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You don't even know why you decided to take this particular sociology class, knowing that it has a time gap of two hours before your next class. Oh right, it's because you wanted to be in the same class with your best friend for algebra but this is the only class available that didn't clash with the both of you so now you're stuck contemplating your bad timetable management. To add salt to the wound, everyone here is a stranger, not one is from the same major as you.
“This sucks…” You grumble to yourself, taking out your Nintendo Switch. You'll try to socialize later, for now, it's better to get yourself comfortable in class before the professor comes in. Might as well continue your progress in Animal Crossing.
There's a guy who just came in and sat across from you. You noticed him when you lifted your head for a second but made no effort to greet him, only a friendly nod from each of you. He looks cute; tousled blond hair, blue eyes, stupid science pun shirt (that said I had potential), wearing glasses. By rough guess, he's definitely a science major. You made a mental note to befriend him for this class, if he still sits nearby next time.
The professor came in shortly, a middle aged man with a stern face. And unfortunately, the professor that you tried to avoid landing in his class the most. You turn your attention fully to him instead, abandoning your game and the thought of that cute blond nerd.
By the end of the class, the professor had shared all the planned coursework and, unlucky to everyone, he determined group pairs by random. Should've expected this from him, he was infamous throughout the campus for being an absolute nightmare.
You sigh. No use crying over spilled milk. Might as well try your hardest scoring for his class out of spite.
Students in the room are currently scattering around finding their partners before they leave the class. Few lucky ones are paired with people they know, but most, like you, need to ask around.
“S’cuse me, are you Ryland Grace?” You tap on the brunet’s shoulder.
He turned around and shook his head. “Oop, sorry, wrong person. Grace is that guy over there.” He pointed at the cute blond glasses, thank God this guy knows him.
You thank him quickly and jog up a few stairs to reach Grace. He was also asking around for you, struggling a bit since no one around here is familiar with you.
He saw you approaching him and you in return, gave him a wave. “Hi, Ryland Grace? That's you?”
Grace nodded, fixing his glasses that had slipped down, “Hey. You must be y/n l/n.” He looks relieved to finally meet his partner. “Nice to meet you. Here's to a good partnership for sociology.” You took his offered hand for a handshake.
He took out his phone, “Sorry for the rush, I have another class in 15 minutes. Can we exchange numbers so we can meet up later?”
You shrug, “Hey, sure. No probs.” Taking out your own phone and each of you save contacts quickly. As soon as he got your number, he was rushing for the exit. His next class must be in another building given the urgency.
You don't have another class in the next 2 hours, going back to the dorm is a hassle so it's better to hang around the cafeteria, grab some lunch while watching game speedrun on YouTube. You texted Grace while heading to the cafeteria, just a simple “Hey, it's me. Y/N.” Shortly after, he replied back to your message.
“Hey. If you're free today, can we meet up at the library around 5?” Straight to the point, nice. At least you don't have to worry about getting a freeloader for sociology assignments.
“Sounds good. I'm free after 4.”
You spent the rest of your afternoon around campus with your best friend. Ranting about your dissatisfaction about the latest otome game drama you're playing in-between classes. It's the first day of the semester so there's not much of a pressure about assignments yet.
When the last class of the day is over, you bid farewell to your best friend and head towards the library. You'll see her again at the dorm anyway, you two are roommates.
Grace was already there when you arrived. You checked your phone to see if you're late from taking your sweet time walking, 4.30pm, he's just early.
“Hi, Grace.” You greet him with a sheepish smile. You don't know why you suddenly feel nervous around him. Maybe because you feel intimidated by the stacks of microbiology papers and books on the table. It's the first day and he's already this enthusiastic, God, now you really need to do your best for Sociology.
He looked up from his laptop, “Oh, hi, y/n. Have a seat. You're 29 minutes early.” Grace smiles at you, straightening his back now that you're here. His smile is so adorable, it reminds you of those silly fox videos.
“Could say the same to you. When did you finish class?” You took a seat across from him, settling down your bag on a blank space on the table.
“Three. No worries about it.” He waved it off. “Now then,” Grace spun his laptop to the side, sharing his screen with you, “Let’s try brainstorming some ideas.”
