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woo-san-shine · 4 years

Text

Our Way

ateez college au

Premise: You and your best friend from high school move away to a university 3 hours away from your small hometown. You find yourself meeting a strange cast of characters along the way that will help you find your way throughout your freshman year.

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: none, filler chapter

Author’s Note: Hi!!! I know it has been literal months since I’ve posted, but university was a lot more overwhelming than I thought it was going to be. But I do have a lot more free time now, so hopefully I can get this story back up and running! Some things about this au will change (mostly texting images because I have a new app for that lololol). Thanks~

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Chapter 8

It was a few hours later and I was struggling with my portrait. I had said goodbye to Mingi, who had told me he was going to go take a nap when we got back to the dorm. Sooyoung wasn't in the room when I got there, so I decided to put on some music and try to work on sketching Chaewon's hair. During class, we had taken pictures of each other for reference, so I had my phone propped up against my pillow while I lay on my stomach on my bed. I am trying to redo her right eyebrow for probably the 8th time when I hear the door open.

"Jaaaaaaemin, are you in here?" Sooyoung's voice enters the room before she does.

"Up here," I say as I turn around to see Sooyoung taking off her shoes in the doorway. I am also pleasantly surprised to see Mingi standing behind her.

"Oh, hello again," I say to him.

He waves up at me from behind Sooyoung, who turns quickly to look up at him.

"Again?" she questions.

"We somehow ended up in the same English class," I say as she looks back and forth between Mingi and me, brows slightly furrowed.

"Huh," she says while walking over to her desk. "What are the odds." Her tone implies this as more of a statement rather than a question.

"How was your nap," I ask Mingi. He was just kind of standing in the middle of the room awkwardly while Sooyoung was emptying her bookbag at her desk.

"Uh, kinda short," he says to me under his breath. "I had just laid my head on the pillow and before I know it, there was a knock on my door."

"Hey, I didn't force you to come over here," Sooyoung says shooting a look over to us. "I just wanted to see if anyone was home.

Mingi shyly stares down at his shoes.

"So Jae, tell me about your first day," Sooyoung says to me.

"Oh, I mean, it was nothing special. Had a few classes, already have an assignment due on Wednesday, a professor may or may not be out to get me. Ya know, the usual."

"What?" She questions.

"Oh wait until you hear this," Mingi says urging me to keep talking.

There is an ever so faint scowl on Sooyoung's face as her eyes dart from Mingi's excited smile to my slightly worried one. I tell her about the mug incident and that scowl quickly turns into a face full of rage.

"Are you kidding me, Jae?! She can't do that to you!"

Mingi has to almost hold her back as she threatens to go find Ms. Lee and teach her a lesson.

"Really, Soo," I say with my hands outstretched, trying to calm her. "There's nothing I can do now."

"What a bitch, though," she says, folding her arms.

"Uh didn't you want to work on our Calculus homework?" Mingi says, clearly trying his best to steer her away from any more talk of beating up Ms. Lee.

I go back to my sketch while the pair start on their homework. For awhile we all work in silence, me sketching on my bed and the pair sitting on the floor on their laptops. The silence slowly starts to turn into muffled chatter, and then into Sooyoung's high pitch giggling. I peek over the edge of my bed to catch a glimpse Sooyoung doing an over-exaggerated laugh to whatever Mingi had just said.

"Wait, Jae, where are you going?" Mingi asks.

Neither of them had noticed me climb down from my bed and head for the door.

"Uh, I'm just going to go for a walk," I say to the pair. If I was being honest, I couldn't take the sound of them cooing over each other any longer. "I'm not really getting anywhere on my portrait," I say gesturing to the sketchpad I had abandoned on my bed.

"Don't be out too late," Sooyoung says to me with a wink. She then proceeds to grab Mingi by the chin and direct his gaze from me back to her.

I roll my eyes as I walk out of the room and shut the door. It was probably for my own good to leave. I really didn't know where I was going to go, but I was thankful that I grabbed my headphones before I left. I slip in my earbuds and make my way out of the dorm.

It was early evening as I walked across campus. The warm air felt nice on my skin in contrast to the cold, air-conditioned dorm room. I find a nice grassy area full of park benches under a canopy of trees that was across from one of the dining halls and plop myself down in the shaded area beneath a large tree. I watch the many students walking by for awhile. A few others were sitting amongst the grass like I was. I turn my music up a little louder and lie back on the ground, staring up at the sky between the tree branches. I close my eyes and let the sound of the music coming from my headphones fill my mind.

I don't know how long it's been before I feel a presence standing over me. My eyes flutter open.

"AH, what the hell?!" I yell in shock. I jolt upward, tangling myself in my headphones.

"Woah, Jaemin! It's me!"

I am just about to throw an upward kick in the direction of the figure before I recognize the voice.

"...San?"

"Ha, yeah. Sorry if I woke you," he says quickly. "Here let me help." He kneels down next to me and helps me untangle my headphones that had gotten stuck in my hair.

"Thanks," I say a little flustered. "Uh, sorry I almost roundhouse kicked you."

"Hey, it's okay. I don't blame you," he says with a chuckle. "I kind of snuck up on you anyway. Mind if I sit?"

"Oh no, of course not," I say. I pat the ground next to me. He sits down, placing his bookbag on his other side. "Did you just get out of class?" I ask.

"Yeah. A Monday night-class is going to be rough," He says while running a hand through his hair.

I had only just realized that it was now dusk.

How long had I been asleep?

"I'm lucky you found me here, I might have slept out here all night," I say to him, laughing at myself.

"What were you doing out here?" he asks me, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, I needed a break from sketching. And my dorm room was getting a bit... crowded."

"What were you sketching?"

"A portrait for one of my classes."

"You have homework already?" he asks, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, unfortunately," I sigh.

I look around and notice that we are virtually the only ones on this side of campus. The sun had almost fully set, and there were fireflies lazily floating above the grass. Lampposts along the sidewalk had begun to glow brighter as the sun sank lower and lower into the horizon.

"This is a nice spot you found here," he says, glancing around in the growing darkness at the surrounding trees.

"It reminds me of home," I say a little quietly.

"Do you miss it? Home, I mean?" he asks looking over to me. Even in the dark, I can see his silvery-gray eyes staring at me intently.

I pause for a few seconds. "I miss my parents."

San looks forward again and I can't quite read his expression. "What are they like?" he asks, turning back to gaze at me.

It takes everything in me to not mindlessly stare at his face like a dumbass, but I somehow find the words. "Well, they had me a little later in life, so they're a bit older. I'm an only child, so It was always just the three of us. They both work really hard and I know I don't thank them enough for all that they gave me..." I trail off.

"Tell me more," he says.

I want to sarcastically say that there's really no need for him to pretend to care about my life, but the genuine look of interest in his eyes and stops me. "Uh, well we lived in a little house that was lowkey in the middle of a forest. We all loved being outside, I remember that being a big part of my childhood. I think that's why I gravitate towards places like this," I say, gesturing around to the canopy of trees.

"I wish I grew up away from the city," he says, looking around to where I gestured. "It’s always just so... loud"

"It's not as great as it sounds. Why'd you think I moved so far away for college?"

"Well, why did you leave?"

I pause. "Well... as much as I liked the area I grew up in and miss my parents.... I just needed to get out."

"Get out?"

"Yeah... there was just nothing there for me. Nothing compared to all the opportunities there are here in the city. I just didn't want to get stuck." I stare at San, who is looking at me with his silver eyes. "I don't know if that makes any sense. Sorry for kinda rambling I-"

"No no don't apologize!" he says quickly, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I like listening to people talk. About anything."

I try my hardest to ignore the tingling sensation that lingered once he removed his hand from my shoulder. "Well, I appreciate it."

We go back and forth for a while, him asking me questions about my life at home, my history with Sooyoung, my hobbies, etc. Then the topic turned to music.

"Wait, wait, wait.. you like EXO?" San's eyes widen.

"Yeah! That's what I was listening to before I fell asleep."

"I saw them live the last time they went on tour!" he says excitedly.

"Woah, that's lucky."

"It was a great show... do you mind?" he asks, pointing towards my headphones.

I give him a confused look as he grabs my headphones. He places one earbud in his ear and reaches to place the other in my ear. His hand lingers slightly, then moves to tuck a stray piece of hair behind my ear. My eyes dart from him, to his hand, to my phone that he is now holding.

Say something, you idiot.

"Can I play a song?" he asks, a soft smile on his lips.

"Uh.. yeah of course."

He scrolls for a little bit and then plays one of the other EXO songs I had saved. I watch him as he starts to hum along to the melody.

We stay like that for a while, each choosing a few songs as we watched the remainder of the sun sink beneath the trees. Although we were just sitting there listening to the music, it didn’t feel awkward at all.

“Well I guess we should probably get going,” he says, checking his watch.

The sun was fully gone now.

“Thanks again for waking me up,” I say as I get up from my seat on the ground.

He chuckles and stands up, grabbing his bag. “It was really no problem. We should do this again sometime.”

I raise an eyebrow.

“This tree,” he nods to where we had both just been sitting. “It could be a nice spot to relax, bring friends here, just hang out ya know?”

I try to ignore the ever so slight annoyance at the word “friends”.

Did you actually expect anything? You just met.

“No yeah, of course,” I say quickly.

We both say our goodbyes and head in the opposite direction of our dorms.

“Hey wait!!”

I turn to see him jogging back to me.

“I want to make sure you get home okay, could you like, text me when you get back to your dorm?”

I pause. “I mean I would if I had your number,” I say with a slight smirk.

He blinks, and then laughs. “Oh, you didn’t notice? I put my number in your phone while I was changing one of the songs,” he puts air quotes around the last five words.

I gasp, mouth fully hanging open.

“It’s under Choi San fox emoji,” he says casually.

“You- you really-” I stutter.

He laughs again. “Goodnight, Jaemin.”

...

When I finally get back to my dorm Sooyoung is in bed with the lights off, scrolling on her phone.

“Where were you? I was just about to call the police or something.”

“Oh, I just went for a walk,” I say casually.

“Well next time tell me where you are, okay?” She says all this without looking up from her phone.

“Yeah, of course,” I say as I crawl into my bunk, only to find the unfinished sketch I had abandoned earlier.

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woo-san-shine · 5 years

Text

Our Way

ateez college au

Word Count: 2k

Warnings: Slight swearing

Author’s Note: A work in progress!!! Mostly just for fun. Kind of a filler chapter, sorry if it’s boring

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Chapter 7

A dull buzzing sound awakens me from my deep sleep. I feel around for my phone in the darkness. The clock reads 7:30 am. I wanted to make sure to give myself plenty of time to shower and get ready due to the fact that I was way too tired to do anything last night after we had gotten back from 'the cleanse'. I see that I have some new messages.

As we were walking back from the fountain last night Hongjoong had noticed me yawning and insisted on making sure I was awake in time for our first class by giving me his number.

I pull up a picture of my class schedule and glance through it for probably the hundredth time.

Intro to Drawing- Monday Wednesday Friday 9 am - 10:30 am

Freshman English- Monday Wednesday Friday 12 pm - 1:30 pm

Art History- Tuesday Thursday 10 am - 12 pm

Foundations in 2D and 3D Design- Tuesday Thursday 12:30 - 2:30

Computer Graphic Applications- Wednesday 6 pm - 9 pm

I was pretty pleased with how my schedule had turned out, except for that one night class on Wednesdays that I was already dreading.

I quietly climb down from my bed, grab all of my shower supplies, and head to the bathroom. Sooyoung classes all started after mine did, so I would have to get used to either getting ready in the bathroom or in the total darkness of our room.

