“I’ll have a tall Americano.”
    “Is that all for today?”
“Yes, thank you.”
    “That will be 4,100 Won.”
“Here you go.” An unfamiliar voice said from right beside Chorim. A long arm extended from behind her, just over her shoulder, and gave the cashier a credit card. Chorim turned around to see who it was. He was quite tall and had fair skin and short black hair. Most importantly, it was a handsome face she had seen before but she couldn’t recall from where. Chorim just smiled and let the cashier finish up before wandering off to the side. After all, it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened to Chorim, she knew the deal. Sungjae closely watched her walk to the waiting area, highly amused, and joined her after ordering a drink himself.
“You must be used to getting free drinks.” Sungjae grinned widely. What does he want…? Chorim averted her gaze.
“Thanks for the drink.” She quietly said, tucking her hair behind her ears.
“I’m Sungjae by the way, nice to meet you.” He confidently held out his hand and Chorim cautiously shook it. Sungjae...
“I’m Chorim.” She saw a strange look on his face as soon as she told him her name. His smirk gave away the fact that he probably already knew who she was. Is he in the same faculty as me or something?They engaged in a trivial conversation about good cafes in the neighbourhood until their drink orders were called out at the same time. Sungjae went ahead to grab both of the drinks and handed her the Americano. Usually, in this situation, the guy would want to hang around Chorim for a while, eventually asking for her number or a friend request but with Sungjae, it was a bit different. He walked her to the door and saw that she was already expecting him to make her stay longer.
“I'll see you around, Chorim.” He said with a smile before walking off. Um okay then…

She looked at her watch. 6PM. She was actually buying a drink to prepare herself for the long night that awaited her. She had been slacking off on her studies and forgot about an assignment that was due the next day. Chorim usually studied at the library and did all of her assignments there so she wouldn’t need to use the desk at home but desperate times called for desperate measures. The library wouldn’t be open 24/7 for her to use freely. Once she got home, she pushed everything that was on top of her desk onto the ground, telling herself she would sort it out later. She placed her laptop right in the middle of the blank desk and started feeling stupidly proud of herself. Now...a chair. She looked around her room and saw no such thing. I’m pretty sure I had a chair. She went over to a strangely tall mountain of clothes and dug through it until the swivel chair revealed itself at the bottom. Hah! Gotcha! Chorim happily carried the chair over to the desk and then sat down. Wow, it’s nice to have a proper desk, it feels productive. She stretched out her arms in front of her and cracked her neck, ready for the long night ahead.

~

4AM. I need a ing break, I can't do this anymore! Chorim cried at her poor fate and madly scratched her head. She had working on her report endlessly and the end was yet to be in sight. She had finished all of her snacks and energy drinks and all of her physical and mental energy had been drained. She pushed herself away from her desk and decided to go outside to get some fresh air. As soon as she closed the front door behind her, she was shocked to see what was happening right next to her. Yoongi had a girl pinned up against the wall, passionately locking lips with her with his hand sliding up her thigh. The girl grabbed onto his hair from the back and held onto it as he impatiently moved his way down her neck with his lips.
“There’s...someone...here.” The girl said with heavy breaths in between. Yoongi stopped at her collarbones and turned around with smudged lipstick stains on the side of his cheek and wiped his lips with his sleeve.
“Oh Chorim! Where are you off to at this time?” Chorim was stunned by how casually he was greeting her, as if it was just a normal everyday encounter.
“I’m just going to…” Chorim confusingly waved her finger in the air, not stopping to point in any direction, “no where.”
She quickled turned around and rushed back inside. Chorim crashed into her chair and spun around, her mind completely blank. Alright, no break then! A few moments later, as she was diligently typing away, something was subtly distracting her and forced her to cease her lightning fast keystrokes. She turned around and stared at the wall on the other side of the room. In the sudden dead silence in her place, she could hear the soft sound of and grunting coming from Yoongi’s side. You’ve got to be ing kidding me. Now that she had become aware of it, the sounds became louder and the dirty words being yelled out became more audible which started to drive Chorim insane as she listened to it unwillingly. Chorim got out her big chunky noise-cancelling headphones and blasted her music in an attempt to cleanse her ears. She tried to return to focusing on her report but kept making typos and grammar errors. She smashed her head against the desk and whimpered. Mommy, help me.

