- a life adviser by DKS -

Kyungsoo’s thermos cup was filled with extremely strong coffee to the brim. Still, his eyes made no attempt to stay open longer than two seconds and he already gulped down a cup in a rush. Pulling an all-nighter wasn’t his forte, but he had to make last-minute changes on an already finished project, emphasis on “finished”. That’s one of those reasons why he despised group projects with a burning passion, at least for art.
Kyungsoo stared holes into the wall next to him while he rested his head on the hard-wooden surface called mockingly desk. He also despised this specific lecture hall because of its age. Pretty sure this specific hall used to be a torture chamber in ancient times, that’s how old it was and that was still its primary use today. Slowly but surely absorbing student’s last bits of joie de vivre and strength.
After settling back into his seat, he sipped his coffee and observed the students who slowly invaded the lecture hall. He squinted at them, so no-one dared to sit beside him. Chanyeol would have taken that as an invitation to spark a conversation.
Speaking of Chanyeol, Kyungsoo choked on his own spit. The person he just saw outside walking was an almost spitting image of him. Due to the shock, he almost ripped out his earphones. The not-so-tired-anymore-but-shocked-to-the-core male stared disbelievingly out of the window.

It wasn’t possible, was it?

A damn noisy ‘ding’ got him out of his trance.

5 unread message(s)

 

SOO!
im so tired I dont wanna get up
i have to get up but not earlier than 0930
but i set my alarm for 8
just so i can lay in bed and be angry about the fact that i have to get up
	ʳᵉᵃᵈ ⁰⁸˙⁰⁷

Kyungsoo released a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Thank God, the person he saw was not the giant. After a relieved sigh, the meaning of Chanyeol’s message started to settle in. A few seconds more and it reached its full potential. Instead of feeling angry, Kyungsoo just entered a state of being where his soul plainly left his body. He stared blankly at the blackboard from where he was sitting, taking out his belongings automatically and tried to listen to the professor, who entered minutes ago. Sometime between that he managed to mute his phone.

7 unread message(s)

 

Soo~
i dunt wanna meet up with the study group
i dont wanna do that group assignment
and i still didnt finish my review and analysis for Mountains of Madness
deadline is the day aft tmr
just finished 3 of the 7 pages
*pouts*
	ʳᵉᵃᵈ ⁰⁸˙²⁴

The bespectacled male felt his eyelid twitching. His thumbs were absentmindedly hovering above the touchscreen, swaying from right to left, down and up. He swallowed his salvia.

 

	Are you kidding me?
	Are you ing kidding me?
	Are you for real?!
	Park Chanyeol!
Soo, you answered!
\typing\
	Park Chanyeol!
	You had six ing weeks for that assignment and it ONLY has 7 pages.
	S E V E N !
	Now you have the audacity to whine about THAT in MY presence?
ya know…
	Don’t you dare defend yourself!
We always say “dont u dare” but “do not u dare” sounds disgustingly wrong, dont u think?
	Don’t you dare change the subject.
	ˢᵉⁿᵈ ⁰⁸˙³¹

Chanyeol successfully triggered Kyungsoo. Frustrated, he smacked a fist on top of the desk.

“Mr Do, sounds like you're not satisfied with my lecture?” asked a very displeased voice from the direction of the blackboard.
The addressed person looked up bewildered, eyes the size of saucers, the colour drained from the face, leaving an unhealthy shade of paleness, the heart-shaped lips slightly opened. After the initial shock, followed the embarrassment; the worst one in Kyungsoo’s whole academic career up until now, like the worst of the worst.
“Ah-, ah-, I’m so sorry, Mister, I don’t feel well. I’ll have to excuse myself”, stuttered Kyungsoo, grabbing his belongings in the process, almost forgetting the mostly untouched coffee that slowly turned colder. In a rush, he scurries out of the lecture hall, hundredths of eyes following him.

Outside of the building, he had a slight panic attack. Sliding down the wall, he sat on the ground, trying to control his breathing into a more stable pattern. Inhaling, holding breath, exhaling. Over and over again. That way he sat there for about twenty minutes, calmed down in the meantime. He was smoking with closed eyes, eyebrows dangerously furrowed. The lecture wouldn’t end for the time being and the traffic of students was limited around this time. Kyungsoo slowly regained his composure.

