❝I Love You, Kris Wu❞

ღ Chapter 05 ღ

In a flash, summer was over. Claire had accepted her ticket to the acting school in Los Angeles and was already on her way there. Eunmi was attending university back in Seoul. "It's just me again...I'm alone." Claire whispered as she looked outside. Her plane was landing in twenty minutes. "A place where I'm foreign to." 

Kai had sent her off 19 hours ago and he was waiting patiently back in Seoul for a phone call from Claire saying she landed patiently. Kris had been sending her texts and phone calls a few times a month. However, throughout the summer, the phone calls and texts died down. He had gotten so busy at one point he simply couldn't find the time to contact her. 

While Kris was dancing and rapping nonstop for days, Claire was on her way to L.A. Vogue had offered to drop her stuff off at her university dorm room a week early since they were sending models to Los Angeles. 

Grabbing her bag, she slipped her glasses on and stepped off the plane. Claire walked around the airport a few times before leaving to find her dorm. 

Claire walked around campus. That's where I'll be taking my classes. She thought as she looked over to a building. She smiled. "A fresh start, where nothing here reminds me of Kris." She nodded. "No more tears." She whispered as she walked to her dorm. 

There was another section near the university just for dorm rooms. There were quite a few of them. Claire's dorm was the 3rd building from the front left. Every dorm was a huge pent house with 5 floors. Each pair would get one floor to themselves. These dorms were only for the students who paid to live on campus, as for Claire, it was all covered by her scholarship. 

Claire looked down at the envelope. "G3-25." She said as she walked up to the second floor. Claire looked at the paper. 

Roommate: J. Thao - Age: 19 

"J. Thao?" She shrugged. "Could be a girl or a guy. Whatever." She dug into her pocket for her keys and unlocked the door. It was beautiful inside, it had a living room, two bedrooms, a kitchen; everything! "Wow..." 

She put her bag down on the couch in the living room and walked to the bedrooms. On the doors, it said: J.Thao on one of them and C.Lee on the other. 

Opening her room, there was a bed, a desk, a vanity table and a door to her own bathroom. The place wasn't bad itself, it was decorated with dotted wallpaper and had a rug in the middle of the room. "Pretty." She whispered. All her luggage was inside. Claire looked back out at the empty penthouse. "Guess I'll start unpacking." 

***

Claire unpacked everything and put everything away. "Perfect timing for my OCD to kick in huh?" 

She chuckled and sat on her bed, she opened her planner and read through all her classes. 

She was interrupted when she heard a voice. Claire looked up at the sound of a warm and friendly greeting. "Hi...I'm Joseph. Joseph Thao. So, you must be Claire. It's nice to meet you, we're roommates." 

Claire stared at him for a few minutes not knowing what to say. Doing almost nothing the whole summer with her friends made her pretty antisocial. "Uh..."

Joseph held his hands up. "Don't worry, I know you probably have a boyfriend, I'm gay." 

She chuckled and stood up. "Ah no, it's not that." She laughed. "I'm a little...overwhelmed. I'm Claire, nice to meet you." 

Ding dong. 

Joseph looked at the time. "Oh, mailman. The mail comes at 4:30 every Monday, so..." 

"Mail?"

"Usually it's advertisements and magazines and stuff. I get them anyway because hey, gotta keep up with celebrity stuff right? I'll be back." He ran off to get the mail. 

"So how are the partners chosen?" Claire asked. 

"Oh it's simple, my dad owns this place...my step dad I mean. He wants it to be fair and stuff so he uses the lottery. If you're living here, your name gets entered into a raffle and then you know, they chose two and bam, that's one pair. I guess I got chosen at the same time your name came out." Joseph said as he flipped through a People's magazine. "Whoa! Kim Kardashian had a kid?"

Claire chuckled. "Where are you from?"

"I was born in Washington, Seattle Washington." He points to his face. "My biological father was white and my mother was Vietnamese so I'm mixed. My friends say I'm a beautiful thang." He winked.

Claire laughed. "You have pretty eyes."

"Why thank you-" He paused in the middle of flipping through a magazine. Joseph was looking at a Victoria's Secret catalog. Knowing that he was dorm mates with a girl, the school sent in some girly magazines and ads too. He eyed the model on the front page then eyed Claire. "ERH MY GODDD. IS THAT YOU?"

