Love Letters

2: College Life

A/N: Just an FYI, I only took gymnastics when I was like four years old and it was for only six months. But I WAS a competitive cheerleader from then up until I was seventeen years old, so that's why all of the terms are more like cheer rather than the proper gymnastics ones. I apologize for not doing proper research lmao I was too lazy and it's understandable... I think... Hopefully... AGAIN SORRY IN ADVANCE !!

Momoe's POV
*Two Years Earlier*
I enter my college campus with a bright smile. Gripping onto both straps of my backpack, I rock back and forth on my feet then rush inside the grounds of the school. Ever since I was accepted into the college, I've been overly excited to start, even when I was still in high school. I feel like just yesterday I was a freshman entering high school, searching for a major to do in college. The only thing is I have no idea who any of these people are. Not one of my friends from high school got into the same college as me, meaning they're no longer associated with me. I don't mind though. I love making new friends. The more people you know, the more you know about the way people act.

The first class of the day for me is linguistics. That's the major I chose. After thinking about it for so long, I realized that's what I'm great at: languages. I've known English, Korean, and Japanese my entire life. I've had to learn it, according to my father. He said if I am to be successful in life, I need to speak my native languages plus the native language of the place I'm a resident of: California.
I've lived in California for as long as I can remember. It was always me and my dad. We barely have any family in the states, but my cousin's family lives here so we see them once in a while. Actually, the family here is from my mother's side but since they're the only family I have here, my dad lets me see them a lot.
When I was a little girl, my mom left us, saying she couldn't handle being a mom. I was four. A year later, she contacted us and said she was ready and that she'd like for me to visit her in Korea during holidays. After a lot of thinking, my dad finally let me and I've been visiting her ever since.
It's not like she left him because they were together or something. They weren't. They were never married nor were they dating. I was a pure accident. They always told me I wasn't, but I knew I was. It's completely understandable to me and I don't mind. It's awesome being able to go to Korea four times a year!

Back to reality, I enter my class, most likely looking like a lost child as everyone settles into their seats with their friends or looking bored. I purse my lips then gasp as someone starts talking right behind me.
"I'm guessing you're new." A deep voice chuckles, somewhat close to my ear, making me jump, "And I mean new to college."
"Aish! You scared me!"
He blinks at me in surprise, standing up straighter. Now that I get a better look at him, he's not bad looking. He has blonde hair, nice brown eyes, and a muscular body. He's definitely a lot taller than me, maybe a whole head taller. He looks like he has some Chinese in him for sure. One thing my dad always told me was I have to be able to tell who's Korean, who's Japanese and who's not. I don't know, honestly. It's a thing he used to tell me so I knew what language to speak to them.
"You know Korean?" He asks.
"Actually, I know three languages. I'm in the process of learning a fourth though." I smile confidentially.
"Alright everyone, let's have a seat!" The professor calls.
"Sit with me, witling."
"What the hell is a witling?" I stare at him weird as he pulls me to find a seat.
We sit at a seat towards the back, making sure the teacher doesn't hear us. I take the seat beside him and he turns to face me, placing his chin in the palm of his hand then blinks at me like a school girl talking to her crush.
"So, tell me about yourself, polyglot."
"Two things: one, I have a name, you know that, right? Two, where are all of these fancy words coming from?" I scrunch my eyebrows together.
"You seem to love languages so I'm teasing you about it. Girl, have some fun!" He smiles, "I know you have a name. Now, what is it?"
"I'm Momoe. Momoe Yoon." I hold my hand out to him.
"Jackson. Jackson Wang." He smirks as he shakes my hand, "Now tell me, what languages do you know?"
"I know English, obviously, then I know Korean and Japanese. I'm learning Chinese right now. My extra curricular is another language class and I chose Chinese."
"Chinese?" His body straightens up, "Did I hear that correctly?"
"Yeah. You did." I giggle, "You're Chinese, right?"
"Yes! I am!" He shouts.
"Mr. Wang. Do you have something to say to the class?" The professor stares at him.
"No, sir. Sorry..."
"As I was saying..." he continues with the lesson.
