Chapter Text
Hello kids~
My name is Johnny and I’ll be your peer mentor for the next two weeks! In this e-mail you’ll find all of the important schedules that you’ll have as well as a map of the campus. For now, the most important document is the one with the information on how to get the key to your temporary room, it’s the first thing you gotta do when you get here!
On the first day we’ll have two meetings. The first one will be just a general introduction about the University, the campus and all that important business. Then I’ll take you to a tour of the campus. The second meeting we’ll be about the finalization of your transfer process, so it’s very important you assist to that one!
If you have time afterwards and want to, I’d love to take you all out for dinner! Send me a confirmation response please!
Johnny
Hello Johnny-ssi,
I’m Qian Kun, one of your mentees. This would be my confirmation response. Thanks a lot for the useful information. It’d be a pleasure to have dinner with all of the group.
Kun
Kun pushed his suitcase with one hand as he held the map of the campus with the other. He was trying to figure out where the dormitories were so he could get his key and pass out for the night. His flight had been postponed and he had ended up arriving later than planned, which ruined his plans of seeing a little bit of Korea for the day. Now, the only thing he craved was rest.
When he finally figured out how to read the map, he sighed in relief and made his way there. His legs ached. At first because of the somewhat cramped space in the Economy Class of the flight he had taken, but now because he had been walking around like a headless chicken trying to decipher the campus’ map. That tour was certainly going to come in handy.
He folded the map and shoved it in his pocket as he got to the building. The lady behind the desk was quite kind and understanding as she guided him through the registration process, and soon enough he was holding the miraculous key in his free hand. His room was on the second floor, which was ideal because he didn’t want to climb too many stairs while carrying the suitcase.
The room was a decent size and it had two beds on opposite sides. He knew he would need to share rooms once the classes started, but for now, he was grateful to have it for himself. Kun chose the bed further away from the door and sat on it, laying down the suitcase to begin pulling stuff out. He was tired, but his future self would be grateful to him if he didn’t have to struggle looking for clothes the next day.
Once he had put everything away, Kun flopped on the bed and took out his cellphone. He had bought a plan just so he could use it in Korea during his stay, but he would probably have to change numbers until he finished his studies. He had a couple of messages from his fathers and some friends, but decided to answer them later. He was still a little bit surprised he was actually going through with his decision to study in Korea.
He didn’t have an actual reason to do it. He had made the decision unprompted and just gone through with it, and now he was only a couple months away from starting his universitary studies in Korea. His fathers had been very supportive of him, like they had always been, but it still surprised him a little bit that they had just let him go to a whole other country. Still, Kun was sort of glad with his decision, if only because it made him excited.
He raised his arm and looked at the horse pacing on his skin. It was really big, even for a soulmate tattoo, and from what Kun had researched, he knew it was a Clydesdale. Whenever it was on his hand, it covered more than half of the back, and it made him feel somewhat small. It was funny though, because his fathers usually told him his soulmate must be someone really tall, even though the tattoos weren’t actually tied to the physical aspect of the person.
Kun sometimes wondered what the animal that represented him was. But more than that, he wondered if he would ever find his soulmate at all. He knew it was difficult to find your soulmates and that a lot of people were happy even when they never got to meet them. Still, he was allowed to hope. Maybe that was the reason he had left China in the first place. He sighed and turned around, falling asleep shortly after.
The next morning, he woke up with enough time to get ready and have breakfast. The problem was that he didn’t have food nor did he know where the nearest convenience store or cafeteria was. Fortunately, he had packed protein bars for such occasions. He opened one and shoved two more in his pockets before picking up his backpack and heading out, map in one hand and protein bar in the other.
His backpack had nothing but a notebook, a couple of pens, and his cellphone’s charger. Honestly, he didn’t even think he would need to take that many notes to begin with, and felt silly for bringing such a big backpack with him. It was a little too late to be second-guessing his outfit, so he just followed the map to the best of his abilities to the auditorium where they would be introduced to the university.
Kun finished his protein bar and shoved the plastic wrapper in his backpack before entering the auditorium. There were already people there. A kind senior student gave him a folder containing notes with what they were seeing that day, before directing him towards the seats. Kun walked down the aisle and sat down, keeping a certain distance from the other foreigner students waiting for the meeting to start. He still didn’t feel quite ready to make friends.
Little by little, the auditorium filled until the clock marked the time for the meeting. Kun took out his pens and made his own notes over the papers he had been given. The peer mentors told them a little bit of history about the university and explained to them how each department was divided. Kun paid close attention to everything, while simultaneously wondering which of those students was ‘Johnny’.
He had liked the first impression he had formed of his peer mentor through the email. He seemed kind and helpful. As far as Kun knew, most peer mentors were also foreigner students that had been new to the university at some point, just like them. Johnny was, according to his limited knowledge, an English name, so he wondered if his peer mentor came from England or maybe America.
“Now, let’s go through a quick overview of the campus’ map, and then your peer mentors can take you on a tour!” The student at the front said, as the presentation changed to a slide with a map of the university.
Kun compared it to his own map which he had been using so far, but it wasn’t of much help, as he had truly no idea how to even locate himself in the map. The tour would surely be helpful. The meeting came to an end shortly after, and the mentors pulled out papers with their names printed on them. Finding Johnny was easy enough.
His mentor was a tall man. His hair was long and bleached, half of it held back in a little bun. He was holding his sign high and moving it around with a silly smile on his face. Kun couldn’t help but smile, although he tried to suppress it as he walked towards him. From close up, Johnny was even taller, but his smile made him approachable.
“I think this is all of you,” Johnny said with a smile, as he folded the paper and put it back in his pocket. “My name’s John Seo, but please don’t call me John, it makes me feel old. You can also call me Youngho, as that is my Korean name. Whatever makes you feel more comfortable!”
As it turned out, three out of his four new colleagues were also Chinese, which immediately made him feel more comfortable. Junhui and Yanan were both taller than him, but the first one looked like he was up for mischief and the second one had a very nice smile. Handong looked like you didn’t want to mess with her, but she turned out to be quite funny and nice. Alexandra (or Alex, as she had asked them to call her) was very friendly and immediately bonded with Johnny over coming from America.
Johnny turned out to be an excellent guide. He let them know where the most important markers were and how to use them as guides to get to their destinations. The campus was really big, and they ended up only looking at the main buildings. By the end of the three hour tour, Kun was exhausted and famished. Fortunately, he wasn’t the only one, so Johnny took them to his favorite cafeteria on campus.
“Personally this is my favorite place to eat on campus,” he explained as they all picked something from the menu. “But you can always eat outside if you find time to come and go, there’s plenty of stuff around here.”
“Johnny-ssi-” Kun began, but he was quickly stopped.
“Hyung, please,” Johnny said with a smile. “What is it?”
“Johnny-hyung…” The word felt weird on his tongue since he didn’t actually know Johnny that well, but the oldest seemed content with his effort, so he was willing to let it slide. “Is it true that there’s going to be a treasure hunt?”
“A treasure hunt?” Junhui immediately piped in, eyes open wide.
“Ohh yeah.” Johnny clicked his tongue. “Spoiler alert, it’s quite hard.”
They followed him to a table. Kun sat in front of him, so it would be easier to ask him questions and listen to him without having to turn around. Johnny prompted them to eat their lunch while he explained a little bit more about the treasure hunt. The first bite tasted like glory to Kun, although he wasn’t certain if it was because of his hunger or because the food there was as good as Johnny had bragged it was.
“There’s prizes, mostly things that will be useful for your stay here. It can range all the way from supplies to food coupons which, honestly, can be life savers.” Johnny took turns to talk and eat, trying not to leave details out. “But it is pretty hard, since the campus is so big.”
“We should team up!” Alex suggested, and the rest nodded.
“Is it obligatory?” Handong asked, leaning closer.
