[CONTENTID1]Freshers and Face to Face [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2] "I don't do the casual thing. I can't sleep with someone where it doesn't matter. It matters ... to me."[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3] There were a great many things in this world that Yeseul did not like. Near the top of the list was presumptuous, thick-headed boys. Perhaps the only exception to this was Byun Baekhyun, because he was actually quite lovely under the chortling idiot exterior. Unfortunately, going to a big university meant dealing with a lot of presumptuous, thick-headed boys on a daily basis. Most of them backed off with one of her signature glares, but Kim Joonmyun had to be commended for his persistence. 

Yeseul was sat in her seminar, not listening to whatever Han Iseul was saying about the ode they had to read for this week. There were only ten minutes left, and Yeseul had to stop off at Starbucks to give Serin the notebook she had left behind the night before, then rush to the cinema for her shift at six. But by the look Joonmyun was giving her from across the room, Yeseul knew she'd be at an even greater risk of being late than she was before. She was tired of his advances after only two attempts, and tried to make it clear that she wasn't interested, but he kept on asking anyway. 

When the instructor dismissed them, Yeseul threw her things into her backpack and dashed out the door, making it a total of ten feet before Joonmyun caught up with her. He was dressed like he was heading to football practice even though there wasn't any today (Yeseul was ashamed to admit that she knew Joonmyun's football schedule, since he played at the same club as Kyungsoo) and his beanie barely covered the top of his head. 

"Hey, Yeseul," he said as he fell into step beside her, like she'd invited him along. 

"Joonmyun," she replied in a clipped tone. 

"How's your essay coming on?" 

It wasn't going well, but Yeseul wouldn't tell him that. Doing so would result in a study date invitation, which was to be avoided at all costs. 

"It's fine." 

"I'm having a bit of trouble with mine," he said. Yeseul pursed her lips and pushed open the door to the stairwell, not holding it open for him to follow. He did anyway. "I wondered if you might want to come over before my party on Saturday. Maybe we could help each other out?" 

Yeseul reached the ground floor, once more failing to hold the door open for Joonmyun. "I don't think so." 

"Okay," he said, not missing a beat. "You're still coming to the party, though, yeah?" 

That was the thing about Kim Joonmyun. No matter how much she disliked him, he could throw a ing good party. Since everyone and all their friends went, there wasn't much chance of Yeseul getting out of it. She'd have to dodge Joonmyun all night, but the free booze and easy hookups were definitely a plus. She was never going to get over Eunha if she didn't at least try and see other people, as Sehun and Serin constantly reminded her. 

"Uh, yeah. I'll be there." 

"Great." Joonmyun smiled. He made his way over to the front door, then turned around and gave her a wave on his way outside. 

Yeseul made it to Starbucks with twenty minutes left before her shift, and five minutes until the bus she needed to get into the city centre was due to arrive. Serin was busy behind the counter, cups lined up and waiting to be filled. She somehow managed to interact with each customer, whether it was a passing smile, an offhand compliment, or a mini-conversation. How someone so naturally polite and friendly managed to deal with her on a daily basis, Yeseul would never understand. 

"Are you aware that there's toothpaste on your hoodie?" Serin asked, not even looking up from the cappuccino machine. 

Yeseul stood nect to the counter, notebook in hand. "Yeah, but I didn't have time to change. I've been in a rush all day. Now take this so I can get going." 

"Work?" 

"Yeah." 

"Alright," Serin nodded, handing a cup to a waiting customer before snatching the notebook out of Yeseul's grasp. "Are we still on for tomorrow?"

"It's Wednesday. Of course we are." 

Every Wednesday, Serin and Yeseul went to a little restaurant down by the riverbank. It had been in the same family for three generations, and Yeseul was certain that the kimchi-jigae hadn't changed since they first opened. 

Yeseul hurried out of the coffee shop, bolting across the street just in time to catch her bus. She dropped into a seat at the back and put in her headphones, avoiding the gazes of the other passengers. The ride into the heart of the city was sleep-inducing, and the mellow tones coming through her headphones didn't help one bit. Yeseul leaned against the glass, staring at the grey sky overhead, and felt her eyelids grow heavy. 

