“You lied to me,” Heeyeon huffed, barely able to get the words out, “You said this was going to be a light workout. This isn’t light.”

Focused on setting up the cones for the next drill, Moonbyul took a few seconds to address her dramatic friend. “This is very light. It’s not even like we’re doing much running, it’s been almost all shooting drills, Heeyeon.”

“Byul, this is hard.”

The senior had originally planned to sleep in this Saturday morning, but instead found herself on the court at 9:00 am. An overzealous Moonbyul had woken her up after rudely barging into her room.

“Han. Wake up!”

“Byul, go away.” Heeyeon pulled her covers further over her head.

“Come work out with me.”

“Absolutely not.” Despite the sleep in her voice, the slightly elder athlete was resolute in her rejection of Moonbyul’s proposition.

“It won’t even be long. An hour and a half maximum. I promise.”

“Byul, it’s the Saturday before classes begin. Let me rest before the chaos starts.”

“Exactly. Let’s get a quick skill session in before everything is about fitness and executing plays. It’ll be fun.”

She’s not sure how it happened, but she had been coaxed out of the apartment. There were many great things about being roommates with Moonbyul. Being dragged along to her masochistic workouts was not one of them. Reluctantly lifting herself from the scorer’s table at midcourt of the sideline, Heeyeon trudged over to the baseline where Moonbyul stood, ready to move on to the next activity.

“We’re almost done, Han. I promise. We have this ball-handling and shooting drill, a few shuttle runs, then we’ll finish up with free throws and,” checking her watch, she proudly added, “we should be out of here by 10:15 am.” Byulyi was beaming.

“How can you be smiling about any of this? That’s sick. You’re sick.”

“Come on. It could have been much worse. I toned everything down. Was originally going to do more.”

“By all means, don’t let me drag you down. Do your thing.” Heeyeon enthusiastically headed for the team seats on the sideline.

Quickly grabbing the senior’s wrist, Moonbyul stopped her roommate. “Oh, no. You’re not getting out of this that easy. We’re seriously almost done.”

After throwing a mini-tantrum, Heeyeon conceded, “Fine. What are we doing?”

“This one is fun. The court is split vertically in half. On the right half, we’re dribbling two balls, zig-zagging to each cone. First, it’s alternating dribbling both till you hit the first cone, then dribbling both at the same time until the second cone. Turn and go backwards, alternating dribbling both balls to the third cone, then backwards, both balls at the same time to the last cone on the other baseline. Drop one ball and come back on the left side. Three cones spaced out. Dribble to the first cone, ball through both legs, hit a crossover at the cone, explode out to the second cone, hesitation, explode. When approaching the last cone at free-throw line extended, pass the ball to me on the baseline, swim move, hard v-cut, I’ll pass it out. Turn and face, I’ll play soft defense. Make whatever move you want to get past me, get into the paint and score however you want, then I’ll go. Got it?”

It took her about ten seconds to answer, but Heeyeon finally did. “Is it crack? Is that what you smoke? It’s crack, right?” They both burst into laughter at that before Byul restored order.

“I’ll go first. You’ll see that it’s really not that bad. We’ll take turns going. Five times this way, then we’ll turn around and do five the other way. It’ll go by so quickly, I’m telling you.”

Heeyeon wanted to cry. She needed to start locking her bedroom door.

*

As promised, they were done with their session by 10:15 am.

“Told you the workout wouldn’t take too long. And it wasn’t that bad, right?” Moonbyul asked, lounging on the locker room couch.

Heeyeon enclosed a fisted hand in her left, exaggeratedly bowing while responding, “Moonbyul-ssi, it has been a pleasure knowing you. We can go our separate ways in life now.”

“Oh my goodness, why are you so dramatic?”

“Workouts like that are the reason you’re Moon Byulyi, highly sought after basketball prodigy. You can continue doing your over-the-top trainings and getting invited to national team camps, let me live my regular college-athlete life. Please and thank you.”

“That makes no sense. You get invited to national team camps, too!” Moonbyul scoffed.

About ten minutes later, they had settled their bickering and were both packed up, ready to leave.

“So . . . food?” Moonbyul asked expectantly.

