When Hayi gets ready for class on Monday morning, she contemplated on what shade of lipstick she should put on.

 

   Staring at her reflection from the small mirror on her desk, she eventually decides on her favorite wine red shade. She ties her dark long hair in a high ponytail without a fuss and looks back at the sleeping form of her older roommate sprawled on the bed across the room, her face completely buried under a pillow. She creeps to her side, gently shaking her shoulder.

 

   "Suran." The younger calls. With another shake on the arm, her roommate jerks awake, turning on her side with her teal dyed hair covering most of her face like a waterfall.

 

    "...Hnngh?"

 

    Hayi smiles sweetly, "Can I borrow your bomber jacket?"

 

    Suran answers with a grunt.

 

   "Thanks. Also, your phone has been beeping non-stop. I think it's the TA."

 

    She gets a cuss in return.

 

   Hayi holds back a laugh before passing her roommate's smartphone from the floor to her outstretched arm. It rings just when it gets on the older's grasp so she sits up, her blanket dropping from her chest.

 

"Thanks.... This better be worth the rude awakening, Kim Haesol", She speaks harshly at the phone.

 

Hayi moves over to her roommate's closet, rummaging over the many colorful tops on the hangers before spotting the dark green bomber jacket. She really didn't have to ask permission since she and Suran borrow each other's shoes and clothes all the time, (thank goodness they were both short) but the habit has been heavily engraved from her tedious mother that she makes sure she does.

 

"... . Seriously?" Suran exclaims, her phone now between her shoulder and jaw as she hurriedly puts on a pair of jeans from the floor. "I'm on my way to the faculty... Yeah. I'll have it signed by Prof. Park right away."

 

  Hayi was just about to put on the jacket when she throws a sympathetic look over to Suran who sighed after the call, "Monday blues?"

 

  "You bet. Thesis is a . You planning on taking your master's degree?" Suran says, already toothbrushing by their room's sink area.

 

Hayi shrugs, placing her laptop on her large shoulder bag. "Still thinking about it."

 

Suran doesn't reply until she gargles and spits. Wiping her chin clumsily with a paper towel, she answers, "Don't. I say continue that gig you have on the radio station."

 

Hayi raises a brow skeptically, "You're more of an adult than me, shouldn't you be encouraging me to take the master's instead?"

 

The older woman pulls a random sweater over her bare arms, "I'm serious. You know I don't sugarcoat things, Hayi. I've got friends that listen to your program. Consider doing it as a sideline thing, at least."

 

Hayi purses her lips, "Yeah, I'd rather not. I miss sleeping in early on Friday nights."

 

"Good point. But wait until senior year out half of your soul." Suran makes a grab for the organized manuscript on her Macbook and nods her head at her roommate's direction before opening the bedroom door, "Later... and I wouldn't complain if I were you, sleepless looks good on your complexion. And so does my jacket."

 

Hayi waves her off, "Good luck."

 

Once the door clicks shut after the senior, Hayi self-consciously looks back at the mirror on her desk.

 

Well... She doesn't look any different. To her, at least.

 

Must be the lipstick working some sort of magic.

***

 

Lee Hayi is diligent when taking notes. The same goes with recitation. Concentrating and focusing on lectures were never a problem for her either, so when her phone buzzes from a received message for another time, she doesn't bother glancing over.

 

Kim Hanbin has been regularly texting her again. And that could only mean two things.

 

One, Jimin is too busy to hear his incessant rants.

 

Two, he's having trouble with his celebrity girlfriend.

 

 

"Excuse me.", A knock interrupts the middle of the Entrepreneurship lecture, giving the rest of the class ample time to stretch or lean over their desks for a quick nap while Prof. Oh walks to the hall's door to receive a memo from the student worker.

 

Hayi reaches over her desk and unlocks her smartphone to read the latest received message.

 

'Lunch later?' Hayi grins at the message, swiftly replying an affirmative.

 

'Can't wait. Starving.'

 

Closing her messenger app, Hayi also decides to update herself on her emails and finds one from Prof. Lee telling her to meet him later that day for the monthly evaluation.

 

This would be her third one, and she still gets butterflies when she thinks of the possible feedback. Prof. Lee may be easygoing, but he never holds back when he speaks his mind.

 

She can't complain though, hers pretty much runs the same way.

 

Positioning her phone back on its place on the desk, she makes a mental note to drop by the library before her meeting in the Mass Communications faculty.

***

 

"Hayi!"

 

When the short brunette arrives at her favorite bistro in campus, a raised arm from a few tables away grabs her attention. She heads over to the waving pre-law student, returning a smile back at her.

 

"Sorry, have you been waiting long?", Hayi sits across from the younger female after giving her a tight hug.

 

"Nope. Me and Jiwon just arrived from our own classes too."

 

"Oooh. So the boyfriend tagged along."

 

"Ugh. I tried to get rid of him. Really. But he keeps boasting about how he was your friend first."

 

"So he still uses that, huh?" , Hayi laughs at her pout in amusement, "Look at my Suhyun. So adorable. So where is he?"

 

"Getting us food. Only way I'd allow him to sit in our lunch together."

 

"It's good he came along though. I haven't seen him in a while, myself."

 

"True, true. So, you hungry?"

 

"Like an unfed cow. You know I don't eat breakfast."

 

"Is that why you're losing weight?" Suhyun raises a suggestive brow.

 

"Hey." She slaps her underclassman on the arm, "I don't remember teaching you to say those things. Jiwon must be rubbing off of you."

 

Suhyun groans. "Don't go there. So what have you been doing lately?"

 

Hayi takes a moment to recollect before blatantly saying, "Nothing much, to be perfectly honest. Between class projects and Nightly High Time, that's all there is."

 

"Yoooo-------there's our rising star." Jiwon interrupts in a sing-song voice before placing a tray of steaming dimsum and three bowls of spicy seafood noodles on the table between the two younger females.

 

Hayi ignores the petty nickname and reaches her hand over with palm facing upward in expectation.

 

"Thank you, peasant. I'm glad you've disciplined him, Suhyun." Hayi says with a quirk on her lips, taking the chopsticks handed to her by the older male.

 

"You trained me well, master." Suhyun says with a wink.

 

"Women." Jiwon laments, taking the seat beside his girlfriend. "Let's eat?"

 

Simultaneously, the three bow their heads before snapping their chopsticks and digging in their meals.

 

"Thanks for the treat, Jiwon." Hayi says while stuffing , "God I missed the dumplings here."

 

"Anything for our rising star." Jiwon declares, loudly smacking his lips after sipping in some soup. "So what were you two talking about?"

 

"About Hayi and how busy she is without us." Suhyun lets out a distressed sigh. "You hardly show your face around anymore, and if we do hear about you, it's only through the radio."

 

Hayi looks at the couple in disbelief, "Did you guys miss me that much? It's only been a few weeks."

 

Suhyun isn't a clingy person at all, but she's loyal and sincere. In fact what Hayi finds so special about her friendship with Suhyun is that no matter how long they go without communication (they both prefer personal conversations to text messaging) her and the younger girl always pick up as if nothing has happened.

 

And, also, there's Jiwon hanging around her. So she never thought that she'd be easy to miss.

 

Jiwon looks affectionately over at the younger female by his side, "All she ever does is complain about it. I think she loves you more than me."

 

"It's true." Suhyun sighs.

 

"What! I was only kidding about the last one." Jiwon gapes.

 

"Well I wasn't." Suhyun shrugs nonchalantly, not even sparing a glance over her boyfriend's forlorn look.

 

The young man squints his slender eyes before breathing out a long, "Baaaaaaabe" loud enough for Hayi to hear too.

 

Suhyun snaps her head to look back at him, glaring, but clearly flushed from her cheeks to her neck. "I told you not to call me that in front of anyone!"

 

"Hayi's not just anyone, babe."

 

Hayi laughs out loud, not even sorry that she still has some food left unswallowed in . She watches them fondly from across the table as they exchange half-hearted threats.

