It’s the color that catches my eye. From bowler hat to boots, everything about the boy is bright cardinal red. Sipping my coffee, I watch him as he strides along confidently despite the stares of the other students. I have to hand it to him, Red has his own style.

“Excuse me. Can I take this chair?”

“Oh, yeah. Sure.” I smile absently at the girl before turning back to the main campus. Red’s disappeared, but I have to end my people watching and head to class anyway.

    Walking into my Asian religions lecture room, I claim the double desk in the back even though my best friend and roommate, Rachel, is too sick to come to class today. After taking my things out, I pull my phone out to send her a quick text to check on her.

“Hi.”

I look up into sparking brown eyes behind scarlet horn rimmed glasses and partially hidden by blonde bangs. It’s Red. “Um, hi.”

“Is anyone sitting here?” Red asks, smiling.

“No.”

“Cool.” Plopping into the chair and placing his bowler hat on the desk corner, he turns and sticks out his hand. “I’m Kim Kibum. What’s your name?”

I shake his outstretched hand, quickly letting go. “Lilly.”

“Nice to meet you, Lilly,” Kibum smiles. “Have I missed much of this class? There was a mix-up at my other school so I came here instead.”

Raising an eyebrow, I ask. “How’d you manage to do that? I thought the university didn’t accept mid-semester transfers.”

He shrugs. “My academics? My charm? Fate? Divine intervention?”

“Oh. Well, you haven’t missed much. We just finished Buddhism and we’re starting on shamanism and animism.” Tentatively, I add, “I can help you catch up if you want.”

“Really? That’d be great. Thanks!” Kibum beams. “Does this mean we can be friends? I haven’t had a chance to make any yet. My bad English probably doesn’t help either. I know it’s a little rusty.”
There’s something infectious about his smile so I can’t help smiling back.

“Bad English? What’re you talking about?”

“It’s not bad?”

“No,” I reply honestly, shaking my head. “You mean you’re not from America?”

“Nope. I’m kinda from everywhere and nowhere.”

One of my ruder classmates chooses that time to walk by and comment with a snigger, “Sure you’re not from the North Pole?”

Kibum gives the guy a disdainful look that falls somewhere between wanting to smash a particularly disgusting bug and deciding whether to care or not.

“Ignore Nick. Thinks he’s the biggest thing because he’s on the soccer team,” I tell him, rolling my eyes. “The only reason I haven’t told him off for continually hitting on my roommate is because I know Rachel can take care of herself.”

“Sounds like a great guy.”

“Yeah,” I reply sarcastically.

Kibum opens his mouth to say something else, but our professor walks in and begins the class at that moment.

Halfway through, I look over to see him wearing an amused smile with his arms crossed and an empty notebook lying in front of him.

“Aren’t you going to take notes?” I whisper, glancing at him again.

“Basic animistic beliefs?” Kibum whispers back. “I grew up with this stuff.”

    Shrugging, I return my attention to the professor. Maybe having him as a friend will have an extra advantage. I normally don’t make friends quickly, but I think Kibum’s a pretty nice guy already. He’ll probably make life more interesting to say the least.

When the professor ends the lecture and leaves, Kibum puts his still blank notebook back in his briefcase and turns to me. “Do you have class now or are you free? I was hoping to find someone to show me around campus.”

“I have to check on my roommate first, but after that, sure,” I smile.

“Great.” Kibum slips on his coat and reaches for his hat, but it’s knocked to the floor.


“Freak,” Nick snickers, his nameless minion following his lead.

I slam my hands on the desktop as I jolt up, feeling my temper take an uncharacteristic spike as I glare at him. “What is wrong with you? What gives you the right to be such a jerk?”

Unable to believe someone’s talking back to him, Nick looks lost for a second before his usual leer returns. “Well, what’d you know? The mouse speaks.”

“Yeah, I do. Don’t you have anything better to do than remind the rest of the world why no one wants to be you? Like use all your brain power to kick a ball around?” I stalk around Kibum to pick up his hat and dust it off, turning away from Nick.

“Maybe I was wrong.”

His response makes me look back at him in time to see his eyes finish racking up and down my body. “You’re a feisty little kitten whose claws just came out. Me-ow.”

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Kibum says quietly, his eyes glittering with a light entirely different from earlier.

“Not. Interested,” I reply, enunciating each word to get the point across.

Nick ignores both of us and steps closer. “Come on. Your friend’s not here. You don’t have to pretend you don’t want me ‘cause you do.”

“The day I want you is the day you get into university without your daddy’s money,” I retort, grabbing Kibum’s hand and walking with him towards the door.

Suddenly, I feel a painfully tight grip clamp onto my other wrist.

“What did you say?” Nick growls, yanking me back and glowering at me.

“I-”

“She said get lost,” Kibum says, stepping between the two of us while keeping his hand in mine. “Now let go of her before I make you.”

Nick laughs, looking down at Kibum’s lean frame. “You make me? Please, like you-”

The rest of his sentence is cut off with a yelp as Kibum twists his wrist, making him let go of me and jerk back like he’d been burned.

Without a backward glance, Kibum pulls me out of the room.

“What did you do?” I ask as we slow down once we get outside. “It was like you electrocuted him.”

“Just gave him a little shock is all,” he replies, finally letting go of my hand. Glaring back inside, he adds in a low tone, “He deserved more for what he did.”

“He’s always a jerk,” I shrug, shaking my head a little as the reality of what I did sets in. “Holy cow. I’ve never snapped like that. Ever.”

“I guess today was the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Kibum smiles at me. “Thanks for defending me. It should’ve been me defending you, but I was too busy trying to decided between turning him into a worm or a cockroach.”

I giggle in spite of myself. “A hard choice indeed.”

“I know, right?” he chuckles. “Don’t we have to check on your friend?”

“Right. Our dorm’s just a few minutes away, so it’ll be quick.”