Somehow it felt good to be back in campus, although I still was in holiday mode and didn't want classes to start yet. It was nice to be surrounded by people on the same boat. The same boat to a degree, a job and most likely, a family. Ah, being one of the teeming masses.
After all that time being stuck in suburbia, I was ready and eager to make the transition back to the city life. It isn't as bustling and exciting as people make it out to be, but it sure beats being stuck at home. I missed many things about the city. Many of the components that made it an ideal place to live in was missing from her beat down hometown. One of them was a Starbucks, which was at the top of my 'Things to try when I get back' list.
The campus was fairly new and consisted of 3 main blocks, the residential/commercial block, the administrative block and the academic block. All the restaurants and cafes were located at the commercial block. It was convenient in a sense. You come down from the hostel and are immediately greeted by an array of food choices. Mostly fast food but hey, what else do growing teenagers and young adults prefer more?
I made my way past the Hoagies, the Baskin Robbins, the ChaTime straight towards Starbucks. I strain my neck to see if any of the regular staff are there. I managed to get quite close to them during the course of my first semester, which was mostly spent at one of the tables with a tall cup of hot or cold Java.
And surely enough, I was greeted by a dark skinned man, only slightly taller than me. He was wearing his usual black collar shirt, which was the uniform of the baristas working there. He had a look of a child throwing a tantrum, lips pouted and eyebrows pointed upwards. He spread his arms as he approached me and practically suffocated me in a hug. His name was Wan, pronounce One.
"Hi..." I greeted. I don't know how e and I got close, it just started with simple conversation I guess and it sort of progressed from there. "How are you?"
He looked away and replied me with a smile. I laugh, not knowing how to answer to such a reaction. However I did suspect that he may have been exhausted. It was mid-afternoon after all; he must've been working the early morning shift.
He returns to his place behind the counter and asked, "Grande? Venti?" he was implying the size of the drink I wanted.
"Grande please," I said and he immediately keyed in my drink, a caramel frappe, coffee base, low fat milk with whipped cream. My favorite.
The manager smiled at me from behind the counter as Kaname went to make my drink at the next station. I glanced around the crowded Starbucks cafe to see how many employees were currently working. It seemed like there were only 3 people working the early morning shift today. I felt slightly disappointed. I was hoping to see Ryusuke, another barista that I was close to.
The last time I saw him, he told me that he was planning to continue working at Starbucks until his course at the university started in September. That was in May and it was currently August. He should still be working.
“He’s working the night shift today...” Wan said, as if reading my mind. He handed me my drink and smiled as if he had a juicy little secret that he was hiding.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Thank you,” I said and left his previous statement unanswered. I guess you can say I had a little crush on Ryu.
I headed towards one of the empty tables at the other end of the cafe after grabbing a couple of tissues and a straw. The frappe was bittersweet, just how I liked it. Classes for my course had not started yet, I still had a week of relaxation left. I planned to spend it having fun with my best friend, Bernice.
She was also a student; unfortunately, she chose to take a different course from me and was currently majoring in dance. It has been about a month or so since I last met her.
“Chi-”
I frowned. I swore I heard a voice break through the blaring rock music in my ears that did not belong anywhere in the song. I took one earphone out of my ear and turned around to find, Bernice, dressed in a black tank top and a pair of dark green hot pants, her hair tied up loosely in a knot. She carried around a purple bag and her phone in her right hand. She smiled at me and sat herself down in the empty seat opposite me.
“Sup...” she said.
“Wazaaa~~~” I greeted back and returned her smile with a smile of my own, wider and a little more goofier.
“Wazaaaa~~~” she parroted as she put her bag down and placed her phone on the wooden table. It was a
Blackberry with a purple back cover. I stared at it and thought about how nice that colour would be on my phone.
I stared at the black soft silicone cover with protruding devil’s horns at the top that encased my phone and made a mental note to buy a purple cover the next time I get the chance.
“What’s that?” Bernice asked indicating the drink in my hand.
I grinned and showed it to her proudly. “Caramel Frappe...”
