Criminal Law. Contract Law. Constitutional and Administrative Law.

The same old dry and boring stuff every weekday.

Miyawaki Sakura never wanted to be a law student. She wanted to either be a game designer or an animator. However her parents pushed her to the life of law, and so she had to deal with it.

Her grades you ask? She was an exceptional student despite being forced to go through this tough career line. You can say that she has a ‘knack’ in studying, although her behaviour makes you think otherwise.

The ‘Kotori-beige’-coloured short-haired girl lazily slung her laptop bag over her shoulder, grabbing her heavy textbooks in hand and left her room, where one of her housemate greeted her with a tired look on her face.

“Were you up gaming all night, Kang-chan?”

Kang Hyewon shrugged without a word before placing a bento box above Sakura’s stack of books.

“Here you go.”

“Again?”

“Well you know how Chaeyeon is,” Hyewon shook her head, “She’ll never let you go to class with an empty stomach.”

“What is she, my mom?” Sakura groaned.

“She’s your best friend. Deal with it.”

“Why are you even on her side?”

Hyewon just shrugged and went to the entrance of their dorm room, “Come on. If we stay around complaining about Chaeyeon being a ‘mom’ to you, we’ll be late to class.”

Sakura rolled her eyes as she walked past Hyewon and out of their dorm room as Hyewon let out a sigh and closed the door behind her.

As Sakura was walking slowly towards the end of the hallway, towards the classroom building, she could hear rapid footsteps approaching her and she turned around. The person running towards her coolly maneuverer to the right of Sakura instead of running straight into her, and the two made small eye-contact with each other within that split second.

Sakura looked on ahead at the cool beauty who just passed by and wondered who she was. Hyewon who was literally dragging her feet at this point to meet up with Sakura, saw everything and pat Sakura on the shoulder, with a knowing gaze.

“Interested in her?”

“Huh? What? No,” Sakura denied strongly, “I was just taken by surprise when she dashed past me.”

“Yeah okay,” Hyewon walked on in front of Sakura, “She’s Kwon Eunbi-unnie by the way.”

“Unnie?” Sakura asked.

“Yeah. She’s a matured student. Doing law too. You probably never noticed since you only watch anime all the time during class, or play games on your phone.”

“Oh shut up, Kang Hyewon,” Sakura pouted, “Don’t say it as if you don’t do that too!”

Hyewon smirked at Sakura over her shoulder, “Guilty as charged.”

The short-haired girl really felt like smacking her friend in the face, but she held it in. Her mind slowly forgetting about that little encounter she had with a matured law student. It was a rather insignificant encounter after all.

-X-X-X-

The constant ruffling of paper can be heard throughout the auditorium as Kwon Eunbi was busy flipping through her notes, a sign of fear obviously showing on her face. Usually she would be extremely ready for class but it just so happened that she was caught up with a university club activity till late night no thanks to her childhood friend and clubmate, Kim Chaewon. She believed that she would be home before 10pm at most but that did not go as planned.

Eunbi cursed herself under her breath for not being disciplined and constantly took fearful glances at the ticking clock which showed that there was about five minutes left till lectures start.

The thing is, she’s afraid because this lecturer in particular tends to pick on students at random to answer questions on Contract of a variety of levels. If you knew the answer, you would be fine; If you did not know the answer, even if she did not teach a certain topic, you would be asked to stand in front of the whole class, subjected to a harsh scolding session, before you return to your seat feeling extremely embarrassed.

Yes. It would kind of feel like public execution. For your personal image.

You would think that as long as you do not act conspicuous you would be fine right? Well the problem is, our Kwon Eunbi is a student that tends to be picked on by the teacher a lot. Reason being, she’s a matured student—someone who is expected to have a grasp of everything due to all the experience she is expected to have.

However, Eunbi was as green as all the first-year students. She had not been exposed to law in any way and just thought it would be cool to challenge something new in her life. All her part-time experiences so far really had nothing to offer on the table to assist her on being ‘better’ than any of her peers in the auditorium. She had to work twice or thrice harder than everyone to overcome her struggles of having ‘goldfish memory’. That effort was recognised by the lecturers.

It’s just that this was one of those days where Eunbi dreaded for ‘trying’ to seem like an honour’s student.

As she was just about to start reading on the materials for today, the lecturer entered the auditorium, causing Eunbi to gasp and her heart started to beat rapidly out of anxiety. She really wished she could leave.

That is, until her only exit way was blocked off by two students who decided to sit beside her, one seeming awfully familiar. They were roughly pushing at each other to scramble into their seats before the lecturer could scream at them for being a nuisance.

“Kang-chan stop pushing me--!” exclaimed the familiar short-haired who was trying to settle down in her seat, “S-Sorry, I hope you don’t mind—eh?”

Their eyes met. Again.

“U-Uh… hi.”

“Hi…” Eunbi softly greeted, with a blank face. She honestly did not know how to feel right now until her brain decided to remind her that she should be scared of class right now and her face turned pale once again, as she rummaged through her materials once again.

“Yikes. Someone’s panick—”

Sakura quickly hushed Hyewon before the latter could say another word. She wanted to say something to relieve the tension emitting from her Unnie but honestly did not know what to say. All she could do was take the opportunity to study the beautiful Unnie beside her. The older of the two hurriedly took out a pair of glasses from her bag that was placed behind her and glanced upwards momentarily at the lecturer who was busy doing her morning briefing on what they were going to learn for the day before burying her head in her notes, hoping that every word she scanned through would be processed in her head.

Sakura could not help but feel rather amused at how beautiful the Unnie beside her was despite all the panicked actions she was clearly doing. She earnestly thought that Kwon Eunbi is a model student (which she actually is on a usual basis) with an attractive face and figure, but seeing her all flustered like this… what an interesting gap, Sakura thought.

The younger of the two shook her head with an amused smile before pulling out her laptop and immediately proceeded to sneakily put on her Bluetooth earphones that the lecturer would not be able to see, especially when they’re sitting near the back. She then proceeded to go on some anime streaming website and clicked on some show about an unemployed and isolated young man’s journey of escaping the real-life version of a computer game which he is one of the world's top players of as it involved mass killing. Sakura enjoyed watching adrenaline-pumping anime like these during law lectures—mainly because these keep her awake.

“Alright class. Today we will be talking about promissory estoppel.”

“P-Promissory estoppel…?!” Eunbi exclaimed to herself softly which caught Sakura’s attention again as Eunbi had pushed herself backwards rather roughly on her seat, closing and her eyes in deep shock.

Sakura raised an eyebrow and shrugged it off, returning to her anime.

“… I… didn’t bring my notes for this… crap……” Eunbi said shakily, her eyes darting to her peers around her who actually brought their notes. She knew she screwed up big time. The long-haired brunette needed help desperately, and unfortunately for her, she had literally no friends in class. The only person she kind of could throw her pride out of the window to beg for help was the girl she had unintentionally made eye-contact with when dashing to class and awkwardly greeting as she had found a seat beside her.

Plus it probably would not hurt, seeing how the short-haired girl was enjoying her anime more so than actually being interested in listening to the lecture.

So Eunbi gathered her courage, breathed in and out deeply, before turning to her side with determined eyes and…

… Tapped lightly on Sakura’s shoulder.

Sakura quickly paused her anime and took off her earphones, giving Eunbi a surprised look.

“Yes?”

“I… uh… notes…”

“Huh?” Sakura tried to decipher what her shy Unnie was trying to talk about and took a quick glance at the pile of notes which were rather messily placed on the table. She noted that her notes seem to be from last lecture instead of this one, and quickly understood.

“You uh… you wanna share notes?” Sakura asked, hoping she understood the situation right.

Before Eunbi could answer, the lecturer called out to her.

“Kwon Eunbi! I’m surprised you’re talking to another student for once during my class.”

Eunbi shot up from her seat on instinct, resulting to a few giggles around the auditorium. She was visibly in fear and could only clear , hoping that this would not be as torturous as she has seen before.

“I… well…” Eunbi squeaked with her head hung low, side-glancing at Sakura, hoping her eyes are sending SOS signals to a person she sort of just met.

“Well then, let me kick off with an easy question. What is the legal principle of Combe v Combe?”

“H-Huh? C-Combe and… Combe……?” Eunbi repeated, her voice shaking. She gulped, knowing that if within a few seconds she is unable to answer, all eyes will be on her when she goes to where her lecturer was standing, enduring verbal torture and public embarrassment for what, five minutes? That is long enough for her to have her confidence crash and burn to the ground.

Thankfully while she was panicking, Sakura had quickly slid a note next to Eunbi’s shaking hand, and Eunbi looked down at it, eyes lighting up as it seemed like it was the answer she needed.

“I.. uh… ‘promissory estoppel can only act as a shield and not a sword’.”

The lecturer clapped in glee, “As expected! Then do you know which case the doctrine of promissory estoppel derives from?”

“C-Case?!” Eunbi said in surprise, but as if Sakura was ready, she slid another note to Eunbi, this time with only two things written on the paper—“textbook pg. 107”. Eunbi hastily grabbed her textbook and flipped it open to the page that Sakura highlighted in her note and found the answer she needed once again.

“It’s… Central London Property Trust Ltd v High Trees House Ltd, Madam.”

“Oh wow, SOMEONE is being awfully helpful today…” Hyewon whispered mockingly at her friend beside her, who nudged her with a decent amount of strength, causing Hyewon to let out a small pained groan.

“Correct, and would you like to share what the legal principle of the case to the whole class?”

