Chapter Text
CHAPTER 1
First Impression
The hot summer days that were spent lazing around the house while eating everything edible in sight are over. Leaves have turned gold and brown, while the temperature drops several degrees lower especially during the evenings. The wind is becoming a little stronger, urging the people to dress more modestly. Most importantly, the youngsters are preparing to return to school for a brand new year. One of the students getting ready is Choi Sungyoon. He sits at the edge of his bed, folding his socks while his suitcase lays wide open on the wooden floor of his bedroom. As he puts yet another pair of socks inside the gray suitcase, he hears his mother’s footsteps approaching his open door. Sungyoon looks up, just in time to see her entering with all his uniforms.
“Your regular uniform, winter uniform, gym uniform, and your baseball uniform. You only have two sets of your school uniform, so make sure you do your laundry everyday,” Sungyoon’s mother, Hyerim, says as she places them neatly on the bed next to Sungyoon.
“Thank you, eomma,” Sungyoon softly says, picking up the uniforms and carefully rolling them so they could fit in the suitcase.
She watches him fit all the clothes he would need inside the suitcase and lets out a smile that is a mixture of many emotions: mostly happiness, a handful of pride, a dash of longing and a hint of sadness. Her youngest is already at his third year in the university. For two years, he had been living away from home to study at the university and yet, Hyerim still cannot quite wrap her head around the fact that her youngest child is all grown up, and would be starting his junior year at the university. She still gets emotional whenever she sees him packing every start of the school year. Sure, Sungyoon gets to come home during the winter holidays, but him coming home everyday after school can never compare to that. Among her three children, Sungyoon is the youngest and yet he is the one who took the chance to study somewhere far from home. Hyerim, however, was not surprised at all. Sungyoon may be her baby, but he is also quite the dreamer and the fighter of the family.
“Eomma?”
Hyerim blinks back her tears and puts her focus back on Sungyoon who is now looking at her with a worried expression.
“Yes, dear? You were saying something?” Hyerim says.
“Don’t cry again when you and appa drop me off later at the train station,” Sungyoon repeats.
“Me? Crying? When did I ever cry when I was dropping you off, Sungyoon?” Hyerim jokes.
This solicits a bright laugh from Sungyoon, and Hyerim marvels at the melodious sound.
“Every single time, eomma,” Sungyoon reminds her with a mischievous grin. “Please don’t cry again. You know I cannot hold back my tears when I see you crying.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll try my best not to cry later, but don’t you dare blame me when I couldn’t!” Hyerim says. “I can’t help it whenever I see you growing more and more. You’re not eomma’s little baby anymore.”
Sungyoon puts an arm around her shoulder and pulls her into an affectionate hug. “Eomma~ I might not be little anymore, but I’m still your baby!”
Upon hearing that coming from her son, Hyerim really could not hold back the tears anymore, so she just lets the floodgates open and out comes her tears. While crying, she is dramatically retelling every milestone of Sungyoon’s life that she could remember just to emphasize her point of how fast time is flying, and how her baby is growing up too fast. Sungyoon patiently listens to his mother, still holding her in a loose hug. The whole morning is spent that way until it is time for Sungyoon to go to the train station.
•••
Starting his first year in the university on the opposite side of the country, Lee Jangjun’s heart has been beating in his throat for the past week leading up to this day. As their shiny black family car drives into the tall gates of Incheon University, he cannot help but gape at the picturesque view of the property, complete with blue skies, rolling hills and gorgeous low-rise buildings. He clutches his baseball glove tightly in his hands upon seeing a glimpse of the baseball field. Slightly hidden behind the left side of the grand main building of the campus, the field still looks magnificent to him and Jangjun can almost hear it enticingly calling to him. Junpyo, the family’s butler, soon pulls up in front of the dormitories that is located a good five minutes away from the main campus.
“Young master, your father asked me to give this to you,” Junpyo says, while carefully presenting a small black velvet box to Jangjun. “He regrets that his meeting has to be on the same day as your first day of school, but he wishes you all the best in your new endeavor as a university student.”
