“Everyone!”

The loud voice from Jisoo startles the residents studying in the common area. She marches inside and scans the room.

“Good, most of everyone is here.”

“What is it?” 

Their faces anticipating the news. There must be something good if Jisoo is here yelling, when she hated loud noises the most. 

“Let’s talk to the dean.”

Silence welcomes her words.

“Huh?” Seunghoon remarks as the other residents also join in with disappointed groans. 

“Listen, listen–,” Jisoo attempts to gain back their attention. “The dean gave Yiseul this position. She must know the circumstances surrounding the hiring. If we could just ask her to talk to Yiseul–,”

“Would it even work?” Bobby asks.

“Does it hurt to try it?” Jisoo retorts. “We don’t have any other ideas to get Yiseul to stay.” She has started to see the resignation in everyone the past few days. 

“Let’s do it.”

The whole room turns to find the words coming from Junhoe. 

“I’ll ask for a meeting,” Jennie offers. 

***

Unlocking her dorm’s door, Yiseul is suddenly distracted by something.

Silence. 

The West wing is never silent. 

Looking down both ends of the hallway, she truly finds it empty. 

Well, this is perfect. Now, she doesn’t have to sneak around. Picking up her grocery bags, she still carefully makes her way into the kitchen to hide them. Looking for different hiding spots, Yiseul still can’t get over how strangely quiet the wing is. 

Her movements freeze.

Are they up to something no good?

“The wing isn’t completely empty after all.”

The sudden voice causes Yiseul to flinch. Looking over to the doorway, she finds an amused Hanbin looking back at her. 

“You look like I just caught you doing something bad,” he comments. 

“Do you know where everyone is?” she asks. 

He shrugs. “It’s a secret.”

“Why?”

“Because they told me it is,” he answers before switching the topic. “Are you heading back on campus?”

She takes a look at the time. “Yes, are you?”

“Let’s head back together.” 

“Sure.”

Yiseul finishes her task, relieved that Hanbin doesn’t question it. Grabbing her backpack, she slips it on and follows after him out the building. 

“It seems like the snow is finally letting up,” Hanbin comments while looking upward. 

Yiseul hums a response, “Hm.” 

“The sun has been out more as well,” he continues, though it seems like he’s saying it more to himself. If anyone is happy with the winter ending soon, it would be Hanbin. 

“Are you being careful around me?” Yiseul suddenly asks. The small conversation is unexpected coming from him.

Hanbin looks over. “A little,” he replies honestly. 

Without realizing, their relationship has been slowly changing. There is now some awkwardness and clumsiness to it. Hanbin doesn’t suspect that it’s a bad thing since he is starting to see the many sides of Yiseul– and he thinks maybe it’s all novel to her as well. From the confession and to her crying in front of someone.  

She suspects that seeing seeing someone cry would make anyone hesitant. “I’m fine.”

The last time they spoke, she had said the same words to him and in the end, she was in tears. 

“It’s not affecting me now, so I’m fine,” she adds. 

“So, what happens when it does affect you later?”

 “I’m going to have to come up with something before then.”

He wants to ask if it was something trivial that would make her cry, but knowing Yiseul, she would never let something trivial affect her in that way. Now he understands what the other residents mean. It’s hard to pry. 

But, maybe he’s just worried that his prying would just make her shut him out. She has only started to open up to him just recently.

“From now on, do what you want.”

Confused by his sudden words, she turns to him. “Huh?”

“Put yourself first, Yiseul. Who cares what everyone else wants. Stop bending backwards for others.”

***

It’s always a bit strange to have so many faces stand before her. It usually doesn’t mean anything good. What’s worse in this situation is the many faces belonging to students of Touchstone dorms. Specifically, the West wing. 

With a sigh, the dean puts on a smile to cover for her anxiety. “What brings you all here?”

The many faces then turn to Jisoo. They have concluded to leave it up to her to voice their request. 

“Our current dorm head wants to leave,” Jisoo says. More “to the point” then the other residents have expected. 

“I am running out of people for the position–,”

“We don’t want her to go,” Jennie adds. 

The dean stares at them, stunned. “Forgive me for my words, but maybe you all should have made her want to stay.”

“We don’t think she wants to leave.”

“I’m… a little confused,” the dean replies. 

“We’re just as lost as you are, but that’s the sense we’re getting,” Jisoo says. “We were hoping you would speak to Yiseul and maybe help us convince her to stay as our dorm head.”

“We’ll do anything– we’ll do well on our upcoming exams, we’ll try our best to stay ou