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Seojoon sighed with disappointment. Of course he wouldn't be single. Why would he be? He was hot, nice and cool. Seojoon was an idiot to think he had a chance.
***
It all started a few weeks ago. He was getting ready for his Art History lecture, when two people entered the lecture hall just a few seconds before the start. One of them was a guy he vaguely remembers seeing every once in a while, the other though...
He looked very, very good: tall, broad-shouldered, nicely built guy maybe a year or 2 younger than him. Seojoon had definitely seen him before, but he couldn't remember when or where exactly.
The duo came and took the seats right behind Seojoon. Maybe this was his lucky day.
The lecture went on, but he wasn't really paying attention. He wanted to think of a way to talk to him. Maybe he should just say that he looked familiar. No, that's so old. A fine guy like him deserved better. Come to think of it... when did they even meet? Was it at a party? The guy didn't look the type. He might have seen him for a second only, but he was a pretty good judge of a character. Maybe they share classes? Again no, he'd remember. Wait a second...
He was sitting a few rows back when this same guy came to their lecture again. He had wanted to talk to him at that time too, but the lecturer held him back at class and he missed the chance.
Better now or never, as they say.
As soon as the bell rang, he turned around with the most charming smile.
"Hello there, I'm Kang Seojoon. Nice to meet you."
The guy looked a bit taken aback by the warm greeting.
"Hello."
"No name?"
"Um... I'm Han Jiwoo," the guy still seemed unwilling to talk but at least he replied.
"Nice to finally get a name for a face. We have met before, you know?"
"When?"
"Last semester, you came to one of my lectures again. It was Art History again, I believe."
Realization dawned on Jiwoo.
"Ah, yes. The lecturer is my uncle so sometimes he asks me to run some errands for him or come listen to his lectures."
Jiwoo seemed a bit more relieved that he placed where he knew him from.
"You study acting too?"
Seojoon wouldn't give up that easily. He needed to keep the conversation going until he could ask him for his number.
"No, culinary arts. I don't study here."
"I see."
This was bad. He wanted to talk more but for once in his life his mind was blank. Not to mention, Jiwoo was gathering his things and seemed to be in a rush.
"See you," nodded Jiwoo quickly as he left the room with his friend.
Seojoon's eyes followed his figure as he left the room.
***
Next time they met in campus. Seojoon saw him leaving the canteen. He got to say only a quick "hi" before the guy left in a hurry yet again. Why was he always in a hurry?
They met a few times like this too. He wanted to find out more about him but Jiwoo's friend was even more allusive. On the bright note, Jiwoo even started to initiate their greetings and gave him the occasional smiles, which kept Seojoon awake at nights.
His vague crush kept getting bigger, even though he knew almost nothing about him.
Sadly, it all came to a very disappointing conclusion. Seojoon was with his friend Pilhyun, when he saw Jiwoo and exchanged "hi"s. As he kept staring at Jiwoo's retreating back, Pilhyun tsked and informed him that Jiwoo was living with someone. Jiwoo was taken already.
This information, however probable, had never once crossed Seojun's mind. Jiwoo was someone else's, what a shame.
But if he was taken, why was he being nice? Did Seojoon misread the whole situation? Was Jiwoo just being friendly, instead of being shy?
Ugh, whatever it was, it didn't matter. He'd better forget all about him and move on with his life. The first step would be getting drunk with Plihyun.
After that horrible revelation, he started to notice Jiwoo more in public, even more than the time he was looking forward to meeting him. When Jiwoo greeted him, he just said a quick "hi" and tried to get away quickly. After some time, Jiwoo stopped saying "hi" altogether as he noticed that Seojoon was set on ignoring him.
***
It went on for some time, till destiny played a stupid joke on both of them and they were invited to their mutual friend's Yoonseul's birthday party. Unfortunately, their seats were right in front of each other. Jiwoo took the approach of pretending to not know Seojoon at all and Seojoon did the same.
As the party went on, Seojoon felt a bit overwhelmed from all the noise and went to the veranda, not knowing that Jiwoo was there already.
At first, he thought of going back, but why would he go back? It was Jiwoo who gave him false hope while being in a relationship anyways. If someone should have felt bad, it was Jiwoo.
He went and stood as far as he could from Jiwoo. Jiwoo got startled.
"Oh, so you do see me," muttered Seojoon.
It might be Seojoon's ego as an actor, but he hated being ignored, especially by hot guys.
"Like you are one to talk," retorted Jiwoo.
Okay, if he had to go there...
"I'm not the one who flirted with a guy while seeing someone else."
Jiwoo looked positively confused by this sentence.
"What?"
"Don't you live with someone?"
"Yes? My co-worker? Also when have I flirted?"
"And you are not seeing your co-worker?"
"No," was all Jiwoo said.
"So you are not seeing anyone?" asked Seojoon staring at him.
"Why does it matter to you?"
"Can't guess?"
Jiwoo was staring back, but it was hard to read him.
"I'm not seeing anyone," said Jiwoo somehow shyly.
"How interesting," said Seojoon barely hiding his amusement.
The silence was filled with the noise from the party. As the noise went on, Jiwoo lost his patience.
"Are you not going to say anything?"
Oh, so Jiwoo was this easy to rile up. He was getting more and more interesting.
"Should I?"
"What game are you playing?" Jiwoo asked angrily.
"I'm not playing any games at all. You, on the other hand, were playing hard to get."
"I was not playing anything! I just..."
"Just wanted me to do all the hard work? You can't imagine how I felt when I found out the hot guy I've been trying to coax into dating me was dating someone already. I was so heartbroken! I'm not doing the hard work this time. It's my turn to be mysterious and aloof."
"You are ridiculous," smiled Jiwoo.
Seojoon was a goner.
"I'm not joking, mister. You have to chase after me now."
Jiwoo looked down at his hands for a second before stretching one of them to Seojoon.
"Hi, I'm Han Jiwoo, a junior in culinary arts. I'm not much of a talker and I can be very annoying when it comes to hygiene. I currently live with my co-worker who I'm not sleeping with."
Seojoon quickly grabbed his hand positively grinning.
"Hi, I'm Kang Seojoon, a senior in performing arts, but I've appeared in a few secondary roles. I'm dramatic and I cry while eating risotto because it was the last meal I had with my parents before they disowned me. A bit of a mood killer, I know, but we need to know each other and this seemed like an important thing to share. Any traumas on your side?"
"None I want to talk about now."
"Cool, we will have the time for that."
And they did.