The next day I find myself failing my vegetarian diet. It is my sixth day, and the previous five went so well. However, the two guys in front of me blatantly ignoring my explanation on my diet and took me to McDonald’s for lunch today. Some idol song was playing once we entered. I believe it’s called Chair Up or something.

“You’re still young. You still need meat for your body, Haeun-ah. Start your vegetarian life later when you reach 40,” Jaebum said as he ordered one upsized set of big mac, chicken nuggets, and an oreo mcflurry. Junhyeok just gave me an apologetic smile because apparently it is him who craves for some burger since yesterday.

At first, I didn’t order and just sit down with them once they had their orders. Now, I have one set of burger in front of me. I curse myself in my mind. I know I just gave up five days’ worth of determination, but I just can’t help it. Burger is one of my favorite, and you should watch how Jaebum devours his food. It makes even the fullest person hungry again.

“I don’t understand why you’re doing diet, Eun,” Junhyeok chims while chewing, “Your body is skinny enough already. You should have eaten more instead.”

I toss a tissue at him. “First, don’t talk when you’re eating. Grandma will have a heart attack if she sees you like this. Second, I don’t do it to be skinny. I do it to try to respect animals more. We have exploited them so much, it’s time to stop. Have you ever watch a video of an animal farm? How they kill them?”

“We can respect animals by gratefully eating them.” Jaebum responds, like Junhyeok, while munching on his chicken nuggets.

I look at him like his brain suddenly moves to his . “That doesn’t even make sense. How can eating them equals respecting them? Oppa, with that kind of logic how in the world did you got into KU?”

“Schools don’t teach logic these days, they teach us how to memorize words,” he defends. Sometimes his brain works well, sometimes it’s not. “But, Eun, we have been eating animals for centuries, and nothing’s wrong with the animals. We just have to be thankful by always eating well and never waste food.”

“Of course there’s something wrong. Some animals become endangered.” I argued.

“But they are not the kind of animals that we eat. We never hear pig, chicken or cow becomes endangered because we eat them too much.” Junhyeok backs up.

Well he has a point there.

“That’s right.” Jaebum adds once he swallowed his nuggets. Finally, he learned to swallow first. “We never eat endangered animals, and animals that we eat never become endangered. Those animals that are endangered are like that because some irresponsible people exploit part of the animals’ bodies for their own benefits. Therefore, we should prevent those kind of exploitation. We should not prevent eating animals that we eat, though.”

“But still… the point is not they become endangered or not. You see the animals that we eat are farm animals. They are intentionally breed in farm to provide for us, and have you seen how the animals are treated in the farm? How they kill them? It’s so inhumane.”

“Of course it’s inhumane, because it’s not human, it’s animal.” Junhyeok tries to joke, and he even has the nerve to laugh.

Jaebum and I, though, don’t find it really funny. “Farms are more humane now, Eun. They have standards right now to make sure the animals are treated right and not feeling any stress and such. Well it’s true some farms are really nasty, but most of them are not now. Now, end of the discussion. I need to eat.”

“Eating vegetables are a form of exploitation, too, by the way! Vegetables are plants hence they are living things and even produce oxygen. Eating them is even worse!” Junhyeok says as he takes out pickles in his burger, blatantly ignoring the last two sentences from Jaebum.

Jaebum hit the back of his head. “Shut up now, Jun. That’s just because you don’t like them. Eat the pickles, too, don’t waste them!”

“Ow! I’m a few months older than you, doofus!”

I only laugh as I start to bite my burger. Well, just this once. I will start again tomorrow.

I take the first bite.

Ah, I missed burger.

I still have two days left before the entrance ceremony. I purposefully move three days earlier so I can habituate myself to my surrounding. Like finding out where the best but also the cheapest place to eat, the nearest convenience store, and so on.

The first night, I spent it unpacking and trying to decorate my dorm room, even though it’s not that much. On the second night, Jaebum took me out to buy some necesseties I didn’t have yet and we also went around some diner around Dongguk that are recommended by the students. Though I don’t know how Jaebum knows the places because he is not from around here. Probably he wanders around a lot.

Anyway, today on the third night, Junhyeok managed to convince me to go out with him since I already did with Jaebum yesterday. I argued that tomorrow is the entrance ceremony so I need to sleep early since I don’t want to be late. Junhyeok doesn’t believe that nonsense.

