The morning of my twentieth birthday began like any other day. The only difference was that my alarm clock played the Happy Birthday song instead of the Overture. I laid in bed for at least ten minutes longer than I should’ve, until my roommate growled at me from her bed.

“Listen, princess, I get it’s your birthday, but are you have to leave that god-awful song on all morning? My eight am is cancelled today, and I’d like to sleep in. If you don’t mind.” she said. Misa was usually a sweetheart, but she was a bear in the morning. When I didn’t move right away, she flung a throw pillow at me. “Ya! Turn it off!”

I sighed and flung back my warm covers. I swung my feet off the bed and into my slippers on the floor. Still half-asleep, I reached out to my bedside table for my alarm. I fumbled around with the buttons in the dim morning light until I pressed the right one, and the song turned off.

“Better?” I asked Misa, but the lump of blankets that was my roommate had already fallen back asleep. How I envied her. But sadly, my eight am class had not been cancelled. I stood up, my blankets falling from my shoulders back onto the bed. I’d make my bed later. I grabbed my toiletries bag and my robe and shuffled from our dorm out into the main part of the suite. The bathroom was across the hall, but someone was already in it. I pounded on the door.

“Ya! Hurry up, I got a class!” I called.

“You’re not the only one!” Emma called back. Her accent still sounded weird to my ears, even though I’d been hearing it every day for the past two months. She was from the States, studying here while she lived with her brother. “I’m just doing my makeup. You can shower, as long as you don’t fog up the glass!”

I opened the door. Emma was standing there, from the hips up. She was spraying deodorant under her arm, and only one half of her face was made up. I was surprised her makeup wasn’t melting down her face. The air in the bathroom was hot and wet and humid.

“Did you leave any hot water?” I asked, plopping my bag down on the stool next to the shower.

“I tried to.” Emma said with a smile that said she did not try. “No, really, I did, but there wasn’t much left in there to begin with.” I just shook my head and the water. I had put my robe on the hook and was just about to step into the shower, when Emma said, “Oh, and happy birthday.”

“Thanks.” I said, shivering as I stepped into the icy spray. I stayed as far back in the shower as I could while I grabbed my shampoo from the bag. I, like most sane, rational people, disliked cold showers. Especially in the morning. I squirted some shampoo into my hand and stood back up, bracing myself for the deluge of cold water that would be pouring down on me as I massaged my shampoo into my hair and scalp. The strawberry scent of it relaxed me somewhat.

I took a deep breath and held my head under the water, squeezing my eyes shut against the suds. I stepped back a little too quickly, eager to escape the cold, and ended up slapping myself in the face with my wet, sudsy hair. But I didn’t have enough time to care about that! I was already squeezing soap onto the loofa and holding it under the water to suds it up. I was running late, goddammit, I didn’t have time for this! I washed my body in record time, and was stepping out of the shower after just five minutes. Considering how long I usually took to shower (I had a lot of hair, shut up.), I’d count that as a win.

Emma was still standing in front of the mirror, perfecting her eyeliner. I nudged her out of the way with my hip as I wrapped my robe around myself.

“Ya!” she protested as she jabbed the pencil into her eye on accident. “Careful!”

“I need to brush my teeth!” I answered, squeezing toothpaste onto my toothbrush. “That’s what happens when you hog the hot water and the sink!”

Emma bumped her hip against mine, probably in an attempt at payback, but I couldn’t care less. I brushed my teeth, watching the timer on my phone tick down, until two minutes were up, and I spat towards the sink as I rushed out of the bathroom back to my dorm to grab some clothes.

“You missed!” Emma called, but I had already closed the door behind me, dropping my robe on the floor.

I didn’t feel like trying too hard today. I was in a rush, I didn’t have time to go back and forth between two outfits for ten minutes. But it was my birthday, and it felt wrong not to dress up. Thankfully, black outfits look dressier by default. I pulled a black dress and black tights on, and shrugged into a slightly oversized jean jacket. Blue heels and pale pink lipstick, and I was done. I flung my bag over my shoulder, and out the door I went.

