RA BEGINNINGS: day 1 of ra training
teaser three — "The only thing hotter than someone flexible is a girl that could put her whole fist in "

The lecture hall was filled with aspiring RA’s and fellow residence staff waiting for the orientation to begin. Some were engaging in conversation with old classmates while others were anxiously waiting or trying not to fall asleep. Donggyu made his way to the podium, waving at a few students that recognized the beloved staff member. He tapped the mic to make sure it was on before he started, “good morning everyone, welcome to the first day of a rockin two week training sesh! Woo!” He cheered into the mic waking up some of the snoozing students and getting claps and reciprocated cheers from the awake ones.

“There’s going to be a lot of information getting thrown at you these next two weeks and it might be exhausting. You don’t have to memorize it all but I want you to take it all in with an open mind and an open heart because in the end we’re all here to provide a safe and comfortable living environment for students living on-campus. Every single one of you was chosen by me to make that happen because I saw potential in all of you. So let’s make this a year to remember!” Donggyu raised his voice at the last sentence getting enthusiastic cheers from the audience once again. He looked over at Miyoon who was clapping along too from the first row and gave him two thumbs up for support. The three hour orientation consisted of multiple speakers, a basic rundown of the schedule, policies, some video messages and a ton of paperwork. Once it was all over the once flooded auditorium filtered their way out into the hallway and dispersed amongst themselves.

“Is it me or did that Donggyu dude sound like he was running for President or something,” Wonbin commented to Anthony as he walked beside him stretching his arms up in the air. “Yeah I guess, I mean I’d vote for him,” Anthony shrugged. The two made their way to their assigned classroom as instructed at the orientation. They were all split up into small groups to play ice-breaker games and get to know each other. As soon as they entered Younggi waved excitedly at them prompting them to come over, all of the Chungsam Hall RAs were already sitting together in one corner. “if we act like we don’t see her we can sit somewhere else,” Wonbin mumbled to Anthony as subtle as possible who rolled his eyes in response and dragged him over to them. The only person missing was Kyunghee, though no one knew what she looked like either.

Once Miyoon came in, they all moved the chairs to make a circle in the middle of the room. They started by going around the circle and introducing themselves then playing a game of two truths and a lie. The game goes that one person says three statements about themselves with one of them being a lie and the rest have to guess what the lie is.

Taekwon volunteered to go first, “I prefer my sandwiches with the crust, I won a physics competition in middle school by creating a film that uses simple props and hand-drawn graphics to explain Einstein’s special theory of relativity, and I got the chance to meet Michio Kaku last year at physics camp and he complimented my shirt with a physics pun. I’d say it but you guys probably wouldn’t understand it,” he took a second pause then changed his mind, “Actually I’ll say it anyways, it said spectroscopists do it with intensity and frequency.”

He chuckled at the pun that was still funny no matter how many times he said it and waited for the room to burst out into laughter but instead it was completely silent. “For those that don’t know spectroscopists measure and interpret the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation,” he explains hoping that would clear up the confusing but the room was still silent and everyone was just staring at him clueless. He sighed then continued, “It’s funny because the types of spectroscopy are distinguished by the type of radiative energy involved in the interaction. In many applications, the spectrum is determined by measuring changes in the intensity or frequency of this energy.”

Crickets could be heard outside at the silence in the room and Taekwon shrugged, “well at least Michio Kaku liked it.”

Younggi raised her hand and asked, “who’s Michio Kaku?”

Taekwon looked flabbergasted and a bit offended at the question, “only one of the most recognized theoretical physicists of our time! He co-founded string field theory!”

Younggi let out a soft oh still having no idea who or what he was talking about. Taekwon sighed, “the lie is that I prefer crust on my sandwich, you people are hopeless.” He sat down with his arms crossed in disappointment.

“Well okay then, thank you for starting it off Taekwon. Who wants to go next?” Miyoon broke the awkward silence of the room to get the game moving again. After a few rounds a timid looking girl that walked in late stood up from her seat. “I’m an only-“

“Speak up, we can’t hear you-“ a female student interrupted startling the girl who was was staring at the floor. She cleared before trying again a bit louder this time, “I’m an only child, I’m a platinum rank on League of Legends, I can fit my whole fist in my mouth.” She stood there awkwardly as the room started talking amongst themselves trying to figure out which is the lie.

“There’s no way she’s a platinum rank, do you know how hard that is?” One guy commented.

“I believe it, she doesn’t look like she goes out much,” Wonbin said glancing at the girl who kept her eyes on the floor and shifted her weight back and forth from her heels to the balls of her feet. “Now fitting a whole fist in , that’s bull,” he continued.

