The Red of the Rose | Taeyong

13 | Attention

It took Miah another five minutes to reach the classroom after following the directions Doyoung had texted her. Add to this the time she spent with Taeyong, she was late, very late.

Tentatively, she creaked the door open to find Doyoung sitting at the front of the empty classroom, reading something. She had a whole speech prepared for when Doyoung would ask why she is late. But when Doyoung heard her enter, he lifted his head and said, 'Finally found the room?' His tone had no hint of sarcasm. If anything, it seemed that he was actually concerned about her getting lost.

Hearing this, Miah's mood instantly lightened and she almost hopped to the front of the classroom. 'I would have come here sooner, if it wasn't for Taeyong.'

'Taeyong?' Doyoung's warm smile fell from his face. 'Did he keep you from coming here?'

'Not exactly.' Miah sat down next to him. 'Uh, or maybe he did. I don't know.'

Doyoung noticed the way Miah was talking about Taeyong. He had seen this look on other girls before. The look of them being absolutely charmed by Taeyong. Doyoung hated it, even more on Miah.

'I think it's best if you stay away from him,' Doyoung blurted out.

'Stay away from him?' Miah was confused. She was pretty sure that the two boys were friends and this caution coming from him was not what she had expected.

Despite Doyoung seeing Taeyong's plan taking its shape, he had decided to stay out of this business. In a moment of irritation, he had blurted this out so he immediately corrected himself. 'I mean to say... when you are coming for our sessions, be on time. Don't let him distract you on the way here.'

Miah was not satisfied with the answer but she was in no position to probe further so she settled with nodding faintly.

'Let's start with today's lesson?' Doyoung opened the book in front of Miah.

After spending two hours dissecting the notes from a previous semester, both Miah and Doyoung were exhausted. It was time for their first class anyway, so they decided to end today's session here.

'Want to go together?' Doyoung asked, packing up his things for Professor Moon's class.

'Sure,' Miah replied.

Miah heard the lecture hall way before seeing it. The cacophony of students erupting could be heard from a whole corridor away. The two of them entered through the top entrance on the right, seeing in front of them almost all the students already in class.

Impulsively, Miah's eyes darted straight to where Taeyong usually sits, in the middle of the classroom. Sure enough, there he was. Johnny, Yuta and Jaehyun were on one side and next to them, Miah recognized, was Serin. Beside her, in the far most corner, on the aisle seat was Taeyong.

As Miah descended the steps of the lecture hall, she couldn't help but notice the closeness between Serin and Taeyong. Serin seemed to be upset over something, and Taeyong was trying to make it up to her.

When she passed by him, Miah heard him say, 'You know how much I love your cute smile.'

This Taeyong seemed so different from the one she knew, almost as if they were two different people. Only two hours ago, he was walking around the corridors of this building with her, charming his way into keeping her from going to her tutoring session. Telling her a story about two lovers, of the bell statue, and of the legend surrounding it. And now, he didn't even acknowledge her presence as she passed by him in the aisle. That beautiful morning seemed like someone else's memory.

Maybe he was bored, she thought and shrugged away the thoughts.

Descending the last of the steps, she reached the front row and only after placing her bag on the desk, she noticed that Doyoung had followed her to her seat. Miah looked up at him in question. Doyoung titled his head as though it was obvious that they were going to sit together.