Chapter Text
The rain wouldn’t stop pouring even after hours it had showered down the city. Soobin hated rain, because it meant that the sky was turning dark, and he hated darkness, also he didn’t bring his umbrella with him this time.
Soobin gave out a long sigh for the nth time, feet kept hitting on the pavement ground, resulting a steady tapping sound when his shoes met the hard surface, just like a clock that was ticking every time the second passed by as he counted the moment for the rain to finally stop.
However the rain still didn’t stop. He mentally noted to never easily trust the high percentage of weather forecast, solely because the chance of raining should be only twenty one percent this afternoon. Though he should have known better, a chance was still a chance, it might happen even within the lowest probability.
He was this close to call it quit, since he was already twenty minutes late by the time his class was over. He wanted to tell the other but it seemed like fortune was unwilling to embrace him today. His phone died and he didn’t bring its charger with him. He groaned out of exasperation for countless times in the span of six hours already. Today definitely wasn’t his day.
Soobin was never a risk taker, but he was contemplating enough to take it though, since he already promised Daehwi to meet him at the coffee shop at Gwanak-gu; near his apartment building, forty minutes ago, and the rain didn’t give any sign to please his desire. So he took a step out of the roof shade of the bus shelter, eventually letting the rain reached out to his embrace while silently praying that his bag was enough to protect his borrowed library books inside from the heavy rain.
“Jihoon!”
A sudden voice shouted from the distance that made Soobin freeze on his step, standing upright upon hearing it. It was like his nerves had been trained for so long to respond to the said stimulant. He turned his body hurriedly, searching for the source of the said voice.
“Jihoon-ah!”
There was the same voice, louder this time. Soobin squinted his eyes, focusing both his vision and hearing to the sound, finally found its source which was a guy who shouted that name, approaching another guy in a long brown coat standing at the bus shelter he was under before.
Upon within the chaos inside his mechanism, Soobin ran over to the supposedly Jihoon guy without much thought. But maybe God eventually took a pity of him, as if didn’t want to embarrass him any further by giving him a total wreck today, because the next second the guy shouted again.
“Yoon Jihoon!”
Soobin stopped from running, standing in the middle of vast pedestrian with not so many people on it because of the heavy rain. He had never wanted to melt joining into a puddle of rain before, but for now it seemed so to consider the choice as the said guy was not the Jihoon he was searching all along.
A loud sigh escaped as he was unable to hold it anymore after looking over himself. He was doomed. His bag was as drenched as his clothes, and a drenched bag with library books inside was never a good sign.
»»»
People said life was like a plain blank paper at first. It was our purpose to fill it with inks we wanted to project to our lives. We could draw lines, shapes, or even write words, numbers, everything—anything, no up to any limitations.
Therefore for Soobin, that was the reason why his life was a book with thousand pages of papers full of scribbles with the same letters every time the page was turned.
The difference would only be how bold the ink looked, the pressure of each line changed based on the way he felt at the moment. Sometimes it was a faint line, most of the times it was so strong, that everyone could see what the letters said even within far proximity. However all of them were still the same letters, never changed even for once, all which could only read as; Park Jihoon.
It was silly, absurd you could say, how the name left too much space in his life that nobody could ever enter to replace the significance.
There was not much memories he could retract either, it actually happened only once, in a mere of seconds. Long before he could understand what he felt, long before he could even understand anything. It happened almost a decade ago which he should have forgotten already at this point. But he didn’t. Though it was a simple quick encounter, that was enough for Soobin to engrave the name forever.
«««
The bell rang throughout the school to announce that the break time was over. Students were running down the hallway to get to the next class without being late, after completely ignoring the previous bell which already rang to inform them that they only had 5 minutes left for the break, enough time for them to prepare so they could get ready for the next class.
However kids were just being kids. They still preferred to use all the time they had to just play with their friends. And Soobin was no exception.
6th grader Soobin was running back to the music room hurriedly to get his book, as he remembered he left it there because he was being too excited to show the new Nintendo 3DS his father just bought him to his friends.
He arrived into the room with a ragged breath. He planned to get the book as fast as he could, then running back to his class before Mr. Kim came. Mr. Kim was a fun teacher, but he hated tardiness, and Soobin didn’t want to insert himself in his favorite’s teacher’s blacklist at anytime.
