College Daze

The Foil Packet

The greatest perk of taking the same module with your best friend is that you are guaranteed a friend to sit with in the lecture hall, and have someone trustworthy to work on projects together.

The bigger problem is, it still doesn't grant the both of you immunity from meeting useless project group members.

There are a few types.

First, the 99% phantom.

The one who never turns up for any meeting, discussion, brainstorming session— even virtual ones— but miraculously returns from the dead on the day of project submission itself.

Second, the leech.

The one who literally behaves like the tiny bloodsucker, and drains your life energy with never-ending requests for help throughout the entire duration of said project.

Third, the bossy.

"Have you guys done this?" "We have no time to waste. Can you be more serious?" — these are some of the boss' classic lines.

Admittedly, she was at high risk of being the insufferable, bossy one in a project group, but Yejin has enough sense to at least pretend to not be one around new friends.

The bullying is exclusively reserved for Bin.

Lastly, the damsel.

The one who assumes everyone else was obliged to constantly help him/her. "I can't do this", "I am not sure what you're expecting from me", "this is so difficult, maybe I can just help with editing the slides?"

Damsels practically can't do anything during the process of the project, but miraculously are capable of claiming credit at the end of it.

"Look at this message that just came in the group chat." Hyojin handed her phone over to Yejin, rolling her eyes.

"Maybe I can help to edit the script after you guys are done with it." Yejin read off the screen, her mouth falling open at witnessing the audacity of this group member of theirs. "She can't be for real."

"I'm honestly tempted to reply, 'Maybe you don't deserve that grade'. She's really testing my patience." Hyojin muttered, reaching to take her phone back to put it back on the wireless charging pad.

Sighing, the former Student Council president peered at the data in the excel sheet on her laptop screen from her position on the floor.

"I think it makes more sense for us to focus on doing the project instead of talking sense into people like this. Help me take a look at this...do you think we should do a pie chart or a bar chart to represent this set of data?"

Shifting on her bed on which Yejin's laptop was placed, Hyojin leaned over and pulled her blanket along, "Let me see...hmm...I think a pie chart would be good. Maybe we can use this as the heading..."

The conversation died midway, when a square-shaped foil packet fell out from the mess that was Hyojin's bedding.

"Oops—"

"What is this?" Puzzled, Yejin picked the packet up, staring at it in horror for a good three seconds only to toss it away with a small shriek.

Cheeks flaming, the business school student grabbed a plushie from her best friend's bed, clutching it tightly to her face.

"Is that yours...?"

"We share a room. If this isn't yours, then it must be...?" Hyojin muttered, slapping a palm to her forehead.

Nodding, Yejin murmured. "Right, right. It's really a..."

"Mmhmm."

"So you and Ha Neul..."

"...yeah."

"So you guys use that and....ummm..."

Assuming an awkward smile, Hyojin announced, "Everything is exactly as your virginal mind perceives."

Well, the truth is Yejin had been suspecting the two of them for a while now, but to be told face to face like this was pretty mind-blowing.

The silence was getting a little uncomfortable, until Hyojin added, "Any questions from the floor?"

That seemed to snap the former student councillor out of her shocked state; rising on her knees to rest her chin on overlapped hands on the bed, she peered at her best friend curiously as if seeing her for the first time.

"You're freaking me out, Yejin."

"When?" She asked.

"Last winter. It was too cold."

Right.

"Did it hurt?"

Hyojin grimaced and nodded. "Like fuck. Literally."

Reaching out with a hand, Yejin pinched her best friend on the arm without warning. Rather forcefully, actually, enough to elicit a yelp of pain from the other girl.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"If this is five on the pain scale, how would you rate the first time?"

"Hmmm..." Hyojin rubbed the spot where Yejin had pinched with a thoughtful expression. "Easily an eight, I'd say. But it gets so much better once the worst is over."

That sounds horrible, the former student councillor thought, involuntarily grimacing.

"...I don't think I am going to survive it." She said in a small voice, to which Hyojin burst out laughing. "If it ever happens, that is."

"What do you mean by that? How far have you and Bin gone?"

"Nowhere. We've gone nowhere." Yejin confessed worriedly. "Okay this stays here, but...Bin seems terrified of touching me. Do you think he...umm...isn't interested in me...in that way?"

Hyojin frowned, her pretty features scrunched up. "Wait, wait, wait. Like what, a closet gay or something?"

"No! Of course not. More like, maybe he doesn't seem keen to do it...? There was once I asked him to help hold my sports bra down as I changed out of a wet tee-shirt, but he looked like he was almost dying. In fact, he ran away, like I had a disease or something."

"He's a straight guy. You're a hot girl. None of this makes sense." Hyojin concluded, before hopping off the bed to pick the foil packet up.

"Here, take this." She extended it in Yejin's direction, nudging when the latter displayed hesitance.

Conflicted, the former student council President nonetheless took the condom from her best friend. "I won't be needing it so soon...I think..."

"What's the harm in keeping it around? Just keep it, you never know. It doesn't even take up much space."

And that, was the story of how the foil packet found its way into Yejin's purse.