Payback AU: What If

Act 3.1 - Rumor

Lee Yoohan was the engineering faculty's enigma—no, he was probably the university's enigma.

Most students had their own trope. And they usually stuck to that trope; the nerd and scholarship student that studious and neat, sometimes rigid; the ambitious one that always hanging around the college's authority; the popular guys that always stylish and garnering attention; the plain kids that were just there ...

But Lee Yoohan was...different. He didn't belong to any of the tropes, but he also fit in every trope. He was a scholarship student, and he did act like one—he was studious, he was seen often in the library, he got good grades, he made excellent presentations, he was skilled in practical lessons, and work hard on every assignment. In short, he was a model student. But he didn't act like a model student either. He would sometimes ditch his classes, although he kept his attendance level safe. He cursed like a soldier despite hadn't served his time yet. And he'd fight anyone that pick a fight with him—and he'd win every time, somehow never had trouble with the faculty staff about it.

Despite having a reputation as one of the teacher's pets, Lee Yoohan was also known to have one of the nastiest punches. One of the students saw him at a boxing gym pummeling an aspiring professional boxer as a part-time job, shared it on the college's network, and no one disturbed him anymore.

Lee Yoohan didn't have a big physique, although he's not short either. And he looked slim, which made people think he was an easy target. But that slim and slender body was packed with lean muscle that was trained in martial arts and forged through labor works. Paired with his rather handsome feature and confident but disinterested gaze, he become one of the hidden beauties of the engineering department. He wasn't at first, when he still wore the cheap shirt and worn-out jeans. But after orientation, he started to wear more decent clothes—expensive ones even—and that just amplified his visual even more. But unlike the hip, ullzang group, Lee Yoohan never bothered with popularity.

In the first place, he didn't even have sns. He turned down get-together invitations, even from sundaes, and he never accepted any advances—if he recognize one, what with him being quite dense and all—no matter how hard someone flirted with him. When someone annoyed him, he would stare at them with cold, piercing eyes that silently told the person to fuck off. Ironically, this only painted him as a reserved man and soared his popularity. Coupled with his ear piercings and the elusive tattoo that sometimes peeked from his waistline, he gave this lone wolf, bad boy vibe that garnered him his own secret fan club. They drink and dine on any candid photo of Yoohan fleeting around the college ground.

The lone wolf is not really alone though. Yoohan had a group of people that could be considered "friends", even if only for the fact that they seemed to be closer to him than anyone else because they'd been hanging out since their freshman day. After all, it's not like Yoohan would scowl and frown at everyone, everywhere. In fact, he'd rather have this expressionless, neutral face—although sometimes it came across as arrogant and ignorant. Unless people disturbed him for no reason, Yoohan was actually pretty amiable. Those that had interacted with him would soon find his charm beneath all of those resting bitch face and disinterested approach to life. Regardless of his beautiful appearance, it was actually pretty easy to like him as a human being. And since he had good grades and an excellent work ethic, the professors also took a liking to Yoohan. They liked to invite Yoohan to research projects that require student involvement, and gave him many journals writing collaborations. Some of them already had dibs on him to be their teaching assistant—half because he was smart and a hard worker, half because his face would attract more students to take the course. And apparently, he was also a member of the theater club.

Others could easily agree that Lee Yoohan was one of the men with the best quality in their whole university. Even those that disliked him had to admit that Yoohan was of a different breed. And to put cherry on top, the man didn't even seem to realize how great he is—or how popular. So he came off as someone down-to-earth and overall good guy.