The music room should be empty, but instead he saw someone playing the piano at the corner of the room. He tried to recognize who the person could be, but easily failed. Though he wouldn’t be able to know anyway since he just moved to Seoul last month. But looking at the long trousers uniform he wore, the guy was probably older than him.
He was mesmerized, listening to the piece playing by the piano intently. Soobin admitted, he wasn’t really that good playing any kind of instruments, but he had memorized every pieces he was taught to. And this piece that the guy was playing, was so foreign to him. He never heard of it before.
It sounded so beautiful. There was a funny feeling on his chest, like something was tingling and taking his breath away. He didn’t understand what he felt. He thought he was just exhausted from all the running, so he just shrugged it off.
It wasn’t his intention at all, but he eventually stayed for don’t know how long, definitely longer than he should. Because the next thing he heard was Daehwi’s loud voice from the hallway, which was telling him to get faster since the next class would start, and he could see Mr. Kim walking out of the teachers’ room.
Soobin was brought to real life after following his thoughts wandering around, surprised. He shook his head, then walked backwards quickly without any much thought, unfortunately crashed a table in the way, tripped himself, and fell down to the floor.
The guy stopped playing, peering his gaze off the piano to look at the commotion. Soobin could see how the other’s eyes widened, hurriedly walking closer, crouching down to help Soobin.
Living his 10 years life, Soobin might have not seen so many people in his life before, but he could swear that the guy in front of him was so handsome. The most handsome even. Something tugged on his chest, with the same tingly feeling coming from before. What is this? He thought silently. The close proximity made his face went warm, so he quickly shied away.
“Are you okay?” The guy asked worriedly.
Soobin was too far too embarrassed to answer, so he just nodded. The guy helped him to stand at the same time he heard Daehwi calling out his name again from outside. So he thanked the guy and bid a goodbye faster than the speed of light. Soobin didn’t ask for the guy’s name, all he remembered was the yellow hoodie he wore, and the strange tingly feeling the other brought to him.
«««
The school was finally over. Soobin followed Daehwi who was already walking down the stairs hastily towards the field to join the others playing soccer. But as he started peeling off his bag, he heard loud voices coming from the direction of the gate. He waved at Daehwi to come closer from behind the bush, “Daehwi come here!”
“What?” Daehwi shouted, resulting a hand landed on his mouth. “Be quiet!” Soobin whispered, while pulling the other to hide behind the bush.
He turned his body to look over the five older guys near the gate and went crouching down immediately. “Daehwi, do you know them?”
He didn’t know why he had to hide, but Daehwi joined Soobin crouching down anyway. “Yes, they used to study here but they graduated last year. Why?”
“Can you look at the one who wears yellow hoodie? Who is he?” Soobin asked expectantly.
Daehwi was trying to stand up to see the guy the other meant clearly. “Hey!” Soobin whispered a bit too loud. “Please just keep hiding!”
Daehwi didn’t listen to him and proceeded to stand still while Soobin was crouching down behind the bush, too scared to even look over the gate anymore. “Oh, that’s Park Jihoon Sunbaenim.” He stated, while furrowing his eyebrows. “Why are you asking me this?” Daehwi questioned him, but Soobin only smiled while muttering “Park Jihoon” over and over again.
»»»
Soobin thought in time he could finally forget it and just move on with his life. It was so childish, but everytime he heard someone calling out “Jihoon” wherever he was, he always stopped what he was doing to find the source of the supposedly Jihoon, only to realize it wasn’t the Park Jihoon he was searching for.
To be very honest, he didn’t even remember the face anymore, it was already a blur to him. What did he expect anyway? The interaction wasn’t even that long. Some other people who experienced the same frivolous thing would probably never think about it again even for once, as it was that insignificant to remember. Also it happened almost a decade ago, almost 10 years had passed since then. Soobin had been holding to the said memories half of his life.
All he got was Park Jihoon, his senior from Cheongdam-dong Elementary School, and just that, nothing more. He tried to search Park Jihoon on internet one day and he was astonished that there were so many people named Park Jihoon more than he could ever imagine.
