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SEPTEMBER 5.

   Hyunjin had left the room within the next few minutes, without unpacking a single box, to go hang out in the Jilix room and see what they were up to. 

   With the room quiet, Minho had nothing to distract himself from his exhaustion. He groaned and slipped off the bed and scooped up his roll of bedding. He forced his tired body to bend to his will and cover the uncomfortable mattress in a sheet, a blanket, and a pillow, fighting off the urge to just fling himself over it while it was uncovered, because all he could think about when he looked at it was all the assorted dead skin cells and other disgusting things that were definitely covering it. Then, he tugged the cord of the blinds on the window until it was dark enough, and after that he couldn't delay it any longer and fell asleep, lying curled up on the bed.

   He woke up to Hyunjin calling his name. Hyunjin seemed timid, maybe a bit nervous to wake him. He was just poking his head into the room, so the door was partly open and he could hear noisy students shuffling around the hallway. "You coming down for lunch?" 

   Sitting up hurriedly and rubbing bleary eyes, Minho yawned, feeling his nap was insufficient. He only slept two hours or so. "Mm... Yeah, coming," He grumbled, attempting to mask his embarrassment at Hyunjin seeing him like that, knocked out, body curled around his pillow.

   Hyunjin nodded and closed the door, and it was quiet again. Only then did Minho realize he still had his shoes on, probably dirtying his blanket. He sighed. Not like he was going to wash it just for that, anyway. 

   His body felt stiff, but he stood anyway and dug his student ID out of his backpack. He was a bit late, so luckily he'd mostly missed the initial lunch rush of students filing out of their rooms to fill their stomachs as a break from unpacking, or perhaps taking naps like Minho. 

   His stomach growled as he descended the last flight of stairs and walked past the lobby, partly following his nose to where the smell of warm food was strongest. The cafeteria was nicer than he'd expected, and definitely nicer than the ones of his middle and high school days. It felt more like a restaurant than a cafeteria, with its booths and cushioned chairs and fancy light fixtures hanging over each table. Better than all of that was the smell of the food. 

    There was hardly a line at the food bar; almost all the students were already seated and gushing about the taste. Minho filled a tray with a few of the various lunch options, picking out a steaming, pressed sandwich and a couple of sides. 

   Most of the tables were filled, so he stood in the middle of the room, scoping out an empty place to sit. Motion caught his eye— a waving hand. It was Chan's.

    Chan was grinning, happily beckoning Minho over. 

   Minho had expected to sit by himself for a quiet, mostly comfortable lunch, but then again, maybe sitting with people he knew would be nice. He wore the makings of a happy smile for just a second and walked across the room to join Chan's table. Of course, all of the high school kids were gathered there: Bang Chan, Changbin, Hyunjin, Jisung, Felix, and Seungmin. It was a little strange— nice, but strange: it almost felt as if this one table was a bubble, inside which everything was normal and at least a little familiar, and outside was a slightly terrifying, unknown new world. Inside felt safe. Safe enough, anyway.

   Chan slid over to make room for Minho at the end of the booth, pushing Felix and Jisung over like dominoes. It was only meant to seat two or three people, so Felix and Jisung were squished onto each other, and Chan was pressing into Felix slightly, while Minho had room enough to comfortably spread his legs without touching anyone. Still, it felt a little cramped, and Minho felt a little uneasy about being so close. Maybe it would've been better to sit alone, after all.

   "We're talking about our rooms right now," Chan filled in. "Felix and Jisung haven't even started unpacking!" 

    "That's only because Felix keeps distracting me!" Jisung defended. "Plus, I already found places for my plants, so technically I have."

    "You're the one that kept turning on Twice songs," Felix giggled, leaning into his roommate and playfully smacking his shoulder. 

   "What about you two?" Chan asked, looking to Hyunjin and Minho. 

   "We haven't started either," Minho answered, punctuating his sentence with a bite of pressed sandwich. 

   "So Changbin and I are the only ones that are actually doing anything?" 

   "Not true," Seungmin cut in, wagging his head. "I finished an hour ago."

   Minho didn't say anything more and focused on digging into his food while the conversation shifted to room quality, involving the creaky beds and minuscule amount of floorspace. Chan and Changbin had it good this year, being sophomores. Their three-bed room was spacious (compared to the freshman rooms), quiet, and smooth-walled. Not to mention, they had a TV. The rest of the freshmen groaned in jealousy as Changbin described the room. 

   The rest of the day wasn't all that interesting, but at least Minho felt more confident after touring the huge campus; traipsing through lecture halls with hundreds of staggered, fold-out seats; checking the on-campus shops and smiling lightly because Chan was already picking out which one he wanted to work at.

   Some hours after, he had his short orientation, then was forced into some dumb icebreaker games. He wasn't interested with playing 'get-to-know-you-bingo' with all the random people gathered in the same classroom as him. He didn't really care about getting to know these new people.

    However, he did enjoy the volleyball match that went on after sunset, after the heat of the September sun had faded, mostly because he got to slug Hyunjin in the face with the ball.

    During the day, it hadn't been so bad. But night came and again, Minho was nervous when he thought of tomorrow. His mood was down significantly as he got into his new bed again, a little more thoughtful this time, rather than earlier when he threw himself down and fell asleep almost instantly.

『 ↳✧  

got into bed. it creaks. i can hardly flinch without it creaking.

it's not like my room.

 the sounds are different. i can hear muffled voices, thudding footsteps, and gushing water through the concrete walls. i can see another person in bed across the room. if I make one sound, i know he'll hear it. i can't get comfortable knowing that.

it's not like my room and i  honestly, i hate it. i know i won't sleep well tonight and if i do get any sleep i'll probably wake up miserable and hurting tomorrow. why am i so much more affected by this than anyone else seems to be??

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ 』

꘎♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡꘎

it took me an embarrassingly long time to remember the word staggered.

i kept thinking SEGREGATED CHAIRS