𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗬﹕heeseung

－ 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑

Third person.

"Heeseung! Are you listening?" Sumi snaps her fingers literally in front of the man's sight, irked by his jolt from his seat.

"Yeah, I am." Heeseung says, but given the look of displeasure from Sumi, he knows his answer's wrong.

"I am." Heeseung converts his utterance into Japanese. They've started to communicate in Japanese as much as they can, and as much as Heeseung always forgets, Sumi doesn't respond to him until he remembers their arrangement.

"Why are you spacing out?" Sumi asks, closing the textbook.

"I didn't mean to. Can we go back to where we were on?" Heeseung fixes his cap around his head and his posture against the backrest and shakes his head, ready to go on with Sumi's lecture again.

"Okay, eyes here, Lee." Sumi points her finger aggressively on the page. Heeseung draws a frightened chuckle.

Heeseung's attention span got better- which Sumi is thankful for. Sumi persists in being a strict teacher to Heeseung who grumbles when he doesn't understand, having the girl almost done with him.

Their relationship has developed closer since the first day they met. Both Kasumi and Heeseung have become more comfortable around each other that and nagging and throwing jokes around are starting to be ordinary. What Sumi used to think of Heeseung as aloof was tossed and proven false.

Other than becoming friends, Heeseung is undoubtedly getting better and better at the language he's learning day by day. He boasted to Riki a few days ago when they met up and he still believes he deserved more than a just pat on the back from the younger. His private sessions with Sumi aren't getting between his actual classes in the uni, so even he, himself, is surprised at how his life is currently put together.

On their five-minute break (because Sumi went to order another tart), Heeseung goes on to his phone. His friends' group chat is currently active and his phone is buzzing every time someone sends a message every second. He bets it's something he doesn't need to know of, so instead of opening the context behind why they're being loud, he decides to check the latest message sent by Aera.

"Got anyone you're seeing, Heeseung?"

Sumi's presence startles him, unaware that she had come back to their table. Also unknowing that he'd been taken hold of grinning ear to ear while looking at his phone, which made Sumi question.

"Huh? Oh, no." Heeseung denies. Should he even deny it? What's something between him and Aera that he should deny about?

"Sure." Sumi slurs unconvinced, but she doesn't push further.

"I'm just... not sure. She's a close friend, that's all I know." Heeseung blurts out, his mouth doing its own job. He pauses and regrets announcing something so unnecessary directly to someone whose sneers.

"Forget I said that." Heeseung shakes his hand. Sumi snorts, followed by an eye roll.

"We've all been there." Sumi gives him a pat on his shoulder.

"Is she pretty?" Sumi nonchalantly asks, her attention focused on the page she's acting to concentrate on.

Being the whipped guy that he is, thought of a clever way to answer her. He quickly goes through his phone and then shows Sumi a photo of Aera he took by himself with a proud smile.