Jackson looks back at me and smiles.
"I like you, Momoe. I'm going to be friends with you from now on. You're not allowed to sit next to anyone else in this class, got it?"
"Is that a threat?" I raise an eyebrow, a smirk plastered on my face.
"It can be." He mimics my face.
"Alright. Here's the deal, I'll help you with the homework in here if you tutor me in Chinese."
"What makes you think I don't know a lot of languages?" He raises an eyebrow.
"What do you know?"
"For your information, I'm fluent in four languages and I know the basics in three others." He defends himself.
"Look who's being a little witling now." I smirk.
"I don't need your sass, missy!"
"Mr. Wang!" The professor yells at him again.
I cover my mouth, trying not to laugh as Jackson looks up at the teacher with wide eyes.
"Sorry, sir! I'll be quieter! I was just asking Momoe here if she understands what we're talking about. She's new."
I glare at him before looking at our teacher.
"Do you understand, Miss Yoon?"
"I do now that he explained. Sorry for interrupting." I bow a little.
"If you need tutoring, hours are after school, Miss Yoon." He gives me a look before continuing again.
A paper flies onto my desk and I look at it in confusion. I look up at Jackson and he points it, nodding his head towards it.
Opening up the paper, I see it's a cell phone number. I glance at him with a weird expression and his smile widens.
"My number. So you can call me." He winks.
"You're gross." I fake gag.
"That's so mean!"
"I'm joking!" I laugh, "I'll only call you if you bring me breakfast in the mornings when I have class with you."
"Deal." We shake on it.
~
After two more classes, I rush to the locker rooms of the gym. I completely forgot I was going to tryouts for gymnastics today. As I enter the room, I quickly put my hair in a tight bun. Finding my locker fairly quick, I throw my school bag inside and change into my leotard. I get that it sounds weird, but that's what we have to wear for the sport and I don't mind.
Once I'm changed, I run into the gym to see girls are already circling around in a corner. They all stare at me when I run up to them, panting.
"You're in for some deep shit." A girl next to me whispers.
"Really?" My eyes widen.
"We'll see what coach says about it. It probably won't be pretty." She pauses, "I'm Jia, Jia Wang." She holds her hand out for me to shake.
"Momoe, Momoe Yoon." I shake it.
The girl is pretty, that's for sure. She's the same height as me and she has a nice body. Her raven hair makes her hazel eyes pop out. For once in my life, I'm jealous of how gorgeous a girl is.
"You."
I look at the person who was talking, my body stiffening in fear.
"The coach is pointing at me." I whisper to Jia.
"The coach is pointing at you." She whispers back, confirming my obvious statement.
"Should I reply?"
"I think you should."
"Yes, coach?" I firmly reply in a louder tone, standing up straighter.
"You're here for tryouts?"
"Yes, coach." I nod.
"Let's see what you got then." She motions me towards the beam.
Everyone is looking at me at this point. Honestly, I'm not nervous. I'm glad she asked me to go first, get it over with. I step next to the beam and push myself into a handstand. Carefully, I turn my body in a half pirouette then stand up onto the beam by doing a front walkover, landing with my right foot in front of the left. I do a bit of choreography before leaping into the air, doing an aerial followed by a back step out. I pivot on one foot, slowly lifting my leg behind me to do an arabesque to a needle. From there I do a round off into a whip, landing on one foot. I take a deep breath as I prepare myself for the dismount. I get a running start, doing a round off twist back. I land on both feet, raising my arms at the end with a smile on my face.
Everyone begins clapping and I lower my hands. I look over at Jia to see she's giving me a knowing smirk. She gives me the 'okay' sign with her hands and I can't help but smirk back.
I turn my attention towards the coach and I get taken aback when I see her jaw dropped. She laughs a little, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Now that is how you audition! Well done, Miss Yoon."
"Thank you." I bow to her as I step off the mat to where everyone else is.
"How long have you been in gymnastics?"
"Since I was four."
"Are you aiming for the big leagues?"
"I'm trying my best." I nod.
"You know everyone else auditioned already, right?"
My eyes widen and I bow in apology.
