In the stillness of the room, only the clinking of the kitchen utensils and the loud tapping of his pen could be heard.  She was busy preparing their late afternoon snack as he continued to ponder on his English paper that was long overdue. He's been writing this for more than two weeks.  He scolded himself for delaying this in favor of prioritizing that underground rock festival. He almost got a failing grade on this subject so he literally had to get on his knees and beg his professor to give him a consideration. He didn't want to "degrade" himself to such an act but it's either that or him having to spend the entire summer taking up another course to fill up his required units to complete the term. An extra time in school meant a delay in his possible music debut so that's a "No." With no other logical and reasonable option left, he chose the latter.

University life was something he knew he wasn't built for, but to appease his parents and possibly gain their approval for him to enter the music industry, what's a couple of years to sacrifice? Apparently, it's a lot. He'd rather spend the hour composing songs than writing essays. Music touches the heart of everyone. A melody, a simple tune could enrapture an individual, but a sentence? Much less, a paragraph that was supposed to reflect something about parallelism or existentialism or whatever -ism the professor was currently obsessed with?

Parallelism is the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter. Parallelism examples are found in literary works as well as in ordinary conversations.

This method adds balance and rhythm to sentences giving ideas a smoother flow and thus can be persuasive because of the repetition it employs. For example, “Alice ran into the room, into the garden, and into our hearts.” We see the repetition of a phrase that not only gives the sentence a balance but rhythm and flow as well. This repetition can also occur in similar structured clauses e.g. “Whenever you need me, wherever you need me, I will be there for you.”

The use of parallel structures in speech or writing allows speakers and writers to maintain a consistency within their work and create a balanced flow of ideas. Moreover, it can be employed as a tool for persuasion as well because of the repetition it uses.

He turned his notebook upside down, tried to pore through the thick hardcover encyclopedias, and other extra measures but all were a failure. He couldn't get a grasp of this concept and two hours of trying was more than enough for him to decide to take a break. Putting down his pen, he decided to focus on the other things at hand, or rather, the other person within his close distance. The girl with the wavy brown hair and beautiful sparkling eyes. Seo Joohyun.

He watched as she gracefully moved up and about the kitchen, simultaneously cooking and doing her homework. If that wasn't enough to impress him, adding the casual phone conversations and other household chores to her multi-tasking efforts at hand did the magic. Without thinking too much, he blurted out the first thing that came into his mind:

"Seo Joohyun. President of the Performing Arts Department. Vice President of Seoul University. Part-time babysitter. Part time barista. An excellent student with a full scholarship. Comes from a family with a good background. Not an excellent chef, but most of your creations are edible enough..."

She was slightly blushing with the flowery compliments but suddenly glowered at him with his snide remark regarding her cooking. He just shrugged his shoulder and gave her this "But it's true!" look. She paused for a minute before he took this as a cue to continue.

"Beautiful. Stunning. Incredible. Brilliant. Talented. A jack and master of all trades. Aigoo jeongmal. Tell me, Hyun. What's the one thing that you can't do? There has to be something. You can't be that perfect." he .

Her heartbeat was raising and in a split second of bravery, she put down the bowls she held as she leaned across the counter to face him. She flicked her eyes back and forth from his to his lips and she almost giggled seeing how a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead and how the mighty suave Jung Yonghwa tried to stop himself from gulping. His Adam's Apple gave him away though and Seohyun couldn't thank the higher power for adding that part in the male anatomy.

"The Adam's Apple, okay? Just in case you're thinking of something else. At least I know I'm not the only one affected with this staring contest." Seohyun convinced herself.

She leaned even closer as she sported a sweet, innocent, yet mischievous smile when she uttered her reply:

"The one thing that I can't do is...."

She paused for effect, looked down for a second, before meeting his eyes once more.

"I can't seem to make you fall in love with me."

To say he was stunned was an understatement. He was completely blown away. Never in his life did he think that THE Seo Joohyun (or Seohyun to most people) would respond that way. He expected a witty, or slightly silly answer. Anything but this. He felt his own heart race and not one to back down from a fight, he tried to regroup himself as fast as possible in order to come up with a reply that would, in turn, knock her world. 

He took a second to thank her housemates for obviously leaving their maknae with him though earlier he couldn't appreciate the effort. It was his turn to close in the distance, matching her quirkiness and courage with his, as he looked into her eyes and replied,

"That's because....."

He too, paused for effect. He moved a little bit closer until there was only an inch or two distance between them. So close that it's getting harder to breathe. She waited in anticipation and nervousness, her nerves a jumble of mess as he smiled that heart (and ) dropping million dollar smile of his as he said,

"I already am."

The end.

A/N:

*notes about parallelism taken from HERE. Still can't explain what this is all about but I needed a title for this oneshot so.... :p