Chapter Text
“And with that, the Freshie Welcoming Assembly has come to a close! Good luck to all incoming freshmen!”
Cheers erupted from all around the UP Diliman campus as hundreds of incoming first year UP students celebrated the official start of their college life. The Friday morning sun shone brightly on the faces of the hopefuls, bathing them in a warm and radiant light. As the crowds dispersed, Kim Jiwoo turned to the girl beside her with a huge grin on her face.
“Youngseo, can you believe it? We’re finally UP students!” Jiwoo said, unable to control her excitement, practically jumping up and down. The girl grabbed Jiwoo’s arms with an equally big smile on her face and joined her in jumping, little squeals coming out with each hop.
Kim Jiwoo and Lee Youngseo were two of the 17,996 UPCAT passers this year and had successfully claimed a slot in their degree program of choice, BS Biology. The pair didn’t know each other prior to this year, but when the official list of students for the semester had come out, someone had added them to a Facebook Messenger group chat. Jiwoo and Youngseo had gravitated to each other instantly; Jiwoo to Youngseo because of her aesthetic Instagram account and stylish OOTDs, and Youngseo to Jiwoo because of her bubbly nature and generally cute appearance. After a few weeks of chatting, they decided to meet up before even the Freshie Welcoming Assembly (or FWA for short), where freshies usually met each other for the first time, was held. They had clicked instantly and immediately asked their parents if they could dorm with each other. It had taken some convincing, especially for Jiwoo who lived just a train ride away in Quezon City, but they eventually relented. Now, they had decided to take a Grab from Jiwoo’s home in Congressional Avenue to UP Diliman to attend the FWA together.
“This place is so nice! I can’t believe how big it is,” Youngseo said as they walked around, then immediately frowned after. “Too bad we won’t be seeing too much of it.” Even though their FWA was held in UP Diliman, BS Biology classes were held in UP Manila (UPM for short) all the way to the south, which was how Jiwoo was able to convince her parents to let her dorm. (”It’ll be so hard to commute every day, Mom,” Jiwoo had said. “That’s two hours wasted every single day on travel. Besides, Kyujin asked and one of the tenants in her dorm is looking for new roommates right now. It’ll be perfect for me and Youngseo!”) Youngseo, on the other hand, had no choice; she lived all the way in Cavite, so she had to rent somewhere to stay during school days.
Jiwoo looked around. The iconic Sunken Garden stretched out before them, a vast plain of green speckled with picnickers and various sports teams doing their drills. Trees of acacia, narra, and mahogany lined the roads as far as the eye could see. Joggers and bikers went around the oval, eager to get their morning exercise in before the cars came out.
This was only her second time at UP Diliman, the first being when she took the entrance exam. It was still dark when she arrived that day, dropped off by her dad before the crack of dawn. By the time the exam was finished, her dad was already there to take her out to eat, so she didn’t have time to explore. Today, she and Youngseo deliberately came earlier than the assembly time of the FWA to look around.
“Yeah, that’s true. Can you believe there are rats at our campus?” Jiwoo said as she snapped a pic of the Oblation on her phone, making sure to position it perfectly at the center of the frame.
“Hey! I told you not to say that,” Youngseo said with a shiver, pulling her windbreaker more tightly around herself.
Jiwoo laughed, poking Youngseo’s sides. “I heard they’re the size of cats!”
At that, Youngseo shrieked and ran away, eliciting another peal of laughter from Jiwoo. She eventually caught up and threw an arm around Youngseo’s shoulder, having to reach a bit because of their slight height difference.
“You sure you’ll be okay at the dorm? You know you’re always welcome to stay at our place. My parents love having you around,” said Jiwoo.
Even when they had only met her twice, Mr. and Mrs. Kim loved Youngseo, saying that she was “the second daughter we never had.” Sometimes, Jiwoo mentioned to her parents, it felt like they loved Youngseo more than they loved her, to which they would pinch her pouty cheeks and cook her favorite meal to make her feel better. Jiwoo always said things like that, but deep down she knew that her parents loved her more than anything else in the world. She knew how much they had sacrificed for her, even before she was born, and she reciprocated that love as much as she could.
