Early update this week. Happy 415! ;))

“How’s your little obsession with the anatomy professor been?”

Sungmin leaned forward and grinned teasingly, head propped on his hands with an expectant look on his face. “Haven’t heard you gushing about him for a while. What happened?”

Hyukjae let out a sigh and slumped onto the desk with a lovesick expression on his face. “He’s gorgeous, okay? There hasn’t been a day that I haven’t been thinking about him.”

“But?”

“But, he’s taken, and despite my boy status, I’m no homewrecker,” the student sighed again. “They go back a long way. I should have known that such a pretty person would already have a partner, of course. What was I even thinking…”

“There, there,” Sungmin cooed, petting Hyukjae’s hair. “What does his girlfriend look like?”

“Boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Husband? Maybe?” Hyukjae shrugged. He retrieved his phone from his desk drawer and pulled up the professor’s IG account, tapping on a couple photo to show Sungmin. “They look so good together. Who was I even kidding? I’ll never get to tap that .”

Sungmin rolled his eyes and scrolled through the rest of the professor’s feed. Indeed, he could understand why the anatomy professor would set his IG account to private. Certainly, he wouldn’t want photos like that half- bathtub pic floating amongst his students in class. But why would the professor even approve of Hyukjae’s follow request, since a. Hyukjae obviously stated he was a student at the same university in his bio, and b. that would lose the point of setting his account to private if he were to just accept random requests from people he didn’t know? Unless…?

A sinister smile appeared on Sungmin’s lips. He scrolled all the way to the top of the feed, and in one deep breath, started double-tapping each and every photo, video, IGTV, reel, and carousel post, down to the very first photo the professor ever posted, showing off his new little puppy Yuki. Then, he quietly exited the app and gave the phone back to Hyukjae, whose head was still slamming against the desk.

“It’s alright, Hyukjae, at least he kinda knows you exist now. Maybe he’d show a little interest in you, who knows?” Sungmin said, biting back a grin. “Perk up. Miss Park is here.”

~

Donghae wasn’t having the best day at work. Aside from the migraine that had been throbbing since morning, he’d just realised that he wasted the whole morning entering his research data into the wrong database and had to do it all again. Groaning, he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples, trying to alleviate the pain in his skull but to no avail. He let out a long, frustrated yell into the office, and felt just the teensiest better afterwards. Perhaps he just needed a coffee break.

Like a saviour, his lab assistant appeared just then with two iced coffees in his hands and handed one to Donghae, who accepted it gratefully and downed everything in just a few mouthfuls. 

“Thanks, Kyu, I needed that.”

“Don’t mention it,” the lanky assistant replied, picking up the empty cup and throwing it into the trash with precise aim. “Anything I can help you with? I just finished entering my part of the research into the database.”

“Yes, please, could you handle mine too? I’ve got this monster migraine—”

“That’s going to cost you lunch,” the assistant replied at once with a smirk. “I feel like kimchi stew today. Thank you!”

Donghae squinted at the man in front of him and shook his head good-naturedly. “And here I thought you were being nice for once. I should have known.”

“Nothing ever comes free, hyung. Especially if you’re expecting favours from Cho Kyuhyun.” He ignored the professor’s rolled eyes and peered over the monitor. “Since you’re not doing anything productive this morning, shall we go grab an early lunch? I prefer going to the cafeteria when it’s not swarmed by students on lunch break. You know I enjoy my privacy.”

“Sure.” The professor put the computer to sleep, grabbed his wallet and phone, and headed towards the door with Kyuhyun in tow. “We can get kimchi stew, but we’re sharing it.”

“Ugh, fine. I’ll be your stand-in boyfriend if you insist.”

“Please, I have standards.”

“Well, you too.”

“No thank you.”

Donghae ordered lunch while Kyuhyun went to sit at their usual table. Sure they’d only been working a couple of months in, but they particularly liked sitting here at lunch because it had the largest field of vision for people-watching. They may be anatomy professionals on paper, but they also enjoyed watching the people around them, how they interacted with each other, guessing their backstories, picking up on body languages, and stuff like that. Living people were so much more interesting to figure out than dead bodies in the lab. Not that he could complain, considering he was the one who chose his own path to lead him to where he was today. 

“Food’s here!”

They dug in happily. With some food in his system, Donghae realised that his migraine was also starting to dissipate. Maybe he shouldn’t skip breakfast anymore. He let out an empty chuckle at the irony — that he, an anatomy professor, wasn’t exactly taking the best care of his own body. Well, ever since transferring to this university and getting Kyuhyun as an assistant, he’d been kind of eating on a more regular basis, so he’s at least got him to thank for that. He quickly glanced at the assistant heaping another pile of kimchi onto his rice and smiled. Yep, Kyuhyun and his sharp, quick-witted tongue and snarky attitude, but he could always count on him. Tough love, he called it.

“Say, I wonder if we’ll catch him here later,” Kyuhyun said, blowing on a steaming piece of kimchi. “You remember that boy?”

“Yeah, of course I do,” Donghae answered with a nod. “His body language spelt ‘infatuation’ all over.”

“You sure it wasn’t ‘lust’?” Kyuhyun asked with a cackle. “‘Infatuation’, ‘lust’, ‘obsession’, ‘anxiety’, and ‘nervousness’ all rolled together in one. Face it, he’s obsessed with you.”

“You say that as if his friend wasn’t ogling you as well.”

“Yeah, but he didn’t request to follow me on Instagram immediately after lunch,” the assistant added with a smirk. “-devourer.”

Donghae let out a soft chuckle and shook his head. “I’m surprised he managed to find me in such a short amount of time. I accepted his request, by the way.”

“You what?” Kyuhyun choked on a spicy piece of meat and grabbed for the water immediately. Donghae thumped on his back as the man flailed helplessly in his seat from the other’s pure, brute strength. “Seriously, Kyu, do I need to do the Heimlich manoeuvre on you?”

“No!” Kyuhyun gasped, choking and clutching onto the table for dear life as he felt his lungs starting to dislodge from Donghae’s powerful thumps. “You’re crushing me!”

“Oh, right. I forgot. Sorry,” Donghae said sheepishly. He kept forgetting that he had close to superhuman strength in his arms. “Are you alright?” 

“I’m fine, but are you alright?”

“What do you mean?”

“You let him follow you? Why?”

“Well, why not? He looks like a fun person. And he’s technically not my student, so I’m not going against my principles anyway.”