Sooyeon was exhausted, she had had enough of work in her college and being an international studies major with a minor in economics was not easy. For most part she felt like she had little to no life beyond her readings, although she was certain that she wasn’t the only one suffering the same, she couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of the business students who seemed to have a lot more free time than she did.

Staring at her public policy reading, she sighed, she had a quiz coming up and the senior sitting in the library a few seats away from her would simply not shut up. She watched Minah, her friend who had been sitting across her frown and stand up, picking up her things and walking over to the senior and glaring at him before whispering to him to hush up before walking out of the library. It was moments like this that she loved Minah.

She looked at the senior, he was good looking for certain. Sharp nose, puffy pouty lips and large hands which were covered in coloured ink stains. He was probably a visual arts major with little to no work to do. Sooyeon rolled her eyes, people with no work pretending to work in the library were the worst, they were distracting (in this case in two ways - by looking damn fine, and being damn loud) and annoying. Looking back at the reading, she felt the lines blur into each other as her body filled with a sense of lethargy. She needed activity, she also needed a little alcohol in her bloodstream.

So when she switched over to studying for her economics pop quiz, she decided it was time to hit the club that weekend. She would take Haneul along and they would dance the night away. And for once, she would not give two s about the amount of work she had piling up in her plate.

“Jaehwan! Let’s get going!” a voice called and she watched the good looking senior stand up and gather his things before joining that fellow Haneul, her friend, had been talking about,  Wonshik if she remembered correctly. Sighing, she looked back down at her notes.

The day was definitely going to be long and tiring.

-x-

Sooyeon woke up groggy, standing up she felt herself trip over the pile of books which were beside her bed which formed a part of her and Minah’s reading. She often camped in Minah’s room as they would motivate each other into studying late into the night. The night before had been no different. She eyed Minah who was now fixing coffee for herself looking almost as sleepy as Sooyeon was. Taking a look at the time Sooyeon’s eyes widened before she bolted out of the room.

She had fifteen minutes to get to the economics class for the test. Rushing through her morning routine, she dodged past people and nearly made it to the classroom only to have her path blocked by the same senior who had been distracting in the library. Except this time he was carrying a large installation piece and by the looks of it, he was conversing with it.

“Okay baby, do not fall. I need you to stay in place till you are graded!” he cooed at the large piece as Sooyeon fought the urge to roll her eyes.

“Excuse me, but you do mind moving? I need to get to class.” she said, making him spin around and nearly drop his installation as she quickly propped it up with her hand. The work on it was very intricate with extremely fine details that were drawn in using black ink. The structure tottered easily as Jaehwan fixed it back in place and grinned at her, Sooyeon couldn’t look away from the smile that was being directed at her - it was attractive, very attractive in fact.

“Thank you!”  Jaehwan sing-songed “you should probably get to class and I’m holding you up,” he shifted giving her enough space to pass through the corridor “go ahead, and thanks again!”

For just a moment Sooyeon felt her energy return to her as she hurried to her classroom and flung the door open. Finding the closest spot to the door, she plonked herself in the seat and eyed Haneul who was now getting very chummy with that Wonshik fellow. Resting her head on the table, she felt Haneul join her.

“These classes are so inconvenient. The faculty really don’t care about the students.” she groaned, feeling the lethargy return as Haneul poked at her, trying to wake her up. The professor had entered the room and was now handing out the sheets.

“You need to sleep, just finish the quiz, go back to your room and sleep.” Haneul muttered to Sooyeon who raised her head to pluck the quiz sheet from the professor’s hand.

“What I need is a drink and some dancing.” Sooyeon replied,  glancing over the questions on the sheet. These questions were simple enough, why did she spend the entire night studying for this stupid quiz anyway? Was it simply because of the stress of all the work she had keeping her up?

“QoD; tomorrow evening, I’m drinking and you’re coming with me.” she muttered to a rather distracted Haneul who looked back at her before turning to the test paper. Sooyeon mentally cheered, she knew that Haneul had silently agreed. Turning to the sheet in hand, she began marking her answers - maybe she should try a new drink this time. Jagerbombs were all the rage, maybe she’d see what all the fuss was about.

Apparently she was thinking out loud and Haneul could hear her.

She definitely needed to finish this test and go back and sleep.

-x-

She stood in front of her cupboard staring into it and wondering what she should wear for the night. Sooyeon was careful about what she wore and one would never find her looking sloppy even on her worst mornings. Now she stood debating between pairing her favourite crop top with jeans or to wear that slinky black number she had wanted to wear for quite a while.

She joined Haneul in the common area, having chosen the latter and the two were on their way to the Queen of Diamonds. The music was already making her feel a little better as she swayed to the beat, walking past the bouncer without being carded. All she needed to get started was to get a little alcohol in her system.

Jaehwan glimpsed at the crowd of people heading over to the bar which he wiped down for the tenth time of the night (his shift had started just half an hour back). Sighing he looked at Wonshik who was in his elements playing disc jockey for the night. Jaehwan grinned, hearing some of the ladies coo at Wonshik - who he knew for a fact was awkward as it got except for when he was in this club spinning out tunes. He was so glad that there was another bartender with him on this shift, there was no way his tired body would have been able to handle this work alone.

“Hey! I’ll have on the beach.” a voice was directed to him as he turned, wide eyed to the figure in front of him. Her voice slurred just a little as he gaped at Sooyeon who looked back at him wide eyed and mumbled something about ‘good looking senior’. The face looked familiar for certain, but he wasn’t entirely sure about one thing.

“You want to have on the beach?” he asked, baffled “with a man whose name you don’t know?”

Sooyeon now frowned at the man behind the bar counter where she settled herself “Noooo, I want to have the drink. on the Beach. But I do know you...you’re the visual arts major senior.” she said grinning as he nodded back to her, now understanding a little better.

“Ah, I thought...I’m Jaehwan by the way, Lee Jaehwan. Let me get your drink…?”

“Sooyeon, Kwon Sooyeon. I don’t want to have with you on the beach. ” Sooyeon threw in a terrible imitation of James Bond making Jaehwan chuckle as he put together the drink. She looked at him closer as he polished a glass. He was even better looking up close. Except he was annoyingly loud and jobless on campus. She took the drink handed to her by him noticing how pretty his hands were, even if he hadn’t completely managed to scrub off the ink stains on it, as she took a sip.

Jaehwan grinned at her, she was adorable for certain even if she was dressed in something that suggested otherwise. By the looks of it, she didn’t hold her alcohol very well, although he wasn’t sure how many drinks she had downed before that. He watched the girl who had been sitting a few seats away shifting towards Sooyeon. Sooyeon greeted her excitedly as she waved towards him.

“Hey, hey Haneul, this is Jaehwan and guess what,” she laughed making him roll his eyes, still polishing the glass in his hands. “he thought I wanted to have on the beach!” she giggled making him chuckle along with her as her friend cringed. That was when Wonshik interrupted with his usual.

“Jaehwan, one glass of water please.”

Sooyeon and Jaehwan fixed their gazes on their respective friends as Jaehwan placed a glass of water on the counter. Wonshik turned his charm on against Haneul and Jaehwan could see that his friend was going somewhere with this. Turning back to Sooyeon, he noticed her head on the counter, snoozing. Something about it was extremely endearing. Reaching over to her mobile phone, he hit the first number on speed dial.

“Yo Sooyeon!”

“Yah Han Sanghyuk give me my phone back you large lump of human!”  a voice called as the phone was retrieved after some struggle.

“Hello? Minah speaking.”

“Hey, this is Jaehwan from Queen of Diamonds, your friend has kind of passed out in the bar, mind picking her up?”

He heard a sigh across the line as the voice replied with a “Sure, I’m really sorry for the trouble. I’ll be there as soon as possible.” he was sure he heard Sanghyuk’s voice call out to him with a “Hey Jaehwan!” but with all the noise in the background, he wasn’t entirely sure.

Turning back to Sooyeon, he smoothed her hair back and made sure she was turned around sufficiently so she could breathe, folding a clean cloth to place under her head. He could hear her purr when he ran his hand over her head before turning back to the customers who were now lining up yet again for their drinks. He noticed Haneul looking back at Sooyeon and waved her off.

“I’ve already called the person on speed dial. Minah is it? She said she’s coming to pick her up.”

He could see her visibly relax as Wonshik whisked her away onto the dance floor. He sighed, he was back to pouring drinks for customers and keeping an eye out for Sooyeon. While he wasn’t entirely familiar with her, he felt like she would be a fun person to know now that he had seen her both on campus and in her inebriated state. He watched a slimy looking fellow approach her sleeping figure before heading over to her and looking the man straight in the eye and clearing his throat while placing his hands on either side of her sleeping head to show him that he was tall, decently built and could easily take him down if he had to. Not that violence was his forte. But with Taekwoon and Sanghyuk around, one could pick up a move or two from them.

Watching the man leave, he sighed thanking the stars and watching Sooyeon sleep through all the noise peacefully. Her face though cute, looked exhausted and he was quite certain that she was one of those tough majors which stayed all day in the library and all night up reading. Not that being a visual arts major made things any different except for the kind of work expected.

A tissue was slid towards him with a lipstick mark and a number on it making him jolt up and watch one of the customers wink at him as he shook his head, pushing it back towards her before leaning back over to Sooyeon who now groaned and shifted.