After a nice hot shower, I get dressed and apply some light makeup. I am wearing one of my favorite oversized vintage band t-shirts that I tie in a knot at the hem, another pair of high-waisted shorts, and some worn-out converse. If I was a character in a video game, this would be the outfit that my character would always be wearing. I pack everything I need for the day in my backpack, grab my travel mug full of coffee I had just made, and make my way down to the lobby to meet Hongjoong.

When the elevator door opens I see him sitting on one of the couches looking at his phone. When he sees me coming, he immediately starts waving eagerly.

"How do you already have this much energy?" I ask as I walk over to him.

"Ah, I'm the type of person who doesn't need a lot of sleep to function," he replies, getting up from the couch.

"I brought you this," I say to him, pulling my hand from behind my back to reveal an extra muffin that I had grabbed from my stash in my dorm.

He places a hand to his heart. "Really? For me?"

"Yeah, as a thanks for making sure I was awake," I say.

Hongjoong smiles and takes the muffin as we exit the dorm and start walking towards the College of Arts building. He starts telling me about how he has three other classes today, not including the one we're heading to now.

"Damn, you're going to be busy," I say, impressed at his schedule load.

"I like being busy! Keeps my mind occupied."

There are already a lot of students walking around campus even though it's still pretty early. There's a buzz of excited chatter in the air.

"Are you nervous?" He asks me.

"Honestly, a little bit," I say after a sip of coffee. "I just don't know what to expect, ya know?"

"Yeah, I just wonder what that class will be like."

The Arts building is very distinguishable amongst other others due to it being the only building on campus that had a full mural painted on the front. We walk in and after consulting some signs, we walk in the direction of the classroom. There is artwork everywhere; paintings on the wall, statues, displays, visual screens, anything that you could think of. Even the students looked like works of art.

Once we arrive at the designated room, Hongjoong pokes his head in through the doorway and then motions for me to follow him inside. The room itself has a very sleek, industrial look to it with high ceilings and exposed brick. There are long tables with four chairs at each scattered around the room. At one of the tables towards the middle of the room sits Yeosang.

"Mind if we join you?" Hongjoong teases as he makes his way over to Yeosang.

"Hey Joong, Jaemin," he nods to both of us.

We join him at the table, Hongjoong next to him and me next to Hongjoong. The room starts to fill up with more and more students, some looking nervous, others looking downright terrified.

"You would think everyone just walked into the gallows or something," I say to the pair as I glance around the room.

"Apparently this professor is pretty tough," Yeosang says to me.

"Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?" A voice says from behind me.

I turn to see a small girl with short hair and glasses nervously standing next to the open seat next to me.

"No, please, have a seat," I say nodding to the chair.

She looks grateful and she sets her bag down and takes a seat.

"I'm Jaemin, and this is Hongjoong and Yeosang," I say to the girl while I point to each of the boys. Hongjoong excitedly waves and Yeosang nods.

She smiles. "Chaewon, nice to meet you."

"What are you studying?" I ask her, trying to make polite conversation.

"Fine Arts, for now. I'm hoping to find my specialty soon and then focus on that."

Before we can talk further, a tall woman wearing long, billowing clothes enters the room and strides toward the front of the class. Her jet black hair is pulled up into a tight bun and she is wearing a lot of ornate jewelry. She stops at the front of the class and surveys the room.

"Class, my name is Ms. Lee, and I will be your Intro to Drawing professor this semester." She says all this with a very low, stern tone. "I only have a few rules in this classroom. One, you must arrive for class on time and bring all of your supplies every day. Two, no loud voices. And three,” she pauses, survey the room. “No food or drink on the drawing tables."

It's a few seconds before I realize that Ms. Lee is staring directly at our table. I glance at Hongjoong's half-eaten muffin that I had given him sitting in front of him and then at my coffee mug in front of me.

"Oh I'm so sorry," Hongjoong says hurriedly as he grabs the muffin off the table.

I quickly grab my mug and try and stuff it into the side pocket of my bookbag. At a surprising speed, Ms. Lee grabs the trash can that was sitting next to her desk, walks over to our table, and hold it in front of Hongjoong. He tosses the half-eaten muffin inside. Then she holds it in front of me.

I stare up her, a little dumbstruck. I start to unscrew the lid of my mug to dump out my coffee into the trash can.

"Nope, the whole thing," she says, nodding toward my mug. She pushes the trash can closer to me.

"What?" I can hear Hongjoong whisper.

I can feel the entire classroom looking at me. Hongjoong looks like he's going to start yelling and Chaewon looks like she could start crying. I sadly drop my mug into the trash can and stare down at the table. She turns away and heads back up to the front of the room, setting the trash can next to her desk.

"For your first assignment, you will be drawing portraits of the person sitting next to you. Realistic, pencil only, to be turned in on Wednesday." With this, she takes a seat at her desk, pulls out a book, and starts reading.

The class stares around aimlessly for a few minutes. Ms. Lee looks up from her book.

"Well, you better get working," she says with her eyebrows raised.

The class immediately starts pulling out sketchbooks and pencils.

"What the hell just happened?" Hongjoong whispers to the table.

"I'm kinda scared," Chaewon said nervously.

"We can talk after class," Yeosang whispered to us. "We should probably get working." He swivels in his seat to intently stare at Hongjoong and begins sketching.

"Are you okay, Jaemin?" Hongjoong asks me.

I was silently fiddling with my pencils. "Yeah, I'm fine." I turn to Chaewon. "Do you mind if I draw you?"

"Oh, of course not!" she says eagerly.

We spend the remainder of the class doing rough sketches of each other's faces. The second the clock strikes 10:30, Ms. Lee gets up from her desk. She glances around the classroom one more time, pausing at our table. Leaning over she grabs the trash bag containing my mug and Hongjoon's half-eaten muffing and strides out of the room.

“Well, there goes my mug,” I say while staring at the doorway Ms. Lee had just walked out of.

"I guess that means the class is over," Chaewon says looking around the room.

"Class, right." Hongjoong huffs. "She didn't even teach anything! No guidelines on how she wants these portraits done? She sat up there on her ass the whole time reading that goddamn book. And then that whole stunt with your mug, Jae! What was that about?"

"I did some research on some of the professor here," Yeosang says, interrupting Hongjoong's ranting. "Apparently she pulls stuff like this every year to try and intimidate students. No one knows why."

"I guess I just happened to be the unlucky target this year," I say.

"I didn't even get to finish my muffin!" Hongjoong is basically yelling at this point.

"If you're so hungry, let's go get some lunch," Yeosang says, pulling Hongjoong towards the door.

"Do you want to come with us?" I ask Chaewon.

"Really?" she says.

"Yeah," Hongjoong adds. "We're table friends now."

She giggles, and the four of us leave the classroom and head towards the nearest dining hall.

...

After lunch, I bid Hongjoong, Chaewon, and Yeosang goodbye and walk in the direction of my next class. I secretly pray that it goes better than the trainwreck that was this morning.

Campus is much busier now that it is almost noon. Students are everywhere, and I fall into the natural flow of traffic as we all make our way to our various destinations. My English class is located in one of the oldest buildings on campus. The inside looks like something straight out of a classic 80s college movie. It was a drastic change from the modern feeling the Arts building had. I walk into the classroom and am pleasantly surprised to see a familiar face.

"Fancy seeing you here," I say to Mingi, who immediately looks up from his phone as I approach his desk.

"Jaemin?! What are you doing here?" He looks happy to see me.

"I'm in this class," I say a little jokingly

"Oh, yeah I guess that would make sense," He says while running his hand through his hair. "Here, take a seat," he says while patting the desk next to him.

"What are the odds that would actually have a class together?" I ask him as a set down my bag and take a seat.

"Honestly, way too large to calculate right now. My brain is already fried from my class this morning," he says, rubbing his temples.

"Oh, how was it?"

"It was alright, I'm already just a little overwhelmed."

"Tell me about it, at least one of your professors isn't out to get you."

"Seriously?"

I tell him the whole story about Ms. Lee and the coffee mug.

"You're kidding," he says after I finish.

"Nope. RIP to one of my favorite mugs."

"That really sucks though, like she was way out of line as a professor."

"I guess.." I pause. "Did you have a class with Sooyoung already? She was still asleep when I left this morning."

"Oh yeah," Mingi says, fidgeting in his seat a little. I could tell even just the mention of Sooyoung's name made him blush. It was really cute. "This is the only class I actually don't have with her."

"Well, I guess you have to settle for me then," I joke.

He laughs a little. "Oh psssh I like you too, Jae."

This class did go much smoother than Intro to Drawing had. The professor seemed nice and normal, the workload seemed manageable, and I had Mingi there to keep me entertained me the whole time. Even though I had basically spent the last two days with him, I hadn't really talked to him personally since he was preoccupied with Sooyoung most of the time. He's actually a really goofy guy. He kept imitating the professor in different accents under his breath while I had to stifle my laughter multiple times.

As Mingi and I exit the building and walk towards our dorm, I can't help but be thankful that he was there to cheer me up.

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25 notes · View notes

woo-san-shine · 5 years

Text

Our Way

ateez college au

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: None

Author’s Note: A work in progress!!! Mostly just for fun

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Chapter 6

The sun is beginning to set as we make our way across campus. The air is still warm, and there are people lazily laying on the grass, talking loudly about plans for that evening, or just walking around their new home. Hongjoong is leading the pack upfront with Seonghwa, Wooyoung and Jungho are still talking about the game that they had left behind, Yunho and Mingi are clowing each other with Sooyoung laughing extra loud every time Mingi says anything at all.

"She realizes Mingi isn't that funny, right?" A low voice says to me. It was San. He had fallen into step next to me without me realizing.

"Oh, she acts like this whenever she really likes someone," I say to him glancing in her direction. She had just let out another loud giggle at something Mingi had said.

"Hmmm..." San looks back and forth from Sooyoung to Mingi. "I guess I can see it."

"What, them getting together?"

"Yeah. But she's your friend, I'm sure you have more of an opinion."

"Sooyoung likes someone who... needs her, in a way. She likes to be in control." Sooyoung had boyfriends in the past who couldn't handle her confidence and strong personality, or at least that's what I would tell her when the relationship would end. "Also helps that they're in the same major," I add.

"Ah, that makes sense," he pauses. "What are you studying?"

"I'm in the College of Art majoring in Graphic Design. You?"

"I'm in the College of Education. I want to be an elementary school teacher."

"That's adorable," I say before I can stop myself. Goddamnit, why do I keep doing this? "I mean kids... are adorable..."

San smiles. "Ha, yeah. I've always been good with kids. Yunho is in education too, so I’ll have classes with him."

"Aw that's nice to be with someone you know.”

“You’ll be with Yeosang though, right? He’s the same major as you.”

"Yeah I've heard, still have to actually meet him though."

"He's a treat alright. A little shy at first but he comes out of his shell once you get to know him."

The group comes to a stop in front of a large all-glass building. You can see the reflection of the sunset illuminating off of one side.

"Wow," Sooyoung says gazing up at the building.

"It's even better on the inside," Mingi says.

We enter the building and are greeted by a large lobby willed with giant cushy chairs, flat-screen TVs, and it’s very own dining hall. It was much nicer that my dorm lobby, but it also seemed rather cold and unwelcoming. Not as homey. We pile into the elevator and I find myself squeezed in between San and Wooyoung.

"Aww, a rose between two thorns," Wooyoung says looking from San to me.

San rolls his eyes.

"Hey, I saw that!" Wooyoung yells.

The two joke back and forth for the entire elevator ride and the walk down the hallway to a room with a whiteboard labeled "Kang Yeosang" on it. Hongjoong knocks. After a few second and boy answers the door.

"Yeosang!!!!" Everyone except Sooyoung and I yell. The boys hurriedly make their way into the room, either hugging or giving the boy who answered the door a clap on the back.

"No, yeah, please. Make yourselves at home," he says sarcastically looking over his shoulder at everyone who had just run in. He turns back to us. He looks slightly puzzled.

