⤷ 　library.

@⁰³ jaehyun j. she could only manage a scoff, eyebrows raised into a look of disbelief at the question asked and she almost— almost— let her laughter rip through the silence that blankets the library. "i could ask you the same?" out of all hours, out of all days, they had to be in this exact location at the same time, searching for what seemed to the same book. jinsoul's eyes flicker down to read the title of the publication that's currently in his possession, maybe it wasn't the same book at all? wrong. jinsoul had searched for the cover prior to her trip down to the library for 'ease in finding' the said book, and one glance was enough to confirm that life truly hates her for this twisted and unfortunate coincidence. "i . . . need the book, actually." all too hastily, she's placing a hand onto the other side, fingers gingerly gripping the edge to pull the book towards herself. "like, urgently. i'm sure you can manage without it right? because i really need it." she manages to feign a smile, emitting an all too strained chuckle that was clearly too sarcastic to be genuine but as dainty fingers sprawl across the surface of the cover, incidentally brushing along his own skin, she freezes in her step. flashes of them, of how she used to crave and yearn for his affectionate touches creep up her mind— and there it was again, the queasiness. she remembered when they used to steal kisses from one another, amidst the shadows and hidden spots between bookshelves, promises and laughter exchanged between lips that molded into the other. and now . . . well, she's practically stealing a book from her ex lover's hands.

@⁰⁴ jinsoul j. "are you kidding me?" jaehyun furrows his brows out of both frustration and confusion. was this real life? the one person that he would avoid out of all people at this university, it was her. the one with screaming, the tears, the memories of heartbreak and ache. the fragrance of her perfume, the hues of her eyes glistening under the slivers of light that slip through the cracks of the books and the shelves of neatly aligned books was all too familiar. he clears his voice, pulling the book from its place between two other books with titles far too long for their own good, bringing it down to near chest level. "why are you here?" dumb question, really, but he's too completely stupefied to utter anything but the question. jaehyun rubs the back of his neck with the free hand that he has, comfort being the last thing that flushes over his countenance at the moment. he's unsure of what to do now. he really needs the book for one of his assignments, but he's sure that jinsoul needs it too, for whatever reason. giving a slight tug to the book, he coughs once just to clear the air of silence and awkwardly stammers out a, "so uh, need the book or... can i take it?"

@⁰³ jaehyun j. it was tiring enough to be given an individual assignment on thermodynamics and its relation to gravitational loads, but to be specifically instructed to use textbooks and not published journals online was simply modern day torture. jinsoul couldn't remember the last time she's even stepped foot in the library and yet here she was, too prideful to ask for help by the librarian, slinking from shelf to shelf for her — "PS 3609 .P834?" why were they still adopting old call numbering methods? she could only shake her head as she spots the tiny "PS" label to mark the section of physic books. nimble fingers brush along each spine, eyes flickering from one to another and she's dreading the thought of it already being checked out. but, perhaps, luck was on her side today as her hand halts upon one of the last few books on the shelf. "got you," she's uttering under her breath, a smile tugging along her visage in both relief and pride (even if it was a minimal accomplishment.) but just as she's attempting to wriggle out the book from its slot, another hand comes into view — larger, slender, all too familiar that the sight of his hand itself was enough to cause her stomach to churn unpleasantly. "are you kidding me?"

@⁰¹ soobin c. heeseung isn't sure if he likes the regained personal space or not. had it been just half a hour earlier, he wouldn't have even hesitated in choosing his own comfort overall. but now it feels as if he's driven off the other all the way back to his starting position. it really shouldn't matter. soobin was the one who asked him for help, not the other way around. he's allowed to not fully commit to it. hell, he usually wouldn't even start helping. but it weighs on him, nonetheless. "you don't need to apologize.." the male's voice softly says towards the other. it's true that he did nothing wrong, after all. heeseung's the one being weird and not like himself - he's not going to blame it on someone else. and in another out-of-character fashion, a dilemma begins to unfold in his mind... because a part of himself is wishing to at least grab the other's contact information before he goes, and the other part is fed up at that part and just wants to be /normal/ again. he decides to side with the latter. "yeah, maybe. see you." he gives a half-wave.

