Jooyoung goes to her class not long after the boy leaves, and finds out there wasn't really much to be nervous about after she finishes her presentation. She knows she did actually prepare well for it, albeit (slightly) last minute. Sliding back into her seat, she suavely places her laptop and presentation notes on the empty seat beside her (just to preserve her cool image) and gazes blankly at the front of the lecture theatre. Another student is presenting now, and Professor Park is staring back at her with what seems like the most emotionless eyes ever. It isn't that he is bored or anything, it's just, well, him.

No student in Jooyoung's batch has ever seen him smile before. Rumours have it that when he smiles, his face lights up a hundred times brighter than Professor Byun Baekhyun, and that is saying a lot. She doesn't exactly believe it, though. It seems impossible for the corners of his mouth even to twitch upward a bit. It's like it would kill him to smile, or something.

Professor Park is extremely popular with the female freshmen, just because he is young (twenty-odd, maybe? He's probably a genius as well), and with his proportions and facial features, he probably would be able to make the cut for a model.

But the older students know better. There is nothing attractive about a monster professor like him.

The situation is so bad that students have given him a special name when gossiping about him: PCY, pronounced as pissy (because he always is) — an acronym for his name Park Chanyeol. Besides giving only one student in all his classes combined a High Distinction, he is extremely nitty-gritty about every single little thing, and unnecessarily strict as well. Any student who gets placed into his class for the semester is screwed, basically. Apparently, a senior in the honour roll had failed his final project a few years ago because he made one typo in his final report — Professor Park had claimed his mistake in his statement made the report "impossible to comprehend".

"Next student." His deep, loud voice suddenly fills the lecture theatre, and Jooyoung is shocked awake. The student giving her presentation returns and another goes up. In front of Jooyoung, the students are talking about something in shrouded whispers. It's still audible enough to be heard, though, so she eavesdrops, leaning forward on her table ever so slightly. She is bored anyway.

"Did you listen to Han Jooyoung's presentation?"

"Of course! I don't listen properly to anyone's presentation except hers, actually. She's a genius."

"Same. I swear, I have no idea how she manages to come up with these amazing reports. Han Jooyoung is my idol, man."

"I bet she studies every day in her dorm room, though. I heard her room is a single room. She's probably the sort of person with no life." (Jooyoung has no intention to fight back even though only the part about her room being single is correct — still preserving her cool image, you know?)

"True. But she's probably the smartest student in our department." (Jooyoung clears softly. She's still shy to hear this even after hearing it being discussed a lot. But she admittedly likes it.)

"I think Do Kyungsoo is smarter, though."

(And then Jooyoung does a double take, sitting up straight.)

"Oh yes! I forgot about Do Kyungsoo."

"You know, he's on one of the most prestigious scholarships here for local students. And apparently he came in top 0.1% in the college entrance examinations. He's incredible as heck."

"Okay, now Do Kyungsoo is my idol. And you know, compared to Jooyoung, he actually does have a life — he's so popular!"

"That's because he's really witty and funny. I go for one of the same lectures as he does, and he's so chill there. He's always using his laptop to read random entertainment articles and playing online games. I don't get how he's still so smart."

"I want to befriend him so bad. He seems like the coolest, smartest, funniest kid on campus."

"Yeah, he seems pretty friendly too! Do Kyungsoo the perfect evolution of a college student."

She stops listening after a while, feeling a little unamused by the students' conversation. Jooyoung is suddenly determined to find out who exactly this Do Kyungsoo is. His name sounds vaguely familiar, but it's probably because he's popular, like the students had said. But who said he could just randomly strip her of her title as smartest student? This is why she hates popular kids. But at the same time, Jooyoung doesn't exactly believe everything the students are saying — no one would be so perfect that he can slack off during classes and still receive high scores, and is funny, and is super popular, right?

She makes a resolution to find out how Do Kyungsoo looks like, and who he is. (And get her title back, though it's not the main point.)

After class, she packs up and is about to leave when she makes eye contact with Professor Park. It seems like he is beckoning her over but she is not too sure. A wave of sudden anxiety washes over her — he hardly calls students out even when they are failing his subject (mainly because it's such a normal occurrence); had she done something worse than that to have him call her out like that? Jooyoung feels the other students' inconspicuous gaze on her, and is self-conscious as she steps up front to meet him.

She bows slightly, a little out of respect, but mostly because she doesn't want to look into his big unfeeling eyes. He towers over her, and it's the first time Jooyoung notices that he is so tall.

His voice is emotionless as he speaks. "Would you like to go to London?"

Surprised by his question, she looks up at him only then, and his gaze suddenly doesn't seem all that imposing anymore. She must have showed over-enthusiasm, because Professor Park only raises his eyebrows and speaks again. "What's with that queer look?"

She clears , bringing her facial expression back under control, and thinks about his first question. What if it's a trick question, like the ones he sets continuously in his tests? What if there's a way she's supposed to answer, to, maybe, salvage her grade or something?

She swallows. "Yeah, sure," she says, voice loud. "I mean, yes. I would love to go to London."

