the photograph // sunsun

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sunoo grinned as he held up the last flashcard. "okay this is the last one. what's this called?" he pointed to an image of a molecular structure that looked like a twisted chain of beads.

"alanine." sunghoon answered confidently, hoping to redeem himself after getting all the previous questions wrong.

"wrong again," sunoo said, leaning back on his chair. "you've got them all wrong." 

the past thirty minutes sunghoon tried to convince sunoo that he, in fact, learned everything. but he failed miserably. sunoo couldn't help but feel a surge of relief as he realized that sunghoon had failed the quiz he had prepared for him. that meant that he didn't have to give him his phone number and everything would go smoothly.

sunoo watched sunghoon amused as he tried desperately to remember the right name.

"it's threonine." sunoo laughed.

"but they look the same." sunghoon protested. 

"they don't." sunoo answered calmly, opening a book and pushing it in front of sunghoon. he flipped to a page that showed the structures of different amino acids and their names. "see? alanine has a methyl group here, while threonine has a hydroxyl group. they're different." the older opened his notebook, writing down these details.

"i swear i studied all night." he whispered, feeling defeated.

sunoo was about to start explaining the subject when he got a phone call. he picked it up and answered, speaking in a low voice. sunghoon watched him curiously, trying to catch what he was saying. he noticed that sunoo's expression changed from serious to cheerful as he talked. when he hung up, he saw that sunghoon was staring at him.

"everything fine?" sunghoon asked.

sunoo nodded, being a little shaken by sunghoon's sudden care. "yeah... a friend wants to meet up with me at a cafe after we're done here."

"that's great! i'm coming with you," sunghoon said, excited. 

"why?" sunoo asked, surprised by his enthusiasm.

"i've got nothing better to do." sunghoon shrugged his shoulders. 

sunoo sighed, shaking his head. "whatever... let's start already," he sat up straight, opening some other textbooks. 

sunoo and sunghoon spent the next hour going over the flashcards and the textbook, with sunoo patiently explaining the concepts and sunghoon trying to memorize them. sunoo was impressed by how much sunghoon improved in such a short time. he realized that sunghoon was not as dumb as he had thought, and that he had a genuine interest in learning. he also noticed that sunghoon was looking at him more than usual, and he felt a strange flutter in his chest.  

after their lesson was done, sunoo cleared his throat, drawing sunghoon's attention, "aren't you afraid your 'fans' are going to be disappointed in you if they find out that you are not the smartest boy around here?" he asked, a mischevious smile making its way on his face.

sunghoon giggled. "are you implying that you are better than me?"

sunoo looked straight at him. "i am better than you."