thank you mimbora for the story cover ♡

SEUNGHEE.

Leaves falling from the big trees, scattered on the street where Seunghee always walked at when she goes out, whether it's for school or not, she's been walking in the same street since her childhood. She's that type of student, the one who never left the city, finished her elementary, middle and high school in the same place. It IS boring for her but what can she do? That's what her parents want. Specifically, they don't want her to be away from them. As much as they can, they want Seunghee to always be with them. She's her parents' baby; and that's why until now she still feels like a kid to everyone.

College.. Here it is now, What was there to come for Seunghee in the next few years? She had a few expectations. She even wrote it in her journal. 

"Hello! You're Hyun Seunghee, right? You sang last time in the city festival!" Seunghee looked at the girl who sat beside her. Expectation #1 failed. 

OO1. New life, new Seunghee.

But nah, the girl who sat next to her kept asking her about her singing trainings and how she actually interacted with those idols on TV. Apparently, Seunghee was being invited to sing on festivals and such, they said that she is a golden vocal. It's not that she hates singing, she just doesn't like being publicized. Like.. this. Some people staring at her because they knew her and she doesn't even know them. Her parents are very talented too, that's why she was active in such events but now.. in college, she wants something new. Something not typical. Something life-changing. 

She stood up from her seat, she's been thinking of an excuse to go because the girl kept talking but she ran out of idea so although it's very mean, she just stood up without saying anything. I knew it was a bad idea to stay at the cafeteria. Her first class will be starting in 20 minutes so she decided to hang out on the cafeteria first because there are so many food there and she wanted to see her schoolmates but there were so many of them and now this girl kept following her. 

"Seunghee? Where are you going?" She heard the girl asked again behind her. Why does she keep following me?! 

Seunghee saw a few students passing by. Oh? That girl looks familiar. It's a tall girl wearing a plain white sweatshirt. She looks cold though but Seunghee knows her, they once met when Seunghee was enrolling. 

One week ago.

Seunghee texted her mom that she'll be on her way home after passing her grades. Unfortunately, she had a hard time getting a copy of her grades because her former school had some conflicts with their documents, resulting now she's enrolling late. Where was the registrar's office again? Seunghee looked around.. she couldn't remember if it's on the right or left building.

"Yes, grandma, I already passed my grades. Yes yes, they said I could pay my dorm fee now too. What? I told you I can pay today."  Seunghee heard the girl on her right, long black hair, big eyes like a cat's, sly smile. This girl looks like a celebrity, her fashion sense is on point. Red shirt tucked in her beige pants. Wow? 

She must be talking to her grandmother on her phone. Seems like she's a freshman like Seunghee too. The girl must have noticed Seunghee's gaze at her. Only when the girl smiled at her that Seunghee realized she's been staring for too long. 

"I'll call you later and yes, I will take care of myself." The girl ended the call and shoved her phone back into her pocket. Seunghee smiled back at her. 

"You know, it's okay if you think I'm pretty but please, I prefer the term handsome." The girl says when they're finally next to each other. Seunghee scoffed. Oh her confidence. I didn't see that coming.

"Nope. I'm only here to pass my grades, bye bye." Seunghee even waved her hand, the girl laughing next to her. Well.. 

Seunghee laughed along. She saw the folder that the girl was holding, it was blue, like hers. Oh, she's in the same department as me. Every department has their respective colors and they use this color coding to easily organize the documents handed by the students. 

"Are you a late enrollee too?" The girl asks, Seunghee nodded. "I'm uhm.. gonna pass my grades now. My highschool so-" She answers, pointing the the left building, though she wasn't so sure if the office is in there, she just had say something because this girl looks cool and she wants cool friends in college. 

"I see. I'm Jiho by the way. Kim Jiho." The girl -- Jiho -- lend her hand for a handshake and Seunghee gladly shook it. "I'm Hyun Seunghee, you can call me Seung or Seunghee".

"So um.. I gotta go now. Must pass this sooner." Seunghee says, well she told her mom she's gonna be quick and she's running out of topic; now's not the right time to talk much with new friends. And the fact that she's in the same department with Jiho, she's sure they'll meet again. 

"Sure, sure. Take care! And anyway, the office is on the right building where I just walked out from." 

Kim Jiho. 

