Like a zombie rising from the ground, you slowly sit up on your bed, letting your half-closed eyes settle on the clock sitting atop your nightstand. It reads: 7:15 A.M.

One blink. Two blink. Half a blink. Long blink…Then open.

With a turn of the head, your gaze lands on the tower of boxes and shopping bags neatly piled on the wooden floor. You exhale lightly just as yesterday’s events fill your mind. Images flash before your eyes…starting with the endless rows of designer dresses and the sky-high columns of shoes and purses, followed by the wrath of Hasung’s beast, and finally…

Those eyes…those mesmeriz—

“Ga Mi Young-ssi, you indecent girl! Just what are you day dreaming about so early in the morning?” you lecture yourself while slapping your blushing cheeks with both hands. Shaking off the scenario playing in your head, you roll out of bed and get ready for another three-hour long lecture on the basics of negotiations.

 || Daewon University ||

“GAHHHH! You rotten bastard!” your frustrated cousin screams as she leans out the second-floor balcony of the university’s main cafeteria. With her words echoing across the open space, all students passing by and dining below pause to look up.

“Sorry, sorry,” Hana apologizes quietly, holding her hands out as she slowly backs away from sight. Embarrassed by her sudden outburst, she shrinks down beside you and lets out a much needed sigh. “Why is love so difficult?” she mumbles to herself as she presses her cheek on the white table.

You giggle quietly before offering, some seconds later, a bite of you lunch. “Here, have some,” you suggest, trying to distract her thoughts with food, “ahjussi made it.”

“No, I don’t really want to eat—” she starts, but once the intoxicating scent of Dong Wook’s irresistible beef stir-fry fills her nose, she gradually lifts her head, sniffing louder with every movement.

“Rice too and some bell peppers, the red ones,” she orders after receiving the strip of Hanwoo beef.

“Talk about not wanting to eat,” you quietly comment as you reach over with the contents sandwiched between your chopsticks.

Just as Hana opens for the second time, a lovely couple walks past the two of you, reigniting her rage. She follows them with her deathly glare and flared nostrils, mumbling words to herself. Once she finishes casting her last spell, she turns back around and snatches the container of food from you.

“That ignorant bastard,” she curses under her breath, continuing her rant after every bite, “why is he taking so long to ask me out? He likes me, doesn’t he? So why—” She then pauses and bites the metal utensils while her small lips curve downward. “It couldn’t be that he doesn’t really have feelings for me, could it? That he was just being nice. That he’s actually in love with someone else…” she trails off, resuming to eat your food in tears.

Normally, you'd steal back your lunch—because you love your stir fry just as much as the next person—but seeing just how depressed your cousin is about being single, you can't help but let her have all of it. “There, there, you poor child…” you begin, patting her back lightly, “go ahead and eat your heart out.”

Without blinking an eye, you watch her devour the entire serving like a champ, until she finally scoops the last grain of rice into .

After swallowing her emotions away, she sets down the bento box and leans back on her seat, pouting. “Buy me dessert,” she whines.

|| …………. ||

As you drag your depressed cousin back down to the first floor to get some cupcakes and maybe a gallon of gelato, you accidentally run into the person you haven’t talked to in days—two days to be exact.

Suho meets your gaze with eyes emitting the same unfamiliar expression as the last time you spoke.

“Sun—,” you start softly just as someone calls his name from the distance.

Without so much as excusing himself, he sets his attention to his group of friends and passes by the both of you in silence.

“Mi Young-ah, are you okay?” a now concerned Hana asks as she places a gentle hand on your shoulder.

You nod your head and smile. “Let’s also get a box of chocolate?” you ask cheerfully, pushing what just happened aside.  

“Make that two,” she replies, linking her arm with yours.

While your cousin decides between strawberry or taro bubble tea, you take a quick glance at the charm on your phone then across the room to where Suho is sitting. So that was really your goodbye…You think to yourself before concentrating back on Hana. Watching her sway her head from side to side while waiting for her order, you smile to yourself. At least I still have you.

|| …………. ||

After dropping you off to your next and final class, you meet with her again once your lecture is over.

Navigating through a sea of fashion design students, you finally spot her leaning against the mosaic wall and talking to her project group while sipping a juice box. “Hana gonjunim (princess)!” you call, waving a hand in the air.

“O-! Mi Young-ah!” she calls back, then immediately turns to say goodbye to her group who—as it turned out—was in the process of asking her to work on their designs until midnight. “You’re a lifesaver you know,” she breathes out after making her escape.

“I know.”

Once outside, you’re met with a huge crowd of girls huddled together, screaming their lungs out. Armed with phones and cameras, they bob up and down, trying to capture every angle of whoever decided to raid Daewon.

“Hallyu star?” you ask without taking your eyes off the commotion. You then claw onto her arm after releasing a loud gasp. “Joong Ki oppa!” you exclaim excitedly, imagining the actor in his military uniform and aviator glasses waiting charismatically by the gates.

“No…I think it’s LJoe oppa. It must be LJoe oppa,” Hana counters just before you can bulldoze your way into Joong Ki’s arms.

Curious, you turn your head and stare at her with narrowed eyes, mentally asking if LJoe is the one she was stuffing her face for.

“What?” she answers as she looks back at you in question.

Without confirming your hunch, you simply smile at your childish cousin and shake your head, "It's nothing."

As the two of you near the northern gates of Daewon, you finally realize the severity of the obstacle you must now face: a thirty-foot-thick barrier of bobbing humans in thigh-high boots and heels. Mashed together. Unbreakable.

With a determined nod, you and Hana charge with all your might and pray you’ll make it out alive.

The two of you fight your way through the screeching bunch—accumulating a few imaginary scars—until you’re finally pushed out of the unforgiving crowd.

Thinking that the battle is over, you happily dust off your clothes, readying yourself for when Joong Ki sweeps you off your feet.

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