"Trust me! You'll love it here!"

 

"Yeah! I'm actually pretty excited!" jinhwan held his phone between his ear and shoulder. His hands were occupied with a big box full of books and stationary as he talked to his best friend, bobby. 

 

They had been close friends since high school. But after graduating, each of them had gone to a different university. 

 

 jinhwan actually wanted to go to the same university as bobby, since it offered the major he wanted, and it was a good choice. The only problem was, it was too far away from his current apartment and the dorms were too expensive, but now with the shared apartment bobby found, it was enticing to move. So that was what Jinhwan did.

"There are a lot of restaurants here, and they're all near our apartment. There's also thi-" bobby was cut off by a thud and a groan on the other side of the line. 

 

"Sh**!" Jinhwan said under his breath.

 

"You dropped something, didn't you?" Bobby said blankly.

 

"Aghh!! Let me call you later!" Jinhwan held his phone with his hand, kneeling down to pick up his things from the floor. "I'm kind of busy here"

 

"Fine! I'll see you tomorrow, then" 

 

"Yeah" jinhwan quickly hung up and began putting his things back into the box.

 

—————

 

"Thanks for the lift!" Jinhwan got out of the car with the last box.

 

"No problem!" The guy giving jinhwan a lift got back into the car, and opened the window. "Are you sure you don't need help getting them inside?"

 

"I'm sure” Jinhwan politely declined the offer. He’d already burdened his neighbour enough by asking him for a lift. “Thanks again!”

 

And with that, his neighbor drove off, leaving jinhwan standing in front of an apartment. A few boxes stacked next to his feet.

 

Jinhwan got his phone out to make sure it was the same address bobby had given him. Maybe i should've made sure before i let my neighbor go... he thought to himself. Sometimes he was just too awkward for his own good.

 

Just as he was about to press on bobby’s number, he saw something from the corner of his eyes charging at him.

 

"why is there a horse running towards me?!" was his last thought before he was knocked down to the ground.

 

Jinhwan had his eyes closed tight after the collision when he felt something wet on his face. Something was him. He put his hands up to stop whatever it was, and peeked through his fingers.

 

Standing over him was...a huge dog. A great dane to be exact.

 

Jinhwan just stared at it, not moving a muscle. He loved dogs, but huge ones scared him a little bit.

 

"Sh**! Are you okay?!"

 

Jinhwan glanced up where a tall male with black hair was struggling to get the dog away.

 

"Dante! Move!" The tall male finally managed to move the dog away from jinhwan. "Sorry about him, he just gets crazy and hyper sometimes. Don’t worry he doesn’t bite though” he added upon jinhwan’s uncomfortable expression.

 

Jinhwan only gave an awkward smile as he got up.

 

"Anyways, you okay?"

 

"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it!" jinhwan assured him.

 

"Sorry again" the guy repeated, the dog already dragging him away.

 

Jinhwan just looked at them, only thinking about how scarily huge and strong the dog was. "This is why I don't like big dogs" he sighed and turned his attention back to the apartment and finally gave bobby a call to ask for help in getting the boxes up. 

 

The phone rang a few times as he inspected his elbow.

 

"What's up!" Bobby picked up after a few rings.

 

"Hey! I'm already here" Jinhwan frowned at his scratched up elbow. He hadn’t noticed the stinging until now.

 

"Hmm.." bobby seemed distracted by something.

 

"I'm in front of the apartment. Come help me with the boxes"

 

"I'm busy right now"

 

Jinhwan could hear gunshots and people shouting in the background. He rolled his eyes. "And by busy, you mean playing video games"

 

"I'm in the middle of a very important game" some more gunshots could be heard. "You only have a few boxes, just cram them in the elevator. You don't even have to carry them up the stairs"

 

Jinhwan was already sliding the boxes inside with his foot.

 

"Oh! And just ring the doorbell. I'm sure one of the guys will open the door fo-DIEEE!!! I'm gonna kill you!" That was the last thing jinhwan heard before the phone hung up.

 

Jinhwan puffed some air out of his mouth. "Whatever" he stuffed his phone inside his pocket, and picked up one of the boxes, placing it in front of the elevator.

 

—————

 

*Ding dong!*

 

Jinhwan stood at the door, a bag slung on his shoulder, a cactus in his hand, and three boxes surrounding him.

 

He looked around inspecting the staircase, getting a little nervous to meet his new roommates when the door swung open. A guy with caramel brown hair-slightly darker than jinhwan's-stood there. He glanced down at the boxes before returning his gaze back at Jinhwan.

 

"Oh! You must be the new guy, right?" He grinned.

 

"Y-yeah" jinhwan returned the grin.

 

"Come in, I'll help you with those" the guy immediately went and picked up a box. "I'm donghyuk, by the way"

 

"Oh, I'm... I'm jinhwan" the shorter male finally stepped inside with another box in his arms.

 

"I’ll show you to your room so you can put your things inside" donghyuk lead the way, jinhwan following close behind.

 

It was a pretty good sized apartment for the rent he was paying. Bobby must have been really lucky to find it.

