Ryeowook hummed happily to himself, thinking back to his last class as he quickly polished off his lunch. Sitting with him in the university's cafe were his best friends Kyuhyun and Kyungsoo, who were chatting quietly about the class Kyuhyun shared with Ryeowook. The same class he was currently thinking about.

“I'm surprised seonsaengnim asked for our help,” Kyuhyun mentioned, though his words did nothing to hide how excited he felt by the offer. “I never thought that I would get a chance to work with a student in one of the more advanced classes.”

Ryeowook had to agree, it had come as a shock when their intermediate vocal performance professor had called a few of the students aside, Kyuhyun and himself included. He had wanted to know if they would be willing to pair up with one of the graduating seniors to work on a duet. The music department had apparently decided that this method of duets would be beneficial to both parties as it gave them experience working with people outside of their year. As big as the university's music program was, it was hard for music students to interact with others in different years. It was a miracle that Ryeowook and Kyuhyun, both third years, had befriended Kyungsoo who was a year beneath them.

“He already had us paired up with someone too, it's lucky that no one said no!” Kyuhyun continued.

“Did he tell you who he wants to pair you up with?” Kyungsoo asked, his food forgotten in front of him in favor of staring at his hyungs in amazement.

“Lee Sungmin, which I'm looking forward to. Ever since I heard his solo performance at the fall concert last semester, I've been dying to work with him,” Kyuhyun boasted with a smirk. “But that's not even the best news out of this. You'll never believe who he paired Ryeowook up with.”

Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow, “Who? It can't be Jongwoon-noona, right? Ryeowook isn't that lucky.”

“Ya!” Ryeowook exclaimed, his face starting to burn with embarrassment.

“Wait, is it really Jongwoon-noona?” the youngest asked again, shocked.

“Yes,” Ryeowook mumbled.

“The same Jongwoon-noona who is currently making her way to our table at this very moment?” Kyungsoo persisted.

Ryeowook's head shot up, immediately spotting Kim Jongwoon, who was indeed making her way over to their table. He barely had a moment to take a not-so calming breath before she was there, smiling directly at him.

“Kim Ryeowook?” she asked, voice low and husky for a girl, which Ryeowook found to be ridiculously y. Her inky black hair was loose today, the thick layers ending just below her shoulders, long bangs framing her heart-shaped face. She was wearing a tight black band t-shirt and blue skinny jeans, a typical outfit choice when she wasn't on stage. Ryeowook thought it fit her tall and slender frame perfectly, outlining her smaller-than-average sized chest and slim hips. Not that he stared or thought about her figure often. Nope.

“Yes?” he finally answered.

“Jung-seonsaengnim paired us up together for my class's duet project. He told me that you agreed to be my partner?” she questioned, as though double-checking their professor’s information. Her head tilted cutely, making her look a bit like an inquisitive owl.

“Uh, I did,” Ryeowook stuttered. “Though I just agreed this morning, so I'm surprised you already know.”

Jongwoon chuckled, the skin around her eyes crinkling, “I stopped by his office before coming here to drop off some papers, he told me then. I'm really glad you said yes, I started looking for possible song choices as soon as seonsaengnim mentioned wanting to pair the two of us up.”

Ryeowook wasn't sure how to feel about that, excited the older female was happy to be working with him? Confused that she was already looking for songs despite not knowing how he sounded when performing? He kept the first one to himself, but voiced the second.

“Of course I've heard you perform!” Jongwoon laughed, sounding shocked. “I attend all of the music department's performances, so I heard your solo during spring semester. You have a beautiful singing voice, Ryeowook-ah.”

Blushing at the compliment, Ryeowook ducked his head as he quietly thanked her.

“So, I was wondering if you had some free time later today? I'd like to go over the song choices I came up with so far. If we can choose a few possibilities that you'd also be comfortable with, I'll hopefully be able to get Jung-seonsaengnim to approve at least one of them tomorrow.”

Ryeowook went over his schedule for the rest of the day mentally before responding, “I'm free after four, does that work for you?”

“Perfect!” she exclaimed. “I don't get out of class until five, do you want to meet at the bubble tea shop at 5:30? I'll bring my laptop and headphones, so you don't have to worry about bringing anything yourself.”

“Sure,” he mumbled, gut squirming pleasantly, feeling like he had just agreed to a date.

“Awesome, I look forward to working with you Ryeowook-ah!” Jongwoon smiled widely at him, and for a second Ryeowook wondered if he could count all of her teeth. “I'll see you then!”

