[2012]

Morning smells like fallen leaves and wet floor and Jiwon tries masking the unpleasant taste of Monday and responsibilities with a cup of coffee that is as black as his soul. Dark bags under his eyes are still too visible even after he scrubbed his face until the healthy color fades. His mind is still not one hundred percent there yet. After a hard party and loud night, he usually needs one full day of sleep before functioning properly. But there he is, in the college’s cafetaria that is too loud and busy, yet his hazy mind cannot really seem to care much about his surrounding.

He is in his third sip of coffee until someone comes and sits just accross the table, carrying two super thick textbooks on his right hand and a cup of coffee—which smelled bitter, really bitter—on his other hand, thick black hair tousled, round glasses, dark bags under his eyes, and a tissue stucks up his nose. A nosebleed early at the morning—what a great thing to start a day.

Jiwon watches in horror as he pours a bottle of monster energy drink into his coffee and stirrs it. He gets rid of the bloody tissue, smells the cup content and scrunches his nose. He’s a mess.

“I am going to die.” he says to no one in paticular, as he drinks the whole thing in a big gulp. Jiwon knows his eyes widen in horror as he watches that terrifying scene, but then the glasses boy slams his cup and flops his upper body to the table, closing his eyes like nobody’s business.

Anatomy, well from the thick book and the desperation, Jiwon can really tell that the boy in front of him is a medicine student, who is barely getting himself together. He had seen this book before, somewhere in his friend’s apartment, and he wonders if all medicine students are uptight and knows not how to have fun.

“Hanbin!”

Jiwon looks to the source of voice, and just “eeeey, if it isn’t Song Yunhyeong?”

A lot of people must really wonder sometimes why in such a hectic exam week, a second year medicine student can somehow look as decent as Yunhyeong. It’s a little bit upsetting, really.

“Hi Ji—my God, do you even own a mirror?”

“Aw, I’m fine, thank you.”

Jiwon can only witness when Yunhyeong doesn’t really pay attention to him, instead he’s trying to wake the glasses boy up, who is apparently hasn’t slept for like three days straight.

“Hanbin, the test begins in fifteen minutes, you gotta wake up!”

Jiwon heard the whine, followed by a sob. The glasses boy really is crying when Yunhyeong practically dragged him from where he is currently sleeping.

“I can’t do this... I can’t do verbal test... I don’t wanna do verbal test, please!”

His eyes are red, the glasses boy. Jiwon almost feels bad for the boy when he cries, but at the same time finds it adorable when he clings to Yunhyeong using his whole weight to fight the older boy’s strength.

“One more test, only this one more test and you’re done for the semester. I won’t let all the tutoring sessions go to waste, come on Hanbin.”

“What if I throw up in front of the professors? What if I just thud!,” he makes the noise that suppose to be the sound of a body falling, and Jiwon smiles at that, “...and die just like that?”

“Wow, that’s a wild imagination. Now you have to run across the building, 13 minutes to go.”

The glasses boy looks surprised, his eyes get bigger and Jiwon can see how his eyeballs are clear coffee-colored and somehow they make him look young and innocent. He gathered his belongings and begins sprinting after giving Yunhyeong a quick hug and dramatically said a if I don’t come back in two hours, tell my sister I love her as if he’s going to a warzone. Jiwon chuckles a little to that, finding it a little bit amusing.

After the glasses boy leave, it’s then Yunhyeong who sits across Jiwon and leans his body to the back of the plastic chair. He looks tired, but still obviously more alive than most of second year students in exam weeks. Still more alive than Jiwon himself.

“How much are you paid for babysitting a grown boy?” Jiwon begins, he’s still having a hard time opening his eyes and still wants to sit lazily there in front of his coffee for the next few hours.

Yunhyeong chuckles, “He’s the freshman I tutored,” and then he looks at Jiwon from head to toe with judging eyes, “and you? Stop partying like animals, Jiwon, this is exam week, for God’s sake.”

That makes Jiwon laugh. This is why he calls Yunhyeong ‘mom’ sometimes, and from how he reacts to it, looks like Yunhyeong enjoys it too.

“It’s a reward, calculus is done for the semester!!” he claps his hands like a seal and Yunhyeong squints like he doesn’t believe in Jiwon, “Hey! It’s one of the hardest subject in engineering, okay, cut me some slack.”

“If I’m not wrong you still have two exams coming, why don’t you, I don’t know, study?”

