It was once again the fault of Byunghun when I awoke this very morning. The bed shook as he tried his hardest to be quiet but when he saw my eyes staring at him from the bottom bunk he gave up and sighed.

“Look I have somewhere I need to be this morning but I’ll be around for our job hunting and all that fun stuff. Everyone said they were meeting up after Minsoo’s class at the cafeteria for an early lunch around eleven thirty so you have some time to get ready before going. Sorry for waking you up.” Byunghun explained rather quickly and went to get ready while I just stared at him and sighed. I didn’t know whether I wanted to go back to sleep but the decision was made for me when I dozed off until after I heard the door shut signaling Byunghun’s escape and complete silence followed after that.

Was it going to become a daily routine of Byunghun’s to leave early in the morning and go to some unknown random place that no one seemed to know about? “Maybe I need to sleep earlier so I don’t lose sleep over this.” I muttered to myself and lazily drug myself out of bed and noticed it being nine thirty-five in the morning. If we were all meeting at the cafeteria at eleven thirty then I had two hours of free time to kill with no homework to do and nothing but the boredom of my room to keep me company.

My mom had insisted that I brought only the bare necessities for this because I could have had a random crazy roommate who could steal my things or attempt to kill me with a pencil—yeah my mom is quite imaginative. But now I’m stuck in a boring room with a cool roommate who randomly leaves places with no explanation but a ‘Sorry’ and a ‘I’ll see you later’ but once again I have no right to even question him or tell him to stay to be around me.

I glanced at the time and only saw ten minutes went by and sighed knowing this morning was going to be long and boring before we all got together. I took a shower first and changed into clean clothing and decided it was a good time to read the next diary entry and get on with my life.

The daily routine of me sliding my hand under my pillow seemed like it was something I’ve done my whole life and not just a week of it. Seven whole days here a whole week and here I was still moping over the past and wishing with all of my heart and soul for my one and only girl to be here.

Dear Diary,

                Today signifies the holidays! Yay winter vacation just started today and for once I couldn’t be even sadder by it! A whole two months without seeing my crush every day in class? How will I ever handle things?! Whoa I really am a girl if I’m stressing over something stupid like that, haha. Song invited me to go on vacation with her family for a few weeks in another part of South Korea but it hasn’t been decided where yet. I won’t be bringing you along but I will fill you up with amazing details about the trip when I get back and prove that I can have a whole entry away from Chanhee  my secret crush. So far my high school experience has been exactly what everyone said it was, study study study some friends and more study. I’m hoping for more things to happen on my second semester but I can’t really hope for too much. Since it has been a while since I updated this thing I guess I should say a bit more about my crush and what happened after our ‘date’. He started talking to me more in class and even set up random study dates with me once in a while but nothing really changed between us. We didn’t go on another date and we didn’t talk about it which makes me wonder if he didn’t like me the way he thought he did and backed off. Oh well maybe it is about time to forget about him and move on to another cute boy in my school—except he was the best and still is number one. Gosh I hate being a girl some times. Oh well I’ll update this when I get back! See you!

--Soo Young

Reminiscing about the past seemed to happen quite often when I opened this book but I couldn’t help but remember everything about those few weeks she spoke about in the entry. I went on the defensive mode after our date and acted more like a friend than anything else thinking she didn’t like me how I liked her and wanted to gain her trust by being friends before asking her out—apparently I was wrong. I wanted to be different with her, I didn’t want her to be like all the other girls I went out with, all the other girls I kissed and didn’t care about after a week. I wanted her to be the one and I was testing myself more than her to see if I really liked her and by the time I realized it I was lucky enough to not be too late. Maybe she’ll mention when I asked her out and what I did to do it since it was a pretty memorable day for me and her.

I wanted so eagerly to read the next entry and the next and the next but I stopped myself and closed the book and stuffed it under my pillow before I could read another word. I had to pace myself and stick to the once per day thing I had going on. I looked at the time once more and sighed again when it wasn’t time to meet up yet but still stood up and left the room to get away from the memories flooding my mind.

I walked down the blue stairs and entered the very blue lobby and looked at it glancing from the pool table to the foosball machine watching the boys from the dorm play against each other having a good time and laughing. It was then that I noticed Daniel sitting by himself on the couch that I had first met him at. I remembered vaguely that Minsoo was his roommate and wondered if he was as lonely as I was since his roommate was gone as well.

He seemed to notice me staring at him and smiled in my direction before lifting up his arm to wave at me slightly and putting it back down. He seemed lost in thought and very calm—which was unusual for Daniel even in the morning.

“Hey.” He muttered and moved over for me to have a spot on the couch. I sat beside him and turned to face him but didn’t know if I should ask him what was wrong or wait for him to speak his mind.

Finally after an awkward silence I opened my mouth and said the first thing to come to mind, “Hey.”

“Where is L. Joe?” He asked and I thanked him for taking away the awkward silence that was about to swallow us up again.

“He left this morning saying he had something to do.” I replied still thinking in the back of my mind where he could be going after only a week here.

