Kang Seulgi

              I had transferred to my current university mid-semester and I did not know a single person. Being a naturally shy person, I always have been, making friends has never been particularly easy for me. My prior university had been small in an area where we had all known each other for years; my new university was huge and right smack dab in the middle of Seoul. I went from being a small fish in a big pond to a small fish in an even bigger pond.

              My first few weeks were absolute hell and resembled high school more than anything with me sadly sitting on my own during meals andeating as quickly as I could to avoid unwanted eye contact. I kept my head down during classes and did not go out- there was no one I could go with, you see.

              I can still remember when I first saw Cho Minhee; she literally glowed as she walked to her classes, and to a quiet girl like me, she was a beacon of hope. I immediately knew that I wanted to be her friend. The day that I first saw her was the day everything changed for the better.

              It had been a long day of classes for me, and I felt like something found on the side of the road as I traipsed out of the building. I had stopped for a moment to check my bag for my notes, making sure I had actually remembered to grab them from my desk as I had left when someone cleared their throat behind me. Realizing I had been blocking the door, I bowed a quick apology.

              The girl standing behind me was absolutely stunning, I noticed. She wore a navy miniskirt that fell perfectly around her incredible long legs. Her blouse, perfectly ironed even at this point in the late afternoon, was loose around her torso, but I could tell that her body was perfect. Her face, even though it was pulled into an expression of mild irritation, was ethereal. It was makeup-ed to absolute godliness- her lips were not large to the point of pouty nor were they thin, and she had painted a light shade of bubblegum. Her nose was sloped, pointed, and her eyes were distant, but they were an odd shade of light brown.

              It wasn’t her looks that stunned me so much as the way she carried herself. The girl stood confidently, with her shoulders back and her head high- like she was ready to take on whatever the world threw at her. It wasn’t defiance, it wasn’t arrogance, but it was like Minhee knew exactly who she was and did not give a damn what the world thought of it.

              I felt the need to fall to my knees and worship her.

              “Watch it,” she mumbled as she pushed her way outside. I noticed that she wore a pair of insanely high heels, and it was as though the university was her own personal runway.

             "Wow."

              A breath that I hadn’t even known I had been holding fell from my lips; whether it was from amazement or relief, I could not tell. Was she even real? The girl was a distance away, and I saw her give the figure of a tall boy a hug. The pair struck an impressive combination, I could tell, although I could not see the face of the boy she had hugged.

Was he her boyfriend? I wondered to myself. A surge of envy spread through me as I watched her speak to him. I wished more than anything to have that kind of confidence. Her boyfriend was incredibly lucky.

“Seulgi, right?” a voice to my left made me jump.

A boy stood next to me. He was cute, I noticed. His hair was a dark brown and his features were just slightly feminine- his lips, his thin frame, his surprisingly milky complexion. He was just slightly taller than me, and I stood at about 170 centimeters. He blinked, waiting for me to respond.

“Your name is Seulgi, right?” The boy tried again, sounding unsure.

“Oh, right,” I cringed at how awkward I sounded. “Yes. It is.”

“Cool,” the boy smiled at me. “I’m Baekhyun. I’m in class with you.”

“Oh,” I was not sure why this boy was talking to me, but I didn’t want him to stop. This was the first time someone had actually talked to me in weeks. “That’s cool. How do you like it?”

“To be honest?” Baekhyun grimaced. “I hate it.”

I laughed. I, for one, rather enjoyed the class, but I didn’t want to scare him off or anything. I figured that just laughing would be a safe route.

“Anyways,” the boy shook his head, ruffling his hair with his hand. He held out a notebook to me. “You left your notes on your desk.”

My heart sank; he hadn’t actually wanted to make friends with me. He was just being polite. I bit my lip and took my notes from his outstretched hand. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” he waved a casual hand.

“I don’t know what I would have done without them.”

Baekhyun nodded in understanding. “So listen. I actually wanted to talk to you anyways.”

“Oh?” I felt my chest swelling with hope, again.

“Do you want to maybe go get coffee? I noticed you have been alone whenever I have seen you, so I thought that maybe you could use a friend.”

I was genuinely touched by his offer. I couldn’t fight the smile that spread across my face. “Baekhyun, I would love to.”

Baekhyun scratched the back of his neck shyly and smiled back. “Yeah, no problem. I can introduce you to a few of my friends. They’re great.”

“You are just so nice!” I squealed, and unable to contain myself, I threw my arms around him. I jumped up and down in excitement.

“Thanks?” He sounded a bit abashed, and I quickly stopped my jumping, backing off with quickly reddening cheeks.

“Oh, sorry,” I told him, still smiling a bit.

“No biggie,” Baekhyun was just as red as I was. “So you maybe want to go now?”

“Yeah!” I breathed, pushing my notes into my bag. “Let’s go.”

Surprisingly, I had a great time talking to Baekhyun. He was funny and quite easygoing, and I surprised myself at how easy it was to spend time with him. The whole way to the coffee shop was spent laughing and learning about him and his friends.

“So there are five more of you?” I asked, crossing my arms as we waited to cross the street. “Are you all like a pack or something?”

Baekhyun leaned against the light post, gazing thoughtfully at me for a moment as he mapped out his answer. “We have all known each other since forever. I mean, there was a group of twelve of us, but the other six went to different schools.”