As I stepped outside my dorm building, I noticed it wasn’t that bad outside for late October. It was sunny, at least. Better than I expected. The quad was a ghost town, though, which was expected. Most people aren’t crazy enough to schedule an eight am class, so the only sound in the otherwise silent quad was the sound of my heels clicking against the pavement as I walked onto the campus proper towards the sciences building.

I knew I’d be late. I’d stayed in bed too long, for me to be able to get across campus to the sciences building in time for the class to start. Class started at eight, and it was currently two minutes till. That’s when it happened. That was my first hint today was going to be different.

I have a tendency to blank when I’m not particularly thinking of anything, so I dismissed this particular occurrence out of hand. One moment I was walking past the business building, then I was right outside my class. I hurried inside, keeping my head down, knowing I’d’ve interrupted my teacher mid-lecture. But no one was speaking. And, once I got to my seat and looked around, the professor hadn’t gotten there yet. I checked my phone, relieved. Had I gotten a birthday present from above? Had my professor been late? But no… My phone screen clicked on, and the lock screen revealed it was 7:59. But that’s impossible, I thought. That can’t be right. It’s a five minute walk from the quad to the sciences building. It can’t’ve been only a minute since I last checked.

But, I thought, as the professor rushed into the room at eight am on the dot, why look a gift horse in the mouth? I wasn’t late. Maybe my clock was just off. So I grabbed my notes out of my bag and prepared for an hour of cramped hands as I hastily copied down the scribbles my professor counted as words.

*****
The class passed by normally. By the time it was over, my head was swimming with the different names for the parts of a cell. Biology was always just so fun. Who doesn’t love waking up at the crack of dawn to learn about mitochondria, and then not having a single other blessed class until 2:30? My advisor was a bastard, I thought to myself as I cracked my knuckles and stretched after the professor dismissed us.

Suddenly a coffee was plopped down on my desk. A steaming, hot, black cup of coffee, with a little note attached reading, “Happy Birthday Nari! - Yoongi-oppa”

No sooner had I finished reading it than had two warm arms wrapped around me in a hug, and Min Yoongi had planted a kiss on my cheek, the cheeky bastard. “Happy birthday!” he chirped happily in my ear.

I laughed, twisting around in my chair to hug him back. “What’re you doing here?” I asked him. “This isn’t your class!”

“Funny how your professor didn’t notice that.” Yoongi said with a grin. “I wanted to surprise you!”

“Thank you, Yoongi-ah!” I said, grabbing the coffee and taking a long, satisfying sip.

Yoongi waggled his finger at me. “Ah, ah, ah! It’s Yoongi-oppa! I’m still older.”

“No you’re not!” I pointed out. “We’re both twenty until March! So there!”

“Cheeky.” Yoongi said to me. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

“I know.” I said, packing away my things. “Thank you for the coffee. It’s good coffee.”

“Only the best for you!” Yoongi said, picking up my backpack for me. “No cream, no sugar. I’m all the Suga you need!”

“You’re only Suga when the sun is down.” I as we walked from my classroom. He shrugged and mussed up his hair, which he’d dyed a candy green in honor of Halloween.

“I’m still all the Suga you’ll ever need.” he said.

“That’s only because I can’t take that much sugar.” I said. “Too much makes me sick.”

“Which is why I’m your one and only!” Yoongi cheered.

“I’ll correct you when I’ve finished this coffee.” I  said, taking another sip.

“Don’t correct me, I gave you that coffee.” Yoongi said. We reached the bottom of the stairs. “Where you headed?”

“The library.” I answered. “I’ve got studying to do.”

“Awww, come on, Nari!” Yoongi whined, pinching my cheek. “It’s your birthday! You’re allowed not to study!”

“When I fail my test, my professor isn’t going to take ‘birthday’ as an excuse.” I said.