“Seems strange he never leaves unannounced like that, I bet he has a secret.” Daniel added on to my suspicion by giving me that thought to think about. Maybe he really was the crazy random roommate my mom believes he is and he is secretly plotting ways to get rid of me and have the room all to himself for the rest of the semester…okay so I admit my mom isn’t the only imaginative person in the family.

“Or maybe he just needed to be somewhere…two days in a row.” I didn’t help my case of defending and gave up switching subjects, “So you ready to be looking for a job today?”

“I was thinking about working at the karaoke or somewhere where I can sing a lot.” Daniel smiled and it seemed like his usual personality was coming back. “This is something I’ve been practicing a lot and I really want to make something of it.”

“Why not start a pop band? Those bands are very popular these days.” I laughed and thought of Soo Young’s obsession with Super Junior.

“Like I could find people to join me in something like that.” Daniel sighed again and his depressed look came back—okay so talking about starting pop bands is not a good way to continue a conversation with Daniel gotcha.

“Why not ask your—our friends.”

“They don’t have any singing abilities, well at least not like mine.” Daniel argued but quickly defended them to make sure he wasn’t being mean about anything.

“They don’t have to only sing well, what about rapping? Dancing? Being a visual?” I suggested suddenly interested in this idea and liking it a bit more than I should. Back when we went to karaoke they were surprised by my singing voice but I didn’t think much of it until now—maybe I could be in a famous band, maybe I could really start something with Daniel!

“Well Minsoo and Byunghun do like to rap together, once L. Joe wrote a song for my birthday and everyone sang and rapped to it.” He smiled at the memory or at least it seemed like it since he looked distant for a second with that silly smile on his lips.

“And?” I questioned further in hopes of getting something for Jonghyun and Changhyun.

“Jonghyun won a dancing contest back in 10^th grade and woo’d everyone in school by his amazing skills.” Daniel kept that same smile and continued, “Changhyun was in something when he was a kid, well me as well but he seemed like a good actor and he has that natural youth look to him.”

“See you have enough for a band! If you guys practiced and worked hard after school and before work I bet any company would be willing to take you.” I encouraged him and brought my fist up, “Fighting.”

“You know what?! That sounds amazing!” Daniel nearly shouted but then quieted down when he realized he was still in the lobby surrounded by people. “But what if they don’t want to?” He questioned and immediately frowned.

“Didn’t you guys talk about it last week when I first came here they seemed to really like the idea and even made plans to make something for fun, I bet if you actually brought it up as a serious matter they would love the idea.” I added in remembering the time at the karaoke bar when they all complimented my singing abilities. I remember them mentioning me but here it felt like I was left out—maybe I wasn’t as good as they said and they were only being nice to me.

“Today seems like a good time since everyone will be together.” Daniel rose back up and stood up and offered his hand to me, I took it and stood up beside him. “Let’s go it’s almost time to go meet up with everyone, thank you Chunji it is great to have a friend like you.”

I faked my smile this time and nodded to him unable to say anything about it and just followed him. I felt sad and almost unwanted but at the same time I felt excited and happy. I helped Daniel get back into a good mood but it hurt when he didn’t mention me in his plans. I’ve barely known these five for a week so of course they weren’t going to add me in just like that. It took time to gain trust and a good friendship not just a week who was I kidding? I was just happy to have friends who actually cared about me.

I lingered on those thoughts until we reached the table and I snapped out of it when I saw Jonghyun and Changhyun already at the table with Byunghun on the other side. Daniel and I quickly took our seats, me next to Byunghun and Daniel next to Changhyun.

“How is everyone this morning?” I asked hoping to get my mind off of what had just happened.

“Great.” Byunghun answered a bit too quickly with a huge smile on his face and unable to hide the radiating happiness coming from him.

“Good.” Jonghyun yawned but smiled all the same and showed that he had yet to do anything this morning.

“I couldn’t sleep last night.” Changhyun groaned and hit his head slightly on the table then whining that it hurt and attempting to sleep on the table before giving up and groaning some more. Jonghyun just smacked him upside the head and told him to stop staying up late getting high scores on his games.

Once Minsoo showed up the conversations started and the whole table erupted into laughter and funny jokes. We all chose something to eat for lunch since it was so close to noon anyways and joked about a few things here and there in between bites. After the food was mostly gone Daniel decided to speak up about his plan from before.

“Hey guys you know how last week when we went to the karaoke we all jokingly talked about starting a band?” Daniel piped up and the whole group quieted down and started listening to him.

“Yeah, what about it?” Jonghyun answered when it felt like Daniel was only going to speak again if someone talked.

“Well I was talking to Chunji earlier—“ He glanced at me with a huge smile on his big lips, “And I thought maybe we could actually be serious about it!” He concluded and his smile grew even wider while waiting for everyone to think about it.

“Well—“ Byunghun first spoke up while shifting his eyes back and forth, “I’m not sure if we have the time or skill to actually do something like that seriously. Sure it would be fun but we’re in college and looking for jobs, that’s a bit too hard.” It seemed like he wasn’t only thinking about school and work but I didn’t speak up and waited for the others to join in.

