I found Cinderella for you, she had said, and Shouldn’t you be thanking me?

Bull.

Her roommate had a lot of explaining to do, because if Jessica knew anything about Hyoyeon, it was that the girl never did or said anything without knowing the full implications. She was never unintentionally hammered at parties, she never got blackout drunk. Hyoyeon had called the exact punishment she would receive for sneaking a guinea pig into their 8th grade class, and she had fully expected the time she nearly failed a course in freshman year because she had sassed the TA one (or fifteen) too many times. The girl knew her limits and her boundaries. In other words, Hyoyeon must have known she was digging her own grave the moment she decided to approach Tiffany at the dance workshop.

Jessica pushed up the sleeves of her sweater as she stalked up the staircase of her building, skipping every other step on her way up. She dug around her pockets for her keys for a moment, sighing loudly when her earphones accompanied the tangled lanyard in her hands. Ignoring them, she stabbed her key into the door with more force than was necessary, twisting it with enough energy to threaten breaking. And when Jessica pushed on the door, nothing happened.

“Hyoyeon,” she started, leaving the key in the door. She took a step back, brushing her hair out of her face. She faintly rubbed her shoulder. The door had resisted more than expected. "I know you’re in there.”

Silence met her words. Jessica pushed harder, to no avail. She narrowed her eyes, folding her arms against her chest. Hyoyeon was treading a very dangerous line.

“Are you kidding me right now? Open this door.” Jessica heard some rustling, but nothing else. She knocked twice. She sighed, hitting the door with an open palm.

Nothing.

“Kim Hyoyeon, I swear to god if you do not let me into my own room, I will take these keys and show you wh—“

Just like clockwork, the door swung open.

Hyoyeon offered a smile. “Hey, fancy seeing you here.”

Jessica scowled and physically pushed past the girl, throwing herself onto her own bed, shoes and all. She stared at Hyoyeon expectantly.

Hyoyeon stared back, that smile still weakly tiptoeing around her lips. She raised a brow. “Sooo,” she said, dragging out the vowel with disgustingly feigned innocence. “How was your day?”

“You tell me,” Jessica snapped, her voice consisting of approximately 5% amusement and 95% acridity. Perhaps it was 2% and 98%. It was hard to judge.

Her roommate put her hands in the air—as if Hyoyeon had ever surrendered to anything in her entire life. “Honest question, sheesh.”

Jessica rolled her eyes, crossing her legs to complete her frustrated facade. “You know, the usual. Macro econ is as boring as ever, the cafe ran out of bagels again. Oh, and do you know who I happened to run into, by any chance? Just, you know, by total and absolute coincidence.”

The blonde cleared , trying to swallow her smugness, Jessica’s sure. " about the bagels," she said. Blinking slowly, she shrugged. "And, who, pray tell, has got your all in a knot?"

“Tao." Jessica rolled her eyes again. “No, , you know who. And don't say that, you sound like a middle aged woman.”

Someone in the hallway was stomping up the stairs with vigor and shouting into their phone with some unrestrained fury. Jessica didn't recognize the voice, but she felt it was a relatable situation.

Hyoyeon shrugged with a guiltless pseudo-innocence, fighting hard to keep a smile off her face. “I really don’t know, Sica. Who?" The smile dimmed by a tiny margin. "And what's wrong with middle aged women?"

In all honesty, Jessica had not thought she would get this far in the argument. She did not know how to counter her roommate’s insufferable smugness, and she was running out of words, fast.

“Don't say that, either. That one's just... weird", she finished lamely.

Why was she so angry? Tiffany was just another classmate, ultimately. Jessica didn’t have to interact with her. She could choose another seat that was not directly across from the girl that annotated her syllabus in bright pink pen and still had the kind of optimism left in life to still take time to dot the “i” in her name with a heart and the organization to highlight important dates on handouts. It wasn't as if it was a bad breakup she was dealing with--they knew each other for a day and that was that. It wasn't a life-or-death necessity to stare at the girl whose fingers twirled pens expertly and whose hair—

Jessica’s eyes snapped up to her roommate’s with venom.

Hyoyeon met the glance with unbridled self-satisfaction.

The frustrated huff she gave did nothing to faze Hyoyeon. “Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Shut up.”

Hyoyeon had won and they both knew it.

“Your life is so boring.”

Jessica gave an affectionate smile. “This is what college does to you, Soojung. You lose all motivation and your hopes and dreams go to die.” She reconsidered for a moment. “It’s really fun, though.”