“Have you ever failed?” my friend asked me pointedly, already knowing the answer. “I’ve got some friends I’d like you to meet. Come on, please? We can go study after!”

I sighed, knowing it was pointless to argue once Yoongi had set his mind on something. So I nodded, and Yoongi cheered, leading me to the Student Union.

*****

“I don’t see why I have to be here.” Jungkook said in the magical language known to only a few in the modern world. “I have studying to do, too. For stuff that’s actually useful, too, not just this.” he gestured to the essay in front of him. “Are you sure I can’t dip?”

“You have to be here.” Choi Seunghyun said tiredly, also in the magical language. It sounded like French to their cohorts surrounding them in the crowded Student Union.. “And you can’t use magic to make your professor think you did it, either. No cheating.”

“What?!” Jungkook protested rudely, earning himself several shocked glares from those surrounding them, who understood his rudeness, if not his words. “Sorry,” he apologized in Korean, before switching back to his native tongue. “What do you mean, no cheating!”

“These people manage to make it through a bachelor’s degree without using magic.” Seunghyun said. “I’m sure you can manage.”

“These people aren’t getting a useless degree in history on top of studying magic!” Jungkook complained.

“I managed just fine.” Seunghyun said, taking a sip of his coffee and pouring syrup over his pancakes. “Now stop complaining. You’re drawing attention. If you’re going to be a brat, be a brat in Korean.”

Jungkook complied, letting loose a string of vile curse words under his breath in Korean, furiously typing away at his essay, while Seunghyun calmly ate his breakfast.

“Get it out of your system yet?” the graduate student asked as Namjoon jogged up to their table. Jungkook glared at both of them.

“They’re on their way.” Namjoon said, sitting down in between Jungkook and Seunghyun. “Yoongi-hyung is bringing her.”

“What’s so special about her, anyway?” Jungkook asked, sounding like he was only half listening as he double checked his notes against his essay.

“We’ll discuss that later.” Seunghyun said. “We’re in public.”

“You’re the one who said we should speak in Korean.” Jungkook pointed out.

“Is he always like this?” Seunghyun asked Namjoon. Namjoon shrugged.

“He doesn’t really care for social niceties. Even less so when he’s stressed.” Namjoon said. Seunghyun got up and dumped his trash in the garbage.

“How long until they get here?” Seunghyun asked as he sat back down.

Namjoon looked at his watch. “Maybe a couple of minutes.”

Seunghyun adopted a relaxed, comraderic expression. His voice, while still tired, sounded a bit more animated as he said, “Then let’s talk about something inane, like sports, so that it won’t be suspicious when she shows up.”

“Not sports.” Namjoon said.

“Yoongi-hyung hates sports.” Jungkook agreed. “Music is better.”

“Music then.” Seunghyun said with a shrug. “Did you hear that new song by Twice?”

“Of course you’d listen to Twice.” Jungkook said dryly.

*****

“Yah! Yoongi-hyung!” One of Yoongi’s friends called from across the crowded cafeteria. I recognized him. He and I had been at a few parties together. Namjoon, his name was. But we weren’t close. “Over here!” He waved from his table. He was sat next to two other men, one a bit buffer than him, and one much taller than the other two. Yoongi waved back, guiding me to their table.

“You remember Namjoon-ah, right?” Yoongi asked me as we approached. I nodded, smiling at him.

“Hello, Namjoon-ssi.” I said, bowing in greeting. He smiled and nodded at me.

“Call me oppa!” Namjoon said as the other two finished bickering about a girl group. Yoongi barked out a laugh, before clasping a hand over his mouth and giggling. “What’s so funny?” Namjoon asked.

“She doesn’t even call me oppa.” Yoongi said, “So good luck getting her to call you that.”

“Just Namjoon-ah, then.” Namjoon said with a shrug. “-Ssi seems so formal.”

“That’s why she uses it.” Yoongi said, teasingly poking me in the ribs. I poked him back. “That’s Jungkook.” Yoongi said, breaking away before we descended into a poke war. Jungkook looked up from his essay and managed a smile, though I could see how much it killed him inside to be smiling. “He’s a brat.”

