“Great, it’s raining. Just as Luna said it would.”

Joy stood at the entrance of their campus’ library, watching as the rain poured one evening after she decided to call it a day and go back to the dorm. In hindsight, she probably should have listened to her roommate’s warning and packed an umbrella with her that day - it had been raining the entire week during the evenings. If she had, perhaps she wouldn’t be stranded on campus at that moment.

Fishing out her phone from her bag, she quickly texted her roommate of her predicament and that she would be late for dinner seeing how the rain was not going to let up anytime soon. She briefly considered running across the short distance to the shaded walkway opposite the library but decided against it when she thought of the textbooks she just borrowed. She was about to head back into the library when a voice stopped her.

“Do you want to share my umbrella?”

Joy stared at the girl beside her, slightly surprised at the offer - a few had walked passed her in the last few minutes with their respective umbrellas and none of them had bothered about her, each rushing to go home or to whatever classes they had. She was about to accept the offer but saw that the umbrella would probably not fit the both of them.

“Oh, no it’s okay. You go ahead. Thank you.” Joy gave her a little bow but the girl didn’t budge.

“The rain is not going to stop anytime soon, ya know?” She looked at the darkening sky and then at her umbrella. “I know what you’re thinking and it’s okay. It’s just water. What’s more important is keeping those books dry.” She pointed at the textbooks Joy held.

Joy nodded gratefully, telling the girl that she only needed to cross to the walkway and off they went. She wrapped an arm around the shorter girl so that they could huddle together as close as possible to shelter themselves from the rain under the umbrella.

“Thank you! You’re God sent. The books are still dry!” Joy cheered as she inspected the books once they reached their destination, thrilled that she wouldn’t have to face any possible nagging from the librarian again and pay any potential fines for ruining them. “I don’t think I can survive another nagging from Mrs. Han.”

“Mrs. Han?”

“She’s some kind of head of the librarians and she nagged me a few times before because I got coffee stains on some of the books a few semesters back.” Joy sighed. “Either way, I gotta go. Thanks again!”

“No problem.”

“See you around, cutie!”

Joy winked and dashed off, not missing the way the girl’s cheeks coloured.

***

Classes were a bore as usual, Joy sometimes wondered what possessed her to take such a boring course in the first place and then remembered that she would have probably suffered even more had she pursued Science instead. The semester barely started and they already hated most of their classes. She looked over at her friends who, like her, were not paying any attention as their lecturer went on about the theory of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - they had already read up on the topic ahead of their class during their study session. Krystal was staring blankly at the screen while Amber was slouching in her seat hugging her backpack as though it was a pillow.

Joy looked around for the missing member of their little crew. Luna was nowhere to be seen even though she had texted earlier that she would show up to class that day. Her roommate’s timetable was a bit different than theirs and had a tutorial class to attend prior to the lecture they were currently sitting in. Joy gave up looking after a while, worried that the lecturer might call on her for acting weird and went back to daydreaming until class was over.

The three of them were packing up to go when two shadows loomed over them. Krystal looked up and saw Luna beaming at them.

“Yah, where were you? We thought you bailed on us.”

“I was sitting all the way up there near the doors. Oh, I made a new friend today!”

“Congraaaa~tulations.” Amber said while yawning.

“Guys, this is Seungwan. She just transferred here.”

Amber and Krystal greeted Seungwan and nudged Joy, who was still packing up.

“Huh? Oh! Hey, cutie. We meet again.”

Three sets of eyes looked curiously at her and the said cutie blushed.

“What?”

“How do you two know each other?”

“I helped her once last week when it was raining.”

Luna snapped her fingers when she managed to connect the dots.

“You’re too nice to this spawn of Satan, Seungwan. You should have just let her ruin those books and let Mrs Han nag her ears off. I’d pay good money to see that.”

---

“Wow, right from the get go! She didn’t waste any time at all.”

“No, she actually really did not waste any time at all.”

“What?”

“Apparently she asked her out within a couple of weeks.”

“WHAT?”

---

Joy was fascinated by the new addition to their group. Actually, fascinated would be an understatement. Amber, Krystal and Luna watched in amusement as Joy stuck to Seungwan like glue day in and day out. Joy had denied all accusations that she was going to whisk Seungwan away for herself and leave the other three to fend for themselves until their degree ended.

“Say it. If we weren’t cousins you wouldn’t even be sitting here with us, would you?” Luna asked, pointing accusingly at Joy.

