“Um, Mister Cho Kyuhyun, sir?”

Kyuhyun responded with a snort and glanced up at Hyukjae. “Yes, kiddo, what do you want?”

Hyukjae handed over the consent form, cheeks reddened, eyes shaky, and teeth worrying his bottom lip so much it was turning a plump and bright red colour. “I’m in. The research, I mean. I-I’ve had some thought about it, and I’m willing to take the risk.”

“Risk?” Kyuhyun echoed. “There’s no risk involved. Studies have shown that ing is good for you. Or… Did you mean you don’t know how to e without hurting yourself?”

“What? No, I know how! I-I just meant, like, the risk of my friends finding out,” Hyukjae nervously laughed. More like the risk of getting castrated by Professor Choi if he found out I had a major crush on Professor Lee.

“Oh. Well, you could choose not to tell them, you know. Still, it’s good to have you on board,” the lab assistant said, taking the form and skimming through the pages to make sure that Hyukjae had indeed signed all the places that needed signing before entering the data into his computer. “Alright, you’re in the system, and your first session will be with Prof Choi in a week.”

“Will Professor Lee be there too?” Hyukjae blurted out, then quickly clapped a hand over his mouth, horrified at his slip of the tongue.

Kyuhyun’s lips curled into a smirk as he leaned back in his seat, arms folded across his chest. “If he’s not, would you rather I reschedule?”

“Y-You can do that?”

“I guess,” Kyuhyun said with a shrug, chuckling when Hyukjae’s eyes brightened up. Donghae was right, this student was like an open book and it was quite fun to watch his body making the teensiest physical reaction to anything and everything he said, especially if it was about his beloved Professor Lee. “I mean, I’m only the one in charge of arranging all the schedules with the volunteers and stuff. Little ole’ me. Pretty sure I could do something about it though, if you asked nicely.”

In actuality, both professors would be there for the whole time, but Kyuhyun just liked messing around with Hyukjae. He didn’t need to know.

Hyukjae nodded shyly, a slight blush slowly creeping up his neck. “C-Can you please schedule me for whenever Professor Lee will be around? Please?”

“Of course, since you asked so nicely,” Kyuhyun said with a laugh when the slight crease on the student’s forehead smoothened out, most likely in relief. Hyukjae was such a fun subject to observe. “So you’re finally going to do something about your huge crush on him?”

“W-What crush? On P-Professor Lee?” Hyukjae squeaked, panicking as he quickly glanced around to see if anyone else heard him say it. “I-I don’t know what you mean!”

“Kiddo, it’s perfectly normal to have a crush on the professor. He’s smart, handsome, charming, and quite the ladies man. Not calling you a lady of course. What’s there not to like about him? He’s the epitome of perfection.”

“I-I… Do you like him too?” Hyukjae asked timidly. His eyes widened in surprise when Kyuhyun let out a snort so loud he started choking. “Y-You alright?”

“Ah, I’m fine,” Kyuhyun choked again and laughed. “No, I don’t like him like that. He might be everybody’s type, but he ain’t mine. Too scatterbrained.”

“What do you mean, he must be really smart, isn’t he? He’s way too out of my league,” Hyukjae said softly, a sad smile gracing his lips. “I can’t even form sentences properly when I see him, let alone have an actual conversation with him. I always end up acting stupid. And of course, he’s already seeing someone anyway… I’ll never stand a chance with him,” the student mumbled the last sentence to himself.

Kyuhyun had a grave expression on his face by the time Hyukjae finished talking. “Kiddo… I need to ask you something. Are you the one secretly sending Professor Lee flowers every morning?” He saw the other’s shocked expression and raised an eyebrow at him. “Or do you not know anything about them?”

“T-The roses? Uhh no, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I never said they were roses.”

Hyukjae looked like a deer caught in headlights. “I-I… uhh… assumed?”

“Right,” Kyuhyun said, nodding to himself. “Pity it wasn’t you. He likes them a lot. He’s been meaning to find out who the sender was, but at least I could tell him it wasn’t you.”

Hyukjae’s face fell. “Oh… okay.” He bit his lips again, hard enough to accidentally puncture the skin and draw blood, but he didn’t even notice. “It could be from Professor Choi…”

“Nah, he already denied sending him the flowers the other day. He was the first person Donghae hyung asked. We’re still trying to find the stalker.”

