“I’m not going to lead a club about making cookies!” Hongjoong screamed at San two hours before the first club meeting. “Are you insane?!”

 

Ever since last week after realizing San had made a typo and now people were signed up for this so-called Cookie Club, Hongjoong had been stressed about what they were going to do and has conveniently tried to forget about the incident until just two minutes ago when San reminded him about the meeting.

 

“But a lot of those people look scary so if we cancel they’re going to find me and beat me up!” San screamed back at him, pretending to sob. “I thought we were friends!”

 

Hongjoong pinched the bridge of his nose, forcing himself to take a deep breath. “So what are we going to do in this goddamn Cookie Club? Give them cookies every meeting and just do random ?”

 

“We can still do what we had planned for the Rookie Club,” San suggested. “ While we teach them how to make cookies!”

 

“What the- I don’t know how to make cookies!” Hongjoong yelled at him. “And where are we going to get money for the ingredients, anyways?!”

 

San shrugged. “If I knew any chaebols I would ask- hold on!” He took out his phone and started texting. “Seonghwa owes me a favor-”

 

Hongjoong rolled his eyes at the name of that idiot. Seonghwa always gave him a headache, with his stupid phrases and his constant flirting. “Seonghwa says he has practice soon, he’s not going to answer you,” he said, rubbing his temples. “We have to cancel-”

 

“NO!!” San fell on his knees, grabbing Hongjoong’s hands. “We have to make the Rookie Club work!! It’s just now there’s cookies involved, we can do this!”

 

“Oh really?” Hongjoong let go of San’s hands and crossed his arms. “How are we going to do that?”
 

 

***

 

Si Cheng was laying on his dorm bed, typing on his phone. He finished all his assignments for his classes today with enough time to spare, though he was feeling hungry; the constant rumbling of his stomach was reminding him every five minutes. 

 

He was texting one of the guys that he met last week, a Japanese upperclassmen named Yuta. He had been really nice to him during the whole ordeal last week, and asked for his snap chat which soon led to a constant chat between them going. 

 

Right now, Yuta was reminding him of the Cookie Club meeting in half an hour, the club they both signed up for during the clubs presentation event. Yuta was a big fan of anything chocolate related, he said, and was really looking forward to learning about how to make cookies, which is what he assumed what the club was about. 

 

Si Cheng had been confused. Didn’t the two upperclassmen say something about it being called Rookie Club or something like that? Why was Yuta talking about cookies?

 

Why do you keep mentioning cookies? he sent to him on snap, waiting for a reply. All this cookie talk from Yuta was making him hungry. It was too late to head to the dining hall now, so he was going to have to wait until the meeting was over. 

 

Yuta soon sent him a new message. I mean the sign said Cookie Club in English, he typed back. So I’m assuming it’s about making cookies? What did they tell you?

 

They said something about Rookies, Si Cheng answered truthfully. They never mentioned to me about cookies . 

 

He could see Yuta typing and deleting his message over and over, before finally sending a message. Interesting. Eh, we’ll just have to see, but I’m still expecting a cookie. Do you want to head over together?

 

***

 

Bobby took out his Tupperware container of cold pizza slices that he had stolen from the dining hall earlier and started munching on a slice, ing around on his phone. 

 

College had been a really different experience then what he expected. The professors in his classes tried to act “cool” to try to relate to the students, and they all talked really fast about random concepts Bobby had no idea of.

 

How did college students have time to party? His professors have already given him a ton of homework and went to bed sobbing at 2am Friday after telling his mother everything was going really easy. God, how Bobby hated thinking. 

 

At least this week was going better. He did have one essay that his seminar class had already assigned to him, but the outline wasn’t due until Friday, so Bobby had plenty of time to do it, it was going to be easy, he was sure of it. 

 

He took another bite of his pepperoni pizza, wondering where the hell was everyone. The meeting was supposed to start in fifteen minutes in this classroom and no one had showed up yet. He was pretty sure other people had signed up, but who knows, maybe he was the only one who showed up. 

 

Bobby continued eating his pizza, not caring about the time when someone walked past the opened door, only to walk backwards when they saw Bobby alone in the classroom. 

 

Bobby had his mouth open, ready to take another bite when he saw the confused person. “Hello?”

 

“Are you supposed to be here for the Cookie Club?” the stranger asked him. 

 

“Uh, yeah, no one’s here yet,” Bobby said, shrugging. “I got hungry.”

 

The stranger looked at the plaque outside the door. “This is the wrong classroom.”

 

Bobby’s eyes widened. “What do you mean, this is the wrong classroom?”

 

“The meeting is on the third floor, not the first floor,” the stranger explained. “It’s just weird seeing someone just… eating in an empty classroom.”

 

“How am I supposed to trust you?” Bobby said, eyes squinting. “What if this is a prank and the Cookie Club is a big lie?”

 

“Woah, woah, I signed up, too, name’s Hanbin,” the guy Hanbin said, raising his hands. “Forgive me for wanting to eat a snickerdoodle right now.”

 

Bobby continued to glare at him until sighing in defeat, putting his pizza slice back in the Tupperware container. “If no one’s upstairs, I’m going to beat your ,” he said, getting up from his seat.

 

Hanbin just shrugged. He was used to freshmen giving him insults to try to look tough. “Sure, go ahead buddy-”

 

“It’s Bobby , not buddy,” Bobby corrected him, walking past him. “I came here for my cookie, I’m going to get a cookie.”

 

“Yep, so did I,” Hanbin said, following Bobby. “That makes two of us.”
 

***

 

Hyunggu was one of the last one to enter the classroom, the room filled with chatter of people. 