“You have some nerve. The only food I’m looking forward to is the food you hand-deliver to me as I recover on our couch at home. You know what I like. Make it good.”

At that, Heeyeon parted ways with the icy blonde, heading back to their apartment. Checking her watch, Moonbyul saw that it was 11:00 am. It had taken them a little longer than usual to wash up in the locker room, and she knew that Heeyeon was serious about having food brought to her. Byul had to find food quickly.

Gone was the tranquil campus of summer. Now, with classes beginning in two days’ time, students and families populated every walkway in swarms. Local eateries would be too crowded. She’d normally hit up the SNU Café after a training session, but that would definitely be too busy with as many visitors as the bookstore was undoubtedly welcoming. She wondered if this is how the students felt last year when she and other newbies invaded the campus. Either way, her best bet was SNU Commons, or as it was typically referred to, the Commons. It was a decently-sized dining hall about a fifteen-minute walk from University Village and seven from the athletic complex. The floors above housed second-year students, but compared to the other dorms and dining halls that SNU provided, it was one of the oldest. The food was good, staff was great, but students tended to prefer flashier, more recently renovated dining options, usually leaving the Commons less frequented by SNU students. All of these factors combined to make it one of Moonbyul’s favorite spots on campus. If it was as empty as she thought it would be, she could slide in and out in no time. Her phone chirped.

From: Hee-yawn

Update on my food? 11:10 am

To: Hee-yawn

You probably just got to the apartment. Relax. 11:10 am

From: Hee-yawn

I should’ve been relaxing all morning.

Instead, I was dying. All for your ungrateful .

You ain’t . 11:11 am

To: Hee-yawn

It’s 11:11! Make a wish. 11:11 am

I’m getting your food now. 11:11 am

Should be home in like 15 minutes. 11:12 am

From: Hee-yawn

*10 minutes. You’re jogging back. 11:13 am

Or speedwalking. Either is acceptable. 11:13 am

It’ll be a good cool down for you :) 11:14 am

To: Hee-yawn

-_-   11:14 am

From: Hee-yawn

Suffer, <3  11:15 am

To: Hee-yawn

Fair. I deserved that. 11:15 am

Yongsun’s first day of graduate school was underwhelming. It technically wasn’t even really her first day. She wasn’t yet sure how to feel about her class schedule, but was at least grateful that she didn’t have to participate in today’s madness. The way things shook out, Yongsun had one class on Tuesdays, and three on Wednesdays, the first starting at 9:00 am. Every class of hers was two hours and fifty minutes long so, yeah, Wednesdays were going to be rough. Focusing on the positives though, she reminded herself that she had no classes five days of the week. That wasn’t too shabby.

While she had no classes of her own on Mondays, the way her financial aid package was set up, there were still responsibilities that came with working as a lecture student. The job description only mentioned assisting a professor with their lectures and working around ten hours each week; the day-to-day specifics would depend on which professor(s) she was assigned to.

Her professor assignment and schedule had been emailed to her earlier that day, and a meeting with said professor had been organized. It was quick, but informative. The College of Education housed several departments, one of which was the Department of Sports Science, where her assigned professor, Kwon Jihun, sometimes taught. He was the Director of Athletic Training at SNU. In addition to overseeing all SNU sports teams and managing the sports medicine staff, he worked directly with the SNU men’s and women’s basketball teams, was an Executive Board member for the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, and served as the head of Sport Science and Medicine for the Korean Basketball Association—this was the governing body that oversaw the South Korean national team basketball programs. He was a pretty big deal.

As things stood, Kwon Jihun’s class, Athlete Programming and Monitoring, took place on Thursdays from 12:00 pm to 2:50 pm. It was an undergraduate class for mainly junior and senior Sports and Exercise Science majors. Yongsun would spend 2-3 hours on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays helping the professor prepare materials and lesson plans. She’d also help out with grading. With the class being more hands on— students would learn how to create training programs for athletes and track the programs’ effectiveness—he didn’t make her attendance mandatory. That was a call he’d let her make each week depending on how she was feeling. He was a busy man, but her first impression of him was favorable. She felt that they’d get along well.