"I'm sorry! I was running late and-"
"I want you as captain." She interrupts me.
"W-what?" I stare at her in shock.
"Coach, you can't do that! She's only fresh meat!" A girl walks up to our coach angrily and points at me.
"Yes, but she's better than you." The coach stares at her as if asking to challenge her.
"That's not fair! I've been working for that position for two years!"
"Helga, you're not fit for the position. I'm the coach, you don't decide." She looks at everyone else, "Does everyone agree that she should be captain? If you do not, please speak now."
"I don't! I don't approve!" Helga groans, raising her hand high.
"Anyone?" The coach ignores her and looks around the group.
Nobody says anything and she nods. She turns to me and I blink. What just happened?
"Momoe Yoon, you are now the official captain of the gymnastics team. Congratulations!"
Everyone claps and cheers excitedly.
"Tryouts are over. First practice is tomorrow directly at four o'clock. Four o'clock sharp, girls!" She looks at me, "Momoe."
"Yes, coach." I face her, my heart beating from excitement.
"Start the class if I'm not here yet. I'm sure you'll know what to do. I'll need you to stay after today to talk about what the upcoming season will be like."
"Okay. Thank you." I smile at her.
She walks away and my eyes catch Helga's. She gives me the nastiest glare before running after coach to bicker about not getting the position.
"Wow! Momoe, you're amazing!" A girl comes up to me.
All at once, everyone starts spitting out questions and I can't hear them all nor can I see who's asking because of how many are being thrown at me.
"Hey! Give her some space! She barely auditioned then got the position of captain on her first day so it's all overwhelming to her. She needs to let it sink in before you ask her all of these questions." Jia shouts over everyone.
"Sorry, Momoe."
Jumbles of sorrys are made out. I let them know it's fine before they break out into small groups and talk to each other. My attention turns to Jia and she looks at me.
"Thanks. You're right. I do need to let it sink in. I didn't know I was good enough to become captain." I scratch my head in confusion.
"Your form was basically perfect, your choreography was on point, and your tumbling skills are advance. I don't see why either." She sarcastically says.
"Are you a freshman too?"
"Yes, I am." She smiles, "I'm good enough to be on the elite team with you."
"There's two teams?"
"Yup." She pops the 'p', placing a hand on her hip in the process, "The elite team and the regular team. The elite team goes to the major competitions while the regular teams go to the smaller ones." She informs me.
"Ohh." I nod in understanding.
"You seem like an interesting person. Wanna be friends?" She tilts her head at me.
"That would be nice actually." I smile, placing a hand over my heart with relief.
"Great! I'll give you my number when today's practice is over then we can have more conversations later!" She smiles brightly.
"Yes we can." I laugh at her.
~
A few weeks later, both Jia and Jackson become close friends with me. I'd consider both as my best friends, if I'm being honest. Jackson and I are the biggest disturbance in the class but we have the highest grades so the teacher doesn't yell at us as much as he wants to. I help Jackson with learning more Japanese while he helps me with Chinese. Eventually, we start talking in only Chinese, making people around us confused. Surprisingly, we're the only ones in our class who know Chinese. Good thing though because we start talking crap about people in our classes.
What's even better is Jia knows Chinese too. Good thing for us because we're able to talk about that Helga girl without her knowing.
Helga literally hates my guts and I think it's so funny. Everybody loves me as captain, especially the returners. They always come up to me and tell me how great of a job I'm doing and that they never would've survived with Helga as a captain. They said last year she kept trying to get the captains to be late or fall during their practice. She almost got kicked off the team because of it.
-
Today, we were assigned a partner project for linguistics and Jackson and I decided to be partners right away. To get it over with, I'm going to his apartment after school. This will be the first time I'm going over to his place and I'm actually excited. I've been wanting to see if his place is nice and cozy or if it's a typical guy place.
When the bell rings for school to get out, I meet Jackson at the front of the school. We walk to his place, which is only a couple of blocks away. Based off the outside, it's nice already, but who knows what will be on the inside.
"Oh! I forgot! I gotta warn you about them."
"Them? Who's them?" I look up at him weird.
