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Chapter 9: My Home

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I felt the warmth of the jacket first. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I hadn’t noticed much of anything since Jinyoung left. The cold breeze seemed to blow even colder after he went inside, but his presence in the house made me prefer the frigid outdoors even more.

Pshhh. “People that get in my way.” What? Was he trying to sound like a gangster or something? That’s ridiculous.

I laughed to myself as I rubbed my hands together for warmth.

Whatever. It’s up to fate now. If they vote for me to stay, I’m gonna do my best to fit in here. I don’t care what he says.

“I’ll work twice as hard as he does… no three times. I’ll show him I’m worth noticing. Get in his way… seriously… oh, I’ll get in his way alright…”

The jacket overtook my shaking frame.

“Get in whose way?”

“Ahhh, JB, you scared the out of me,” I punched him in the shoulder.

“Mmm, think of it as payback for the time you popped out at me from behind this fence.”

“I didn’t think you would- Wait, is the vote over,” I raised an eyebrow in curiosity, but JB just smiled and nodded, “and I get to stay?”

“Only if you want, and there were some conditions that got brought up, but yeah, yeah, you get to stay.”

In the moment I couldn’t control my excitement. I hadn’t realized it before, but I was so scared of what would’ve happened if the vote had been a no. My frantic search for a place to stay would have resumed, and with my luck I’d end up paying way too much for a squatty, little dump with an overzealous renter. All the fear I’d subconsciously felt exploded at once, and before I knew it I was crying.

“What’s wrong? A-are you not happy here? Is it because we’re all guys? I promise we don’t-”

“No, no, it’s just- I’m just so relieved. I’m really happy.”

JB’s nervous expression faded into a soft smile, suppressing a laugh.

“C’mon, then, let’s go inside. It’s freezing out here.”

“Oh, wait, JB, you said there were conditions.”

“Oh, yeah, well, two actually. You know the thing I told you about how Eric, our old roommate would do chores around the house instead of paying the rent, which is ridiculously high unfortunately.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I made sure that offer was still on the table for you.”

“Okay, and the other condition?”

“The girl’s dorm.”

“What about it?”

“When there’s an opening-”

“Oh, yeah, of course. As soon as there’s an opening I’ll move there in a flash. I know you guys have somewhat of a prestigious honor to uphold with the ‘air castle’ as you call it. Don’t worry I’ll move out as soon as I can so that another prodigee can use the space,” it might have sounded insincere, but I genuinely meant it.

I’ve seen that practice room. It’s really on a whole other level from what someone with my skills should be using.

“Well, you don’t have to sound in such a hurry. This is your home for now,” JB said, half-jokingly.

“It’s just… I really want to get better, but I know you guys are so much more skilled than me when it comes to my major. To be honest, what everyone was saying about my design during Truth or Dare, it hurt my feelings a bit at first, but it was true. I know I don’t deserve to be accepted into this place. I mean I was only at the school for one day, but I overheard so much gossip about the talented guys that live in this building… and that was from incoming Fr