snow ; changki ◯ ON HOLD

3

A dam had burst in Changkyun's mind, sending a tidal wave of potential reasons why - at his big big age - he'd been called to the office. He thought long and hard; although he'd done nothing explicitly wrong, he had a notorious history of neglecting his education with bad attendance and punctuality - but even then, he thought, still doing better than those who did attend classes.

"You're not in trouble or anything." the secretary said behind her to him, as if she could smell his brain burning as he tried to find a reason to be heading down the unfamiliar corridor.
He was stunned by how she never bothered to elaborate, and by the one other person sat outside of the office as they rounded the corner.

He also lifted his head, pink locks bouncing with the movement. Neither of them reacted initially, Changkyun only really noticing the slight narrowing of Kihyun's eyes as he sat down on the seat furthest from him.

"Just wait here, you'll be called in shortly." The lady said with a grin, disappearing into the office.

"What have you done?" Kihyun demanded rather accusingly after a beat of silence. To this Changkyun only blinked.

"Excuse me?"

"You must have done something, to be here. And clearly have me wrapped up in it, for me to be here," the other explained slowly and patronisingly. "so what have you done?"

"Excuse you. I haven't done anything, why can't we be here for something you did?"

"Because I don't have the time to do anything." He sighed.

"And I do?"

"Let's be real, what else do you do with your life apart from being late to everything and painting your nails black?" His eyes brushed over him dismissively, and for a split second, Changkyun was almost stunned someone he had never even properly spoken to before could be this cold to him.

And then he grinned. "I ace tests with half of the work you put in, that's what I do with my free time."

To this Kihyun just muttered under his breath, turning away before choking him out there and then. To their luck, the door opened, Mr Jung beckoning the two in to the two seats opposite his desk.

The man had an unfamiliar face, remembering him vaguely from the very first welcome talk in their first year induction. Seeing him up close and not from a distance in the upper tiers of the lecture hall was odd.

"I'm so sorry to ambush you both, but this was frankly the only free time I had between lectures, I hope I'm not cutting into your lunch too much." He said happily, plopping into his chair.

"Of course, Mr Jung. Anytime is fine." Kihyun said unnaturally brightly, neither of them catching the slight head shake from Changkyun.
To this, Mr Jung only grinned to them both.

"Well, I won't beat around the bush and keep you any longer. As you both may be aware, you are the two best students in the second year of our Chemistry degree, if not of the whole course," he angled himself to Changkyun, who blinked. "Im Changkyun, you persistently surprise your teachers with your way of rationalising and understanding topics, and not only do you get excellent grades, you know how to apply your knowledge impeccably. And you, Yoo Kihyun, are an exemplary student with a way to grasping and retaining information and content like no other, with a remarkable A* streak. The two of you are setting off to be some of the best of the industry, given that you keep up your behaviour."

Beside him, Kihyun was all smiles, eyes turned into tiny crescents. If his love for praise wasn't mildly creepy, and he hadn't remembered that he could probably murder him and get away with it, he would almost look cute. Not even Changkyun could avoid it though, a tiny smile playing at his lips; having his method of powering through education called "questionable" and "unorthodox", praise was actually quite pleasant.