I woke up to the sound of rain, beating mercilessly against the window of my room as the new and potentially dreary day greeted me.

Of course, like any university student that was heavily sleep deprived, I groaned and tried to block out the noise by covering my ears with my pillow, only to be re-awakened by the blaring sound of my alarm, telling me that I had less than 30 minutes to get ready before class started.

Oh goodie.

With another defeated groan, I slipped out of bed, still wrapped in my bedsheets, and slowly shuffled off to the bathroom to get this dreary day started. I resented my schedule for forcing me to get up so early on such a day because rainy weather is such the perfect sleeping weather.

Before I showered, however, I peeked into the living room of the small apartment that I shared with three other housemates and could not help but notice that it was empty.

Now, the two bedrooms that we share between the four of us are really small and most of my friends preferred to do their work or just hang out in the living room which is considerably roomier so it’s almost never empty, which is why I found it odd that no one was there. Since Seohyeon, my roommate, was nowhere to be found when I woke up, I’m assuming the three of them must’ve gone out somewhere when I was asleep.

Still, it was only 7.30 am in the morning so where on earth could they have gone so early in the morning without leaving me a note? After rooming with them for the better part of the year, that isn’t really something that they would do.

After my second alarm sounded, signalling that I now had less than 20 minutes to get to class, I quickly shrugged it off and decided to worry about getting my own to class in time and decided to just ask them when they came home later. Maybe they went out for a jog or for an early breakfast and I was just overthinking things. It wouldn’t be the first time.

I quickly stripped down and hopped into the hot shower, not really having much time to just stand and bask in its warmth before lathering my body and head with soap and shampoo before rinsing it off. I must have been in and out within five minutes, which was quite the record for me who revelled in taking hour-long showers which was a trait which constantly annoyed my roommates.

Wrapped in my towel, I quickly shuffled through my small wardrobe, trying to look for a semi-decent outfit for class. My laziness was pushing for me to just throw on a sweater and a pair of leggings but knowing the lecturer I had to deal with this morning, I decided to put in some effort and decided to wear a lavender blouse and a navy blue skirt before twisting my slightly wet hair into a simple ponytail and stealing a pair of my roommates’ ballerina flats before heading to the door.

Speaking of them, they still weren’t home even after all that time I took dressing up and getting ready for class. However, my attention was once again diverted when I took a look at the cat-shaped clock on the wall and realized that I legitimately had less than 7 minutes to get to class on the other side of campus, which would definitely need me to sprint if I wanted to make it in time.

I quickly picked up my beige tote bag and my Psych textbook before rushing out the door, not even bothering to lock it – which I had to admit when I went back home later, was a pretty dumb move – and quickly speed-walked out of the student housing towards the academic building while praying non-stop to all the gods that I wouldn’t be late.

Someone up there must really be looking after me because after minutes of non-stop sprinting and awkward arm flailing, I managed to make it to class just in time. I definitely miscalculated the amount of people in the academic building because all the halls were packed with people, both students and staff who were trying to take cover from the rain.

 After a lot of squeezing and stepping on people’s feet, I managed to make my way to the main staircase and quickly rushed up to Lecture Hall 4 where my Psych class was supposed to be held. I slowly peeked into the hall and was glad to see that the room was still relatively empty and that Professor Park wasn’t even in class yet, most probably delayed in traffic due to the rain.

Relief flooded my body as I bent down slightly, clutching my knees as I tried to catch my breath, deciding that it was safe for me to have a rest for a couple of minutes. I really thought I was in for it for this time. I was never one of those eternally tardy students, but Professor Park was known all over campus for being one of the strictest professors with extremely low tolerance.

And considering the fact that I need to pass this Psychology class to get my diploma, I really didn’t want to get on his bad side, especially not when we were almost halfway done with the semester and with the finals approaching in a few months.

“Well, someone clearly isn’t having a good day.” The amused, slightly-melodic voice that interrupted my thoughts made me frown as I realized who the speaker was.

