I woke up at the same time as Choa the next morning. I changed into a pink Crepe dress and curled my hair a bit at the ends. I checked my schoolbag, making sure I had everything. Choa put on a headband to decorate her blonde hair and we stepped out of the room together, heading towards the elevator. I pushed the down button and we waited for the elevator to arrive. When it came, a tall and sweaty guy stepped out. He walked past us silently and entered a room a few doors away from our own room. Choa shrugged and stepped in, me following after. When we reached the ground floor, Hojeong met up with us outside. We walked to the lecture room, where we chose seats near the top, Hojeong in the middle of me and Choa. Hojeong quickly compared our schedules.

“We’ve got the same classes! Alright!” he lifted his hand up for a high-five. I slapped his hand. I felt someone sitting next to me and turned around. That tall sweaty guy I had seen earlier in the dorms was all cleaned up, his hair wet from a shower. He was just sitting there, tapping his pencil softly against the little table attached to the seat. He looked at me.

“You new?”

“Uh… yeah. I’m Kwak Hyojoo,” I put out my hand and he quickly shook it before resuming his tapping. I turned back to Hojeong, who was getting a notebook out of his bag. He looked over at the guy.

“Hey Seungyoon, you got any lead?” he asked. The guy called Seungyoon slid a piece of lead out of his pencil and handed it to Hojeong, who took it. I took a piece of paper out of my bag as the teacher began a slideshow. I wrote down the highlighted parts of the presentation. After the lecture, Seungyoon left and was replaced by another guy.

“Hey, I’m Gunwoo. You met Seungyoon earlier? He wouldn’t stop talking about you,” he said as he sat down.

“Excuse me?” I barely had any time to comprehend this information before the teacher started talking. I shut my mouth and listened for the time being. After the lecture, Gunwoo stood up and walked leisurely out of the room before I could ask him about anything he had said earlier. A few seconds later, a baby faced guy sat down next to me.

“I’m Rokhyun! Pleased to meet you!” he grabbed my hand and shook it enthusiastically.

“Uh, nice to meet you too…” I said as he let go of my hand and took out a notebook. He wrote something into it, teared it out, folded it carefully, and offered it to me.

“This is Seungyoon’s number, he wants you to call him later. I’m surprised you didn’t ask him for his number since you are his girlfriend after all…”

“What?” Hojeong turned away from his conversation with Choa and they both turned to me. I shook my head frantically.

“No! It’s not like that! I barely met him today!” I protested. I glared at Rokhyun, who sat back, grinning.

“I’ll let Daesung handle the rest from here…” he muttered loudly enough for me to hear. Two girls came over and sat next to Choa.

“Hey Choa! Who’s this?” one of them looked at me curiously.

“Ah, this is Hyojoo! She’s my new roommate. Hyo, meet Hyei and Jiyoon. We’re childhood friends,” Choa introduced us. The girl named Hyei came over and shook my hand. Then she looked sharply at Rokhyun, who was still sitting there, watching everything unfold.

“You didn’t give her some of your lame pickup lines did you?” Jiyoon looked at him suspiciously.

“I can’t, she’s Yoon’s girl already,” he replied.

“Eh?” the girls both said. I glared at Rokhyun again for the second time and tried to explain myself.

“No, he didn’t even speak to me, let alone tell me his name. I found it out from Hojeong!” I was panicky.

“That explains it,” Hyei said, as if she knew what was going on. The professor came into the room and we all sat back down in our seats. She began the lecture with a small slideshow. Then she handed out worksheets for each pair in the rows. Hyei and Jiyoon were a pair, Choa and Hojeong were a pair, leaving me to pair up with Rokhyun. He took the worksheet out of Hojeong’s hand and we both looked at it. I began to tackle the first problem with ease. Rokhyun looked at me, amazed.

“No wonder Seungyoon chose you… pretty and smart, a killer combo.”

“There are plenty of girls with that exact same combo here as well,” I replied flatly as I continued onto the 2^nd one. Within minutes, I had finished half of the worksheet. I handed it to Rokhyun, who finished the rest and turned it into the teacher. When he sat back down, he stared at me. I stared back.

“I still don’t know why Yoon chose you, so don’t ask me. Yes, there are other girls with the smart and pretty combo but why he chose you, I don’t know.”

“I wasn’t going to ask anyway,” I turned away from him and watched Hojeong and Choa complete their worksheet and turn it in. I took out my phone and listened to some music. As the bell rang for long break, a group of guys, including Seungyoon and Gunwoo came in and greeted Rokhyun. Hyei came over and whispered into my ear while keeping an eye on the guys in front of us.

“They call themselves WIN. All capital letters. Apparently, if they ever entered a boyfriend competition, they would win hands down. And it’s true because they have each type of guy in their little group,” she informed me. I nodded. Seungyoon and I made eye contact for a short moment before I felt Hojeong come up next to me and grab my arm.

