West Seoul University Series

by Leigh Ban

  “Hey, ladies, could we join you for a drink?” asked a guy with slicked-back hair while his friends stood behind him.

  Stella instantly replied, “No thanks. We’re still checking out what’s going on at this festival.”

  As soon as the guy heard her, the suave expression fell off his face. While he and his friends shuffled away, Yumi snorted.

  Stella turned to Yumi. “What? Was I mean?”

  I chimed in. “I don’t think so. It’s just that he probably didn’t expect such a quick rejection.”

  “Exactly, he seemed to think he could pull off the smooth-guy act. Come on, let’s go look at the performance lineup for tonight,” Yumi said.

  We’d arrived at the West Seoul University Festival, which was held every year in May. The festival was essentially two nights of binge-drinking at outdoor vendors scattered across the main playing field. Students from various academic departments and campus groups operated each booth, fundraising to buy new equipment or to donate to charity. There was also live music. However, since the university only paid for the performances on Friday, Thursday night was for the amateurs.

  “Look, Dana!” Yumi nudged me. “I knew the Department of Engineering would keep the tradition going.”

  ENGINX, the student band from the Department of Engineering, was infamous for their heavy metal performances. Although the band members attempted to look the part by wearing all black ensembles—Ed Hardy–inspired T-shirts and cargo pants with chains—their thick horn-rimmed glasses and low-maintenance, mom-approved hairstyles suggested otherwise. When I saw ENGINX for the first time as a freshman, I rooted for them because I was appalled by the disparaging looks of other students when the band appeared onstage. However, their performance had been even worse than the crowd anticipated. This year, they were just as awful. The lead singer sounded like a wretched old drunkard rambling to himself. Meanwhile, the rest of the band stood stiff and appeared to be petrified.

  “Why don’t we go drink at one of the vendors?” I suggested.

  “Don’t you want to introduce Stella to ENGINX?” Yumi replied.

  I yelled into her ear, “The music is so loud someone who’s taking a shower at International House could sing along if they wanted to. Yumi, we’re going to burst our eardrums if we stay here.”

  Since my parents were in Houston, I originally stayed with my maternal grandparents when I entered college. But during sophomore year, my grandparents moved to the countryside, so I began living in International House, a dormitory where most residents had foreign citizenship or grew up abroad. As my suitemate Stella was an exchange student, I’d persuaded Yumi to attend the festival to show Stella around with me.

  “Alright. You win. Let’s head to the vendors,” Yumi shouted.

  Yumi, Stella, and I hurried away from the stage without knowing which booth we were headed to.

  Stella glanced down at her stiletto pumps. “Why did I wear heels today? I never wear heels.”

  “Maybe because you’re meeting up with your boyfriend later?” Yumi said.

  I laughed. “Yumi, you’ve got Stella all figured out without even stepping foot into our suite.”

  Stella grimaced. “Guys, there’s a giant blister on my left foot.”

  Yumi rolled up the sleeves of her black chiffon blouse, linked arms with Stella, and pointed to the Department of Music’s tent. “We better get you a seat. How about the booth over there?”

  Stella nodded. Once Yumi spotted an empty round table and we plopped down on the white plastic chairs, three guys in banana-print aloha shirts approached us. The tallest one took the lead while the other two smiled anxiously.

  Stella asked, “Are you guys serving? Could we please have the menu?”

  “No, we’re not. We actually wanted to ask you ladies if we could join you,” the guy explained.

  “Sorry, we’ve got a lot of topics to discuss among ourselves tonight,” I said.

  “I see… okay… gotcha. Sorry for bothering you.”

  Once the three guys left, I scanned the tables nearby and grabbed a laminated piece of paper. As I presumed, this was the menu. There were only five items on the menu: stir-fried sausages, steamed eggs, kimchi pancake, soju, and “mystery lemonade (alcoholic, not virgin).”

  “Did you see how nervous they were?” Yumi pointed out. “They must be freshmen. Which booth is Hawaiian-themed this year? I hope they didn’t take the rejection personally because I wouldn’t mind drinking with them.”

  “Woah. Was there an alien abduction earlier? Or did I just catch Yumi worrying about some random guys’ feelings for the first time in her life?” Stella teased.

  Anyone who spent a night out with Yumi or received relationship advice from her knew she tended to assume the worst when it came to guys and relationships. However, while Stella had only met Yumi a few months ago, I knew the details of Yumi’s dating history since our first semester. Yumi wasn’t an alien or a robot; she had her weaknesses too.

  I chuckled. “Not quite, Stella. The truth is, Yumi has a thing for younger guys. I bet her Prince Charming is still a child, so she’ll pester him into proposing to her when she’s forty years old and he’s finally out of college.”

  As Stella burst out laughing, Yumi said with gleaming eyes, “Dana, how dare you make such assumptions. You’re wrong. He hasn’t been born yet.”

  Stella wheezed as she tried to calm down. “You two are killing me.”

  “Stella, you’re enjoying this too much,” Yumi commented. “Dana and I are not funny enough to make you lose your mind. At least not while you’re still sober. Speaking of sobriety, what should we order? You guys can choose the food. I just don’t want to drink that mystery lemonade crap.”

  I replied, “Fair enough. They’re probably trying to mask the taste of expired lemonade by adding alcohol. I should know. I was the self-appointed head chef and bartender for the Department of Economics two years ago. How about steamed eggs?”

  “Sure,” Stella said.

  The male servers wore bass clef hats while the female servers were in treble clef hats. While Yumi tried to get the attention of one of the servers, Stella’s phone rang. As soon as Stella took it out of her pocket and peered at me apologetically, I knew her boyfriend had called her. Stella went over to an empty area behind a stack of boxes. Shortly after Yumi ordered the steamed eggs and a bottle of soju, Stella returned.

  Yumi gave Stella a knowing smile. “Let me guess. Your boyfriend has already arrived at the festival and he wants to meet up with you.”

  “I’m sorry. My boyfriend wasn’t supposed to get here until nine, but the dinner meeting he attended ended earlier than he expected. He’s on his way right now. I still want to hang out with you guys. Should I invite him to come and drink here?”

  Yumi smirked. “No way, Stella. Once your boyfriend turns up, I’m forcing you to leave. You need to go and have fun with him because Dana and I need to party with a bunch of hot freshmen. Frankly, they’re not going to approach us if there’s a guy at our table.”

  An hour after Stella left, Yumi and I were glancing at our phone screens, bored and underwhelmed. I couldn’t stop myself from wondering what Joon might be up to. We’d agreed to meet up at a café the next day. Although Yumi kept joking about finding a group of cute guys to hang out with, not a single person came over to our table. While Yumi was willing to approach guys and ask them if they wanted to join us, she didn’t see anyone who interested her, freshman or otherwise. Once ENGINX finished their encore song, which nobody had asked for, another student band stepped onstage and performed “Wonderwall.” As the students who were supposed to be serving yelled jokes at each other and roared with laughter, Yumi and I raised our paper shot cups.

  Yumi knocked back her last shot of soju, then said, “Can we get out of here and head over to a proper bar? These paper cups are so flimsy we can’t even clink our glasses.”

  “Well, we’re technically on the athletic field,” I replied, fanning my face with one ha
nd.

  She rolled her eyes. “That’s true, but what’s the point of using paper cups for safety when soju bottles are made of glass?”

  “I suppose these paper cups were the cheapest option.”

  After I poured my lukewarm drink into my mouth, a guy with a messy beard came over to us with two red plastic cups.

  He handed us the cups and asked, “Hey there, would you ladies like to try the mystery lemonade? These drinks are on the house.”

  “Thank you,” I replied. My cheeks burned as I remembered the jokes Yumi and I had made about the mystery lemonade, even though I knew he couldn’t have heard us.

  He added, “My name is Chulmin. I major in composition, so I’m close to some of the freshmen who are serving.”

