Sanghyuk was awoken from his power nap the moment his coffee maker made this not so loud, yet repetitious sound. His back hurt from having a nap in a head-on-desk position, but he ignored the slight pain. We all know that once you entered university, every little second of nap is precious and Sanghyuk was no different from any other normal people.  He opened his heavy eyelids with a strong will but the will soon went down the moment he saw the stack of books and notes all around him waiting to be reviewed.

He stared at his phone to check the time. It’s 1 in the morning and there were so many things to do ahead. Originally, he had wanted to finish everything before midnight but somehow he fell asleep and wasted his studying time. He hated himself for it but what’s done is done, there’s no way to turn back the time. As a way to stretch his own stiff body, he made a short trip in his small studio apartment to his little kitchen to turn the coffee maker off and pour a fresh hot Americano into his black mug that will make his eyes wide awake during the rest of that night.

His left hand gripped firmly the edge of the counter while the other hand, sipping the hot coffee, but then he regretted his own decision because his tongue was burning like crazy from the hot liquid. Sanghyuk didn’t care, for him every second is precious.

The studio apartment was small, empty, and quiet. He’s not much of a fan of loud music. He hated loud things, it really disturbed his concentration. And the fact that the neighbor beside him often put on a loud music especially on a Friday and Saturday nights was not helping at all. One night he couldn’t take it anymore, when the neighbor just bought a new sound system and blasted party music right away all night, quite literally. But once he found out that his noisy neighbor was someone who's 2 years older than him, he quietly backed away and held the urge to smash the sound system right away. All he wanted was peace, he needed to study.

He sat down, moving the papers and book away to make space on the almost 10 years old study desk for the mug. Been sighing for countless times every night, that wasn’t a new situation for him, more like a daily routine.  Pilling up every will to open the new chapter of the thick textbook though he wouldn’t have a test by the next day, but he needed to prepare for the morning lecture. And he felt proud on himself because he already finished his papers for tomorrow so he made a little calculation in his head.

“At least I will be able to catch some sleep tonight, this is almost nothing,” he said to himself. He was alone and only the black mug that would accompany him studying for the rest of the night.

He stared blankly at the white walls in front of him. The white walls were boring, even the paint was starting to crumble because he often stuck bunch of post its on the wall. 

“Let’s start, shall we.” Sanghyuk looked down to face the new chapter of his textbook. The pages were still clean and untouched, but soon the pages will be full with random scribbles by him. And the other hand was ready to write down important things in his notebook with his favorite gel pen. One of his way to shoo the heaviness on his eyelids away was by muttering the words in the book, also sometimes he took a sip of his coffee to help his concentration, but it’s only for the formalities. Coffee didn’t affect much on him, not anymore.

That was an ordinary night for Han Sanghyuk.

**

He managed to get enough of sleep last night. 5 hours of sleep was more than enough for him. While the clock was ticking behind him, he started to lazily putting his books into his backpack before he went straight to the bathroom to start the new day.

With his heavy steps, he walked to the first class that was located on the 2^nd floor. The subject was not that difficult, but it’s not his favorite either. As soon as he entered the room, someone familiar was waving his hand at him from a far. Without any doubt, Sanghyuk made his way to the person who was seated on the left side of the room.

“Hey Hyuk! Here, I reserved a place just for you!” the man said to him while patting the empty space beside him. Sanghyuk let out his first smile of the day. At least there’s something fun about that class because he got to be at the same class with his best friend.

“Thank you, my friend!” he patted his friend’s shoulder and placed his bag on the table finally placed the empty seat “What’s up with the usual place anyway? The other day you’ve said that you don’t like this side of the room, saying something’s like the left side of the room isn’t the best view.” Sanghyuk continued, which resulted by the latter’s side eyes.

“Ya, don’t you see that our usual place is occupied already?” the friend pointed his finger to their usual place in the middle of the class, which was clearly the best spot in that class. Sanghyuk followed the direction of the finger and his friend was right, there were two girls sitting at their place.

“And you didn’t do anything? You know we can’t see a thing from here,” Sanghyuk challenged. He clearly was annoyed at a simplest thing like this. Their place wasn’t only on the left side of the room; it’s literally on the furthest back of the class. Sanghyuk might not have the worst eyesight out there, but his eyes were not a binocular.

“Come on Hyuk, they are girls.. Besides, they came right before me so should I just kicked them out or saying like ‘I’m sorry can’t you just please move because this is Han Sanghyuk’s seat aka the smartest kid in this class. If you do me a favor by moving into another place I’ll give you his notes!’" he joked and Sanghyuk clearly wasn’t amused by it.

Sanghyuk winched his eyes at him. “I don’t understand half of your words but, you do know I’m not sharing my notes to anyone right?” Most of people had called him selfish to do so, but it’s already his principle since high school. He learned that most of people befriended him just for his notes. So to prevent something bad happening again, he had decided to do it that way.

“I do know, Of course I know. I’m just joking okay?” The friend laughed awkwardly at his failed joke. Sanghyuk ignored him as he pulled his books and notes out from the bag. Sanghyuk half heartedly opened the book according to that day’s syllabus, which were the pages he already read and reviewed last night. The pages already filled with countless yellow highlighter and little notes on the blank space here and there.

“Had a long night?” he asked Sanghyuk after looking at the worn out textbook. Even though as Sanghyuk’s close friend he already knew the answer, but at least he was trying his best to let his best friend speak to him.  

Sanghyuk just nodded at him, he realized his friend’s intention and he appreciated his effort. Even though sometimes the friend’s chatty personality could be really annoying at times, but he just couldn’t help but to be thankful at him because as a human he also needed a social interaction with another human being, which was the field he’s clearly lacking at.

