, pouting.  Jinsu decided that maybe when he’d stopped being an exuberant little puppy and became more serious again, she’d tell him that he had a natural gift for coding.

Actually, that could wait until he’d done other stuff that was more impressive.

“It was the thermostats, you know,” Baekhyun said, perking up again.  “Literally the only thing I can concretely identify is the coding and equations for the thermostats—” (Jinsu resisted the urge to tell him not to downplay himself; he didn’t need a bigger ego) “—and it looked like there was too much going on around them, so I eventually figured out that it was the space surrounding the thermostats, and then the rooms.  I’m going to make Minhwan’s arctic when I get a go on the main computers.”  He paused.  “Is that possible?”

Jinsu sighed.  “You literally have control of the entire machine at your fingertips.  If you have the right code, you could do literally anything with the Attayear.”

Baekhyun actually winked at her.  “Oh, I already have the code sorted out.  All in my head, don’t worry.”

Jinsu wanted to ask why he’d bothered asking, but they were interrupted by Minhwan leaving the common room they were passing and brushing between them, knocking Baekhyun into the wall.  Baekhyun looked after him with narrowed eyes.

“Think he heard me?” he asked.

Jinsu shrugged.  Baekhyun’s chattiness was beginning to make her feel a little uncomfortable.

It didn’t stop when they reached the kitchen, either.  In retrospect, Jinsu probably ought to have made some excuse about going to see how Kyungsoo was or not being hungry so she wasn’t subjected to a twenty-minute conversation (that was more of a monoversation from Baekhyun, really) while Baekhyun put together a stir-fry.

“Pork or beef?” he interrupted himself, holding up packages of both meats.

“I honestly don’t care,” Jinsu said tiredly.

“Show some enthusiasm here.  I’m cooking you national food instead of dodgy foreign stuff.”

Jinsu contemplated retorting that she liked the dodgy foreign stuff, but figured he’d take that as a compliment, and compliments, she’d learnt the hard way earlier in the afternoon, made him happy, and making Baekhyun happy also made him more talkative.

He tutted at her lack of response.  “Chicken it is, then.”

Jinsu frowned, pretty sure that chicken hadn’t been on offer just a few seconds before, but Baekhyun had already opened a packet of chicken strips and was emptying it into the wok.

“Can you get me the soy sauce?” he asked, lifting the wok to toss its contents.  Jinsu stopped to watch, her OCD cringing in anticipation of something flying out and falling on the floor like it did with most amateurs – especially if they tried to toss at the speed Baekhyun was doing – but the contents of the wok seemed perfectly happy to flip in a neat little circle back into the pan.  When Jinsu managed to tear her eyes away, it took several seconds for her to remember what she was looking for.

Baekhyun continued to ask her to get cutlery and crockery as the food finished cooking, punctuated by little observations about the food or the state of the kitchen.

“We should take this upstairs to Kyungsoo and eat with him,” he said as he plated the food up.  As he balanced the first couple of plates on one arm and reached for the third, Jinsu looked around for a tray to make things easier, and spotted one behind the sink taps.

“Ah – nah!” Baekhyun protested when he saw she was making a beeline for it.  “The breakfast tray is sacred!  Don’t even think about contaminating it with dinner.”

Jinsu turned to throw him an odd look.  “Why?”

“Because then you won’t feel special,” he said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world before letting out a blinding grin.  “Kyungsoo will protest about me turning into his mother and he’s been going on and on about popping by the restaurant when I’m on shift so he can request me as the waiter, so I’m fulfill