under the moonlight. (chapter 1)
It was still early in the morning when a girl was pacing alone in her new dormitory room at Seoul University, one of the best - or maybe the best - universities in South Korea. She had just finished unpacking her things when suddenly, her cell phone rang. A smile immediately crossed her face as soon as she saw the caller’s name.
“Hello? Appa?”
“Princess? Is everything okay? How is your new place?” her smile got wider upon hearing her father’s voice.
“Everything is good. I love my new dorm and university, I really do. How are you, Appa? How are Omma and Baekhyun? I miss all of you.”
“We miss you too, Joohyun-ah. We will go back to Seoul as soon as possible,” her father replied. “Baekhyun said the house feels so peaceful without you. Probably because his sister is no longer here to constantly nag at him anymore.”
“Tell him I miss him too,” Joohyun laughed. She had separated from her family for only less than a month, but she was already missing them. “Oh, someone is coming. Maybe it’s my new roommate. I’ll talk to you later, Appa; I love you. Please send my love to Omma and Baekhyun.”
Soon after she ended the phone conversation, the door flew open, revealing a girl who seemed to be around her age. She was holding a big, heavy box with one hand, while her other hand dragged a huge bag behind her. Joohyun quickly stood up and helped her with the box.
“Gosh, thank you so much,” she panted. “My arms feel like they’re going to fall off soon. I’ve been dragging these heavy things from the main gate by myself since my stupid sister refused to help me. She said she was already late for her important date. Can you believe that? Urgh, whatever! She can be a very nice sister and an annoying one at the same time.”
Joohyun could only smile. It seemed like she got a talkative and bubbly person as a roommate - quite contrary to her calm and reserved self - but she wasn’t complaining. The girl looked nice anyway and she had a feeling that they could be good friends, despite the differences in their characters.
“Oh, I’m sorry for my random blabber! I haven’t introduced myself, have I? My name is Jung Nicole, your new roommate. We’re both freshmen, yes?” she offered her hand for a handshake - a wide friendly smile replaced her previous annoyed expression.
“Yes, my name is Seo Joohyun. Nice to meet you, Nicole.” Joohyun smiled as she shook Nicole’s hand.
***
The alarm rang loudly, waking the young man from his slumber. With a single annoyed movement, he quickly shut it off before ruffling his messy brown hair and yawning widely.
“Stupid alarm,” he mumbled, making his way to the bathroom. “But why should I take morning classes this semester in the first place? I can’t play games all night long anymore. Argh, I should’ve considered it in advance.”
Almost an hour later, he found himself riding his bike to his university, while his mouth was busy chewing his own messy handmade sandwich. Soon after he parked his bike, someone jumped from behind and embraced him roughly, “Yo, GameKyu! It’s nice to see you again! How was your holiday, buddy?”
“Ouch, you hurt my neck and ear.” Kyuhyun grumbled, glaring at his best friend.
Changmin chuckled. “Yah, what’s with the bad mood? Did something bad happen to your laptop or games? Or did you just have a fight with your father?”
“I’m sleepy,” Kyuhyun yawned before freeing himself from Changmin’s embrace.
“Let me guess. Gaming again? You haven’t changed at all, my friend.” Changmin shook his head as he patted Kyuhyun’s back. “Listen, this is our final year of college, you need to enjoy it more. Go find yourself a girlfriend!”
“And now you sound like my father,” mumbled Kyuhyun, rolling his eyes. “Ever since my 18th birthday - which was already three years ago - he kept bugging me with those girlfriend things over and over. Fortunately, he never set me up on a blind date.”
“You mean not yet,” Changmin earned a smack on his head by saying that. “Yah! What was that for? I was only telling the truth! You are your father’s only son and you are already 21, yet you’ve never introduced him to a girlfriend. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day he suddenly introduces you to - I don’t know - a daughter of his colleague or something like that.”
“Whatever. And for your information, we’re almost late for the morning class. We’d better hurry now.” Kyuhyun glanced at his watch and started running across the main hall with his best friend trailing close behind. What they didn’t know was that the attention of almost all girls in the hall was on both of them. Half of them were blushing and the rest were whispering excitedly.
“Yah! Yah! Did you see them?”
“What? Who?”
“It’s the infamous Kyuhyun sunbae and Changmin sunbae!”
“Oh my God, they are sooo handsome!”
“Are they still single? Ooh, I hope they are!”
Those whispers and stares of admiration continued to follow them, even when they were already in class. Both of them knew were fully aware that they were always under the spotlight, and they had pretty much gotten used to it and didn’t really care anymore because they were already exposed to it since their first year in university.
Cho Kyuhyun and Shim Changmin were inseparable the moment they decided to be friends when they were still freshmen. Both were blessed with good looks, brilliant brains, and irresistible charms which made them adored by not only almost all the girls in the campus, but also some of the lecturers and staffs. Still, they never responded to such attention seriously, especially Kyuhyun. There were only three things that filled his head - architecture, photography, and games - and he was sure that he had no space for other things, not in the near future, at least.
Or that was what he thought.
***
It was already lunch time when the freshmen finished their morning classes. After a full 15 minutes of trying to find empty seats in the crowded cafeteria, Joohyun and Nicole finally managed to get one in a corner. And there they were, chatting and munching their lunches.
“Is the cafeteria always packed like this during lunch time?” Joohyun looked around.
“Guess so,” replied Nicole. “Why? Do you have problems being in a crowd like this?”
“No, not really,” Joohyun shook her head. “It was never this crowded back then in my high school. But the number of university students is a lot more than high school students. I guess this is one of the many differences between university and high school.”
“Really? My high school cafeteria was also this crowded. Which high school did you go to?”
Joohyun looked hesitant for a while. “My father works as a diplomat and he has been assigned in London for nearly four years, so I went to one of high schools there.”
