[11:30 a.m.] Frustration triggers an uncontrollable knee bob as Seungwan wills the fine print on her textbook pages into her long-term memory. 

. . . . .

The nib of a pen absentmindedly finds its way between her lips as she tries to focus on her notes. 

Literature is such a drawl in the morning.

Restless eyes glitch between her writing, the dull, monotonous tone their lecturer seems to favour when explaining even duller literary concepts… and the mysterious elegance emanating from across the room. Seungwan taps her pen incessantly, finding it impossible to concentrate on this lesson’s excerpt of Han Kang’s philosophy. She notices Jennie covering a hand over , pupils almost twitching at whatever she’s found on her scroll.

The feline-eyed student slides her iPhone over to the person sitting next to her with a nudge of her elbow.

Joohyun flinches at the sudden contact but glances down at her friend’s screen. Her lips immediately curve upwards. They’re clearly making fun of someone… which isn’t the least bit surprising, the poor soul. 

But the way Joohyun sports that downright y smirk makes Seungwan’s heart flutter in the warmest shades of pink.

Unable to handle the invisible steam escaping her ears, the blonde caps her highlighter with a sigh. Does that girl even know the rumours about her, she wonders. And if she does, Seungwan wonders if she’d worry about them.

Probably not. Girls like her have nothing to worry about. Girls like Joohyun are girls who were effortlessly popular in high school, voted Most Likely to Succeed five years in a row by star-struck classmates. The ones who are envied in secret. Daughters like Joohyun know nothing less than infinitely doting parents, mafia-affiliated or otherwise; drenched in the sugar shower of warmth and loving embraces. 

That’s Bae Joohyun according to Seungwan, anyway.

“… and please email me by the end of this week. I need to make note of who you will be working with for this project.”

So caught up in her own whirlwind, she barely catches word of what her professor has just instructed. 

She taps Yerim on the shoulder, hoping her sleeping friend was paying attention.

. . . . .

Exiting class splits friend groups like the red sea, and the young juniors feel like they can breathe again. The black velvet trio are on their phones, occupying their usual area, blocking the community notice board and already ordering delivery.

Seungwan’s just about to ask Yerim if she wants a brown sugar boba from the Gong Cha in their cafeteria when she’s interrupted by a girl who looks like she’s just gotten off the runway for Milan’s Fashion Week. 

Then again, she always looks like that.

Awestruck best friends look around for something to wire their hanging jaws shut. Did this person really mean to approach them? 

“Hey, Seungwan?”

The knot in Seungwan’s throat is unswallowable and she stares in disbelief. 

Kim Taeyeon? Kim Taeyeon sunbaenim… knows she exists? 

“Huh?” Seungwan gawks dumbly, scrunching the fabric of her hoodie. A lightbulb goes off and she finally realises she’s the one being addressed. “Me?”

“Yeah you,” she chuckles, honey-brown tresses framing her smile like a painting. “You’re in my class right? Literature?” 

The shorter girl instinctively gestures between herself and Yerim. “Uh, mhm, we – we are, yeah.” 

Taeyeon briefly greets a bouncing Yerim before eyeing the blonde again. “I was gonna ask you about the project. Did you already have a partner?”

“Oh, oh!” Seungwan stutters, “I think Yerim is working with Saeron.”

Yerim casts their tall, attractive senior a sympathetic eye roll and turns to her dorky friend. “She’s asking you.”

Right, right. Me. Seungwan watches her vocabulary diminish with each passing word. “Me, I’m– no, I haven’t really thought about– uh, I think I might actually ask–”

. . . . . 

“Hyun-ah.”

The shortest of the three snaps her attention to the whisper of her name.

Sooyoung notifies her with an indicative head tilt to the group of students around the lockers. “Just a heads-up.”

An unconscious pinch of jealousy wells in her chest as Joohyun regards HanYang university’s Heartthrob Kim Taeyeon caught up in conversation with that adorably nervous, bumbling Seungwan. An eye twitches.

Funny how this is the same fresh-faced junior who dared to approach her and her friends after she’d just floored a six foot boy the other week. Seeing her tripping over nothing now, she wonders where all that bravery went. 

Too bad, it was rather attractive.

“Oh perfect!” she hears Taeyeon chirp, “so you don’t have a partner yet?”

Oh no you don’t, Joohyun thinks, pocketing her phone and heading in their direction.

. . . . .

Seungwan isn’t sure how to let Miss Hollywood smile know that the person she really wants to work with is too busy ordering food with her friends in the corner of the – wait no she’s walking right over here. She’s walking right over here?

What?

Before she can formulate the words, Bae Joohyun gracefully waltzes in and cuts into the conversation, much to Seungwan and Yerim’s astonishment.

“Yeah, sorry Taeyeon,” her tone anything but apologetic. “We’re actually already working together.”

Kim Taeyeon’s mouth forms a thin, tight-lipped smile at this. “Oh.” She turns back to the girl in question. “Is that so?”

A shaky albeit thankful nod is all Seungwan can muster, brain struggling to handle unabated attention from two beautiful seniors, and Yerim looks more entertained at her friend’s expense by the second.

“Well, enjoy yourselves then.” The girl shoots her a fleeting wink before shouldering her padded Valentino Garavani bag and strutting away from them. “Might see you around? Seungwan?”