Youngseo shook her head. “I really don’t want to impose, Jiwoo. No really, it’s fine!” Youngseo said when she saw Jiwoo open her mouth to interject. “I still have some stuff to take care of at the dorm. Mom wants me to look at laundromats around the area to see if I need to take my laundry home or if I can just have them done here. And I still have some stuff left to unpack too. Don’t want Minju to be bothered by the mess when she gets home.” Minju was a 2nd-year BS Nursing student and the tenant who Jiwoo’s childhood friend Kyujin had mentioned was looking for new roommates. They weren’t exactly friends yet, but they were friendly. Jiwoo suspected that Minju was bothered by how loud the two of them were but hoped that she would eventually warm up to them.
“Alright,” Jiwoo sighed. “But just know that you owe us a visit! Mom and Dad will kill me if I keep you away from them too long.”
“Okay, okay,” Youngseo said with a laugh. “I’ll see you on Sunday then. Have fun with your friends!” She gave Jiwoo a hug.
“Text me when you arrive at the dorm,” said Jiwoo. After a beat, she couldn’t resist adding, “Don’t let the rats get ya!”
Youngseo shoved her away with a squeal.
“Sleep with one eye open, Kim Jiwoo!” she yelled as Jiwoo waved goodbye with a shit-eating grin plastered on her face. Youngseo stuck out her tongue then eventually relented, smiling herself as she waved back.
“Can we decide already? It’s almost 1 pm and I’m starving,” Haewon loudly complained. Oh Haewon was one of Jiwoo’s closest friends. Even though they weren’t the same age, they had still gotten close in elementary and high school from the various extra-curricular activities they spent together. Debate club, music club, badminton team, to name a few. Jiwoo had long been in awe of how Haewon could effortlessly lead. Naturally, Haewon was the president of the music club with positions in debate and badminton too. It always seemed to Jiwoo that Haewon could make anyone fall into line, and in spite of how small she was, even the rowdiest boys in the badminton team shut up whenever she talked. Jiwoo had wondered how it would feel to wield so much power.
“Didn’t I tell you to eat something before we left? And no, two cups of Iced Americano do not count,” said Bae. Towering above both Jiwoo and Haewon as they walked through the food court of UP Town Center, Bae Jinsol, or Bae as everyone called her, completed the “Three Idiots” trifecta in their clubs. They were affectionately (or so Jiwoo hoped) given that nickname by their peers because of their wild nature and willingness to provide entertainment with physical humor. Their gags usually went like this: Haewon started the joke, Bae “yes and”-ed it, and Jiwoo acted as the confused straight man. Just like Haewon, Bae was part of the same debate and music clubs that Jiwoo was part of. Unfortunately, Bae was born without a single athletic bone in her body and chose chess instead for her physical education. She was a year older than Jiwoo and a year younger than Haewon.
They had been walking for almost half an hour already, and they were no closer to deciding where to eat than they had been a half hour ago. Haewon made a face at Bae, who didn’t see because she was looking over Haewon’s head. “What about that?” Bae pointed to a sign. “Pepper Lunch. You guys down?”
Jiwoo shifted a bit. “Uhh…I’m kinda broke right now,” she said with a sheepish grin. “Can’t really afford to spend a lot on lunch. You know how it is with dorming and all the expenses we have. My parents told me to stretch out my allowance as much as possible.” It had been Jiwoo’s dream to become an Iskolar ng Bayan. Not only was she captivated by the course curriculum that BS Biology offered, but all UP students were covered by the free tuition act signed into law a few years ago. Jiwoo thought that this was the perfect chance to start helping out at home before she could actually work. Her family wasn’t exactly struggling, but they weren’t well off either, and Jiwoo wanted to ease her parents’ financial burden as much as possible. She didn’t want them to sacrifice even more than they already did.
Bae nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. What about Burger King then?”
“I’m fine with anything, man, as long as we can finally eaaaat,” Haewon said, dragging Bae by the arm and speedwalking to the nearest Burger King. Bae only managed to grab hold of Jiwoo before being whisked away by the Haewon’s surprising strength. Jiwoo followed with a skip and a smile, thanking her friends silently for not judging her.
