A Little Piece of You

Another Coffee Date

After the whole Ningning-Yujin-Joohyun-noona fiasco stemming from a whole night's worth of unexpected encounters (Soyeon and Giselle included), it was quite adamant for me to stay low from the rest of my friends as it was easy to put us both in the spotlight. Word travels fast, after all—Ningning and I had to deal with all the teasing that generated from the group's small hints of our adventures. Of course, experiences like that tend to be fun but even those fun times have their limits. There was not much of a discussion yet Ningning and I seemed to have mutually agreed not to see each other that much just so they would not get any unwanted ideas.

It was days since then and so far the incognito set-up I had gone well for the first phase of the week. Everyone seemed to have been very busy lately doing on their own things, too. The rest of the NLIU students, of course, were bending their beds and breaking their backs trying to digest everything that the school has to offer; doing whatever it takes to pass the finals. It was an understatement to even say that the tension could be felt on the air, and it was really, really heavy for that matter. However, even after coming home from school, it would seem that even my older sister Joohyun-noona had her share of busy days as well.

I could not particularly pinpoint when during this week did she began to leave notes of her schedule on the fridge, but she was certainly having a lot of night shifts recently. Once again, the complex schedule of her line of work barely even allowed us to see each other. The week passed and all the signs I had of her existence in our apartment was her clothes on the laundry as well as her misarranged shoes, otherwise it would even be hard to believe that she went home.

The weekend came and it was another Saturday afternoon encompassed by a long break before a supposed afternoon class. Under normal circumstances, everything would be perfect for the United Kwangya: all afternoon classes were either cut or shortened for the sake of a supposed parade or something that I never paid enough attention for. It would be a good call to head to someone's house on this time of the day and hangout until evening; probably even introduce a couple of drinks to that mix as we would usually do.

That would almost be a certainty if the rest of United Kwangya were not chasing after ridiculously high grades. A week after the Soyeon house trip and everyone seemed to be panicking and the chat became awfully quiet.

Still, going out after classes would be a good call and I was fortunate enough to be able to relax for the finals. I wanted a change of pace, and so I called a friend of mine who wanted to head out and we collectively agreed on one thing that United Kwangya people are often so adamant about: drinking.

However, this time it was not about liquor. A small coffee shop about twenty minutes from NLIU campus proper was the place—a rather cold afternoon inside a mostly wooden decorated and cat-themed shop was not commonplace for people like me, but I welcome the difference nonetheless. The lengthy architecture of the said shop provided a small yet private atmosphere to it, with the tables being so distanced far apart it was easy to relax and be one with a set mood. The low and gloomy clouds above could possibly signal the start of another rain, but I sure would have chosen this weather rather than a glaring afternoon sun.

Two cups of still-smoking coffee were placed on the wooden table, joining the plethora of papers, calculators and pens scattered around the sight of an open and ignored laptop. Opposite me was my friend, Doh Kyungsoo, occupied with his finger pointing on a paper with a drawn Cartesian plane as well as an arc made from an equation.

"...here is what I'm talking about, Jae-in. It said on the problem you need to find the volume, right? This is the arc and you need to take a sample that you would use before you integrate. Don't be confused: x is horizontal and y is vertical but when we're taking a sample, differential, or an 'element' here, it's the reverse. If you'll rotate it at the 'y', you'll use 'dx' as your sample and 'dy' if you use 'x'. Do you get that, man?"