“Hey, Gong Myung.” Gong Myung stopped amidst his action of leaving the classroom when his classmate, Seo Kang-joon, came up to him. “Hey, what’s up?” Gong Myung greeted back.

“Do you know about the kpop audition thing that they have, like, every year?” Kang-joon asked him.

“The one with those famous companies?” Gong Myung asked back.

“Yeah, that one.”

“What about it?”

Kang-joon smiled eagerly. “I want us to team up. We can audition together and perform one of the songs that you made.”

“Um...” Gong Myung rubbed the back of his neck, unsure how to deny Kang-joon’s offer.

“The last time we performed together, we got, like, the highest grade in the class. I’m sure that if we go to the competition together then we’ll win.”

“That’s a bit of a stretch,” Gong Myung muttered. “And we didn’t get the highest grade in the class. We got the third highest grade.”

Kang-joon waved his hand and said, “Same thing. But look, even if we just get into the top ten, there’s a good chance we can sign with one of those big companies. Don’t you want to sign with one of those companies?”

“I don’t think I do.”

Kang-joon’s jaw fell agape at his answer. “Why?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t think I do.”

“That’s not a good reason. Why would you not want to sign with a big company? You could become famous if you sign with them!” Kang-joon said. “Think about it. We can team up, audition together with one of your songs, and then when we win, we’ll sign with a large company, debut, and become famous!”

“I still don’t think that I want to audition.”

“Why not?! Why would you not want to audition?!”

“If you want to audition so badly, you can audition by yourself,” Gong Myung stated. “I have to get going. Good luck with everything.” He provided the other male with one last smile before leaving the class, but Kang-joon ran up to him, slinging an arm around his shoulders.

“Ehy…” Kang-joon playfully jabbed his side. “Don’t be like that. ” At the sight of Gong Myung’s serious face, Kang-joon sighed and gave in. “Alright, fine. But you’re helping me choose a song to sing.”

“I can’t give you one of my songs.”

“I’m not that sleazy,” Kang-joon said, looking slightly offended. “I already have a few songs in mind, but you need to help me choose which one to sing for the preliminaries.”

Gong Myung nodded. “Okay, that sounds doable.”

“Great! I’ll text you later about the time and everything.” Kang-joon checked his phone, mumbling, “Shoot! I’m late,” before running down the hall, leaving Gong Myung standing there alone.

After the other male left, Gong Myung went to his locker, getting his guitar out. He walked outside to the grassy, spacious part of the campus and found an empty spot under a tree. The empty space that was chosen was void of chatter from fellow students since they occupied spots farther away. He then took his guitar out of its case along with a notebook. One hand went to experiment with the frets, the other softly the strings to create a gentle melody. He stopped once in awhile to write down a chord onto paper, but besides from that, he was utterly absorbed in interacting with his guitar.

Thump!

Gong Myung jerked upwards at the noise. A guitar string was nearly pulled too hard from him being surprised, but fortunately its life was spared and it went on to live another day. Gong Myung turned around to check the source of the sound and saw a woman, he assumed from the long hair, lying with the front of her body on the ground. She slowly pushed herself up, long hair hanging over her face, until she was able to acquire a sitting position.

The hair masking her face gave her a freakish, female-ghost look, which was terribly frightening to him as he inched away from the figure, ready to abandon all belongings in exchange for his life. She then ran a hand through her hair to push back all of the long strands, curtain unveiling to reveal an unthreatening acquaintance.

“Seul-ah,” he called in relief. “It was just you.”

“Oh. Gong Pal—”

“Myung.”

“Myung,” she corrected. “When did you get here?”

“I should be asking you that,” he responded. “Where did you…” He remembered the thump that he heard and took a guess that she may be the cause of it. “...come from?”

She pointed upwards. “The sky?” he asked in disbelief. She shook her head. “No, the branch,” she answered. “Just a second ago I remember being up there, but now I’m down here. How strange… Oh well, it’s nice to see you though. How have you been?”

“Uh…” He lifted his head up and gaped at the branches of the tall tree. He didn’t know how to reply when she acted as if falling out of a tree was as common as the existence of trees itself. She also talked as though they hadn’t seen each other for months. They met earlier in the morning. He didn’t know why she was asking how he’s been when they met less than six hours ago.

