“Oh, Pablo,” Kris whined as he pushed his way through the crowded auditorium, tugging Amber along by her wrist behind him.

“What? Did you see someone you don’t like?” Amber asked as she tried to look over the giant’s shoulder, but his height and the crowding made that impossible.

“No, it’s just, like… it’s nut-to- in here! You can’t breathe without inhaling someone’s perfume,” Kris whined more as Amber rolled her eyes at how childish he sounded.

The two friends were shoving their way through the auditorium looking for the ‘new students’ table to get their schedule and assigned dorm number, but so was the rest of school considering it was a week before school started.

“Ah, finally, hallelujah! Praise Pablo we’ve found it!” Kris exclaimed as he began shoving more people out of the way to get to their destination. With one final maneuver the two were at the table and greeted by a female upperclassman.

“Hello, gentlemen,” she greeted loudly as she eyed the duo in front of her to which Amber scoffed at her remark, “Tell me your last then first name, please?”

“Wu Yifan.”

The older girl looked through the stack of papers while stealing glances at the tall and handsome male standing on the other side of the table. Once she finally found his schedule with his dorm information and the attached small envelope with they key, she smiled politely then handed it to him and winked. Kris smiled politely back then moved to the side for Amber to step up to the table.

“Liu Amber,” Amber said with extra stress on her first name, hoping to get the point across that she was female and not male.

The girl ignored the glare Amber was sending her way and began flipping through the papers all the while still stealing little glances towards the blonde man standing next to Amber.

“Ah, here you go Mr. Liu,” the upperclassman said as she handed Amber her paper  and attached key then looked over at Kris. “Have a really nice day.”

Amber rolled her eyes and stormed off into the sea of people behind her. Kris smiled and chuckled slightly then winked at the girl before turning around to go look for his best friend in the crowd.

It took some effort, but Kris finally caught up to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “What was that about? Jealous that she found me more attractive?” he teased as Amber lead the way out.

“No,” Amber snapped, “Pissed off that she kept referring to me as a boy. Does Amber sound masculine?”

“Well-“

“No! It doesn’t. It is clearly a feminine name. Have you ever met a boy named Amber?!” Amber asked rhetorically as her speed increased and her shove became a bit more rough.

“No, I don’t-“

“Exactly!” Amber yelled as she came across the exit. The duo stumbled out and walked as quickly as they could away from the hectic auditorium.

“Hey, wait,” Kris said as he reached out for Amber’s wrist.

“Nope, I’m pissed and I want to get far from here as possible,” Amber growled as she walked down the sidewalk and towards the benches on the patio where there were less people.

Amber plopped down and took a deep breath in then exhaled sharply. High school hadn’t even started yet and she was already done with it. She wasn’t looking forward to meeting her roommate for the next few months, but at least they would know she was a girl and hopefully do well to tell others.

Kris sat down next to Amber and patted her back in a comforting manner. There wasn’t much he could do in situations like that other than to inform people she was a girl, but even then people didn’t seem to believe either of them. He let out a deep sigh and looked off over to a group of people sitting under a tree reading books. Typical nerds, he thought.

“Well,” Amber said calmly after a few moments, “should we look over our schedule and see what classes we have?”

Kris smiled down at her and nodded. They held their papers together, looking for any classes they had together.

“Oh, yeah! We have four out of seven classes together,” Kris said happily then high fived his best friend who seemed just as relieved to have some classes with someone she knew and liked.

“Who’s your roommate?” Kris asked as he took his paper back and looked for his roommate’s name.

“Um,” Amber said as she took off the small envelope and began scanning her paper for her roommate’s name then her eyes stopped once she found it and dropped open. “Are you freaking kidding me?! Really?! Really! I mean come on people!” she yelled then balled up her paper and threw it on the ground next to her feet.

“What? Is it that one gi-,” Kris stopped once he found his roommate’s name. He couldn’t help but to burst out laughing at the name he saw. “Oh, Pablo this is just too good! So, roommate, when should we start moving our stuff in?”

Amber shot him a glare and punched his arm playfully but with some force. “They think I’m a boy! I clearly checked female for my gender!”

“Maybe they looked at your picture and not your form?” Kris suggested as he picked up Amber’s balled up schedule.

“Then someone needs to get fired for judging by looks. I mean, really?! Really!” Amber complained.

“Hey, at least they stuck you with me. I mean, on the Brightside, we’ll have each other and not some strangers we most likely won’t like,” Kris offered.

“Be that as it may, what if they stuck me in a room with a different boy? Then what, Captain Know-It-All?” Amber asked.

“Then you would go and tell them you’re a girl and request a dorm change,” Kris said nonchalantly.

“Right, because everyone believes me so willingly,” Amber retorted as she got up and began walking towards her car.

“Well, maybe you could just, uh… you know…” Kris said as he followed Amber to the student parking lot.

