“I’ll be assigning a paper the next time we meet. Have a good weekend, you’re all dismissed.”

I bit back a smile. Those words were absolute heaven to my ears. 

Not the paper part--the weekend dismissal. My favorite of all. I was done with my last class of the week and could fully enjoy the weekend with my friends.

I stood and exited the classroom, immediately checking my phone for messages. My roommate, Eunah, had texted me twice, reminding me about the party tonight, and my friend Sangmi had told me to meet her at the cafeteria when I finished my classes.

It was only a month into my first year of college, but I felt like I’d been there forever already, what with all my schedules turning into routines and keeping my social calendar packed.

“Hey, Yeonhee” a deep voice called out behind me. I spun around and recognized the boy who sat a row behind me in the class I just came from, Music Comp. I. What was his name again? Chanyoon? . I couldn’t remember. All I knew was that Sangmi had a major crush on him.

“Um, hi,” I replied, brushing my hair back. We were in the hallway just outside class, but it still felt good to be out of the stuffy room. I noticed (how could I not?) that he was at least a whole head taller than me. I felt like I was looking up at a giant.

“I was just wondering, er...” he began, and alarm bells rang in my head. Was he about to ask me out? “Did you get the notes from today? I kind of fell asleep, and I was going to ask the guy who sits next to me, but he already left,” he explained sheepishly.

I let out a laugh. Right.

“Sure. You can borrow mine, just give it back to me Monday,” I said, unlatching my backpack to hand him my notebook. 

“Oh, of course,” he said. “By the way, it’s Chanyeol,” he added before turning on his heel. He smiled before leaving, which caused my stomach to flip-flop. 

Everything was still so fresh and new, no matter how long it felt like I had been here. Boys? New. Boys talking to me? Very new. Extremely tall, cute boys asking for my notes? Very new. 

***********

“Hey! I paid for that!” Sangmi shouted, slapping my hand. I giggled and brought the fry up to my mouth anyway.

“Not like you don’t steal my food all the time,” I said in response. “You know, last year, Woojin ordered everything spicy just so you wouldn’t take his stuff.”

The girl in front of me stopped mid-bite, her eyes growing wide. “No way! He said he started getting spicy stuff because he had stomach issues!”

“I didn’t have the heart to tell you til now,” I laughed, watching her shock turn into a pout. I thanked God that she and her ex-boyfriend, Woojin, had ended things during the summer peacefully. They knew neither of them could do long distance.

“What a friend you are,” she chided, slapping my arm with another fry. I quickly took it between my fingers and stuffed it into my mouth. “Hey!”

“What?” I shrugged. “Don’t waste your food slapping your friend around.”

“You know, you should really be nicer to me. I’m the one that got you into the party tonight, after all,” she stated, a knowing grin falling into place on her smooth face.

I held my hands up in defeat. “Fine, fine, princess. Thank you oh-so-much for inviting me and my roommate’s lowly peasant selves to your sorority party.”

Sangmi frowned. “That’s not what I meant. You know I hate it when people call me princess,” she said, and before I could apologize or make another snarky comment, a hand encircled her wrist which was extended on the table.

“Who doesn’t like being called princess?” a slimy voice asked, and I looked up to find the sleaziest kid on campus. I hadn’t even had a proper conversation with the guy, but I knew he’d had many w