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They’re in the university cafeteria, with more than fifty chatting students as background noise and the delectable smell of his ramen filling Jae’s nose. He salivates as he plunks down in the seat across from Jamie, eyes already devouring his soon-to-be-lunch.
“You hungry, Jae?” Kevin giggles from Jamie’s right side, sending him a very well-posed eyebrow that’s as blonde as his hair. Jae sticks his tongue out, dropping his much too heavy backpack on the ground without a care.
“Two lectures before noon. Two,” he stresses. “I’m going to devour this bowl of heaven and no one can stop me.”
“Your stomach might,” Jamie muses. She daintily nibbles at her own sandwich, having mastered the art of judging Jae’s entire existence with nothing but a single look in the short month they’ve known each other.
Jae sticks his tongue out once again. “I earned this.” He takes an exaggerated whiff, groaning at the spices that prick his nose. “God, this almost makes up for the depressing lack of beaches and palm trees you guys have.”
Kevin goes mock-hurt. “You guys? Wow, thank you for the love.”
Jae pretends to give it a thought, then shrugs. “I guess you two can be forgiven being bilingual and all.” He adopts a grim visage. “Without you I’d have no friends.”
Kevin giggles and Jamie rolls her eyes, but Jae knows it’s all in jest. He turns back to his meal. Just as he snaps his chopsticks, Jamie lets out a very long-suffering sigh next to him.
“Speaking of bilingual,” she mutters with a sudden dark look. “Look who decided to grace us lowly people with his presence.”
Jae follows her perfectly manicured finger to the right side of the cafeteria where a very familiar head of grey hair is sitting, by himself, staring at at least three books at the same time. Jae snorts, knowing the look of zoned-out concentration only too well. Brian’s not seeing any of the words, the books probably only there to make people think he’s busy so they won’t disturb the freaky day-time napping he does with his eyes half-open.
Jae opens his mouth to yell his name, hell-bent on breaking this frankly horrible habit his roommate has, when a gasp from Kevin has him turning his head back again. What he sees confuses him enough he puts his chopsticks down. Jamie has such an expression of judgmental disgust on her face it almost makes Jae fear her (more than he already does) while Kevin gives a slow and deliberate full-body shiver.
“Damn, he’s scary,” Kevin stage-whispers, leaning in closer. “I’ve heard people say he’s in a gang, probably leads it by the look of him. I mean, that leather jacket indoors? Multiple rings? Ripped jeans? Instant bad news.”
“You-” Jae stutters, but Jamie cuts him off with an unimpressed stare at Kevin.
“He’s not in a gang.”
Jae lets out a mental sigh of relief.
“He was in one before he came here which is when he broke that freakishly sharp nose of his.” She taps her own. “You can still see the bump.”
With a stunned noise, Jae sits back. His friends look utterly serious. “You guys writing a novel or something? He’s not some anime-protagonist.”
Jamie frowns at him and Kevin shakes his head with the sigh of an older brother. “Right, you’re a different department. That’s Kang Younghyun. He’s already notorious for- well, for being most likely to have a record.”
Jae snorts. “He really isn’t.”
“Just look at him,” Jamie rolls her eyes. “Pretending to study in a cafeteria. No one can study in a cafeteria. He’s not fooling anyone. And he’s always angry, can’t stop glaring at people.” She shudders. “Can you imagine having to do a project with that black cloud? You’d fail just because of his perpetual foul mood. I swear, I have never seen him smile. It’s like his face’ll break if he tries.”
The more Jae hears, the more he has to fight the urge to laugh hysterically, but that last one does him in, especially when Kevin nods along.
“You are serious!” he wheezes at Jamie. She glares but he can’t contain his smile, hanging in his seat from laughter. “Where do you guys get this stuff!”
“Uhm, he’s in our lecture,” Jamie snarks. She taps blood-red nails on the table top with a huff. “I don’t mindlessly follow the masses with their dumb rumors, I damn well lead the masses.”
As much as Jae is willing to believe that, he still hiccups out a giggle and shakes his head. “Sure,” he grins. Then a thought pops up that probably shouldn’t be as enticing as it is, but Brian’s a broke college student and Jae loves being right.
“Ten bucks says he’s a softy.”
Both his friends go bewildered.
“What- why?” Kevin stutters, then Jamie turns her piercing eyes on Jae and he almost quivers under the weight.
“You think you know more than I do? Me, Jae. I’m the Queen of this place.”
