It was an early evening in the male hostel, Jun-oh was sleeping in his room and suddenly Min-ho shook him awake.
' You really have to get up now if you have to make it in time for the orientation
' What is the time? Jun-oh asked jumping out of his bed
' Few minutes for you to get on the bad side of your seniors for being late, Min-ho answered laughing as he watched Jun-oh rushed to get dressed
" It's your fault Jun-oh said
' How? is that the thank you I get for waking you up?
" It's your fault for taking me on that long walk round the campus and tiring me out.
' Oh really? Now I know why its not good to be good
Jun-oh laughed and hurried out of the room the he paused midway and hurried back to the room and stuck his head through a small opening in the door.
" Senior! Jun-oh called out and Min-ho stuck his head out of the bed, thank you for the walk and thank you for the tour Jun-oh said smiling and hurried out.
' Ungrateful bastard Min-oh said after him jokingly and smiled at himself .
.........
It is getting quite dark outside, university students are seen drinking and chatting round different tables in a pork restaurant. They call out to their friends as they arrive and the new arrivals join the the party enthusiastically. Everyone seems to be having a nice time.
Ji-won is sitting down at his table drinking and looking like he was forced to be there and indeed he was. He honestly could not wait for the day to be over. A senior at the table stood up and drew peoples attention by hitting the scissors used in cutting the meet to his glass, everyone turned to look at him. His name was Seok-ju
" I noticed you all are siting together with those in your level and that is defeating the idea of this gathering Seok-ju said, I want you all to stand up and mix up, make sure you don't know know the next person sitting by your side.
The crowd applauded and cheered him on and everyone moved to comply with the instruction. Some guys where calling out to beautiful girls to join their table while the girls where ignoring them to go and sit at the table of their crush, most of them hanging around Ji-won and trying to start a conversation with him just then Ji-won looks up and sees the curly haired kid from earlier walk in.
Jun-oh scanned the room with his eyes for Tae-ri and finally saw him and walked over to his sit, Tae-ri nonchalantly made room for him to sit down.
' Sorry I'm late, I over slept
Tae-ri did not answer him but passed him a clean glass and asked him if he wanted beer or soju or he wanted it mixed and Jun-oh replied that he wanted it mixed and Tae-ri mixed the drink for him without saying a word then handed it over to him. Jun-oh thanked him and took a sip while looking round the place.
Jun-oh looked round and his eyes finally landed oh Ji-won table, two girls were at his side trying so hard to talk to them and he was intentionally ignoring them and making them look stupid. ' who does he think he is Jun-oh thought to himself, it wont really kill him to just answer them for the sake of this gathering' and Jun-oh made a disgusting face and just then his eyes met with Ji-won and Ji-won smiled at him.
" So annoying, Jun-oh said under his breath and picked up his drink and started drinking observing other tables.
Tae-ri turned to see what was irritating Jun-oh but he could not figure it out and he just turned to stare at Jun-oh with loving eyes. He looked at him for a while until Jun-oh turned and Tae-ri just immediately removed his eyes.
Seok-ju picked up the mic and stood up again this time hitting his hands on the mic to draw the attention. " Now please let our freshmen stand up and introduce themselves because it is fate that brought us together, we had three different units of the department but fate brought you to us"
The seniors clapped and cheered while the juniors laughed shyly and the stood up one after the other to introduce themselves.
A girl stood up and introduced herself as Lee Min-jae and her reason for joining the program was because she heard that was where you could easily find handsome guys that were fun to be around and everyone cheered happily.
Another guy stood up and introduced himself as Hyun Jun-taek and he said his reason for coming to the university was to escape his mother and everyone laughed in understanding
They all kept on introducing themselves until it got to Jun-oh's turn. Jun-oh stood up to introduce himself looking around shyly, he looked intimidated with everyone staring at him.
" My name is Lee Jun-oh, and I joined the program because I've always been fascinated by how the computer works and I wanted to learn more about it.
