The campus around Seungcheol was buzzing with emotions: dread of having to return to school after a peaceful break, excitement from seeing friends or maybe even just from being back on campus, anxiety about classes for the upcoming semester. Conversations rang in and out of his ears, but he ignored most of them, more focused on making it to his class early so he could get a decent seat.

     Seungcheol nearly sprinted when he arrived to the designated floor of his class, but when he got to the door, he realized it was still locked. ‘So there is such a thing as too early, huh…’ He thought to himself, banging his forehead on the window of the door.

     “Still locked, huh?” A sweet, husky voice from Seungcheol’s side suddenly spoke and he jolted back.

     “Oh, you scared me,” Seungcheol clutched at his chest, his breath a bit heavy. Nonetheless, he chuckled a bit as he spoke. The girl in front of him laughed as well, mouth wide open and face scrunched up carelessly. While she laughed, Seungcheol took a better look at her. Her hair was just barely shoulder length, blonde too, and she wore a simple sweatshirt, some ripped jeans, and what appeared to be old converse. Seungcheol mentally applauded her for having the resolve to actually slip on jeans for an 8am, compared to his outfit which consists of the t-shirt and sweatpants he wore to sleep last night.

     “Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to scare you.” The girl bowed a bit in apology, but Seungcheol waved it off.

     “Oh, no, don’t worry about it! I just didn’t expect many people to be here this early. You said it was still locked, right? What time did you even get here?” Seungcheol asked, quite curious as to why the girl was here so early.

     “I’ve been here for an hour and a half, maybe? I always get anxious on the first day, so I end up coming early. Especially since I don’t know the campus that well, I just transferred here last semester.”

     “Oh, you transferred, where from?”

     “Yonsei,” She answered coolly. Seungcheol’s eyes widened, and he stuttered a bit before answering her.

     “ Yonsei ? You decided to transfer out of one of the SKY Universities? To KNU?”

     The girl laughed again. “Wow, your face...Ah, but that’s exactly why I transferred. It was a hard decision, a lot of people pestered me until I even doubted myself, but the difference has been very noticeable. I’m much happier here. I know, “happy doesn’t pay the bills”, but it matters the most to me. It wasn’t even just me that was stressed, but I could tell my parents were too from supporting me, no matter how much they tried to deny it.”

     “Oh,” Seungcheol replied lamely, too stricken with the girl to even think of a better reply. “that’s cool.”

     Another laugh and Seungcheol swallowed dryly. ‘She’s really cool...and cute,’ he thought to himself, a smile spreading on his face. Then, a second passed by before Seungcheol’s fast dropped. ‘, she’s cute! I’ve been talking to a cute girl this whole time!’

     “By the way, since we’re getting to know each other, my name is Jeongyeon. Yoo Jeongyeon. Nice to meet you, inevitable class partner.” Jeongyeon bowed and held out her hand with a smile.

     ‘She’s so smooth too. I’m done for,’ Seungcheol thought as he held out his hand, bowing slightly as well. “I’m Choi Seungcheol, nice to meet you too, partner.” Seungcheol chuckled lightly. For the first time in his life, Seungcheol is glad he was forced to take an 8am class, this must be what a divine apology is like. He’s not religious, but he thinks he might pray later to any and all Gods listening as a thanks.

     “Well, nice to see students here so early, eager to learn, huh?” The professor made her way over to the two, key to the door and paperwork in hand. Jeongyeon broke away, bowing deeply to the professor before answering her brightly. Seungcheol did the same, albeit his response was a bit distracted as he was still reeling from the realization that he mindlessly made acquaintances (friends, maybe?) with a cute girl on his first day back.

     The two shuffled into the room after their professor, and before Seungcheol could examine the room to consider his seating options, Jeongyeon ushered him over to the front seats on the far side of the room.

     “Do you prefer to sit next to the wall or  does it even matter?” Jeongyeon asked him, bag halfway off of her shoulders.

     “I don’t mind either way, you can sit there if you want,” This response made Jeongyeon smile wide as she moved past him to take her preferred seat. Seungcheol then moved to sit beside her, watching her pull out all the materials she prepared for this class. Sooner or later, people began filing into the room and the buzz of chatter that Seungcheol heard on his way here, filled the classroom quietly as the professor continued to prepare for the hour-long lecture.

     The hour passed by slowly, as most first classes of the semester do, but when it finally came to an end, Seungcheol let out a sigh of relief. He closed his laptop then slid forward to rest his upper body on the table. He heard Jeongyeon laugh as she packed up all of her materials; Seungcheol turned his head to the side a bit, watching as Jeongyeon put everything away neatly and carefully.

     “You’re very organized, huh?” Seungcheol asked, voice muffled.

