Hayoung has heard a lot about college life.

Like the part where its compulsory for all freshies to attend an orientation party. Or how it’s a stepping stone in life where people start falling in love, learning new things, losing their ity and basically crack up.

Not that she’s planning to follow those steps anyway, Hayoung’s a good girl. Too good that her sister thinks her innocence needs protection.

At the start of September, Hayoung moves into the house at Hongdae. It’s a five-minute walk to campus and easy to spot with its brown colors, small porch and brick roof. There are five other girls that she’ll be living with and the only person she knows is her sister, Chorong.

There are two bedrooms on the second floor and one on the first, just beside the common area. Unfortunately for Hayoung as she’s the last to move in, she’s stuck with bottom room. Next thing she’s going to have to worry about is her roommate.

Sneaking quietly into the house with the key Chorong gave her, Hayoung tries her best not to look like an intruder. But really, she came this early in the morning to avoid all the awkward introductions.

“You do know that I can see you right?”

Hayoung halts in her footsteps and straightens her back. “Right…” She laughs awkwardly, scratching her cheek as Namjoo approaches her with an unamused expression.

“Um, just so you know, I’m not here to steal anything. I’m moving in here today, name’s Hayoung.”

“Hayoung…” Namjoo hums her name, closing her eyes in thought as she knew the name felt very familiar. It is only until she gasps and claps her hands, “Oh! So, you’re Hayoung!” She exclaims and is suddenly a lot cheerier.

“Welcome to the house! My name’s Namjoo, second year in Fashion Design. What’s your major?” She shakes Hayoung’s hand excitedly.

“Computer science-“

“Wow! That’s really cool!” Namjoo cuts her. “Anyways, let me show you around and get your things in the room.”

Hayoung follows Namjoo who shows her the spacious common area fitted in with a TV, long couch and a small table. Then, there was the kitchen behind the counters. Although small, but it’s enough to make simple meals. Last came her room.

“ to be bottom room you know? When winter comes, this place gets the coldest end. Summer’s the same too. But oh well, getting leftovers is a classic newcomers thing.” Namjoo explains as she pushes the door open.

The bottom room is rather tight and small. With two beds squeezed in, there’s barely any space to walk. But on the bright side, it looks cozy. There is a small window on the wall that gives just enough light.

“Don’t worry! I don’t snore in my sleep!” Namjoo smiles as she helps to bring Hayoung’s luggage in.

“…You’re my roommate?” Hayoung asks after a moment of processing.

Namjoo nods and waves a peace sign, “Yup! Lucky you huh? At least you don’t have anyone who’s moody all the time, always missing in action or just plain drunk!” She whispers into Hayoung’s ears, “I swear, we’re like the most normal ones here. Everyone else loses their sanity by a tiny bit.”

“Okay…” Hayoung raises her eyebrows but doesn’t question it. She’s pretty much gotten an idea after seeing what her sister went through.

“Anyways, make yourself at home! I need to leave now cause a new semester means time to recruit more members for my club! Bye!”

And with that, Hayoung is left alone in her room. She looks over at Namjoo’s side and notices the polaroid pictures stuck on the wall. They seem to be taken at a club party and some college events. There are also these yellow decorative lights hanging over the wooden boards of Namjoo’s bed and stacked textbooks at the corner.

Hayoung shakes her head with a smile. There is a lot you can know just by seeing someone’s bed and she’s relieved that her roommate seems like a fun person to be with.

Once she’s done filling in the empty cupboard with clothes and organizing her study desk, Hayoung checks the time and prepares to leave for the orientation at noon. Judging from how the house has been pretty quiet from the past hour, its either everyone left or are still sleeping in their rooms. Hayoung heads out and passes through the common area.

“You must be the newcomer.” Naeun says quietly that it almost frightens Hayoung.

“God, you scared me.” She sighs, clutching onto her chest as her heart is jumping. Hayoung sees Naeun standing on the steps, one hand on the railing, the other holding a book. She thinks she’s the studious type. Not that she wants to jump into conclusions just by looking at their appearance, but it just happens.

