berkeley bums; sehun/amber
college roommates!au; sehun/henry/kris and amber's just kind of always there.
slice of life-ish?, romance and just general stupidity.
6,869w, pg-13
so there isn't a whole lot of plot-driving forces and this is kind of just a lot of vignettes? i dont really know what this is, but i had a lot of fun writing it.
To say Sehun was nervous would be the understatement of the year. He felt like throwing up. His just-barely-fluent English got him through check-in and his dorm key, but he was self-conscious of his accent the entire time. He spent his last two years of high school in the states, but he still felt like he stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the California natives. Getting into Berkeley was his biggest dream, but his excitement was currently overshadowed by extreme anxiety. Would his roommates hate him? Could he keep up with classes? Is it okay that he’s a complete nerd who eats too much instant ramen?
He finally reached his dorm room and noticed that the door was already open and stuff strewn across the floor. There was music blasting from some impressively large speakers and guy with a Berkeley sweatshirt was dancing around. Sehun walked into the room, moving stuff with his feet to make room for his suitcase and cleared his throat.
“Oh hey!” The dancer looked up and waved. “You must be Sehun.”
“Yeah.” He pushed up his glasses and shrugged his shoulder like he wasn’t exactly sure of that fact.
“I’m Henry, one of your roommates,” he turned down the music and shook Sehun’s hand.
He pointed to the single bunk above the desk, “That one’s mine and Kris, our third roommate, claimed that one.” He was referring to the bottom bunk on the other set.
“I wanted top bunk anyway,” responded Sehun honestly.
“Yeah and Kris said something about being tall and he needed the bottom bunk because of it. The kid’s a giant.”
Sehun walked over to the last wardrobe and began to unpack his belongings while listening to Henry blabber.
“Sehun… What is that Korean?”
“Yeah I’m from Seoul, but I spent my last two years of high school in the US.”
“That’s cool, I’m from Canada but I’m Chinese. Apparently Kris is from Canada too. Guess we’re the international room then.”
“I guess so.” He kind of likes Henry already. He appreciates that Henry does most of the talking and doesn’t seem to get upset at his short answers.
Once Sehun is mostly situated, he asks loudly over Henry’s music that he’s turned up again (“I have to get the best out of them before the RAs start telling me to turn it down all the time.”) “What’s your major?”
“Music, with a focus on instrumental.” That would explain the speakers. “I specialize in violin, but I’d like to do more composing.”
“Oh that’s cool.” Sehun was not musically talented in the slightest.
“What about you?”
“Computer engineering,” he had always liked working with technology and playing video games so it seemed like a natural choice.
“Great! You can help me cause I’m so technologically illiterate. Took me a month to find the copy and paste shortcut.” Sehun sniggers and thinks that he might really like this.
Sehun has his desktop set up by the time the third roommate, Kris, shows up. Henry wasn’t kidding about him being a giant. He’s only in the room for a few minutes and he barely talks after introducing himself. He leaves after changing his outfit and Henry comments from where he’s sitting at his desk, “Apparently he has a lot of high school friends here, too.”
“That must be nice. Do you know anyone here already?”
“Not many, but one old friend of mine from summer camp is here. We kept in touch over the years but I haven’t seen them in person yet.”
“You should have him hang out with us sometime,” he feels close with Henry already and comfortable even though he had a really hard time making friends in school being the foreign student.
“It’s a her, but yeah I’m sure she’d get along with you great.”
It’s only the second day of orientation when Sehun meets Henry’s friend. Her name is Amber and he finds her bickering with Henry really entertaining.
“If you ever need it, I can give you a lot of dirt on Henry. Actually, even if you don’t need it I’ll still give it to you. And if you want to prank him I’ll gladly help out,” she says this when Henry steps out for a little bit to go to the bathroom. Sehun laughs and accepts her offer for the future.
“Are you a CPE?” He’s caught off guard by her question; not many people know about computer engineering let alone its acronym. He nods. “Oh cool, I’m a Mechanical. We can laugh at Henry for being a music major together.”
He doesn’t want to make an enemy of his roommate so early on in the year, but he finds himself agreeing with Amber anyway.
By the second week of school Amber and Henry have become fully reacquainted appearing as if they’ve been best friends they’re entire lives not separated since they were 12 years old.
She spends a lot of time in their room (because her roommates already think she’s weird) and Sehun thinks he should be bothered by it, but he really isn’t.
Sehun grabs dinner and brings it back with him to eat at his desk most of the time, but one night he’s grabbing his jacket to make the walk to the dining hall when Amber gets up from where she was watching some tv show with Henry and announces that they should all eat dinner together. He’s not really sure how, but he ends up walking with them- Amber in between the two of them linking their arms. Sehun supposes this is the moment he’s been included in their weird friendship.
“Is your third roommate, like never here?” Amber asks one day while she’s lying on the floor of their room. Henry’s mindlessly playing something on his guitar and Sehun is trying to get work done but he knows he’s just pretending to be productive.
“Maybe it’s because you’re always here. He’s probably put off by it.” Henry does this a lot, making fun of her. Sehun doesn’t know why she puts up with it.
“No, it’s probably because he has to live with you.” Oh, yeah. That’s why.
Kris actually stays in the room for a whole day one Saturday. Although Sehun is close with Henry, he still feels like he has to walk on eggshells around their other roommate. He does what he can to stay out of his way, which is easy from his single desk in the corner of the room. Amber, however, barges in like she normally does and begins talking about how she told off some guy in one of her classes.
“Oh, hey you must be Kris. I’m Amber- Henry’s friend,” she interrupts herself when she notices the lanky figure sitting on his bed. She then goes through the usual hometown, major, likes, hobbies with him. This is the most Sehun has ever heard Kris talk.
He begins to hang out with them more on the weekends now.
It’s 3 am and way too late but it’s the week of midterms and suddenly they’re regretting playing video games all week and neglecting their studies. Kris is muttering some incoherent sentences to practice the differences in grammar and Sehun is just glad that he is not a linguist major. Amber is about 30 seconds from falling asleep and her head is currently about to fall. Henry is frantically trying to memorize pieces and years, cursing himself for not paying attention in his music history class. Sehun shifts himself slightly when he sees Amber’s head bob and does his best to do calculus problems with the weight of her head on his right shoulder.
They manage to at least pass all of their midterms, but they all vow to never procrastinate again. After one more game of Mario Kart-they promise.
Sehun walks into the common room on their floor to use the microwave for his ramen and he notices the group of girls sitting on the chairs. They’re whispering and giggling and he feels really self-conscious and swears the seconds on this microwave are triple the length of normal seconds. He’s definitely sure they’re laughing at him and he’s this close to abandoning his noodles to run back to the safety of his room, when Amber walks in and waves at him. The giggling stops. He thinks he sees the girls glare as he walks to his room with Amber, but he doesn’t understand why.
“Sehun, I think you’re the most popular guy in the dorm.” They’re all eating cookie dough together because college when Amber suddenly blurts this. Sehun scrunches his nose sending his glasses up on his face and he’s genuinely confused.
“What are you talking about?”
“Dude, all the girls wanna hop on you,” chimes in Kris who’s leaning against his bed with his legs sprawled out. Sehun kicks one of his legs that have encroached into his space.
“I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.”
It’s Henry’s turn to chime in, “I’m pretty sure you’re on the bathroom wall somewhere. Though they’ve nicknamed you the cute Korean ‘cause they don’t know how to pronounce your name.”
He doesn’t know how to respond because he’s convinced they’re all wrong.
“It’s a pretty fitting nickname,” says Amber as she reaches for another piece of cookie dough and then Sehun chokes on his spit.
Kris and Sehun are already lying in bed when Henry walks in from brushing his teeth and climbs up into his own bed.
“Henry… Why didn’t you turn off the light?” Asks Kris and Henry groans loudly.
“It’s too much work to climb back down.” He pauses slightly before, “Sehun….” he drags out the ‘n’ like how he always does when he wants to rope him into doing things for him.
“What?” he responds curtly even though he knows where this is going.
“Pleaseeeee. Do your hyung a favor. I’m too old for this.”
“I wish I never taught you that term.” Sehun grumbles “Kris why don’t you do it? You’re closer to the floor anyway.”