 

"You'll be sharing with bobby. I'm sure he already told you" donghyuk informed as he lowered the box in front of a door.

 

"Yeah" jinhwan nodded, even though the latter couldn't see him.

 

"I’ll go get the other box" 

 

"No, it's fine! I can get it myself!" Jinhwan almost stumbled on the two boxes around him. But donghyuk was already on his way. "I-Thanks!" He shouted behind him.

 

One of Jinhwan’s worries about getting a shared apartment had been difficult roommates, but seeing how friendly Donhyuk seemed slightly put his mind at ease.

 

He could already hear bobby yelling at his computer from the other side of the door, and was sure bobby wouldn't be able to hear him knocking but he did anyways before turning the knob.

 

Bobby’s face was glued to the computer screen, not even sparing Jinhwan a glance as he entered the room.

 

"Nice to see you, too" jinhwan mumbled, dragging his stuff inside.

 

There were two beds behind the computer desk, and it was pretty easy telling which bed was his since one of them had piles of clothes and random items scattered across while the other only had a few shirts on it.

 

Tossing the few clothes over at the messier side, Jinhwan sat down on what he assumed to be his bed.

"Hey" bobby said absentmindedly, finally deciding to acknowledge jinhwan’s existence despite keeping his attention on the game.

 

Donghyuk entered the room with the box in his hand. "Where should i put this?"

 

"Oh! I can take it" Jinhwan hurried over to take the box from him. "Thanks!"

 

Donghyuk simply nodded and smiled at him, turning to Jinhwan just before leaving. "You want me to show you around the house, or..."

 

"Umm.." He glanced at bobby, who was still busy playing. "I'll just wait for him to finish. But thanks" jinhwan didnt want to bother donghyuk anymore.

 

"Sure! If you need anything, i'll be in my room. The one next to yours"

 

Jinhwan smiled and nodded at him.

 

Bobby’s game didn’t seem to be ending anytime soon, so jinhwan sat on the floor and started unpacking his things

 

—————

 

"Jinhwaaan" bobby came up from behind him, and ruffled his hair.

 

"Finally" jinhwan snorted.

 

Bobby chuckled, putting his hands in his pockets. "So, what do you think?"

 

Jinhwan raised an eyebrow. "Of?"

 

"The apartment!" Bobby playfully pushed jinhwans head.

 

Jinhwan fixed his hair. "I haven't looked around yet, but it looks nice. It's actually pretty big for only four people, and for the price we're paying... How did you find it?"

 

"My friend lives here too. You remember hanbin? I told you about him before" bobby made his way to his bed and just laid on top of all the clothes.

 

"Yeah.. I remember him" jinhwan was eyeing bobby, mentally judging him. How could he be so messy?

 

"and about the rent, it's divided between the seven of us" he said so nonchalantly, looking at the ceiling.

 

"Wait, you mean there's five more people?" Jinhwan stopped what he was doing, giving his full attention to bobby. "I thought you said there were only a couple more people other than us" 

 

"Does it really matter? It's just a few more people. What matters is that the rent is affordable"

 

Jinhwan groaned. He wasn't exactly the sociable type to begin with. He was already worried about being with two other people, and now he had to live with five more people. Just great.

 

"You could’ve told me” he complained. “At least I would’ve prepared myself or someth-“

 

"Stop being such a coward” bobby sighed. “It's just a few more people. Don't make it into such a big deal” he clicked his tongue.

 

Jinhwan looked down at his hands. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one with zero social skills" he thought.

 

"look," bobby sat up on his bed. "All I'm saying is that the more people there are, the cheaper it is per person. I also really wanted you to stay here with me, and i was sure you wouldn't want to if you knew how many people were actually staying here"

 

Jinhwan glanced at him, starting to feel guilty about complaining.

 

"Plus" bobby continued. "Wasn't this university your first choice? you know how much trouble i went through before i could find this apartment? it's really close to our campus. The location is great. You just... have to share it with more people"

 

“...Yeah” Jinhwan bit the inside of his cheek before finally nodding, not wanting to seem ungrateful. “You’re right, I’m...I’m sorry”

 

“It’s fine. Forget about it" bobby shook his head, getting up from his bed when he noticed the scratch on the latter’s elbow. "What's with your elbow?" 

 

"Oh, yeah" jinhwan had already forgotten about the scratch. "a dog ran at me and tackled me to the ground before i got here”

 

"You were attacked by a dog?" Bobby chuckled.

 

"It was huge! I thought it was a horse at first!" Jinhwan exclaimed.

 

Bobby burst out laughing. "A horse?! How big is the do-Actually..." bobby his chin. "i can see why it would look like a horse next to you. No offense" he said, as a matter-of-factly.

 

Jinhwan‘s expression fell into a glare. He hated when people called him short, or even just implied it.

 

Bobby just shrugged. "speaking of dogs, one of the guys here also has one"

 

“Really?!” Jinhwan’s glare was quickly replaced with a grin. Having a cute pet around the house sounded really nice.

 

"well, he's just temporarily taking care of it for a few days, but, yeah"