“Shit... I want one...” she said and straightened herself in her seat, as if she wanted to get up and get herself
one. Instead she leaned back and pursed her lips as if thinking about the repercussions of ordering a frappe.
“Go and get one then...” I answered simply and picked up my phone. I pressed the little round button at the bottom just so that the screen would light up. It was a bad habit of mine that seemed to kill my battery life quicker than most people.
Our conversations have always been like this. We don’t usually have a solid topic that we could focus on, but we can talk about anything and everything. And once we get going, it takes time for us to stop and take a breath.
“Finished class yet?” I asked and took a sip of my drink.
She let out a sigh, as if just the thought of class tired her out. “No... I have an hour before class starts again...”
“Not going to have lunch?”
She shook her head again. “I have practical later... If I eat now, I’m afraid I’d puke...”
I nodded. It was common knowledge that the dance practical classes were particularly hard on the students. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the students in Bern’s class puked themselves silly right after every class.
“Have you eaten?” she asked. I shook my head and took another sip.
“Was planning to, but since you can’t eat I don’t think I will either...”
“Just eat...” Bernice said, a little hint of firmness in her voice.
I scrunched my nose. “Meh... No...”
“Eat!” she insisted.
“No!” I squeaked.
There was a short silence.
“So what are you going to do after this?” she asked, as if forgetting our previous conversation.
I shrugged. I honestly did not know what I was going to do for the rest of the day. I was planning to hang out
with Bernice after her classes were over, but the time between that I had no idea how to fill.
“I wanna follow you to your class...” I joked and laughed, but stopped when I saw Bernice with her gaze fixed on me. “What?”
***
I stared at the unfamiliar grey halls. The dance studios where the dance classes were held were located in the lower grounds of the school, far from any of the other classrooms. It was probably to accommodate the other students from other courses that would probably have a hard time concentrating during a lecture when the classes next door were blasting dance/club songs throughout the day.
Since the school was fairly new, the administration still hadn’t gotten time to completely soundproof the dance studios as they had the recording studios in the upper floors.
“It feels like I’m in a horror movie...” I said to Bernice as I followed her towards her class. I glanced into one of the studios just in time to see a stick thin ballerina stretching herself on the floor and heard what sounded like classical French music in the background. “What type of dance are you doing again?”
“I’m doing a little bit of everything...” she answered and stops in front of a door. My ears picked up a faint but very distinctive beat coming from the other side of the door. “But I’m planning to major in hip hop...” she turned the knob and pushed the door open.
What hit me first wasn’t the loud hip hop music blaring through the speakers, but the smell. I paused at the entrance as Bernice absentmindedly walked towards the back of the studio where a group of people were gathered. It smelled like feet, body odour, sweat and wet dog. I scrunched my nose towards Bernice who was talking to a guy. When they started walking towards me, I tried to straighten my nose and smile.
“Chibi, this is Kwanghee...” Bernice introduced me. “Kwanghee, this is Chibi...”
“Chibi?” Kwanghee raised his eyebrows, a little sceptical as he held out his hand for me to shake.
“You can just call me Clare...” I said and shook his hand. He nodded.
“It’s Chibi!” Bernice repeated herself.
“You’re the only one who calls me that!” I said.
“Oh, I get it!” exclaimed Kwanghee out of the blue. Bernice and I stopped and looked at him with raised
eyebrows. “She calls you Chibi cause you’re short!”
I swear I could hear the glass walls crashing down. Any friendly feelings I ever had for this person just evaporated into fart. The kind that you hold in so long that when it does come loose, it stinks like something died.
Bernice immediately read my expressions and tried to pass it off as a joke. I laugh half-heartedly and tried to smile, but could only pull off a cross between a grin and a grimace. Not pretty.
I tried to turn my attention to something else and found myself counting the people in room. There were about 5 not including Bernice and me. We had arrived quite early and I suspected the other students were still on their break or probably on the way. Nevertheless, I asked Bernice anyway.
“Where is everybody?”
