Canines; Jeongchan

Un

"Hello, this is your local neighborhood broke college student, I'm not sure how you got this number, but if you're looking to scam me, I only have like 22 cents on my bank account, so you can spare the effort"

"Yeah, this is Seo Changbin, your tutor's friend? Bang Chan called me at like 5 am, the asshole. Your tutor sessions canceled, he's sick."

I frown.

"Thanks for the heads up. See you around, I guess?"

I hang up.

Too bad Chris's sick. I really need this tutoring session, because I failed the last test.

Maybe I should bring him some of my famously delicious soup.

And if he happens to be grateful enough to give me a tutoring session, that would be very kind of him.

I nod to myself, and walk into the minuscule dorms kitchen.

It's small, like everything else, with stone slab countertops and cabinets sparsely filled with the food me and my roommate can afford.

I put some music on and chop up the last of our vegetables, bopping and singing to the lyrics.

"Illuminated by the light of my laptop, chop chop, I'm cooking up a hot pot", I call out, then cackle when Hyunjin pounds the all too thin walls, telling me to 'keep the goddamn rap music down. He's doing something.

I never knew Seungmin is named something.

Couples and their weird nicknames.

I hear a moan, and put 3Racha on even louder, the voices of the anonymous SoundCloud rappers filling the dorm shared by me and Hyunjin.

And by now Seungmin, but he doesn't pay rent.

Another two hours at the stove, and I'm done with the soup, tasting it to see if it's any good. It is, and I grab two large containers, each enough to last a person a week if you only eat 1 meal a day. I've tested it.

Then, I grab the one container, my ancient phone, and my jacket.

"Hyunjin?"

My roommate appears in the door frame, looking quite bedraggled and flush.

"I left some soup on the kitchen countertop. Standard fare if you want one"

3 dollars a bowl, 5 for guests, for my grocery jar. It's expensive, but my grandma's recipe is too good to resist.

"I'll keep it in mind", he says, and I roll my eyes and leave.

The air is brisk and chilly as I walk across campus, then off it's grounds. Bang Chan is rich, so he lives alone in a huge modern apartment with a maid service run by Ms. Wang, an old woman.

She's nice enough, I've talked to her several times to get certain... stains out of the couch.

I look at the possible shortcut, which goes through a woodsy part of the park. It gives me the willies, and I usually avoid it, but hey, anything to take care of Chan.

And possibly get tutored, but that's just an afterthought.

I march through the woods, ignoring the gnarled trees that look like they have hands with long spindly witches fingers, and ditches in which a monster could be hiding.

Yep, I'm not frightened at all.

I really hope the tutoring is worth it.

The door to the apartment building is closed, and I ring Chan's buzzer a few times, but he doesn't press the button to open up, so I take out my phone, and call Ms. Wang.