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Let it be known that the only reason he would ever step foot on a college campus was for his adorable, kind, and stone faced Ryu Jaekwan.
Who was currently trying to explain to him the delicacies of course registration.
“—In case this one doesn’t work out, you can pick one of the GE’s here. I made a priority list, so all you need to do is make sure no classes overlap. The website will tell you if they do.”
His junior gave him a doubtful look while scooting the computer closer to him.
“Got it?”
“Aigoo~” Choi patted him on the back, taking the small computer with confidence. “Bronzie, don’t worry! I was searching up everything on Gemini earlier, I’ve got this in the bag.”
“Gemini?”
“That’s the AI stuff kids use these days right? Yeah, yeah~ I heard it’s popular in America.”
“That’s not—“ Jaekwan massaged his temple, sighing. “Those things can make a lot of mistakes. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“Hey, believe it or not, your Hyung almost went to college too! You’re practically speaking to a veteran.”
That was a lie. He immediately applied for some low end jobs once he got out of high school.
“…Right.”
Brring! Brring!
The table on the phone started ringing a loud, obnoxious tone. Jaekwan quickly turned it off, glancing at his watch once again. 1:50 PM. Collecting his notes and pens, he shoved them into his bag.
“I have to start heading out now. I’m not sure how long the interview will take, but I’ll come back here when it’s done.”
“Good luck Jaekwanie! You’re gonna do great! If those guys don’t think my perfect Bronzie is the best fit for the job, I’ll beat them up!” Choi made an high energy thumbs up. A few students in the library cast him a side eye.
“…again, it’s normal if the site freezes up at the beginning. Just don’t panic.”
“Right, right.”
Seemingly satisfied, Jaekwan nodded at him. A small, genuine smile formed on his lips.
“Thank you, Hyung. Really.”
“Of course~”
And with that, his cute junior walked away.
Aigoo… he’s so tall now… I remember when he was just a scrawny kid feeding stray cats on the road.
Lost in sentiment, Choi rested his chin in his hand with a serene smile.
The two of them had met in the orphanage, one of them having lost their parents at a young age and the other never even having met them.
Naturally, they had grown close. And when they aged out, the two of them had decided to live together. Jaekwan, the incredibly smart kid that he was, scored an amazing scholarship that got him a full ride into a great college.
And now he was going off to interview for an internship in America! Words couldn’t describe the pride Choi had for him.
Unfortunately, this interview just so happened to coincide with Jaekwan’s registration time for classes.
He had one times too many seen Jaewkan nearly pulling out his hair trying to get the time slots he wanted.
One thing was clear. If he wanted to avoid the hell of trying to crash a course, he had to register as soon as the site opened up classes.
So! Who better to help than Choi? Since it was the weekend, he had all the time in the world!
It was going to be a piece of cake.
***
‘Shit.’
Choi huddled in the corner, desperately clicking the screen. He was sitting next to one of the exits, and so every time someone came through a gust of hot air would brush his side.
If it weren’t for the heat, he probably would have been covered in cold sweat anyway.
‘It’s not working!’
—
The class registration opened at 2:30 exactly. So once Jaekwan had left, Choi simply had to wait.
Everything had been going relatively well. He had already memorized the priority list and time slots Jaekwan wanted, and the library was peaceful.
But.
‘Hm?’
At some point, unbeknownst to him, the screen had stopped loading. Where there should have been some more buttons and lines, there was just a white void.
…A simple loading error. Since there was still some time, Choi figured he could just reload it.
Soon, the whole page started to refresh. The blue line under the search bar started to load…
And then it stopped.
‘Oh.’
Choi decided to wait. Jaekwan did say that the internet might be a little screwed since everyone was trying to log in at the same time. And he had his own share of shitty wifi experienced. Sometimes the best thing to do was wait.
So a minute passed.
And then two.
And then five.
The blue bar did not move. The screen was still…white.
‘Okay, let’s just make a new tab.’
He easily typed in the name to the link. The login screen was fine. But when he wrote down the username and password Jaekwan had given him and clocked ‘login’…
The screen froze once again.
Choi blinked. He laughed a bit nervously to himself, before clicking on the little bars symbol on the top right of the computer.
WIFI
SEKWANG PUBLIC LIBRARY
CONNECTED
Okay. So, the wifi was connected.
Choi turned the wifi off and on again. He made a new tab and again tried to type in the course registration website.
Still blank.
…It was currently 2:15.
“Excuse me~” Choi walked up to the front hall where a kind looking young woman was sitting. “Sorry, I was having some trouble with connecting to the wifi here…”
“Ah, let me see?”
