Seulgi has always loved to draw. What appears on her sketchbook was mostly dependent on her mood, the weather, and occasionally, what she fancies at the moment. For the longest time, she had always appreciated her surroundings and grew to love the elements that surrounded her. With this in mind, it is safe to say that her choice of profession was understandable to say the least. She could have chosen fine arts based on her endeavour but she adored the possibility of creating life out of an existent space. More importantly, infrastructures she would be able to design can hopefully last longer than oil or acrylic paint on canvas.

On the first day of classes, Seulgi woke up early with her things ready for the day. Despite her hibernating habits, she still managed to break tradition and prepare for the semester. Her class schedule for Monday consisted of general education subjects that the curriculum displays to be beneficial for the development of the students. First class was Music 1 within the College of Performing Arts and a familiar face would be guiding her around. Just then, she received a text from said familiar face.

“Hey! You up for the first day tour?” the message read.

“Yes unnie. I got up early for today! J”, Seulgi replied.

“That’s an improvement! I’ll wait for you by the entrance of the Music Building then,”  came another reply.

After finally going out of her roommate-less dorm room, she set out to find the Music Building by herself. When she reached her destination after asking for directions from the university personnel, she was greeted by her former senior in high school, Bae Joohyun or better known as Irene.

“You really made it here by yourself! And you’re early too, is this some sort of new school, new life?” Irene suddenly asked Seulgi upon her arrival. Seeing her senior up close, the older girl was clearly amused by the rare occasion.

“Unnie, why are you so mean to me? I still don’t know where my class is supposed to be in anyway so I can’t afford to be late.” The timid bear-like girl reasoned out.

The senior simply laughed at Seulgi and proceeded to enter the building with the bear in tow.  Upon entrance, Seulgi was awed by the beautiful interior of the building and it’s only the lobby. Irene was giving her a detailed description of each room found in the corridors they pass and the portraits of musical icons that are found along the hallways. As they were nearing the end of the tour, Irene suddenly mentioned something that poked at Seulgi’s interest.

“Hey Seul, are you still interested in dancing?” the smaller girl suddenly asked.

“Yeah, I still do but not as often as before. It’s become a hobby of sorts right now.”  The younger replied with a shrug.

“Really? We have a dance club here though if you’re interested. I mean you were basically a prodigy when you joined the dance club back in high school. “

“I don’t know unnie. I mean I could try but I’m not sure if I could keep it up. You said yourself that high school is nothing compared to college, right?”

“Oh, don’t worry you’re only on your first year so it’s not that hard yet. Besides, this is the best time to really try a lot of stuff and I’m in the club too if you’re worried about being your awkward self.” Irene finishes with a laugh after reassuring her companion.

“You’re in the club? That’s cool, unnie but you do have to join competitions, right? Like, you know, the ones they show on TV for universities.”

Despite her doubts, Seulgi does want- still wants- to feel the thrill of performing in front of the crowd much like her high school days. This time though, the stakes are higher considering that the University’s reputation in the field is involved. Additionally, there is the feeling of not being enough since everyone is likely to be really passionate about dancing if there is a club for them. These things and more fill up Seulgi’s thoughts at the moment. At the same time, Irene noticed that the taller girl has spaced out and being friends for a long time, she decided to put some sense in her junior.

“Yah! Kang Seulgi what are you even thinking about? I’m not forcing you to join you know. You could check out the club this afternoon but you really don’t have to worry about competitions. The club is mostly for enthusiasts and if we can, we do join competitions.”  She tried to ease her mind a bit and continued, “Besides, there’s no pressure since it’s important to us that the members do enjoy dancing and sometimes it looks like a party in the club. Also, Professor B tries to keep an eye on us when we have club activities.”

“That does sound nice, unnie,” Seulgi replies distractedly. “But why does a professor have to keep an eye on the club?”

“That’s to make sure we have validation to have the club in the University and she also helps us in our activities. She’s a hands on adviser to us.” Irene replies with a tone of admiration for the professor. “Would you look at that, we’re here now. Room 111 for Music 1 under… can I see your schedule Seul?”

Seulgi dug into her backpack for her class details and handed them to her senior. She was confused when her companion smiled to herself upon seeing her schedule. Deciding to brush it off as her unnie being weird, she placed the piece of paper back into her bag and waited for any further advice.

“Turns out you got Professor B for this class. Piece of advice though, just don’t be shocked when she enters the room, okay?” with that, Irene left her in the hallway by herself to finally enter the room.

