This isn’t how I thought I would see an angel up close.

“Hi, baby girl.”

“Oh my god! Mr. Byun!” If he hadn’t just given me a heart attack from knowing exactly where I was amidst my efforts of avoiding him, then I would have complimented his hair. It truly was prettier up close.

But alas, that wasn’t the case. He raised one eyebrow at me, then he gestured his hand to the hallways. “Shall we walk?”

I sighed. My hands felt so cold and were shaky, but I didn’t want him to know that. I bolted past him and started walking; he soon caught up to my pace. The walk wasn’t supposed to be very long. The hallways led directly to the open parking space, where Jongin was waiting, and yet the man beside me made it seem like our walk could go on for miles.

I really need to stop getting so overwhelmed by him.

“So how have you been?” With the hand that was holding onto his bag, he pointed at the parking lot. “I see Chen’s off duty. Jongin’s waiting for you.” Although the walk would be short towards parking, from where we were at, Jongin wasn’t even within my peripheral vision. How he knew and how he could find him from that far away, I will never have any idea.

Not waiting for a reply, he continued to talk in a nonchalant manner. “Sorry by the way.” He shrugged. “For that whole intricate ploy I did on you that weekend.”

I still didn’t say anything, and I just kept on walking. I wasn’t really sure what to say anyway. Oh it’s okay. You just led me to a room full of men pointing their guns at my face, no biggie.

“And sorry for making you believe those were your notes.”

“...”

“And for impersonating your friend, Kyungsoo.”

“...”

“And for letting you see a man get sh—“

“Mr. Byun.” I stopped walking, so did he. He raised a peculiar eyebrow again at me. “That’s Baekhyun to you.”

“Not if we’re at school! This is neutral grounds remember!” Not to mention I don’t want to risk someone hearing me talk informally with you.

He rolled his eyes, rolled his eyes, as if I was saying nonsense. “Relaxing is free of charge you know.”

“I am relaxed.”

“Bull.” The bastard laughed, something that echoed the person I was with that night at the party quite well; the one that got everyone to back off the minute they recognized him.

I wanted to say something back, but there just wasn’t anything coming out of my mouth. Truly, this Byun Baekhyun was so different from Mr. Byun. They shared so many characteristics yet they could still be so distinct from each other at the same time. It seems crazy to describe one person as if there were two minds living inside him, but that was what he really was. His duality was frightening.

Sensing that I was going to stay silent, he continued to speak. “Never the less, if you don’t accept my apologies, that’s fine. But you should accept Sehun’s courtship.”

What? I faced him, eyes wide and vividly expressing what the ?, but he was just smirking. “That caught your attention huh? Good.” He switched his bag to his other hand. “If he already has all of your attention this early, then you’d be his Belle in no time.”

“You’re reading this all wrong.” I huffed as frustration started to build inside me. “You and him seem to be so sure that I’ll say yes.”

“Because you will.”

“You don’t know that!”

He smirked again. “And yet, you haven’t really said no either, have you?” It was only then that I realized that we had stopped walking, and Baekhyun was getting pretty close to my face.“If you’re so sure that you won’t say yes then why is it taking you so long to say no?”

Something else washed over me. My frustration over our conversation was suddenly overpowered and subdued by an indescribable feeling in my gut, which I refused to acknowledge in that moment.

When I couldn’t answer him yet again, his smirk widened. And just like that I got pissed again, and I sobered up. “I n—-“

“Mr. Byun!” A deep voice came from behind us. Hurried steps followed and in a matter of seconds, we were joined by another individual: the head of the department Baekhyun works for.

Once he was close enough, I bowed to him respectfully as a greeting. “Good afternoon, Mr. Lee.” My professor, on the other hand, just gave him a respectful enough nod. When we were past the greetings, his eyes darted to the two of us. “So what are you two going on about? I saw Mr. Byun here you from the comfort rooms, hm?”

Well, . Mr. Lee was the type of professor who never tolerated personal relationships in the workplace. He had always frowned upon couples who enrolled together in the university so they could teach at the same place. And he absolutely despised hearing about other professors who end up dating students. With the way he looked at us at that moment, it was pretty clear what he was implying.

Without missing a beat, Baekhyun answered him calmly. “Oh, I was just conversing with my new research assistant.

Research assistant?! I briefly widened my eyes at him, but his gaze told me that I should just play along if I wanted to live. “Ah, yes. Mr. Byun just offered the job to me after class.”

When none of them spoke after that, I realized they were still looking at me expectantly. OH. “A-and I think it’s a good idea, of course! E-extra credit never hurt anyone.” Mr. Lee finally let out a hearty laugh, telling me that he took the bait.

