I: Roommates and Spicy Food

I wasn’t sure if I should be thankful or not that my roommate was loud and went M.I.A half the time.

Cha Haejoo was a tall, pretty girl whom had more boys as her friends than girls, so it was often quite awkward with simply a guy in the room waiting for her. She was also a lot messier than I was, so her designated half of the room was littered with pieces of clothing and empty snack packages. Between our beds, a tea table stood -- one with short stubby legs, and could only be used if one were sitting on the ground. Originally, I had thought of using it for homework, but it was so covered with Haejoo’s stuff that I had to get an extra desk to stuff in the corner.

Despite our differences, however, we got along fairly well. I went my way, she went hers, and sometimes, we watched a movie or two together.

Our dorm was on the second story, and there happened to be an emergency ladder right next to the window, which turned out to be an open opportunity for Baekhyun.

Baekhyun was three dorms away from Chanyeol, and he shared his room with two other guys; Kyungsoo, and a boy named Kim Jongdae. The three of them all happened to like to sing, and Chanyeol claimed that he could hear them singing from three rooms away twelve at night.

Jongin ended up leaving Seoul for university, though there were often times he texted me. Mostly, they were asking me if I were still dating Baekhyun -- and I tried my best to avoid the questions, only to result in it being asked again.

Today was quite uneventful, and it was close to nine thirty and Haejoo hadn’t returned yet. I had a lecture at nine the next day, and there was a pile of things that I needed to study. My stomach was growling, but when I had rifted through the small fridge, there was nothing but half a bowl of jajangmyeon left, and I was pretty sure that it belonged to Haejoo. It was late, and I couldn’t be bothered to actually go buy food, so I ended up resorting in eating half an apple, then turned back to studying.

My phone flashed.

Byun Bacon

You still awake

9: 38 pm

Me

why

9: 39 pm

Read, my phone told me, and I was just going to ask again when there was a knock. Coming from the direction of the window.

In surprise, I almost knocked over the mug of coffee on the table, but missed it at the last moment. My head snapped in the direction, and Baekhyun had one hand pressed against the glass pane, grinning widely. It was dark outside, and cold, so each time he breathed, a puff of white appeared. The lighting from inside made his face look comical yet scary at the same time. I stared for a little while longer, and he waved.

The front door of the dorm was probably locked by now, and besides -- one boy walking through a girls’ dorm would’ve been awkward -- but climbing up the emergency ladder to get through my window was also rather awkward. This wasn’t the first time… but still, I had the weird trepidation that my grandma would suddenly appear and scold me for letting a boy into my room so casually (Of course, my grandma already knew Baekhyun -- longer than I knew him, even -- but even then, I didn’t know if I could ever get used to it. Baekhyun had also asked me once about my grandma after I told him about her, and he had asked if he would see her again. His answer came from Chanyeol. “You will,” the taller boy told Baekhyun in a gleeful voice. “She’s Iseul’s guardian, so you’ll have to ask for her permission when you finally plan on marrying her.” To that, Baekhyun had excused himself and left).

When I finally opened the window, Baekhyun tumbled in, bringing a gust of freezing cold wind in with him. I hurriedly slammed the window shut. Even if I was only on the second story, I’d never have the guts to do what he did. Especially with the wind blowing as violently as it was now; what he just did was another definition for suicidal.

“Haejoo’s even messier than Jongdae,” he noted as he let himself sit down on my bed. “Which I didn’t think was possible. And Kyungsoo’s a neat freak, so he’s half crazy by now. I wonder if he’ll survive the whole year and keep his sanity.”

Haejoo’s last meeting with Baekhyun was something I didn’t want to relive. I frequently reminded her of his name whenever she brought him up, but she seemed to prefer to call him ‘Iseul’s hot boyfriend.’ Which I secretly agreed with, but it was still awkward nevertheless when she talked about him.

“What are you here for?” I didn’t argue with myself, which was undoubtedly happy that was here, but it wouldn’t hurt Baekhyun to act just a bit nonchalant.

“Jongdae’s being loud, and Kyungsoo is close to killing someone. I saw Haejoo just a while ago, so I assumed she wasn’t here with you. Another minute with them, I would’ve died.” He ran a hand through his hair, and though it was messy, it was so beautifully messy. I watched as flyaway locks slowly settled down again, and there was a sudden urge to run my own fingers through his hair.

“You could’ve gone to Chanyeol’s dorm instead of mine.”

Baekhyun skillfully avoided that question by dropping his backpack. From it, he dug out a package of ramen and two one-use wooden chopsticks. “I brought food to eat. Have you even eaten dinner yet? Why are you still doing homework?” With that note, he took the work, tossing it onto my bed, away from the table, and I watched silently. Then, he turned to his backpack again, rummaging through it again. After a little while, he pulled out a box of cookies with a jubilant, aha! Baekhyun handed the box to me. “Baekbeom dropped by today,” he exclaimed cheerily. “And he brought peanut butter cookies and restocked my orange juice. I brought the cookies for safekeeping, since Jongdae’s been after them since they were delivered. We’ll have it for dessert.”

Baekbeom. Truth to be told, I was still a little in awe at how natural and close Baekhyun and Baekbeom were now. It had been less than three months that I had seen them on the subway -- and now, I was pretty sure Baekhyun called his brother daily. It made me feel warm inside, and Baekhyun’s happiness was so pure now. There was nothing huge burdening him like before, and it really did show. Sometime around this time of year, last year, Baekhyun had wandered near my house and I had hauled him home. That was a year ago, I realized in surprise.

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter