Chapter Text
"No." No.
The text Jeoseung Saja displayed across your screen through your squinted eyes.
"C'mon, Y/n, just this once. ...you're not reading those mythology articles again, are you?" you could feel Junseo's eyeroll over the phone. "They're fake."
You nodded sagely. "Yes, yes, the Korean one of us denying his historical culture, of course, of course. Yeah. Makes perfect sense."
He sighs on the other end of the phone, unimpressed. "Y/n."
"Fine. Whatever, give me one good reason why I should transfer." pointless, is what it was. You were just enrolled into your state's most prestigious college and transferring locations wasn't exactly... an option. You'd just gotten settled, having finally bought that cat you've always wanted, too.
Then, having just remembered something, you turn away from your laptop for a brief moment and look around your small room. Where was c/n, anyway?
A sudden irk creeping over you, you turned back to the screen. Your eyes scanned over a few lines and paragraphs, Junseo's voice only a background noise while he rattled off ten admittedly well thought over excuses.
You paused.
Under Introduction it read "Jeoseung Saja, known as the Korean Grim Reaper, serves as a psychopomp guiding souls to the afterlife, rooted in ancient beliefs about death and the netherworld..."
You leaned back, pressed your lips together, and then turned your screen around to face your phone. "Their group name is literally Saja Boys." you pointed out.
"You're paranoid."
Junseo easily dismissed your reasoning.
You leaned back in your bed, defeated. There was never a time where you could get through to Junseo for as long as you knew him. Especially when it came to your occasional hyper fixations on the different mythology.
You looked back at your phone, closing your laptop completely. "I know what I'm talking about, Junseo," you insisted.
"Right."
But you did, and you- wait. You squinted your eyes at the screen. Where the hell was Junseo? His face cam was activated on video call and he acted casually, but everything was dark. Like, really dark. There was only a faint glow.
Your eyes widened. "Are you behind a stage!?"
Junseo had the audacity to simply smile and then turn his camera around to show Surin and Jieun-your other friends, and- ... "HUNTRIX?!"
You unceremoniously gawked at the five people on the other side of the screen, three of which were world-renowned K-pop idols.
"It's nice to see you too, Y/n." Jieun casually waved off the camera once, sitting in a chair to the side with her eyes lazily glued to her phone and one of her headphone plugs in. Surin made a pointed face at her and sighed.
Surin shook her head, motioning to the three idols a little ways away from the screen. "Bobby got us a gig here. Said 'if there were any complications this time around,' they'd need 'all the help they could get', or something like that." She must've seen your confused look because she goes on to elaborate. "Remember Huntrix's last concert?"
You nodded. Yeah, of course you remembered, who didn't? The girls dropped out of the sky. You were still trying to figure out how that worked, too.
"Well apparently they were actually supposed to be there a lot sooner and it almost jeopardized the entire concert, so they aren't taking any chances this time around."
Junseo turned the camera around to face himself and nodded as well. "Yeah, they practically doubled the staff." He waved a peace sign with two fingers up, a sly smile stretched on his face. "Perks of being related to Huntix's manager."
Holding your head in one hand, you leaned on your elbow. You narrowed your eyes for a moment, thinking.
"You're related to Huntrix's manager." You stated more than asked, but Junseo replied anyway.
"Yeah,"
You pressed both hands to your eyelids and gently massaged there. "So why are you so adamant about me coming to Korea? You clearly have connections. Use them."
Jieun popped up from somewhere on screen and hovered over Junseo's shoulder. "But you are our connections, Y/n." She so-very-helpfully pointed out, briefly looking to the side to check what you guessed was her phone and then back at you.
"No, I meant-" You abruptly paused, deflating. "Nevermind."
"Don't worry about packing alone babe, our shift is short, and we've already booked the next flight to the states!" Junseo grinned-not waiting for your reply and ended the call.
You stared at the screen. They weren't taking no for an answer, were they? why did your friends have to be so relentless? You loved them to death, but it'd be nice of them to consider your reasons for this once... as ridiculous as they were.
It's just...
You thought back to your mindless research on all-things Saja Boys and how there was literally, in all senses, nothing on those guys' pasts before their rise to fame. Granted, the idols usually fill in most of the blanks as their publicity progresses, but surely there'd be something. You knew how deranged some kpop fans could be.
Take Junseo for example, he's a tech professional as well as a StrayKids fan. You wouldn't even want to know how much-good things-he's been able to dig up on them before their debut.
you digress.
While it wasn't necessarily the-end-of-the-world-weird for a kpop group to debut in the streets, it simply rubbed you the wrong way. Like, when was the last time that had happened, if ever? You couldn't even find their record label.
It was a weird, just- ... you didn't know how to explain it.
"N/n, what's with all the muttering?" Brielle-your college roommate-invited herself into your room with two Jarritos and a snickers ice cream bar in her hand. How she managed to carry all three of those in one hand? You didn't know, but as you took one of the drinks from her generous offering hand, you found you didn't really care.
A better question is how she could hear you from beyond an entire wall.
