Yuri POV

Beautiful silence, no ricocheting motion that was nauseating, no glaring sounds of noisy ahjummas squabbling over their children, just the peculiar feeling of.... Splash! I spring off the bed. “Yah! Ji-Yong, I’m awake I’m awake!” I unconsciously yell. “Who’s that you’re boyfriend?” I groan as I wipe my eyes. That bastard, just threw a bucket load of water at me. “He’s my brother you idiot! What’s the deal with throwing water at me anyway?!” The blanket sheets cling to me and my hoodie, still covering my head. “You wouldn’t wake up when I yelled, or when I shook you. So I the least I could do was this. I want you out of here, as soon as possible.” He drags me but I thrash against his grip. 

I pull down my hoodie and he stands there, infatuated. A hesitation to yell at me is evident in his open and closing mouth. “Not so cool, are you, now Minho? Caught up with my feminine beauty?” He stares. “You look like a girl’s head that’s been surgically removed and merged with a boy’s body. No curves at all,” he shakes his head with feigned grief. “Shut up!” I cover myself with a blanket and throw one of the pillows his way. He dodges it with a swift swerve tauntingly.

“Hey! Minho and Yuri! Come over and have some breakfast! I know both of you can’t cook so come on!” There’s a pulping on the door. Shindong seems up bright and early, even with a cheery chime to his usual mellow voice. “Aiish! Just come!” Minho grabs my wrist but seems to tilt his head another way. Probably to avoid my vice like skills. “I’m still in my pajamas!” I protest. “You always look like you’re in your pajamas anyway.” He mumbled incoherently.

I made a promise I was going to keep, to a jerk of course, but a promise. And Yuri Kwon, never in her life ever goes back on her promise. I stagger after him, dripping wet with a blanket swabbed on like a second skin. My feet are freezing from within my slippers, like they’d become the pair of feet for a stiff skeletal corpse. Minho is persistent in getting me out. Who would have guessed anyway that this ‘gentlemanly, caring’ boy was a conceited, snobbish boy who couldn’t stand a girl’s presence? His ‘esteemed’ parents probably showered him with their affection. Kids like these...... they sicken me.

Oppa and appa were enough to get me through. Ji-Yong, appa and I would work in town in a marketplace. God, this sounded cheesy. We didn’t need luxury of a new automobile with high digital technical mumbo jumbo. We had each other, sufficient pay, enough food and a .....not so comfortable house, but we had each other. I’d trade any warm day for a song with Ji-Yong oppa by the wharf while selling out fish and crops than here in the cluttered city. He’d recently joined the army to serve his time, while his girlfriend, Dara took care of appa. 

I return back to reality and Minho has slammed his hand on the secretary desk, demanding a room mate transition. The jerk sounded so confident I’d leave, it was infuriating. “Come on Ryeowook! You could do this for me, please! I can’t stand......that thing!?” He swindles and points at me. I refrained my self from releasing my anger and screaming my lungs out at him. Ryeowook looks sympathetically my way and acknowledges my embarrassment. 

Averting his eyes, he types away at the computer to search for any available rooms. “Oh yeah, there’s this one room, just over there.” With his eyes fixed on the screen he points to the room number 21. Minho does a fist punch and rubs the fact that I was leaving in. Then Ryeowook’s eyes start to slowly contradict the occasion. “Wait, sorry Minho. Turns out someone was just filed into that dorm. Guess, you’re going to have to stay with your friend for the rest of the year.” 

I chortle and it seems Ryeowook is semi-amused too. Minho was caught in an awkward situation, celebrating a non-existent cause. “Please Ryeowook, I’ll do anything. You just have to take this kid out! I didn’t even mean to certify I wanted a room mate.” He towers over the counter to emphasis his distress. ‘Deessssppperrrattteee’ I trill through my mind. “Sorry Minho, no can do. I just can’t. This year the school is jam packed with new students. Nothing personal, the results are just irreversible unless you find someone willing to change in first person.” 

Minho stares contemplatively at a random spot on the wall. “What’s your name anyway?” Ryeowook questions curiously. His thin glasses, honing his gentle look and shy coating. “I’m Yu-” “Jae-Yup” I stare at Minho quizzically and scrutinize his face that was covered by his draped hand. “Oh, nice to meet you Jae-Yup, I guess you’re a scholarship student. This computer only processes commissioned applications.” He shoots me a heart warming smile and offers a shake. I shake hesitantly, wether I should correct Minho.

“ Actually, my name is-” “See you around Ryeowook!” Minho drags me away with him, speechless, staring only at the dissipating image of Ryeowook. After we arrive back at our room I erupt. “What was that all about?! Why’d you lie to him about my name?! He’ll find out eventually, won’t everyone?!” He puts a finger on his lips and enlarge his eyes as a gesture. I quieten down. “Listen here, I wouldn’t like living with a girl, especially one that I constantly confuse as a boy................. So you’re going to have to leave.” That jerk!

“We agreed to the deal! I did, you did! You can’t just change it?! It was ‘I leave if there were any rooms left’ If not then I stayed.” 