@⁰¹ heeseung l. soobin isn't blind, or an idiot when it comes to socializing. he realizes quickly that the awkward tension has become a different sort of tension and so he grabs the paper, moving himself and the chair back to the opposite side of the table as he uses the same equation and the recently acquired skilled to solve the rest of the problems in silence. as his smile returns to his face at the pride he felt for being able to finish the assignment on his own, it quickly fades as his eyes look past the paper, catching sight of heeseung once more. his lower lip gets chewed on once more as he contemplates his next actions before the vibration of his phone catches his attention. he presses one of the buttons and takes notice of the notification before audibly gasping as his eyes find the time. a small curse is muttered under his breath as he stands up, quickly getting a hold of all his belongings while glancing in the other's direction once more. "sorry for um, well everything that happened i guess? and thank you for helping me" his body bends as he bows in gratitude before he begins to walk away. "i'll see you in class?"

@⁰¹ soobin c. heeseung has spent years building up his focus. he's sure he's heard the speeches from his mother over and over about it's importance, and engraved it inside of him. so he's a little upset at himself once he notices soobin's fix- how off in another world was his mind to not notice the other making a mistake the moment it occurred? what is going on with him? he can't help but let out a deep sigh, his hand running through his hair once again. "yeah, as long as you fix that mistake it should come out right... you just need to finish the calculation and do the inverse, as i said." heeseung says, voice deep yet airy as the words barely leave him. he's not even sure of what he's saying anymore, he feels dazed. it's a new feeling for him, wanting to be anywhere /but/ the library..

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@⁰¹ heeseung l. the assignment on the table suddenly seemed like the most interesting thing his eyes could focus on at the moment, the heat from the tip of his ears spreading all over his neck like a nasty rash. he barely catches it, but he swears he can heard the boy approving of his slip of the tongue, although soobin is sure that he probably just made that up in his own mind. he turns back to watch the man that seems to also think his paper was extremely interesting as soobin clears his throat slightly in an attempt to rid of the awkward silence. his pencil gets picked up once more as he reaches over the arm that heeseung had resting on the table to fix a small mistake that he had picked up on while staring at it. "so uh, heeseung? is this the correct way i should be doing this?"

@⁰¹ soobin c. "oh." the boy is caught off guard by the nickname, immediately tilting his head away in hopes that the other won't notice the red tint which rises up on his cheeks. he shouldn't be getting all embarrassed over this, but... it's probably the first time in years that he's heard his name called in such a manner. it feels weird. "i.. it's okay. you don't need to apologize for something that just slipped out." he says, his tone transforming from flustered to calm the more words he speaks. "i mean, i wouldn't mind you calling me that.." he mumbles in a barely audible manner before clearing his throat loudly. "anyways, uh.." his eyebrows furrow as his face turns towards the paper once again, making sure to examine the last step soobin had wrote down in detail. his mind seems to take its own moment to buffer instead of immediately answering.

@⁰¹ heeseung l. his bright smile beams once more, more proud than excited this time as he had finally begun to learn the subject that he had dreaded getting to. it helped that his impromptu tutor was also a god in human form. the pride on his face begins disappearing though, as he realizes that he doesn't know what direction he should be going in for the rest of the problem. "what um,, what exactly do i do after this, seungie?" the nickname escapes his lips naturally before he even realizes it, his eyes widening as he begins stuttering. "i mean um, heeseung,, sorry about that, i know we aren't that close yet but i guess it just uh, slipped out?"

@⁰¹ soobin c. heeseung moves ever so slightly closer, trying to get a proper view of the other's working. his sharp gaze is focused on the sheet to the point that they could probably burn holes into it. he lets out a small pleasant noise of approval at what he can see so far, glancing back up at the other at the question and quickly nodding. "it seems proper so far, yeah. the process is fine, so you should get the answer like this - long as you don't miscalculate anything."

@⁰¹ heeseung l. picking up his own pencil, he starts jotting out the equation onto his own paper, looking at the other's sheet as a reference before inserting the numbers from the problem into the aforementioned equation. his brows furrow once more, now focused on working out the question as best as he could before he stops midway through, looking up at the other once more. "you mean like this?"

@⁰¹ soobin c. heeseung gulps at the new lack of personal space; he can only hope it wasn't too audible. "well.. it should state that in the question?" the male lets his eyes return the other's eye contact with his slightly widened eyes, before rushing to reread the question instead. his pencil pointer comes up again, moving around in the air around two words. "this term refers to this variable, you just need to find out that variable and take its inverse and that's your answer."

@⁰¹ heeseung l. his hands move down to grab his chair, lifting it up slightly to remove the loud noise that'll come from it as he scoots even closer to the other lad. "ok, but how do i know which variable it's asking for?" and honest question comes from his lips as he returns his eyes up from the page to the man, looking like a lost puppy.