So he gave up searching, surrendering himself to where the faith could lead him at last. People said that if it was meant to be, it would be. And Soobin tried to hang on that, though he couldn’t lie, he was still hoping, that one day, he would meet him again. One day.
»»»
“What the hell happened to you?” was the first thing Soobin heard from his best friend after stepping into the coffee shop.
He chose the wooden chair instead of the couch, such a rare occasion, scared of his drenched clothes would give hell to it. “I don’t bring umbrella.”
The coffee shop was crowded, each tables were already taken by groups of people, meaning loud chatters were made out into his every sense, giving unclear sound of the heavy rain pouring down outside. He could see some people looking at the clock on the wall, then glancing to the scene outside more than once. It was as if they didn’t mean to sit around that long, but the rain confined them to stay within.
“You could tell me, you know? We could just meet up some other time which was more convenient.” Daehwi scoffed, while his hands were rummaging inside his bag to find something for the other.
“I would have told you if I could.” He shook his head to rinse off his hair from some droplets of water. “But my phone died and I didn’t bring my charger.”
Daehwi mumbled some incoherent words, probably several curses to respond his idiocy, which luckily Soobin was too lazy to comprehend or retort back. He was too focused on how the air conditioner was too cold to his skin, making him start shivering, but he tried his best not to grit his teeth. He just continued shaking the water off his hair until he got thrown with a small towel right at his face.
“There, dry your ass while waiting for the valet drive my car here. I’ll just drive you back to your apartment.” Daehwi glanced at the pool of water that started forming under his best friend. “We also don’t want to give the employees more works than they are paid for.”
Soobin only pursed his lips. Not exactly denying, because after drenching himself in the rain, everything sounded like a bad idea for his weak immune, he himself also wanted to just go back seeking for warmness and laying down under the sheet.
“Jihoon!” A sudden voice caught Soobin’s ear.
He looked over the entrance door in full career, agitated to see the view. Under the stream of air that was too cold, his mind was starting to wander into the locus inside his brain that carefully held memories he always tried to dispose, but came up as failure nevertheless.
He felt like the time was passing too slow, the clock hand on the wall didn’t significantly move every time he glanced over. He started shivering even more, he probably knew why, maybe it was because he was drenched by the rain, and the air was too cold, or maybe because he could finally meet the guy he never thought he would see ever again, walking in front of him towards the seat at the corner.
Every cells inside his brain was trying so hard to overcome the chaos his heart suddenly initiated. Although Soobin let them doing their job, he also thought that maybe they just needed to give up already, since it was only such a waste to be overworked for something impossible. And forgetting the said memory about the guy was impossible.
However he wasn’t the guy he thought he was, as the other guy revealed his full name “Lee Jihoon!” Soobin felt like his hope was crumbling again.
“You still try to find him?” Daehwi asked, concern could be seen in his eyes. “You know it’s been almost 10 years already.”
“I don’t know.” Soobin sighed. “Part of me just wanted to let go, but every time I heard that name, my body just responds in full force. It’s like I’m a Pavlov dog, and Jihoon is the stimulus.”
Daehwi sipped his coffee. “I don’t understand what you’re saying but that sounds concerning.”
He nodded. “It is.”
Before they could continue, a tap on the table came, informing them that the car was ready in front of the coffee shop.
“Better to drive you back before you catch a cold.” Daehwi said, collecting all his belongings as he stood up from the couch. Soobin just obliged, he never wanted to agree at something more before this.
»»»
Yeonjun used to love rain when he was younger, running around under it, letting the droplets after droplets embracing his body. But it wasn’t the case anymore. Because every time it rained, suddenly all the cars were on the road, creating a massive traffic jam all over the city.
The traffic was horrendous. He had been stuck in the same cross junction only two blocks before his apartment complex for about 45 minutes already. If his mother was present by his side, she would whoop his ass multiple times just by the amount of curses he let out in the span of each minutes.
He didn’t think he ever believed in the presence of god, but he started clasping his both hands in front of his face anyway, closing his eyes, as he kept praying for a swift lane for the next junction religiously, because for real, he couldn’t hold his bladder any longer.
The taps on the steering wheel getting more and more frequent as he pounded his fingers on it snappishly. The traffic light was still showing an angry red color with 30 seconds countdown. Yeonjun closed his eyes to count it down by himself, with his own sense of how long one second was, and opened it back to see there were actually still 10 seconds left.
