Jinyoung was in the middle of BIO 470 when he randomly decided to open up his laptop and check on his budget sheet. Since agreeing to take on the volunteer shifts at the convalescent home, Jinyoung had to cut back a few hours at his work study job at the campus infirmary. The discounted rent made up for the loss of money, but he was still steering dangerously close to the top of his budget. He scanned each item, checking to see if there was anything he could cut back on. He considered calling Jackson to tell him he wouldn’t be able to meet for dinner tonight; he wouldn’t be able to fit it into the budget.

Around him, his classmates began to pack their things. Jinyoung followed suit, carefully replacing his laptop and notebook into his bag. He was halfway across the quad and considering heading on back to Hillside Residences when he was stopped by someone.

It was his ex-girlfriend. Lee Nawon.

She was wearing a sunny yellow top, and in a brilliant moment of color association, he thought she looked happy. Which only made him feel even worse. It’d been more than a month since he caught her making out with Mark, and he hated how his heart still skipped a beat seeing her. Just a leftover reaction from their seven-month relationship, he supposed. One day, he’d be able to look at her and feel nothing. 

When he looked up and met her eyes, she had an apologetic look on her face. 

“Hey,” she said quietly. Jinyoung swallowed.

“Hey,” he said, only because he wasn’t sure what else to say. Nawon stood there for the longest time, probably thinking of the best way to say whatever it was she wanted to say. Jinyoung’s mind, meanwhile, romped back seven months and remembered how she had fake a sprained ankle just to go to the infirmary to see him and how she’d worn a blue dress on their first date, all the way up to the moment he walked in and saw her being unfaithful to him. 

He half expected Nawon to come out with an apology. But she offered none. Instead, she handed him a book. Malice by Keigo Higashino. He almost scoffed at how appropriate the title was for this moment. 

“You let me borrow this a while ago, I forgot I had it,” Nawon said, gently as if the next word out might break him. Jinyoung, however, tried to look as unaffected as he possibly could. He took the book from her. She probably didn’t even read it. 

“So, how are you?” she asked. “We all feel sorry for you, you know.”

“I don’t feel like talking,” Jinyoung said, and then ducked around her and started walking away before she tried talking to him again. He really did not want to talk. He did not want to hear her excuses or her explanations, no matter how many times people insisted that it would give him comfort and closure. He wanted to just get away from all of it, pretend it never happened.

When he looked back, Nawon wasn’t following him. Instead, he saw her walking in another direction toward the coffee cart where he saw Mark waiting. Unlike Nawon, Mark hadn’t tried reaching out to Jinyoung at all. 

Even though he didn’t want to, Jinyoung’s body unconsciously began to slow down. He could take his eyes away from his ex-girlfriend and his ex-roommate.

He had tried to keep himself from falling down the rabbit hole of wondering how long Nawon and Mark had been going on behind his back. Wondering when in those seven months he had lost Nawon. Wondering what he could have done differently or if things had been wrong from the very beginning.

But then he stopped himself. Not now. He couldn’t think of this now. Not when there were so many other things to worry about. Like that medical school acceptance letter that seemed like it might never come or his budget. Jinyoung turned back and started walking again, but then he immediately rammed into someone and fell forward, pinning the person to the grass.

Jisoo grunted in pain the moment her back hit the grass and then again when Jinyoung fell on her, knocking the wind out of her lungs. 

“Jisoo?” Jinyoung looked down at her face and, seeing how close they were, their cheeks colored at the same time. He pushed himself off of her and tried to pull Jisoo up, but she insisted on helping herself. 

“Is this some kind of Southern Tech welcoming ritual?” Jisoo said, straightening out her dress, which was the color of the night sky. “Do you tackle all your visitors?”

“I didn’t see you,” Jinyoung said apologetically. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Jisoo said, brushing grass off her skirt. There were grass stains on the back of her leg. The dandelion fuzz that got stuck on the crown of her head looked like stars against the black of her hair. What a surprise it was to see Jisoo here.

“What do you want?” he asked, finding the usual curt tone he used when speaking to her. Jisoo looked up.

“Excuse me?”

“I said what do you want?”

She scoffed and crossed her arms.

“How do you even know I’m here to see you?” she said stubbornly. “Maybe I’m here to… talk to a friend, or how do you know I don’t have a hot Southern Tech boyfriend that I’m visiting?”

Jinyoung raised an eyebrow and paused for a moment. “Do you?” he asked. Jisoo bit the inside of her cheek.

“No,” she said, and Jinyoung scoffed. 

“Okay, well, last I checked, it’s not football season, so I’m guessing you’re not here to steal our mascot,” he said. “Did you need something from me?”

“No,” Jisoo said, quieter that time. Jinyoung was confused and getting a little impatient.

“Then what are you doing here?” 

Jisoo clenched her first and opened and closed several times, trying to find the best way to broach her topic. This was a very serious situation, and raising it the wrong way might make the whole thing collapse. Jinyoung was still waiting for her to speak. She cleared :

“Did I tell you that I got a job interview last week?” she said.

Jinyoung didn’t move and didn’t speak, just stared at her. 

“You came to tell me you got a job interview?” he said. “Okay. Congratulations. I hope you had a nice trip coming over here, since you kind of wasted it.”

He dodged her and started to walk away. Unlike Nawon, however, Jisoo followed him.

“It’s at this company,” Jisoo said. “A magazine, well actually it’s more like a journal. It’s called Embrace.”

He recognized the title: “You mean that journal you read in high school?”

Jisoo was surprised, and kind of impressed. “You know it? You read it, then?”

“No, I just remembered it. You got a job there? As what?” As much as Jinyoung tried to sound like he wasn’t interested, he was a little bit curious. Jisoo kept up with his pace, walking backwards so she could face him as she spoke. 

“Editorial Intern,” Jisoo answered. “I’d basically be preparing materials for publication and assisting the Associate Managing Editor, her name is Sandara Park, and maybe even get to write some features, and there’s a possibility for advancement after one year.”

Jinyoung stopped walking for a minute and held Jisoo’s gaze.

“You’re a writer, then,” he said. Jisoo was caught a bit off guard by his tone. He almost sounded… happy? It confused her, so she chose to ignore it.

“Almost,” she said, holding up one finger. “I went in and interviewed, and the managing editor, her name is Julie Kiyoko, she really liked me. She even asked me to stay afterward and gave me some advice.”

She was speaking very animatedly about her job interview, and Jinyoung remembered that she used to go off on tangents in middle schools, making up stories about pirates and princess and spies and talking animals. 

“So did you get the job?” he asked. Jisoo’s smile flattened into a frown.