First Day of College

Today is their first day of college and they’re all nervous, including the quietest person in the house, Chaera. To fight her nervousness, she wakes up early, takes a shower early, prepares herself early and she gets out from her room. At the same time, Sungwoo gets out as well and Chaera looks at him. His room is near by the stairs. He looks at her as well and slightly nods with a smile as his greeting, but Chaera just walks passing him and glares at him. He’s flustered. Is she this kind of person? Sungwoo tries not to think too negative about her and he just follows her going downstairs.

They’re heading to the kitchen where Mrs. Kang prepares food for them. Mrs. Kang told them yesterday that they would be treated as her kids, her family, and brothers and sister to Haneul and Hareum, so they’re treated the same. They’re prepared food, breakfast. They can have their lunch and dinner at home, the point is just telling Mrs. Kang if they will have lunch and dinner at home.

“Oh, good morning Chaera-ya, Sungwoo-ya,” Mrs. Kang sees them as they are in the dining room. She’s still cooking. “Have a seat, have a seat,” she tells them and they do what she told them to do. “I’m about to finish this one,” she says and they just nod. Chaera stands up with a glass on her hand, she’s going to have a drink. It’s morning and she hasn’t filled her water. Sungwoo just sits there restless as it’s the fourth day being in the house and it’s just him and Chaera in the dining table. Come to think of it, he has never talked with her days ago. It’s because they haven’t had a chance to (basically, Chaera just avoids him, but he doesn’t notice because she’s doing it naturally).

Later, Hareum goes out from her room and goes to the kitchen where she finds Chaera and Sungwoo already seated there. “Oh, morning,” she greets them and she sits beside Chaera. Sungwoo sits face-to-face with Chaera, but Chaera doesn’t look at his way at all. “Oh, yeah, Sungwoo-ya,” Hareum says. “I didn’t know that you’re so funny last night,” Hareum laughs as she remembers what Sungwoo did. The boarders were playing cards. Minhyun was always the winner, Chaera never got last place and it was mostly Sungwoo that did a punishment. “Your comments were funny,” Hareum remembered but Chaera didn’t laugh to his jokes at all. When he did his punishments, she just shuffled the cards without looking at him. He didn’t notice it and Chaera always did it in making her existence invisible. “Last night was funny, right, Chaera-ya?” Hareum asks and Chaera just smiles.

Sungwoo looks at how Chaera smiles and he’s flustered once again but he manages to hide it. Her smile was like a fake one, like she didn’t really find it fun. Did I have a fault to her? He begins to think but he sends that thought away because it’s not good to think that way.

Later, Minhyun and Dowoon are going downstairs at the same time. Mr. Kang and Haneul get out from their room at the same time also. They’re sitting on the dining table, later Mrs. Kang joins them with the last food. “Honey,” Mr. Kang says. “Aren’t you making too many side dishes?” Mrs. Kang made too many of them because she’s afraid they will get hungry. But as they can see, it’s too many for them and they might not be able to finish all of those.

“It’s okay,” Mrs. Kang says as she sits down. “We can save it later for lunch and dinner. Okay, let’s eat,” and they have their breakfast before going to the college.

Chaera is about to take a big spoon of rice but another hand is going for it. Sungwoo’s hand and Chaera secretly glares at him in which he notices it well and takes his hand off. Chaera takes the rice and later, Sungwoo does it. Minhyun sees this as the others don’t. He secretly elbows Sungwoo who’s sitting beside him and Sungwoo just shrugs. It looks like Chaera is angry at Sungwoo, but both Minhyun and Sungwoo don’t know why.

“Today is the first day, right?” Haneul says and they nod at him. “Well, good luck. You might find annoying seniors.”

“Well, I hope we won’t,” Hareum says and clicks her tongue to her brother and Haneul just shrugs. They finish their breakfast at an hour and when Sungwoo looks at the time, he eats fast and the others do the same and they eat fast.

“Eat slowly, kids,” Mrs. Kang says.

“We can’t, mom. We have to go,” Hareum says while munching her food. Chaera finishes first and puts her dishes to the sink, Sungwoo is the second and Chaera doesn’t look at him when she knows that he’s exactly behind her. She almost bumps him, but she holds that idea.

They take their bags, say goodbye and walk to the campus. It’s their idea to walk on the first day and the next day they will take bus. Minhyun and Sungwoo walk behind Hareum, Chaera, and Dowoon. And Chaera doesn’t know why Dowoon is beside her.

“About Chaera,” Sungwoo whispers to Minhyun. “It’s just you who have to know,” he says as he knows that Minhyun notices how Chaera treats Sungwoo.

“Yeah, sure,” Minhyun says. They look to the three people in front of them interacting, but mostly it’s just Hareum and Dowoon who are talking. Chaera just nods, smiles, and chuckles, gives the necessary reaction.

“Oh yeah, Chaera-ya,” Dowoon says and Chaera looks at him. What is he going to say? The others are wondering, especially Chaera. No one speaks to her right away like that unlike Hareum and Haneul. Something is bothering Dowoon and he wants to talk about this to Chaera but he doesn’t have any courage to or he doesn’t have any chance to. Maybe it’s because Chaera has that kind of personality which she’s hard to be approached.  But, if he doesn’t talk about this now, he might not be able to talk about it later in the future. So, he says, “Are you Mr. Yoon Jangsoo’s child?” Dowoon asks and Chaera stops which makes them stop.