That was earlier, though. It was now after 9:00 pm and Yongsun didn’t know what to do with herself. After her meeting with Kwon Jihun, she’d walked around campus in search of the buildings that her future classes would be in. She hated feeling unprepared for things and figured this was something she could easily prepare for. That took up about one hour. She then killed 30 minutes at the SNU Café before growing frustrated. Thoughts of the first time she frequented this space came rushing back to her. Since failing to approach the icy blonde that day, Yongsun had seen her once more. She wanted to avoid all of the students and families arriving on Saturday so she found a cozy café off-campus to relax in. During her walk there, she caught a brief glance of Café Girl, who had seemed to be in a rush. Once again, she was alone. Yongsun wondered what her story was. She also wondered if she’d ever see her again. The campus was huge; there were over 16,000 undergraduate students and 11,000 graduate students. The odds of them crossing paths for a third time were slim.

Bringing her out of her head, Yongsun stopped staring at her ceiling long enough to grab her phone that had suddenly started vibrating. It was from Eric.

From: Eric

Have a great first day of classes tomorrow! 9:32 pm

Can’t wait to hear how it goes :) 9:32 pm

Shooting him a quick reply, Yongsun chuckled recalling their conversation a few days ago.

“What are you whining about now?” After her text to him last night, Yongsun was expecting this. “’Screw me and my stupid be proactive plan’? What happened?” Eric couldn’t hide the humor in his voice. Yongsun was so strong and could handle so much, but she let the smallest things frustrate her to no end sometimes. He was confident that she was overreacting to something minor. He’d bet money on it.

“It’s not funny.”

“I feel like this story is going to be pretty funny, actually. Did you approach someone and get rejected?”

“No.” Eric was confused.

“That’s the only reason I could think of that would make you send such dramatic texts.” Releasing a heavy sigh, Yongsun shared the details of what took place the previous afternoon. “Wait,” Eric started, “you didn’t even talk to the girl?”

“Were you not listening to the story? I didn’t get the chance. My dad called me before I was able to approach her.”

“Well, you would’ve been able to approach her if you hadn’t wasted so much time staring at her and thinking about whether you should approach her or not.”

“It doesn’t matter now. I won’t see her again, and even if I do, I have nothing to say to her. It’s pointless.”

“It’s not pointless. It’s good to get out of your comfort zone every now and then.” At this, Yongsun rolled her eyes. It was easy for him to say this; he wasn’t the one that had to make a fool of himself in front of a stranger. “You said she looked athletic. If you see her again, ask her if she’s an athlete and then go from there. Or ask her where she got her hair done. I’d imagine that hair color is hard to maintain. Make up a story about wanting to dye your hair and needing a good stylist. Hmmm, actually, that’s a really good approach. My mind!”

“Are you finished or are you done?”

“I’m trying to help you! One would think you’d be a little more grateful.”

“I’m never going to see her again anyway. Just felt the need to let you know that your plan was stupid.”

“Your ability to be negative about any and every thing is impressive.” He paused for a moment before dourly adding, “Unfortunately, my lunch is almost up so I gotta head back. We’ll talk later though, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. Tell everyone I said hi.”

“Will do, boss lady. Cheer up. You’ll be fine.”

Eric was such a good friend. Why couldn’t he just follow her to Seoul? That would’ve solved everything.

After returning to her apartment earlier, she plopped onto her bed and fell asleep, missing dinner. Now awake and alert, she needed food. Nervous about her first official class the following day, and inexplicably frustrated about this Café Girl thing, Yongsun decided that she also needed some fresh air. A quick Naver search revealed that the only eatery still open was SNU Commons. It was a bit of a walk from where she lived, but that was exactly what she needed right now.

*

SNU Commons wasn’t half bad. Easy to navigate, a lot of space, a wide variety of food options, and much less crowded than she thought it would be. This could very well end up being her late-night dining spot, not that she needed to make late-night dining a habit.

Making her way through the dining hall with a tray full of food in hand, Yongsun found the perfect spot: a long rectangular table at the very back of the dining hall. Sliding into a seat towards the left end of the table, Yongsun was finally able to relax. She took a deep breath before plugging her headphones in and taking a moment to find the playlist that she was most in the mood for. Not long after choosing her ‘Smooth’ playlist, she looked up to finally dig into her food, but her attention was caught instead by someone dramatically settling into a seat lower down the table.

