It is a few minutes past seven o'clock in the morning, and students are starting to pile up at SDV University. A Triumph Bonneville, with its rider and a passenger, stops at the campus's designated parking space for motorcycles.
The shorter person at the back hops off first as soon as the driver turns off the bike's engine. Taking off their helmet, long and curly ash brown hair tumbles past a young woman's shoulder. She places the helmet on the pillion seat, careful to not let it fall, so she can remove her jacket and gloves. And then, she thrusts the garments in her large backpack full of art materials, before looking at her companion who just finished locking his own helmet to the motorcycle's handlebar.
"Did you dye it again, Eujae?"
Eujae turns to her, eyes behind amber contact lenses looking puzzled for a moment. When he realizes what he was asked, he instinctively ruffles his hair. "Oh yeah. It's golden bronze. Does it look weird?"
The woman shakes her head as she answers, smiling, "Nah, I think it's fine. You can pull off any hair color or style anyway. Oh, and it's nice that it matches your contacts today."
Eujae smirks while pulling off his black gloves. "There's a reason why you're my favorite cousin, Lia."
"I'm your only cousin though." Lia giggles. She watches as her cousin picks up her helmet from the motorcycle's back seat to shove his gloves in it. Unlocking the top box, Eujae grabs a sling bag inside and replaces it with the helmet. He also takes off his biker jacket and secures it with the helmet and gloves.
Together, the two turn to leave the parking space.
"But seriously, Eujae," Lia starts a conversation again while they are walking on campus's pedestrian corridor, "I kinda miss your bad boy look era when we were still in high school. It was just amusing to see the gap between your appearance and personality that time. Too bad, you stopped with that style when we entered college."
Shrugging, Eujae answers, "That's because a lot of professors told me to tone it down with the styling since it doesn't fit my good student image." He runs a hand on his medium-length hair before continuing, "One particular professor even said I am not some kind of pop idol and told me to stop trying hard to look like one. She's a fan and I think she just couldn't accept the fact that I am a lot more handsome than her idols."
Lia laughs and playfully punches her cousin's shoulder. "Stop joking. But yeah, I remember you still had your black long hair with silver highlights during our first few weeks here. Oh, do you remember our first day in college? You were so pretty with your messy man bun that day. I can't forget because it was one of my favorite looks of yours."
As his cousin relives their first day in college, Eujae frowns. For a completely different reason, even he cannot forget that day. How could he when it was one of his worst days? It was the day a certain immature asshole spilled paints all over his clothes and broke his tablet. He could have easily forgiven it because he knew it was an accident but not only did the aforementioned asshole refuse to apologize, he even had the nerve to blame Eujae and accuse him of blocking the hallway.
"Good morning, L.A."
Speak of the devil.
Eujae doesn't need to look at the owner of the voice to know who it is. There is only one person who is childish enough to greet other people and leave Eujae out of it as if he is invisible.
The cousins turn around and are greeted by the sight of the Torres twins and Tem's boyfriend, Cloud, behind them.
Lia, Tem and Cloud greet each other in unison.
Eujae nods and returns the couple's greetings before he glances at Poll, expecting him to be pretending that he doesn't see him at all. What meets him instead is the male twin looking daggers at him. Oh, if looks could kill.
Undaunted, Eujae raises a brow.
"What? If you're expecting a greeting from me, jerk," It is Poll who speaks first, "Then you can wait until Hell freezes over."
"Oh? I thought you were the one who was waiting for something, what with the intense stare you're giving me," Eujae taunts. He smirks contemptuously when he notices Poll flush in annoyance. There is no way he is going to pass up a chance to provoke the shit out of this asshole as it seems like he is asking for it. He is not one to usually engage in petty arguments—people know how level-headed he is—but it seems like when it comes to Apollo, he often forgets how to keep his cool. As childish as the guy is, he really has ways of testing Eujae's patience. "Also, stop with the smart-ass remarks. You're just an ass, Apollo, but not smart."
Their audience momentarily forgotten, the two keep glaring at each other. Eujae feels a tug on his sleeve and remembers his cousin beside him. He feels bad when he notices Lia looking worried. Given her amicable nature, it is understandable that she doesn't like seeing people fight. Even more, if the people involved are both close to her which is the case with Eujae and Poll since the latter is also her friend from the same art class.
Eujae finds it ironic that even though he and Poll have hated each other from the first time they met, they both ended up being friends with people who are close to the other person. Now they belong to the same posse and that makes it hard for them to avoid each other as badly as they want to.
"Jerk, are you trying to say that I am an idiot?"
In the end, being friends with the same people is not enough to clear away the animosity between them.
"I didn't say that you're an idiot." Eujae keeps his sneer. He feels Lia's tug on his sleeve become harder at the same time as he vaguely hears Tem let out an exasperated sigh. Earlier, he was wondering if Tem and Cloud would do something to stop them, but now he understands that their friends know that it is pointless to get in between them. They will keep arguing anyway, no matter what the people around them say. "But you clearly are an idiot," he adds emphatically.
He doesn't get the chance to see Poll's reaction because, all of a sudden, someone hooks their arm around his and pulls him away from the scene.
"What the hell, Risa?" exclaims Tem who, Eujae now realizes, is also being taken away by the person who grabbed him.