“Sorry. I’m Naeun and you must be Hayoung. Your sister has talked a lot about you.”

“Oh, really? I guess that makes the introductions faster…”

Naeun continues her steps down and looks at Hayoung. “I don’t know whether to congratulate you or pity you on moving in. But good luck settling here.”

“…Thanks, I guess?” Hayoung says, unsure whether that was a sarcastic remark or warning.

She watches Naeun walk pass her and disappear into the kitchen. The fact that she’s holding a book cutting off their conversation coldly was clear signs that she doesn’t want to talk. And Hayoung decides to respect that. Body language can say a lot.

Just as Hayoung heads out to the door, her phone beeps with a message. She takes it out and it’s from Chorong.

From Chorong: Have you reached? Sorry, I’ll only back in the evening. Had a sudden errand to do. Anyways, my roommate is holding a party tonight so don’t be flustered when you start seeing a group of strangers flooding the living room.

From Hayoung: Wow, a party? Sounds like fun. Anyways, I met some of the housemates already. They seem okay.

From Chorong: Haha, don’t get your hopes up about the party. I’m assuming you met Naeun and Namjoo, they are pretty chill. Anyways, see you tonight and please don’t get mobbed at the orientation.

xxx

Orientation wasn’t that bad.

Besides the boring yet important speeches, there were a bunch of games and ice breaking sessions that led Hayoung to make a couple of friends. Although they aren’t taking the same major as her, she already felt that mutual spark with Yerin and Sooyoung.

When Hayoung returns to the house at 7pm, there’s loud music booming from the speakers. The lights are dimmed down, dirty pizza boxes scattered all over the table, crumbs littered everywhere and so many faces Hayoung doesn’t recognize.

“Drink! Drink! Drink!”

The crowd chanted as Eunji stood on top of the counter, raising a bottle of soju high up in the air.

 “To another new semester and to another great year with all of you!” She shouts into the Bluetooth pink microphone and dunks the liquid down . Then, she undresses her shirt and throws it onto the ceiling fan. Everyone cheers as they start stripping too and began dancing to the music.

Hayoung gapes in shock as she can’t believe this is happening. This is not the party she was expecting. It’s a lot crazier with everyone looking intoxicated.

Yeah. She’s crazy. Everyone’s crazy. What the hell.

Hayoung thinks as she tries to go past the common area and escape into her room. She isn’t going to get herself involved in this crazy party, not on her first day of moving in. Just when she’s this close to reaching the door however, someone grabs her by the shoulder.

“Hey! New face! Where ya going? Join us! Oh…you’re kinda pretty and tall too. Hey, you could be my girlfriend if you want.” He winks.

“Uh, sorry. I’m busy…” Hayoung stutters, eyes looking elsewhere because she cannot be bothered to stare at his chest. There’s no way she’s going to have a smooth night with the drunk look he’s giving her.  

“ off Leo.”

Chorong shoves him away as she grabs onto Hayoung’s hand. “Go bother someone else.” She scowls fiercely as Leo shrugs with a smug on his face, “Alright lioness, chill for s sakes. Sheesh…” and staggers back into the crowded living room.

“You okay?” Chorong examines her sister but Hayoung hugs her tight. She never thought seeing a familiar face around would suddenly make her feel so safe. The loud music and crowd cheers are making her anxious.

“Thank god you’re here, unnie!”

Chorong smiles softly and pats Hayoung’s back. She hasn’t seen her since she went home during the summer break.

“Told you not to get your hopes up with this party. That girl dancing on the counters, half ? Yeah, that’s my crazy roommate, Jung Eunji. At least she’s sane enough to not show her s around.” Chorong sighs and shakes her head. “I’d love to introduce the others to you but with this whole party happening? Probably not the right time.”

Hayoung nods in agreement, “Yeah, how do you even live here for four years?”

“I just make it work somehow.” Chorong shrugs as she brings Hayoung to her room.

“Alright, you should rest up for your first class tomorrow. Don’t come out until the party is over, okay? Good night.” Chorong pecks her sister’s forehead and closes the door. She hears the click of the lock and it makes her smile, knowing how Hayoung still listens to her.

She’s such a good girl that I need to protect her from all this. There’s no way I can let her innocence be tainted.

Chorong heads into the living room and pushes through the dancing crowd. She grabs an empty glass from the counter and pours herself beer—soju isn’t really her style.

“What a protective sister you are.” Bomi coos teasingly as she comes over to Chorong’s side. She receives a slap on her shoulder. “Ouch. I thought you were going to invite her.”

“Shut up, she’s underage.” Chorong frowns and takes a sip of her beer. “Anyways, is she going to play that same game again?” She asks as they watch Eunji entertain her guests. It’s always amusing to watch.

“Come on Suho, don’t be such a puss. You either drink or you strip!” Eunji smirks.

It’s one of her favourite games to play: the drink or dare game. Suho was picked after spinning the roulette and now, he has to drink a cup mixed with orange juice, salt, vinegar, sugar and beer. Yikes, that calls for a trip to the toilet.

“Goddamn it!” Suho shouts as he took a deep breath and chugged the cup down.

Everyone cheered him on but it doesn’t take him a second for him to spit everything out.The crowd laughs, Chorong grimaces while Bomi boos. The game continues for several rounds with many failing to drink and rushing to the toilet.

Eunji takes a break as game master and lets her friends take over. She heads over to the counters, winks at Chorong and places her arm around Bomi. Chorong pretends she doesn’t see while Bomi simply laughs.

“We’ve got about an hour before the party ends. Shall we play a classic game for once?” Eunji says as she’s refilling her glass with vodka.

Chorong shakes her head in reply. “Count me out.”

“Come on, it’s a special day to celebrate the start of our final year!” Eunji whines.

“Yeah, let’s play one game.” Namjoo enters with Naeun. Chorong looks at them and sighs. “Fine. Just once.” She says as all the housemates agree.

Chorong settles next to Bomi, Eunji squeezes between them. Naeun quietly finds her spot in the circle while Namjoo slides in. Suho returns from the toilet and is asked to be game master. He accepts and starts to shuffle the cards. Even though everyone’s played the game millions of times, it’s habitual for him to repeat the rules.

“Everyone draws a card until a red or blue is pulled. Then, the player has to either drink or answer Never Have I Ever.”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s get on with it.” Bomi says impatiently as she stretches over to pick a card from the stack.

The order goes around and Namjoo pulls a red. She groans and says, “Never have I gotten a food allergy.”

“Boring.” Eunji comments and they move on. This time, Naeun pulls another red and she confesses, “Never have I ever skipped a class.”

“I mean, are we surprised?” Bomi asks as Namjoo giggles. Naeun smiles while Chorong picks up a card.

“Can’t you guys make this game more fun? We don’t want boring confessions.” Eunji reminds as the game continues. 

Chorong takes the hit and sighs. “Never have I ever dated anyone.” She receives a quiet look from Eunji but she ignores her.

“Really? Not even in high school? Bomi asks.

“How can you not date anyone when you’re clearly not a ?” Namjoo adds.

“Shut up.” Chorong clicks her tongue as she takes a sip from her beer. “Continue.” She says.

Now, Bomi draws a ten and she smirks. “Never have I ever had !!!” She shouts with all the air in her lungs.

This leaves Eunji and Namjoo dying from laughter. Chorong and Naeun simply looks away, pretending they don’t know her. And everyone in the room who heard Bomi’s confession were whistling and cheering away.

“Wait, are you serious though? Like not even once?” Namjoo asks with all seriousness after catching her breath.

Bomi nods with truth and sincerity written all over her face. “ion doesn’t count right?” She asks.

It makes Eunji laugh again as she hooks her arm around Bomi’s shoulder. “No, it doesn’t. But don’t worry. If you ever need a hookup, let me know. I have an extensive list of friends who is always willing to find a new bed partner.”