"KIM JIHO!" Seunghee shouted so the girl behind her would stop following her. She got the attention of almost all the students in the hallway. Jiho looked behind her and a smile grew on her face when she met Seunghee's eyes. 

"Hey! You're here!" Jiho says as soon as Seunghee reached her position. 

"Well, yeah. First day, eh." 

OO2. A set of cool friends. 

Well for starters, Jiho is already an achievement. Seunghee could see some students looking at them as they walk on the hallway. Maybe because Jiho is really attractive and Seunghee agreed with that. Her new friend's visuals are wholesome. But in her journal, she wrote "a set", so she has to find a few more. 

"Where and what's your first class?" Jiho asks while eating a hotdog on stick that they bought before leaving the cafeteria. Seunghee checks her schedule on her lockscreen, which she learned online (to set your schedule as lockscreen wallpaper so it'll be easier to check it from time to time). 

"GEd 109, room 304." She reads and looks at Jiho who just nodded, busy with the food on that she couldn't speak yet. Seunghee looked at the buildings surrounding them. As far as she could remember, her classrooms are soooo far away from each other because she's a late enrollee and so her schedule is tight too. She had to take classes with kids from another department. Sadly, she might have a hard time befriending the other kids.

Jiho cleared before speaking. "Same."

Turns out, since both Seunghee and Jiho are late enrollees, they happen to have the same schedule as the slots they both only got are the classes with those free slots. They both had no choice but to take their schedules and now here they are, schedule buddies. How convenient it is for the both of them. 

Their first class is literature. They're with science students, or those students with courses inclined to science like nursing and such. But Seunghee had Jiho with her so she doesn't feel different and awkward. 

"So you've been staying in this place since daycare?" Jiho asks, taking out the gum in and hiding it in a crumpled paper, re-crumpling it once again. Geez, her personality isn't like my first impression but she's talkative and has a good sense of humor so it's okay. 

"Yep, I can take you on a tour here if you want." Seunghee says, tapping the tip of the pen on her cheek. Their professor still hasn't arrived and the classroom will be full soon. Seunghee and Jiho sat on the back, the one near the exit door so they could get out first. The two became closer in the past 20 minutes, they even played rock, paper, scissors on who would be sitting at the seat on the very edge. Jiho won, Seunghee had a feeling that Jiho is good at this stuff so she just let it slide. 

There was a girl sitting across Jiho, and Seunghee could see that she's been reading the textbook since the minute they arrived in the classroom. Her hair was short, her face was small, she had a pair of glasses on, maybe reading glasses. The girl was wearing a loose polo that she almost had the same vibe as Jiho. Well.. looking at Jiho now, seems like her friend is planning something. 

Jiho gave Seunghee a look. Which she translated as 'keep quiet and watch this'. Seunghee knew what she's going to do. Jiho was holding the crumpled paper, with her gum in it, and was aiming on something across her -- the short haired girl's head. Oh no. 

Seunghee cleared as soon as Jiho shot the paper towards the girl and she got the short-haired girl's attention causing the paper to land on the girl's cheek. 

"Oops." says Jiho, her arms crossed over her chest, suddenly looking outside by the door. Ah Jiho you jerk. The girl looked upset as she takes the crumpled paper from the floor. She looked at Seunghee. No. No it's not me. 

Seunghee immediately shook her head. "No, don't give me that look, it's not me." She defended herself, she saw Jiho giggling on her seat, hiding her face behind the book she's holding now. 

"I haven't even said anything. You're guilty." WHAT NO.

Fortunately, their professor came and the girl didn't say anything after glaring at her. Seunghee shot Jiho a look when the class started. Jiho just laughed it off and apologized. Seunghee has seen that kind of scene on movies. She's suddenly afraid that Jiho might be a bully, ah did I made a mistake befriending her.. I wanted a new life but please Lord, not with a bully. 

OO2. A set of cool friends. FAILED.

The class was just pure orientation. Seunghee had written a few notes, which she's really good at. She likes writing.. sometimes. When she feels like it. But when she's stressed and everything is hectic, she'd rather sleep. Anyway, she wrote a lot that time, so she's really proud of herself. Well, maybe she could really restart and become a better student this time. 