Seul-ah patiently waited for an answer while reaching for something from her pocket. A band-aid and antibacterial ointment were taken out before she searched her body for any cuts or scrapes. “I’ve been doing fine,” he finally replied. “How about you?”

“Fine.”

And the conversation ended there. In all honesty, he hadn’t been talking to Seul-ah much. She seemed nice, but she was a bit quiet. She was also slightly strange in demeanor in a way that he could and couldn’t describe. However, he did want to get to know her more. With the knowledge of her being one of the few people out there who understood the necessity of dressing safely for the kitchen, there was a feeling that they might get along well.

Before he could initiate another topic, a cheerful “hey!” came from afar. He turned and saw Ahreum waving as she jogged over. “Hey,” Gong Myung said, immediately smiling and waving back.

“What are you doing here all by yourself?” she asked.

He was confused at her question. “But Seul-ah is right—” He checked behind to see an empty space, his mouth falling agape at Seul-ah’s disappearance.

“Hi Ahreum,” a voice came from above.

Ahreum furrowed her brow before realizing what was going on. She then raised her head, a soft smile forming. “Hey Seul-ah,” she said to the female resting on a branch. Gong Myung jerked his head upwards with wide eyes. He had no idea how she got up there so quickly. He didn’t even hear any movement. “I see that you’ve found Seul-ah,” Ahreum said.

“We just coincidentally met,” he said.

“Ah…” Ahreum nodded her head. “So if I want to find you, I need to do it by coincidence?” she asked Seul-ah in amusement. Seul-ah shrugged before continuing to sketch in her sketchbook, skillfully staying balanced on the branch while doing so.

“So…” Gong Myung started. “You climb trees?” He questioned his dormmate sitting above, intrigued.

“She doesn’t just climb trees, trees are pretty much her second home,” Ahreum answered for her. “But since both of you are here, I need to ask you something.” She eyed both of her dormmates with a bright smile while her hands clasped in an almost pleading way. “Help me go grocery shopping and cook lunchboxes.”

“Sure,” Gong Myung easily said.

Ahreum stared at him incredibly. She didn’t expect anyone to reply as quickly as he did without asking a single question. “Why are you making lunchboxes?” Seul-ah asked curiously.

“I’m going to be filming soon so I want to gain some points with the staff,” she explained. “Just to let you guys know, I need to make one for each staff member, including all of the actors and actresses, which will mean that we’ll have to make, like, a lot.”

“I’m okay with that,” Gong Myung said.

“I’ll help if it doesn’t impede my working hours,” Seul-ah said.

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll do it when you’re off,” Ahreum assured. It was perfect. She didn’t have to agonizingly make the load of lunchboxes all by herself, and that thought alone was enough to make her feel happy for the rest of the day.

“So has everything been going alright with your drama?” Gong Myung started a conversation with her.

“Yeah, I had my first script readi—wait, Chanyeol! Chanyeol!” Her eye landed on her tall dormmate, who was seen walking in a haste. She tightened her grip on the backpack strap hanging over her shoulder while her legs broke into a run towards him. The male didn’t seem to hear her, but she managed to catch up to him, reaching a hand out to pull back his left shoulder.

Chanyeol shrieked, startling both her and himself. He then spun around, a hand placed above his fragile heart. “Do not do that again!” he said.

“I should say that to you. Why did you scream?”

“You’ll scream too if a hand came out of nowhere and grabbed you,” he reasoned, still in the process of calming down his frightened heart.

“True,” she agreed. “But guess what?”

“I don’t have time for your guessing game.”

“Then I’ll just tell you.” Ahreum couldn’t hide the excited smile on her face. “I got the part!” She waited for any type of reaction from the male, but he did none of such. His face was as emotionless and boring as a bland wall. “You’re not going to congratulate me?”

“Congratulations.” He clapped for her. “Bye.”

“Wait!” Her hand shot out to hold him back. “Why do you look so unenthusiastic that I got the part?”

“...I was the one that convinced them to let you audition. Why would I be surprised?” he said. Ahreum slowly nodded as it was somewhat true. “Is that all you need?”

“No, I need to ask you for a favor.”

“I’m busy,” he said.

“Busy?” She raised a brow.

