The first years gawked up at Ryeowook. Most of them appeared incapable of keeping their faces straight. Perhaps foster kids were becoming tamer? Ryeowook wasn’t positive but hopefully that was the case. That would mean less work for him and StudGov.

After being in office for barely a month, he had been buried in reports to fill out, school events to plan, and a number of trips to sign off on for all of the third years. Why did they need so many overnight trips anyway? Everyone knew it would just be partying and possibly drinking.

Ryeowook turned back to the podium and smiled at the collected body. There was a speech in front of him but he had long since memorized it. Public speaking seemed to be one of his favorite things to do those days. It was rather easy and best of all it gave him a chance to tell others about what he had learned. Spreading knowledge was oddly invigorating, perhaps that was the reason Teukie-hyung always spoke so much – he wanted to teach people all of the things that had made him grow. The same thing could probably be said of Siwon…but no one particularly liked or disliked his presidency. After all, following up Teukie-hyung was just futile.

“Hello, my name is Kim Ryeowook,” he began, “I’ll be your Student Government President for the remainder of this year. I’m supposed to tell you about the academy and all of the things you can learn here, but most of you can figure that out along the way, right?” A few heads nodded and Ryeowook went on, “More importantly, this is what you need to know.”

He cleared his throat, saying, “Being here isn’t like being in a cage. You may be here to reform yourselves but there’s something more valuable to learn. What all of you experience in this first year could very well shape the rest of your career here. Don’t be afraid of change. Don’t run away because at this academy, there really is nowhere to run. Here, you have to face everything. If you try to run, you’ll end up running right into a mistake.” Ryeowook smiled then, “But mistakes can be good too. Make as many mistakes as you can while you’re a student at this academy because when you’re trapped there’s nothing to do but make amends. Don’t try to live a perfect student life. There’s nothing you can learn from that. So…have fun, get mad, be stupid, be smart, be…everything, I suppose.” He picked up his speech, folding the paper and slipping it into a pocket. “If you ever need anything, I’m always around and your dorm advisors are always around as well.”

There was soft applause as Ryeowook bowed to the students and told them, “You can go explore the campus now if you’d like.” He waved goodbye as voices started filling the room and students exited.

“You’re getting really good at giving speeches,” Sungmin remarked, coming up behind his friend.

Ryeowook spun around, smiling. “Minnie! How long have you been there?” he asked, stepping away from the podium.

“A while,” Sungmin stated, “I was waiting for you to finish so we could go check out the Honors Dorm.”

He had almost forgotten about the living changes! Ryeowook hurried towards the exit, excited to get to the Honors Dorm. They were moving in later than usual due to some sort of conflict among Choi Siwon’s board members. But now it was nearly February and all of the new tenants would be staking claims in the intimate building. Ryeowook hadn’t seen the list of people yet, but at least Sungmin, Mir, and Dongwoon would be living with him.

Dongwoon had found his way to the Vice President’s seat, Sungmin had found his way to the Secretary chair, and Mir was ranked in the Top 5 for academics of the school. As for how Ryeowook made his way to the Presidency? Perhaps it was because he was cute – he would never understand.

“Can you believe where we are now?” Sungmin sighed, draping one arm around Ryeowook’s shoulders as they walked.

Cold air tousled the latter’s hair as the truth dawned on him for the second time that day. “No…I really can’t.” He could barely believe what they had been doing only half a year ago. Every time the memories surfaced, Ryeowook felt like bringing a shovel to his own head. Yes, yes, regretting was bad but sometimes you couldn’t help it. After all of that, Ryeowook still had too many amends to make.

“But all of us are here now so you don’t have to worry,” Sungmin said softly, squeezing his friend’s arm, “I won’t leave you alone…not this time around.”

Ryeowook felt heat coloring his pale cheeks. “T-Thanks,” he mumbled back, “but you don’t have to worry so much anymore. I can take care of myself these days.” A smile drifted across his features, “I really can.”

Slight hurt flickered over Sungmin’s face. “You can’t push me out one year and then push me even further out the next year!”

“Sorry,” Ryeowook laughed, leaning into the warmth of his friend, “actually Minnie there’s something I wanted to talk to you about later…”

“Huh? What is it?” the black haired boy swung around, stopping Ryeowook in his tracks.

“Later, later,” he insisted, pushing at Sungmin so he could climb the steps of their new dormitory, “we should go find out room assignments.”

“What? You don’t know them?” the taller boy’s eyes widened a bit, “Didn’t you make them? I thought the StudGov President was also the RA.”

Ryeowook turned the front door’s handle, pushing in. “I was going to but then Siwon-hyung told me that he already did all of that for us. I’m not sure why though…,” he trailed off as he took in the vastly classier lounging area. If being smart and/or outgoing gave you such nice benefits, then why weren’t more people trying to be those things?

“Maybe he was just being nice,” Sungmin offered.

They found a pinned up list of names and room assignments and quickly started scanning, respectively. Ryeowook caught sight of his name, eyes darting over to the room number and then back for his roommate. Hopefully it was Sungmin or Mir – even Dongwoon would be nice.

But then everything was disappearing around him, leaving only white space and the printed black name. In what world, in what sane world, would that happen?

“Mir and Dongwoon are roommates,” Sungmin remarked happily, “they’re really lucky! Oh…do you know who this is…,” he looked over to see Ryeowook staring silently at the paper, eyes trained on a very specific spot.

Sungmin leaned over trying to figure out what had stunned his friend so badly…

Room 4           Kim Ryeowook           Cho Kyuhyun