“Oh no-” Johnny shook his head- “none of the activities are obligatory, they’re simple recommendations.”
“Will you participate in the treasure hunt?” Kun asked.
“Well, technically I can’t,” he said, after swallowing a bite of his meal, “but I will help prepare it.” Johnny winked knowingly, and Kun found himself needing to look away.
Johnny was very friendly, and very confident. Which he had a right to be, because he was also very attractive, but that only made Kun feel more flustered and awkward. It wasn’t that Kun didn’t have self-confidence, because he did… just not as much as Johnny. He just hoped he would be able to overcome it soon, because Johnny was going to be his mentor for two whole weeks.
“Right.” Johnny pulled his cellphone out of the bag and passed it to Yanan on his side. “Please put your Kakao account, it’ll be easier to talk through there than through emails.” Yanan sent himself a friend request and then passed it to Alexa. “Also, I would like to invite you all for dinner tonight, it’s on me. I’ll text you the details.”
Once they were done eating, the five of them returned to the meeting room while Johnny stayed behind to do some other stuff. This time, Kun did sit next to his new friends, finding it a bit more comfortable. Soon enough they were all added to a chatroom by Johnny, and Kun used the opportunity to add them all as friends.
This meeting was a lot more tedious, as it was packed with important information. Kun could barely take notes fast enough in Korean, so they ended up a mix of Korean and Chinese that probably only he could understand. It didn’t matter as long as he was able to use them for their intended purpose.
After the meeting, they went their separate ways, as they all wanted to use their free time differently. Kun simply went back to his dorm, thinking that he should ask Johnny for some places to visit over dinner. He kind of knew where he wanted to go, but getting the opinion of someone with more experience than him seemed like a better idea. Just as he was thinking of that, Johnny sent a message to their chatroom.
Johnny-hyung:
meet me outside the dorms at 8-ish
Johnny-hyung:
dinner’s on me!
Kun programmed an alarm and then flopped on his bed to take a nap. He was exhausted and it took him no time to fall asleep. He barely heard the alarm when it sounded, and woke up with a start. He managed to fix his hair and rinse his mouth before storming off to the dorm’s reception. Despite waking up right on time, he was still the first one to make it besides Johnny, who smiled brightly upon his arrival.
“For a moment I thought you’d stand me up!” He said as a form of greeting. Kun bowed slightly, apologetically. “Don’t worry about it, the others said they’re on their way here. It seems like they had a busy afternoon.”
It took about ten minutes for everyone to get there, then Johnny called cabs for them and off they went. He took them to a grill house, and as soon as the smell of grilling meat reached them, they all felt hungry. A waiter took them to the table Johnny had reserved, and they all sat promptly, eager to eat.
When the meat arrived and Johnny began grilling it, Kun immediately offered to help. At least it was something he could do, and it made him feel better to have some sort of control over the situation. Everything felt so foreigner to him, which was kind of ironic when he was in a group full of other foreigners.
“Ohh!” Johnny exclaimed in admiration. “It seems like our Kun is good at grilling meat!”
Alex let out a cheer as Kun placed a handful of juicy pieces of meat on her place. Junhui tried to steal from her, but she protected her plate fiercely. Kun chuckled and served Junhui next, to avoid a war from starting at their table.
“It’s nothing, I just like cooking.” Kun smiled, feeling warm at the compliment.
“Really now.” Johnny smiled, taking care of his own side of the grill. Kun glanced at him briefly, but looked away once he discovered Johnny was looking at him.
Once everyone had meat on their plates, Johnny grabbed his glass and raised it to the center. The others followed him, glancing curiously at him.
“I want to propose a cheer for all of you,” he explained. “May your first year at the university be successful!”
“Cheers!” They all exclaimed in unison, clinking their glasses and then drinking for them.
Kun glanced at Johnny briefly, and the oldest smiled at him, reassuringly. He felt his shoulders relax as he took another sip of his drink before going back to grilling meat. Maybe he would be able to find himself in this unfamiliar place after all.