After that class, she and Jiho went to the cafeteria again to eat, of course. How would we study if we don't eat? That's what Jiho said, although they both know that they don't have classes later because their next class professor announced that they have no class for today. Seunghee was really feeling something though, like, disappointed because the things she wrote on her journal seems too difficult to be true. But that's what she thought. After buying their meals, they went to find a table but there were too many students and the only table that they could consider is that one table where their short-haired classmate is sitting alone at. 

"You sure about that?" Jiho asks while they're walking towards the girl. 

"We can't eat while standing. Let's just apologize to her and ask her if we could share the table." She answers. Right, I have to apologize even when it's mainly Jiho's fault. 

The girl... seems to be really quiet. Seunghee wasn't sure if it's her real personality -- being quiet the whole time or she's mad because of what happened earlier or she's just shy around new people. The lunch was supposed to be just Jiho and Seunghee talking and the girl reading while eating until the girl placed her book down on the table and started putting out all the stuff from her bag. Seunghee was confused at first until Jiho asks the girl what was the problem.

"What's going on? You're making the table stuffy, we're eating here." Jiho says, the girl stopped checking her bag and looked at Jiho next to her. Seunghee just watched them both. 

"My phone's missing." 

The girl's phone was missing and she said that she couldn't remember where she last placed it. She just knows that she brought it with her to school because she even texted her sister this morning when she arrived at the university. She said that the places she went to earlier that day was only the cafeteria, the library and the classroom. 

"Should we try calling?" Seunghee says as soon as she got the idea. It's not like they would really find it knowing that there are more than one thousand students in the university right now and the library and cafeteria are both mainstreams, many students love it there, and they can't go back to check the classroom because some other class is on-going in there. 

Fortunately, when Jiho tried calling it just once, someone picked up the call immediately. Jiho said that the person who found it wants to meet them so they could have it back but they have to wait for an hour because that person still has a class.

The girl's name was Yubin. Seunghee only knew it when Jiho asks the girl because they had to tell it to the person on the other line. Yubin is a cute name, it suits her short hair, small face. So, for an hour, the three just talked. Jiho and Seunghee apologized again about their behavior and Yubin gladly told them that it's okay and that they paid it back by helping her. 

For that whole hour, they stayed at their table. Seunghee learned that Jiho was staying at the dormitories, while Yubin is living nearby. I wonder why we never met each other before. 

Speaking of someone she met before, Hyejin, who was Seunghee's senior in back in highschool approached their table. 

"Seunghee! Oh my god, you're in college now too." Hyejin was a friend of Seunghee back in her highschool days. There were two of them -- her seniors -- who were like her close friends before. She invited Hyejin on their table. Jiho bought a new set of snacks for them. Hyejin is already in her third year and then.. she and Yubin also knew each other. From what Seunghee heard, Yubin and Hyejin met before once or twice because of their other mutual friend, named Yoolah? Yooah or Yooa? She couldn't remember well, but this friend tutors Yubin's sister and they met a few times because Hyejin was once chemistry buddy with that girl.

Just earlier, Seunghee was down because she thought Jiho was a bully and her college plan failed but what's fascinating is that it seems like Seunghee spoke too soon, the girl who found Yubin's phone happened to be Hyojung, her other senior who was close to her before.

OO2. A set of cool friends.

She wrote it again in her journal. After days, she met Yooa and Mimi. Those two that Hyejin and Jiho recruited into their "friend group". Well, maybe she could really be a new Hyun Seunghee this time.

Seunghee's first year was untypical. She met her cool friends who seem to not care about what many people knew about her before. Which was actually what she wants. They all were good friends. Seunghee could tell that. Mimi is an architecture student. Yooa wants to be a dancer but is pursuing medicine. Hyojung and Hyejin are like the mom and dad, which is okay too because the group really gets chaotic at times, although Hyojung is very much the cause of the chaos. Seunghee met Arin too, on their trip once in the middle of the academic year. Arin is Yubin's pretty and adorable sister. AND that is a must in a cool group so Seunghee tried her best to keep her in contact, even added her in the group chat. Yubin seemed to like it too, she even thanked Seunghee for making the trip interesting for Arin although Seunghee knew that Arin was rather interested on something else, or someone else, let's name it Jiho.

And that's the thing, that's the reason why she added a new note on her journal. 

OO3. A GIRLFRIEND (A MUST!!)

