lilacs & lotuses | seungkwan x oc x key |

三

"Wake up you lazy bastard, it's already 8:00"

Kibum woke up with the worst hangover ever. He had a splitting headache, felt like throwing up and the morning sunlight was unbearable to look at.

"I made hangover stew, get over here," Minho sighed, picking up his spoon from the table.

"How much did I drink last night?" The blonde man asked, holding his head which felt like it weighed a ton.

"How am I meant to know? Oh right, make sure to thank that friend of yours who took you home last night. They stopped you from looking like an even bigger idiot than you were." The darker haired man answered.

"Friend of mine? Who?" Kibum replied, confused. He had barely managed to get himself off the bed and was getting changed into the first piece of clothing he had saw.

"You drank with them last night? Black short hair, glasses, grey hoodie?" Minho finished off his stew in record timing, bringing the bowl down from his mouth, letting out a sigh of satisfaction.

"Not a clue."

Kibum seriously did not remember a thing. The clues that his roommate had hinted at him were of no help at all. He really couldn't not recall a single memory from the night before.

"I mean, I knew I had a low tolerance for alcohol, but I never expected it to be this low" he thought, sliding into a (hopefully) clean, white t-shirt and then a light grey hoodie and blue jeans.

It was then that he noticed a green coloured sachet sitting on his nightstand. Taking a closer look he noticed it was for hangover relief.

"Hey, thanks for this by the way," Kibum ripped open the packet and drank the extract without a second thought.

"Oh that's not from me, the person from last night gave it to me so I could give it to you in the morning. Speaking of which, do you really not remember them? Even if you drank more than usual, shouldn't you still be able to at least remember some things?"

Attempting to regain his memories by hitting his head a few times wasn't working, and Kibum was left feeling guilty that somebody he couldn't recall had went through a lot for him.

"Anyways I'm off, I've got a stack of papers waiting for me when I get to my office" Minho grimaced, picking up his bag and leaving through the front door.

Leaving his bowl in the sink, Kibum strapped on a small black body bag and headed off to the campus, almost forgetting his laptop. A lot of things were weighing on his mind. Although a lot had happened yesterday, it wasn't quite enough to get Chaewon out of his thoughts. He still needed time.

Kibum was a teaching assistant for Creative Arts at Hankook University. It had been about a year since he had started and although it was initially very difficult, teaching made him feel like he was accomplishing something. His office was a small enclosed section of a larger room, right by the window which was opposite the Music department. It wasn't uncommon to hear loud blasts of the sound of trumpets or the clashing of cymbals. Everybody had just mutually agreed to stay quiet and deal with it, though every now and then somebody would file a complaint for them to get soundproof rooms.

The blonde man carried a large stack of test papers, making his way down the corridor whilst greeting a few familiar students. His desk was a mess, the pen pot had been knocked over, the bin was overflowing with scrunched up pieces of paper, and there were scattered photos of his student's artwork lying around. This was going to be one hell of a day.

Luckily, Kibum had no classes to teach that day and was left stuck at his desk either giving verbal feedback to specific students or scribbling down short comments for areas of improvement on sticky notes. He had only realised that it was his lunch break when he noticed one of the other teaching assistants come into the room holding a salad.