TGJ 2: My Grumpy Jerk

Chapter 9

It is a beautiful day indeed. Petals from the cherry blossom trees shower all over the place. The wind sways the tree branches, people's hairs, and their clothes. I love how the atmosphere is welcoming me.

"Look at how beautiful the trees are," Chocho says beside me. We are walking our way to the university. We have moved to the said apartment and finally, we're settled and it's the first day of school as college students.

"Yeah, this is the start of our new life, Chocho," I smile at her and she nods then smiles at me too.

"I think I must be serious about my studies starting today. I can't let my unaware parents down and disappoint them not to mention I lied to them about the university thing," she feels down remembering her actions. I tap her shoulder to calm her down.

"We should start the school year on a positive note, Chocho and you better tell them as soon as possible. You can't keep secrets forever," I tell her.

"Don't lecture me about not keeping secrets," she pouts at me.

"What do you mean by that, huh?" I am confused.

"Forget it," she chuckles.

"Come on," I am persistent.

"Hey, today's the school orientation for freshmen, right? We need to hurry," we hear girls talking and they seem to rush to enter the university.

Before they can walk past us, Chocho stop one of the girls to ask her.

"Hey, what's going on?" she raises one brow at the girl.

"Are you a freshman too?" she asks her back. Chocho nods and looks at me.

"You need to hurry to the auditorium. We, freshmen, have an orientation. Haven't you received a notice through email?" she tells us.

Oh, wait. We haven't gone to our emails the past few days. We were busy moving our things to our new room.

"Damn it! We haven't checked our emails. We were busy moving our things to our new place," Chocho puts her palm on her forehead to show disgust.

"I see. Let's go to the auditorium together," she invites us and we tag along with their group.

After a few minutes, we arrived at the auditorium. It was almost full when we enter.

"Wow! What a great room," Chocho utters in surprise.

"Yeah," I agree that it is wonderful. It's huge and I think it can accommodate hundreds of students all at once.

"There are still vacant seats," says the girl we bumped into earlier this morning. We follow her and settle on the seats.

"By the way, I'm Hana and you are?" she asks Chocho and offers her hand for a shake.

"Oh, I'm Chocho," Chocho accepted her hand.

"And you?" she smiles at me.

"Sarada, nice to meet you," I tell her and we smile at each other.

"Nice to meet you," her head slightly leans forward.

"Are you guys in the same department?" she asks and we both shake our heads.

"I'm in the Hotel and Restaurant department and Sarada is part of the Performing Arts department," Chocho replies to her question and I am just like nodding my head at her.

"I see. But wait, your name is familiar," she wonders about me. But before she can speak again, someone talks in the microphone.

"Hm..." the speaker clears his throat and our attention is switched to him.