svt · junctions

i. csc

Cosecants really shouldn't matter.

Choi Seungcheol is aware of this, he isn't supposed to care about the derivatives of sin and cos because he's not going to use it in his course; a Business Management degree doesn't require you to use trigonometric functions, let alone memorize them.

But the thing is, Seungcheol enjoys them.

He enjoys them enough to annoy his best friend about it one day as they lay around his room.

"Hao..."

"What?" Minghao mutters, stopping his sketching in his notebook.

"I don't think I wanna do business management anymore." Seungcheol hangs his head from the edge of the bed.

"Are you serious?" Minghao asks with one eyebrow raised.

"Have you ever differentiated trigonometric functions?"

"Yes and it made me want to die."

Seungcheol slams his hands on the mattress, offended.

"It gives me life, Minghao," He raises his hand and motions it in a kucoo motion beside his temples, "I feel the gears of my brain turn everytime I'm given a new equation to solve!"

"Don't hurt yourself..." Minghao stares at him.

"I enjoy it so much, I'm gonna- wait what?"

"Nothing, nothing. Continue." Minghao makes a shooing motion and starts drawing again.

"As I was saying before you so rudely insulted my passion," Seungcheol holds a hand to his chest in mock offense, "it turns my brain on, the sensation of memorizing and utilizing the pattern of differentiation of trigonometric functions... Do you think they to do this in physics courses? Because I'm totally down for the science x math cross-over-"

"I can't believe you have a math kink..." Minghao mutters under his breath, a grimace on his face, but his friend just drones on.

"-I mean, physics hasn't always been my favorite, but it certainly piqued my interest this past semester... probably has something to do with that cute plus smart girl that sits in the front row. She-" Seungcheol has turned over on the bed now, his head leaning on his right hand as he talked about his little crush.

"I can't believe I'm still friends with your sapiosexual ass..." Minghao whispers.

"-doesn't even notice me... well, I do sit at the back, but gosh, is she amazing-"

"Here we go..." Minghao just lets Seungcheol's words pass through his left ear and go out his right, he knows that his friend doesn't stop talking once he starts; Seungcheol has to finish his story first, and Minghao has to endure.

"-she could answer the boardwork when it contained lessons that haven't even been taught yet! She's amazing, Hao. I want to reach her level of knowledge-"

Minghao runs a hand through his hair and pulls down his face, a futile attempt of drowning out his friend's current word vomit.

"-because it's obvious that she enjoys what she's doing, that's how good she is. Yeah... I wanna enjoy myself that much, well, actually-"

"I'm friends with an absolute nerd..." Minghao can't help but sigh internally as he lays his head on his sketchbook.

"-I already do enjoy myself, even if it's just for that particular subject, I enjoy myself enough to want-"

Minghao actually sighs.

"-to let go of my long-time career path. I wanna do something I enjoy in college... don't wanna be stuck studying the human psyche when I would rather assess thermodynamic equilibrium and integral calculus, yah know?"

"I don't know, Seungcheol."

"So, yeah, I'd probably apply for a math or physics course, business management be damned." Seungcheol finally says, concluding his rant about his course preferences with a single clap.

"Jesus, how many tangents did you manage to make up in that speech of yours?" Minghao rubs at his face again, Seungcheol stares and starts to think about the bacteria he's transferring to his face.

"None?" Seungcheol says incredulously, "I was speaking of the same thing, Hao. You aren't paying attention."

Minghao can only stare at Seungcheol in quiet resignation.

"And Cheol, you can't apply for a physics course when you're already in the business management program." Minghao side-eyes him.

"If theres a will, there's a way, my friend." Seungcheol ruffles Minghao's hair.

Minghao pushes his hand away with a grunt then turns to glare at him. Seungcheol flashes him a gummy smile which earns him two hands squeezing his cheeks.

"And your way is?" Minghao squeezes harder, "through your mother's savings?"

"Ei hef my om money pfoo!" Seungcheol sputters as he tries to get away from his friend's grasp.

"Not enough to pay for college tuition, cheol-hyung." Minghao smiles a smug smile before he lets go of Seungcheol, who lands backwards on the bed with a thud.

Seungcheol is a panting mess as he lays on the bed, a result of his little tug of war. He stays motionless for a while and Minghao worries if he squeezed hard enough to kill him. That is, until, Seungcheol raises his hand with his pointer finger up, as if experiencing his very own 'Eureka™ ' moment. Minghao raises a brow.

"What now?"

"Ugh." Seungcheol drops his hand again and drapes his arm over his eyes.

"Cheol-"

"Hao. I'm really gonna ask my mom to help me transfer because I'm an indecisive piece of shit. God, this is embarrassing."

Minghao decides that he's having none of this shit.

"If you're that embarrassed about it, then don't do it," Minghao sits down next to Seungcheol on the bed, pushes his arm away, "you're good to go with anything, anyway. You're born to excel at everything, hyung."

"Yeah," Seungcheol drapes his arm over his head again, "but I wanna do something I like for once."

Minghao tilts his head sideways and pushes his friend.

"Stop being dramatic, hyung!" He pulls at Seungcheols arms to make him sit up. "If you really want it, then go for it! If your pride tells you it isn't worth it, then let it go! Don't beat yourself up over this."

"Guess you're right..."

"Hell yeah, I am." Minghao gets up from the bed and takes his sketchbook from the floor, then stuffs it in his backpack.

Minghao continues picking his stuff up and packing it inside his backpack in complete silence while Seungcheol keeps his head down as he plays with his fingers. He keeps his eyes trained to the floor until he sees a pair of sock clad feet in front of him.

"Think about it, hyung." Minghao pats his head, "because I gotta get home. I'll see you next week?" Minghao asks as he starts to back away.

"Yeah, see you then." Seungcheol waves at the retreating figure.

"Love yah, hyung. Mwah." Minghao teases before he closes the door. The laughter echoing in the hallway makes Seungcheol grunt.

He's alone now. And he's a pouting mess as he walks towards his desk and starts working on yet another equation.

He's halfway through when his frustration coupled with overthinking leads him to drop the pencil and smush his face on the worksheets.

Cosecants really do matter for him now.

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published: 180218 at 08:08 pm