"You never said," said Daisy, mindlessly eating a granola bar and crumpling the wrapper. Skip looked up.
"Hm?"
"How did your English exam go?" he clarified.
Skip finished typing a few more words of his email and turned to Daisy. "Fine, I guess," he said, shrugging. "I felt like I understood things, but the listening parts were hard.. I feel like that's the most difficult part of English, learning what it sounds like."
"You'll probably get full marks then," said Daisy brightly.
"I wouldn't say—" started Skip, but Jjim cut him off.
"I would," Jjim snorted. "The fact that you even took that test—"
"Well, even if I do okay on the test, I'm still going to have to figure out how to practice English," he said with a sigh. "It's hard to have conversations still—"
"I'll help," said Pideulgi, from where he was sitting on the floor with his iPad. He switched to English. "Hello, how are you, fine thanks, and you?"
"I'm supposed to answer 'fine thanks, and you'," laughed Skip.
"If you say both at once then you help the other person to save time by not having to answer," said Deulgi seriously.
Sunny looked up from his massive textbook. "What kind of strategy is that, what if the other person isn't fine?"
"'I'm fine' is just a formality," said Skip, explaining.
"Weird," muttered Sunny darkly, apparently not approving of greetings that did not have semantic value.
The door opened and Won Do came in, looking preoccupied with something until he noticed Deulgi sprawled on the floor, Sunny sitting at his side of the table, Daisy and Skip reading over the email, and Jjim eating a bag of shrimp chips.
"Everyone came? Man, you guys have no life—" he joked, setting down his backpack. "We basically live together at this point, I saw all you guys yesterday—"
"Not everyone, you know Hyeonmi is at practice," Deulgi reminded him.
"If the other six of us are here, then he's summoned in our hearts and minds," said Daisy, making a wistful expression.
Deulgi grinned over his iPad, where he was studiously drawing something for one of his classes. "That's a good idea."
Skip had decided to check if their room was empty on a whim that Thursday morning, since he needed some quiet space to write a few emails regarding their "color festival" event. He said he wanted some input, so he had sent out a message that anyone who was available Thursday afternoon was welcome to show up.
"We have a life," said Sunny abrasively, flipping a page in his book before staring accusingly at Won Do.
"Uh huh," replied Won Do, going over to Sunny to try and give him a high five. He was rejected.
"I didn't say I was enjoying it, though," Sunny added, shooting Won Do a cold glance.
"Hey," complained Won Do, "We know you're here because you wanted to come and see us. You're just trying to preserve your identity as a sullen umbrella—"
"Sullen umb—" started Sunny indignantly, while Jjim tried not to choke on his shrimp chips out of laughter. For some reason, Sunny was wearing a jet black quarter-zip windbreaker that truthfully was reminiscent of rain gear.
"Since you all are here, can I read this out loud?" asked Skip, pushing his laptop back from the edge of the table and rubbing his eyes.
"Let's get it," replied Sunny, putting an entire piece of paper in his book and sandwiching the whole thing together to mark his spot.
Deulgi, from the floor, put down his iPad and stared attentively at Skip as he started reading the email. He was asking the university's student welfare department if they knew of any cafes on campus that would be willing to sponsor their event and provide the coupons as an incentive for people to choose their favorite color to wear on the day of the event.
"Should we come up with a catchy title to make it more convincing?" asked Daisy thoughtfully. "'Color Expression Day' sounds a bit flat."
"Sure, does anyone have any ideas?" asked Skip, looking around. "I couldn't really think of anything."
"Color Festa?" asked Won Do. "People will get excited if it has the word Festa in it."
"Color for Coffee?" suggested Jjim. "Won't they get a coffee coupon if they do it?"
Skip nodded slowly. "That's the idea but this is the email to see if a cafe can even provide coupons for this, it would be weird to assume that they would do it by using that name."
"That's true," said Jjim, dusting off his hands in an apparent bid to think more clearly.
"Also, we don't want to highlight people's dependence on caffeine," said Sunny firmly. "It's bad enough as it is—"
Won Do snorted. "What grade did you even get on that paper?"
"Which paper?" Sunny asked, surprised.
"The one from the beginning of the semester, the one we had in that class, about bad habits," said Won Do. "Remember?"
"Oh, that," said Sunny delicately. "I talked about added sugars—"
Won Do snorted with laughter. "Did you change your mind about caffeine?"