Nicole’s eyes widened. “Whoa, that sounds cool! That explains why your behavior and attitude is so...lady-like. So are you living by yourself here in Seoul, while your family is still living in London?”
Joohyun laughed and playfully hit Nicole’s arm. “What do you mean by lady-like? I am not,” she said. “And to answer your question, yes, my parents and younger brother are still living in London. My paternal grandparents live in Daegu and I guess I have a few distant relatives who live in Seoul, but we are not close at all. So maybe you could say that I live here by myself.”
“I see,” Nicole nodded. “Don’t worry, Joohyun-ah, you can always visit my house anytime! My family members are loud and talkative - they can be noisy most of the time - but they’re all nice. They will like you for sure.”
Joohyun smiled. “Thank you, Nicole.”
Just then, her eyes suddenly caught something and she stood up. “Oh, the beverage stall is already less crowded. I’m going to buy a glass of juice; would you like something to drink?”
“I’d like to have ice coffee then. Thanks, Joohyun-ah!”
Joohyun then went to the stall and bought drinks for her and Nicole. As she was about to carefully bring them back to her seat, a guy suddenly appeared from nowhere and bumped into her. The sudden collision made her spill almost half of her juice to the floor. Fortunately, it didn’t stain her shirt or the guy’s, but the incident still surprised her nonetheless.
“I-I’m so sorry!” she quickly apologized even though she knew it wasn’t entirely her fault.
The person who bumped into her, a tall guy with a very attractive appearance, also looked surprised. “No, no, it’s my fault! I was in a hurry.” And his eyes widened when he saw what happened to her juice. “Let me replace your juice.”
“N-no! You don’t have to-” But the guy had gone to the stall and bought her a new glass of juice. He handed it to her, flashing his apologetic - yet charming - smile. “Don’t worry about it, it was my fault anyway.”
Some people who passed by started to pay attention to the incident. Most of them were girls and they seemed to be more interested in the guy rather than what just happened between him and her. Feeling a little bit uncomfortable, Joohyun quickly bowed and left the scene after muttering a soft “thank you so much” to the guy.
“What took you so long?” Nicole asked her as Joohyun arrived at their seats. “And why did you bring us three glasses instead of two?”
“Never mind,” Joohyun sighed. Before Nicole could say anything, she glanced at her watch and gasped. “Omo! Our next class starts in 10 minutes. We’d better hurry because we still have to find the classroom first.”
Both of them quickly finished their drinks - Nicole almost choked herself - before leaving the cafeteria with a rush.
***
“Did something good just happen? If not, you wouldn’t be smiling like that.”
Changmin laughed at Kyuhyun’s remark. “You really are my best friend.”
Kyuhyun rolled his eyes. “So? What happened?”
“I just bumped into a very beautiful girl,” replied Changmin excitedly. “I think she’s a freshman. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen her before. Not in this university, at least. No way could I forget a lovely girl like her.”
“I am so gonna tell your girlfriend,” Kyuhyun muttered, loud enough to be heard by his best friend.
Changmin almost spilled his drink. “Yah! Why do you have to bring her into this matter?! She has nothing to do with this! I just bumped into this beautiful chick; I didn’t flirt with her or anything like that, okay?”
Kyuhyun laughed. He knew his best friend loved his girlfriend too much to think about cheating on her, but sometimes he couldn’t resist teasing him about his tendency to admire every beautiful girl he met. “Is this beautiful chick even more beautiful than your girlfriend? You rarely show so much interest in a girl like this.”
“Yes, she is very beautiful, but I don’t want to answer your first question regarding if she is more beautiful than my girlfriend or not. That sounds like another tricky question of yours,” replied Changmin. “Why? Are you finally beginning to show some signs of curiosity or - even better - interest in a girl?”
Kyuhyun snorted. True enough, he couldn’t help but feel a bit curious about the beautiful girl Changmin had described. Changmin had a great eye and taste for girls, and even though he often showed his admiration for pretty girls he met, he rarely showed admiration like he had shown right then.
“Oh, there she is!” Changmin exclaimed excitedly.
Kyuhyun instinctively turned his head, following the direction of Changmin’s eyes. But the crowd made it difficult for him to see the girl in question. Just when he thought he finally managed to see her - or rather he only managed to see a glimpse of long, black, wavy hair - she once again disappeared in the mass of people.
“Aah, she’s gone!” Changmin said disappointedly. “It seemed like she and her friend were in a hurry. Did you see her?”
“No, she was already gone before I could see her face,” replied Kyuhyun calmly as if it was nothing. Well, it was indeed nothing for him; why should he feel disappointed because of such a trivial issue? “Anyway, I have to go now.”
“Where are you going?” Changmin asked in confusion.
“I need to go to Jongshin ahjussi’s store to buy a new filter for my camera. I promised him I would stop by this afternoon,” Kyuhyun fixed his things before rising from his seat and hanging his bag on his left shoulder.
Changmin shook his head and chuckled. “There’s only gaming and photography in your head, huh?”
“Don’t worry, Changminnie, I’ll save a tiny little space for you if you ask me nicely,” Kyuhyun then laughed when he saw his best friend wincing in disgust. “See you later, buddy!”
A/N: this chapter won't be published without the help of my dearest coloringtheskyx :) thank you so freaking much for being my beta reader, jessica! I love you ♥
btw it's a boring first chapter, I know. I just don’t know how to write a good introduction, I suck at it. I feel like jumping straight into chapter something in the middle of this story where the angst part begins, but of course I can’t do that. *sigh* and just to assure you, changmin won’t be the second male character in this story even though I like changseo so much. the second male character is someone else - well, I believe you already know who he is - but don’t worry he won’t play too much role as second male character here.