“Come on, you guys really think that I would just abandon all of you? After all we’ve been through last year?” Joy gasped dramatically, feigning offence while Krystal and Amber were just enjoying the show.

“What happened last year?” Seungwan asked innocently in the middle of the chaos during one of their group study sessions.

Amber took it upon herself to retell the tales from the year before when they were in their pre-university programme. Being fresh out of high school and all, the three of them chilled excessively and had failed most of their midterms and assignments during the first semester before actually sitting down to work on their grades. The scores they got for their finals were just enough to pass since their coursework marks were so bad. Needless to say, that first semester scare was enough to keep their momentum going until they finished their pre-u programme and moved onto their degree course.

“That’s my girl!” Seungwan gave Joy an impressed nod and gave Joy a peck on her cheek. Joy looped an arm over Seungwan’s shoulders and smiled smugly at their friends who were either making gagging noises or rolling their eyes.

“These two are insufferable.”

***

Semester break, a time where student rejoice at their temporary freedom and return home to hibernate for weeks before having to return to campus to face yet another 14 weeks of classes. Joy had planned on doing just that before Amber and Krystal burst into their dorm room one night a few weeks before their finals with Seungwan in tow.

They were talking excitedly about going on a trip again since they were all finally legal and are mature enough to handle themselves in whatever situation they might get themselves into. Luna had scoffed at the statement and reminded Amber about that time she decided to challenge her cousins to a spicy instant ramen competition during the semester break before. Amber had lost terribly and spent the day emptying her parents’ refrigerator of whatever leftover milk they had.

Amber waved it off, citing that she had grown since then.

“That was only two months ago!”

“So? Are we going on a trip or not? Gotta start planning now or it’ll never happen.”

“I don’t see why not..Seungwan?”

“I’m in!”

Joy looked at her roommate and shrugged.

“Guess we’re going on a trip. Where do you have in mind?”

Krystal and Amber grinned and fished out a USB flashdrive to begin a proposal presentation for their trip. They had already done a detailed study on potential vacation spots they could visit including attractions, transportation, accomodation and the all important budget. Luna, Seungwan and Joy nodded as they listened, very much impressed by what was presented to them given that it probably only took Krystal and Amber a couple of days to put together.

That was how they ended up visiting a nearby port town, about a three-hour bus ride away from their university, because they agreed that the main objective of their trip was to eat as much seafood as possible - fish, crabs, prawns, oysters - you named it, they ate it. Joy complained about having indigestion during their second day and Seungwan babied her for the remainder of the trip - asking if she was okay, making sure that she wasn’t eating too fast and on time.

The other three were snickering at her supposed indigestion because it seemed like she was putting on a show because Seungwan was around. Joy sent a glare their way followed by a smirk and it confirmed their suspicions.

“Sneaky little .”

“Well played, Park Sooyoung. Well played.”

Joy sheepishly came clean to Seungwan a few days afterwards that it was all an act.

“Oh I know.” Seungwan allowed herself a smirk but it eventually turned into a soft smile when she saw Joy’s eye widened. “I went along with it because I like taking care of you and you looked like you were enjoying it.”

“You know me too well.” Joy threw herself at Seungwan, peppering her face with kisses.

***

Classes were still a bore when they returned for their final year. Joy thought that their final year would at least be a bit more exciting than the two before but things didn’t change much. At least they had their final year project to look forward to. Thinking of topics to research about was a pain but once they had that down, everything took off.

Looking for journals to support their topic wasn’t a problem, they had had tonnes of practice courtesy of assignments of semesters passed. So was writing up a proposal for their topic and conducting their pilot test. It was all very new and exciting to them as they look forward to having their thesis professionally bound with their names proudly printed on the cover. If they did well enough, they would be able to present their research at a national seminar and it would also be kept in the library for future students to refer to.

Everything was going smoothly aside from some lecturers were out to get them for absolutely no reason. Amber got into trouble with one of them and was barred from entering class because she was late after getting back from the doctor’s during flu season. Krystal and Joy had argued with the unreasonable lecturer and gotten themselves kicked out of class as well. Luna and Seungwan wanted to help but Krystal quickly texted them to stay put.

‘It’s not worth it, guys. We’ll be fine. Meet you guys at the library after class.’

Joy pouted as she took one last look at Seungwan from outside the lecture hall before trudging off with Amber and Krystal.

