SinB grumbled as her alarm rang. Smacking at her phone screen blindly, she whined as she finally got it to turn off. The blankets were warm, she had a nice dream, it was a good day to sleep in. Except today was the first day of class. She bolted straight up and looked at the clock, breathing a relieved sigh that she had only slept for another minute before getting up.

She let out a satisfying groan as she stretched her arms above her head, her back and shoulders just on the verge of screaming back at her before stopping and breathing a contented sigh. Scratching her elbow, a bit, she sat up, stumbling her way out of her room to the bathroom, finding that Sojung’s room door was still closed.

“I hope she doesn’t have early classes.”

Brushing her teeth, she remembered that she had asked Sojung to put her schedule on the door. Scanning her own paper to memorize which building her first class was in, she saw that Sowon had written her own schedule down on a neater paper with easier understanding blocks to indicate where to go and when.

“Hm?”

Psychology lecture in seventh building, third floor at 8am.

SinB nearly choked on her toothpaste as she went to Sojung’s room in a hurry. She was going to be late if she didn’t get up now. Stopping short of knocking down her roommate’s door, SinB paused and rushed into the bathroom, rinsing .

“Ah, but we never agreed to keep the doors open. She might have already left.”

“Good morning?”

Sojung stood there tiredly just outside of the bathroom door, rubbing her eye with a hand, her hair brushed back out of her face. SinB hadn’t noticed she was staring at Sojung’s bare face with no bangs or glasses to cover her features until Sojung cleared putting her bangs down and keeping her eyes to the floor.

“A-are you not used to saying good morning?”

“Ah! No! Good morning! I was just surprised a little. I was wondering if you had gotten up for your class in time yet.”

Sojung shuffled a little in her spot before walking over to their front door, leaning over a little to look closely at her schedule before looking at their wall clock.

“If I clean up now, I can make it.”

Still, SinB hadn’t moved. Then as if thunder struck her, she grabbed her towel and ran out of the bathroom.

“My class is at 8:30, you clean up first!”

“No no, you’re already half-“

“It’s fine! First day of school means new impressions to make.  Let’s do our best yea?”

Sojung had a small smile, scratching her cheek a little. It wasn’t like she had to make good impressions, but the way SinB put it, she seemed extremely excited to start her new life.

“Alright.”

Yawning as she left her class, SinB trudged her way back to dorm. Opposite to her anticipations, first class hadn’t included self-introduction time, leaving her with no new friends. In middle school and high school, when children began to develop stronger judgements, SinB had suffered for looking older than her proper age, suffered for looking mean, even though she just didn’t smile easily. Stopping mid step as a set of sneakers stood in her path, she looked up.

“Good morning!”

“Good morning Yerin unnie, what brings you here?”

Yerin beamed at SinB, making the younger wonder when the sun had peeked out of the morning clouds to make this girl so happy this early.

“I live here as well? Did you already forget that silly goose?”

SinB chuckled, she didn’t forget, but it had slipped her mind when she was lost in her thoughts. An idea flashed but she shook her head, she couldn’t possibly burden her sunbae.

“I didn’t forget, I just didn’t realize I had made it all the way back. Are you heading out to class?”

Yerin seemed to rock on her feet, thinking up something witty to say perhaps. SinB took in her appearance, dressed casually in a flowy yellow one-piece dress with matching yellow flats. Was yellow her favorite color?

“I guess you could say that I came out to look for distressed and lost little kids like you?”

“But I’m not lost?”

Her grin seemed to blind SinB as she giggled.

“Not you specifically, but not all the freshmen are so great with directions, trust me, I have a friend who’s been here for a year already and still can’t find her way to her room.”

“Wow. Then that makes you a helping angel I suppose.”

“Hmm, maybe. And I think you’ve got something you’d like to talk about, but you don’t think you can trust me just yet, am I right?”

SinB froze, did she read her mind? Were all residential advisors like mind readers? Just to help out the freshmen and dormmates get along with each other?

“It’s fine if you don’t tell me, I’m sure you know that if you need anything, I’m just right there okay?”

SinB nodded and waved as Yerin skipped off, her bright aura still glowing as strong as ever. Maybe she could ask Yerin for advice on how to be that bright. Nah, it might be too big of a step to be that smiley. Unlocking the door to her room, SinB stretched her neck a bit, rolling her head from side to side as she relaxed.  At least, she was safe from judgement in her room.

Kicking off her shoes before pushing them to the side, SinB stepped into her quiet dorm, finding Sojung already back. She wanted to call out to her older roommate, but she seemed to be asleep. SinB tiptoed around the back of the couch, finding that Sojung had fallen asleep reading a syllabus paper on her lap, her glasses had slipped down and her long hair covering half her face.

SinB’s fingers twitched as she wondered if taking the glasses off for Sojung would be too close, but if Sojung was that tired from last night’s trip, she wanted her to regain that sleep back, as comfortably as possible. Throwing her caution to the wind, she carefully pulled Sojung’s round glasses away, setting them on their small coffee table. Looking back at her sleeping face, SinB paused.

“No, fixing her hair is too much.”

Sojung grumbled as her alarm rang for her to go to her literature class, set to finish right before the cafeteria was to open for lunch. Well, it was always open for students to congregate and use with, but their food bar would only start serving food at 12pm sharp. Seeing that her building for literature was a little way from her assigned cafeteria where her meal plan was set at, she rubbed her neck and wondered if she should pack a snack for her to eat as she walked.

She stood up, stretching her back as she shut off her alarm. Rubbing her face, she momentarily froze when she made eye contact with SinB. Her small grin seemed to mean something, but Sojung couldn’t put what.

“Morning sleepyhead unnie.”

“Morning.”

Then she realized that her glasses were not sitting on her nose, she quickly squinted a little, looking for them. Finding it next to her phone, she breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn’t smashed them moments earlier when she had smacked her alarm. Putting them on, she noted that SinB was drinking water in the kitchen and that she had fifteen more minutes left to get to her classroom.

“I’ll be heading out; you can go to lunch alone.”

“Is your classroom far? I could go pick you up when it’s over.”

Sojung appreciated that SinB wanted to eat together, but that would mean that SinB wanted to become closer, and that was a little difficult for Sojung to do.

“It’s very far, if I see you at the cafeteria, I’ll come to you.”

“Are you sure unnie?”

“Yes, thank you SinB.”

“Sowon, you have a schedule tonight.”

“Yes, I know. The meeting with the reporters.”

“Remember, don’t be late.”

“You’re coming to get me, so you, better not be late.”

Sojung grumbled as she shut off her phone, walking back into her classroom with a small apology. In college, there was no longer a need to ask permission to get out of the classroom as all students were adults and should behave as such. If they didn’t want to be in the classroom, then it was their choice to make their grades. She took her seat as the teacher continued to discuss what they had to read for the rest of the year.

Judging from the list of titles on the third page, Sojung sighed wondering if renting or just buying them would be easier.

“Hey, you left the classroom earlier, is everything alright?”

“Yes, everything is fine.”

Sojung turned to the girl next to her, wondering why she was being so nosy, only to find that it was her RA, Jung Yerin.

“Oh, I didn’t realize it was you Yerin ssi.”

“Ey, unnie can just call me Yerin.”

“But you’re my RA, I can’t just-“

“Shhhh, teacher’s still talking, just call me Yerin okay?”

“Hey, is the spot across from you free?”

SinB looked up from her laptop; she had been editing her photos. A younger looking girl stood in front of her, she seemed very cute. Sojung hadn’t appeared in the last ten minutes so SinB supposed it was alright to let this stranger take the seat.

“Uh yea, it’s free.”

“Thanks, it’s pretty hard to find a seat after lunch hour had already started for a while.”

Nodding politely, SinB wondered if she should stop her editing, and pay some attention to this girl.

“My name’s Yewon by the way, a freshman. You?”

SinB closed her laptop with a small smile.

“I’m SinB, well, it’s Eunbi but I prefer SinB.”

“Cool nickname, what are you studying?”

This Yewon seemed nice, SinB could feel herself relaxing a little.

“Photography actually, I’m also a first year.”

“Cool! We’re friends then.”

It was that easy to become friends? SinB raised an eyebrow as Yewon giggled in front of her. Still, she didn’t seem too weird of a person, perhaps having a same aged friend could be nice.

“Well?”

“Well what?”

The way Yewon responded was cute, her head tilting to the side a bit.

“What are you studying? Silly.”

“Hahaha, oops, I was so happy you agreed to talk to me that I forgot. I’m an acting major, part of the drama department.”

“Planning on becoming a professional actress? Cool.”

“Yeap, I wanted to be a model, but they said I was too short and had too baby of a face.”

“What? That’s unfair, but to make you feel better, people always say I look older than my age.”

They giggled, the atmosphere light and easy. SinB found herself relaxed, more than she had been when leaving her first lecture. A tall figure walked on the far side of the cafeteria, catching SinB’s eye, but she couldn’t tell if it was Sojung or not.

“Say, if you’re a photography major, you know all the models, right?”

SinB blinked, wondering when her attention had been focused away from in front of her.

“Uh, most of the biggest ones I suppose.”

“Then you’ve surely heard of Sowon?”

That name sounded familiar, but SinB couldn’t quite put her finger on it, she must have seen her once or twice before in a magazine.

“Remind me? I’m sure I’ve heard of that name before.”

Yewon grinned and held up her phone, an image of Sowon as her wallpaper. SinB couldn’t help but feel oddly familiar to the picture.

“Haha, you must really idolize her, setting her picture as your wallpaper.”

“I do! People look at me weird for it sometimes.”

So, while having a conversation why it shouldn’t be weird to have a pretty person as a wallpaper on your cellphone, SinB’s brain tried to find out where she had seen that face before. When she had seen the wallpaper, she was certain she had never matched a ‘Sowon’ to that face. Had this Sowon gone by a different stage name before? She shook her head and did her best not to scare Yewon away. Her first same aged friend she made in college. Hwang Eunbi, fighting!

=============

SinB is learning who Sowon is, but can she match her to Sojung? :D

Also, Yerin and Yewon are such fluffy people xD