"I'm sorry if they flirt with you. You're pretty so I'm sure they will." He ruffles his hair.
"U-um..." my face reddens at the small compliment.
"Well, you'll see. Don't worry, you'll love them!" He grabs my hand and pulls me inside excitedly.
"I still don't know who 'them' are!"
"I'm home! And I've brought a friend!" Jackson announces.
At first, nobody makes a move. Only one boy looks up at me and gasps.
"It's a girl!" He shouts, knocking the food on his plate onto the floor.
"A girl?!"
Everyone immediately looks up at me and rushes towards me. They stop directly in front of me, staring at me with amazement. Have they not seen a girl before?
"Wah~ Neo yeppeuda~" a boy with reddish brown hair says in Korean.
"Oh! Gomawo." I bow to him.
"You know Korean." His face turns red and he walks away to hide his embarrassment.
"Aww. Cute~" I laugh.
"Aww, Yugyeomie! She called you cute!" Another boy with light brown hair ruffles his hair.
"Hyung~" He pouts.
"I haven't seen you around school yet. I'm pretty sure I'd notice you if I saw you in the halls." A boy with caramel brown hair smiles.
"She wouldn't pick you, if she saw you. Obviously she'd pick me." A taller boy with chocolate brown hair hits the boy's shoulder.
"You'd prefer me instead, right?" A different boy with brown hair asks, holding my hand gently.
"Guys, stop flirting with the poor girl. She barely got here and she's already being hit on. I apologize for the boys' behavior. I'd say they know better but... they don't." A boy with black hair smiles at me apologetically as he walks over from the couch.
Okay, first of all, why are all of Jackson's friends cute? Second of all, why are all of Jackson's friends cute?
"See I told you! Didn't I tell you they'd flirt with you?!" Jackson shouts, pointing at them accusingly.
"Yes, you did." I giggle, looking at him.
"What? You knew we were going to flirt with her?" The boy with caramel colored hair blinks at him in surprise.
"Duh! She's gorgeous!" He hugs me from behind, "She's my best friend, so I know she's hot."
"What the hell?" I look up at him weirdly, "I don't know if I should be flattered or disgusted."
"Be disgusted. That's also him flirting." The boy with reddish brown hair, Yugyeom I think, smiles.
"Yah!" Jackson lets go of me and glares at him.
"Hello, yes, I'm the guest who has not been introduced, thank you very much." I poke his chest.
"Oops! Sorry... Guys, this is Momoe Yoon. She's-"
"Oh! The girl you've been talking about that's in your linguistics!" The boy with black hair points out, "Is it true you know English, Korean, and Japanese fluently?"
"Ne. I learned from my appa." I tell him in Korean.
"Impressive. She's cute and smart. She's a keeper!" The boy with brown hair nods in approval.
"Before you interrupted me!" Jackson fake clears his throat, "Momoe, this is Youngjae, Jaebum, BamBam, Mark, Yugyeom, and Jinyoung." He points at all of them at their names, "BamBam is actually from Thailand so his name is different and long so we just call him that."
Okay, I think I got it. The boy who shouted when I first came in is BamBam, the boy who told me I'm pretty in Korean is Yugyeom, Youngjae was making fun of Yugyeom after I replied back in Korean, Mark is the one who flirted with me right away, Jaebum tried to say I'd go for him, and Jinyoung tried to saved me from this mess.
"Alright. I know who's who now." I clear my throat then say their names as I point at them, "Yugyeom, Youngjae, BamBam, Jinyoung, Mark, and Jaebum. Correct?" I look at them for confirmation.
"Saranghaeyo~" Youngjae looks at me with dreamy eyes.
"Yah! Stop it!" Jaebum hits his shoulder.
"She remembered our names with our faces in like five seconds, hyung. How're you not impressed?!" BamBam stares at him as if he's crazy.
"Guys, we have to work on a project..." I interrupt them.
"I am! But he's gotta stop flirting!"
"I'm not flirting! I'm just amazed by her beauty and intelligence, that's all!"
"Just go do your project. They won't even notice you left till someone breaks it up." Jinyoung walks over to us with a smile.
"Thank you." I whisper, squeezing his arm before seeing Jackson motion for me to follow him.
