“Dorm Orientation is in the main hall!”

SinB walked along with the crowd. Aside from carrying just her necessary things, wallet, student id that definitely was an id card since it was the most unflattering picture of herself that she had seen in a year, SinB had her camera bag. Tightening the strap over her shoulder a little closer, SinB hugged her camera as she waded through elbows and sweat covered arms to enter the auditorium dutifully dubbed ‘the main hall’. Supposedly, after this orientation where they were probably going to discuss the dorm rules and what not, they were done with orientations until the first day of school. SinB tiredly rested her camera in her lap as she listened to a very nervous student body board member start the presentation, droning out within minutes of the boring standard rules.

“I have a question!”

SinB jolted awake at the outburst. Another boy was standing in the middle of the audience with his hand in the air.

“If quiet hours are broken, then what happens and who do we tell?”

“I haven’t gotten there yet, but it should be your RA, your resident advisor, who will be living a few doors away from all of you.”

“What about throwing parties?”

Everyone turned to look at him. The man at the podium fixed his glasses on his nose.

“Sir, partying is not advised.”

“So, there’s no rules on that, right?”

SinB sighed silently, this guy had first asked about something decent to catch everyone’s attention. Then he popped a very bold statement which made it seem like he only asked the first question to get their attentions as if to say “look at me! I’ll be throwing parties so you better pick who you hang out with” or something like that. Even so, SinB was certain that she, along with many of her peers, only worked hard to get into this university for the higher-level learning. Not partying.

“Next I will be discussing the curfew.”

“….Ho, Hong, Hwa oh mine should be next.”

Walking to the table that was labeled with her last name, SinB smiled kindly at the stranger sat down in front of her. Her name tag showed that she was Jung Yerin, a volunteer.

“Hi! How may I help you?”

“Hello, I’m here for my room keys. My last name is Hwang.”

The older girl nodded and put her finger at the top of the list of names before asking again.

“First name?”

“Sin- ah no, it’s Eun Bi.”

“Hwang Eunbi? Ok, show me your id and I’ll have you sign this contract.”

SinB quickly handed her card over and read the fine print carefully before printing all the necessary information in the correct spaces. She paused as she momentarily had to recall what day it was.

“Ah it’s, oh you got it.”

Yerin’s smile made it impossible for SinB to feel annoyed, she wondered if all the students here were nice, but she heard a yell from a short distance away that instantly broke her imagination. Looking over, SinB noticed that a girl had fallen over and there seemed to be a guy standing over her. Slightly concerned but not quite a busy body, SinB’s hand stopped filling out the form as her attention drifted.

“Hmmm, wait here. I’ll be right back.”

Yerin patted SinB’s hand and handed her back her id card before getting up and hurrying to the girl on the floor, helping her up. SinB found herself watching, Yerin was really nice. Seeing that the girl who had been knocked over was fine and Yerin told everyone to go back to work and told the guy to apologize, SinB breathed a small sigh of relief before finishing her form out.

“Sorry about that, I can’t stand it when someone needs help, and everyone just stares.”

“It’s alright, sunbaenim, you’re really nice.”

“Aw, it’s nothing. I notice that you have a camera bag, into photography?”

“Yes, I’m a photography major.”

SinB smiled as Yerin continued to work while chatting, she was really professional about handling the papers, scanning every box that SinB had to sign before handing another sheet for her to initial and print her id card number.

“How cool! What do you want to take pictures of? Scenery? Or professional photography and meet some famous people?”

“Well, not for meeting famous people really, I just like taking pictures of people, and their various appearances. I find it interesting how a camera can capture the effects of makeup and outfits on an individual.”

Yerin nodded and finally put SinB’s papers into a folder and put it in a box behind the desk. Pulling out a small plastic bag with two keys, Yerin took them out and stuck a sticker on one of them.

“The one with the sticker is your mail key, the mailroom is in the hallway before the elevator on every floor and is the same number as your room. You’ll be sharing an apartment with another girl but you both have your own rooms. You got lucky.”