The two of you spent 2 hours giving ideas and critiques of each topic that seemed interesting to do, all the while referring to the assignment guidelines. It's very enjoyable to get a partner that is not only passionate but also able to work well as a team. Whenever you give an idea, he'll give honest feedback that is both positive and negative, and vice versa.
Eventually the assignment discussion slowly turned into Grace rambling about science nerd stuff like, “Did you know that we're only 43% human?” All because one of the ideas you suggested triggers his niche. And that's how you found out Grace is a microbiology major.
“Oh wow, really? I thought we're 70% water?” You lean your head forward against your palm, genuinely interested in this.
Grace snapped his finger, “Well, yes, that's also true. But technically our body is outnumbered with microbes.” He goes on to rant about DNA, microbial genes, the immune system and all of that biology stuff you half-understand. Very enthusiastic too since you gave him the response he likes. He looks more adorable when he's in his element, you can stare at his dorky blue eyes all day—
“Ugh. What am I thinking?” You snapped out of it. Embarrassed to confront the growing fondness towards your partner. You've just met him a few hours ago, no way it's that easy to fall for a handsome nerd like him.
You shake the thoughts off for now.
“You really love biology don't you?” You gave him a soft smile.
Grace's ears reddened a bit, “Uh yeah, I do. Physics, chemistry, astronomy… you name ‘em. My twin said I'm a nerd. Used to bleed his ears off with it.” He rubs his nape with a sheepish smile.
“Oh you have twin? He's studying here?”
“Yeah his name is Colt. He's taking engineering. If you saw someone who looks like me minus the glasses and looks reckless, that's him.”
You laugh. Oh you'll definitely spot him next time. Faces like Grace are hard to come by.
It's been a month since you met Grace. You two have great chemistry together so it only took a short amount of time to grow close. He always shares fun facts with you, and you share game recommendations that you think might fit his niche. Occasionally Colt would shimmy in-between you two, he's a very fun guy, opposite of Ryland. You like him, not as much as you like Ryland though.
To top it off, both of you make a great team. Almost everyday you'll meet up with him to discuss the group project, which makes your group leading the progress in the class (the professor was pleased with that). It's not really necessary to have study and brainstorming sessions so often, one, it's only a prerequisite subject, two, you and Grace are from different majors. At this point, it was obvious you two have frequent study sessions just to be around each other.
Right now is the usual “Studying With Grace” time. He always picked the far left corner in the library, said that he focuses more here. You're studying with him just like any other day, discussing your assignment, doing your own thing, talking about each other's interests and repeat.
But unlike usual, today Grace bravely took another step in this friendship: asking you if he can come over to your dorm so that the discussion can continue.
“Sounds good, yeah come over to my dorm. I can show you my collection while we're at it.” You didn't even hide the excitement you felt at the moment.
“Great. Should we go now or later?” And neither did Grace.
“Now.”
No time wasting here, the two of you immediately packed up and stepped out of the library, heading towards your dormitory. You're excited to fully geek out in front of him. Grace is aware of your hobbies and interests (it's not hard to spot you're a geek when you play on your Switch every chance you get) but he'll not be ready when you're in your element.
It takes a bit of bus riding and a few minutes of walking to reach your dormitory. When you open the door, your best friend is nowhere to be seen. Earlier she told you that she'll be hanging out with her friends and will be back late so it's just you and Grace.
“Make yourself comfortable.” You gesture towards your side of the room. Respecting your best friend's space by not touching her part, an unspoken rule between you two that keeps from pulling each other's hairs out.
Grace admires your space. It's full of figurines, books, physical game copies, plushies, anime merch, posters and all things that screamed GEEK. You keep everything clean and in space, not to mention the room smells like lemon zest. “Oh wow, you collected all of these? That's amazing, y/n!” He walked near your bookshelf where you filled it to the brim with comic books and figurines. “Mind if I see them up close?”
“Go ahead! I like it when people admire my collection! They're my precious babies.” You beamed.
Your collection is from various games, comic books and animes you love, it took you years but it was worth every penny. Gave you a sense of pride when Grace complimented your enthusiasm. As a nerd, he respects the dedication of a geek like you.