“Bull, college is about sleeping late and waking up early, anyway.”

That’s why I find myself at this moment at a jazz club called Poseidon near Hongdae. Well, Junhyeok said it used to be a jazz club, but not anymore because other genres of music are also being played here live. Nowadays, it’s more like a lounge bar with some good live music played.

One man on stage is playing Live High by Jason Mraz as Junhyeok enters and makes his way with me just a step behind him. I can see now why it's called Poseidon, because the interior is dominated by marine blue and there's even a pretty big aquarium in here. The lighting is also dimmed with bluish colors.

“A few friends of mine are already here. Let’s search for them first.” he looks behind his shoulder to meet my eyes and then continues through. He seems to have finally found them when he waves to a group of three that sit in a table adjacet to the left wall. We immediately approach them.

“Wassuuup.” Junhyeok acclaimed as he does that bro-hug-thingy with a tall but realy skinny man with glasses.

“Yo, what’s good! And who is this here? Your new girlfriend?” the tall-skinny-glasses eyes me, who look really awkward behind Junhyeok.

“No, dude.” Junhyeok laughs lightly. “Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you my amazing and beautiful cousin, Im Haeun.”

I want to hit him in the head because he is being a super embarassing older brother, but I tend to be a little more reserved in a new environment so I just glare at him slightly and introduce myself.

“Oh, I didn’t know you have a female cousin. I thought you and Jaebum said your family only bred male before.” a guy with a a side fringe black hair says after he introduced himself as Yoo Youngjae.

“Yeah, she’s the only exception. That’s why she’s my precious baby cousin that I love the most. She will start her first year at Dongguk, please help her a lot as best as you can.” Junhyeok grins as he ruffles my hair.

I close my eyes in annoyance and then comb my hairs with my fingers.

“Oh, you’re in Dongguk? We have some friends in there, too. I will introduce you to them. I’m Jae, by the way. I came from America, so excuse my poor Korean. I’m taking political science at KU.” The tall-skinny-glasses says as I sit in front of him.

“And I’m Lee Seunghoon! I’m in KU, too. Communication major.” The third guy speaks out. He has monolid eyes and a hint of south-eastern accent in his voice. I think he’s very handsome, in a not pretty boy way.

“Now stop bragging about your university name, and where’s the others?” Junhyeok asks.

“Not here yet. Brian, Jackson, and Mark said they’re on the way but I doubt it. Yoongi is probably still sleeping. Jinyoung and Don said they won’t come. Sungjin is M.I.A. Where’s Jaebum anyway? He’s not with you two?” Jae answered while taking out his phone from his jeans’ pocket. “See. Yoongi just texted in the group chat he just woke up.”

I just watch them chat and catch up with each other. I’m very confused, especially with that many names that are thrown into the talk and the pace of the changing topics. They must be a huge group.

“What major are you in, Haeun-ssi?” Seunghoon, that sits to my right, tries to make a conversation with me. He must have understood I must be feeling left out and confused, unlike another boy that supposed to love her cousin the most.

“History.” I reply.

His small but charming eyes tries to widen up a bit, but seem fail. “Really? You don’t seem like the type of girl that’s into war and stuffs.”

Wow, what a fine way to associate histroy with. “Well, history is not only about wars.” I laugh a little.

“I know, but that’s the only thing that I remember about history in my entire education life.” he laughs as his eyes disappear. “Maybe because it’s the most interesting part and the most mentioned.”

“It’s actually pretty sad now when you said it like that.”

“Yeah, it is.” He nods a few time and grabs a glass from the water and sips the drink in it. “By the way, like I said, you don’t seem like the type that into history.”

Before I could ask why, Junhyeok slams the table accross the table. “Hyung! Don’t flirt with my cousin! She’s off limit. Wait till I tell Jaebum about this, he’ll flip .”

Seunghoon immediately shift away a bit from me. “I’m not! I was just trying to make conversation!”

“No, you are! I know when you’re trying to flirt. I’m definitely telling Jaebum!” Junhyeok pulls out his phone and types something on it.

Seunghoon reachs out accross the table, trying to stop him. “No, don’t! You know he’s so scary when he’ mad. I can’t handle him!”

