Skye had spent her next few days unpacking her clothes into the closets. There were two of them, so one was designated for her pastel ‘day’ clothes. Those were the ones appropriate to wear to classes and meetings and interviews and generally for walking around without getting more second glances than usual. The second closet was for her ‘night’ clothes, filled with dark colours and tight leather and plunging necklines.

                The two parts of herself that fit so neatly into opposing closets, if only everything else was that simple.

                Currently, she was in a baby blue blouse that complemented the soft morning sky. Despite her calm palate choice, Skye was buzzing inside. Today was the first day of university, today she took a step forward in becoming the person she always wanted to be. 

                Her first class of the morning was literature, because reading was always a favourite past time of hers. All of her notebooks and pens in a side satchel, she head out of her apartment. She almost purred at just how beautiful her motorbike looked parked in the underground parking, but decided to walk today, taking advantage of the cool morning air.

                Her walk took her past a bridge over an underpass, and she really couldn’t help herself. She’d spent too many nights having the time of her life under bridges in Canada. Her life was full of fond memories of beer bottles and bonfires and truck-beds, hiding out under bridges when the rain fell too heavily.

                Casting a casual look around, Skye tucked her bag closer to her back and hopped the fence to land on the gravel, and slid her way down to the abandoned underpass. Just as she imagined, it was covered in artwork. Not the stuffy artwork like in museums, but real art. Art that expressed people as they were, graffiti and thick paints, gouges where a knife had carefully cut out a design.

                Checking her watch, Skye made a note to come back here after when she had more time, and could truly appreciate it.   

She picked a seat in the middle of the room, not too far from the front but enough that there was space between her and the pretentious pricks who usually chose to sit there. She dug in her bag, pulling out her notebook and a rough-hewn copy of Dante's inferno, an old favourite of hers and the first reading of the semester.

She flipped through the well-read pages as she waited, the blue ink annotations on the margins just as much of the book as the actual work itself. The spine was lovingly broken, as it would be only when it had been devoured late at night under lamplight. She could see people giving her glances, and scathing looks at the state of her book, but Skye couldn't really blame them. They'd probably been raised with the beliefs that books were fragile objects, not meant to be bent or torn or written in, so seeing her abused copy would be blasphemous. Her row filled up, but there were still pocket holes of empty seats when the professor walked in and took his place on the podium.

"My name is Professor Song. My credentials are on the board behind me. There are university policies that I have to waste my time going through, so read the paper being handed to you thoroughly." A student was walking along the rows and handing out a thick was of paper to each row.

"In summary they are: don't cheat, don't lie, don't plagiarise, and don't steal. Our class schedule is listed online as I expect you have seen, you notice we have a three hour lecture once a week. Show up and work hard, skip class and fail, it's your choice not mine so don't expect this to be a class where I hold your hand through your whole year. Now, the material. I instructed you all to have read Canto’s I through III of Dante's Inferno for today's class, and submit a three-page analysis online. The Dropbox has now closed, so don't expect to hand it in after class when you've heard everyone else's answers. Expect this to be routine, I do NOT have a late policy. If you are late, you get zero, end of discussion. I trust everyone has a copy of the material with them?"

Professor Song looked around the room, seeing the usual groups in her class. There were the first row students, nodding enthusiastically with everything she was saying, those would be the ones filling her office hours with useless questions in attempts to get their names remembered. There were the students who were wide eyed and sitting ramrod straight in their seats, as if her words had blown last them in a whirlwind. They would be the ones dropping out, or coming to her at the end begging for an extra credit assignment to boost their average. Then, there were her favourite students. Unfortunately, they were always the smallest group in her classroom, but they always had a presence far larger than their physical body. There was a spark in their eyes and a hunger in their souls. They weren't eager to learn, they were desperate, needing challenging and debates to keep themselves sated. There were only a few in this room, key ones being the darker skinned boy on the left of the room and the red haired girl in the middle.

“Key points of Canto I, you.” She pointed at one of the students in the back row, one who had obviously not being paying attention. The boy stuttered, and Professor Song let him sweat in his seat for a few seconds longer before moving on to the darker skinned boy.

