Chapter 1: Life's Pretty Average, Isn't It?

Thursday | September 21st, 2023 | 8:43 AM

“Fuck,” I murmured into the air as I rolled over onto my side. My hand reached down my side and pulled my blanket closer to my head, hiding my face from the bright sun-rays shining through my bedroom windows. Wait, I don’t remember my alarm waking me up? Is it because I woke up before it? After it? I stretched my arm out from underneath my blanket towards the direction of my nightstand, where my phone should be. I felt the familiar shape of the device, and pulled it in closer to me. Pressing the home button, the screen lit up to reveal the time: 8:43 AM.

So I woke up before my set alarm. Of course, but I’m already up, so there’s no point in trying to go back to sleep. Although I didn’t notice it when I first woke up, it was starting to become apparent I had a growing headache in the back of my head. I can accredit this to my 19th birthday party, which was just yesterday. It was the first time in a while that I celebrated as much as I did. The night was a blur, and I could barely remember most of it, but all I know is I had a lot of fun.

Despite my head pains, I forced myself to move out of bed until my feet could hit the floor. At the same time, the door to my room opened wide to show my female roommate, Kang Seulgi, with a cup of water in her left hand and a plate of food in her right. She was wearing a loose-fitting T-shirt with some random logo on the front and black shorts. Her brown hair was tied up in a ponytail.

I watched her walk over to my wooden desk that I used for late night homework sessions and put the plate and cup down, before she turned and walked towards me. Her facial expression was the usual smile she always had.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Seulgi said, her voice light and airy. "How are you feeling?"

"A bit dizzy, but other than that, I'm okay," I replied. My voice was still hoarse, probably because I just woke up. "Thank you for the water and food, by the way. You didn't have to."

Seulgi shrugged and smiled. "It's no problem at all. We can't have our birthday boy starving."

"That was yesterday, though. It's technically not my birthday anymore," I reminded her, sitting up straight. She shrugged and took a seat next to me on the bed.

"Doesn't matter," she told me, "By the way, I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the party, Minjae. I came home pretty late last night."

"It's fine, don't worry about it. You didn't really miss much," I waved her off. “Wooyoung was there forcing everyone to drink up, Haechan got wasted after two shots, and I, well, think I got shitfaced.” I stood up from my bed and walked over to my breakfast sitting on the desk.

"Haha, typical Haechan. He's such a lightweight, he should learn to build up his tolerance." She giggled, standing up and walking over to stand next to me.

"Hey, you're one to talk. I don't think you should be criticizing someone else's alcohol tolerance, Seul." I laughed. She scoffed and nudged my shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, Minjae."

I took the water in my hand and took a big gulp of it. After I did, I placed it back down on the desk. "I'm serious, you get crazy clumsy and dumb when you drink, the worst part is that's how you normally are when you're sober. It's like, double dumb and clumsy!" I snickered, stabbing my fork into the mound of eggs on the plate.

"Oh yeah? You probably cry your eyes out like a little baby when you're drunk, right? You always cry over dumb shit when you're sober." Seulgi snapped back with a laugh. I rolled my eyes, shoving a forkful of egg into my mouth while staring at her smile. Seulgi had these pretty monolid eyes shaped like almonds that turned in crescents when she laughed and I've always found it pretty.

But then again, Seulgi is pretty in general. I remember about a year and a half ago, right before I started university, I was at home doing whatever when the university sent me an email that my roommate for the year was finalized and our living arrangements were made. I was so excited when I saw that I had a pretty girl paired up with me as my roommate. I played a risky move opting for a co-ed arrangement, which was a more expensive option, but luckily it paid off.

A few months later, around the weeks before classes started for my first year, move-in day happened. I remember being really nervous, mostly because it was the first time I would live outside of home but also because it was the first time I was ever going to see my roommate, who was a complete stranger. We only contacted each other once over the summer, and that was to introduce ourselves as a formality, nothing more.

When I arrived at the university campus, I walked around with my wagon filled to the brim with my belongings behind me until I found my assigned dorm building nested in what the university dubbed the "Student Village", which was a collection of student living facilities. When I stepped inside, I noticed the amount of people crowding the lobby, moving carts and luggage around. The building I was living in was eight floors plus the facility floor, each floor was dedicated to four apartments.

