Changkyun bolts out of there at the end of class faster than a strike of lightning. He scrambles out before anyone else even stands, shoving what little is out of his bag back in and panting by the time he’s out of the building.

“Whoa there!” a familiar voice says, stopping Changkyun from tripping up on the stairs outside leading down to the brickway. He blinks repeatedly, staring at his roommate with his lips pressed together in a thin line. Jooheon’s brow creases, and he reaches out to touch Changkyun’s arm, concern ebbing off his features.

“What’s wrong, Kkungie...?”

Changkyun shakes his head, looking back to the building, almost as if expecting his professor to be standing there. His heart pounds, and he can only sigh at himself in annoyance when there’s no one there. He knows he’s only being dramatic, but he can’t help it! How else is he supposed to react when he sees his crush from his childhood looking as perfect as ever and finds out said crush is actually his professor?

Jooheon pouts, his lips poking out in dismay as he glances around.

“Come on,” he says, gently pulling Changkyun along. Changkyun obediently goes along, keeping his head down as if scared to meet anyone’s eyes.

Unbeknownst to them, a man watches them from an upstairs window, his gaze twinkling with underlying recognition as the boy from his past is led away.

Changkyun makes it through the line faster than Jooheon, opting for a ramen and heating it in the microwave before his roommate even gets done choosing his food for the day. He sits down at a table, forlornly stirring the noodles around.

He doesn’t know why he feels this way. The class didn’t go badly at all, not really. Kihyun—no, Professor Yoo—didn’t give any indication that he recognized the freshman, and really it’s for the best. The last thing Changkyun needs is to get into some unseemly scandal with the hardest professor on the campus. There’s no way he could hide that kind of thing from his parents, and they’d absolutely freak out when they found out.

His mom is stressed enough about him going off to live on his own for the first time, he doesn’t want to add more stress onto her by getting into an illicit relationship with a professor.

Besides, he knows he was never an important part of Kihyun’s life back when they were kids. There was such a big between them, that he only ever saw the boy in passing… But, Kihyun was always so kind to him, would always give him that trademark smile that could light up an entire solar system. That smile… It would just make everything easier for Changkyun to bear in his childhood. All the school stress, all the typical angst, none of it was stronger than Kihyun’s smile.

Jooheon slumps over, slinging his back down with a loud thump in the free chair to the side and shaking Changkyun from his thoughts.

“You told your mom you’d eat something other than ramen once in a while,” Jooheon jokingly chastises, prodding at the paper bowl with the prongs of his fork. He pops open his own container, an aluminum dish filled with noodles and cream sauce and seafood, and starts to dig in. Changkyun hums noncommittally, glancing back down to his own measly soup. He isn’t even that hungry, not really.

He just can’t figure out why, despite it being entirely logical, why Professor Yoo hadn’t remembered him.

“I guess this has to do with your last class,” Jooheon correctly observes, eyeing Changkyun up and down skeptically. Changkyun goes rigid at this, not liking the fact that he’s so easily being called out. Jooheon humphs, pressing his lips together tightly enough to bare his dimples.

“Was the professor that hard on you on the first day?”

Changkyun shakes his head, slumping down in his chair as he drops his chopsticks. He doesn’t particularly want to tell anyone, because he knows it’s all just something in his head anyway, but he feels like he needs to. Maybe Jooheon can make sense of Changkyun’s feelings for him.

“I uh… I know that professor… Yoo,” Changkyun begins, looking everywhere but the intrigued brow raise coming from his roommate. “He grew up next door to me. I didn’t realize it was him when I signed up… Maybe if I did, I wouldn’t have taken the class.” He wipes at his face, downtrodden.

“Did you two… have some weird relationship, or something? ‘Cause, I mean, he’s a professor. He’s got to be way older!”

“He’s only eight years older,” Changkyun defends, pouting at the boy. He puffs up his cheeks defiantly, earning a light chuckle from Jooheon. The other boy raises his hands in defense before gesturing for Changkyun to go on.

“We never talked much, but I had a really bad crush on him growing up… When he went away to college, I cried for, like, a whole week!”

“Dude, why did you never tell me about this??” Jooheon questions, crossing his arms over his chest. “We’ve been best friends since high school.”

“I didn’t want you thinking I was weird…” Changkyun admits, sheepish. “I mean, what’s more pathetic than a freshman pining away after a college kid that never even gave him the time of day in the first place??” Changkyun feels like a fool for even letting it get to him now… He’d thought he had finally moved passed it all, but apparently, he was wrong.

“Okay well… why is it bothering you now?” Jooheon prods, watching Changkyun with sympathy in his small eyes. Changkyun huffs out an annoyed sigh, shrugging.

“I don’t know... “ he admits, frowning in frustration. “He obviously doesn’t remember me, from how he acted during class.”

“How’d he act?”

“Like I was any other student!”

“Okay, okay,” Jooheon chuckles, glancing around. A couple people look over to their small table in annoyance at Changkyun’s outburst, though they quickly look back to what they’re doing. Jooheon sighs, shaking his head.

“Bro,” he says, stuffing his mouth full of food, “follow his lead and don’t dig anything up. The last thing you need right now is to get into some affair that’ll get put into all the newspapers. Your life will become a country song before you know it if that happens!”

Changkyun sighs melodramatically, looking off into the distance, consequently in the general direction of the class building he’d just left.

“Hyung, my life is already a country song…” he says softly. “I mean, it is the music of heartbreak…”