First day of uni, and Jeongguk's day goes like this: Jeon Jeongguk wakes up to the smell of something burning.
So, naturally, he bolts out under the layers of blankets that he has and heads to the kitchen, almost tripping over as he struggles to put his slippers on. He doesn't remove his eye boogers or his coal face mask that he slept with the night before, because when something is burning, why the fuck would you worry about your appearance?
"WHAT THE ACTUAL--Lalisa?" He begins with a groggy voice, looking between the perfectly cooked pancakes sitting on the kitchen counter and the ones cooking on the pan. His roommate stands there, already wearing her outfit of the day--a baggy shirt that stops mid-thigh, some jeans, and one of those big ass FILA shoes.
(He told her last night during their little outfit check that she looked like a hobo, but she almost threw his E-boy shoes out of the window that he gave up on trying to talk her out of it.)
There's no fire. There's nothing burning. It's safe.
Said roommate quirks her eyebrows up prettily, scanning him from head to toe like it's her first time seeing a male species. "You look disgusting."
Welp, good morning. "Is something burning?"
She frowns and stares around. "No? Why--" Suddenly, her nose scrunches up. "Oh my God," she shrieks and gets onto her knees, almost tripping in the process.
Jeongguk, still half-asleep, squints as she pulls open the oven and takes a tray containing these small blackened circles that looks eerily similar to... cookies? What the fuck?
"Cookies? You were baking cookies?" He asks incredulously, staring as Lalisa fussed over the damn alarm clock and her stupid attention span. "At--" he looks up at the clock, "6AM in the morning?"
"5AM, actually," she corrects him as if she didn't almost burn the apartment down. "They've been in here since 5, but I forgot to take them out. Do you think my professors will love this?"
"Yeah, I guess, if we were still in Mesolithic era and we had nothing to eat but rocks."
She throws a burnt cookie at him, and he briefly wonders how on earth is a cookie that painful. "Humans ate meat and marrow in the past, not rocks."
"Thanks, Einstein, I'll go back to sleep now," he replies unenthusiastically. "Wait, you know what, fuck it. I'll just go take a shower and change into some fresh clothes. Leave some pancakes for me."
He hears her hum from behind. "You better make it quick. I'm going to leave in thirty minutes."
Jeongguk couldn't believe his ears. "Lali, class starts at 8. What are you on?"
"I'm just," she shrugs, taking a bite of the burnt cookie and cringing at the taste, "excited, okay?"
"Oh my God," he groans. "Let's just leave at 7:30. Actual classes will start tomorrow, don't fucking ruin my morning with this going-to-school early shit."
Lalisa gives up and practically stomps her feet like a child. "'Kay, fine. Now hurry up or I'll eat all of these cookies alone."
"No one wants to eat that you old stupid hag."
"I'll fucking shove them in your throat while you sleep."
* * *
An hour later, and the both of them were standing up in front of their living mirror for what Lalisa calls an Outfit Check or whatever that shit is. It basically just means the both of them fixing and improvising each others' outfits like idiot fashion gurus. She apparently saw it in some YouTube video and thought it was cute--but it isn't, really, it's just a waste of time.
"Wait, wait, let me just..." Lalisa brushes his hair upwards, despite him protesting that he already had styled it. "Can you just shut up and let me do this? You look like you just woke up."
"I just woke up." Not exactly the truth, but it's not a lie either.
"Yeah, like an hour ago," she grumbles, smoothing an imaginary crease on his shirt, her palms brushing his chest. Jeongguk obviously doesn't mind these touches, no matter how intimate they are. They've always had this dynamic, this sense of domesticity that those who don't know them might mistake it as a romantic gesture, but there's really no meaning behind it. Just looking out for my friend, Lisa had once said when they were interrogated back in high school.
Even if they had gotten married (impulsively), nothing has changed. Except maybe for the fact that Lalisa is giving him an overprotective mom vibes these days after they moved into the apartment. Maybe it's just because of the crack they smoked two days ago (don't blame him, it was her who brought it).
"Turn around," she demands as she pulls away. Like a child, he does a slow spin and she nods in agreement. "Cool, you look like a depressed sixth grader in his emo phase to me."
Jeongguk smiles. "Great, that's exactly what I was going for."
She grins at him. "How about me?"
"Meh," he mutters. "You look cool. Seems like you've prepared for this, huh?"
"Of course I did."
They made sure to check if there were still any plugged in devices or if there were still lights that were left on and when they ensured that the place was fine, Lalisa took his arm and looped it around hers.
This is going to be a heck of a year.