"Uh, hi," I say. "I don't think you know us, but I'm Jaemin and this and Sooyoung and we..."

"Oh, right. It's nice to meet you, I'm Yeosang," he bows to us and them shakes our hand. "They told me about you. Please come in."

The thing that I noticed first about Yeosang was his deep voice. It was quite a shock coming out of his fairly small frame. He was probably one of the smallest out of the group, but his features were striking. He had thick brown hair that covered his forehead, bright green eyes, rather large ears, and high cheekbones. His face looked as if it had been carved out of marble, there was no other way to describe it.

We walk in and as he shuts the door behind us. Sooyoung whispers "Seriously, what have they been saying about us?"

I shrug, but before I can say anything I am stopped in my tracks by what I see. We have just walked into one of the nicest college dorms I had ever seen. There was a full kitchen with a small island, a dining table and chairs, a living room with a large couch and a TV, and a separate room with a bedroom and bathroom.

"You're kidding me," Sooyoung says, mouth slightly gaping.

Yeosang sheepishly runs his hand through his hair. "Uh, yeah it's a nice place." He looks embarrassed. "I'm on the scholarship so..."

"Yeosang's family also has m-o-n-e-y," Yunho fake loudly whispers from his place at the dining table.

"Ya know everyone here knows how to spell and hear," Seonghwa says.

"I don't know about that, Mingi's pretty questionable," Wooyoung adds raising his hand in the air.

Mingi elbows Wooyoung hard in the ribs which makes him double over in pain. Yunho and Jongho snicker, Seonghwa rolls his eyes, but San and Hongjoong look slightly concerned.

"Wait, this was one of the options for living if you were on scholarship?" Sooyoung asks Yeosang.

"Yeah, I think so."

Sooyoung looks over in my direction for a brief second. I knew that she was probably thinking 'why the hell aren't we living here?' but there was no way that my family could've afforded this dorm. I look down at my shoes, slightly embarrassed.

"Do you both want a tour?" Yeosang asks us.

He takes Sooyoung and I around the apartment-style dorm while the others do indeed make themselves at home. By the time we're finished, most of the boys are in the living room. Someone had figured out how to turn on Yeosang's TV and started a game of Super Smash Bros. Sooyoung goes into the living room and confidently set herself next to Mingi on the couch. I walk over to the dining room table and sit across from Hongjoong, who was just sitting by himself and enjoying watching the boys play games. Yeosang follows and sits next to me.

"Are you the one in Graphic Design?" He asks me.

"Yep, that's me," I say with a small smile. "I've been told that's what you're studying too."

"Ha, yeah."

"Is your first class tomorrow Intro to Drawing at 9 a.m.?"

"Sure is."

"What?! Mine too!" Hongjoong says excitedly, breaking his stare from the intense game going on in the living room.

"What are you doing in that class?" Yeosang asks.

"It's for my minor! I told you that last month when we made our schedules."

"Oh right," he replies.

"You should totally sit with us tomorrow!" Hongjoong says to me.

"Really?" I ask.

"Of course!"

We talk for a while about what we think classes will be like before Yunho comes over and slams a large hand on the table.

"Alright people, it's almost time." He says to us.

"Time for what?" I ask him.

"The cleanse," he says seriously.

"The what?" I ask again, highly confused.

"Does she really not know," Wooyoung asks, walking over to stand next to Yunho.

I stare back at them, eyebrows raised.

"There's a tradition that the night before fall classes start all the freshman jump into the fountain," Wooyoung says to me.

"Wait," I say hands out stretched. "That huge fountain in the middle of campus?"

"That's the one," Wooyoung replies.

"But, why?" I ask the group.

"Some people think it's for good luck," Jongho answers.

"Almost like a cleanse before the semester starts," Hongjoong adds.

"I actually did hear about that, but I didn't know if it was true," Sooyoung says, still seated next to Mingi on the couch.

"That sounds kinda..." I start

"Dangerous? Silly? Pointless?" Seonghwa asks.

"Fun," I say.

"Well then let's get going!" Yunho yells, leading everyone out of the dorm.

We exit Yeosang's dorm and head in the direction of the fountain. It was dark now, but campus is still well-lit. There were a lot of people, presumably all freshman, heading in the same direction. Once we reach the fountain, there is a large crowd gathered around it. The fountain itself was probably a little smaller than a football field. There were large jets in the middle that shot water about 20 feet high. With the number of people that were here, it would be surprising if we all fit.

"How deep is it?" Yeosang asks, a little nervously.

"Oh come on, it probably only goes up to your knees," Mingi says nudging his shoulder.

"Hey, let's put our stuff over here!" Hongjoong yells, pointing to a large tree next to the crowd gathered around the fountain.

We head over in that direction. We all start to take our shoes off and pull our phones out of our pockets. Both Jongho and Wooyoung immediately take their shirts off and toss them with their things. Jongho's muscles and Wooyoung's confidence are very apparent. San follows, but no one else seems to be as daring or seems to care. Seeing this, Sooyoung promptly strips down to a sports bra and spandex shorts. She isn't the smallest girl, but boy was she confident. She waltzes past Mingi who isn't even trying to hide staring at her. I look down at my own shirt, a white cotton T-shirt.

"It's gonna become see-through once it gets wet anyway, might as well take it off," Sooyoung whispers to me, winking.

I sigh and walk back over to where I had put my shoes and my phone. I peak around to make sure no one is looking at me and wriggle out of my shirt. I am now only wearing a black lace bralette and high-waisted jean shorts. This is as far as I'm going. I wrap my arms around myself and head over to we're the group is standing by the edge of the fountain.

"Two minutes until 10 o'clock!" Jongho yells after checking his watch.

"So what, do we just walk in?" Sooyoung asks the boys.

"Some people walk, some people fall in, some people swim all the way to the jets, really whatever you want," Hongjoong says.

"I have an idea," I say kinda shyly.

Every single boy's eyes look over to me.

"Uh, what if we all stood on the edge and jumped? Like, all together," I say. There's a pause. "Carefully, of course," I add.

They all glance in Hongjoong's direction, almost as if to get his approval.

"I like it! Everybody climb on the edge, quick!" He says.

We all form a line and step into the end he of the fountain. People around us are either with doing the same, sitting on the edge, or backing up like they are going to hurdle over the edge. I find myself in between Sooyoung and San. His face is shining with excitement, dimples in full view. He looks down at me and we both grin. He looks over my head and then cocks it to the side, indicating to look at what's going on next to me. I turn just in time to watch Mingi, who is next to Sooyoung, ask if he can hold her hand while we all jump.

"AWWWW HOW CUUUUUUTE," Wooyoung's loud voice echos from down the line. "I want to hold hand too!!!" He immediately grabs the hands of Yunho and Seonghwa on either side of him. Yunho sways precariously on the edge from the force of Wooyoung's hand holding and Seonghwa rolls his eyes.

A countdown begins to ripple across the crowd.

"TEN, NINE, EIGHT!"

The boys start whooping and cheering.

"SEVEN, SIX, FIVE!"

I can’t hold back my laughter as I look around at all the excited faces about to jump into the fountain. How could something so juvenile bring so much joy to a bunch of teenagers?

"FOUR, THREE, TWO!"

At the last second, San grabs my hand and squeezes it.

"ONE!"

I feel my feet leaving the edge of the fountain. For a split second, I know nothing except the warm breeze through my hair and the pressure of San's hand in mine. But soon my body is engulfed in freezing cold water. The bottom of the fountain is surprisingly slippery and the moment my feet touch the bottom, I start falling backward. San starts to fall too and we both try our best to steady each other but eventually we fall into the cool water, completely submerged.

I quickly get up and brush my hair out of my eyes. San is kneeling on the ground, rubbing the water out of his eyes. When he looks up at me, we laugh at how silly we both look. I gaze around to look for the others. Everyone around us seems to have either fallen too, or is still climbing over the edge. People are laughing, shouting, swimming, and splashing in the water. I find Hongjoong, who is wading from person to person making sure they are okay.

"Hey! You guys good?" He yells towards San and I.

I give him a thumbs-up as San starts to wade towards Wooyoung. He whispers something into his ear and they both start to creep over towards Hongjoong, who has his back turned. Once they reach him, Wooyoung grabs Hongjoong’s arms and raises them above his head. San goes for his legs. The pair hoist above the water and start to swing him back and forth. The others notice and start chanting.

“HONGJOONG! HONGJOONG! HONGJOONG!”

After a few more swings, they toss him back into the water. A few seconds pass before he emerges from the water. He stares back at his friends, all of whom are giggling or cackling with laughter. He pretends to act mad before a huge smile spreads across his face, even bigger than mine.

We spend a good thirty or so minutes just playing around in the water, starting with a crackhead version of ‘sharks and minnows’. Once a game of chicken starts, I decide to sit this one out. I wade over to an edge of the fountain that isn’t occupied and lie on my back, floating atop of the water. I stare up at the night sky.

The last day and a half had been so busy that I hadn’t even had the chance to really just stop and think. Classes start tomorrow. Am I prepared? Will the professors like me? Do I even know where my classes are?

I figure suddenly obstructs my view of the night sky. It’s Jongho.

“Mind if I sit with you?” he asks.

I sit up and lean my back against the fountain’s edge. “No, of course,” I pat the top of the water next to me.

He takes a seat.

“This is pretty fun, huh,” I say to him.

“Yeah, pretty cool tradition.” He pauses for a second. “Um.. I just wanted to say thanks.”

“For what?”

“For uh... wanting to hang out with us I guess.” He looks over to his friends and Sooyoung who are still playing in the water.

I am taken aback. “Well, you don’t have to thank me.”

“I do, really. We haven’t really had friends outside of our group in so long. Most people either think we are too intimidating or too weird to want to hang out with us.”

Well, he wasn’t totally wrong. The group as a whole was slightly intimidating and the way the interacted with each other could come across as a little weird.

I wave my hand to him. “I should be the one thanking you! If it wasn’t for you guys Sooyoung and I would probably be cooped up in or dorm staring at the wall.”

He chuckles.

“Really, thank YOU for introducing us to everyone,” I say as genuinely as I can.

“I’m glad you needed help carrying all those boxes yesterday,” he says smiling.

I look over at him. When I meet his gaze, he shyly looks down and fidgets with his fingers. I wanted to say something nice back, but before I can open my mouth a wave a water washes over us.

“Hey! We’re about to head out you two.” Wooyoung had come over and splashed us.

We all climb out of the fountain and rush over to the tree where we had put our things.

“Will we be seeing you again?” Yunho asks me, his large eyes extra wide.

“I sure hope so,” I reply.

As I am saying goodbye to Yunho, Wooyoung, and Yeosang, San walks up to me.

“You have a leaf in your hair,” I say as he stops in front of me. I stand on my tip-toes to reach to pick it out of his black and red-streaked hair.

“Oh, thank you,” he says. “It was nice to meet you, Jaemin.” He wears a soft smile, dimples only slightly peaking out.

“Uh, no of course. It was nice to meet you too,” I say shyly. I clutch my t-shirt to my chest.

Before I can say anything else, Sooyoung grabs me by the arm and starts to drag me towards the direction of our dorm. Maybe it’s a good thing I keep getting interrupted when talking with these boys. I don’t know why I’m always at such a loss for words.

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20 notes · View notes

woo-san-shine · 5 years

Text

Our Way

ateez college au

Word Count: 2.8k

Warnings: None

Author’s Note: A work in progress!!! Mostly just for fun

prev // next

Chapter 5

By the time Sooyoung and I finally woke up, it was almost 11. The twin bed wasn't as bad as I had assumed it to be. We decided to go to one of the dining halls for breakfast, explore the rest of campus a little, and then go do a workout at the campus recreation center pool. We both loved to swim and had been on the swim team together. Sooyoung had been pretty good and made it to the regional meet in the backstroke, which she liked to bring up as much as she could.

