chapter seven            

as the lesson progressed on, it became clear that minah had done the preparation for the class beforehand. even though she never did raise her hand to answer questions during the duration of the class, she answered every one of the questions directed at her in under a minute. she was a picture of perfect concentration. chaebyul and eunji were keeping up as well, nodding at each other when they got the answers right. chaebyul was starting to enjoy the lesson and company.

as they left the class after the bell rang, eunji initiated conversation, wondering how chaebyul managed to get the answers to the challenging questions so efficiently. the latter knitted her brows as she confessed that she had discovered a new and easier method of solving the equations on her own - her overall curiosity helped her in figuring out improved methods. the girls were getting on really well, and were finally starting to open up to each other. minah, on the other hand, kept to herself, occasionally nodding at other students approaching her for help. the rest of the day went by uneventfully. by the end of the day, word had spread that there was a cheonjae in the freshman class.

in the senior class, ji-ae had had a tiring day jotting down notes at breakneck speed. she had already accumulated at least twenty pages of notes by lunchtime. the day ended with her padding after her biology professor with a pile of photocopied lecture notes. being the selfless person she was, she had volunteered to stay back to clean up the laboratory and had inadvertently offered to ferry notes to the staffroom. ji-ae was troubled by her lack of participation in class. she was one of the quieter ones, diligently taking down important segments of the lectures, but she just couldn't shake off the feeling that she was overlooked. she always had exceptional grades, but she felt that because of this, the professors did not pay much attention to her. on one hand, it was good that the professors had so much trust in her. but on the other hand, she felt like she was entirely missing the point of learning. it was as if she was invisible. it didn't give her any satisfaction at all no matter how hard she tried. guess I only do it to avoid confrontation with my parents. it's hard to argue with both a lawyer and a professor.  ji-ae sighed as she took her leave. a pale-faced guy interrupted her at the door. 

"su-suho!" ji-ae gasped as he caught her in his arms. "you scared me!" the boy grinned at her before pointing to the general direction of the car-park. "to the supermarket?" ji-ae collected herself and nodded, "okay.. wait, how did you know?" the boy smiled as he opened the car door for her. "ladies first."

in the south wing, hyusu was sitting alone in the library, going through her day's notes. she was seated in a secluded corner, wanting to minimise distractions from the frequent pacing of students scouring through the bookshelves. a gust of wind blew past the already chilly library. hyusu looked up in surprise. the library was in an enclosed hall.. where could the breeze have gotten in? a hazy figure took shape in the far corner, slowly materializing behind a bookshelf. hyusu, curious at the situation, stepped gingerly towards the mist. "hey.. uhh hi?" as she got closer, she realised that he was a guy around mid-twenties. the spirit looked at her for a long moment before nodding. hyusu actually found comfort in speaking to a few approachable apparitions, but this was definitely out of the ordinary. the dense silence that the spirit seemed to emit was confusing her. all at once, the spectre dissolved into thin air. that was weird. dazed, hyusu returned to her desk and resumed revising.  

kymin was the first to return to the dormitory. her after-school activities weren't supposed to commence until the next week. she rummaged through her backpack, pulling out a few chocolate bars, before plopping down onto her own bed. classes didn't go so well for her, but it was manageable, in her opinion. it was two hours before the rest of the girls returned to the dormitory. ji-ae was first, struggling with grocery bags on both her arms. kymin leapt up to give a hand, but changed her mind when suho entered in tow. "have fun!" she hollered after them both as they headed into the kitchen. kymin rolled back over and continued reading her crime thriller. eunji was the next to return alone. kymin raised her eyebrows as she pondered the whereabouts of her same-aged friend. "she's in art class." eunji reported, flipping open her mathematics homework at the table. "why does mathematics become a hundred times harder outside of class?" she sighed dejectedly, letting out a tired huff. her bangs flew up with the sudden gust of wind. kymin grinned as she propped herself up. "at least it gets easier for you somehow. it always looks like greek to me." eunji giggled. the dormitory resumed its serenity with occasional squeals from the kitchen. kymin and eunji's eyes met every time ji-ae had to save the ingredients from being wrecked by suho. it felt like family.

hyusu and chaebyul entered the dormitory at the same time, hyusu with a armful of books, and chaebyul with paint splatters all over the front of her overall. "welcome back!" the three chorused as the duo washed up. the sight of suho in the kitchen had them muddled for a while, but they quickly bowed and hurried along. at seven and still with no sight of minah, the girls decided to settle down and have suho join them for dinner. "you mean I don't get to join y'all for dinner if your dorm-mate came home?" he whined. ji-ae squinted at him disbelievingly. "no, now sit down!" the girls warmed up to the stranger in no time and soon they were listening to suho's rendition of how he met ji-ae for the first time. 

"it wasn't my fault at all - she bumped into the door I was incidentally opening! and I had to carry this deadweight to find her parents tskk!" the girls snickered as ji-ae glared at him with mock annoyance. "an awfully light - and beautiful deadweight though." the others coo-ed when ji-ae blushed. by the end of dinner, the girls had significantly gotten closer to one another. ji-ae and suho looked on as the other four girls discussed their day at school.

suho and ji-ae juggled the first batch of dirty dishes as they trotted into the kitchen. "how was your first two days here?" he tilted his head questioningly. "still getting used to classes without me?" he joked. "it's still manageable, I suppose.." ji-ae thought. "it's just different here, I guess." suho nodded knowingly. "it takes a while for people to get used to life in boarding school. I'll be here if you need help okay?" his voice was laced with concern. ji-ae hesitated as she contemplated telling him about her insecurities, but batted the notion away to focus on washing the dishes. she didn't want to spoil the atmosphere. incessant bickering were still heard from the dining table as kymin complained that korean was too gruelling to learn. surprisingly, it was hyusu who was disagreeing with her. chaebyul and eunji looked on with amusement.

there was a click as a key turned in the lock. instantly, the dormitory became silent. minah wavered as her gaze fell on the four faces staring up at her. her defence mechanism kicking in, she proceeded to her bunk quietly, raising her eyebrows at ji-ae when she noticed the guy in the dormitory. suho gave a tentative wave. she sighed as she retired to the bathroom. why was she so awkward with the rest? it probably had something to do with her family background - her sister and probably her inbred personality, but she was screwing up and she didn't want to admit it, but she really didn't know how to salvage her relationship with the rest. resigned, she the shower and stepped into the bath. 

at night, younju and tiffany returned to the dorm right before lights-out. younju snuggled into bed with eunji as tiffany popped up one last time to whisper goodnight. eunji herself had grown fond of the other spirit and smiled at her, albeit shyly, before turning out the bed lamp. younju began eagerly recounting the events from the day before eunji hurriedly shushed her, afraid of being overheard by the others. younju hid a thoughtful smile.

tossing and turning in her own bed, kymin could swear that she heard voices coming from the bunk above ji-ae's.

co-author's note:     heyyyy so here's the seventh chapter! ^^ it's kind of filler-ish though.. I'm still rusty.. the chapters after will get better I swear! I've realized that the story is going really slowly >.< I'll try to speed things up soon! and hahaha I basically violated dorm rules here but I needed some outsider plot oops I hope that I haven't messed up on the characters' profiles - tell me if I did okay? I'm sorry minah.. I promise I'll increase your screentime when the guys come into the picture! it's hard to fit her in right now >.<