Magic Shop

Mr. Lee is about to say something but Jin cuts him off  “ Look at your arrogant self! Back at it again like everyone’s dying to be paired with you! I have no interest either! I am doing this assignment on my own and that is what I was discussing with him before you got here!”

“Enough is enough! I have been nice and tried to reason with the both of you, but if you haven’t understood let me make this clear one last time, you Ms. Y/n and you Mr. Seokjin, if you want to pass this class, will work together or face the consequences”.

 Mr.Lee bursts out clearly annoyed with the both of you, you had managed to get the calmest professor you had ever seen agitated.

 “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a class to take and you both have a class to attend if you remember”, to which you both apologize and head to class.

 You decide to meet in the cafe after class to discuss on how to make this work now because you weren’t given a choice.

Seeing you both enter with Mr.Lee, the whole class could guess what would have happened. You go take a seat next to Sooyoung and start complaining about how Jin wanted a change of partner when he is the one who has been annoying and rude. 

To which Sooyoung responds,” It would anyway work in your favour Y/n, why is it affecting you so much?” , which is very unlike Sooyoung because she usually listens without questioning much.

 This puts you in deep thought and you barely listen to the class.You look at Jin, who is already looking in your direction which makes you very embarrassed. You think about how your discussion would go in the cafeteria and if you both could even reach an agreement. You’re still lost in your thoughts when the bell rings.

 Crap! It’s time to interact with the devil himself. You take a deep breath and head straight to the cafeteria to get done with it. 

Once you enter the cafeteria you realise you are going to need major amounts of tolerance to deal with Seokjin’s annoying ass, so to avoid any forthcoming headaches you go to grab a cup of coffee first. Once you do you look around and find him already waiting at an empty table. He’s looking at his phone and hence doesn’t notice you and only looks up when you plop yourself opposite to him. 

“Aah! The princess is here” he says in a mocking tone “Shall we begin?” 

“Don’t call me that!” you retort

“Why? Would you prefer ‘Your Highness instead?” he says continuing to mock you.

It hasn’t even been five minutes and you’re already done with him. But you’re surely not going to let him have the last laugh. “Infact yes, I would much rather prefer that” you say “Besides let’s just get down to business I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to” you say before he can cut you off. 

“I don’t want to be stuck with you either okay” he continues “And yes let’s just begin with it. So do you have any suggestions on whose work we should study and elaborate on?” he asks

“I did have a few ideas” you say hesitatingly. Since you don’t know if you and Seokjin will be able to work together you think of playing it safe by choosing the most common choice, so that later on even if he doesn’t do his part you can manage on your own along with the abundance of information available online. If you choose someone who is not so popular you may not have enough resources to fall back on. 

“Well..go on..” he says

“How about Shakespeare?” you say. “His work has been studied extensively, we will have lots of information available on his style and method, it will be easier to analyse and bring out his essence.” 

 As soon as you say those words his face sours “You are so predictable! Really? Shakespeare? For God’s sakes Y/n we’re not in eighth grade” he says “Professor Lee would laugh at our juvenility” 

Extremely humiliated by his statement, makes you want to just punch his ridiculously handsome face. He always thinks so highly of himself, he thinks he is the only one with valid opinions and you just want to throw him off his high horse, but you realise what he said is kind of true, choosing Shakespeare is kind of juvenile and fighting with him is going to lead you nowhere, so you take a big sip from your coffee, fight the urge to tell him off and calmly ask him “Well if Shakespeare is so juvenile whom do you suggest we take?” 

For a moment he is utterly astonished that you did not yell back or say something insulting and instead spoke to him in a calm voice. He eyes you suspiciously for a few seconds before saying, “I think we could go with Sophocles, he is one of the prominent ancient Greek playwrights, his tragedies are in a way relevant even today and his masterful use of irony could be really useful when we perform our satire” he says thoughtfully

This time it’s your turn to scoff “And you say I’m predictable. Seokjin he is one of the most prominent playwrights, there is so much already done on him, what can we bring new to the table that hasn’t already been done?” you say “Won’t Professor Lee find this Juvenile too?” you say with slight smirk on your face. 