After our workout, we made our way to the hot tub to relax.

"Ouch, that last set really killed my arms," I said winching while lowering myself in the hot water.

Sooyoung was leaning her head back with eyes closed. "Pool was nice, should we make this a regular thing?"

"Yeah I'd like that."

We sit there for a while beside each other, relaxing in the warm water. It had only been one day, but the atmosphere here was already beginning to feel like a home.

"Funny seeing you guys here," a voice says from behind us.

We both whip around to see a shirtless Jongho smiling at is. He was even more well defined without a shirt. I tried my best to not stare.

"Weren't you supposed to be helping your friends move in?" Sooyoung asks in an accusatory tone.

"We finished already. But I still needed to get a workout in. Thought I'd come here to relax my muscles, and then I find you two here." He climbs in the hot tub and sits across from us.

"We swam," I said gesturing toward our swim caps and goggles laying next to the hot tub.

"Oh nice," he says while stretching his arms behind his head. "I wish I was a better swimmer, but I just sink."

"Usually happens so someone with a lot of muscle mass," I say before I could stop myself. Sooyoung let's loose a giggle while Jongho just sat there and smirked.

"What are you guys doing the rest of the day?" He asks.

Sooyoung and I look back and forth from each other and shrug. "Not really sure," she says.

"Well, would you guys be interested in hanging out again? Since the rest of the group is here now that is," he says to us.

"Oh I don't know, we don't want to intrude..." I try to say before Jongho interrupts.

"Oh stop! Hongjoong himself said he likes you both and thinks the others would too."

"Why does his opinion matter so much?" Sooyoung asks.

Jongho looks off into the distance. "Well.. he's kind of like the leader of our group," Jongho does finger quotes around the word 'leader'. "He brought us all together at one point, so... he's gained all of our respect in a way."

"Interesting," I say. I could kind of tell last night that whenever Hongjoong talked, the rest of the guys always gave him their full attention, Mingi even glancing away from Sooyoung to look at him.

"But anyway, you guys up to hang out tonight?" Jungho asked.

"Of course!" Sooyoung replies.

"Yeah, just stop by our room whenever," I say.

"Cool, I'll see you ladies later then," Jongho says. He then gets out of the hot tub and waves us goodbye before heading into the men's locker room.

"You're just wanting another chance to hang out with Mingi again aren’t you?" I ask Sooyoung.

She splashes some hot water in my face, but doesn't deny it either

...

A few hours later there is a knock on our door. Sooyoung gets up to answer it while I finish putting on some mascara.

"Oh, hi everyone," I hear her say.

I turn from the mirror to see Mingi, Jongho, Hongjoong, and Seonghwa standing in our doorway. They are all dressed casually, t-shirts and shorts. Hongjoong's shirt is a bright tie-dye creation that looked homemade.

"Oooh I love your lights," he says looking up at the string lights we had put up around our room. "We should have done something like this, Mars,"

"You can on your side," Seonghwa says while folding his arms.

The group of us leave the dorm and make our way out into the hot August evening.

"So, where to?" I ask the boys.

"Davidson Hall," Hongjoong says. "That's where Woo, San, and Yunho live."

Mingi and Sooyoung were talking about their upcoming classes again, walking slightly behind the rest of us.

"What are they like?" I ask Hongjoong.

"Oh they're a fun group," he replies. "Never a dull moment with them. Kinda glad they all agreed to room together, to be honest. They're fun alright, but sometimes you need a break."

We enter the residence hall, which looked pretty similar to ours, and head to the elevator. The six of us cram in and Seonghwa presses the number 14 on the key pad.

"14th floor? That's pretty high up. Hope Woo overcame his fear of heights," Mingi says. This makes the rest of the boys chuckle.

The door opens and we all follow Hongjoong down the hall to a door on the right-hand side. The whiteboard on this door says "Jung Wooyoung", "Jeong Yunho", and "Choi San".

"I told them we'd be coming but.." Hongjoong begins to say as he raises his hand to knock on the door. Before he could knock, the door swings open. Three boys are standing in the doorway, each with humongous grins on their face.

"Welcome to 'Chateau de WooSanHo'," the tallest boy with shockingly blue hair who was standing in the middle says. The two other boys make grandiose gestures with their arms, leading us into the room.

"How did you know we were here?" Hongjoong asks the trio.

"We saw you coming out the window, we have a great view here up here," the boy on the left with dark hair says.

"And then we just waited by the door and listened for the sound of Mingi's dullset tones to come down the hallway," the boy on the right with blond hair says.

"But I wasn't even talking!?" Mingi yells at them with hands in the hair.

"Not your voice, silly," the boy with the dark hair says while shaking his finger at Mingi. "The sound of your big feet slapping on the floor usually gives you away."

For some reason, this made me burst out laughing. The boy with the black hair looked to me and smiled, almost like he was proud that he made someone laugh. Hongjoong, Seongwha, and Jongho were laughing too. Sooyoung was looking up at Mingi who, for a split second, looked like he was ready to fight.

"Please, come in," the boy with the blue hair says.

"Ah ah ah," the blond-haired boy says while poking Seonghwa in the chest who had started to step forward to walk into the room. "Ladies first."

I silently point to my chest and give him a 'who, me?' type of expression. He nods, smiling to Sooyoung and I.

Both of us walk into the room. It is shaped more like a rectangle, as opposed to our room which was square-shaped. On one end of the room sits a bunk bed and on the other is a single bed and some closets. The long wall in front of us has three desks that sit in front of a large window. Each desk has either a gaming computer or console sitting on top. In the middle of the room were different bean bags and folding chairs surrounding a coffee table. It looked very much like a typical guys room; nothing too fancy, but comfortable at the same time.

The rest of the boys file into the room after us. The blond boy gestures to the two largest bean bags for Sooyoung and I to sit on. Everyone finds a seat except for the three who greeted us.

"Should we go ahead and introduce ourselves, boys?" The blue-haired one says.

"Oh god," Seonghwa says, putting his face in his hands.

The three boys line up, tallest to shortest in front of Sooyoung and I.

"Hello, my name is Yunho, you know?" The blue-haired boy says excitedly. "My best features are my height and my ability to dance to any song known to man!" He does a quick spin and strikes a pose, pointing to the next boy.

"Hi, my name is San," the dark-haired boy says. "My best features are my dimples," he smiles really big and points to the set of dimples that appeared on his cheeks, "and my duality," his face immediately changes from the innocent dimpled smile, to a smoldering stare, to a big goofy grin. He points to the last boy.

"Hello, I'm Wooyoung," the blond-haired boy says while throwing us a wink. "My best features are my hair," he sexily runs a hand through his thick blond hair, "and my charm," he pulls the hand that had been behind his back to reveal two roses which he hands each of us.

Mingi stands up and gives a very enthusiastic but slightly sarcastic round of applause. Hongjoong and Jongho are both giggling and Seonghwa still has his face in his hands. Laughing, I look to Sooyoung who looked slightly confused.

"Wow that was... something," she says looking at her rose.

"I liked it," I say, smiling up at the trio.

"Don't tell me you practiced that," Jungho says.

"Well when Hongjoong told us that you guys were coming over with some guests we thought we should do something special to get to know them," Yunho says.

"Especially after we've heard so much about you," Wooyoung says.

"Really?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. I feel my face slightly blushing.

"It wasn't because we were bringing two girls over was it?" Hongjoong asks glancing at Wooyoung.

Everyone snickers except for Wooyoung, who shyly runs his fingers through his hair.

Wooyoung was very handsome. His hair was a blond that was almost silver-toned that went well with his tanned skin. His eyes were dark and wide. He was short, but had very nice proportions. I could tell that he was a confident guy and probably had girls following him around constantly. But there was definitely more to him than his looks, I just didn't know what it was yet.

"Wait a minute, what have you heard about us?" Sooyoung asks.

"Oh, well Jongho was bragging that he was the first person to actually talk to a girl here," Yunho said. "That was you, right?" he asks, pointing to me.

"Uh, yeah. Although I believe the first 'girl' he actually talked to was my Mother," I say, putting finger quotes around the word girl.

This makes everyone laugh.

"Oh and Mingi over here.." Wooyoung starts to say, but before he can finish Mingi kicks him from where he is sitting on a bean bag next to Sooyoung making Wooyoung yelp in pain.

"Do you guys want to introduce yourselves?" Yunho asks, grinning at us.

Yunho had a very friendly face. His hair was fully bright blue, unlike Mingi's hair who just had a few streaks of blue on the ends. It was very unique and made him stand out. He was also very tall, towering over everyone in the room. All of his features were big and bold. He had dark eyes like Wooyoung, big cheeks, and a bright smile. Something just made me want to smile.

"Uhhh..." I start to say.

"Fine, I'll go," Sooyoung says, standing up from her bean bag. "My name is Sooyoung, and I would say my best features are my intelligence, my athletic abilities, my independence, my adaptability, my great looks...."

She starts counting off other qualities on her fingers. I notice the everyone but Mingi, who is giving her his upmost attention, is glancing from one another looking a little awkward. I try my best to look like I hadn't noticed the other's reactions and nod along with her. She pauses slightly.

"Anything else?" Wooyoung asks.

Seonghwa and Jongho both snort. Mingi stares daggers at Wooyoung.

"Uh, no I'm done," she says and quickly sits down.

Everyone turns their attention to me. I stand and wipe my palms on my shorts. "Well, I'm Jaemin, but you can call me Jae if you like. Ummm.." I furrow my brows and try to think. "I would say my best features are... my personality... and my hair," I pull the same move Wooyoung had done by sexily running my hand through my hair.

Everyone laughs again. "OOOHH you got some competition!" Yunho shouts pointing at Wooyoung.

Wooyoung gets up from his chair and does the same move staring at me straight in the face. I was intimidated at first, but then he winked at me and smirked. I shyly sit back down in my seat, everyone either still laughing or whistling at Wooyoung.

"Ya know your hair would look a lot better if you quit dyeing it so much," Sooyoung says to me with her arms folded.

I blush, staring down at my feet.

"Hey, I like it," Hongjoong says. "You and San match."

I look over to the boy named San.

We did have very similar hair colors, his streaks of red being a little more bold than mine. He had a very strong jaw that I noticed right away. His eyes were an almost grey color that stood out against his pale skin and dark hair. He wasn't built like Jungho, but his figure was toned. When he smiled at me, his dimples poked out again.

"Great minds think alike I guess," I say to him.

"You did it yourself?" He asks.

"Yeah, I like to change my hair a lot," I shrug. "I've had pink hair, blue hair, blond hair, purple hair. You name it."

"Well, this hair looks really nice on you," he says, showing his dimples again.

I blush and thank him.

"What games do you got on here?" Jongho asks. He had gotten up from his seat and was examining one of the gaming computers on the desk.

All the boys immediately jump up and rush over to the computers. I watch for awhile as they take turns playing Legue of Legends, cheering each other on and making fun of one another if they mess up. I look over to Sooyoung who is scrolling on her phone. Every now and then she glances up at Mingi, but when he’s too focused on the game to notice she goes back to mindlessly scrolling.

After a few more games Hongjoong comes over and plops himself in-between us.

"Ah I wish I was as good at games as the rest of them, they can do this for hours," he says while looking up at his friends.

"Oh great," Sooyoung groans still looking at her phone.

"Thanks for introducing us to your friends," I say to him hurridly before he can catch on to Sooyoung's attitude. Remembering what Jongho had said earlier, it was probably under Hongjoong's approval that we could even be here tonight.

"Oh, don't thank me!" he says waving a hand at me. "It's nice to make some new friends here so soon."

"You have a really good group," I say genuinely.

"Oh! That reminds me!" He pulls out his phone and proceeds to call someone. He pauses for a second while the phone rings. "Hello? Yeah... Can we come over now? Yeah okay. See you soon. Bringing everybody, bye!"