After 6 months in her freshman year, she came into a conclusion that she wants a girlfriend. It was one time when they were hanging out in the usual vacant room which they always occupy every lunch time. Seunghee was sure that Mimi and Yooa likes each other, because obviously, Mimi had been talking a lot about Yooa whenever she's with Jiho and Seunghee. In their group, Seunghee usually hangs out with Jiho and Mimi. It just happened like that.

At first, Yubin used to hang out a lot with her and Jiho but now, it seems that the girl got really closer with Yooa and Hyejin. Seunghee isn't complaining about that. She just feels like Yubin has been avoiding her too because of Jiho. Well, she knew that Yubin likes Jiho and Jiho here seems to be in love with Yubin's sister, Arin. Seunghee knew all of these. She knows a lot. Maybe because all of her friends find it comfortable to talk with her. She doesn't mind, she's really good at keeping secrets but this thing about Yubin? No, the girl never opened up to her. She just.. happens to see Yubin looking at Jiho when she stares at Yubin. No, not that stare. I mean, when I look at Yubin, she's looking at Jiho, get it? Agh why am I even explaining this. 

Seunghee knows that her friends are all in love and here she is, thirdwheeling to everyone. On her first week in college, she admits that she tried to find her first college love but it seems that there's no possible target. Jiho? nah. bro-code. Mimi? Major no, she's into Yooa. Arin? hmm I don't think so, she's so baby. Hyejin and Hyojung are always together, Yubin? eh, she's always into her book, the most impossible ever.

And now it's late, there's even a love triangle in their group. Seunghee's whole freshman year was all about thirdwheeling on either Mimi and Yooa, Hyojung and Hyejin, Jiho and Arin, and being partnered up with Yubin -- who likes Jiho, for almost all the time.

It's not that she complains about Yubin because, Seunghee could tell that the girl is really pretty, especially when she's reading silently in the library and Seunghee just happened to be with her because the others are busy dating, and when Yubin's glasses come loose and her beautiful eyes are getting exposed. She's pretty. Really pretty. She's nice, smart, and Seunghee even gets good grades whenever she studies with the girl. The only flaw she had is that, she likes Jiho. 

Sometimes, Seunghee just wants to go back in time and not let Jiho and Arin see each other so Yubin wouldn't be hurt. But that's not nice for Arin... Or maybe back further than that, on the first day, Seunghee wants to go back and not let Yubin develop feelings for Jiho but sigh, Jiho was really nice and Seunghee knows that she doesn't have a reason to hate Jiho. It's just that.. I feel bad for Yubin. 

Should I find her a girlfriend too? We could find our own girlfriends so we wouldn't feel lonely looking at these couples. or..

Should I ask her to be my girlfriend? NO. Well, Yubin isn't bad at all. She could be a smart girlfriend if ever. 

But no, it seems like Seunghee took it too easy. 

"What are you talking about? I'm busy, Seunghee." Yubin lifted up the pile of books to her chest and walked away from the library counter. Seunghee followed behind her, she lightly scratched her head, thinking of a way to convince the other girl.

"Why not? Atleast you got a girlfriend!" The two sat back on the table where they left their stuff earlier. Yubin shushed her. "We're in the library, lower your voice!" 

"You're the one yelling at me hmph." Seunghee crosses her arms and leaned her chin on them as she rests on the table. Yubin is just always like this, in the library if she has no class. This is her excuse everytime she and Jiho asks her to hang out with them. But Seunghee knew it's not all about studying, she's avoiding Jiho. 

Yubin clicks her tongue and looked at the girl across her. 

"Listen, I don't need a girlfriend. If you want one, then find someone else. I'm good, okay? And not because our friends are dating means we have to date too." Yubin takes a textbook from the pile and started reading it. Seunghee pouted, she's right. 

"So.. you don't wanna date me?" Seunghee asks once again, just teasing now. She's successful on getting the other girl's attention again though.

"Yes, you're my friend so just take this and read." Yubin took Seunghee's right hand and placed a book on her palm. "Study first, Hyun Seunghee." Yubin added before focusing back on her GE assignment. After a few seconds, Yubin felt Seunghee tapping on her arm again. 

"Seunghee, I said-"

"I don't need to study puppies..." Seunghee cut her off and quietly pushed the book back to Yubin's spot. The girl just sighed and went back to her work. Seunghee on the other hand, opened her journal and started writing.

OO4. Good Grades = Girlfriend