“Yeah. Busy,” he repeated. “Look, whatever you’re going to ask, it’s a no from me. Regularly nice Chanyeol would love to help, but current Chanyeol is too busy for regularly nice Chanyeol to come out.”

“Since when were you regularly nice in the first place?”

“Since when was I not?” he retorted. “If you ask other people on the campus, most would say, ‘Oh, Chanyeol is such a nice person’ or ‘Chanyeol is a really cool guy.’”

Ahreum rolled her eyes. “Then since you’re so nice, would you be so kind as to help me go grocery shopping and make some lunchboxes?” she sweetly asked.

“No.” His straightforward answer made her smile plummet. “I told you that I’m a busy person.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest, annoyingly cocking his head.

“Then we’ll go grocery shopping on a day where you’re not busy. And the lunchboxes are going to be made early in the morning, so it can’t possibly interfere with your schedule.”

“It interferes with my sleep schedule,” he pointed out.

“You can go to sleep early the night before,” she reasoned. “I need someone to help me carry the grocery bags and lend me a helping hand, so please help me.”

“Ask Seul-ah and Gong Myung to help you.”

“I did, but I have to get a lot of groceries. If you come with us it’ll be so much easier.”

“No. I’m busy.”

So you won’t help me?”

“Didn’t I tell you that I’m busy? Why do you keep making me repeat it?”

Ahreum frowned, face darkening in dejection, but then her head recalled something that could be used in her favor. “Darn…” She mimicked him by crossing her arms just like he did. “I happened to pass by a stack of very brightly colored paper today.” She went through her backpack and took out a bright yellow item. “Oh…” A fake gasp came out of . “It looks like I picked up a dormmate complaint paper! Oh what to do. I guess I have to use it now that I picked it up.”

“You…” His eyes hardened when he saw the yellow paper. “...wouldn’t.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” The paper was playfully waved in front of him, taunting him in its yellowness, while Ahreum triumphantly grinned. Chanyeol didn’t hesitate before snatching it out of her grasp, shredding and ripping it like a mad Godzilla. “Chanyeol.” His name being called stopped him from continuing to murder the piece of paper. “I said that I passed by a whole stack.” Ahreum showed him a whole pile of yellow complaint papers, him dropping shreds of the previous paper in shock.

“Did you rob the place of its complaint papers?!” he finally managed to yell.

She shrugged. “They’re supposed to be taken,” she nonchalantly answered. Chanyeol lost. He couldn’t go up against her. Now he was deathly afraid of both of the females he shared a dorm with. According to him, they were now “pure evil.”

“I should go fill this out. Then I’ll—”

“I’ll do it,” he said in defeat. “I’ll help you go grocery shopping and make your stupid lunchboxes.”

Ahreum’s face lit up. “Really? Thanks!” She patted him twice on the shoulder. “I guess regularly nice Chanyeol is still present after all.”

“Just leave me alone.” He was going to cry dry tears. He was crying dry tears. He was choking in his dry tears. Regularly nice Chanyeol then ran away from blackmailer Ahreum.

“Where is he going in such a hurry?” Ahreum asked no one in particular. A minute passed and realization finally came around when she remembered that Gong Myung was abandoned in the middle of their conversation. She spun around, saw that he was still watching her from under the tree, and hurriedly ran back to him.

“That’s quite some exercise you’re doing,” Gong Myung joked.

“Yeah, I think I got my exercise in for the day.”

“Did you bully Chanyeol?” Seul-ah asked, her back resting on the tree trunk as her body stayed stable on the branch.

“Yeah, he looked like he was going to cry,” Gong Myung added.

“No, it’s nothing. I just got him to agree to help me,” Ahreum said. “But hey, have any of you heard other people talk about Chanyeol?”

“Yeah,” Gong Myung said. “I have.”

“What do they say about him?”

“Well…” Gong Myung searched through his mind and recalled some of his memory. “I’ve heard people say that he’s handsome. Some people say that he’s like a sweet prince. And some say that he’s an egotistical maniac.”

“Sweet prince?” she asked, about to gag. “I understand handsome and egotistical maniac, but sweet prince? Who said something that cheesy?” Gong Myung shrugged in reply. “Have you heard anyone say that he’s a nice guy?”

“Hmm… yeah. I think I have.”

Wow. Chanyeol wasn’t lying after all.

