karaoke machine | p.js

1.04

When she stepped into the lecture hall, his eyes were immediately drawn to her. His gaze trailed after her as she glided across the lecture hall and up the stairs toward him. With her hands shoved into the pockets of her sweatpants, she slid into the seat next to Kangdae and gently pulled her cap down to cover her eyes a bit more. Her backpack was discarded on the ground at her feet, unopened as she didn't even bother to grab her laptop to take notes.

"Good morning to you too," Kangdae smiled.

"Hmm," Naerin hummed in response, her eyes closed as she leaned back in her seat with her arms crossed. She slowly sunk further and further into her seat as the seconds passed by until she was finally in a semi-reclined position, one that she had apparently deemed good enough for her nap.

"Tired?" Kangdae tried to start a conversation with her.

"Dead," Naerin replied, her voice melodic but held an air of exhaustion with it. If Kangdae looked closely enough he could see the dark circles that ringed her eyes and the way they were slightly puffy.

"Did you just wake up?" he asked.

She nodded her head gently, half listening to him as she started to drift off to sleep. She could hear the professor in the background announcing that he would be passing back exams. Naerin opened her eyes when she heard her naming being called and got up to go collect her exam.

Naerin barely glanced at the exam paper when she received it from him. She dropped back into her seat next to Kangdae and he leaned a little closer to her to get a glance at her exam paper.

Naerin spared him a brief look before flipping to the last page to reveal two big numbers written on it. In bright red ink, the number 95 was printed in the professor's neat handwriting.

"Ah," Kangdae smiled gently, "As expected from our prized student,"

Naerin rolled her eyes at Kangdae's antics. Her eyes fell on Kangdae's exam paper, the number 100 followed by the words 'good job!' were written out neatly. She already knew that he aced the exam, it was expected from him.

"Want to get lunch after our next lecture?" Kangdae asked her.

"Hmm," Naerin hummed in response, her eyes already closing before the lecture began. It didn't surprise anyone when Naerin was already in a deep slumber half an hour into class. Not even the professor bothered to wake her up, he knew she would just fall asleep again anyways.

"Are you really not going to tell us where you've been?" Kangdae gently nudged Naerin's shoulder.

"I've been at the police station," Naerin lied easily.

"Why?"

"Just because," Naerin shrugged her shoulders and made an exaggerated confused face. Kangdae sighed and gently shoved Naerin again.

"You're being weird," Kangdae said in all seriousness.

"That's just you," Naerin replied, her voice almost comical in the way she tried so hard to tease Kangdae.

Kangdae's eyes trailed her, carefully watching her every move trying to decipher if she was lying or not to him. If it had been anyone else, Naerin might have been able to convince them of her story. She masked her true intentions perfectly. Kangdae was a differnet situation.

"You can stop staring at me," Naerin asked as the professor started to talk.

"You look better," Kangdae mentioned.

Naerin remained silent, only opting for a small nod in response. Toward the end of the week that she and Jisung didn't see each other Naerin often started to look physically drained. Her friends usually didn't pick up on the subtle changes in Naerin's appearance, but Kangdae wasn't just any friend.