“Dunno...” was her simple answer.
The studio was quite small, 3 out of the 4 walls were completely covered with mirrors and the floors were a dark coloured wood with a smooth and shiny finish so that it’s easier for the dancers to do their spins and such. The fourth wall was unpainted and a dull grey cement colour. Apparently, they school didn’t have the money to paint that wall. There were speakers in all four corners of the room, a small music player set and water dispenser.
“Not bad...” I said still looking around.
Bernice knew I was talking about the room and she shrugged. “It could be bigger though...”
At that moment, the door swung open. I snapped my head towards the door and raised my eyebrows expectantly. A tall, well-built man entered the studio with a small blood red duffle bag slung onto one shoulder and a black water bottle in his hand. He walked towards the music player in the front, stopped the music, extracted the CD and replaced it with his own. He must be the teacher.
“That’s Mr. Jung...” Bernice whispered.
Mr. Jung began to loosely stretch himself before the class. “Is there anyone else who hasn’t arrived?” he asked and turned to face his reflection in the mirror.
“Yeah...” answered one of the students.
“Let’s wait for another 5 minutes...” he said and looked at his students’ reflections in the mirror.
His gaze stopped on me. He turned around and tilted his head to one side as if examining something interesting for the first time. I smiled a toothy, nervous smile and waved at him.
“Hi...”
“I don’t remember ever seeing you in my classes before...” he said.
“She’s not from our course...” Bernice explained. “She from Comm...”
“I’m just visiting...” I added and smiled even wider. It was kind of like my defence mechanism. To smile like a crazy person whenever I feel trapped in an awkward situation. “If I can’t stay, I’ll just leave...” I added.
“No, no...” he said and raised a hand. “You can stay... So, can you introduce yourself?”
My eyes widen. “Uh...” I look around at everyone and smile again. “Hi... I’m Clare...”
“So you’re from Communications right?” I nodded. “What major?”
“Broadcasting and advertising...” I answered.
Mr. Jung smiled and nodded. “Very nice...” he turned to his students and said. “If you ever want to get famous, it’s a good idea to make friends with people like Clare... Am I right?” he nodded towards me.
I shrug. I seriously did not know what to say. I turned to Bernice, she looked at me with an apologetic look.
I shrug again.
“Well I’m sorry, Clare... But I’m afraid I’m going to ask you to leave...” he apologized.
I nodded. I understood. “It’s ok... I’ll leave...” I turned to wave at Bernice, who waved back reluctantly.
As I headed to the door, I turned to bow to Mr. Jung. “Nice to meet you, Clare...” I smiled and turned around, just in time to run into what felt like a brick wall.
I was taken aback and dazed for a few seconds. I cover my nose, which was throbbing from the impact. I could hear snickers from the class and swore mentally at myself. Great, I get kicked out and walk right into a fucking wall.
“Ow!”
I looked up to glare at the wall, but instead of seeing the dull grey cement wall, I saw... A monkey. I frowned and slowly looked upwards.
“Are you okay?” he asked with an obvious look of concern on his face.
It was a man. Albeit, a very tall man. He had a green baby Milo jacket on, which explained the monkey. He had a single diamond earring on his left ear and a head of copper red hair. He honestly looked like a gorilla.
“Are you okay?” he bent down to my level this time and looked at me straight on. Our eyes met and I turn away. I nodded silently.
“You should watch where you’re watching, Chansung...” came a voice from behind him.
The class became lively with laughter again.
“How did it feel like?” Mr. Jung asked, while he himself chuckled.
I turned towards him and rubbed my nose comically to express how sore it was. “It felt like I walked into a wall...”
“I’m so sorry...”
I turned around just in time to see him bow in apology. I shook my head and felt horrified that he was apologising. “It’s okay!” I said.
Mr. Jung let out a breath to end his laughing, but he was still smiling. “Guys, this is Clare from Comm...”
At that point, I noticed the group of guys behind Chansung. They were equally as big as he was, although maybe slightly smaller. They all bowed simultaneously.