The young woman, who seemed to have been studying some complicated papers (something related to anatomy?) Rose from her seat and looked at the computer.
“Oh. Sir, you might have forgotten to sign into the library wifi.” She quickly turned the computer around, showing a new screen Choi hadn’t seen before.
PW: _____
“I’ll type it in for you.” There was a series of quick typing. “Here. Also, I put a sticky note with the password and wifi name. We have a few posters around with this information, but they’re pretty hard to see. I completely understand if you missed it.”
“Oh, thank you! I’ll be sure to keep that in mind next time.”
“And, if the spot you’re sitting at doesn’t work—“ She pointed over to the side. “Walk down that hallway and make a left. There should be a corner with a bean bag and a table. It gets a bit warm, but the wifi there is a bit better. Closer to the router.”
Nodding, Choi looked at the time. 2:20.
“Understood! Thank you, Miss— he shot a quick glance at her name tag. Miss, uhm, … Goral-ssi?”
“…What?” She looked down at her name tag, which did indeed had the words ‘MISS GORAL’ written on.
“That son of a…” The kind looking woman in front of him showed an uncharacteristic furious face, but it was quickly swallowed down.
“…It’s Go Yeongeun. Have a good day, sir.”
“Yes! Thank you for your help Yeongeun-ssi!”
Running out of time, he had no choice but to quickly go to the spot she mentioned. (He thinks he head a furious ‘BAEK SAHEON!’ behind him though)
Indeed, there was a bright blue bean bag with a short table at the end of the hallway. He made a dash for it, setting the computer down and opening it up.
2:25 PM!
His hands typed in the website on autopilot. He pressed login.
And—yes! It was loading!
He had never been so happy in his life to see the dead graphics of a college registration website.
2:28 PM.
He clicked to get to the classes list and double checked to make sure everything was in place. His cursor was placed directly on Jaekwan’s first priority class. There were about 15 seats left in the section.
…and.
2:30 PM!
He quickly clicked on the class, the button now a different color, indicating it was no longer locked.
The screen loaded…
And froze.
What the hell!
It’s fine! It’s fine!
He had prepared for this and actually had another website with the name already typed in case this happened!
He clicked on it—
Frozen too!
‘….!’
‘Jaekwan!!!!!!!!!’
Choi grit his teeth. The door beside him burst open, and hell! It was hot! Uncomfortable, humid air brushed his side.
Now, he personally would take the heat over the cold any day.
But this was not helping!
He wiped the sweat starting to form on his brow. It was the wifi connection, undoubtedly.
It had helped at first, but there was too much overload!
Okay, okay. Jaekwan-ie had said this might happen. Calm down.
Choi patiently waited for a minute, staring at the blue loading link like an addict. Surely enough, it was loading…
But it was way too fucking slow!
‘Aughhhhh!!’
Oh god, I’m so sorry Jaekwan-ie…
Choi was swallowing down curses, pleading to the wifi gods above for some mercy on his poor, orphan soul…
“Excuse me.”
…!
Choi opened his eyes. There was someone looking down at his pathetic figure. He looked to be about Jaekwan’s age. No, maybe just a bit younger?
He was a college student for sure, at least by the backpack and deep tiredness surrounding his eyes.
“Would you like to use my personal hotspot?”
His his what.
“….hotspot?”
“Oh, uhm.” The stranger shot him a smile, a bit embarrassed. “I recognize the site name—I go to the same school. Are you having trouble registering for classes?”
“…Ahaha!” Choi laughed out of pure mortification. Was he being painfully obvious about his dilemma? “Yeah, I’ve been trying for the past thirty minutes, but nothing seems to work!”
“Right. This spot is usually pretty good, but it doesn’t work for registration. There’s too many students here that are tying to use it as well.”
“Ahh.. I see.”
“Here.”
The stranger, gaining a sudden boldness, sat down and took the computer from Choi’s hands. He took out his phone and placed it on the table, propping it up with a pop socket with a golden X on it.
Choi watched, stunned, as this stranger (was this guy trying to hack him? Was this some weird new scam scene?!) clicked on a few things, tapped his phone, and nodded to himself.
The computer was placed back into Choi’s hands.
“There.”
The website was perfectly loaded. Choi’s eyes widened, clicking all the classes on reflex.
Tap tap tap!
Done.
He looked at the registration list, checking three times.
He had missed one class, but was able to get a GE instead. Something about government work history.
“…”
“…”
“Hah!”
Choi burst into laughter, head spinning. He closed the computer and was unable to contain the relieved smile on his face.
‘Whew!’