He seemed a little startled at being chose, but recovered quickly. “Well Dante is challenged when he attempts for follow the path, by a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf. Each of these represents the sin that the character Dante had committed in his lifetime, lust, pride, and greed, respectively. The confrontation of these, especially greed, is what stops Dante from ‘ascending’ the hill.”

“Good. What’s your name?”

“K-Kim Jongin sir.”

Professor Song nodded, “anyone else have something to add about Canto I?”

There was a brief pause before the red haired girl raised her hand.

“As Jongin mentioned, the Dante we read about is written as a character, not a physical representation of the writer Dante himself. This is further shown by character Dante’s reception of his guide Virgil, the famous poet. While his character reveres and admires Virgil, the real Dante despised him. This shows that the character is a representation of the people and opinions of the time, and not of an individual self.”

“Well interpreted. Your name?”

“Park Skye, sir.”

Professor Song nodded, noting that her assumption had been correct, those two would no doubt be her favourite students all semester. Seeing that the majority of her class was still clueless, and considering it was the first class of the semester, she gave a brief overview of Canto II and Canto III before launching into her lecture of literature in the time of Dante, giving an overview of the politics of Florence and how that influenced Dante. Most eyes were blank by the end of the three hours, but that wasn’t her concern, she was here to teach those who were here to learn. 

“Read up to Canto XIII by next week.”

The class began to shuffle unanimously as students generally do when a class has ended. Slye was among them, putting her books back in her bag when a shadow loomed over her. A glance upwards showed it was the other boy from class, Kim Jongin.

“Haneul right? I really liked your argument, did you wanna grab a coffee during the break?”

She smiled, she’d liked his interpretation of the book. Not many people were interested in literature nowadays, and she found herself fond of Jongin already.

“Sure. I don’t know many places on campus though, I’ve only been here about a week.”

He chuckled, moving back a step so she could stand. “The best coffee is just a couple minutes from here. It’s in the physics department so not too many people know about it.” She fell into step beside him, not able to speak as they avoided the bustle of people attempting to get into their lecture hall.

“That looks suspiciously like a basement.” Skye said, amused as she eyes the thin metal steps Jongin was walking down.

He grinned crookedly, “it is.”

“The physics department is in the basement?”

“You should hear them complain about it.”

She laughed, following him down the stairs and through a hallway lacking ceiling panels, leaving the beams and wires exposed. “Really safe.” A few steps more and they reached a vending machine, microwave, and a window into a lab.

“how do you take your coffee?” Kai asked, looking around suspiciously before knocking on the window.

“Black, please.” She said, watching curiously as the window slid open, revealing a familiar face. His eyes widened slightly at the sight of her, but the tilt of his head sent his message loud and clear. Pretend we don’t know one another.

“Xiumin.” Kai greeted, “two black coffees if you don’t mind.”

Xiumin grinned, “coming right up.” He closed the window and Skye had to laugh.

“Is this an illegal coffee shop?”

Kai chuckled, “I’m not sure, I’m pretty sure it’s not university approved, but it has the best coffee around. For the best value too.”

“And who’s he? Xiumin?”

Kai shrugged, “I think he’s an upper level Maths student. There’s another guy who does it with him, a really tall guy who I think is an economics major. You should see this place during exams though, I bet they make a killing.”

“And the university really hasn’t found out about it?”

                “A couple professors have.” Xiumin said, handing two coffees through the window and taking the bill from Kai’s hand. He rummaged in his pockets for change. “But we let them skip all the line ups and they don’t tell anyone.” He winked, and Skye felt herself warming to this motley bunch even more.

                Kai received his change and waved at Xiumin, “my next lecture starts in five, I’ll see you later.”

                You waved at Xiumin as well, “it was nice to meet you Xiumin.”

                He grinned and shut his window, hiding the secret café from the rest of the world. You followed Kai back up the steps to the main floor, feeling your hand warm with the familiar sting of hot coffee.

                “You have any other classes today?” Kai asked, stopping in front of a seminar room.

                You shook your head, “just the one, I’m still unpacking so I’ll probably head home and finish that.”

                Kai nodded understandingly, “I’ll see you around then?”

                You smiled, “definitely.”

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So all of the interpretations (here and throughout further chapters) are all my personal interpretations, so don’t take them as gospel but feel free to challenge them (politely) in the comments!