After getting the food that they ordered, Jun-seo, Jungwon, and Jake gathered in the living room, enjoying their dinner while watching the TV. The only things that they could hear were the cartoon show they were watching and the crunches as they bit into the fried chicken.

At some point, though, Jungwon decided to break the silence. "Right, Jun-seo," he cleared his throat and wiped his mouth with tissues, "have you thought about the thing that Wonyoung asked you?"

Jun-seo, indulged in the cartoon, didn't look at him as he answered. "What thing?" he asked, only to pause as he realized what Jungwon was referring to. He hummed and looked at his friend afterward, "I guess I will accept the position," he shrugged.

Jungwon's eyes lit up at his answer, a small smile forming on his lips, "really?" he replied and looked at Jake, who didn't really care about the topic, but after seeing Jungwon's face, it intrigued him. He wondered what could've changed Jun-seo's mind into accepting the position.

"I mean, I don't know yet, to be honest. My decision is not final, so yeah,," replied Jun-seo, a soft sigh escaping his lips. It would be awkward if he told his friends that the reason he considered accepting the position was because of Minji, so for now, he kept the reason to himself.

Meanwhile, Wonyoung and Dr. Kim was in the latter's office, discussing the plan for the juniors that would be taking the program; what activities that they should carry out throughout the first semester, and etc.

"Wonyoung, can I ask you something?" asked Dr. Kim at some point during their discussion.

Wonyoung looked up from her tablet and flashed a small smile, nodding. "Sure, what is it?"

Dr. Kim straightened her back and started organizing her desk slowly, "I know you are a great student, and you have an excellent decision-making capability, but I would like to know—why Jun-seo? I know I asked you to choose a candidate, and that I told you I'm on board with bringing him into the team, but again, why him?"

"Yeah?"

"I mean, among your colleagues, there were some other students who were just as equally, if not, has better leadership skills than Jun-seo—take Seeun for example, he won an award with his club because of his leadership skills," she explained, fixing her glasses before smiling slightly, "and, no offense to Jun-seo, but I haven't seen him do anything significant."

Before Wonyoung could answer, Dr. Kim stopped her, signaling to her that she wasn't done yet. "You are a great leader, Jang Wonyoung, and that was one of the reasons why you were elected as the president of our program's club. But as the head of the programme, I feel obligated to engage with my students."

Wonyoung nodded understandingly, a small smile formed on her lips momentarily before sighing softly. "I understand, Dr. Kim," she said, staring at Dr. Kim's desk. "But as I said when I suggested Jun-seo to you, he was intentionally avoiding any important roles, be it for his group assignments or co-curricular activities, because he had bad histories with such roles," she explained.

"Do you mind elaborating?"

"Unfortunately, Dr. Kim, I can't talk about it because I don't know the full details either," replied Wonyoung while shaking her head. "All I know was that it happened back in high school," she added.

Dr. Kim nodded understandingly. She took a few seconds to process their conversation, and when she finally did, she looked at Wonyoung with a teasing smirk. "And this recommendation has nothing to do with you being his ex?"

The question caught Wonyoung off guard, and her cheeks started turning red. "Huh, what? N-no, it doesn't have anything to do with our past relationship, Dr. Kim," she stammered and scratched her cheek awkwardly.

The two were quiet for the next few minutes, unsure of what else to talk about after ending their conversation about Jun-seo and why he was the one that Wonyoung picked... or so Dr. Kim thought. A few seconds later, Wonyoung cleared her throat and looked at Dr. Kim.

"Dr. Kim, if you don't mind, may I know why you were questioning my decision in choosing Jun-seo?" she asked, "I mean, it was only yesterday when you said that him refusing the position initially was the reason why you wanted him, so, why questioned it today?"

Dr. Kim looked at her and giggled, shrugging. "Hmm, just for the fun of it," she answered.

