snow ; changki ◯ ON HOLD

5

The sharp braking of the bus jolted him awake, and after a split second of grasping his surroundings, Changkyun was out of the bus like a light. He stood at the bus stop tiredly, rubbing his eyes before crossing the road into the campus, heading for the library.

Having worked a full shift in a restaurant on the other side of the district and so being on his feet for hours, any rational person would go home to rest - but then again, any rational person wouldn't be so willing to be a student rep.
He sighed heavily, crossing the double doors and turning to the corner with the vending machines, grabbing a red bull and looking for the study room.

He opened the door, almost jumping out of his skin when he was immediately greeted by Kihyun's narrowed eyes, which intensified at his presence. "You're late."

"I know, I -"

"You know what, I don't even want to hear it. I'm gonna speak to Mr Jung and you'll be free to do as you please; I can't have you as a partner if I think you're not about to take it seriously-"

He was silenced by Changkyun, who threw his bag down with enough force to awaken fear in Kihyun's widened eyes.
The air grew thick within the room, Changkyun taking a deep breath. "I don't give a fuck about what you think, frankly. You're not out here busting your ass between work and school to make ends meet, are you? Instead you just rely on Daddy to make every rainy day go away and will most likely never even grasp the struggle I go through daily so spare me your bullshit, Kihyun. And fine, if you don't want me to work with you that much, we'll just run separately."

"Is that what you want?" Kihyun replied after a few seconds, voice small but sharp. To this, Changkyun only blinked, sinking into a seat. "In that case, work on your appeal for the presentation tomorrow and I'll do my own. We'll go with the best one."

"I- sure, fine." He replied a little confused, pulling out his notebook and pen from his bag before furiously scribbling onto the paper, a complete opposite of the meticulous way Kihyun would add to his work.

"You okay now?"

Some time had passed since Changkyun's outbreak, and the two had been in silence up until then, the sudden question throwing Kihyun off. "Me?"

"No, the table. Yes, you," Changkyun insisted, gesturing to his nose. "the nosebleed?"

"Oh, yeah. It's okay, don't worry. When there's a lot of dust around my nose gets dry and starts bleeding," he replied calmly, eyes never leaving his binder. "nothing else."

"Ah."

"What?" Kihyun snapped immediately.

"Nothing! I just thought it was an anxiety thing, I don't know," he said. "relax. The world isn't out to get you, Kihyun. Stop pretending like we're living on different planets."

He scoffed rather harshly, shaking his head. "I beg to differ."

"How so?"

"What are you trying to do here, Changkyun?" Kihyun dropped his pen, an unexpectedly annoyed look on his face.
The other wasn't sure of how to react, blinking for a few brief seconds before his head involuntarily tilted to the side.

"Trying to make small talk? Like, come on, all I know is you get good grades, are rich and have pink hair."

"Well, I'd rather keep it that way. I don't want to be friends with you or to tell you about my life; I want to get this fucking student rep position so I don't get kicked out of college and forced into the military." The pink haired boy snapped back, eyes dropping again to the pages he'd written.

"Jesus. Okay, I'm sorry for actually attempting to like you, let me just go back to pretending you don't exist like I did up until last week," He rolled his eyes, leaning back on his seat. "don't stress yourself out so much, it's not like he can kick us from the course just because of this."