Taehyung stares at the ceiling smiling like a fool.

He doesn’t know if he’s feeling good because he’s not sick anymore or because he was finally able to get his roommate’s phone number earlier that morning.

*

“I have plans this weekend.” Jin said as he finished putting things inside his bag. “Your fever has gone down so you should be fine here alone.”

Taehyung nods, still in bed. It’s the weekend after all.

“If you need anything or if the fever comes back you can call your friends, they’re on the campus right? Have them take you to the clinic or hospital.” Jin picks up his leather weekender bag.

“Sunbae.” Taehyung calls. “Can I call you instead?”

Jin stops and turns to the freshman with a questioning look.

“You know…” Taehyung paused. “Just in case my friends aren’t around?”

Jin is hesitant at first, but then eventually decides, “Okay” heading to the door.

“Wait!” Taehyung calls. “But I don’t have your number.”

“Oh.” Jin realized, he puts his bag on the bed and walks to his desk to take a piece of paper and pen. He scribbles down his digits and places the paper on the opposite desk, Taehyung’s. “There.”

“Thank you.” Taehyung smiles.

Jin didn’t think much of it. He picks his bag up again and heads to the door. “I’m off.”

*

He thinks it’s the latter.

His smile suddenly disappeared when he realized something, making him sit up on the bed and his brows furrowed.

Why am I so happy about it?

Maybe because his other friends had exchanged numbers with their roommates the day they met in the dorm. Lana and Hayeon had talked about getting instantly close with their roommates despite having the . While Taehyung didn’t even see him for the first few days of being in the dorm. Though Hoseok is probably the same as him. Maybe it’s just different with girls and guys. He’s never lived with someone else other than family before so he wouldn’t know. But unlike the girls, him and Hoseok don't talk much about their roommates. Probably because they don’t know them enough to have anything to share. Though, Taehyung thinks, even if he’d have known things about his roommate he wouldn’t tell that to the others. He did remember how the girls were very enthusiastic when he told them who his roommate was after being asked for nth time. They couldn’t believe it’s ‘Seokjin sunbae from the istudies department’.

Taehyung’s smile is back on his face.

He just misunderstood the senior in his first few days in the dorm but seeing how the other took care of him when he got sick, guess he is lucky.

He’s happy having Jin as his roommate.

===

“What movie shall we go for?”

“Escape Room!” Seohyun enthusiastically suggested.

“I second that.” Minho said, referring to Seohyun’s answer.

She beams at him for having the same pick as her.

Seongwu who asked the question turns to Jin and Taeyeon who are in the concession stand ordering snacks and drinks. “What about you guys?”

They’re at the cinema to watch a movie all together.

Before either of them can answer, Yoongi comes back from the washroom.

“Why don’t we ask Yoongi?” Taeyeon suggested. “Since it’s his first time with us.”

For everyone else, it’s not.

They started doing 'movie and dinner' in their second year after getting acquainted as freshmen representatives of their classes in their first year. They usually do it in the first month of classes when they’re not yet as busy with academics and student council as the ‘start of the school year bonding’ thing. For the past three years, all of them had won the representative position in student council so the friendship continued despite their different courses. It will also take their minds off the student government, which occupied their minds for the past week especially Jin. He had been thinking about it before the school year even started.

“Which movie do you want to see?” Seongwu asked Yoongi.

“Uhm…” Yoongi scans the movie posters displayed on the monitors.

Everyone is waiting for Yoongi’s answer, including Jin.

Then suddenly Taeyeon realized she might’ve put Yoongi on the spot. That’s not very hospitable of her considering it’s his first time with them, he must be feeling overwhelmed by the rest of them sans Jin. It wasn’t her intention, she just wanted for him to have a say on the topic. “How about this, since game rooms are quite popular here these days, why don’t we go with Seo and Minho’s suggestion?” She turned to Jin and gave him a knowing smile.

Jin instantly gets her and nods. “I agree with her.”

“Escape Room it is.” Seongwu concludes, then walks toward the counter to get their tickets.

===

“Are you serious?” Seongwu asked. “You’re really going back?”

“If I have resources and have done sufficient research, yes. It’s a chance to take down the game master and stop killing more people.” Seohyun reasoned out.

Everyone settles on the table. Jin sat next to Taeyeon, and Yoongi chose the one next to Jin’s. While Seohyun, Minho and Seongwu sat opposite them, in that order.

“Is this why we chose this specific movie? So we can have discussions like this afterwards?” Jin leans on his side to whisper to Taeyeon while still maintaining his attention in front. They all came to this 5-star luxury hotel's fine dining restaurant after they finished the movie.

Taeyeon smiles as she also leans on the same side to whisper back to him. “We’ll have something to talk about during dinner other than student council. And..." She leans closer. "...same reason why I booked us a private room here so we don't end up disturbing the others with our highly important discussions." 

She emphasized that last part and it made Jin giggle because really, it's just their movie reviews.

“That would be wasting the other’s sacrifice because going back doesn’t guarantee you will succeed despite all the resources or get out alive for the second time.”

“True. But if no one stops those people, they will continue killing for game and later on fabricate stories about how those participants died.”

Seongwu and Seohyun continued.

“How about you Minho?” Seongwu asked.

“I’m with you.” Minho was direct with his answer. “If I’m one of the survivors, I wouldn’t go back. Those people, they’re strangers to me. I’ll move on and continue with my own life.”

“Wow.” Seongwu expressed surprised vocally.

The others were also interested by his answer, because aside from being smart and skilled, Minho is kindhearted.

“You see.” Minho continued. “I’ve just met those strangers that day. Losing them won’t affect me when I go back to my normal life. On the other hand, it would be a different story if you guys were the ones in the game with me.”

“Hmm~” The others hummed, now understanding his point of view.

“How about you guys?” Seongwu turns to Jin, Taeyeon and Yoongi this time.

Jin thought for a second. “It’s definitely a moral dilemma.” He hasn’t made up his mind yet.

“I don’t think I need to decide between going back and moving on, because I won’t be in that situation in the first place.” Taeyeon shared her honest opinion. “They weren’t forced. They all willingly went there. Even if I’m not as fortunate in life as I am now, $10,000 is an insufficient amount for me to risk my life over it.”

“She has a point.” Seongwu commented.

Seohyun and Minho also put some thoughts into it.

Jin nods in accordance. That is very Taeyeon-like. She’s the type of person that won’t let herself get into something she has no control of. An escape room managed by someone she doesn’t know will be the last thing she will ever do. She chooses her battles well. He then turns to Yoongi who’d been quietly listening this whole time. They usually enjoy conversations like this back when they were still roommates, though the topics are mostly about news and current events. “What do you think?” He asked Yoongi, thinking he fits right in with his friends. That was his intention for inviting his former roommate today, for him to be familiar with the others and get along with them so he would have an easy transition the moment he wins and joins them in the student council.

“About the movie or this fancy dinner?” Yoongi asked back. “No wonder you guys are dressed like that.” Referring to Jin, Seongwu and Minho’s smart casual attire and Taeyeon and Seohyun’s spring dresses compared to his street casual jeans and tee.

“What’s wrong with your outfit?” Jin is half asking and half teasing. “It’s classic.”

“Nothing.” Yoongi replied. “But I could’ve thrown in a coat or something if you specified and not just ‘movie and dinner’.”

Jin laughs this time.

===

After changing into their sleep wear, Jin and Seongwu lounges in the living room. They agreed beforehand on sleeping over at Taeyeon’s after their dinner because her place is located right downtown. Seohyun and Minho had gone back to the student apartment, which is much closer to downtown than the campus dorms, and Yoongi had gone home.

Jin also thinks this is a good way to kill the time waiting for the election results, the three of them together.

The election happened yesterday and the results will be out tomorrow morning, Sunday, with the induction program following the next day, Monday. 

“So, what would you have done?”

“Huh?”

“You never answered earlier.”

