[ Eight]

It's cold.

I picture my warm coat at home, hung up, where I'd left it this morning when I'd rushed out of my apartment to make my appointment on time. While I was here - and early, in fact, I was also freezing in just my thin oversized jumper and jeans. Clutching my coffee cup, which I'd bought more to keep my hands warm than to actually consume, I looked up at the impressive building before me, the nerves finally kicking in. It was only the 10th of February, but I felt like this year had been a turning point for me. 

I knew now I couldn’t continue on the path I'd been on, no matter how comfortable it had seemed. Working in the coffee shop was amazing and I loved it, but I couldn't spend my life there. Even ShinHye was working on a degree and planned to move on when she graduated. MinHyuk owned the coffee shop, so his situation was different, but me... I was stuck there, because the reality was I didn't have anything going for me. Something had to change... And I was finally taking that step.

My phone vibrating in my back pocket had me releasing my coffee cup with one of my hands to answer it, shivering as my frozen fingers raised it to my hear.

“Hello?”

“Wrap up warm. We wouldn’t want you to get cold!” An unknown voice giggled, before the line went dead.

Pulling my phone away I stared at the unknown number on my call log with a frown. Seconds later, my phone rang again, this time displaying a name I knew.

"Good luck!" Came Shin-Hye and Minhyk's chorused voices.

I sagged in relief at the sound of my friends. "I think I'm going to puke."

"You're going to be fine!" Minhyuk assured me gently.

"No I'm not. I'm going to mess it up."

"You memorised your lines, right?" Came Shin-Hye's voice, further in the background.

I could hear the light chatter of the café in the background and knew they must have had me on loud speaker. I would be working myself, straight after this interview, but I appreciated them calling me before I went in. I'd told them both enough about how nervous I was.

"Of course. I just hope I'll remember them when I'm in there." Pulling my phone away from my ear I looked at the time and sighed. "I have to go. It's time."

"Fighting! They both called again.

I hung up and took a deep breath. This was it. My moment to try and convince the college to let me join their accounting course - despite me having dropped out of a similar course back in America. Feeling a sudden shiver run down my spine, I looked around, suddenly uneasy. I had a feeling I was being watched, but looking around I couldn't see anyone paying any particular attention to me. Shaking off the weirdness, putting it down to a caffeine rush, I entered the office of the admissions officer, giving her a big smile and bent into a ninety degree bow, knowing I was laying it on thick. The woman was of a surly disposition, having clearly heard every sob-story and excuse under the book. So I decided to try keep my own account as true to my history as possible.

"You studied at Collegiate School in New York until you were thirteen, and from there studied at Rosenberg in Switzerland..." She paused and gave me a look. "Both of these are Private schools, no?"

I kept my expression frozen with my small smile in place. "Yes."

She glanced back down at my application. "You have an exemplary academic record. Practically all straight A's, however..." She cleared . "You dropped out of Harvard before you'd even finished your first term. Why is that?"

The question I'd been dreading. I took a moment to recall my practiced story, the blend of truth and a mixture of fiction. I wasn't intending to be deceitful, but so far I'd managed to keep who my Father was from them and I intended to keep it that way, afraid they would judge me solely based on that or worse - contact him.

"I was dealing with family issues." I explained. "My parents lived in America, but I wanted to relocate to Seoul, where I'd always spent my holidays. Being an accountant had always been my dream, but so had living in Korea. I'd decided to relocate here and to do so meant dropping out of college."

"You couldn't wait until graduation?"

"I'm not usually impulsive." I told her quickly. "But I couldn't stop thinking about it. When my aunt offered to help me relocate here perminently, I decided to jump on the opertunity." 

"Your record is... Astonishing. I've never seen one like it. Why have you applied here?" The woman pushed.

Here being the Seoul National University.

"This is perfect for me. It's also the top University in Korea, so why wouldn't I want to go here?"

"You could easily get into a Private University, with your Academic history."

"I really want to go here."

"There is no reason you can't go here..." She began slowly. "...But I really think you should apply to Private Universities, miss Bae. As I said, with your Academic Record, they'd be thrilled to have you. If I was you, I'd look at applying for a few."

"I couldn't afford it." I told her honestly. Her eyebrow shot up, diseblief clearly written all over her face. I looked away, hoping I appeared embarrassed. "The truth is, my families business venture in America isn't doing so well. I don't want to be a financial burden on them."

I could see her nodding from the corner of my eye. "Businesses are hard to keep afloat." She sympathised.

"They are." I agreed.

"Well, with your record there no reason for me to deny your placement here, so it's my privalige to accept you onto our Accountancy course." She smiled, holding out her hand for me. I took it quickly and bowed, my heart soaring. "Classes begin in June, so are a bit of a way off yet, plenty of time for you to arrange your student finances and apply for lodging, if you require it. I have all the paperwork you will need here..."

I spent an hour going through the paperwork with her, signing forms and assuring her I wouldn't need to stay in a dorm. There was no way I was letting go of my apartment. Leaving the Admissions building, I walked around the campus, unable to hide the huge grin on my face. Everything really was beginning to come together. Pulling out my phone, I began snapping pictures around campus - nothing too revealing of where it was, but just some artistic shots. I uploaded two to my Instagram, pleased at how well they turned out.

I had a comment immediately.

"Congrats~" TaeHyung had written. I liked it, knowing he must have got the notification I had posted and immediately opened his app to see what it was. He did that a lot and he was always the first to like my posts. He'd been gone now on his trip with his friends for almost a week and I missed him like crazy. It seemed surreal to me, how my life here was turning out. How close I'd become to TaeHyung. When he was gone it was like a small piece of me was missing, a chunk of my day (or rather, evening) gone when he wasn't around. My phone ringing distracted me from mooning over his comment and I answered it, grinning at the twin voices at the other end demanding in sync;

"Well?"

"I'm in." I answered, laughing as I had to hold my phone away from my ear as both Shin-Hye and MinHyuk cheered.

"We are celebrating tonight!" MinHyuk announced once they quietened to a reasonable volume.

"Club?" Shin-Hye asked him excitedly.

"Of course! Get your here, JooHyun. We'll close at 10pm so you lovely ladies can get ready."

I promised I was on my way and hung up, shaking my head. If Minhyuk had his way we'd close early every night and go to the club. That boy loved to dance. They were in high spirits when I arrived at the coffee shop, both echoing my own elation. I showed them my acceptance letter, the student loans I'd applied for and gushed about my course. We stayed around, making sure the place had cleared out of the few lingering customers before I left to go back to mine to change, promising to meet them at the club.

Rooting through my outfits, I was distr