With a sigh, he takes the small box from Junpyo and gingerly opens it. Inside is an oval-shaped locket attached to a white-gold necklace, and when he opens the locket, he finds the picture of his late mother side-by-side with their old family picture. He immediately feels hot tears prickling in his eyes. It has been five years since the sudden death of Jangjun’s mother and yet, the eighteen-year-old still feels like it happened only yesterday. Ever since his mother’s death, his father has been mostly absent in his life. Jangjun understands that his father keeping himself busy is the only coping mechanism that he came to adopt after his wife’s passing, but that does not mean that Jangjun is not hurt whenever they can’t have meals together or whenever he can’t attend an important school event.
Blinking back tears, Jangjun puts on his signature smile, wide and blindingly bright. He puts the necklace back in its box before grabbing his backpack and cheerfully getting out of the car. Jangjun stretches, arms reaching up high to the heavens as he groans contently.
“It’s not even my first day of school yet, Junpyo! Classes won’t start until Monday, so tell father he could still come visit me until then!” Jangjun says. “That is, if he’s not too busy! If he can’t make it, tell him to just send me more pocket money, okay?”
Junpyo lets out a relieved laugh upon seeing that Jangjun is back to his noisy self.
“I will, young master,” Junpyo says.
In no time, all of Jangjun’s stuff have already been unloaded out of the car and now, Junpyo is having a small argument with the staff at the front desk while Jangjun awkwardly stands at the side. As the two adults in front of him argue, he can’t do anything but to look around the lobby of the dormitories. It definitely isn’t like the lobbies of the grand hotels that he had been to, Jangjun finds it to be elegant and homey in its own way. The walls are painted a simple white with sepia accents. In place of a crystal chandelier, the lobby instead has two antique-looking ceiling fans. There are decent-sized magenta couches littered with black throw pillows and a threadbare carpet that looks clean but also seems like it’s been there for at least a decade. To the right of the frontdesk, there’s a hallway leading to the stairs and quite possibly to the elevators that’ll take you to the dormitories. Before entering the hallway, however, a shelf is located, containing neatly organized brochures, maps, and magazines. Jangjun, having lost his interest at the bickering, makes his way to the shelves and inspects its contents.
“I know that you requested for Jangjun to have a room to himself, but I’m afraid it’s the university’s policy to have the varsity team members to be roomed together. Your son also got in the university through the varsity scholarship, so it really is a must for him to share a room with a teammate to promote camaraderie,” Jangjun hears the woman saying in the background as he grabs a copy of the campus map.
He gives it a once over before proceeding to get a very informative map about the area surrounding the campus. Jangjun grins in delight when he realizes that whoever made the map took their time to mark places that students would be interested in visiting (like restaurants, arcades, cafes, shopping centers, and of course, bars).
“We called the university administration over a month ago regarding the request, and they said that they would see what they can do. Now, what is this policy you’re talking about? They did not mention anything about such policy when we called!” Junpyo complains, completely ignoring the fact that the lady thought he is Jangjun’s father.
“Exactly, sir. The administration themselves said that they would see what they can do. They did not say yes since it is still within our discretion if we would allow such thing. We would've approved it if it’s for health purposes, but other than that, I’m afraid that no one is exempted from this policy.”
When Jangjun is done collecting useful information materials from the shelf, he walks back to the two adults. He notices that Junpyo is starting to look red from anger, so he decides to step in.
“Junpyo hyung, it’s okay! I don’t mind sharing a room with one of my teammates! It would be more fun that way!” Jangjun says.
“But young master, your father specifically requested that you have your own room. If he finds out that--”
“Then he doesn’t have to find out, Junpyo hyung,” Jangjun says.
“Young master…” Junpyo says.
“It’s okay, it’ll be fun to make a friend out of my roommate, right?”
Despite him not being fully okay with the idea, Junpyo lets out a resigned sigh.
“Alright, alright, but if you don’t like having a roommate, just give me a call. I’m sure your father won’t mind renting an apartment in the area for you.”
“Eyyy, don’t be silly, hyung! When did I ever not like having people around me, huh?”
“I know, but just in case,” Junpyo says, looking at Jangjun worriedly, “If you need anything, anything at all, just give me a call.”
Jangjun giggles at that, “Okay, Junpyo hyung, I promise to call you when I run out of toilet paper!”
“Be strong, young master! Make lots of friends,” Junpyo says, laughing.