Hoping that my relief wasn’t too apparent, we started walking again. Baekhyun stirred the conversation into more technical matters about school. He smoothly maneuvered Mr. Lee’s attention to something about a field trip and soon enough I had reached the open parking space. I saw Jongin from a couple of cars away. Once he noticed me, he started the engine of his car.

“I’m sure you’re excited.” I whipped my attention back to Mr. Lee. “Huh?”

Mr. Lee just widened his grin. “Mr. Byun tells me you love English Literature just as much as he does. If all goes well, maybe he could pitch you as his co-author for the book he’s writing, eh?” He elbowed him and Baekhyun just let out a chuckle while rubbing the area Mr. Lee bumped.

Baekhyun faced me. “I would be delighted to have her be a co-author. That is, if you say yes.” He offered his hand for me to shake. “So will you?”

When his smirk came back, I just knew that what he said was a trap to get me to say what he wanted, do what he wanted.

Well, then. I shook his hand firmly. “Yes."

“I must say, princess, that was pretty dumb.” Jongin was turning on the curb to my apartment, just as I was almost finished relaying to him what transpired in my walk to the parking lot.

“Hey! You should be siding with me.” Sometimes I loved my best friend, sometimes I didn’t.

The brat in me was proud because I didn’t back out from Baekhyun’s silent challenge. I was interpreting it as, HA! Take that. You thought I was going to shrink away but joke’s on you I DIDN’T!

However, Baekhyun still got me to say and do what he wanted….so I’m not really sure if I actually won that or not.

But I’m choosing to ignore the latter and focus on the slight victory I got for myself in that little exchange.

“Okay, so you won that.” Jongin started. We’ve gotten out of the car and he was watching me punch in the code to the front door while he skillfully held all of my stuff in one hand. “But now you have to actually work as his research assistant. That’s extra work for you that you don’t even need.”

Huh. I haven’t really thought that out. “You think he’s going to actually make me do it?”

“I mean, he did declare it in front of the head of their department.”

“Oh damn. You’re right.”

Jongin just laughed and fondly shook his head at my dumbfounded expression. He walked past me and went inside the apartment.

He made quick work of taking off his shoes and I was right behind him. “I mean, EngLit isn’t so bad. Maybe I can get some extra credit from it and get my GWA up a little bit. What do you think?”

Jongin shrugged off our stuff onto the sofa and stretched his arms out. “Whatever, princess. As long as he doesn’t pull anything while at school grounds. The cadres made them neutral for a reason.”

“I can’t believe these Cadre people actually value education. Aren’t mafias all about being badass and skipping classes and smoking pot and stuff?”

Jongin laughed again, and while at the last stretch of his arms, he walked up to me and wrapped me in a hug. “You watch too many movies.”

I shrugged while still relishing in the Nini cocoon. “You’re living those movies, so if anything it’s like extra knowledge for me.”

I felt his deep chuckle more than I heard it. “What do you want for dinner?”

Jongin was right. Baekhyun did take it seriously.

By the time our next meeting rolled around, he announced to the entire class that I was assisting him in the new book he was writing about English Literature. The reaction of my fellow classmates was a mixture of shock and despise, the daggers coming mostly from the female population, but at least Momi wasn’t one of them!

“That’s amazing! How did you even apply for it? I didn’t know he was looking for any assistants.” Momi inquired from beside me right after he announced it. I just shrugged at her. “I just had good timing I guess? I chanced upon him when he was planning it and it just kind of happened.”

“You’re going to critically appraise for him? That’s a lot of work.”

Baekhyun and I incidentally locked eyes, and he had the nerve to smile at me. If that happened a couple of weeks ago, when I still had my stupid crush on him, I would be blushing like mad.

“Why are you blushing?”

“I am?!” I instinctively reached for my cheeks to cup them.

Momi laughed at me. “I can’t blame you. Working for a piece of heaven like him? I’d blush too.”

Baekhyun had me stay after class, much to the delight of his fangirls. I had to wait 20 minutes or so because they were reluctant to leave him. But with a little more persuasion, he was able to them out of the classroom.

And Mr. Byun finally became Baekhyun.

“ing finally. They’re gone” It astounded me still, to see him morph himself the way he did. When I brought up to Jongin how Baekhyun could still overwhelm me after the events of the party, he tried to comfort me as best as he could. He reassured me that, if there was anything that I can count on, it’s that neutral grounds will remain neutral grounds.

“He can’t hurt you on neutral grounds. I’ll end him if he does. And if I don’t succeed, the Cadre will come for him anyway.”

“What’s going on in that pretty little