“Ngh…” 

It takes all of Kim Yerim’s cooperating muscles not to burst out laughing, if only because Joohyun sunbaenim is still here. After letting Seungwan catch her breath, she clears suggestively. The latter just gapes quizzically at her. Wow, put a pretty girl in front of you and you really are useless, aren’t you? Why do I do everything around here? Yerim exasperatedly pops the question mark bubbles floating around her clueless friend. 

She turns to the ice queen who hasn’t said a word since Taeyeon left. “Joohyun sunbaenim,” she greets as politely as she can, “a group of us get together at Seungwan’s cafe on her off days to study. Since you guys are partners now, why don’t you join us? We usually meet on Thursdays so… that’s tomorrow, if you’re free.”

She extends a cautious glance over to Sooyoung and Jennie. “… and, of course…” 

The older quirks a brow but accepts the offer. “Thank you for the invite. I’ll tell them.”

Seungwan tries to repress a budding smile to mask her giddy enthusiasm, and it’s working about as well as rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic. Almost thankfully, their phones simultaneously ping with a Kakaotalk from Seulgi wondering if they’d forgotten how to get to the brunch place. After swiping it open, Yerim realises that as much as she’d love to stay and bask in the awkwardness, a bowl of steaming hot tempura udon is calling her name. The other junior snaps out of her daydream just in time to make a complete fool of herself. 

“Oh, yes, of course you should come, I’d love to see you on Thursday.” 

Joohyun suppresses an amused grin. “Of course. We’d love to.”

Streaks of crimson scribble across Seungwan’s face and she tries to disappear beneath her caramel fringe. “Y-You– you guys, obviously! I– what did I say? I meant you guys. It’d be lovely to meet… huh?”

“Okay, see you on Thursday, sunbaenim,” Yerim bows, hastily making her exit with a furiously blushing Seungwan in tow.

They barely get a foot past the flyer-plastered doors of the university hall when–

“Hey, Seungwan.” 

Joohyun’s chocolaty voice melts into her ears and stops her right in her tracks. She turns around to see a phone held out to her commandingly.

“Aren’t you going to give me your number?” Her lips are curled into a punishing smirk. It makes the younger feel like she’s a kid about to get the longest lecture of her life. “How are we supposed to study if I can’t contact you?”

With burning cheeks, Seungwan shuffles back.

. . . . .

bonus:

[2:00 p.m.] Seulgi snags a slice of Seungwan’s California roll and pops it into with a cheeky grin. Her friends just laugh when tears well in her eyes from the bead of wassabi hidden between the walls of seaweed and rice.

. . . . .

They are at their favourite restaurant. A quaint little sushi place hidden away behind the busy streets of Hongdae that Seungwan wouldn’t shut up about until her two roommates caved in and agreed to go. Instagram-worthy, for sure; with its lemon chiffon wallpaper and the robotic sushi train zipping around the conveyor belt carrying bite-sized orders on colour-coded melamine plates. 

The university students, along with a horde of other members of Gen Z, find themselves regulars at the establishment because of its proximity and price.

“Really?” Seulgi chokes on a noodle, sincerely amazed.

Yerim mirrors her energy. “Right? The Kim Taeyeon spoke to this one.” She playfully squeezes Seungwan’s rosy cheeks, emphasising ‘this one’. 

"Wan-ah," Seulgi leans over the table with a serious expression. "What perfume are you using. I want in. Whatever it is, it's gotta be working."

“Mmh,” the girl mumbles, prying herself from the fingers. “She just wanted to ask if we could work together on the–”

“Oh yeah,” Yerim continues her gossip, waving her off. Seungwan gives up with a shake of her head. “And then someone got asked on a date by Joohyun sunbaenim.”

At this, Seungwan’s beating heart and red face are quick to jump in. “Ah, no. She also wanted to know if we could be partners… tec– technically.”

Her friends’ silence settles in with the animated chatter around them. Seulgi’s eyes scream nosy and Yerim just resigns herself to a complacent smirk. “Tell her, unnie.”

“I–” Heat creeps up Seungwan’s neck and she fiddles with her neckline. “Yeah. I said yeah.”

“Y-Yeah? Yeah?” The dancer can’t believe her ears. “Literally Kim Taeyeon sunbaenim asked you to be her partner and you declined? Wah, you’re amazing, Son Seungwan.”

“Yah, yah, Seul,” Yerim back-handedly defends, “look at her ears, they’re sizzling. That only happens when we mention Joohyun sunbaenim. Taeyeon sunbaenim can’t even hope to compete with that level of whipped.”

Seungwan muffles her scream with another mouthful of California roll. 

But of course, Kim Yerim is ever quick to add fuel to the very embarrassing fire. “Plus, we all know that Taeyeon sunbaenim really wanted to ask the smartest person in that class. Unfortunately for her, Saeron’s quick.”

Seulgi chimes in, mischievously eyeing Seungwan. “Guess she was settling for second best.”

Even Seulgi's cheek knows no bounds, but she doesn’t mind. She never does. Plus, she has no time to. Not when she’s counting down the hours till she gets to discuss literary philosophy and love with her new project partner.

. . . . .