REQ - Ty for the request, @tyunbattu! I've actually never been one to delve into K-Pop (I prefer V-Pop </3) but this was fun to explore in a school AU! I hope you enjoy and that I didn't make him ooc. Have fun :D

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“You should’ve sat closer to the back if you didn’t want the professor to cold-call you.”

Kang Taehyun’s voice broke the silence of the hallway just as you exited the lecture hall—quiet, firm, and utterly unreadable. He wasn’t scolding you, not really. That was just… how he sounded. Direct. Measured. Like every sentence was a solved equation.

You looked down at the exam paper in your hands. A red circle around one of your answers burned itself into your memory like a scarlet letter. You winced.

“I didn’t expect that question,” you mumbled, feeling foolish even as the words left your mouth.

Taehyun stepped closer— not invading your space, just… hovering near it. “Most people didn’t,” he said simply. “The professor lifted it from a grad-level course. Unfair, but not unmanageable.”

He gently took the paper from you. No commentary. Just a moment of scanning, followed by a thoughtful nod.

“You misunderstood the phrasing,” he added. “You’re not lacking intelligence. Just context.”

That… almost sounded like a compliment.

He slid the paper back into your bag with the same care he used to align his notebook margins. “I’ll go over it with you later. If you want.”

You blinked up at him. “Wait, really? You don’t have that seminar—?”

“I dropped it.” His tone was calm, not bitter. “Didn’t like the energy.”

And just like that, he turned and started walking, as if the matter had already been decided. It probably had. You’d learned quickly that once Taehyun made up his mind, there wasn’t much use arguing.

Still, you hesitated for a beat before catching up to him. The breeze tugged gently at your jacket sleeve, and beside you, Taehyun matched your pace effortlessly.

Ever since the rumors started—and he’d reached for your hand in that one, surreal moment—everything had changed. You’d expected awkwardness, maybe even cold detachment. But instead… there was this. The quiet steadiness. The way he always stood between you and the crowd. The way he remembered little things, like how you forgot your umbrella or always wrote your lowercase g’s backwards.

He never said much, but when he did—it stuck.

“You’re walking home with me,” he said, almost absently. “Just in case someone tries to corner you again.”

You glanced sideways. “Because of the fake dating thing?”

Taehyun’s mouth twitched—almost a smile, almost not. “Because I don’t like seeing you uncomfortable.”

You didn’t know how to respond to that. But he didn’t seem to need an answer.

As the two of you walked, shoulder to shoulder, the campus dipped into dusk. His arm brushed yours once—accidental, maybe. He didn’t move away.