He noticed you even bought your game consoles, sitting next to your PC on the study table. Your side of the room looks like a cybercafe already.
“Is that an Xbox?” He pointed at the rectangle box with an “X” logo.
You nodded, quickly going towards your study table and took one of the two controllers. “Yep! Hey, how about we play some games?”
Grace sheepishly fixes his glasses, “Haha… I'm not really good at games.” he's worried he might look like an idiot with a stick in front of you. Especially because he knows how good you are at games (he often sees you playing your Switch).
“Oh c’mon. You don't have to think too hard about it! If you're lacking, I'll cover you!” You already turn on your console while speaking. Switching the monitor’s channel to display your Xbox screen.
Grace can't argue with that. It'll be a fun opportunity to be close to you. So he sat down on the gaming chair you insisted he sits on, had a controller handed to him and waited for you as you opened up a game called Left 4 Dead.
You sat at the edge of your bed, rummaging the storage box under your bed to take out some snacks. “You like Skittles, Grace?”
“Oh, yeah.” He catches the Skittles thrown at him in time, “Thanks!”
Grace brace himself to play multiplayer with you. He used to play this game with Court and Colt, and his brothers had to keep carrying him through the whole gameplay because he somehow keeps attracting those strong zombies. He's praying that he'll not make a fool out of himself this time.
“Promise not to get mad at me if I keep attracting dangers.”
“Grace, relax. How bad could you be?”
Bad. Very bad. Not his fault he keeps bumping into Witch, Tank, Smoker and all those abomination zombies at almost every corner. You swear the game is glitching or Grace is horrible at navigating the map, but you have to keep healing him and cover for him while he makes a run towards the safehouse.
Usually you'd be at least a bit pissed at this level of fuckery but Grace's panicked fox screaming everytime he bumped into danger made your day. You keep laughing that it is almost hard to see from the tears in your eyes. But it's miraculous that you two still manage to finish the campaign with Grace still alive (all thanks to your amazing skills).
He slumped in his chair, rubbing his face in grief. “Oh God… I'm still horrible at this.” He groans.
“That was… something.” You stifle a laugh, “Definitely my top of all time multiplayer.” Your eyes twinkle in mirth.
Grace peek between his fingers, ears red. “At least you're not mad.” He remembered how Colt kept crashing out and Court looked like he just came back from a 36 hour shift. You seem amused at his bad game luck so all is good for Grace.
“No way I can get mad at that! We should play more!”
“Uh, I don't think it's a good idea. Maybe we can try playing Minecraft instead. But I really admire how good you are at this.”
You blush, “Haha… thanks!” Getting compliments from Grace really hits different lately, huh? You can't make eye contact with him too long without feeling flustered.
Since Grace is horrendously bad at Left 4 Dead, you want to change to another game for his comfort. As you browse through your game library, Grace notices you have a space game. That piques his interest enough for him to ask if you can run it.
“Oh Starfield is a singleplayer only. You can try playing it while I coach you in the background!”
“N-no need—!” You already run the game and pass the main controller in his hands, taking the inactive one and placing it back on the table.
For the next 3 hours, Grace is completely absorbed in the game. His vibe is different when it comes to space, you thought that he should've been in astronomy instead of microbiology but hey, who are you to judge his choice.
Grace keeps sharing trivia about stars and the solar system while playing. Sometimes he gets too distracted and gets killed.
He stopped playing when his alarm for “dinner time” rang— Grace had these reminders because he keeps forgetting to eat when he's too absorbed in studying. There's a hint of dejection in his expression when he realizes he might need to end the studying session for the day. It's already 8PM after all. A polite time to leave a friend be, grab dinner and go back to his own dorm that he shared with his twin.
Only, maybe today he wanted to be selfish and stayed in this room that is filled with geek items a little longer until your best friend comes back.
He turned to look at you, looking like a wounded fox, “Y/N, can I stay here a bit longer? If you don't mind, of course. Don't want to make you uncomfortable, we can have dinner together, maybe? It's on me!” He's rambling. Cute.
You smiled warmly, gently took his glasses that seemed to slip down his chin and placed it back on the bridge of his nose, “I like the sound of that, Ryland.”