“Oh about the movie?” Jin asked and Seongwu nodded. Seongwu is the curious one. He’s smart, playful and easygoing, but at times very curious. “Well, I’m still undecided… though I will probably go back just like Seohyun.”

Seongwu nods slowly. “That’s kinda you.”

“What does that mean?” Jin asked, being the curious one this time.

“You know, like, you can’t just move on and act like nothing happened.”

“Yeah.” Jin agreed. “I guess.”

“You and Seohyun are the types that would follow the rules till the end. Then if you survive, would then find justice for the others. While Minho and I are the ones on fight or flight mode or both, survive then move on. Though we differ on reasoning, Minho thinks survival for the second time is impossible and shouldn’t waste the other’s sacrifice while me, I'm just legit scared to even step into another escape room.” Seongwu admits making Jin laugh heartily. He then turns to Taeyeon who comes to join them in the living room carrying a bucket of ice cream with three spoons from the kitchen. “She on the other hand, I think is gonna follow the rules at first, study it, perfect it, then eventually finds a loophole or something and then succeeds in the end.”

She smirked.

Seongwu looked at her suspiciously. “I think you’ll even offer something to the game master like a deal of sorts and have it your way in the end.”

Jin couldn’t help but chuckle. “You’re taking this way too seriously Seongwu-ya.”

“Ugh, being friends with Seohyun... she’s so passionate about everything, even on movie reviews, it's rubbing off on me.”

“We’re all smart, if all six of us are put in that room, we’ll find a way to survive and take down the game master.” She sounded confident. “We just have to trust each other unlike the players in the movie.”

“I trust you!” Seongwu immediately responds as if it’s a life and death situation making Jin laugh again.

They spent the rest of the night enjoying the ice cream while watching a home movie.

===

Taehyung is walking back and forth in their room, holding his phone, contemplating whether to call him or not.

Or maybe just send a message?

Jin didn’t specify when he’ll be back. It’s already Sunday afternoon and he still isn’t back in the dorm.

But then he didn’t want Jin to be annoyed by him or hear from the senior that he’s being nosy again. So he decided not to.

Or should I just send a short congratulatory message?

The result of the election was posted at the faculty bulletin this morning.

Jin won as the president of the international studies department.

Taehyung had known about the results because his classmate and friend Hoseok had also won as representative of the first year economics students. He was the one that informed Taehyung of the complete winners list.

That seems pretty innocuous right? He thought. Jin wouldn’t consider a simple message as invading his business, especially since it's school related. 

Thinking about it, Jin is actually a good senior. Even though Taehyung hasn’t been in the university for long, everyone else in the faculty seems to admire him not just because of his good looks, but him as a person. He also never heard anything negative about the senior from Lana and Hoseok, who seems to know everything that is going on in the campus. He is the smart and responsible ‘sunbae’ everyone is saying he is. He deserves this win.

For Taehyung personally, Jin might’ve seemed a little distant and intimidating to him at first but when he got sick, his roommate was there to scold him when he was being stubborn and take care of him when he needed it.

Taehyung decides to wait.

Jin might be back on campus later this evening.

Right then his phone buzzes. Hoseok had called earlier telling him he would treat him, Lana and Hayeon to dinner tonight as part of his celebration for winning. Agreeing that they'll go together, but now, his text says the three of them should go first and he’ll catch up later because he has to go to the student council for a briefing. Taehyung is fine with that, but then he realized...

Seokjin sunbae would be at the student council too.

===

“I think it’s unanimous” Seohyun said. “We all know who the foundation of the student council is.”

“Yeah, Jin spends more time here than anyone else.” Minho agreed. “Even more than our seniors from before.”

“And Taeyeon would be the best vice for him.” Seohyun suggests.

“It’s our senior year too, they are the perfect pair to lead our student council this year.” Seongwu said. “Besides, they’re always together so that’ll make a lot of things easier. They can make things happen.”

Jin and Taeyeon, who are sitting side by side, look at each other and smile.

All six of them won as presidents of their respective departments. After knowing the results, Jin called for this emergency meeting so they can prepare for the induction program that is scheduled first thing tomorrow. They also have to elect the overall faculty office