Some weeks, when her insomnia was bad, Yeseul found herself in a semi-conscious state when she should definitely be alert, like on the bus. Those weeks were generally terrible anyway, with her irritability level high and her homework neglected because she was too tired to concentrate, but Yeseul hated the idea of being caught off guard in a public place. She was more comfortable with her defenses intact at all times. It wasn't like being drunk at a party, where she had friends around to keep an eye on her. 

The staff room was quiet, with a boy who worked in concession napping on the stiff sofa in the corner. Yeseul took a left into the locker room, where she encountered one of the ticket girls. They didn't exchange a greeting, and the girl rushed out before Yeseul had even opened her locker. She threw on her work shirt and attached her name tag, twisting her hair into a messy bun before she put on her cap. It made a dent in her hair if she didn't put it up. 

The boy was still fast asleep on the sofa when Yeseul emerged. She rolled her eyes and made sure her shirt was properly tucked into her mandatory black jeans (she was glad, if anything, that the cinema didn't supply trousers in addition to their unflattering polos) before heading out to start her shift. 

A crisp wind was coming off the river when Yeseul made her way over from campus. She had another seminar later that afternoon, and her bag weighed her shoulder down with the books, notes, and the laptop inside. The plus was that the massive portion of kimchi-jigae she would be consuming would keep her through until her late night tea, and she wouldn't have to run to the nearest Starbucks in the short break during her seminar. 

Yeseul paused to light a cigarette before continuing her walk, boot heels clicking against the paved path. There were bars and little shops along the riverbank in the ground floors of large, former-industrial buildings and narrow, multi-story houses. One of those houses was navy blue, with clusters of rickety tables out front and a bowl-shaped neon sign that indicated the restaurant on the bottom floor was open. It's yellow and white striped awning was old and in need of replacing, but Yeseul suspected that the sentimental value it carried meant that the family wouldn't be doing so any time soon. 

When she saw Sehun's slender figure slouched out front, smoke wafting from his lips, Yeseul bristled. This was her and Serin's time; inviting anyone else was an unspoken rule between them. Not even when Yeseul was seeing Eunha had anyone else come along to Wednesday dinner. 

"Hello," Yeseul said casually, one eyebrow raised at Sehun as she took a drag from her cigarette. "Fancy seeing you here." 

"Don't be mad." Sehun lifted himself off the wall, flicking the end of his smoke to the street and stomping on it with the heel of his shoe. 

"Oh, it's not you I'm angry with," Yeseul assured him. 

"Well don't be angry with Serin, either. She only thought you could use some different company. Apparently you haven't seen anyone other than her and Baekhyun all week." 

Yeseul sighed. "Don't forget Chanyeol." 

She put out her cigarette and the two of them went into the tiny restaurant. To her relief, Serin was sitting at a table near the back, which meant she hadn't completely abandoned tradition. She and Sehun ordered their food and headed over to the table, Yeseul sending a glare in the other girl's direction as she slid into her chair. Sehun sat down next to her, slumping forward until he was satisfied with his poor posture. 

"How was work yesterday?" 

"Horrible, as usual." 

Sehun flicked a strand of hair from his face and looked over at Yeseul. "If you hate the job so much, why don't you quit?" 

"It pays pretty well," Yeseul answered. "Besides, not all of us get jobs in our field of study right away." 

"I didn't know they would hire me," Sehun retorted. "It was an internship." 

"You're still just proving my point." 

He huffed, shaking his head and staring at the wall instead. "You've gotta find opportunities, Yeseul. They aren't going to come out of nowhere. If you aren't trying to find something better, you'll be stuck working at the cinema till you die." 

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." 

"Well, you need to get your together. Nobody else is going to tell you to do it, they're all too busy with their own stuff." Sehun did look at her then, eyes dead serious beneath long lashes. 

Across the table, Serin coughed. "So, uh, I've been thinking of getting my teaching degree once I'm done with this one." 