“Seriously, thank you! I was genuinely screwed for a second there. Is there anything I can buy you? Are you studying here? Aigoo, such a hard worker. I can grab a lunch and bring it here if you want!”
“Ah,” The man, surprised by the sudden outburst of gratitude, quickly shook his head. “It’s fine. Really. I just wanted to help because I’ve been in your spot before.”
“Seriously, let me buy you a snack at least! Or a drink? It’s hot out today!”
The man laughed. It was quiet but incredibly…endearing?
Choi shook his head of the thought.
He was glad! So, these were the kinds of people Jaekwan was attending college with? He was seriously, incredibly happy.
Grinning, he asked. “What’s your name?”
Maybe he could see if Jaekwan already knew him!
“Kim Soleum.” The name suited him. “And you? What year?”
“Ah, actually..” Choi laughed awkwardly. “I’m not a student. My… younger brother is in an interview right now. I was helping him register for classes.”
“Oh.”
“Yep~ Ryu Jakewan. Big, tall guy.”
“Ah.”
“You two know each other?”
“Just in passing. We’re in the same Econ class.”
“Wow~ I’m honored to meet one of his classmates. He’s a good kid, I swear. Please, if not me, I’ll make sure he takes you out for lunch or something.”
“Again, it was nothing.” Kim Soleum smiled, taking something out of his bag. “He’s actually helped me a few times on homework. It’s quite lucky that I was able to repay him this way.”
He took out a sticky note and wrote something on it. While he was doing that…
‘…’
‘…huh.’
Now that Choi was looking at him, Kim Soleum was actually quite handsome. He had a good nose structure and chin.
He didn’t have that dazzling k-pop face his noona at the supermarket job would gush about, but there was an almost startling sharpness to his eyes.
Their eyes met when Kim Soleum looked up.
“Do you live around here?”
“Huh?”
“Or are you just visiting Jaekwan?”
“Oh, no, no. I live in this area. Jaekwan’s living in the dorms, though.”
“I see.”
A sticky note was placed into Choi’s hand.
“Here.”
“What is-“
“You can open it up later.”
“Kim Soleum?”
A voice called out from around the corner, revealing a man in a black suit and slightly slicked back hair.
“Ah, Jay.” Kim Soleum stood up easily. “Was just helping out with something.”
The person in the suit’s eyes landed on Choi. He smiled at him easily.
“Hello there.”
“Hello~!”
“Did everyone arrive already?” Kim Soleum walked over to the new person, brushing dust off his pants.
“Yep. Shall we go?”
‘Ah. They’re leaving.’
“Thank you for your help again, Soleum-ssi!”
At his voice, Kim Soleum turned his head towards Choi.
With a almost shy wave, he smiled at him.
…woah.
Damn, that face isn’t cutesy, but it could totally break a woman’s heart.
“See you.”
….
….
A bit later, at the library. Jaekwan paused when he saw his hyung/mentor/sunbae (it was complicated) hunched over.
“…did everything go well?”
“Yes! Haha.”
Choi’s face was a bit red.
“…did you get all the classes?”
“Yyyyep. Everything is in order, see?”
Sure enough, the classes were picked and locked. Jaekwan looked up at Choi again.
“What are you hiding?”
“Nothing.”
“Choi.”
“Ahh, okay, okay. I met one of your classmates! You need to buy him a meal or something, he seriously helped me out today.”
“Oh. What was his name?”
“Kim Soleum. Great guy!”
“Kim Soleum?”
“…yeah, haha? What, is that bad?”
“No. Why is your face red?”
“Oh, I was sitting by the door to get better internet. But it’s so warm today~ I kept—“
Jaekwan lunged for the crumbled sticky note in Choi’s hand.
“Jaekwan-ah!”
Caught off guard, Choi scrambled to keep the paper out of Ryu Jaekwan’s hand.
But it was too late.
“Jaekwan-ie, I have no idea what it is, I got it front the front desk and—“
Jaekwan stared down at the crumbled sticky note, and then at the person he cared the most for in this world. Choi’s face was very, very red. He looked uncharacteristically embarrassed.
…he had met Kim Soleum a few times. He was a year younger and incredibly talented, going through classes left and right. Jaekwan had helped him a few times before. And Kim Soleum, from what he could tell, was a good person.
There were quite a few people who did have a crush on him in class. He wasn’t bad looking. Not at all.
It was a person Jaekwan could see being a friend. They got along decently, he was just so busy at the moment he hadn’t had the chance to truly hang out and know him better.
And.
On the sticky note that Choi was hiding, currently in Jaekwan’s hand.
Kim Soleum’s phone number, written in steady, clear handwriting, innocently stared back.