“Stop sulking, there’s only an hour and a half left.” Krystal patted Joy’s back a little too hard and the latter grimaced. She then turned to check on Amber. “Hey, Am..”

“Yeah?” Amber replied while sniffling.

“You sure you don’t want to go back and rest?”

“I’ll just nap in the library while you guys chill.”

While Krystal was fussing over Amber, the two of them completely missed the way Joy was giggling because Seungwan sent her a text.

‘Miss you already!<3’

---

“They’re saps, too!!”

“They actually are…”

---

As their degree course drew closer to the end, Joy got increasingly anxious. Graduation was usually the turning point when it came to relationships, at least that was what she had heard from their seniors, because it was normal for them to part ways to either return to their respective hometowns or go to whatever city that they wanted to start their life at and not many relationships could endure the distance.

Joy sighed again as she was sprawled on the bed thinking of their impending graduation. While things were going steady between the two of them, she really couldn’t help but worry about the uncertainties. Luna just about had had enough of her roommate’s sighing and threw a scrunched up ball of paper at her, successfully hitting its target that was Joy’s forehead.

“What?”

“Don’t ‘what?’ me. You are obviously worried and you need to go talk to her about..whatever it is that you two are going to do after graduation.”

Joy sat up and sighed again but immediately brought her arms up to shield herself from an incoming projectile when she heard Luna scrunching up another piece of paper.

“Go before I chuck something that will actually hurt at you.”

“Alright, alright. Geez..” Joy brought her hands up to surrender and left for Seungwan’s dorm room two floors up.

---

“What happened? I mean..obviously nothing terrible because they’re still together. Right?”

“Well, yeah. She just likes to be dramatic. In another life she would’ve been quite the actress, ya know?”

---

“Alright. Everybody, meet the new kids. New kids, meet everybody. Now introduce yourselves.”

Joy and Seungwan looked at each other and blinked before turning back to the lady who was smiling expectantly at them, urging them to introduce themselves to the small audience in front of them like a teacher who wanted her new transfer students to fit in with her little class.

Seungwan went first and their audience clapped to welcome her. Joy waited for them to stop before introducing herself.

“Alright. Now you guys introduce yourselves. We’ll go clockwise from you.”

A tall, lanky girl raised her arm, a cheeky grin already forming. “I’m Yoona, one of the team leaders here. We’re going to have so much fun!”

While ‘fun’ would not be the right word to describe the job they found, courtesy of Krystal’s connections, Joy somehow believed Yoona that the job was going to be fun. The office team seemed laid back and their seniors gave her the impression that they were all dumb dumbs.

“This place looks not bad. I kinda like it here so far.” Joy whispered to Seungwan once they had settled down to their assigned desks. “We’re going to have to thank Krystal for her recommendation once she gets back from her fancy modelling job in Europe. I still can’t believe she was scouted and during our convocation of all places.”

“Me neither. Oh hey that must be her sister. I can see the resemblance between the two of them.” Seungwan nudged her head in the direction of a particularly calm and quiet person who was busy typing away at her desk. “Her desk is way bigger, do you think that’s how things work here? The higher the post, the bigger the desk?”

“It’s possible. I mean..look our boss’ table. It’s huge!”

“Yes, Joy. We do, in fact, distinguish our posts here by the size of our desks. That’s why Jessica’s desk is the biggest second only to Ms Song’s.” Yoona came up behind them and Joy jumped. “I have a bunch of old case files for you two to study while Jessica figure out which team to put you guys into. Have fun!”

Yoona dropped a pile of case files on their desk and sauntered off. The two new recruits blinked blankly at the huge pile and smiled at each other.

“Well, we should probably get started.” Joy reached out and handed one of the files to Seungwan.

“We probably should.”

---

“And a few months later they meet your mom.”

“So your moms met in college. That totally explains why they aren’t as clingy as my parents, they’ve known each other for so long. I swear to God, Rong-ah, it’s like they cannot live without seeing each other for a day I’m about to go crazy. So. much. public display of affection.” Yerim gasped in horror remembering how gross her parents usually were.

“Mine are almost the same. They just hide it better when they’re out in public.”

“Consider yourself lucky. Now..how do you solve this Math problem again?”

---

END.

a/n: hello! it's been a while =] i hope you guys liked it. i've never written wenjoy or the fx babies before so i understand if it was meh ahaha