Yeseul was grateful when the conversation shifted to focus on Serin instead. She'd been the subject of discussion far too often these days. Even when they weren't talking about her, there were sly glances her way, like she was some ticking bomb ready to explode at any second. It had yet to happen. And if Yeseul was determined enough, it never would. 

Serin explained her decision to pursue teaching, something she'd been thinking about since the end of high school. There wasn't much else in the way of History degrees, anyway, according to her. 

"I think you'd make a great teacher," Sehun said, once Serin was finished. 

"Yeah," Yeseul agreed. "You deal with me on a daily basis, so you'd be brilliant with bratty kids." 

"You aren't a brat," Serin frowned. 

"Thank yo, but I know I can be. I've just accepted it at this point." 

Sehun scooted back from the table, phone in hand. "Sorry, it's Min, I'll be back in a second," he said, lifting the phone to his ear and murmuring 'hey, baby' as he walked toward the door. 

"God, what I'd give for their relationship," Serin sighed. 

"Sehun and Sumin are, like, the perfect couple. I think they're a statistical anomaly," Yeseul said. The lady brought over their food, and Serin thanked her for the both of them. Yeseul grabbed her spoon and tasted the soup, wrinkling her nose as she watched her friend dump her rice into the soup. "I have no idea how you eat that." 

Serin grinned, shiny white teeth between ruby red lips. "It gets mixed up in your stomach anyways."

"It's so wrong," Yeseul grimaced. "Probably as wrong as Park Chanyeol." 

"Do you really hate him that much, Yeseul?" Serin asked, brows raised. They didn't discuss Chanyeol often. Yeseul made a point not to bring him up in conversation, just thinking about him got her blood boiling. 

"It's not like he's tried to be my friend," was Yeseul's answer. She had no idea why Chanyeol acted the way he did, but he had never been anything other than a jerk to her, so she really didn't see why she should try and like him. "I mean, the first thing he ever said to me was an insult." 

"Really? What did he say?" 

Yeseul scooped a spoonful of rice into . "Have I never told you about that?" 

"No, I don't think so." 

"Well," Yeseul put down her spoon. "I was in my room reading – this was about two weeks into the semester – and there's a knock on the door. I went up to answer it, and it's Baekhyun with some tall guy who's got a ridiculous scarf around his head. Before he even said anything I thought he was a complete dickhead for thinking the scarf thing looked cool. They were going to a bar and wondered if I might join them. Since I didn't actually know Chanyeol yet, I said yes and went to grab my jacket. As I'm getting my shoes on, he takes one look around my room and goes, 'A bit pretentious, isn't it? Have you even read half of these books?' Can you believe the nerve? We hadn't even been introduced and he's already assumed I'm some wannabe trying to look clever. He was the one with a ing floral scarf in his stupid hair." 

"Wow." Then, because she was always the diplomat, "Well, to be fair, if I didn't know you and saw all the books you've got I would probably think you were putting on a bit of a show. Not many people out age have read James Joyce." 

"It's not like I have Ulysses or something," Yeseul said, popping a piece of kimchi into . "I mean, I'd understand the judgement there but Dubliners is a whole different thing. And it was for one of my modules!" 

Sehun sauntered back to the table, eyes lighting up when he saw that a bowl of noodles was waiting for him. "What are you talking about?" he asked, sliding into his seat. 

"Yeseul's just been telling me about how she and Chanyeol met." 

"He was a to you, if I remember correctly." 

Yeseul and Chanyeol's first meeting had only gotten worse after the book comment. Sehun knew the story, since he was at the bar that night. It was the first time him and Yeseul had met as well, though they'd gotten along almost immediately after he spotted the tattoo on her finger. The first night had been like a glimpse into the future, showing how their relationships would turn out. Yeseul and Chanyeol spent half the night arguing, Sehun took a lot of smoking breaks, and Baekhyun went home with a girl. 

On their way out of the restaurant, Yeseul got a phonecall. It was her mother, probably wa