“Hi, Clare from Comm!” they greeted in booming voices.
I laughed nervously. “H-Hi...”
After all that time being stuck in suburbia, I was ready and eager to make the transition back to the city life. It isn't as bustling and exciting as people make it out to be, but it sure beats being stuck at home. I missed many things about the city. Many of the components that made it an ideal place to live in was missing from her beat down hometown. One of them was a Starbucks, which was at the top of my 'Things to try when I get back' list.
The campus was fairly new and consisted of 3 main blocks, the residential/commercial block, the administrative block and the academic block. All the restaurants and cafes were located at the commercial block. It was convenient in a sense. You come down from the hostel and are immediately greeted by an array of food choices. Mostly fast food but hey, what else do growing teenagers and young adults prefer more?
I made my way past the Hoagies, the Baskin Robbins, the ChaTime straight towards Starbucks. I strain my neck to see if any of the regular staff are there. I managed to get quite close to them during the course of my first semester, which was mostly spent at one of the tables with a tall cup of hot or cold Java.
And surely enough, I was greeted by a dark skinned man, only slightly taller than me. He was wearing his usual black collar shirt, which was the uniform of the baristas working there. He had a look of a child throwing a tantrum, lips pouted and eyebrows pointed upwards. He spread his arms as he approached me and practically suffocated me in a hug. His name was Wan, pronounce One.
"Hi..." I greeted. I don't know how e and I got close, it just started with simple conversation I guess and it sort of progressed from there. "How are you?"
He looked away and replied me with a smile. I laugh, not knowing how to answer to such a reaction. However I did suspect that he may have been exhausted. It was mid-afternoon after all; he must've been working the early morning shift.
He returns to his place behind the counter and asked, "Grande? Venti?" he was implying the size of the drink I wanted.
"Grande please," I said and he immediately keyed in my drink, a caramel frappe, coffee base, low fat milk with whipped cream. My favorite.
The manager smiled at me from behind the counter as Kaname went to make my drink at the next station. I glanced around the crowded Starbucks cafe to see how many employees were currently working. It seemed like there were only 3 people working the early morning shift today. I felt slightly disappointed. I was hoping to see Ryusuke, another barista that I was close to.
The last time I saw him, he told me that he was planning to continue working at Starbucks until his course at the university started in September. That was in May and it was currently August. He should still be working.
“He’s working the night shift today...” Wan said, as if reading my mind. He handed me my drink and smiled as if he had a juicy little secret that he was hiding.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Thank you,” I said and left his previous statement unanswered. I guess you can say I had a little crush on Ryu.
I headed towards one of the empty tables at the other end of the cafe after grabbing a couple of tissues and a straw. The frappe was bittersweet, just how I liked it. Classes for my course had not started yet, I still had a week of relaxation left. I planned to spend it having fun with my best friend, Bernice.
She was also a student; unfortunately, she chose to take a different course from me and was currently majoring in dance. It has been about a month or so since I last met her.
“Chi-”
I frowned. I swore I heard a voice break through the blaring rock music in my ears that did not belong anywhere in the song. I took one earphone out of my ear and turned around to find, Bernice, dressed in a black tank top and a pair of dark green hot pants, her hair tied up loosely in a knot. She carried around a purple bag and her phone in her right hand. She smiled at me and sat herself down in the empty seat opposite me.
“Sup...” she said.
“Wazaaa~~~” I greeted back and returned her smile with a smile of my own, wider and a little more goofier.
“Wazaaaa~~~” she parroted as she put her bag down and placed her phone on the wooden table. It was a
Blackberry with a purple back cover. I stared at it and thought about how nice that colour would be on my phone.
I stared at the black soft silicone cover with protruding devil’s horns at the top that encased my phone and made a mental note to buy a purple cover the next time I get the chance.
“What’s that?” Bernice asked indicating the drink in my hand.
I grinned and showed it to her proudly. “Caramel Frappe...”
