Sungjong's state of relaxation wasn't particularly long-lived as his room door soon swung open. In came a brown-haired boy with his parents, his little brother, and possibly enough noise to drown out the next death metal concert. 

"Sungjong!" Woohyun grinned, waving to his friend, ignoring the nagging coming from all around him. 

"And make sure you wear your shower sandals all of the time. There are so many nasty foot diseases here on Earth already, we really don't need to deal with the ones from other planets," the mother was chirping away as everyone else in the family helped the man move his stuff inside.

"Okay, okay, mom, oh my goodness stop worrying so much," the man tossed his white messenger bag onto the bed. His father dropped off a small trash can and a caddy of shower items, which must not have fit into the suitcase. He adjusted his wide-framed glasses after climbing up and joining Sungjong on the bed.

"Sorry we just kind of barged in here," he said cheerily. 

Without wasting a second, Woohyun returned to trying to divert her mother's attention from explaining in detail how to clean each part of the room to Sungjong. 

"Oh, my goodness! Look at the time!" Woohyun's mom bustled about a bit more, "I hope you boys have a wonderful year! Oh, I guess we should give you boys some peace. Let me just say my good byes to my dear Woohyun.

Every motion and gesture she made screamed "soccer mom." It almost pained him. 

Her notion of "goodbyes" involved a complete recap of everything she had already stated just a moment ago. After Sungjong heard the shower shoe rant for the fourth time, the family finally made their way out of the dorm room. 

Once the marching band found its way down the hall, Woohyun collapsed on the bed with a sigh of relief. With the way his parents had reacted, it was almost like the two of them weren't going off to a military academy.

Well, it wasn't the stereotypical military academy. The atmosphere and schedule were just like a regular college. Students were allowed to choose their classes, extracurriculars, bedtimes, and whatnot; they just had to wake up in the mornings twice a week for and dedicate every other weekend to military training. 

"Hey! I caught a glance of the students next door and there are some pretty hunky guys over there - they looked like upperclassmen - wanna head over with me once the ship leaves and check them out?" Woohyun asked, poking his head out from the lower bunk and looking up at Sungjong with a smirk. 

Sungjong laughed, "Are attractive guys the only thing you ever think about?"

Woohyun made a very offended noise, "How could you say such a thing? I am a straight-A student, Mr. Dropout." 

Rolling his eyes, Sungjong threw a pillow at his friend. "Please. I actually worked hard to make sure I'd get into college, so I'm not a complete failure as a dropout." 

Indeed, Sungjong had spent his year off adventuring to the other side of the universe, on the tail of a legendary treasure. While the treasure was mostly lost, he had managed to return with a small amount of gold and the recommendation of the ship's captain, also the dean of the Interstellar Academy, to attend school there.

Before long, the commotion outside died down. Soon, an voice came from outside of the hallway, announcing that the ship would be leaving soon and that passengers should stay in their rooms for safety purposes. Woohyun rushed over to the window excitedly, watching as the scenery outside slowly began to move. The ship made a sudden lurch, and Sungjong had to grab onto his headboard to avoid hitting the wall. 

It took some effort for the ship to get out of the pull of Earth's gravity, but it found a steady pace soon enough. An announcement came on to alert the passengers of the successful exit of the gravity field and that they could now move around the boat freely. 

"Now, let's go check out some hunks," Woohyun said with a toothy grin. Sungjong rolled his eyes, leaning over the edge of his bed slightly. 

"You can't just barge into other people's rooms, you know. How are we going to get to know them?"

Woohyun shrugged, "I dunno, maybe we'll catch them coming out, and they'll be so overwhelmed by my strikingly good looks and your...you-ness, and let us in." He dodged a pillow that Sungjong had thrown at him. 

"Yeah, right," Sungjong said with a snort. "If anything, it'll be my beautiful face that gets us let in. Speaking of - I need to do my skincare routine."

"Ughh, please," Woohyung rolled his eyes, "That'll take you forever. Come on, let's go exploring at least." With that, he leapt up off of his bunk, grabbed onto Sungjong's hand, and pulled. Sungjong floundered around to make sure he landed on the ground feet first and stumbled to catch up with his roommate and - it sounded gross when he said it out loud, but... - best friend. 

