Note: This is the second part of a double update. Please be sure to read Chapter 4.

Moving forward, I intend to update at least once a week. When I get ahead on writing (if I’m able to get ahead on writing), there will be updates more frequently each week. Any and all feedback is welcome. If you’re feeling the story, if you’re not feeling the story, if you have any questions, let me know. Comments are always appreciated!

“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Hyejinnie! Happy birthday to you.” Clown #1 and Clown #2 made sure to maintain eye contact with each other while harmonizing the last note.

Hyejin had looked on adoringly as her best friends serenaded her. She was in the middle of placing meat into when they had finished their song. In order to promptly acknowledge their effort, the black-haired beauty needed to free her hands. She quickly chewed and swallowed her food before sticking the chopsticks she held into . “Ohhhhhhhh” she exclaimed, enthusiastically clapping. Grabbing the sticks from , she continued, “That was actually decent.”

A proud smirk on her face, Wheein returned to the seat next to her other half and took a shot of soju. Moonbyul had already been seated across from the two younger girls. She took it upon herself to respond to Hyejin’s compliment. “Of course it was. Wheein is good at everything she does, and I’m me.” At that, she winked at Hyejin. It was meant for the youngest of the three, but both Hyejin and Wheein cringed out loud at Moonbyul’s actions.

“Ew! Unnie, stop! That’s gross,” Hyejin pleaded. Wheein gasped, both hands covering that hung open in faux shock.

“Don’t you both think your reactions are too harsh? I was joking. And you, Wheein,” she pointed at the short-haired girl, “you used to like all of these ‘gross’ actions.”

“I liked your greasiness for literally seven seconds and then I came to my senses.”

“Wow. Can’t trust anyone these days.” She tried to play it off, but the soon-to-be second-years could tell that Moonbyul felt a way about their teasing.

“Aww, unnie, don’t be like that,” Hyejin reached across the table to caress the blonde’s face. “You know we love you. We’re just joking.”

“Whatever.”

“It’s my birthday, don’t be sour.”

“Your birthday was on Tuesday. It’s Friday.”

“Jung Wheein! See what you did?” Hyejin turned to her right and slapped Wheein’s left shoulder. “You ruined my birthday celebration by making unnie sad.”

Rubbing her tender shoulder, Wheein got up and walked around the table to sit next to Moonbyul who was purposely avoiding acknowledging the younger. “Unnie. Don’t be like this. You know Wheeinie wuvs you.” She wrapped her arms around Moonbyul’s neck, continuing with her aegyo. It was Byul’s weakness. It was everyone’s weakness. Wheein knew this.

A smile reluctantly grew on Moonbyul’s face.

“Yay! It worked, Wheein! She’s happy again. Let’s all take a shot!”

Jung Wheein and Ahn Hyejin had been the talk of the town since they arrived at Seoul National University last year. The childhood best friends stepped on campus with a decade-long friendship under their belts. Their bond was something that made everyone else around them envious, not only because their level of connection was something that few could relate to, but also because their friendship left them with no interest in making new friends. The list of students seeking ways to get closer to the Jeonju girls was endless. Although their courses of study led to them making acquaintances, Wheein and Hyejin were each other’s lifelines and took care to not stray away from that. That was the plan, until Moon Byulyi showed up.

Technically, they showed up at Moonbyul’s door. Literally.

Even though it was Byulyi’s first year at Seoul National University, academically, she was a second-year student. To help her get acclimated to campus, and to ensure she could ease seamlessly into summer training with the women’s basketball team, the coaches had secured her a summer job with the Office of Residential Life. The office had an array of summer programming to account for. From pre-college programs to SNU students taking summer classes and living in dorms, Residential Life was responsible for employing Residential Advisors that would support every student living on campus. This was how Moonbyul’s world collided with that of Wheein and Hyejin.

The two had enrolled in a pre-college program at SNU. Like Moonbyul, they wanted to get a lay of the land before classes had officially begun. As first-year students, they knew that there would be a new student orientation a week before classes started, but that was not enough time for these two. They wanted to know the campus and the neighborhood surrounding it inside out. For the most part, they were self‑sufficient; when they wanted to explore, they explored. When they needed something, they went out and found it. One day, though, they found themselves without anything to do.

Summers in Korea were no joke. At normal temperatures, the two best friends knew no such thing as personal space. If it were about ten degrees cooler, they’d be sharing a bed, watching a movie on one of their laptops. It wasn’t ten degrees cooler, though. It was hot. And humid. The type of humidity where one left the shower, walked to the bedroom, and needed to shower again from the stickiness that clung to the body. There was an issue with their central air that wouldn’t be fixed until the next day, and the fans strategically placed throughout their room did nothing but blow hot air about the place. It was miserable.

Wheein and Hyejin were in their dorm room, lounging on their respective beds, suffering. It was Friday, the end of their first week at their pre-college program and their first day off. No classes, no mandated social activities, nothing. They had had high hopes for the day until the day actually arrived and the heat wave vaporized any desire to do anything.

“Wheein-ah,” Hyejin croaked. “Let’s do something.” Wheein was face down on her bed across the room. She made no move to acknowledge what Hyejin had just said. “Wheein-ah! Answer me.” Silence. Hyejin groaned as she reluctantly rolled off of her bed to approach her bestie. Wheein was making her expend more energy than was needed on this illegally hot day. She’d pay dearly for that. “I said,” Hyejin spoke louder as she walked towards Wheein, “let’s do something!” She threw herself onto Wheein’s back, making sure to wrap her arms and legs around her for added effect.

“Yah! Hyejin! It’s too hot for that. Get off of me!”

“No. This is what you get for ignoring me. You know I don’t like that.”

“Hyejin, I’m serious. Get off of me.” Wheein was serious, pissed actually, but Hyejin still kept at it.

“No. Let’s do something. Please? Pretty please?” She started kissing Wheein’s neck. “Please, Wheeinie?” Again, if it were a tolerable temperature, Wheein would laugh this off, but it wasn’t a tolerable temperature.

“Hyejin, seriously, let me go. Get off of me. I’m not joking. It’s too hot for this. Let me gooooooo,” she whined. “I feel like screaming right now. This is too much. It’s too much, Hyejin-ah.” Taking pity on her best friend, Hyejin slowly removed herself from Wheein’s back, but made sure to lay right next to her. Mirroring her annoyed friend’s positioning, Hyejin stayed on her stomach and stared at Wheein, who stared back.

“Let’s do something,” she whispered. Wheein rolled her eyes but responded anyway.

“What do you want to do?” Hyejin hadn’t thought things out this far. Truthfully, she thought it would have taken longer to get Wheein to agree to anything.

“Uhhhhhhh . . .”

“You did all of that and don’t even know what you want to do? Get away from me!”

Clinging to Wheein, who was actively trying to push her off the bed, Hyejin quickly answered, “No, no! Let’s go to the RA’s open hours! There’s supposed to be free food.” At that, Wheein relaxed.

“Open hours?”

“Yeah. I saw a sign in the dorm’s lobby saying that there are supposed to be open hours today. I don’t really know what that means, but it said free food. That can’t be bad, right?”

“How long are the open hours supposed to be?” They were both wearing oversized t-shirts. No bras. “We can’t go like this. We’d have to shower and look presentable.”

“Hold on. I took a picture of the sign.” Moments later, Hyejin returned to Wheein’s bed, this time sitting on the edge. “It says 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm.” They both checked the time. 12:53 pm. “Perfect. We have more than enough time to shower and get dressed.”

“Where is it taking place?” Wheein asked, sitting up for the first time all day.

“Room 419. I guess the RA is doing it in their room. Let me see. The paper says Moon Byulyi. That’s the Residential Advisor’s name.”

“Whatever. Go shower first.”

One thing that these two didn’t play with was food. At 2:00 pm on the dot, they were outside of room 419.

“What do we do?” Wheein asked?

“I don’t know. Knock.”

“You knock. It was your idea.”

“Fine.” As Hyejin lifted her hand to knock on the door, it opened. In front of them stood a tall blonde woman wearing a black cap. Well, tall to them seeing as, other than children, they were shorter than almost everyone they met. Her fitted navy blue training shorts ended right above her knees. The white Nike Elite crew socks on her feet stopped mid-shin, revealing toned calves. The dark grey t-shirt she wore showed off her relatively broad shoulders. She was slim, but her body was toned. Everything about her screamed ‘athlete’. The three of them stared at each for a few seconds before Hyejin spoke up in a demure voice.

“We’re here for food.” The girl’s responding smile was beautiful. Her entire face lit up, eyes and nose scrunching.

“Cool! I wasn’t sure if anyone was actually going to come to this, but I’m glad you two did! I’m Moon Byulyi, the RA of this building this summer. You can call me Moonbyul, though. Oh, I should invite you in. Come in! I have air conditioning.” She moved aside making space for her new acquaintances to enter her room. “Make yourselves comfortable. There’s lots of pizza and chicken on the table there; help yourselves to as much of it as you’d like. I doubt many others are going to stop by. I did a crappy job of promoting this event.” Hyejin didn’t have to be told twice. Making a beeline for the food, she pulled Wheein—who hadn’t yet uttered one word—with her.

Moonbyul had left the room for a bit. Hyejin took the opportunity to address Wheein’s strange behavior. “What’s wrong with you?” She whispered. “You haven’t said anything yet, just stared at her.”

“She’s cute.” Wheein answered, looking everywhere but at Hyejin, embarrassment taking over her body.

“Ohhhh, Jung Wheein has a crush!”

“Shut up!” She smacked Hyejin on the shoulder.

“Jung Wheein has a crush on our RA!” Hyejin continued teasing, making sure to keep her voice down. “That’s cute.” Moonbyul returned to the room in that moment.

“Sorry about that. I didn’t want to keep the door open since the air is on, but I wanted to let other people know that open hours were going on, so I made this sign to put on my door, but then I realized I didn’t have tape. Had to go down to the office on the first floor to borrow some. Then I ran into a few other residents, but that was great because I got to tell them about open hours; they had no idea this was happening, but now they do, so hopefully they actually come like they said they would. Oh! That would be cool for you two. You’d get to mingle with others that are a part of this program. How cool would that be?” As Moonbyul rambled on and on, Hyejin ate to her heart’s content, nodding here and there to signal that she was listening despite her eating. Wheein just continued to stare. “Whoa, I’m so rude. Didn’t even ask for your names.” She playfully slapped herself on the head.

“I’m Hyejin,” the youngest announced. Pointing her chopsticks at Wheein she said, “That’s Wheein. We’re in this pre-college program to get used to this campus because we’re enrolling at SNU this year.”

“Whoa! That’s why I’m working as an RA here. I start at SNU in the fall, too!”

“You’re a first-year student?” Hyejin was shocked. The girl seemed older.

“I’m a transfer. It’s a long story, but I was at a junior college last year, so I’m coming into SNU as a second-year student. I’m part of the women’s basketball team.”

“That explains the outfit. It gives off athletic vibes.”

“Happy to hear it. Would either of you like something to drink?” Walking over to the mini fridge in the corner of her room, Moonbyul listed off the options, “I have cider, cola, and water.”

“Two waters, please.” Once again, Hyejin answered for both her and Wheein.

“Here you go.” Turning to Wheein, Moonbyul asked, “Are you okay? Is there anything I can do to make you feel more comfortable? You’ve been pretty quiet.”

“No, you’re fine. I’m okay. Thank you.” Her shy response made Moonbyul smile.

“Cute.” Wheein’s face blushed red, unbeknownst to Moonbyul, who had already turned to go get some food of her own.

The residents that Moonbyul ran into earlier did eventually stop by, not for long. It ended up mainly being Moonbyul, Hyejin, and Wheein. 4:00 pm came and went. Wheein grew more comfortable, and the trio stayed together until 9:00 pm. They played music, they ordered more food, they talked about any and everything.

“So . . . I’m on the basketball team, but other than my teammates, I don’t really know anyone here.” Byul was nervous. “You two are new, I’m new, I don’t know, maybe we could all hang out some more?” The two were clearly very close, but Moonbyul had enjoyed her time with them and was hoping they’d be willing to make space for her in their friend group. From the conversations they had with Moonbyul today, Wheein and Hyejin had gathered that she was a big-time athlete. Watching her so unsure about asking them to be friends was endearing.

“Only if you keep feeding us,” Hyejin teased, a sweet smile on her face. Moonbyul also smiled. She had made her first friends at SNU.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Wheein’s crush on Moonbyul quickly died, and the friendship among the three grew organically to the point that they became a well-known trio on campus. They were inseparable, so much so that now, almost a year later, Wheein and Hyejin made the trek from Jeonju to Seoul just so that all three could celebrate Hyejin’s 20^th birthday together. Both spent their summer break back in their hometown, but decided to spend this weekend with Moonbyul. A birthday celebration without their unnie would have been incomplete.

The three had been in this barbecue restaurant for a couple hours already, laughing, drinking, enjoying each other’s company. “I can’t wait for this school year,” Wheein stated.

“Oh goodness, Wheein is talking nonsense,” the birthday girl slightly slurred. “Who wants more school? Silly girl!” She laughed at her non-joke.

“Okay, that’s enough alcohol for you.” Moonbyul grabbed the shot of soju that Hyejin was about to swallow.

“I’m not drunk, unnie! I promise. Pinky.”

“She’s drunk,” both Wheein and Moonbyul responded at the same time.

“Here, eat more food, Hyejinnie,” Wheein said, filling Hyejin’s plate with more meat and vegetables. “Unnie, what are you looking forward to this year?” She asked Byul.

“Basketball. I didn’t like how our season ended.”

“Well, yeah, your team lost in the championship game. I don’t think anyone would like that.”

“We could have played better. Should have played better. I worked hard during the off-season to improve.”

“Unnie, you were amazing the entire season, breaking all kinds of school records.”

“Well, that clearly wasn’t enough.” Wheein hated it when Moonbyul got down on herself for things that were beyond her control. She had done the best she could do.

“Improvement is always great, but make sure not to push yourself too much. Make time for some fun, too, unnie.”

“According to some people, all I do is have fun.” Wheein sighed. Alcohol made Hyejin flirty and emotional and made Moonbyul angsty and dramatic.

“Who said that?”

“Heeyeon. She said last week that people think I’m a player.”

“You can play with me, unnie,” Hyejin chimed in, a fit of giggles starting right after.

“Hyejin-ah! I’m cutting you off. Water only for the rest of the night.”

“Wheein-ah, why?” She pouted. “I was joking. Byul-unnie, you know I was joking, right?” Moonbyul couldn’t stay sour while Hyejin was being so adorable.

“You’re so cute, Hyejinnie.” That lifted the baby’s spirits. Satisfied, she went back to eating her food.

“Back to you,” Wheein redirected the conversation, “you’re not a player. Heeyeon-unnie was probably just messing around with you. You’re not built to be a player.”

“I know I should be happy to hear you say that, but I’m suddenly slightly offended that you don’t think I could be a player.”

“You’re not capable of being a player,” Hyejin asserted. “You’re too soft.”

“Soft?!”

“You are, unnie,” Wheein confirmed. “You care too much to be a player. You’re definitely a heartbreaker, though!”

“Oh, yes! Heartbreaker for sure!”

“Hyejin-ah, you’re too loud. Lower your voice.”

“Oh. Sorry,” the youngest whispered.

“Wait,” Moonbyul was back at it, “what’s the difference between a player and a heartbreaker?” Hyejin took it upon herself to answer.

“A player chooses to be that way. They pursue multiple people with no intention of committing to any of them, but a heartbreaker . . . breaks . . . hearts,” she finished off weakly.

