That was how Eunji got stuck with Chanyeol and his dongsaengs for the damned requirements ton their Korean Lit class.

 

"Ji-ah! We're groupmates!" Chanyeol squealed and gave her a series of light punches in her arms.

 

"Are you that happy?" 

 

He nodded excitedly looking a lot like a puppy. Eunji rolled her eyes. Professor Kwon had just dismissed the class and the students were preparing to leave. Eunji busied herself by putting back all of her pens that Chanyeol discarded from her bag during class.

 

The back door was just few steps from where they were seated so technically students were scramming on the aisle.

 

Three rich looking girls stopped by to greet the boys beside Eunji. In their high-pitched voices they said in unison, "Hello Sehun, Eunwoo and Chanyeol oppa.." whilst viewing their delicate hands at their directions.

 

The younger guys did not reply. Sehun being indifferent that he was and Eunwoo who was astounded to be noticed by some girls, as though it wasn't a daily occurrence in his life. Chanyeol who sensed the non-reaction from the guys said his, "Hello," to the girls.

 

"It's so unjust." The blonde one uttered.

 

"The groupings should not have been done by seating arrangement, right?" The short-haired one, the smallest among them spoke.

 

"You guys could have better groupmates, honestly." The one wearing thick make-up professed eyes looking down at Eunji.

 

Eunji knew for sure that these girls were among the biggest protestors of the seating arrangement based groupings. She heard some of their dismay earlier but these three were brave enough to actually express theirs to her. She admired them for that.

 

What irked her was, she did not like to be in this group too especially that Chanyeol was a member now. She slammed her desk with her bag but it was Eunwoo who stood up for her.

 

"No, I don't think we could have better groupmates than one another." He said in his seat and the girls looked immediately at his direction, smiling widely to be recognized by him. "We have Eunji sunbae right here. She's more than capable than all of you three combined."

 

The girls' jaws dropped at Eunwoo's words. The other seated members of the row could not contain their laughter and started laughing. Sehun who was usually quiet joined in. Chanyeol was the loudest, clapping his hands in complete amusement of Eunwoo's words and Eunji was already losing her breath from too much laughter.

 

The girls angrily marched out of the room, embarrassed of the scene that backfired them.

 

"My, that was hilarious." Chanyeol said shaking his head, "Did you see the look on their faces when Eunwoo dissed them?"

 

"I feel bad for them but, hahahaha!" Eunji laughed. "Eunwoo-yah..." She muttered dreamily at Eunwoo and stretched her arms pushing Chanyeol's back to lunge forward to his desk. "Thank you, Eunwoo."

 

Eunwoo smiled feeling satisfied with himself. She held out his hands to hold Eunji's. "Welcome, noona."

 

Chanyeol quickly straightened his back that made the two separate. "Anyways, Eunji-ah, do you want to play with us today?"

 

"Yes, noona." Sehun seconded. "We're playing in the arcade."

 

"Arcade?" Eunji repeated. "You guys, college freshmen, are playing in the arcade..." Her statement sounded like a question that had the three young men nodding at her direction.

 

"I wonder what happened to being childish and immature..." She whispered.

 

"Hehe!" Chanyeol leaned and whispered back at her ears. "Are you coming?"

 

"Next time," She said. "I still have laundry to do at dorm. I'll see you again next week, guys. Bye!"

 

---

 

The Literature Class in the Business Department was her only class that Wednesday. She slept and slacked the whole morning so she forgot to do her laundry. From the same class, she went home to the dorm straight.

 

Bomi and Hyesun, two of her dorm mates were also in the house. It was their free day from school. Eunji did not waste time to do her laundry, taking advantage that no one was using the laundry area.

 

In the previous terms, she always had to wait for her turn in the laundry area. Good thing was for this term, her free day fell on the day of the week when most of her dorm mates were not in the house.

 

While she waited for the machine to wash her dirty clothes, she thought of browsing her phone. She realized that Jiyeon had been sending her messages which she was not able to reply. Most messages were about what appeared to be her unrequited love over the freshman she met during the orientation.

 

The last time they saw each other was during the orientation. Eunji decided to give her a call.

 

"EUNJI-YAAAAH!" Jiyeon screamed over the receiver. "I missed you a lot. Why have you been ignoring me?"

 

"Umh, I'm sorry Jiyeon. I was busy."

 

"Busy, when we just technically started attending our classes?! Hmm. I don't see you around these days."

 

"Mianhae, Jiyeon-ie." She apologized. "How is it going with the freshman?"

 

"OOH!" The tone of Jiyeon's voice quickly changed. Eunji could sense how much she liked the freshman as a subject of their conversation. "He's one cold guy, Eunji.". 