He holds out his hand, managing to look cool even though he’s dying with anticipatory laughter on the inside. “The cool ones are always softies.”
“Oh, you’re on,” she grins, grasping his hand. When Jae looks at Kevin, the older nods with a calm smile.
“Jamie’s always right,” he says sagely. “I guess this is your time to learn that.”
They both look so confident that Jae has trouble not laughing in their faces. He manages a suave shrug. “I guess we’ll see.” With that he turns around again and bellows loud enough, half the cafeteria jumps in their seats.
“Brian!”
As expected, the other flinches, dead eyes blinking back to life. It takes the other a second of frantic whirling before his eyes find Jae and both of Brian’s eyebrows rise into his fringe.
‘What?’ his friend mouths.
Jae grins, motioning with his hand. ‘Come here’
He gets an eye-roll, but Brian stuffs all his books into his bag and heaves it up on his shoulder, then traverses the cluttered space of book bags and haphazardly seated students to make his way over. Jae’s still grinning when he pats the seat next to him.
“Hey, Bri,” he greets in English.
His friend gives him a deadpan look and falls into the chair with less grace than even Jae. “You know,” he starts, “you could always walk over. Like a normal person.” Then, as an afterthought. “Also, my name is Younghyun.”
“It’s not.”
“Pretty sure it is.”
“You responded though.”
“Because you keep using it!”
“Because it’s your name,” Jae grins.
“It’s a name,” Brian stresses. “Not the name.”
“It is to me. ‘Brian’. Rolls off the tongue and is easy to remember. Perfect.”
“That’s just cause you’re from LA,” Brian deadpans, then his eyes glance to the side. “Also, I think we’re confusing your friends with all this English.” He then seamlessly switches to perfect Korean, which, granted, Jae is a little jealous of.
“My name is Kang Younghyun,” Brian introduces himself with a small bow. “It’s nice to meet you.”
For the first time since Brian sat down, and not with a small amount of satisfaction, Jae turns to Jamie and Kevin who look like they can’t decide whether to be surprised or terrified. Jae almost starts laughing again.
“That’s okay,” he gives a very pointed grin at Jamie’s bugging eyes. “Jamie and Kevin speak English. They understand.”
Brian looks surprised, switching back to English. “Really? That’s pretty cool.” Then he sneaks a glance at Jae. “I honestly should have guessed what with your abysmal Korean.”
“Yo, you try learning a whole new language, culture an all, in under six months!” He regrets the words the second they leave his mouth because Brian gives him his smug grin, complete with scrunched nose.
“I did. Went pretty damn great.”
Jae shoves his shoulder. “Whatever man. I’m not that bad.”
“I’m like your personal translator,” Brian shoots back. He goes pensive. “That is, when I’m not being your personal nurse, which reminds me.”
Jae splutters denials as Brian leans over to dig in his bag, then holds out Jae’s inhaler. It shuts Jae up.
“You left it on the counter again,” Brian explains. “You really need to start taking your own health more seriously.” His eyes flit to Jamie and Kevin as Jae accepts it with another grumble. “I mean, did he tell you guys what to do if he has an attack?”
This time Jae punches his shoulder a little harder, blood filling his cheeks. “Dude, they do not need to know that!”
“It’s important,” Brian argues with that damn serious-face he loves to pull. “It could save your life.”
Just because Brian’s right doesn’t mean Jae has to be happy about it. He’s beginning to regret calling the guy over – though, seriously? Intimidating? Brian? – when Jamie finally seems to remember the gift of speech.
“You have asthma?” She blinks wide eyes at Jae.
He glares at Brian. “See what you did.”
“I think the words you’re looking for are ‘thank you, Younghyun, for the continued interest in keeping me alive’.”
Jae pretends to think about. “Nah, living’s overrated.”
Brian squints at him. “Touché.”
At the clearing of a throat they both look at Kevin. His eyes are wide and make him look much younger. “You guys know each other?”
“Yup,” Jae throws his arms around Brian’s shoulders, basking in his punch line. “He’s my roomie.”
Jamie’s confusion turns into a glare so fast Jae feels dizzy.
“That’s cheating!”
He gives her an angelic smile. “No one asked and nothing was specified.” He holds up his hand. “My spoils, please.”
“Uh, what’s going on?” Brian pipes up cautiously when both Kevin and Jamie, albeit reluctantly, get their wallets out. Jae lets his friend go and winks at him.
“I just got us free lunch.”
His roommate only goes more confused, and despite his words, Jae hands all of the bills to Brian. The boy looks at them like they’re poison, wide eyes going to Jamie and Kevin for help.
