Another boring day at university as a freshman.

 

“JUNGEUNNIEEEEEEE~~~”

 

Scratch that. Another boring but NOISY day at university as a freshman.

 

As I was thinking that, the girl who yelled my name which resounded throughout the whole hallway, Kim Jiwoo, latched herself onto me and ALMOST knocked me over from behind. Thankfully I managed to maintain my balance.

 

“Jiwoo… you know you’re embarrassing the both of us right?”

 

She gave me a light headbutt and I rubbed the back of my head in reflex as she let go of me and walked right in front of me, “I’d rather be embarrassing and bright than be brooding like you as always geez. This is why you don’t have friends!”

 

“I do have friends! What the heck are you saying?!”

 

“OH YEAH? NAME ME SOME!”

 

“I--…”

 

She honestly has got a point… I’m… actually socially awkward after a certain incident in my life… but then this idiot grinning from ear to ear before me kinda ‘saved’ me before I succumbed to ‘darkness’ even further during high school. She has been my best friend ever since.

 

I let out a sigh.

 

“Yeah yeah you win.”

 

Her chest puffed out with pride, “Hehe~ you tried Jungie~”

 

I groaned before I noticed she had a piece of paper in her hand and pointed at it, “What’s that Jiwoo?”

 

“Oh!” she waved the paper excitedly in front of my face, “It’s a flyer for the drama club! I wanna join!!”

 

“Cool. Good for you.”

 

“Don’t give me such a nonchalant response!” Jiwoo exclaimed, “I’m not joining alone—I’m making YOU join me!”

 

I rolled my eyes, “Jiwoo… we’ve gone through this before… I already said I didn’t want to do anything extra in uni. Just passing my classes and do a part-time job or something and that’s it…”

 

“That’s SO BORING, Jungie!” She pouted in frustration, “Come on, we both know you’re super good at acting since we did that Romeo and Juliet play during high school—”

She HAD to remind me of that embarrassing moment. During our final year of high school, the class basically, as a joke, made Jiwoo, Romeo and me, Juliet. I had absolutely no say in it because our homeroom teacher was convinced by the whole class that our dynamics would be entertaining or some nonsense like that… and she had also ‘bribed’ me with extra marks if I took on the role… so I did.

 

And honestly, the only reason why I could act so well is because Jiwoo told me to channel her personality into me and vice versa. It was tough but we were the talk of the school for a bit. I didn’t exactly appreciate the attention since I had literal fanboys and fangirls but Jiwoo loved immersing herself in an ‘idol-like’ life, as she put it.  

 

“That was a one-off thing, Jiwoo. You know that!”

 

“Still!! I have pride in that okay???” She crossed her arms and pouted, “… I was just proud to see you break out of your comfort zone for once…” Jiwoo’s voice trailed off.

 

“You what--?”

 

“Anyways!” Jiwoo carefully folded the piece of paper and chucked it into the pocket of her jacket before clinging onto my arm and ready to drag me off to God-knows-where, “We’re going! Now!”

 

“Going where???”

 

“To the drama club room! Let’s just go have a peek pretty pleaseeeeeee~”

 

I groaned again and eventually just sighed in defeat, “Okay fine. A peek. I’m not joining though.” We’re still pretty new here so I haven’t exactly been to the extracurricular activity wing of our university yet. Guess it’s good time to.

 

“Geez you’re SO annoying!” She tugged on me to start walking off with her, “Let’s go!”

 

Of course when we were on our merry way to the drama club room, I had no expectations of running into any familiar faces. I came to this university for the music production course here and Jiwoo tagged along since she was adamant on wanting to be with me. Plus well, she did want to go into music production too.

 

I guess everything changed that day. The day we visited the drama club.

 

Jiwoo nervously gulped before robotically letting go of my arm and knocking shyly on the door of the drama club.

 

A senior came to the door… a familiar-looking senior in fact…

 

“Hello there, welcome to the drama cl--… oh?”

 

The beautiful shoulder-length hair senior looked straight into my eyes after greeting Jiwoo. It felt like time stopped between us. I know for a fact she had the same thoughts going in her mind.

 

“This girl looks awfully familiar…”

 

“Umm! We want to sit in and view the drama club’s activities today and—umm…?” I could feel Jiwoo literally looking back and forth between me and her nonstop before I broke the silence.

 

“Sorry if this sounds rude but… have we met before…?”

 

“I wanted to ask the same thing actually…” She looked like she was pondering for a few seconds before it felt like a eureka moment struck over her and she looked at me in shock, “Oh no you’re…”

 

I looked at her, confused.

 

But that was when another person from inside the room came to us… a definite familiar face.

 

“What’s up Romsae? You’re taking ages at the door--… you…”

 

I felt my heart drop to my stomach in that instant. I literally felt my eyes were about to pop out with the amount of shock I’m experiencing before me.

 

“J-Jungie…? You okay?” Jiwoo held my hand and shaking it a bit which quickly calmed me down for a moment as I nodded quietly in response.

 

“… It’s been a long time, Kim Jungeun.”

 

“Y-Yeah… it has… Gyuri-unnie.”

 

“E-Eh?” Jiwoo squeaked, “You both know each other? Wait,” Jiwoo pushed me back a little and stood right in front of me, “When did you ever have senior friends, Jungie?!”

 

“I--…”

 

“Seems like she hasn’t told you much has she?” Gyuri-unnie snickered.

 

I could feel Jiwoo’s confused gaze burning my skin and rightfully so… I never told her about the reason why I decided to close myself off. She surprisingly had never badgered me on about it either… so it just… slipped my mind.

 

“I have to leave Jiwoo. I can’t be here.”

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter