TWO

Baekhyun twirled his pen and sighed a little at the professor whose voice was droning away in the heat of the day. It was a warm day and he was drowsy besides summer break had only just ended.

He smiled a little as he recalled how Cheery and he had stayed most of the time in his room going through the old photographs or going to parties or just… being lazy. They had been zero percent productive and he had absolutely loved it.

Thinking about that, he turns to look at Cheery who was seated next to him looking completely lost to the world.

It was a little weird how every now and then Cheery would just zone out and completely be lost in a world of her own. His smile slips and he simply watched at her hand perched on her chin, her eyes unfocused and her features in a frown.

Perhaps it was because he had always been with Cheery or that he knew almost everything about her so he disliked it a lot when she… do this. Whenever she gets lost like this, it was absolutely hard to read her, to know what was in that mischievous mind of hers.

“Cheery?” Baekhyun poked her with his toe and sighed when she did not respond. What was she thinking?

“Cheery?” He whispered to her again, this time shaking her knee gently with his hand.

She finally blinks and turns to look at him with his eyes wide and questioning mouthing a ‘what?’ at him. He shakes his head a little and pointed to the professor with his chin.

Since middle school and his mother’s numerous sandal accidents, they had stepped up in their studies and actually got into a decent college. It was unbelievable how just a year back, they had been praying hard to let them get into college but now they don’t want to be in it.

Human beings were fickle but now that he was in their shoes, he understands why.

He side-eyes Cheery who was now diligently taking notes and frowns a little. Since they finished their first year in college, she had become increasingly dreamy.

“Why are you yawning so much?” He asked when they finally finished their classes that evening. Aside from being dreamy, she was also getting increasingly tired. “Have you been partying again?”

“Yup!” She affirms dumping her bag at the empty chair and sitting down with a plop. “We went clubbing.”

“Without… me?” A feeling of bitter betrayal crept up to him. If it were parties and clubbing, they were the duo that always went together. “I thought I was your ride or die.”

But instead of taking this seriously, she began giggling. “In my defense, it was because my roommate insisted that it was girls only.”

As he opened his mouth to retort, she beats him to it. “And… it was partly because you turned her down that she wanted to drink the pain away…”

He rolled his eyes at that and kept quiet knowing that it was true. He slept around a lot, everyone knew it but he had already made sure he wasn’t going to screw her friends so that all the complicated feelings don’t linger.

They lapsed into their normal routine of ordering their drinks and food and talking about everything and nothing while the sun dropped down outside. Usually, since they both liked parties and outing a lot at night, they had picked up a routine for their school work during the afternoon hours when they were free to come and do their assignments so that they’re not late for submission all the dang time like they did in the first year.

“We have a test on Greek grammar on…” She reminded him making him groan a little as she checked her calendar, “Thursday.”

For some wild reason, she had taken up Foreign Languages for her college degree and he had to follow suit. As a demon, all these languages were almost nothing for him but human beings tended to dwell on all these grammar and small unnecessary stuff that wouldn’t even be used in a normal conversation. That part annoyed him.

“And a Viva on Sanskrit… Friday. Yikes.”

He groaned even more and felt like complaining to her why she would take up such a difficult course when they weren’t even going to live on earth for even a hundred years. Besides these languages were slowly disappearing so it made no sense for her to take them but she had insisted.

She had taken up Ancient and Modern Languages and chose the most difficult ones too.

What were them again? Latin, Sanskrit, and Greek as well as Mandarin. What was she even thinking? It wasn’t an indebt study of each language, of course, it was more like an introduction to everything but it seemed as though she was trying to take them for a reason.

But whenever he asked, she would only shrug her shoulders, “Languages are fun.”

Aside from that, she was taking up Hebrews and Russian as a self-learning thing. “I just want to know the alphabets.”

“B…” She pouted a little as they began to pack up for the night, “Can you buy me something? I promise I’ll pay you back.”

A flash of baby cheery crossed his mind and he couldn’t help the smile that broke out of his lips. She still pouts like a little baby when she wanted something.

“If you give me a kiss maybe I will?”

She rolled her eyes but excitedly tapped her feet and pulled him closer to show her screen.

“Look at this shoe! It’s so cute!” She began blabbering about how much she wanted the shoe which seriously looked just like the last shoe she had bought. “My dad would be mad if I asked for more money because I’ve already asked him like twice this month so… yeah. I’ll pay you back as soon as like… next month dad sends me money.”

“Look,” She shoved her phone to his face making him huff in annoyance and back up a little but she linked their arms and continued swiping to the shoe shown in various different angles. “Like I know it’s similar to my other shoe but like this one has this strap here that isn’t there in my other one and it is just so cute, I could die.