It’s winter break, yet Rosé couldn’t bring herself to relax and enjoy her break like how she always did on her previous breaks all thanks to the pressure of having to finish her thesis by next semester. The fact that her best friend, Lisa, is having her thesis defence today also didn’t help at easing up the pressure that’s been weighing her mind since the start of the 7th semester.

Ah, the joy of being a 4th year college student.

She sighed as she sat munching her boba ice cream at her favourite cafe in the campus library. She glanced at her phone screen, looking at the clock. 12.55, it reads. “It’s been almost an hour. The rain should’ve ceased by now,” she thought to herself before quickly finishing her ice cream and started to pack her belongings into her small bag. It takes a while to walk from the library to her faculty and she’d like to arrive with some time to spare, so she quickly stepped out of the library into the drizzling rain.

It took her about fifteen minutes of walking to reach her faculty and she quickly made her way to Building A, where her friend’s thesis defence would be held. When she arrived at Building A from the hallway that led to the canteen, she couldn’t help but stop in her tracks. There, standing a few feet away from her in the building’s lobby, was Jung Jaehyun, the College’s Student Body President. Her long time crush.

Cursing under her breath, Rosé looked down and rushed to the restroom, hiding her face with her long blonde hair as she did. There she scolded herself for walking straight through the drizzles without using her umbrella, trying to tame the bird nest of a hair resting atop her head in front of the mirror. Once satisfied, she straightened up and stared at her reflection in the mirror. “Get a grip of yourself, Rosé. It’s just Jaehyun oppa. He’s your friend, not the freaking president,” she thought as she exhaled a shaky breath. “You can do this,” she whispered to herself while nodding to her reflection before finally walking out of the restroom.

As she walked towards the lobby, she saw that he wasn’t alone. He was standing with a group of his friends, congratulating a dark-haired girl wearing our college’s alma mater jacket. “Seems like Wendy unnie had her thesis defence today too,” Rosé thought. The closer she got to them, she noticed that one of her close friends, Jisoo, was among the group.

When Jisoo noticed her coming her way, she opened her arms wide and shouted, “Rosé!”. Seeing her friend with her arms spread wide, Rosé fastened her pace and ran into her friend’s waiting arms. She staggered from the force of collision and thanked her lucky stars for the arms wrapped tight around her for preventing her from falling and returned her friend’s hug just as tightly with a huge smile on her face. “Jisoo unnie, it’s been so long! How are you?” she asked her and soon the two girls started catching up with one another without getting out of the hug.

Jaehyun released a low chuckle as he saw the whole thing unfold in front of him. He took a step towards them when he saw Rosé staggering but stayed back once he saw that Jisoo got her and let the two girls catch up. It’s been a while since the last time he saw Rosé and he couldn’t stop the smile from forming on his face as he watched her laugh and smile in his friend’s arms as they talked. After a few minutes, he decided to greet her and walked towards them, stopping once he reached Jisoo’s side.

“Hello, Rosé.”

When Rosé heard that familiar baritone voice, she stepped back from the hug and looked up towards the source of the voice and saw Jaehyun smiling – dimples and all – at her. “Jaehyun oppa!” her face brightened as she greeted him. She automatically took a step towards him and wrapped her arms around his torso and said, “How are you? It’s been too long!”. Once she realised what she did, she was mortified. Stupid Rosé and her stupid non-existent self-control! What are you doing going around hugging Jaehyun? You’re not even that close with him. She tried to step back but was stopped by the arms that’s wrapped around her.

Jaehyun was shocked when she went forward and hugged him. He stood there, blinking as he looked down at the girl and tried to process everything. He finally came to his senses when he felt Rosé trying to step back from him and wrapped his arms around her before she got the chance to and squeezed her lightly, smiling. “I’m good, thanks for asking. How about you, Rosie?” he said as he leaned back to look at her face.

“I’m good too, I guess, if I try not to think about having to finish the thesis that I haven’t even started yet by the end of next semester,” she chuckled as she blushed once she realised just how close his face was.

“That’s good to hear,” he chuckled before stepping back to stand by her side. He wrapped one of his arms loosely around her shoulder before he continued, “Try not to stress yourself too much. There’s still plenty of time to finish it.”

She sighed, “Yeah, I know. I just can’t help but worry sometimes, you know?”. Then she bumped her shoulder against his and nodded her head towards Wendy’s position. “So, when are you going to be in her position, oppa? Now that the time for you to step down from your position as the President of the Student Body is getting closer.”

Jaehyun looked down at Rosé before following her line of sight, shrugging. “I don’t know. Sometimes this year, I guess. I’m not really in a hurry though.”

Rosé nodded. “I see. Well, good luck to us both then!” she said as she grinned, looking up at him before frowning, “I’d like to talk some more but I really have to go now or I’m going to be late for my friend’s thesis defence.”

Jaehyun blinked down at her, “Ah, I see”. He took his arm from around her shoulder and put his hand on top of her head, “And good luck to you too. Don’t worry too much, okay? You’ll be fine,” he said as he softly ruffled her hair, giving her a dimpled smile.

She blushed and smiled sheepishly, “I’ll try to. Thanks, oppa. I’ll see you around!” she said before she turned around to walk towards the stairs and went to the third floor with a skip in her steps. With the conversation in mind, she felt like some of the pressure that’s been weighing down on her mind has been lifted and could do nothing to stop the smile that’s spreading across her face. Suddenly, the thought of writing her own thesis didn’t look so scary now.

Jaehyun watched her go and disappear up the stairs with a small smile on his face. “I’ll see you around, little flower.”