  “Hi, I’m Yumi. By the way, you look like a young Asian Tchaikovsky,” Yumi blurted out.

  Chulmin guffawed. “Hi, Yumi. You’re not the first person to have told me that today.”

  “I’m Dana,” I said before taking a sip of my drink.

  Chulmin asked, “Where are you two headed later?”

  “We haven’t decided yet,” I replied, removing a pink cocktail umbrella from my cup.

  He cleared his throat. “In that case, I’d like to invite both of you to the best after-party at the West Seoul University Festival.”

  “Do we get a refund if we end up being disappointed?” Yumi joked.

  “No, you’ll be impressed,” Chulmin insisted. “You girls aren’t freshmen, are you? The two of you don’t seem hyper enough to be attending the festival for the first time. You see, this after-party is not for rowdy freshmen. Some graduates from my major have rented out Tree. Do you know where that is?”

  Yumi and I nodded. Tree was the most upscale cocktail bar in Sinchon, the area surrounding West Seoul University. I knew Stella enjoyed going there with her boyfriend, but the drinks were notoriously expensive, so I’d never been.

  “You guys can head over there whenever you want. Remember to tell the doorman you were invited by Chulmin. I’ll see you there!” Chulmin said and got up. He walked over to one of the guys in the bass clef hats.

  Yumi turned to me. “Dana, do you want to go now? It’s so crowded here I feel like it’s getting hotter, even though the sun went down two hours ago.”

  When Yumi and I arrived at Tree, we thought we might’ve stumbled into the wrong place. Three middle-aged businessmen entered in front of us. The doorman was a burly guy with a buzz cut. As he seemed to be checking names off the guest list, I wasn’t sure if Yumi and I would be allowed in.

  The doorman glared at us. “What are your names?”

  “Chulmin invited us,” Yumi said.

  He flipped through the pages on his clipboard. “Your IDs?”

  I dug through my leather tote bag and took out my wallet. The doorman was studying Yumi’s face as I pulled out my ID. Once he finished checking, he grunted and motioned for us to enter.

  “Is Tree usually like this?” I whispered.

  “Weird, right?” Yumi replied. “We’re entering a cocktail bar, not a raunchy nightclub.”

  The interior reminded me of a library in an enchanted palace, except the bookshelf that covered one of the walls was filled with whiskey bottles, not books. Although the festival was still going on in the athletic field, Tree was already bustling with people. When Chulmin shared that Tree had been rented out by graduates from his major, I had assumed those people would be in their mid- to late twenties. However, over half of the guests were middle-aged. Most of them appeared to have arrived straight from work.

  “Would you ladies like something to drink?” the bartender called out.

  “Could we see the menu?” I asked.

  He explained, “I’m afraid we don’t offer the full menu tonight, since your drinks have obviously been prepaid for. Your options are whiskey, which we can serve neat, on the rocks, or however else you want, as well as Champagne and bottled beer.”

  The corners of Yumi’s mouth crept up after she heard our drinks were free. To be honest, although I felt out of place, I was also tempted to stay just for the opportunity to have as much whiskey and Champagne as I wanted, since we were in the most upscale bar in the area.

  Yumi turned to me. “Champagne for both of us?”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Both of us will have Champagne,” she said to the bartender.

  Another bartender came over to us, holding a silver tray loaded with Champagne flutes. Once Yumi and I grabbed our drinks, we made our way over to some of the tables that had been pushed together. There were platters with smoked salmon salad, Margherita pizza, tomato bruschetta, and finger-sized éclairs, which seemed to have been brought in from elsewhere.

  “What impeccable timing. I was starting to get hungry again,” Yumi said as she put her Champagne flute on the table.

  She then grabbed two plastic plates and handed one to me. While she filled her plate with two slices of pizza, I popped an éclair into my mouth and took a sip of Champagne.

  “Dana, this pizza is pretty good. You need to have a bite.” Yumi held up a slice right in front of my mouth.

  After I swallowed, I nodded with approval. “You don’t mind being around all the people in suits?”

  “I don’t mind because I get to eat pizza and drink Champagne,” Yumi said, then examined my face. “Do you want to leave?”

  “But you want to stay, don’t you?” I didn’t want to spoil her fun, although we weren’t exactly having a blast.

  “Hey, Yumi and Dana!” Chulmin came over holding a glass of whiskey.

  “When did you get here?” Yumi asked.

  He replied, “Literally five minutes ago. How are you enjoying the party?”

  Yumi chuckled. “This isn’t exactly the type of after-party we anticipated. Dana and I aren’t freshmen, but we’re still a bit young for office parties.”

  He protested, “Come on, this isn’t a total office party. I know there’s a lot of older alumni here, but it’ll get interesting. You have to stay and find out.”

  Yumi took a large swig, then put her empty Champagne flute on the table. “Chulmin, how’s the whiskey? Maybe we’ll have a glass each.”

  “Sure.” I shrugged.

  Since I didn’t drink whiskey often, I wasn’t sure whether I wanted it with water or on the rocks. Yumi asked for her whiskey with water, so I decided to request the same. After my first sip, I coughed as the bitter drink went down my throat.

  “I haven’t acquired the taste for whiskey yet,” I muttered, my eyes watering.

  Yumi saw my expression and snorted. “You look like you’ve been poisoned. Here, I’ll finish off your drink. Do you want to grab more Champagne?”

  Tree was extremely packed at this point. Blazer-clad shoulders and backs brushed against me as I rushed toward the bartender with the Champagne flutes. After I hastily grabbed one and turned around, the guy next to me groaned. A second later, I realized my glass was now empty.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  I glanced up at him. Although it was a hot day, he was in a baggy black hoodie. I could hardly see his face because he wore a black baseball cap with a black disposable mask pulled down to his chin.

  “Did I… spill my drink on you? Are you okay?” I asked him, taken aback by his mesmerizing feline eyes.

  He silently shook the sleeve of his hoodie.

  I added, “Hang on, let me help you dry yourself off.”

  Once I reached out and touched his wrist, I realized the soft fabric was dripping wet. I frantically went over to the nearest table, took a wad of paper napkins, and hurried back to where he was standing. Within seconds, he had disappeared.

  Chapter Two

  “How was last night?” Christy asked as I joined her on the sofa.

  “Why? Do you regret not coming with us?” I joked, opening a pack of potato chips and offering her some.

  She took a large handful. “Nope! Not when I can live vicariously through you.”

  I laughed.
After Stella and I moved into a three-person suite during the middle of the semester, we became suitemates with Christy, a Korean-American girl who was in her third year of studying interior architecture. Christy was by far the most introverted friend I had. Although she wasn’t interested in exploring restaurants, bars, and cafés with me, we became friends after I asked her to join me for dinner at the dorm cafeteria. At first, she only gave me one-word answers. However, after she got excited over a song that was playing in the background, I quickly learned that Christy had plenty of opinions she was dying to share. I also liked to order fried chicken delivery with her, especially as Stella was always hanging out with her boyfriend these days.

  I said to Christy, “Last night was so-so. To be honest, I found the festival rather boring. You’ve heard of how the performances tend to be on Thursdays, right? Anyway, Yumi and I were supposed to show Stella around, but she ended up doing that with her boyfriend.”

  “Do you think you’ll go again tonight?” she said.

  I shook my head. “Unless you need someone to go with?”

  “No way. Dana, I would never go to the university festival.”

  “Never?”

  Christy wiped her fingers on her graphic T-shirt. “Hm, maybe not never. If you told me Undone was performing, I would wait in front of the stage all day. Sadly, my boys recently finished touring for their last album and they’re taking a break this summer.”

  “Your boys? Christy, it sounds like the members of Undone are your sons.” I chuckled.

  She furrowed her brow. “You don’t understand. They’re not just my favorite celebrities. They really are my boys. Sun, Zac, Aaron, Woori, and Noah are the most talented and beautiful people in the world.”

  “Would you ever go to their concert?”