“I think it is a great idea.” Changhyun chirped with excitement and nodded his head, “I can sing decently and if we practiced dancing I’m sure we could be a big hit.”

“I don’t sing all too well but you know me and rapping, I’ve even come up with a few raps on my own.” Minsoo added in also liking the idea of forming a band though he wasn’t as excited as Changhyun.

“I’m almost like a pro dancer and I can sing slightly, but hey if it’s worth a shot why not.” Jonghyun added in his opinion and soon enough everyone was looking at me.

“W-Why are you guys looking at me?” I asked raising my hands up in defense and unsure of what to say.

“Do you want to join us?” Daniel asked moving in closer to hear my answer. I thought he was only mentioning everyone but me—I was wrong to even think they wanted to exclude me.

“Well I don’t practice at all but you guys think my singing is good so if you want me to join I’ll try my best to make things work.” I answered with a huge smile on my lips unable to mask my happiness. True friends that’s who they are and I couldn’t be happier with another group of friends.

“So that just leaves L. Joe, come on you know it’ll be fun!” Daniel insisted turning his attention to the blond boy and attempting to use his pleading eyes to get the boy to say yes.

“But—“ Byunghun stopped and everyone continued to stare at him until he sighed, “Fine I’ll join but don’t expect me to have a ton of lines and such I only rap every once in a while.” He crossed his arms and pouted but from the looks of it he wasn’t angry or mad so I hoped he really did want to join.

After his final acceptance the whole table erupted into happiness and Daniel had the biggest smile on his face and I knew he was as glad as I was to having such great friends.

“Now on to the main topic of the day.” Minsoo stopped cheering and turned serious for a second and waited for everyone else to calm down and listen to him. “We’re going to be looking for jobs today and see who gets hired first.”

“Yeah yeah don’t remind us.” Changhyun muttered losing his high of happiness and went back to sulking on the table from his lack of sleep.

“How are we splitting up into groups?” Jonghyun asked curiously and Minsoo just smirked and pulled out six straws.

“With these.” He stated and showed that each straw had a pair that resembled in length. “Whoever gets the same length is paired with the other.” He then turned around and started to shuffle the straws and turned around to face the group once more.

“Okay I’m going first.” Byunghun stated and grabbed for a straw and soon enough the rest of the members did the same and started comparing lengths with each other.

In the end I was paired up with Jonghyun while Byunghun had Changhyun and Minsoo was with Daniel. I felt slightly awkward being paired with a boy I barely knew but this was a chance to get to know him and actually become friends with the youngest boy on the team. He seemed slightly disappointed, probably hoping he’d get Changhyun but he hid his expressions well after losing his guard slightly.

“Okay so we meet back up here at the end of the day and see who did the best.” Minsoo declared and after his statement everyone’s group walked off in their own direction as I just stared at the table unsure of where to go.

“I don’t really know this town so well.” I muttered shyly hoping that the younger boy was not going to laugh at me.

“Don’t worry I’ll show you around.” Jonghyun chuckled and immediately I relaxed and knew today was not going to be so bad.

After about three hours of walking and sightseeing—on my part—we managed to apply at five places with help wanted signs and waited around for a while around the places in hopes of getting a call back. We left disappointed that we got no calls back and ended up heading back to the cafeteria around five after messing around and actually getting to know each other for the first time.

Jonghyun might be the youngest of the group but he was far from the most immature. He had amazing dancing skills which I got to see for the first time, he actually acted perfectly in front of his elders and used every single polite term properly without a single mistake—even I made a mistake and used the wrong form of hello to an elder woman while applying. He also showed off a weird talent of his own that he doesn’t do often which was being able to make smoke in his mouth by adding up the pressure in his mouth and letting it out in a gas-like state. He tried to show me and I failed epically but I did mention that of all the hobbies I did one thing I was proud of was the skill I had at making puzzles really fast without too much concentration. He was impressed—or looked impressed—and suggested we do a puzzle sometime after school so he could see.

Pretty much by the end of the day we were laughing like best friends and acted like we’ve known each other our whole lives. Changhyun was immediately jealous at our closeness and even moved to be next to Jonghyun the second we returned and I look the spot next to Byunghun that Changhyun had abandoned in order to be next to the maknae of the group.

“So how was it?” Minsoo asked once everyone was settled down and eating their dinner. The sighs he earned in return showed that everyone was as unlucky as us but everyone noticed the smile on Daniel’s puffy lips and everyone had the feeling he didn’t have bad luck like the rest of us.

“The karaoke loved my singing skills and they liked my personality.” He smiled even wider and everyone else just groaned at the fact that he won the challenge at getting the job and had the right to be happy.

“Today was still fun.” I added in and looked at Jonghyun who smirked and nodded. “Yeah it was just fun to be around friends if anything—there is always next time.” I smiled this time and nodded when the rest of the group agreed and seemed to be a bit happier.

The rest of the evening was spent hanging out with the members in our room all playing video games and forgetting the horrible experiences of not finding a job—though Daniel had no care in the world and didn’t seem as competitive as the others while playing. It has been a whole week since I’ve known these five and once again I have to mention it has been like I’ve known them for so much longer, but true friendship has always been like that.