2.5 years later

The hallway was pretty empty this morning. Some just standing by the wall, some walking in leisure pace, and there were some actually sprinting because they almost didn’t make into their classes. Unfortunately, one of them was in panic and had accidentally bumped into Jaejoon, a fourth-year senior, making his papers fell from his hand.

Jaejoon immediately turned to the culprit and yelled out a curse, but the person had run so far away from him. He groaned before squatted down to gather his papers. At that moment, he found a pair of heels just walked past him.

“Hey, you! The girl in the purple shirt,” he shouted.

The girl in the lilac shirt, to be exact, halted in her steps and turned over her shoulder, staring at him with a confused look.

“Me?” she asked, arching a brow.

“You’re a junior, right?” he asked back, but without waiting for her to answer, he continued, “I’m your senior. Can’t you see your senior need a hand?”

The girl blinked and the corner of couldn’t help but curled up in disbelief. She didn’t even know the guy, so why should she help him in the first place? Seniority system in Korea was sometimes too annoying.

Jaejoon clicked his tongue in agitation. He turned more impatient, pointing at the mess under him. “Come here and help me,” he said. “Youngsters these days truly don’t know any manners,” he grumbled loud enough on purpose so she could hear it.

The girl wondered what his intention was. Was it to make her feel embarrassed? If it was so, he didn’t succeed.

But not wanting to make any more scene as people had turned their eyes into her way, she rolled her eyes and finally stepped up. Before she could help the senior though, a voice she well-knew called her.

“Eunbin-ah, Ms. Jung is looking for you.”

The girl in the lilac shirt, Park Eunbin, smiled to herself when she heard that. She started to walk backward while her eyes were still on the senior.

“If you want to talk about seniority, Ms. Jung is way senior than you and she’s looking for me. So, I can’t help you ‘cause I need to go to her now. Have a nice day,” she said through her gritted teeth. Hope you rot in hell, actually.

Eunbin her heels, grinning brightly at her savior. She picked up her pace before finally reached her savior and linked arms with her, dragging them both away from the annoying senior.

“Thank you, Soojung-ah.”

Her savior, Soojung, chuckled, “No sweat. What a jerk.” She obviously meant the guy before.

Eunbin agreed with her by rolling her eyes.

When they entered their morning class, they bowed at their lecturer who had arrived earlier before it was the time for class to start and walked passed him to go to the seats at the back row. From the corner of her eyes, Eunbin saw Soojung was glaring at Joonhyung, a guy in their class too, who was currently laughing at something he had said to their lecturer.

Soojung had a scowl on her beautiful face. “Look at that idiot, kissing up our lecturer’s again.”

She didn’t even try to lower her voice and anybody who was near their seats heard her. Eunbin caught several glances were thrown their way but no one was surprised as it was already a pretty common knowledge that Jung Soojung hated Joonhyung.

And that was what she liked about Soojung. She was pretty transparent about who she liked and disliked. She wasn’t scared to say it out loud or got judged. She could be seen as aggressive, but she was kind in her own way. Soojung was genuine and honest.

She didn’t look or smell like high school at all.

To which Eunbin was grateful for. It was the reason why she wanted them to be friends.

High school? When she thought about it now, three years of high school did pass in a blur. At the same time, it dragged so long at that time that it was torturing.

She admitted, the first six months of her first year of high school was delightful, but after that it just went downhill. After she broke up with Baekhyun and stopped talking with Hyewon and Wonyoung, everything just seemed different.

Three years of high school, she didn’t have even one real friend. There was only classmates. She grew quieter and became less caring that she had turned into the Park Eunbin she was right now.

She changed.

That was what a few years of loneliness would do to you.

Even those happy memories had turned into bittersweet and less important memories to her.

The Park Eunbin today was already 19 year old, an accountant major student in K University, Seoul.

She was anxious at first before coming to K University because it was in Seoul. And thinking about the capital city made her think about Baekhyun. She was afraid she would meet him accidentally at the road or mall or a restaurant, just somewhere. Then she thought again, the city was huge with 9 million people. It shouldn’t be that easy that they could meet. Moreover, her K University placed at the end of north side, while his S University was at the west side. After trying to talk to herself again and again, she finally gathered the courage to come to K University. After being a student here for half a year and hadn’t had the chance to bump into Baekhyun, she grew more relaxed.

Byun Baekhyun? A year after their break up, she finally muted the boy’s Instagram so that she couldn’t see any updates from him. That went the same with Jennie too for they went the same uni.

She sometimes could still see them in Chanyeol or Nayeon’s updates because they all were in Seoul, but at least it was pretty bearable and rare. Silently, she was pretty relieved that they all were still in contact because she knew how important they were for Baekhyun.

Had she moved on? She wanted to say yes, but she wanted to say no at the same time too.

Recently, she hadn’t thought of him that much comparing to the beginning of their separation. Unfortunately, even so, he had never completely left her mind. Sometimes, every little things could still remind her of him. Her chest would felt tight for three seconds max. At least she didn’t shed tears for the boy anymore.

There was no other boy could invade her life after Byun Baekhyun. She wanted to blame him for it, but she knew that mostly it was her own fault for shutting down all of them who had tried to approach her.

Fear.

Fearing that she would get hurt again. Fearing that she would act overprotective like her last relationship. Fearing that she would be lied again. Most importantly, fearing that they weren’t Byun Baekhyun.

