Jaein was working on her unit report when she heard the doorbell ring. She looked at her phone. 4:55am. Who would visit me at this time? She thought to herself before walking towards the door. She looked through the peep whole and saw 3 hooded figures. Her arm instinctively grabbed the baseball bat inside the umbrella holder and slowly opened the door. When the 3 figures saw that the door was opening, they hurriedly got in and closed the door.

“We almost got caught. That granny-like dorm supervisor of yours is mysteriously still awake,” one of them said before uncovering his hood.

“Jongin!” Jaein exclaimed.

The other two also uncovered their hoods, revealing a distressed Junmyeon and an excited Chanyeol.

“What the hell are you guys doing here? It’s almost 5 in the morn-

The doorbell suddenly rang again.

“Holy , she caught us,” Junmyeon said as he started to panic.

“I-I’ll handle it. You guys just go hide in my bed,” Jaein replied, earning quick nods from the boys before they ran off.

Her bed was kind of hidden with a wall-like closet separating it from the kitchen. The closet also connected to the entrance door so there’s a mini hallway. You couldn’t see the bed until you really walked inside the room.

Jaein slowly opened the door and was met by a pair of haggard eyes. It was one of the mean dorm supervisors, Ms. Kim. She likes to supervisor the single-dorms building because she suspects that a lot of ‘things’ happen here in the rooms.

“Is there something wrong?” Jaein asked, trying to sound tired and added a yawn so that Ms. Kim would think she’s been studying.

“Why are you still awake?” Ms. Kim asked in a harsh tone.

“I have to finish my unit paper for a forensics class. There’s a lot of research and confusing information, but I need this paper to be perfect,” Jaein explained. The paper wasn’t even due till next week, but she just needed to start it.

“I’m guessing you’re a premed student,” Ms. Kim replied, her tone now not as harsh.

“Yup. There’s so much work,” Jaein said with a small smile.

“I thought I heard a couple of boys roaming around here. Did you by chance happen to hear a couple of them?” Ms. Kim questioned.

“I don’t think so. I was listening to music while doing my report over there,” Jaein said, pointing to her desk.

“I’m sorry for disturbing you,” Ms. Kim replied before walking away.

Jaein closed the door and locked it before walking towards her bed. She looked at it, amused because there were 3 grown men hiding under her grey comforter. Their shoes were placed messily in front of the bed.

“She’s gone now, so can you please explain to me why you came here,” Jain said, taking a seat on the edge of her bed.

The boys lifted the comforter as they sat up.

“Junmyeon hyung told us about the stalking and we were worried,” Chanyeol said.

“And so you had to come all the way here at 5am,” Jaein replied with suspicion in her voice.

“We were buying snacks from the convenience store because we couldn’t go back to sleep, but curfew was up so we had to sneak out and back in. There were university guards everywhere so we ran to the nearest building, which was yours. Good thing you told us your room number the other day,” Jongin explained.

“Did we wake you up?” Junmyeon asked, remembering how they repeatedly pressed her doorbell.

“No, I couldn’t sleep so I decided to work on my report,” she answered. 

“We’ll probably stay here until 7 because the supervisors have to sign out in the supervisor building at 6:30. We’ll give you our convenience store raid items for your cooperation,” Chanyeol said.

“It’s fine. Just tell me if you get hungry so I can whip up some breakfast,” Jaein replied before walking to her desk to continue researching for her report.

Chanyeol and Jongin’s eyes lightened up to the word ‘breakfast.’ They’ve always ate ramyeon or bread for breakfast, but it seems like Jaein was offering to cook a real breakfast for them. 

“Your room’s actually quite nice. It’s spacious yet cute. It looks like a studio apartment,” Junmyeon commented.

Jaein replied with a simple ‘yeah’ before focusing again.

♦♦♦

The boys left at 5 past 7 after they had a wonderful breakfast consisting of some bacon & mushroom frittatas, and waffles. Jaein only got an hour of sleep before she was woken up by her alarm.

She then started getting ready for classes and put on a white t-shirt with a navy blazer over some rolled up black jeans. Her choice of footwear for the day was a pair of croc leather slip-ons. She put her hair in a messy bun and applied light makeup on her face before heading out. 

Jaein spent most of her classes dozing off. The fear of somebody seeing her sleep always woke her up, but her eyelids couldn’t stop closing. She was relieved the information from the lectures could be found in her textbooks.

♦♦♦

“Thank you Korea for your national holidays. We have Monday and Tuesday of next week so we should go on a 2-days-1-night trip,” Jongdae exclaimed.

The boys gathered in the cafeteria during lunchtime and dragged Jaein along. She was still so tired and sleepy, but at least she got some more sleep during class earlier.

“Where to?” Jongin asked.

“Jeju,” Sehun replied.

“Too far,” Baekhyun said.

“Camping,” Yixing suggested.

“Bugs. No,” Chanyeol replied.

“My parents have this villa in Jeungdo Island, a.k.a Slow City. It’s near a beach too. We can grill our own barbeque as well,” Junmyeon said.  

“Who’s gonna drive? It’s a 4-5 hour drive from here. And there’s the leave policy right? Where we need approval and a guardian to leave the campus overnight.” Kyungsoo asked.

“I’m close with this really cool professor. He’s a friend of my dad’s. He can be our guardian for the trip,” Baekhyun offered.

“Then it’s settled. We’ll be going on Jeungdo Island on Monday morning!” Jongdae exclaimed excitedly.

“By the way, where were you guys this morning? You came back 2 hours late from your convenience store escapade,” Minseok asked Chanyeol, Junmyeon, and Jongin.

“We almost got caught going out so we hid in Jaein’s dorm until it was clear,” Junmyeon explained.

“And she made us really good breakfast,” Chanyeol added.

“It was even better than Kyungsoo’s ramyeon,” Jongin continued.

“Hey, no fair! I want to go to your dorm and eat your food too,” Baekhyun whined.

“Me too!” Jongdae and Sehun said in unison.

“Don’t listen to them Jaein-ah. They’ll probably make a mess,” Yixing told her.

Jaein didn’t even listen to half of what they said because she was dozing off. Kyungsoo noticed it and nudged her.

“Are you okay? Did those 3 idiots not let you sleep?” Kyungsoo seemed worried.

The others weren’t listening as they were in their own conversations.“I’ve been experiencing really bad insomnia for the past few days. I usually fall asleep at 4-5am, but they came so I couldn’t just sleep and let them destroy my room,” Jaein explained.

“My mom had some issues with insomnia too and her mother made this herby miso soup with poached egg and rice. It really soothed her and she eventually got her sleeping schedule back. I could make some for you,” Kyungsoo suggested.

“Please do,” Jaein replied, “I’ve been so stressed and anxious from the amount of work and upcoming exams. My mom’s been up my these past few weeks about her problems. Plus, that stalking thing,”

“You’re not close with your mom, are you?” Kyungsoo asked.

Jaein thought about what to answer him. She didn’t really like sharing her personal issues, especially ones about her family. It was so complicated and embarrassing in her opinion.

“We don’t really get a long. It’s really complicated,” Jaein said, hoping that he wouldn’t ask more questions.

Kyungsoo sensed the tension and uneasiness in her voice, so he just nodded. There was no reason for him to pry into her personal life if she didn’t want him to. He knew the boundaries.

Jaein’s phone screen lighted up, showing an incoming text. She opened it:

I have something to discuss with you. Let’s meet room M209 in the PA department. I just finished class and one my colleagues spotted you in the cafeteria. Come alone.

Jaein had a pretty good idea of the identity of the one whom texted her.

“I just remembered I need to talk to one of my professors about a case study. I’ll see you later,” she said to Kyungsoo before walking out of the cafeteria.

“Where is she going?” Baekhyun asked Kyungsoo.

“She said she needed to talk to her professor about something,” Kyungsoo replied. Something isn't right.. 

♦♦♦

Jaein opened the door to room M209. She was greeted with a familiar figure that was sitting in one of the lecture seats. She scanned the room. It was almost the same size of her lecture rooms, but there was a piano and other musical instruments.

“You’re finally here. What took you so long?” Aeri asked with her annoying high-pitched voice. She sounded like a chipmunk whose nose was clogged.

“Can we just get this over with? I’m sleep deprived and already annoyed,” Jaein replied.

“One of my girls overheard a conversation with someone on the phone a couple weeks ago. It sounded pretty ugly,” she started. “I think it was about your mom and brothers or something? Family issues.”

Jaein starred at her, fazed by the information. But her face was still expresionless. 

“So? Are you going to blackmail me with that?” Jaein replied.

Aeri’s smirk dropped. She was disappointed at how unaffected Jaein was.

“Yes, I will. How embarrassing will it be when Junmyeon oppa and his friends hear a recording of it? You recorded our previous conversation, so I had someone record yours,” Aeri threatened as Jaein raised her eyebrows.

“Hearing about your alcoholic mother, M.I.A brothers, and irresponsible father. Little miss perfect isn’t so perfect anymore. They would be disgusted, uncomfortable, and freaked out by you. Such a dysfunctional family. I would even go to the lengths of sharing it with the rest of the campus,” she continued.

Aeri walked towards Jaein until they were just a meter apart and waited for her to get down on her knees and beg for forgiveness, but Jaein chuckled instead.

“You do realize that you just confessed to violating my privacy, right? You have no right to record my personal conversations. I can sue and put you in jail for that. It’s harassment,” Jaein said, anger already evident in voice.

“You should be worried about this recording getting released rather than me violating your privacy,” Aeri replied.

“Is your mind ing dense or what? I am more worried about my privacy being violated. I can report to the administration about how I don’t feel safe being here and threaten them to sue. Then they will find you and expel your stupid ,” Jaein threatened back. She knew it worked because Aeri’s face tensed up to the word ‘expel.’

“A-Are you threatening me now?”  Aeri stuttered.

“Of course I am. You know what else you should be scared of? My fist. I am going to punch your face so hard that plastic surgery can’t even fix it. Your face will fracture into a hundred different pieces and I will happily listen to your screams as it will be music to my ears,” Jaein replied, her hand already balled up into fists.

She was really pissed. Her family is a very sensitive topic for her. And now that little knows about it and is mocking her for it.

“I just want to r-remind you that if that t-tape gets out, your life is o-over,” Aeri managed to say.

Jaein let out a bitter chuckle.

“If that tape gets out, I’m going to be the victim. You will be the one that will suffer. Think about it for a minute Aeri-shi. I will simply tell everyone that you blackmailed me because of your stupid obsession with Junmyeon and his friends. They will feel pity for me and hunt you down because family is a touchy subject for everyone, not just me. Get it through that thick head of yours" Jaein explained.

Aeri was a bit surprised. She didn’t really think about that. It could really ruin her life, but she didn’t care. As long as her oppas are hers, she will be happy.

When Aeri was about to reply, the door to the room opened. Both girls looked at who had opened the door. By the time Jaein’s eyes met one of them, her blood went cold. Aeri on the other hand was happy because her plan is finally going to work.

If any of you guys were wondering what Jaein's room look like: 

http://cdn.homedit.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Cloud-Pen-Studio-apartment-overall.jpg