“Mom, you really don’t- mom, you really don’t need to do that-” Bobby said, trying to grab the bedsheets from his mother. “Uh, mom-”

 

“Nonsense, Jiwon, let me handle this for you.” She laid out the bedsheets for him, ignoring his pleas of him claiming he was an adult now. “Knowing you, you’ll leave this dorm room messy in a week.”

 

Bobby groaned but didn’t say anything. His family was pretty excited that their oldest out of five kids was heading to college, even though he had always struggled academically to do well. It wasn’t easy, but he busted his during high school and somehow managed to get B’s, and a good scholarship that involved him making a video and winning first place covered a lot of his tuition on this place. 

 

His father had taken his four younger siblings out for ice cream, since it would be too cramped in here if they were all present. His mom did say they could all come in when it was finished, which is why she was trying to help Bobby arrange everything. 

 

“You should buy some plants here,” she said, adding the pillows on the bed. “Spruce up this room. I know you can’t hang pins but maybe there’s something else you can do, lights or-”

 

“Mom, I’m not going to buy a plant,” Bobby said. “It’ll die in here anyways. Plus, I’m still waiting for my roommate anyways.”

 

Ah, the dreaded roommate. Bobby was in a double, like most college students, and had yet to meet his roommate. They should have been here around the same time, so his roommate, the mysterious Jinhwan that he never contacted with the entire summer, is officially thirty minutes late. 

 

Bobby could only hope this was a one-time thing. If college was indeed as hard as other people say, his roommate might be ed. 

 

***

 

“Another year to be dead inside,” Yuto muttered, collapsing on his bed. It had been a busy week, trying to get settled in. Thank god he was a sophomore and didn’t have to deal with the moving-in shenanigans that the freshmen were dealing with today. 

 

Yanan, unliked someone in their shared dorm room, took off his shoes first before collapsing on the adjacent bed. “It’s not like you did anything productive last year, anyways.”

 

“Excuse you, I was the leader of the Japan Club,” Yuto reminded his idiotic friend. “What did you do? Nothing.”

 

“I still had a social life, though,” Yanan retorted back at him. “Plus, me and Changgu have been steady for six months now.”

 

“Oh, you’re not going to be steady in the next five seconds if you keep talking .” Yuto sighed. “Man, can’t wait till next year when we get to have an apartment.”

 

Yanan sat up on his bed. “That reminds me, actually.” He took out his phone and started scrolling through it, ignoring a half-dead Yuto groaning about his muscle aches. “You know Shinwon, Changgu’s friend? He’s been helping out a lot of freshmen this week and said he if we wanted to head out to an event they’re having later today, you know, as upperclassmen to say ‘this university is great’.”

 

Yuto glared at Yanan. “You want me to lie to the youth? How despicable of you, let’s do it.”

 

***

 

“This is really stupid,” Yoongi said in the 40 celisius heat, wearing his black hoodie and basketball shorts. “Why did you drag me here?”

 

“Because we both volunteered to help the freshmen,” Namjoon reminded him, taking one last sip of his boba tea drink before dunking it in the nearest trash can. “Where’s Hoseok, he never takes this long.”

 

Yoongi pretended to look at his watch, even though he didn’t have one on. “The excruciating heat comes here-”

 

“HEY GUYS!” They turned around to see Hoseok, wearing his normal headband on his forehead, dressed like he just went for a one. That would explain the sweat on his face, though they were in the middle of the sweltering heat as well. “What did I miss?”

 

“I wore a hoodie because I was cold and now I’m dying,” Yoongi complained. “And no, I can’t take it off because I didn’t wear anything underneath.”

 

Hoseok covered his mouth, trying not to laugh. “Don’t worry, hyung, I’ll buy you a drink if you want.” He dug through his pockets and pulled out a five dollar bill, sprinting away to the boba truck a few yards from him, the exact same one Namjoon had bought a drink from earlier. 

 

Namjoon rolled his eyes at Yoongi, who was wiping sweat off his forehead. “Still think he’s not in love with you?”

 

“No, because Hoseok is a really great friend, and it would be dumb of me to believe our feelings are reciprocated.” Yoongi took out his phone. “How long does this thing last again?”

 

“Yoongi, we’re still missing two hours-”

 

“TWO HOURS-”

 

Hoseok came back to them, balancing three drinks in his hands. “I got you the tapioca, Namjoon, and Yoongi, your favorite, passionfruit.”

 

Even though Namjoon just finished his drink a few minutes ago, the heat made him thirsty again. “Thanks, bud,” Namjoon said, taking the drink from Hoseok. “You’re a lifesaver.”

 

“That’s a candy, dumb ,” Yoongi said, taking the passionfruit boba tea. “Don’t listen to him, Hobi, he’s the one who dragged us here in the first place.”

 

“Yoongi, you worry too much.” Hoseok took a sip of his drink, mango, before grabbing onto Yoongi’s hand and pulling him forward. “Come on, let’s go sign up for some clubs!”
 

***

 

“Why is no one signing up for our club?” San said, sighing as he rested his head on his palms. Him and his friend, Hongjoong, had been at their table for a good hour now, and no one was walking up to them.

 

Hongjoong started drawing on the signup sheet, thankful that he had a hat on to protect himself from the heat. “It’s like no one is reading our sign for the Rookie Club anyways to help rookies.”

 

“Definitely not,” San said, only to slam his hand on Hongjoong’s mouth when he saw someone walk up to their table. 

 

The guy, taller than Hongjoong, that’s for sure, was looking at them, curiously. “Are you a club?” he asked.

 

“Yeah, we’re the Rookie club,” Hongjoong explained. “San would have called it the noob club but knowing people on campus, they would be offended, so we just call it rookie.”

