AUGUST

Koo Junhoe – Sunday, 5:27 PM

The raindrops were drumming at the car window, blurring the stone grey horizon, as they stormed ahead by the small and curvy country road. The woman behind the steal was humming loudly, as if she was trying to block the enclosing storm off. The dress was bright red, and way too short for a woman in her age. Junhoe hated when his mom dressed up like that, but she kept doing it never the less, using a considerable about of lipstick in the same shade of the summer dress, and a heavy couple of glittering earrings.

“You know,” she started in her high pitched voice, “I really think that I’ll be so good for you.” She’d ben repeating this sentence over and over the past few weeks, most likely in an attempt to convince herself, that she was doing this of love to her son, and not her future second husband. “Making friends and such.” She caught Junhoes eyes trough the rear-view mirror, but they both quickly broke off the awkward eye contact, and went back to staring out the window.

In 30 minutes they’d be at his new school, Junhoe thought, his new boarding school, and the thought didn’t improve his already quite bad mood. The idea with the whole transferring thing, if he believed his mother’s words, was only for his educations sake. A boarding school would give him great opportunities to focus on studying, and keep him from wasting his time with stupid things, he would regret later in life. Bull. Junhoes mother was only interesting in her fiancé, and he was only interested in keeping the only son away.

Too soon the people in the car, saw a huge white building rising in front of them. “So,” the woman said, turning off the motor and smacking with her lips, “That’s it then. I don’t suppose you want me to follow you inside?” Junhoe shook his head and rose out of the car in the misty air. He could see his mother trough the toned windows, looking at anything but her son. “Bye then,” he said, not minding if she even heard it. She must have had, because she nodded, and added: “Your suitcase’s in the back.” Not a single goodbye, but Junhoe liked it the best that way. She’d never been much of a mother anyway.

Kim Jinhwan – Sunday, 7:15 PM

“Kim ing Jiwon,” the small guy was shouting, slamming the door open, “What on earth is taking you so long?” Jinhwan was just about to kick the guy on the bed, when he realised something was wrong. It wasn’t Jiwon sitting on the bed, but some stranger, looking surprised at the shouting guy. Some hot stranger, he could keep himself but thinking. The stranger in front of Jinhwan, seemed pretty tall and was only wearing a black tank top over his loose shorts, making the obviously well trained arms completely visible, and Jinhwan had a hard time, keeping himself from staring.

“You’re not Jiwon,” he finally said, feeling extremely dumb. “As a matter of fact, I am not,” the stranger spoke with a dark voice. To Jihwans disappointment, the guy picked up a hoodie from an open suitcase on the floor, and pulled it down over his head, hiding his bare skin. “Junhoe,” he suddenly said, making the shorter start. “Sorry?” The other continued: “That’s the name, Koo Junhoe. I case you were wondering. I just transferred here.” Jinhwan threw at short look at the suitcase not anywhere near unpacked, at then at the guy named Junhoe, sitting on Jiwons extra bed. “Oh yeah, right,” Jinhwan spoke slowly, “I’m Jinhwan.” He wanted to say something funny, but instead Junhoe broke him off and said, nodding in the direction of the bathroom door: “Your friend’s in the shower. Been there for ages.” They both went quiet, and true enough, the distant sound of running water could be heard in the room. There was no point of waiting, and nodding polite at the other guy, Jinhwan turned around. “Could you perhaps tell Jiwon, that I was looking for him?” he asked Junhoe, hesitated, and then added: “And a guy named Hanbin too.”

Kim Jinhwan – Sunday, 7:37 PM

“Been looking for me, have you?” Jiwon asked sitting down in one of the armchairs, but he wasn’t looking at Jinhwan. “Dinner ended 7 minutes ago, you idiot,” Hanbin spoke clearly annoyed. For a moment Jiwon looked slightly hurt, that the other wasn’t happy to see him, but then he turned grinning to Jinhwan, showing of his large front teeth. “Guess you meet my new roommate?” Jinhwan shrugged and mumbled: “I guess,” trying to hide the light blushing (Jiwon must have noticed though, because he kept smirking at him), but before he had even finished the sentence, he could feel Hanbins body leaning over him in the chair, in an attempt to reach the Jiwon. “You got a roommate? Why the didn’t you tell me?” Jiwon was laughing, but the smile quickly faded away, seeing how serious his friend looked. “Look I’m sorry I didn’t rush to you as the first thing, but I’ve only just met him.” Hanbin still didn’t look pleased, but slowly sat back in his own chair again. There was an odd tension, but on the other hand, Hanbin had always been bad tempered. Even Jinhwan, who’d known to guy for years, would be surprised by the mood changes, and it sometimes seemed like there was no in between “I want to cut your head off” and “Have my children.” The first one was the most common one. Jiwon made faces and spoke annoyed at his friend’s reaction: “Why are you so good at ruining the mood? It’s not like I’d hook up with him or something.” The last bit seemed weird and out of context to Jinhwan, and also Hanbin said: “Why’d I care if you hooked up with your new roommate?” I didn’t sound like a question, and Jiwon chose just not to answer. The evening had just quickly been ruined even more.

For some time, the trio were silent, but Jinhwan didn’t really mind. It gave him time to look at his huge amount of homework, and the nice crackling fire felt cosy and warm. Hanbin had obviously loosened a bit up again, Jinhwan noticed, seeing how he and Jiwon was now sharing the same chair, practically sitting in each other’s labs. If it hadn’t been because he knew Hanbin were straight, Jinhwan would’ve been positive that the two were dating. They were close, even closer than with him, and were almost inseparable, fooling around or arguing. It had over the last year fallen under Jinhwan suspicion, that Jiwon might have had developed a smaller crush on his friend, but he’d never confronted any of them with the question.

When it was time to retire from the common room, Jinhwan waved short at Jiwon, then grabbed Hanbins arm, wanting him to follow back to their room, but the younger stood still. “I want to meet the roommate,” he said frowning. Jinhwan let go and shrugged. “Yeah I think that could be a good idea. You’ll just go with me then?” Jiwon asked quick, and it Hanbin agreed. “Didn’t you say that he had a meeting with the headmaster tonight?” the oldest asked odd, wanting some company back in his and Hanbins shared room. “I’ll just wait for him at Jiwons,” Hanbin shouted at his roommate, already halfway down the hallway, “Don’t wait up for me!” And then they were off. Tired and a bit confused Jinhwan did something that might had been a mix between a sigh and a yawn, but then shuffled back in the opposite direction.