Bomi grimaces at that thought and whispers into Eunji’s ears. “But I don’t wanna have with a stranger. I want to do it with someone I know.” She looks shyly at Naeun who doesn’t notice. “Someone like her.”

Eunji hums and nods excitedly, knowing exactly what she meant and promises to keep it a secret from Naeun. “Got it buddy. That’s going to be tough but good luck. I can’t help you with that. That girl you have your eye on, totally out of my league.” She pats her back as the friends return to the game.

xxx

After the party, Eunji is busy saying goodbyes to her guests who came over through the Facebook invites. Chorong is cleaning up the mess while Bomi helps her. Namjoo and Naeun quietly disappear into their rooms. It’s all a common scene for these housemates.

“You know, you really didn’t have to say that.” Chorong mumbles while wiping the table.

“Well, I don’t want to be left out in the whole losing your ity thing. Everyone around me has had except me.” Chorong gives her a judging look. “Oh, don’t worry. I wouldn’t want to do it with you.” Bomi waves her hand and laughs.

Chorong rolls her eyes. “Yeah, it’s absolutely gross now that I think about it.”

“But you wouldn’t mind if it was her.” Bomi whispers as she steals a sneaky look at Eunji standing by the door.

Chorong frowns and attacks her with an elbow nudge to a stomach that leaves her yelping in pain. Eunji returns to the living room after hearing Bomi’s cries and asks what happened.

“Nothing. Just Bomi saying stupid things again.” Chorong replies, “How many more parties are you planning to host this semester? With my sister around, I’d rather not have you doing whatever you please. And also, please put some clothes on.” She continues while still not looking at Eunji.

“Is that so, miss overly protective older sister?” Eunji smiles as she realizes why Chorong hasn’t been looking at her in the eye since the party started. It’s because all she’s wearing is literally her baggy jeans and black sports bra.

She climbs onto the counter, takes a leap forward and grabs her shirt dangling from the ceiling fan.

“This might be the last one in a while. With final year coming in, I’ve got my thesis to do. Internships to worry about. Practically won’t even have time to breathe!” Eunji jokes as she lands on the floor. Bomi claps adorably in response while Chorong sighs.

“Don’t worry. We’ll keep parties to a minimum this year like birthdays or Christmas celebrations. Those are fun.” Eunji smiles as Bomi nods in excitement.

Chorong shrugs, “Whatever,” and continues to clean up the remaining mess.  

“Alright, I’m off to bed. Pretty sad that I didn’t even manage to say hi to your sister. She seems cute and nice.” Bomi dusts her hands as she stares at the room down the corridor. “Guess we got ourselves a baby addition to the house huh?”

“Please. You guys are nothing but bad influences to her. I’m going to tell her to stay away from you. Especially you.” Chorong emphasizes, clearly glaring at Eunji.

The two laugh and are pretty confident that it won’t stay that way for long. Bomi heads upstairs and leaves Chorong and Eunji alone in the common area.

There is an odd, awkward silence that follows as they clean without any conversation. Everything just seems to fall in place because this isn’t the first time Eunji hosted a party in the house that Chorong cleans up afterwards. Four years down the line and the teamwork becomes automatic. The clock strikes 2am and everything is spotless clean.

“I see that you’re giving me the cold shoulder.” Eunji finally says, as if she’s been thinking about what to say for a long time. “We don’t have to end it like this, Chorong. We can still be friends after everything that happened.”

Chorong stops whatever she’s doing and looks at her. “It isn’t the same Eunji. Feelings just don’t change in one night. You know that.” She starts to leave but Eunji grabs onto her wrist.

“I won’t change. You just have to trust me.” Eunji says, desperation in her eyes. But Chorong takes her hand and puts it away.

“Then show me.” Chorong says as they silently look at each other. But Chorong looks away first and sighs. “Look. I don’t want to deal with this for today. Can we do this another time?”

Eunji smiles sadly and lets her go. “Yeah, sure. No problem.”

“Thanks.” Chorong says quietly and heads upstairs to her room.

xxx

The following morning, Hayoung wakes up to something heavy on her chest. Turns out, it’s Namjoo’s leg stretched across. It’s either her roommate is pretty flexible or the room is just too small. Probably the latter. Her nose picks up the lingering alcohol floating around and it makes her groan. Guess Namjoo didn’t take a shower and just collapsed after the party.

She checks her phone first and sees a message from her sister.

From Chorong: Sorry. I had something urgent to do so you’ll have to handle the whole meeting everyone in the morning by yourself. Don’t worry, you’ll do fine.

Hayoung sighs.

She can’t believe her sister betrayed her like that. But she guesses it’s her way of coming out of the shell. Hayoung always relied on Chorong in social situations. When Chorong graduated from high school, Hayoung realized how dependent she was on her sister and decided that she needed to find her own way of growing up.

She’ll take this as a challenge.

Taking a deep breath, she heads out to the common area and finds Naeun there. Of all people, it had to be her.

Seated comfortably in the couches, mug of coffee on the table and eyes busy reading the same book from yesterday, she looks very much at peace. With the morning sun seeping through the white curtains, Hayoung is sure that Naeun looked like a still painting resting at the corner. She’s beautiful indeed and certainly way out of her league.

“Morning.” Hayoung took the leap and greets with a wave. She thinks that Naeun will ignore her but to her surprise, Naeun replies with a “Morning.” And returns to read her book. It’s a clear sign that she doesn’t want to be disturbed and Hayoung respects that.

She goes into the kitchen to make a simple breakfast. Hayoung returns with a peanut butter sandwich and turns the TV on. Around this hour, Hayoung always makes sure to catch the live episodes of her favourite Shin Chan series.

“S-sorry, I’m not…disturbing you, am I?” Hayoung realizes that she didn’t ask Naeun’s permission and worries that it might make Naeun annoyed—and there goes her chances of making friends with a really pretty girl.

But Naeun simply gives her a look and says, “It’s fine. This is a common area for everyone so you don’t have to mind me.”

“…Right.”

Hayoung nods as she makes a good point.

The two quietly do their own things as the morning hour passes like that. Namjoo wakes up and drinks a glass of water to ease her headache. Eunji and Bomi come down together as they start arguing over whether the chicken or egg comes first.

This is the moment. Hayoung takes a deep breath as she prepares herself for the introductions. Just as she memorized in her head, she waits for the right timing to open . But alas, Eunji is faster.

“Hayoung, right? Sorry, hope you didn’t get freaked out by whatever you saw at the party last night. It’s normal here.” Eunji laughs as she gives a friendly pat on Hayoung’s shoulder.

“Don’t’ worry! We’re gonna protect you cause you’re the baby of the house now! Heard from Chorong that you’re still underage so let’s all come up with a curfew and set some rules.” Bomi jokes and realizes that Hayoung actually took that seriously. “Hey, hey. It’s a joke. I’m just playing with you.”

“O-Oh…” Hayoung sighs in relief.

“Don’t pick on her! She’s my roommate!” Namjoo cuts in and grabs Hayoung to her side. “You all better be nice, she’s a Computer Science major!”

Eunji, Bomi and Naeun turn heads at Hayoung. They are all taken by surprise.

“Whoa!” Bomi and Eunji say in unison, eyes glittering with fascination.

“That means you must be really smart! You’re probably the first friend I’ll have in Computer Science!” Eunji gave a thumbs up, “Guess the genes run well in the family!”

“Chorong’s technically my half-sister but okay, go off.” Hayoung shrugs as the group laughs.

Eunji grins and wraps her arm around Hayoung’s shoulder. “Welcome to college, kid.”

--

a/n: welcome to another apink fic! its my first time doing a collegu au ^^;; to make things clear, chorong, bomi and eunji are all the same age for this story. do let me know in the comments below what you think about the first chapter so far~