 

The guy nodded. “Oh, okay, I was just asking since you guys didn’t have a sign,” he said. “But what do you guys do?”

 

“We just want to help new-comers with anyways,” Hongjoong continued. “I thought this would be a good club, especially for a freshman. You’re a freshman, right?”

 

“Yeah, I’m Si Cheng,” the guy, Si Cheng, said.

 

“Hold on, did you say we don’t have a sign?!” San exclaimed. “Hongjoong, the sign! No wonder no one is coming up to us.”

 

“The sign was your job, idiot! You got it printed at the library!” 

 

San pouted. “Don’t yell at me.” He took off his backpack from the ground and ped it, rummaging through his folders as Hongjoong gave Si Cheng a pen to sign up. “FOUND IT!”

 

He jumped out of his seat to tape it up on the table. “I have it in English so that it can look cooler,” he exclaimed proudly. “The Rookie Club.”

 

Si Cheng bowed to them, saying goodbye until he bumped into someone, falling into the ground. 

 

“Oh, my gosh, are you okay?” the newcomer said, helping Si Cheng get off the ground. “I’m so sorry, I just really love cookies so I came here to check out.”

 

Si Cheng shook his head. “I’m okay, sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” he said, bowing. “I just wanted to sign up.”

 

“Oh, no worries, looks like we’ll be club mates.” The guy extended his hand. “I’m Yuta.”

 

Si Cheng grinned, shaking it. “Si Cheng.”

 

“YAY! We have two new people at the Rookie Club!” Hongjoong exclaimed, passing the pen to Yuta, interrupting his moment with Si Cheng. “Please fill out here!”

 

Yuta took the pen and quickly filled out his contact info. “I hope there’s chocolate chip cookies at the first meeting,” he said, setting the pen down when he was done. “What’s your favorite type of cookie?” he asked Si Cheng.

 

“Oh, I love the ones with white chocolate,” he said, making an ‘oh’ face and pulling out a crumpled napkin from his pocket. “I forgot I had cookies with me, another table was handing them out.”

 

The two walked away together, leaving San and Hongjoong alone, only when two more people came by, carrying drinks in their hands, one dragging the other one with him. 

 

“Look Yoongi, let’s sign up for this one!” The taller one said, taking one last sip of his drink before setting it down. “You guys have the best club name here at the university.”

 

San beamed. “Thank you, you guys are some of the only ones who have dared to visit.”

 

“Hoseok, you shouldn’t have too much sugar,” the guy named Yoongi said. “It’s bad for you-”

 

“Nonsense, I burn it all up by running,” Hoseok said, setting the pen down to grab his drink. “Bye! Hope you guys have a nice day!”

 

The two left just as quickly as they had come. 

 

“That’s weird, they didn’t ask what we did,” Hongjoong said. “Interesting.”

 

By the end of the event, nine people had signed up; the four from earlier, Junhoe, Yuto, Hanbin, Bobby, and Hyunggu.

 

Hyunggu was the last one to show up, pointing at the sign. “Why are you guys making a Cookie Club?” he asked. “You guys make cookies? That sounds fun!”

 

“No, no, it’s English for the Rookie Club,” Hongjoong corrected him. “We’re a club for newcomers, not cookies.”

 

Hyunggu frowned. “I thought ‘cookie’ was cookie in English.”

 

“That- that does mean cookie, I think,” Hongjoong mumbled under his breath, leaning over to take the sign off the side of the table. “Let me check-”

 

His eyes widened when he saw the English letters on it. “SAN!”

 

San looked up from his phone. “What?”

 

“I said to be very careful when writing the sign in English!” Hongjoong yelled at him. He shoved the sign to San’s face. “What does this say?”

 

San squinted at it before eyes widening in realization. “That explained all the people earlier signing up-"

 

“WHAT?!”

***

 

Wooyoung stared at the clock at the cafe. 

 

It was past 11 PM, but yet the cafe was as busy as ever, probably thanks to all the freshmen that arrived today. Wooyoung was also a freshman like them, but his family lived nearby, so he got to live at home instead of the dorms. It saved money, thankfully, which was a blessing considering all the loans he had to get in order to afford going to the university. 

 

He prepared another order, a frappe with a lot of pumps of caramel and some drizzle on it. He handed it to his coworker, Hyojong, who often looked dead inside half the time.

 

“Frappe’s done,” Wooyoung said, Hyojong taking it with a nod. 

 

“Can you do these orders?” Hyojong asked him, handing him five more slips of papers. “A group of people came in. Oh, I forgot to mention, but order 345 wanted vanilla bubbles, order 346 with the name Aron wanted extra espresso pumps. And add a ton of caramel drizzle for order 347 named Xiao-”

 

“Is the machine running out of ink again?” Wooyoung asked, looking at the slips that were indeed very faded. “God dang it, tell Chanwoo that we need to fix it.”

 

“Got it.” Hyojong turned back to the register, grabbing a medium cup. “What did you want me to write on your cup again?”

 

“Oh, atzv-”

 

***

 

After signing up for the Cookie Club earlier, Junhoe got the sudden urge to eat a cookie.

 

There was a place nearby, called Insomnia Cookies, that sold cookies during the middle of the night. They were the best that have ever existed on this Earth. The softest, tastiest cookies that you would ever have in your entire life. 

 

He ordered a dozen cookies, his favorite being the caramel apples, so head grabbed one out of the box, the cookie immediately melting in his mouth as he closed it again to head back to the dorm.

 

Hopefully the Cookie Club will make good cookies like these. He doesn’t remember how much money he has spent on these cookies his freshmen year, and now he was a junior. Thank god his family was rich, his dad a well-off CEO and his mother a model.

 

Still though, the cookies were in popular demand and always getting out of stock. It would be useful to learn how to make some. God sent him the Cookie Club at the right time.