They slid into a booth after giving their orders at the counter, Bae and Jiwoo on one side and Haewon already on her phone on the other, receipts and buzzer at hand for when their orders were ready.
“So, how was the assembly? See any pretty girls?” Bae said, eyebrows wriggling.
Jiwoo laughed. “I wasn’t exactly looking, but check this out!” She whipped out her phone and showed them the picture of Oblation that she took earlier. Haewon made a “not bad” face and went back to looking at her phone.
“Looks nice. Hope nobody was in the shot,” said Haewon.
Jiwoo froze. She had completely forgotten. There was a superstition that any UP student who had their picture taken with the Oblation before graduating would be delayed one year. How could she be so careless and possibly doom some poor student to be delayed? Jiwoo frantically scanned the picture with wide eyes, trying to look if anyone was in the shot. After a few moments, she let out a sigh of relief.
“Nobody was in it, thank goodness. But now that you mention it,” said Jiwoo, crinkling her nose, “I did see someone taking a selfie in front of Oble before the assembly started.”
“Either willfully ignorant or willing to tempt fate,” Bae said. “Either way, not great for the school they went into.” UP, short for University of the Philippines, was one of the country’s premier universities, if not considered the top-ranked university. Part of the Big Four — along with ADMU, DLSU, and UST — UP consistently placed decently in worldwide university rankings, and its students had a reputation (for better or worse) of being smarter than average. Bae and Haewon had both taken the entrance exam themselves the year prior and passed. “But back to my question. You seriously didn’t see any pretty girls? Or were you just too tiny to see over people’s heads?”
Jiwoo swatted Bae’s arm. “I told you, I wasn’t looking! Besides, I’m not interested in dating right now. I’m going for Latin honors,” said Jiwoo. But the moment she said the words I’m not interested in dating, she second-guessed herself. Was she really not interested, or was she just afraid of commitment? She’d had experiences before, sure. Crushes, two-week flings here and there, even a few semi-serious relationships that lasted several months. But she had never actually had a girlfriend before. The furthest she had officially gone with a partner was the “dating” label, which in reality only meant that they were exclusive, but not much more. Plus, she really didn’t want to think of the girl she’d had the “dating” label with. She shook herself out of it.
“Honors?” Haewon said with an arched eyebrow, eyes still glued to her phone. “In one of the hardest courses in UP? Good luck with that.” It was true, BS Biology was a notoriously hard course in UP. Still, Jiwoo prided herself on being smart. Consistently placing with high honors ever since Grade 1, competitions, numerous extra-curriculars. Jiwoo knew she could get into any university and into any course she wanted. It wasn’t like she was bragging when she said that, but that was the reality. Jiwoo had full confidence in her intellect and placed a lot of her self-worth in that academic excellence. It wasn't like her parents placed any expectations on her either. In fact, they usually told her to study less and go out more. Jiwoo loved them for that, but this was what she wanted to do.
She would never forget the look on her parents’ faces when she told them she was graduating as valedictorian of her high school class. Nor would she forget how it had taken everything in her not to cry when it got to the part in her speech where she thanked her parents. She knew that she would completely lose it if she actually looked at them, so she just ended up reading from her script. To Jiwoo, that was the best feeling in the world, and she longed to recreate it when she graduated from college.
“Hey, if anyone can do it, it’s our Jiwoo,” Bae said, giving Haewon’s arm a shove from across the table. She ignored Haewon’s yell of annoyance as she almost dropped her phone. “But seriously, girl. I’m not telling you to date or anything. I know what happened. Just…you know, find someone you think is pretty. Get a happy crush or something. She might even help inspire you get those honors you want,” said Bae.
Jiwoo frowned, deep in thought. True, Bae had never actually said anything about dating. Ever since her “breakup” with the girl she was dating, she’d only had one crush that quickly faded. It would be nice to have someone to feel giddy about again, to be her inspiration for what’s sure to be a hectic freshie year.
“You have a point. I’ll think about it. At least I’ll have Youngseo in the meantime,” said Jiwoo.
Bae nodded in agreement. “True, Youngseo is pretty. Don’t you think?” she asked, looking across the table. Haewon didn’t respond but was now smiling like a lovestruck idiot staring at her screen.
