"I finally get it! Songmin, you are a genius," Jisung exclaimed, closing his notebook and shoving it into his backpack. Songmin leaned back against the wall and smiled, tired from helping Jisung with the problem but happy that he was finally able to understand what a derivative was and what the limit definition meant.
Although she hadn't been counting, Songmin was sure that it had taken her fifteen minutes minimum to help Jisung grasp the concept that derivative was instantaneous rate of change of a function and even longer to actually work their way through the homework problem itself. About half of the time was spent with Jisung listening to Songmin talk, a quarter spent with Songmin listening to Jisung's questions, and the last quarter spent with the two sitting in silence while Jisung tried to process what she was trying to teach him.
Regardless of the struggle, Songmin felt a sort of pride towards the boy. Even though he claimed he didn't like math and it took longer than she'd expected for him to understand what she considered to be basic concepts, he had been actively engaged in trying to finish his work and that was, in her eyes, what was most important. No matter his math skill level, she respected his work ethic.
Now that she was done with helping Jisung, Songmin allowed herself to turn her attention to the other two who were in the room, Renjun and Donghyuck.
Despite the glaringly evident teasing and playful relationship between them, Donghyuck and Renjun were a good combination when it came to getting stuff done. Songmin watched as Donghyuck explained to Renjun which poses he wanted pictures of, executing moves she'd seen in dances which she only now really realized were moves specifically posed as photo opportunities.
As Donghyuck explained and demonstrated the poses, Renjun moved around him to capture him at different angles, occasionally giving the little suggestion or request for Donghyuck to adjust himself so as to make for a better picture.
Songmin felt her gaze glued to Renjun as he crouched a few feet away from Donghyuck, instructing him to turn a little to the left. She watched as his eyes noticed details she probably never would've caught if she'd been the one behind the camera, small things such as how Donghyuck's arm framed his face or how a slight tilt of the chin would allow for better lighting of the face.
"Songmin, when's your birthday?"
Jisung's question pulled Songmin's attention away from Renjun. She looked at the boy, who sat a few feet away from her, also watching the others. "I was born in December of 2001."
Jisung's eyebrows raised at her response. "I thought you were younger than me, but I guess not. Does that mean I need to call you noona now?"
Songmin hastily objected, shaking her hands in a 'no' gesture. "No, no, no. Please don't call me noona, it feels odd for me to be referred to by honorifics. Just Songmin is okay."
"Okay. You're like Chenle. He said the same thing to me." He paused for a second, his tone indicating he would continue talking but was just taking a moment to collect his thoughts.
"Why do you text with such proper grammar? Earlier I was scared you were mad at me."
"Mad at you? Why would I be mad at you?" Songmin asked, genuinely perplexed. She texted everyone the exact same way, with good grammar just like she was taught growing up. No one had ever told her that her way of texting was bad. Of course she was aware her typing tendencies were different from that of most people's, but she'd never been told it was a problem before.
Jisung seemed a little unsure how to answer the question, his hand going back up to tug at his earlobe. "I mean, I know you weren't actually mad at me, but when the way you texted lacked emotion, if you know what I mean."
"Nope," she said, pointedly not knowing what he meant. Taking out his phone, he opened up the text thread between him and Songmin and held it up for her to see.
"Here's an example. If I hadn't put this smiley face here and used totally correct grammar-" he pointed at his text from earlier, "-then it would've sounded a lot more formal."
Songmin nodded, though she was still a bit confused. "But it wouldn't sound angry."
Jisung tapped his chin, trying to think of a way to explain it to her in a way she could understand. "Up here, when you texted 'hello', capitalized and with a period, it sounded very... hm, what's the word... curt, yes. And curt usually means angry."
Mouth forming into an 'ah' shape when she finally understood what he meant, Songmin took another good look at the text conversation displayed on Jisung's phone, reading over her own texts specifically. Oh, I get what he means now. Maybe I should try adding a smiley face next time.
A few minutes passed and Renjun and Donghyuck wrapped up their little project. "Finally done!" Donghyuck called out, walking over to grab his backpack from beside Jisung's things. Jisung followed suit, zipping his bag shut, hooking his arms through the straps, and clambering to a standing position. "We're all going to get coffee, no exceptions. You too, Songmin."
Songmin, who had gotten up a couple seconds earlier and was already standing with half of her body out of the room's door ready to leave unnoticed, froze and pouted. Donghyuck strutted over to her and slung his arm around her shoulder, gesturing for Renjun and Jisung to follow. "Let's go, I found a small coffee shop nearby that has really good coffee."
Ten minutes later, during which Songmin had made three attempts at quietly escaping under the guise that she had a zoom meeting with a teacher (Donghyuck immediately saw right through her and wouldn't let her leave, making her walk in between him and Jisung so he could keep an eye on her), Songmin sat begrudgingly beside Renjun in a booth in the coffee shop, trying to stay upset that she'd been dragged along against her will but unable to be in a bad mood when the tea she'd ordered was possibly the best drink she'd ever had in her life.
Donghyuck and Jisung had left to go use the restroom, leaving Songmin and Renjun alone at the table. "I don't mean to pry into your business," Renjun began, trying to casually start a conversation, resting his forearms on the table and wrapping his hands around his mug of coffee, "but why did you try to leave while we were walking here?"
Songmin swirled the tea in her cup, watching the few leaves at the bottom move with the liquid and feeling the steam on her nose. "I know this may sound cold, but I regard hangouts like these as things that should only occur occasionally and prefer to spend most of my time working on work from my classes or studying. Otherwise, they tend to be a waste of time."
"It sounds like being a STEM major is a huge commitment," Renjun commented, looking down at the girl who sat two feet away from him. She was leaned back into the cushioning of the booth's bench, sipping her hot tea carefully. For the first time, he noticed her dark eyebags and how instead of blinking, she closed her eyes for seconds at a time as if she were trying to get sleep in tiny increments.
She shrugged, setting her tea down on the table. "Yeah, but I like the busy work. I didn't choose to major in math because I thought it was going to be easy, I chose it because I enjoy what I study."
In full honesty, even Songmin hadn't expected so much university work to pile up so quickly. Going into the school year after a bit of relaxation following high school graduation, she had been hoping that maybe the first two months would be light work, but the coursework was so much tougher than what she'd challenged herself with in high school and she quickly realized what used to be 'light work' required double the effort now.
"But that doesn't really matter, I'm managing. You're an art major, I'm assuming? What's it like?"
"It's fun but definitely a lot more stressful than I thought it would be." Renjun took a drink from his coffee, taking a moment to enjoy the flavor. Donghyuck was right, this was some of the best coffee he'd had in the city.
"I'm really happy to be able to create things every day, but it does become stressful when you have multiple pieces due around the same time. Each one takes a significant amount of time and sometimes that means sacrificing time with my friends."
Songmin nodded, wrapping her hands around her teacup. She more than related to sacrificing social relationships for school work having done it for a good part of her life, which made it all the more special that Eunhye had stayed in her life for so long.
Donghyuck and Jisung returned from the restroom not much later and entered into a conversation with Renjun. Songmin sat quietly, mostly listening except for the occasional question or comment.
"How did the photos turn out?" Jisung asked, scooping whipped cream off of the top of his latte with his straw and licking it off.
"They turned out pretty good, at least we have some ideas now of what to do when we take the official website photos," Donghyuck answered, using a napkin to wipe some whipped cream off from under Jisung's nose. "Renjun, you should show them some of the photos."
Picking up the camera from beside him on the bench, Renjun set it on the table at an angle so that both Songmin and Jisung could see its small display screen. As he flipped through the photos, Songmin was impressed with how well he had captured each pose. He used various angles to draw the eye of the viewer to certain features as well as to elongate certain shapes, accentuating Donghyuck's graceful limbs. Not to mention Donghyuck had picked some really good poses that looked amazing on camera.
Songmin's eyes flickered to Renjun's hand holding the camera. No paint, but there was dried clay under his short fingernails.
"You've gotten really good at photography, hyung," Jisung said while he admired the pictures. Donghyuck gasped, dramatically bringing a hand to his chest, covering his heart. "No compliments for my beautiful posing?!"
Renjun scoffed and gave him an offended look, though it was obvious he was fighting the urge to chuckle. "Yah, you already know you did well! Let me enjoy my moment."
Donghyuck was about to retort but he saw Songmin look up at Renjun, prepared to say something, and he sat back in his seat, smiling, letting her have the floor.
"You do photography often?"
"It's just a sort of hobby," Renjun replied, withdrawing the camera and turning it off before slinging its strap over his neck. "I like documenting the beautiful things in life, like flowers and sunsets."
"Oh my god, why is Renjun hyung being so cringey," Jisung muttered to Donghyuck, though his voice was not as quiet as he thought and the other two ended up hearing his words. Songmin put a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter, turning away from Renjun, and Renjun shot the boy a glare. "I'm not being cringey, I'm telling the truth."
When Songmin regained her composure, she turned back to facing the table. "Do you ever do anything with the photos?"
"I have a sketchbook that I like to paste some of them in, but usually I just store them online and flip through them when I get bored or need inspiration." His coffee mug empty and seeing as everyone else had also finished their drinks, Renjun stood up. "I could show some to you if you like."
The other three followed suit, standing and following as Renjun walked towards the entrance of the store, Songmin walking beside him, Jisung and Donghyuck walking behind the two of them.
"I'd love to see them," she said, watching the ground pass by and matching her footsteps with Renjun's while still trying to keep up with the pace at which he walked, needing to skip every few steps to not fall behind. The caffeine must be making him walk faster.
Renjun saw her downturned gaze and, realizing what she was doing, slowed down. "I'll have to get all the files organized, then I can show you sometime."
He slowed down with me. That's really sweet. A gentle smile played on her lips. "Sounds great."