Amber stopped dead in her tracks once she realized what Kris was suggesting. “I am not showing my s to anyone to prove my gender!” Amber yelled and slapped Kris on the back of his head.

“Ow, well maybe that’s the only way.”

“Guys can have s too, you know! Look at that guy,” Amber shouted and pointed over to a guy sitting on a bench. Kris looked over and his eyes grew wide once he saw the bountiful chest the man had.

“Good Pablo, that man needs a bra!” Kris whisper yelled to Amber in hopes that no one would hear, especially the man sitting on the bench eating his lunch peacefully.

Amber shook her head and began speed walking to her car with Kris trailing behind her. Once they reached Amber’s car they began pulling out their suitcases and duffle bags in silence.

They grabbed all of their belongings they had brought from home and began walking over to the dorm corridor across from the auditorium in silence. Once they were in the lobby of the male dorm corridor they were greeted with clusters of people with suitcases waiting for the one working elevator to pull them up to their floor.

Amber sighed and rolled her eyes. She was tired of crowds and she wasn’t in the mood to deal with people since the auditorium incident.

“Let’s just take the stairs,” Kris whispered in Amber’s ear and tugged her sleeve in the direction of where they were going. Amber complied and followed. Luckily, they both packed light and only had one suitcase each and one duffle bag each, but still their room was all the way on the top floor which meant walking up six flights of stairs with luggage.

“You know… I’m not… argh… partic… ularly… enjoying this!” Kris complained between breaths.

“It… was your… uh ow, ow…. Ow!” Amber panted as her arm twisted slightly from turning her suitcase awkwardly. “It was your idea!” Amber hissed out quickly.

“I know… I know. And now… I… am deeply-,”

“Regretting it? Me… too,” Amber said winded. “It is… summer… in… South Korea. It’s humid… and… burning hot!”

“Oh sweet… baby Pablo… I think… I am going… to die!” Kris said in his melodramatic tone and laid down on the landing between stairs.

“Oh get up you big baby,” Amber said as she walked past the ‘dead’ Kris maneuvering her luggage around him.

After a few more flights of stairs, the two friends finally made it to their floor half alive, covered in sweat, and panting like thirsty dogs.

“What room?” Amber asked as she led the way down the narrow hallway.

“615,” Kris answered as he looked around for the room.

They walked all the way to the end of the hall where they found their room, the last one on the right. Amber pulled her key out from the envelope and opened the door to their new home for the next few months.

“Home sweet home,” Amber said as she walked across the threshold with her luggage.

“Ah, finally!” Kris exclaimed as he stumbled in behind her. “Bed!” he yelled as he dropped his stuff and ran to a mattress in the corner and plopped down face first and rubbed his sweaty body all over, marking his territory.

“Ew, okay well since you put your sweaty body all over that one, I guess I’ll take this one,” Amber said with a disgusted look on her face as she began walking over to her empty bed in the other corner of the room.

Kris perked up his head and looked over at the empty bed. He shot Amber a devilish grin then got up and ran over to her bed but stopped just before lying down on his back.

“Don’t you dare lie down,” Amber warned. Kris shot her another evil grin. “Kris I swear I will castrate you if you-,”

But it was too late. Kris plopped down on his back and began rubbing his sweaty body all over Amber’s claimed bed, marking his territory once again.

“Kris!” Amber yelled and her eyes grew wide. “Get off you disgusting giant!” Amber screamed as she ran over to her bed and grabbed his ankles.

“You are so nasty!”

“But you love me!” Kris retorted as he fought back.

“Never, you nasty!” Amber yelled.

The duo fell on the ground in a play fight as amber pinned Kris down and began slapping his head.

“Hey, that’s not fair-,”

“No, what’s not fair-,”

“You didn’t let me-,”

“Is that you marked-,”

“Get up first!”

“My bed with your-,”

“That was a cheap-,”

“Sweat!”

“Shot!”

“Hey, here’s some advice. Shut the hell up! You have neighbors you know!” a voice yelled from the open door way. Neither of them had closed the door, they were too busy choosing their bed so everyone in the hall and their neighbors had heard their whole entire fight.

They both looked over at the open door in shock with their mouths agape. Such a delicate man had such a sassy attitude that it took them by surprise.

“What? Never seen an Asian in sparkly pants before? Or did I interrupt your gay ?” the boy asked with a snort at the end of his remark.

They both shook their head, still in shock, and Amber got off of Kris, releasing him from her wrath.

“Whatever, my name is Key by the way. Your neighbor. Keep it down and we won’t have problems, ‘kay? Get it? Got it? Good, now shut up,” he said then slammed their door shut and went back to his own room with the slam of his door.

A few moments of silence passed and Amber turned around to look at Kris who had just gotten up from the floor. They stared at each other for a long moment when Amber smiled softly and spoke.

“I’m still going to castrate you,” she said then began her attack again.