“It’s only unimportant subjects like ‘introduction to materials’, who on earth wants to study for that,” Jiwon sips his coffee, “you know what? It’s you who needs to chill a little. Why don’t you come to the club where Namjoon works? It’s gonna be fun, plus, I am gonna play some music there too.”

“Ah, no no no. Since the projectile vomit accident back then I promised myself not to go clubbing anymore, especially not with animal like you, Kim Jiwon, I hate you.”

Jiwon remembers the accident and it can still make him laugh. It had been their first party as college student and Yunhyeong was just dumped by his highschool girlfriend. Went too much on drinking and Yunhyeong vomited all over himself in a dirty bathroom, went through hell walking to their dormitory tried not to get caught, and resulted in three days migraine plus a lot of embarrassing posts on social media.

“Come on Yunhyeong... If not for you, do it for your freshman friend. Looks like he can use some good party to relax a little. Y’all med students are really like zombies in exam weeks, I feel bad for you guys.”

“You mean Hanbin? Hahaha, No. He’s got zero alcohol tolerance.”

“Then just don’t drink. Just enjoy the music and have fun. Come on man, it’s me making the music! It’s like... my debut or some kind.”

“And then what? You’re just gonna ditch school and make music? Thought your father wants you to be an engineer.”

“True that,” Jiwon grins, “but your man is a rebel.”

Yunhyeong can only cringe, “Please don’t ever call yourself my man in front of other people.”

The grin on Jiwon’s face gets wider, he loves teasing Yunhyeong.

“You really look like a wild bunny with those teeth and that long wavy hair. Purple, yikes. Get a haircut or tie it or do something about it,” Yunhyeong gathers his belonging and stands up ready to leave, “Imma go zombying in library for my own verbal test. I swear to God verbal test is everybody’s worst nightmare.”

“Saturday night at 9 PM, ‘kay? Bring glasses boy along too!”

Yunhyeong rolls his eyes, “Can’t promise anything.”

“Hey! My name is Bobby in the club so do not go around call me Jiwon!” he said half shouting before Yunhyeong gets further away from his table, only to be answered with a half wave without looking back.

.

.

.

Jiwon’s enjoying the night with a light drink in his hand, looking at the crowd singing and dancing to the music he arranged. He also gave a little performance because people kept insisting, they believed in Namjoon who said that Jiwon raps better than Eminem. Jiwon enjoyed it, the rush of adrenaline and the loud cheer from the crowd makes his heart thumps loudly in his chest, and it is one of the moments that make Jiwon believes that this is what he loves, what he wants to do for a really long time.

The first time he held the microphone, it was cold against his hand. He was shaking and his knees were weak. But it was Namjoon who shouted his name first, Bobby! Bobby! and it was like fuel sprayed to the fire when the crowd began chanting his name—he’s even sure that they don’t even know who Bobby was, but they chanted anyway. When the beat dropped and his body began swaying with each thumps, it felt really like he’s merged with the music, the microphone had became a part of his body and verses rhymed out of his mouth just like that.

That’s when the blurred line between Jiwon and Bobby started, although Jiwon still cringes when people he knows calls him Bobby. The name was still foreign, but good. He likes the name, he likes Bobby. If Jiwon is laid back, Bobby is free.

Just when Jiwon about to walk to meet Namjoon and his other friends, his eyes caught the image of the glasses boy whom he met awhile ago, sitting on a bar stool, facing the bartender who are busy serving drinks. Only now, his glasses are gone, he’s wearing a black bomber jacket with white V-neck under it, black ripped jeans and sneakers. He looks... different than what Jiwon met back then at the cafetaria. He looks at least more alive, although the dark circle under his eyes are still visible.

“Hey,” Jiwon started. The boy looks at him, still looks fine and sober, and maybe he’s really just here for the music and the fun, “aren’t you that med student, Yunhyeong’s junior?”

The other boy looks at Jiwon for a few moment before realization hits him, “Ah... yes. You know Yunhyeong?”

“Yeah, he’s my friend. We’re from the same highschool.”

“I see.” the boy turned his body to face the bar to start ordering, and what he orders actually shocked Jiwon. He remembers Yunhyeong telling him that his junior has zero alcohol tolerance, and he might have just ordered one of the strongest drinks in the club.

“Are you here with Yunhyeong?” Jiwon begins, only to make sure that this boy will have at least somebody to go home with. Jiwon knows how bad it is to get faced without anybody to at least bring you home—he had learned from experience, he once got drunk badly, he w