“We’re in college!  We’re in our dorm!  Look, this is the first outfit I’m wearing as a university student!”  Jordan was leaping from one end of the living room to the other in our dorm at Seoul University. 

            Some first outfit, I thought amused.  She was wearing a pair of baggy jeans and a stolen hoodie from her boyfriend.

            We’d managed, thanks to some connections my ambassador father has, to get a four person suite in the dorms.  Two bedrooms, private bathroom, living room.  The works.  Unheard of for freshmen, but here we were.

            Beki, Amelia, and I sat identically on the sofa with our arms crossed watching Jordan dance and frolic around the room.  “How long are we going to let her do this?” I asked.  Amelia giggled.

            “Look how happy she is.  Let her keep going a little while longer.”

            “She’s crazy,” Beki put in.  I giggled this time.

            “Really, Beki?  You want to talk about crazy?” I asked, still watching Jordan jump around.  We’d set up shelves across the room to hold snacks.  She grabbed a mini bag of chips and began hopping around with it, singing about her first college snack.

            “Touché, my friend,” Beki replied.  “But we should stop her soon.  We have to pick rooms and unpack.  Let’s invite the guys over later after we’ve set up the whole place.”

            Amelia and I nodded in agreement.

            “Jordan!  Jordan!” I called.  “Jordan, cool it for a second.  Let’s unpack and then you can go back to dancing.”

            Jordan leapt around a few more times before collapsing onto the floor in front of the sofa and the coffee table.  “College,” she panted.  “We’re unpacking in college.”

            “This will be your first heart attack in college, too,” Beki added.

            “Shut…up,” Jordan snapped, her chest heaving with the breaths she took.

            “Look at how out-of-shape you are now.  That’s what you get for taking the summer off.  Your track team mates would be so disappointed,” Amelia scolded lightly.

            Jordan lifted her head off the floor only long enough to stick her tongue out at Amelia.  It took her a few minutes, but once Jordan caught her breath, she sat up and we decided on picking rooms.  Two girls to a bedroom.

            “I can’t room with Jordan,” Beki piped up.  Jordan sniffed and crossed her arms over her chest.  “I’m sorry, you know I love you, but I can’t room with you.”

            “Why not?” I asked.

            Jordan scoffed.  “She can’t let it go that I made one itty bitty comment about wanting Yu Kwon back when I was having my little, tiny mental break before Ji Ho and I got together.  When I really didn’t want Yu Kwon!  I was just…upset and venting.  I said I wanted all the guys!  Anyone but Ji Ho!  You don’t see Maddie or Amelia all mad at me!  Besides, that was something like two years ago, let it go, sister.  Yu Kwon is all yours.”  She then grinned at Amelia and me before frowning back at Beki.  “Wouldn’t want you knocking me out or threatening to break my face,” she added in a mutter.

            True.  Jordan did have a slight break down when she was in love with Ji Ho back in high school – actually since she was about ten when her family moved to Seoul – but she was too afraid to tell him since they’d been best friends for so long and she thought he wouldn’t accept her feelings.  When in reality, he was in the same boat as her.  After some weird plotting to make Ji Ho jealous thanks to their good friend Kyung – now my boyfriend, but I refuse to think about him and her and how he saw her in her underwear – who helped in the ‘make Ji Ho jealous’ plot.  Now, Jordan and Ji Ho are happy and together.  That was the point and I never have to think about Kyung with another girl, let alone one of my best friends.  Sure, it was before I was in the picture.  Jordan even offered to help get me to notice Kyung in exchange for helping her.

            She didn’t know I’d already noticed him and was fearfully pining after him myself.

            But I digress.

            Beki, on the other hand, had her own issues.  She punched out a Korean girl who insulted us at a soccer game and then in turn went crazy and photo shopped a bunch of pictures of Yu Kwon with some girl and posted them all over the internet.  Beki lost her mind and after she found out who did it, went to the girl’s school and threatened to break all the bones in her face if she didn’t leave Block b or us alone.  All friends and couples have issues, right?

            I’m pretty sure the only true normal couple between all of us is Amelia and Jae Hyo.  She’s quiet and passive, he’s outgoing and forward.  They’re just perfect.

            I laughed again, Amelia put her face on my shoulder, stifling her own laughter.  “See?  We’ve all had our crazy moments.  The past is the past.  All is well, but fine, Beki, you don’t have to room with Jordan.  I’ll take Jordan.  Unless, Amelia, do you want to room with Jordan?”