“Yes ma’am,” Eunbi regained full composure at that point and smiled briefly at Sakura who was unconsciously staring at Eunbi as the lecturer spoke to her, which made Sakura’s heart skip a beat. Clearly, in the Japanese’s head, she had no idea what had gotten into her after meeting Eunbi. She was nothing but a stranger—a classmate at most? But why is she so interested in wanting to get to know her?

Kwon Eunbi when she was all flustered and confused was beyond adorable; Kwon Eunbi when she’s all composed is very cool and admirable.  

Those thoughts entered Sakura’s mind and she blamed the anime she was watching which might have distorted her brain process of the day.

“…… you.”

“Eh?” Sakura snapped out of her reverie when she saw the same beautiful pair of eyes locked on to her, smiling warmly.

“I said thank you,” Eunbi repeated, in a whisper.

“O-Oh. No problem,” Sakura responded, feeling rather shy at her actions which went slightly out of character and returned back to enjoying her anime, hoping that Eunbi wouldn’t notice the heat rising from her cheeks to her ears.

-x-x-x-

About two hours later, the lengthy lecture ended and there was a short break before the next class. Hyewon had already rushed out of her seat, presumably to the vending machine for some snacks outside the auditorium, leaving Sakura alone with Eunbi. There were other students still hanging around in the auditorium chatting amongst themselves but well, Sakura actually only had Hyewon and she was really thankful for that.

That being said, she is no social butterfly. She would usually only speak when spoken to.

But today is a weird day—an excuse Sakura told herself, as she turned to her side, mouth parting a bit, wanting to say something to Eunbi but it was as if her brain malfunctioned.

Eunbi felt like her ‘neighbour’ was looking at her, so she turned to her side, looking straight into Sakura’s eyes once again.

“Is… something wrong?”

“Oh uh… I’m Miyawaki Sakura. And I think you look a lot better without glasses!”

Sakura CURSED herself.

Like.

What was that?????????

Eunbi was taken aback for a moment before letting out a laugh, “What did you just say?”

Sakura quickly waved her hands in front of her, as if to gesture a ‘no’, and felt extremely embarrassed, “S-Sorry! My brain farted. I just wanted to say I’m Sakura!!”

“I see…” Eunbi took off her glasses and put it beside her pencil case near her notes before returning to looking at Sakura with a smile, “Well I’m Eunbi. As you should’ve heard from the lecturer just now.”

“Yeah I… I know,” Sakura rubbed her neck shyly, her gaze faltering and she decided to allow her eyes to look at anywhere but Eunbi’s earnest pair of eyes.

“I just want to thank you again for saving me. I didn’t prepare at all this class so I was worried…”

“Yeah I could see that,” Sakura said with a nod, “I also know how harsh the lecturer would be if you weren’t able to answer her so… it’s fine.”

“She doesn’t always do this for just anyone you know~” Hyewon said as she jumped into the seat beside Sakura, munching on a piece of bread smugly.

“Kang-chan what are you even saying?!” Sakura was already raising her fist ready to punch a smug-looking Hyewon.

“Oh? I thought Sakura-ssi would be really helpful to anyone,” Eunbi said innocently.

Hyewon looked at Eunbi for a moment and then winked at Sakura, “She’s a keeper, my friend.”

“I swear if you spout anymore nonsense Kang Hyewon I’ll—”

“You two seem like really good friends,” Eunbi laughed.

Hyewon just shrugged, expecting Sakura to answer, which she did, “Yeah well… I’ve known her for a while now so…”

“That’s nice… having friends.”

“Don’t you have any, Eunbi-unnie—” Sakura realised that she shouldn’t have called her ‘unnie’ when Eunbi herself has yet to establish that she was in fact, older than her, but Eunbi did not seem to have noticed.

All she did was respond with an awkward shake of head.

“Ask her to be your friend, Kkura-unnie~”

Sakura felt her vein was about to pop with each time Hyewon tried to indirectly taunt her. She let out a sigh and faced Eunbi sincerely, “Well uh… Eunbi-unnie, if you don’t mind… let’s be friends?”

Eunbi’s eyes widened. How long has it been since someone asked her straight up to be friends like this instead of letting a conversation take its course where they’ll eventually be friends without any questions?

Miyawaki Sakura was a weird girl indeed, Eunbi thought. Weird, but awfully smart too?

“I mean, it’s sad to not have any friends to discuss work with right?”

“Yeah no I doubt Kkura-unnie would just talk about work with you, Eunbi-unnie. Don’t worry,” Hyewon remarked smugly once again.

Sakura really let Hyewon have the fist this time. Well, just on the shoulder, which made Hyewon yelp in pain.

Eunbi laughed heartily, “You girls are amusing. As long as you’d let me, I’d love to be friends with you. I owe you big time for saving me during Contract class today after all, Sakura-ssi.”

The short-haired girl felt really happy with her ‘achievement’ and put out her hand to Eunbi, mindlessly asking for a handshake. Eunbi played along, and shook her hand, smiling all the while.

And that was the start of a blossoming friendship between the two.