Jungeun comes back to the dorm feeling positively dead and wanting to collapse on her bed already.

Her bag is heavy on her back, full of books from the classes that she had that morning and clothes that she changed into when she went to the dancing academy, so her shoulders are screaming by the time she throws the weight off and unlocks the door into the dorm. She fumbles awkwardly for a second, trying to handle the keys to the door, her phone and her wallet all at once, having taken them out of her bag to try and alleviate some of the burden. (It hadn't really done much, but she had convinced herself that it was enough to get her through the trek back from the bus stop.)

It takes her around five minutes until she gives up and drops her phone and wallet onto her bag, though she does so too clumsily and the phone slides off and slaps the stone stairs. All she does is stare at the back of it, the animated stickers plastered on her case grinning back up at her mockingly, and really considers jumping off their little patio and letting her head smack against the nice stones lining the pathway up to the house.

The door swings open promptly afterwards, and Jungeun finds herself staring at the face of Haseul's little sister.

"Oh? It's Kim Jungeun-ssi." The small girl greets, the innocent curiosity playing on her face doing nothing to soothe the burst of irritation that passes through Jungeun's veins at the sound of her full name. (She had specifically told her other roommates that she'd prefer not to be called by her real name, for obvious reasons, though it seems that the teenager pays no mind to her requests at all.) "What are you doing here?"

Jungeun, despite all her inner ranting and annoyance, shuffles awkwardly at the threshold of the door as if she were a guest anticipating being welcomed into someone else's living space. "Uh... I-uh, I live here." Her sentence lilts at the end and ends up coming out as a question, and she really doesn't understand why she's so unsure of herself when she's the one who applied to live there and is currently paying the rent while the teenager is the one who constantly makes herself welcome into the building as if its her kingdom.

"Oh yeah." Yeojin bounces in place like she's just remembered the minute detail that Jungeun has been living in the dorm for the past month and a half, and begins to grin widely. "Come in, Kim Jungeun-ssi. You shouldn't be standing out in the cold for so long."

Wanting to narrow her eyes at the deliberate use of her full name but instead robotically picking up her belongings, Jungeun shuffles past the small girl and does her best not to make any physical contact with her. She doesn't mention how she's the one that's older than her, and that she should technically be taking care of her instead (considering her pocket-size stature and strange regard for wearing multiple small buns) but she's never really had anyone call her 'unnie' or 'noona'. (Not for any lack of want, more for a lack of courage when getting those who should be addressing her respectfully as such.)

The dorm living room is as bare as always, only having four pieces of furniture and those being the bare necessities: a moderately sized couch, where her dance junior, Hyunjin, and the first dorm member, Heejin, sit together; a TV that hangs from the wall, playing some entertaining variety program that Jungeun is actually interested in but hasn't watched since moving into the dorm for fear of being too intrusive on the other girls; a small dining table, where the oldest roommate sits studying on her pink laptop with matching set of headphones one, looking very concentrated; and a coffee table flooded with several empty packets of an array of snacks and books piled on top of one another, and Jungeun just wants to go over and flip the table onto its side and be rid of the sight already.

Heejin and Hyunjin turn their head to see who it is that Yeojin seems to be welcoming so haphazardly into their dorm, but return their attention to the TV once they realize its their other roommate. (Heejin has the decency to give her a tentative smile, which Jungeun is too confused as to how to react over to return.)

She holds her sigh of frustration when she reaches her bedroom, throwing her things onto the surface before collapsing onto it exactly how she had been visualizing in her head her whole journey back. It's been a month and a half, and she has yet to have a proper conversation with any of her four other roommates that consisted of anything aside from if she was going to do her laundry that morning or if it had been her assignment that had caught fire while Heejin was trying to cook. (It was, but she hadn't wanted to make the younger girl feel bad so she had lied and said it wasn't.)

Before she realizes it, she's asleep with her face pressed against her wallet and her books pressing uncomfortably into her stomach from the insides of her bag.

She wakes up the following morning with a growling stomach, a dry throat and the imprint of her wallet on her cheek. Classy.

The dorm is quiet when she steps out of her room (shuffles blindly while trying to take off shoes that she had forgotten to take off in her haste to reach the comfort of her room), though it's not like she expected anything since she tended to be the one who woke up the earliest.

(This was something she had discovered as she was mindlessly cooking herself some breakfast and lunch one morning, and an irritated Vivi had walked into the kitchen and had told her to "stop making enough sound to wake up my parents in Hong Kong" under her breath, before reaching for a box of cereals and roughly bumping into her in the process.

Yep. Not a memory Jungeun enjoyed reliving.)

Mindful of every other Moon Dorm resident, Jungeun quietly goes about her business. It's become a talent of hers to glide around the house as if she's completely weightless, not making a sound at all even as she takes a warm, yet quick, shower in the bathroom farthest from Room 1.

She has everything ready and packed in her bag, which she lugs with her around the house to make her exit clean and effective, when she steps into the kitchen in search for the sandwich she bought herself the morning before. Dazedly searching through the labeled items in the fridge with the other girls' names and personalized stickers for each one of them, she scavenges for the plain sticky note reading her stage name plastered onto her sandwich.

Not only does she not find it, but she hears a squeak behind her that sends her jumping a couple of feet into the air and knocking a few things over from the shelves in the fridge.

Jungeun turns to find wide, agitated eyes digging into her face, and it's not anyone that she knows.