~

10AM. Chorim stared blankly at the completed report in front of her with a feeling of emptiness wallowing inside. After saving it for the 500th time, she rubbed her eyes and slapped her face to keep awake. 10AM...I have a lecture at 11... my life. This was the problem with Chorim’s high maintenance lifestyle. In the little time that she had, Chorim tried to get ready as usual even if she felt like a zombie for most of it. There was nothing astray with her makeup (except a little more powder underneath her eyes to hide the dark circles) and her clothes. However, she didn’t have the time to do her hair as usual and just lazily tied it up. Almost simultaneously, Chorim and the girl from Yoongi’s place opened their doors and stepped outside. The girl had messy bed hair which she tried to brush out with her long fingers and was wearing a dishevelled button up shirt with a tight mini-skirt. She was holding onto her heels and tights in her hands and shyly greeted Chorim with a slight nod as she crept past her barefooted. Chorim awkwardly nodded back and just let the girl pass through, saving her from further embarrassment.

After jogging down a few blocks and through the campus, Chorim managed to arrive at the lecture room just in time and settled into a chair at the very back, hoping it help her get away with napping. My eyelids...are so heavy… She rested her chin on the table and struggled to keep her eyes open. She didn’t even bother to see who sat right beside her.
“Hey Chorim.” It was a voice Chorim would recognise anywhere.
“Jin! Morning.” Chorim immediately sat up properly and quickly fixed her loose ponytail. It’s really happening. Kim Seokjin is the one coming to me and not the other way around… They always sat near each other by a few seats during this lecture but never right next to each other.
“You don’t look so well.” Jin commented, putting his bag down.
“I stayed up all night because of an assignment for another class and…” Chorim’s face dulled thinking about her interrupted break from the previous night, “And yeah, I'm just really tired.”
“Do you want some coffee?” He asked, ready to leave his seat. Chorim waved her hands in the air and she earnestly shook her head.
“No, I should be alright, thank you though.”
She lied. Only a few minutes into the lecture and she already had her cheek squished against the table and hanging wide open. She was lucky she didn’t start drooling because she was in such a deep slumber it looked as though someone had drugged her. Occasionally, Jin would zone out listening to the lecture and would be amused by watching Chorim sleep in such a care-free manner which was quite unlike how he usually saw her.
“Lee Chorim!” The lecturer called out all of a sudden but it wasn’t enough to wake her.
“She’s not feeling well.” Jin said with his hands carefully cupping her ears to block out the noise. The lecturer frowned and shook his head.
“Well tell her that if she’s feeling unwell she should be at home and not here in my class.” The lecture harshly said and then continued with the lecture material. He was quite disgruntled but chose not to pursue it further because of Jin’s apologetic smile.
Once the session ended, the lecture room emptied quickly and Jin and Chorim were the last people remaining.
“Chorim.” Jin said as he lightly shook her shoulder, feeling guilty about trying to disturb her whilst she was sleeping so peacefully. He then leaned in and raised his voice, “Chorim!”
“YES SIR!” Chorim jolted up and accidentally smashed Jin’s face with her elbow. Jin cowered over and cupped his nose with his hand.
“Sh*t, are you alright!?” She said without thinking. I just elbowed Jin, I just elbowed Jin, I just elbowed Jin.
“I’m fine.” Jin chuckled, his hand still cupping his face, “You’re a lot stronger than you look.”
“Ah…I get told that a lot.” Chorim sheepishly laughed. Now is not the time to be laughing...

Once they were outside, Jin came back to the bench where Chorim was waiting and gave her a warm cup of coffee.
“Hopefully this will help you through your day.” Jin commented as he sat down beside her.
“Thanks.” Chorim quietly sipped the drink, slightly embarrassed. She noticed that people were murmuring and whispering amongst themselves whilst looking at them at the bench and became self-aware. We look good together, don’t we? She dorkily smiled to herself. High visual couple, kyaaaah. She couldn’t help but get ahead of herself and start daydreaming.
“Are you done for today?” Jin asked.
“Huh...oh, yeah, pretty much. I just need to go hand in my report and then I was going to go to the library to study.”
“At which building?”
“Building 7.”
“Ah okay. Well afterwards, if you’re not too tired, would you like to go grab…uh...” Grab what, grab what!? She noticed Jin was looking right past her, squinting his eyes with suspicion.  She turned her head to see a familiar but highly shady character hiding behind a tree.
“Hey, it’s Namjoon.” Chi exclaimed.
“It is, isn’t it?” Jin said without moving his eyes. He then turned to face her again.
“I have to find out what he's up to. I’ll see you later.” He said. Ah, will you though? Chorim could only nod. She didn't expect the almighty Jin to come looking for her after all.
“Sure.” Chorim smiled, trying to hide her disappointment.

~

“Namjoon, you’ve really got to stop…”
“Jin! Good timing!” Namjoon forcibly pulled Jin closer by the strand of his bag and they both hid behind the tree like criminals.
“I swear to god, if you're doing what I think...”
“Yes, yes, but do you think that’s her boyfriend?” Namjoon asked, completely ignoring Jin. Jin hesitantly took a look to where he pointed and not surprisingly, it was the girl Hyojin sitting beside some tall guy on a bench.
“How on earth would I…” Jin glared at Namjoon who wasn’t even paying attention to him.
“That guy’s ridiculously tall. Like what…190?” Namjoon mumbled to himself. He then tipped his sunglasses down and had his eyes glued to the pair as they got up and started walking away. Jin took a deep breath, already exhausted. Starting from back in middle school, Jin had dealt with Namjoon every time he had his eye on a girl and it always seemed to be the same outcome. Namjoon would persistently pursue the girl, successfully date her and then dump her when he got bored...which often didn’t take too long. It was a vicious never-ending cycle but Namjoon didn't care because he was, well, thee Kim Namjoon.
“I’m going to the library, are you coming?”
“You already know the answer to that.” Namjoon said. Jin still waited around for an reply and Namjoon waved his hand to shoo Jin away, “Of course not.”

Jin promptly left Namjoon alone and went to the library to find Chorim. He got to the top floor and searched around for her. A few girls who saw him enter got excited amongst themselves and started brushing their hair and checking their makeup. Their eyes were glued to him as he cluelessly walked past them. In the vast room of rows of tables and chairs, Jin spotted Chorim near a window with her head down, moving between typing on her laptop and reading something off the textbook next to her. Jin still wasn't able to pinpoint what it was about this girl that made him so curious. Jin quietly sat down next to her and waited for her to notice him.
“Jin!” She cried out loud. He brought a finger to his lips and smiled at her. She shrunk back after realising they were in the silent section of the library. Sh*t, he actually came… Jin gestured her to continue with what she was doing and got out his laptop and cable. As if I can study whilst you’re around... She forced a smile and tried to continue typing despite suddenly becoming really nervous. She briefly glanced up and once again, she saw a few people whispering quietly to each other with their eyes intently watching them. When she was just by herself, she would occasionally catch a guy or two staring at her with adoring eyes from afar but it was never to this extent. Chorim couldn’t help but gawk at Jin’s perfect profile from the side herself, admiring everything from his long eyelashes and gentle brown eyes to his soft plump lips. He had a serene expression as his eyes glossed over the words on the screen. He abruptly stood up and took his jacket off. All he wore was a fitting white long-sleeved shirt which accentuated his broad shoulders and sturdy arms and it was enough to make Chorim flustered. She awkwardly returned to her screen to avoid making eye contact with him, knowing very well she wouldn't be able to handle it. Aaaahhh, how am I supposed to concentrate?

Jin caught Chorim staring at her screen with a blank expression for an extended period of time. She had stopped typing altogether and had been resting her stiff hands on the keyboard. He glimpsed at her screen and saw the cursor flashing impatiently, urging her to move on. His lips curled into an amused smiled and he reached over to the notebook beside her and scribbled something down with a pen. She was in such a daze that his sudden movement startled her. Jin returned his attention to his laptop and Chorim curiously looked at the corner of the page.

୧(๑•̀ᗝ•́)૭ GET BACK TO WORK

A/N: I don't need to put a MATURE warning for this chapter, right? Hahahahahaha.