“I’m sleeping.”
Sehun has to resist the urge to go down there and punch his roommate. “I’m sure your freakishly long arms could reach it from there.” He feels Kris kick him from underneath (with his freakishly long legs). He knows his fate-he will never win this argument. He’s about to get up off his bed when he remembers the umbrella on his desk cabinet from the morning rain. He laughs as he grabs it and leans out of the corner of his bed (practically falling off) and reaches out to the light switch with the umbrella.
“That’s not going to work you idiot,” says Henry. But then the room is pitch black.
“SUCK IT.” Shouts Sehun.
“Amber’s corrupted you, maknae.”
“I told you not to call me that, Henry.”
AMBER: Save me Sehun (╥_╥)
SEHUN: What do you mean?
AMBER: I’m dying in the library
AMBER: RIP Amber. I think I’m actually dead
SEHUN: You’re being melodramatic. Leave that for Henry.
AMBER: I’m not exaggerating!!
AMBER: Sehun.
AMBER: Answer me.
AMBER: Helloooo?
AMBER: Are you alive?
Sehun shows up at the library even though it’s nearing 3am. He grabbed his backpack on the way out as an afterthought, but he doesn’t really plan on doing any actual work. He sets down a Starbucks cup in front of the hooded figure with drafting paper sprawled across the table.
She perks up, “Is this for me?”
“No, it’s for someone else. Of course.”
“You’re sassy at 3am.”
“It’s developed from me having to deal with Kris.”
She nods in understanding; “Oh you put peppermint in this! I love peppermint.”
“I know,” almost slips out, but he just shrugs his shoulders instead.
Amber gets back to her work with a sigh and Sehun watches her diligently correct her drawings as he pulls out random textbooks from his bag.
About five minutes pass before she gets frustrated and throws down her pencil, “I’m never going to finish.”
“Hey Amber,” he waits for her to look at him. “To write with a broken pencil is pointless.”
She pauses for a second before beginning to laugh uncontrollably. People around her are beginning to stare, but she doesn’t stop. Soon there are tears running down her face and she’s struggling to breathe. Sehun’s suddenly embarrassed.
“It’s really not that funny, Am.”
“Yes-,” laugh “it is.” He’s laughing at her laughing now. He continues to tell her stupid English puns (because he’s actually beginning to understand them. Sometimes Henry has to explain them to him, but they’re still funny) and he’s letting down his pride for this but it’s making her happy and that’s all that really matters, he supposes.
Their door is open, but the four friends are completely engrossed with whatever video game they’re obsessed with this week. Three girls pop their heads in-they’re sorority girls, they have that distinct look-and interrupt them by going, “Hey!”
Henry’s the first to respond, “Hey?”
“What are you guys doing tonight?” Asks the blonde one in the middle. It’s Friday night and basically that means everyone’s currently getting ready to party off their stressful week.
“Um, probably more of this.” He motions towards the game on their screen and junk food surrounding them.
“Oh, well our sorority,” here it goes “is having a party tonight and we’d love for you to come.” This invitation is extended to their group but it’s clear they’re all looking at Sehun.
“I think you’d have a lot of fun Sehun,” Amber has to stifle a laugh because she can’t even imagine Sehun at a party. He’d probably combust from the sheer embarrassment and social anxiety. Plus, the girl mispronounced his name.
Sehun blinks and then suddenly realizes she’s talking to him, “Oh um. Thanks for the invite, but probably not this time.”
The girls do their best to shrug it off and the blonde walks in through the door, “Let me give you my number so if you change your mind I can give you the address.”
“Sure…” He hands her his cell phone to be nice, but he plans on deleting the contact as soon as she walks away.
After the girls leave, the others immediately begin to tease him.
“Dude, you don’t even have to try and they’re all over you,” says Kris shaking his head, clearly jealous.
“Serious yellow fever,” mutters Amber.
“If only they knew how loudly you type when you get angry and it’s the middle of the night or how you sometimes forget to throw your dirty socks in the laundry basket,” complains Henry.
It’s ten o’clock and they’re already bored with their plans of playing video games for the rest of the night and while they wouldn’t be caught dead at that girl’s sorority party, a party sounds kind of nice. Henry’s all for it and begins changing his outfit immediately. He tries to get Kris to agree to be his wingman and Amber’s trying to convince Sehun from staying behind.
“I’ll need someone to keep me company while those two make fools of themselves,” she’s referring to Henry and Kris who are currently arguing over whether or not Henry looks stupid with a leather jacket.
“And if you absolutely hate it, I promise we’ll leave.” He can’t really say no.
The marching band (Henry knows people from his classes) party is already in full swing by the time they reach. The air is hot and thick with the perfume of liquor. The music is loud and pulsing; there’s a hoard of bodies together in the living room that has been converted into a temporary dance floor. Sehun is completely out of his comfort zone. He’s practically in a different country. Henry and Kris disappear for a few seconds before they reappear each holding two shots each.
“Let’s start this party!” Kris is way too excited in Sehun’s opinion. And somehow he gets a cup shoved in his hand.
“Come one Sehun, at least one.” Henry nudges him. Amber nods as well. He drank in Korea during the summer before he came back to California; he figures it can’t be much different.
They’re only four shots in when Sehun insists on going over to the dance floor because he ‘loves this song’. Amber’s actually surprised by his dancing skills, she would’ve guessed that he’d be awkward and have no control over his limbs. But he moves smoothly and the girls are immediately attracted to him and they begin to swarm like bees after you’ve eaten popsicles on a hot day. She guesses she’s not the only one that finds his glasses and beanie and ironic t-shirt attractive.
Sehun ends up slumped over Amber, which doesn’t really work since she’s inches shorter than him.
“You’rereallycool,” he slurs and while she feels bad for the kid she still wants to use his current state to her advantage.
“How so?”
“Likeyou’renot,” he gets distracted by something else before he refocuses “like other girls yaknow?”
“Is that what you like best about me Sehunnie?” Normally he’d cringe at her nickname for him, but he’s clearly not able to protest right now.
“No,” he laughs almost sarcastically. She’s just about to ask him what his favorite thing about her is then, when he straightens up suddenly, “Let’s get some fresh air.” And she’s being pulled outside.
The crisp air seems to sober him up a bit and his shell is back around him, secure and impenetrable. Kris stumbles out of the house a few moments later, “Am, can you help me with Henry?”
Their musician friend pushes past Kris and has clearly had a little too much. “Amber!” He shouts and she’s about this close to strangling Kris for letting him get like this.
“Sehun,” she calls him curtly to get his attention “Help me get him.”
It takes him a few seconds longer than normal to process what’s happening but then he’s grabbing one of Henry’s arms to pull over his shoulders and walk him back to the dorms.
“Let’s go to the music building!” He sways a little and Sehun pulls him back up. “I have a great idea for an opera right now!”
“Shut up,” the three of them say simultaneously.
They manage to get back to their dorm room without any major issues but Henry’s still convinced now’s the perfect time to go compose an opera and tries to leave the room.
“Can’t you just sit on him or something?” says Amber exasperatedly. “I am not drunk enough for tonight to even be worth it,” she mutters and Sehun is desperately trying to get Henry to just stay on the floor. When he attempts to make a run for it the fifth time, Sehun takes Amber’s advice and sits on him.
Amber looks at him incredulously and he responds, “What? It’s what you told me to do.”
Soon enough Henry is complaining. “Sehun get off of meeee! You’re so heavy. What have you been eating?”
“Henry if you don’t shut up, I’m going to beat your high score in mario kart.”
He shuts up. For a few minutes.
“Maknae!” He’s yelling again, “why don’t you go sit on Amber or something? I’m sure she’d enjoy it a lot more than me.” Sehun is pretty sure he looks like he’s gotten a sunburn right now and he’s doing everything to avoid eye contact with Amber because how embarrassing.
“Or let her sit in your lap; I don’t care as long as it’s not on top of me! This hurts Sehun!” He’s really going to kill Henry tomorrow. Maybe even tonight. Henry is laughing with his cheek squished against the carpet and Sehun is tempted to smash his face further into the gross dorm floor.