She takes in the blindingly bleached blonde hair looking like a lion's mane around a round face, cheeks filled out with food and what she thinks looks suspiciously like the sweet barbecue sauce that was advertised on the sandwich packet that she bought the previous day. Jungeun still has no idea who the girl is, and why she looks like she's just slept over in the dorm and why she's even in the dorm in the first place (should she be reporting this to the landowner? The police?) but she sees the incriminating sticky-note on the counter of the kitchen and the blatant evidence of her sandwich in the girl's hands and her heart drops straight out of her .

Honestly, the way university life is going for her so far, Jungeun just wants the Grim Reaper to rise and take her soul already.

She wants to say something (preferably shout about why the hell she's eating the only sandwich that would keep her going through the day) but her she feels the familiar cotton texture sticking her tongue to the roof of and all she can do is stare blankly at her would-be-breakfast like it's betrayed her.

Sighing, she lets the fridge door close and she wordlessly picks her bag up from the floor, heaving it onto her back and leaving the kitchen without as much as a sound. She's sure that she can check if she has some spare change to buy herself ramen on her way back from the dance academy.

(She prays that she has spare change, otherwise she's going to have to go a day without eating.)

-

"Thank you for the ride." Jungeun bows full ninety-degrees, her cheeks burning from the shame, and she's not sure if it's because she's apologizing or because she's grateful.

Her senior in terms of dance academy ranking, though equal in terms of age and grade, Mark, gives a half-amused, half-awkward laugh. "No, thank you for putting up with this lame bicycle. I'm sure you were expecting more when I offered a ride." He purses his lips unsurely, eyes dancing around just as his feet do when she sees him dance at the academy.

"N-no, you've done more than you should have- I mean, you really shouldn't have been so nice, I don't know how I'm going to repay you..."

Mark rolls his eyes slightly, but the bright grin remains planted on his face like the trademark it is. "Don't stress over it, anyone else would have done the same as me."

No, they really wouldn't have, Jungeun thinks to herself but says nothing at all.

"Besides, it would be really stupid of me to let a girl walk all the way home by herself in the dark." He says it easily, like it's a basic law that has been ingrained into him, and Jungeun is honestly fascinated by his kind-hearted nature. "Especially in a city like Seoul, damn. I don't think I'd ever feel safe if I were a woman."

"Even if it means letting a potential psychopath into your home?" Jungeun mumbles thoughtlessly, the words escaping before she can even think about stopping them. When she registers what she's just said, she almost slaps her face with her open hand. (This is exactly why she limits her interactions to simple nods of acknowledgement or two word greetings.)

Surprisingly, Mark lets out a bubble of laughter that sends his head tossing backwards. "Come on, don't tell me that the cute-character-lover Kim Lip is secretly an axe murdering psychopath."

Jungeun feels the blush across her cheeks at the small jest and does her best to curl in on herself. (Maybe if she tries hard enough she can compartmentalize her body into a tiny, tiny cube that no one will be able to see.) "You know I like those?" As if her mild obsession with stickers from when she was in high school couldn't get even more embarrassing.

He stumbles over his words a little, before sheepishly grinning at her. "Yeah, they're all over your phone case and bag." Pointing to her belongings, Mark rests the weight of his bicycle onto his leg. "They're pretty hard to miss. Trust me, I'm not a stalker." Shaking his hands in denial, he widens his eyes.

A giggle manages to fall from Jungeun's lips, and this time she doesn't feel so bad about it. "Are you sure? I'm pretty sure I saw you staring at Lisa-sunbaenim just the other day."

"What? No I wasn't!" Despite his words, the tips of his ears begin to tint a bright shade of red and it completely gives away his embarrassment.

Jungeun had never thought she'd be presented with the opportunity to see Mark's smile up close, not only because of her socially-awkward being but because the boy was extremely popular in the academy, and it's pretty difficult to get a hold of him. She'd been very suspicious when he had woken her up from where she had passed out alone in the practice room and had told her that he'd take her home -- even more suspicious when he had suggested the idea of heading back to his house when they realised that a ride back to the Moon Dorm from the dance academy would take them more than an hour. (It had been very awkward having to meet his parents and brother the very first day they actually had a conversation, but it had made her feel safer than if it were just the two of them.)

"I will pay you back for troubling you." Jungeun bows deeply again, feeling guilty for everything that has occurred in the past several hours. Had she not been so irresponsible to let herself take a 'short nap' while practicing after-hours, she wouldn't have had to trouble his mother into making extra breakfast just for her, or borrow clothes from her.

Despite everything, Mark only chuckles to himself and puts his helmet back on. "Seriously, don't worry about it." There's a more serious tinge to his expression as he says the next couple of words. "You can pay me back by coming out with the rest of us for drinks on Saturday, if you want." Nervously, he rubs the back of his neck and makes a face that looks like he's going to regret saying the next sentences. "You know, get out of that image that you're so calm and cool? I mean- it's really only intimidating for a while until you notice the stickers and the slight awkwardness, but even sometimes it's still a little..."

Jungeun frowns, more in confusion than in offense.

People think she's intimidating? They think that she she's calm and cool?

God, she has never wanted to laugh more in her life.

"Sure." Once again, the words leave her before she can really register them, and the dread of having to attend a social gathering hits her. Already, her mind is thinking of excuses to get her out of the compromise. ('I have an assignment due midnight Sunday that I completely forgot about' or 'I lost all of my clothes so I can't dress up to go out-' no, that one's stupid.)

Mark gives a relieved grin (which makes her think that maybe he wants her to be there after all) and fixes his bag on his shoulders. "Cool. I'll text you the details on Instagram."

Jungeun nods shyly, before watching him take off and cycle down the fairly empty street.

Her shoulders sag as soon as he disappears from her line of view, feeling completely emotionally drained from having to have that many human interactions in one day.