~
I don't pack up to leave his house till around eight thirty. Luckily, I live only down the street so I don't have to walk very far.
"Call me when you get to your house. Actually, call me during the walk."
"Jackson! I'm not a child."
"You're my precious baby though!" He pinches my cheeks as if I'm a child.
"Jackson Wang!"
"Sorry! Sorry!" He puts his hands up in defense.
"Okay, let me go get my shoes."
I walk out to the living room to see the boys are playing video games, yelling as they push each other. I shake my head, smiling a bit. As I sit on the floor, I set my backpack next to me to not weigh me down by the heaviness. Once I tie my shoes, I stand up, turn around, and immediately trip. The landing isn't as hard I expected and I don't realize my eyes are shut until I open them to see I'm laying on top of a boy. My eyes widen when I see Jinyoung is under me with a small smirk.
"Mianhe, I didn't mean to make you fall for me." His voice is soft as he flirts.
Wait.
"What the hell? I thought you told them to stop flirting!"
"Maybe I wanted you all to myself." He smirks.
My cheeks turn hot and my heart beats faster. Who said he can suddenly become more attractive?
A loud gasp comes from above us and we both look up. I quickly get off of Jinyoung when I see Jackson staring at us with a creepy af smile. We look at each other in confusion before looking back at Jackson.
"Why do you look like the other Wybie from Coraline with that creepy ass smile?" Jinyoung raises an eyebrow.
I cover my mouth to hold back my laughter, making him smirk again. Jackson jumps back and forth on his tip toes and points at us excitedly.
"I knew it! I knew you guys would end up together!" He exclaims.
"Wait what?! Oh no no no! That's not what's going on!" I stand up, waving my hands around frantically.
"Aww! That's so cute! I can see it!" He pulls me close to him, pretending there's words in front of us, "Jinyoung and Momoe Park!" He squeals.
"I've never been so flustered in my life." I mutter.
"You're right, hyung... She's gorgeous." Jinyoung smiles at me from the floor.
"Again, I've never been so flustered in my life." I squeak, my face getting redder as he stands up onto his feet.
"Did I make your heart flutter? I did, didn't I?" Jinyoung lifts my chin to make me look at him.
Gibberish comes out of my mouth as I stare at him and Jackson laughs at me.
"I ship it already." He starts bouncing around like a little girl.
"I heard yelling. What's going on?" Jaebum walks over to us.
"Is Momoe noona okay?!" Youngjae rushes over to us.
"Noona's face is so red!" Yugyeom points at me.
"Stop calling me noona~" I whine.
"Why? You're older than them." Mark points out, popping his out from the kitchen.
"Plus we know more Korean than English." BamBam adds.
"Then how the hell did you get into this school? You needed to know English..." I stare at them in confusion.
"We know the basics!" Youngjae states.
"Jackson and I are the only ones who're fluent in English." Mark informs me.
"Is that why nobody around here speaks English?"
"That is correct." Yugyeom smiles, talking in English with his accent heavy.
"Aww your accent is adorable~"
"How come you keep getting compliments?!" Jaebum groans.
"He's a babe magnet." BamBam glares at him.
"I feel like I should leave now." I mumble, picking up my backpack.
"Why can't you stay, noona?" Youngjae gives me puppy dog eyes.
"My dad is wondering where I am because I'm taking so long."
"You live at home?" Jinyoung asks.
"Of course. If I leave him alone, we'll both be depressed. But eventually I'll move out."
"You can move in with us~" Mark wiggles his eyebrows.
"In your dreams." I roll my eyes before walking towards the door, "bye~"
~
Every day after that I come over, Jackson somehow tries to get me and Jinyoung to be either in the same room, be right next to each other, or be completely alone together. It gets annoying because I'm trying to get this project done and Jackson is trying to tell me how good of a boyfriend Jinyoung would be.
"Come on! He's perfect! He's good looking, he's smart, he's strong, and he's the perfect height!"
"Then why don't you date him if you think he's so perfect?" I smirk, looking up from my notebook.
"No! Moyoung needs to be a thing!"
