[KING]
"oi! ai'boss!" king yelled out as he flipped his hair back and gave a glare to his friend. "how dumb do you have to be to not understand this?"
king and his four other friends were at the gear statue ground before their first class started. king himself was helping boss do his assignment last minute, and it wasn't helping either of them at all. the engineering student didn't understand how his friend had such a difficult time comprehending how a simple equation works and how to use it.
"don't call me dumb! i'm not dumb!" boss said back to his friend, denying everything that king is claiming.
"okay, sure. you're not dumb, you're stupid. you can't understand this equation? seriously?" king asked, pointing to a problem on the page with the equation that he wrote out for his friend. "you have to stop skipping classes. the teacher explained everything during the lecture and i'm trying to explain it to you in a more simple yet detailed way, but you still don't understand. stop skipping classes!"
"you know that's impossible for me," boss said, making king roll his eyes and let out a sigh.
"you know what? i give up," king said, and left boss alone to do his own assignment. bohn may be someone who causes king to lose his patience, but boss is on a whole other level with causing king stress. king wondered why he still bothers to tutor that guy when he knows that all he's going to get is a headache.
leaving the table and his group of friends, king headed over to the library, where he returned a couple books that he checked out last week and went to look through the shelves for others.
passing by one of the bookshelves, king took a look at several books, but none of them perked his interest. what did catch his attention, however, was a guy on the other side of the shelf leaning against a supporter while looking through a book, having a familiar dreamcatcher tattoo behind his ear. the sharp eyes and broad nose allowed for king to recall his memory and noted the male as ram.
the hazer senior made his way over to the other side of the shelf he was looking through and went to greet the junior. "ai'ning," he started, catching the attention of the other student. after seeing who it was, ram just looked back down towards the book without giving his senior much of a reaction.
"you responded to ai'ning. shows that you heard me on the bus yesterday and remembered what i decided to call you," king said, giving ram a grin that could cause the junior's whole face to light up as a response. but the mixed blooded student kept a stern look on his face and pretended to ignore the senior that was very obviously in front of him and very obviously distracting him.
"you're still not going to talk to me, ai'ning?" king asked after getting no response from the junior. ram just looked up at the senior once again before closing the book in his hands and walking away.
"oi! ai'ning! don't you know it's rude to walk away from your senior?" king asked, making sure he wasn't talking too loud as to not disturb the other students in the library. the king of engineering followed the mixed blooded junior out of the library and down the hallways.
"ai'ning. why won't you talk to me?"
"ai'ning!"
"oi! can you hear me?"
"why won't you talk to me?" king asked for the third time now while still following ram down the hallway. the senior was so persistent in getting ram to talk to him and it made the junior feel happy inside for some unknown reason, maybe because no one has taken up this much interest in someone like him, silent and cold.
the whole purpose for ram to stay quiet is to attract as less attention to himself as possible. he only opens up to people who are close to him, yet he is aware that king doesn't know that yet since he still continues to talk to him even though he doesn't receive a response. the only people who probably know what he sounds like would be his teachers, friends, and bohn, who he had become close with over the past couple weeks. both had the common interest in protecting duen from the terrible and cold world around him, and that was one of the reasons why they became close.
"ai'ning!" king exclaimed once more, trying to get the other's attention but failing miserably as ram didn't give king a response and was most likely ignoring him. the mixed blooded junior had no idea why the senior was so persistent in trying to talk to him. even his code line senior, tee, had given up trying to talk to him after about four days of failing to get a word out of him.
sure, it had only been less than a day since king started talking to ram, but with the way the senior was acting, it seemed as if king would continuously try and talk to ram, and the junior could have a feeling that the senior would be the first person to try so hard for so long. ram wasn't complaining, however. he would love to have the handsome and smart senior follow him around and try to get him to talk, but ram would never admit that.
"still not going to talk?" king asked, still following ram around the hallways as if he had nothing better to do. of course, king could always go back and tutor boss and his friends and maybe lecture them about the importance of not skipping class, but he would prefer to follow the cold junior around because king found him interesting.
looking at his watch, king suddenly gasped as he saw that there was only three minutes left before his class starts. he began to run off, but not before giving a warning to ram about his whereabouts after class. "ai'ning! i'll catch you after class! you... you should get going, too."
running down the hallway, king winded down the maze of hallways before finally reaching his class and sitting down in his seat just as the teacher walked inside the classroom. king was surprised to see all of his friends present in class today, and it made him happy to know that they were all there.