They fight while Seunghoon try to get the phone. Jae and Youngjae just laugh on the side (“This is why I always tell you don’t flirt with just anyone!”). Thankfully the fight is halted when three newcomers come. The first guy is shorter than the others and wearing a black snapback backward. Right behind him is a blonde guy with a piercing in his left ear. The third one is a little too far back from the other. He has some faded blonde hair and slightly tanned skin. When he approaches the table, my eyes meet his piercing eyes as he takes off his leather jacket.

“You started the party without us?!! You despicable people!”

The voice makes me look at the owner of it. Because, damn the volume. The snapback guy sure has huge voice for someone his size.

“It’s you that is late, Jackson, you dimwit.” Jae rolls his eyes at him and shoves him a bit when the snapback guy tries to sit beside him.

“Don’t blame me! Blame Brian! He’s so slow with I-don’t-even-know-what-he’s-doing! You know Mark and I can’t go without him because he’s our driver!”

“I told you you can take the bus, and you choose to wait for me.” The piercing eyes guy, which I assume is Brian, defends himself.

“Whatever.” Jackson dismisses the conversation with a wave of her right hand, and then look at me. “And, wow, we have a girl in our circle now?! What a blessing! Finally I can get fresh air!”

“This is Haeun. My cousin, and also Jaebum’s. Don’t try to flirt with her or I swear I will tell on Jaebum! Seunghoon tried, and we’ll see what Jaebum will do to him later.” Junhyeok declares as he sits next to me now (“To protect you.”).

Jackson ignored him and offers a handshake to me. “Hi, Haeun! I’m Jackson Wang!”

I return his smile, but it fails to be as big as his. “Hi, nice to meet you.”

“Are you younger than us?”

“Yes, I’m about to start my first year of college.” I answer.

“Oh really? You must be very excited! In which college are you?” he asks again.

“I’m in Dongguk.”

“Brian’s here in Dongguk, too!” Jackson exclaim, as he pats Brian’s shoulder a bit hard that the latter winces.

Brian looks at me and asks, “Oh, yeah? What major? I’m in Business Administration, third year. I’m Brian, by the way.”

“History,” I say.

“Hmm, I don’t think I have a friend in History, but let me try to remember.”

Junhyeok immediately joins in, “Please help her around. It’s also her first time in a long time in Seoul. She barely knows her way around. She was raised abroad.”

“Really? What country? I’m from abroad, too! I’m from Hongkong and Brian is from Canada!” Jackson speaks out excitedly.

“I lived most of my life in U.K., but I finished my high school in L.A.”

The piercing guy who’s quiet this whole time suddenly turns his head to me.

“Oh, Mark’s here from L.A. But he takes Economics in Yonsei now. Maybe you can get along well.” Jackson chirps again. He seems to be the dominant one is most of the conversation.

Suddenly an older man around his late thirty approaches our table in the middle of our conversation.

“Jae, Bry, it’s you guys’ turn in a few moment. Be prepared,” says the man.

“Alright!” Jae gets up from his seat, and so do Brian. They take their guitar cases that I notice for the first time.

“Good luck guys!” the others hollers.

“Don’t embarass us!”

I stare at the group in confusion.

“They will perform in a moment,” Junhyeok explains to me, “Some of us sometimes perform here. That’s how we met and form a group even though we’re from different unis. I do, too, but not today.”

“That’s cool,” I remark.

“You can, too, if you want. I can talk to the manager of the bar.”

I look at him funny. “No, thanks.”

Junhyeok just shrugs his shoulder as he moves his attention to the stage where Jae and Brian are sound setting their guitar and mic. I move mine too.

The duo gives a brief introduction and starts to strum their guitars. I can tell straight away from the first few strums that the song is called She Will Be Loved, from Maroon 5’s first and best album. Jae is the first one to sing and I must say he has a good voice. Actually, both of them have.

They’re so into it, especially Brian who has his eyes close. When they reach the chorus, his eyes open. They look around the place as he sings every words of the lyrics until they find mine.

He looks at me, and at that point, I haven’t known yet that this will be the very first night of a long nights ahead.

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Hey, guys! I'm sooooo sorry that I haven't updated this story for about a month. Please forgive meeeee T.T

I was so caught up with school and finals so I couldn't post any update. I'm so sorry that you waited for a long time. I hope you haven't gave up with this story yet.

I promise now that I finally in holiday season I will update more frequently. I hope you enjoy this chapter! And please tell me what you think about it in the comment section :D

- V