First Impressions

“What am I to you, Wonyoung-ah?”

“What do you mean, Jaewoo-yah? You know that you’re my best friend, my safe space that anchors me to this world. Why did you ask me that?” Wonyoung replied as she opened her eyes to look at Jaewoo. Her arm tightened around his waist from under the blanket as it covered evidence of last night’s actions.

“I just… I’ve been having these thoughts, Wonyoung-ah. You keep telling me for the past half a year that you’ll introduce me to your friends as more than just your ‘project partner’ and as your actual partner.” Jaewoo sat up by the headboard, looking towards Wonyoung with an unreadable expression.

“Jaewoo… I’ve already told you that I’ll introduce you to them once I’m ready. Just wait a little more, baby.”

“There it is again. You keep telling me that for the past months now, then you call me baby as if you didn’t just call me your best friend just moments ago.”

“It’s not like that. I’m just not ready to commit yet, to introduce you to my world and properly call you mine.”

“I… It’s fine. I don’t know what came to me when I said that, Wonyoung-ah. Let’s just go back to sleep. It’s still a bit early.” Turning to let her see the time on the digital clock on the bedside table.

When did all of this begin?

—Flashback to the start of the semester—

I think it was at the start of uni, nearly a year ago. I was running late that time, having set my alarm clock thirty minutes after my supposed wake-up time.

“Shibal” Jaewoo silently cursed at himself as he ran through the unfamiliar hallways of Yonsei University. He wasn’t able to tour the building before the classes as he was still moving into his apartment.

While running down the hallway frantically looking through the nameplates by the doors to find his homeroom, he didn’t see the girl turning the corner. When he finally noticed her, he had no time to react and slowly reached out his arms to protect the girl from the impact as they came crashing down onto the ground.

“Are you alright, miss?” Jaewoo asked as he checked up on the girl, still not realizing the position that they were in. He had his arm around the girl; one by the back of her head, and the other planted on the floor to prevent himself from falling on the girl even more.

“I’m alright, just a little startled from the fall.” The girl replied somewhat calmly with a hint of surprise in her voice. She had not opened her eyes yet, probably from the fall. Jaewoo, on the other hand, was staring down at her, now realizing their position. She was lying on the floor beneath him as he hovered on top of her. 

Upon processing the predicament, he slowly sat up the girl and stood up himself, not wanting anyone to see them in such a bold position in the middle of the hallway.

“I’m really sorry about that. I was running late and didn’t see you as you passed the corner. That was entirely my fault.” Lending an arm out towards her to help her up. The girl gracefully accepted his hand and pulled herself up.

As they stood up, he noticed that her uniform was slightly messed up: her sleeves were pulled up to her elbows, and her skirt was bunched up past her knees. She then dusted off her skirt and fixed her uniform upon noticing it.

“Hey, umm… I should definitely introduce myself after that. I’m Jeon Jaewoo, an incoming freshman taking the Philosophy course.” Jaewoo bowed politely, clearing up the awkward tension between them.

“Philosophy?” Her ears perked up at the mention of the Philosophy course. “Are you perhaps taking Mrs. Lee’s Asian Philosophy class at 9 a.m.?“

Jaewoo slowly raised his head to meet her gaze. “Yeah. Though it would be nice if I knew where it is, since it’s nearly 9 o’clock and I’m still running around the hallway looking for it.”

The girl quietly giggled at Jaewoo’s helplessness. “Well, lucky for you, I am also heading there.”

“Oh, really? You’re actually a lifesaver?” The girl let out another silent giggle before leading the way towards the lecture hall. She snuck a few subtle glances at Jaewoo before speaking up.

“I’m Jang Wonyoung. I wasn’t able to introduce myself to you earlier after the crash.”

Once they arrived at the lecture hall, they entered expecting that Mrs. Lee had already done roll calls. Instead, Mrs. Lee had also just arrived after they did. The two decided to take the seats near the middle, close enough to listen clearly and far enough to be able to talk to each other without interrupting the class.

—After the first class—

The two had exchanged numbers as Wonyoung had a scheduled class ten minutes after their first class and had to dip.

“It was nice meeting with you, Jeon-ssi. I’ll talk to you later?”

“Yeah, I’ll text you later. You should hurry. From the map that you showed me earlier, you’ll definitely have to rush if you want to arrive there in time.” Wonyoung politely agreed and bid her farewell, mixing in with the crowd of students as she went towards her next class across the campus.

Jae stood there for a minute, letting it sink in that he made a friend on the first day of uni. Not only that, but he made a pretty female friend and got her KaTalk info. After what felt like hours in his head —but only lasting about a minute or two— he finally snapped himself out of his trance and slowly walked around campus to fully familiarize himself with his new environment.

He eventually linked up with one of his friends at a nearby cafe, intending to spend some time before his next class started.

{Jaewoo’s POV}

“Hajoon-ah! Over here.”

Hajoon looked around for a moment before spotting me sitting by the table near the back corner of the café.

“Dude, you won’t believe what happened to me earlier,” I started rambling before Hajoon even sat down.

I recalled the events that happened before we linked up, the part when I woke up almost thirty minutes later than I was supposed to because I hadn’t set up the alarm correctly. Then, I was running through the hallway looking for the lecture hall that held my first class, and eventually met Wonyoung.

“So you’re telling me that you met a chick on the first day of classes— scratch that, before your first class. Then you had a K-drama moment with her, which led you to sit with her throughout the class, and to top it all off, she gave you her number…” Hajoon leaned forward, elbows planted on the table, and gave off a jealous aura.

“Yeah, do you need me to show you her profile on KaTalk?”

“Yah! Do you expect me to-“ I cut him off by showing him Wonyoung’s KaTalk profile “-holy shit, you weren’t lying…”

“See, I told you.” Flashing him a cheeky grin as I put my phone down. A moment later, a waiter appeared before us holding a menu. “Good morning, what would you two like to order?” Handing us the menu.

Hajoon and I looked through the menu, being that it was our first time going there, we had no clue what to order. “Could I get a uhm- an Iced Americano?” I wasn’t that much of a coffee drinker myself, but seeing that it was the go-to drink for most Koreans in this day and age, I decided to order it.

Hajoon barely looked up from the menu when I heard him let out a snort. “Pfft.” The waiter couldn’t even care less and wrote down my order on his little notepad since questioning customers’ orders wasn't part of his job. “How about you, sir. What would you like to order?”

“Just a Vanilla Latte for me, thank you,” Hajoon replied to the waiter, before the waiter rushed off to the main bar. “Dude, why the fuck would you order an Iced Americano when you don’t even drink coffee?” He asked in a somewhat surprised tone.

I shrugged him off while I continued looking through my schedule. “I don’t know, it’s their best seller, so I decided to order it”.

“Dude, the reason why it’s their best seller is that it’s low in calories, cheap, and pure caffeine. No one actually orders it for its taste.”