His Highness

Chapter 13: Memory Lane

The months flew by in a blink of an eye and the fondness in their hearts grew stronger. Infatuation was slowly blossoming into something deeper but both could not say a word to the other because of drastically different reasons that kept their relationship stuck in the "Just friends" phase. Did they enjoy that label? Certainly not. But they would be damned to let those three words out. It would cost their friendship and they both knew that it was better than no label at all. And the cherry on top: AhReum was still leaching onto HyunSoo like a parasite. He was more than annoyed but he wanted his Father to quit meddling with his life so, he let her be.

By then, they were half way into the first semester and it was finally time for the freshmen to choose a club of their interest. After spending his entire afternoon flying through the booths, HyunSoo finally came across one that caught his eye.

"Hello, would you like to sign up for the Creative Writing club?" The senior asked and he gladly wrote his name down.

He sent in a piece of his writing and after an aggravating two weeks, the email he had been waiting for finally arrived. He was accepted into the club and was to report the following Tuesday. When the day finally rolled around, he could not be more excited. He was just drifting off into his dreamland when a high pitched voice broke his happy bubble.

"Hello, what's your name? I'm Haneul, a year 1 architecture student." He said and settled at the seat next to him.

HyunSoo looked to his side and saw a slim but tall male next to him. He was stunned but just looked away and stared out the window.

"What's your name? I want to be your friend." He pestered him and kept trying to get his attention.

After awhile, HyunSoo grew annoyed and finally gave in.

"Fine, fine. I'm HyunSoo, a year 1 architecture student." He replied.

"Oh? Me too! Which class are you in? I have never seen you around before." He asked again.

"Class 3." He replied.

"Oh that's my class too! Why have I never seen you there before? Did you just transfer in?"

He groaned in annoyance and rolled his eyes.

"Why do you have so many questions?" He said and grabbed his things to change seats but he grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Okay, okay. I'll stop asking questions now. Sit back down okay." Haneul laughed awkwardly and smiled.

He groaned and sat back down. Regret began taking over him as he realised that this man would be there for the rest of his university life but his heart skipped a beat when a familiar man suddenly stepped into the room.

"Oh HyunSoo-ah!" MingGi waved at him and took a seat infront of him. "I didn't know you joined this club."

"Oh yea. I like writing short stories." He explained, slightly stunned to see the elder male before him.

"Hello! I'm Haneul, a year 1 architecture student." He said and stuck out his hand.

"Oh hello. I'm MingGi, a year 2 film student." He replied and shook his hand.

HyunSoo glared at Haneul out of slight jealousy but he would never admit that of course.

"What's that look? Did I do something?" He laughed awkwardly and retracted his hand.

MingGi chuckled and shook his head.

"He'll warm up to you soon." The elder male said and turned around.

And just in time, the teacher in-charge arrived. They did self-introductions and explained what the club was all about before assigning everyone a short activity to do. They were to take pictures of a historic place anywhere in Korea and then write an article on it. And they had to do it in pairs. Without hesitation, HyunSoo swiftly sat next to MingGi and asked to be his partner, to which the elder male was abit taken aback but agreed.