The whole process of moving in was a bit of a struggle for me because of the fact that I came to the school by myself, deciding to leave my parents behind. Once I got my student card for the school, which served as my dorm key apparently, I took the elevator to the 4th floor and made my way to the dorm, located at the very end of the hallway. The apartment door was closed shut and locked.

I pulled the cart to a stop, and pulled it against the wall next to the door. Then, I reached down to the pocket of my pants and pulled out the student card I was given, grimacing at my ID picture for a bit. Noticing a black slot embedded in the wall right beside the door handle, I slid my card into it, and a light lit up. After a few seconds, I heard the lock mechanism release and the door clicked.

With a smile on my face, I grabbed the doorknob and turned it, pushing the door open. Peering into the dorm, it was a fairly sized living room with an open view of the kitchen on the far end of the room, separated from the living room by a low-rising counter. There were two doors, the one on the left slightly ajar, on either side of the room, which I assumed were our bedrooms. There was a couch placed against the wall near the bedroom door that was open, and an wall-mounted TV against the wall of the closed bedroom door. Not only that, there was a large cart, similar to the one that I had sitting in the middle of the room.

I looked down and saw a pair of shoes neatly placed against the wall. Stepping inside, I removed my shoes and placed them next to the other pair. With my belongings in tow, I wheeled them into the living room and closed the door behind me.

"Hello?" I called out to the apartment. "Is anyone home?"

As soon as I said those words, the door to the bedroom on the left swung open and revealed a pretty girl with brown hair and eyes. She had a bright smile on her face, and her eyes turned into crescents. She was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a shirt with a cat face printed on it.

"You must be Hwang Minjae! Hi, I'm Kang Seulgi," The girl introduced, her voice soft and friendly. She stepped out from the doorway and extended her arm towards me. "Nice to meet you!"

I looked down at her outstretched hand and shook it. "You too."

After we let go, she placed her hands on her hips and looked at my cart. "I'll let you unpack, I just got here about ten minutes ago, so I'm still settling in. Oh, I hope you didn't mind that I chose a bedroom. If you want this room, I can just move to the other bedroom."

"No, it's fine. They're probably the exact same anyways," I shook my head, pulling the cart further into the living room.

"News flash, they are the exact same," Seulgi sweetly laughed before disappearing back into her room. I laughed to myself, realizing no one was there to hear it, and moved into the other bedroom. It was a simple bedroom, with a queen-sized bed facing the window, a dresser, a closet, and a desk. I looked to my side and saw an open door leading into a small bathroom, which consisted of a toilet, sink, another closet, and a shower-bath with a curtain.

I spent the next hour or so unpacking all my belongings and getting comfortable. Just as I was finishing up, Seulgi came knocking at my door asking if I wanted to head out and grab dinner. So, with her wallet and mine, we wandered around the university until we finally found the student union and dining hall. There, we ordered dinner and ate together.

I realized pretty quickly that I could really see myself being friends with her, so I tried my best to be a good roommate and friend. She's just naturally kind, and her energy is contagious, and that's something that made it really easy to befriend her. As a result, she became one of the first friends I made here at the university, and eventually we became closer.

Even in her dorky moments, her prettiness just shone through and it made her more attractive. And her personality, despite being a bit childish and airheaded sometimes, was just perfect. She's the sweetest girl you'll ever meet. Spending so much time with her, I realized that the feelings I had towards her were a bit more than just a friendship, and a few months into the school year, I had come to the conclusion that I liked her, more than a friend. But, I never really told her how I felt, and I kept it in for a while as we became closer.

It was about ten months ago, as our very first semester came to an end, that I lost my chance if I was ever going to take it. Her now boyfriend, Kim Minhyuk, asked her out on New Year's Day, and she said yes. It hurt to see her dating someone else, and I thought to myself, "Well, what were you expecting?" I never told her how I felt, and it's no wonder that someone else swooped in. No doubt, I was heartbroken when I found out from her and for about three months after that, I forced a smile on my face and pretended like their relationship didn't eat me up inside.

At some point after those three months, I had snapped and decided I had enough, confessing to Seulgi about those feelings I had for her. I remember exactly how it went. I stormed into her room, where she was studying for a test. I told her everything on the spot, telling her that I've liked her ever since I first met her, went through a state where I was torn over their relationship, and how much she mattered to me. Seulgi reacted the same way people in her spot would’ve, she just couldn’t. There were no words that could be said that would suit that situation. We were at a weird stalemate until I left her room to let her study.

From there, it was awkward between us for a while. We would pass each other up in the dorm, and not look or say anything to each other. It was like she was a stranger again. I could tell that Seulgi wanted to put that entire ordeal behind her and pretend like it didn’t happen. I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my chest when I told her, but a new and heavier one just slammed back onto me. Fuck, why did I have to ruin our friendship?

That was until, one day, Seulgi finally brought it up while we were cooking dinner together. She talked about how she misses the old days and our original friendship, and wanted to just put it all behind us. By the end of it, we made up. I was glad that we were back to being friends and moving away from my crush on her and the tension between us. I would be lying if I said I didn’t regret not talking to her sooner about my feelings but that was on me. I just have terrible timing. 

I had finished eating, got dressed, brushed my teeth, and cleaned myself up a bit by the time the clock hit 9 AM, and now I was standing outside my dorm building, waiting around in the Student Village courtyard, sitting on a bench. The weather was pretty chilly, a result of it being early autumn, and I was wearing a hoodie over a T-shirt and pants. I was looking through the emails on my phone to pass the time, occasionally looking in the direction of the other buildings until I finally saw who I was waiting for. A short girl with long split-dyed hair, the left side of her hair colored pink and the other side colored light-blue, walked elegantly towards me.

“You’re here early, woke up before the alarm again?” She directed towards me. I grinned and nodded in her direction. Her name was Lee Nakyung, my quirky childhood best friend since middle school. On the outside, she was very beautiful and had a certain aura that screamed grace, but I knew her as the girl who eats spoiled yogurt without feeling sick because she strangely likes the taste better.

We go way back, helping each other through some rough times and all. We were inseparable since our pre-puberty era, growing up together as an unbeatable boy-girl combo. She was definitely my closest friend ever, and when I announced my acceptance into this university, she immediately followed my steps and applied to it. Thankfully, she also got accepted and I couldn't have been happier when we found out.

The girl and I had agreed that we wanted to live in the same dorm as each other, but due to the lack of space and a bit of unluckiness, we were not paired up. Instead, I was paired with Seulgi and Nakyung was paired with another girl, her name was Jang Yeeun, who I've only seen a couple of times when I hung out at Nakyung's dorm.

“Something like that, I had a bit of a headache after yesterday,” I replied. Nakyung dropped her backpack on the ground and started rummaging through the front pockets, fishing out a container with colorful candy, “Gummy bears?” She held the container in front of me, and I shrugged, grabbing a handful.

She took the container and stuffed it back in her bag. Then, she threw the gummy bears into her mouth and started chewing. She swallowed and smiled. "Holy fuck, slow down you're going to choke on them. Are you trying to kill yourself?" I exclaimed, seeing her swallow them so quickly when I'd barely finished my handful. She rolled her eyes, and stuck her tongue out, displaying the remaining candy stuck to it.

"Yeah, because gummy bears can actually kill you, Jae. I can't believe you still don't know that," She remarked, laughing. I gave her a blank stare. "I'm just fucking with you. Calm your tits." She grinned naughtily. Although Seulgi was the latest girl I’ve ever liked in my life, Nakyung was my original crush. I don’t know how it didn’t work out. We dated for a short time at the start of high school but it just felt awkward between the two of us.

I really enjoyed her bubbly personality and presence but it didn’t feel right dating someone who I basically grew up with at the time. There are other people in the world who would die for a relationship with their best friend but I guess I didn’t value it enough. We ended it mutually and decided that our friendship is more important, and from there we moved on with our lives, never mentioning it again.

Nakyung and I finally started walking, and I pulled my backpack over my shoulders. Our university was located in a large campus, nestled in a city of its own. There were buildings spread across the area, each building having its own purpose. My first class today was located on the other side of the campus, which was about a 15 minute walk for me.

"You didn't get shitfaced drunk yesterday, did you? That's why you're complaining about a headache," Nakyung smirked, raising an eyebrow at me. I shook my head, looking forward, and pursing my lips.

"Joy forced a lot of shots in me, but you know, I'm a thug, I walked that shit off," I said, playfully flexing my biceps. Nakyung's laugh filled the air, and she punched me in the arm.