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Chapter 04

Mina's jaw dropped as Mingyu entered the auditorium. He was bowing, apologizing profusely to the old professor. His face smeared with blood stains, bruises, and dirt.

"I think you shouldn't be here, you should go to the infirmary instead?" The kind professor looked at him cautiously.

Mingyu was smiling or grimacing to be exact. "I'm totally fine, it was just a small accident, sir. I don't want to skip my first class, please, let me in."

The old professor heaved a sigh, then let him in. His wrinkly eyes kept following Mingyu.

Her eyes were trailing him as he walked to the back of the class, where his friends were sitting. He was walking steadily, but his wounded left hand kept rubbing off his chest. She scanned his shirt that was splattered with soil and dirt.

What happened, Mingyu?

She winced as he came closer, his lips were busted so bad. And he did a sloppy job at cleaning it up, or he didn't bother to clean it up at all.

The class was buzzing with low whispers. Everybody was wondering what the hell happened to Kim Mingyu.

Jackson would have clapped if Eunwoo didn't stop him. The look of admiration was really apparent in Jackson's eyes. Mingyu sat quietly next to Eunwoo, ignoring the curious look from his classmates.

Eunwoo handed him a handkerchief, without a word. Mina kept glancing at him, because she knew, it must have had something to do with that darn incident.

***

Mina pressed the lift button impatiently, as she kept looking at her cellphone, hoping that he would call her back.

When she arrived at the designated floor, her footsteps were erratic as she was scanning the number at the doors she passed. All the doors in this five-story building were uniformly grey colored againts the broken white colored walls. Her eyes caught the door number's that she had been looking for. She looked around before knocking the door. No response.

She knocked the door once more, but still no response.

She knocked it harder this time, almost banging. After several attempts, she jolted in surprise, as the door swung open abruptly.

She blinked hard as she saw Mingyu in front of her only wearing a towel on his lower region. It looked like he ran straight to the door without much thinking. His hair was still damp, obviously, he just took a shower, as the scent of mint was flying in the air.

"Mi-na, what... are you doin here?" His eyes were almost bugging out of their sockets. He swiftly hid himself behind the door, and only showed his head.

"I'll tell you later, you can get dressed first," she tried to sound as calm as possible, while she looked at the top of his head.

He was smiling bashfully. "Wait a minute."

After he closed the door, she pulled off her shirt's collar and cleared her dry throat.

Around five minutes later, he showed up, now fully clothed in a pair of black tracksuit, and his damp hair was combed neatly. He closed the door behind him and grinned.

She smiled to ease away the awkward atmosphere.

"Sorry for disturbing you and coming without invitation," she said softly.

"Oh, not at all, I'm glad you're here! I didn't expect it, of course, but I'm really not bothered at all," he started to talk fast unknowingly.

She looked up at his face intently, observing the wounds on his face. There were bluish marks all over his face.