Chapter 36: Chapter 36

Emily saw her best friend sitting on the bench underneath the shade. She walked closer to her and greeted, “Hey dude! Wazzup! It’s been a long time!”

Ryan looked back at Emily with a face that says: ‘I didn’t know you existed.’

“I was so busy with my study that’s why I couldn’t meet you, my dear friend,” Emily said as she sat next to Ryan and wrapped her arm around Ryan’s shoulder.

“Don’t give me a damn, Emily. I know you are busy looking for part-time jobs.”

“Aren’t I amazing? I am a working student! You should be proud.”

“As if. You only need money to buy a concert ticket for your idols.”

“Don’t judge a K-pop fan like me. Seeing my Oppa# is the source of my life. If you take that out of my f*cking life, I’ll be as good as dead.”

(#Korean word for older brother/lover)

Ryan only shook her head while laughing.

“Anyway, did you see each other already?” Emily diverted the topic.

But Ryan could not follow. “What? Who?”

Ryan’s expression told Emily that she knew nothing about Terban.

[“Don’t tell Ryan that you saw me already. I will look for her and tell it myself.”]

Terban asked Emily not to say anything unless he says so. Therefore, Emily quickly changed the subject again before her troublemaker-mouth made a mistake.

“Our t-thesis was so hard.”

Ryan narrowed her eyes at Emily. She was about to ask for more, but two girls approached them.

“Hi, Ryan. I am Gladys.”

“And I am Wendy.”

“We’re your partners for the next thesis. Remember?”

Ryan smiled at them and responded.

“Oh yeah. I do. Nice to meet you guys, I am Ryan Mcguffin. And this is my mortal enemy, Emily Wales.”

“Yow, wazzup,” Emily greeted with a mock salute.

“Great. Well, we wanted to ask you if you’re available right now. We had to talk about the thesis before the semester is over,” Gladys asked.

“I don’t have classes right now. So, I’m good,” Ryan replied.

“The library is packed and it’s a bit loud here. Should we go to a café?” Wendy offered.

“No way,” Emily disagreed. “Cafes are packed during this hour. What about doing it in Ryan’s boarding house? That would be fun.”

Fun?

Ryan objected.

‘Oh right! Emily still doesn’t know that I am living with five men! What should I do?’

“I am s-sorry,” Ryan said. “The boarding house is so dirty right now. You won’t be able to focus on studying there.”

“Who cares?” Emily said. “I slept with an unfinished Cheetos on my bed. So, that’s not a problem. Let’s go girls?”

Emily pulled Ryan and led the way.

When this was all finished, Ryan vowed to smack Emily’s head.

The sun was setting to the West when Ryan and the other three girls arrived at the boarding house.

“Come in,” Ryan invited as she opened the door.

As soon as the three girls stepped inside the boarding house, they noticed the odd ambiance. The smell wasn’t sweet, but minty. There are no women’s clothes or make-up scattered around the place. Most of all, it was squeaky clean!

“Yikes. I told you it was dirty here,” Ryan said with a sigh.

Dirty?

This is dirty?!

The girls had no idea what Ryan said when she called this place dirty.

Well, Ryan lived with a clean freak like Terban for long days. So, her perspective on cleanliness changed. When there were a few specks of dust on the furniture, Terban freaked out.

“Let’s go to my room,” Ryan said. “I’ll go get some juice for dr…”

Ryan bumped into someone while she was on her way to the kitchen. When she looked up, she saw Kyle.

The three girls, who saw the handsome and tall guy, had their eyes wide open.

“Oh, Kyle. Hi,” Ryan greeted.

Kyle turned red. He was trying his best to avoid Ryan, but here she was, standing before him with a cute smile on her face.

’My heart…! My heart can’t take it!’ The innocent Kyle thought before he ignored Ryan’s greeting and ran away.

“What’s wrong with him?” Ryan murmured while watching Kyle’s back disappear. Then, she remembered that Kyle is shy around girls. “Ahhh. Right. He’s a shy one.”

“Hey.. hey… hey! Who the hell is that hot guy?!” Emily asked, pointing in the direction where Kyle went into.

Scratching her nape, Ryan answered, “Someone who lives here. He’s a board mate.”

“A man?!” Gladys gasped.

“For real?!” Wendy inquired.

The guests hadn’t recovered yet when Vincent came inside. He came from the garden, using the back door.

“Ryan.”

In unison, Emily, Gladys, and Wendy turned around. Their mouths went on agape when they saw another handsome man holding a guitar.

“My headphones were broken. Can I borrow yours?” Vincent asked Ryan.

“Sure. No problem,” Ryan replied.

Vincent glanced at the guests and ignored them. He climbed onto the stairs apathetically. When he was gone, the girls went freaking mad.

“Don’t tell that hunky guy is your board mate too?” Emily asked.

“Well, as you can see,” Ryan said, shrugging her shoulders.

“That is Vincent, right?” Gladys asked.

“Yes. You know him?”

“Wow. You are living with the infamous hot guys on campus. Kyle and Vincent were super prominent! They are like celebrities,” Wendy informed.

“Oh, really?” Ryan muttered.

“I am so f*cking jealous,” Gladys uttered. “How does it feel to live with two hot guys?”