She starts to think that she misses her dorm, but the more she thinks about it, the more she realizes that it's not really her dorm that she misses but the physical piece of furniture that suffices as her bed. Spending so much time outside of the dorm, in the presence of someone who makes conversation with her that lasts more than a minute, makes her come to terms with a fact that she has been trying her hardest to deny: the Moon Dorm doesn't feel like a home. It isn't a place she can go to and completely forget about everything else that's happening in the world, and the realization saddens her a little, but it relieves her of the unknown figurative burden she had been carrying.

Jungeun's fingers shake as she takes out her phone from her pocket and goes to the obligatory group chat that the Moon Dorm residents share.

Jo Haseul added +82 XX XXXX XXXX to Moon Dorm

[21:22] Jo Haseul: That's Jinsoul's number, you guys should put it down in your phones

[21:27] Kim Hyunjin: okau

[21:51] Jeon Heejin: already saved

Jeon Heejin sent an image. Tap to view.

[21:52] +82 XX XXXX XXXX: awwww, cuuuuuuuute

[21:52] Jeon Heejin: <3

She wants to laugh, and she allows a small bitter smirk to play on her face as she stares at the conversation, but she restrains herself from reacting too much. It takes her a couple of minutes, but she manages to stop the train of thought chugging eagerly away to 'So we have a new roommate that I was never told about and they've already made her feel more welcome than they have for me oh look they didn't say anything about me not coming home last night how fun' land.

Jungeun deserves a cookie.

-

The rest of her week continues in the same monotonous fashion: wake up before anyone else in the dorm, attend her classes at uni while trying to survive on small packets of snacks she can barely afford, then rush to catch the bus to go to the dance academy, where she'll stay a little later than anyone (even though lately Mark has been using the excuse that he needs more practice - lies - so she's not entirely alone) before getting the last bus that'll take her to a hopefully quiet dorm.

However, with the new addition of Jung Jinsoul (Jungeun had come to learn her name when she had read the welcome letter in the mailbox one morning), there seems to be an... unbalance in the scales; a disturbance in the easy routine Jungeun had come to know.

She wakes up at what Jo Haseul calls "an un-godly hour" to get a headstart on her day (admittedly mostly to try and avoid any unnecessary interactions with any of the other residents) and go about her own business in peace. Except that's not what happens when she opens the door to the farthest bathroom from Room 1 as she usually would have done for her morning shower. Instead of finding the comfort of the small yet empty bathroom with the purple tinge of light streaming through the opaque window, she comes face to face with a shirtless blonde girl.

As if repeating their first encounter, the girl lets out a squeak of what seems to be surprise, wide eyed and hair still resembling that of a lion's mane.

Jungeun simply stares, trying to think if she's still dreaming and has slept through her alarm and this is a way that her subconscious is trying to tell her - warn her - that she'll be late, or if what she's seeing is - in fact - real.

Sure, it may not be the greatest first impression, simply staring at your shirtless roommate without saying anything and without even so much as blinking. But in Jungeun's defence, in the time that she had been living there no one had used that bathroom but her so she'd somewhat grown territorial over that space. Having someone else suddenly trespass-

"I..." Jung Jinsoul goes to say something, the beginning of a sentence on her tongue, but Jungeun's already wordlessly stepping back out of the bathroom and closing the door again.

She tries not to let the inconvenience throw her off. She tries not let the thought of someone else being in her space bother her (yes, she'd noticed the new blue tinted bedsheets on the bed closest to hers along with the heavy addition of clothes in the wardrobes). It doesn't annoy her as much as it would have if she were in a bad mood...

If she's more careless than usual while continuing her early morning routine in the bathroom right beside Room 1, it's only because the surprise appearance had shaved a couple of minutes - important minutes - of her time and she's in a rush to get to her morning classes. Really, if she drops her shampoo bottle more times than usual it's only because the water from this shower seems to make her hands a little slippier. And the song she's currently learning the dance to is only blasting so loudly from her phone because they're having a performance soon and she wants to run through the coreography in her head as much as possible.

Jungeun's already shrugged her clothes on by the time one of the other girl's is pounding against the bathroom door - Jo Haseul's irritated face greets her, leading the entourage of other girls residing in Room 1 who look equally, if not more, pissed at being woken so early - and she brushes past them without a word.

"Jungeun-ssi-"

Haseul's cold voice snapping at her so early in the morning makes everything in her brain want to scream bloody murder.

She doesn't say anything to their incensed expressions.

(If her bag hits Vivi's shoulder a little on her way past, she blames it on gravity.)

She doesn't meet Jung Jinsoul's paled expression as she stands in the middle of the living room. She has nothing to do with her or with any of the other girls in that dorm.

-

"So... how's life in Seoul?"

Jungeun stares at the face of her childhood best friend currently being displayed on her phone. Jiwoo's features are a little grainy because the quality of her screen isn't the best and her face is awkwardly split down the middle from where she'd dropped it a couple of days ago (it serves its basic function of making calls) but Jungeun takes whatever she can get at the moment.

"Okay." She replies absent-mindedly. The wistful feeling that had been lodged in her chest is acting up a little and she's trying her best to wrangle it into submission so it leaves the state of alone.

"Jungie..." She feels the disapproval more than hears it. Jiwoo's previously bright grin from retelling her own experiences in their hometown has dimmed into her 'I've known you for years and you still think your lies will sneak past me' frown. "What's wrong? You're not failing your classes are you? Cause I know that you kinda absolutely bombed your math exam back in high school-"

"It was one test, and the whole class failed."