“I’ve made up my mind. No, is no. My reputation would be ruined if I was found out about hiding a girl in my room.” He looks genuinely concerned and maybe I was convinced? No, if I gave in to his charade then I’d be kicked out. All of that effort Dara put into educating me. Those long hours of Ji-Yong oppa staying up to help me, wasted for nothing, just because one boy couldn’t care for a striving country bumpkin.

“I don’t think you understand my social status. Look around this lounge room, what brand is all of my furniture.” He stands like he was dominating whatever aspect of a fight we were having. My eyes wonder and my feet follow. Television, Choi corp, air conditioner, Choi corp, lamp, Choi corp....... Was he the Choi corp heir? Noooo. 

“Yesss” He seethes. “You see what reputation I have to withhold now? I’m not the only heir in this school.” What do I do now? I’m a city bumpkin, sharing a room with one of the most influential companies’ heir. If he wanted me out..... I know I’d eventually be kicked out.

Maybe..... I should leave? No! It took so much effort to get accepted, it wouldn’t go to waste. But......

“Minho! New room mate! Please make your way for breakfast!” Shindong sounds irritated, but he was a nice guy to worry about our hunger so much as to reannounce breakfast. “ We’ll continue this later,” Minho walks out. Then there’s a vibration in my pocket. ‘Yobosaeyo? Oppa, is that you?” My hands are shaky after the experience. “Aigoo, marshmallow, how are you doing? Have you arrived at the school yet?” His chirpy voice soothes all the pains I have. “Not so well oppa, but how are you?” 

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Minho POV

“Not so well oppa, but how are you?” Her voice genuinely fatigued and it’s only 7: 45 in the morning. “Do you know how appa is doing? Oh, Dara must be really busy. I can’t call anymore, I ran out of credit....Yeah...I’m sorry oppa....” Why was listening to a one-sided conversation so intriguing to me. The glint of a rusty box catches my eye. I guess that was her phone, and an ugly one at that.

“Oppa, I think I might have to leave this school.” A ear piercing yell breaks out into full volume of what the speaker could handle. “NOOOOOOO! I DID NOT PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER 3 WEEKS IN A ROW FOR YOU TO BAIL!” She quietens him down and continues. “My room mate is ‘The Choi Minho’, I don’t think he likes the fact that I’m his room matte...... But...... Oppa, he won’t accept me, and anyways....I should be really sorry to appa...He was so hope-ful.” Her chokes near the end of her sentence. Was she perhaps....crying? 

She was frail yet so aggressive. Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all. Bumpkins weren’t bad, they could be cultivated and grown to a state.“Appa tried so hard, he gave up so much to make this work......I don’t want to hurt him anymore, not after what umma did.” What was this about her parents? “Oppa... I think it’s best that I go back and take care of appa, he’s getting old.....Araso, and I’m sorry again.” There’s a last minute screech before she hangs up and sighs. Silence.

I hurry off into Shindong’s room to pretend I hadn’t heard anything. “Minho, what took you so long?” Shindong spits with his mouth of cereal. “Nothing.” I brush off the subject and plop down on a seat. I shouldn’t be bothered by what I’d just heard, right? But, she seemed to be suffering so much with her family. 

“Oh, annyeong Yuri-yah!” Shindong beams. Yuri gives a deflated bow and slouches in the seat furthest from me. He looks confused. “What’s wrong you guys? Don’t think that I forgot what happened yesterday.” He warns. Yuri doesn’t even bother looking at me. I don’t seem to feel any anger anymore after hearing what I heard. She was probably just a defensive kid that had been tossed around since childhood with no stable or secure home. If she hadn’t learnt to curl up into a ball then she never would have survived.

“Nothing, we just had a little argument over who’d go shower first. We have to go somewhere immediately after this too.” I reply. Yuri looks like she was in mourning, and her hoodie perched crookedly over her head. She could barely spoon half of the sloshed cereal, soaking in enough milk to make it porridge. It was sickening seeing her try to swallow it. She looked almost like she’d choke on the spoon. Wish she’d just scoff it down like yesterday.

“That’s it, come with me!” I can’t be bothered pulling her. She looks like a wet rug, a hesitant cat. Pulling it would only cause it to retaliate and lag. She follows but not of course not enthusiastically. The last image I see is Shindong giving me a disapproving look of shame as she closes the door.

 “Where are we going?” She mumbles. 

“To a hair salon.”

 “Why?” 

“Because you’re going to be my room mate. And no one is going to find out you’re a girl.”

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Author's Notes: 

- Aigooo, my chinggus! I love you so much! , <3 Thank you for the comments and subs! Please continue reading and stay tuned XD.

- I'm also willing to add in some character cameos and maybe some permanent characters that I think that will fit the storyline I have planned. Couples can be negotiated!

- This is a long chapter isn't it? Well, much longer than the ones prior. I just had a lot of time? 

- Remember to leave a comment and subscribe, as said before, chapters shall come faster with the more support that comes!