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haiitanis · 6 years

Text

Expression | Park Jinyoung

summary: 恋の予感 (“koi no yokan”) is a Japanese phrase that has no real English translation. It’s not about love at first sight, but a trust in the inevitability of love when you first meet someone.

word count: 1,810

genre: fluff

It started out like any other Friday night.

And by any other Friday night, you meant annoying. Since you had moved to Japan on an exchange student program with the University of Tokyo six weeks ago, your friends had been bugging you like no other to go out with them. You had gently refused them, sending Jackson, Shizuka, Mark, and Yugyeom on their way every time without you.

Jackson, Mark, and Yugyeom were all exchange students as well, each hailing from a different part of the world; Jackson was from Hong Kong, Yugyeom from South Korea, and Mark was American. Shizuka was your roommate, and the two of you had quickly grown close upon meeting, finding out you had a lot of common interests and were both literature majors.

Today, Jackson and Yugyeom were both stretched out across the little couch in the common area of the dorm room that you shared with Shizuka. Their limbs warred for space, and you laughed slightly to yourself when you saw them nudging each other’s legs roughly, trying to shove the other over so one of them had more space. So far, it appeared Yugyeom’s lengthy appendages were giving him a slight advantage.

Shizuka was the first one to whine your name, and you turned your attention to her. “You never come out with us,” she said, pouting cutely at you. “We just want you to have fun! Experience Tokyo college student life to the fullest with us.”

You couldn’t help but laugh at this. “Shizuka, I don’t think partying and clubbing until the sun comes up is a necessary part of college life,” you responded.

“It definitely is,” Jackson inserted with a grunt as he shoved the younger boy over, finally winning the ongoing battle between them.

Mark was next in the line-up to try to convince you to come with them, but he seemed to have realized by now that it was pointless as he wilted dramatically over the arm of a chair. “I want you to come, but I know you’re not going to,” Mark grumbled, his blonde hair flopping onto his forehead when he sat up.

“See, that’s the spirit,” you said, eliciting laughs from both Yugyeom and Jackson.

Shizuka let out a resigned sigh, accepting that their efforts would, yet again, be fruitless. “Alright, but what are you going to do tonight? You could just come out for one or two drinks, even just dinner, then leave before the trains stop!” she said, faint hope coloring her voice.

You hated to let her down, but you already had a date for the night. A study date to be exact, with the library and the campus cafe right next door. You had a research paper due soon and needed to finish it up and do some final research. So, after chatting with your four friends a bit longer, you sent them on their way.

It was getting late, already close to ten by the time you left your dorm. You had shoved your laptop and the books you had from the library into your messenger bag and slung it over your shoulder before walking out the door. Headphones in, you headed across campus to the library, head bobbing slightly and steps in time to the song’s heavy bass.

You made it all the way across campus at a record pace, heading into the silent library. It was getting late, but luckily for you the library stayed open until midnight for the students that had classes late at night or worked evenings. You returned the books you’d finished with before heading into the deserted stacks.

It was almost eerie, you thought, how quiet it was in the library this late. The sound in the library was always muted as the patrons were very respectful of each other, but it was typically still bustling with students either studying or roaming the stacks. But this late, it was silent except for the music playing through your headphones and your footsteps, muffled by the carpet. You were able to find the books you needed quickly, check them out, and head to the twenty-four-hour student cafe right next door.

A sleepy voice greeted you from the counter when you opened the door, and you bowed your head slightly before heading up the stairs to your favorite corner booth. It was unoccupied, as it usually was at this hour, and you spread your armful of books across the flat surface.

You set straight to work and finished two more pages on your paper before your head drooped it’s way down to rest on the pages of the last book you had skimmed through to find what you needed. You hadn’t realized how tired you were, and sleep washed over you before you knew it.

Next thing you knew, the sweet aroma of coffee was hitting your nostrils. You inhaled deeply, lifting your head from where it rested on the open pages of a book and blinked blearily at the person across from you. There was a person across from you?

He smiled slightly, pushing a mug towards you. “Here, you look like you need this,” he said, voice soft.

“Th- thanks,” you murmured, eyeing him slightly as you lifted the mug to your lips. He was handsome, almost too handsome to be real, you thought. “You’re not from around here, are you?” you added, having noticed that the very faint accent to his Japanese.