Everyone clapped and cheered, "That is a wonderful reason Seok jun said unlike some people joining the program just because they want to make money. You should also have passion for the course too', he concluded.
Everyone laughed and talked among themselves and Ji-won could not take his eyes away from Jun-oh. Jun-oh bowed his head in appreciation and slowly took his sit. Tae-ri just sat down quietly beside him not saying a word.
Seok jun cleared his voice on the mic to quiet the crowd and every paused to listen to him. " Now before we move on to the games let's do the final important thing, pairing you up with seniors who will be your mentors"
Everyone cheered excitedly, " Are you that happy? Seok jun asked
" Yes! they all answered
' Well let's see how happy you'll be after you see your mentors and mentees;'
Seok jun brought out his phone and typed in something then looked around smiling. Soon everyone's phone was buzzing and they all brought out their phones to check who they were paired with. They all started identifying their mentors, while some were happy with it others were not. " Now locate your mentors and sit beside them Seok jun said, they will be your parents throughout your first year", he added.
Jun-oh looked at the name of the senior he was paired with, he did not know whom it was as the only person he knew there was Tae-ri. He brought the phone up to Tae-ri and asked him if he knew who it was. Tae-ri turned to show him where Ji-won was and they both saw Ji-won smiling and waving at them.
Jun-oh had the look of shock and horror on his face, "Not him, Jun-oh said under his breath'.
' You don't have to accept Tae-ri said, it's really not that compulsory, just that it might make your life in school very easy and help with the seniors final year project
" How will it help with his final year project?
' Normally, he will have to prepare a seminar with a year one student to show his mentorship ability and then he will be graded for it.
" Just him?
' Yes, just him will be graded, but it will add to your school performance evaluation. So this is the way seniors easily sought for juniors to mentor but you are free to refuse.
Jun-ho turned to look at Ji-won's table and saw Ji-won signaling for him to come over but he just turned to his table and looked forward at other people trying to locate their mentors and mentees.
Tae-ri was observing Jun-oh from the corner of his eye. ' Do you have a problem with J-won? Tae-ri asked him.
" Not really Jun-oh answered, just that he is a rude and a snob and does not know how to treat people, I feel like we wont get along well.
' And how do you know all this? you just met him today.
" I can tell just by observing him, he has a face that says "horrible obnoxious jerk"
Tae-ri laughed hard for the first time that evening and Jun-oh joined him and they both clinked their tumblers and continued drinking.
.........
Ji-won looked at his phone again just to be certain he had the right person, and then looked to where Jun-oh was sitting but Jun-oh was chatting happily with people on his table and paying him no attention. Everyone was settled and some tables had already started playing drinking games. He stayed there looking at his phone, the girls beside him has left to meet their mentors after he refused to pay them any attention.
" Who were you paired with? Si-woon asked him.
Ji-won just pointed towards where Jun-ho was sitting
" Why? what happened? He does not want to come over?
' I have no idea what the problem is
" You do know that you cant force him right?
' I know but I must have him
" What are you saying?
' I don't like being rejected so I am going to make him accept me. Ji-won said with determination in his eyes.
" You are starting to scare me, is there something I don't know because this is feeling like it is more than a academic exercise.
' Just, Ji-won said smiling and looking at Jun-oh's table.
..........
Jun-oh was at the table playing a drinking game with Tae-ri and the others at the table and he was really happy he has finally connected to Tae-ri, they both kept stealing glances at each other and smiling.
Ji-won stood up from his table and walked towards Jun-oh's table. Si-woon looked at him and tried calling out to him softly but he was not listening and just kept on walking towards the table until he was standing behind Jun-oh then he bent down close to Jun-oh's ear and said "excuse me"
Jun-oh was startled and immediately turned only to end up bumping his lips with Ji-won and they bought opened their eyes wide in shock. Everyone around them gasped in shock. They both paused in the moment.