After saying their goodbyes, Junpyo leaves and Jangjun walks back to the front desk.
“Sorry for any inconvenience we caused you today! He can be a little uptight and overprotective sometimes, so I beg you to pardon him,” Jangjun says, smiling apologetically at the woman. “I’m really fine with sharing a room with someone else.”
“No worries, Jangjun. I encounter parents who are worse than your hyung. But I can totally understand why he dotes on you! You’re such a cutie!” she says. “I’m Jina, by the way. I’m head supervisor of the dormitories.”
Jangjun feels his face heating up a little at the compliment, but he hides it with a confident laugh and thanks her. A couple more of introductory exchanges later, Jina finally gives him his room number and his key along with a personal data sheet that he needs to fill up since he is a freshman. Jangjun hauls his belongings up to the third floor of the dormitory (because, apparently, elevators do not exist here despite the university’s prestige) and by the time he gets in front of the room, he is already a sweaty mess. He huffs, wiping the sweat off his brows with the back of his arm and unlocks the front door of what he would call home for the next four years. His mouth stretches into a wide grin upon seeing that the dorm’s living room is not as spacious as his house’s living room, but not too cramped either. Sure, the alabaster walls paired with light cerulean accents for the furniture, doors and cabinets look relatively gloomy, but the thought of having a roommate just keeps making Jangjun feel extra optimistic about attending a university located many miles away from his hometown. If he and his roommate fill up the shelves and the fridge with food, pictures and other homey stuff, the place would become their little cozy nest.
“Excuse me,” a quiet voice suddenly says, effectively making Jangjun jump in surprise.
Knowing that his roommate is finally here, Jangjun quickly turns around with a friendly smile. Standing in front of him is a black-haired boy who looks well-built despite being a couple of centimeters shorter than himself. The other male has an unreadable expression on his intimidatingly handsome face, but this does not deter Jangjun’s spirit.
“Hello!” Jangjun greets, dropping the formality altogether after assuming that the shorter is also a freshman like him, “I’m Lee Jangjun! I’m your roommate, I’m in block 1-L2, so obviously, I’m a Literature major! How about you?”
Jangjun has the brightest, most blinding smile he can muster, but after introducing himself, Jangjun notices that the boy’s unreadable expression morphed into something akin to reproachful.
“I’m Choi Sungyoon, block 3-A1 ,” Choi Sungyoon says in a low voice.
Realizing that he just spoke informally to someone two years older than him, Jangjun’s stomach drops at once and his palms start to sweat. One of the tips that Junpyo gave him on how to be well-liked by the people on campus is that he should be very respectful to the sunbaes. No matter how undeserving they are of his respect, even if they seem dumb or moochy, Jangjun should be nearly kissing the ground whenever he greets them. At first, Jangjun doesn’t like the idea of having to respect someone just because of their age, but he quickly pushed his own opinion out of his mind when Junpyo said that knowing a sunbae can prove to be quite useful. It’s more vital in Jangjun’s case since he is part of a school team. There are bound to be team members who are sunbaes, so he should really make a good impression if he wants them to guide him and keep the bullies away.
But because it’s Jangjun and he sometimes forgets to pack some sense in his brain, immediately makes a fool of himself, so now, the third year is regarding him with those sharp eyes and Jangjun feels his face heat up in extreme embarrassment.
“I-I’m sorry, sunbae-nim,” Jangjung stutters out while bowing frantically and repeatedly to the point that he looks like a silly pigeon pecking the ground in search for food.
Saying nothing and merely shaking his head wordlessly, Sungyoon moves past Jangjun with his luggage. The older makes sure that he pointedly bumps Jangjun's shoulder as he moves past him. Jangjun winces at the collision and rubs his shoulder as he watches Sungyoon disappear into the only bedroom, the bedroom they will be sharing for the whole school year. The moment the door shuts with a firm click behind Sungyoon, Jangjun’s legs that suddenly became jelly causes him to fall on the floor. He dramatically rests the back of his hand on his forehead, berating himself for being such an idiot.
