kwangya

03

03 — A BIT OF A HASTY CONFRONTATION

Just Doyoung and his bare necessities.

—

"Any last words from Team B?" Despite the spacious area, Johnny's voice resonates, lousily interferencing by the ends of the miniature courtroom.

Donghyuck was just thinking elsewhere when Soobin elbows him hard, signaling him to talk. He slumps on his seat, smittened by the fact that he has to carry the whole team on his back because everyone just naturally expects him to do so. "I'd like to say that we should hurry up so that I can hurry and get lunch. What about that?"

His morning classes usually consist of a regular debate sessions, with different topics and teams every change of day. The courtroom reeks of baseless arguments, unprepared shittalk, and lame clapbacks that don't even make any sense. All of that just to get extra credits and praising remarks by their mascot professor, Johnny Seo — a Harvard graduate, does lectures in TED, is a law consultant in many well-renowned companies — yeah, you get the catch. Donghyuck was just about to get up his seat when suddenly a female voice calls him from across the room. "Lee Donghyuck, you are mocking me."

"And in what way have I done you like so, Heejin-ssi?" Donghyuck asks faintly, clearly unbothered by her sudden confrontation. Jeon Heejin, 2nd brightest on his year just behind.. himself, of course. Her diligence does the work, unlike Hyuck who usually relies on his top-notch brain and his neverending good luck. One-to-one competition aside, they consider each other as a reliable helping hand, especially to survive a horrid mid-semester.

"The debate earlier, you were holding back." She argues, "You couldn't be more obvious, huh? Was that a way for you to make me owe you a favour? By not contributing anything for your team and unmistakenly gave my team a smooth win?"

"In my defense, my team sucked."

"That never stopped you from acting like a complete, intelligent jackass on court. What made you stop talking?"

"Can't you at least be grateful that I finally have other thoughts distracting me from excelling school? It's too good of an opportunity and I'm here just giving you a free headstart."

A beat, and then she answers. "Well, if you say so. Not that I'm curious of what's bothering you anyway."

Donghyuck raises his eyebrow. "Not even a tiny bit?"

"If it's not about our classes— which I'm sure it isn't because you have sure have no problems academically, you can memorize a whole book by just skimming through it effortlessly which is way beyond the range of your local geniuses — then I simply do not care." Her timidity is quickly replaced with a playful tone. "Can I take a wild guess, though?"

Donghyuck shrugs. "Enlighten me."

"Is it about Shotaro?"

"Who's Shotaro?"

"The exchange student from Japan," Donghyuck follows her gaze that led him to a young blonde stranger who's sitting across the room, his shuffling footsteps kindle a sign of nervousness. "Osaki Shotaro. He has a gaming channel, just like you. Only a quarter of your subscribers, but he's still living comfortably with a steady gain every week."

"Ah yes. I know him." Donghyuck is quite updated by the rising stars of the gaming community, and Shotaro has managed to get his attention, even by just a few uploads. He recalls the latter private messaging him in awkward, translated English, and he unironically finds it cute. Endearing, even.

Thinking of him has certainly became an effective magnet, because all of the sudden Shotaro has already headed towards him, grinning ear-to-ear. "Haechan-senpai, it's an honour to finally meet you in person," he greets in awkward-sounding Korean. "My name is Shotaro, I don't know if you remember me but—"