"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" I stop what I'm doing to look at him weird.
"Moyoung! That's your ship name!" He claps.
"You're something else, Jackson." I shake my head as I go back to the notebook.
Jinyoung starts flirting with me every time I enter the room. It's quite surprising. He doesn't seem like the type to flirt so much. The other boys stopped flirting with me though. Actually, they try to stay away from me, when Jinyoung's in the room, and I have a small feeling that he threatened them to stay away. It makes me kinda sad because even though they were basically trying to get at me, they're all really nice.
On the other hand, Yugyeom and Youngjae have become my other besties. I text them every day about random things that make me smile throughout the day. They're literal sunshines, mostly Youngjae, but yeah... sunshines...
BamBam and I fight jokingly a lot. It's also a thing between us that just randomly started. Mark, Jackson, and I have a group chat where we talk about the boys in English so they don't understand us. Jaebum and I do the same but we talk about Jackson. They all hate each other (not literally of course) and it's hilarious.
~
I walk to their place, texting Jackson I'm on my way. For once, I decided to look cute so I'm in some nice baby blue jeans and a crop top with my hair in a French braid. I don't usually dress up to go to their place, but Jackson said we might go out for boba and I know too many people in Los Angeles to be going out in pjs.
I knock on the door once I arrive and nobody answers for two whole minutes. I look around to see if I'm missing something, but nothing seems out of place. I'm about to knock again when the door opens and I'm immediately blindfolded.
"What the hell?! Get this off of me!"
"No!" That's Jackson.
I groan and let him carry me like a brief case to wherever we're going.
"Jackson, what's the meaning of this?" I cross my arms.
"You'll see!" I hear him open a door and set me onto the floor, roughly.
"Have fun!" He closes the door and I hear a lock sound.
"Jackson Wang!" I groan from both the impact and frustration.
"Momoe? Is that you?" Jinyoung's voice rings in my ears.
"You can take off your blindfolds now!" I hear Jackson's muffled voice through the door.
Taking mine off, I shake my hair a bit so it's not messy. I blink my eyes to get used to the light and I notice Jinyoung's face only inches away from mine. We both shriek and scoot back a it, our faces red.

"M-mianhe. I didn't realize how close we were." He apologizes, rubbing his arm.

"I honestly didn't even feel you next to me." I admit.
"I know what this is about. And I'm gonna kill him when I get out!" He yells the last part so Jackson can hear.
Something slams against the door and I hear footsteps running away. I laugh and shake my head.
"He's such an idiot. He does realize I have resources, right?" I smirk, holding up my phone.
"Who? Mark is probably in on this, Jaebum is probably too lazy, BamBam is probably too busy laughing at us, and Youngjae and Yugyeom were probably threatened by Jackson to not interfere."
"Don't worry. I got this."
I text Youngjae something and not even a second later, I hear screaming throughout the halls. Jinyoung looks over at me and I smile cheekily.
"What the hell did you tell him?!"
"Just that I'm in trouble. I'm his favorite." I stick my tongue out at him.
He rolls his eyes but a small smile still appears, making me smile. The door knob breaks off suddenly and at this point, Jinyoung and I are hugging each other in fear.
"Noona! Are you alright?!" Youngjae appears in the doorway.
He tilts his head at us, scrunching his eyebrows together. He blinks at us innocently, bending down a bit to get a better look.
"Why're you hugging each other so tightly?" He gasps, "Are you dating?!"
"Yes."
"No."
We look at each other and I glare at him. He smiles cheekily and I push his face away. I stand up and walk over to Youngjae with a smile.
"Come on, Youngjae. Let's go get some boba." I grab his hand.
"Is that my reward?!" He shouts in excitement.
"Of course, sunshine." I pat his cheek with a bright smile.
"Yay!" He hugs me tight, "I'll go get my jacket!" He runs to his room.
"You're really something, Momoe Yoon." Jinyoung smirks at me as he leans against the doorframe with crossed arms.
"You bet I am." I smile boastfully.
"It's hot." He whispers in my ear before strutting down the hall.
I blink in surprise as I watch him walk away. And it's okay for him to be hot too?