For now, Minjun carried Hansol home on his back, knowing full well that tomorrow's training would be much more demanding.
The entire scene was witnessed by their classmate Cho Joyun, one of Professor Bae Minjun's students. He could not understand what kind of relationship Hansol and the professor had.
The next morning, Hansol was served a bowl of salad for breakfast, a meal he could not stand. He tried to excuse himself by saying that he usually skipped breakfast, but Professor Bae gently warned him not to make that a habit. Fasting was unhealthy, he said, especially if it led to overeating later. Regular, balanced meals were much better for him.
Although Hansol felt embarrassed, he knew Minjun was only saying it because he cared. The professor wanted them to live long, healthy lives together and create countless happy memories. Hearing that made Hansol determined to eat healthily every day, if it meant spending a lifetime with Minjun.
That morning, the professor had an early lecture to teach. Before he left, Hansol gave his adorable boyfriend a sweet goodbye kiss, knowing they would meet again later.
Since the salad had not been nearly enough to satisfy him, Hansol went out with his friend Hunwoo and immediately devoured several hamburgers. His friend could not believe the professor was feeding him nothing but healthy meals. Although Hansol did not really mind it, Hunwoo insisted he should not put up with everything just because the professor was his ideal type. As always, Hansol ignored the advice.
Soon, two classmates joined them for lunch. One of them was amazed by how hungry Hansol seemed. More importantly, they complained about having Professor Bae's class, while Hunwoo was lucky enough not to be taking any of his courses.
One student admitted that although Professor Bae was an excellent instructor, his strict personality made him seem impossible to fall in love with. Hansol quickly corrected him, explaining that he had personally seen the professor carrying someone on his back in an incredibly affectionate way. The two of them had looked like newlyweds. His classmate joked that he pitied the professor's future girlfriend, saying she would need endless patience to deal with someone so strict.
Meanwhile, Joyun quietly listened to the conversation. After seeing Hansol and Professor Bae together that morning, he had already begun to suspect there was something more between them.
Later, Hansol repeated everything his classmates had said to the professor, hoping it would convince him to assign less homework so that the students would stop complaining about him. However, Professor Bae refused. His duty was to teach architecture properly. Since the students had paid tuition to learn, he would never allow them to graduate without the knowledge they needed. That was the path he had chosen as an educator, and he refused to compromise.
Seeing the professor so passionate about his work only made Hansol admire him even more. Before leaving, he wanted to steal another passionate kiss, but they were interrupted when one of the professor's colleagues walked into the office.
The poor professor nearly lost his soul when Hansol mischievously hid beneath his desk to tease him while his colleague was standing right there. The colleague only wanted Professor Bae to email him the presentation from a construction conference he had attended and would be taking part in again this year. Trying desperately not to get caught, the professor hurried his colleague out of the office.
Hansol had already finished what he came to do and had been about to leave. But once he started teasing the professor, he had no intention of stopping. No matter where they were, the professor eventually gave in to his persistent boyfriend's advances.
Unfortunately, Joyun — who had already seen them together in the park — passed by the office and heard the suspicious sounds coming from inside, making his suspicions stronger still.
Hansol even suggested skipping class to spend more time with the professor, but Minjun refused to indulge such childish behaviour. After everything had finally settled down, several important documents on Professor Bae's desk had been ruined. Fortunately, he only needed to print new copies.
A few hours later, class ended. The students complained non-stop about the mountain of assignments and the exams coming up, frustrated by how much work they had from every subject. Hansol, however, encouraged everyone. He insisted they would never learn as much under any other professor, so they should stay positive.
Just then, blood began trickling from his nose after pushing himself so hard.
Standing beside him, Joyun asked Hansol to convince Professor Bae to reduce the workload. Since the two of them seemed unusually close, he figured Hansol could simply ask him directly.
Clearly nervous, Hansol avoided answering. The other students quickly pointed out that Professor Bae was not especially close to any student, and Joyun pretended he had simply misunderstood the situation. Still, deep down, Joyun knew his suspicions were not wrong.
The group moved to the study room. After spending three exhausting hours working through assignments, everyone was worn out except Joyun, whose concentration was remarkable.
Hansol's nose started bleeding again. His classmates assumed it was because he had recently transferred into the architecture programme and was studying much harder than everyone else. Some even joked that he was trying to steal Joyun's spot as the top student.
Between the endless homework, the projects and the exams, it was a miracle Hansol was still standing. Still, he wanted to prove himself to Professor Bae, so he pushed himself even harder, determined to give it everything he had.
When Joyun approached him afterwards, Hansol instinctively tried to avoid him. Without hesitation, Joyun asked him directly what kind of relationship he had with Professor Bae. He had seen them running together that morning. He had watched the professor carry Hansol on his back. And he was convinced he had also heard them being intimate inside the professor's office. He then accused the professor of helping Hansol transfer into the architecture department.
Cornered, Hansol knew that any careless answer could damage the professor's reputation. So he claimed that transferring had been entirely his own decision, because he was the one in love with Professor Bae. According to him, the professor only saw him as another student and had never encouraged his feelings.
Joyun was not convinced. He declared that if Professor Bae truly had no feelings for Hansol, then Hansol should not receive outstanding grades on the next exam. Since he was new to the major, excellent scores would only prove that the professor was showing him favouritism.
In other words, Hansol had no choice but to earn average grades.
All of Hansol's hard work suddenly became meaningless, because Cho Joyun simply refused to believe that Hansol could outperform him fairly. Deep down, he suspected Hansol's good grades came from his relationship with the professor.