“I have to tell you upfront, Hanbyul-shii,” the girl behind the cashier tells her in a whisper. “The pay here is good and all, but honestly, it’s a ty job. And it’s all because of the manager. Dude’s got a stick up his , I swear he’s just awful. If you can stand him though, then you might actually like it here.”

The thing is, Hanbyul doesn’t have much of a choice. Whether she’ll get along with this supposed douchebag of a manager or not, she’ll have to stick it out working at the only coffee shop on campus (that is, if she gets the job to begin with). She’s never been particularly fond of school, and she’s only going to college to fulfill her parents’ wishes. What she really wants to do is start her own business - she loves to cook, and she loves a good cup of coffee, so she’s thinking of doing something along those lines for a living. Maybe a quaint coffee shop, or a food truck? She still has a lot that she doesn’t know and so many questions, but she doesn’t want to spend four years inside a classroom trying to find all the answers when there’s a faster, better way of doing so – by actually getting some work experience. It’s probably not something someone her age would think of, especially when she has the option to live a comfortable life as a college student, getting a hefty allowance from her parents every week and all, but Hanbyul is a different kind of girl. She’s determined to do her own thing, and make her own path, and a supposedly mean and uptight manager won’t get in the way of that.

She smiles politely at the girl behind the counter and hands her a piece of paper. “Thank you for the advice, and I’ll definitely keep it in mind, but I’d still like to be considered, if that’s okay. I really need this job.” The girl keeps Hanbyul’s resume and tells her she’ll get a call sometime next week for an interview. Hanbyul thanks her again before walking back to her friends.  

Back at their table Yujin is watching a drama on her laptop while Kyungsoo has his earphones on, listening to music as he looks out the window with his usual blank, wide-eyed expression. Hanbyul joins them and opens her own laptop, looking forward to doing a bit of shopping. They sit like that in comfortable silence for the rest of the morning.

By lunch the coffee shop starts to fill up with other hungry students. Kyungsoo, Yujin and Hanbyul are still at their table by the window when Dae In drops by to have lunch with them. She waves to them from the door and as she walks toward their direction, Kyungsoo finds himself watching her, unable to look away. Instead of a messy bun like the one from earlier this morning, she’s fixed her hair into a neat ponytail over her left shoulder. She’s put on a big sweatshirt over her sundress, one that looks like it’s been worn many, many times over, which somehow makes it look more warm and snuggly for some strange reason.

Kyungsoo notes how the sweatshirt is way too big on her, the sleeves too long it covers her entire arm down to her fingers, and its hem almost as long as the hem of her sundress, so that it looks as if the sweater is the only thing she’s wearing, with nothing else underneath. The thought all too suddenly brings an image to Kyungsoo’s head of him waking up next to Dae In who’s wearing nothing but one of his sweaters, a sliver of her legs peeking out from underneath the sheets, her limbs tangled with his as she snuggles up to him for warmth.

Kyungsoo is surprised at the speed and attention to detail of his imagination. He’s also slightly embarrassed, and mostly annoyed at himself. You’re not in high school anymore, get a hold of yourself, he scolds himself inwardly, trying to suppress his raging hormones. He’s barely spoken a sentence to this girl and he’s already having less-than-decent thoughts about her. It’s not something a boy with good manners would do, and Kyungsoo is definitely a boy with good manners, slight beginnings of a notwithstanding.

The other two girls on the table start making room for her but Dae In tells them not to bother, taking a seat by the empty table right next to them instead. Suddenly Kyungsoo gets up, startling Yujin and Hanbyul.

“Here,” he says awkwardly, to no one in particular it seems, though he’s actually trying to talk to Dae In. “Y-you can sit here. We can trade places,” he tells her, his already large eyes even wider than usual with a nervous glint on them.

Yujin and Hanbyul exchange knowing looks, but Dae In just smiles warmly at him. “Thanks, Kyungsoo. But it’s okay, I’ll just stay here. Minseul is on her way too so we’re really going to need our own table.”

A sudden gleam of determination spurring him on, Kyungsoo takes his backpack and moves from the table he shared with Yujin and Hanbyul to sit across from Dae In on her table. As soon as he’s sat down he draws a blank on what to say next, which is awkward, because all three girls are looking at him with different levels of confusion, secondhand embarrassment (mostly for Yujin), and wonder on their faces. He’s most concerned of what the girl across from him thinks, her equally large eyes wide in surprise and a tinge of amusement, so he tries to throw a smile her way before trying to explain.

“I’ll sit with you then. Otherwise someone might take this seat and then you wouldn’t have one for your friend anymore.” His eyes look from side to side, the nervousness he’s feeling undoubtedly being reflected on them, but he finds that all of that doesn’t matter when Dae In flashes him another smile and whispers a thank you. And was that a little bit of a blush suddenly coloring her cheeks just now?

After things settle down they all sit in silence, getting back to doing their own thing. But Dae In is bored, unable to concentrate on her reading. She had a long, restful nap at Minseul’s room (though it got quite cold and she needed to put on a random sweater she found in her friend’s closet, but otherwise), and now she has too much energy to be sitting around and reading.

She looks across from her at Kyungsoo who’s got his headphones on and is tinkering with his phone. He looks just like every other freshman boy Dae In has met so far – so young and innocent-looking, still more like a lanky boy than a man, especially compared to the tall and muscular junior and senior males walking around campus. Kyungsoo alternates between pursing his lips and biting his lower lip, brows furrowed in concentration on something he’s checking on his phone. But Dae In notices the way his lips are shaped like a heart, his chubby baby cheeks contrasting with his sharp manly jaw, and of course those huge eyes behind big round spectacles, and she wonders if there’s more to her new acquaintance than just being another geeky, awkward freshman.