“S-stalker? And Professor Choi knows about the roses as well?” Hyukjae squeaked, face turning a ghastly white and blood running cold. They think I’m a stalker? , no wonder Professor Choi looked so protective of Professor Lee at the cafeteria the other day… He thinks I’m the stalker.

Kyuhyun frowned and touched Hyukjae’s forehead, wondering why the student suddenly looked so ill. “Kiddo, you okay? Your lips are bleeding…”

Hyukjae turned to look at Kyuhyun and subconsciously the blood on his lips, still looking as if he’d seen a ghost. “I can’t do this, I’m sorry.”

Kyuhyun cocked his head to the side and blinked in confusion. “The research? What do you mean? Weren’t you alright with it just now? Look, you’ve even filled up the form and gone through the trouble of bringing it all the way here—”

“Because I don’t want Professor Choi to castrate me for what I did!”

“Why would he even think of doing that?”

“B-Because he’ll think I’m trying to get at his boyfriend away even though I’m not!”

Kyuhyun fought to keep the smirk off his face. “And what have you done to make him think you’re after his ‘boyfriend’?”

“The roses—” Hyukjae clapped a hand over his mouth and groaned loudly. He peeked at Kyuhyun and let his shoulders deflate when he saw the knowing smirk on the assistant’s face. “You knew.”

“I did,” Kyuhyun grinned triumphantly. “But it was nice to hear it straight from the monkey’s mouth.”

Hyukjae buried his face in his hands and let out a defeated whine. “How about Prof Choi and Prof Lee? Do they know too?”

“I’m pretty sure Donghae hyung was hoping it would be you. Siwon hyung on the other hand… I have no idea. You could always ask them when they come back later.”

“No, thank you,” Hyukjae quickly answered. “Please don’t tell them it was me. Prof Choi would never want to see my face ever again.”

“Because you ‘stole’ his ‘boyfriend’? The last I checked, Donghae hyung hasn’t agreed to go out with you, so he’s not officially ‘stolen’ yet,” Kyuhyun chuckled. “And if Siwon hyung actually loses Donghae hyung to someone like you, then maybe he just isn’t trying that hard to keep him.”

Hyukjae blinked stupidly at the lab assistant and pouted, the subtle shade flying over his head. “What do you mean, if Prof Choi isn’t trying?” Suddenly, he remembered what Joy had told him the last time. “They keep denying it,” she had said. The realisation struck him like a baseball bat. “Wait… Prof Choi and Prof Lee… they aren’t dating?”

“Who have you been listening to, kiddo, you really shouldn’t be prying into the professors’ love life like that,” Kyuhyun reprimanded, although with a slight upward curl to his lips. “Now where’d you get that juicy piece of gossip from?”

At least Hyukjae had the decency to blush a little and deny that he’d been spreading gossip about the two professors. But he also didn’t snitch on Joy, because he didn’t want to get anyone else into trouble over such a trivial thing that everyone was saying anyway. He ignored Kyuhyun’s last question and shyly asked him if Donghae did like the roses he sent.

“Here’s a fun fact,” Kyuhyun started. “For the record, Donghae hyung is notorious for being the resident plant killer. I’m sure you’ve heard of his disastrous electronic device-destroying abilities. Well, it’s also the same for plants — he can’t keep weeds alive for more than a day if he tried.”

“And?”

“And the roses have all stayed alive and healthy for a week on his tabletop.” Maybe Kyuhyun exaggerated just a tiny bit because all the roses shrivelled up and died precisely on the 5th day of the professor receiving them, but Hyukjae could be spared those details. “You should see him tending to the flowers every day. I’m pretty sure that means he likes them a lot.”

Hyukjae didn’t allow himself to show the warm, bubbly feeling he felt inside of him when Kyuhyun said that. Maybe roses were the professor’s favourite flowers and he just got lucky choosing the right kind of flower he liked. Or, it could also be the cheesy pick-up lines he scribbled onto the card that came with the daily rose. 

Whatever. If Professor Lee was still looking for the sender, that meant he hadn’t been found out and was still safe for now, as long as Kyuhyun kept his mouth shut. He had to be more careful not to get caught, but the thought of the professor doing his best to keep his roses alive made Hyukjae want to dance about in glee. Heck, he could barely even stop himself from grinning now.

“Don’t tell him I said that,” Kyuhyun said, face suddenly void of emo