Professor Park's expression doesn't change. "Good. You're one of the students who hasn't properly botched up any assignment, so I'm giving this chance of an exchange programme there to you." He hands her a few brochures and a long document. "I'll expect you to read through each of these and be clear with what the intent of the programme is, what we would be doing and so on. Do you know what else I'm expecting of you?"

Uh oh. Jooyoung bites her lip. She can't answer no, that would be too risky. What would be a Professor Park-esque answer? Come on Jooyoung, think! Think!

She softly speaks. "That I don't make mistakes while I'm at the partner school there?"

Pin-drop silence. Jooyoung feels her heart race. She musters her courage to look up at Professor Park, and he is raising his eyebrows questionably. She wants to find a hole to hide in forever.

"That," he says after a long silence. "Goes without saying. I expect you to meet up with the other students involved in this programme to discuss your preliminary organising plans. You can go now."

Jooyoung hurriedly bows again and stumbles away from him. Professor Park has a way of making you feel so afraid you couldn't talk back if you wanted to. (Talk about him being a psychology expert.) He is basically an incarnation of a horror character.

She leaves the lecture theatre and mulls over the issue. Was it a right decision to go for it so readily? What if she can't cope with everything piled alongside this?

Jooyoung heads by the food hall nearest her dorm and decides to get herself a good ol' coffee, and when she is about to go back to her room to catch up on some sleep, she passes the short boy again for the second time that day. He is still in his khakis, but this time, he is drinking a milkshake (instead of eating that horrible ramyeon). She pauses, thinks about it for a while and decides to go over to apologise for hitting him. Jooyoung needs to get something — anything — out of her mind, even if it as small as this one is.

But just as she takes a single step toward him, he is suddenly surrounded by a big group of students who high-five him and dissolve him into their conversations, being all loud and filling the food hall with laughter. There are a few students who walk past the group and look at them with what looks like admiration to Jooyoung, but she just narrows her eyes.

Huh — the short boy must be popular as well. Why are there so many popular kids these days? Or is it just that humankind has become more sociable, or something?

Jooyoung turns away from the group, but she doesn't move forward. She doesn't exactly want to intrude into their animated conversation with the boy, but she's so desperate to get something — anything — off her to-do list that apologising now seems like the better option out of the two. She screams at herself to just do it! and strides her way to him, her coffee cup clutched in her hand.

The short boy is staring at her now, and she slows down so she doesn't look so imposing. When she is about a metre away from him, he tilts his head to one side and starts sipping on his milkshake. It's lucky that the large group around him is slowly starting to move away, though there are some people lingering near him. Jooyoung doesn't care about that anymore.

"Sorry," she says to the boy, or at least tries to, because she knows it probably came out as a bark. (She speaks a little too loudly when she is nervous sometimes. This is definitely one of the sometimes.) "Sorry," she tries again. "For what happened at 3am this morning."

The boy doesn't flinch. "Do you want to grab some lunch?" He asks casually, and Jooyoung is stunned for a moment.

"Lunch?" She repeats, blinking. She's expecting a reply more geared towards "it's okay" or even being completely ignored, but definitely not this.

He nods like it is the most natural thing in the world to ask a person whom you don't know at all out for lunch. "You can buy me lunch to apologise."

"Uh, okay," she nods, and the boy smiles. She had originally planned to start looking for places to stay in London since they have to settle their own accommodation, and if she doesn’t start finding soon, given her personality she knows she will procrastinate under it’s extremely near the trip to book a place to stay. But ah well, she has a debt to settle here anyway.

"There's a place which sells good udon. Let's go." He starts to walk briskly away, and Jooyoung has no choice but to follow behind him blindly. In that moment, her mind is blank.

The udon place is thankfully cheap, because Jooyoung doesn't carry much money around. She can't help but watch as the boy opposite her wolfs the noodles down the same way he did with the horrible ramyeon in the morning. She stares at her food, takes one bite of it, and looks at the boy again.

"I was just wondering, but did you, um, maybe forget to withdraw money or something? Why did you eat that awful ramyeon? No one ever buys it." She asks, and immediately regrets it because she knows it sounds super untactful, but thankfully the boy seems unfazed.

"I have enough," he says, swallowing his food. "But it was on discount, so why not?"

"Oh."

That is all Jooyoung can say at that moment because she doesn't know how to respond. The boy continues to eat, and she tries to as well.

"But why would you?" She blurts again after a long moment. The boy looks up from his noodles as well. He places down his chopsticks silently.

"Okay, let's get this straight first. I'm not poor or anything, and I have more than enough to get me by," the boy laughs. "But why would anyone give up a good deal? I hate spending on unnecessary things. And unnecessary things in general, actually."

Her next words are unprecedented by Jooyoung herself.

"So you're saying you're a Scrooge, then?"

His reply surprises her equally.

"I guess, if you want to phrase it that way." He shrugs, and it is a nonchalant one. Jooyoung wonders how he can be so unaffected by everything. He hasn't seemed offended by anything she has said.

So she takes the risk and points at his pants, just to get what's bugging her off her mind. "Did you get those khakis on sale too?"