“But haven’t you made other friends? Surely you met other people.”

Baekhyun shrugged. “Sure we have.”

“But?” The walk signal went off and we crossed the street.

“I dunno. We could have,” he was nonchalant. “We just never felt the need to.”

I smiled as he held the door for me, beckoning me through. “It means a lot that you invited me.”

“I couldn’t leave you by yourself,” Baekhyun shyly steered me into the café. “I get that it can be tough making friends around here.”

“Seriously, Baek. Thank you,” I paused. “Can I call you that?”

Baekhyun blushed. “Of course. Look, there they are.”

A group of four boys were huddled around a small table and looked up as we approached. All but one of them were very tall- I could tell even when they were sitting. The other one had dark, wide features and was about Baekhyun’s height. Two of the other boys had sharp, cutting features that intimidated me a little bit while the final boy was not quite as tall with a friendly face.

“Who’s this?” The smallest boy asked as Baekhyun led me up to them. “Is she new? I haven’t seen her around before.”

“This is Seulgi. She’s new.”

I waved shyly. “Hi.”

Baekhyun pointed around the table. “This is Kyungsoo,” he gestured to the smaller boy, “Sehun, Kai, er, Jongin, whatever,” the two taller boys.

“Just call me Kai,” Kai waggled his fingers and gave me a mischievous grin.

“And Suho,” Baekhyun pointed to the friendly looking boy who nodded at me. “She looked a bit down so I invited her to get coffee with us.”

We pulled up a couple of chairs and sat down. It was a bit squished with all of us, but I didn’t mind it one bit. It was a nice change after a month of practical isolation.

“That was awful sweet of you to invite Seulgi here,” Sehun put his elbows up and cradled his face in them, giving a meaningful smile to Baekhyun, who for some reason glowered across the table at him. I could tell that Sehun was a bit of a trouble maker.

There was a thud from somewhere under the table and suddenly Kai was cursing under his breath, reaching under the table to clutch at his shin.

“Ow! What the hell, man!”

“Sorry,” Baekhyun muttered, still glaring at Sehun, who looked way too pleased with himself.

“So Seulgi,” Suho chivalrously changed the subject. I could tell that he was the gentlemanly type. I mean, the dude was wearing a polo shirt with all the buttons done. “What are you studying here?”

“Um, the same as Baekhyun actually,” I squeaked out, a bit nervous about speaking in front of so many boys. “We have a few classes together. He brought me my notes when I forgot them today.”

“So you just met?” Kyungsoo scratched his head, looking at Baekhyun in confusion.

“Well, I guess if you put it that way,” I felt myself growing more flustered.

Baekhyun, thankfully, came to my rescue. “Where is Chanyeol?”

Kai rolled his eyes, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms behind his head. “He’s with that girl he’s been seeing as of late.”

That seemed to draw Baehyun’s attention. “Really? They’ve been together a while. I’m surprised that he hasn’t introduced us yet.”

Suho nodded thoughtfully. “It isn’t like him to be so quiet about this sort of thing,” the older boy looked concerned. “I normally have trouble getting him to shut up.”

Sehun followed suit, looking concerned for his friend. “Do you think she treats him well? You don’t think that she’s a crazy or anything, right?”

“Maybe,” Kyungsoo was fiddling with his drink. “Should we talk to him about it?”

"What if she's some sort of psycho?" Kai was still rubbing his knee. "I mean, he's been dating her for what, almost eight months? He's never so much as told us her name. Maybe he's scared of her cheating on him or something."

Sehun snorted over his coffee. "As if she'd cheat on him with the likes of you."

Kai looked offended. "I beg pardon?"

"I'm sure it will be fine," Baekhyun attempted to calm everyone down. "I'm sure he will introduce her when the time is right."

As if on cue, the door chimed and a tall boy with dark hair walked in, his eyes glued to his phone. He looked up, saw our table, and he waved, his face breaking into a dizzying smile.

My heart stopped; this boy was absolutely perfect.

He looked so happy that I felt the same flash of envy that I had felt when I saw that girl before I met Baekhyun. I wanted to be that happy; I wanted to somehow be close to him.

“Hey,” the boy who I knew to be Chanyeol pulled up a chair and slid in next to me. He smiled at me and turned to the others. “Who is this?”

“I’m Seulgi,” I stuck out my hand and beat everyone else to the punch.

Smiling, Chanyeol took my hand, and I felt the butterflies soar in the pit of my stomach. I knew it was too late for me- I had it bad. “Nice to meet you, Seulgi. I’m Chanyeol.”

The story of us began.

Park Chanyeol broke up with his girlfriend four months later. A month and a half after that I finally got the nerve to ask him out to the very same café. A week later we started dating. Two months later I finally met the girl I had seen that day I had met Baekhyun.

Cho Minhee.

I had seen her around campus since that first time I had seen her. She was a force of nature; she talked to only a couple people, yet everyone knew her name. They said it with a reverence that I could not tell was stemmed from terror or awe. She wore breakneck heels like flip flops, her outfits always seemed as though they had been torn directly from a fashion magazine, and I was amazed at how well that girl was able to do her eyeliner.

I mean, it took me at least an hour to achieve that amount of perfection, and I could just tell that to a girl like Minhee, it all came naturally. I envied her. More than anything, I wanted to be just like her.