He groaned as he started stomping his feet on the free space between the seat and the pedals. The littlest thing he could do so he wouldn’t piss himself on his car.
Yeonjun wasn’t the type to honk the horn before the countdown screen showing numbers in green color, but he couldn’t careless anymore as he pressed it several times even though the number still had not hit zero yet.
Green was never his favorite color, but it might be starting to be as one with the effect of euphoria he savored within his body just by seeing it. It was hazy in his mind, the next thing felt like a blur as he tried to drive as fast as he could within the safety speed limit on the packed road.
Once he finished parking his car, he ran crossing the parking lot towards the building, hopping on the elevator, and pouncing the number 5 button so fast. The ding sound notified him that he reached his floor, so he started running out of the elevator and turned to the left where his apartment was.
He was too focused on how to get into the toilet faster that he didn’t see puddles of water were scattering around the hallway floor. He was only made aware once his shoes slipped on the large pool of water. He lost his balance to the gravity, sending him fall to the ground helplessly unprepared.
He shouted a loud screech as he winced to the pain he felt where his elbows hit the concrete. He cursed under his breath, ducking his head to muffle his voice as he realized he fell right in front of an apartment door. He didn’t want to receive any more sound complaint from his neighbor that would cause him to be kicked out at anytime soon.
Though the pain was difficult to ignore, he reminded himself that he had more important thing to do, had been since almost an hour ago. So he got up hurriedly, walking as fast as he could to his door while setting aside the soreness all over his body, the evident result from the awful downfall. He reflexively input his passcode out of habit, then slammed the door open once it was unlocked to finally run into the toilet, where his heaven seemed to be for now.
»»»
The library was so packed as students occupied every seats to study, preparing for the midterm test that would start next week. Soobin wouldn’t get to sit if it wasn’t for Sanha who came earlier and saved him one by his request, because out of all days, his body chose to oversleep at this kind of time.
Soobin was standing at the counter, almost, just almost , crying his eyes out. He borrowed two books yesterday and it went down drenched because of the rain. He was lucky the one—which he already tried to search for the price and it almost gave him a heart attack how it costed half million won—saved. However he still needed to pay the fine for the other one, and it didn’t cost any much cheaper either.
His right hand was trembling when he held out his debit card hanging in the air, waiting for the librarian to take it to finalize his fine payment. The latter just chuckled, because this wasn’t the first case of said accident. In fact, Soobin was the 5th person who reported about damaged books because of the rain by the time he came at 10 am in the morning.
When the beeping sound of the terminal payment machine was heard, displaying the amount of money he had to pay; which was 235.000 ₩, he felt like tears finally fell streaming down his face, as he typed his PIN number and a notice of PAYMENT APPROVAL came into shown.
The walk to his seat felt like a walk of shame, but without anyone actually looking at him, as they were busy with their own study, instead it was the grumbling voice in his stomach and the breads in his brain from the favorite bakery downtown, which he obviously couldn’t afford anymore in the meantime.
“I’m just gonna live in this library to read every books I need and never borrow any single book anymore.” He whispered with clenched fists in anger once he settled on his seat.
Sanha just laughed at him, which immediately cut by multiple people around their table shushing them to stop talking. They both ducked their heads and smiled sheepishly while muttering a silent sorry’s to people around them.
It’s been almost 3 years since he studied in Strategy and International Management. While people might think it was a cliche major, he didn’t really mind it. Though it was only what his parents wanted, he was okay, because he didn’t even know what he wanted to do either. And his parents already had a company he could work on later, so it was rather a win-win situation for him.
Frankly, he enjoyed studying every bit of it. Although management didn’t require perfect knowledge of all areas of business, there were number of management ideologies which must be honed in order to truly grasp its concepts. Unfortunately, not all principles were easy to master, and some were just downright challenging and sometimes frustrating to understand.
The one class that Soobin thought was the hardest would always be Strategic Management. Business strategy required to bring in all areas of business: marketing, management, operations, finance, accounting, etc., in order to make decisions about the direction the company would go.
So not only it was the hardest class, it was also his favorite one. That was why Soobin already opened his laptop to read the presentation of said class from the past months. He noted some book’s references his professor gave to find them later for more depth of the topic.
It was already lunch time the moment he finished reading all the class presentation. Sanha offered him to eat at the cafeteria together, but he refused as he was too in deep in his study mood, also it was the only time he would be able to study peacefully. The other went after not forgetting to remind him to at least eat something even though he was so into the lesson, and Soobin replied him with a soft thank you.
Soobin walked down the aisle of bookshelves about management, searching through for the books he already wrote down the notes one by one thoroughly. He managed to find 5 out of 7 books he needed in the end, wondering why each books had to be at least 10 centimeters thick.
He was about to walk back to his seat when someone bumped his body from behind harshly, resulting him losing his balance, then fell allowing the gravity took him down, along with the 5 thick books he was holding.
There was a loud thud, Soobin thanked god that at least his position was hidden behind several bookshelves so nobody could actually see his face, which probably looked not so great right now.
He turned his body to face the perpetrator of his downfall, he was so ready to throw his anger at the latter when he caught a glimpse at a name displayed on student ID card that fell not far from him. His eyes widened in panic. “P-Park Jihoon?” Soobin stuttered.
“Yes? I’m so sorry, are you okay?” The stranger asked while taking all the books from the floor. “I’m so sorry I was trying to get a book at the 7th row but I couldn’t reach it and I lost balance.”
Soobin was still on the floor, anger gradually subdued, changing to fluster mess. Every part of his body just froze, his mind was blank, not knowing what to do.
“Hey, are you okay? Did I hurt you so badly?” The other sounded more concerned seeing him not moving from where he fell.
The stranger guy, whom was suspected as Park Jihoon, reached out his hand to help him stand up, but Soobin was still too shocked to even respond. He left the other’s hand hanging in between. The guy grew more and more worried each second he left him in silence.
As his nerves finally came back to his sense, Soobin shook his head. “It happened again.” He whispered to himself.
The other went crouching down, checking him out closely when he didn’t look like making any move. Soobin held his breath when the other’s face came too close to his. “Hey, you there?”
Soobin laughed nervously. “Haha, yeah, I’m okay. I was just surprised, that’s all.” He stood up right away, but wincing at the pain because of the sudden movement. “Ah!”
He felt an arm around his shoulder. “Hey, let’s just sit first.”
Soobin was guided to walk down the aisle. Luckily the bookshelves were so big, big enough to hide themselves from the peering eyes. The other sat him down on the floor, leaning to the shelf. To be honest, he didn’t need any help at all, but something in him told him to just follow the other’s lead, and Soobin complied.
“Where does it hurt? I’m so sorry.” The other inspected him.
“It’s okay really.” Soobin smiled sheepishly.
He nodded. “Oh right, you called my name before. Do you know me?”
“I saw your name on the student ID card that fell on the floor.” He shrugged. “And for a second I thought you were my senior because you both have the same name.”
He raised his eyebrows, curious. “Oh yeah? Senior? Which school?”
“Cheongdam-dong Elementary School? But probably you’re not.” Soobin waved his hand, not wanting to expect more to his wishful thinking.
“Ah! Cheongdam-dong? Yes! I studied there.” He clasped his hands in excitement. “What’s your name?”
Soobin eyes widened after hearing the affirmation. He could feel his heart beat faster than before. It was so loud, he hoped that the other couldn’t hear it. “Soobin. Choi Soobin.”
He furrowed his eyebrows. “Your name didn’t sound familiar,” Jihoon shrugged. “But I didn’t know many underclassmen anyway.”
Soobin still couldn’t believe it. He finally found the Park Jihoon he had been searching for. He tried so hard not to pinch his cheek in front of the later, just wanted to be sure this wasn’t a dream, but the apparent pain on his back from the previous collision convinced him, that this was pretty much real.
Soobin breathed out. “It’s been so long too. I would be surprised if you remembered.” He said, leaving out so many details because probably hearing a whole ‘Yeah, you wouldn’t remember me because you already graduated the moment I moved to Cheongdam-dong, but I saw you once and I fell in love with you. You are my first love.’ was so outright creepy for the first encounter after years. So he settled with that. There would be other times for an explanation, Soobin thought. Even if there wasn’t any, Soobin would work everything out to make sure there would be.