            Amelia shrugged and sat up.  “It doesn’t matter to me.  I don’t mind rooming with Beki,” she answered.

            “You can’t leave poor Amelia with Beki!” Jordan blurted out.

            Beki glared at her before pouting at Amelia.  I laughed.

            “How are we friends?” I wondered aloud.  “No, this is fine.  Jordan, you and me in that room,” I said pointing to the bedroom off to the left of the living room.  “Amelia and Beki, that one.”  I pointed to the right.

            Done.  We all got up and gathered our forgotten bags near the door to our dorm and began setting up our bedrooms.  They were small.  I read once in a newspaper that the average dorm room was the same size as an American jail cell.  I couldn’t complain though.  We were lucky to be in a suite with all the extras.

            Both bedrooms were the same.  Two dressers under two beds, two wardrobes against the wall, two desks, two night tables.

            There was a silent agreement between the four of us that we would cover our walls with Block b photos and posters.  As girlfriends, it was kind of an unwritten law that we become their biggest fans.  Which was as easy as breathing for us.

            Once I finished my half of the room, I flopped onto my bed – well, hoisted myself up and onto the bed that was way too high up for my short self – and admired the collage of Block b photos, magazine pictures, articles, and pictures I took of Block b and my girl friends.  Most were of me and Kyung, but that was allowed.

           I flicked on the TV while Jordan finished organizing her frames and knick knacks on top of her dresser.

            “Hey, Maddie?”

            “Yeah?” I sounded, curling onto my side and watching some girl group’s music video on TV.

            “The guys are super famous now.  I mean, they’ve been super famous, but they really aren’t rookies anymore,” she began, switching two frames’ places.

            “They did just win that Inkigayo Mutizen award,” I mentioned, glancing at her out of the corner of my eye.

            “Yeah,” she sighed happily with a nod.  I saw her slowly frown.  I twisted onto my stomach and watched her, waiting for her to continue.  “Things should start getting crazy any time now,” she added with a forced chuckle.

            So that was it.  Last year, Beki said Yu Kwon was worried about all this fame and popularity and utter craziness changing him, but he seems to be just fine.  It was Beki, I was worried about, but even she’s good now.

            “You’ve been reading those fan sites again, haven’t you?” I asked.

            My friend’s fingers froze as she was readjusting a different frame.  She turned and sat on her .  She laughed.  “I just get curious.  I mean, I know it’s great that they have such dedicated and obsessed fans, but sometimes, I mean…”  She sighed and shrugged.  “I thought I had enough to worry about with him always being surrounded by y female idols, but now I’m getting paranoid about pretty fans throwing themselves at him.”

            “Ji Ho loves you, Jojo,” I reminded her.

            She nodded and looked down at her hands on her knees.  “It’s more Zico that I’m worried about,” she murmured under her breath.

            “Zico, Ji Ho, the dude with the weird hair who wore two baseball caps on stage once,” I laughed.  “Whatever you want to call him.  He loves you.  He wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.” 

            None of them would, I added to myself thinking of Kyung.  He knows I love him.  Sure we became a couple after the other three, but we’re good.

            We have nothing to worry about.

            “They’re super busy now.  Even more than before and now that we’re starting college, we are going to be super busy,” she added, biting her lip.  “How will we ever have time for each other anymore?”

            I shook my head.  “We’ll make time.  They always made time for us.  It will be a little harder now once school gets underway, but we can do it.  We’ll make time for each other.  There’s nothing to worry about.”

            “You’re right,” Jordan laughed after a moment.  She sat up and looked at the top of her dresser, touching the one framed photo of her and Ji Ho back when they were maybe eleven or twelve.  Knowing how they are now, when I look at old photos of them, I realize how stupid we all were – including them – to not know how they felt about each other.

            Kyung insists to this day that he knew.  Well, from what he tells me, he kind of did.

            “Come on,” I said jumping off my bed and turning off the TV.  “I bet Beki and Amelia are done.  Let’s go have dinner.  Then we’ll call the guys to come over and have a movie night.  To celebrate our first night in our first college dorm?”

            That seemed to perk her up.  Her whole face lit up.  “First night in college!”

            After dinner with the girls, we called to get the guys to come over to show them our dorm room.  We invited the other guys to come along too, but they declined.  Something about not wanting to be surrounded by couples the whole night.  I’m sure Ji Hoon, Tae Il, and Min Hyuck would have more fun killing each other playing sniper video games in their dorm anyway.

