“As a TA, you’re here to help us study.”
“……..”
“Could you help me a bit?”
“With what?”
“The assignments and reports.”
“…What?”
“Not a lot — just an hour or two after class?”
Han Jaeheon smiled, bright and easy. Fuming at that unfairly handsome face and then calming down despite himself — a strange experience — Eunseo could only chew his lip. He could barely get words out as it was, and froze whenever anyone confronted him, which was how he’d ended up buried in thankless work. A STEM master’s student was basically a servant to the PhDs and professors; he already had plenty to do…. Help with what?
“I’m sorry, but….”
“If I don’t graduate, I’m in serious trouble, TA.”
“I don’t have time….”
“I’ll work around your schedule.”
Han Jaeheon seemed to be deaf. Sighing, Eunseo kept refusing anyway.
“There’s no way I could do something like that….”
“I heard you’re extremely thorough with grading. That you catch every wrong solution and even rewrite the lab summaries.”
So you heard I got yelled at. Eunseo could only sigh again.
“So when would be a good time for you?”
“…Come on Wednesdays, the assignment deadline, and Fridays, the report deadline. I’ll give you feedback on what you submit then.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
Han Jaeheon’s face, beaming with gratitude, absurdly seemed to glow, and Eunseo had to rub his eyes under his glasses. After a few rubs the hallucination faded — but it was still bright before his eyes.
“So, starting now?”
“…No. Come on the next due date.”
“Yes. Understood.”
As if he’d said all he needed to say, Jaeheon turned neatly and vanished down the hallway without a single look back. Still leaning against the lockers, Eunseo slowly came to his senses and picked the bin back up off the floor.
And quietly muttered to himself the exact sentence Jin Seunghu had told him to try a few days ago. Like shit.
***
Han Jaeheon was famous. Famous enough that Eunseo wondered how he’d never heard of him until now. He’d slipped into the lecture mid-class to take attendance and sat in the very back after spotting the back of his head. Talk about Han Jaeheon drifted casually into his ears. He was the third son of some chaebol family, and until recently he’d been dating the omega goddess of Kangyeong University. Past tense, so I guess they broke up….
Within the chemical engineering department he was hugely popular, close with everyone from professors to juniors, seniors, and classmates. Truly someone with nothing in common with Eunseo…. Eunseo shook his head, trying to stop himself from jumping to conclusions.
The moment class ended, people swarmed around him — betas and omegas alike, clearly fond of him. Eunseo quietly eavesdropped on the lunch invitations, the why aren’t you coming drinking tonight questions, the job-hunting chatter, then carefully stood up. Nobody really knew him, but he still didn’t want to be noticed.
“Ah, TA.”
“……..”
“TA Shin Eunseo?”
At first he thought he wasn’t the one being called. So Eunseo managed — with effort — not to turn his questioning head, but at the three syllables of his own name that followed, he whipped around in surprise.
“Hello.”
Han Jaeheon, who’d somehow come up the stairs, was smiling down at Eunseo. The lecture hall lights threw his…
…facial contours into sharp relief, and for a moment Eunseo’s gaze was stolen — then he casually craned his neck to look at the attendance book Eunseo was holding.
“Ah, I’ve already been marked absent twice.”
“……..”
“Three absences and it’s an F, right?”
“…Yes.”
“You don’t check for tardiness?”
“Tardiness… I come in thirty minutes after class starts to take attendance, so I don’t check for lateness separately.”
At his robot-reading-a-manual answer, Han Jaeheon let out a short haha. Eunseo felt a shiver run down his spine. A sensation he’d never felt in his life — deeply strange. Similar to when Jin Seunghu unintentionally leaked alpha pheromones, but very different at the same time. Despite his kind-looking face, there were moments when his eyes glinted oddly. Like… when he’d demanded tutoring, he’d looked like a snake coiling its prey with its tail. It was the same now. He thought of the rattlesnake swallowing a baby mongoose from the documentary he’d watched over the weekend, and flinched.
“I’ll see you Wednesday, then.”
In a solemn voice, he politely reminded Eunseo of their arrangement, then went back to his friends. Eunseo could hear the students glancing over asking what that was about, and Han Jaeheon’s voice, swallowed among them, barely reached him. And by the time it did, they’d already drifted far away — Eunseo having fled his seat like an escapee.
Strictly professional. Strictly professional. Hurrying up the stairs had left his heart pounding; he patted his chest and slipped into the lab, where Jin Seunghu beckoned him with a finger.
“Shin Eunseo.”
“…Yes?”
“Why is your face so red?”
“My face?”
“Yeah.”
“Where….”
He turned his head and met his own eyes in the small hand mirror on another researcher’s desk. Bright red. From his forehead to the nape of his neck.
“Are the kids bullying you?”
“No, they’re not bullying me….”
“Tell me if anything happens.”
“…Yes.”
He still hadn’t gotten used to how Jin Seunghu treated him like a freshman. Probably because he’s known me since I was twenty, he thought — but he didn’t act this way with anyone else. Eunseo patted his cheeks with the cool back of his hand, forcing down his agitation.