Jihoon tilted his head, studying the younger. “I’m actually more surprised why I can’t remember you.” He smiled. “I promise I won’t forget you from now, Soobin-ah!” He craned his right hand in between their bodies while grinning ear to ear.
Soobin caught off guard with how the other called his name. He loved it how his name was perfectly rolled by the older. He ducked his head to hide the blush forming on his cheeks so Jihoon couldn’t see it. He raised his eyebrows, looking at the other’s hand, unsure. “Hmm?”
As he didn’t make any move, Jihoon proceeded to take his hand and hold it. “How can I forget a pretty boy like you anyway. It’ll be a loss for my side.” Jihoon winked. And Soobin swore, he felt like his breath was taken away by force.
There were several books being left on the small table beside the bookshelves on every aisles in the library, meaning someone probably had already read then left them there for the librarian to organize it back into the shelves. However it wasn’t the case for the seven books on the management aisle.
Jihoon had put his books including the ones Soobin got there, neglected, not even once opened. Because along the lines, he suggested for them to have lunch together.
“Hey, what if we continue our talk while eating lunch outside?” Jihoon offered, sounding expectant.
“What?” Soobin hoped that didn’t come out too surprised because now he got embarrassed by the sudden answer.
“My treat. You can take it as my way to apologize after tumbling down on you back there I guess?”
“Ah, no need to—“ Soobin responded but was short to cut by the older. “I insist.”
For the first time, he braved himself. “Okay then, let’s go. I guess today is your unlucky day.” He stood up slowly, still wincing at the pain on his back.
Jihoon followed. “Why?”
“I haven’t eaten since this morning, you’ll have to buy me more foods.”
Jihoon laughed, Soobin didn’t want to be cheesy, but the sound of his laugh was like a melody to his ears. “It’s my lucky day actually.” He looked up to see the younger, realizing the height difference was so apparent. “Not everyday I could meet someone as beautiful as you.”
They were walking side by side to the barbecue sauced chicken joint not far from the campus gate. Soobin’s face was as red as tomato, but he felt warm in his chest. He still couldn’t believe, that finally, after years of searching, he found his first love in such an unexpected time and place. Soobin couldn’t help but smiling the whole time, he felt happiness bursting into his heart which pumped it all over his body through the veins. The universe really worked in such a mysterious way.
»»»
Soobin learned that Jihoon was studying Finance, and they somehow took the same class once in his third semester, but Soobin was too engrossed to the lesson that he didn’t really know who else beside Jaemin and Jeno who always sat beside him at the fourth row of the seat. Soobin mentally cursed himself that he actually could find the other sooner if he ever looked back at the last row where Jihoon was always seated with his friends.
Soobin also learned that just like him, the other couldn’t stand spicy food that much. They both dared themselves to order sweet spicy chicken level 4, but eventually surrendered once the tears started falling from their eyes and the sweat kept coming off the skin following it. They both laughed, and ended up ordering the basic barbecue instead.
Eventually Jihoon had to end their lunch time as he had an afternoon class. He didn’t know what had got into him, but Soobin manned up suggesting to walk him back to the campus. And Jihoon was more than delighted to accept that.
They were walking side by side again. And Soobin’s cheeks were still as red as tomato, but this time, so were Jihoon’s. They both could feel something growing inside them, and it became stronger with each steps they took, and each collision their hands met, itching to just reach out and hold each other.
But they both weren’t bold enough to jump over that phase yet. Still content with whatever they had right now. So they just kept walking, until the building they were heading to finally came into view.
Once they reached the building, Jihoon bid him goodbye. But not before them exchanging phone numbers for easier communication to create many other next times.
“See you, Soobin-ah!” Jihoon waved his hands before entering the business school building.
Soobin smiled, and waved his hand in return. “See you, Jihoon-Sunbaenim!”
»»»
Soobin
Daehwi, where are youuuuuu???!!!
Something just happened I need to tell you ASAP
Daehwi
I’m still at the studio producing some tracks for my mid term assignment.
Just come here
Soobin
Which studio? Your faculty building is a maze
Daehwi
Studio 4 Building D 2nd Floor
Soobin
On it!
