He was the golden boy—smug, sharp-tongued, and irritatingly good at everything. And you? You weren’t about to let some cocky perfectionist outshine you. From the very first group project in university, sparks flew—and not the romantic kind. He rolled his eyes at your ideas, you challenged his every plan, and somehow, despite the bickering, you always ended up paired together.

“You’re impossible,” you muttered one night, flipping through your notes as Namdol leaned back in his chair, annoyingly relaxed.

“And yet you still can’t seem to get rid of me,” he replied, smirking.

You hated that smirk.

But over time, the arguments shifted. The jabs turned playful. You noticed how he stayed late to help you prepare for your presentation, how he always remembered your coffee order, how his teasing started sounding more like flirting.

One late night, after a particularly intense debate that ended in laughter instead of yelling, you looked at him differently. And maybe he looked at you differently too, because he suddenly went quiet.

“What?” you asked.

He shrugged. “You’re just… not what I thought.”