“Not that difficult as 2 nights ago, but you could say that last night was some sort of rough for me.  Today’s lecture is kind of difficult to understand.” Sanghyuk played with his pen, making repeatable clicking noises.

“Oh crap and we barely see anything from here. Why didn’t you tell me before? I’m doomed.” The friend had his forehead meet with the table, already having images on how horrible and scary the lecture would be for the upcoming few months.

“I’ll help,” Sanghyuk muttered barely audible. Hearing that, his best friend turned his frown up into a huge smile. The brunette man lifted his head up from the table and swiftly went to Sanghyuk giving him a bear hug from the side. Sanghyuk didn’t see this coming since he was too absorbed on something else.

“Back off, Jimin. The class starts in 5 minutes.” Sanghyuk pushed him away but the other didn’t budge. At least sitting on the back of the class has one benefit, people in the front wouldn’t be able to see you. Sanghyuk looked around the class with his friend still clinging on him. He sighed in relief that there were no weird eyes on them.

Their lectures ended at noon. Jimin and Sanghyuk parted ways when Jimin said that he needed to do a part time job at a coffee shop near their university. As they bid their farewell, once again Sanghyuk was left alone. He made a quiet walk to the nearest bus station; the only sound that accompanied his walk was the sound of the busy traffic from the main road.  Once he took a seat on the empty space beside a middle schooler at familiar bus station, he checked at that time again 3 more minutes until the next bus, and once he got to the bus the routine repeated by itself again. The moment he stepped into his own apartment, it meant that he would become a robot again, a robot that had been programmed to study, and study. There were 3 things that made him a human though; food, sleep, and his friend, Jimin.

So many thoughts clouded his head, like what’s for dinner tonight and of course the thing that on his mind the most were his studies. But he shrugged the feeling off when the bus arrived. He had tried to conceal and blocking his own feelings, not realizing that he’s almost literally turning into a robot that didn’t have any feelings.

The cold yet humid air welcomed him the soon as he unlocked his apartment door. The air was humid inside because he rarely opened the one and only window in his apartment. Throwing his backpack to his bed, he turned his back to the kitchen cabinet to make a simple dinner. He rolled his eyes when he heard his phone ringing but at the same time he already sort the possible list of people behind the line and the answer is a simple multiple choice, it’s either A or B because the only people that would call him at this hour are either his friend or his mom.

“Hello, Mom?” He answered with a single hand, the other was turning on the stove because his stomach was already growling and a simple phone call wouldn’t stop him from making a food.

“Yeah, I’m doing fine. Nothing much from university, yeah the professor offered me for a national competition and I’m thinking about it.” Sanghyuk already living alone for more than a year ever since he got accepted at one of the top university in Seoul, leaving his family away to the capital city alone. At first he was homesick and called his mom more than once per day but day by day had passed and he had gotten even busier with his studies so the frequency of the call has gotten lesser and lesser than it used to be.

“Ah yeah, okay I’ll take it. Yeah I’ll get this one for sure, don’t worry. I miss you too, Mom.”

The call ended in 30 minutes and with that amount of time he already finished a bowl of cheese with a ramen. Then that his stomach had been full with food, being a good robot as he was, he got up to go to his favorite place on earth again, his study desk.

***

It was a group task. Sanghyuk’s teammates were Jimin and other 2 girls whom he didn’t even aware of. The only thing on his mind was to get the task done as soon as possible. The quartet was currently having a discussion in the library in the middle of their lunch break.

“So girls, got any ideas for the project?” Jimin started. Hyuk’s eyes were fixed on his laptop, already searching for the project without the girls’ acknowledgement.

“Actually I have quite few ideas, but I don’t know if Mr. Smarty pants wants to accept it or not,” the black haired girl bluntly said. The other girl elbowed her friend in response.

“Don’t be rude to him. He doesn’t do anything,” the other girl spoke up but the boys didn’t say anything, which led into an awkward situation.

"I don't know why I have to study my off everyday either, when in order to enter the heaven you don't need to pass the entrance examination test  with a straight A's," Hyuk interrupted the silence after stopped doing whatever he’s doing with his laptop and for the first time having an eye contact with the girls in front of him.

“Wow, you’re not only smart but also deep too,” the snarky black haired girl once again said to him and of course her friend was trying to tell her to watch her own words. Library wasn’t a place for a riot and Sanghyuk knew it more than anyone.

Jimin played as a mediator, calmly telling her to shut up in the smoothest way as possible. “This is a library okay? We are here for a discussion not having a fight over random things. The more we get to finish this faster, faster we get the hell outta here okay; look I know we haven’t had our lunch yet, so please cooperate.” He ended his short speech with his signature eye smile. Sanghyuk let out an invisible smile; he knew he could count on his friend when it comes to girls and smooth talks.

Sanghyuk didn’t lie. He didn’t even know the exact reason why he would spent most of his life sitting and reading something that he didn’t even understand nor love. He wasn’t sure of his future either. Who wanted to employ a robot like him who only had a brain but not a good social skill? But it’s the other thing for him anyway. The first thing on his mind was to graduate quickly and got the highest score as possible in order to make his parents and noona proud. And to pay the debt to his parents that had spent way too much money for his university fee in Seoul, when his family was far away from Seoul, Daejeon to be exact.

But then again what’s next on his life after he graduated? He didn’t know. The only program that had been planted deep on his mind was just to study really hard, harder than most of the students and once that goal accomplished maybe he’d destruct himself? He didn’t know really.