»»»
The dance class had already finished 3 hours ago, but Yeonjun was still perfecting his moves for the mid term evaluation next week. He inspected his every move on the mirror wall, checking every bit, correcting the ones he felt still not right, until it met with his standard.
All of his friends already left him alone in the studio, couldn’t keep up with his perfectionist side because Yeonjun was too stubborn to listen to his friends. “Come on, Jun. you have to get some rest. Your move is already great.”
But being great wasn’t enough for Yeonjun. Everything had to be perfect. And for him, his dance was still far from it.
He mopped the floor for the fifth time already, wiping all the sweat that came off his skin so it wouldn’t slip his shoes as he danced. He didn’t want to repeat the same mistake he made in the first semester. He was too lazy to mop the floor though it already covered by his sweat. It caused him a sprained ankle for a whole month then, and Yeonjun would never want that to happen ever again.
He continued dancing, finally reaching to the last part of his routine. If he felt satisfied with it, he could go back to his apartment soon enough. In the middle of inspecting his move, he saw the reflection of someone opening the door in the mirror in front of him, walking into the studio with Gong Cha cup in his hand. Yeonjun thought one of his friends, probably San, stopped by to give him his favorite boba.
Call him cheap, but seeing a Gong Cha cup was enough to make him fired up again. The thought of gulping a fresh made milk tea with chewy tapioca pearls after a long tiring day was heaven for him.
He looked at the mirror again to view his move, but instead of focusing to his reflection, he caught a glimpse of a foreign face staring at him intently. He kept dancing while his focus was already scattered around the tall strange guy holding Gong Cha cups, which definitely not San, nor his other friends, because that guy was at least 6 feet tall and nobody in the dance major was taller than him.
It wasn’t long until the music stop, so did Yeonjun. To be frank, he didn’t really care about his dance anymore, maybe he did it okay, maybe he did it even worse, he couldn’t careless, as he saw the tall strange Gong Cha guy still looking at him with mouth agape.
Yeonjun smirked, after studying the other’s expression not changing for another 10 seconds. “Like what you see?”
The Gong Cha guy was surprised by the sudden greeting. He widened his eyes while walking backwards, crashing on a chair that Yeonjun used for a prop before—but forgot to move it aside, tripped over his untied shoes, while still holding one boba cup in his right, but losing grip of the other cup on his left hand.
Now Yeonjun felt bad for the guy. If he knew this thing would happen, he’d rather greet the other in more unsurprising way, because he knew himself how embarrassing it was tripped over in front of someone.
He walked over to the side, bringing the mop, before walking closer to the other. He went crouching down to save the spilled cup. He felt sad though to whoever would drink this boba, because the content was already making its way to escape on the wooden floor.
“Soobin?” Yeonjun muttered, looking at the name scribbled on the cup.
He looked at the cup and to the reddened face of the guy in front of him back and forth. “Soobin? Have we met before?”
The guy, Soobin, tilted his head in confusion. “No?”
Yeonjun didn’t know why, but after looking at the Soobin guy closely, he felt like he had seen him before, some familiar feeling creeping into his sense, but he couldn’t really pinpoint what it was. So he just nodded.
“Are you okay though? I mean, I would cry over this spilled Gong Cha because I love it so much. But did you hurt yourself?”
Soobin shook his head. “No. Uhh, I’m sorry I made some mess, I’ll mop the floor.”
“No, it’s okay.” Yeonjun answered. “But can I take a sip of your Gong Cha please? The water dispenser doesn’t have any more water, and I’m thirsty right now.” Soobin nodded and reaching out his cup to give it to Yeonjun.
Yeonjun stood up, craning his arm to the other, helping him to get up. “What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were my friend.”
He scratched the back of his neck. “I wanted to see my friend but I think I got into the wrong room.”
Yeonjun sipped his boba, the stranger’s boba actually, but it was practically his now. “Where are you going to see your friend?”
“Studio 4 on Building D?” Soobin just stared at Yeonjun mopping the mess he made on the floor.
“You got into the right studio but the wrong building.” He laughed in between his words. “This is studio 4 Building B.”
Soobin ducked his head, embarrassed. “Ah, I see.”
