If Jongwoon can have it any other way rather like this, he’d gladly take embarrassing himself in front of the whole university or farting inside the elevator or stupidly tripping on his own feet in meeting Kyuhyun the second time. Unlike this, he is holding Kyuhyun’s arm and they are boring holes in each other’s face.

Unlike this when they are on the different side of the room.

“Kim Jongwoon,” Kyuhyun is the one to talk first. “What are you doing?”

Jongwoon flinches the way Kyuhyun calls him Kim Jongwoon. Doesn’t Kyuhyun feel that it’s him? Can’t he notice at all that the man in front of him now and the one he’s been talking to, chatting to and texting to for almost the entire semester is the same man?

Jongwoon doesn’t let go of Kyuhyun’s arm when he says, “Please, don’t raise your hand on Sooyoung. She didn’t do anything wrong.”

The voice… When it leaves Jongwoon’s lips and reaches’ Kyuhyun, everything stops. It stops Kyuhyun from thinking. It stops Kyuhyun from whatever is going on in his mind with Sooyeon on the floor, with Sooyoung behind Jongwoon, with Joohyun covered with bibimbad crying behind Sooyoung and Jongwoon, and with everybody in the cafeteria murmuring and watching at bay. There’s something in Jongwoon’s voice that stops Kyuhyun and Kyuhyun can’t point it out no matter how much he thinks.

His mind is burning and his thoughts are getting mixed up. How did he hear that voice before? Where?! When?!

Sooyeon who’s still on the floor, putting on her damsel in distress act cries harder even though there are no tears. And it’s like that ignite something in Kyuhyun, something he promised Sooyeon’s parents when they are still young, ‘I’d protect Sooyeon no matter what, ahjumma!’

It all happened so fast. Kyuhyun harshly lets go of his own arm from Jongwoon’s tight grip, then without thinking twice because Kyuhyun’s sure that he’s not thinking anymore because if he is, he will never do what he did, Kyuhyun swings his arm and punches Jongwoon’s face, sending the older man flying across the table they are in. Kyuhyun doesn’t even have time to ponder what he did because as soon his punch touches Jongwoon’s face, he feels something stinging on his left cheeks and then, he’s face is on their table.

He is about to throw another punch at Jongwoon when as if the two people fighting have to punch each other at least once first before the people surrounding them has to stop them, Ryeowook from the nearby table holds Jongwoon and Joohyun and Sooyoung cries for Jongwoon to stop while Hyukjae, Sungmin and Donghae stops Kyuhyun from throwing another punch.

“Stop it, Kyu,” Sungmin snaps, still holding Kyuhyun’s arm. “Stop it!”

Jongwoon, on the other hand, is very quiet. He is being hold by Ryeowook and Sooyoung and Joohyun are blocking him in front of Kyuhyun, in case Kyuhyun is still able to throw any more punches. Nothing of this is Jongwoon’s fault; Sooyoung and Joohyun know that. All Jongwoon did is protect them. Why does Kyuhyun have to punch him?

But Jongwoon knows better. That’s why he’s only silent. He understands Kyuhyun.

Kyuhyun only calms down when Maestro Jang, who’s also a professor at the Music Department, comes in between the still struggling Kyuhyun and the silent Jongwoon who are both being hold down by their friends because one might go berserk again and hit the other, most naturally Kyuhyun who’s still fighting Sungmin, Donghae and Hyukjae’s hold of him.

Kyuhyun respects Maestro Jang so much. He’s one of the very few professors that Kyuhyun really looks up to and admires that’s why when Maestro Jang comes in between them, he finally stops trying to break free from his friends and only looks down, ashamed of himself and what he did.

He doesn’t even understand why he punched Jongwoon.

And looking up, seeing Jongwoon only silent and looking at him almost pitifully, he doesn’t know what to do. It’s as if he did something completely wrong.

“Mr. Cho, Mr. Kim,” the entire cafeteria is silent and only Maestro Kim’s deep voice can be heard. “Come with me to the Dean’s office.”

Jongwoon gently removes Ryeowook’s arm that’s tightly wrapped around him, even though there isn’t really any need to because Jongwoon won’t hit Kyuhyun again, no matter how many times Kyuhyun would want to hit Jongwoon again. He voluntarily walks forward and follows Maestro Jang while Kyuhyun walks after him.

Sooyoung runs after Jongwoon and says, crystal clears in her pretty eyes. “Jongwoon-oppa, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Sooyoung cries. “I’m… I should be…”

But Jongwoon interrupts her. Smiling, he whispers to her, hushing her to stop crying, “Shh, don’t cry, Sooyoung-ah. It’s okay,” he says. “I’m going to be okay, alright? Help Joohyun clean herself and get changed, okay? Buy something to eat. You still have five periods after lunch.”

“Oppa…” Sooyoung wails. “Oppa…”

Jongwoon chuckles, “What’s wrong with you? Don’t cry.” Then, he ruffles Sooyoung’s hair lightly before proceeding to follow Maestro Jang to the Dean’s office.

