“But should DAU Project have received governmental support?” Sehun argued. “That thing was like a large scale Stanford Experiment, and it lasted for 3 goddamn years.”

“Think about it though, if there had been no local governmental support, then it would have received private investment from some seedy billionaire. Once private investment gets involved the project itself will stray from its original direction, no matter how strongly the director tries to maintain his creative integrity,” Hayoon rebuked, enjoying playing devil’s advocate.

They had just finished a lecture and were currently heading towards the courtyard to enjoy some fresh air. Behind them trailed Jackson and Jinyoung, both looking rather lost from the topic they were discussing, Jackson especially as he clutched his head between his hands.

“But it just blurs so many moral ethics and violates basic human rights!” Sehun exclaimed. “Being in that kind of dystopian environment, no way do you come out of it the same way you were when you first entered. The production team should not have allowed commoners to partake in the project.”

“If you put it that way, I actually question just how authentic their behaviour was,” Hayoon pondered. “DAU was filmed with a three man film crew walking around with a camera. It’s not like Big Brother that had hidden cameras. In this instance it was made very blatant when filming was taking place. I mean, like you said they are commoners, so can the actions caught on the camera really be considered as raw and unadulterated human behaviour?”

This triggered another debacle about the plausibility of observational cinema and fly-on-the-wall documentary filmmaking style, diving into the realm of theory and human psych that was beyond what Jackson and Jinyoung could comprehend

“Are they having a geeking out session again?” Jongin mused, his voice sounding like a breath of fresh air to Jackson’s ears.

“Do they do this often?” Jinyoung asked, massaging his forehead sensing a small headache coming.

Sitting down beside them, Jongin stared at Sehun and Hayoon still engaged in their discussion, oblivious to their surroundings.

“It’s gotten better now,” Jongin mused. “Back when we were still undergraduates they did this pretty much on a daily basis. But then again, while we spent four years priming our bodies to be great performers on stage, they were hidden in the library, theorising about everything that was and could be in the history, present, and future of filmmaking.”

“That sounds like hell,” Jackson grunted, mentally confirming to himself that Hayoon was indeed terrifying for having voluntarily subjected herself to that level of pure torture, and maybe he should be weary of Sehun too since the male underwent the same experiences and still could not get enough of such mind-bending discussions.

Suddenly the heated discussion came to a halt. Whipping his head around to make sure that he had not suddenly lost his ability to hear, Jackson blinked at Hayoon and Sehun who wordlessly stood up.

“You’re leaving?” Jongin asked, surprised.

“Shortie and I have a date!” Sehun announced, a playful glint in his eyes.

“Oh thank god.” Jinyoung exclaimed. “I don’t know how much longer my brain would have lasted.”

“And here I thought you had slightly more brain capacity than Jackson,” Hayoon mused, earning a gasp of disbelief from Jackson.

“If I tell Baek that you two are going on a date, he will lose his ,” Jongin interjected, raising an eyebrow at the two.

“As icing on the cake, you can tell him that we’ll be visiting Minseok and Kyungsoo.” Sehun smirked, a contempt expression on his face.

“Wait what?” Jongin glanced at Hayoon, unsure of how to process the new information.

“It’s about time,” Sehun quipped. “Only you’ve been