Jihoon navigated his way into the cafeteria, Jinyoung never stepping more than a foot away. This was an especially good thing, because things were a little hectic with students filtering through to get their breakfast and chefs dashing from one end of the room to the other. Jihoon saw a bright sign and immediately announced, “I’m getting a muffin.” In the ten seconds it took for him to ask for a chocolate chip muffin, Jinyoung had wandered away. “Oh no.” He thanked the cashier for the muffin and went looking for his roommate.

He found Jinyoung staring at a shelf filled with individual cereal packs. (Thankfully, he hadn't gone too far.) “Hey, whatcha thinkin’ of?”

“What are those?” Jinyoung asked, pointing to the unmistakable cover of a cereal brand.

“Fruit Loops. Do you want some?”

Jinyoung smiled and picked a carton. “Yeah. Where do I pay?”

“The cashier’s to your left.”

Jihoon waited while Jinyoung got his breakfast. When the younger had gotten himself together, they went off to find a seat. They sat across from each other, and Jinyoung began preparing his cereal. The cafeteria was fairly quiet, and a sort of silence fell over them. It was nice, but there was a certain question eating away at Jihoon that he had put off asking until he knew his roommate was comfortable with him.

“Jinyoung,” he began, picking at his muffin, “I was just wondering—I mean, if you don't mind me asking—”

“Do you wanna know why I'm like this?”

Jihoon nodded. “Um, yeah.”

The younger pushed aside his breakfast and settled back in his chair. “I was born like this, so I've never been able to see much. I have this thing called Optic Nerve Hypoplasia, which means that the nerve that carries information from my eye to my brain is underdeveloped. I can see colors, but everything's really blurry.”

“Ah, that explains a lot.”

Jinyoung laughed. “Some colors come out better than others. Like, right now, your shirt’s kinda hard to see, but I can tell you're in front of me.”

Jihoon looked down at his pastel colored shirt. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“It's okay. Let's finish breakfast.”

Between the time they finished breakfast and the time lunch rolled around, Jihoon walked around the school with Jinyoung. The younger seemed to know his way around, saying things like “Isn't this the studio?” and “This is the Theory classroom, right?” Jihoon was a bit impressed that he could either make out the blurry signs, or he just memorized where everything was. The timer on Jinyoung’s phone went off at 12:15, signaling the time for them to return to the dorm for the activities planned for the day.

The common room of their dormitory had been set up with tables and chairs, most of which were already occupied by students. The two got their food and settled down at an empty table (which was soon invaded by two younger boys).

They stood in front of the table for a good 20 seconds before the taller nudged his friend. “Hi! Can we sit with you?” he chirped.

Jihoon nodded.

“Thanks. I'm Seonho.” He looked to his friend, who shifted around nervously.

“Hello, my name is Lai Guanlin,” he said with a thick accent.

“It's nice to meet you.” Jihoon and Jinyoung took their turns introducing themselves. “What have you guys done so far?”

Seonho shrugged. “I've been teaching Guanlin some fun things to say, since his Korean teacher only taught him the basics. Show them what you learned.” He turned to his friend and smiled.

Guanlin whined about not wanting to say it, but Seonho made him. “I can say—”

All three stared in shock as a string of swears left Guanlin’s mouth. “Not those words!” Seonho squeaked when he got back to his senses. “No, you can’t say those unless it’s just us. They’re very bad.”

“Oh,” Guanlin said before breaking into a laugh. “Then what did you want me to say?”

“Greet them.”

Guanlin nodded. “Howdy partner, hangin’ out with my sick homies is wicked fun.”

Seonho laughed as if it was the funniest thing in the world, and Jihoon couldn’t help but join in. “Why did he need to learn that?” Jinyoung asked, shaking his head.

Seonho only shrugged. “It seemed like a good thing to teach him. He was so willing.”

Guanlin was angry, but it was hard to yell at the younger student when he was laughing his head off, so Guanlin turned his attention down to his food.

“It was cute,” Jihoon assured, giving Guanlin a thumbs up. The younger didn’t seem so down after that.

The four talked for a while. It turned out that Guanlin had just come to Korea from Taipei, so his Korean wasn’t too good. However, he was great at English, so they all had a good time practicing their English skills. Seonho has been appointed to be Guanlin’s translator last minute, not because he could speak English, but because he happened to be the first smiling face the dean had seen the previous morning. They also covered the fact that Jinyoung was blind, which both boys took perfectly fine.

A screeching from a microphone quieted everyone down. Sewoon was standing on a chair with the mic in his hands. “Um, sorry about that…” The other students groaned in response. “Hello everyone! Welcome to our super exciting dorm hall lunch! Many of you have already gone through this before, but we have some new students transferring in, so we need go over the rules again.”

Some of the students groaned even louder, and one called out from his seat, “We’ve heard these so many times.”

Sewoon put a hand on his hip. “But that’s never stopped you from flooding our halls to make a skating rink. Rule number four seventy-eight, maybe you’ll pay attention this time.” Then, he took out a notepad. “This is nice and easy, guys, as long as you’re quiet and pay attention. Rule number one—”

The RA went through a list of 500 rules, and contrary to what he said in the beginning, it wasn’t nice and easy. Jinyoung was nodding off to sleep around rule 237, and Seonho put his head down after two minutes. The rules were self explanatory for the first half hour of the list, but after that, things got a little crazy. There was a rule about there being no pigs allowed in the dorms (to which one boy started crying and had to leave). Another rule prohibited the use of fireworks anywhere within a 3 mile radius of the building. Jihoon’s personal favorite was “Doors must remain on their hinges at all times and may not be used as sleds in the winter.” It made him wonder about the people who had lived in the dorms before.

When the odd set of rules was finished, Sewoon announced that karaoke was mandatory and would start at 6 (“Make sure you come early!”), and with that, they were free to do as their pleased.

“Where’s your dorm?” Seonho asked, wrapping his arms around Jinyoung’s waist. Guanlin and Jihoon both looked at each other with disappointed looks. “You guys look like we’re cheating on you,” Seonho joked, letting go of Jinyoung and turning him around to face Jihoon. “There. Happy now?” He grabbed Guanlin’s hand (which the older quickly pulled away and replaced with an arm around his shoulders).

Jihoon stood face to face with Jinyoung, and before things started to get weird, he stepped out of the way. “C’mon. We can hand out in our room. I bet it’s cooler than yours.”

a.n// 

i hope you liked it!! comments are appreciated ^^

also, seeing as my story is about blindness, i probably should address kim youngjin's glaucoma. for anyone who doesnt know, glaucoma is caused by pressure build up because of excess fluids within the eye. it results in a loss of peripheral vision, and basically gives you "tunnel vision." try looking through the hole punch on a piece of notebook paper. or think of a really thick vignette (used in photo editing). that's basically how people with glaucoma see.

glaucoma is dangerous bc it has no symptoms in the beginning. people only notice it when some damage has been done. youngjin found out early, so he may not have anything severe yet. i just hope he does whatever the doctors tell him, which will most likely be eye drops. if glaucoma goes untreated, the optic nerve (what sends info from your eye to your brain) can be permanently damaged and he could develop blind spots, a complete loss of peripheral vision, or even become blind.

i feel so sad for him. he's so young, and i loved him on p101 despite his lack of screentime. he was so multi-talented, and if he does end up releasing an album, i will definitely support him.