“Haewon? Haewon. Hae-” Bae broke off with a sigh. “Can’t you just tell Lily to meet with us here so we can all talk?” she asked exasperatedly. Lily was Haewon’s childhood sweetheart with whom she had been in a relationship for four years now. The two had helped Haewon confess to Lily on Valentine’s Day four years ago, providing background vocals as Haewon serenaded her crush with a guitar under a moonlit night. Jiwoo liked Lily. She was a sweet and kind girl, raised in Australia before coming to the Philippines to study. She had pipes for days and was a senior in UST majoring in voice performance. Jiwoo wondered how such powerful vocals could come from a girl so small in stature.
“What? Oh, sorry. Lily’s classes already started today, so she can’t come. She has some free time between classes, and she’s only able to talk now. Sorry, what was the question again?” Haewon asked, suddenly breaking off in a laugh as she saw Lily’s message. “Look at this!” She showed them her screen. It was a selfie that Lily had sent. With glasses on and a single finger pointed up, she was the spitting image of the ☝️🤓 “well akshually” emoji. Bae and Jiwoo couldn’t help but laugh at the resemblance.
“She’s so funny. I love her so much. Can you believe she’s already graduating at the end of the year? Meanwhile I’m stuck here studying business administration with the end so far from sight,” Haewon groaned, slumping forward onto the table.
Jiwoo laughed at her misery. “You were the one who said a gap year was ‘essential to my success in college,’” Jiwoo said with air quotes. Haewon groaned again, her upper half almost entirely on the table now. After her graduation from high school, Haewon had taken a gap year before applying for college. She had seen a study online that said that high school students who take a gap year after graduation performed better in college. It took some convincing, but her parents finally relented after Haewon agreed to work part time at their family-owned cafe during her gap year. That was how she and Bae were able to enter into ADMU, short for Ateneo de Manila University, together. It was only natural that they dormed together even though they were studying different courses, Haewon studying BS Management Engineering and Bae studying AB Humanities with a minor in French. Jiwoo never understood why Bae had taken French. Apparently she was interested in languages or something, but she at least could’ve taken Spanish. At least people actually sort of spoke Spanish here. What use did French have in the Philippines? Meanwhile, Haewon took BS Management Engineering because a lot of their other classmates did, and she had zero interest whatsoever in what Bae was taking up. Yeah, she wasn’t exactly the most steadfast.
At that point, their buzzer sounded, telling them that their order was ready. Bae grabbed the buzzer and got up. It was an unspoken rule that Bae was the order-getter among the three of them. If she wasn’t there, then it was Haewon. Jiwoo could count on one hand the number of times she got their orders when the three of them were together. The two older girls treated her like a princess, and Jiwoo had secretly come to expect that kind of treatment from them.
Jiwoo shook Haewon’s shoulder. “Hey. Haewon. Get off the table. You know how dirty that thing is.”
When Haewon got up, a receipt had gotten stuck to her forehead. Jiwoo involuntarily barked out a laugh then quickly clamped a hand over her mouth.
“What?” Haewon asked. Jiwoo pointed to her face. Haewon felt the receipt on her forehead and couldn’t resist laughing as well as she took it off.
“You know,” Haewon said, suddenly turning serious, “for what it’s worth, I think Bae is right. You haven’t been the same since…well, you know. I think meeting new people would do you good. You said there’s 80 people in your batch, right? I’m sure there’s bound to be a few good ones among them.”
Jiwoo sighed. So that was the reason Bae brought it up in the first place. Jiwoo was sure they had been talking about how she seemed different, but to be honest, she didn’t know what they were talking about. To Jiwoo, she was acting perfectly fine.
“I really don’t think it’s a big deal,” Jiwoo said, crossing her arms. “I don’t think I’m acting any different. Just been busy.”
Haewon arched an eyebrow again. “You are. Sometimes when you think no one’s looking, or if it’s just me and Bae talking, you stare off into the distance deep in thought. There’s sadness in your eyes, Jiwoo. Can you imagine? Sadness. I didn’t think you could even feel sad,” she said, leaning forward.
Jiwoo furrowed her brows. “Of course I can feel sad, dummy. I’m just a girl,” she said, flicking Haewon’s forehead. Haewon let out a yelp and leaned right back.