Without waiting for him to respond, she turned around and walked out of the cafeteria, Ryeowook's eyes glued to her retreating form until he could no longer see her. A little dumbfounded about what had just happened, Ryeowook was brought back to reality by a scoff from next to him. Oh yeah, he thought, Kyuhyun and Kyungsoo were still there.

Both were staring at him, Kyungsoo in shock while Kyuhyun looked smug. Of course, now that Ryeowook's attention was on the taller of his two friends, Kyuhyun couldn't hold himself back any longer.

“Well, what do you know, Ryeowook-ah. You just landed yourself a date tonight with your precious Jongwoon-noona!”

Ryeowook could only groan.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Flopping gracelessly on top of his bed, Ryeowook ignored his phone as it went off for what seemed like the hundredth time in the last 20 minutes. He had only bothered checking the first few times, and upon seeing Kyuhyun's name, had quickly decided that he wasn't prepared to deal with the younger male. Having only returned to his room half an hour ago from his not-date with Jongwoon, Ryeowook was still scrambling to make sense with how their meeting had gone.

Jongwoon had arrived first, then proceeded to insist she buy something for Ryeowook to make up for the inconvenience of having to meet up with her on such short notice. Not that he minded, but he was unsuccessful in convincing her. She had then pressed up close to him on the bench, laptop in front of both of them, with one ear bud in her ear and the other in his. It was one hour of torture for Ryeowook, who spent most of it trying not to focus on the warmth of Jongwoon's body pressed against his side, or how she smelled like apples and cinnamon. Jongwoon had done most of the talking, Ryeowook too distracted to contribute much to the conversation.

Despite how distracted he had been, they still made great progress, and the older female had left with a list of five songs that both felt comfortable with. Ryeowook wasn't sure how they were going to pick just one if Jung-seonsaengnim approved them all, but he would trust that all would work out in the end for their song selection. Well, he would probably let Jongwoon make the final decision, as the performance was technically for her class and not his. Though he was starting to wonder if participating in this project meant that he would earn some bonus points for his own class.

The two of them agreed to meet up again tomorrow, same time and place, as Jongwoon thought she could get their professor to approve the songs by then. A perk of being one of Jung-seonsaengnim's favorites, she had winked at him as they parted ways.

Even though the performance was only a month away, Ryeowook could already tell that it would be a long month. It would be a miracle if he made it without accidentally blurting out his crush for her, never mind the possibility of her finding out some other way. Now that he was thinking about it, he was pretty sure Jongwoon was friends with Sungmin. If Kyuhyun told the older male Ryeowook's secret, the shorter male would be forced to kill his friend.

Loud knocking brought Ryeowook out of his thoughts, looking unhappily at the door of his single-person dorm room. It was probably Kyuhyun, making him want to ignore the obnoxious noise, but past experience from trying to ignore his friend had him on his feet and opening the door. On the other side was Kyuhyun, as well as Kyungsoo, who was eying him suspiciously.

“Did you turn your phone off again? I've been trying to get in touch with you,” the taller male asked.

"I know, I've been ignoring you specifically though, not my phone.”

“That's not very nice, hyung. I just wanted to know how your date with Jongwoon-noona went.”

Ryeowook rolled his eyes, “We met up, picked a few songs that both of us liked, made plans to meet up again to work further on the song, then parted ways. Not as exciting as you're trying to make it. Have you and Sungmin-hyung made plans to meet up yet?”

Kyuhyun nodded, “We're meeting up at the library after my class gets out tomorrow morning.”

“Well then, have fun on your date Kyuhyun,” the shorter male shot back, enjoying the way his friend spluttered and turned pink.

“Ryeowook-hyung?” Kyungsoo asked quietly.

“Hmm?”

The youngest of the trio nodded his head towards Ryeowook's bed, where a cell phone had been silently lighting up. “You're phone's been going off.”

“Oh, I forgot I had turned off my ring tone,” Ryeowook shot Kyuhyun an accusing glare, picking up the phone and scrolling through his missed messages. There was only one recent text, the others all belonging to his friends currently present, and it was from an unknown number.

hi ryeowook-ah! it's jongwoon. i hope you dont mind but i grabbed your number when you were in the bathroom. this way it will be easier to stay in touch! :D

Ryeowook stared in shock, mouth hanging open uselessly, he had only been gone from the table a couple of minutes at most. Not to mention he hadn't realize that he had left his phone with the older female during the short period of time.

“Who's the text from, hyung?” his youngest friend asked, trying to look over his shoulder.

“Jongwoon-noona.”

“You gave Jongwoon-noona your cell number?” This time it was Kyuhyun, who pushed Kyungsoo out of the way to get a look of the message himself.

“No.” Ryeowook moved the phone so both of his friends could read it, not even trying to hide what it said. Any efforts to do so would only fuel Kyuhyun's curiosity even more, and who knows what drastic actions he would take.

“I think she likes you, hyung. Maybe you should consider asking her out? Though you might want to wait until after the performance, I don't want to be around if you two break up before this project is over,” Kyuhyun spoke thoughtfully.

“I wouldn't want to be around Jung-seonsaengnim if that were to happen,” Kyungsoo added. “I'm pretty sure he would kill at least one of you.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Awesome! I think we're almost ready!” Jongwoon exclaimed, smiling excitedly at Ryeowook who was sitting on a piano bench. “Are you sure you're okay with the song? You barely have any lines!”

“Yes, it's fine,” Ryeowook flushed. “I'm playing the piano during the entire song, so it's not like I'm going to be standing around doing nothing. Besides, this performance is for your class, so you should have most of the lines.”

The performance was coming up in a week, and the two had spent almost every day in one of the practice rooms once they had chosen an approved song. It was true that Ryeowook had few lines, but he was okay with that as it meant Jongwoon would be singing a majority of the song. He quite liked the sound of her singing, and the past couple of weeks had done nothing to change that.

Jongwoon's grin softened so she was looking at him fondly, causing Ryeowook's stomach to knot and his face to become rosy. “Scoot over, will you,” she demanded.

He did as told, fidgeting nervously when she sat down next to him on the piano bench. This was the first time she had done so during the past few weeks, and their close proximity wasn't helping calm his jumpy nerves. “One more time, then call it a night?” she asked, moving the sheet music around so they could start from the beginning.

“Oh! How I love seeing such dedication from my students!” a voice exclaimed from behind the duo, causing both to start. It was Jung-seonsaengnim, his arm slung casually around another male's shoulders whom Ryeowook didn't recognize. The male was slim, black hair falling around his face highlighting dark brown eyes and a full set of lips. Both men were smiling, making him feel uneasy about just how long they had been in the room.

“Jung-seonsaengnim! Kim-seonsaengnim!” Jongwoon blinked, head tilted curiously. “Isn't it a bit late for the two of you to still be on campus?”

“We were just on our way out when we overheard the end of your song, Jongwoon-ah,” the man, whom Ryeowook guessed was Kim-seonsaengnim, spoke up. “I can't wait for the performance next week. If the rest of the song sounds anything like the ending, you'll do an excellent job.”

Jung-seonsaengnim turned to face the slimmer male still under his arm, “I think you missed your calling, Jaejoong. You should have gone into music instead of photography.”

Ryeowook could barely see where the slimmer man's hand pinched his professor's side, all the while rolling his eyes.

“Come on, Yunho. Let's leave your students alone so they can finish their work, I'm sure they'd like to leave the practice room at some point tonight.”

“Good luck you two. I'll see you in class tomorrow, Ryeowook,” Jung-seonsaengnim called out as he allowed himself to be pulled through the doorway.

As soon as the two were gone, and the door was shut, Ryeowook turned to Jongwoon. “Who was that with Jung-seonsaengnim?”

“Kim-seonsaengnim? He's a photography professor, I had class with him last year for one of my electives. He's pretty cool, and the class is fun if you need another elective for graduation,” she answered.

“If he's a photography professor, then what was he doing here? Is he friends with Jung-seonsaengnim?”

Jongwoon's mouth fell open as she started laughing, one arm wrapping around her waist while the other came up to cover . Ryeowook couldn't help but notice how her eyes formed small crescents when she laughed like that, the surrounding skin crinkling. “Not exactly,” she said after calming down. “They're dating.”

“Oh. . . I didn't know,” he stumbled.

“That's not a surprise, they don't exactly advertise that they're dating. I only found out last year when I was taking photography, by accidentally walked in on them making out in Kim-seonsaengnim's office. Don't tell them I told you that, they made me promise to keep it a secret.”

Still smiling at him, Jongwoon leaned over to knock her shoulder against his, “Come on. Let's get through the song then call it quits.”

While playing though the song, Jongwoon stayed leaning against Ryeowook's side, her warmth seeping though his clothes making his arm feel like it was on fire. The smell of apples and cinnamon was also strongest from this close, driving him crazy.

Another thing driving him crazy was that he couldn't tell what she was thinking while draping herself against his arm. What was she doing? Was it suppose to mean something? Ryeowook couldn't even make a guess, and instead focused on the song.

As distracting as her close presence was, he still managed to go through the song mistake free.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Ryeowook fiddled with his bow tie, centering it in the collar of his white dress shirt for what was probably the hundredth time since entering the auditorium. Standing next to him was Jongwoon, dressed in a slim-fitted black dress which ended just below her knees. She was rocking back and forth in her kitten heels, hands clasped behind her to help keep her balanced. Without the heels, Jongwoon was already around five centimeters taller than him, but now she had an extra three or four causing her to tower over him.

