You thought it would be interesting to apply for gender-neutral housing when you went in to your junior year in college. It would give you a new experience, so maybe you would have transgender or a gay roommate. They could certainly provide a new perspective for you.

            But things are always duller than you would like them to be. No, when you came in on moving day to your two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment you found two guys already moved in: Hoshi and DK (They refused to tell you their real names) had been there for three weeks and taken up the second bedroom.  The fourth one was yet to come.

And man were they something. The week before school started was so loud, you could barely hear yourself think. The only exception being when they went to karaoke bars at night. They seemed nice, you didn’t really talk much as you were always in your room while they watched animes on the huge flat screen that bought, laughing obnoxiously loud.

            But you assumed it could be worse, so the noise was tolerable. They were still friendly, and the jokes that you heard Hoshi telling through the walls were so horrifically bad they made you chuckle. Man, did that boy love puns. One night you heard the intro of an anime blaring from the living room and you recognized the theme song.

            Now let me make this clear, you don’t necessarily like anime. You don’t have anything purposely against it but you decided that you needed to have at least one proper conversation with the boys before school started in two days

            You walked into the kitchen pretending to get something to eat before turning your head to the TV and feigning surprise.

            “Hey, I’ve seen that” you mumble as you grab something off the self to make it seem nonchalant.

            The boys, you’ve realized, didn’t hear you. Hoshi is interpreting the theme song to DK. Hoshi can speak Japanese... okay that kind of explains his name.

            “Hey!” You have to yell over the blaring theme song. “I know that anime! Hoshi!” You yell.  Hoshi head snaps in your direction at the sound of his name, and DK follows his eyeline to you.

            “Hey,” Hoshi yells over the music with a slight smile that quickly falters into confusion, “What did you say?” DK reached for the remote to pause it, turning to you.

             “I know that anime.” You realize your voice sounds slightly annoyed.  Hoshi beamed.

            “Really? Is it any good? I’ve heard mixed reviews about it.” Hoshi said intrigued.

            “Its okay,” You mumble again, you should’ve though this through. It had been years since you saw that anime. You struggled to recall details. “I really liked the art in it, but I don’t care for the main character that much.”

            “You don’t sound so sure about it.” DK said with creasing eyebrows, noticing your tone.

            “Its been while since I’ve seen it”

            “But you don’t like the main character?” Hoshi nudged DK as he said this, snickering.

            “No, I don’t”

            “What about him don’t you like?” DK, on the other hand, wasn’t smiling. He just looked concerned.

            “Uh..” You were caught of guard by their sudden air. It seemed that there was some joke that you wasn’t in on. You glared at them for a moment before you answered, “He is just so temperamental, all of the other characters seem to walk on glass around him. He’s bossy, controlling, selfish and obviously a workaholic. No fun”

            Hoshi let out a hiss, “Harsh man.”

            “But surely,” DK interrupted before he Hoshi could say anything else, a frantic smile on his face. “He’s more than that. He’s caring in his own way, like how he sacrifices himself for his friends at the end. And he kind of is bossy but that’s not a bad thing.”

            “True,” you move out of the kitchen to sit on the dining table to see them better, “But overall he is a bad friend, He restricts the characters from being themselves just because he doesn’t like it. Seriously if someone was ever like that…. And what?” You say the last part as both of the boys let out overdramatic groans.

            “Not this again, please.” Soonyoung moans, his head in his lap. DK mumbled something you couldn’t understand as he shifted himself with crossed arms.

            “What?” You repeat, louder this time.

            DK’s face seemed to change in a instant. He stood up, a somewhat forced smile on his face. “The third guy coming, your roommate,” DK hesitated, glancing at Hoshi, “is just like that.”

            The seriousness in his voice was almost laughable. “Okay?” you could stop yourself from letting out a giggle. You made eye contact with a piercing gaze from Hoshi that told you that this was no joke. “I mean, I won’t hate him. Besides its an anime character so he’s probably not that crazy”

            “Nope” Hoshi spat with now bored looking expression “The character used to be his nickname in high school.”

            “You went to high school with him?”

            “Now college too.” Hoshi stood up as well, stomping to the kitchen and grabbing some chips.

            “Wait, I’m confused.  So you both applied into the gender neutral housing and got randomly selected together.”

            “No, all three of us went to High School together. Went to the same college too. Best friends. As for the gender neutral housing, well it was the only place on campus that would take us.” DK explained

            “And by ‘take us’ you mean….”
            “We gotten kicked out by three apartment complexes on campus  since freshman year. And we don’t have a car so we can’t exactly-“

            “Wait” I interrupted with an incredulous tone, “How is that possible? You would’ve have to been kicked out-“

            “Halfway through our sophomore year?” DK interrupted me in turn, “Yea”

            “And again at the end of that year. And freshman year too.” Hoshi mumbled a little to casually.

            Okay, what did you get stuck with. They aren’t drug dealers are they? Or worse are they in some kind of gang? “Why and how?” You struggled to be calm. You suddenly began aware of you body and starting shifting,

            “No no no no,” Hoshi spluttered quickly, his eyes wide, waving his hands at you. “Its not like that, I mean, we haven’t done anything”

            You couldn’t quite relax yet, “Then why have you been kicked out three times?”