@⁰⁴ jinsoul j. @⁰² donghyuck l. it had only been a couple of days since he kicked off the semester by throwing a house party and seokwoo had already began dealing with a handful of things, such as the rumors of him messing around with a freshman. however, it was not like he cared about what people said /or as of now/ about him. rumors were just rumors and there was no way to determine who was in the right or wrong. besides, there were always two sides of the story and his side happened so to be "moving on," or as what he wanted people to believe in. yet again, he was itching to find out who was running behind the page and most importantly, if it was someone close to him that he knew. he was determined to investigate himself sometime sooner and perhaps, destroy this person if he could.

sitting in the chairs of the library with his head resting on the desk, he flipped through the old crisp pages of the textbooks while waiting for his good friend, jinsoul, to arrive and meet up with him. though, his eyelids began to feel heavy the longer he waited, mind slowly drifting off somewhere into a deep slumber despite the lack of rest from his studies and morning practices.

@⁰¹ soobin c. "ah.." heeseung bites down on his lips a little. something about the other's rather innocent expression and honest words tugs at his heart. "i hope you're feeling better nowadays?" his words are hesitant and awkward, barely coming out of him. he's really unsure how to respond to such actions. after all, heeseung's bad days... he was never allowed to be affected by them. the male turns his whole gaze over to the other once again at the new words, regretting it almost instantly when he's faced by those eyes. "oh. okay." he's pretty sure he's short-circuiting at this point. his mind is screaming at itself, knowing that this is not the unbothered perfection his existence is supposed to be-- he needs to focus on the task, and /not/ on the other's face. he gazes away once again. "that's fair enough. then.. do you see the line right below that? you just need to rearrange the equation for the variable asked for, and then substitute in the rest."

@⁰¹ heeseung l. his eyes widen just the slightest as the other's laugh reaches his ears, noting that his decision to talk to this man might've been the best one he's made all day. the corners of his lips turn up as a goofy smile comes across his face, his head dipping to the side a little bit as he offers a shrug towards the other. "i mean yeah, but i think i was having a bad day and the professor's voice kinda hurts my brain so i was trying to purposely drown it out, yknow?" mentally, he takes a picture of heeseung's smile, etching it into his mind before it disappears just as suddenly as it had appeared. his lips purse up once more in thought before he connects eyes with the other, his best puppy eyes showing up. "um, i think i might need more detailed instructions because i still don't know quite exactly what to do with that minimal knowledge"

@⁰¹ soobin c. heeseung can't help but let out a quiet stream of laughter, partly amused and partly exasperated at the other's sudden excitement. "you know, maybe the reason why you didn't remember how to solve this was that you were "vaguely" listening to the professor? if you had time to draw the room... i feel like you should have had the time to focus on the lecture instead." his hands physically quote alongside his words, the male shaking his head slightly. "but at least you know what they are. that's better than nothing." the edges of his lips raise into a slight smile as he thinks over this whole situation, still gazing at the other's expression from the corner of his eye. it takes a moment before he catches himself in the act and reverts back to his default expression. "now that you know the equation and the variables, do you think you can solve it from there? or do you need a more detailed step-by-step."

@⁰¹ heeseung l. after the quick flash of eye contact, he lets out a small breathe that he didn't realize he had been holding before he reaches over to grab the other's paper that was pointed out. leaning back in his chair, he holds the paper up to his face, quietly examining the equation written on it while also admiring the handwriting of heeseung. a realization pops into his mind as he looks at the equation, remembering faintly what exactly the easily confusing symbols meant. his face lights up at his own realization as he places the paper on the table once more, looking over at the man with an excited expression as he frantically nods, proud of himself. "yeah, i do! i remember vaguely listening to the professor explain the variables because at the time i was trying to draw a realistic rendition of the front of the room so i drew what he had written on the board in the room on the board in my drawing."

@⁰¹ soobin c. the sudden proximity of the other startles heeseung once again, but the male just stays quiet and lets any potential reaction fade away. he hums slightly, however, while waiting for a response. he runs his hand through his hair swiftly at the other's explanation. "so practically... you don't know any of the material related to these?" for a moment, the boy's gaze is lifted up at soobin, attempting to speak again with eye contact to support his words - but they get caught in his throat at the sight of the other's expression. he doesn't let himself think about it. "uh.." he quickly averts his sight back down to the papers, pointing at his own sheet and the equation written down at the top of his solution. "you can use this for these questions, all you have to do is alter it depending on what the question is looking for. do you know what the variables here stand for, at least?"