 

It looked like a lot of people here joined with a friend, as he thought it was weird that people were so eager to talk to each other. Some of them looked scary in his opinion, but at least they all had something in common: cookies!

 

He sat down in a chair apart from the rest, holding onto his backpack straps. He had just come back from the library after checking it out, marveling at how tall and big the building was. There must have been thousands, no, maybe millions of books in that big library, not even including the tiny libraries in each college. 

 

College was going to be a breeze here, he thought happily. What could be so bad about a university that had a cookie club?

 

Well, he thought it was the cookie club. He had no idea what the two friends started arguing about that day during the club event, so he just signed and walked away quickly, not wanting to get involved between them.

 

He didn’t see those two upperclassmen when he walked in, though someone after him quickly rushed in, saw Hyunggu first thing, and sat down next to him. 

 

“Hey,” he said, extending a hand out. “I’m Yuto, you?”

 

“Uh, I’m good,” Hyunggu said, hesitating to shake the guy’s hand only when he realized what he just said. “No, wait, that’s not what I meant-”

 

The guy - Yuto - laughed at him. “Okay, Good, it’s nice to meet you.”

 

“No, I’m not- no, my name’s Kino,” Hyunggu said, using his nickname. His mother always told him not to give his name to strangers, so he always introduced himself as Kino. “I’m Kino.”

 

Yuto waved him off. “I’m just playing,” he said, crossing his arms and looking at the board. The two guys still haven’t shown up yet. “I’m really in a mood for a cookie right now.”

 

Hyunggu nodded. He always had a penchant for sweets, though his mother never allowed him to have any. Cookies were his absolute favorite, so he was excited for finally being able to learn how to make some. “Me too,” he said, sighing. 

 

He could really use a cookie right now. 

 

At that moment, the two guys that had been in the event came in, one carrying a big box. “LISTEN UP, ES!” The shorter one said. “If you guys want a cookie, you better behave.”

 

“Don’t call me a ,” one of the guys in the back said. “I don’t even know you-”

 

“I call everyone a , you ain’t special- San, set the box of cookies down,” the short guy said. 

The one named San set the box on the main desk in the front of the room. “I brought whoopie pies, so if you don’t like them, that’s your problem.”

 

“Some good hospitality,” a guy wearing a black hoodie said behind Hyunggu. 

 

“Okay, so I don’t care what this club is called anymore,” San said, writing some English words on the board. “But if you came here to steal free cookies, you are sorely mistaken. I have negative three dollars after buying my textbooks and loans that are going to bite me in the so we’re going to establish some rules here-”

 

“San, get on with it,” his short friend said. 

 

“FIRST of all,” San yelled at them, lifting up a finger. “We are going to be making a different type of cookie each week. We are not perfect, so if your batch comes out ugly as , that’s not my problem, I got exams to study for,” San explained. He lifted up a second finger. “SECOND of all, everyone’s going to cooperate for ingredients-”

 

“I knew free food was too good to be true,” Hyunggu heard Yuto mutter under his breath. 

 

“Uh, Hongjoong, what were the rest of the rules we just made up earlier?” San asked his friend, Hongjoong.

 

Hongjoong sighed, opening the box of cookies. They were indeed whoopie pies, like San had said. “Look, this was going to be the Rookie Club but San here decided to be an idiot with the sign so now we’re responsible for giving you guys cookies for an entire semester, you guys can thank him-”

 

“THANKS, SAN!” someone yelled, only to get hit by his friend. “HOSEOK, WHAT THE -”

 

Hongjoong rubbed his face vigorously with his hands, groaning. “Okay, let’s introduce ourselves, I guess-”

 

At least five people in the room groaned. 

 

“No, if you guys want free cookies, you’ll give me your names!” San shouted, pointing at the guy in the back who said not to call him a . “You, hoe! What’s your name?”

 

The guy sighed, realizing he’s never going to win. “It’s Junhoe, not hoe, but thank you, I’ll keep you in mind when I want to someone-”

 

“JOKES ON YOU, THOT!” San shouted at him, grabbing a whoopie pie. “I’m straight, ha!”

 

“San, your bi,” Hongjoong reminded him.

 

San shrugged. “uality is fluid and so is the blood flowing through your body which will be spilled in one second-”

 

“ANYWAYS! If you guys want a cookie line up,” Hongjoong told the whole group, with almost everyone immediately getting in line to grab a cookie. “Well, that was quicker than expected-”

 

Hyunggu decided to wait until everyone got up, with Yuto giving him a weird look. “Aren’t you going to get a cookie?” he asked him. 

 

Hyunggu shook his head. “I can wait, I don’t want to intrude on the others-”

 

“YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO GRAB FIVE!” San was screaming at one of the guys. “I’M NOT THAT RICH-”

 

“WELL, I AM, , IT UP-”
 

***

 

At night, Wooyoung was closing up the cafe, sighing. 

 

Despite having drunken three espressos today to stay awake, he was pretty sure he was going to fall dead any second now. Add to the fact that Hyojong didn’t show up today because his boyfriend and girlfriend both got sick so he had to take care of them, leaving Wooyoung to work double during his shift. 

 

He finished brooming the floor and was about to lock everything when he noticed one of the cookie displays. The displays always had to be thrown away at the end of the day, which is why the cafe owner, Chanwoo, always told them to take them for it not to go to waste. 

 

Eating too much sweets often gave Wooyoung a stomach ache, but he couldn’t help but feel sad for those cookies on the display. There were whoopie pies that people in the cafe didn’t seem to like; everyone always went to the chocolate chip or the sugar cookies. 

 

He took a paper bag and put all the cookies in there, deciding to take them home. It didn’t hurt to have a cookie every once in a while.