If there’s one thing in this world that Joohyun hates more than people making her feel awkward about being a high school dropout, it’s when someone makes her girlfriend cry, and there’s steam coming out of her ears as Seulgi immediately starts tearing up upon seeing Joohyun. The reason for her grief soon presents itself in the form of a marked up paper Joohyun snatches up from Seulgi’s hand as soon as Seulgi walks through their door, and regret hits Joohyun in waves that she couldn’t pick up Seulgi because her cousin visited their house and left mere minutes before Seulgi arrived.

            “Oh, honey,” Joohyun croons, enveloping the taller girl in her arms. She glares at the feedback on Seulgi’s midterm paper as if doing so will set it on fire and demolish its presence from Seulgi’s life before turning her attention to comforting Seulgi. “Which jackass is it this time?”

            Seulgi sniffles. “Honours seminar prof.”

            “The same one who called you out in class for having a drink other than water on your desk even though it was still in a closed bottle?” At nodding against her shoulder, Joohyun crumples the paper in a shaking fist and violently tosses it aside. “What’s his problem? Can’t you report him to your deans or something?”

            Seulgi keeps her face buried in the older girl’s shoulder as she tightens her hold on Joohyun. “I’m sure several students have tried, but there’s only like three of us that he’s directly mean to, plus he’s tenured, so it’s not easy to get him fired or anything. Then there’s also the fact that he’s the only professor for this class, and it’s mandatory for people in our department, so every single one of us has to work with him at some point…”

            “Still!” Joohyun rubs her hands up and down along Seulgi’s back. “He’s been an to you without reason ever since the second week of school. I know you wouldn’t do anything disrespectful to your professors, because your friends always tell me that you’re so bright and engaged in class.”

            “He told me that I’m not allowed to wear hoods in his class because it covers my face and he thinks I might doze off, but when Tzuyu wore a baseball cap for three classes in a row and very obviously slept in the second row, he didn’t say anything,” Seulgi complains, slumping even further onto her girlfriend’s smaller frame. Joohyun stumbles a little at the added weight but waddles them back to the sofa, where she carefully sits down, Seulgi straddling her lap like a baby monke