I quickly got up and crossed my arm, shooting a glare at the other person. “Well, why don’t you try running to the lecture hall from the student building while wearing a freaking skirt?” I grumbled.

The corner of Luhan’s lips curled into a smile as his eyes raked my sweaty and panting form up and down, chuckling at what a mess I totally look like. Well, what else was he expecting from someone who woke up from bed only a half hour ago?

“It’s not funny, Luhan.” I whined as the two of us stepped into the hall. “I really thought I was going to be late and the future of my diploma was on the line! You know how much of a disciplinarian Professor Park is!”

“You’re taking this whole thing a little too seriously.” He side-eyed me as we slipped into two seats in one of the middle rows. “He’s not going to fail you even if you were a few minutes late. Jeez, the man may be strict but he ain’t a heartless Hitler you know.”

I present to you ladies and gentleman, my best friend Lu Han, or more commonly known as the mononym Luhan because apparently the lady at the registration office could not figure out that Lu was the new foreign exchange student’s surname and decided to call him by his full name instead. We still joke about that to this day.

If you’re wondering why someone who seems so attractive to the majority of the female species are friends with a potato like me, it’s because I had the luck of being paired off with him during the student orientation week – where all those painful years of Chinese lessons my parents forced me take finally paid off – and we’ve been pretty much inseparable ever since.

We have a pretty good dynamic so far, him being the voice of reason during my overdramatic and lazy tendencies while I become the person who smacked his head and brought him back down to earth when he was getting to cocky about, well, everything.

A very good example would be now.

I scoffed. “Psh, it’s easy for you to say. You’ve always been the shining example of a student.” I poked him. “You almost never get into trouble for anything! It’s super unfair.”

Luhan laughed as he ruffled his fingers through his hair. “Well, it’s not my fault that the professors always seem to like me. And that my assignments are always exemplary.” He added. “Oh, and how I always turn up to class early unlike a certain someone.”

“Oh, haha very funny.” I rolled my eyes as I reached into my tote to pull out my pencil case. “I honestly don’t know how the girls keep fawning about how much of a gentleman you are when you’re clearly a big jerk.”

“Hey, I am a gentleman okay.” Luhan clutched his chest in mock pain. “I even waited for you to reach class before going inside.”

“Yeah, right.” I scrunched my nose. “You totally went off to the student cafeteria to mooch off of somebody again.”

Luhan merely flashed me an innocent smile. Unbelievable.

“I can’t believe someone who comes from such a wealthy family can be so cheap. Can’t you pay for your own cup of coffee for once?”

Luhan wagged a finger. “Ah, but you see us Chinese have this proverb that my family follows, ‘Be frugal in prosperity, fear not in adversity’.”

“… What on earth does that have anything to do with you being a total cheapskate when it comes to your own food?”

“Nothing.” Luhan laughed mischievously. “I just hate paying for my own stuff.”

I couldn’t help but to smack his head a little to which he whined at. This boy was seriously going to be the death of me one day. I can already tell.

Luhan’s retort was cut off by the sudden entrance of our Psych professor who finally arrived in the classroom, soaking wet and looking very much irritated as he leaned his umbrella next to desk in front of the hall and set his brown briefcase on top of the desk.

Now, I know I commented a lot on how strict he is and how scared I am of him, but I had to admit that Professor Park Chanyeol was a very attractive man. Despite the fact that he looked like he lost a fight with the storm, the way he slightly shook his wet hair and the way he ed his outer coat still made me drool a little, and if you looked around the hall, I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“Good morning to all of you and sorry for being late. As you can tell, I was delayed by this annoying bout of rain and got stuck in some traffic.” Professor Park sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair – squeal! – and sighed as he faced the rest of the class. “Since we don’t have much time to spare, I’m going to cut down on all the bull and just hop straight into the lesson so we don’t waste any time.”

You got to love Professor Park. Most people would take the time to dry off and relax a little, but nope, not Park Chanyeol. He wasn’t kidding when he said he would hop right into the lesson because that’s what he actually did. He picked up th