Ji Hye’s tired.

It’s not a new feeling, except it is. She isn’t tired the way she is at the end of dance practice. She’s not even tired the way she is after a long day of lectures. She’s bone tired – she can literally feel the exhaustion all the way to her bone, settling like lead. She can barely lift her arms, but she has to. She supposes she’s just glad she’s working the cash register instead of sending out dishes. She’s clumsy enough when she’s wide awake, but working in her condition would lead to absolute disaster.

She leans against her hand, her elbow propped against the counter. Her eyelids drop to half-mast as she yawns. She winces as she hears a crack. Oh, she yawned too wide again. They won’t mind if I rest my eyes for a while, Ji Hye thinks, staring out at the near-empty restaurant. She’s glad they’re almost closing. All she can think about is her crappy, lumpy bed and how soft it’ll feel under her fatigued body. A bed of rocks would feel like a fluffy cloud to her right now.

“Ji Hye. Yah, Song Ji Hye!”

The yell startles her out of her dozing state, causing her to smash her head into the counter and almost fall out of her chair. “Seventeen ninety-five,” she exclaims, rubbing her throbbing jaw. She blinks to see Kyungsoo staring at her in concern, frown across his lips.

“They already paid and left,” Kyungsoo says, leaning against the counter. “What’s wrong with you? You look like crap.”

Ji Hye yawns again, this time hiding it behind her hand. She rubs the back of her sore neck before stretching leisurely. She makes a quick sweep of the restaurant, realising that the door is closed and Joonmyun is starting to clean up. “Oh, we’re done?” she mumbles sleepily. “I’m going to go do the dishes.”

“Ji Hye, you look exhausted,” Kyungsoo point out, a hand on her arm to stop her from moving. “How much have you been working recently?”

She rubs her eyes as she thinks. How many shifts has she taken recently at The Pizzeria? “Um, I took a double shift yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that…”

“Christ, Ji Hye. Don’t you have classes?”

She shakes her head. “I haven’t been having classes for the past three days,” she explains. God, it’s getting harder for her to raise her head. She just wants to sleep…

Kyungsoo looks troubled. “Why are you working so hard?”

Ji Hye shrugs, not meeting his eyes. “I need the money.”

“What for?”

She purses her lips. “My landlord raised my rent again. If I don’t work this hard, I won’t be able to make my rent for the end of the month and I’ll be evicted.”

“You don’t live in the dorms?”

“No.”

Ji Hye hates the dorms. She can’t really explain why. Sure, they have cheaper accommodations and she’d be surrounded by people her own age, but there’s something about being stuck in a building full of college students that she dislikes very much. Knowing how they are, she doesn’t doubt that they’ll be a noisy bunch with college parties on every alternate floor. That and since it’s part of the school, her parents would insist on paying for the lodging fees. She doesn’t want that. Her family is strapped enough without needing to pay for the dorm fees.

She watches her sunbae’s expression carefully and already knows what he’s going to say even before he opens his mouth.

“No,” she says firmly, crossing her arms. “I’m not going to accept any money you or Chanyeol oppa might offer to me.”

Kyungsoo purses his lips in annoyance. “Ji Hye, don’t be stupid,” he chides, knocking the side of her head with the flat of his palm. “You’re still studying; you should be worried about college, not your rent. Let me help you.”

“ you,” she groans. “I’m not accepting your help.”

If there’s anything Ji Hye hates more than asking money from her parents, it’s accepting financial help from her friends. She realises that they have good intentions, but they need to realise that Ji Hye’s problems are her own. They’re friends, yes, but they should let her solve her own financial problems. She wouldn’t mind if they helped her out, but just not by giving money. She’ll feel like she’s in debt if they do that.

“Don’t be stubborn.”

“Don’t be weird. Save your money for a ring or something.”

Ji Hye’s eyes narrow in mirth as she notices Kyungsoo's cheeks turn pink and he looks at his sneakers. “Shut up,” he mutters.

She gapes at him. “No way,” she gasps. “You’re really going to – ”

“Shut up, Ji Hye,” Kyungsoo snaps.

She wants to squeal, but Song Ji Hye is not that kind of girl. She can’t help the grin on her face, however because cute. From what she’s seen of Chanyeol's and Kyungsoo's relationship, Kyungsoo doesn’t ever do something for Chanyeol unless there’s some serious connotation to it. Ji Hye thinks it’s sweet and the possibility of Kyungsoo intending to get Chanyeol something must be huge.

“I hope you know what his finger size is,” she teases.

“Whatever,” Kyungsoo grumbles, scratching his cheek and frowning at the counter. “Go do your dishes, maknae.”

“Are you going to put your initials on the ring, or just plaster your full name all over it so everyone knows who he belongs to? Then again, the hickeys you leave on each other are good enough.”