Claire looked over and flushed red. "Eh? Oh right it's September! I did that shoot for the fall catalog I didn't know I'd be on the front." She took the ad and looked at it. "Oh Miranda looks so pretty." 

"YOU'RE A MODEL?"

"Yeah." 

"THAT IS SO COOL I'M FRIENDS WITH A FAMOUS PERSON." He gasped. 

He really is something. Claire thought. 

Joseph looked through a Vogue magazine. "No...No....No...whoa he is fine. No...No...No- CLAIRE YOU'RE IN HERE TOO."

"Um, yeah, I signed with VS and Vogue." Claire explained. 

"That's really cool. If you're a model, why are you in an acting school?" 

Claire stared at the ground, all the happiness drained from her face. "It's a long story." 

"Do tell." 

"I just met you..." 

"But Claire we're practically gonna become best friends...I mean, being dorm mates with me for the next four years? Something's bound to happen." Joseph paused. "I'm talking about friendship. FRIENDSHIP." 

Claire raised her eyebrow. He pulled her down onto the couch next to him. "I see sadness in your eyes, what's wrong?" 

"Do you know what Kpop is?" She asked.

"Ehhh don't change the subject." He whined. 

"Do you know what Kpop is?" 

"Okay, fine, yes I do." 

"My boyfriend got accepted into a company. He's been gone for a year now and it hurt me so bad because back in Seoul, everything reminded me of him." Claire said. "I thought if I found something else I liked to do, I could do it without remembering him because when I found my passion for it, he wasn't there with me. I decided to move to L.A because I was new to this place and nothing could've possibly reminded me of him." She said. "There." 

"I'm sorry for asking." Joseph squeaked as he sunk back into his seat. "You seem so broken." 

"It's fine...I had to let it out anyway. I didn't really tell anyone why I chose this over the school back in Seoul except for my best friend." She paused. "Tell me about your father. Your biological father." 

"He passed away a few years ago...When I was 17." He pulled up his sleeves. "He was the man who guided me through everything and taught me how to do life. I got so depressed after he was gone...I tried suicide." He whispered. 

Claire looked at his scars. She pulled him into a hug. "You're an idiot." She said. "Why would you even..." 

"I was so sad...I thought no one would be there for me ever again." He mumbled. "Everything in Seattle reminded me of him, the last year of high school  was hell. I couldn't wait to get out of there and hopefully find a place where I could move far away. I grew up in Seattle so everywhere I went, there was a memory of him and me; whether it was us fishing or him teaching me how to ride a bike." He sighed. 

"I'm glad nothing happened." Claire said. "You're still here." 

"My family split up, some live in Alaska right now, some live in Vietnam. My step dad and I live here in L.A." He explained. "I decided to do something I never thought I would do...ever in my entire life; act. And surprisingly, I liked it a lot. My step father owned this place and I thought, why not trying acting? I didn't think it would be so cool to be someone else and get paid." He chuckled a little. 

Claire smiled and let go so she could pay attention to what he was saying. 

"I thought I would go no where in life and become useless or something...Sometimes, I'm really thankful that my mom remarried." He smiled. 

"Never ever think like that. To yourself, you're the most important person in the world. Your dad may be gone physically but he'll forever live in your heart. God I sound so cheesy." Claire scoffed. "Show him what Joseph Thao is capable of...make him proud. He's watching. I know you'll be successful in the acting industry. I guess we're gonna forget about all the sad stuff and start fresh?" She smiled. 

Joseph stared at her for a few seconds. "We seem to relate a lot." He smiled. 

"Well...yeah, we kinda do." 

He smiled. "I'm glad we're roommates." 

"JOE YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DROP OFF MY TEXTBOOK AT 4 YOU MORON I GOT YELLED AT BY PROFESSOR DELMEN YOU IDIO- HOT DAMN WHAT THE . IS THAT CLAIRE LEE IN YOUR LIVING ROOM?" His friend Alex almost broke his door down. 

Joseph looked over to Claire then back at Alex. "Why yes, Claire Lee is in my living room." 

✎Author's note 

❝Y'all got nothing to worry about okay, Joe is ghey. Comment! 

Not sure if I'll be able to update so often. Guess who's starting high school tomorrow...>< ❞