Yeonjun raised his eyebrows. “Your friend is in music department?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “Can you please tell me the way to the room? I’ve been going here several times but I always get lost.” Soobin said while grinning sheepishly.
The mess on the floor was finally wiped clean. Though it was still kind of sticky, he just left it be, he could deal with it tomorrow. Yeonjun walked to the side of the room to put the mop back on its place. “You know what? I’ll walk you there so you won’t get into the wrong room again.”
Soobin waved his hand, rejecting politely. He really didn’t want to add more trouble to the latter after the whole spilled boba fiasco. “It’s really fine. You can just tell me the way.” He smiled reassuringly, even though he wasn’t so sure himself.
Yeonjun shook his head as he packed all of his belongings into his bag. “It’s getting dark too. It’ll be harder to search around if you don’t know the exact place.” He turned his head to see the other. “Soobin? Is your name Soobin?”
He nodded. “Yes, my name is Soobin. Choi Soobin.”
“Ah, I’m a Choi too. Choi Yeonjun. Are you a freshman?”
Soobin laughed. He didn’t even know why he laughed, or maybe it was because of the cute expression the other made while trying to guess his class year; with furrowed eyebrows, squinty eyes, pouty lips, and puffy cheeks. “No, I’m in my third year actually.”
“Wah, it makes me a hyung then. I’m already in my fourth year.” He clicked his tongue. “Damn, time really fly so fast I’m already in my fourth year. I’m practically a grandpa.” He zipped his bag, finally finished packing up. He walked to the door, motioning Soobin to follow him out of the room.
As Soobin walked through the door, the older stared at him intently. He tilted his head checking him from head to toe. “Are you sure we have never met before, Soobin-ssi?” Yeonjun asked, unsure.
Soobin tried to recall any encounter with the other, but he didn’t seem to be able to remember anything. “No, I don’t think we have ever met before?”
Yeonjun just nodded at that. However, as Soobin stood on the corridor waiting for Yeonjun to lock the door, Soobin heard him saying under his breath “Why do I feel like he’s so familiar?” Too low, but not low enough for Soobin to hear.
«««
“Should we really get it now?” Mark furrowed his eyebrows. “I mean, there are still plenty of time.”
Yohan nodded, agreeing with Mark. “The point of time capsule is so we can see what our past self said years before. But it hasn’t even been a month and we already want to dig it up.”
“They will build another extension building for the elementary school on that area we planted our time capsule.” Wooyoung exasperated. “So if we want to be able to open it 10 years later, we should go get it before the construction.”
Mark paused from writing his apology paper which clearly nobody else tried to do but him. “But we are in the middle of detention.”
“And whose fault is that?” Jihoon snorted.
Yeonjun was the first to throw everyone under the bus. “Not me? Yes, yesterday was on me. But today I definitely said we shouldn’t go to the PC rental two days in a row, moreover we were caught yesterday?” He glanced at Wooyoung unsubtly.
Wooyoung, whom felt he was under everyone’s gaze, sent an incredulous look, feeling wronged. “Wait. Why are you all looking at me? I was just suggesting, what if we go to to another PC rental—“ Jihoon cut him before he could even finish, “—which was actually only one block away from the previous one.”
He scoffed. “Then if you knew it was a bad idea, why did you all follow me anyway?”
Yeonjun just sipped his apple juice he always had inside his yellow hoodie pocket, not wanting to go any further with the debate. Because honestly, he didn’t really care about the time capsule, but he also wanted to go out of the detention room anyway.
“Let’s just hurry, we have 2 hours left before our detention finish.” Mark was the first to agree, though he was also the first one who questioned it.
“So we go?” Yohan asked in confusion.
Wooyoung already flung his bag to his back. “Yes? You want to write lame ass apology paper again?” He scoffed.
They walked down the hallway quietly, tip-toeing silently, careful not to create as much sound as possible. Once they climbed and jumped off the back gate, they laughed while running towards the direction of their elementary school backyard.
»»»
Daehwi
Hey, where are you? It’s been almost an hour
Please don’t say you’re lost again
Soobin
Fortunately, I am
*Unfortunately
I was in Building B, but I’m walking there now
Daehwi
I’m already finishing up
Just meet me in front of the building, I’m walking down
Soobin
Alright