He is a mystery, yet so attractive.

I notice he always wears hoodie with jeans. So simple yet it looks fashionable on his fine body. He carries his worn-out backpack wherever he goes, with his MacBook in it.

The moment he steps into this ‘Construction and Engineering 1’ tutorial, my attention is always on him. His nose is the most outstanding part of his facial I can say, straight and tall. His bold and thick eyebrow is also attractive to me. However, his eyes always look so bored and emotionless, like there’s nothing he is interested in.

I still remember the first week of class, he came in late after our little ice-breaking session. He didn’t have a chance to introduce himself when the class has gone into another session. Yet, I only knew his name on the second class when the teacher, Mr Lee, was taking attendance. ‘Mark Tuan’ is his name, which fits his charisma so well.

He doesn’t speak to anyone in the class, except this guy whose name is Namjoon if I’m not wrong. They always sit side by side but they don’t talk much as well. Just normal greeting and exchange of what they did recently. Well, he does smile to him and only him in class, not to other people although there is some girls in class squealing for his good-looking. However, they stopped after a week or two, as he didn’t even pay any attention to any of them.

His routine in class is always same. He would get in class just on time, 10 am sharp. After taking out his MacBook and a little chat with Namjoon, Mr Lee would call out names for attendance while he would just mutter a ‘yes’ and look at him with his bored eyes. During the whole tutorial, he would consistently glance at his phone, sometimes reply a message and put it down until another message came in. He would also ask questions throughout the whole tutorial session to clarify those constructing’s term that is difficult to understand. Two hours of tutorial that always passes too fast (for me as I can stare at him for 2 hours), he would just leave the class at 12 pm sharp after saying ‘thank you’ to Mr Lee and biding goodbye with Namjoon. I had once followed him right after class and he went to the Uni café to meet up with his 6 best friends for lunch. That was the only time I saw his genuine smile which exposed his cute third molars. I recognized one of his best friends is the guy in my ‘Linear Algebra’ tutorial, Jaebum who I knew since last semester ‘Calculus’. I had also tried to stalk him on Facebook, but his account is set to private and I only could see photos of him with our mutual friend, Jaebum.

I still remembered the previous weeks, he was late than usual that the seat beside Namjoon was taken by a girl who arrived just in time. The only seat left was beside me, he couldn’t help but took the seat. I was kind of delighted that finally he was finally sitting beside me and hoping that he could start a conversation with me. However, I was wrong. So great that it left me kind of awkward in that silence. During the 5 minutes short break, he was just scrolling on his Facebook non-stop. I was a bit irritated and nudged him, trying to ask some stupid question about the hard-to-understand engineering term. He looked at me with his usual emotionless eyes and shrugged, “I don’t know.” Yes, he was not trying to help me at all. Later that day, when Mr Lee was giving out notes, due to shortage of printing, both of us had to use the same paper of notes. After Mr Lee left, he just handed me the note and said, “You take it. I can share with Namjoon.” Leaving me embarrassed behind like I had been rejected but his voice is so deep and y.

Well, as I has observed him over this 8 weeks, I might conclude that he may be a gay who only talks to guy. Not until I saw his photos (through Jaebum) with this two girls called Min and Suzy and also his friends, Jackson and Jinyoung, in a night-club-like background. Standing at the most left, he smiles while holding up the glass of brownish yellow liquid, another arms on Jackson’s shoulder. Without his usual hoodies fashion, he dressed in a white shirt with upper two ed, he looks absolutely seducing. I mean, attractive. He actually has a life too. Wow. Sarcastically bewildered.

It’s week 9 of this semester and that means assignments are all gathered, but we manage to get a week of semester break next week which will let us at least get a way out of those bloody hell. Yet, Mr Lee is not such a good person that would just let us have our break with fun. An assignment is given last minute.

“The assignment description and submission requirements are all on the online learning site.” The door was opened when Mr Lee is explaining the assignment. Mark is late by minutes and the seat beside Namjoon is taken, again the only seat available is just beside me. Oh well, an awkward moment for me. Mark couldn’t bother and sat down. Mr Lee continues after signing Mark in on the attendance sheet, “And we will be explaining the assignments in detail in this tutorial.” Mark takes out his MacBook and settled down as usual.

“Okay. Now let get into groups. Two in a group. Let makes thing easy, the one beside you is your group member now.” Wait, what?! I am with Mark? I bite my lips to control my over-happy reaction, and a bit of mixed feelings. Would Mark work with me?

I steal a glance at Mark and he just focuses on his laptop, fingers on the keyboard flying. Okay then, we will just leave it for now cause we still have a long time to finish the assignment.

Mr Lee explains the assignments in details and Mark is able to type as fast as he explains, while I just can’t even jot down the important points. Sometimes Mark would touch his plump lips as if he is revising what Mr Lee has said. After an hour of ‘war’ with those terms, drawings and equations, Mr Lee finally says, “That’s it for today. You can leave now or continuing with the assignment. I will be here until 12 as usual. And enjoy your break!”

Yes, enjoy my break. :(

I turn to Mark while he is keeping his MacBook into his backpack, and he is ready to leave. “Hey.” I call to stop him but he won’t. I grab his wrist and call again, “Hey.”

He turns to me, signal me to continue.

“How about the assignment?” I ask.

“I do the calculation, you do the drawing.” He says, before turning around and leave. I am stunned and only can look at his backs. He is such a jerk, I can tell. A good-looking jerk.

I know where he goes, obviously the Uni café to meet up with his friend. I act like I am here for lunch, but I am here to check him out.  To get things done, I go to the counter and order some food and take a table nearby. Wendy appears after getting my text and we have lunch together. “Hey Wen,” I hug her as she hug me back.

“Hi Em!” She chants happily. We converse in English as she knows, I am not Korean and an International Student who are still insufficient in Korean. “What’s up?”

I sigh, “Group assignments.”

“I see.” She gets a piece of kimbab before looking at me. “Bad group member?”

“I… I don’t know.” I grab another piece of kimbab, “like we only assign it today, and I really want to work things out with him.” Wendy nods signaling me to continue. “But he just said, ‘I do the calculation. You do the drawing.’” I imitate him before rolling my eyes to his table. He looks like he is having fun with his friends. I sigh one more time.

“It’s okay, girl. At least he is trying to work something out. It’s not like he just throws everything to you.” Wendy explains. She is right.

“But why are you so desperate to work with him?” She questions, wiggling her eyebrows and teasing me with her knowing smirks.

I fluster. “I… Because… I… He…” and stutter.

“Is he one of those guys over Jaebum’s table?” She asks. She is always an observer. A sharp one. She probably can see me constantly glancing over there.

This is the umpteenth time I sigh. I nod, “the guy beside him, Mark.”

“That’s why our Emmie wants to work with him to hook him up.” She states.

“Hey! I am not that desperate to get in a relationship, okay?” I roll my eyes. “I just hate doing group assignment in such way. I pay to learn. But how can I learn better in this way?”

“Well~ I can’t help you anything but just to give you some advice.” I move myself towards Wendy. “Tell him straightaway you don’t like it. This is the best way to state things clear.”

She is right again. However, talk is easier than action. How can I brave enough to approach him and tell him like this?

“If you need help, I bet Jaebum is someone who is willing to help as well.” She states. I look over that table one last time and sigh again.

“Should I give him a text now?”

Jaebum is a good friend. He helps me whenever I have problems with Mathematics, sometimes also my Korean. I try to shoot him a text.

Emmelynn: Hey Jaebum! I need your help!

Jaebum: Hey Emmie. What’s going on?

Emmelynn: It’s about your friend, Mark.

I peek over their table. Jaebum peeks at his friend while typing on his phone.

Jaebum: What’s about him?

Emmelynn: Uhmmm… I was assigned into a group assignment with him. But seems like he doesn’t want to work with me.

Jaebum: Uhh… I am afraid this is a bit difficult.

Emmelynn: What’s wrong?

Jaebum: Well. He is just not that comfortable with strangers.

I sigh. “How is it?” Wendy asks.

“He said it was difficult,” I reply, “’cause he can’t get along with strangers.”

My phone vibrates in silence.

Jaebum: But I can try to let him know you and you can meet up with him later.

I look up to him and see him smirking to me. Quickly turning my gaze back to Wendy, I tell her, “Jaebum notices us over here.”

“Then?” Wendy shows her confused look.

“He gave me a smirk. I think he got the wrong idea too.” I say and she laughs hysterically. “Hey! Stop that.”

“Well, you see.” She tries to explain, “He is good looking and you admit it. He has a lot of admire and everyone knows that. It is normal for someone like you to go through his friends to get him.”

“But you know I am not. I just want to work on the assignment ‘cause I have already known he is kind of a jerk which I will no