“Shit... I want one...” she said and straightened herself in her seat, as if she wanted to get up and get herself
one. Instead she leaned back and pursed her lips as if thinking about the repercussions of ordering a frappe.
“Go and get one then...” I answered simply and picked up my phone. I pressed the little round button at the bottom just so that the screen would light up. It was a bad habit of mine that seemed to kill my battery life quicker than most people.
Our conversations have always been like this. We don’t usually have a solid topic that we could focus on, but we can talk about anything and everything. And once we get going, it takes time for us to stop and take a breath.
“Finished class yet?” I asked and took a sip of my drink.
She let out a sigh, as if just the thought of class tired her out. “No... I have an hour before class starts again...”
“Not going to have lunch?”
She shook her head again. “I have practical later... If I eat now, I’m afraid I’d puke...”
I nodded. It was common knowledge that the dance practical classes were particularly hard on the students. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the students in Bern’s class puked themselves silly right after every class.
“Have you eaten?” she asked. I shook my head and took another sip.
“Was planning to, but since you can’t eat I don’t think I will either...”
“Just eat...” Bernice said, a little hint of firmness in her voice.
I scrunched my nose. “Meh... No...”
“Eat!” she insisted.
“No!” I squeaked.
There was a short silence.
“So what are you going to do after this?” she asked, as if forgetting our previous conversation.
I shrugged. I honestly did not know what I was going to do for the rest of the day. I was planning to hang out
with Bernice after her classes were over, but the time between that I had no idea how to fill.
“I wanna follow you to your class...” I joked and laughed, but stopped when I saw Bernice with her gaze fixed on me. “What?”
***
I stared at the unfamiliar grey halls. The dance studios where the dance classes were held were located in the lower grounds of the school, far from any of the other classrooms. It was probably to accommodate the other students from other courses that would probably have a hard time concentrating during a lecture when the classes next door were blasting dance/club songs throughout the day.
Since the school was fairly new, the administration still hadn’t gotten time to completely soundproof the dance studios as they had the recording studios in the upper floors.
“It feels like I’m in a horror movie...” I said to Bernice as I followed her towards her class. I glanced into one of the studios just in time to see a stick thin ballerina stretching herself on the floor and heard what sounded like classical French music in the background. “What type of dance are you doing again?”
“I’m doing a little bit of everything...” she answered and stops in front of a door. My ears picked up a faint but very distinctive beat coming from the other side of the door. “But I’m planning to major in hip hop...” she turned the knob and pushed the door open.
What hit me first wasn’t the loud hip hop music blaring through the speakers, but the smell. I paused at the entrance as Bernice absentmindedly walked towards the back of the studio where a group of people were gathered. It smelled like feet, body odour, sweat and wet dog. I scrunched my nose towards Bernice who was talking to a guy. When they started walking towards me, I tried to straighten my nose and smile.
“Chibi, this is Kwanghee...” Bernice introduced me. “Kwanghee, this is Chibi...”
“Chibi?” Kwanghee raised his eyebrows, a little sceptical as he held out his hand for me to shake.
“You can just call me Clare...” I said and shook his hand. He nodded.
“It’s Chibi!” Bernice repeated herself.
“You’re the only one who calls me that!” I said.
“Oh, I get it!” exclaimed Kwanghee out of the blue. Bernice and I stopped and looked at him with raised
eyebrows. “She calls you Chibi cause you’re short!”
I swear I could hear the glass walls crashing down. Any friendly feelings I ever had for this person just evaporated into fart. The kind that you hold in so long that when it does come loose, it stinks like something died.
Bernice immediately read my expressions and tried to pass it off as a joke. I laugh half-heartedly and tried to smile, but could only pull off a cross between a grin and a grimace. Not pretty.
I tried to turn my attention to something else and found myself counting the people in room. There were about 5 not including Bernice and me. We had arrived quite early and I suspected the other students were still on their break or probably on the way. Nevertheless, I asked Bernice anyway.
“Where is everybody?”
“Dunno...” was her simple answer.