Two?

They were wrong.

“Oh sh*t!” a loud voice caught their attention.

They looked up and saw Sylvester, who tripped himself while walking down.

“I thought I’m gonna die. Good thing no one saw me,” Sylvester mumbled as he caressed his chest.

Sylvester was so happy to think that no one saw him. But…

“Oh my god!”

Sylvester almost fell when he saw four pairs of eyes peering at him from the ground floor.

He blinked simultaneously before he stood straight and pretended as if nothing happened.

“H-Hello, Ryan. I didn’t know that you were with your friends.”

Sylvester smiled at them. Feeling so embarrassed, Sylvester exited the boarding house in a haste.

“Holy crap. Sylvester is here too?” Gladys asked with a gasp.

“Is that clumsy guy famous too?” Ryan responded.

“Of course! Everyone on the campus knows that guy!” Wendy explained.

“I also have a crush on him,” Emily said with dry tears.

“Well, they have good-looking faces. I am not surprised anymore,” Ryan said. She turned around and saw another guy exiting the kitchen.

It was Chaylen.

Holding ice cream, Chaylen looked at Ryan.

The two of them stared at each other and remembered the last time they were together.

Ryan wanted to complain and warn Chaylen to put the ice cream back in the fridge because Vincent would get mad at him. But she couldn’t say a thing because until now, she felt sorry for Chaylen.

Wordless, Chaylen pretended he didn’t see anything and walked back to his room.

‘He’s still not okay. And he would not be okay once Vincent finds out that he stole the ice cream again,’ Ryan sighed inwardly.

When she turned around, she saw the three girls drop their jaws on the floor.

“It’s four. It’s f*cking four men, my dear friend,” Emily uttered. “I NEED AN EXPLANATION.”

Minutes later…

“So that’s how I ended up here,” Ryan ended her explanation.

She told them how she ended up living with five men in the same boarding house.

“ I see,” Emily replied, nodding her head. “You should have told me this sooner! I should have feasted seeing sexy guys before. Tss!”

“Hey. If you know their real personalities, you wouldn’t say that,” Ryan said while laughing. “Feast my butt.”

“I wished I had a manly name like yours,” Gladys said with a pout. “Rude or not, seeing handsome guys every day is better than any drugs.”

“I agree to that,” Wendy said with a chuckle.

Ryan only smiled faintly. She adjusts a lot of things just to live with those five men. Nevertheless, it was indeed fun. Kyle and Sylvester were especially precious to Ryan because they were her first friends in this house.

After talking about the five men in the house, they started preparing their research materials for their thesis.

Hours passed by.

“I really wanted to stay here. But I have to go,” Emily said.

“Ryan, can we go back here next time?” Gladys’ asked.

“Me too! Can I?” Wendy said.

Emily wrapped her arms around the girls’ shoulders and laughed. “I don’t think we should ask Ryan for that. The boys will feel uncomfortable if we keep hanging out here. Besides…”

‘I wanted to see my friend enjoy the first spring in her life!’ Emily thought while laughing like evil.

“Ryan, we will go now, bye! And good luck!” Emily forced the two girls out and left Ryan alone in the house.

“Good luck?” Ryan repeated the word Emily said. “What was that for?”

****************** ********

At the garden, Sylvester saw Ryan walking out while mumbling.

“Will it be okay to tell them everything?” she whispered.

“Ryan!” Slyvester called her and walked closer to her. “Did your friends leave?”

“Ahhh, yeah. They left.”

“Doing thesis together?”

“Right.”

“Aww. That sucks.”

“It was. What are you doing here? Were you avoiding them because you felt uncomfortable?”

“I was not. There’s no reason to feel uncomfortable around girls. We are all human beings.”

“Pffft… Yeah, that makes sense since you are SYLVESTER. So, what were you doing?”

As an answer, Sylvester showed the worm in his hand.

“This. I was searching for this. We need it for our experiment tomorrow.”

Ryan’s face turned pale. She stepped backward.

“Ahhh, r-really? That’s cool.”

When Sylvester noticed her reaction, he started teasing her.

“Do you want to see it up close?”

“NO! NEVER! NUH-UH!”

“You’re scared of this?”

“N-No. Just…”

Without warning, Sylvester put the worm near Ryan’s face.

“Ahhhh!” she shouted while stepping backward.

Sylvester laughed so hard. “I thought you were not scared. Come on! This cute little fella would not bite you!”

As Sylvester chased after her with a worm, Ryan ran away.

“Stop it, Sylvester!”

“Why?! It’s cute!”

“You’re the only one who finds it cute! Dumbass!”

“Come here! The worm wanted to play with you! Pfft…!”

They went like mice and cats inside the boarding house until Ryan climbed onto the stairs.

When Sylvester arrived on the second floor, she couldn’t see Ryan anymore.

“Wow. She’s so fast,” Sylvester murmured with a whistle.

He surrendered at that point and was about to go back to the garden. But he stopped when he heard voices coming from a room with a slightly opened door.

“Terban?”

Sylvester walked closer to the door when he heard Ryan’s voice. Then, he peeked inside. He saw Ryan and Terban together.

“Your name is… Terban?” Ryan asked Terban.