“Hi, ladies.”

Came a flirty greeting and Eunbin felt an arm was around her shoulders. She saw that there was an arm around Soojung too who was next to her. She smiled. The only person who could do this and still got to live was none other than Jackson Wang.

The guy who was their senior of two years was currently the president of their university’s student council. Soojung joined the council too and that was how they met. Eunbin didn’t join, though she knew Jackson from Soojung. She realized that her friend had a soft spot towards their senior which was why he had the green light to do this kind of thing. Usually, men who would act too friendly or close towards Soojung would receive a glare from the girl, then followed by a string of insults. But not Jackson Wang, nope.

If Eunbin didn’t know any better, Soojung probably actually liked Jackson but she didn’t want to admit it. Or the girl was just probably clueless towards her own feelings.

Jackson looked at Soojung then Eunbin back and forth, a knowing grin was plastered on his face.

“You guys do know what day it is, right?” he asked.

“Yes, yes. We know. You’ve been reminding us since last week,” Eunbin answered.

Soojung snorted, “We can’t forget about it even if we very much want too.”

Today was somewhat like a gathering with Jackson’s friends from other universities, but Eunbin didn’t believe him. She guessed that it had to be something like blind dates. She told Soojung and thought the girl would be a little pissed, but surprisingly she took it pretty chill.

Soojung shrugged her shoulders, “Whatever it is, making new friends are fun.”

So, that’s how Eunbin spent her evening: in one very popular grill restaurant for university students in the city and making new friends.

Several students from different universities were sitting in one table. Eunbin had a hard time to remember all their names at once, but she hid it behind her smile. She could slowly learn their names after getting to know them a little bit better.

Unlike what she had thought, this gathering wasn’t bad at all. Everybody was really nice and pretty fun that Eunbin actually started to enjoy her evening. Almost three years of loneliness made her personality quieter and as she was already a natural shy person, it made how she should talk to new people worse than before. But the others were considerate that they never left her aside, keeping conversations flow with her.

A pretty girl named Gayoung who sat across her asked, “Hey, Eunbin. Where are you from?”

“I’m from Bucheon.”

When Jackson heard her answer, he turned to her. He slammed the table and his eyes were wide, as if he just remembered something. That startled Soojung that it made her spill her beer a little. She scowled and cursed at the senior.

“Jackson Wang, do you wanna die?”

Jackson awkwardly chuckled and gave Soojung tissues to wipe the alcohol off her skirt before he turned back to Eunbin.

“I have a friend from Bucheon who is going to join us too later.”

“Oh… That guy, huh? Where is he?” A man who Eunbin couldn’t remember his name sat not far from them asked Jackson.

“From S University, right?” said another one of Jackson’s friend.

Eunbin couldn’t help but blinked and her heart beat faster unconsciously.

She looked down and scratched her neck. Thinking to herself that there wouldn’t be such coincidence.

Jackson energetically answered, “Yeah. Hey, Eunbin, maybe you know him since you guys are from the same town?”

Soojung shot him a ridiculous glare, “What? Just because they’re from the same hometown, doesn’t mean Eunbin knows everyone at the town. Do you know everybody in Seoul? Because you live here.”

Jackson started to stutter at Soojung’s sarcasm that it made everyone on the table laughed at him.

“But he’s your senior and I heard from another friend who is also from there said that he was pretty popular in high school. If you guys are from the same high school, at least you heard of him?” It was from another girl who sat next to Gayoung whose name Eunbin couldn’t remember now because she was too busy with the stuffs spiraling inside her head.

Gayoung asked the girl next to her, “Do you know the name of their high school?”

The girl looked up and was thinking, then she said, “They told me once, but… I forgot.”

For some reason, Soojung pretty interested as she rested her chin on her palm, looking at Gayoung and the girl next to her, she said, “What’s this senior name?”

The moment Eunbin heard ‘Byun’ slip out of Gayoung and her friend’s mouths, she cursed inside her head and her jaw clenched.

Then, Jackson’s shout interrupted the girls, “Speak of the devil! That’s Byun Baekhyun!”

Eunbin didn’t want to look but her neck couldn’t snap faster enough when she heard Jackson announce Baekhyun’s arrival. The owner of the name had reached their table and hadn’t noticed her presence yet, he was high-fiving with his friends at the other end of the table.

Eunbin took a good look and her tongue went dry. Just as she thought her heart would stop working, it sped up instead at the sight of him.

It was truly the Byun Baekhyun she had in mind.

She hadn’t seen him since the day he left for university. And it had only been two and a half years. Eunbin thought that wasn’t such a long time but the length of time looked totally different on Byun Baekhyun. He was skinnier and fitter, it was obvious that he worked out from the way how broad his chest look and the veins bulged out on his forearms’ skin. His hair was jet black and was styled to show a little bit of his forehead that it made him look more dashing. Eunbin bit her bottom lip, silently feeling upset as the older boy actually grew more handsome than before.

“Here.”

Eunbin pulled her gaze from Baekhyun to the tissue in front of her which was from Soojung. She stared at her friend and found Soojung had a blank face on but her eyes were full of mischievous.

“You’re drooling. This side of your—“ Soojung cracked into laughter as her words were cut off from Eunbin’s sudden hits on her back.

The one who sat next to Gayoung also laughed, “Baekhyun is handsome, i