Discreetly turning towards her right to get a better look at who her new tablemate was, Yongsun’s eyes widened briefly before she returned her attention to her tray. It was Café Girl.

It was as if the universe wouldn’t stop putting the girl in her face until she decided to speak to her.

To: Eric

Are you up?! 10:26 pm

Café Girl is sitting at my table. 10:26 pm

She really needed him to be up right now.

From: Eric

I’m up! Talk to her! 10:27 pm

Remember, athlete or hair. Talk about one! 10:28 pm

To: Eric

Okay! Athlete or hair. Got it. 10:28 pm

Why was her heart rate picking up like this? It was ridiculous. There was no reason for some strange girl to make her this nervous. She looked back at the girl, more like stared. And stared. It was a wonder the icy blonde hadn’t yet turned to look at her. Just as she was about to turn away for good, Yongsun noticed the girl’s shirt.

She now stared with purpose, as if willing Café Girl to look up from her phone and make eye contact. After a solid minute, the girl looked up. Yongsun pointed at the blonde’s shirt, eyebrows scrunched. Café Girl looked around before removing her headphones.

“Were you pointing at me?” Café Girl asked. She was seated facing Yongsun, but about six or seven seats down the table.

“Yeah,” Yongsun nervously responded. “Your shirt. Did you go to SKKU?”

Café Girl placed her phone and headphones in one of her pockets before grabbing her tray and walking closer to the brunette. Setting the tray right in front of Yongsun, the blonde sat down. “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you properly. What were you saying?”

Taking a moment to compose herself, Yongsun asked again, “Did you go to SKKU? Your shirt, it has SKKU on it, so I was wondering if you went to school there.”

Realization finally dawned on Café Girl. “Oh! No!” She laughed lightly. “We were part of a tournament that they hosted last year. Every team got SKKU t-shirts and a few other things.”

“The Han-Il College Basketball Tournament?!”

Café Girl seemed slightly surprised by her new acquaintance’s level of excitement over all of this, but she quickly recovered. “Yeah. You know it?”

“I used to work at SKKU! I remember the tournament, but was assigned to another event at the time, so I missed everything. That’s funny, though, that you’re wearing that shirt today of all days.”

“Whoa. That is pretty wild. What are the odds, right?”

“Yeah.”

They both stayed quiet for a bit, avoiding eye contact. Neither was sure how to keep the conversation going, but both knew that they wanted it to.

“Um, so you worked at SKKU?”

“Yeah,” Yongsun responded, dragging the word out. She decided she should say more. It would be awkward to not say more. “I went to school there. After graduating, I worked in Marketing.” Café Girl’s mouth dropped open.

“After graduating?! Not to be rude, but what year are you? I thought you were a first- or second-year.”

“First- or second-year? Do I look that young?” Café Girl’s cheeks turned slightly pink. She gently rubbed her neck with her right hand, a small smile reaching her face.

“You do look pretty young,” she nervously responded. “Your cheeks are so chubby.”

“Yah! We just met and you’re already making fun of my cheeks! Rude.” An exaggerated pout on her face, Yongsun playfully rolled her eyes. “I’m hurt.”

“I’m sorry! I really didn’t know! I didn’t mean to offend you.” Café Girl’s cheeks were turning bright red now. Yongsun was enjoying messing with her, but decided to put her out of her misery.

“I’m joking. I guess it’s not the worst thing in the world to look young.”

“Yeah!” The blonde was quick to agree, happy that the brunette wasn’t really upset at her. “It’s not a bad thing at all. You’ll look young forever. Everyone wants that,” she let out a relieved sigh. “I’m Moon Byulyi by the way.” She quickly stood up to give Yongsun a full 90 degree bow. It was a bit excessive, but Yongsun found it cute.

Standing up to return the bow, Yongsun introduced herself, too. “Kim Yongsun. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, Yongsun-ssi,” Moonbyul offered with a crooked smile.

“Please no. You don’t have to be so formal. That’s awkward.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to disrespect you again.”

“I promise, it’s fine.”

Taking it all in, Moonbyul nodded her head. “You can call me Moonbyul if you want. Or Byulyi. Or whatever. I don’t really mind.”