"I still don't know how you do that," You remarked, shuffling over to set your laptop and phone on your nightstand. She says she'd been able to hear like that since forever.
Brielle snorts, "It's some genetic thing. Got it from my dad."
Absently, you hummed in acknowledgement, your stubbornly screwed on bottle cap opening with a pop. It wasn't too long before Brielle, settled at your study desk, got on your ass again though. "K, so what's up? Wait, no. Let me guess."
You stared at her.
"Was it something thing one and thing two said?"
"They want me to go to Korea to see the Saja Boys with them." You leaned back in your bed again, going limp against the headrest.
Bri nodded, partly to herself. "Figures. All three of dumb, dumber, and dumbest won't shut up about them on reels." She pulled out her phone, pressed some things, and turned it around to show you the screen. You squinted your eyes at the poster. "Friday Night, Play Games With Us! Featuring... the Saja Boys. And the girls won't stop texting me about how they're gonna have front row seats to that show."
Huh. You slowly paused your drinking. "I haven't gotten a single thing from them since our last call," you vaguely thought back to your last conversation with Jieun, Junseo, and Surin. Your eyes widened. Didn't Junseo say he was flying back to the states as we speak?! "No."
Brielle looked up at you from her aimless scrolling, a quizzical look in her eyes.
You shook your head, finished what was left of your drink, and set the glass aside. A single sigh passed your lips. "I'm just gonna go to bed," you plopped down again and pulled the blanket over your shoulders, the chill of the AC invading your skin, causing you to involuntarily shiver.
"I'll deal with it tomorrow." You mumbled, eyes already closing.
Bri glanced down at her phone once more before shuffling to her feet. She drawled a quiet goodnight before heading out to her own room, closing your door behind her.
You could only skim over everything you'd processed today once before sleep caught up to you.
There was a reason you chose to be roommates with Brielle York. It was because she didn't do fuck shit like this.
You wordlessly watched a maelstrom of different things unfold in your dorm main room. The boxes, the moving men, your friends lazing over the couch-each doing their own thing, the clothes everywhere, the picture slowly painting itself in your still half conscious brain.
Jieun, Junseo, and Surin were in your dorm. They called a... moving company. Brielle was in on it.
"You guys can't just do this."
Brielle tossed one of the moving men a key that led to your room. "Actually-yes, we can. Jieun already contacted your aunt," your aunt who was a big businesswoman travelling around the world at the moment. "you're officially a transfer student." She saluted you, her gaze not leaving her computer despite it. "You're welcome."
You stared at your long-time best friend, torn between sighing and simply accepting your fate or flipping all four of them off. You squint your eyes, adjusting your vision to the blinding light of your living room and sigh.
Junseo flashes a smile and Jieun gives you a thumbs up. "Congratulations!" she chirps.
"Guys," your lips thinned. As much as you've been wanting to spend time with them even regardless of your long distance, things don't work like this. And how did they-apparently-even manage to make you a transfer student? "It's not that simple."
This was nice and all, but did they even know how many factors played into moving to an entirely different country? Looking around at your friends, one, Junseo, a technician. Another, Surin, a model for some big beauty agency back in Korea you didn't have a clue about. The other, Bri, a kindergarten teacher, and the last one -Jieun- a beginning tattoo artist, you think to yourself no. No, they couldn't possibly know how this kind of stuff works.
But then you realize the three of them were just in another country halfway across the world and are, as of right now, in another. And your phone rings.
A part of you just wants to stare down your friends for dragging you into this mess of questions. You didn't ask for this- in fact, you asked for the opposite. The other part of you resigns herself and answers.
It's your aunt, Missy. You let out a slow breath, pressing your phone to your ear. "Aunt Missy?"
There's some shuffling from the other side of the phone before a pause. "Y/n! It's so good to hear your voice again after so long!" you nod along, not that she could see you. "How have you been since the trip?"
"Well," you accepted the glass of water Surin handed you before skirting off somewhere else in the dorm. You lingered around the couch, blurring your vision for a few seconds to adjust.
"That's great sweetie, but that's not why you answered, is it?"
"No," You agreed, drilling holes into the trio on the couch's heads. "It's not."
"Right, well, darling. I understand everything has been difficult for you these past days-adjusting to college, having to deal with your mother passing, being separated from your friends-so I thought, why not get away from all of that and have some fun in a different space? It's much easier to study abroad, too. You have nothing to worry about! Everything is being prepared in advance for you, rest assured."
It almost seemed like that whole shpiel was rehearsed, but you stayed silent if not for her sake. You'd normally deny this entire thing and demand everyone to leave, but there was a moving company here and half of your things were probably already on a private jet.
You rubbed a palm to your face and released a long sigh. You looked over at your friends. "You aren't gonna let this go, are you?"
Brielle looked over her shoulder, at you. She leaned back. "You've been needing to relax, Y/n. Your hyperfixation on mythology is getting to your head. You'll be fine." She glanced off. "And I've always wanted to leave the country."
Throwing your hands up, you turned around and walked off to your room-water still in hand. You resigned yourself once more. Perhaps, in some far away universe, this won't go so terribly.
Whatever.