"aow, ai'king. where were you? even boss came to class earlier than you," bohn whispered to his friend as the teacher started her lecture for the class. king took out his notebook and pencil, preparing himself to take notes in class.
"somewhere," king said, leaving it at that and letting bohn become more curious as to where that 'somewhere' was. king was not one to usually keep secrets from his friends, so if he wasn't telling bohn anything, then it would be nearly impossible to get him to tell anyone else.
bohn couldn't complain, however. king had helped him with so many thing in the past and present that he decided that giving king his privacy for once wouldn't hurt him, and let himself be engaged in the lesson that the teacher was currently teaching.
-
when king told ram that he would catch up with him after class, he was not lying. the senior was able to find the tattooed junior in the court yard doing his assignments from the class that had just ended for him. sure, it wasn't like king knew ram would be there; it was a mere coincidence that the senior was able to find the junior. but that doesn't make his words any less true.
"oi, ai'ning," king said, taking a seat beside the younger. the one who was called knew who it was by the nickname, but still looked up to see the senior seated next to him, looking over his shoulder at his work.
ram looked back at his assignment and continued to solve the problems on the pages, disregarding the fact that the mighty king was sitting next to him, looking at the work he is doing.
"that one is wrong," king said as ram was circling one of the answers for a question on the page he was on. ignoring the senior, ram didn't care, although he should, and moved onto the next question.
"incorrect," king said once again, still looking over ram's shoulder and pointing out that his answer was wrong. ram just glanced at the senior before ignoring his warning once again and continuing on.
"wrong," king said, and this time, ram glared at the senior that kept disturbing him from his work. king looked up from the younger's papers and at the mixed blooded junior, reading his eyes and knowing that ram wanted him to be quiet, but king didn't follow his orders this time.
"let me help you," he said, and slid the paper towards him without asking ram's permission. he took a pen from his pocket and began to write down things on the paper, showing them to the junior and explaining things once in a while.
ram surprising wasn't against the idea of king helping him once more. he knew the answers were wrong, but had a slight doubt about it, until the senior had confirmed that his answers were wrong. he didn't want to admit that he needed help, but king had helped him anyway, and it made the mixed blooded junior feel like the senior could read him.
going through each question, king explained every single thing to the younger engineering student, who was silently following along and picking up every piece of information that the hazer senior was giving him. once in a while, king found himself glancing up at the junior and studying his face, the ways his eyebrows furrowed whenever he didn't understand something, the way his face relaxed when he understood what king was saying, the way he would look at king once in a while to ask telepathically for him to explain it again. the senior could read the facial expressions of the tattooed male, and even ram found it fascinating that someone could read him as easily as his younger brother, just by a mere glance.
this pattern occurred for the next hour: ram using his eyes to ask the senior for help, king understanding what the other was saying and helping him through it. their conversations were occurring through their eyes, where king would answer ram's gaze with a verbal response. although king would prefer it if the junior would talk to him, if this is the best he could get, then this is what he would be okay with. at least king found himself being able to tell what ram wanted by looking at him.
the two finally finished ram's assignment given to him by his teacher, and ram gave a wai to his senior as a thank you for teaching and helping him. king brushed it off and walked with ram back to the building, having a one way conversation with himself and getting a reply from the junior through his eyes.
"ai'ning," king called, and it caused the said male to turn towards the senior and raise a brow at the familiar name being directed towards him. king looked towards him before asking a question. "if i study your personality, then you would only talk to people you are close to, right?"
ram didn't say a word and instead, king was able to see his answer through his eyes, and that confirmed that his thinking was right. the senior continued to say what he wanted to say. "which means, if i want you to talk to me, then i have to be close to you first, right?"
no response once again. the junior looked away from the senior this time when king turned to look at him for a reply. he didn't want king to know that he was right because ram thought that he would get too attached to the talkative senior that follows him around and knows how to read him. he didn't want to get too attached to someone, especially if it was someone he barely knew.
however, despite him looking away from the soft gaze of the engineering senior, king was still able to read him. "no reply means it true," king said, and smiled to himself before continuing to walk along side the junior. ram quickly glanced at the senior before looking away and continuing to walk beside the senior, just as king was walking beside him.
there was nothing he could do. king could read ram just as well as his little brother, or maybe king was just good at guessing people's thoughts. but that didn't seem like the case, since king also seemed to reply to every question ram had in his mind but didn't speak out. it made ram wonder if he was always that obvious, or if everyone else around him was just too dense to read him. nevertheless, ram began to grow attached to the senior walking beside him currently, without him knowing, and he never knew at the moment that king would become someone special in his life.