Seokjin seems to mull over your words and when he opens his mouth to speak he is surprisingly nice. Huh. So maybe he can be mature too sometimes. 

“Actually you know what Y/n you are right! We shouldn’t play it safe, we should take someone different, so that we can truly learn something from this experience” he smiles and it’s the first time he has directed a genuine smile towards you and you can’t say you aren’t surprised but also really glad that maybe he isn’t so bad after all. 

“Well how about Elizabeth Carey? She was the first English woman playwright and there isn’t much study on her compared to the other two, so this way we can add in more of our own analysis and interpretation.” you say “Plus it would be lovely to focus on how during that era a woman came to write a play” you add on. 

Seokjin has a thoughtful look on his face, “Hmm, this does mean more library work, but it also means it will be all the more rewarding!” he says excitedly “I think this is a good start” 

You can’t help but grin at him,“I can’t believe we agreed on something.” 

“Me neither” he chuckles, “You’re not as arrogant as you seem” he says and by the look on his face you can tell he says this with no malice at all. 

This makes you laugh, a genuine laugh and not a mocking one. “But you are exactly like you seem” you say 

“..And that is..?” 

“A big jerk” you say jokingly 

He knows you’re joking and that this time you don’t actually mean it but he still pouts and you can’t help but notice his plush pink lips. Were they always this pink and plump? Wait! Why are you suddenly thinking about his lips? 

You pull yourself out of your reverie and look at Seokjin, he’s still pouting at you. 

“I’m only joking” you say “But this doesn’t mean I hate you any less Seokjin” you give him a big smile. 

He gives you a smile that could easily rival your own “Same here Y/n, same here”   

“Let’s discuss what we find after class tomorrow y/n, seems like we’ll be able to do this assignment after all,” says Seokjin as he packs his stuff and gets ready to leave.

“Seems like Mr. Know it All is not so difficult to work with,” you say as you leave.

You go home surprisingly not upset about your day like you usually are. You are in a positive mood so this would help you focus on your research and you want to put in all the effort you can because Seokjin is the kind of person who is very thorough with his work and you don’t want to seem arrogant or lazy by doing the bare minimum so you decide to dive right into your assignment when your phone starts beeping continuously.

“Y/n, How did it go with Seokjin today?”

“Did you both get into an argument again?”

“Do you think you would be able to work together?”

“Is he really a jerk?” 

You decide to reply to her before she explodes your phone with hundred more texts.

 “Woah Sooyong, Calm down! It was not as bad as I thought it would be. We decided to put aside our differences and work together. He doesn’t really seem that big of a jerk”.

“Lol Y/n, I knew you would warm up to him! No one can resist that charming face of his!”

“No Sooyoung, you have got it all wrong, We are just trying to be civil,” you wonder what is up with her because she usually goes along with what you say. She has never called Seokjin charming or handsome before.

“Y/n, are you so oblivious to everything? The whole class keeps talking about the sizzling sexual tension between you both  and how wonderful a couple you two would make, the extremely good looking, sassy couple”, to which she adds, “Many of them think you both are already dating.” 

You wonder what is up with Sooyoung! Where the hell is all this coming from?!

“Ugh Sooyoung, he is still very arrogant! I don’t care what others think! We both aren’t dating and he is the last guy I would date!” you are very annoyed and you thought you wouldn’t get riled up at the mention of his name anymore, you were very wrong. How could there be such a huge misunderstanding!

“Sooyoung, let’s not talk about Seokjin like this anymore!” you decide to keep this topic off bay and focus on your assignment for now. 

 And before she can reply you send in another text, “We’ll meet tomorrow, I have got work to do, bye” you say ending the conversation.

