"that's why you'll always be a ." a knock on her head nearly gives her a concussion.

"sunhee!"

"what? you know it's true."

"i just forgot." seungwan rubs the sore spot on her head, side-eyeing her sister.

"it does not give you permission to hit her." their mom sternly says, waving her chopsticks around in the middle of her meal.

"just this once though." their dad winks behind her, getting an elbow to the guts. he moves around the mother, grabbing the plate off the table and carrying it over to the dishwasher.

"maybe they'll still let me join?" seungwan says, eyes twinkling with hope. "it's their fault my application got lost not mine."

"yes, but you were supposed to call in and ask if everything is okay with your application." sunhee says in a matter-of-fact voice.

"maybe now instead of music you'll get some time to date." their dad says, shimmying his shoulders in a suggestive manner.

"yes, maybe it's a blessing in disguise!" mom sits up, as if suddenly remembering the topic of conversation as if they haven't been talking about it at every breakfast table.

seungwan has no social life. or that's what her family and two friends that she has told her. She's been in love with music ever since she could hear it.

literally.

she would dance and spin around in her mommy's tummy whenever they would play music or sing. she would kick at any given time a drum-heavy song would play, she would move around whenever they watched a concert on tv. son seungwan has a passion for music like no other person in the world. that's what makes so difficult for her to talk to human beings. she has two other friends only because they are fans of a k-pop group that releases fairly decent (in seungwan's eyes, or well, ears) music with every album. she's not exactly into them like the other two are but she gets along with them when they rate the songs on the album. she's fairly certain they only let her stay in the friend group because she agrees with their rankings. she fears the day that she finds a song she likes that they don't.

with two friends and music, seungwan has never dated in her 19 years of life. it's been difficult in hearing all the dating lives of people around her, all the gossip they have, and some topics that seems like inside jokes between all the people but her.

don't get her wrong, she's okay with not dating, it's just that all the people around her are not. they demand she finds someone and soon as to not waste her youth away with serious things and have fun instead.

like it's that easy.

she would rather watch k-drama or read romance graphic novels.

"a boy around this house would be nice, right?" their mother says.

"or a girl, anyone is fine." dad interrupts.

"i'm literally having my boyfriend pick me up in five minutes." sunhee says, frown on her face.

"oh, you know what we mean." mom waves her off.

her family was surprised to hear that she's biual when she came out last year since she didn't date anyone at all but they came around. they all try to be inclusive as much as possible and while they sometimes forget, it's the thought that counts.

seungwan can't imagine them being not accepting, it would break her heart because she's such a family person. she needs her family around at all times, that's the reason she hasn't moved out for college even though she could have easily done that. that's why sunhee is around too. they all just love each other too much to let distance interrupt their time together.

"i'll keep looking." seungwan smiles, whatever her family wants they'll get it.

"that's our little cub!" dad grins with a wink. "i'm sure you'll get someone in no time, you have my looks after all!"

"dad!"

"it's true!"

seungwan laughs as she takes her bag, ready to start a college year once again.

her college is one of the best ones in the country, she was lucky she got into it and she worked hard to do so. for one - there are trees everywhere, seungwan is a big fan of nature, learning surrounded by it is a dream come true. second, the campus is the biggest one in the country, there are buildings and secret places everywhere. she can find where to study alone any time of the day. thirdly, she loved the music department, which probably should be the number one thing on this list. she pulled a lot of all-nighters to have this opportunity, she's proud to walk around the campus and see all the faces of people just as hard-working and smart as her.

"have you seen joohyun sunbae?"

well maybe not everyone..

"hard to miss that pink hair."

"the nerve walking around like that after rejecting myungsoo, what a cruel ."

"i heard she slapped him across the face."

"no way! i heard the same thing."

the thing is as beautiful as it is, her campus has a gossiping problem. it seems like everyone participates in it, even going as far as creating fake events just to be a most popular person. seungwan was never a fan of it and never believed a thing they say. especially since she has heard things that contradict themselves on daily basis.

seungwan eyes the two freshmen giggling as they walked past her and sighs. it's really none of their business what the upperclassmen do with their personal life. she doesn't why the school isn't stricter on its policy about false rumors. this college is really out of control about it.

one person seems to catch the bad end of it most of the time. you can't spend a day here without hearing at least her name - bae joohyun. she's soon-to-be their student council president, seungwan is sure, but the things people say about her is just awful.

one day she walked onto the campus with pink hair and a helix piercing, everyone hurried to make up a story or find out what happened. some said she got arrested, some - that she was forced to do it. seungwan just thought she wanted to change her appearance and not think about what people thought of her. that's what she'd do; but that's just her.

"there she is!" long pair of arms engulf her easily from behind, she lets out a squeak. "cutie!"

"you're embarrassing," yerim says standing beside them with stone-cold expression.

"you're just jealous." sooyoung sticks out her tongue.

"of what? being dorky at your big age?"

"excuse me-"

"alright!" seungwan actually claps to break them apart. "i'm on a mission today."

"mission?" yerim raises her eyebrows, immediately leaning in closer.

"i misplaced my application."

"to music club? are you crazy?!" sooyoung pulls away, now standing by yerim. "your chance at being successful in the music industry is to network and learn there!"

"don't you think i know that?" seungwan sighs, "that's why i need to know where the student council is."

"oh yeah, they re-located since the renovation." sooyoung hums.

"it's-" yerim tells her where to go.

seungwan walks a narrow path beneath the trees behind the school's main building. the path is laid out with the rocks so it's not that difficult to know where to go. it's so quiet that seungwan can hear just birds chirping and the crunch of leaves beneath her feet. she arrives at the old calligraphy classroom, which is just a tiny house in disguise, and gently knocks on the door.

there's no answer.

she risks sliding the doors open, just a little. peeking inside she sees only one person inside sitting by the table in the middle of the room with their head resting on their hands. 

it's joohyun sleeping in the student council room seungwan realizes as she opens the doors even wider. she steps inside. to her surprise, joohyun doesn't stir, her already furrowed eyebrows only furrow deeper. should she wake her? should she come back another time? seungwan hesitates by the entrance. she doesn't have time to wait, she needs her application as soon as she can get it so she can still join the music club. she clears .

joohyun opens her eyes.

they look at each other like they are learning a new world. it's no secret that joohyun is beautiful. even with this light when joohyun's hair looks almost purple, the piercing in her ear shines. in the crowd of thousands, everyone would stare at her and not because of everything that she changed about herself. the whole aura of the person is in full and nothing is hidden - she herself shines. seungwan likes that about her, the unapologetic and honest. people are like that are rare but when they are open like it, it's more beautiful than their appearance.

"can you help me?" seungwan asks, offering - what she hopes is - a friendly smile.

joohyun sits up. she doesn't even look embarrassed that seungwan caught her sleeping. how does one manage to look so composed? seungwan could never. 

"what do you need help with?" she asks with an airy tone.

seungwan feels welcomed, so she reaches behind her and slides the door closed.

"there's an application that was lost." seungwan says. "i filled it out last year but now they say they don't have it. i can't join the club i want."

"have you tried filling it out again?" joohyun asks, standing up and gathering her things. seungwan looks at her movement with confusion.

"um, they won't let me. they say all applications must be turned in before the start of the school year."

"what club is this again?"

"music club."

joohyun's feet stutter as she walks towards the door where seungwan waits.

"you mean the most popular club in our college?"

"yep, that one." seungwan