"-but you're pretty good at studying. Better than I ever was, but you won't be hearing me say that again, you know? I'm only saying it just this once because it's my duty as your best friend to remind you how good you are." Jiwoo has always had a tendancy to ramble, and Jungeun will usually interrupt her flow as seamlessly as moving into the next step of a dance, but she hasn't heard her best friend's voice in a while and she thinks that listening to her voice will be enough to quell the homesickness. "Jungie, if any of us deserved to go to Seoul on that scholarship, it's you. I didn't have to put up with your annoying - I bought you so much coffee - for you to suddenly start doubting yourself. So you better put your chin up and you better crush that economics degree like its Woo Seongha's y face."

That gets a laugh out of Jungeun.

It's more breath than sound, but the corners of her lips lift almost unfamiliarly enought that the skin at her cheeks strain.

"You still see her around?" Jungeun asks Jiwoo, who glares at her with certainty and determination. It's enough to give her energy to power her through the day, surely.

As if having set off a firework, Jiwoo lights up with a rage so familiar that Jungeun finds herself settling against the pillow at her back. "Still- still see her around?!" Her ears slightly ache from the loud volume of her best friend's voice being blasted by her earphones, but she doesn't do so much as flinch. "Do you know how many times we've had to change parking spaces because she keeps stealing ours? I swear, even Yeri is planning to puncture her tyres..."

Jungeun lets herself listen to Jiwoo animatedly retell the story of how their mortal enemy does the tiniest of things to inconvenience them all. It's wildly reminiscent of when the two of them would sit together on Jiwoo's bed and talk about whatever had annoyed them that day. Except now Jungeun is sat on her own bed miles away in Seoul while Jiwoo lays comfortably on her own.

It takes her a while to wind down, and when she does Jungeun is so out of it she barely notices that there's no endless ranting in her ears anymore.

"What's really wrong, Jungie?" Jiwoo's voice is almost uncharacteristally soft, enough to pull Jungeun out of whatever faraway land she'd been in. "You don't look... is Seoul not what you expected?"

That makes Jungeun think.

"It's not that..." Jungeun mulls, quietly stewing over the question.

Seoul had been everything Jungeun had been expecting and more. She was getting herself a degree from a good university without burdening her parents with the task of having to pay fully for her tuition. She was doing what she loved most on the side - dance had always been her passion ever since she had been presented to performances on TV. The city itself was beautiful in its own ways, and the scenery was what she liked.

"It would be so much better if you were here," she says.

Jiwoo blinks at her, her face blank as she registers the words properly.

At that moment, the door to her room opens. It startles her enough the she cradles her phone to her chest almost protectively, not wanting anyone to invade any more of her privacy that had already been taken from her. (The encounter at the showers the other day had only made the living situation frostier than it had already been.) She feels a sharp sensation shooting through her chest as she's pulled from the comfort bubble she'd built while talking to Jiwoo.

Tentatively, Jung Jinsoul steps into the room. There's a sheepish smile on her face as she does so, like she's apollogetic for interrupting her conversation at all. Jungeun thinks she sees her smile threatening to fall.

"Sorry, I just need to get something..."

"Jungeun?" Jiwoo, confused out of her wits, calls out her name. "Is that your roommate?"

Jungeun continues to stare blankly at Jinsoul, who in response just stands at the doorway with her hand on the door handle and her eyes a little too wide to be normal. In comparison to how she's seen her before (wild, dishevelled, just rolled out of her bed and shirtless), Jinsoul manages to look more put together when it's a time past seven in the morning.

Her eyes briefly scan the blonde's appearance and she manages to hold back a grimace. As put together as the girl's fashion sense will allow her to be, anyway.

"Is that... okay?" Jinsoul prods, shuffling on her feet unsurely.

Jiwoo pipes up from where she had been straining to hear for traces of conversation. "Why does she sound scared?" Her voice is loud, and it almost makes Jungeun jump in her place on her bed. "Is she scared of you? Are you making that face again? Jungeun don't scare your roommates, they-"

Feeling the beginning of what feels like the worst headache forming in her mind, Jungeun places the now dark phone on her red bedsheets. The last thing she wants is Jiwoo reprimanding her of her relations with her roommates. She knows herself how much she's screwed everything up with them - she wonders how none of them have shaved her hair off in her sleep - and she's been considering looking for a new place to move into. Then she'll be able to start anew, and maybe then it'll be easier to make a good first impression so that the people she lives with won't hate her.

When Jinsoul swallows nervously, makes the motion of bobbing. "I'll... take that as a 'yes'."

The blonde begins to look through her belongings at the new desk that resides between both of their beds. Jungeun is not entirely sure where the piece of furniture came from (considering much of the dorm remains undecorated, as if anticipating its inhabitants to move out sooner or later), but she has an inkling the girl with designer shoes laying tidily under her blue bed has something to do with it. Not that Jungeun is bothered by the addition, considering it makes the room feel a little homier.

"Can I move this?"

Jungeun looks to where Jinsoul is slightly crouched, holding onto the strap of her bag.

She'd forgotten that she'd perched it there in the first place, and she hastily moves to apologise for the inconvenience. "Yeah, sorry."

It's when Jinsoul begins to lift at the strap, clinging desperately by its last threads to its position, the words "it's okay, I got it" slipping from , that the bag breaks. It falls to the floor with a heavy thump of textbooks and a laptop making contact with the hard wood.

Jungeun freezes from where she's half-in, half-out of her bed. Jinsoul is also rooted to her place, her skin paling to a color that should be worrisome.

"Oh my god." It should make her feel better: the fact that Jinsoul's voice cracks like she's absolutely devestated that she just broke the only bag that Jungeun owns. It should make her feel better that the blonde is now scrambling to pick up what's left of the bag so delicately, as if dealing with a newborn. Maybe all of the apologies endlessly falling from her lips should make her feel better.