 

Suhyun and Jiwon were an unlikely couple. Hayi met Jiwon back in her freshman days as a mere acquaintace during the college orientation. The boisterous blabbermouth was everyone's favorite tour guide, and the upperclassman never failed to start small conversations when he and Hayi happened to just be around in the same place. He was just the sort of person that grows on you like some wild mushroom.

 

It was also because of Jiwon she tried out for the campus radio station.

 

"I'll stop if you feed me some dumplings.", he says in defiance at the seething girl.

 

Hayi lets out another laugh when Suhyun gave Jiwon a hard smack on his arm in response.

 

The older girl came to know Lee Suhyun when she shifted departments and had to take a class to make up for the lack of units last semester. Suhyun is quiet, but her gentle features don't do justice to show how competitive she is, always being one of the first students to raise her hand at questions and quick to ask for clarifications in lectures.

 

And, Hayi, being the uncontrollable yapper she is, spoke to her first after two weeks, the first sentence being, 'Lee Suhyun, you need to chill.'

 

And the rest, well, history.

"...You're ridiculous." Suhyun, despite her protests, shoves a dumpling quickly in Jiwon's mouth, her soft cheeks adorning a pinkish tint.

 

Still chewing, her boyfriend audibly adds, "...And you love me."

 

Hayi shakes her head at the endearing pair, settling on sipping more of her noodles from her bowl.

 

Suhyun and Jiwon are what most people would consider an unconventional couple, but Hayi finds their relationship and public display of affection something alike those couples on soap operas. The well-written kind.

 

"I'm sorry about this idiot, Hayi. This is the exact reason why I didn't want him tagging along." Suhyun, with her free hand massaging her temple, (also failing to attempt masking her scarlet cheeks) apologizes to the older female across from her.

 

"Oh shush. You two are what Hallmark cards are made for. I really don't mind. Chill."

 

And she really doesn't.

 

"Who are you seeing these days, Hayi?" Jiwon asks without pretenses.

 

"No one."

 

"No, seriously."

 

"I was already serious?" Hayi sighs, already predicting the outcome of the conversation.

 

"But you sure have bloomed from last time we saw you." Jiwon says teasingly, wearing a similar smile as Suhyun's.

 

"I told you." Suhyun comments, giving the older girl a side glance.

 

"Suran practically said the same thing this morning." Hayi rolls her eyes before giving a small frown. "Why do you think so?"

 

"That's 'cause we're not the only ones who've noticed.", the male reaches out to poke the girl's shoulder. "What's your type? I've got friends from the junior year who'd love to meet up with you."

 

It may come as a surprise for some people, but beneath all that testosterone, Kim Jiwon is a sap for matchmaking and romance.

 

"Not again." Suhyun whines, lifting her chopsticks to bite on another dumpling.

 

"What? It'd be great to have double dates." Jiwon says, lifting his snapback from his head to fan himself with it.

 

"Thanks, but no thanks, Jiwon." Hayi gives a curt smile. "I hardly have the time."

 

"Aaawe come on-------remember Jung Jaewon?" He suggests with gusto, looking between the two girls.

 

"No?"

 

"The guy I volunteer with in the student affairs office sometimes."

 

Stopping midchew, Hayi blankly stares at her bowl as she vaguely pictures a face with a boyish smile and long eyelashes. "...Yeah. I think I do."

 

Jiwon nods at the girl "He bugs me about getting your number."

 

"Really?" Hayi's eyes widen in surprise. It wasn't like she had said anything profound at the guy, all she ever did that one time in the office was receive a copy of some waivers.

 

"He listens to your show religiously."

 

Hayi laughs, wagging her pair of chopsticks in refusal. "Nope. All the more reason not to. He'd just get disappointed."

 

Disappointed at the real thing, that is.

 

"I did tell you that being pushy does no good." Suhyun declares triumphantly, now picking off a dumpling from the pouting male's plate.

 

Jiwon gives a small grumble, "Fair enough. At least tell us your type then."

 

Hayi bites her lip in thought when she sees Suhyun's face plastered with the same curious look.

 

"Well."

 

Hayi's gaze moves from the younger girl with the small button nose before settling on the young man with slender eyes and prominent front teeth.

