Hyukjae found himself constantly thinking about the neuropsychology research notice on the library bulletin board and decided to just go visit the faculty to see if they were still looking for volunteers. That’s how Sungmin found himself dragged along to visit the science building after class for the second time that week because Hyukjae said he wanted company, and Sungmin wanted to be a good (albeit grumpy) friend (who complained all the way there nonetheless).

“Mark my words, they’re gonna stick a vacuum in your head and all your brains out.”

“That must be how you lost yours. I feel sorry for you— ow, Min! Don’t hit me, I’m too sore!”

“Mmh, that’s what he said.”

“ off.”

“With pleasure.”

“No, wait, come back!”

The neuropsychology building was brightly lit, in contrast to the darkness of the physiology building Hyukjae saw the other day. As soon as they both stepped into the place, they were greeted immediately by the receptionist with a bright smile on her face.

“Hello, may I help you both?”

They both padded over to the desk and Hyukjae, flashing his biggest smile, asked her about the flyer he’d seen outside the library. “I saw an ad for research volunteers at the library. Do you guys still need more?”

The receptionist responded with an even brighter smile and nodded her head. “Ah, yes, I believe that Professor Choi is still looking for volunteers. Did you schedule an appointment with him?” They shook their heads guiltily, and she gave them a reassuring smile. “It’s okay. Please have a seat, I’ll give him a call and confirm with you in a bit.” She gestured towards the waiting chairs and Sungmin immediately headed over, letting himself sink onto the plush leather seats with a soft sigh. 

Hyukjae lingered at the announcement boards and read up a bit on the faculty’s organisational chart. There was a Prof Dr Choi Siwon listed as the Dean, most probably the same Prof Choi the receptionist mentioned, and right under his name were just three or four more listed as lecturers. Hyukjae skimmed over the rest of the board but found nothing else of interest, so he just paced around waiting for the receptionist to get back to them.

“Sorry, I rang his office a few times but he isn’t picking up. I don’t really know where he is because he isn’t scheduled for any classes or meetings right now,” she said a few minutes later. “Do you mind waiting? He should be back in half an hour. It’s okay if you’re in a hurry, you can just leave your names and details with me and I’ll make sure to relay it to Prof Choi.”

Hyukjae didn’t mind waiting. Neither did Sungmin, seeing as that it was a relatively classless day and they were up-to-date with their assignments so far. “It’s fine, we’ll wait.”

“Yeah, just happy to know Hyuk can keep his brains for a while longer,” said Sungmin, earning a good hard slap from Hyukjae as a result.

The receptionist chuckled and turned to face them in her seat. “It’s okay, Prof Choi is rather selective about the brains he collects and stores in the lab. There are many criteria to be met… Rest assured that you don’t meet any of them,” she said with a wink before turning back to her work.

Stunned, Hyukjae stole a glance at Sungmin, who kept mouthing ‘I told you so!!’, and laughed uneasily. “Right… I should take that as a compliment, right?”

“Whatever floats your boat, sweetie. Do take a seat. I’m sure Prof Choi will be back soon.”

~

Donghae sighed and closed the lid of his laptop as soon as his last student bowed and left the lecture hall. He leaned back in the lecturer chair and rubbed his eyes softly, stifling a yawn. Classes were finally over for the week, and he couldn’t wait to get back to his lab to concentrate more on his research instead of looking up teaching materials for a bunch of twenty-something year-olds. Granted, they were all pretty smart kids and he already sensed a few aspiring physiologists among them, but teaching always made him feel so tired. He’d already negotiated with the university about his contract so that he would teach fewer classes in exchange for publishing more papers and bringing up the university rankings, and they finally settled with giving him just four classes a week. His other colleagues each had at least double the number of classes he had, and he definitely wasn’t jealous of them. 

He gathered up his papers and shuffled them neatly, patiently waiting for his class assistant to come and help him disconnect the projector from his laptop and put stuff away.

The door swung open a minute later. Donghae looked up, expecting to see his assistant, but instead, a charmingly handsome figure strolled into the lecture hall, hands in his slacks pockets, with a soft, adoring smile on his face. The professor’s lips curled up in a warm smile in response, and he stood up to hug the newcomer. He wrapped his arms around the man and rested his chin on his shoulder, feeling how the other reciprocated his movements, and revelling in the man’s familiar scent that made the bare whispers of a headache disappear from his head. Donghae used to complain a lot that he was too tall, but now, the professor didn’t mind that much anymore because it meant he just fit better in the other’s arms. 

Moments later, Donghae finally released his arms and pulled away.

“Where’s Ryeowook? I’m still waiting for him to help me clean up.”

“I told him not to bother coming in since I’m here,” the man said with a grin, reaching over to Donghae’s laptop and disconnecting the cable from the HDMI port. “There, now you’re free.”

Donghae frowned. “Siwon… you’ll get both me and Ryeowook in trouble if you don’t know how to turn off the projector thingy and we end up leaving it on for the rest of the weekend.”

“Who said I didn’t know how to turn it off?” Siwon asked, taking the remote control from Donghae’s pocket and pressing on the power button twice, turning it off. Donghae pretended he didn’t feel the other’s hand purposely sliding against his thigh when he took the remote out.

“Well, since you’re helping me clean up, you’ll also have to take out the trash for me. That’s actually my tenth remote this year… the ninth one broke this morning. I need to get rid of the incriminating evidence,” laughed Donghae. When he bent over to grab the trash bag, he heard a soft whistle just as a hand glided over his left cheek and gave it a firm squeeze. Donghae spun around at once and caught the offending hand before it could retract. “Choi Siwon! We’re in a lecture hall, for goodness sake, do you want us to get caught?”

“What did I do?” the other asked good-naturedly, keeping his straight face and suppressing his laugh, eyebrows high into his forehead. Donghae swore that the man in front of him had an Oscar award tucked away somewhere for his acting skills. He shook his head and released the hand before going back to packing up his stuff.

“Do you wanna go out for dinner later? My treat,” Siwon said softly, wrapping an arm around Donghae’s waist and pulling him closer to whisper in his ear, “Won’t you spend the night with me?”

“I didn’t bring any clothes.”

“You’ve got plenty at my place.”

“Ehh, I guess.” Donghae finished packing up and handed the bag over to Siwon, who took it from him at once. The shorter professor then leaned up to peck Siwon on the cheek before exiting the hall, making sure Siwon followed him out before locking the classroom doors. He could feel Siwon’s free hand reaching for his again and warned the other man to back off with a playful glare. Siwon laughed and shook his head, embarrassed at being caught so soon. Instead of getting mad, however, Donghae slipped his hand into Siwon’s and interlaced their fingers together as they walked out of the building.

Donghae wondered what happened at work to make Siwon so touchy-feely with him today. Usually, the Dean of the Faculty of Neuropsychology rarely had any time even to eat, and yet he purposely made time to get him from class just now. He couldn’t help feeling a little bubble of warmth in his guts as he glanced at Siwon’s handsome, sun-kissed side profile.

It was like Siwon could sense Donghae staring at him, because he looked up and caught Donghae off-guard with that lopsided grin on his face. “What are you thinking? That I’m the most handsome man in the world?”

“No,” Donghae laughed. “I’m just wondering why you’re so clingy today. Did something bad happen?”

“Nothing happened,” the other replied, chuckling when Donghae gave him a questioning look. “I just had a bit of free time today and wanted to get my best friend from class. We haven’t had dinner together in a long time and I thought, why not today? Make it an anniversary of some sort. I’m sure it should be our 8000th day together