“Ah. Thank you.”

To occupy her hands, Yongsun started picking at her barely touched food. She noticed Moonbyul copying her actions, moving some of her food around her own tray. Things were getting awkward again.

“Uh, so . . . what year were you born?”

“’92. You?”

“’91. I’m only one year older. That’s not that bad.”

“Not at all.”

A few moments passed before Yongsun spoke up. “This is so awkward,” she had to get that off her chest.

“Okay, I thought I was the only one. I ran out of things to say and didn’t know how to keep the conversation going,” Moonbyul confessed. “I’m usually so much better at this,” she said, mostly to herself, but loud enough for Yongsun to hear.

“Better at what? Talking to girls?”

“Yeah. I mean, no. Not like that. Just, like, in general. Not like that.” Yongsun was truly surprised that Café Girl turned out to be this easily flustered ball of nerves. She had originally thought the girl would be colder and/or smoother. This version was much more fun to mess with though.

“Why not like that? I’m not cute enough to talk to like that?” Yongsun asked with an eyebrow raised.

“What? No, I didn’t mean that at all. That’s not what I was trying to say.” She tapped her head a few times before sighing and speaking again. “I really don’t know what’s wrong with me today.”

Yongsun giggled. “It’s okay. I can relate. When you sat down earlier, my brain completely shut down. I had no idea how to start a conversation with you, so I get it.” Why the hell did she say that? A confident grin slowly grew on Moonbyul’s face.

“Ohhhh, so you wanted to talk to me ever since I sat down,” she smirked. “That’s cute.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Yongsun rolled her eyes.

“I don’t have to when such a pretty lady is flattering me instead.”

“Ew! Where did this come from?” Yongsun couldn’t help but laugh at Moonbyul’s antics. Not even a minute ago she was a babbling mess, now she was a confident smooth talker.

“Pretty girls bring it out of me.”

Yongsun scoffed, astonished at all of this. “That was gross. Are you always this greasy?”

The atmosphere of awkwardness slowly dissipated as they continued their conversation. They bantered back and forth, but also got to know each other a bit better. Things flowed naturally. Yongsun learned that Moonbyul was a junior studying Business Administration. She had two younger sisters, wasn’t a fan of roller coasters, and always used two as her jersey number in basketball because it was her favorite. They didn’t stop until noticing the dining hall workers cleaning up around them and placing the plastic seats onto the tables.

“Oh wow,” Moonbyul exclaimed, taking a moment to check her phone, “it’s midnight. They’re closing.”

“It didn’t feel like that much time passed.”

“Talking to me usually does that to people,” Moonbyul bragged, wagging her eyebrows.

“You seriously don’t stop,” Yongsun laughed out loud.

“Where do you live,” the athlete suddenly asked.

“Excuse me?”

“Where do you live? I’ll walk you home.”

“Oh, no. You don’t have to do that. It’s okay.” Moonbyul grabbed Yongsun’s tray, combining it with her own before answering.

“I insist. You stayed out this late talking to me. It’s the least I could do as a thank you for the good company. Plus, I don’t feel comfortable having you walk around this late all by yourself.” Yongsun found the earnestness in her voice touching. “I promise I’m not a stalker or anything. And you know I’m on the basketball team, so if anything happens, you know where to find me.” Moonbyul offered a small smile, hoping that helped make Yongsun feel more at ease.

“University Village,” the eldest responded, standing up as she did so.

“You’re joking, right?” Moonbyul was still sitting, both hands on the trays in front of her.

“Why would I be joking?” Yongsun didn’t understand why she’d joke about something like that. She didn’t know enough about housing on or around campus to joke about something like that.

“I live in Universtiy Village,” Moonbyul responded, finally standing up with her things, heading towards the tray disposal. Yongsun shuffled her feet to catch up.

“Seriously? Whoa. What are the odds?” Having finished depositing everything, Moonbyul turned to Yongsun.

“Which tower are you in, and which floor?”

“Second tower, third floor.”

“Get out! I live in the second tower on the third floor, too. This is freaky.” They reached the building’s exit. “After you,” Moonbyul offered.

Yongsun took a moment to take in the beautiful night. Today turned out much better than she ever could have imagined. “I can’t believe this. This is one of the wildest coincidences I’ve ever experienced.”