A dirty towel is thrown in her face, causing her to shriek and nearly fall off her chair again.

“Song Ji Hye!”

“I’m going, I’m going!”

She’s elbow deep in soap suds and pans when her phone rings. Ji Hye spares it a glance before wiping her hands free of water and checking the message.

From: DerpHun

Ji Hye, where are u? u were supposed to b @ the dance studio by nine thirty!!!!!

She blinks at the screen before looking reflexively at the time. Nine forty-five. “,” she swears. “I’m late!”

She hurriedly scrubs the pots, nearly throwing them in the rack as she trips her way to the locker room. She’s changing out of her work t-shirt when the door is flung open, revealing Chanyeol.

“Park Chanyeol,” Ji Hye shrieks, diving behind her locker door.

“What the ?” Chanyeol utters, shutting his eyes immediately and banging into the door. “Ow. What are you doing?”

“I’m changing,” she yells. “Can you turn around?”

“There’s a bathroom for a reason!”

Ji Hye yanks her tank top on, pulling her jean jacket on and hurriedly running a comb through her hair. She winces as she tugs on knots, but she can’t complain because it’s already ten and Sehun is going to kill her. She takes a whiff of herself, choosing to spray on enough deodorant to mask the smell of pizza and sweat and make Chanyeol gag.

“What, not going to put on makeup?” the taller male chokes out, waving away the fumes. He squints at her as she shoves her dirty uniform into her bag and slams her locker shut. “Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“I’m late,” she cries, not really answering his question. “I’m so late and Sehun is going to have a hissy fit.”

“You go out with friends?”

Ji Hye scowls at him, throwing a towel lying on the floor at him. “Yes, I have friends. Don’t sound so surprised.”

He flings the towel away in disgust (she doesn’t blame him because it’s crusty with white stuff) and holds his hands up in a placating manner. “I didn’t mean any offense. It’s just that you’re always working.” A frown furrows his eyebrows. “You’ve been working a lot this past week. Why is that?”

“No time,” she says as her phone pings again and the text she receives from Sehun merely contains her name and a lot of exclamation points. “Ah, crap. Talk to Kyungsoo oppa. I’ll see you in two days, yeah?”

She hurries out the door, leaving a confused Chanyeol in her wake.

“Well. Okay then.”

•●•●•●•

Ji Hye almost gets run over by three cars and a semi as she runs to the dance studio a couple streets away from The Pizzeria. She actually does get bowled over a couple blocks away – by someone on a bicycle. She thinks he looks somewhat familiar, but she doesn’t have much time to dwell on it as she spots a small group of people standing in front of the building that holds the dance studio.

“Are you okay?” the guy exclaims, standing up even as Ji Hye is brushing off her jeans. She only has the time to raise a hand to show she’s okay before dashing off once more, ignoring his apology.

“You’re late,” Sehun accuses as she skids to a stop in front of them, bending over and resting her hands on her knees to catch her breath. “You also look like you’ve been in a tornado. Your hair is a mess.”

“Ah, give her a break,” Jongup pipes up. “She looks like she just ran here from… hey, where were you, anyway?”

“Work,” she pants out, coughing slightly. Goddamn, she needs to work out more. Myungsoo's right; the hike up to her apartment isn’t enough exercise. “Air. Need air.”

“You’d be able to breathe if you stood up,” Ilhoon chides, tugging her up and allowing her to lean against him while she takes in the oxygen she needs to breathe. “You were at work again? Don’t you think you’ve been working too hard?”

“Meh.” She puffs out her cheeks in annoyance before swiftly changing the topic. “We were off to karaoke, remember?”

“We’d already be at the karaoke place if you hadn’t been forty five minutes late,” Sehun points out as they make their trek to the noraebang place a few blocks away that Sehun swore wasn’t shady, despite its placing.

“Oh, like you were early,” Ilhoon scoffs, landing a punch on Sehun’s shoulder. “If I recall correctly, you were late by fifteen minutes.”

“I don’t look like I just stuck myself in a wind tunnel.”

Ji Hye pats her hair into place, running a hand through her wavy locks to try to straighten them out. She has to admit that she’s still self-conscious about her new hairstyle, having shorn it to shoulder-length a couple weeks ago. “I got knocked over by a bike,” she huffs, sticking her tongue out at Sehun very maturely.

“Are you okay?” Jongup exclaims, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head. Ji Hye smiles and ruffles his hair.

“I’m fine,” she assures him. “Thanks for worrying, unlike someone. Douche.” She shoots a glare towards Sehun, who wrinkles his nose and looks away.

Ilhoon merely sighs. “Why am I not surprised?”

Ji Hye would protest, but she has to admit that she is in fact a klutz. It’s still a running joke that while she’s extremely graceful on the dance floor, the same aspect doesn’t carry in her daily life. In response, she flaps her hand before examining it for scrapes or cuts. She’s glad she got away without any injuries because she forgot to pack bandages.

