AeGuk's Roomie

AeGuk felt like he was the only person on campus who didn’t have someone helping him move into the dorms. Fedora would have helped, except she had to get back to college herself. Sacia had offered to come but AeGuk didn’t really want her to.

Now he really would have taken anyone offering to help him.

As he found his way to his dorm room through the crowd of people and their parents, or friends, or siblings, or whoever was helping them, he felt incredibly lonely and wonder why exactly he wanted to go to college all the way across the country from his mom. If he was going to college somewhere in California his mom probably would be here helping him.

But sadly he was not, he was in New York and all alone. That is until he found his roommate and his roommates parents already in their room.

“Oh,” AeGuk said setting his bags down, it wasn’t much since he didn’t own much in the first place.

His roommate, a tall lanky guy with dark curly hair cut close to his head, smiled at him.

“Hey, you’re my roommate?” the guy asked.

“I I I... g-guess,” AeGuk said, his stutter becoming very apparent. He had almost forgotten, When he was with Fedora he hardly felt like he stutter at all.

But the guy didn’t seem to notice, or care. Instead he held out his hand and introduced himself as “Roshawn, but everyone calls me Shawn.”

AeGuk shook his hand, “AeGuk.”

His name was the only thing he could say without stuttering.

“Oh, cool,” Shawn said, “That’s like Korean right?”

AeGuk nodded.

“Were you born there?” Shawn asked.

AeGuk nodded again.

“Cool,” Shawn said, then he turned back to his parents, “I guess it’s goodbye.”

AeGuk brought his bags to the bed that wasn’t taken and started unpacking because he couldn’t think of anything else to do.

“Yo,” Shawn said after a while. AeGuk had already unpacked all of his clothes and was in the process of putting sheets and stuff on his bed, but he stopped and turned to Shawn.

“You don’t talk much do you,” Shawn laughed.

AeGuk shrugged.

Shawn looked confused for second then shrugged to, “You hungry?”

AeGuk shrugged again.

“Look, dude, you’re gonna have to give me a straight answer,” Shawn said.

Shawn reminded AeGuk of Bryan, and not just because they were both black and tall, but because they’re both loud and straightforward. But Bryan never made fun of him for not talking.

Just then a sound, like when PAC-MAN eats a ghost, came from Shawn’s pocket. AeGuk was thankful for a distraction, hoping maybe Shawn would forget he was talking to him.

After reading, what AeGuk assumed was, a text Shawn smiled and looked back at AeGuk.

“It’s my cousin,” he said, “You wanna get something to eat with us? The cafeteria is already open, we can see what they got.”

AeGuk shrugged, and nodded.

“Sure?” Shawn asked.

“Y-yeah,” AeGuk said, immediately feeling disappointed that he couldn’t even say “yeah” without stuttering.

Shawn nodded, “let’s go.”

AeGuk followed Shawn out into the hallways, which was still busy with students and parents. They walked from their dorms to the Cafeteria, on the way there Shawn stopped and grinned.

“There she is,” he said.

AeGuk looked in the direction he was looking and was shocked to see a small, kind of round, Asian girl with hair as short as Shawn’s. She ran and gave Shawn a bear hug, and he picked her right up and twirled her around.

“Allie,” Shawn said.

“Shawn,” Allie giggled, when he put her down. “You know I hate it when you do that. It makes me feel so small.”

“You love it,” Shawn said.

The girl, Allie, looked at AeGuk then.

“Who’s this?” she asked.

“My roomie,” Shawn said, “He’s practically mute.”

Allie looked at Shawn then back at AeGuk and said, “maybe he doesn't speak english.”

AeGuk frowned.

Shawn shrugged, “He’s from Korea.”

Allie’s whole face lit up, “Really. I’ve always wanted to try out my Korean!”

AeGuk tried not to groan, was she some wannabe Korean?

“Annyeonghaseyo!” She said, “yeong-eo hal jul aseyo?”

Hello, do you speak english.

“Ye,” AeGuk said, smiling. Her Korean wasn’t too bad, she pronounced everything correct and spoke as if she was a native. He could speak Korean much easier that English sometimes.

“Well then why don’t you say something?” Allie asked.

AeGuk shrugged, “I-i...”

He felt his face heat up, why was talking so hard?

“I’m starving,” Shawn said, “You guys can continue getting acquainted in the cafeteria.”

“Alright,” Allie said.

AeGuk followed them, glad that Shawn had brought the attention away from AeGuk’s failed sentence.

He wondered if he had done it on purpose.

Then he remember that he hadn’t even told Allie his name.