 

spreads to a wide grin.

 

"The unconventional type."

 

***

 

The brunette finds herself dragging her fingers across the spines of books on one row of shelves. Classes end early on a Monday, so Hayi decided to kill some time in the library of the Mass Communications department before heading to the faculty office to meet Prof. Lee.

 

She doesn't particulary love reading. But she doesn't particularly hate it either.

 

Hayi was picking up a small copy of anthology when her phone buzzes in her pocket.

 

'You busy?', she reads.

 

'Not really. Shouldn't you be though?' She replies, halfheartedly opening the page to the first piece of literature. She hardly gets to the top set of words when she receives another message.

'Gimme a break. I just finished up some negotiations with the family business.'

Hayi scoffs. 'Being the first and only son of an elite family really has its perks, huh?'

'Is that all how you and Jimin see me as? A spoiled brat?'

Hayi rolls her eyes at the message, leaning her back against the wooden shelf behind her. 'Stop pouting and just tell me what the heck is wrong with you now.'

 

Hayi momentarily looks up from her phone, and through the cracks of spaces between some hardbound books, she sees a familiar bob of dark hair.

 

Another buzz. 'Can't a guy miss his old elementary classmate?'

 

'Even when the guy only contacts said elementary classmate just to rant?' Hayi quickly typed, pushing herself closer towards the shelf in front of her to get a glimpse of the familiar silhouette sitting on the library table.

 

...Isn't that Taehyun?

 

She looks down at her palm when she felt another buzz.

 

'Okay. You got me. Jimin's too preoccupied.'

 

Hayi's lip quirks up a bit. 'Preoccupied with what?'

'Some foreigner.' She reads the phone screen to which it automatically scrolled down to reveal a gif of some unfamiliar cartoon character wiggling his eyebrows.

'What??? She never told me anything about that.' Hayi quickly replies adding an emoticon to express her surprise.

 

'Huh. Looks like she's been seeing that guy for a while though. Didn't she tell you?'

 

Modest laughter reaches Hayi's ears and she perks her head up to find another young man beside the grinning journalism student.

 

She has no idea why she can't just walk up to the familiar male and say hi like any normal person would.

 

There was just something about the air surrounding the two.

 

After another moment of shared laughter between the two, her curious eyes drag over the stature of Taehyun's companion.

 

Fairly attractive, she concludes. Plump lips stand out amongst his facial features.

 

Another buzz from her phone reminds her that she's forgotten to send Hanbin a reply. She hesitantly pulls away her gaze from the shelf to look down on her phone screen.

 

'I'll be in Seoul some time next week, by the way.' Hayi bites her lip as she reads the next message he sent.

 

'We should hang and have a bit of fun.'

 

Hayi sighs tiredly. "Fun" involving a certain Kim Hanbin could mean entirely different in more ways than one. And unfortunately, refusal to participate is never an option.

 

'Fine. Just let me know beforehand.'

 

She hears a muffled yelp after sending a reply and her eyes immediately look back at the pair of males on the library table.

 

She takes in the sight of the young male with plump lips pulling up Taehyun's long sleeved collared shirt. Her mind starts reprimanding her and inwardly commanding her to look away, but when she sees his fingers delicately tracing the lanky journalism student's arm, she still doesn't. Not even when she takes a glimpse of his tattoo.

 

When she sees his vulnerably flushed neck and face, she finally forces her head away, not realizing that she was holding her breath.

 

 

Hayi sprints off from her place beside the row of books and heads over to the exit almost forgetting to return the copy of anthology if it weren't for the scandalized librarian in the front desk.

 

 

She never stopped apologizing over and over in her head.

 

 

---

 

Yeeees. I know. Long time no update. And as an apology, I made it longer. So I would like to give a big hug to all my beautiful subscribers, the new and old. I don't know if I particularly like this chapter, but I did have fun with Suran, I just love her to bits.

Thank you for being so patient, lovely people. I will do my best to make the next chapter! Who do you think makes an appearance next? :)

 

 Update : sorry had to re edit some parts that were repeatedly copied and  pasted.