Amber’s hand is on his shoulder signaling him to get up when she grabs one of Henry’s arms. Sehun grabs his other and sends her a questioning look. She has an evil smirk on her face and moves towards Kris’ bed where Kris is already passed out.
“They can try to figure out why they’re in the same bed tomorrow morning. It’ll be great.”
“That’s not even going to begin to make up for what they did tonight.”
They’ve finally shoved Henry onto the bed and he’s asleep within seconds.
Sehun and Amber collapse on the floor, leaning against the bed with their two idiotic friends and he sighs, “Can we never go to a party again? Ever.”
“You seemed to have fun,” chuckles Amber.
He groans, “Please don’t remind me. I’m so mortified.”
“Don’t be. You’re a good dancer,” she smirks and he hides his face in his arm. “The girls seemed to like you too. Oh Sehun- lady slayer.”
“I’m really not and I know it okay? Why does everyone keep making a joke out of it? I get it okay?” He’s slightly angry and Amber’s never seen him like this before.
“Sehun,” she touches his arm, “what are you talking about?”
He pulls off his beanie and readjusts it (she tries to resist the urge to fix his messy hair) “I’m the awkward, antisocial nerd and I know no girl would ever really like me or have a crush on me. And I get that it’s easy or funny to make fun of me by saying all the girls like me when it’s obviously not true but it’s getting old.”
Amber is laughing her uncontrollable, sidesplitting, tears-forming laugh. “You really are that blind, Sehunnie?” He gives her a confused look and she clarifies. “We’re not making fun of you because no girls would like you, but because so many of them do but you’re so freaking oblivious that you can’t tell. You’re attractive, tall, and smart and some girls really like nerds. You’re a catch, you just don’t know it.”
He’s silent for at least a minute. “Wait… really?”
“Yeah,” Amber looks down and seems a little quiet, “Like Kris said, you wouldn’t even have to try very hard and you could get a date with any girl in this dorm.”
“Any girl?” He’s staring at her, but she won’t make eye contact with him.
“Yup,” she emphasizes the ‘p’ at the ending.
“Will you help me?”
She wraps her arms around herself and rests on her knees, “Of course.”
The next week Amber insists on giving Sehun a makeover.
“You asked for my help, and this is me giving it to you.” She’s standing in their dorm room holding hair gel, sneakers and a duffle bag. Sehun is scared to say the least.
“I was just joking, Amber come on.” She throws the stuff on the ground and says, “Too late. Henry, Kris-hold him down for me.”
She starts off with his clothes.
“You’ve got a good base for a wardrobe and all the essentials, you just… don’t know how to pair them very well.” Says Kris, possibly the most fashion conscious of them all, looking through his closet. He begins to pick out t-shirts, flannels, jeans and jackets and holds them up in pairs in front of Sehun. Finally deciding on a button up shirt, black jeans, a pair of his favorite sneakers and a snapback (“I get the whole beanie thing, but let’s make you at least look like you’re trying.”). He is immediately shoved into a chair where Amber tackles his hair. She’s running a comb through his hair and working in gel with her fingers. He’s never done anything more to his hair to get ready than maybe running his hands through it and he’s trying to focus on anything else but her hands in his hair. “Okay, perfect” she drops her hands and he’s mildly relieved that it’s over.
But his relief is short lived when she reappears holding his absolute most hated thing.
“No.” He says firmly, “I went along with the clothes, the hair, but not this. This is where I draw the line.”
“I don’t understand why you hate them so much.” Her hands are on her hips in her classic fighting stance and Sehun knows this is not going to be an easy fight.
“You can’t hide behind your glasses forever, you know.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my glasses!”
“They ruin the look!” Chimes in Kris, and he makes a note to smother him in his sleep later tonight.
Henry joins in and says calmly, “Just do it this one time. We went this far already.”
After a few minutes of staring at the three faces before him he finally groans and grabs the contacts case from Amber before storming off into the bathroom.
When he reemerges his face feels empty without his everyday black frames, his nose automatically scrunches to push them up on his face but it meets nothing but air. Nothing had made him feel as vulnerable as this (not losing his beanie, or his comfortable t-shirt or the new gel in his hair) because looking at himself without his glasses he feels like he’s looking at a stranger.
None of them are saying anything and it’s driving him nuts. Finally he breaks the silence with, “I told you glasses were better!”
This breaks their temporary muteness because suddenly their protesting and insisting that he’s wrong and they each have their reason.
“If the girls in our dorm were all over you before, they’re going to be fighting each other over you now.” Says Kris with jealousy heavy in his voice.
“You’re gonna need to be the model in front of the camera instead of behind it, now.” Henry is smiling like a proud mother.
“I was right,” is all Amber offers. Sehun isn’t sure if she’s referring to him hiding behind his glasses or that night when she said he could have any girl he wanted.
Over dinner they decide to spend the evening in the common lounge to start counting the reactions of the girls in their dorm.
A double take - 1 pt.
Pointing him out to a friend - 2 pts.
Giggling - 3 pts.
Outright staring - 5pts.
Approaching him - 10pts.
Shameless flirting - 30pts.
They each cast their bets on how many points he’ll gather in the next few hours and he just wishes he could wash his hair, put back on his glasses and wear his comfortable hoodie. In the end he has a grand total of 75 points (two girls had the guts to actually flirt with him despite his stiff and uncomfortable responses) and Henry wins the bet. Amber and Kris have to buy him ice cream and Sehun argues that he should get some too. “I had more faith in you!” shouts Kris who bet he would hit 150 points. “You should have flirted back more, goodness Sehun I’m not rewarding you with ice cream for your poor effort.” Kris buys him a klondike bar anyway.
The next few days he replicates the hairstyle Amber gave him and decides to give the contacts another chance. Kris enjoys picking out outfits so much for him that he kind of just lets it happen. He gets asked about his plans for meals and the weekend more than normal, but he keeps to his “sorry, I have stuff planned with friends already”.
“Dude! Brooke asked you out and you said no?! Why can’t we switch places? Why can’t that happen to me? Maybe if I can prove how much of a dork you really are to her she’ll turn to me.” Kris is on a slight rampage and Sehun just lets him run its course.
“She didn’t ask me out, exactly.”
“She asked you what you’re doing Friday night, did she not?”
“Well, I mean, yeah. But she could’ve just been making conversation.”
“That’s bullshit Sehun and you know it. You can’t even lie to save my feelings.” He flops down on his bed. “I’m never lending you my leather jacket ever again.”
Valentine’s day comes before anyone of them really noticed it approaching. It’s a holiday that Sehun normally shrugs off, maybe sending a nice note to his female relatives. But this year he wakes up boxes of chocolates and notes left outside of their dorm room (which he almost stepped on when he left for the bathroom). Henry and Kris are immediately jumping out of bed to sort through the gifts hoping to spot some with their names on it from secret admirers. They’re disappointed when Kris gets a cheap drugstore valentine from one of his high school acquaintances (she always politely bought for everyone in the class) and Henry is still trying to convince them that the card addressed to “the cutest one room 203” is for him. The rest is clearly for Sehun. As he collects them in his arms to move to his desk he contemplates the effectiveness of contacts and hair gel.
He collects a few more on the way to and from class; he awkwardly thanks the girls that hand them to him feeling burdened more than anything else. And by the time he’s made it back to his dorm after all his classes he just wants this day to be over more than anything else. He’s not really sure what do to with all of this and quickly, without thinking, he’s scooping them up into a bag and walking across to the girls’ wing and knocking on Amber’s door. One of her roommates answers, he thinks her name is Krystal but he can’t be sure (she might have a Korean name that he was introduced with, Sehun isn’t too good with these things). He asks for her to point out Amber’s desk and he leaves the bag with a short note on a post it.
“You like sweets more than I do, and your makeover should take all the credit anyway. -SEHUN”
Sehun is in a black and white film photography class to fulfill some general education credit and he likes it. He quickly understands the camera mechanisms-his technical background helping substantially-and follows the rule of thirds perfectly. Sehun’s assignments gain almost perfect points each time; his professor always comments, “Beautiful use of technique, but lacks emotion.” Sehun doesn’t understand how to add emotion to photos.
“Do you love someone, Sehun?”
“Um, yeah I guess. What does this have to do with photography?” He answers thinking of his mother and father and his dog back home.
“It has everything to do with photography.” His professor leans back in his chair. “Your subject, if you can find what you love about it, will leak into your photographs. It doesn’t matter if you’re taking a picture of a lamp post, an empty park bench, or a stranger walking down the street-fall in love what you see and it will show.”
Sehun is lying on his top bunk staring at the ceiling and trying to figure out how he’s going to do his final project for photography. Kris is currently talking to some girl from his Japanese class on the phone and he’s trying to make up pick up lines in Japanese and Sehun just wants to barf. Henry is working on a composing assignment with his guitar, he keeps muttering things and scribbling things down. Amber is sitting on the floor of their room in between the two bunk beds and has her textbooks spread around her. Her face is scrunched up and there’s a pencil behind her ear as she tries to understand physics. It’s late in the afternoon and the setting sun is streaming into their room. The blinds create a horizontal pattern on their carpet and across everyone’s bodies. It’s Sehun’s favorite part of the day that creates the nicest light in their room and he flips on his stomach to quickly snap a photo of it from above.
It’s a Saturday morning (okay, it’s closer to afternoon but it technically still counts) and they’ve just gotten up from a late night of movie watching. They decide to put off their homework more-because that’s what Sunday’s for- and go skateboarding instead. Amber’s the only one that actually knows how to skate out of all of them, but she insists she’s a great teacher. Kris is too lanky, Henry is too impatient and Sehun is just too afraid of getting hurt. Amber, fed up with her poor students (“You make me look bad as a teacher!”), skates around them and does tricks to somehow redeem herself. The rest of them lean back on their hands and watch her from the pavement. Playing around with his camera settings, he thinks he’s gotten a couple good ones of her mid-air.
Amber’s roommates somehow convince her to go out to dinner with them as an almost end of year celebration (celebrating not killing each other, probably). She asks to get ready in the guys’ room because Krystal hogs the bathroom and Yejin puts on too much perfume before going out. The bathroom door is slightly open after she changes her clothes and she’s working on putting on some minimal makeup. He thinks the doorway and her reflection frame her nicely; the bathroom lighting highlights her face so he quickly goes to find his camera.
Henry’s class has a recital for their final project and the rest of them go to watch and support their friend (despite being kept up endless nights hearing him practice it over and over). They cheer and clap the loudest, slightly toeing the line of enthusiastic and obnoxious. Kris and Sehun scream like fangirls and pretend to fawn over him. Together the go out to eat late night waffles and he wants to keep this memory forever, taking a photo without even realizing.
By the time his roll his finished he can’t even remember when he took all these photos and he hasn’t thought about his project at all since it was assigned. It’s due this week and as he goes into the lab to develop his photos he just hopes that there’s something he can use for it. Sehun is mindlessly going through his routine for developing and he’s listening to a playlist Henry made (mostly indie that he knows Sehun likes) with some additions from Kris (popular songs because he says Sehun needs to be educated on pop culture). He gets startled when someone enters the darkroom and almost drops his print into the wrong chemical bath.
He takes out an earbud, “Professor, you scared me! What are you doing here?”
His teacher laughs and just responds, “I was just around. Is this for your final?”
Sehun nods, “Well I’m hoping.” He steps up next to the row of prints hanging up on a line and examines them. Sehun suddenly grows self-conscious; he barely looked at them while he developed and simply hung them up to dry. The Professor is silent for a while and Sehun’s music awkwardly fills the air quietly.
“This is exactly what I was talking about,” he turns towards his student and he’s beaming with pride.
“What do you mean?”
“I see you were right about being in love.” He smirks slightly, “You fell in love with what you saw.”
Sehun turns towards his photographs, confused. He’s looking at all of them trying to figure out what he’s talking about when it finally clicks. There’s something in common with all of these photos. It really looks like a proper series: each photo saying something different but all telling the same story.
“Now you just need your write up. I’m really proud of you, Sehun.” He clasps Sehun’s shoulder before leaving quickly.
Finals week finally ends and Sehun can’t believe his freshman year is over just like that. It seems so anticlimactic. Weeks of grueling studying to prove what he’s learned in just 3 hours and it’s all over. Room 203 is packing up all of their belongings together; being international students they’ll all share a storage unit in the neighborhood while they go back to their respective hometowns for summer. They’re all living in an apartment together next year because even though they hate each other, they hate everyone else more.
Sehun’s mostly packed into stacks of clear bins, neatly organized and labeled unlike Kris’ rows of suitcases that are stuffed to the brim (mostly with clothes, Sehun supposes) and Henry’s battered cardboard boxes (that he got for free somewhere) duct taped and simply labeled “H.L.” There are a few small things left scattered about their room, papers and random keepsakes they can’t quite justify packing away but can’t bring themselves to throw out. Henry plays a special mix while they clean up and get their room ready for inspection when Amber knocks on the open door frame. She seems apprehensive and Sehun can’t figure out why, until she asks to talk to him.
He almost drops the vacuum, “Um, yeah sure” and follows her into the hallway. They stand facing each other and people walk past them holding boxes and lugging suitcases. He steps closer to her as a guy carrying his tv makes it through the hallway. Sehun watches as she pulls something out from her back pocket.
“So someone slid this under my door this morning,” she unrolls the object and he almost wants to die when he realizes what it is.
“The girl in my viewfinder by Oh Sehun. Photography 101 Final Project.” The black words stare up back at him and he feels dizzy.
“Who gave you that?” he asks slightly accusingly.
“How am I supposed to know? I was just packing up and then my roommate hands this to me.” She matches his accusing tone, but then pauses and asks softly. “Do you really mean it?”
“Mean what?” he chokes out and he know he can’t get away with this ignorant ploy much longer.
She’s flipping through the pages slightly hesitating on the photo of her in the bathroom (his cheeks burn and he hopes she doesn’t think he’s creepy). Finally she stops on the written reflection.
“‘Amber was one of the first friends I made at Berkeley after my own roommate. She stormed in and never left. I couldn’t get rid of her even if I wanted to, but surprisingly I didn’t. She made me feel comfortable despite being so far from home and far from my culture. She made me fit into this group with my roommates that I might have gone all year not speaking to.
I had no idea what to do for this project, but found myself taking photos without the project even in mind. I just documented the things I wanted to remember for the rest of my life from this first year. Professor Johnson once told me, “Fall in love with what you see, and it will show.” Looking at these photographs from my last roll of film here I realized some common thread among them all.
I fell in love with the girl in my viewfinder.
And that was more impactful on my work than anything else I learned this semester. Not aperture, shutter speed or ISO. While these aspects help convey a message, it’s the message that’s more important for a photograph, and Amber gave me a message.’” She finishes reading his words back to him and looks up at him. He looks away quickly, not able to hold her gaze.
“That,” she says pointedly. “Did you mean that.”
“Yes,” he’s readjusting his beanie (Kris keeps insisting he wear snapbacks but Sehun prefers the comfort, so he wears nicer shirts and contacts to keep him happy instead). “Every word.”
She nods and begins looking at each photo again. He can’t stand the silence between them so he just starts talking.
“I mean you were the first one to really talk to me you know? Like Henry talked to me but I’m his roommate and it’d just be hella awkward if you don’t talk to your roommate. Plus he just kind of talks to anyone who will listen and I’m not gonna ignore him or tell him to shut up. But you’re really cool and not like any other girls here, you actually know how to do calculus unlike Kris with his stupid languages and grammar. You’re into video games and skateboarding and just really chill. How could I not fall in love you with you? It’d be weirder if I didn’t, actually. You’re the only one that actually looked at me-”
He’s interrupted by Amber kissing him quickly. “Oh my god Sehun, shut up.”
Sehun’s cheeks are absolutely scarlet, but he leans down towards her in a weird burst of confidence. His arms wrap around her waist and she reaches up for his hair when they hear laughing and high fives. He quickly pulls away and faces his roommates. Just when he thought he managed to go all year without murdering them.
“Pay up, Henry. You said it’d take being apart from summer but I bet by the end of the year. The year isn’t over yet!!”
“Amber couldn’t you have waited until after summer?? You know Sehun would’ve never made the first move!”
“Hey!” protests the red-faced engineer.
“You know it’s true,” says Amber laughingly.
“You’re still not getting out of paying me 50 bucks, Henry.”
slice of life-ish?, romance and just general stupidity.
6,869w, pg-13
so there isn't a whole lot of plot-driving forces and this is kind of just a lot of vignettes? i dont really know what this is, but i had a lot of fun writing it.
To say Sehun was nervous would be the understatement of the year. He felt like throwing up. His just-barely-fluent English got him through check-in and his dorm key, but he was self-conscious of his accent the entire time. He spent his last two years of high school in the states, but he still felt like he stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the California natives. Getting into Berkeley was his biggest dream, but his excitement was currently overshadowed by extreme anxiety. Would his roommates hate him? Could he keep up with classes? Is it okay that he’s a complete nerd who eats too much instant ramen?
He finally reached his dorm room and noticed that the door was already open and stuff strewn across the floor. There was music blasting from some impressively large speakers and guy with a Berkeley sweatshirt was dancing around. Sehun walked into the room, moving stuff with his feet to make room for his suitcase and cleared his throat.
“Oh hey!” The dancer looked up and waved. “You must be Sehun.”
“Yeah.” He pushed up his glasses and shrugged his shoulder like he wasn’t exactly sure of that fact.
“I’m Henry, one of your roommates,” he turned down the music and shook Sehun’s hand.
He pointed to the single bunk above the desk, “That one’s mine and Kris, our third roommate, claimed that one.” He was referring to the bottom bunk on the other set.
“I wanted top bunk anyway,” responded Sehun honestly.
“Yeah and Kris said something about being tall and he needed the bottom bunk because of it. The kid’s a giant.”
Sehun walked over to the last wardrobe and began to unpack his belongings while listening to Henry blabber.
“Sehun… What is that Korean?”
“Yeah I’m from Seoul, but I spent my last two years of high school in the US.”
“That’s cool, I’m from Canada but I’m Chinese. Apparently Kris is from Canada too. Guess we’re the international room then.”
“I guess so.” He kind of likes Henry already. He appreciates that Henry does most of the talking and doesn’t seem to get upset at his short answers.
Once Sehun is mostly situated, he asks loudly over Henry’s music that he’s turned up again (“I have to get the best out of them before the RAs start telling me to turn it down all the time.”) “What’s your major?”
“Music, with a focus on instrumental.” That would explain the speakers. “I specialize in violin, but I’d like to do more composing.”
“Oh that’s cool.” Sehun was not musically talented in the slightest.
“What about you?”
“Computer engineering,” he had always liked working with technology and playing video games so it seemed like a natural choice.
“Great! You can help me cause I’m so technologically illiterate. Took me a month to find the copy and paste shortcut.” Sehun sniggers and thinks that he might really like this.
Sehun has his desktop set up by the time the third roommate, Kris, shows up. Henry wasn’t kidding about him being a giant. He’s only in the room for a few minutes and he barely talks after introducing himself. He leaves after changing his outfit and Henry comments from where he’s sitting at his desk, “Apparently he has a lot of high school friends here, too.”
“That must be nice. Do you know anyone here already?”
“Not many, but one old friend of mine from summer camp is here. We kept in touch over the years but I haven’t seen them in person yet.”
“You should have him hang out with us sometime,” he feels close with Henry already and comfortable even though he had a really hard time making friends in school being the foreign student.
“It’s a her, but yeah I’m sure she’d get along with you great.”
It’s only the second day of orientation when Sehun meets Henry’s friend. Her name is Amber and he finds her bickering with Henry really entertaining.
“If you ever need it, I can give you a lot of dirt on Henry. Actually, even if you don’t need it I’ll still give it to you. And if you want to prank him I’ll gladly help out,” she says this when Henry steps out for a little bit to go to the bathroom. Sehun laughs and accepts her offer for the future.
“Are you a CPE?” He’s caught off guard by her question; not many people know about computer engineering let alone its acronym. He nods. “Oh cool, I’m a Mechanical. We can laugh at Henry for being a music major together.”
He doesn’t want to make an enemy of his roommate so early on in the year, but he finds himself agreeing with Amber anyway.
By the second week of school Amber and Henry have become fully reacquainted appearing as if they’ve been best friends they’re entire lives not separated since they were 12 years old.
She spends a lot of time in their room (because her roommates already think she’s weird) and Sehun thinks he should be bothered by it, but he really isn’t.
Sehun grabs dinner and brings it back with him to eat at his desk most of the time, but one night he’s grabbing his jacket to make the walk to the dining hall when Amber gets up from where she was watching some tv show with Henry and announces that they should all eat dinner together. He’s not really sure how, but he ends up walking with them- Amber in between the two of them linking their arms. Sehun supposes this is the moment he’s been included in their weird friendship.
“Is your third roommate, like never here?” Amber asks one day while she’s lying on the floor of their room. Henry’s mindlessly playing something on his guitar and Sehun is trying to get work done but he knows he’s just pretending to be productive.
“Maybe it’s because you’re always here. He’s probably put off by it.” Henry does this a lot, making fun of her. Sehun doesn’t know why she puts up with it.
“No, it’s probably because he has to live with you.” Oh, yeah. That’s why.
Kris actually stays in the room for a whole day one Saturday. Although Sehun is close with Henry, he still feels like he has to walk on eggshells around their other roommate. He does what he can to stay out of his way, which is easy from his single desk in the corner of the room. Amber, however, barges in like she normally does and begins talking about how she told off some guy in one of her classes.
“Oh, hey you must be Kris. I’m Amber- Henry’s friend,” she interrupts herself when she notices the lanky figure sitting on his bed. She then goes through the usual hometown, major, likes, hobbies with him. This is the most Sehun has ever heard Kris talk.
He begins to hang out with them more on the weekends now.
It’s 3 am and way too late but it’s the week of midterms and suddenly they’re regretting playing video games all week and neglecting their studies. Kris is muttering some incoherent sentences to practice the differences in grammar and Sehun is just glad that he is not a linguist major. Amber is about 30 seconds from falling asleep and her head is currently about to fall. Henry is frantically trying to memorize pieces and years, cursing himself for not paying attention in his music history class. Sehun shifts himself slightly when he sees Amber’s head bob and does his best to do calculus problems with the weight of her head on his right shoulder.
They manage to at least pass all of their midterms, but they all vow to never procrastinate again. After one more game of Mario Kart-they promise.
Sehun walks into the common room on their floor to use the microwave for his ramen and he notices the group of girls sitting on the chairs. They’re whispering and giggling and he feels really self-conscious and swears the seconds on this microwave are triple the length of normal seconds. He’s definitely sure they’re laughing at him and he’s this close to abandoning his noodles to run back to the safety of his room, when Amber walks in and waves at him. The giggling stops. He thinks he sees the girls glare as he walks to his room with Amber, but he doesn’t understand why.
“Sehun, I think you’re the most popular guy in the dorm.” They’re all eating cookie dough together because college when Amber suddenly blurts this. Sehun scrunches his nose sending his glasses up on his face and he’s genuinely confused.
“What are you talking about?”
“Dude, all the girls wanna hop on you,” chimes in Kris who’s leaning against his bed with his legs sprawled out. Sehun kicks one of his legs that have encroached into his space.
“I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.”
It’s Henry’s turn to chime in, “I’m pretty sure you’re on the bathroom wall somewhere. Though they’ve nicknamed you the cute Korean ‘cause they don’t know how to pronounce your name.”
He doesn’t know how to respond because he’s convinced they’re all wrong.
“It’s a pretty fitting nickname,” says Amber as she reaches for another piece of cookie dough and then Sehun chokes on his spit.
Kris and Sehun are already lying in bed when Henry walks in from brushing his teeth and climbs up into his own bed.
“Henry… Why didn’t you turn off the light?” Asks Kris and Henry groans loudly.
“It’s too much work to climb back down.” He pauses slightly before, “Sehun….” he drags out the ‘n’ like how he always does when he wants to rope him into doing things for him.
“What?” he responds curtly even though he knows where this is going.
“Pleaseeeee. Do your hyung a favor. I’m too old for this.”
“I wish I never taught you that term.” Sehun grumbles “Kris why don’t you do it? You’re closer to the floor anyway.”
“I’m sleeping.”
Sehun has to resist the urge to go down there and punch his roommate. “I’m sure your freakishly long arms could reach it from there.” He feels Kris kick him from underneath (with his freakishly long legs). He knows his fate-he will never win this argument. He’s about to get up off his bed when he remembers the umbrella on his desk cabinet from the morning rain. He laughs as he grabs it and leans out of the corner of his bed (practically falling off) and reaches out to the light switch with the umbrella.
“That’s not going to work you idiot,” says Henry. But then the room is pitch black.
“SUCK IT.” Shouts Sehun.
“Amber’s corrupted you, maknae.”
“I told you not to call me that, Henry.”
AMBER: Save me Sehun (╥_╥)
SEHUN: What do you mean?
AMBER: I’m dying in the library
AMBER: RIP Amber. I think I’m actually dead
SEHUN: You’re being melodramatic. Leave that for Henry.
AMBER: I’m not exaggerating!!
AMBER: Sehun.
AMBER: Answer me.
AMBER: Helloooo?
AMBER: Are you alive?
Sehun shows up at the library even though it’s nearing 3am. He grabbed his backpack on the way out as an afterthought, but he doesn’t really plan on doing any actual work. He sets down a Starbucks cup in front of the hooded figure with drafting paper sprawled across the table.
She perks up, “Is this for me?”
“No, it’s for someone else. Of course.”
“You’re sassy at 3am.”
“It’s developed from me having to deal with Kris.”
She nods in understanding; “Oh you put peppermint in this! I love peppermint.”
“I know,” almost slips out, but he just shrugs his shoulders instead.
Amber gets back to her work with a sigh and Sehun watches her diligently correct her drawings as he pulls out random textbooks from his bag.
About five minutes pass before she gets frustrated and throws down her pencil, “I’m never going to finish.”
“Hey Amber,” he waits for her to look at him. “To write with a broken pencil is pointless.”
She pauses for a second before beginning to laugh uncontrollably. People around her are beginning to stare, but she doesn’t stop. Soon there are tears running down her face and she’s struggling to breathe. Sehun’s suddenly embarrassed.
“It’s really not that funny, Am.”
“Yes-,” laugh “it is.” He’s laughing at her laughing now. He continues to tell her stupid English puns (because he’s actually beginning to understand them. Sometimes Henry has to explain them to him, but they’re still funny) and he’s letting down his pride for this but it’s making her happy and that’s all that really matters, he supposes.
Their door is open, but the four friends are completely engrossed with whatever video game they’re obsessed with this week. Three girls pop their heads in-they’re sorority girls, they have that distinct look-and interrupt them by going, “Hey!”
Henry’s the first to respond, “Hey?”
“What are you guys doing tonight?” Asks the blonde one in the middle. It’s Friday night and basically that means everyone’s currently getting ready to party off their stressful week.
“Um, probably more of this.” He motions towards the game on their screen and junk food surrounding them.
“Oh, well our sorority,” here it goes “is having a party tonight and we’d love for you to come.” This invitation is extended to their group but it’s clear they’re all looking at Sehun.
“I think you’d have a lot of fun Sehun,” Amber has to stifle a laugh because she can’t even imagine Sehun at a party. He’d probably combust from the sheer embarrassment and social anxiety. Plus, the girl mispronounced his name.
Sehun blinks and then suddenly realizes she’s talking to him, “Oh um. Thanks for the invite, but probably not this time.”
The girls do their best to shrug it off and the blonde walks in through the door, “Let me give you my number so if you change your mind I can give you the address.”
“Sure…” He hands her his cell phone to be nice, but he plans on deleting the contact as soon as she walks away.
After the girls leave, the others immediately begin to tease him.
“Dude, you don’t even have to try and they’re all over you,” says Kris shaking his head, clearly jealous.
“Serious yellow fever,” mutters Amber.
“If only they knew how loudly you type when you get angry and it’s the middle of the night or how you sometimes forget to throw your dirty socks in the laundry basket,” complains Henry.
It’s ten o’clock and they’re already bored with their plans of playing video games for the rest of the night and while they wouldn’t be caught dead at that girl’s sorority party, a party sounds kind of nice. Henry’s all for it and begins changing his outfit immediately. He tries to get Kris to agree to be his wingman and Amber’s trying to convince Sehun from staying behind.
“I’ll need someone to keep me company while those two make fools of themselves,” she’s referring to Henry and Kris who are currently arguing over whether or not Henry looks stupid with a leather jacket.
“And if you absolutely hate it, I promise we’ll leave.” He can’t really say no.
The marching band (Henry knows people from his classes) party is already in full swing by the time they reach. The air is hot and thick with the perfume of liquor. The music is loud and pulsing; there’s a hoard of bodies together in the living room that has been converted into a temporary dance floor. Sehun is completely out of his comfort zone. He’s practically in a different country. Henry and Kris disappear for a few seconds before they reappear each holding two shots each.
“Let’s start this party!” Kris is way too excited in Sehun’s opinion. And somehow he gets a cup shoved in his hand.
“Come one Sehun, at least one.” Henry nudges him. Amber nods as well. He drank in Korea during the summer before he came back to California; he figures it can’t be much different.
They’re only four shots in when Sehun insists on going over to the dance floor because he ‘loves this song’. Amber’s actually surprised by his dancing skills, she would’ve guessed that he’d be awkward and have no control over his limbs. But he moves smoothly and the girls are immediately attracted to him and they begin to swarm like bees after you’ve eaten popsicles on a hot day. She guesses she’s not the only one that finds his glasses and beanie and ironic t-shirt attractive.
Sehun ends up slumped over Amber, which doesn’t really work since she’s inches shorter than him.
“You’rereallycool,” he slurs and while she feels bad for the kid she still wants to use his current state to her advantage.
“How so?”
“Likeyou’renot,” he gets distracted by something else before he refocuses “like other girls yaknow?”
“Is that what you like best about me Sehunnie?” Normally he’d cringe at her nickname for him, but he’s clearly not able to protest right now.
“No,” he laughs almost sarcastically. She’s just about to ask him what his favorite thing about her is then, when he straightens up suddenly, “Let’s get some fresh air.” And she’s being pulled outside.
The crisp air seems to sober him up a bit and his shell is back around him, secure and impenetrable. Kris stumbles out of the house a few moments later, “Am, can you help me with Henry?”
Their musician friend pushes past Kris and has clearly had a little too much. “Amber!” He shouts and she’s about this close to strangling Kris for letting him get like this.
“Sehun,” she calls him curtly to get his attention “Help me get him.”
It takes him a few seconds longer than normal to process what’s happening but then he’s grabbing one of Henry’s arms to pull over his shoulders and walk him back to the dorms.
“Let’s go to the music building!” He sways a little and Sehun pulls him back up. “I have a great idea for an opera right now!”
“Shut up,” the three of them say simultaneously.
They manage to get back to their dorm room without any major issues but Henry’s still convinced now’s the perfect time to go compose an opera and tries to leave the room.
“Can’t you just sit on him or something?” says Amber exasperatedly. “I am not drunk enough for tonight to even be worth it,” she mutters and Sehun is desperately trying to get Henry to just stay on the floor. When he attempts to make a run for it the fifth time, Sehun takes Amber’s advice and sits on him.
Amber looks at him incredulously and he responds, “What? It’s what you told me to do.”
Soon enough Henry is complaining. “Sehun get off of meeee! You’re so heavy. What have you been eating?”
“Henry if you don’t shut up, I’m going to beat your high score in mario kart.”
He shuts up. For a few minutes.
“Maknae!” He’s yelling again, “why don’t you go sit on Amber or something? I’m sure she’d enjoy it a lot more than me.” Sehun is pretty sure he looks like he’s gotten a sunburn right now and he’s doing everything to avoid eye contact with Amber because how embarrassing.
“Or let her sit in your lap; I don’t care as long as it’s not on top of me! This hurts Sehun!” He’s really going to kill Henry tomorrow. Maybe even tonight. Henry is laughing with his cheek squished against the carpet and Sehun is tempted to smash his face further into the gross dorm floor.
Amber’s hand is on his shoulder signaling him to get up when she grabs one of Henry’s arms. Sehun grabs his other and sends her a questioning look. She has an evil smirk on her face and moves towards Kris’ bed where Kris is already passed out.
“They can try to figure out why they’re in the same bed tomorrow morning. It’ll be great.”
“That’s not even going to begin to make up for what they did tonight.”
They’ve finally shoved Henry onto the bed and he’s asleep within seconds.
Sehun and Amber collapse on the floor, leaning against the bed with their two idiotic friends and he sighs, “Can we never go to a party again? Ever.”
“You seemed to have fun,” chuckles Amber.
He groans, “Please don’t remind me. I’m so mortified.”
“Don’t be. You’re a good dancer,” she smirks and he hides his face in his arm. “The girls seemed to like you too. Oh Sehun- lady slayer.”
“I’m really not and I know it okay? Why does everyone keep making a joke out of it? I get it okay?” He’s slightly angry and Amber’s never seen him like this before.
“Sehun,” she touches his arm, “what are you talking about?”
He pulls off his beanie and readjusts it (she tries to resist the urge to fix his messy hair) “I’m the awkward, antisocial nerd and I know no girl would ever really like me or have a crush on me. And I get that it’s easy or funny to make fun of me by saying all the girls like me when it’s obviously not true but it’s getting old.”
Amber is laughing her uncontrollable, sidesplitting, tears-forming laugh. “You really are that blind, Sehunnie?” He gives her a confused look and she clarifies. “We’re not making fun of you because no girls would like you, but because so many of them do but you’re so freaking oblivious that you can’t tell. You’re attractive, tall, and smart and some girls really like nerds. You’re a catch, you just don’t know it.”
He’s silent for at least a minute. “Wait… really?”
“Yeah,” Amber looks down and seems a little quiet, “Like Kris said, you wouldn’t even have to try very hard and you could get a date with any girl in this dorm.”
“Any girl?” He’s staring at her, but she won’t make eye contact with him.
“Yup,” she emphasizes the ‘p’ at the ending.
“Will you help me?”
She wraps her arms around herself and rests on her knees, “Of course.”
The next week Amber insists on giving Sehun a makeover.
“You asked for my help, and this is me giving it to you.” She’s standing in their dorm room holding hair gel, sneakers and a duffle bag. Sehun is scared to say the least.
“I was just joking, Amber come on.” She throws the stuff on the ground and says, “Too late. Henry, Kris-hold him down for me.”
She starts off with his clothes.
“You’ve got a good base for a wardrobe and all the essentials, you just… don’t know how to pair them very well.” Says Kris, possibly the most fashion conscious of them all, looking through his closet. He begins to pick out t-shirts, flannels, jeans and jackets and holds them up in pairs in front of Sehun. Finally deciding on a button up shirt, black jeans, a pair of his favorite sneakers and a snapback (“I get the whole beanie thing, but let’s make you at least look like you’re trying.”). He is immediately shoved into a chair where Amber tackles his hair. She’s running a comb through his hair and working in gel with her fingers. He’s never done anything more to his hair to get ready than maybe running his hands through it and he’s trying to focus on anything else but her hands in his hair. “Okay, perfect” she drops her hands and he’s mildly relieved that it’s over.
But his relief is short lived when she reappears holding his absolute most hated thing.
“No.” He says firmly, “I went along with the clothes, the hair, but not this. This is where I draw the line.”
“I don’t understand why you hate them so much.” Her hands are on her hips in her classic fighting stance and Sehun knows this is not going to be an easy fight.
“You can’t hide behind your glasses forever, you know.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my glasses!”
“They ruin the look!” Chimes in Kris, and he makes a note to smother him in his sleep later tonight.
Henry joins in and says calmly, “Just do it this one time. We went this far already.”
After a few minutes of staring at the three faces before him he finally groans and grabs the contacts case from Amber before storming off into the bathroom.
When he reemerges his face feels empty without his everyday black frames, his nose automatically scrunches to push them up on his face but it meets nothing but air. Nothing had made him feel as vulnerable as this (not losing his beanie, or his comfortable t-shirt or the new gel in his hair) because looking at himself without his glasses he feels like he’s looking at a stranger.
None of them are saying anything and it’s driving him nuts. Finally he breaks the silence with, “I told you glasses were better!”
This breaks their temporary muteness because suddenly their protesting and insisting that he’s wrong and they each have their reason.
“If the girls in our dorm were all over you before, they’re going to be fighting each other over you now.” Says Kris with jealousy heavy in his voice.
“You’re gonna need to be the model in front of the camera instead of behind it, now.” Henry is smiling like a proud mother.
“I was right,” is all Amber offers. Sehun isn’t sure if she’s referring to him hiding behind his glasses or that night when she said he could have any girl he wanted.
Over dinner they decide to spend the evening in the common lounge to start counting the reactions of the girls in their dorm.
A double take - 1 pt.
Pointing him out to a friend - 2 pts.
Giggling - 3 pts.
Outright staring - 5pts.
Approaching him - 10pts.
Shameless flirting - 30pts.
They each cast their bets on how many points he’ll gather in the next few hours and he just wishes he could wash his hair, put back on his glasses and wear his comfortable hoodie. In the end he has a grand total of 75 points (two girls had the guts to actually flirt with him despite his stiff and uncomfortable responses) and Henry wins the bet. Amber and Kris have to buy him ice cream and Sehun argues that he should get some too. “I had more faith in you!” shouts Kris who bet he would hit 150 points. “You should have flirted back more, goodness Sehun I’m not rewarding you with ice cream for your poor effort.” Kris buys him a klondike bar anyway.
The next few days he replicates the hairstyle Amber gave him and decides to give the contacts another chance. Kris enjoys picking out outfits so much for him that he kind of just lets it happen. He gets asked about his plans for meals and the weekend more than normal, but he keeps to his “sorry, I have stuff planned with friends already”.
“Dude! Brooke asked you out and you said no?! Why can’t we switch places? Why can’t that happen to me? Maybe if I can prove how much of a dork you really are to her she’ll turn to me.” Kris is on a slight rampage and Sehun just lets him run its course.
“She didn’t ask me out, exactly.”
“She asked you what you’re doing Friday night, did she not?”
“Well, I mean, yeah. But she could’ve just been making conversation.”
“That’s bullshit Sehun and you know it. You can’t even lie to save my feelings.” He flops down on his bed. “I’m never lending you my leather jacket ever again.”
Valentine’s day comes before anyone of them really noticed it approaching. It’s a holiday that Sehun normally shrugs off, maybe sending a nice note to his female relatives. But this year he wakes up boxes of chocolates and notes left outside of their dorm room (which he almost stepped on when he left for the bathroom). Henry and Kris are immediately jumping out of bed to sort through the gifts hoping to spot some with their names on it from secret admirers. They’re disappointed when Kris gets a cheap drugstore valentine from one of his high school acquaintances (she always politely bought for everyone in the class) and Henry is still trying to convince them that the card addressed to “the cutest one room 203” is for him. The rest is clearly for Sehun. As he collects them in his arms to move to his desk he contemplates the effectiveness of contacts and hair gel.
He collects a few more on the way to and from class; he awkwardly thanks the girls that hand them to him feeling burdened more than anything else. And by the time he’s made it back to his dorm after all his classes he just wants this day to be over more than anything else. He’s not really sure what do to with all of this and quickly, without thinking, he’s scooping them up into a bag and walking across to the girls’ wing and knocking on Amber’s door. One of her roommates answers, he thinks her name is Krystal but he can’t be sure (she might have a Korean name that he was introduced with, Sehun isn’t too good with these things). He asks for her to point out Amber’s desk and he leaves the bag with a short note on a post it.
“You like sweets more than I do, and your makeover should take all the credit anyway. -SEHUN”
Sehun is in a black and white film photography class to fulfill some general education credit and he likes it. He quickly understands the camera mechanisms-his technical background helping substantially-and follows the rule of thirds perfectly. Sehun’s assignments gain almost perfect points each time; his professor always comments, “Beautiful use of technique, but lacks emotion.” Sehun doesn’t understand how to add emotion to photos.
“Do you love someone, Sehun?”
“Um, yeah I guess. What does this have to do with photography?” He answers thinking of his mother and father and his dog back home.