Except that without a bag, she can't carry all of her textbooks and her laptop and her dance clothes. Except that she'd been given that bag by her parents when she was halfway through highschool and it had her favourite character stickers decorating it and it had basically become a part of her. It had been like an extra limb that she always - always - carried around with her. And it had reminded her of all the times Jiwoo had tried putting a stray cat into it, or had hidden her contraband of food on their way to school, or had pasted her own addition of stickers.

No. It's fine.

Jungeun breathes through her nose.

She'll just buy a new one. (Even if that means she doesn't get to eat proper food for a couple of days.)

"...didn't mean for that to happen, god, I'm so stupid," Jinsoul rambles, trying to inspect the strap and where it used to connect to its main body. "I swear I everything up... I was just trying to help, oh my god, why can't I get anything right?"

Maybe its because it reminds her a little of Jiwoo, the way she just talks through her panic, but Jungeun huffs a little and gently places her hand over the blonde's shaking ones. "Don't worry about it."

(Jungeun ignores the way Jinsoul has stopped breathing.)

Worriedly, Jungeun s the bag and checks its contents. Her heart tries to leap out of the cosmos when she checks that the order of placement is heavy textbooks at the top and old laptop at the very bottom where the bag had fallen at an angle. She's not religious, but she prays to whatever god she can muster into her thoughts as she peels her precious laptop from its place. If it has broken, this isn't something she can replace. She barely has money to feed herself every day, how is she supposed to repair a broken laptop?

Jinsoul is with her, peering with baited breath over her shoulder, when she opens her laptop.

The screen is cracked, but it's nothing she can't get used to.

When she presses the power button is when they get the real news.

The screen blinks an unfamiliar rich blue, interswapping with flashes of white, before blacks lines dance across the screen and then stays like that.

...

Right.

Jungeun's will to live disappears along with whatever s she had left to give.

-

In spite of recent events, Jungeun still lets herself be dragged to the bar Mark had been mentioning to her over the course of the week. She had almost decided to fluke and wallow in her self-pity for a couple more hours until the urge to strangle her roommate disappeared. (Jinsoul takes the hint when Jungeun glares at her with tears barely kept at bay, her own set of puppy eyes (she had no right to be giving her that look) and has been giving her a wide berth. If she'd seen the blonde sleeping on the couch when she'd woken up so early even Jinsoul wasn't awake, then she doesn't remember it.) But Mark had appeared at the dorm two hours early to make sure she didn't do just that.

Now she's with her dance group at an unfamiliar bar in Seoul, and it's surprising how comforting the increasing numbness the soju gives her. They'd been a little hesitant to greet her with the same warmth as they did Mark when she'd appeared with him, but the more attention she payed to them instead of hiding her gaze on the ground, the more she realised that what made them hesitate was more shyness than anything.

Which had disappeared after just a couple of rounds of drinking.

"Drink if you have ever... skipped curfew because you were too busy graffitiing a monobrow onto a wall painting."

"That's weirdly specific, Lucas." Yoohyeon, a senior who she admired for her sharp dancing and ability to make anything look good as long as she moved her limbs, laughs beside her, leaning into her for support.

There's a small grin on Jungeun's face as Lucas, a boy the same age as her and Mark who had joined just after she had yet managed to integrate himself into the group easier, slumps slightly onto the table. He's only had a couple of drinks but he already looks too far gone for even the older boy who they look to as a leader of their small dance team, Jaehyun.

"You're such a lightweight, Wong. Change it to 'drink if you have ever skipped curfew'." Mark mends, on the other side of Jungeun but handling himself far better than what appears to be his close friend. There's that trademark grin on his face that keeps growing more and more familiar every time they interact, which is not something Jungeun will complain about. It makes her settle more comfortably in her stool as people around her raise small glasses to their lips unabashedly.

She thinks that no one has noticed when Jun, a boy from China yet the oldest of the group, lets out a whoop of surprise. "Kim Lippie has skipped curfew before? The Kim Lippie?" Everyone at the table turns to look at her with surprise, though Lucas lets out a string of what appears to be his mother tongue and is talking sluggishly to Jun, who just ignores him and instead presses for more answers. "When, who, what, where, and how? Right now."

Jungeun laughs to herself, and Yoohyeon manages to slap her thigh as if to reprimand her. "I expected better from you, my deongsaeng."

The alcohol makes her feel light, so she doesn't think there'll be any issue as she starts retelling the story of how her, Jiwoo, and the rest of their high school entourage decided it would somehow be a good idea if they went to the mountain in their town to set off fireworks to celebrate one of their friend's achievements. She exaggerates a little when she retells the story of Jiwoo getting caught in their friend's mistake, saying that all of her hair was singed when in reality it had only left Jiwoo with a bob she hated for the rest of the year. At least it had made the girl appreciate her hair more.

It makes the rest of the dance crew laugh like its the funniest thing in the world, and the rush that courses through her in response makes tears gather in her eyes from the laughter.

That's how she knows she's a little out of it.

When Yoohyeon gets out to go to the bathroom, Jungeun pushes herself up and offers to go with her despite her assuring that she can go with one of the seniors hanging out at another table. It's not like Jungeun doesn't see the accomplished grin that graces Yoohyeon's face when she joins her, their arms looped together.

On their way there, she catches sight of a flash of blonde, and in light of recent events it makes her turn towards it.

She thinks that she's hallucinating for a moment when she sees what she thinks is Jinsoul sitting across from a guy, looking almost as uncomfortable as she had whenever Jungeun was in the same vecinity as she was. Which is pretty damn uncomfortable, if Jungeun's heavy glares and moody aura are effective at all.

"Unnie, wait a minute." She pats Yoohyeon's hand, though the other girl is already distractedly talking to a group of other dancers from their company.

Weaving through the tables of drunk customers as easily as if she were sober, Jungeun approaches the table where Jinsoul is sat. Sure enough, the blonde is wearing an expression of almost disgust as she watches the guy across from her (a round dude with glasses perched on his nose and the sleeziest smirk she has ever seen on anyone almost ever) try to down three glasses of soju in a row. Yeah, Jungeun would be wearing that same expression if she had to go on a date with a guy like that.

As she approaches, she seems to draw Jinsoul's attention.

At first, the blonde seems to regard her with casual acknowledgement, just barely passing her eyes over her appearance before focussing once more on the guy who slams his shots down onto the table. Then her eyes snap back towards her as if she's just fully registered who it is that's approaching her table, and they widen impossibly wider and is she wearing blue contacts? She opens to say something, but the guy from across her grabs at her hand that had been laying on the table and forces her attention back on him and who takes their date to a bar?

When Jungeun comes to stand beside their table, she looks down in displeasure at the guy's hand on Jinsoul's, who is trying to pull it back from his gammy grip.

She gathers his attention from merely standing there and when she gets it, she almost regrets it. The way his erse gaze drifts up her appearance and back down makes her want to take off her shoe and smack him round the face with it, see how he likes it when he gets his privacy violated, but she manages to control herself.

"Hi, what brings you-"

Jungeun holds up a finger. It silences him immediately.

Instead she turns to Jinsoul, who is gaping at her in disbelief. "Soul-ah, we have to go quick," her voice is dripping with theatrics and she doesn't think she's ever done such a bad job at lying. "Our pet fish, Call of Duty the Third, is dying and we're the only ones who can save him." Jungeun slides her hand down her free arm in search of her hand, and when she gets it she tugs her up. "Come with me quick, and we may be able to save him. His species - the cod - are in danger."

The guy tries to protest, moving to stand up, but Jungeun pretends to drunkenly stumble into him and coincidentally manages to knee him where it hurts. (As if Jungeun would ever lose her balance, even if she is drunk off her .) He immediately groans, hands flying to protect the area where he's been struck, and he collapses in his seat.

"It'll be alright, Soul, we'll save Call of Duty the First." Jungeun promises, tugging Jinsoul along and away from the still groaning guy. (She thinks she sees him blink away tears, but it may just be the slight daze that the alcohol brings.)

And that's the last she remembers of the night.

-

Jungeun regrets ever putting a single drop of soju near .

When she wakes up she's pretty sure she has the worst hangover she's ever experienced (honestly she'd thought that after drinking herself into oblivion when she'd met up with her highschool friends before going off to Seoul that she wouldn't repeat such event again, but here she is with a pounding headache). To say that she runs to the nearest bathroom is an understatement. If any of the other girls saw her, they'd think they just saw The Flash run past.

She empties out her insides into the toilet bowl, nearly missing in her haste but managing to hit the target. The last time she did this, she'd had Jiwoo at her back, rubbing her shoulder absently before shoving her away for a turn to empty out her round of soju. But now she was in a faraway city with no best friend to take care of her as she puked out her insides.

Heaving, she rests her forehead against the back of her fist. God, she couldn't get any sadder.

Maybe its in the middle of her trying to breathe herself back into sobriety, but someone has come into the bathroom in a surprisingly quiet manner. Quiet enough that she doesn't realize she isn't alone until her hair is being bunched up in delicate hands and being held back for her.

Jungeun has the urge to look up and check who it is (it may as well be a thief who had taken pity on her while they were on their way to steal what little there was in the dorm, because she doesn't think that any of her other roommates would really take the time out of their day to watch over their y roommate) but she gets a surge of nausea and she's back to making friends with the toilet bowl. 

If she had the energy, her face would be red to the point of no return. Except she's pretty sure she's more white than anything.

This is so embarrassing.

When her body thinks that she's had enough, her weight falls back on her heels and she's leaning weakly against the side of the bathtub, her head smacking it deftly just for good measures. (As if the headache griping at her brains isn't enough.)

Wearily, she squints through heavy eyelids and tries to make out who it is currently running a sponge under tap water in the dark of the early morning. And to say that she's surprised to find Heejin, the very first resident of the Moon Dorm, standing there in all her pink-pyjama-and-bunny-slippered glory looking like she's just fallen out of bed, is a severe understatement. Such an understatement that Jungeun is sure she could vault- no- step over it with ease that she'd never had while attending her gym classes in high school.

Quietly, Heejin approaches her once more and begins to wipe at her face (which suddenly feels incredibly stiff from her make-up and god she hopes she doesn't get any bad spots) and carefully at .

"Why..." It slips out of Jungeun's mouth before she has the mind to catch it, but closes up from how dry it is and saves her the further embarrassment.

Except Heejin has heard her - and smelt her rancid breath, judging by the scrunch of the nose - and her features soften the slightest. "It's what good roommates should do." She says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world and Jungeun has been missing this piece of information all along. "We should take care of each other when the other one is feeling sad." Her hands stutter when Jungeun's own features fold into a frown, but she braves on with a weak voice. "Or when one of us is feeling like they don't belong."

Everything stops turning for Junguen.

Like the microwave has run out of power, warm yellow light switching off and plate stopping abruptly.

She almost thinks that this is a conversation that's been dragged out by the product of her drunkness and insecurity, but the feeling of Heejin wiping at the edges of her eyes feels far too real to even be a dream.