@⁰¹ heeseung l. he moves his head slightly closer so that he can see the problem from his spot, practically resting it on the shoulder of the other male as only a few inches is between the two. his brows furrow as he bites down on his lower lip gently, now remembering what made him decide that this assignment could wait. "um well, i remember getting the rest of the questions super easily, but i never really understood what the professor was saying when he was teaching us the unit for these last three. or maybe i wasn't there that day or something bc they make no sense to me at all." his statement ends in a little huff as his shoulders drop in discouragement, lips pursing into a small pout at his internal frustration.

@⁰¹ soobin c. heeseung feels a little delighted at the other's answer - he supposes it's just from the shock of a person acting in a way that was opposite to his intuition. if not that, perhaps he's excited to be able to test his knowledge through teaching someone else. "okay, well... if you're sure." he speaks slowly, and nods at the end of his sentence. the male moves a little closer as he grabs a pencil, using it as a pointer towards the first question. "how would you start trying to solve this? practically- do you have an idea of what to do, or do we need to start from the basics."

@⁰¹ heeseung l. soobin takes a moment to really think about that question because did he actually want to do the work or just get the work done. his go to would just be to get the answers but something about the man he was sitting by just made him want to spend more time with him. he also wanted to hear his very nice and soothing voice even more so he can commit it to his memory so of course he spits out a quick "i think it'd be nice to have it explained to me for the future in case you aren't there to help, yknow?"

@⁰¹ soobin c. heeseung noticeably flinches at the rather loud noise emitted from soobin's chair- loud noises were not necessarily his strong suit to deal with, especially in a normally extremely quiet environment such as the library. as the paper is placed in front of him, heeseung gazes over it and finds it familiar- and it makes sense, as he listens to the other's words.

"oh, i was thinking it was for another class.." heeseung mumbles a little.. "well, if that's the case.. i can definitely help." the male leans from his seat, ducking a little to reach his own bag and pull out a matching piece of paper from it, placing it next to soobin's homework. "do you just want the answers or an actual explanation with it? i would usually just explain, but i doubt you're that interested... given how you've managed to use a whole week pushing this off to the literal last hour." heeseung should probably just be helping instead of talking to the other so sharply, but he's a little too dumbfounded to care. it's probably weird that heeseung is helping him, either way... usually, the male would have just left in this scenario-- but an agreement to help had came out so naturally despite his tendencies. 'it's not worth thinking about...'

@⁰¹ heeseung l. his chair decides to scream at him once he attempts to scoot over closer to the other before he lets out a sigh, deciding instead to pick it up and lift it over to heeseung's side. he places the paper down in front of heeseung as he sits in the chair, pointing down towards the last three as he unconsciously leans towards him intent on hearing how he would explain the problems to him.

"um well, we kinda have class soon and it's kinda,, the homework for That class that's due today so,,, yeah" soobin ends his explanation with a mutter, slightly embarrassed at the fact that he and the man next to him both knew that this assignment was given to them a week ago and he still had yet to finish it.

@⁰¹ soobin c. as the silence settles around them once again, heeseung's eyes go back towards the textbook sitting in front of him, and his hands resume their fluent and speedy writing of notes. the male pauses here and there to take deep breathes in and out, attempting to regain his peace of mind which seemed to be awfully disturbed since the moment the other male entered the library. even after he's calmed down and began to find his natural workflow again, he can't help but mind the other's presence-- especially after he hears sudden speech.

his gaze is still only on his work, resisting to look back until his name is suddenly called. he finally lets out a small sigh, his gaze now transferred over to soobin. "let me see them, and then i'll decide." he says in a clearly articulated tone, before continuing his inquiry. "what's with the time limit? do you have to submit answers?"

@⁰¹ heeseung l. he stares up at the man thru the curtain of his fringes, a small smile appearing on his face at the response he gets as well as the tips of his ears heating up just slightly. as he turns back to his textbook, he realizes that there is absolutely nothing on the page that he understood. a small groan passes his lips as he rummages through his backpack to find a notebook, opening it up only for his unfinished homework to fall onto the table, causing another groan to escape. ", i forgot to finish this" he says out loud, more to himself than to anyone else.

looking up at the other man he once more realizes that this could be the person he needed to be with at this current moment. "hey um, heeseung? is there a chance that you could help me finish these last three problems in,,, 45 minutes?"