“Maybe it’s not a coincidence, maybe it’s fate,” Moonbyul casually stated.

“Why are you like this? You’re so annoying!”

They both let out strong laughs at that, falling back into comfortable conversation afterwards. The walk back to University Village seemed to take no time at all. Finally reaching their building, they strolled past the security guards in the lobby—both of whom greeted Moonbyul by name—before scanning their IDs to enter the elevator. The ride was quiet. Once they reached the third floor, both hovered near the elevator, neither willing to end the night or sure of how to do it.

“My room is that way,” Moonbyul pointed to her left.

“I’m at the other end.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Neither of them made a move to leave.

“Can I have your number?” Moonbyul asked. Yongsun’s slightly flustered reaction urged her to add more context. “So that we could hang out again or whatever. It was a lot of fun talking with you, and campus is so big, y’know? We live on the same floor, but still may not bump into each other again. I wanted to at least make sure we had a way to communicate. If . . . that’s . . . something you wanted, of course. Only if you want.”

“You ramble a lot.”

“I really don’t,” Moonbyul chuckled, “I don’t know what it is about you that’s making me act so weird.”

“So it’s my fault that you’re acting weird?”

“Of course that’s what you would take from all of that,” Moonbyul rolled her eyes. “Here. Put your number in my phone.” Yongsun took the phone that was offered to her. Once she was finished saving her contact, she handed it back to Moonbyul.

“Here you go. I look forward to the text you send me months from now when you remember my existence.”

“That’s funny. You can look forward to my text tonig—uh, I mean this morning,” she corrected herself. Checking her phone, Yongsun saw the time.

“What time do you have class today?”

“9:30 am,” Moonbyul answered.

“Oh my goodness! Go to sleep. It’s already 12:30 am.” Yongsun playfully pushed Moonbyul in the direction of her room. “You should have said something!”

“It’s fine. I promise. I’ll be okay. Anyway, do you think you’ll be able to make it safely to your room? I feel like I need to walk you all the way. You know, to make sure you reach in one piece.” Yongsun rolled her eyes.

“Wow, who said chivalry was dead,” she dryly responded. “I think I can manage making it to the end of the hallway though.”

“Okay, I’ll stand here and make sure.” She shooed Yongsun away. “Go on. You need sleep. What time is your first class?”

“10:00 am.”

“I was going to say we could walk to campus together, but I’ll be gone by the time you’re heading over. I’ll text you and we can figure out some time to grab lunch or dinner?”

The way she phrased that as a question was adorable. Confident, smooth talking Moonbyul had suddenly vanished.

“That would be nice, yeah.” Yongsun turned to head to her room. Halfway down the hallway, she yelled back, “Don’t forget to text me!”

“I could never forget,” Moonbyul shouted back. “Goodnight!”

“Night.”

Truthfully, Yongsun was exhausted. She did an expedited version of her nightly routine before hopping into bed. Grabbing the phone that she had thrown near her pillow earlier, she got under her covers and saw a new text message.

From: Maybe Moon Byulyi

Hi! It’s Moon Byulyi (or Moonbyul, or Byulyi, or whatever you want) 1:02 am

It was really great meeting you tonight. I hope we hang out again. 1:02 am

Preferably some time soon :) 1:03 am

Have a good night and sleep well! 1:03 am

Yongsun couldn’t help the smile that took over her face. As she went to respond, another text came in.

From: Maybe Moon Byulyi

Save my number. 1:05 am

Please. 1:05 am

To: Moon Byulyi

Number saved. 1:06 am

I enjoyed our time together, too. Looking forward to hanging out again. 1:07 am

Please go to sleep. You have to be up early. Sleep well :) 1:08 am

She sent one last message before putting her phone on her nightstand and heading to bed.

To: Eric

Fine. Maybe your stupid plan wasn’t all that stupid *rolls eyes* 1:11 am

Note: This chapter was massive. Hoping you all enjoy it. I absolutely love reading all of your comments and hearing your thoughts on everything. I have this story generally mapped out and am excited to get to writing it all out. Thank you to each and every one of you for supporting this story. You are all very much appreciated! Seriously.