—

The next day, at the shared apartment of Jun-seo, Jungwon, and Jake, they all woke up almost at the same time, and they got ready to go about their day. Jun-seo was in the living room, sitting cross-legged on the couch while staring at his reflection on the TV screen, cupping a hot cup of coffee.

He sat there quietly for the next five minutes, not feeling like moving or doing anything in particular. Jun-seo had stayed up until two in the morning last night, accompanying Jungwon and Jake, who played Wild Rift on their phones.

"Your coffee will get cold if you don't drink it quickly," Jungwon pointed out as he stepped into the living room.

Jun-seo snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Jungwon, and then at his coffee before nodding. "Right, thank you for the reminder," he muttered. He lifted the cup to his lips and took a sip of it, looking at his friend as he walked past him.

"How are you so full of energy when we slept late last night?" asked Jun-seo, impressed by Jungwon who was walking around the living room, full of energy.

Jungwon chuckled, "I don't know dude, I opened my eyes this morning, and boom, I feel energized," he explained while glancing over his shoulder, looking back in front of him as he made his way into the kitchen.

Not long after that, Jake stepped out of his room, all dressed up. He entered the living room and walked up to Jun-seo, opening his arms while doing a little spin, "so, how do I look?" he asked once he stopped spinning.

"You look good," answered Jun-seo, raising an eyebrow. "Are you going somewhere?"

Jake grinned and gave another spin, "I have a meeting with my mentor today. He told me that this meeting has something to do with how I would manage my time more... properly next semester," he explained and walked toward the coat rack.

Jun-seo nodded, looking down at his cup of coffee. It was getting colder by the second, but he didn't feel like drinking it any time soon. Perhaps, when it's colder, he would drink it—after all, he was a fan of cold coffee.

"What about you, Jun?" asked Jake, snapping his friend out of his thoughts. Jun-seo looked at him, humming in response while raising an eyebrow. "Do you... have anything planned for today? I mean, aside from your part-time job," he shrugged before putting his jacket on.

Jake grabbed his shoes from the corner of the living room and sat on the couch beside Jun-seo, about to put it on when Jungwon entered the living room and threw the box of tissues at him. "What did I say about putting your shoes on in the living room?"

"Dude, I just cleaned it yesterday, okay?" retorted Jake as he grabbed the box of tissues from his lap and placed it on the coffee table. "There is a reason why I put them in the living room instead of the rack at the front door," he added.

Jungwon huffed and sat on the armchair, his feet dangling on the armrest, "yeah, sure. You are not the cleanest guy in the room, you know?" he exclaimed, fishing his phone out of his pocket before opening TikTok.

Jake rolled his eyes good-naturedly, "oh, shut up."

The sight of his friends bantering amused Jun-seo, who looked down at his coffee and lifted it to his lips again, taking another sip before looking at Jake. "To answer your question, Jake, I don't have anything planned today."

"Of course, you don't. I should've expected that from Ahn Jun-seo," replied Jake, pushing himself up from the couch. He fixed his jacket and smiled at his friends. "Well, I'm off now. I'll see you guys later," he said and disappeared into the hallway.

Jungwon and Jun-seo waved at him and said goodbye to Jake. "Huh," scoffed Jungwon while watching a video, an amused smile on his face.

"What?" asked Jun-seo, looking at his friend.

"Oh, it's nothing, just uh... this person that I was following on TikTok moved to our neighborhood," explained Jungwon, looking at Jun-seo, and then at his phone before showing the video he was watching to Jun-seo.

Jun-seo leaned forward, trying to get a closer look at what Jungwon was watching, "ah... I see..." he said, looking at his coffee again before looking at the latter's phone again, "wait, show me the video again."

Jungwon raised an eyebrow, "why?" he asked, looking at the video himself before showing it to Jun-seo again. "Do you know this person?"

After a few seconds, Jun-seo nodded. "Yeah, this was the person that I saved yesterday."

"Oh..." Jungwon nodded before registering what Jun-seo just said. "Wait... WHAT?!"