"Where should we start looking?" Liz wondered out loud. "Maybe I'll ask my friends."
The trio were in their dorm for the night. Three glasses of water sat on a mini folding table in the middle of the room. Wonyoung was marking the steps to their dance at the side while Rei scrolled through social media.
Wonyoung didn't really mind at this point.
She knew Liz wouldn't give up anything she put her mind to, so she came up with a plan to just turn every blind date down.
"Ooh! She looks hot. What do you think, Rei?" Liz passed her phone to Rei, who took a look at the woman on the screen and wrinkled her nose.
"Absolutely not. Are you out of your mind?" Rei cringed. "Wonyoung's a softie. Don't set her up with players even if it's for fun."
"But she doesn't have to get with her! It's just so she gets out there and has some fun. Besides, what'd be the harm in getting in someone's pants-"
Rei shot her a piercing glare and shook her head.
Wonyoung let a small smile tug the corners of her lips upwards. It was touching to have such considerate friends.
Liz groaned.
"Fine. But this is gonna take forever."
.
"I'm bored," Hyunseo announced, splaying herself onto Gaeul's bed. She slammed her palm against the soft mattress, watching how her hand bounced, and complained about how she had to sleep on Gaeul's old bed at home while she got a new one of her own until Gaeul herself did the big sisterly thing to do and pinched her.
Yujin played with Azzo on the floor, swatting at him with an old shirt and not letting him bite it. "I need to get him some toys," she pointed out as Azzo growled and chased the fabric.
"What's in the other room? I wanna see."
"That's the bathroom," Gaeul deadpanned.
"Nooo," Hyunseo whined, "the one right next to us."
"Ah, that's..." Yujin muttered. "It's a storeroom."
"Fun," Hyunseo said, hopping off the bed. She headed towards the door and rushed out. Yujin and Gaeul scrambled to their feet to stop her, but she already had her hand on the second room's doorknob. She twisted it, and was met with walls plastered with framed drawings.
Unmarked canvases and stacks of loose paper sat in corners and on paint-stained bookshelves. Sitting in the shelves themselves were baskets of pens, brushes, tubes of paints, and various paint knives.
A mini pantry of some sorts, still neatly arranged, sat at the very end of the room against a wall. Hyunseo spotted a mini fridge.
Near the center of the room stood a wooden table and two easels, a plastic tarpaulin draped over the taller one. A half-finished work was spread out on the table, held in place by thin strips of tape.
"You..." Hyunseo began, whipping around to face Yujin. She switched on her phone and swiped around for a few seconds before shoving the screen in Yujin's face.
"I was going to show you this just now after we had dinner!" she exclaimed. Yujin froze, faced with her own painting on the screen.
"Ah, um, I'm their fan too," Yujin bluffed horribly. The work in progress that sat on the table was evidence in black and white.
"GAEUL! YUJINNIE IS EUGENE AND YOU NEVER TOLD ME?" Hyunseo fussed, tugging at Gaeul's shirt sleeves and spinning around her.
Gaeul and Yujin shared a nervous look, then a chuckle.
"Well, cat's out of the bag," Gaeul said, shrugging.
"You can't tell any of your friends about this, okay?" Yujin said to Hyunseo.
"Why? It'd be super cool to be friends with the national treasure Artist Eugene."
"I just like to keep it quiet," Yujin explained, trying (and failing) to cover up her work with the tarp. "I'm not interested in being a celebrity."
Hyunseo blew air out of her nose. "Oka-a-ay."
"Oh, Yujin!" she chirped when her phone buzzed in her hand. "I've found a hot eligible single for you."
"That's great," Yujin said as enthusiastically as possible, frowning with her back turned to Hyunseo as she busied herself with rearranging some paint tubes. Gaeul made a telltale face that she agreed with Yujin, barely disguising her distaste with a hand covering her mouth.
.
"What's her name?" Yujin asked over chicken and beer.
(Hyunseo skipped on the beer. It tasted sour and unpleasant anyway.)
"Not telling ya. It's 'sposed to be a blind date," Hyunseo said, chomping on a big chicken leg. She put emphasis on blind.
Gaeul ripped crispy greasy skin off a breast and groaned with satisfaction. She kicked her bare feet up and rested them on a throw pillow. Azzo begged for little pieces with sharp yaps, which Hyunseo eventually gave into despite Yujin warning her not to (something about getting him used to eating human food from the table, or whatever).
As she slipped slivers of white meat to the puppy under the coffee table, her phone buzzed again. Hyunseo wiped her greasy fingers off on a tissue.
"Holy shit!"
"What?" Gaeul and Yujin spoke in unison.
"She's stunning! Oh gosh Yujin, you'd love her," Hyunseo said dreamily. Yujin scooted to her end of the table and tried to peer over, but got pushed away.
"No!" Hyunseo hissed, turning her phone away from Gaeul as well.
"Hey, what gives?" Yujin whined, sticking her bottom lip out.
"You'll be dazzled at how pretty she is," Hyunseo replied. "Remember, it's a blind date, meaning you don't know anything about the other person!"
Yujin raised an eyebrow doubtfully. No one had been pretty to her for years, at least not in the way she thought Won- her ex was pretty.
"I've never seen you put this much effort into your schoolwork," Gaeul commented.
"My friend's friend's sister's friend was looking for a blind date too. I guess it's just fate," Hyunseo said. The cogs in Yujin's head cranked trying to process what Hyunseo said, then stopped and gave up.
What an interesting kid.
