The night was quite late when Daeun decided to drink by herself. She had finished all her verbatim, sent it to her supervisor, and finally got the chance to relax after being hectic for the past two days. She was thinking of asking Hyemi to come with her, but Hyemi wasn’t available that night because she had a girls’ night out with her close friends. To think of it, it was kind of pathetic for a young lady to drink alone at night, so Daeun slouched on the couch and dialed Yuju’s number.

“Hello?”

“Do you want to have chicken and beer with me now?” asked Daeun straight-forwardly. She was not in the mood for chit-chat.

“Now? Like… Right now?” Yuju sounded flabbergasted.

“If you don’t want to then I’ll go by myself,” said Daeun, ready to end the short phone call.

“I’ll come!” rushed Yuju as she sensed Daeun would end the call soon. “Where is the place?”

“I’ll text you the address. It’s not very far from our campus’ area.”

“Uh, mind you that I’m new here and I might get lost because I have a really bad sense of direction,” warned Yuju, slightly worried.

Daeun sighed, completely forgot that there was a big chance that Yuju hadn’t visited many place in Seoul. “Then I’ll fetch you at the dorm and we’ll walk together to the place, how about that?”

“Is that okay with you?”

Daeun shrugged. “Perfectly fine with it. I need fresh air anyway. My head is full of negative stuff.”

“Okay then, text me when you’re halfway to the dorm.”

“I will. See you soon.” Daeun ended the phone call. Before putting her cellphone back in her pouch, she opened KakaoTalk and typed a message for Hyemi to inform her that she would spend the night drinking with a friend. Without waiting a response from her older cousin, Daeun put back her cellphone in her pouch and left the apartment.

---

Mingyu pushed the chicken restaurant’s door open as his eyes were searching for a specific person. His smile bloomed immediately after spotting his drinking buddy who was waving his hand high so Mingyu could see him.

Seokmin got up as Mingyu approached him. “Hey man!” greeted Seokmin, giving Mingyu a bro-hug. Mingyu replied the hug and patted Seokmin’s back a few times.

“Now that you’re a medicine student, you look different,” commented Mingyu, half-amused. “Did you change your glasses?”

Seokmin grinned. “Yeah, rectangle glasses aren’t a thing anymore right now, so I bought a pair of the round ones recently.”

“You still look smart either way,” Mingyu commented as he called the owner of the place by raising his arm. When the ahjumma came to their table, Mingyu ordered two bottles of beer and one portion of whole chicken—half of it was fried and the other half was seasoned.

“It’s on you tonight,” Seokmin hummed in a sing-song voice.

Mingyu glared at him. “No way! We’ll split the bill in half.”

The ahjumma served side dishes and the bottles of beer on the table. Seokmin reached for his chopstick and grabbed some kimchi with it. “Ey, so frugal. Come on! Let’s just say that you’ll treat me because you made it to The School of Media and Communication,” joked Seokmin, although he thought it would be nice if Mingyu agreed to pay.

Mingyu playfully smacked Seokmin’s head, making the latter laughed. “Look at you! Aish, so thick-skinned. It must be you who treat me because you made it to major in medicine!”

Seokmin grinned. “Never thought this friend of yours become a medical student, huh? Alright, alright, let’s split the bill in half like always.”

Mingyu released a long breath, relieved that he could save his money. He also started to dig in the side dishes while waiting for the chicken.

Seokmin glanced at Mingyu for a few times before starting a certain topic of conversation. “Have you met her?”

Mingyu knew exactly whom Seokmin implied as ‘her’. He nodded as he reached a bottle of beer and poured some for Seokmin. “Yeah, sort of.”

Seokmin snatched the bottle from Mingyu’s hands and poured some to Mingyu’s glass. “So she’s really there?” Seokmin asked, a bit surprised. “Honestly, I thought both of you would never ever meet again.”

Mingyu gulped down the whole beer in his glass in one shot. “I met her, though.”

“You know, I still don’t get it—why don’t you just get over her?” Seokmin asked carefully, pouring another shot of beer in Mingyu’s glass. “It’s been too long already, don’t you think?”