It hasn’t even been an hour since I arrived here and I already managed to make my roommate hate me!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Weeks before the new school year started, Sungyoon was told that he should expect to have a roommate this time around. For the past two years, he had been lucky enough to have the dorm to himself; his teammates and classmates, especially those who didn’t fancy their roommates, were jealous that he didn’t have to share the place with someone else. Sungyoon, of course, has always been grateful of this. Sungyoon has lots of friends and acquaintances due to his attractive physique and his position as one of the most valuable players in the university’s baseball team, however, none of them knows that Sungyoon thinks of himself as mostly introverted. He appreciates the attention and the company during the day, but it can definitely become draining and having a flat all to himself is a great way to recharge, so receiving an email from the school about the new roommate certainly did make Sungyoon squirm and restless for a few days. His coach then contacted him and informed him that his new roommate is also the newly recruited member of their baseball team who also happens to be a freshman.
That piece of information just completely turned Sungyoon against the idea of his new roommate, because the last time the team recruited a freshman, the bloke turned out to be such an arrogant prick. Just because he was personally scouted and offered a varsity scholarship by their coach, this freshman didn’t bother to attend practices regularly. He claimed that he was already really good and that he only needed minimal training. In addition, he also boasted that he had photographic memory so he also didn’t need to attend his classes regularly as well. Sungyoon remembered how the whole team, including himself, loathed that arrogant git. Luckily, their coach kicked him out of the team after he failed all of his classes. Sungyoon feared that his new roommate will also turn out to be a real asshole too, but his noona told him to remain impartial and keep his prejudice at bay until he actually meets the guy in person. He took her advice and he even brought some board games in the hopes that they can bond over those.
But now that they finally met in person, that Jangjun guy proved how right Sungyoon had been all along.
With a scowl, Sungyoon opens his duffle bag and starts unpacking his clothes. He walks over to the drawers and starts filling in the spaces only to stop midway upon realizing that he now has to share the space with that annoying boy. He makes a mental note to see if he can talk to Jina later to ask for a new roommate. For now, he grudgingly removes his undies from the second drawer and cramps all of them in the first drawer. He’s just in the middle of folding his socks when his insufferable roommate knocks on the door.
“Hyung-nim…” says the muffled voice of Lee Jangjun through the other side of the door. “C-Can I come in?”
Sungyoon’s scowl grows bigger at the voice, but lets out a halfhearted grunt of approval. A few moments passes by before the door hesitantly opens. Jangjun’s bashful face peeks in first and Sungyoon could see the way the other flinches slightly when he looks at him with a glare through his dark bangs.
“H-Hello, hyung-nim. I’m so sorry for the disrespect a while ago. I didn’t know you were a third year…” Jangjun says, bowing in apology.
Sungyoon barely acknowledges him, but he could see the determination on Jangjun’s face.
“It’s not good to have an awkward relationship between roommates, don’t you think? I want to be friends with you! I hope we can move past it and start over, hyung-nim!” Jangjun say, smiling a thousand megawatt smile that really gets on Sungyoon’s nerves.
Sungyoon hates this type of person—someone who can’t, for the life of them, take a hint that their friendship is not wanted. Staying firm, Sungyoon merely continues to fold his socks without even sparing Jangjun a look. But just like what he thought, Jangjun is that type of person and to Sungyoon’s annoyance, Jangjun waddles over with his heavy luggage in tow before he holds out his right hand for Sungyoon to shake.
Pft, as if I would shake your hand, Sungyoon grumpily thinks as he glares at the hand.
“Hyung-nim, come on, don’t be annoyed at Jjang-jjyu-niii~ don’t be mad at cute, cute, Jjang-jjyu-niii~”
Did...did he just do aegyo?
Sungyoon slowly lifts his head to show his murderous stare. Jangjun, being the idiot that he is, still has his index fingers poking his inflated cheeks.
“You’re quite cocky, aren’t you?” Sungyoon says through gritted teeth.
The terrifying look on Sungyoon’s face deflates Jangjun’s cheeks and his hands fall at his side at once. All he wants to do is hide under his bed because those eyes can seriously kill him, but he bravely looks into Sungyoon’s eyes to show how sincere he was when he said he wanted the two of them to be friends. Unfortunately, Sungyoon takes this as a sign of defiance.
“My patience is running out, so listen carefully and get this through your thick head. I don’t want or need your friendship. Know your place, stay there and don’t bother me.”