 

"You've touched him?!"

 

"What? No. Hahahaha! He's always alone. I don't even think he has friends. But his hostility just draws me more to him. We'll hold an acquaintance party by next week so I'll make sure to get my claws around him." She talked nonstop that made Eunji smile.

 

"Good luck in trying to warm that cold-hearted guy, Jiyeon. Fighting!"

 

"Yes!" Jiyeon laughed. "By the way, have you visited Kyungsoo?"

 

"Why? Where is he?" Eunji asked cluelessly.

 

"You didn't know? I thought you're classmates?!"

 

"What happened to him?" Her voice faltered at the question. Her heart started beating loudly. What exactly happened to that rascal?!

 

"He received a surgery the other day." Jiyeon's words barely registered in her ears. "The student council paid him a visit in the hospital just yesterday."

 

She placed a hand over her forehead. "Holy ," She cursed over the phone.

 

"Didn't you know?"

 

"Jiyeon-ie, I have to hang-up now, okay?" As soon as she ended the call, the washing machine stopped operating. She quickly finished her laundry and prepared to go to the hospital.

 

She contemplated whether to ask Kyungsoo where he was but that would be out of character since she was avoiding her a lot these days.

 

Luckily, Jiyeon was sensible enough to send her the details of Kyungsoo's whereabouts. He was confined in Yoksei University Hospital. The nurse in the reception area pointed her to where Do Kyungsoo's room was.

 

Room 219

 

It took her five doors and a turn to reach the room. The corridor was empty and quiet. Which was exactly how Eunji was feeling as she stood by the door of Kyungsoo's room.

 

Maybe coming here is a wrong idea. What if he's with his girlfriend? How should I act?

 

These were the questions that ran in Eunji's mind. But she had gone all the way there so in the end, she reached for the door knob and pushed it open.

 

The room was quiet and a bit dim. It was a shared room for male patients. One was occupying the nearest cubicle by the door, the other one in the middle was empty and so Eunji quietly trod to the third cubicle near the windows.

 

The curtains were drawn together so she couldn't see anything at all. She decided to lean close enough to hear what was happening inside.

 

She couldn't hear anything at all so she leaned further until her body landed to something hard that hit the side of her face. "Ouch!" she quickly detached herself from the unidentified object and soon after, the curtains were drawn to one side revealing Kyungsoo who was sitting at the foot of his bed.

 

W-Was that Kyungsoo?! Did I just stupidly bump my head into him?

 

"Yah, Eunji-yah." His eyes popped a little too in recognition of Eunji's presence in his room.

 

Eunji stared for a while before dumbfoundedly dropping her hand from her face. Her eyes quickly scanned the room for the presence of the girlfriend. She was slightly relieved when she saw that he was all by himself. "Hello, Kyungsoo." She finally managed to greet him. "It's been a while."

 

---

 

Eunji learned that Kyungsoo had his appendix removed through the surgery. He had been complaining about this for months and just few days ago, the pain on his stomach intensified.

 

He had himself checked up on Wednesday, that was why he was not able to come to class. The lab results forced his Doctor to perform the operation on him the same day. He had been absent from class since then.

 

Eunji felt guilty about being hostile around him. Maybe, she would be allowed to care even just as a friend, right? She sat on a chair by his bed, careful not to get too close in case the girlfriend came in.

 

"I'm sorry I didn't join the team when they visited you. I didn't know then."

 

"It's okay. I'm glad you came to see me, Eunji-yah." He smiled, eyes forming a thin curved line. 

 

Eunji could already feel her heart thumping. He should seriously stop doing these things to me. She fixed her stare on the band around his wrist. "Did your parents come over already?"

 

His parents lived in Pyeongchang, a 4 hour train ride to Seoul. Eunji knew this well. She happened to meet them once too when they went to Seoul to visit their son.

 

"They were here during the operation." He said gently.

 

"Aren't they coming back?"

 

"They left earlier today."

 

There was silence after. Eunji wanted to ask if he had been alone in this room the whole day, but she didn't mean to pry. Otherwise, she might end up asking if his girlfriend had come over too. She chose to shut up in the end. They did not talk much after. Both were feeling unsure of what to say.

 

The awkwardness was broken when the door of the room opened. The nurses were checking and doing their rounds. One came to Kyungsoo's cubicle.

 

"Good evening."

 

Both greeted the middle-aged nurse too.

 

"How are you feeling, Kyungsoo-ssi?"

 

"A lot better, thank you." He smiled to the nurse. The nurse proceeded on checking up on him.