Before they made it very far down the hall, they nearly ran into a rather tall woman. She was about an inch shorter than Woohyun - well, with his insoles out. Without, she would easily be taller than him. She had dark skin but Asian features, with curly, red hair that had pretty obviously been dyed, considering that she hadn't done a good job of keeping her roots in check recently. Her eyebrows were sharp enough to kill a man, and Sungjong didn't really want to find out if they actually could. She had a thin, but athletic frame, which was plan to see under her salmon-colored tank top and white short-shorts. 

"Oh! Woohyun. Hi! How are you?" She said with a smile. 

"Hi, Kaili" Woohyun responded, not hiding his disappointment at his quest being temporarily postponed very well. "Kaili, this is Sungjong. He used to go to our school but he dropped out. Sungjong, Kaili."

The two of them shook hands, an introduction that felt a bit too stiff and mature for Sungjong to get used to. 

"What are you two up to?" Kaili asked.

"Oh, we were just going to go explore. You?"

"I'm about to go to my brother's dorm to take some of my stuff from him," Kaili rolled her eyes, "Apparently he thought it was funny to switch the contents of our suitcases. Joke's on him, though, cause he had to carry all my stuff." She grinned slightly, "You should have seen him trying to carry everything up the ramp."

"Your brother?" Woohyun asked, his interest suddenly piqued. The ship was small enough that such a coincidence could be the exact thing they needed.

Kaili nodded. "Half-brother, really. My mom had him before she married my dad. He's a couple of years older than me. I don't suppose you two would be down to come with me to help re-pack and carry some of my stuff?"

Sungjong was beginning to wonder exactly how much stuff she had, but before he could protest, Woohyun had readily agreed.

"Alright, alright, Mr. Thirsty. Please don't hit on my brother, though. That would be weird af."

"I prooomise," Woohyun said cheerily as the two of them followed Kaili down the residential hallway of the boat. They soon arrived at the door, where Kaili knocked rather loudly several times.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm cooming," a low voice grumbled as the door swung open to reveal a muscular man with a square jaw, dressed in a white tank top and black sweatpants. He was a tad taller than Woohyun, but definitely shorter than Sungjong. "Oh. Um..."

Kaili smiled sweetly, though it did nothing to curb her intimidating air. "Hello. Is Sungyeol in there?"

"Sungyeol-ah!" The man shouted into the room. The target of his shout arrived soon after, much taller and lankier than his friend. He had bright red, wavy hair that made his head look somewhat like a pencil's eraser, though his roots were a bit more tidy than Kaili's. Sungjong could see some resemblance between this 'Sungyeol' and Kaili, though he would never have guessed they were related just by looking at them. 

"Did you two get your hair dyed at the same place?" Sungjong commented snidely.

Kaili rolled her eyes. "Three months ago, I decided to dye my hair, but I was at a summer training camp so he didn't know. Two months later, I come home, and lo and behold, we both have bright ing red hair. I still think you should change yours. I got mine first."

Sungyeol shook his head, "Ah, but look at your roots! You're going to have to re-dye soon anyways, so it'd be easier for you to get a new color."

"I like this color." 

"Well, then that's too bad," Sungyeol stuck out his tongue. "Anyways, I suppose you've come to retrieve your stuff. Well, Miss Sweeney, I unfortunately can't give it to you unless you perform a dire, dramatic, and dangerous trials for your older brother."

"Oh, please," Kaili said with a sigh and started walking into the door. Her brother blocked her way, to which she responded by glaring up at him.

"Your quest, should you choose to accept it - "

"Make her do three handstand pushups!" a person called from inside the room.

"NO make her introduce us to some cute freshman boys," another voice called.

Before Sungyeol could quip back at his friends, Kaili grabbed Woohyun and Sungjong by the arm and pushed them into the room. "Done."

Sungyeol quickly removed his arms so that the two men wouldn't run into him, and Sungjong blushed as he found himself and Woohyun in the middle of a room with five other guys, seemingly all upperclassmen. "Now, where's my stuff?