"Was that Yeosang?" Seonghwa asks getting up from his spot at the computer.

"Yeah, we're going to head over there now," Hongjoong answers.

"Wait, there's more of you?' Sooyoung asks bewildered.

"Ha, only one more," Mingi says, extending a hand to pull her up from her bean bag.

"Come on everyone! Let's go!" Hongjoong yells.

The rest of the boys slowly get up from the computers and begin to make their way out of the dorm.

"Where are we going?" I ask Yunho who had helped me up from my seat.

"Yeosang's dorm. He lives in Martins Hall."

"Martins Hall?!' Sooyoung says in disbelief.

"What's so special about Martins Hall?" I ask.

"That's the nicest dorm on campus!" She says.

"His place is a little more... roomy," Yunho says, pausing to think of the right words.

"It's better for more people," Hongjoong says from the door. "We would've all just gone there first, but we were waiting until his parents left."

"Then you would've missed our welcome committee," Wooyoung chimes in.

"Oh, and what a tragedy that would have been," Seonghwa jokes.

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17 notes · View notes

woo-san-shine · 5 years

Text

Our Way

ateez college au

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: Slight language

Author’s Note: A work in progress!!! Mostly just for fun

prev // next

Chapter 4

"Does he really think that sprinting up three flights of stairs is going to be faster than the elevator?" Sooyoung asks, turning to Mingi who was pressing the number 11 button on the keypad.

"Jongho like to display his athletic abilities at every chance he gets," Mingi answers while sweeping his hair over to the side. "Pretty soon he'll be asking you to arm wrestle."

The elevator dings and opens on the 11th floor. It looked almost identical to the 7th, except for a smiling Jongho who was leaning against the doorframe of a room about halfway down the hall.

"I found their room!" He shouts to us, gesturing his thumb towards the door he was leaning against.

"Dude! How the hell did you beat us?!" Mingi yells back. He then proceeds to sprint out of the elevator toward Jongho. He's not a very graceful runner, arms slightly flailing at his sides. This makes Jongho immediately burst out laughing.

Sooyoung and I exchange a skeptical glance as we follow Mingi down the hallway at a normal pace. They're certainly acting a little goofier than they were before. We arrive at the still laughing pair. I clear my throat to get their attention. Mingi quickly snaps out of his laughing fit and straightens up, trying his best to look composed.

"Uh, yeah sorry about that," Jongho says while trying his best to stifle in his laughter towards Mingi. "This is their room," he says, pointing to the door again. There is another whiteboard on this door too with the names 'Kim Hongjoong' and 'Park Seonghwa' written on it. He reaches down to turn the doorknob, but it appears to be locked.

"Should you knock?" I ask.

Mingi knocks twice, waits a few seconds, and knocks again. No answer. He proceeds to press his ear up to the door, eyebrows furrowed. Sooyoung follows this action putting her ear up to the door as well. Mingi is so tall that Sooyoung practically stands directly under him without so much at the top of her head reaching the middle of his chest.

"It sounds like someone is... vacuuming?" she says, slightly confused.

"Typical," Mingi says while rolling his eyes.

Jongho steps forward and proceeds to bang on the door with enough force that surely the door should have split in half. A few seconds pass before the door finally swings open to reveal a boy holding a vacuum in one hand and a bottle of all-purpose cleaner in the other.

"Hey there, Mars. Doing some deep cleaning are you?" Mingi asks smirking at the boy with the vacuum.

The boy, 'Mars', cracks half a smile at the sight of his friends.

"We've been here for how long and you're already cleaning?" Jongho asks.

"They said that these rooms would be cleaned before we moved in, but there was at least an inch of dust inside the closet and the carpets..."

Before the boy can finish, Jongho brings him in for a hug that lifts him off his feet, vacuum and all. This makes Mingi bust out laughing again. From over Jonhgo's shoulder, vacuum boy finally sees Sooyoung and I both just awkwardly standing there.

"Well hello there," the boy says, slightly strained. This is probably due to Jonhgo's death grip around his waist.

At this, Jongho sets him down. "Oh sorry, this is Kim Jaemin and Choi Sooyoung," Jongho says, pointing to each of us. "I met Jaemin earlier today while we were moving in, and Sooyoung is her roommate. We all live on the same floor."

The boy politely bows to Sooyoung and I and we each return the bow. "Park Seonghwa," he says. He shakes both of our hands.

Seonghwa is also fairly tall, but not as tall as Mingi. He has jet-black hair that was short in the back, but his bangs are long and sweep across on side of his forehead. His eyes are a greenish color and slightly hooded, making his expression seem almost... sultry? It was the first word that came to my mind. He had very striking features. He wasn't built like Jungho either, being slightly more in the thinner side. His legs were long and his shoulders were very broad.

"They're both from three hours north of here, and they don't have any friends yet," Mingi states.

"Hey!" Sooyoung says while shooting Mingi a glare. Mingi clearly had no idea he said anything wrong and looked slightly confused at Sooyoung's retort.

"I mean, he's not wrong," I say shrugging.

"Anyway," Jongho says while rolling his eyes. "Can we come in?"

"Oh, yeah of course," Seonghwa says, gesturing his hand holding the vacuum into the room.

Sooyoung and I follow Mingi and Jongho into the room as Seonghwa places the vacuum and all-purpose cleaner next to what I assume is his desk. The room is set up the exact same as mine and Sooyoung's. However, each side of the room is drastically different. Seonghwa's side of the room is neatly organized with a muted color pallet. Everything on his desk has a specific place and his bed is perfectly made. The other side of the room is almost overflowing with decorations, books, and posters strewn about the wall. Various clothes, hats, scarves, and other accessories hang from the bed frame due to the fact that there was no room in the overflowing closet. Atop the desk sits a keyboard and a giant computer monitor. In front of the monitor sit a boy wearing a giant pair of headphones. He doesn't seem to have noticed that he has guests.

Mingi begins to tiptoe over to the occupied desk. He turns back to the rest of us, puts a finger to his lips and goes "shhhhh." He then grabs the boy’s headphones and snaps them once against his head. This causes the boy to whip around in his chair so fast that he almost falls off. Jongho and Mingi start laughing and Seonghwa lets out a little chuckle while rolling his eyes.

"What the hell?!" the boy shouts while simultaneously grabbing ahold of one side of his lofted bed to steady himself. He looks angry at first, but at the sight of a still laughing Jongho and a smirking Mingi, his face breaks out into a wide smile.

"Joonie, always so easy to scare," Mingi says, sticking his arm out to help the boy out of his chair.

"That's a lot, coming from someone who's afraid of his own shadow!" the boy replies, finally taking off his headphones. "I figured we'd see you two eventually, but you could've texted us," he says to Mingi and Jongho. His eyes finally rest upon Sooyoung and I.

"We wanted it to be a surprise! And we brought some new friends," Jongho says gesturing towards the pair of us. "This is Kim Jaemin," he points to me. "I met her this morning during move-in. And this is her roommate, Choi Sooyoung. They live on the 7th floor with us."

The boy immediately steps forward to shake both of our hands. "Kim Hongjoong," he says, clasping my hand with both of his. He does the same to Sooyoung.

Hongjoong had a very unique look about him. He was shorter and smaller than the rest of the guys in the room, but there was something about made him stand out. His hair was a light-brown that was long in the back, reaching the base of his neck. His eyes were large, his nose was small, and his smile was big. His ears were full of different piercings, and the shirt he was wearing looked like it had been drawn and written all over.

"It's nice to meet you both," he says.

"You too," I say shyly. Today had been a little overwhelming in itself, even outside meeting all of these new people. I could tell even Sooyoung was feeling a little out of place due to the fact that she was being fairly quiet.

"Please, everyone have a seat," Seonghwa said. He pulled out the two desk chairs for Sooyoung and I. Jongho and Hongjoong sat down on the floor leaning their backs against the closet, Seonghwa sat himself in a cushioned chair that was next to his desk, and Mingi hurridly climbed up the ladder onto Seonghwa's freshly-made bed. I could see Seonghwa wince slightly as he watched Mingi untuck his comforter.

The four boys were now just staring at the pair of us. I felt a little insecure.

"Urm, how exactly did you meet again?" Hongjoong asked

Sooyoung and I exchanged a quick uncomfortable glance. Maybe we shouldn't have come. I did feel like we were slightly intruding on something.

"Oh, I'm not trying to be rude!" Hongjoong quickly interjected, sensing our discomfort. He looked a little worried.

"Like I said, I met Jaemin this morning during move-in," Jongho said, easing the awkwardness that had fallen over the room.

He flashed me a smile. I instantly felt a little more confident. "Yeah," I added. "I was looking for one of those carts to carry your stuff on, you know? But there were none left. Until Jongho offered to give my family his cart. And then my mom somehow roped him into carrying boxes for us."

"Ooooh how polite our Maknae is," Seonghwa said, giving a side-eye in Jungho's direction.

"Wait, Maknae? Youngest?" Sooyoung questioned.

"Well, out of our group of friends, Jungho is the youngest," Hongjoong explained.

"Little baby isn't even eighteen yet," Mingi cooed. He took one of Seonghwa's many throw pillows that were on his bed and threw it at him. Jongho easily caught it and whipped it back at Mingi, hitting him square in the face. This caused the whole room to start laughing, except for Seonghwa.

"It hasn't even been one day," I heard him say under his breath.

"Wait wait wait," Sooyoung said interrupting the laughs. "How are you only 17 and at University?"

"Ah, well, I was so far ahead on the growth chart during elementary school placement that everyone thought I was older than I was. So I think I technically skipped a grade," Jongho said. He rubbed his hand on the back of his neck, looking a little embarrassed.

"Yeah, so much for your height though," Mingi teased again. Even Seonghwa laughed at this one. Hongjoong was basically rolling on the floor doubled over in laughter.

"At least I don't walk around like a fucking baby giraffe," Jungho calmy said, staring up at Mingi from the floor. This caused both Seonghwa and Hongjoong to start tearing up from laughs and Mingi to bury his face into one of the pillows.

Sooyoung and I laughed too. I enjoyed watching them joke together and I could tell this was something that happened often.

"Anyway," Hongjoong finally said after he composed himself. "You two are roommates right?" He pointed back and forth between Sooyoung and I.

We both nodded.

"How do you know each other?"

"We went to high school together," Sooyoung answered. "We're from three hours north of here, so we thought it would just be convenient to live together when we both decided to come here for school."

"Yeah, seeing as we don't really know anyone from around here," I added.

"Must have been pretty hard to leave your homes, right?" Hongjoong asked?

"Oh yeah, I loved it back at home," Sooyoung replies. “I almost had a breakdown this morning while leaving.”

I shrug. "Eh, I was ready to leave," I say. "Of course I'll miss my parents, but I'm excited for a change." I catch Sooyoung furrowing her brows at me out of the corner of my eye, but the rest of the boys are smiling at the pair of us.

"What are you guys studying?" Seonghwa asks.

"I'm going into Engineering," Sooyoung answers boastfully. She absolutely loved talking about her future academic plans, how difficult it was to even get into Engineering at this University, and especially about her scholarship.

"Oh whoa, now way," Mingi said, immediately straightening up in bed to look at Sooyoung. "That's what I'm studying too."

Sooyoung looked thrilled to hear this. "Really? What's your classed schedule like?" The two start eagerly comparing class schedules.

"And you, Jaemin?" Hongjoong asks me.

"College of Art, specifically Graphic Design."

"Oh cool!" He sounded genuinely excited. "I'm minoring in Fine Arts with a double major in Music Production and Composing."

That was really impressive. Two majors and a minor? The keyboard on his desk suddenly made sense. "Wow, that'll be really interesting to study," I say.

"Yeah, I'm so excited to start classes on Monday," He gives me a big smile.