And she doesn't know if Heejin knows it, but she's just spoken out her literal thoughts. As if someone had whispered in her ear exactly what she was thinking and to say that to her - to her face - just to... make her feel bad? Humiliate her? Rub it in her face?

Jungeun shrugs her off, pushing off from the cold tiles. "You don't have to do this for me." It's obvious that it's out of obligation more than anything else. "I can take care of myself."

Heejin doesn't make a sound in response, but she hears the toilet flushing and soft footsteps padding after her. It makes irritation crawl up her spine and prickle at the back of her neck because she doesn't need anyone's pity - especially not after she's just emptied her entire insides into the bathroom in the least gracious way possible (though she doesn't think that there is a possible gracious way to do so). She's been living in the dorm for more almost two months now and none of them have said a word of conversation to her, so she doesn't see why on earth it would start now. Of all times.

She goes to the kitchen, and fortunately Heejin has decided that she really is a waste of her time and has retreated back into their precious Room 1.

She's drinking her third glass of water when she hears someone approaching.

Ready to tell Heejin to back off and leave her alone again, Jungeun spins to the open doorway.

Only to find her blonde roommate, standing there in what appears to be her street clothes already. As if she's ready to leave at six in the morning despite it being a Sunday when all classes but hers and a small few are off.

Jungeun doesn't really know what to say to her (because Jinsoul hadn't been the one she'd been planning her whole conversation out for) so instead she does the next best thing and closes . It's worked so far at keeping whatever tension - animosity - there is between them at bay, and she doesn't really think it can fail her now.

She waits for Jinsoul to move into the kitchen and get whatever she needs, but the blonde continues to stand there. And it's not long before Jungeun thinks its starting to become creepy, seeing as the lights are off (heavens pray for the headache she'll experience once the sun comes up) and all she's doing is staring at her for several seconds before looking away again. It's starting to make her skin crawl uncomfortably, and she thinks that she can hold out this sudden silence contest they're having but when Jinsoul looks at her again (really, the puppy eyes do the opposite of what they're supposed to and make her want to hit the blonde instead) she just can't hold it in.

"Can I help you with anything?" And okay, she'd forgotten that Hangover!Jungeun tends to speak softer than her sober self. So the question comes out like she's trying to be nice when in reality the sarcasm should be pushing Jinsoul away by now.

Of course it makes Jinsoul come closer - curse her croaky voice making her sound like she's vulnerable - and she's wearing a soft smile before Jungeun can do anything about it. "Uhm... no, I was really hoping I could help you with something?" Her words are sluggish, like she's the one that's been drinking, and maybe it's because she's feeling particularly mean today but she notices that Jinsoul has a weird habit of speaking slow. "I- uh... I bought you something."

Jungeun's eyebrows try to shoot up into space.

From behind Jinsoul's back, she produces a familiar packaging.

She's standing in front of her now, slightly closer than arm's length (which makes Jungeun scurry further against the kitchen counter to try and put more distance between them), with the same sandwhich she gets herself when she has the money.

"I feel like the dumbest person on earth for eating your sandwich the other day," Jinsoul begins, and Jungeun gets a flashback to how she'd met the girl in the first place. "And I know this can come off the wrong way, and maybe it's because you don't eat at home, but you don't really have anything for breakfast, and then that made me think that maybe I really screwed up by eating yours that day and like, maybe you didn't get to eat for the rest of the day and that would have been my fault, and you were saved me from the worst blind date in history yesterday even though I did that and broke your bag and your computer-"

Curse Jungeun's weakness for dumb, rambly girls.

Her hand is resting on top of Jinsoul's before before she can stop herself, because it's long since been a habit of having to physically restrain Jiwoo whenever she goes off on one of her tangents. "Jinsoul."

(Jinsoul stops breathing again and this time Jungeun lets herself notice.)

"You don't owe me anything," Jungeun gently nudges the sandwich back towards Jinsoul in spite of the hungry clenching of her stomach. "We don't have to owe each other anything."

At that, Jinsoul's face scrunches up into an ugly expression before she's all but shoving the sandwich into Jungeun's hand. "But I want to ower you something." She's moving away before Jungeun can think to hand it back towards her, and she's shuffling to the fridge opposite. "I didn't really remember what sandwich flavor it was that you bought, so I bought all of them in case you were allergic to some of the ingredients, and I also didn't know what kind of drink you usually drink so I may have bought too many but..."

Jungeun stares with wide eyes at the multiple sandwiches and flavored milk bottles lined up inside, all with blue sticky notes pasted on them with what looks like her stage name messily scribbled onto them.

"Do you like raspberry?" Jinsoul asks in the tiniest voice, holding out the bottle in what seems to be a peace offering.

Instead of anything coherent, the only thing that comes out of Jungeun's mouth is an, "I..." and Jinsoul is all but shoving it into her now empty hand (the blonde taking the empty glass from there).

"You're an economics major, aren't you?" Jinsoul continues, her hair slightly frazzled now that she's standing closer and Jungeun can actually see. She jumps a little at that small fact being exposed of her, and the blonde is quick to notice because she scrambles to explain herself. "You- your textbooks! My brother studied economics and they're the same, so I kind of just assumed..."

Ah. Right.

"Anyway... I know econ have classes today because us engineering students do too, so I was wondering if maybe... we could go together?" Jungeun's brain is too fried to come up with an answer. "I'll lend you a bag, since I broke yours. I tried buying one this morning, but all of the stores were closed so..."

Jungeun blinks.

And blinks again.

And just for good measures she shakes her head a little.