Seeing that it was still 15 minutes before class would start, Seulgi took her time in picking a seat in the empty room. She was still mulling over her senior’s cryptic reaction to her professor’s identity while doing this. After being seated, she took out her sketchbook for the year and tried to recreate the building’s lobby in rough sketches. Halfway into her drawing, she noticed that people began to come in one by one until it’s only five minutes till the start and a few empty seats left. Two minutes more into her drawing suddenly a woman with pink hair in a white dress entered the room and started to set-up a laptop on the teacher’s table. Is this why her unnie was amused? Seulgi thought especially seeing how young her possible professor looks like.

Just then, the woman in front began to speak to end Seulgi’s silent thinking.

“Good morning everyone,” she greeted with a bow. “I’m Kim Yongsun, a student assistant and I work under Professor Kwon (Bo-ah) and she told me to arrange some things in the room before she arrives. She’ll be delayed for about 15 minutes because she had to take care of administrative papers. In the meantime, she said you guys could buy some snacks outside or go to the comfort room while waiting for her. Are there any questions?”

Some hands from guys in the room shot up and considering their grins, Seulgi knew what they were going to ask about. She just proceeded to concentrate on her work until someone tapped her on the shoulder.

“Hey, is this seat taken?” a petite girl asked, referring to the empty seat on Seulgi’s left.

Seulgi was dumbfounded at first but thankfully shook her head and the girl placed her things beside her. Seulgi then proceeded to observe the girl and saw that she was quite well-dressed for a first day in class. She then proceeded to notice the way the girl moves with an air of grace around her an the bear-like girl was impressed considering that her new seatmate looks like someone her age… or not since Irene somehow looks more childish than her. However, it was not long before her seatmate noticed her staring and they ended up having a staring contest. With Seulgi being the awkward person that she is, suddenly blurted out something.

“Are you a first year too?” She asked without thinking.

The girl only chuckled for a bit and decided to respond to Seulgi’s question.

“Yeah, I am. Of sorts,” the girl replied.

“Really? But you look like someone who’s familiar in these kind of things.”

“What kind of things, may I ask?” the girl fires back, clearly amused by Seulgi’s curiosity.

“I’m not sure. You look really confident for a first day in class while I’m here early because I don’t want to get lost in the building and I’m only drawing by myself here because I’m too awkward to socialize.”

Seulgi’s rambling only proceeded to bring out a light laugh from the girl and the bear-like girl being dense as she usually is, only looked at her in question. This only served to make the girl giggle more because she found Seulgi’s expression to be cute, almost like a teddy bear.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh at you. It’s just that you were almost rambling and I did say that I was sort of a first year, right?” Seulgi only nodded at her for confirmation. “It’s because I’m here for a foreign exchange program. You’ve heard of that, don’t you?”

The girl’s answer made Seulgi ponder for a bit. She was new with how universities work but she remembers Irene ranting about how weird it is to have foreigners sitting in class and sometimes conversing with her. In summary, Irene’s rant was mostly about how she realized she needed to update her English vocabulary if she wanted to go abroad for vacation.

Back to the present, Seulgi realised that the girl in front of her has a skin that is almost as fair as snow and she had a bit of an accent while speaking Korean. This then leads to her next question.

“But how do you speak Korean so well?”

Already expecting the question, the girl merely smiled at Seulgi softly and proceeded to satisfy her curiosity.

“That’s because I’m Korean by blood though I live in Canada. I learned Korean from my parents whenever we’re at home. And since you’re probably going to ask, my name is Son Seungwan but I usually go by as Wendy.” the girl answered, not only Seulgi’s existing question but also the one at the tip of her tongue.

“Oh, hi Wendy. I’m Seulgi by the way, Kang Seulgi.” Seulgi finally introduced herself but cringed initially at how she pronounced Wendy’s name. “I’m sorry if it’s too sudden to ask, but can I call you Seungwan instead? I mean I don’t want to make you uncomfortable at all but I’m bad at speaking in English and-“

“Hey, it’s cool,” Wendy cut her off. “I think it’s nice if you do call me my given name. I mean it might be weird for me at first but if we’re going to be friends then it’s best to start with how we call each other, right?”

Thankful that the girl did not take offense, she nodded her head in answer. But before she can fire another question, Seungwan beat her to it first.

“By the way, since we’re friends now, can I give you a nickname?”

The question caught Seulgi off-guard which resulted to her nodding dumbly at her new friend.

“Well then, it’s nice to meet you Seulbear.”