 

---

 

“So we need to buy a lot of eggs, a lot of carrots, a lot of peas, a lot of…” Ahreum was interrupted by the sound of an object being thrown into the shopping cart. She looked inside the cart before unamusingly eyeing Chanyeol. “That’s not on the shopping list,” she stated.

“I’m buying it for me,” he said.

She sighed and allowed the box of cereal to stay in the cart. Plop. Another sound of something being thrown in the shopping cart caught her attention. “Seul-ah, that’s not on the list,” she said in frustration.

“But I want to buy it,” Seul-ah said. Ahreum only sighed before nodding. Another sound of an item being placed in the cart made the usually calm Ahreum to snap. “That’s not on the list!” she yelled.

Gong Myung froze in place, meekly standing over the cart with a few bags of peas in his hands. “G-Gong Myung,” she started with regret in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I thought that you were putting something in that wasn’t on the list but it actually was on the list and, anyway, I’m sorry Gong Myung.”

“It’s alright,” he said, regaining his smile.

The entire gang was together in a grocery store. Ahreum was able to find a day where all of them were equally free, and she took the opportunity to take them all with her to get the necessary ingredients, the reason being that carrying the groceries would be too much to do by herself. But it turned out to be a bad decision as having all four of them grocery shopping together was like a mother trying hard to control her grown up kids, but failing because all of them strongly believed in their individual freedom.

“Okay, so we got the peas,” Ahreum announced while checking off the item on her list. “Next we should get the eggs.” She raised her head only to find that no one was listening to her. Chanyeol was busy picking out chips. Seul-ah was by the fish tanks, seemingly mesmerized by the imprisoned aquatic creatures, and Gong Myung, of whom she trusted the most to be on task, was nowhere to be seen. Ahreum could feel her blood pressure rising from the ocean of anger and frustration she was keeping in.

“You know what, I’m doing this by myself,” she said despite knowing that none of her dormmates had heard her. Her hand grabbed the cart’s handle and pushed it along with her as she went to find eggs. This was the moment that Chanyeol conveniently came back to the spot where Ahreum was previously standing. His eyes scanned the area, but the only thing he saw was the absence of her presence.

It didn’t take long to realize that Ahreum had left to get something else, idiotically leaving him unsupervised. “This is my chance,” he whispered, grinning from ear to ear. He took a moment to make sure that the path towards the exit was clear of a woman called Im Ahreum, and after looking around one last time, he bolted towards the automatic doors. He was home free. Nothing, absolutely nothing, blocked his path. Soon, he was breathing the fresh air of freedom as he enjoyed the vastness of the sky.

“Chanyeol.” A voice interrupted his celebratory moment. The voice was firm, angry, and most importantly, angry. The second most important fact about the voice was that it sounded exactly like Ahreum’s, mainly because it was Ahreum’s. Not only was it an important fact, it was also the most horrifying fact that he had ever encountered.

“I can explain,” Chanyeol slowly said, afraid of making her even more mad.

“Come over here right now.”

“Yes ma’am.” He walked over to her side like an obedient puppy. Before he knew what had happened, he was back inside the grocery store and was sitting in the shopping cart with his long legs bent in front of him. Ahreum hummed as she pushed the cart that contained him, with her as she scanned the aisle for her ingredients. While sitting in the cart, he saw everyone passing by and staring at him in a way that humiliated him, degrading him of his pride. “Ahreum, I don’t think that fully grown adults are allowed to sit in here,” he said.

“Since when were you an adult? You couldn’t even keep your word,” she shot back. He really wanted to say something, but Ahreum was quite scary when she was angry. The humiliation was easier to deal with than an angry Ahreum.

“I got the eggs.” Gong Myung came back towards the cart, and after registering the sight of the large college student sitting in it, fits of laughter burst out of him.

“Hey.” Chanyeol looked at the male who was laughing hysterically. “Tone it down a little.”

“Sorry, sorry. I just didn’t expect to see this.” Gong Myung’s laughter reduced to a few giggles.

“That looks like fun,” Seul-ah said as she came up beside Gong Myung. “Can I try?”

“Gladly.” Chanyeol was happy at the mere thought of standing up, but Ahreum clucked her tongue, causing for him to stop before the thought became reality. “Chanyeol is on a timeout,” Ahreum said.

