Karma ━━ Jake Sim

𝟮𝟬 ͏͏͏͏͏͏ ͏͏͏͏͏͏ ͏͏͏͏͏͏⠀Sweet Revenge

"Fineee."

The elderly lady at the checkout counter takes her time scanning through all their items before cautiously nestling them into brown paper bags. As soon as she's finished, Sujin slaps a ₩50,000 note atop the register, rushing out of the store with a hurried "Keep the change!" thrown over her shoulder.

A grocery bag now cradled in each of their arms, Sujin and Sora start to make their way to the boys' boarding house.

"Remind me why we're going there so early, again?" Sujin wonders aloud, picking up the pace of her already hurried footsteps. She tips her head to the side to give her roommate a pointed look, "I thought this was supposed to be a dinner."

"It is." Sora replies, easily falling into stride, "But it's much more fun preparing the food together, don't you think?"

Sujin shoots her a blank stare in reply.

This chaotic bunch cooped up in a tiny kitchen all afternoon? She frowns. All of a sudden, 'much more fun' is sounding a whole lot more like a recipe for disaster.

"Oh, come on." Sora urges with a pout, "It's tradition!"

Sujin purses her lips, adjusting the grocery bag in her arms with a telltale uncertainty seeping into her movements, "Right..."

"You'll have a blast, I promise."

Sora offers her a final sympathetic smile as they make their way up the front steps of the building. Tackling them two at a time, the pair push through the double doors and are finally welcomed into the lobby's warm embrace.

The boys' dorm monitor straightens in his seat at the sudden entrance; bewildered expression immediately wearing away at the familiar sight of the Nishimura girl.

"Happy Chuseok, Mr Nam!" Sora chirps, directing an enthusiastic wave at the man.

"Good afternoon, ladies." He greets them both with a smile.

"The usual spot, I'm guessing?" Sora asks, to which he responds with a curt nod, "Perfect. Have a nice day!"

"And you and your friends enjoy your dinner, Miss Nishimura!"

"Will do!"

She scurries down one of the hallways, beckoning a slack-jawed Sujin to follow suit.

"What was that all about?" Sujin sputters, "Did he seriously just let us into the boys' dorms? Just like that?!"

After Mrs Kwak's dire lecture on the importance of the 'no boys allowed' rule back at the girls' boarding house, she'd figured it would take a lot more than a simple greeting to be able to roam freely around this place.

Clearly, she was wrong.

Sora lets out a giggle, "Jake and Jungwon sweet talk him into letting us use the common rooms every year. He's way more agreeable than Mrs Kwak when it comes to this kind of stuff, trust me... " Her features twist into a wince at a distant memory, "We found that out the hard way."

Sujin opens her mouth to reply, but before she's able to get a word out, a loud noise coming from the end of the hall startles the two girls to a halt.

Crash!

"Yaaa - Jungwon, you idiot!"

Sora rolls her eyes with a knowing chuckle, "Looks like they got started without us."

Turning the corner, they reach the common room at last.

It's fairly large - as far as boarding school common rooms go - with enough space for a dining table, various couches, bookshelves, and a TV propped up on the wall. There's also the kitchenette, of course, complete with a mini-island and a pair of bar stools tucked beneath.