When they are at the Dean’s office, Jongwoon and Kyuhyun are interrogated simultaneously at different rooms. Jongwoon is interrogated by Maestro Jang while Kyuhyun is interrogated by their guidance counselor named Ms. Lee. After the interrogation which isn’t really an interrogation that didn’t take much time because nobody really did anything wrong except that Kyuhyun punches Jongwoon and Jongwoon punched him back, Kyuhyun and Jongwoon are both called to the dean’s office.

Maestro Jang and Ms. Lee had already relayed the information about the incident in the cafeteria to the dean and it’s up to the dean what will happen to Kyuhyun and Jongwoon.

The university’s dean, Dean Park, is a surprisingly cool headed man. Kyuhyun have seen him around the university, here and there, on conventions and seminars at school and at the opening ceremony but this is the first time that he’s been face-to-face with the all mighty university dean and he’s talking to him.

Dean Park stands from his chair and gestures both Kyuhyun and Jongwoon to sit at the chairs before his huge table. Maestro Jang and Ms. Lee leave the room and it’s only Kyuhyun and Jongwoon with Dean Park.

“So, I heard someone punched someone in the cafeteria earlier during sixth period?” the dean says, even though the two professors who interrogated Kyuhyun and Jongwoon already relayed what happened to him.

Kyuhyun looks down while Jongwoon who is still staring at the dean just keeps quiet. The dean laughs and lightly slaps Jongwoon’s back, “I can’t believe you’d get into fights, Jongwoon-ssi. You’re already a junior and since freshman, you haven’t gotten yourself into any trouble. What’s changed?”

Jongwoon wants to answer that from freshman up until he was a sophomore, he didn’t have to anybody to care of but since junior year started, there are few variations that happened in this almost inexistent life. Joohyun and Sooyoung happened and soon after, Kyuhyun came.

But before he can even consider answering, Kyuhyun croaks unexpectedly, “You’re a junior?”

Jongwoon stares at Kyuhyun blankly because seriously, this is Kyuhyun’s all questioning him and even in front of the dean? Aren’t they there to discuss if they’d be kicked out of school because of punching each other at the cafeteria?

“Um, yes?” Jongwoon answers, not knowing how else to answer than and even sounding like he doesn’t know himself as well. It doesn’t even bother him anymore that Kyuhyun doesn’t even know that he’s a junior.

And now, after everything that has happened, it seems like Kyuhyun’s getting farther and farther away from him. He doesn’t even know if he wants to meet Kyuhyun at the ball now. How will Kyuhyun react? The possibilities and consequences are making Jongwoon’s head hurt more than his face who’s been punched by Kyuhyun.

Dean Park laughs and approaches Kyuhyun then. “You don’t know Jongwoon-ssi’s a junior? You’re precalc classmates, aren’t you?”

Kyuhyun doesn’t know how he’ll say that in the entire semester that he’s been classmates with Jongwoon, all he ever hears about Jongwoon is how he talks to turtles from Donghae and Hyukjae. He doesn’t even know that Jongwoon’s also a member of the university choir if he wasn’t late for the last practice. And come to think of it, that’s also the first time Kyuhyun talked to him.

“Because we’re taking precalc together,” Kyuhyun stammers, trying to explain himself in the simplest way and not looking like a jerk, “I thought we’re both freshmen.”

Dean Park laughs. “Kyuhyun-ssi, you’re taking precalc on your first year because you’re an Engineering Department student. Jongwoon-ssi’s taking it on his third year because he’s from Science Department.”

Kyuhyun nods and for a second, he forgets what they’re really there for at the dean’s office. It’s like they’re just hanging out with the university dean, seriously. But then, Dean Park’s voice suddenly turns serious and he’s brought back to reality.

“What you both did,” Dean Park declares, “is Second Class Offense.”

In their university, there are three types of offenses: first class, second class and third class. Third class offenses are little violations of the rule of the university such as littering and vandalism. These are punishable by warning letters that are sent to parents and five to ten hours to obligatory detention. Obligatory detention means that the students who have violations would have to spend the required hours doing something for the university, like cleaning toilets or doing other maintenance works.

Second class offenses are heavier that the third class, of course. These include cheating and doing other violations when it comes to studies plus it also includes fighting, like what Kyuhyun and Jongwoon did, and it’s punishable by warning letters to parents, plus the parents have to meet for a meeting with the guidance counselor together with the student and second class offense is equivalent to up to thirty hours of obligatory detention. Of course, that’s not twenty hours straight. Ms. Lee is the one in charged of distributing the obligatory detention hours in such a way that the students can comply with it without bothering their academic periods.

First class offenses are the heaviest violation for a student. These includes stealing university properties, doing malicious activities inside the university and against professors or anybody related to the university which includes the students as well, bullying, virtually or not, and a person fighting with another person who isn’t fighting back.

“We’re going to send letters to your parents to let them know what happened. Ms. Lee is going to schedule an appointment for a meeting with her together with your parents individually,” the dean continues. “And you’re going to have an obligatory detention worth twenty hours for the next two weeks…

together.”