New Semester, New Term

“I knew I’d find you here!”

A girl with long bob hair is half shouting when she walked pass the swimming hall, but the greeting is only returned by the sound of water splashing in a quiet hour. There, in one of the olympic sized pool, a young man swims through the pearl aqua colored water, like a son of Poseidon himself.

His back muscle make quite a ripple on the surface whenever they dived once in a while. Sunbeams seeping past the high windows, turns the sight into a picturesque image for her eyes. She walks closer to make her arrival noticed, but boy is melded together with the waterbed, hardly catching anything beside the music blasting through his Jaybird Vista.

With the smile adorns her face, she takes off her shoes and strides along the edge of the pool. When she found his phone laying around, her mischievous side irked. A chuckle slipped when she’s done with the deed.

As expected, Minho ascended from the water and immediately looking for the culprit. He scoffed when she waves her hand smiling, the next second he dipped himself for more several more laps. She might not see it, but he smiles under the surface when the music starts flowing again.

By the time he completed his morning routine, Minho purposely splatters some water to the girl who’s dipping her feet in the pool. He keeps his mouth zipped when he passed her.

“So now you’re ignoring me? After making me wet?”

“What if I am? Also, your feet are completely soaked. So,” he shrugs, giving his go-figure attitude.

“I’m the one who decided which part of my body I want to keep dry. It’s called consent.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Minho continues drying his head.

“Don’t tell me you’re still mad because I didn’t tell you my flight schedule.”

Minho lets his back facing her, hiding his smirk because he knew very well it makes her annoyed. Until she splashed some water to those tanned muscle, easily reverted the situation.

“Hey!”

“Hey!!”

She really is the weakling point people always trying to find from him, “I’m not mad.”

“Then why you’re pouting like a kid?”

“Just disappointed. Because I was thinking to take you on a date right after I picked you up.”

“You know I’m not a fan of kidnapping. Not my .”

Of course she’s the only one with the same level of his joke, “Then how else I can take you out? Last time we went for proper date was almost a year ago.”

“The camping at the softball field?”

“The camping at the softball field.”

“You completely forgot the fact I was sitting next to you the whole last semester during Business Management class.”

“It doesn’t count.”

“It does. We talked, worked, and ate together. Also don’t forget that one time we sneaked out to the roof because the project presentations were too boring.”

“Jonghyun and Jinki did the same. They even sleep together.”

“Dudes are roommates, you idiot.”

“Whatevs. You still owe me at least one date,” he pats the space next to him, signaling her to sit there, but as always, she chooses to keep her distance, “When did you arrive?”

“Yesterday morning.”

“And still not telling me.”

“I was so spent the whole afternoon trying to clean up and rearrange my room. I knocked off right after dinner.”

“And you had dinner without me.”

“Just like any other days, weeks, and months.”

“Have you ever considered for once, though?”

“What? To have dinner with you? Well, once. You know what? Arctually twice. And you blew it all. Remember?”

“For the record, I didn’t know you were planning to a—“

“CHOI MIN—Oh. Sorry.”

Another girl, with high ponytail with colorful scrunchie is running from the entrance to their direction. The sight of Minho having a company halts her halfway.

“Oh, don’t be, Joy! I’m done with him,” she raised from the floor and collects her shoes, “He’s all yours.”

“But I’m not done yet.”

“I’ll see you in History, then,” she singsongs as she walks away, “But that if you still want to sit next to me.”

She winks before spun back to her track. Joy finds more confidence approaching Minho with a basket of food that looks full on her right hand. Stealthy, she takes the soda drink from it, very quick before she dropped anything and let Joy caught her.

“I went to your room but you’re not there,” Joy sits next to Minho right away.

“Morning routing, baby. Can’t miss any,” he flashes his trademark smile making it hard for Joy to hide her excitement, “Is that for me? What you’ve got there? I’m starving.”

Minho puts out his deadly pout, she finds fanning herself with her free hand.

“I have breakfast burrito, lox bagel, honey cheesecake milk, fresh strawberry, and for later I got you some banana chips, roasted beef sandwich, and.. wait. Where did the soda go?”

“What soda?”

“Grapefruit one.”

“It’s okay,” he bites on his bagel, “I hate that stuff anyway.”

***

The weather turns our pretty chill and friendly to start the school’s new year, the sun is bright enough, but not the kind that scorching. From the south wing, 10th grade students are already rushing to find their first classes. Jonghyun and Jinki just finished their early class—since they’re in their last year now—and they’re walking to the next class almost lounging, because they still have at least thirty minutes before it starts.

Jonghyun, as usual, has his snapback on, he just changed into Patta Magazine Denim Cap right after the class dismissed, just because his mood’s gradually getting better. He said he wanted to match his feeling but he doesn’t want to be too flashy for the first day. Jinki said, bull, because the colorful pattern can definitely be seen from the west building.

His arm is secured around his best friend shoulder who looks too cheerful since they left their room for early morning class. Jinki doesn’t care when his classes take places, as long as he can learn new thing, doesn’t matter how trivial they are. Kid loves studying even though he spent half of the lecture searching new limited sneakers on G-market.

“Morning, Jinki! Nice kicks!”

A random kid ran past them before he disappeared by the alley to the school theater. The greeting left him smiling so wide from ear to ear.

Jonghyun peeks below and got his left eyebrow lifted, “Thought you didn’t get that one.”

Jinki looks to his feet snugly wrapped with Nike Airmax 270 React Cactus Trails and back to Jonghyun, “My shoes you mean?”

“Duh?!”

No matter how long they best-friended each other, Jonghyun still needs a good amount of time to let Jinki knows what he meant by putting his ‘dude-are-you-even-serious’ face.

“Ah. I didn’t get the raffle but I found someone let them go in the G-market. Triple the price, though. It was a very hard decision.”

“Hard decision or not, I would never understand your brain. You can get new laptop with the same amount of money, dude.”

“Oh yeah? Fancy to hear that from you. Who are you again? Oh, just the kid I know who went to Amsterdam just for some caps from Filling Pieces that I didn’t get it all. Are you even a mom?”

“Whoa, whoa. Let’s reevaluate that. First, the CEO Mom cap is iconic. It’s the first time I can have couple look with my mom. Second, I bought the other ca