Sehun frowns, his lips thinning and his face doing an overall weird expression¹. He glances at her hands and picks one up, scrutinising it despite her squawks of protest. “You didn’t get injured again, did you?” he asks. “You’re such a klutz, Ji. What are we going to do with you?”

He holds her hand close to his face and she chooses that moment to smack his nose. He releases her hand with a shout of protest, clutching his nose and shooting her a glare.

“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” she says, rolling her eyes. “I didn’t hit you that hard.”

Sehun kicks her shin, causing to exclaim ‘ow!’ and punch his arm. Ilhoon steps between them before they manage to land another blow.

“This is why I question if bringing the two of you out in public is a good idea,” he sighs, holding onto both their arms.

“She started it,” Sehun scoffs.

“Are you five?” Ilhoon asks incredulously. “Sehun, just lead the way.”

•●•●•●•

Ji Hye has to admit that she’s pleasantly surprised the noraebang place isn’t such a dump. Sehun has this way of bring their small group to places that are questionable in the three months that they’ve absorbed him into their friendship circle.

“Congratulations on picking a nice place,” Ilhoon says, slapping Sehun’s back as they settle down in a room. “Well, first time for everything, I guess.”

“I resent that,” Sehun cries. “I pick nice places!”

“Name one,” Jongup quips, raising an eyebrow. Ji Hye sniggers; you know it’s bad when even Jongup doubts you.

Sehun purses his lips as he thinks, hand pausing on the remote. “What about that bar over in Hannam-dong?”

“Gay bar,” Ji Hye immediately points out, tossing a couple of peanuts into . “I know you and Ilhoon like to see that much , but I like straight men and Jonguppie likes noonas.”

Jongup raises his glass in agreement before taking a gulp. “There were some pretty guys there,” he says absentmindedly. “But, yeah, noonas are better.”

Ilhoon and Sehun share a look. “Well, he’s definitely not going to be one of the converted,” Ilhoon says, shrugging.

“What about that club over at Itaewon?” Sehun continues.

There’s silence as the other three share looks before shaking their heads.

“How can you say that place was good?” Ilhoon asks incredulously. “I got hit on by a Russian stripper, Ji Hye got d sixteen times and Jongup was nearly caught up in a bar fight.”

“… It had good music?”

“Bull,” Ji Hye snorts. “The music was crap and I’m pretty sure the bartender roofied the drinks for sport. Face it, Oh Sehun. You’re crap at looking for hangout places.”

“This is an awesome place,” Sehun huffed, turning back to the remote only to find out that Jongup had snatched it out of his hand while he was distracted and was currently looking through the song book for a Chris Brown song, Ji Hye guesses. “Hey!”

“I bet you weren’t the one who found it,” Ji Hye points out. Although she hasn’t known Sehun for long, she knows him well enough to know that he’s a horrible judge of place character. He’s relatively okay with choosing the right people to hang around, being a psychology major and all, but he’s crap when it comes to places.

Sehun pouts and mutters under his breath, confirming her suspicions.

Jongup gives out an elated yell when he finds what he’s looking for and punches in the code triumphantly, grabbing a microphone off the table. The starting beats of Forever thunder throughout the room and Ji Hye watches with an amused smile as Jongup bounces in place, a large grin on his face. Ji Hye knows he doesn’t really know the lyrics and his pronunciation could use a bit of work, but it’s adorable seeing him get so excited like that.

“So, work?” Ilhoon asks casually, eyes trained on her.

Ji Hye glances at him and shrugs a shoulder, choosing to look down at her drink instead of meeting his eyes. “What about it?”

“You’ve been working a lot,” he states. “Is there a reason for it?”

She shifts uncomfortably. It’s not that she doesn’t want to tell Ilhoon about her problem. He’s her closest friend – he was the first friend she’d made when she arrived in Seoul, after all. However, she knows if she tells him, he’d start to fuss and worry. She doesn’t like being fussed over.

“I’m just a little strapped for cash,” she replies after a brief pause, making sure to keep her tone light and nonchalant. Apparently something in her voice alerts him that something isn’t right because he’s placing a hand on her knee, frowning slightly.

“You look exhausted, Ji. Mind telling me why you need the money even though you look like you can barely see straight?”

She runs a hand through her hair, shutting her eyes briefly. She hadn’t thought he would pick up on her exhaustion; she had been doing a pretty good job of hiding it. Then again, they’ve known each other for years, so she shouldn’t be so surprised he’d been able to see through her so easily. It just chafes to have to mention it. She’d rather keep her problem with meeting her rent to herself.

