When my seniors told me that college days would be "gone in a daze", I didn't expect it to be literal. At the very least, I would expect to end my freshman orientation week in a more sober state. I couldn't recall anything that happened that night, nor how I manage to stumble against the weight of my-similarly-drunk-friends all the way back to the dorms. We reeked of alcohol and was an unsightly mess. Yet our minds were dancing on cloud nine, too lost to bring ourselves back to senses. I must have left them at some point, probably by the road as they tumbled and fell. Did I laugh then? Probably. I could be mean when I get drunk. Being drunk that night was accidental. I hardly drink, so when my friends tested my limits, it didn't take long for the alcohol to overcome my system. Miraculously, I stayed on my two feet all the way back to the familiar sight of the dormitories. Anything thereafter, I heard from him in time to come. 

- ∞ - 

The realisation that I was not in my own bed came upon me immediately as the incongruent shades of purple blanket and bedsheets struck my eyes. The hangover was making my head pound terribly, but it did not confound my aesthetic tastes. To be able to put a plum-coloured blanket on violet sheets, the owner of this bed either had serious issues, or was drunk as I was the night before during purchase. 

As I surveyed the unfamiliar dorm room around me, it slowly dawned on me that I had woken up  from a memory blackout in someone else's room, and it was evidently a strange boy's. His walls were completely covered with Hip Hop posters of foreign singers and dancers, there were trophies of dance competitions strewn around the messy room, sports apparels here and there, and an immeasurable and unbearable amount of purple in his room. Purple earphones, purple school bag, purple stationery, purple photo frame, purple towels, purple bottle....it was like waking up to a virtual world where other colours were absent. 

Making sure that my clothes were on me and that nothing had happened, I decided to leave before the owner came back. I did not want an awkward confrontation, though I was dying with curiosity to know how I ended up where I was. Leave it for another time, I thought to myself. The headache was bad enough to occupy me already. 

Yet before I reached the door, something at the corner of my eye caught my attention. It was the family photo sitting on the desk, in the cheap-looking magenta photo frame. 

Lee Howon, in a younger, slightly less fearsome form. 

. 

My currently dysfunctional brain finally started turning its wheels and put all the strikingly obvious clues together to form the answer that I was avoiding. It was bad enough waking up in someone else's room, though fate was cruel enough to put me in Lee Howon's. He was the residential assistant of my block, which meant that he was the student leader who would report all happenings to Professors should anything be amiss. I heard he was a fun person, yet when the time called for it, he could be mercilessly strict. 

And as if the situation wasn't bad enough, the door opened abruptly with Howon standing outside. He must have forgotten that I was in the room, since he was clearly taken aback. He tried to conceal his shock beneath a stern, unsmiling expression as he entered the room and closed the door behind him. He looked like he just came back from a run, because he was perspiring from head to toe, and was still clad in his running attire. 

"Er, Howon-sunbae...," I started. If you can't fight him, try to win him over.

"Do you know how ridiculous you were last night?" He needn't raise his voice, for his tone was indicative enough of his judgment, dismay and disapproval all at once. 

"No..I..." I was recoiling. 

"You crashed at your own doorstep, I couldn't even carry you in since the door was locked and your keys were nowhere to be found. You came in, crashed on my bed without a second of hesitation, vomitted on my new shirt, and then went back to sleep." 

I couldn't decide whether at that point I was more intimidated by his ruthless reprimands, the situation of being alone with him in the room, or the prospects that my life as a clean-slate college student was over before semester even began. 

"I'm sor-"

"Don't say you are sorry. The point is not even the shirt. The point is this behaviour is intolerable." 

"I will-"

"Never do it again? Oh please, I get this every year with the freshmen. Why can't you guys get a grip of your own life and do something else for parties, other than drinking. Do you know that was my favourite shirt of the season and it's now out of stock?" 

To be honest, I was most definitely apologetic and remorseful about what happened. Yet his incessant ranting and scolding was just ringing in my ears and aggravating the headache. He went on and on about healthy lifestyle, then back to his shirt, then about my intolerable behaviour, then explanations of decency, then back to his shirt again. For any average morning, let alone one when I was having a hangover, this was too much to handle. I couldn't believe a man of so few words usually could give a full-blown lecture on discipline. This other side of Howon-sunbae was certainly befuddling. 

I raised my hand to stop him. "Stop. Howon-sunbae, I'm really sorry, and I'll pay you back for the shirt. I'm having a headache so I really have to leave before I destroy something in your room again. Just a question though, why were you on my floor?" Howon stayed two floors above me, and I was certain that his best friend, Hyojin-sunbae, was not staying on my floor either. 

Something I said must have done the charms, because he shut up immediately. His reaction was a bit strange as he suddenly busied himself with the bag of breakfast that he had gotten back on his way back from exercise. He hastily handed me a can of tea and a bread, before showing me out the door. He pointed left and said, "Just go to the lift and head back to your room. Eat up so your stomach doesn't hurt." 

I stared at him blankly and blinked, because he confused me for a second. "Sunbae, the lift is on the right." The man blushed terribly, faked a cough and nodded curtly before hiding back in his room. 

As it turned out, this frightening purple-maniac was an idiot when it came to directions. 

- ∞ -

My life goal for college after that day was to avoid Lee Howon. Discovering that he was absolutely horrific in both aesthetics and directions meant that my one-night of mishap remained a safe secret. So to have a smooth college life, I just had to stay clear of his path. 

Yet it seemed almost impossible. I was a nocturnal animal by nature, so I often stayed up to study at night. The study room in school were open 24/7, and I was sometimes a permanent fixture there in the night. They had these giant glass windows that replaced half the walls, so the whole place looked sort of like a huge tank placed at the corner of a room. I felt like the curious fish in the tank that could look outside to examine the passing people, some alone searching for themselves in the night, some wandering with a group. People who stayed up at night were interesting, because they behave so differently when darkness comes upon us and the crowd was scarce. 

Yet at the same time, I felt like the fish in the tank that as being constantly scrutinised. Every move I make in this highly private and individualised activity of studying could be watched by an equally curious passerby. It was like a silent exchange of mild intriguing gestures, then we were strangers again. 

In the mornings when I was alone in the huge study room at 3am, I would also see Lee Howon pass by, ears plugged in and cap on. His had this rhythm in his feet as he made his way to the direction of the dance studios. Occasionally, I might even see him head out of campus for a night run. I wasn't sure he had seen me each time, until finally once our eyes met and he gave me a curt nod. 

As I said, you can see both ways in this tank. 

Once I left my stuff at the seat to buy some snacks at a vending machine outside. I returned to see him seated at where I originally was, still listening to his music and tapping his foot. 

"Uhm, is anything the matter?" I asked cautiously as I approached him. 

"You shouldn't just leave your stuff here like this y'know. There's been theft cases on campus lately," he said in a matter-of-fact way. 

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