They were the last performance of the night, and still had to wait for three other pairs of students to go before their turn. Kyuhyun and Sungmin, who had been first, were already done and had disappeared. Ryeowook hoped that Kyuhyun made his way into the audience where Kyungsoo was, but he wasn't holding his breath. The two men had been staring at each other strangely when coming off stage, giving Ryeowook some ideas of what they might be up to at this very moment. He tried not to dwell on it.

“Are you nervous?” Jongwoon whispered, leaning close.

“A little,” Ryeowook admitted. “I don't want to ruin the performance for you.” Even though he was mostly past getting nervous about performing in front of an audience, it was different now that he was performing with a girl he had been silently crushing on for a few years.

“Don't worry so much,” she shoved lightly at his shoulder. “You haven't made a mistake during our practices for over a week now, the chances of messing up now are slim. Unless, of course, you get too nervous.” Jongwoon raised an eyebrow at him, staring at him from a distance that was too close for Ryeowook's comfort.

“I'll try not to mess up.”

“Good. But if you do, you can make it up to me later by buying me dinner. You can also buy me dinner when we're successful to celebrate, I'm starving! I can never eat before a performance, it messes with how my voice sounds,” Jongwoon pouted, staring at him with wide eyes.

“Do you mean like a date?!” Ryeowook squawked, immediately regretting his outburst. “I mean-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-.” He hid his face behind one hand, head turned to the side to mask how red his face had just turned. Though he figured Jongwoon could probably still tell by his ear, which was also a dark red.

While he was distracted by hiding his embarrassment, a small hand curled around his bicep, holding on lightly. When he looked, he found Jongwoon's head ducked slightly, her eyes carefully watching him through her bangs. The skin across the bridge of her nose and cheekbones were pink, her teeth tugging gently at her bottom lip.

“If you want, it can be a date,” she whispered, the hand not on his arm twitching against her dress. Jongwoon was nervous, Ryeowook realized, studying her as she carefully watched him back.

He moved his hand away from his face, turning fully towards the taller female so he could look at her as he said, “I'd like that.”

The senior blinked, his statement taking a moment to sink in before she was back to smiling broadly at him. She slipped her hand further in the bend of his arm, curling her own around him so she could lean on him more fully. Perhaps not the smartest idea given that she was taller, but Ryeowook somehow managed to keep the two of them standing.

“I'd like that too,” she said, beginning to lean in even further.

“Ryeowook-ah!” a voice stage whispered from behind them. It was Jung-seonsaengnim. Of course.

Except this time, when Ryeowook and Jongwoon jumped, Jongwoon's weight on him pushed him off balance, sending him straight to the ground on his . Jongwoon herself fell sprawled over his lap, scrambling to push herself up as soon as she could gather her bearings, squeaking out an embarrassed apology. She held out a hand to help pull him up, then moved to straighten out her dress and brush off any dirt. Both were red in the face, Ryeowook trying to cool down his blush before turning towards his professor.

Jung-seonsaengnim and Kim-seonsaengnim were both standing there, chuckling behind their hands as they watched their flustered students.

“Yes, seonsaengnim?” Ryeowook asked, still not looking his teacher in the eye.

His vocal professor's face darkened suddenly, “The next time you see Kyuhyun, remind him to keep it in his pants while he's out in public. I don't care what he says, public bathrooms are still public places.”

Jongwoon made a choking noise, her face flushing again. “Did I really need to hear that seonsaengnim?”

Ryeowook covered his face, groaning, “I didn't need to know that. I was trying not to think about it. Why, seonsaengnim?!”

“You'll have to forgive him, Jung-seonsaengnim walked in on them earlier,” Kim-seonsaengnim defended. He poked the music professor in the side. “But that's not the only thing he wanted to say to the two of you.”

“Oh, that's right. I wanted to wish you two good luck on stage, though I'm sure you won't need it,” Jung-seonsaengnim encouraged.

“Thank you, seonsaengnim,” both said.

Jung-seonsaengnim put his hands on both of their backs, pushing them towards the stage where Ryeowook and Jongwoon's names were already being introduced. “You're next. Take a deep breath, you'll do great!”

The performance went flawlessly, earning them a standing ovation from the crowd. Afterword, true to his word, Ryeowook took Jongwoon out to dinner. They spent the entire time holding hands, Jongwoon's smile not fading once. Ryeowook was pretty sure that his smile was just as big the entire time as well.

---

A.N. - Let me know what you thought in a comment! :)