"Me too," I say to him. I pause slightly. “I.. like music and thought about doing something with it but... I don’t know.”

“Do you sing?” he asks.

“Oh god no,” I hurriedly say. “I play guitar.”

“Ahh, I wish I could play guitar, that’s awesome.”

“He can do pretty much anything else, though,” Seonghwa chimes in.

Hongjoong blushes a little and waves his hand in the air, dismissing Seonghwa’s compliment.

“What about you?" I ask Seonghwa.

"I'm in the College of Business, but haven't picked a specialty yet," he answers.

"Fancy boy just likes the idea of getting to wear suits to class," Jongho jokes.

We spend the rest of the evening talking about our intended majors and what we'd like to do once we actually graduate. Sooyoung and I share more about what life was like in our small town, and the boys continue to joke with one another making everyone in the room almost tear up from laughter multiple times. I was really enjoying myself and felt much more comfortable around them than I had when I first entered the room.

Seonghwa gets out of his chair, stretches, and checks his phone. "We should probably be kicking you guys out soon. It's almost midnight."

I hadn't even realized it had gotten so late, the conversation had just been constantly flowing that I wasn't keeping track of the time.

"Yeah," Hongjoong adds, getting up from the floor. "Didn't we all promise to help the others move in tomorrow?"

Mingi groaned. "Do we have to?"

"It'll be the nice thing to do," Hongjoong said to Mingi giving him a stern look.

This made Mingi groan even more as he slowly climbed down from Seonghwa's bed.

"Well, it was very nice to meet you two," Seonghwa said to Sooyoung and I. He shook both of our hand again.

"Likewise," I said.

"Of course we'll see you both around again, right" Hongjoong said.

Would we? I hadn't really thought that far ahead. I smile to him and give a slight nod.

"Oooh maybe once everyone is all settled we could all meet up and celebrate finally being all together again," he says to the others.

"Joon, it's only been like a week since we've all hung out," Mingi said.

"You know what I mean!" Hongjoong says back. "Finally all being at College together. We've all worked hard to get here."

"Yeah, that actually could be fun," Seonghwa said thoughtfully while fixing the pillows in his bed that Mingi has left strewn about.

"You two could come too, of course," Hongjoong said, looking to Sooyoung and I.

"Really?" Sooyoung questioned.

"Of course, ya get to meet the rest of the group," Mingi said, winking in Sooyoung's direction. This immediately made her blush.

"Let's let these two get to bed, Mars is yawning over there," Jongho said, gesturing towards Seonghwa who was indeed letting lose a rather large yawn. He looked embarrassed when he noticed us all staring at him.

We all said goodbye to Hongjoong and Seonghwa, left the room, and got in the elevator to head back down to the 7th floor.

"They were really nice," I say to no one in particular.

"Yeah, Hongjoong is great with people and Seonghwa can just stand there and people usually fawn over him," Jongho said to me.

Both boys walked us to our room, which I thought was incredibly nice.

"Goodnight ladies," Mingi said with a smile.

"Maybe we'll see you tomorrow?" Jongho asked.

"Yeah maybe, we'll see," I say, not really knowing how to respond.

"Yeah, feel free to stop by anytime," Sooyoung said, but mostly to Mingi.

We head back into our room and start getting ready for bed. I finally climb into my bed and the tiredness that I had been starting to feel all day hits me.

"I had fun talking with them," I say to Sooyoung who was already in bed.

"Yeah I guess. It was lucky that you meet Jongho this morning."

"Mhhhm," I sigh, feeling my eyes starting to get heavy.

"What was with that comment back there, though?."

"What do you mean?" I ask, sitting up in bed to look at Sooyoung in the darkness.

"The whole ‘ready for a change’ thing,"

"When?" I was racking my brain to try and remember what she could possibly be talking about.

"You said you were ready for a change, made it sound like you don’t appreciate our hometown and all our friends back home."

I pause. “I mean... you know things were a little weird right before we left.”

“Do you mean the whole Jihoon thing?”

Jihoon was my ex of three years. We had basically been together most of high school. He had been friends with Sooyoung for a while, and she was the one who had introduced us. He was an overall nice guy, plain and simple. Our friend groups all hung out together and it was really nice for awhile

But things started to get stagnant. I felt like the relationship wasn’t going anywhere. I eventually ended things about a month before leaving for university. He was staying at home to work for his parent’s business and spent most of the last year of our relationship trying to convince me to stay too. He was utterly shocked when I told him I was planning on moving away for university, let alone three hours away. He accused me of being selfish and not thinking about what was best for us. It was hard, but I was doing this for me. I rarely ever thought of myself first, and I still feel guilty about it.

“Yeah, I guess..” I say, trailing off.

“Hmph,” I hear her say in the darkness. Sooyoung had been very against me ending the relationship, mostly because it made things very awkward in our friend group.

“But did you see the way Mingi was looking at you all night?” I ask her, hoping to distract her from talking about Jihoon any further.

“Really?” I hear her giggle slightly.

“Oh for sure, he couldn’t keep his eyes off you.”

"Hmmm you think so?"

"Definitely."

She hums happily. Easily distracted, Sooyoung promptly drifted off to sleep with me following shortly after.

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woo-san-shine · 5 years

Text

Our Way

ateez college au

Word Count: 2.4k

Warnings: Language

Author’s Note: A work in progress!!! Mostly just for fun

prev // next

Chapter 3

After a big lunch and an even bigger shopping trip, my family and I find ourselves in the elevator again, laden with grocery bags full of microwave meals, snacks, and other random things I had realized I needed for my dorm while we were at the store. I was so appreciative towards my parents in that moment. I could tell that they were starting to get tired, and the thought of them having to make the three-hour drive all the way back home made my heart ache. I wasn't worried about getting homesick or anything, but whenever my parents made any sort of sacrifice for me, I couldn't help but feel like I didn't deserve it. I wasn't going to school on some big scholarship like Sooyoung, and I was constantly worried about the money my parents were having to shell out in order for me to go here.

"I'm proud of you, Jae," Dad says suddenly, which pulls me from my deep thoughts.

"Why?"

"Today's a big day, I'm just so happy to see you getting ready to start this next chapter of your life. You've made it so far."

"I'm proud of you too, honey," Mom adds.

They both look at me with beaming smiles.

"Oh, wow, well thanks Mom, Dad." I give them both a bow to express my gratitude.

The elevator door opens, and the hallway is a lot more packed than it was when we left. Hoards of students, parents, and carts fill almost every inch of space making it almost impossible for the three of us to squeeze through with our shopping bags. We make it to my room and find Sooyoung, Taeyoung, and their parents all laying on the floor of the dorm looking exhausted. All three carts are empty, but the room is still cluttered with all of our belonging strewn about.

"You guys tired?" I ask as I laugh my way into the room.

The Choi family slowly pulls themselves up from the floor.

"Alright ladies, I think this is where we leave you," Mr. Choi says making his way towards Sooyoung and bringing her in for an embrace.

Both families say their separate goodbyes. Mothers holding back tears and father giving last-minute advice.

"You better watch over them, Tae," Mrs. Choi says sternly while shaking a finger at her eldest son.

Taeyoung rolls his eyes. "Yeah mom, I know. Don't worry I'll make sure they don't get in too much trouble." He gives both Sooyoung and I a wink from behind his mother's back and we both stifle in giggles.

"We love you, Jaemin," my mom says pulling my Father and I in for one last hug.

Sooyoung and I both watch from the doorway as our families make the trek down the long hallway and into the elevator, eventually disappearing from our view. It's a few moments before we leave the doorway and walk back into our new room. I stare around looking at all of our things that were still not put away yet.

"Well, what should we do now?" I ask.

"Hmmm..." Sooyoung pauses. "We could decorate?"

I let loose a big smile. "You really do know the way to my heart don't you."

She cackles. "Duh!"

I quickly pull out my speaker from one of my desk drawers and turn on some of our favorite music. We spend the next few hours organizing the remainder of our things. We hang posters, pictures, and fairy lights around our room, and excitedly discuss all the things we could do in the tomorrow before classes start. We had left our dorm room door open, a tip we had both read in one of those 'How to Easily Make New Friends in College' blogs, so every now and then a new face would peak into our room and introduce themselves. We'd chat for a little bit, but ultimately whoever they were would leave and we'd get right back to setting up our new space.

It was approaching evening by the time Sooyoung and I threw ourselves down onto the pair of comfy bean bag chairs Sooyoung had brought and had placed in the middle of our room. I rest my feet on top of the small coffee table that I had brought in between us and take a sip of the tea I had just made.

I glance at our reflections in the full-length mirror that hung from my closet door. Sooyoung and I looked very different in the face, but were a similar height. Her hair was blonde, naturally straight, and hung in layers around her face. Her eyes were green, her skin rather pale, and her thin lip usual were usually pursed in some sort of judging expression. She rarely wore makeup, but she really didn't have to. She had broad shoulders and thick arms, strong from all the years of being on the school's swim team. Her figure was curvier than mine was, but she also rarely dressed in a way to show it off. She gave off an air of over-confidence that I envied.

I, on the other hand, had long, dark brown wavy hair with subtle streaks of red in it that I had done myself. I had a bad habit of changing my hair color once every few months. My eyes were bright blue, I had a small nose, and full lips. Unlike Sooyoung, I liked to wear makeup and was rarely ever seen anywhere without at least my eyebrows done. I always thought I had a boring figure. My legs were far too long and muscular from years of running to match my thin arms and short torso. I felt disproportionate and was nowhere near as confident in myself as Sooyoung. Over the years I have grown to appreciate my figure, but there are still moments I’d spend in front of the mirror and over-critique. For as different as Sooyoung and I looked, we were both hard on ourselves for different reasons which we, in turn, gave each other flack for.

"Wow, I'm tired," I say, taking another sip of tea.

"You're always tired," Sooyoung retorts poking my foot.

"Yeah, dealing with you all the time is exhausting." I throw an exaggerated wink in Sooyoung's direction.

"Hey!" she shouts knocking both of my feet off of the coffee table. "You know you love it!"

"Shit, Soo, you're gonna make me spill this!" I yell back to her carefully trying to balance myself on the bean bag with my feet in the air while also trying not to spill the hot cup of tea in my hand.

There's a short knock on our door. I quickly turn around, inadvertently spilling some of the hot tea into my leg, to see Jongho and another boy standing in our doorway.

"Ow, uh, hi there Jongho," I say between clenched teeth as the burn from the hot tea leaves a red mark on my leg.

"You two know each other?" Sooyoung asks questioningly, standing up from her bean bag to approach the door. I watch her eyes scan Jongho and then stop at the boy standing next to him.

"Uh, yeah kind of," Jongho says reaching a rather large hand out towards Sooyoung. "I'm Jongho. I helped Jae move in this morning, so we kind of met then."

Sooyoung shakes his hand, all while still looking at the boy standing next to Jongho. "And, who is this? Did you help Jae move too? She didn't tell me she met anyone today."

I shoot a slightly sympathetic glance at Jongho, which he accepts with a smirk. The boy standing next to him finally speaks.

"Ah, no I didn't. My name is Mingi. I'm Jongho's roommate." He extends his hand out to shake Sooyoung's as well. She takes it, almost too quickly and gives it a good shake.

I get up from my bean bag and walk over towards the door. "Nice to meet you Mingi. I'm Jaemin, and this is Sooyoung," I say, nodding towards Sooyoung who was still staring up at Mingi. Mingi looked a lot different from Jongho. He had to be at least six inches taller than Jongho and towered over all us. He wasn't as built as Jongho, a little lankier, but still had rather large arms and legs. His hair was dark brown, tousled to one side, and had streaks of green and blue in it. His eyes were small, but he had a rather large smile.

"Oh, yeah Jongho told me about the girl he helped move in this morning. He insisted we go and see if you guys were still around," Mingi says nudging Jongho in his side with his elbow. Jongho winces.

