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"I THINK THERE'S BEEN some sort of misunderstanding," Arielle said, still not quite believing what she'd heard. "The two of us are supposed to be rooming together."
The receptionist frowned, fingers rapidly dancing across her keyboard. "My records here say otherwise, my dear."
"But I submitted both of our registration forms. We specifically requested each other as roommates!" Haewon insisted.
"The system must've glitched. I'm so sorry, but there's nothing I can do," the receptionist replied, an apologetic look on her face.
Arielle's fingers tightened around the folder. "Can you at least tell us who we're rooming with now?" she asked.
It was twenty seconds too long of silence before the receptionist spoke again. "It looks like Ms. Lee's roommate is Choi Jiwoo, and Ms. Kang's is Sim Jaeyun."
"Sim Jaeyun...?" Haewon muttered. She glanced back at Heeseung, who simply responded with a raised eyebrow, before shaking her head. "No, that can't possibly be right. So then why does that name sound so familiar?"
Arielle's stomach twisted uncomfortably at the name. Sim Jaeyun. Great, so now on top of everything else, she had to share a dorm with a stranger. And judging by the name, it was probably a guy. Was rooming with the opposite gender even allowed? She had no idea, and she didn't want to find out the consequences if it wasn't.
"Ugh, whatever. It's fine. We can deal with it," Arielle said through gritted teeth, quickly thanking the receptionist for her help before tugging Haewon away by her sleeve.
"So what are we gonna do now?" Haewon hissed as Arielle dragged them toward the elevator. Heeseung trailed behind them, a suspiciously amused look on his face.
"I guess we just go on up there and find out who our roommates are," Arielle whispered back, pushing the 'up' button with a little more force than necessary.
Please, just don't let things get any worse than they already are.
✷
They got off on the next floor, arms full of luggage and hearts filled with dread.
Room 1129 was on the right-hand side, halfway down the hall from the elevator. Their footsteps on the carpet were the only noise in the otherwise silent corridor, as if everyone else on the floor were holding their breath.
Arielle exhaled sharply as she tapped her room keycard against the sensor. The door unlocked with a soft click, and she carefully pushed it open, bracing herself for whoever she was about to meet inside.
The first thing she noticed was that the room was bigger than she'd been expecting. Arielle had imagined the dorms to be tiny, cramped single-room spaces where you could barely open the door without hitting the wall — and if this were any other university like the ones she'd toured back in the States, it might have been that way. Instead, this room opened up similar to one in a hotel, with a small entryway and a hall that split into two. She took a further step in, past the shoe cabinet on the wall, and peeked into the rest of the room.