@⁰¹ soobin c. the gaze of heeseung's widened eyes is immediately sent to the opposite side of the room at the other's words, his head tilted with it. 'that came out of nowhere...' his face feels every so slightly heated, too. oh god. this is embarrassing, the other was probably just trying to be kind and now he's got heeseung acting all weird on his hands just because he's never learnt how to take random compliments. "well... thanks..?" he says, his tone unnecessarily frail, but he almost instantly gets cut off by another barrage of words.

"right, yeah, unique..." heeseung is just mumbling at this point. he almost wants to run away, because something about this scenario just makes him lose all of his composure- but that would just be a larger sign of all his dignity giving up, so the male stays put. he shakes his head at the latter part of soobin's rant. heeseung doesn't feel /that/ handsome- objectively, he knows he's not bad at all. he's been made that way, after all. girls have liked him too but countless is definitely an exaggeration.. maybe the other male is just applying his experience on everyone, thinking it's a shared phenomenon to be that popular. heeseung's gaze goes back upon the other and his face for just a moment. "you're the one who's actually that handsome--" as if he's in a trance, the words just spew out of him before he can stop himself- once he does, he cools down his tone and adds on. "objectively speaking." 'what is with me today..' if this were any other situation, the male would laugh at the weirdly phrased words of the other, but heeseung's not doing much better in that department - so he just nods. "friends... that sounds nice." his gaze goes back to his book in hopes to create a little bit of silence, one hand writing and the other running through his hair. "sure. no need to apologize, though."

@⁰¹ heeseung l. the screeching that comes from the chair causes him to cringe as he quickly sits himself down in it, not wanting the rest of the people in the room to look at him any longer. he has an almost sheepish smile on his face as he looks back at the other male, noticing even more of his features. his eyes seem to pierce straight into soobin's which causes him to look down at his textbook shyly, a slight cough escaping his lips as he attempts to clear his throat. "lee heeseung? that's a cute name," his words shock himself before he looks up at the mentioned lad with his widened eyes. 'what the am i doing, this man probably isn't even gay and now he's gonna think i'm ing creepy, ' the thoughts run through his mind before a jumble of words escapes his lips, trying to fix the awkwardness that he sensed.

"i mean like, it's a unique name yknow? there aren't that many heeseungs that i've met and you happen to be a really cute one- i mean, not that i think you're cute but like, i can see how a girl may find you as cute, but i um,, you're a handsome fellow so i'm sure you've heard that from countless women before because women also find me quite handsome and i think handsome people are meant to be together-- AS FRIEnds of course, not anything else,,," the whole slurry of words makes him facepalm mentally as he's sure his face cringes up at the way his tendencies are definitely showing. soobin thinks that maybe it's time he shuts up before he ruins the chance of any sort of friendship happening between him and the other. "i'm sorry, i'll just,, keep quiet" he mutters quietly as a deep breathe leaves him before he tries to focus on the textbook in front of him, suddenly finding the subject of the text very interesting.

@⁰¹ soobin c. another day, more studying. that was a given for someone like lee heeseung.

he's always been someone to put all his dedication and ultimate focus into his work, so imagine the irritation he feels when he hears someone's voice suddenly comes nearby... and they seem to be talking to him. great way to break the flow he had just got into. heeseung almost lets out a loud sigh as his gaze goes up at the newcomer - but it doesn't come out, the sentiment stuck in his neck. weirdly, its as if he's been frozen by just looking at the other. 'what the hell..' the feeling slowly subsides, and heeseung just waits for the male to finish talking before attempting any response.

he slightly shakes his head once the sentence does finally end, his cold voice beginning to speak. "it's not taken, no." heeseung's gaze goes back to the textbook in front of him, letting silence settle over them for a few seconds, so that he can concentrate at the task at hand. yet.. something in his brain is urging him to take another look at the other. heeseung waits until he can hear the noise of soobin sitting down before breaking his focus once again, turning his head around to directly face where the other is sitting. a hum leaves him as he examines the other's features. "i do think i've seen you before. so you're right about the class." his tone is a little light and whispery as he speaks before turning his head away, a snap back to reality hitting him. this is definitely off from his normal behavior. 'i'm just doing this because it'd be rude to leave words unanswered, and he had a lot to say. yeah.' those thoughts run through his head as he regathers himself, his tone calming down once again. "..i'm lee heeseung, by the way."