“Should we leave?” he tugged me away. We all found a big tree to relax under. I took out my sketchbook and a pencil. I flipped to the last page I was working on. I erased some parts here and shaded in the rest, adding little details and descriptions on the sides. When I had finished, it was a sketch of an oversized stripped sweater with a matching skirt underneath. Hojeong peeked over my shoulder at the sketch, handing me a bottle of water as well. I set my book down and took it from him, opening the bottle and taking small sips from it.

“The drawing’s nice Joo. Designing?” he asked.

“Yeah but I feel like I need to step up my game a bit you know?” I told him my worries. He listened patiently.

“You’ll do fine Hyo. I can imagine Jiyoon wearing something like this to be honest.”

“Really?” I looked down at the drawing. “If that’s the case, I’ll claim it mine!”

I signed my name in the bottom right hand corner of the picture and shut the book. We heard a faint bell.

“Joo! We’ll be late! Hurry!” Hojeong got up and pulled me up along with him. We ran to class, where a guy in all black was sitting in the seat next to mines. I crept into my seat and sat down, trying to catch my breath. When I looked to grab a notebook out of my bag, I noticed my sketchpad was missing. I gasped.

“Jeong! My sketchpad is still under that tree!” I turned to him. His eyes went wide. Just as he stood up, the bell rang for class to start. He sunk back down into his seat. I saw the guy next to me take out his phone and fire out a text to someone but I didn’t care. I hope nothing happens to it… I sat uneasily through class. When the bell rang again, I rushed out the door with Hojeong, leaving our stuff with Choa. When we got to the tree, the pencil I had used was laying there still but the sketchpad was missing.

“Oh no…” I groaned. All of my drawings I had been working on for the past few years were all gone.

“We’ll submit a report for it. Whoever finds it can just turn it into the office and we can pick it up from there,” Hojeong said determinedly. We walked back to class, where a guy with long bangs was sitting next to my seat. When I sat down, he turned his head and looked up at the ceiling. I looked up and saw nothing at first, then realized he was looking at me. I turned away. He just leaned his face closer.

“Are you Hyojoo?” he asked softly.

“Yes…?” I wondered how he knew my name. Maybe Seungyoon told him? He was in that same group from earlier.

“Come with me after school, we need to talk. I’m Daesung by the way.”

“After school? But I had plans…” I tried to reject. He shook his head.

“Cancel them. It’s important,” he insisted as he took out his phone and began texting someone. I kept refusing throughout the entire class whenever he asked. When the bell rang, Hojeong turned to Choa to ask for a pen. I stood up and so did Daesung. Suddenly, I felt myself being lifted up off the ground bridal-style. I looked up and saw Daesung grinning at me.

“Hey! Put me down!” I tried to squirm away but he held on tighter. Hojeong turned around and looked confused. Daesung spun around and began to run with me in his arms. I clung onto his shirt and shut my eyes, focusing on trying not to fall out of his arms. I heard Hojeong calling my name and Daesung’s but Daesung just ignored him and ran faster. After a few more minutes, he stopped and gently set me down on my feet.

“You can open your eyes now silly,” I heard him laugh. I peeked out of the bottom of my eyelids and saw my name in signed in the bottom right corner of a piece of paper… I opened my eyes fully and saw a hand holding up my sketchpad into my face.

“My sketchpad!” I made a grab for it but the hand yanked it up out of my reach. I looked and saw Rokhyun holding it up, waving my drawings around in the air, grinning. I looked around, suddenly aware of my surroundings. We seemed to be at the back of the school. All the members of WIN were surrounding me. “How did you guys find my notebook?”

“Siwoo here texted us saying you lost something that sounded precious to you,” Gunwoo said. He gestured to the guy in all black, who looked at me but said nothing.

“Um thank you Siwoo, I’ll take it back now,” I made another swipe for it but Rokhyun only yanked it up higher. Ugh why do I have to be so short! I made a last attempt but lost my balance, knocking into Seungyoon, and we both fell over, him cushioning my fall. I opened my eyes and found our faces only centimeters apart. I scrambled off of him in a rush. I felt my face turning red and I saw his going red as well. Siwoo offered me his hand and I took it, brushing off my dress as Seungyoon stood up and brushed himself off as well. Rokhyun stepped between us, still holding onto the sketchpad. I glared at him, knowing I would have to make some kind of deal with them to get it back. I crossed my arms.

“What do I have to do to get my drawings back?” I demanded. Seungyoon began to walk forward towards me. I instinctively began to walk backwards until I felt my back hit the wall. Seungyoon came even closer and leaned towards me, putting his hand next to my head and staring into my eyes. I stared back and broke the contact, closing my eyes, turning my head away, and crossing my arms. “Well? I’m not gonna stand here forever.”

I heard Seungyoon sigh. Then he spoke.

“You go out with me, I’ll give you your sketchbook back. How about that?”