“Do you think that’s Kyunghee?” Haerim whispered to Younggi and she gasped, “maybe! If it is she’s pretty, I wonder why she doesn’t show her face on Kakaotalk.”

The group agreed on which is the lie and one of the students announced, “we’re going with the fist in the mouth!”

The girl shook her head, “I’m actually not a platinum rank.”

“HAh! I told you! There’s no way a girl is ranked platinum,” the guy from earlier taunted Wonbin who rolled his eyes in defeat.

“I’m a diamond rank,” the girl continued making the guy choke since diamond was even higher than platinum. She sat down and the person beside her stood up about to start but was interrupted by Wonbin, “so you’re telling me you can fit your whole fist in your mouth? Prove it then.”

The girl looked up for the first time, flustered and blushing at all the attention on her. She stood up and her lips before proceeding to put her whole fist in as gracefully as one could. The room erupted in gasps and woahs and clapping from everyone besides Taekwon who mumbled to himself, “that is so unsanitary.”

She bowed and sat back down with a slight smile, proud that she shut down two men that underestimated her in a span on 2 seconds. Across the room Wonbin was smirking at her with his arms crossed, mind running with all types of inappropriate thoughts. “Dude who is that girl?” He whispered to Anthony. “Not sure, she wasn’t here for introductions,” he replied which only made Wonbin even more intrigued.

“You came in late right? I completely forgot to ask you to introduce yourself to everyone. Just state your name, major and assigned residence hall,” Miyoon suddenly remembered as if she heard Wonbin and Anthony’s conversation. “I’m Nam Kyunghee, 2nd year computer engineering major and I’m assigned to Chungsam hall,” she said softly.

Haerim smacked Younggi’s arm in an I told you so manner and Wonbin hummed then mumbled to himself, “so you’re robot.”

They spent the next hour playing different games like assa hongsam, mafia, frying pan, palm push and cham cham cham. After the hour passed filled with laughter and friendly competition, all the students and staff went to the cafeteria to have dinner then went their separate ways for the night. They were all staying at Chungsam Hall since it was the closest to campus, each sharing rooms with the RAs that they’d be working with that year. Haerim, Younggi, and Kyunghee were all sitting on their beds talking amongst themselves. “Did you see how Wonbin was looking at you? He totally had hearts in his eyes!” Younggi said to Kyunghee who already changed to her pajamas signaling that she wasn’t planning on leaving the room.

“Wonbin is a pig, I wouldn’t touch that guy with a 10 meter pole if i were you. Unless you like STDs,” Haerim jumped in not looking up from her phone but listening attentively.

“Wait does he really have STDs?” Younggi asked. “Who knows, anyways he probably just likes the fact that she could fit her whole fist in .”

“Oh come on, he can’t be that shallow. It’s definitely because she’s pretty,” Younggi flashed a smile at Kyunghee who was blushing and yet to say a word.

“The only thing hotter than someone flexible is a girl that could put her whole fist in ,” Wonbin said getting laughter and words of agreement from a few guys that were around him. Downstairs in the lobby some of the students were gathered in the game room to pass the time. Anthony was engaged in an intense game of table tennis against an RA for one of the upperclassmen dorms, Wonbin and a few others watched the two waiting for one of them to lose so they can get a turn. They conversed amongst themselves with Taekwon going on a rant about how there are 3,200 different germs on your hand and he wondered if Kyunghee bothered to wash her hands before pulling such a stunt. But Wonbin’s mind was elsewhere, “I can’t believe fist girl is robot, she definitely seemed into me right?” He asked Anthony who was mid-game.

“She didn’t even say a word to you dude,” Anthony said as he hit the ball out of bounce and groaned in disappointment. “She did look at him when she put her fist in his mouth, seemed like flirting to me,” Anthony’s opponent chimed in.

“That’s what I’m saying! She totally wants me. Trust me, by the end of these two weeks she’ll be all over me.” Wonbin said confidently, not noticing the side eye from Anthony.

“Do you think he’s cute?” Younggi asked as she shifted to lay on her stomach, chin resting comfortably on her palms. Kyunghee’s shoulders raised a bit at the sudden question, her nose scrunched and she shrugged uncertainly. Younggi squealed and hugged the pillow as if she was watching the leads of a drama kiss for the first time after 10 episodes, “that’s not a no!”

Haerim shook her head in disapproval, knowing Wonbin’s track record she foresaw the whole thing and it wasn’t pretty. “Let’s do a tarot reading on it!” She offered.

As the night went by, all the RAs returned to their rooms to turn in for the night. Day one of training went off without a hitch, a fun day of getting to know each other and making friends. But will the same be said for the next thirteen days to come, one can only hope.

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