Over the next few days Taehyung and I spent practically every moment together. I had initially expected him to be more jetlagged from the long journey but he seems to have boundless energy! I took him around town and showed him some of my favourite places. We had visited the park and he had attempted to skateboard with some of the local kids but he ended up spectacularly face planting. Thankfully he wasn’t hurt. We visited my favourite ice cream place and he told me about all the weird and wonderful flavours of ice cream he was used to eating in Korea.

We talked about all of our favourite singers and dramas which brought us much closer together. One night, we were in my room, a Korean drama playing on my smart TV. We were both sitting on my bed the day before university starts back. “I’m nervous.” He said out of the blue, his gaze still fixed on the TV. I turned to him, caught unaware by his sudden confession. “About what?” I asked as I turned down the volume. He let out a sigh. “School. My English is not good. What if I don’t understand?” he asked as he fidgeted, his fingers twisting in the material of his shirt.

“Don’t worry. We have the same classes. I’ll help you.” I said encouragingly as I gave him a smile which he returned easily. “Really? Promise?” he asked as he extended his pinkie towards me. I laughed at the childish action, but linked my pinkie with his nonetheless. “Promise. Now come on, we should get some sleep, it’s already pretty late.” He nodded and slipped off of my bed. “See you in the morning!” he said brightly as he waved at me from the doorway. I waved back before he disappeared from my doorway. I shut off my TV and slipped under my covers. There was a faint smell of Taehyung’s cologne on my pillow. I smiled to myself as I inhaled the unique scent as I fell into a dream filled sleep.

I woke up the next morning, not to my alarm like normal, but with a pillow smacking me on the face. I blinked up at my attacker and was surprised to see an already dressed Taehyung standing by my bedside. I pulled my covers up over my face, not wanting him to see me before I had the chance to at least wash my face and brush my teeth. Unfortunately he misunderstood my action as me wanting to sleep more and he tugged my blanket completely off my bed. “Come on sleepy head!” he said way too cheerfully for this time on a Monday morning. I launched my pillow at him but judging by the quiet thump it made, I must have missed my mark. “I’m up, I’m up.” I mumbled as I forced myself into a sitting position.

Taehyungs face appeared right in front of mine. I tried to hold my breath, completely paranoid about morning breath as I attempted to tame my crazy bed hair. “Come on, we can’t be late.” I rolled my eyes and shooed him out of the door so that I could grab the things I needed for my shower. I quickly showered and got ready, meeting him downstairs where my mum had prepared breakfast for us before she had left for work. We quickly ate and headed out to my car.

I could tell Taehyung was getting more and more nervous the closer we got to university. “Don’t worry. I’ll be with you all day.” I said, hoping to ease his nerves a little. He gave me a small, grateful smile. “I’m supposed to be oppa. But today you are like nuna.” I laughed. “Then call me nuna from now on.” I teased. He shook his head. “No. I like being oppa.” He said as he crossed his arms over his chest defiantly. I snorted. Why do guys like being the oppa so much?

I pulled into the student car park after showing my ID to the parking attendant and headed towards the main building. The Dean had informed me that I had to bring Taehyung to the office on his first morning. After all the formalities of him being welcomed to the university, we set off for our first lecture. When we were walking through the busy hallways I felt him grab my hand. I looked down at our entwined hands but didn’t say anything.

I had learned enough about Taehyung over the past few days to know that he naturally likes a lot of skin ship. I could see a lot of people staring at the two of us, trying to work out who Taehyung was and why we were holding hands. I pulled him into our lecture theatre and he didn’t let go until we sat down beside my friends. “Guys this is Taehyung. He’s the exchange student who is staying with me while my sister is in Korea.” I introduced my friends to him one by one and I could tell that they were instantly smitten with him. His smile is just so charming and there’s just something about him that just makes you instantly like him.

One of my friends, Vanessa, starting flirting hard, but I felt a small sense of joy when he didn’t react to her flirting. Part of me wanted to blame the language barrier but a very, very tiny part of me wanted it to be because he kept on looking at me while they all bombarded him with questions. I know he was only looking at me because he was feeling overwhelmed by the attention from my friends, but a small part of me felt happy that we had that connection. And the selfish part of me wanted to keep Taehyung to myself.

Thankfully Taehyung was freed from answering any more questions when our lecturer came into the lecture theatre. “Your friends are nice.” Taehyung whispered to me as he pulled out a Dictaphone. He had told me before that he wanted to record all of the lectures so that he could play them back later as he felt like he wouldn’t understand everything at first. We had picked up the Dictaphone after our visit to the park at the weekend.

After our morning classes, we headed to the cafeteria to grab some food. “So, how are you coping?” I asked. He frowned. “Everyone speaks too quickly.” He admitted, nervously fixing the strap of his backpack. I patted his arm sympathetically. “I know it must be hard, but don’t worry! I’ll help you study at home. Just ask me anything you don’t understand, ok? Taehyung Hwaiting!” he grinned at my encouragement. We got some food and made our way to an empty table.

We were chatting happily until two figures appeared at our table. Alice and Elena. We’ve known each other since high school. We had been close friends before, but now… we might as well be strangers. “Hi Vicky!” Alice said cheerfully. I forced a smile, not wanting Taehyung to pick up on the tension between us. Alice and Elena slipped onto chairs opposite us. “Who is your friend here?” she asked me brightly, putting just a little too much emphasis on the word friend. “His name is Taehyung, he's on the exchange program from Korea.”

Taehyung introduced himself brightly, shaking hands with both of the girls. I could tell that both of them were interested in him. They began chatting with him, with me staying out of the conversation. A part of me really wanted to call them out on their fake niceness, but there’s no point in pulling Taehyung into the middle of something that doesn’t have anything to do with him. Alice and Elena stayed at our table until lecture time rolled around and they were forced to leave. “All of your friends are so nice!” Taehyung said as we headed to our next class. I just nodded, not wanting to admit that they were not my friends. At the end of the day, it’s not like Taehyung has any obligation to only hang out with me and my friends, he is free to hang out with whoever he wants to… even if those people were class A es…