            We sat around, watching TV and waiting for the guys to call to tell us they were here, so we could go down to the front and let them in.

            Jordan was nodding off, propped up against Beki on the sofa.  Amelia was hugging a pillow in the single chair next to the sofa and I was lying on the floor, upside down, with my feet on the other chair.  Just as another TV show started, there was a knock at the door.

            “First knock on the door of our first college dorm,” Jordan mumbled sleepily.

            I laughed and jumped up off the floor to answer the door.

            I’ve seen this enough times in the past to know immediately who the four guys dressed in all black, faces covered with ball cap bills and hoods and bandanas, like bank robbers.

            “Hey!  Hurry, come in!” I greeted them with a smile as I stepped aside for them to come in.  As they kicked off their shoes, one in particular, with only his mouth exposed gave me a smile, but none of them said a word until they were in the middle of our living room.  The three other girls sat up, Beki elbowing Jordan lightly until she was wide awake.

            “Hey!” Beki exclaimed.  “How did you get in here?  Didn’t they stop you at the front on the first floor?  They said they do ID checks before they let anyone in.”

            The one with a baseball cap pulled over his face gave a playful shove to the one with the bandana up so high and his hood down so low only his eyes were exposed.

            “Show them,” the one with the cap ordered.

            In one swift movement, the bandana came off and the hood was flipped back.  Yu Kwon then puffed out his cheeks and pushed out his lower lip in a face so cute, I almost died.  Thankfully, I came to my senses before I gave Beki a reason to pop me in the face.

            Amelia buried her face in the pillow and giggled.  “You guys got past ID checks by making Yu Kwon do aegyo for the poor front desk girl?”

            The other three uncovered their faces.  “He’s our smile representative, you know that,” Ji Ho replied.  “What else would we use him for?”

            Yu Kwon’s shoulders slumped forward as he shuffled over to plop down on the sofa on the other side of Beki.  She kissed his cheek.  Jordan, now fully awake, bounced up and rushed over to Ji Ho.  Slamming into him and hugging him close.  He tipped his head down to kiss her.

            “Ooh!  My first kiss in my first college dorm as a university student!” she cheered, bouncing on her toes, arms still around Ji Ho’s middle.  He looked curiously to me and the other girls.

            “She’s been doing that all day,” I told him as Kyung came over and draped an arm around my shoulders.

            “You’re cute,” Ji Ho laughed, curling his arm around Jordan.  Immediately reaching into the neck of her hoodie to fix the strap of her tank top that he just knew had slipped off her shoulder under the hoodie.  They were too cute together sometimes.

            “I’m cute,” Yu Kwon pouted, leaning back in his seat and letting Beki snuggle against him.  She patted him on the chest.

            “You’re very cute,” Amelia assured him with a nod.

            Jae Hyo scoffed and stomped to the other side of Amelia’s chair.  He yanked the pillow out of her arms and flung it backwards.  It landed and slid across the floor toward the bathroom.  He bent down and scooped Amelia up just enough for him to sit down in the chair, lowering her sideways into his lap.  Wrapping his arms around her, he held her the way she’d held the pillow.

            “You were saying?” he grumbled.  She laughed lightly.

            “I don’t know what I was saying,” she replied, resting her head on his shoulder.

            Beki kissed Yu Kwon when he pouted all over again.

            “I was wondering where this went,” Ji Ho said, tugging on one of the drawstrings of the hoodie Jordan was wearing.  “You stole this from me, didn’t you, Dani?”

            She rolled her eyes at him.  “Well, you wouldn’t let me steal one from Tae Il, so what’s a girl to do?”

            He glared at her until she smiled up at him.  Her eyes widened and she began tugging him toward the bedroom she and I shared.  “Want to see how I decorated my half of the room?  My first college bedroom!”

            He let her drag him a few steps.  “Hmm, do I want to see my girlfriend’s bedroom in her dorm?  Yes, I think I do,” I heard him say as they turned the corner.

            Beki patted Yu Kwon once more on the chest before she jumped up, pulling him with her.  “Come on.  I’ll show you what I did to my half of my room.”

            “I share the room with her and I don’t want to go in there while they’re in there,” Amelia told Jae Hyo after Beki and Yu Kwon disappeared into the room.

            He laughed and ran his hand up and down her arm, absentmindedly.  “It’s cool.  You can show me your side of the room later.”

            I felt Kyung’s eyes on me.  “Come on.  I’ll show you the bathroom,” I laughed, pulling on his arm.