He laughed. “No, I’m from Korea. Here on an exchange student program. You?” he asked.

You told him where you were from, and told him that you, too, were on an exchange student program. You chatted with each other for a few minutes, then you realized you didn’t even know his name. “So, anyway, what do I call you?”

“Jinyoung,” he said, with a smile. “My name is Jinyoung.”

You offered him your name as well, and he repeated it with a small smile. You met his eyes across the table and returned it.

You spent the next several hours talking to Jinyoung about anything that came to mind. He was biochemistry and engineering major, and it created a strange juxtaposition with your literature major. You quickly found out that Jinyoung had arrived at the same time as the rest of your exchange student group, but he had stuck more with the other STEM majors, while the people you befriended were all humanities, social sciences, and arts majors.

But, you found yourself truly enjoying the conversation with Jinyoung. He was smart as a whip and seemed to know a little bit (or a lot) about everything, enough to hold an interesting conversation, but he didn’t come off as a know-it-all. Jinyoung also had a great sense of humor you found, dry and a bit sarcastic, but he made you laugh like you couldn’t believe.

With Jinyoung, you talked about everything that came to mind. You talked about everything from astrology to the effects of advanced technology in society, and about whether humanity would be more likely to win a war against robots of their own creation or alien invaders from the depths of space.

Before you knew it you could see the sky beginning to lighten, the sun deciding to peek its rays over the edge of the horizon. It was odd, you thought, that you’d spent all those hours talking to someone who was essentially a stranger. But Jinyoung didn’t feel like a stranger anymore. He actually felt more like a best friend.

Your conversation had dwindled into nothing, and you stared quietly out the window, contemplating the sunrise. When you turned back to Jinyoung, you found him staring at you, that same soft smile on his face.

“I think I need to head back to my dorm,” you said with a yawn and a stretch. Your exhaustion from the night before was creeping up on you, and while the nap you’d accidentally squeezed in before meeting Jinyoung had left you refreshed for a while, you knew it wouldn’t be long until you crashed.

Jinyoung agreed easily and asked which dorm building you lived in. As it turned out, he lived in the one right next door, and offered to walk you to your building. You accepted his offer and packed up your messenger bag, shouldering it, and the two of you walked side by side across campus to your dorms.

You were almost to your building when Jinyoung stopped, then ran a hand through his dark hair. “Hey look, you were really cool to talk to and hang out with, and I was wondering if I could get your number? Or your LINE?” he said, the hopeful glint in his eyes almost outweighed by the unmistakable cadence of nerves in his voice. “Just, you know, so we can hang out again.”

It was cute, you thought, that he was nervous to ask you for your contact information. You gave him your LINE ID, and caught the secretive smile on his lips before he gave you a quick hug goodbye.

You opened the door to your building and turned to wave goodbye to Jinyoung. As the heavy glass closed behind you, and you started up the stairs to your room, your phone dinged quietly in your bag, and you decided to check it when you got back to your room, figuring it was just Shizuka texting you that she was on her way back.

But you unlocked your room’s door and found Shizuka standing in your shared bathroom, taking her makeup off. “What happened to not wanting to be out until sunrise?” she said with a loud yawn.

You just laughed. “I was at the cafe all night,” you responded, digging through your bag to find your phone. It was a LINE notification, from Jinyoung. Your eyebrows knit together. Did you accidentally grab something of his?

Opening the message, your eyebrows knit together even further. It was Japanese, but for some reason, your tired brain wasn’t computing and you didn’t fully understand what it was saying. So you decided to show it to Shizuka.

>> From: Jinyoung 恋の予感.

Shizuka giggled when you showed it to her. “Koi no yokan,” she repeated. “The closest translation is when you meet someone and you know that you’re going to fall in love with them, but it’s not love at first sight. More like trusting in the inevitability of love with someone. Who is sending you these things?! Did you meet a boy?!”

You smiled to yourself while Shizuka continued to exclaim. Funny enough, you’d felt the same way about Jinyoung. So you texted him back. Just two words.

>> To: Jinyoung same here.

He responded with a sticker, and then you locked your phone screen. That morning, you fell asleep with the faintest of smiles on your face.

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