"You tried buying... Jinsoul, it's six in the morning." Jungeun deadpans, looking however incredulous she looks right now. "At what time did you wake up?"

"Oh, uh..." The blonde manages to look almost guilty as she sheepishly looks away from her heavy stare, her cheeks dusted a slight pink as she does so. "I didn't?" Her voice rises as if she were confused of her answer. "I mean... we got home at two in the morning, and after we laid you down it was already three-ish... Heejin stayed up too! So I wasn't the only one, I swear."

She says that like it's any better.

"After that, I kinda just went out to get you some breakfast, since you're pretty hungover right now... I'm guessing?"

Jungeun definitely thinks she drank too far into oblivion and now she's in a parallel universe. Because this is the first proper conversation she's having with one of her roommates, and she's trying to tell her that some of the other girls - Heejin - had stayed up all night to take care of her despite her iness and bad moods. And yeah, Jungeun may be socially awkward and a tad bit hot headed, but she's not an absolute monster that she doesn't feel guilty for being such a to Heejin when she had been taking care of her earlier.

God, she's never wanted to jump off a bridge more in her life.

Jinsoul is still looking at her with the most hopeful expression, and maybe it's because of the guilt, or because of the sudden swell of relief at the fact that she gets to eat today, but she gives a defeated sigh and looks dutifully away from the pleading girl. "The bus leaves at seven."

And Jinsoul beams - she ing beams - and Jungeun literally hides her face behind her new sandwich and raspberry milkshake because it's just too much for her frazzled brain.

"Cool!" The blonde hops in place, beginning to bounce backwards with too much energy for someone who just pulled an all-nighter. "I'll just- I'll be right back! You get ready and do your thing, I'll wait!"

Jungeun stares after the tiny storm that has just passed through the kitchen, and then at the sandwich.

(She crushes the small warm feeling in her chest.)

-

"Jinsoul where's your bag?"

"Don't worry, I can just carry my stuff."

"... Jinsoul is... is the bag you gave me yours?"

"You can use it until your new bag arrives, don't worry about it."

Jungeun thinks her eyes will pop out. "My new bag?"

Jinsoul gives her a reassuring grin. "Don't worry, Amazon delivery is really fast these days."

-

When she comes back from the cringe-induced memory that had struck her in the middle of the conversation with the girls at the Moon Dorm, Jungeun manages to shiver at the thought of her old self. Looking back now, the way her relationships have changed with the girls from Room 1 is almost monumental (Heejin grows a special, fond place in her heart; she and Hyunjin grow a dynamic she never thought she'd have with the girl she'd thought to be so closed-off; her and Haseul more often than not end up venting about their issues to one another whenever they need to; Yeojin remains a pain in her to this day, but Jungeun's response is to baby her as much as possible; and Vivi manages to baby her in response).

Being sat around their Christmas tree even though it's already a new year with all other eleven girls makes her heart swell significantly. (They'd all gone back to their homes to celebrate the holidays with their family, though they had agreed to celebrate it with this family too when they were all back at the dorm.) She feels a sense of happiness and warmth when she looks at all the brightly grinning faces.

Well, what would be brightly grinning faces, except they're all staring at her with envy and outrage as she holds the packaging in her hands.

"What the ?!" Jiwoo crawls over Sooyoung, who is sat right beside her, to get a better look inside her present.

"Language." Vivi has half the mind to scold her, though she herself looks pretty intruiged on what's inside.

"What?! That's what I wanted for Christmas but Haseul-unnie said it was too expensive!" Yeojin is wailing in despair as she stands in the center of their half-assed circle (now more of a scramble to see Jungeun's present).

"It is." Haseul insists vehemently to Yeojin, who turns to look at her with a daggered glare.

Jungeun stares wordlessly at the new phone glinting back at her. It's the latest model of its kind that was released just the week before, and it had been all the rave that everyone had been talking about. She'd just brushed it off as another thing that she'd never be able to buy (not that she needed a new phone, her half-dying, screen-cracked one was still working fine).

Yet here it sat. In her lap.

With blue wrapping paper torn to reveal the package.

"What the hell, Unnie?" Yerim desperately looks to the one responsible for all of this chaos. "Why can't you be my sugar mommy?"

Jinsoul - dark hair tucked carelessly behind her ears and glasses perched on her nose to make her smug brown eyes a little bigger - only waggles her eyebrows at their younger shared roommate. "I'm not a millionaire, Yerim, I can't be a sugar mommy for two pretty girls."

At that, Jungeun squints her eyes at the older girl. "Jinsoul, you are not my sugar mommy."

"Uh! Your new three million won phone begs to differ!" Jiwoo is rampant, now scrambling accross Sooyoung's lap to reach and snatch said phone out from her hands.

"And how come Lip-unnie doesn't call you 'unnie'?" Yerim points out, looking even more frustrated with the situation.

All of the younger girls pipe up, pitching in their complaints at the unfair favoritism (there is none, Jungeun swears quietly to herself, even though the only person who hears is Sooyoung and even she looks at her with disbelieving raised eyebrows) while Jinsoul stands admists their chaos, mischeviously grinning to herself.

Jungeun's cheeks are slightly warm (though they always are whenever she recieves a gift from the other girl, no matter how many times she's been given expensive products she could never buy on her own) and she hits the back of Hyunjin's head when she tries running away with the phone as she plucks it from Jiwoo's unsuspecting hands. When she meets Jinsoul's eyes over Chaewon's head, she expects those obnoxious winks the older girl always gives her.

She finds that the soft smile (fondness and glint in brown eyes) makes her more speechless than any random wink.

Jungeun just sticks her tongue out at her in return.