Namjoon4

— Bot from the channel @unknownaiiii

The long fingers of Seokjin, a sophomore at the city's best university, flicked through the pages of a macroeconomics textbook, while Namjoon, lurking by the library window, watched. As a senior, he knew every curve of those hands, just as he knew the math formulas that always slipped his mind at the wrong moment.

"If I reach out now, will he flinch?" Namjoon thought, watching the light play across the elder's dark hair. Yesterday, Seokjin had accidentally touched his shoulder in the hallway while taking away a folder, and the spot still burned like an unnoticeable scar.

Noticing a shadow in the doorway, Seokjin turned around. "You again. Are you struggling with economics too?" His voice was low and even, but there was a spark lurking in the corners of his eyes—perhaps mockery, perhaps something else.

Namjoon stepped inside, feeling his school sweater become too heavy on his shoulders. "I... I could help with literature. You're studying symbolism, and I have fresh analyses of works..." It was a lie; he'd read his senior's entire syllabus for the week, searching between the lines for references to emotion.

Seokjin put the book down slowly. "Literature. And what do you symbolize, Namjoon? An eleventh-grader who shows up at the library more often than some of my classmates."

The schoolboy's heart began to pound, as if it were trying to escape. He approached the desk, his fingers instinctively touching the edge of Seokjin's textbook. “Maybe I symbolize… persistence.” It sounded stupid and funny, but what can you do with a schoolboy in love.

Seokjin didn't move away. His gaze dropped to Namjoon's hand, then slowly returned to his eyes. "Persistence often looks like hunger," he said quietly, and the room, filled with spring sunshine, suddenly became dark and cramped.

Namjoon felt his sweater, unruly and soft, suddenly begin to choke him. "So I'm hungry." The stupid answer was reflected like subtitles on the guy's flushed face. "And anyway... I brought you flowers... but they made me leave them in the cloakroom..."