A heavy sigh escapes her lips. “My landlord raised my rent again,” she admits quietly. “It was tough before, but it’s like he’s doing it intentionally. Trying to kick me out…”

“That’s the third time in six months,” Ilhoon murmurs. “Ji, you know it’s not really worth it.”

It isn’t. She knows her landlord is asking too much for a crappy, one-room apartment. Her apartment doesn’t have hot water, her air-conditioning is always breaking down and the elevator never works – her apartment is on the eight floor. She knows she could get a better apartment for the same price, but there aren’t any apartments that are located near the university and The Pizzeria. The only reason she continues to bend to her landlord’s whims is because of its prime location anyway. Any other apartment in her neighbourhood is way above her college student budget.

“Do I have a choice?” she sighs, resting her chin in her hand.

“There’s always the dorms – ”

“ no. I hate dorms. I don’t know how you, Jongup and Sehun can stand it.”

“It’s not so bad when you think about it,” Ilhoon defends. “I mean, at least it has hot water.”

“You also share the floor with seventeen other loud, noisy, stupid college boys,” she points out.

“Excuse me, but I’m part of those seventeen stupid college boys,” Sehun huffs, plopping down next to her after successfully escaping from Jongup’s grasp. “Why are you suddenly talking about dorms, anyway? I thought you hated the place.”

“I do. It’s just that my landlord is being an and charging too much.”

“Douchebag,” Sehun agrees. “You live in a ty apartment complex.”

“It’s… affordable,” Ji Hye sighs. “Kind of.”

Sehun takes a swig of his beer. “So you finding a new place to stay then?” he asks.

Ji Hye tugs on a stray lock of hair before tucking it behind her ear. “I already tried,” she says morosely. “All the places I looked at were either way out of my price range or too far away.”

“Live at the dorms,” Ilhoon suggests.

Ji Hye makes a face. “No.” Living at the dorms means she’ll be living with another girl. She dislikes how prissy most girls are. She’s not saying all of them are annoying brats, but knowing her luck, she’ll probably be stuck with a roommate she can’t stand.

Sehun hums thoughtfully, tapping the rim of his beer bottle against his lips before them. “You don’t like to live at the dorms because you don’t want a roommate?” he inquires.

“I don’t want a y roommate,” she corrects, eyeing Jongup, who’s doing a very soulful and overly dramatic rendition of Koyote’s Hollywood. She finds it entertaining how engrossed Jongup gets in singing whenever they go for karaoke.

Sehun tugs on her hair. “Hey, I have a friend who has room. He’s not really looking for a roommate, but I think his apartment’s a little too quiet. It’s pretty big for one person,” he explains. “I don’t know what he’d charge, but I’m pretty sure he’d ask for a whole lot less than your of a landlord.”

Ji Hye nibbles on her bottom lip. She doesn’t know if that’s such a good idea. She knows Sehun’s a good judge of character, but he’s not so good with figuring out relationships between people just yet. Ji Hye might not get along with the friend Sehun is talking about. There’s also the aspect of Ji Hye not really being used with sharing her space.

“He?” she asks. “Are you sure it’s a good idea if I room with a guy?”

“He’s gay.”

Oh. Well… maybe it wouldn’t hurt if she checked it out. She’s tired from classes and taking on too many shifts at The Pizzeria, as well as the dolls she’s sewing for extra cash. She doesn’t think she’ll be able to survive college if she keeps this up.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to check it out,” she concedes, shrugging. “I’m tired.”

Sehun smirks, ruffling her hair. “I can tell. Your dark circles are reaching your knees.”

Ji Hye scowls, landing a hard punch on his shoulder. “Jerk,” she huffs, but there’s a small smile playing on her lips so Sehun knows she isn’t really annoyed.

“Ji Hye-yah,” Jongup yells, dragging her out of her seat. “Sing something!”

She laughs, the exclamation practically bouncing off the walls. She can feel some weight lifting off her shoulders that she hadn’t really noticed was there.

Maybe the friend Sehun’s talking about might not agree with taking her on as a roommate or maybe they just won’t get along, but the hope that she might be living in a nicer place still makes her feel a little lighter. She never thought she was that worried about it until she had another option. She can feel her exhaustion being pushed to the side as she presses in the code for Girls’ Generation’s Gee, laughing as Ilhoon acts as her backup dancer.

-0-

It feels good to have churned out the first chapter in one sitting XD (first time for everything indeed, Ilhoon)

I think Ji Hye has a good group of friends around her, don't you think?

(maybe you guys should look out for bicycle guy a little more idk you know maybe)

No Jongin, but maybe in the next chapter. This is actually shorter than Comparison's chapters used to be, but I'm planning on making Byzantine a little longer than Comparison anyway, so... yeah. Short(ish) chapters are good. Maybe I'll update more frequently!

You know, maybe.

btw the face ji hye was referring to in 1: