Chapter Text
The bass blares through Rumi’s car speakers, making her car shake with every beat. Despite the quiet college town she found herself in, she didn’t bother to turn down the radio, seeing the many college age students milling around on the sidewalks and even at the storefronts that ran alongside the road. Her fingers drum anxiously against the steering wheel as she got ever closer to her destination, her free leg bouncing up and down at a similar speed to that of a golden retriever’s tail when it was excited. The band of the ring on her thumb clinks dully against the steering wheel, and she occasionally spins it around, a nervous habit of hers she hadn’t fully been able to kick quite yet.
Rumi’s teeth catch at her lower lip as she eases the car down a quiet side street a few blocks from the college campus, her eyes scanning mailboxes. Beside her in the passenger’s seat, her phone chimes, and a robotic voice comes out, startling her slightly as it says, ‘You’ve arrived at your destination.’
She brings the car to a gentle stop outside a house and scoops up her phone, double and even triple checking the address. Well, this is it. She thinks to herself as she kills the engine. The car goes silent, and as she sits in her car, staring at the house in front of her, she feels a wave of anxiety wash over her; she’d never been beyond the limits of her tiny countryside town, so being on the outskirts of the big city felt almost too surreal, and maybe even a bit terrifying, but Rumi would never admit that to anyone.
She exhales slowly, her cheeks puffing out as she hesitates to get out of the car. Will they even like me? What if they hate me? It’s not like I can go home. Not after the fight I had with Aunt Celine… Rumi pushes that thought from her mind. Celine didn’t get to ruin this experience for her; no one did.
With that in mind, Rumi gets out of the car and grabs a box from the backseat, her lavender colored braid whipping past her face at the sudden movement. Not that she had much, anyway. Celine didn’t let her grab a lot of her stuff, so it-
“Enough, Rumi.” Rumi murmurs aloud as she squares her shoulders, feigning a sense of confidence she knew she should feel, but doesn’t. She walks through the gate and up the steps of the modest-looking townhouse, her legs shaking slightly with every ascension. She sets the box down on the porch as she reaches it, and rings the doorbell.
Within seconds, the door swings open and out emerges what Rumi could describe as a golden retriever in human form.
“Hi, you must be Rumi! It’s so nice to finally meet you!” The girl says enthusiastically. Rumi’s rehearsed smile tightens in that familiar way as her eyebrows raise slightly.
“Oh, where are my manners? I’m Zoey.” The girl- Zoey, dammit Rumi- says as she steps aside, allowing Rumi to enter the house fully. Rumi carefully crosses the threshold, her eyes flickering around as she takes in the house.
The furniture was definitely different from what she expected: a full sofa with a loveseat pushed under the window, the tv mounted to the wall, which seemed terribly expensive and precarious, in Rumi’s opinion. Not that her opinion mattered, but-
“Here, let me show you to your room!” Zoey gasps suddenly, unknowingly snapping Rumi back to reality. Zoey disappears down the hall, and Rumi hurriedly catches up, the box bouncing uncomfortably in her arms. Zoey leads her up a staircase at the end of the hallway to a secondary floor. The colors here are a bit more muted and cohesive, the floors spotless, as if they’d been cleaned recently. Zoey pushes open the door a few feet from the stairs.
“This is your room! There’s a bathroom right next door, so no worries there.” Zoey says as she pushes the door open. Rumi steps inside, her eyes traveling over the room with interest as she sets the box on the floor.
The walls, once painted a baby blue, based on the poor paint job on the interior rim of the door, were now a creamy off-white, and the floor a warm wood tone. There was a queen sized metal bed frame pushed to one corner, with a brand new mattress with the plastic wrappings set carefully on it. A wide desk sat just under the window, and a dresser just beside it. A nightstand with a simple lamp stood beside the bed, and wall outlets dotted the baseboards. She could see a set of sliding doors, most likely the closet, on the wall closest to her, and when she peeked inside, she hummed appreciatively at the amount of space.
“Um, so… What’s your major?” Zoey asks after a long moment of silence. As Rumi glanced at Zoey, she got the distinct sense that the girl did everything she could to avoid long silences. Not that Rumi minded or anything, but-
“Oh, right. I haven’t settled on one yet.” Rumi says, and a beat later, she remembers she’s supposed to ask in return. “Uh, what about you?”
Zoey brightens instantly after Rumi returns the question, as if she’d silently been hoping Rumi would ask. “I’m actually a Music Production major. One of our roommates, Mira, is a double major in Fashion and Performing Arts. Our other roommate, Jade, is an Art major, and she’s super talented.” Zoey says, leaning into the doorjamb, one foot propped against her leg.
Rumi nods in understanding, falling silent again. It wasn’t that she didn't want to respond, she just didn’t know how. After a long silence, she asks, “Music Production, huh? Is it any fun?” Her voice cracks slightly as she speaks, but Zoey doesn’t comment on it, but instead, she nods enthusiastically.
“It’s really fun, I enjoy it a lot! Being able to create something that resonates with people is pretty amazing to me.” Zoey replies, her voice bright, almost too bright. But Rumi doesn’t mind, actually, she kind of enjoys how Zoey seemed to be a genuinely bright person.