 

She wrote something on his record too. She looked up to meet Eunji's gaze, "Excuse me young lady but can you sign in here?" She handed Eunji the folder she was holding.

 

She absently mindedly wrote her name and signature on the box the nurse asked her to sign. She was too preoccupied to even read what was written there. Politely, she handed back the folder to the nurse.

 

"Jung Eunji..." She read, lifting her eyes from the folder where Eunji's name was written back to her face. "Eunji-ssi, the patient has to take his medicine in 3 hours. It's..." She moved her arm to take a better look at her watch. "9 pm, so he needs to have it again by 12 midnight."

 

"Excuse me... What?" Eunji interrupted looking confused as to why the nurse was telling her these things.

 

"Aren't you the patient's chaperone tonight?" The nurse switched her gaze between Kyungsoo and Eunji.

 

"I..." Eunji wanted to protest but when her eyes landed to Kyungsoo who was nodding at her direction as if to tell her to just say yes, she obliged and ended up saying. "Am... I am his chaperone tonight." And smiled.

 

The nurse beamed too and proceeded in telling her the rest of instructions. When she left, Eunji turned to Kyungsoo who immediately apologized.

 

"I'm sorry, Eunji."

 

"Will you be alone tonight?" She asked abruptly. She wanted to add, How about your girlfriend? But stopped herself just in time for Kyungsoo to answer.

 

"If you choose to leave then I guess I'll be alone." He said carefully, his voice sounded needy.

 

Eunji was all about building these tall barriers around Kyungsoo, but before this she was a friend to him.

 

Right now, he needed one so who was she to stop that. Inasmuch as her mind was telling her to just go home, her heart, the traitor one, had standing on the tiled floor of Kyungsoo's room.

 

"Then I'll probably just stay." She answered quietly.

 

So Eunji stayed with him the hospital for the night. She followed the instructions the nurse told her earlier. While the patient slept soundly, Eunji barely had her share of it.

 

She spent the whole night practically sorting out her feelings about the guy. This whole avoiding Kyungsoo thing had made her very tired already. To think that nothing good had actually come out of it.

 

She realized while sitting beside Kyungsoo that night that she had to face her inner demons soon or else she just continue running away from it, making things a lot complicated.

 

She went home after spending the night at the hospital. Kyungsoo thanked her for staying. A day after he was released from the hospital.

 

---

Lit Idiots 

 

Jung Eunji left the group chat.

Sehun added Jung Eunji to the group chat.

Eunwoo: Noona, please don't leave again.

Chanyeol: 

Sehun: Ohmygod. Somebody stop hyung.

Chanyeol:

        

Eunji: One more of that face, I'm leaving this group again.

Eunji: And you won't be having me in your requirement too.

Chanyeol: Today is a good day to clean my room, right? I'll get back to you later, guys.

 

 

The guys had decided to create a group chat for the requirement in their Lit Class. But instead of talking about the relevant things for which the group chat was created for, the boys just dissed each other the whole time.

 

It annoyed the hell out of Eunji so she opted to just leave the chatroom. But Eunwoo or Sehun would always bring her back much to her dismay. The thing went on for hours already.

 

Chanyeol was the one who brought up the most stupid things in the group chat, sending emojis and stuff. Recently, he started sending memes of himself. It cracked up the boys but Eunji had zero tolerance for his playfulness today. That was how the conversation took place.

 

Eunji dropped her phone and turned it off. She got back to her part-time job this Saturday.

 

"Have you finished, Shinah-yah?" She asked the child whom she was tutoring.

 

The kid, about 10 years old, nodded her head and handed Eunji her notes. She decided to check her work. Impressively, she got 4 correct answers in the Advanced Math equations she gave her to solve.

 

"Woah, Shinah! You're showing so improvement." Eunji exclaimed. "You got 4 out of 5, that's not bad for starters."

 

Shinah smiled to herself triumphantly. "Shall we have another set, eonni?"

 

Eunji nodded excitedly and proceeded to give Shinah her second practice exercise. Moon Shinah was the only child of rich couple. She attended the same school where Eunji's dongsaeng from her father's ex-wife studied.

 

It was the Hyunsung, her little brother, who recommended her to Shinah as a tutor. He built up her credentials saying Eunji was a University student. Shinah did not think twice and continuously nagged her parents for one week to take Eunji as her tutor.

 

They gave in to her wish in the end and that was how Eunji had this part-time job as tutor to the kid. She usually spent her weekends with her and since they started, Shinah showed vast improvement in her grades so her parents continued having Eunji around.

 

Most of the time, they would deal with subjects which she would find difficult. Right now, it was Math in which she was having trouble. She opened her phone again to see the time as she forgot the bring her wrist watch.