“Watcha guys talking about?” Bae had gotten their orders and set a tray down on their table. Two cheeseburgers, a Whopper Jr., a Coke Zero, and an iced coffee with a side of fries. They reached for their respective burgers, Jiwoo taking the Whopper Jr. It was the cheapest thing on the menu that she actually wanted to eat, plus she could always sneak some of the other girls’ fries when they weren’t looking. She pretended to fiddle with the wrapper, secretly eyeing the fries, waiting for the perfect opportunity.
“Just the fact that Jiwoo’s been acting different lately. You’ve noticed it too,” said Haewon as she opened the wrapper to her cheeseburger. A statement, not a question.
“Oh yeah, I have. Sometimes you just…stare into space for a while then rejoin the conversation like it never happened. Plus you haven’t been very active on social media lately. You used to post stories on Instagram regularly, and now you don’t even like my stories or posts,” said Bae, jabbing an accusatory finger at Jiwoo before taking a bite out of her burger.
As Haewon reached for the iced coffee, Bae stopped mid-chew and stared at her.
“That’s yours? I thought that was Jiwoo’s! Haven’t you already had two coffees today?” Bae said with a mouthful of food as she gesticulated wildly. Jiwoo had to lean away for fear of getting assaulted by a stray piece of lettuce.
Haewon shrugged. “Girl’s gotta get her caffeine fix,” she said. “And you know Jiwoo doesn’t drink coffee.”
“I thought she made an exception today! I didn’t think you would be crazy enough to drink another coffee, Haewon. It’s not even 2 pm yet!” Bae said, punctuating her last sentence with another wild flail. Jiwoo flinched as the lettuce completed its assault. At least it didn’t come from Bae’s mouth. Across the table, Haewon just took a sip while smiling cutely.
Bae sighed. “You’re gonna kill yourself, girl. I’m telling you.”
“I’m just not into the whole social media thing lately. Been trying to get off it and do more productive things, ya feel? Especially now that college is about to start,” said Jiwoo. Beside her, Bae nodded sagely in agreement. “But do I really space out sometimes? I hadn’t noticed.” Jiwoo made a face, then sneaked a fry. Well, if she had noticed then it wouldn’t really be spacing out now, would it? She locked eyes with Bae as she put the fry in her mouth. Bae stared but didn’t say anything.
“Yeah it’s like…sometimes it looks like you’re really deep in thought,” Bae said. She paused, then inhaled sharply. “I didn’t even know you could thi-”
Jiwoo threw the half-eaten fry at her face. Bae recoiled in disgust.
“EW! That’s so freaking gross! Kim Jiwoo!” Bae whined. Haewon just laughed, used to their shenanigans. All three of them were master ragebaiters, all the more so when they were with each other.
“Serves you right,” said Jiwoo as she stuck out her tongue.
The rest of their lunch passed without any more food-related incidents, outside of Haewon nearly choking on some ice when she wasn’t paying attention. No more talk was had about Jiwoo’s spacing out (or lack thereof), and instead the trio debated on the merits of living alone versus living with roommates, Jiwoo and Haewon taking the latter position and Bae taking the former (”It’s so much easier to live with roommates. You don’t have to do all the chores,” Haewon said. “Yeah, because you don’t do any chores,” Bae said. They almost got into another argument).
After lunch, the three girls decided to look around the mall, window shopping and buying matching keychains now that Jiwoo was finally a college student as well. Jiwoo bought a UP-themed bookmark while the other two each got an ADMU-themed one. Bae and Haewon didn’t have classes yet, but they both came out that morning to see Jiwoo after her welcome assembly. Usually, they would go home on Friday and come to the dorm on Monday (barring any weekend classes), but since both of their semesters would officially start on Monday, they decided to just stay in their dorm over the weekend. They walked Jiwoo to the bus stop which was only a short distance away from UP Town Center. Jiwoo gave them each a hug at the bus stop.
“See you guys! Come visit me at UPM soon!” Jiwoo yelled as she got on the bus, waving them goodbye. She looked on as Bae and Haewon kept waving until they were out of sight. Settling into her seat, she couldn’t help but smile. College was going to be so much fun.