"Yup — buy two pairs and get one free. I paid for four and got six! Good deal, eh?"

Jooyoung skips past the fact she thinks those look awful and merely nods. For some reason she is so curious about the engima the boy is, she's left her noodles almost untouched, although it does taste rather good.

This time she stares directly at the boy. "What's your name?"

The boy speaks with food still in his mouth. "Do Kyungthoo," he says, his words muffled.

"Kyungdoo?"

"No, Kyungthoo."

She blinks. He swallows his food and speaks clearly again, a tinkle in his voice. "It's Do Kyungsoo, you dummy."

"Kyungsoo?" She exclaims incredulously. "As in the scholarship Kyungsoo?"

"Uh-"

"Oh my gosh." Jooyoung lets the facts sink in, taking a deep breath. So this was the legendary Do Kyungsoo the students were talking about? That means she had beaten up the apparently Perfect Student at 3am for nothing? And also, is she really currently treating the person who's probably her greatest competitor to lunch? It's strange because she honestly, would have imagined Do Kyungsoo to be someone else. Perhaps a rich boy with an entourage of tutors. Or what people usually think nerds look like: thick-rimmed glasses, gelled hair and with an awkward smile. But he looks so... normal. 

She sits up straight and clears , resuming the classy demeanour she upholds at college, to most people she sees. Not that she is fake. She just needs to look cool for her title as 'smartest'. (And this is how the smartest girl should be like, right? She had watched so many American sitcoms — with Korean subtitles — on college life she can't be wrong.)

"I'm Han Jooyoung," she says crisply. Jooyoung needs to be on her guard now when faced with The Ultimate Competitor.

"Nice to meet you." However, The Ultimate Competitor seems a hundred times more relaxed than she is. Kyungsoo slurps on his noodles casually and doesn't even spare a glance at Jooyoung. She loosens her shoulders and leans forward.

"I have friends," she says, as if she is attacking the enemy with the ultimate bomb — only that this bomb turns out to be a rubber duck, or something. What is she saying? Jooyoung wants desperately to hide in a hole.

Kyungsoo looks at her and nods seriously. "I have friends too. I think you saw them just now. Those are just some, there are others." In all honesty his tone doesn't sound like he is mocking Jooyoung, but to her it is a great source of embarrassment. She forcibly scoops up soup and gulps it down.

"You're popular," she states awkwardly.

He pulls at a long strand of noodle and curls it onto his spoon. "College doesn't have popular kids. That's so high school."

Jooyoung sits up straight, swallowing her soup. She lifts her fingers and begins to count. "There are, though. Kim Junmyeon. Krystal Jung. That guy from Thailand who dances really well. Im Nayeon. You."

Kyungsoo laughs. "Never heard of them."

"Never?"

"Maybe except for Krystal. She's the president of the student government, right?"

Jooyoung narrows her eyes. "And do you know who's the vice president?"

"Nope."

"Me, stupid," she mumbles, not loudly enough for him to hear. She pokes meaninglessly at her noodles with her chopsticks. 

Ever since she entered college, she has always thought she had achieved what she had always wanted to be since she started watching those sitcoms in middle school: a smart (the smartest), cool university kid who's rather popular. And now Kyungsoo is just ruining everything for her. Jooyoung feels her pride getting smashed, but she is not ready to let this fight go, even if it is one-sided.

She clears again and speaks as casually as she can. "Oh yeah, by the way, I'm on this week-long exchange programme to London. Under Prof PCY's class. Only a few students get to go."

"Hey, me too!" Kyungsoo suddenly says, his face lighting up.

"What?"

"Wanna find somewhere to stay together?" Kyungsoo continues, and Jooyoung almost chokes. "Because I don't know who else is going, but if you want to get good deals for apartments you gotta book early and fast."

Everything is going too fast for her liking, and Jooyoung's first instinct is to reject him firmly.

But her brain cells tug at her to think logical — knowing how Kyungsoo is like, it's likely he really will get a good deal for the both of them, and that would save her wallet. And she doesn't want to stay alone either, so that would save her from any thoughts of intruders in the night. And being with Kyungsoo, with his good grades and all, would probably serve as a motivation for her to study instead of procrastinating, so that would save her grades.

And besides, she has to stop being so uptight, right? It's only for a week, anyway.

Jooyoung sneaks a glance at Kyungsoo, who has finished his noodles and is now looking at her expectantly. She braces herself.

"Okay."

This is the first time she hadn’t procrastinated a task on hand at all.

a/n: yes if you're wondering, prof park is park chanyeol; like, the squishy, everything's-too-spicy park chanyeol. just imagine him with a laptop, a fierce look (!!) looking like an intellectual and poof you've got prof park 

also, just a heads up! this story will be updated every 2-4 days (i will try my best to) so yup yalls can check back quite frequently!

AND YIXING'S POTENTIAL REUNION W EXO IS KILLING ME IM SUCH A ER FOR OT9 I SWEAR he was so sweet supporting cbx at their inkigayo prerecording today though ;-; (and sehun at the fansign jdjhbds) 

SOrry i had to ramble