“Am not.” Jungkook said. “I’ll be very nice to noona.”

“Did she say you could call her noona?” Yoongi asked.

“No.” Jungkook said with a cheeky grin.

“To be fair,” I said, putting a hand on Yoongi’s shoulder, “I didn’t say he couldn’t, either.”

“Yeah!” Jungkook said, sticking his tongue out.

“I’m Nari.” I introduced myself, and Jungkook smiled - for real this time - before sinking back into his essay.

“And this…” Yoongi said, turning to the tallest man. “Is Seunghyun-hyung. He’s a graduate student.”

“It’s why I’m so pale.” Seunghyun said as he stood up briefly to bow. I returned it.

“Nice to meet you, Seunghyun-ssi.” I said. He smiled back at me, looking dashing.

“Sit down,” he urged us. “Would you like some breakfast?”

“Oh, no thank you.” I said, but my stomach gave me away. He smiled kindly.

“Jungkookie, go get Nari-ah some pancakes.” Seunghyun ordered, and handed Jungkook the money, ignoring the young man’s groans. Jungkook stood up from the table and walked to one of the grills to order some pancakes. “I’m sorry for his rudeness.”

“It’s okay.” I said, smiling politely.

Namjoon said, “Yoongi-hyung tells me it’s your birthday!”

“Oh, really?” Seunghyun asked. “Happy birthday!”

“Thank you.” I said, “I turn twenty today.”

“Happy birthday!” Namjoon cheered.

There was a slightly awkward pause for a few seconds, until Seunghyun said, “What’s your major?”

And so conversational small talk continued. Jungkook came back with chocolate chip pancakes for me, and was haggled by his hyungs until he wished me a happy birthday as well. The getting-to-know-you talk continued until Seunghyun got a call.

“Hello?” he said in Korean, before he switched to French.

“He speaks French?” I asked Yoongi.

“It’s not French, noona.” Jungkook said, now looking attentively at Seunghyun.

“It sounds like French…” I said, puzzled. Seunghyun hung up.

“It’s a regional dialect from where I come from.” Seunghyun said. “Forgive the intrusion. But we have to go now.” Seunghyun said, giving Jungkook a pointed look. Jungkook groaned, but obediently packed up his things.

“It was nice meeting you.” I said to Seunghyun and Jungkook as they stood up. “Thank you for the pancakes.”

“No problem.” Seunghyun said with a smile. Jungkook waved at me, and the two of them walked away, speaking back in forth in that French-esque language.

“Where are they from?” I asked Yoongi.

“I think somewhere near Vietnam?” Yoongi said, but it sounded like he was guessing. I looked to Namjoon, but he just shrugged.

“They don’t look Vietnamese.” I said, but before I could ponder it much further, Namjoon had started a story about his anthropology class.

*****

“We barely talked to her!” Jungkook complained, angrily tightening the straps on his backpack. “What’s the point of dragging me here for barely half an hour?”

Seunghyun sighed. “Your mother keeps assuring me that you are, in fact, a patient person who says please and thank you at every meal.”

“She’s my mother.” Jungkook said. “She’s supposed to say that.”

“You should be ashamed of yourself for fooling your mother so completely.” Seunghyun said. “As for the briefness of our meeting, that is both by design and due to circumstance. I’ve been called to a meeting with my advisor, and you need to study.”

“Okay, that’s the circumstance.” Jungkook said. “What about the design?”

“Nari is very special.” Seunghyun said. “But also very normal. We can’t just spring everything on her all at once, can we?”

“Everything what?” Jungkook asked in annoyance.

“Patience, grasshopper.” Seunghyun said. “It’s a virtue.”

______

Hello! I should be doing a presentation right now, but instead I'm writing this. My priorities are messed up, man. But anyway, tell me what you think! Should I keep procrastinating to work on this, or not? XD