Double Agent, Ryeosuni

            I knew I shouldn’t be spying on Kyuhyun, but after my conversation with Yesung, I was curious.  Did Kyuhyun really avoid socializing with most women or was he exaggerating?  So, for the next week, I tried to locate Kyuhyun on campus when I was between classes and projects and watched him from a distance—as a man, of course—and found that it was no exaggeration.  Aside from working on some group projects where there was a mix of students or occasionally talking with an older female professor—who I still thought looked rather smitten with him—he avoided any in-depth conversations with women.  It was almost as if they didn’t exist.

            So, in order to find out if he thought differently of Ryeosuni, I would have to put it to a test.  I’d noticed that he always left his last class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at two o’clock and then headed straight to a café down the street to pick up a coffee before going to the library to study.  He never failed to do this.  So, that Wednesday afternoon, I was going to make sure I was in the café before he arrived dressed as Ryeosuni and see how he reacted to running into me in public.

            Exactly at five minutes past two o’clock, I was browsing the display case of bakery items beside the counter when I heard the door open behind me.  I decided to turn my head a little, just so he wouldn’t miss me and mistake me for someone else.  He could ultimately pretend he didn’t see me, if he wished.  I was still going to pretend to notice him before he left just to see how he’d react.  But I wanted to give him ample time to decide if he wanted to greet me first.

            After a few seconds, I felt a hand lightly touching my shoulder.  “Ryeosuni!”

            I turned to look over my shoulder and acted surprised to see him.  “Kyuhyun oppa!  Hello!”

            “Hi,” he said, smiling warmly.  “What are you doing here?  Meeting someone?”

            I shook my head.  “I felt a little tired and thought I would get a coffee before doing some studying this afternoon.  Hopefully, I will be able to concentrate better.”

            “Really?” he asked, laughing to himself.  “I was just doing the same thing.  What would you like?  I’ll buy.”

            “You don’t need to do that!”

            “Don’t be silly!  I insist.  You made all that food for Yesung and I when we were sick and I felt better the very next day,” he told me.

            “I suppose.  I’ll take an iced vanilla latte.”

            “Aren’t you going to get something sweet?”

            “I was just looking.  I wasn’t going to buy anything,” I told him.  “If I eat too many sweets, I will gain weight.”

            “Which did you like best?” he asked, looking over the variety of desserts. 

            I pointed to a cheesecake off to the side.  “Cheesecake is my favorite dessert.”

            “That does look good.  I think I’ll order two of them.  We can eat them here quick before we start our studying.”

            I opened my mouth to object, but he was already at the counter, giving our orders to the barista.  I found a table by the window and stood back up when the order was ready to help him carry everything over.  “You really shouldn’t have bought all this, but it’s very sweet of you.  Thank you!”

            We spent the next fifteen minutes making small talk as we slowly ate our cheesecakes and sipped our coffees.  I told him about the kinds of classes I was taking, which I didn’t bother lying about and it was a relief to tell him something in detail that wasn’t fabricated.  He discussed his current classes, but a lot of what he said about computers went over my head.  He could tell that it wasn’t registering and changed the subject to the spring weather and how rainy it had been.

            Finally, we were both done eating and there was no excuse to keep sitting in the café together.  It became apparent we should both leave and get our studying done. 

            “Where do you usually go to study?” Kyuhyun suddenly asked.

            “I usually just head back to my dorm.  Don’t you?”  I already knew he didn’t, but it would look creepy if it looked like I already knew too much about it.  He didn’t need to know I’d been spying on him.

            He shook his head.  “I prefer to go to the library.  I’m less likely to get distracted by people stopping by or video games.”

            I smiled at him.  “Is that your weakness?”

            “Perhaps,” he confessed.  “Would you like to come with?”

            I smiled.  “Sure.  It would be interesting to try studying in a new atmosphere.  My roommate can be a little loud sometimes, so it might be a better place.”

            And that was how I found myself sitting across from the hottest and most eligible bachelor on campus two hours later, getting the most jealous and curious looks from nearly every single female that walked by.  For one, they had probably never seen him spend so much time in the company of one woman before.  And secondly, none of them could figure out who the hell I was.

            I stopped studying for a minute and looked over at him as he worked on his math homework.  It looked overly complicated, but he barely paused as he worked through the equation.  “Your math problems are giving me a headache just looking at them.”

            He smiled, continuing to work through the equation.  “Numbers are not your thing?  I thought music students were better at math than other students.”

            “Not me,” I grumbled.  “And I have to take advanced algebra next semester.  What is that?”

            “Calculus III.”

            I shook my head at the thought of taking something like that.  “You must be a genius.”

            “I’m not bad at numbers.  If you find yourself struggling with your class next semester, just let me know and I’ll help you with it,” he offered.

            I was going to be on the brink of failure for the whole semester if that was going to have me studying with him every week.  “No changing your mind when you find out how terrible I am!”