“It has everything to do with photography.” His professor leans back in his chair. “Your subject, if you can find what you love about it, will leak into your photographs. It doesn’t matter if you’re taking a picture of a lamp post, an empty park bench, or a stranger walking down the street-fall in love what you see and it will show.”
Sehun is lying on his top bunk staring at the ceiling and trying to figure out how he’s going to do his final project for photography. Kris is currently talking to some girl from his Japanese class on the phone and he’s trying to make up pick up lines in Japanese and Sehun just wants to barf. Henry is working on a composing assignment with his guitar, he keeps muttering things and scribbling things down. Amber is sitting on the floor of their room in between the two bunk beds and has her textbooks spread around her. Her face is scrunched up and there’s a pencil behind her ear as she tries to understand physics. It’s late in the afternoon and the setting sun is streaming into their room. The blinds create a horizontal pattern on their carpet and across everyone’s bodies. It’s Sehun’s favorite part of the day that creates the nicest light in their room and he flips on his stomach to quickly snap a photo of it from above.
It’s a Saturday morning (okay, it’s closer to afternoon but it technically still counts) and they’ve just gotten up from a late night of movie watching. They decide to put off their homework more-because that’s what Sunday’s for- and go skateboarding instead. Amber’s the only one that actually knows how to skate out of all of them, but she insists she’s a great teacher. Kris is too lanky, Henry is too impatient and Sehun is just too afraid of getting hurt. Amber, fed up with her poor students (“You make me look bad as a teacher!”), skates around them and does tricks to somehow redeem herself. The rest of them lean back on their hands and watch her from the pavement. Playing around with his camera settings, he thinks he’s gotten a couple good ones of her mid-air.
Amber’s roommates somehow convince her to go out to dinner with them as an almost end of year celebration (celebrating not killing each other, probably). She asks to get ready in the guys’ room because Krystal hogs the bathroom and Yejin puts on too much perfume before going out. The bathroom door is slightly open after she changes her clothes and she’s working on putting on some minimal makeup. He thinks the doorway and her reflection frame her nicely; the bathroom lighting highlights her face so he quickly goes to find his camera.
Henry’s class has a recital for their final project and the rest of them go to watch and support their friend (despite being kept up endless nights hearing him practice it over and over). They cheer and clap the loudest, slightly toeing the line of enthusiastic and obnoxious. Kris and Sehun scream like fangirls and pretend to fawn over him. Together the go out to eat late night waffles and he wants to keep this memory forever, taking a photo without even realizing.
By the time his roll his finished he can’t even remember when he took all these photos and he hasn’t thought about his project at all since it was assigned. It’s due this week and as he goes into the lab to develop his photos he just hopes that there’s something he can use for it. Sehun is mindlessly going through his routine for developing and he’s listening to a playlist Henry made (mostly indie that he knows Sehun likes) with some additions from Kris (popular songs because he says Sehun needs to be educated on pop culture). He gets startled when someone enters the darkroom and almost drops his print into the wrong chemical bath.
He takes out an earbud, “Professor, you scared me! What are you doing here?”
His teacher laughs and just responds, “I was just around. Is this for your final?”
Sehun nods, “Well I’m hoping.” He steps up next to the row of prints hanging up on a line and examines them. Sehun suddenly grows self-conscious; he barely looked at them while he developed and simply hung them up to dry. The Professor is silent for a while and Sehun’s music awkwardly fills the air quietly.
“This is exactly what I was talking about,” he turns towards his student and he’s beaming with pride.
“What do you mean?”
“I see you were right about being in love.” He smirks slightly, “You fell in love with what you saw.”
Sehun turns towards his photographs, confused. He’s looking at all of them trying to figure out what he’s talking about when it finally clicks. There’s something in common with all of these photos. It really looks like a proper series: each photo saying something different but all telling the same story.
“Now you just need your write up. I’m really proud of you, Sehun.” He clasps Sehun’s shoulder before leaving quickly.
Finals week finally ends and Sehun can’t believe his freshman year is over just like that. It seems so anticlimactic. Weeks of grueling studying to prove what he’s learned in just 3 hours and it’s all over. Room 203 is packing up all of their belongings together; being international students they’ll all share a storage unit in the neighborhood while they go back to their respective hometowns for summer. They’re all living in an apartment together next year because even though they hate each other, they hate everyone else more.
Sehun’s mostly packed into stacks of clear bins, neatly organized and labeled unlike Kris’ rows of suitcases that are stuffed to the brim (mostly with clothes, Sehun supposes) and Henry’s battered cardboard boxes (that he got for free somewhere) duct taped and simply labeled “H.L.” There are a few small things left scattered about their room, papers and random keepsakes they can’t quite justify packing away but can’t bring themselves to throw out. Henry plays a special mix while they clean up and get their room ready for inspection when Amber knocks on the open door frame. She seems apprehensive and Sehun can’t figure out why, until she asks to talk to him.
He almost drops the vacuum, “Um, yeah sure” and follows her into the hallway. They stand facing each other and people walk past them holding boxes and lugging suitcases. He steps closer to her as a guy carrying his tv makes it through the hallway. Sehun watches as she pulls something out from her back pocket.
“So someone slid this under my door this morning,” she unrolls the object and he almost wants to die when he realizes what it is.
“The girl in my viewfinder by Oh Sehun. Photography 101 Final Project.” The black words stare up back at him and he feels dizzy.
“Who gave you that?” he asks slightly accusingly.
“How am I supposed to know? I was just packing up and then my roommate hands this to me.” She matches his accusing tone, but then pauses and asks softly. “Do you really mean it?”
“Mean what?” he chokes out and he know he can’t get away with this ignorant ploy much longer.
She’s flipping through the pages slightly hesitating on the photo of her in the bathroom (his cheeks burn and he hopes she doesn’t think he’s creepy). Finally she stops on the written reflection.
“‘Amber was one of the first friends I made at Berkeley after my own roommate. She stormed in and never left. I couldn’t get rid of her even if I wanted to, but surprisingly I didn’t. She made me feel comfortable despite being so far from home and far from my culture. She made me fit into this group with my roommates that I might have gone all year not speaking to.
I had no idea what to do for this project, but found myself taking photos without the project even in mind. I just documented the things I wanted to remember for the rest of my life from this first year. Professor Johnson once told me, “Fall in love with what you see, and it will show.” Looking at these photographs from my last roll of film here I realized some common thread among them all.
I fell in love with the girl in my viewfinder.
And that was more impactful on my work than anything else I learned this semester. Not aperture, shutter speed or ISO. While these aspects help convey a message, it’s the message that’s more important for a photograph, and Amber gave me a message.’” She finishes reading his words back to him and looks up at him. He looks away quickly, not able to hold her gaze.
“That,” she says pointedly. “Did you mean that.”
“Yes,” he’s readjusting his beanie (Kris keeps insisting he wear snapbacks but Sehun prefers the comfort, so he wears nicer shirts and contacts to keep him happy instead). “Every word.”
She nods and begins looking at each photo again. He can’t stand the silence between them so he just starts talking.
“I mean you were the first one to really talk to me you know? Like Henry talked to me but I’m his roommate and it’d just be hella awkward if you don’t talk to your roommate. Plus he just kind of talks to anyone who will listen and I’m not gonna ignore him or tell him to shut up. But you’re really cool and not like any other girls here, you actually know how to do calculus unlike Kris with his stupid languages and grammar. You’re into video games and skateboarding and just really chill. How could I not fall in love you with you? It’d be weirder if I didn’t, actually. You’re the only one that actually looked at me-”
He’s interrupted by Amber kissing him quickly. “Oh my god Sehun, shut up.”
Sehun’s cheeks are absolutely scarlet, but he leans down towards her in a weird burst of confidence. His arms wrap around her waist and she reaches up for his hair when they hear laughing and high fives. He quickly pulls away and faces his roommates. Just when he thought he managed to go all year without murdering them.
“Pay up, Henry. You said it’d take being apart from summer but I bet by the end of the year. The year isn’t over yet!!”
“Amber couldn’t you have waited until after summer?? You know Sehun would’ve never made the first move!”
“Hey!” protests the red-faced engineer.
“You know it’s true,” says Amber laughingly.
“You’re still not getting out of paying me 50 bucks, Henry.”