"Oh, so Mingi here has a roommate that relays important information to the other when he meets new people, huh," Sooyoung says, slowly turning to me and giving me a dirty look.

"What?" I say taking another sip of my tea. "We have been busy setting up this room all day. I hadn't really had time to tell you about my morning."

"It looks nice in here," Jongho says gazing around our room.

"Yeah," Mingi adds looking at our various posters. "Who listens to the Beatles?" he asks gesturing towards the poster next to my bed.

I am about to chime in that I have been a big Beatles fan my whole life before Sooyoung interjects "Oh, I do. Love the Beatles."

I stare back at her in disbelief. For all I had known, she had never once listened to a Beatles song in her life.

"Nice," Mingi says, letting a brief smile cross his face. He starts walking around the perimeter of the room looking at more of our posters. "Who's your favorite?"

"Uh, Rongo, I.. I mean Ringo."

I had, not so gently, stepped on her foot and whispered the correct name into her ear in order to save her from the embarrassment. Mingi seemed to not have noticed, still walking around our room looking at all of our decorations. Sooyoung turns to me and flips me off for stepping on her foot, but then mouths "thank you".

Jongho, who had observed this whole interaction, turns to me and raises his eyebrows. I shrug back.

"Well, do you guys want take a seat?" I ask, gesturing towards the bean bag chairs.

The four of us then proceed to go back and forth for roughly 3 or so minutes about how it's rude for guests to sit on the floor vs. it's rude for the girls to sit on the floor. Eventually, Sooyoung and I give in and we place ourselves back in our bean bag chairs while Mingi and Jungho sit on the rug.

"So," Jongho says after a few quiet seconds. "Did you two know each other before coming here?"

"Oh yeah of course," Sooyoung says waving her hand towards me. "We've known each other since grade school, actually. Poor little Jae was sitting by herself at the lunch table until I, her savior, ever so graciously took pity on her and sat next to her. The rest was history." She says this last line with her hands in the air and a smug expression on her face.

"Right, something like that," I say, exaggerating my eye roll as best I could.

Both Mingi and Jongho laugh.

"What about you two?" I ask. "Did you guys know each other before moving here?"

"Yes we did," Mingi says. "We're actually from not too far from here, so there's a lot of people from our hometown and high school that end up coming here for college."

"Wow, that must be really nice," I say

"Yeah, it's just the two of us from our tiny hometown!" Sooyoung says, reaching over from her bean bag to bring me in for a tight side hug, ignoring the still hot tea in my hands for the second time. "We don't know a single soul here!"

"Jesus, Soo I'm gonna spill this ."

"Well you know us now," Mingi says with another smile.

Sooyoung immediately lets go of me and directs all her attention to Mingi. "Well aren't we lucky," she says with a slight smirk, mostly directly towards Mingi.

"We actually have a pretty big friend group that all ended up going here for school," Jongho adds.

"You're kidding," I say in disbelief. It must be a relief knowing that you already have a set of established friendships going into college. I couldn't stand being in my hometown any longer than I had to, but it would have been at least a little comforting to know more than one person at a large university like this.

"Well, where are they?" I ask.

Jongho pulls out his phone from his back pocket. "Most of them don't move in until tomorrow since they're in different residence halls with a different move-in date," he says while casually scrolling through something on his phone. "Here, let me check..."

"Wait, I thought Joonie and Mars moved in today. Weren’t they in this building too?" Mingi asks Jongho.

"Let me look back through my texts, hang on," Jongho says, beginning to furiously scroll through the messages on his phone.

Sooyoung and I exchange a brief glance.

"11th floor, let's go," Jongho says after about a minute, looking up from his phone.

Mingi springs up from his seat on the floor and extends a large hand out towards Sooyoung, which she just stares at. "Come one, take it," he says to her.

"Uh.." she looks towards me again.

"We don't want to intrude on anything..." I say, slightly trailing off. I look back and forth between Mingi and Jongho, who are both just staring down at us. "I mean.. they're your friends..."

"Oh, don't be silly," Mingi insists, reaching down to grab Sooyoung's hand and pulling her to her feet. She looked a little overwhelmed for someone who was so heavily flirting a minute ago.

"Come on, I'm sure they'd want to meet you," Jungho says, getting up from his seat on the floor. He gives me a reassuring glance.

So much for having a quiet, relaxing night in with my cup of tea I think to myself as I place the cup on the coffee table and get to my feet.

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12 notes · View notes

woo-san-shine · 5 years

Text

Our Way

ateez college au

Word Count: 2k

Warnings: None

Author’s Note: A work in progress!!! Mostly just for fun

prev // next

Chapter 2

Jongho and I begin to make our way towards the entrance of the residence hall.

"I don't think I caught your name," he says to me leaning past one of the boxes he was carrying to look at me. "Jae, was it?"

"Kim Jaemin, but everyone usually calls me Jae," I reply. He didn't even look like he was struggling with those boxes at all.

"Nice to meet you, Jae," he smiles back at me. He adjusts his grip and starts to read the labels I had carefully written on each of my boxes. Being almost overly organized is one of my many talents. "Kitchen Supplies, Shoes, Art Supplies? Are you an artist?" he asks.

"Uh yeah, kind of," I answer a little sheepishly. "I'm studying Graphic Design," I say. Art was something I never really shared with anyone, except Sooyoung, so people were pretty surprised when I decided to major in something other than music when I went off to college.

"Oh wow, no way! One of my friends is studying the same thing!" Jongho says excitedly. "Maybe you'll be in the same class." He flashes me another smile.

It takes me a second to answer. His big brown eyes are so earnest. "Oh, yeah maybe. That would be nice," I reply hurriedly in order to not let him catch me staring at his eyes again.

We enter the dorm building on the first floor, which has a front desk area, a mailroom, and a common area full of couches, tables and chairs, and a few TVs.

"Oh good, there's a place for you to get your mail," I hear my mom say from behind me. "I've already been planning on what I'm going to put in your first few care packages."

I hear a slight chuckle come from Jungho and I shoot him an exasperated look, which makes him laugh even more.

"Elevator this way!" Dad shouts, pointing toward a row of elevators next to the mailroom.

We pile in with all of my things, Jongho and I pressed towards the back. "So uh, what are you studying?" I ask trying to fill the silence that had followed us into the elevator.

"Exercise Science," Jongho proudly states, slightly puffing out his chest.

"Oh, I can see that," I say without thinking.

"Why is that?" He asks, looking down at me with a raised eyebrow.

Why do I always have to dig myself in a hole? I quickly think of a response. "Oh, uh, you just look like someone who knows a lot about fitness. I mean, clearly you take good care of yourself," I say, nodding towards the three heavy boxes in his hands. My eyes trail his built frame again.

"Oh, well yeah you're pretty much right," he says with a slight smirk. "I want to maybe be a personal trainer one day."

To my relief, the elevator door opens on the 7th floor and the four of us start the long trek down what seemed like a neverending hallway of dorm rooms.

"Room 71024!" I yell towards my Dad who was leading the way with the cart.

"That's my room," Jungho nods towards a door on the right. There is a whiteboard hanging from the door with the names 'Choi Jungho' and 'Song Mingi' written in big bold letters. Mingi must be his roommate.

"Oh, so the male and female rooms aren't separate?" I can hear Dad ask sternly, turning his head back towards Jungho and I.

"Boys are on the right side and girls are on the left," I reply. "They told us that when we were here for orientation, Dad"

He lets out a loud huff and continues to push the cart forward.

"Oh, don't be like that, dear," Mom says, giving my Dad the side-eye. "But look, here we are!" She points to one of the last doors on the left side of the hallway. '71024' is labeled across the top of the door, and another whiteboard hangs from the center with the names 'Kim Jaemin' and 'Choi Sooyoung' written in the same bold lettering.

I eagerly step forward, key in hand. "Well, here it goes!" I announce to my excitedly awaiting parents and a smiling Jongho. I place the key in the lock, turn it once, and slowly open the door.

The overhead lights are already on as I walk into the room. The room itself is shaped in pretty much a perfect square, with the left and the right sides practically mirroring each other. On either side, there are high lofted beds with a desk underneath. On the far wall, there are two built-in closets with a rack to hang clothes and drawers for more storage. In between the closets is a rather large window, and below that sits a mini-fridge and microwave on top. All the furniture is the same dark-brown wooden color with a slightly worn look to it.

"It's...." Dad trails off.

"Cozy!" Mom exclaims, pushing past me to stand in the middle of the room. "Yes it's a little small, but with all the storage on this wall with the closets, all your stuff will fit so nicely. We can put the rug right here in the middle, the lamp over here, your coffee pot will look lice atop the microwave, oooh and there's even more storage over by your desk!"

"I love it," I say, still gazing into the room from the doorway. Yes, it was a little small. But I had known this going in. Dunby hall was the largest, oldest, and most inexpensive residence hall on campus. When Sooyoung and I agreed to live together, we decided on this dorm because it was the most reasonably priced for my family, and it was one of the few dorms that was covered under Sooyoung's scholarship. She could have easily decided to live in one of the nicer dorms, but she wanted to live with me, and I greatly appreciated her for that. Yes, its's a bit dingy, but it did have a rather cozy feel to it. And with the right amount of care, I could turn this room into my new home.

"Well, that's all that matters," I can hear Dad say from behind me. "But let's get unpacking or we're going to be here all day!" He nudges me forward with the cart and pushes it into the middle of the room. My mom immediately begins taking boxes out and finding places to all my things while my Dad begins to put the sheets on my lofted bed.

Amidst all this excitement I had almost forgotten about Jongho. I quickly turn around to see him standing in the doorway, still holding those three boxes.

"Oh, um, you can just set those here," I quickly say gesturing to an empty corner of the room. He obeys and gently places the boxes down. He straightens up and gives me a kind of awkward smile, pushing his bangs out of his eyes again. "Feels good to finally put those down, huh?" I say.

"Nah, I could've held those for at least another thirty minutes," he answers with a grin.

I let out a giggle, which I quickly try and disguise as a cough.

"You have been such a big help, Jungho," my mom says approaching the pair of us. She grabs his hand. "Thank you, dear." She gives his hand a squeeze.

"Oh, well you're welcome Mrs. Kim. It really wasn't a problem at all, but I should probably get going. I still need to unpack all of my things."

"Uh, yeah thanks, Jongho," I add quickly. I give him a gracious smile, which he returns.

"No problem, Jae. I'm sure I'll see you around." He gives one last bow towards me, my mom, and my dad before turning and exiting the room.

"Wow, what a nice boy," mom sighs staring at the doorway that Jungho had just walked out off.

"Mom, he probably heard that," I say through gritted teeth.

"You've said that already, sweetpea," Dad states from atop my lofted bed as he finishes tucking in my sheets. "But we should really start unpacking everything so this room isn't a complete mess when Sooyoung's family gets here."

We spend the next forty minutes unpacking all of the remaining boxes, hanging my clothes in the closet, and finding room in the desk for my art supplies.

"KIIIIIIIM JAEMIIIIIIIIN!!!!!"

I hear my name echoing along the long hallway and quickly sprint outside the door to see none other than Sooyoung sprinting towards me, leaving her Mother, Father, and older brother in her wake pushing three full carts.

"Well, it's about time!" I shout. "I was beginning to think you changed your mind!"

We run towards each other and when we finally meet, she practically lifts me off of my feet in one of the biggest I've ever received. She starts spinning me around and through the blur I see what looks like two heads poking out of a doorway in the same spot that Jongho had pointed to earlier. Before I can get a good look, Sooyoung sets me down and starts dragging me towards our room.

"Oh my god I thought we'd never get here," Sooyoung says exasperatedly, still dragging me towards the room. "We had to stop for gas, the traffic was horrible, and if Taeyoung had listened to me when I told him to take route 71 instead of 75 we'd have been here twenty minutes earlier."

