Fleeting glances. Alluring smiles. Telling gestures.

Is it the alcohol?

Her gaze travels for the nth time again this night, in search for those dark brown eyes that hold such immense intensity. In this sea of lingering people under the dim bar lights, with the music’s heavy beats and drums pulsating through her eardrums and the liquor gradually buzzing her mind, she is sure that she will find them. Or maybe, it’s the other way around. She is certain that they will find hers instead. If fate allows them once more.

But if not?

Then it is really just the alcohol doing its tricks.

She takes a swig from her bottle of beer, the liquid doing a coarse run down . She watches her intoxicated college friends make a fool of themselves, showing a small smile every now and then at their silly antics. On the other table, she sees some students from the same department chatter over the loud music blasting from the speakers. On the table to her left, people from another department are playing a lively game of ‘Truth or Dare’. The man she is looking for is nowhere in sight. This fact causes her to heave a defeated sigh.

“Hey,” one of her friends calls out. But she doesn’t respond, so he stands up to place his left hand on her right shoulder and leans closer. “Seulgi?”

“Huh?” Seulgi makes a sound as she looks up at him, unsure if she has heard him correctly.

“Just wondering if you wanna go out and smoke?” he asks her, his fingers gently tucking a stray strand of her long black hair away from her face.

“Uhm, maybe later,” she tells him in such a tone one gets when getting refused, the corners of her rosy lips and the corners of her eyes curving slightly upwards. The latter pats her on the shoulder and nods his head afterwards before he heads towards the door with their friends in tow.

And with that, the noise around her immediately subdues. While she finishes her alcoholic beverage, she continues scanning the room with those foxy eyes of hers, her eyebrows furrowing whenever her sight stumbles upon someone who looks almost like him. A man of good build who sports a loose white polo shirt which greatly contrasts his gorgeous brown skin and a pair of tight black jeans which accentuates his toned long legs. His jet black hair is always slicked back with gel, and his upper body is adorned with tattoos. Seulgi is oddly familiar with his looks that upon realizing that she may only be a stranger or an acquaintance to him at most, she feels like taking that part of her to her grave.

Well, who can blame her? She is drawn by Mino.

Fleeting glances.

Seulgi vividly remembers her first encounter with Mino.

It has been a gloomy day; time seems to pass by so slowly. Lessons in her courses have started requiring more willpower in order for her to understand them very well, but on that day, she is too exhausted to even function normally. So she spends most of her day wandering in her own reverie, waiting for the day to end quickly. And when the bell finally starts ringing, she hurriedly takes her leave. But even though she looks so eager to get the hell out of that place, a close girl friend, who is also from a university organization she partakes in, spots her and stops her in the hallway to talk about some agendas. Wanting to be polite, she stays to listen to her animated chatter.

However, in the middle of the conversation, her attention shifts to someone else standing in front of a door nearby. Smoldering eyes, God-sculpted nose, strong jaw, that brown skin, flashy piercings, conspicuous tattoos, fashion sense that screams ‘hot’. Basically a good-looking guy in this building? It is a rare sight to behold.

“Seul, what are you looking at?” her friend asks when she notices that Seulgi is not responding to her anymore. She turns her head to the direction the dazed lass is looking at, and as soon as she does, she lets out a chuckle. “Oh, it’s Mino. What is he doing here?”

Seulgi takes a glimpse of her friend before taking her attention back to the male. “Irene, do you know who he is?”

“Mino. From the engineering department.”

“He doesn’t look like he’s from engineering.”

Irene smiles at her. “Well, considering you hang out with some nerds from that department, I understand.”