The two settle into silence, but it’s not uncomfortable like Rumi had expected. “Oh, did you have more stuff to bring inside? I can help if you want.” Zoey says suddenly, breaking the silence and making Rumi jump slightly.
“Oh, no, it’s fine, I can grab the rest-” She tries to say, but Zoey waves a hand dismissively. “Please,” Zoey laughs, her eyes crinkling in the corners, as if she was genuinely amused as she turns to leave, “it’s fine. Besides, those stairs are absolutely killer after two back and forth trips.” Rumi follows the girl out of the room and back to her car that’s carefully parked on the side of the road.
{x-o-x-o}
After only a few trips back and forth from her car to her room, all of Rumi's boxes are nestled into Rumi's bedroom. Zoey huffs as she sits down on the floor with a pair of scissors to start opening boxes, her eyes bright in a way that reminded Rumi of a child at Christmas that was all too eager to open their presents.
Conversation between the two was flowing but slightly stilted as they worked. Rumi started with taking off the plastic on the bed, the scissors gliding through the material like it was cutting through paper. She managed to get the plastic off the top, but now, she couldn't seem to get it off the bottom.
"Hey, Zoey?" Rumi asks, a little breathless from climbing all the way across the mattress to try to lift it from the corner. Zoey's head pops up, her brown eyes immediately focusing on Rumi intently.
"What's up?" Zoey asks, already clambering to her feet to move closer to Rumi. "Oh, you need help, got it." Rumi nods gratefully, and her hands wrap around the bottom of the mattress to lift it once again.
"Ready?" Zoey says, already in position to snatch the plastic out from under the bed as soon as Rumi lifted it. Rumi nods, and lifts the bed, her arms shaking slightly with the effort of holding up the mattress again after everything she'd already done today. Zoey, on the other hand, is lightning fast, hands anchoring into the plastic and giving it a few hard yanks before it comes loose and flutters to the floor like an abandoned piece of paper. "Drop it!" Zoey says triumphantly, and with a light thump as it bounces against the bedframe, Rumi lets go of the mattress, then flops onto it with a dramatic sigh.
"I hate new mattresses just because of that stupid filament." Rumi huffs, and Zoey snorts through her nose. "Me, too. When I moved in, Mira had to help me with the plastic, too. The only one of us that didn't ask for help was Jade." Zoey replies, sitting carefully on the edge of the bed. "Something about... artists being stronger than they look? I still don't really get it, to be honest."
"Hey, uh... thanks for helping me." Rumi murmurs quietly after the pair fall into silence. Zoey's eyebrows furrow with confusion as she stares at Rumi, who's now sitting up against the headboard of the bed. "Why are you thanking me? You needed help, and I wasn't doing anything."
"Well, yeah, but... you didn't have to." Rumi replies, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. Zoey shakes her head slowly, and gently reaches over to rest her hand on Rumi's, her eyes staring intently into the taller girl's.
"You don't have to thank me for offering help when you needed it. That's what friends do for each other." Zoey says, her voice a mix of firm and gentleness that Rumi hadn't been expecting from the younger girl.
After Rumi's muscles stop screaming at her so much, she slides off the bed to continue unpacking. Just as she starts putting her clothes into her dresser, the front door downstairs slams shut, making her pause nervously to glance at Zoey, who just looks up toward Rumi's open bedroom door. "Mira, is that you?" Zoey calls out, her voice carrying down the hall. An incoherent shout back reaches them, and Zoey's face changes as she seemingly realizes who just came into the house.
A few moments later, a dark red haired girl with light brown eyes storms up the stairs, her eyes filled with something akin to frustration. She catches sight of Zoey first, and her eyes soften slightly before they pass over Rumi, as if the girl was sizing her up.
"Hey, Zo. Is this our new roomie?"? The girl asks, leaning into the doorjamb but not encroaching on Rumi's space without permission, which Rumi silently appreciated. Zoey nods excitedly, nearly bouncing on the floor like she's had too much caffeine and was on an energy-high.
"Yep! Rumi, this is Jade Cho, our resident artist. jade, this is Rumi...?" Zoey trails off, unsure of Rumi's family name (she totally forgot to ask, but now it felt awkward for her to do so.) Rumi straightens her spine and meets Jade's eyes evenly. "I'm Rumi, it's nice to meet you, Jade-ssi." Rumi says politely with a little wave and a rehearsed smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes.
"Oh, not you, too." Jade groans, her head falling back for a moment before snapping up again to meet Rumi's eyes again. "Please, just call me Jade. Koreans are so weird about their formality, I swear..." Rumi's eyebrows furrow in confusion before Zoey leans over.
"She's from America, like me, so the whole '-ssi' thing is still weird to her." Zoey whispers conspiratorially, as if she was spilling national secrets. Rumi's eyes widen slightly, and suddenly, she could see it in the way Jade held herself, like she was in a space she was unfamiliar with but was trying to get comfortable in. And her style was a lot different than hers or even Zoey's; a tight-fitted crop top that sat against her form like a second skin, straight, white washed jeans that were a little more than distressed, and the way her nearly maroon colored hair was wavy in that way that screamed 'I got up at five am to do my hair before morning classes' (Rumi wasn't jealous, she was just... admiring the dedication.)
