The Start Of Something New

The funny thing about meeting the love of your life for the first time was that sometimes it didn't feel important at all.

There was no dramatic music, no moment where the universe seemed to stop and point at someone while a spotlight appeared from nowhere.

Sometimes it happened in a flexible university class on a Tuesday afternoon.

And neither person even noticed.

They just lived in the same world, at the same time and didn't know what the future had in store for them.

The classroom was half full.

Which was honestly impressive for a flexible elective. Most students only showed up when attendance became threatening.

Y/n slipped into a seat near the middle, not too close to the front, not too close to the back. The perfect location for someone hoping to survive ninety minutes without being asked questions.

He dropped his backpack beside his chair and pulled out his laptop, pretending to pay attention while actually trying to calculate how many weeks remained in the semester.

Not many. 

Like 6 more weeks, that might still seem like a lit but there will be like 2 more assessments anyways.

Thank God.

The professor was discussing something involving assessment criteria, participation expectations, and several other things nobody was emotionally invested enough to remember.

And then someone sat down a couple seats away from him.

Asa.

Not that he knew her name yet, at that moment she was just another student, another face in a room filled with faces.

She dropped into her chair with a coffee in one hand and her phone in the other, looking mildly annoyed at something she'd just read, a few seconds later she sighed dramatically and muttered something under her breath that made the girl beside her laugh.

Asa immediately launched into what was apparently a very passionate complaint.

Y/n heard exactly none of it.

He was busy opening a document he hadn't started.

And Asa didn't notice him either.

The professor began talking, the lecture had officially started.

Some people took notes, others pretended to. There was one guy in the back who fell asleep before the first slide ended.

And the two people who would one day share an apartment, a cat, a ring, and an entire future spent the next hour existing less than twenty feet apart without exchanging a single word.

If someone had walked into that classroom and told them where things would end up, neither would have believed it.

Because nothing about that day felt significant.

It was just Tuesday.

‘Cute.’ That was about the extent of his thought.

He didn't know her name and had never spoken to her and he had no reason to think he'd ever speak to her.

Asa knew exactly who Y/n was. She didn’t know him personally. She only knew what he looked like and she knew his name because he answered questions in class and talked often and he was the guy who always arrived right before class started.

She knew him as the guy who somehow looked awake despite the class being scheduled at an ungodly hour, the guy who occasionally made the people around him laugh without trying.

But university wasn't high school, people didn't just randomly walk up to strangers, especially not strangers who seemed perfectly content sitting with their friends.

So she never said anything.

And neither did he.

Which was how things stayed for the next couple weeks.

"The project will be completed in pairs." The professor said

Collective suffering immediately filled the room.

The professor continued talking and pointed to his lecture notes but nobody listened.

Because every student was currently experiencing the exact same fear.

Group work.

One of the worst inventions in human history.

"Partners will be assigned randomly." 

Oh, well would you look at that. It got even worse.

Y/n rubbed his face. "Fantastic."

Johnny beside him snorted.

The lecturer began reading names. 

“Johnny with Jimin”

“Oh well farewell Dude.” Johnny hit his shoulder.

“Yeah thanks.”

Some more students paired off, some looked relieved and the others looked horrified.