“Hi, I’m Hamasaki Seohyun.”

My ordinary face stared at me from the bathroom mirror. My smile slipped, and I sighed once before picking up my eyeliner and leaning in to apply it.

Today was my first official day at Yonsei University as a newbie, and I had a strange sense of foreboding from it; my stomach was in a knot, my hands couldn’t stop sweating and I had woken up late too!

This was the result of my efforts of trying to start over.

I had already dreamed up countless of situations where I walked inside the classroom and tripped over my shoes or something on the ground and being humiliated all the way to Mars on my first day, or running in ten times later than I would be now and having to suffer the embarrassment of the stares.

Hopefully, none of the situations would come to be and I could have one day for myself with absolutely no drama.

“There.” I finished applying my light makeup and looked myself up and down once before quickly moving out of the bathroom and grabbing my knapsack and bolted down the hallway of the apartment.

“… America has decided to transfer negoti-….”

, I forgot to turn off the tv. 

I hurried back inside and flipped a couple of pillows, trying to locate the remote. In my rush, I accidentally switched channels and the familiar face of Jae Joong stared at me from the television.

All mental movements then ceased to exist as I was gripped by a wash of pure longing. He looked so thin… thin, but very happy. It was nice to see him cheerful once again. The cameras zoomed out and I was greeted by all five of the DBSK members, bowing onstage to their horde of screaming fans.

I couldn’t help but smile.

Jae Joong and I were really starting over; as in, we had texted each other only a couple of times since the unofficial break up, just to check up on each other, and because their activities had once more started, we both took the chance to just… let things go.

Of course, the guys didn’t take us as seriously as we wished; Changmin was pretty stoic about it all, but Yunho discreetly told me that Changmin was missing my presence; Junsu was absolutely livid… well, as livid as the man could get, and Yunho was endlessly patient. I didn’t really want to see Yoochun’s reaction.

Flicking the ‘off’ switch, I dumped the remote on the couch and sprinted downstairs, carefully dodging people on the way and running for my life to the bus stop. 

Yonsei University was a measly 10 minute ride from the apartment Hyoseon and I shared and I could have easily walked, but come on, when one has to wake up early for class and when one is late, who wants to walk?

Reaching the big white building, I felt a sense of satisfaction settle somewhere deep within me. Just being in the presence of such a beautiful building made me feel smart.

Realising that I wasn’t late, I took the opportunity to wander around for a few minutes before I went to my allocated lecture room.

The place was huge! There were paintings on every other wall, with photos of distinguished guests shaking hands with the dean of the University and some other students. 

A thought struck me and I walked in close to see if I knew any of the famous people and correctly identified a couple of ministers before my eyes settled on one very familiar face. It was Pinkie! Except, her hair was a drab kind of brown, which strangely didn’t look as good as the pink did.

“Of course…” I muttered to myself, she was the Dean’s* daughter after all, there was no way she wasn’t a model student!

“So I see you’ve recognised Mi Yeon.” I shot up, blinking fast to come face to face a cleanly dressed male student. There was something incredibly familiar about his features that I couldn’t really put my finger on.

“Uh, yeah.” I didn’t know what else I could say.

“She doesn’t have as much attitude with brown hair.” The student leant down to where I was before and studied the photo. I kept quiet, not knowing what I was to do.

He straightened and shot me a bright smile. “Hi, I’m Im Jae Wan. You’re probably the new student. Hamasaki Seohyun right? I was told to show you around after your first class, which I think is accounting. Do you have your timetable?”

I internally groaned. This cute boy was definitely a talker all right, but I was a little too nervous to do anything about it, so I just handed him my timetable.

“Yeah we’re doing similar subjects. How ‘bout I show you to class?” Jae Wan grinned cheesily at me and I felt my innards melt. 

“Okay.”

We chatted leisurely for a few minutes into class and got our things out before the lecturer arrived, cutting our conversation short.

I learnt that he was born in Daegu and moved to Seoul at a young age, but he had travelled all over the world with his parents. He was a freshman and seemed like a very gentle person and though it was a little difficult to get his flow of speech to stop it was actually very endearing in the end.

-

Two hours later class came to a stop and I looked down at my notes, flipping through the pages and pages of blue pen writing and nodded, satisfied.

“Wow…” Jae Wan was looking over my shoulder, his round eyes bright and wide. “You certainly know what you’re doing.”

It was my turn to smile and talk. “My parents are accountants as well as stock brokers so I was kind of born with the knowledge in my head.”

“That’s pretty handy. Hey, it’s break, so why don’t I introduce you to a couple of my friends?” He offered as he shoved books into his bag.

My heart leapt. Friends of my own? In this country? FINALLY!

“Sure!” I jumped at the chance. 

We strolled to the cafeteria, which was dismally full. “Oh…” I said, looking around. There were people everywhere! Some with books sprawled over tables, while some were sitting on the tables. “I guess we can’t meet them here then.”

Jae Wan gave me a look and he scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous, knowing them, they snagged a spot before others were even out of class!”

He then proceeded to grab me by the upper arm and drag me through the crowd… well… it was supposed to be like that before I realised that the people were kind of spreading for him, some giving us looks of wary respect too. I had the distinct feeling that his friends hadn’t exactly gotten seats because they were early, and that it was something to do with their status in the school.

Soon enough people cleared a path big enough for me to see where we were going. “There.” Jae Wan saw what I was doing and pointed at some comfortable looking couches in the corner. I scanned a couple of the faces that were sitting at the huge leather couches and balked when I zeroed in on a pink head. “Pinkie!” I squeaked, not caring who heard me.

Jae Wan laughed loudly. “That’s what you call her?”

I flushed. “I didn’t get to talk to her long enough to know her name.”

“Well then,” Jae Wan winked, “I’ll get to introduce you properly this time.”

All the faces sitting at the couch turned to look as we arrived. To my extreme embarrassment, all of them started to tease us.

“Jae Wannie, first year and you got yourself a girl? Not bad eh?”

Thank god for me, Jae Wan took it all in his stride. “Aniya! She’s a classmate that I have to show around. Seohyun, these are my hyung’s and sunbae’s. You already know Mi Yeon.” I bowed a little to the pink-headed girl, who shot me a wicked smile and inclined her head.

“… and this is my older brother, Im Jae Beom, not the singer.” I looked at the boy he pointed to and suddenly everything clicked. So that was whom Jae Wan looked like, and it was the boy who I almost pushed over when I first came here!

Jae Beom stood up and made his way over to us, smiling warmly. “Ah… I remember you.” My face burned pink and I bowed formally. “I’m really sorry about that, I was a bit lost and wasn’t looking where I was going.”

He waved his hand. “No it’s fine, it’s fine. Sit down.”

I looked around for an extra seat and smiled gratefully when Mi Yeon waved her hand at me and patted the space next to her.

“Hi.” I said shyly.

“Hey chickie, so you’re actually a newbie this time round huh?” She winked and leaned her head on her hand, looking at me.

“Uh yeah…” I didn’t want the silence to turn awkward so I kept talking. “I thought…” I looked from her to Jae Beom, who was talking to Jae Wan, “you didn’t know each other.”

“Hmm?” Mi Yeon raised an eyebrow. “How come?”

“Well…” Was I stepping into dangerous territory? If I was, I didn’t know any better and plowed on. “The way you spoke of him last time… as like the ‘Prince’ of the campus, I just thought that you were kind of a groupie.”

Wow. That didn’t come out right did it?

Mi Yeon blinked at me for a moment before cracking up. She lifted her hand to cover and on her hands were beautiful sparkling, and no doubt, completely real, diamond rings.

“Oh chickie… he’s my boyfriend.”

“Eh?!”

-

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