36 — A PLEASANT SURPRISE

dongpyo and eunsang did not expect familiar faces to barge into their biology class.

—

"wow, lee eunsang and son dongpyo sitting next to each other during class, this is something i definitely did not expect."

"slow-burn angst, enemies to lovers dynamic." one of their classmates comprehends. "i'm loving this already."

"yah, ahn yujin!" dongpyo scowls. "i'm only doing this because cha junho's absent, nothing else."

"where is cha junho anyway? i haven't seen him anywhere."

dongpyo opens his mouth to explain. "he's—"

"he's at egypt with his parents for a holiday." eunsang quickly responds.

yujin furrows her eyebrows. ".. egypt?"

"daebak. junho's parents are always the strict type, never thought they'll let him skip school for something as irrelevant as a family vacation." guanlin repudiates.

yujin turns to him and nods. "i know right? at least this'll lessen the chance of him getting good grades for snu~"

"ahn yujin." eunsang says lowly.

"hm?"

"cha junho is able and will definitely go to seoul national university, mark my words." there's not a tint of humor left on his tone, only absolute seriousness.

yujin chuckles. "yeah, okay— calm down, eunsang-ah. i was only joking~"

"with or without junho, i bet you still can't get to snu," guanlin teases playfully. "not with low scores like that, you can."

"yah! watch your mouth, lai guanlin!" ahn yujin exclaims as she hits him with a book. "you dare to make fun of me when your scores are way lower than mine, how humiliating."

"at least i'm not delusional, unlike you."

"shut up before i kick you hard enough that you'll end up going back to your home country."

dongpyo and eunsang ignore their childish banter, with dongpyo turning to eunsang feverishly. "yah, try to at least take a joke, won't you? yujin just wanted to get along with you."

"belittling junho isn't the correct way to do that."

"yeah, but still.." dongpyo laughs lightly. "that wasn't meant to be taken seriously. anyway, guanlin's right. none of their scores are high enough to even surpass universities in seoul, let alone snu."

"why do you guys care about your scores so much?" eunsang asks bluntly. "i mean, you should've seen junho's face when i said i had no interest of enrolling to snu. why are you guys so obsessed of getting into the high-tier universities as if your life depends on it?"

dongpyo sighs. "not everyone's as smart as you, eunsang."

".. what?"

"we care about our scores because it affects our future." dongpyo points out. "it affects our upcoming alma maters. it affects how our parents, our relatives look upon us. it's not about just keeping our pride unscathed, it's about us surviving for the worst." he looks down. "you might not feel that way, because of how effortless you are at studying something new. some of us have troubles in it, you know."

eunsang bites his lips uncomfortably. "i might get good scores, but i'm not as diligent as you guys. my scores aren't perfect and spotless."

"yeah, god knows what'll happen if you do take your scores seriously. might as well be the end for us all."

eunsang wasn't really used to being complimented by dongpyo. he decides to move on to another subject. "anyway, about junho going to egypt thing.."

"yeah, why did you choose egypt as a reason again?"

"because ryujin from the physics olympiad team also asked me about junho this morning, i panicked and gave her that reason." eunsang replies. "i don't want us to give multiple different reasons to different people because that might cause confusion, so let's just stick with one, shall we?"

dongpyo nods. "it's crazy how responsive dongwook is to all of this, though. he's very good at covering the news of junho's disappearance from his parents, saying that junho's off to a school trip with the physics olympiad students. he even made a fake announcement letter and all."

"why does he take it so seriously? does he really want it not to get exposed?"

"the school's done it a couple of times for special occasions. usually it's to search students that ran away from their homes because they're ashamed of their grades and they don't want to face their parents for it, or it's just simply to cover rascals that want to get away from everything by disappearing to another city or something." dongpyo explains. "it's like they have a specific search team for those people, because at the end they would end up easily getting found."

"that's.. weird. but convenient." eunsang says.

"yup, but that's why we shouldn't worry about junho so much." dongpyo slips a small smile. "we got professionals searching for him, so he should be able to be detected by the end of the day."

eunsang isn't sure if he's able to be optimistic about the situation, but he nods anyway. he didn't realize that a word of reassurance from dongpyo would help him a lot. he clears his throat. "anyway, biology."

"yes, biology?"

"can you please explain me this chapter? i skipped class when they were teaching about this last week." eunsang says as he points at the chapter about cells.

dongpyo blinks his eyes a couple of times. "you're asking me.. to teach you?"

"uh i was asking for a short explanation but i guess that works too." eunsang answers unsurely.

"are you trying to mock me or something?"

"mock you?" eunsang furrows his eyebrows in confusion. "what part of my sentence does it sound like mocking? i was only asking for a favor."

"why would you ask me to teach you? you're way above me." dongpyo mutters unconfidently. "i am nothing compared to you, i'm not as smart as you think."

eunsang laughs lightly. "just last week, you said that i'm just merely a highschool dropout who's supported by silver spoons."

"and i discover earlier on that my speculations are wrong. you are indeed intelligent, and my knowledge could not keep up with yours. so why ask for my help?"

"...because i don't see you anywhere below me," eunsang answers shortly. "nor should you think that i'm above you. you should not judge everyone by their scores, dongpyo-ah. scores could be manipulated easily, but personalities don't."

dongpyo looks somehow speechless by eunsang's reply, and because of that a smile appears in eunsang's face. eunsang pats the latter's shoulder lightly. "don't beat yourself for it, you're smart too."

dongpyo clears his throat as he shakes away eunsang's hand on his shoulder. "i'm not.. beating myself up for it. i'm fine."

eunsang couldn't help but feel somehow relieved. dongpyo's as fragile as ice, he just doesn't want to show it.

all this time he always thought the kid was invincible.

"anyway, this chapter." dongpyo gathers his pride back up again as he snatches eunsang's book away from him. "this.. this is basic middle school stuff. how could you not understand this? this shit ain't even anything new."

eunsang smiles.

dongpyo looks at him strangely. "what's with the smile?"

"you're back to your old self, i rather have you mocking me than complimenting me at all times, it's a weird feeling."

dongpyo scoffs. "do you really want me to teach you here? you seem out of place."

"please."

just before dongpyo could even get the chance to explain, suddenly the door bursts open, startling the students that were inside the room. eunsang's attention shifts to the door, his eyes widen after seeing something that he least expects to be there. dongpyo looks quite affected too.

wooseok and seungwoo appear into the room, looking well-dressed and tidy. they brought plentiful of biology books as they went inside. the room falls dead silent. they weren't expecting their alumnis to appear in their biology class all of the sudden.

"seungwoo hyung, what are you doing here?" dongpyo mouths seungwoo. eunsang has his attention at wooseok who looks like he was forced to be in this room.

seungwoo mouths him back. "ssaem."

"what?"

wooseok nudges seungwoo by the waist, gesturing him to say something to the quiet class. seungwoo claps his hand excitedly. "good morning everyone. seeing that you guys are 11th graders, i'm quite sure that you all are familiar of wooseok and i here. that's great, because that means we don't need a session to introduce ourselves as individuals anymore." he grins. "in alternative, we shall introduce you as your new substitute teachers instead. good morning, wooseok and seungwoo-seongsaengnim at your service."

dongpyo and eunsang exchange surprised glances.

—

small snippet of my new x1 horror story, take me to church, is published. perhaps you could check it out or somethin hehehe

200 votes for next chap~