SinB raised her eyebrows, she had thought that she would end up with three other girls in a cramped room since it was by scholarship that she could afford this university.

“And the last thing is who your RA is.”

Following Yerin’s finger along the clipboard, SinB found herself being nervous despite not even doing anything.

“Me! Look at that! I guess I’ll be seeing you around a lot then Eunbi.”

“Ah, yes sunbaenim.”

“Ey, I’m your RA, call me unnie!”

A wry smile spread on SinB’s lips, this seemed quite the development.

“Then you can call me by my nickname. SinB.”

“Alrighty! Now hurry, go to your apartment so you get first dibs on the room! I’ll see you later!”

Humming to herself as she wandered down the hall after confirming the location of the mailroom, SinB pulled her one large suitcase slowly behind her as she neared her room. Standing in front of it, she wondered if she needed to knock in case her roommate was in already. Looking around, SinB found Yerin’s room easily, her door was decorated with a whiteboard and some large stickers of flowers and such. It really fit her image.

SinB turned back to her door, plain and marked only by two temporary sticky notes as nameplates, she saw that her roommate’s name was a Kim Sojung. Finally knocking on the door, SinB waited for a response before letting herself in, remembering to test the key and locks several times to make sure everything went smoothly.

“Aigoo, the step up in the doorway’s going to be hard to lift.”

Moving very slowly as she carried her large suitcase up one step, SinB huffed a bit before freezing as she made eye contact with whom she supposed was her roommate.

“Um…hi?”

Something about the taller girl made her feel familiar, but SinB couldn’t be too certain. Dressed in baggy clothes that hung loosely around her very thin body, her jacket was clearly dwarfing her in width, but not in length. She was wearing large glasses and had bangs that hung slightly over them as she was hunched over a little bit.

“S-sorry, I was about to come to open the door for you, sorry.”

“Oh, no no, that’s fine. Are you unpacking?”

Her roommate seemed to contemplate about something, her hand moving as if to make a point but then again not.

“Y-yeah. M-may I ask your birth year?”

“98, why?”

“I-I don’t want to be rude and d-don’t judge me for this, but I started college late, so I’m older than you.”

She seemed to shrink under SinB’s gaze.

“Oh, that’s good that you brought that up. I don’t want to be rude to you.”

SinB hummed and looked back at Sojung.

“So, uh, how much older? Sojung ssi?”

“Ah, I’m 95.”

SinB smiled.

“Alright then. Should we-“

“W-wait! S-sorry, you can put away your stuff first, I-I won’t be going anywhere.”

“Oh! Right! Thank you. Then, I’ll see you later? We can go get dinner together if you want?”

“Yes. That would be nice.”

The smile that Sojung had finally made SinB feel better before heading to her room, indicated by the empty doorway. Sojung had started to move her boxes into her room already it had seemed. From her stuttering, SinB had wondered if she had somewhat scared the older girl, but the smile had appeased herself. She didn’t want to be on bad terms with her roommate after all, even if she didn’t like talking to random people as much. This was an effort that she wanted to do.

“Hopefully, she’ll let me call her unnie by the time we’re done eating.”

Though there was one thing that bothered SinB. The way Sojung looked, she had to be at least 175cm tall. With that height, Sojung could easily become a model, not that she had to, but standing at 167, SinB saw Sojung as some of the tallest girls she had met. Well, except she didn’t seem to have a good sense of fashion. Sojung appeared to be wearing clothes that were probably on sale somewhere because of the sizes. Rubbing her chin as she sat on her bed, she wondered where the nagging feeling of having seen Sojung might have been from. Did they go to the same high school at some point?

Putting here fist in her hand as she finally remembered, SinB smiled and opened her suitcase, ready to unpack everything.

“Right, I saw her when I was getting the room keys.”

Sojung was the poor girl who had been knocked over.