“Pft!” Gong Myung gave his all into not laughing, but he was seconds away from caving in.

Chanyeol embarrassingly sat back down in his prison. If the humiliation wasn't enough torture, the size of the cart was making him uncomfortable as it was way too small for someone like him, and there was nothing he could do about it as he was too scared of Ahreum's reaction to try hanging his legs off the front of the cart. Not to mention that he was surrounded by grocery items, making the already suffocating cart to be even more suffocating. “I saw you trying to escape,” Ahreum suddenly said. “You think I wouldn’t notice when you’re that tall? I could spot you a mile away.”

Ahreum started nagging him about every little thing. All he could do meanwhile was to sit and put up with it. “Curse my height,” he mumbled in the midst of the endless train of scolds and nagging that came out of Ahreum. For the first time in a long while, he had a spiteful feeling for his tall stature—the first time involved the crushing of his childhood dreams when he was not allowed on a kiddy slide, but that was unnecessary information.

“If you do not like being tall, there is a surgical procedure that can reduce height,” Seul-ah, who somehow heard him, stated.

“Is it painful?” Chanyeol asked.

“Yes.”

“Then why would I want that?”

“You don't seem to like your height.”

“That doesn't mean—” He stopped and sighed, not wanting to waste energy on explaining to her. “There are jellybeans in aisle 7.”

“Is that so?” she said.

Without another word, Seul-ah left. Her disappearance felt like a weight being lifted off his shoulders. Gong Myung also left towards another aisle, probably going to get something else on Ahreum’s shopping list being the flatterer he was. Chanyeol then turned his head towards Ahreum to see her picking out some apples which, by the way, were not on the list. “That's not on the list,” he mocked her.

“I'm buying it for me,” she said.

“I said that too, but you got mad at me,” he said. She ignored him, making him feel quite bored as he unwillingly stayed put in the cart.

“You know, for someone who got the part thanks to me, you're not showing much gratitude.”

Ahreum placed one last apple into the bag before facing him. “I said thanks earlier today.”

“You said it once, and now you're forcing me to sit in this stupid cart.”

“You were trying to run away.”

“You threatened me first.”

“Do you know how many times I let you off the hook even though you keep breaking the rules?” She tied up the plastic bag and placed it into an empty spot next to him. “Just bear with me for today. It's hard to carry all of the bags home even with three people.” Her eyes wouldn't meet his as she said it. He could tell that she felt bad for forcing him to help. It wasn't like he minded helping, actually, that was a lie, he did mind, but the way she seemed so guilty about asking him to help softened him. Was this the secret power that women had? A secret ability where they could soften any guy or even any person into helping them?

The answer didn’t matter because it was clear that he fell for it, and in such a quick manner too.

“I'm coming out,” he said while carefully standing up in the wobbly cart. Ahreum raised a brow, about to scold him again, but he assured, “I'm not running away. Trust me this time.”

This made her close as she watched him climb out of the cart, yet her eyes still remained on him, weary of his actions. “You didn't get the carrots yet, right?” he said once his feet were back on the ground. “I saw them over there. Let's go get it.” He went to the back of the cart and started pushing it, making Ahreum surprised that he took the initiative.

She followed behind, still not completely sure if he was going to run or not, but then he stopped in front of the carrots, got a plastic bag, and randomly picked some of the orange produce before plopping them into the bag. Ahreum gently smiled from what she was seeing. “You can't just pick them randomly,” she said. “I'll show you how to choose the good ones.”

“Are you saying that I don't know how to choose good carrots?” He raised his brows at her while she nodded in reply. “Well, you're absolutely right,” he said, looking eager to learn the ways of choosing a good carrot.

“Why do you look so excited to learn?” she asked, amused.

“Because when my sister and I used to go grocery shopping, whenever my sister chooses a carrot, my mom would be like, ‘Oh, you're so smart! You know how to choose the right carrots!’ But then when I pick one she tells me that I have no talent at grocery shopping. Can you believe it? How can she say that to a kid?”

“She's right though.”

“That's why you need to teach me.” He nudged her arm. “Teach me. Teach me,” he repeated while continuously nudging her like a small child.

“I will,” she said, finding his action cute. “You better pay attention because I’m not going to repeat myself.”

Chanyeol nodded and she, still grinning, started teaching him the ways of picking a rather fine carrot.