     “Of course, that’s the way it should be!” Jeongyeon scolded, tapping Seungcheol’s shoulder. The two laughed, and Seungcheol packed up his laptop as Jeongyeon finally zipped her bag up and hoisted it over her shoulders. “Hey, do you have any other classes today?” Jeongyeon asked, trailing right along Seungcheol’s side.

     Seungcheol groaned in thought for a bit before he gave up and pulled up his schedule on his phone. “I don’t have another class until 2 and that one lasts until 3:15. After that I have an evening class at 6 to 8.” Seungcheol groaned again, an early class and a late class. Why did he do this to himself?

     “Ooh, harsh, I only have a 1 o’clock  class that only lasts until 1:50 after this.”

     “Eyyy, must be nice…” Seungcheol whined, and continued to do so as Jeongyeon .

     “Yo, Coups-ya, what took you so long?” Seungcheol turned around and there stood his two buddies from Freshman year, Jeonghan—who had called out to him—and Joshua, and another one of his friends who he has known since  childhood, Jihoon.

     “Coups?” Seungcheol could tell Jeongyeon was on the verge of teasing him again, and honestly, he doesn’t think he’ll ever get tired of it.

     “S.Coups, it’s a  dumb nickname from last year…” Seungcheol explained before he friends made their way over to him and Jeongyeon.

     “Whose this guy? You’re abandoning us already?” Jeonghan interrogated Seungcheol as usual.

     “She’s not a guy, Han, and this is Jeongyeon. We’re super duper best friends now, so yeah, I am abandoning you guys.” Seungcheol wrapped his arm around Jeongyeon and she played along almost immediately, wrapping her arm around his shoulder as well (although with a bit of difficulty as she was shorter).

     Jeonghan scoffed dramatically, as he loved to do, and roped Joshua into playing the parts of distraught and betrayed friends. Jihoon stared at the four of them as they acted out their little scene, embarrassed, but also highly amused.

     “Wow, Yoo Jeongyeon!” Jeongyeon’s face fell and she grimaced (once again, with no concern for being pretty), as her friends walk up to the small group. “You tell us to meet for breakfast, but you go around flirting instead?”

     “Eh? Nayeon, chill,” Jeongyeon sighed as she pulled away from Seungcheol. Two other girls trailed behind her, one laughing (almost squeaking)  uncontrollably while the other stared on, shocked (although, Seungcheol couldn’t tell if she was really shocked or confused?). “I’m not flirting…”

     “Sure, sure, you intend to be just friends with this guy whose exactly your type?” Nayeon crossed her arms and tried to keep up her offended appearance, but she couldn’t help the mischievous smile from spreading on her face. The girl laughing behind her nearly fell over from amusement, and the other still looked a little lost despite beginning to laugh as well.

     Seungcheol heard a gasp behind him, and he knew exactly what was about to happen; however, before he could stop it, Jeonghan spoke up as well.

     “She’s right, you both ditched us all just to flirt, ah how careless...”

     “Oh my god,” Jihoon couldn’t hold in his laughter any longer. “you guys are too much, seriously.”

     “Exactly,” Jeongyeon and Seungcheol said at the same time, and unsurprisingly, in the same exasperated tone as well.

     “Amazing, you two might as well be dating already,” Nayeon egged on.

     “Mhm, go on, leave us behind like you planned to do anyways,” Jeonghan went over to the group of girls and stood right next to Nayeon. The two ended up linking arms before stomping off playfully. The two other girls looked at each other for a moment and shrugged before looking over towards Joshua and Jihoon. The four also stared at each other for a moment before shrugging and then they were off as well, although, they didn’t dramatically link arms like Nayeon and Jeonghan.

     “She’s so extra…” Jeongyeon made a face and shook her head.

     “I feel that, and it’s so early too. Jeonghan shouldn’t even be awake. He would murder someone if he had to be awake this early.”

     “Man, Dahyunnie is like that too, even though she’s still so young. It’s a nightmare waking her up for school every morning.” Jeongyeon shuddered as if she were remembering something traumatic.

     “You don’t stay on campus? And you stay with high schoolers?” Seungcheol questioned, uncertainty laced around the word ‘high’ as he was just taking a wild guess.

     “Ah, no, I had a terrible roommate at Yonsei, so I didn’t want to do that again. About the other girls, it’s kind of a long story…” Jeongyeon trailed off.

     “Hm, wanna get something to eat? You can tell me all about it, since we both have quite some time before our next classes. I’ll even finally tell you about myself, too.” Seungcheol offered with his best smile, and Jeongyeon returned it after shying away.

     “Sure, that sounds nice.” Jeongyeon agreed with a laugh before the two went off to a nearby cafe to discuss their troublesome group of friends.