Typical Sooyoung. She was the type of person who always thought she was right and if she wasn't, she'd somehow convince you otherwise. Her whole family was like that though, so I couldn't blame her too much. Most people found it annoying while I found her stubbornness slightly endearing.

"Wow, is this it?" she says excitedly when she finally reaches the doorway of our room. "Hi Mr. and Mrs. Kim!" She gives a passionate wave to both of my parents and immediately walks into the room to survey the place.

"Well if it isn't the Chois," my dad says as he wipes some sweat from his forehead.

Behind me, I can hear the rest of Sooyoung's family greet my Father and Mother. Soyoung's parents were significantly younger than mine. They had Soyoung's older brother, Taeyoung, when they were only 18. They both put a lot of pressure on Sooyoung and Taeyoung to succeed and have a better life than they did. Taeyoung is three years older than us and is already a student here at the same university. Part of me thinks it's a big reason why Sooyoung choose to go here, but I'd never question her about it. She likes to think that everything she does is her own idea and makes her unique, even when it doesn't

Our families exchange some more pleasant greetings.

"It's a little small, isn't it?" Mrs. Choi questions after doing a once-over of the room. "Tae's freshman year dorm was much bigger.

"Yeah," Taeyoung adds. "This one definitely looks like it's been lived it."

"I mean, all of them have been lived in," I can hear my Dad mutter from the corner of the room.

"Oh come on, Mom." Sooyoung shakes her head towards her Mother. "I like it a lot. I like what Jae has done with the room so far. Plus, you can't complain too much right? I basically get to live here for free on my scholarship!" Sooyoung beams, looking proud of herself.

"Well, we should probably get out of your hair for a little bit so you all can fully unpack," Dad says placing a hand on my shoulder. "We need to go get some lunch and stop by the grocery store and stock that minifridge over there."

"Yeah, we'll be back in a little bit!" Mom cheerily says, grabbing her purse and heading towards the door.

"See you guys later," I say, waving at the Chois. They wave back and immediately begin unpacking and organizing all of Sooyoung's belongings.

My family and I make our way down the long hallway and into the elevator. Once inside my Dad lets out a loud sigh.

"Man, those Chois really don't have a filter do they."

"Oh come on now, dear," my mom says putting an arm around my father and resting her head on his shoulder.

"Sooyoung has to get it from somewhere, I guess," I add before I can stop myself.

Mom and Dad both laugh. I join in, a little guiltily.

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woo-san-shine · 5 years

Text

Our Way

ateez college au

Word Count: 2k (sorry)

Warnings: slight language, but this is pretty tame

Author’s Note: A work in progress!!! Mostly just for fun

Chapter 1

You thought this day was never going to come. You had been anxiously waiting for this day for the past four years. You could hardly believe that you had made it this far. Moving away to college is a big step in any young adult's life, and you were more than ready to take this next step with a running start.

It's not like you had a horrible high school experience or anything. I mean, yeah, there were times here and there that you'd rather not think about. But as you watched the bright August sunlight beam down over surrounding trees that lined the highway, you couldn't help but feel a slight thrill begin to rise in your chest.

"How much longer until we're there, Dad?"

"About 15 more minutes, Jae. Give or take the amount of traffic there is going to be once we actually get near the university. I'm sure it's going to be packed with everyone moving in today."

"It's all apart of the experience!" Mom chimed in. "Here, let's take another picture"

"Mom, really?" I say reluctantly as I lean my head forward amidst the many boxes that filled the entirety of the backseat of the car except for where I was sitting.

"I'm your mother, and you'll do this for me," she says between clenched teeth already formed into a wide smile. She holds up her arm high in front of her so she can get both me in the backseat and my dad in the driver's seat in the frame of her phone and snaps a picture.

"Did it take?"

"Yeah Mom," I say rolling my eyes. She was still adjusting to her new smartphone that Dad had upgraded her to for the sole purpose of being able to facetime me while I was at school. Dad and I exchange a quick glance in the rearview mirror and both suppress a laugh.

"Have you heard from Sooyoung?" Dad asks looking back at me in the rearview mirror again. "Are they going to get there around the same time we will?"

"I'll text her, hang on," I say pulling my phone from the waistband of my shorts.

Choi Sooyoung had been my best friend for almost eight years. We met when I transferred schools in the 4th grade. She came up to me when I was sitting alone at a lunch table on my first day and said "Hey, you're the new girl, do you want to hear about this new game I've been playing online?" She immediately sat down and told me every detail of this new RPG she had been playing nonstop for the remainder of the lunch period and hasn't stopped talking my ear off since. We found out we liked a lot of the same books, listened to the same emo pop-punk music that was honestly way too mature for our 4th-grade selves to be listening to, and vowed from that day onward to stay best friends. We joined the school band together, were on the same school sports teams, and spent almost every historic high school coming-of-age moment together. Throughout the years we did at times drift apart due to various reasons. Whether it be boyfriends, extracurriculars, or summer jobs. Eventually, we'd always find our way back to each other whenever we needed the other most.

So when senior year finally rolled around, we decided not to tell each other where we had applied to college in order to not influence the other's decision. As fate may have it, we ended up both applying to and getting into our top choice school, a school three hours away from our small hometown that was well-known for each of the programs we were interested in. Sooyoung had gotten a rather large scholarship through the school's Engineering program, and I had been admitted into the school's Arts programs with an intended degree in Graphic Design.

"Are you sure you and Sooyoung are going to be okay this year?" Mom says swiveling around in her seat to look at me in the back. "High school is one thing, but living together is completely different. Are you sure you won't regret not branching out and rooming with someone else? Might have been a great opportunity to meet new people."

"Oh, I think they'll be fine, sweetpea," Dad says placing a comforting had on my mother's knee.

"Yeah," I say looking up from my phone. "I mean, we're going to have completely different class schedules so we'll rarely see each other unless we both happen to be in the dorm."

"I just hope you both do well this first year," she sighs.

"There will be other opportunities to meet new people and do well in school, mom," I say as I type out my message to Sooyoung.

An almost immediate response.

I relay this information to my parents, but before I can finish my mom squeals, "Look! There's the university sign, right there!"

I press my face against the car window and see the large, ornate gateway adorned with the university crest in the middle that welcomed you onto the school's main road. Various ‘Welcome Freshman!’ and ‘Check-In This Way!’ signs were guiding the line of cars that were beginning to pile up.

"Dunby Hall, right Jae?" Dad says scanning the signs for the correct residence hall while slowly inching the car forward as the line moves.

"Yeah, that's it," I say distractedly as I take in my new home. Being one of the largest universities in our country, I can barely take in the vastness of this new place through just the car window. Each building was unique, with both old and modern architecture seamlessly incorporated in-between tall trees and brick roads. We passed a large, almost pool-sized fountain in what I assumed to be the middle of the university. There were people everywhere. Students, parents, and people in bright red t-shirts with "move-in staff" written on the back.

"Well, it looks like this is it!" Dad says excitedly as he pulls the car up to a rather tall brick building with large windows on all sides.

"Wow, Jae!" Mom says looking back at me with a huge smile. "Why don't you hop out here while we find a place to park and get yourself registered."

I eagerly tumble out of the car, making sure no boxes come out with me, and make my way over to the check-in line. As I wait my turn, I can hear the excited chatting of students and parents waiting ahead of me and the squeaking wheels of the carts being used to carry new student's belongings up to their rooms.

"Hello first-year student!!!" an overly excited girl wearing one of those red shirts practically shouts at me as I approach the check-in table labeled with the letters ‘K - L’. "Welcome to Dunby Hall! Can I get your name please?"

"Kim Jaemin."

"Ahhh another Kim, what a surprise," she says, with a slight grimace as she begins to rifle through some foulders.

"Well, I mean you are at the 'K' table, can't be too much of a shock," I say before I can stop myself.

The girl stops her search and looks up at me. "Wow we got a funny one here today folks," she says. One of her eyes gives a slight twitch.

I give her a slightly apologetic smile. It must be tiring dealing with all these new students all day, and me being a smart-ass probably didn't help. Dad says I get my sense of humor from my Mom, which is probably why he has a full head of grey hair dealing with the both of us for all these years.

"Alrightly Jaemin," the girl says after a few more seconds of rifling. "Here is your room key, and a folder of all the information you need to know about living in Dunby Hall. You are on the 7th floor, room 71024. You can now start bringing all your belongings from your car and begin setting up your dorm. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask." She says all this very fast, hands me my things, and begins to usher me aside to help the next person in line.

I hurriedly make my way over to my parents who were both standing next to the opened trunk of our car. "7th floor!!! Let's get moving!" I say excitedly waving my new room key in the air.

"YAY JAE!" Mom exclaims bringing me in for a tight hug.

"Before we start celebrating we should find one of those carts. There's no way we can carry all these boxes ourselves," Dad says and he begins to scan the area for a cart.

After a few minutes of searching, we can't find a cart anywhere.

"They must all be in use, I guess," Mom says as we head back to the parked car.

"I mean, we could start making some trips with whatever we can carry," I say.

"It might take a while, but I guess that's all we can do," Dad says wiping the sweat off his brow. "Plus we need someone to stay here with the car until all your stuff is all out."

It was rather hot outside even though it was still early in the morning. I could probably lift at least one box at a time, maybe two. But with how much stuff I had managed to fit in this car it probably would take all day.

"Excuse me, but do you all need any help?" a voice asks from behind me.

I turn around, expecting to see another red-shirt-clad student worker eager to help, but instead, I am met by a boy with thick brown hair with big brown eyes looking at me.

I stare back at him, slightly dumbfounded. He wasn't super tall, but he was built like a wrestler. You could see the outlines of his arm and shoulder muscles through his black t-shirt.

"Oh my, would do that for us, honey?" my Mom cooed from over by the trunk of the car. Ever so trusting was my mother as she stepped forward to get a better look at the stranger.

"And who might you be?" my Dad sternly asked, also stepping forward to stand intimidatingly next to me.

"I'm Jongho, sir," the boy said as he bowed to my Father. "Choi Jongho, miss," he said again bowing to my Mother. "I live in this dorm too, 7th floor. I'm actually all moved in and was walking back down here to return my cart when I saw you all looking for one, so I figured I could give you this one," he said gesturing to the cart that I hadn't even noticed was next to him because I was too busy staring at his muscles.

"Awww he called me miss," my Mother whispered in my ear with before moving forward past me to address him. "Well would you look at that, our Jae is on the 7th floor as well! You'd be doing us a big favor, Jongho."

"I suppose if it's not too much trouble" my dad added, still giving Jungho the once over.

"Of course not, sir," Jongho replied.

"Well let's start loading the cart and go from there," Dad says, in full business mode. Both Dad and Jongho start loading various boxes and bins from the trunk onto the cart while Mom and I grab items from the backseat we can carry ourselves.

"Seems like such a nice boy," Mom says just out of earshot of my Dad and Jongho. "Not all boys would offer to help."

"Uh, yeah Mom I guess," I say grabbing the last item, my guitar case, from the car and slinging it over my shoulder. I hadn't had many male friends back in high school. That was more of Sooyoung's thing. She usually got along better with guys, except for you of course.

"Well, that's all we can fit in the cart," Dad says crossing his arms. There are still three boxes left in the trunk. "I guess we'll have to make a second trip after all."

"Oh don't worry, I can carry those," Jongho says, pushing his bangs out of his eyes. He quickly piles the three boxes onto the ground one on top of the other, squats down, and lifts them effortlessly.

"Wow," Dad says with a raise of an eyebrow. "I guess, we're all set." He closes the trunk and starts pushing the cart forward.

"Lead the way, you two!" Mom exclaims, pointing towards the dorm building with her free hand while giving Jongho and I a big smile.

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