“Junah!”

“Nam,” I shout and hug my best guy friend on campus. He hugs me back so tightly in that way that makes me feel both special and suffocated. “Way to finish packing when it’s late.”

“You wanna go to late night?” He asks.

“Sure,” I nod, and we enter the cafeteria together to eat a late dinner. I’m not hungry, but I choose to go with him because I want to spend time with him. After having our IDs scanned, we check the food in the cafeteria and are left feeling discontent. Nam and I end up getting cereal. We pick a table in the middle of the cafeteria and start to catch up.

“So how was your Winter break?” He asks me.

“It was okay. I guess you had more fun than I did,” I say, pointing to his hair. “You really grew that out. I thought you didn’t like bangs.”

“My taste has to change with the seasons,” he says. “There’s a lot of people here tonight.”

“Yeah,” I agree, looking around the cafeteria to see familiar faces that I have passed to and from my way to class last semester. Subliminally, I search for the one person who has caught my eye since my first day on campus. It doesn’t look like he’s here tonight. Frustrated, I stab my spoon into my full bowl of cereal.

“You looking to kill something?” Nam asks.

“Sorry,” I smile. “Hey, are you doing anything tonight?”

“Going hooping,” he replies. “Haven’t played ball with my boys in a while.”

“You haven’t hung out with Junah in a while,” I say, pointing to myself. I laugh. “I’m kidding. Have fun. I’ll see you tomorrow?” I ask as I get up to put my dish away.

“Perfect,” he answers and gives me a thumbs-up sign.

-----

The alarm on my clock wakes me up. I grudgingly roll out of bed and pad toward the bathroom, where I see Bora straightening her hair.

“When did you get up?” I ask her as I plug in my straightener and wait for it to heat up.

“Ten minutes ago,” she says. “Hey, do you have your schedule printed out?”

“Oh, crap,” I say, putting the straightener on the counter. “I forgot to do it last night.”

“So did I, but just use your phone. It was put up online,” she tells me.

“Oh, really?” I ask. I grab my phone from my bed and then slide back to the bathroom. “Can you show me?”

After she shows me how to find my schedule online, I straighten my hair and get changed. Bora decides to skip breakfast, so I go to the cafeteria alone and eat a large serving of the same cereal I ate last night.

Off I go to class. My first class is speech, which I suspect won’t be my favorite subject. I like talking to people, but conversation is different compared to presentation.

My next class is English, which I have with Nam. After that, I have math, which is my last class for the day. I take off my jacket, and then I sit in the back room so that I can watch my classmates come in.

Soon enough, I get bored of people watching and start taking out my books; however, something – intuition, habit, I don’t know – prods me to look up. I never thought it would be possible, but my crush is in my class. That irresistible, beautiful, daft and impious boy is in my class.

Lange glances at me from the corner of his eye, and I quickly look away. He hesitates at my row, and then he moves one row forward and chooses a seat in front of me. Did he do that so he could torture me with the sight of the strong shape of his back and that absurd (but actually, really nifty) hair?

I hoped he would be in one of my classes, but why did that wish actually come true?

I check the time. The teacher comes right on cue with a binder tucked underneath his arm. He introduces himself and starts checking attendance when a student bursts into the classroom, late.

“Sorry,” he says to the teacher. “I got lost.” Weird. His voice sounds familiar, but I don’t think I’ve met him.

“It’s okay,” the teacher says. “It’s only the first day.”

The student nods and scans the desks before choosing to pick