“Why’d you book the seminar room for Wednesday and Friday evenings?”
“Ah, that….”
“What’s the professor doing at that hour?”
“No. A student wants to study after class.”
At that, Jin Seunghu — who hadn’t understood a word — burst out laughing like it was absurd. It took a while for the laughter ringing through the lab to die down. Used to this, Eunseo silently filed the attendance book on the shelf and scanned his to-do list.
“Hey, what is this, high school? After-class study?“
“He can’t keep up with the lectures. Says he can’t solve the problem sets or write the reports….”
“No ulterior motive?”
“Ulterior… motive?”
There did seem to be one. Problem sets could be handled by copying the solutions, and reports just needed a little care. There was no reason to spend hours every week asking Eunseo for help. Besides, he looked popular — getting help from classmates or juniors and seniors would be far easier.
“So, you agreed to help him again?”
“…He doesn’t listen.”
“Good job.”
Stung a little by the sarcasm laced in the praise, Eunseo just nodded. He knew all too well how foolishly he was acting.
“What a model TA, our model TA.”
“……..”
“Don’t cry.”
“Who’s crying….”
Pushing away the hand patting his head, Eunseo sat down at his spot. He had no time to waste on chitchat.
“Lunch?”
“I just have a sandwich….”
“Eat a real meal first.”
“It’s fine.”
“Today’s cafeteria menu is actually decent. Eat, then work.”
“What’s the menu?”
“Ttokosam.”
Eunseo glanced at the sandwich he’d bought that morning, deliberating. Just as he was about to answer that he’d just eat here, a hand shot out from behind, grabbed his inner arm, and effortlessly hauled him to his feet. He wasn’t short, or even that small — but every time he felt the difference in strength, the fear of alphas crept over him.
“I hate eating alone.”
“……..”
“Eunseo-ya.”
“…Ah.”
“You sick somewhere?”
“Ah, no.”
A large palm swept his bangs up and pressed firmly against Eunseo’s forehead. He tried to pull back from the sudden contact, but the desk was behind him — nowhere to dodge. The damp palm enveloped his forehead completely, and Eunseo just squeezed his eyes shut.
“No fever.”
“……..”
“You’re a bit clammy though?”
“…It’s just hot. Let’s go eat.”
Eunseo gently pushed the hand away — politely enough — and walked off first. Jin Seunghu was more persistent than he looked; if Eunseo didn’t brush this off, he’d keep harping on his complexion and the cold sweat. Reading him completely, Seunghu narrowed his eyes like, fine, I’ll let it slide.
***
Eunseo hadn’t really believed Han Jaeheon would actually show up to study. Even as he booked the seminar room, he’d assumed he’d be canceling it all next week; he’d figured that, whatever Jaeheon said, from next time he’d just submit his assignments and reports a little more diligently. But then—
“Hello, TA.”
“…Yes, hello.”
At the polite knock, Eunseo turned to see a tall figure stepping inside. The silhouette looked similar enough that for a moment he thought it was Jin Seunghu — but he wasn’t wearing a lab coat, his hair was a shade darker than Seunghu’s… and he looked far more kind. The ends of his slightly downturned eyes caught.
“…You actually came.”
“Huh? Yeah. Looks like you didn’t expect me.”
Eunseo blurted out what he should’ve kept inside and flustered, but Han Jaeheon let it slide casually and pulled out the chair next to Eunseo’s.
“Here?”
“Ah, no… I booked the seminar room.”
“Yeah. Speak comfortably. I’m your junior, you know.”
Speak comfortably? Eunseo swallowed the retort along with his spit and didn’t even answer the teasing suggestion. He used honorifics even with freshmen; the senior he spoke most casually with was Jin Seunghu. Shaking his head vaguely, Eunseo gathered the general chemistry textbook and practice sheets and sat down.
“Want me to carry that for you?”
“…No.”
It’s just one book and a few sheets of paper. At Eunseo’s dumbfounded answer, Han Jaeheon awkwardly withdrew his hand. Were manners just ingrained in him? He didn’t seem like the third son of a chaebol family would be. Eunseo strained to read some ulterior motive in him, but no other reason presented itself.
“This week’s assignment is the Bohr model, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, and the Schrödinger equation.”
“Ah, yes.”
“And orbital shapes….”
They entered the seminar room, set down the book, and sat facing each other. Skimming this week’s lecture content over the problem sheet, Eunseo slowly trailed off at the sight of the empty desk in front of Han Jaeheon.
“Do you have your book…”
“Ah, the book.”
“……..”
“Sorry. I don’t have it.”
He doesn’t have the book. Well, a general chemistry textbook pushing a thousand pages was never going to fit in that light-looking crossbody bag. Eunseo was about to call out the hopeless attitude — asking for tutoring without even bringing the book — when he stopped and stood up instead.
“Then I’ll get my book….”
“Can’t we just share?”
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