"Alright, alright, I'm taking my classmates with me for now," the person announces rather cheerfully as she continues dragging Eujae and Tem. Eujae recognizes her bob cut so he doesn't bother to struggle and just lets her pull him. Risa is his and Tem's classmate and one of their friends. "See you later, L.A., Poll, Cloud," she calls back to the people they left behind. "First period is Sir Sky's class so we need to hurry up because I don't want to miss his handsome face even for a second."
As they turn the corner, Risa lets go of her friends. Eujae falls a few steps behind the two women as they all keep walking towards the lecture hall building. Pretending to observe his surroundings, he absentmindedly listens to his friends talking.
"Stop simping over our professor, Risa. Sir Sky has a lover," Tem chides.
"Jeez, you don't need to be so overprotective of your brother-in-law, Tem," Risa retorts. "I am just admiring him. And I know he has a lover. Sir JP is a hotshot too."
"Wait, how do you know that Sir JP is Sir Sky's lover?"
That piques Eujae's interest. He looks at the two women in front of him and blurts out, "What? Sir JP is Sir Sky's lover?"
There must be something in his tone that makes both women stop in their tracks and look back at Eujae at the same time. Without saying any word, they narrow their eyes at him. They appear like they are ready to beat their friend anytime should he say anything stupid.
Women sure are scary when they are like this.
"Okay. Stop looking at me like that, guys," Eujae tells them, "I know what you're thinking and, no, I'm not prejudiced. I just honestly didn't know that Sir Sky and Sir JP are together so it genuinely surprised me."
"Of course." Risa beams. "We know you're not that kind of an idiot, Eujae."
Tem sighs. "Can we stop talking about other people's lives, seriously?"
Risa turns back to Tem as they start walking again. "What do you want to talk about then?" she asks innocently. "Eujae's love life? He doesn't have one because every woman he dated ended up dumping him when they realized he doesn't live up to their playboy image of him."
"Hey!" Eujae calls out, displeased.
Risa looks over her shoulder and flashes him a teasing grin. "What? It's the truth. All your past girlfriends thought they were living a Wattpad life and you were the male bad boy lead that they needed to fix. And then they all got disappointed when they learned that you are actually a perfect gentleman. No, Sir, they don't want that because then, they won't be able to fulfill their heroine role."
Eujae scowls but can't think of any rebuttal. He can't even deny it. It's true that all the few girls he dated seemed to have this ridiculous assumption that he is some kind of an edgy boy that they needed to take care of. Maybe because of his usual fashion, especially during the 'bad boy era' that Lia was talking about, that those people misinterpreted him. In reality, he is a person who prefers to take care of his loved ones rather than be the one to be taken care of by them. When his ex-girlfriends learned about this and the fact that they could not control him, they just called it quits as if it was a game they could easily exit when things didn't go their way.
But what difference could he have done? He couldn't change into someone they wanted him to be. And it makes Eujae wonder sometimes if he was at fault too. Did he not try enough?
"Seriously though, Eujae," Tem joins in, "You're a good guy. Kind, smart and good-looking. The only terrible thing about you is the choice of people you date," she remarks which earns a snicker from Risa.
It is Eujae's turn to sigh and ask for a change of topic. "Okay, can we stop talking about my past relationships too? Why don't we talk about your love life, Risa? Oh, you also don't have one, do you?"
Risa sticks her tongue out at her guy friend. "I have boyfriends named Dokja and Cale."
"Pretty sure they are 2D people," Tem rebuts, "You're just as obsessed as Poll is with 2D fictional characters, Risa."
"I have real-life boyfriends too."
"Oh? And those boyfriends probably don't know that they are your boyfriends," Eujae quips.
"Damn right, you are," Risa answers rather proudly, "Because if they knew that they are my boyfriends, they will surely break up with me."
Laughing, Tem and Risa start to playfully shove each other. Eujae shakes his head in amusement as he witnesses his friends' antics.
They keep joking around on the way that Eujae almost didn't realize when they arrive at the lecture room. As soon as he sits down, he pulls out his phone from his sling bag and checks it. He has a new message in a game chat.
From: Ten2
ever see someone and the 1st thing that came to mind is you wanna punch their face?
Eujae chuckles upon reading the text. This guy and his rants never fail to amuse him. He must have encountered that person he dislikes and that made him send such a message.
It is cute how Ten-Ten, as he calls him, always sounds like a little boy who reports to his big brother whenever someone is picking on him. Although they've learned from the beginning that Ten-Ten is a few weeks older, Eujae still can't help but treat his online friend like his little brother. He has always wanted to have a younger sibling whom he could pamper, but he is an only child. That is probably the reason why he likes to spoil those people he cares about. Even Lia pointed out before that Eujae has tendencies to act like a protective older brother to her despite the fact that she is older than him.
And then, there's Ten-Ten. Like Lia, he is one of those people Eujae loves to indulge.
Eujae rests his chin on his left hand as he taps his phone with the other hand and replies to his friend, 'Just let it go. They're not worth it.'
Preoccupied with his phone, he doesn't notice Risa standing behind him.
"What are you grinning at?" The young woman peeks over his shoulder. Fortunately, he is quick to turn off his phone so the only thing his friend can see is the black screen.
"Alright, jeez, I won't ask already. I bet you were just watching porn anyway," backing away, Risa says, her voice loud enough for all the people in the room to hear.
Their classmates look at him, laughing. One particular brave soul shouts across the room, "Is it good stuff, Eujae? Send me the link!"
He only shakes his head, silently chuckling, but he doesn't spare that particular classmate any glance.
Beside him, Eujae hears Tem mutter, "Boys."
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