Sunny looked at him with the warmth of a winter wind. "No."
Won Do thought this was even funnier and collapsed into laughter.
"What about 'The Super Renaissance of Color Fete?'" asked Deulgi, from the floor.
"The what—" started Daisy.
"Like Socrates?" asked Jjim, apparently interested. "What's a 'fete', though?"
"Like a gala or jubilee," said Skip, "That's.. an interesting suggestion, but I don't think people would think it's very accessible from the title."
"I thought 'fete' was a type of Greek cheese," whispered Won Do to Daisy, who immediately cracked up.
"That's feta," said Sunny disapprovingly upon overhearing, as if everyone should be clear on their Greek cheeses. "Math majors—"
"I can't remember that kind of stuff," Won Do said, complaining. "You're a type of Greek cheese," he added crossly.
Sunny looked disgusted and refused to answer to such a low-handed blow.
"Color Festa sounds good," came Skip's voice from where he was staring again at his email. "We should probably go for something simple because not everyone thinks as creatively as Deulgi."
Deulgi looked pleased. "Color Festa is a good idea," he agreed.
"Okay, I'll send this," said Skip happily. "Thanks, guys."
"I'm leaving now," announced Won Do suddenly.
"Already?" asked Daisy with surprise. "You just got here—"
"I have to teach calculus today, remember?" he said, slinging his bag over his shoulder. "I just wanted to say hi."
"Hi," said Jjim. "Bye."
Won Do laughed and waved before leaving.
Skip read over his emails again to make sure he was really satisfied, then closed his laptop. "I suddenly want to eat ice cream," he announced, folding up his headphones and putting them into his bag with his laptop. "Does anyone else want some?"
"I'm trying to cut back on added sugar," said Sunny by way of reply. He looked up quickly, adding, "Thanks, though."
"Alright, what about you guys," Skip asked the remaining three.
"Chocolate," said Deulgi instantly.
"Are we going to Baskin Robbins?" asked Jjim.
"There's one right outside campus," said Daisy.
Skip laughed easily. "I hope you guys don't answer test questions like this."
"If there were test questions about Baskin Robbins then maybe I wouldn't be so bad in school," said Jjim. He balled up his empty snack bag and tossed it in the direction of the garbage can. It fell a bit short and immediately said, "Oh no, I'm fired from the NBA."
"I don't think the NBA takes people like you to begin with," scoffed Sunny.
"You're right," said Jjim, agreeing.
Sunny, sensing danger, narrowed his eyes.
"If they filmed me during games, it would be too much of a distraction," said Jjim, beaming.
Skip legitimately facepalmed. Daisy sighed. "Bro. How can a person go around talking like this—"
"It's a joke," said Jjim, rolling his eyes. "I only ever feel as handsome as everyone says during one specific time of day. Have to keep up my morale for the rest of the day, though," he added brightly.
"Which specific time of day?" asked Skip interestedly.
Jjim cackled. "Right when I wash my face!" he proclaimed. "Then I look in the mirror. Sometimes my wet hair looks like those cool city guys—"
Sunny looked positively alarmed at this admission. "That.. is too much information.."
Deulgi looked up while he was putting his iPad in his bag. "Uhh.. ok." He stared off into another part of the room as if there was an invisible camera. "Everyone, this guy is in his element when he washes up.. Wow."
Skip started losing it.
"I'll eat a bite of ice cream in your honor," said Jjim, grinning at Sunny.
"Eat a lot," said Sunny, as they got up to leave.
"What about the added sugar?" asked Daisy.
"Enjoy that too," Sunny said, waving them off. "You guys had better be sweeter to me after, though."
"We can be sweeter now," said Daisy. "Sunny, your hair is so cool—"
"Ah, leave already," groaned Sunny. "I'm trying to read about preventing cases of fraud in environmental civics cases—"
"Good luck with your fraud," called Skip, already in the hallway. Sunny grinned in spite of himself, jamming his EarPods into his ears.
As they neared the closest Baskin Robbins, Jjim could not decide on a flavor of ice cream he wanted. "I had strawberry last time," he sighed.
"When was the last time you had ice cream?" asked Deulgi.
"This morning," he said with a sigh.
"What?" said Skip. "You eat ice cream for breakfast?"
"No," said Jjim, as if this very thought was ridiculous. "I ran out of milk today so before I went to class I had strawberry ice cream with cornflakes—"
"Well, I guess it's still milk," admitted Daisy. "Ok, what about chocolate chip?"