Fumbling his phone out of his pocket, which wasn’t that easy because he still set cross-legged on the floor, he sent Chanyeol a message after browsing the internet for a minute, less an actual message, but rather a screenshot without additional captions.
He had a couple of missed calls from Chanyeol, but he decided to ignore them for the moment.

 

	Park Chanyeol, you’re a lazy bum.
	ˢᵉⁿᵈ ⁰⁸˙⁵⁷

He’ll pay Chanyeol back later. This was the peak of embarrassment for Kyungsoo in his whole academic career. Hitherto, all thanks to Chanyeol. He knew the literature student was struggling with time management, but not to this extent.

«Block User: »
Accept          Decline
✓                    [x]

«Mute User: »
1 Hour
8 Hours
[24 Hours]
Indefinite

«Muted [24 Hours]: receive notifications»
Accept          Decline
✓                    [x]

«For the chosen time period [24 Hours] the user [] will be muted, you will not receive any notifications, still notifications will be shown in the chat itself.»

Kyungsoo was in dire need to vent out his frustration, at least someone to rant to, someone had to suffer with him. Instead of using the public transportation system, he decided to take a stroll through the park behind the university building, it was connected to the city centre. The walk in the park alone would take around thirty minutes if someone’s walking quite fast, Kyungsoo’s mood considered, in addition to his retainment not to run, 40 minutes. Halfway through the park, he decided to take a break, he sat down on a bench and lit a cigarette. Staring into the park’s leafy canopy, his mind started wandering on its own. He should visit his parents more often, just last week his mother called to ask if he’s coming back for semester break or if still had to take exams in between. He assured her he will visit and that he’s bringing Chanyeol with him, for the simple reason their families lived in the same town.
Effectively, he still remembered his now slightly warm coffee and gulped it down, grimacing at the unsavoury feeling of lukewarm coffee which is even more bitter by then.
Continuing along his way, he still didn’t put his earphones in, simply listening to the soft rush of wind in the tree leaves. From the park, it was a twenty-minute walk through the city to his shared dorm. While buying a coffee-to-go at a small cafe, he mentally decided at whose room to crash. The only available option was Keegan, Moritz’ girlfriend was visiting, and Ric didn’t even exist. Kyungsoo aimlessly wandered through the streets, smoking, drinking his coffee and observing how the city slowly woke up from its late summer’s night sleep. At some point, he reached the dorm. Flitting through the hallway, he made a beeline for Keegan’s bedroom in their dorm. Without considering to even knock on the door, he jumped into his roommate’s bed and laid there sprawled out like stranded whale. He missed the male by centimetres but effectively crushing Keegan’s legs with his own. Fortunately, the victim of Kyungsoo's antics already sat in bed, otherwise, the smaller one of those two would have attacked his stomach.

“Morning, sunshine. According to the dying whale sounds you make, something happened to ruin your mood”, Keegan patted Soo’s head while he kept his eyes trained on the book he was reading.
“Kee~”, Kyungsoo whined.
Addressed person raised an eyebrow and shifted his attention towards the whining male. He tried not to chuckle, but the picture presented was just too good not to. Kyungsoo, face-first in his sports bag, whining into it, while the rest of his body was sprawled out like a starfish.

In the evening, Kyungsoo pulled open the nightstand drawer and retrieved his phone. He used the day and finished most of his assignments for university. According to the numbers of notifications he received, either somebody had died, he was in six new group chats or something else must have happened.

He skimmed through the notifications, two of them were from Keegan, one from his brother, three in the group chat he was in and the rest? Courtesy of Chanyeol.

          \online\
113 unread message(s)
11 missed call(s)

He scrolled through the messages, a lot of them were just different variations of his first and surname, in between missed calls, a pouting Chanyeol, some longer messages; full of concern and questions. The last one was from around three hours ago.

Chanyeol must have seen that Kyungsoo was back online or he just constantly lurked in the chat and just waited for some form of reaction.

«Incoming Call: »
Accept           Decline
[✓]                    x

“I would like to join you in acknowledging the difficulties of your life”, Kyungsoo was grinning, spinning slightly around in his swivel chair.

“You are the worst at this comfort thing, Soo.”