 

As soon as she did, it beeped signalling a message notification.

 

1 New Message | Yeol

Yeol: You busy? 🤗

Eunji: Have you finished cleaning your room?

Yeol: HEEHEE 😁

Eunji: I'm working.

Yeol: What time does it end?🤔🤨

Eunji: Why do you ask so many questions?

Eunji: Drop the emojis.

Yeol: Let's play, Eunji. 😜

Eunji: No.

Yeol: BUT WHYYYYYY? 😭😢

Eunji: I'll be working with my paper in a major subject after this.

Yeol: Can I tag along?☺️

Eunji sighed at the demanding giant. She was about to say something savage to him when another message from him entered their chatroom.

Yeol: I'll help you with your paper.☺️😁

Yeol: Please 😔😢

Eunji: Fine. Let me just finish this up.

Yeol: 🤗😉

 

After sending her reply, she focused her attention back to Shinah who just finished her exercise.

 

---

 

When Eunji came to the cafe where they decided to meet, Chanyeol was already there with two cups of iced Americano. He was wearing a hoodie and a cap over his head.

 

"Ji-ah!" He waved the straws he was holding as she spotted Eunji walking towards the table.

 

"You're very excited. Aren't you?" she asked as she occupied the seat across Chanyeol.

 

He flashed a toothy smile and poked the green straw he was waving earlier in one of the cups. He pushed it forward to Eunji. "I'm so bored. "

 

Eunji rolled her eyes at the recall of all the memes and stupid things he had been saying in the group chat. She wanted to scold him for being such a mess when he suddenly started choking at his iced coffee, like the dramatic person that he was.

 

"Ohmygod!" He screamed and placed both of his hands over his throat. "Why is this so bitter?" He asked and his eyes landed at Eunji's cup and without hesitation, exchanged their coffee.

 

"Seriously?" Eunji's mouth dropped at his act. She scoffed as he sipped from it.

 

"What? I mistakenly got the wrong cup. You don't like coffee with sugar, right? It's that one." He pointed at the same cup he just drank up earlier.

 

"You are so insufferable." She remarked before taking the drink and sipping a good mouthful from it.

 

Chanyeol giggled at her side. "We used to share drinks, do you remember? It's no big deal."

 

"Whatever, you dummy." Eunji proceeded into bringing out her notes on the table. Chanyeol chose a seat near the walls and the windows.

 

It was 4 in the afternoon already and because it was a Saturday there were quite a few people lurking on the streets.

 

Chanyeol stretched his knuckles and asked, "So what project are we working on?"

 

"My concept paper in Biochemistry." Eunji answered nonchalantly.

 

Of course, he did not help her at all. Eunji tried to explain what she was trying to do at first and Chanyeol just kept on interrupting her asking to explain the terms she was talking about. In the end, he gave up trying to understand her alien words and just resorted in playing games in his phone.

 

Eunji appreciated him not being so distractive like he usually did so she was able to write a good portion of her concept paper. "Done!" She chirped after triumphantly completing half of her paper. She lifted her gaze from her notes to look at Chanyeol who was already sleeping.

 

"Woah. Look at this rascal."

 

His head was on the table and his big body slouched forward. His position would surely pain his neck but he slept comfortably, eyes shut and lips apart.

 

Eunji leaned on the table placing the back of her palm under her chin to watch the giant sleep. He looked very peaceful and she wondered if sleeping was the only part of his day that he got to be this quiet.

 

He did not change much. He still was that loud crackhead from high school who always got pleasure from teasing her. But he seriously looked better now than he did before.

 

While looking at him she thought as to why he gave up on music, if he still played until today the girls would surely be crazy about him. His charm was no joke, Eunji recalled how at some point of her young life she actually had a crush on him.

 

What if she actually told him about her feelings way back in high school? When he was crazy in love with Joohyun? She was glad that she did not because if she actually did, they would not probably be this close until today.

 

"That would've been silly." Eunji uttered with a smile, eyes looking softly down at him. "I'd rather keep you like this."

 

She raised her hand to touch his big ear when suddenly his eyes opened and stared at her. "Ji-ah..." His deep voice cracked a little.

 

Eunji's face turned pale as she quickly dropped her hand and slapped it on the table making Chanyeol straightened his back, thinking Eunji was trying to hit him.

 

"I-I'm sorry." She stammered. Blood slowly crawled up to her face this time, heart thumping frantically. 

 

"Ji-ah..." He whined like a child that he was. His red plump lips formed a pout that weirdly made Eunji's heartbeat louder. "I'm hungry. Let's eat."