***

Minseul has had the worst hour of her academic life so far.

She hurriedly walks out from the admissions office after she had gotten the things she left there earlier, eager to head to the coffee shop to meet her friends after the stress she’s been through. Touring those annoying seniors was not in the least enjoyable. Some of them were too bored, some were too eager, some asked too many questions, and some were completely disinterested.

Some – one girl in particular, Queen Plastic, Minseul has gotten to calling her – were too busy flirting with one particular Oh Sehun.

Ah yes, Oh Sehun. Having the lanky boy in her tour group did not help things one bit. For a second, she even briefly considered giving up her scholarship, if it meant she could get away from him and his band of high school weirdos. Everything about him annoyed her – his soft brown hair, long bangs across his eyes in that way that made him look like he was in elementary school instead of high school; his stupid laugh and the way his eyes crinkled into half-moons whenever he so much as snickered; his long limbs, legs that went on for miles and gave him a slightly misplaced yet endearing stature, though the slouch he always had made it clear he was still an awkward teenage boy and far from being a grown man.

And then there was all the flirting. The three plastics were so eager to gain Sehun’s attention, most especially their leader, and it annoyed Minseul immensely, though she didn’t say anything. Because why would she? She didn’t care who flirted with Sehun, and if he flirted back (did he flirt back? Minseul is certain he didn’t flirt back.)

Minseul swiftly reminds herself of the decision she made over the summer, one she carried out through a lengthy but polite text message to the boy who had been the great distraction of her last year in high school. Things wouldn’t have worked out between them once she moved for college and he got left behind in their old school. It was time to explore new things and meet new people, so she felt they would be better off as friends. It wasn’t like they were ever officially boyfriend and girlfriend anyway.

So it would be easy, she thought, easy to forget and to move on, and for the first two weeks of college Minseul felt as if she was doing a good job of that, until Oh Sehun, in his trademark way of coming into her life uninvited (though not completely unwelcome, if she was being honest…which is exactly the problem), shows up on campus.

Minseul can see the coffee shop from the distance and realizes she’s famished, having had nothing to eat yet all day. She picks up the pace, eager to share her misadventures of the morning with Dae In, and doesn’t realize immediately that someone has sidled up to her, easily catching up to her with those damn long legs of his.

“Thank you for the tour of your school, Noona. I can’t wait to start college here next year!” he says cheekily, and Minseul is all at once eager to push him away and have his arm around her shoulder. What the heck.   

“What are you even doing here, Sehun? It’s barely the start of the year and you’re already touring colleges?”

“I want to get a headstart on my applications. You always seemed so responsible in high school, I thought I’d follow your example. You’d want me to be responsible, right?” he reflexively fixes the collar of his shirt and his hair, and Minseul has to keep herself from finding it adorable, how Sehun always seemed to want to be at his best in front of her.

“And not colleges, just this one. This is the only university I want to go to.”

Minseul sighs, trying to be patient. “That wouldn’t be very responsible, Sehun. You have to apply to a few different colleges, just to be sure. It’s good to have your top choice but you need to have options,” she tells him matter-of-factly.

Sehun stops in his tracks, grabs her hand and wills her to face him, and Minseul is shocked at his sudden show of authority. He looks her straight in the eye, vestiges of his boyish, awkward and goofy self from earlier gone in an instant. She’d never seen him this serious before.

“I don’t want other colleges, Noona,” he tells her sternly. “I want this one. This is my only one.”

Minseul flutters under his gaze, realizing that maybe they’re not actually talking about colleges anymore. She doesn’t know what else to do but swiftly pull her hand from his.

“Whatever, Sehun. That’s your choice. I really don’t care.” She starts to walk again, and Sehun, also in his trademark persistent ways, continues to follow her.

“So that’s settled then. Can we at least have lunch? I won’t be here for long, and I don’t want to go with those other kids, those girls were annoying the heck out of me.”

Minseul inwardly smiles at that, happy he didn’t fall for their flirtatious ways. While she doesn’t voice out her permission, she lets him walk with her to the coffee shop.

Once inside Minseul immediately spots Dae In sitting with a boy she doesn’t recognize, Hanbyul and Yujin at the table beside them. Dae in looks up and is no doubt surprised to see Sehun. She hurries over to them and gives the boy a big hug.

“Sehunnie! What are you doing here?” she asks him excitedly.

Sehun is just as excited to see her, the two having been fairly close when they were all still in high school. “Minseul Noona gave me a tour of the university. I’m thinking about going to school here next year.”

Dae In gives Minseul a knowing smile but doesn’t say anything else.

“…but Dae In Noona, why are you wearing my sweater?” Sehun asks, perplexed.

Oh , Minseul thinks, mortified, eyeing the sweater Dae In no doubt nicked from her room. The one Sehun made her wear on their last date, because they were only supposed to spend a quiet afternoon together but ended up hanging out until late into the night, when it was too cold and she didn’t have a jacket with her. She never got to return it because she had decided to end things with him after that, worried she had gotten too invested, afraid she’d get hurt. And maybe Minseul never actually wanted to return the damn sweater. It was the only thing she had of his, the only thing that reminded her of Sehun when she would start to miss him…

“Your sweater? But I got this from…”

Dae In starts to turn to Minseul, but the latter gives her a nervous albeit deadly glare, and Dae In smiles back at her with an evil grin in recognition, before happily changing the subject and leading Sehun and Minseul to their table.

She’ll have plenty of time to interrogate Minseul later, but for now, it’s time for lunch.