            “The third guy,” DK paused, passing a cautious look to Hoshi, “it’s him that gets us kicked out.” DK groaned and before you could ask how he continued, “He’s not exactly sociable so he doesn’t get along with most roommates we set him up with. The roommates all so far have complained all through the year and he ends up getting the boot. And since we’ve been friends since birth we go with him.”

            “What could he possibly do to get kicked out?” You’ve never heard of anyone getting kicked out of on-campus housing. Well, there was that one time that the girl three doors down from you was busted for being a dealer. Oh God, please let him not be a dealer.

            “That’s not important,” Hoshi exclaimed waving his hands at you again, this time in an almost aggressive manner. He paused and shot you a cheesy smile that seemed a little strained around the edges, “What matters now is that we don’t get kicked out again, so please just don’t complain to housing.” Hoshi begged.

            They were being so serious it made you uncomfortable. You just wanted to talk about anime with them, why did the conversation have to take such a serious turn. You should’ve never told them you hated that character.  “He hasn’t even come yet, so I’m sure- “

            “But when he does?” DK looks expectantly at me.

            “Well then I guess it depends what he does-” You started, but  an overdramatic groan interrupted you.  You looked up to see DK leaning his head back, pinching the bridge of his in-between his fingers. Hoshi had already escorted himself out of the kitchen.

            “Its no use” Hoshi retorted flinging himself on the couch face first, “We’re just gonna get kicked out again”

            This first attempt at a reasonable conversation with your roommates had already driven itself into a lake. What had it been? Five minutes? Well five minutes and you’ve succeeded in making their mood plummet. It was strange too see them look stressed. You had  seen them in passing glimpses, but even when you did see them they always had a joyful glow around them.  This was not a good start.

            “I-I mean but I won’t get him k-kicked out again.” You stammered, reaching for words in mid air.

            Hoshi lifted his head from the couch only so much that you could make eye contact with him through his mane of blonde hair. “That’s what the guy said last year too” Man, was he dramatic.

            DK just smiled uncomfortably at you, and grabbing the chips that Hoshi left in the kitchen, tossed them to the living room which Hoshi caught with a small ‘thanks’.

            “No really, I promise I won’t complain at all.” You blurted.

            “At all?” Hoshi droned skeptically.

            “Yes,” you reassured them, attempting a smile, “But because I know that you will resolve them fore me, instead of housing.” The threat was barely detectable.

            The boys however, didn’t seem to care. Hoshi jumped up, chips in hand and flying everywhere and yelling something to DK in Japanese that you were sure even DK couldn’t understand.

            DK turned to you, “Yes, Yes, we will take care of it.” He exclaimed. Hoshi pushed pass DK in the kitchen and crushed you in a hug. You squirmed under his grip; hugs were not your thing. Hoshi got the message and instantly let you go, apologizing through his ever permeant smile of excitement.

            Hoshi seemed a bit…much.

            “When is he coming anyway?” you asked, trying to turn the attention to DK.

            “Sometime tonight, he said he would come straight from work tonight and he works second shift, so probably around two or three am.” DK was smiling at you too now. You appreciated their gratitude, but you wished they would just stop looking at you. Or smiling. 

            “Well, I think I’m going to-” You pointed to the hallway that lead to the bedrooms. Their tall frames were blocking your exit.

            “Why don’t you join us in watching that anime?’ DK offered kindly. You considered it for a moment.

            “I will watch one episode, I guess.”

            You lied.  You ending up rewatching the whole first season with them. Frankly, their jokes were not as bad as you originally though when you eavesdropped through the walls. Their humor was a lot more physical, the stupid faces they made seemed to complete the gag. Even though they did have this really weird horse joke that you couldn’t understand, and trying to get them explain it was almost impossible.

            They both seemed fairly strange in the best way possible. Hoshi seemed like those engerzier bunnies on those commercials. He could hardly sit still, even when he was siting down to watch he bounced his legs, tapped him fingers and fidgeting with the chip bag. DK, you were sure used to it, because he didn’t seem phased at all.

            DK seemed like a watered- down version of Hoshi, minus the ADD. He still made the stupid knee slapper jokes and did the weird horse gag that you still couldn’t understand. DK seemed to notice the details more that Hoshi. Hoshi would often drop pieces of chips while eating messily and, unbeknownst to Hoshi, DK would gather them silently and toss them in the trash.

            You didn’t talk much as you watched, they would occasionally makes jokes to which you would laugh at but overall the scene was very chill.

            However, you forgot that at the season finale the main character dies. You remembered it as soon as the antagonist recovered that gun, but by then it was too late. The guys had only watched half of it so it was a shocker to them. And when the bullet sound echoed through the apartment Hoshi let out a terrible scream so loud it made you jump. Hoshi was yelling something in Japanese while DK rubbed in on the shoulder and handed him the chip bag. This seemed like routine procedure. You looked at DK to see that he looked thoroughly upset at well, his eyes locked on the screen. You looked back at Hoshi to-.

            The door slammed open, making you all jump.

            “What’s all the noise, I could hear you from outside.” A voice snapped. A figure stood in the doorway, outlined from the bright light coming in from the hallway. The figure dragged his suitcase through the entrance before turning on the lights. 

Tell me what you guys think! Should i name the person or should i keep them nameless?

Thanks for reading!