            He laughed, but followed me.  “,” he muttered.  I gasped and let go of his hand as I darted into the bathroom and began to shut the door, threatening to lock him out.  He was too fast and slipped in just as I shut the door.

            “Hey!  This is pretty nice.  Bigger than the ones in our dorm,” he said in awe as he glanced around the bathroom.  Two stalls with toilets were in between two shower stalls.  There were four sinks across from them with mirrors above each one.  It was a pretty decent bathroom for a college dorm.

            “I like it.  I’m so excited we get to live together.  Especially since we’re all studying in different departments,” I replied leaning back against the door.

            He nodded.  “This is going to be awesome for you guys.”  I nodded back with a smile.  In a split second, he whipped around and crushed me between his body and the door.  “I’m done talking about it though,” he breathed into my ear.  I tried to laugh, but it got caught in my throat when he started kissing my neck.

            “K-Kyung,” I stuttered, my head rolling to the side to grant him access to more of my neck.

            “What?  I really missed you, Maddie,” he confessed between kisses.  His fingers walked under my tee shirt and up my back sending little sparks of heat all over my skin.

            “It’s only been a couple of weeks,” I reminded him.  His mouth paused on my shoulder.  Catching him off guard, I stepped around him, switching our places so that he was the one backed up against the door.  I smirked at him before attacking his neck with the same kisses he used on me.  “Congratulations on Block b’s Mutizen win,” I exhaled against his lips. 

            “Thanks,” he whispered back, pushing some hair behind my ears before letting his hands slide down my back in search of the bottom of my tee shirt.

            “I like your new hair style, by the way,” I added, before kissing him again.

            “Thanks,” he repeated.

            “I really missed you, too, Kyung,” I sighed, wrapping my arms around his neck.  He untangled his hands from under my shirt and enclosed his arms around my waist, returning the hug.

            “Good,” he laughed.  I liked how he smelled and how my stomach flipped when his arms were around me.

            I was sure all of the girls felt that way.  Especially Jordan.  We had nothing to worry about with these guys.

            “You know, Jo’s a little worried with you guys being so busy and now that college is starting, we’re going to be really busy too…”  I let my sentence trailed off as I focused on his Adam’s apple.  My hands rested on his waist.  My fingers hooked into the waist of his jeans.  “I told her she had nothing to worry about.”

            He intertwined his fingers with mine and pulled my hands up onto his chest.

            “You’re right.  Ji Ho loves that girl.  He’d go days without sleep if it meant he could spend ten seconds with her in the middle of the night.”

            I smiled fondly.  That was the truth.

            “Same with Yu Kwon and Jae Hyo, right?” I asked, sliding my hands onto his shoulders and slipping my fingers under his hood at his neck.

            “Of course.  Yu Kwon hyung’s infatuated with Beki.  Not to mention, she’d probably beat him up if he ever went too long without seeing her.”  I laughed.  “And Jae Hyo hyung may act like a cocky bastard sometimes, but he’s just messing around.  He’s actually a pretty humble and down to Earth person.  And passionate.  Especially about Block b and Amelia.”  Kyung paused and thought for a second before adding, “Especially about Amelia.”

            “And what about you?” I whispered.

            “Amelia’s a nice girl, but-”

            “Kyung!” I whined, pinching his cheeks.  He laughed and caught my hands, pressing my fingers to his mouth, I felt him press his lips to them.

            “I’d always make time for you, love,” he replied.  “Never worry about that, ok?”

            I nodded and pressed my ear to his chest, his heartbeat lulling my eyes closed.

            “Hey!” Ji Ho’s voice shouted from the other side of the bathroom door, startling the both of us.  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  The door shook under Ji Ho’s fist.  “Put your clothes on and get out here!  We’re going to start the movie!”

            I stepped away from Kyung and covered my flaming cheeks.  Kyung rolled his eyes and threw open the bathroom door.

            “You know Zico, sometimes, you’re a real pain in my-”

            Ji Ho held up a finger and shook it at Kyung.  “Ah-ah,” he scolded.  “Leader Zico is writing a new song.  Don’t you want your own rap in it?”

            A smile broke out on Kyung’s face as he threw an arm around Ji Ho.  “Leader, can I get you a drink?” 

            I shook my head as I linked arms with Jordan and followed the boys back into the living room where Amelia and Jae Hyo and Beki and Yu Kwon were waiting to start the movie.

            During the movie, I snuggled against Kyung and stole glances at my friends.

            No question.  Jordan’s worries were groundless.