“You alright?” he asked, placing a glass of water in front of her, nodding to her to drink it. Her eyes fluttered open as she exhaled loudly, blindly grabbing for the water causing him to reach over to her moving hand, hold it, and place the glass in it.

“Drink that, you’re friend Minah…”

“Dear god, Kwon Sooyeon, why do you do this to yourself?” a voice was heard close to the bar as Jaehwan spotted Sanghyuk’s friend and Sanghyuk approach the bar counter.

“Is here.” he completed the statement watching Sanghyuk give him a tiny wave as he helped Minah hauled Sooyeon to her feet. Minah turned to him and smiled.

“Thank you. So much. How much does she owe you?”

Jaehwan waved it off “It’s alright, I’ll handle it for now.” maybe it will give him an opportunity to talk to this adorable junior of his sooner. Minah thanked him yet again and he watched the three figures walk away and out of the bar.

-x-

Jaehwan expected Sooyeon to approach him when they were at the college. So when she tapped him on the shoulder in the visual arts studio, he wasn’t entirely surprised. Turning away from his installation piece, he wiped his hands on the apron he had been wearing before looking up at Sooyeon who was now gazing at his nearly six foot tall art work.

“Hello Sooyeon, Kwon Sooyeon.” he greeted, snapping her out of her trance as she looked down at him, she cleared .

“Minah told me that you took care of me at the bar and you handled my tab.” she mumbled, fumbling around for her wallet as Jaehwan raised his hand.

“That’s fine!” he waved his hand around causing Sooyeon to frown. She didn’t like being in debt to anyone, particularly to an attractive senior who looked like he would insist on her going on a date with him instead because she owed him. “I have another proposal, if you’re up for it. If not, you can pay me.”

Sooyeon bristled at the idea of this possible other proposal except Jaehwan went right ahead into explaining what exactly he wanted “I want you to help me out with my art honestly,” Sooyeon shot him a look “you see, I wanted to go to the sea and do some sketches and I wanted a human figure in it as well, if you could please come with me to the beach then I’d be grateful to have you as a model as well as company at the beach.” he said pouting making Sooyeon balk at how adorable he looked.

She knew she got ered into it when she stood by the sea, gazing into the horizon, smelling and tasting the salt in the air as Jaehwan scribbled away on the notepad. This was her much needed break from all the work, it was something she didn’t even know she needed. Maybe it wasn’t the alcohol that helped, but just the peace and quiet of the sea along with Jaehwan’s conversation interspersing the silence reminding her that she wasn’t all alone. Walking over to him, she sat down in the sand, peering over to take a look at the work unfolding.

“Hey Jaehwan?” she asked, in awe at the wonderful shades of blue and green that filled the page, he hummed in response “do you think we could do this more often?”

Jaehwan only smiled back, this was additional work, but he could see it relaxed Sooyeon.

“Why not?” he said, hatching the color into the paper as he watched Sooyeon grin in response. The Jaehwan she had seen on campus always seemed like he had nothing better to do, like he was always fooling around. But now she could see what Jaehwan was all about - talent unbound and constantly at work in his own field.

Jaehwan liked Sooyeon’s company, it was stable as compared to his constantly energetic personality and the time he spent with her on the beach, sketching away was peaceful and calmed him down. The more often they went, the more he found himself able to focus on his work, to produce something better than before. He could tell she was happier, better rested, and generally doing better than she was when he had met her in the club. Sometimes, the art would be discarded for long walks on the beach, feet in the water and conversations about everything from how to eat steak right to what the future could possibly hold. Sooyeon found herself getting more and more attached to the hyperactive, highly entertaining man and could tell that the case was similar with him too.

Sometimes he’d chase her around the beach. Or she’d surprise him with snacks in the visual arts studio late in the night. He’d doodle little good luck cartoons on her notebook. They’d play fight, crack terrible jokes that would drive their friends insane and they’d go to the beach every Saturday almost like a ritual to rejuvenate themselves just to go back to the crazy life of college all over again. Everything was comfortable between them yet so exciting, he could say anything to her, as could she.

Maybe that’s why on one of those Saturday’s Jaehwan mustered up the courage to kiss her. Sooyeon’s brain nearly shut down when she felt his lips brush against hers before he pulled away leaving her brain in a state of static silence. But when she pulling him closer and kissed him back, he could feel his toes curl into the sand as his salt-chapped lips came in contact with her balmy ones creating a friction that made fireworks explode in his head as he cupped her cheeks and her arms went around his neck in silent consent.

Parting to breathe, he leaned his forehead against hers as she whispered “Hey, bartender, I’ll have on the beach.” only to find herself gently being laid down on the sand and having their lips reconnect amidst giggles and warm touches against the grainy sand.

And that was how the most hyperactive couple on campus got together in the most peaceful manner.