Mingyu stared at Seokmin seriously. “First love will always have its place in someone’s heart.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve told me that,” Seokmin mumbled, obviously bored with Mingyu’s speech about first love. He couldn’t understand why his best friend couldn’t get over this particular girl for God knows how long. “Maybe I don’t get it because I can’t imagine being in your shoes,” he commented neutrally because he didn’t want to argue with Mingyu.

“There is not many people who get to experience what I did,” agreed Mingyu. “But I know the feeling is still there and I have to find her.”

“What are you going to do after meeting her?” Seokmin asked curiously. “Tell her who you are? She must’ve thought you are a crazy jerk.”

Mingyu was thinking about it for a moment and agreed nonchalantly. “She might be scared of me if I tell her the truth.”

Seokmin chuckled loudly. “Yeah, sure. Honestly, dude, I’d be terrified if I were her. Who wouldn’t?”

Mingyu smacked Seokmin’s left arm jokingly but hard enough to make the latter guy winced in pain. “I have met her, but I haven’t talked to her so my current worry is that how do I talk to her. What if she already forget about me?”

“I’m sure a hundred percent there is a chance that she might recognize you,” Seokmin stated, “your face hasn’t changed much. Still handsome as ever.”

Mingyu twisted his face in disgust, cringed. “It’s kind of weird when a guy pointing out his friend is handsome.”

Seokmin broke into a satisfied laughter. “Just admit it, you like being called handsome.”

“Your laugh is still insufferable,” Mingyu stated as he shook his head, refusing to admit that he liked to be called handsome. It was nice to be called handsome, but if it was Seokmin who said it, he’d rather not hear it at all.

The bell on the restaurant door rang, indicating someone just entered the bar. Mingyu ignored it, obviously because he didn’t care but Seokmin who was sitting facing the door immediately stood up as he recognized the customer.

“Daeun!” Seokmin called as he waved to Daeun who just came in with Yuju. Daeun looked surprised while Yuju looked confused but tried to be polite. Mingyu, who recognized the name, whipped his head around to find his partner for orientation task standing near the door with another girl whom he remembered as a friend of Daeun. Daeun’s and Mingyu’s eyes met, causing Daeun to divert her gaze to Seokmin in a second.

“Daeun? That’s your partner, right?” whispered Yuju, recognizing Mingyu right away. “Why don’t you say hi? You make things become awkward.”

“I don’t know if I want to,” Daeun replied a bit harsh, in a whisper too.

Yuju furrowed her eyebrows. “The other guy called you, obviously because you know each other. Why don’t we join them?”

Daeun’s eyes grew wide. “No way,” she hissed. She stared at Yuju hardly as if she warned her friend to make no stupid move.

“It’d be nice if we greeted them, though,” Yuju suggested, completely oblivious. “Now come on!” Yuju made her way to the two guys’ table with Daeun’s hand in hers. She was practically dragging the taller girl.

“We meet again,” Seokmin greeted Daeun when they arrived at the table. “Why don’t we have a drink together? You know, catching things up.”

Mingyu looked confused. “Catching things up? You guys know each other?”

Daeun finally sat down on the chair beside Seokmin, leaving Yuju to sit on the only chair left beside Mingyu. “Long story short, we went to the same elementary school,” Daeun explained. Deep inside, Daeun was as confused as Mingyu to realize that the two guys knew each other.

Seokmin made an amused expression. “So you guys know each other, too?” he asked as he pointed Daeun and Mingyu back and forth.

“I told you, college is making me meeting old acquaintances,” replied Daeun lightly. “I can’t believe I meet you twice already this week.”

Seokmin smiled widely. “Heaven wants us to catch things up, I guess.”

Daeun noticed that although it was Yuju who dragged her to the guys’ table, she hadn’t said anything, so Daeun decided to save her from the uncomfortable situation by introducing her. “By the way, this is my friend Yuju. She’s at the same department as I am.”

“Hi, I’m Choi Yuju,” Yuju greeted Seokmin, shaking his hand politely.

Seokmin accepted the handshake. “Lee Seokmin. I’m currently a students at Koryo too, majoring in medicine.”

Yuju made an impressed face. “