Lia
I don't understand Yeju.
What could have been a fun night of eating and hanging out with my apartment mate turned into yet another lonely dinner in my room—and eating the burger that Yeju tossed onto the floor.
And here I thought we were getting along.
Rubbing my eyes, I walk into the kitchen. The mess in the area is worse than what I had to clean up yesterday morning. Dirty pans stack over the sink, while blotches of sauce pepper the stove. Two empty wine bottles lay next to a plate of unfinished pasta.
What the heck? Did Yeju invite a friend over again last night? I don't remember hearing anything, but I did sleep earlier than normal because of how exhausted I was from my time at the lab.
I pinch my nose bridge. This is a never-ending nightmare. I really need to find a new apartment to move into or I'm going to wither and die this semester. Yeju is the worse apartment mate ever, and if she screams at me in the lab again...
I shudder at that memory, blinking back the tears that threaten to spill. I cannot believe how cruel she was when I was just trying to help.
But after she calmed down, she was... nice, surprisingly. I remember her simple explanations, the way she would glance over at me to see if I was following, the way she would mull over my questions, answering them as though I were not just an undergraduate student. I remember the tiny sparkle of joy as she looked at her presentation slides, and the cool concentration as she calculated the weight of salts to add to the bottle.
I remember how she offered to get us takeout as an apology.
Why must she ruin everything after that? What am I supposed to do, never call my friend while I'm in the apartment?
Yeah, well, perhaps that's the best way to avoid future explosions. Argh.
I let out a small huff before cleaning the kitchen. When I am done, I pour myself cereal and milk—with Yeju's carton of milk. I don't take people's things like this, but Yeju owes me this much after chugging most of mine down yesterday.
As I eat, I scroll through my phone. My group chat with RJ and Chloe has a bunch of messages. RJ sent a few creative curses at Yeju, while Chloe was apologizing for causing Yeju to go off on me. I quickly reply, egging RJ on and assuring Chloe that it's not her fault. It's Yeju's and Yeju's only.
As usual, there are a lot of notifications from my family group chat. And as usual, it's my mother nagging about Romeo. I do not even bother reading through it before marking the chat as 'read' and getting out of it.
Instead, I spend the next fifteen minutes looking through listings on various websites. As expected, there aren't a lot of apartments in this area. Some places are offering their living room space for rent. I am not that desperate to leave... yet. Oh, there is a room looking for a person to fill, but it's an additional thirty-minute walk from here. I groan. Maybe I should reach out to Yuna and beg to switch places with her...
As I exit the website, I decide to check my email. I almost choke on the rest of my cereal.
Professor Song emailed me. At five-thirty in the morning!
I jolt up, knocking over my empty bowl as I read.
Hi Lia,
It was a pleasure chatting with you yesterday. It is rare to come across a student who has such passion and drive for science as you.
I want you to get the best experience from the lab, and therefore, I am emailing you to reiterate some of the other projects that are available in the lab, should you want to change your project. I always encourage my students to pursue their interests, so please do not feel like you have to stick with the first project you've chosen.
Professor Song proceeds to describe, in great detail and with citations, five different projects in her lab. There are links for extra reading, as well as the names of all the individual mentors for each project. The five projects span all areas of microbiology; the variety of the research in this lab is amazing.
My heart swells with excitement. This email is filled with so much information that it taught me more than any microbiology class ever will. Once again, I am blown away by Professor Song's dedication. And she's so thoughtful too. Yesterday's meeting with her, as cool as it was, went way too fast, and I was too awestruck to ask questions. But now, I have the answers in my inbox.
Strangely, Yeju's project is not included in the email. Maybe Professor Song knew Yeju had already explained everything to me.
As I read through the projects and ponder about them, my mind drifts over to Yeju's project. Colibactin. An inhibitor that blocks bacteria from making it. Growing bacteria mutants. The idea excites me more than any of the other projects listed.
But do I want to continue working with Yeju? She's mean, annoying, and loses her temper easily. And she has ruined every one of my nights in this apartment—all two of them.
Then again... she was good at teaching...
Her serious, pensive expression floats into my mind. The way her brows furrowed slightly, the way she hummed under her breath.
And the way she smiled at me at the end.
I tap my fingers on my lips while my other hand scrolls up and down through the email. Clicking on the hyperlinks, I try to read through the linked research articles, but I barely understand any of them.
Instead, I hop over to a search engine and type in 'colibactin'. A research article by Professor Song pops up as the first result. Because of Yeju's explanation yesterday, I understand the article. At least, the first few paragraphs of it. I understand it and I love it.
Yeah, I think I want to stick with this project. If Yeju screams at me again in the lab, I'll consider these other projects. But for now, I love this project too much to part with it.
I draft an email back to Professor Song, thanking her for the resources and telling her about my decision to stay on Yeju's project.
Alright, that's one good thing that happened today, at least.
Humming to myself, I go to the bathroom for a quick shower. And once again, I walk into a mess I did not expect to walk into.
All my towels—my hand towel, my face towel, my body towel, and my washcloth—are all over the floor. And wrinkled too, as though someone stepped on them.
What. The. Heck?
My trembling hands ball into fists. Yeju can mess up the kitchen, drink my milk, and play her shitty music, but to touch the towels I use to clean myself? That's my personal hygiene she's messing with!
"That's it!"
I storm out of the bathroom and slam Yeju's door open.
"Seriously, Yeju? Why would you throw my—"
I stop, instantly regretting my decision.
Yeju is laying naked on the bed. Her hair spreads out over her pillow in a brown and blonde mess, not covering the parts that need to be covered. The tattoos on her belly I saw yesterday extend to her hips and connect to her trimmed landing strip. And her left arm—flowered with her signature tattoos that I missed in the lab—drapes across her bed and under the other woman.
Oh gosh. The woman from yesterday is here too. And she's also naked.
I spin on my heel and shut the door behind me. It takes me a few more seconds before I can breathe again.
Why, oh, why did I enter Yeju's room? Of course she sleeps naked; she doesn't even wear a full set of clothes in the common area!
My heart pounds in my ears as I shake my head vigorously, hoping to shake what I saw out of my brain. Yeju's toned body. The tattoos on her arms. Her long legs. The tattoos on her hips and her...
No, no, no. Stop. Get that image out!
The door opens behind me and I let out a yelp. Oh, it's that other woman, fully clothed now. I didn't even know Yeju had her come over last night. I was sleeping too soundly to hear a thing, thankfully.
Once again, she gives me an awkward smile as she clutches her bag and dashes out of the apartment.
I hear shuffles behind Yeju's door and jolt again. Nope, nope, I need to get out of here before she comes out of the room too. I don't know how I can face her after this.
And I badly need a shower now.
I grab more clean towels from my room and head back to the bathroom, attempting to wash away the thoughts in my head. It does not work, so I dry myself down and prepare to leave the apartment as far away from Yeju as possible.
As I bound out of the door, I hear footsteps behind me. I do not need to turn around to know that it's Yeju. I pick up my pace; she remains right behind me. I turn the corner; she turns the corner too.
Flustered, I whirl around to face her. "Why are you following me?"
Yeju raises her eyebrows. She is now—thank the gods—covered sufficiently, with her arm tattoos still visible in her tank top.
"I go to the same school as you, dumbass," she says with a snort.
"Oh." I blink. "Right."
She rolls her eyes and walks past me, bumping me aside with her shoulder.
My face burns as hot as the sun above me, but I have no choice but to trail behind her.
Argh, why is the most annoying person working on the most interesting project?