Chapter 1
"And I'll be putting you in groups now," the professor said, and Minjae could have sworn she looked right at him, which meant he'd probably be stuck with the calmest, most productive, most boring students instead of the pothead in the corner and the girl with the really crazy teal hair.
When last he'd been left to assemble his own group, there'd been tears by the end of class, five college-students bouncing off the walls on a noticeable sugar high, and expo-marker mustaches on half the class.
He fidgeted with his pen, trying to figure out how to effectively entangle it in his hair, and by the time he refocused on class, one pen hanging from his bangs, everyone was getting up into groups and he'd completely missed who his teammates were.
"Um, Simone..."
"I'm sorry, did someone mispronounce 'Dr.
Brennan?'"
"Dr.
Simone, dear, which group am I in?"
She fixed him with a very tired glare, and Minjae grinned back.
He'd earned a perfect score on every assignment but the last group project, and so she was reluctantly patient with him.
"You're with Sora, Hana, and Seojun doing the Achilles myth." He loved the Achilles myth.
Besides being a damn good DreamWorks movie with a killer soundtrack, something about the lion's coat, the heroic deeds, the fucking muscles on all those old sculptures got him a little hot.
But fuck.
He had no idea what to make of any of those teammates, the two highly intelligent but wildly personable girls that always sat in the front, and Choi Seojun, one of those silent, back-of-the-room jock types that Minjae loved to fantasize about when he was drunk enough.
Seojun especially tended to draw his eyes in class, long legs sticking out from under his slouch, lots of straight, white teeth visible even when he wasn't smiling, and over-flowing with the captivating kind of masculinity that was both quiet and gorgeously confident.
Before they could even get all together, Hana had a group chat, meeting place, and schedule, as well as the materials they were responsible for during the first meeting.
Minjae felt the odd lightness of realizing he wouldn't have to carry this group project by himself.
"Got all of that?" She said.
Sora smacked her pen on the table.
"Got it."
Minjae exchanged a wide-eyed look with Seojun, and they both shook their heads at once.
Seojun shook his head a little more to get his bangs evenly across his forehead, and Minjae locked onto that surprisingly adorable tick like a bloodhound with a scent.
"I'll email it," Hana said.
"See you both tomorrow."
Minjae bounced and grinned, already revving up for a good, organized project.
He hadn't been on a team with people who cared in quite a while.
Seojun nodded and murmured, "Thanks," in his steady, quiet voice.
His eyes flickered to Minjae under his bangs, and then awkwardly away.
Fucking cute.
Adorable as he was, Seojun strode down the hallway like he owned it, shoulders squared, knees wide, hands in his pockets, completely at odds with the way he'd ducked his head when they talked, the way he spoke shortly and softly when the teacher called on him in class.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hana and Sora jostling each other and giggling as they watched Seojun walk down the hall.
They gathered in a corner of the library on the floor like permitted obnoxious amounts of noise.
Hana immediately took charge, which put Minjae at a loss, since that's what he usually did.
Her leadership style was all organization, allotting an equal chunk of work to everyone and directing the discussion.
Within five minutes, Minjae could tell that she and Sora had pretty much already finished the project down to the last detail with the exception of actually doing it.
Seojun kept glancing at his phone and sighing quietly, slouching further in his chair, knees spread wide, one Wolverine boot propped up on the central footrests.
He had his hair up in a beanie, and god damn he looked good.
Minjae tried to propose an examination of Achilles through talking about what he'd be like in a modern setting, and Hana shot it down immediately.
"We're looking at the cultural context that the Achilles myth served, what values he represented."
Minjae slumped.
"But everyone does that.
That's easy.
We could get more creative with it and talk about what he'd represent in our society and use that as comparison.
And it would be fun."
"I don't know," Sora said.
"That seems kind of, well, trivial?"
"How is that...
trivial.
That'd be..." his voice got quieter and quieter, back caving as he sank lower in the seat, pulling himself smaller and staring up from under his lashes, "so much fun."
Both girls leapt up out of their seats and dove on him.
"I'm sorry!
It's fine!
That sounds super cute, I mean fun, just stop pouting!" Always worked like a charm.
Seojun mouth twitched upwards a little as he watched from behind his phone, eyes warming.
"I'm so serious though," he whined from under Hana's armpit.
"Hana, I know you've got all this shit planned out and all that, and thank you so much.
You're super responsible.
But can we start over for just a minute?
Seojun hasn't said a single thing since we sat down and it's not really a group project if it's all you.
We need to talk this out."
Now it was Hana pouting, but Minjae would not be swayed.
From behind their cuddle puddle, Seojun looked very caught in the headlights, like he couldn't imagine actually being required to participate.
"First off, how much does everyone know about Achilles?
Is everyone at least familiar with this material?"
Hana and Sora were both Thessian mythology buffs.
Minjae had seen every Achilles movie ever produced, plus he'd paid attention in high school literature.
Seojun didn't even know his Thessian name was Achilles.
"I've seen the movie with The Titan," he said uncertainly.
"I think we talked about it in A-Level Literature last year for like, one day."
"Last year?" Sora asked.
"Are you a freshman?"
Seojun nodded reluctantly, phone tapping against his thigh.
"Do you play sports?" Minjae asked.
"You look like you play sports."
Seojun brows drew together, confused.
It really had nothing to do with the conversation, so Minjae didn't blame him.
Soccer, I think.
Some weightlifting.
Track.
I used to play basketball."
"Jack of all trades?
You work out a lot?"
"Yeah, kind of."
Minjae saw the girls' expressions change from indifference to interest, slight smirks sliding onto their faces, eyes slimming just a little and running up and down Seojun's body.
You're welcome
, he thought.
Seojun didn't notice, too busy staring at Minjae as if hoping for an explanation, or at least more conversation, which didn't happen.
For Seojun's sake, Hana, Sora, and Minjae went into story-telling mode, retelling the myth and how exactly it related back to Thessian culture and the hero archetype, a little bit about motifs.
Seojun nodded blankly, mouth hanging slightly open, two front teeth just visible under his arching top lip, adorable.
Minjae got to work convincing the group to do something ridiculous with the project.
"That's what everyone's going to have in their projects.
People have looked at this myth a million times in relation to the culture.
We could do what we did right now in front of the class and get a pretty good grade.
Easy and Boring.
Last time I did a group project in this class we made it super weird, had the time of our fucking lives, and scored a B+, and that was with a couple people on the team not helping at all.
I think we can do better this time."
"B+?" Hana said, looking alarmed, at the same time that Seojun murmured, "I could really use a B+."
They both looked at him.
"I'm not doing very well.
I'm considering dropping it to keep my GPA safe.
I've gotta pass this class for my literature requirement but I have to get good enough grades to play soccer when the season starts."
Minjae was pretty sure he, Hana, and Sora had the highest grades in the class.
It occurred to him that it might have been Seojun that Dr. Simone was trying to help when she made this group, and not himself.
"Then don't you think we should play it safe?" Hana said.
He shrugged.
"I'll struggle no matter what.
Just let me know what I need to do."
"See, that's why I think we need to make it weird.
If we do this on just book-smart analysis, the three of us are fine, but Seojun gets left in the dust.
If we make it weird, we're all equally challenged—"
"Except you," Sora said.
"Oh I don't know.
It's hard work being this unpredictable."
Seojun cracked the real grin that Minjae had ever seen from him, all pretty white teeth and crinkly eyes, lips curling mischievously up at the corners.
Both ladies did the thing again, the slight smirk and wandering eyes.
Seojun remained oblivious, eyes sinking back to his phone, even as the smile remained on his face.
Minjae snickered.