"Maybe," said Jjim.
"What about Pikachu?" suggested Skip, spotting the sign in the store window. "I can't believe they have Pikachu flavor again—"
"Pikachu?" exclaimed Jjim. "I love that flavor, I had it last week—"
"What is Pikachu flavor?" asked Deulgi, trying to infer from the sign but not being able to tell much. "I can't imagine what flavor it would be.. electricity?"
"Electricity," laughed Daisy. "How is that a flavor—"
"Well I hope it isn't," said Deulgi. "Might taste.. burnt? Or maybe.." He cocked his head from side to side. "Could electricity flavor be spicy?"
"Pikachu ice cream tastes like banana," said Jjim. "I want some banana flavor so maybe I'll have Pikachu flavor again—"
"It's like Banana Kick-flavored banana," added Skip. "I think they put some.. some candies in it too."
"Pikachu, let's go," announced Jjim, leading the way into the store.
They went to the kiosk to order; Jjim did get a double scoop of Pikachu while Deulgi went with chocolate and strawberry. Daisy was scrolling through the flavors, apparently looking for something. "Where's the mincho," he said, frowning. "Do they not have it?"
"Impossible," said Deulgi. "They have to have sweet melon."
Skip looked at both of them in horror. "You guys like melon?"
"What's wrong with it," demanded Jjim. "It's refreshing."
"It's like.. it's just wrong, who freezes melon?" exclaimed Skip, very out of sorts at seeing Daisy actually trying to find melon ice cream.
"It's just melon," insisted Daisy. "Like a Melona bar—"
"Milky watery melon," said Skip stubbornly. "The world would be better without melon ice cream— it was fine as a Melona bar, this is—"
"I'd be sad, bro," said Daisy, making a duck face.
"Fine, eat it then," said Skip, shaking his head. "At least here you can tell what it is—"
"You sound like you're reliving past trauma," said Deulgi, patting Skip on the arm.
"I am," said Skip hotly, tapping his order into the kiosk for a bowl of pistachio ice cream. He jabbed a finger at his order. "See this? THIS is the best flavor."
"Uh huh, pistachio," said Daisy. "It's good."
"It looks like melon flavor in some other parts of the world," Skip said, eyes narrowed. He lowered his voice like he was about to unravel some conspiracy. "They.. handed me melon.. told me it was pistachio—"
"This sounds like a new hit single," said Deulgi. "You should write this down."
"When was this?" asked Jjim. "Wouldn't it be obvious, pistachio has nuts in it—"
"You would think," said Skip with a scoff. He stuck his card in the machine. "I was scarred that day— it's like the face of Janus—"
"Who?" asked Jjim, getting increasingly concerned.
"Melon ice cream tastes like the face of Janus?" asked Daisy, confused.
"The Roman god," said Skip with a sigh. "He's got two faces because he represents abstract dualities—"
"Abstract dualities?" asked Deulgi, immediately interested.
"Like end and beginning, or war and peace," Skip explained. They stood by the far end of the store to wait for their orders. "Melon is war and Pistachio is peace, that's why it has the word "peace" in it—"
"Peace-tachio," laughed Jjim delightedly, clapping Skip on the back. "That was almost as good as my jokes."
"I guess you like it because you're nuts," said Daisy with a grin. Skip laughed sheepishly. "I guess that's why," he agreed.
"When did you have this... fraudulent ice cream experience?" asked Daisy, interested.
Their order rang at the counter; they walked up to grab their respective choices while Skip answered. He looked mistrustfully at Daisy's double-scooped melon cone, as if it was going to come alive and demand that he eat the entire thing. "I went to the US with my parents," he said. "I didn't know the flavors well so I just pointed to the one in the store that looked like pistachio.. It was.. not pistachio," he said sadly. "I realized that the melon also looked like pistachio that day.. it's like a curse, you could be betrayed by the flavor of your devotion because it wears the same cloak as your enemy—"
"It's a delicate path to tread," said Deulgi sympathetically. He offered Skip a spoonful of his chocolate in solidarity.
"You really hate melon ice cream," said Jjim, amazed. "Great level of commitment."
Daisy licked his cone and said, "I didn't even know they had melon ice cream in the US."
"That's what I get for trying to go to a fancy ice cream shop," said Skip with a sigh. Deulgi patted him on the back sympathetically.