 The conversation you had with Sooyoung makes you realize that you have to do everything you can to make yourself disappear from everyone’s watch so you go to class on time and take a seat at the very back. Seokjin enters class just a few seconds before Mr, Lee could and takes a seat right next to you and you can already hear everyone whisper to each other.

“Hi Ms. Y/L/N, so let’s discuss what we found, I found…” 

Before he spits out another word you cut him off rudely, “Sshhh Seokjin!” you say looking around the class and seeing everyone’s eyes on the both of you,“Not now, Mr. Lee is about to start! For a Know It All it may not be important to listen to his lecture, but for me it is”. 

Seokjin notices you looking at the people around you , he is completely taken back because he thought you both were doing fine, now you seem too embarrassed to even speak to him in front of anyone. He would normally argue with you but this time he decides not to make a scene because he knows Mr. Lee will not take any of it and will probably fail you both if he sees you arguing. And then Seokjin will have to answer to his father, which he knows for sure will not go well. 

Seokjin just storms out after class is over. You run calling after him,”Seokjin, Seokjin...”

“We had to meet in the cafeteria to discuss our assignment…” your voice trails off as Seokjin keeps taking faster strides. 

You finally catch up to him and lash out again, “Really??? What is it this time? What annoyed you? Just the way I look?”

“Oh so your arrogant self won’t even consider that they did something wrong?! You were the one  who ignored me when I was just trying to discuss our assignment! Now you are acting as if  I have a problem? So discussing an assignment also hurts your pride now Y/n? Or just speaking to me in front of others does? Maybe I should take notes on how to approach the Lil Ms. Arrogant Princess because she rather give importance to her pride than to the work at hand?!” Seokjin spits everything out in one breath like he rapped a verse.

“I am trying my best to work with you, you are only making it more difficult for the both of us”.

“Sorry Seokjin for the way I reacted in the morning but for a second stop being so judgemental. Mr. Lee already has an eye on us and talking when he’s about to start his lecture isn’t gonna help us. That’s why I cut you off”. 

It’s best to keep what’s actually on your mind to yourself, Seokjin will probably think it is stupid and dismiss the matter.

“Now shall we get to work, Mr. Seokjin?,” you say as calmly as you can because you don’t want to raise his temper.

As you both are discussing your findings over coffee, you see Hoseok walk towards your table, “Hey guys, I saw you two arguing earlier, were y’all having a lovers’ spat?” he asks cheekily. 

 Seokjin’s ears turn red out of embarrassment and he looks at you, you have an unreadable expression on your face.

“N-nooo, hobi...w-we were just discussing our assignment, actually, we are done! Y/n l-let’s continue tom-tomorrow, shall we?”

He barely manages to speak which is very unlike the confident Seokjin you have always known. He sprints out of the room with Hobi and you are left with a dumbfounded expression on your face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You are no longer left wondering if what Sooyoung said was true! It was actually the only thing everyone has been talking about ever since your first encounter with Jin. So much for not wanting to be noticed anymore! 

Moreover it leaves you thinking why did Jung Hosoek from your class, who also happens to be Jin’s only friend question what were y’all doing?! What exactly has this self centred jerk told his friend about you?! 

The more you think you both are making progress the more problems appear! All you can think of is the doom that awaits you tomorrow. How are you ever going to get yourself out of this mess!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Yahhhh! Hosoek-ahhh what were you thinking? Oh wait, you weren’t!! What was the need to do that in front of y/n?” Seokjin bursts out angrily.

 “Jin you know I was just joking!” Hoseok lets out a laugh.

“You know this is not funny! What will Y/n think?”

“There she is again! Occupying your thoughts!” Hoseok can’t help but laugh at your miserable situation.

“That’s it! No more of this nonsense! She is just my partner assigned by Mr. Lee. We are working together! That’s all there is to know!”

“Well I guess you are just saying this to yourself ”.