The studio was quite small, 3 out of the 4 walls were completely covered with mirrors and the floors were a dark coloured wood with a smooth and shiny finish so that it’s easier for the dancers to do their spins and such. The fourth wall was unpainted and a dull grey cement colour. Apparently, they school didn’t have the money to paint that wall. There were speakers in all four corners of the room, a small music player set and water dispenser.
“Not bad...” I said still looking around.
Bernice knew I was talking about the room and she shrugged. “It could be bigger though...”
At that moment, the door swung open. I snapped my head towards the door and raised my eyebrows expectantly. A tall, well-built man entered the studio with a small blood red duffle bag slung onto one shoulder and a black water bottle in his hand. He walked towards the music player in the front, stopped the music, extracted the CD and replaced it with his own. He must be the teacher.
“That’s Mr. Jung...” Bernice whispered.
Mr. Jung began to loosely stretch himself before the class. “Is there anyone else who hasn’t arrived?” he asked and turned to face his reflection in the mirror.
“Yeah...” answered one of the students.
“Let’s wait for another 5 minutes...” he said and looked at his students’ reflections in the mirror.
His gaze stopped on me. He turned around and tilted his head to one side as if examining something interesting for the first time. I smiled a toothy, nervous smile and waved at him.
“Hi...”
“I don’t remember ever seeing you in my classes before...” he said.
“She’s not from our course...” Bernice explained. “She from Comm...”
“I’m just visiting...” I added and smiled even wider. It was kind of like my defence mechanism. To smile like a crazy person whenever I feel trapped in an awkward situation. “If I can’t stay, I’ll just leave...” I added.
“No, no...” he said and raised a hand. “You can stay... So, can you introduce yourself?”
My eyes widen. “Uh...” I look around at everyone and smile again. “Hi... I’m Clare...”
“So you’re from Communications right?” I nodded. “What major?”
“Broadcasting and advertising...” I answered.
Mr. Jung smiled and nodded. “Very nice...” he turned to his students and said. “If you ever want to get famous, it’s a good idea to make friends with people like Clare... Am I right?” he nodded towards me.
I shrug. I seriously did not know what to say. I turned to Bernice, she looked at me with an apologetic look.
I shrug again.
“Well I’m sorry, Clare... But I’m afraid I’m going to ask you to leave...” he apologized.
I nodded. I understood. “It’s ok... I’ll leave...” I turned to wave at Bernice, who waved back reluctantly.
As I headed to the door, I turned to bow to Mr. Jung. “Nice to meet you, Clare...” I smiled and turned around, just in time to run into what felt like a brick wall.
I was taken aback and dazed for a few seconds. I cover my nose, which was throbbing from the impact. I could hear snickers from the class and swore mentally at myself. Great, I get kicked out and walk right into a fucking wall.
“Ow!”
I looked up to glare at the wall, but instead of seeing the dull grey cement wall, I saw... A monkey. I frowned and slowly looked upwards.
“Are you okay?” he asked with an obvious look of concern on his face.
It was a man. Albeit, a very tall man. He had a green baby Milo jacket on, which explained the monkey. He had a single diamond earring on his left ear and a head of copper red hair. He honestly looked like a gorilla.
“Are you okay?” he bent down to my level this time and looked at me straight on. Our eyes met and I turn away. I nodded silently.
“You should watch where you’re watching, Chansung...” came a voice from behind him.
The class became lively with laughter again.
“How did it feel like?” Mr. Jung asked, while he himself chuckled.
I turned towards him and rubbed my nose comically to express how sore it was. “It felt like I walked into a wall...”
“I’m so sorry...”
I turned around just in time to see him bow in apology. I shook my head and felt horrified that he was apologising. “It’s okay!” I said.
Mr. Jung let out a breath to end his laughing, but he was still smiling. “Guys, this is Clare from Comm...”
At that point, I noticed the group of guys behind Chansung. They were equally as big as he was, although maybe slightly smaller. They all bowed simultaneously.
“Hi, Clare from Comm!” they greeted in booming voices.
I laughed nervously. “H-Hi...”
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