Krystal snorted on her end of the line. “That was super convincing. Aren’t you supposed to be out partying? Hooking up with a bunch of frat guys or something? Isn’t that how college works?”

It was Jessica’s turn to laugh at her sister. “Stop watching Pitch Perfect. Get back to me on that when you find where all my free time and desire to exist went.”

“Speaking of lacking a desire to exist, how’s that econ paper coming along? Weren’t you complaining about that last week?”

“You had to remind me…” she muttered, throwing a withering glance at her open laptop. She actively avoided looking at the "Word count: 15" corner of the screen (she didn't want to admit her name, the course number and the date were seven of them). “It’s… a work in progress, Soojung. Don’t you have homework to be doing? Or friends to hang out with?”

“I think the phrase you're looking for is called 'avoiding the question,' but I should let you work on that super fun paper." The teasing lilt of Krystal's voice was so familiar and altogether home and she couldn't help but feel like a first-week homesick freshman again. Jessica heard the doorbell ring through the line, the twinge of nostalgia and missing home dampened with the dread of working on her paper.

Her thumb hovered over the End Call button. "Bye, I love you! Go to bed early!"

Jessica could almost imagine Krystal's eye roll (they ran in the family). "Go work on your paper, don't flunk out now." There was a familiar pause as--Krystal shouted something about get out of my house, Amber, and V oh my god why do I know you guys and then the usual--"Love you, too. ,"--that one was for her.

And as always, Jessica waited for Krystal to hang up first, smile still on her face. Talking to her sister never failed to bring up her mood. Just once a week, every week. They didn't have a given time or day, but it was an unspoken rule. Once a week, every week. No exceptions.

She threw her legs over one armrest of her chair and her head over the other, sighing and locking her phone. High school had been better, she reflected. It was not better in the sense of interest-wise, or socially, by any means. But she missed sleeping through classes with little to no retribution, and earning results like "Salutatorian Jessica Jung" and "perfect GPA." Now, if she slept through class, she was seeing things like "Text from Im Yoona: what do you mean you need my notes again? stop sleeping !" and "suffering." It wasn't that she was failing classes, persay, she just... missed getting to sleep. A lot.

Throwing her phone onto her bed unceremoniously, she prepared to collapse into bed at a very reasonable bedtime, like 7:00 pm.

Her laptop gave a tiny ding, notifying her of the umpteenth email of the day. She idly clicked it, one hand ready to close the laptop after reading the irrelevant subject line. Instead, her interest level skyrocketed.

To: PHIL 3304-ALL

Subject: Group Project Change

Jessica was not an optimist, but her Jessica skipped directly to the final paragraph of the email--that was where the best and worst part of emails tended to be, anyway--and narrowed her eyes rapidly.

Groups have been pre-assigned. You will receive these assignments in discussion tomorrow. Again, these groups are final.

Jessica didn't deserve this.

Window seats were her favorite, she reflected briefly. She could stare pensively into the distance, watching other students do that awkward half-run-half-powerwalk as they were late to class, or alternatively, praying to God that Tiffany Hwang wouldn’t show up to recitation. Not like praying had been doing her any good, lately. To be fair, there was a good chance she would luck out and be paired with one of her friends in this class. It wasn't as if there was even a good chance she would have to work a semester with Tiffany. She had taken statistics classes, she knew her odds.

By friends, she meant vague acquaintances, but she thought she knew at least the first letter of their names. She figured that should count for something.

And yet, despite her prayers, and almost as early as Jessica had been--in strode the infamous Hwang. Jessica could feel years of her life shaving away in that girl's presence. Look at me, her mind said, and I hope she doesn't remember me, and if she's my partner I'll get to spend more time with her, and I will fail this course if I have to spend time with her. Her mind was a traitor to itself and her pen cap threatened to break between her grip.

Two seats to her right, Tiffany's notebook and pen suddenly occupied the desk space. Far enough to be out of a direct line of sight, and yet close enough to make Jessica feel uncomfortable.

Get over yourself, J. You're not in middle school anymore.

She took a breath, let the air escape with her distractions, and watched the clock painstakingly pass the hour.

The small slip of paper felt like the greatest personal betrayal Jessica had ever experienced (that was a lie). She had trusted this professor (that was also a lie). A whole semester--16 entire weeks--forced into the company of the one girl she wanted to avoid.

GROUP 9:

Tiffany Hwang

ID: syh4

Jessica Jung

ID: jsy20

Presentation date: TBA

Jessica dug her fingernail into the paper, pressing a deep crescent into its surface.

Is it too late to drop this class?