The former rolls her eyes. “Just take it,” she grumps with the hint of a blush. “I can admit when I’ve been played.”
It’s probably the heavy confusion that makes it easy to stuff the money in Brian’s hands. “You earned them,” Jae hums, then finds himself frowning at Brian’s nose due to their proximity.
“Hey, how’d you break your nose?”
Blood rushes to Brian’s cheeks and the other stammers out. “Bike- uh. Slammed into a fence when I learned to ride a bike in Cana- wait, how did you know I broke my nose?”
Jae turns to Jamie with a shit-eating grin. “Well, you got one thing half-way right. That’s something.”
“You still cheated,” she fires back with crossed arms.
“I saw an opportunity and I took it,” Jae clarifies, also crossing his arms. “Guess that makes me King now.”
“Oh sweetheart, not even close.”
“I wouldn’t go there,” Kevin smiles. He nods at Jamie’s hands. “Those nails aren’t just to look pretty.”
Jamie drums them on the table again, waiting between each ‘tick’ for extra effect. With all the haughtiness Jae can muster, he stares her down.
“Bring it on, short-stuff.”
She holds her hand up in a claw with a gorgeous smile. “Gladly, bean-pole.”
Just when Jae thinks he’s going to start laughing again, Brian slowly pushes his chair away from the table.
“O-kay,” he draws it out, eyes flitting between the three of them. “I’m gonna … go away from here.” His eyes land on Jae. “You’ll explain this-” he shakes the bills in his hand- “to me if you survive, which, good luck.”
Jae goes hurt. “Dude ‘if’? She’s like half my size!”
“She is right here,” Jamie interjects with a scary amount of calm and Brian grins, his nose scrunching even as he picks up his bag.
“Yeah, my money’s on her.”
With enough drama to have impressed his high school theater teacher, Jae grabs at his heart. “Et tu Brute?”
He gets a mock salute for his efforts while Jamie and Kevin get bows. Jae doesn’t even mind, though he pretends to sulk when Brian looks at him.
Brian shakes his head, a smile lingering on his face. “It was nice meeting you two. Hyung-” he emphasizes the word- “see you back at the dorm.”
“Get some lunch!” Jae yells at his retreating back. He gets a thumbs up and leans back, satisfied. After a few seconds of silence, he notices both Jamie and Kevin giving him searching looks.
“What? He forgets lunch like nine times out of ten because he’s studying. Dinner too.” Jae finally picks up his own chopsticks, letting out a little sigh at his no doubt soggy noodles. Oh well. “You’d think a guy who can eat half his own weight in a single sitting would remember food, but,” he shrugs. “Brian’s odd.”
“Yeah,” Kevin agrees a little cautiously. “So, uhm, the leather jacket indoors?”
It takes a second for Jae to understand the question, mostly because he’s finally slurping on his first mouthful of delicious ramen with just the right hint of spice. He chews, nodding at Kevin to indicate he heard.
“He gets cold,” Jae speaks around his noodles. “Dunno why. He’s just always cold.”
Kevin nods with a thoughtful look. His eyes stay on Jae. “And the rings?”
“He likes ‘em. Nothing wrong with that.”
“What about his ripped jeans then?” Jamie takes over with a faint smile. “If he’s cold, that seems kinda stupid.”
Jae rolls his eyes as familiar annoyance bubbles up. He finally swallows and his voice grows heated. “I know right! I keep telling him to just borrow my stuff because all of his jeans are ripped. He says he doesn’t have money for new clothes, has to choose between it or food, but he just refuses to let me help.”
Jamie hums sympathetically, her head in her hand and eyes focused on Jae. “Sounds rough.”
A hint of suspicion bubbles up at the airy tone and Jae squints at her, already slurping at another mouthful of noodles. “What’s with the questions?” he speaks with puffed out cheeks.
The smile he gets is pointed, Jamie looking so self-assured it makes Jae instantly wary.
“Nothing. Just confirming a suspicion.”
“Oh god what now.” He talks with his mouth full just to be annoying. “A new conspiracy theory about Brian’s hair?”
Jamie giggles. By her side, Kevin has this suspiciously soft smile on his face as he carefully shakes his head at Jae.
“You blind, blind boy,” he sighs.
“What?” he cries, muffled by his full mouth.
Jamie grins. “You, you moron. You have a crush on the bad-boy who isn’t bad.”
Jae blinks, stunned, then chokes on his noodles.