The lecture felt like it lasted for forty-eight hours instead of ninety minutes. While the professor droned on about data structures, the real structure everyone was analyzing was the way my shoulder was pressed firmly against Danoh's. Under the desk, our joined hands were a silent, steady pulse.
The moment the professor closed his textbook, the silence in the room shattered into a hundred different whispers. I stood up, slinging Danoh's bag over my shoulder alongside mine, but we didn't get two steps toward the exit before a familiar, chaotic shadow loomed over us.
"Well, well, well," Jeonghan drawled, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. He had a grin so wide it looked physically painful. "Look at this. The system didn't just crash; it's been completely overwritten."
Danoh's face turned a shade of crimson that rivaled a sunset. "Jeonghan-ah, stop it."
"Stop it?" Jeonghan laughed, pushing off the doorframe to circle us like a shark that had just found a very entertaining piece of driftwood. "How can I stop? Yesterday, this guy was walking out of here like a tragic hero in a noir film. Today, he's carrying a floral-patterned bag and holding hands in public. Hanbin-ah, blink twice if you've been kidnapped by an AI."
I didn't look at him. I just tightened my grip on Danoh's hand. "Move, Jeonghan. We're leaving."
"Oh, 'We're' leaving? Look at the authority!" Jeonghan turned to the few remaining students who were shamelessly eavesdropping. "Did you hear that? The Ice Prince has a 'we' now! I guess my position as 'Best Friend' has been demoted to 'Bug Reporter'?"
He skipped ahead of us, walking backward as we moved down the hallway. "So, when's the wedding? Have you calculated the efficiency of a honeymoon yet? Or are you going to code a virtual reality version so you don't have to leave the lab?"
"Jeonghan-ah, you're making it worse!" Danoh giggled, hiding her face behind her free hand.
"Making it worse? I'm making it legendary!" Jeonghan stopped, suddenly becoming serious, though his eyes were still dancing with mischief. He leaned in close to my ear, though he didn't lower his voice at all. "Seriously though, Hanbin. If you ever make her cry, I'm giving your secret hard drive password to the Dean. And Danoh-ya, if he gets too boring with his 'logic,' just tell him his code has a syntax error. It'll shut him up for hours."
"Jeonghan," I said, my voice dropping to a warning level. "Three. Two..."
"One! I'm gone!" Jeonghan winked at Danoh, patted me on the back with a heavy thud, and sprinted down the hall toward the cafeteria, shouting to everyone he passed, "The Ice Prince is off the market! Clear the lanes!"
The hallway finally went quiet as he disappeared around the corner. I let out a long, heavy exhale.
"He's... he's a lot," Danoh said, looking up at me, her eyes still bright with laughter.
"He's a glitch I can't delete," I muttered, but the tension in my shoulders had vanished. I looked down at her, the chaos of the university fading into the background. "Ignore him. Where do you want to go? Anywhere that isn't here."
"Somewhere quiet," she suggested softly. "Just us."
I nodded. I knew a spot by the old campus observatory—a place where the Wi-Fi was terrible and the students rarely went. It was the perfect place for two people who had spent too much time being watched and not enough time just being together.
As we walked out into the crisp winter sunlight, I realized that for the first time, I didn't mind the noise. As long as I was walking at her pace, the rest of the world could talk all it wanted.