Lovingly shaking her head at her best friend, Wheein commented, “You were doing so well, Hyejin-ah.” She patted Hyejin’s head. “A heartbreaker doesn’t necessarily intentionally play with people’s feelings. Like with you, you don’t mess with girls’ emotions on purpose. It kind of just happens. You’re sweet.”

“And funny! And attractive!”

“And talented, and well-mannered, and kind.”

“And considerate.”

“Aww, you two really do love me,” Moonbyul answered sarcastically.

“But you flirt too much sometimes,” Wheein ignored Moonbyul’s joke and continued seriously. “All of that messes with girls, because you’re really good to them, so they catch feelings and most of the time you don’t realize that everything you’re doing makes them fall for you more and more.”

“And then they make a move on you and you never expect it, which is weird, unnie. Everyone around you can tell that these girls like you, but you never see it.”

“What if they’re just being nice? I don’t want to assume that everyone has a huge crush on me.”

“Maybe it’s best if you assume that from now on. It will save you some headaches.”

“Wheeinie, remember that girl that invited her over ‘to watch a movie’ and then she came back surprised that that girl kissed her?” Wheein and Hyejin laughed out loud remembering this, much to Moonbyul’s displeasure.

“Was I supposed to know that ‘watching a movie’ was code for something else? We were partners for a class project and she never made moves on me. Why would I think she had ulterior motives?”

“She kept asking you to eat with her, even after the project ended,” Wheein laughed in disbelief. “You’re very naïve sometimes, unnie.”

“Nothing’s worse, though, than when a girl makes a move on her and instead of rejecting them, she goes along with it ‘to not make them feel bad.’”

“No one likes being rejected!” Moonbyul exclaimed.

“Well, they’re going to get rejected by you anyway because you don’t like most of them like that,” Wheein countered.

“How do you always fall into these situations, Byul-unnie? It happens so often. I would have thought you’d have learned your lesson by now. You’re lucky that none of this happens in public.”

“Yeah. People know you like girls and they assume that you hook up with some, but the only girls they see you around are your teammates, me, and Hyejin, so they can never link you to anyone specific.”

“Except those soccer girls!” Hyejin added.

“Oh my goodness. Please, can we not talk about them? That was so embarrassing. I actually liked the two of them.” Shame flooded Moonbyul.

“We know,” Wheein laughed, “you were sleeping with both of them.”

“How did you manage that, unnie? You’re usually too timid to make a move when it comes to girls you like.”

“Each of them made the move, not me. I just went along with it because I actually liked them.”

“The soccer team must have special girls on it. You’re normally so picky when it comes to who you like, you find the smallest reasons to not like someone anymore, but you found two girls on the same team that you liked around the same time,” Wheein thought out loud.

“Okay! Thank you. My original question was answered. I’m not a player and people don’t think of me as one.”

“Yes, we concluded that you’re not a player, but you’re a heartbreaker and unbelievably naïve!” Wheein and Moonbyul bickered for a few more moments before Hyejin cut them off.

“I love you both so much. You make me so happy. Let’s be together forever, okay! A shot! Let’s take a shot!”

Byul and Wheein burst out laughing at Hyejin’s antics. “You’re so drunk, Hyejinnie,” Moonbyul cooed. “Wheein, you’re going to have to watch her in the morning because I have to leave for practice.”

“I knew this was going to happen, unnie! You kept feeding her drinks and I told you to stop!”

“It’s her birthday celebration! She has to drink.”

“I hope she throws up on your bed tonight.”

“Yah, Jung Wheein, take that back!”

“No!”

“Okay, fine. Find somewhere else to store your belongings. When I move into my apartment at University Village next week, I’ll leave your things behind.”

“You wouldn’t!”

“Try me.”

“Fine. I take it back. I don’t hope she throws up on your bed.” At that, a satisfied smile made a home on Moonbyul’s face. “I hope she throws up on you instead.” Her smile dropped. There was no winning with Jung Wheein.

The three stayed in the restaurant for a couple more hours, bickering, eating, teasing each other. They didn’t know what the upcoming school year would bring, but as long as they had each other, they’d be more than fine.