School really isn’t easy, something Jonghyun learnt since freshman year, and the difficulty just steeps upwards across every semester. Yet Jonghyun never thought that one day, there would be something else troubling him more than academics: his beloved roommate.

“Kim Jonghyun!”

Not that again… Jonghyun thought to himself. He was pretty much done with issues with the toilet, but he had somehow adapted to this habit of lingering just a little while longer inside the tiny cooped room while his roommate was scrambling and nagging about almost everything present in the room.

Jonghyun didn’t understand. Why did Kibum have to annoy him with his own stuff? It’s not like it’s really hindering his way in the room or so (technically it was a mental hindrance, Jonghyun silently added, but no way would be admit this aloud). It was clear that each person had their own space in the room, so why was Kibum intruding into his space?

“Yah~! Stop hiding in the wretched toilet!” A second shout was heard. Did the toilet offend you or something? Jonghyun thought, that you had to curse it like that. Then again, he knew that this hide-and-seek would end with his defeat, almost always, because Kibum would always threaten him with the same thing.

“If you don’t come out by the count of 3 you can expect nothing for dinner.”

Exactly… if Jonghyun would have to mention something he gained from having this roommate, amidst all the uncountable downsides, it would be food. Apparently Kibum had signed up for a series of western cooking lessons some time before his enrollment, and being the clever student that he always was (or was it some kind of inborn talent?), he mastered various western dishes, combined them with Korean cuisines, and came up with a whole series of Kibum’s masterpieces, or so he called it, which Jonghyun was, to say it mildly, addicted to. To make it sound worse would be obsessed with the food. Therefore, food was the easiest way to threaten Jonghyun to do his bidding. Jonghyun wondered if Kibum wanted the stars, he would probably come up with tricks to hoax this young man so that he would continue to cook for him. That was the best description to visualize the kind of dependence Jonghyun has on Kibum (or his food).

Puppy eyes met annoyed stares as Kibum glared at the culprit of the mess in the room.

“Shouldn’t you clear your desk?” Kibum folded his arms in front of him.

“Kibum ah~” Jonghyun tried to coax his roommate.

“Don’t Kibum me. Don’t say that I’m not a good roommate. I’m giving you 2 minutes to clear this .”

“2 minutes???!” Jonghyun exclaimed. Didn’t he had 5 minutes the previous time? And he was already scrambling his way through the mess within that short 5 minutes that time. How would he ever survive with 2 minutes?

“5 minutes?” Jonghyun asked for time allowance.

“One and a half minute.” Kibum snapped back.

“2 minutes! 2 minutes!” Jonghyun almost dashed to his desk to pick up the mess he had created.

“1 minute 55 seconds left.” Kibum’s announcement resonated in the room as he lay down on the bottom bed and picked up his book.

By the time 2 minutes ended, Jonghyun was less than half done with his clean-up. He turned around to inspect the situation. Kibum was still lying on the bed, but the book was strewn to the side instead. He stealthily walked towards his roommate. Of course he was asleep. He had just returned from a 4 hour seminar about visual arts (Kibum’s major) and Jonghyun understood perfectly the pain of enduring 4 hours of nothingness for the sake of attendance points (not that he could absorb everything well in that pathetic 4 hours without break). He carefully placed a blanket on Kibum and continued to clean up his desk which looked a little better now.