"So, Rumi, what's your major?" Jade asks, leaning forward ever so slightly. Rumi doesn't know why, but she can't help the blush that rises to her cheeks. "I haven't decided, yet. Zoey told me you're an... art major?" Rumi says slowly, and jade nods, the corners up ticking as if she was suppressing a smile.
"Yeah, I am. It's cool or whatever." She says with a nonchalant shrug, but Rumi could see the way her posture relaxed a bit, as if the very topic of art was something she lived for. "Do you mind if I...?" Jade asks carefully, and motions to the room. It takes Rumi a moment to understand that the girl was asking for permission to enter, but when the question finally computes in Rumi's brain, she nods, and beckons the red-haired girl into the room.
Jade steps into the space, glancing around with mild intrigue, her eyes traveling over the mostly bare walls with an almost critical eye. Rumi tries to ignore it, but it seemed almost impossible. "No posters or anything?" Jade questions, and Rumi shakes her head.
"No, I... packed light." Rumi says finally, her voice softer than she'd intended. Jade's eyes soften almost imperceptibly, but Rumi notices, she always did. She'd learned to read every shift of emotion in the people around her, learned when to back off and be quiet as well as when to speak. She had to. because- No. Don't go there right now, Rumi. Rumi silently chided herself. Movement from Jade snapped her attention back to reality as the girl turns and leaves the room unceremoniously. Rumi glances at Zoey questioningly, but Zoey shrugs as they go back to work unpacking Rumi's meager items from the boxes.
Footsteps come back toward Rumi's room a few minutes later, and her eyes snap up to see Jade carrying an armful of things. She hesitates at the door, eyes on Rumi, who nods again, giving the girl permission to enter. Jade moves with purpose, dumping her things onto the bed before starting to sift through them. She glances between Rumi and the papers often, setting things into a couple different piles. Rumi felt like she was getting analyzed, and it made her face warm with each passing second, each glance her way from the American girl.
Finally, after a long silence, Jade moves again, holding a stack of papers as well as a few different fabrics as she lowers herself to the floor gracefully. "Here," Jade says, holding out the stack to Rumi. Rumi accepts the stack before slowly beginning to sift through it, her eyes widening. "For your walls." Jade continues. Rumi looks up from the papers.
"You're giving me art?" Rumi asks in a soft, almost too vulnerable voice. Jade nods. "Yeah, why not? I've been holding onto those for far too long, and honestly, I think they suit you well." She says, her voice even, but Rumi knew it was more than that. It felt like more, anyway, like a peace offering, or a white flag being waved. Maybe it wasn't friendship, but it was something real. something she hadn't expected.
"Thank you... that's... really nice of you." Rumi says finally, and carefully sets the stack aside to look through later, once Zoey and Jade got bored of her.
{x-o-x-o}
A few hours later, Rumi, Jade and Zoey are in the living room watching some mindless anime that had bright colors and far too many innuendos, ceramic bowls of ramyeon nestled into laps and warming skin like a small heater. Rumi carefully blows on her ramyeon, the noodles dripping the soup back into her bowl as they hover just above the surface. Beside her, Zoey snortts as one of the characters on the screen makes a dumb joke that Rumi didn't totally get. Jade sat on the loveseat, claiming she hated sharing couch space when she was eating out of food thievery fear, which Rumi had begun to suspect was due to Zoey, who had already asked Rumi for several bites of her ramyeon.
Speaking of, Zoey was making that face at Rumi, like she was just about to ask for a bite of Rumi's. Her brown eyes were big and round, and she kept stealing glances at her out of the corner of her eye. Rumi felt a little guilty as she took the bite of ramyeon, like she was denying a puppy a treat. As the noodles touched her lips, Zoey visibly pouted, her lower lip jutting out just enough for it to be noticeable to Rumi and Jade.
"Rumi, you are basically edging Zoey." Jade laughs, having noticed Zoey's facial expression, too. Rumi nearly chokes on her noodles, coughing as she sets her bowl on the coffee table as she reaches for her water. She takes a long drink, her face flaming despite the coolness of the water against the heat in her mouth from the spice of the ramyeon.
Zoey, on the other hand, buries her face into her hands, her face and ears burning with embarrassment. "Oh my god, Jade!" Zoey groans, her words muffled into her hands.
"What, its true!" Jade laughs again, her own face reddening from what Rumi suspected was due to practically wheezing with laughter.
"Is not."
"Is too."
"Is n-" Zoey's retort gets cut off by the opening and closing of the front door, most likely Mira, their other roommate. Rumi looks toward the entry way, prepared to greet and introduce herself to Mira, but what she sees makes her face burn and her eyes snap back to the TV.
"Rumi, what's- oh, god, Mira!" Zoey says, following Rumi's glance to Mira, whose currently making out with a pretty blonde girl. Mira pulls away from the girl, her eyes falling to Zoey, then Jade, and finally, Rumi. "Oh. I didn't know our new roomie was here." She says in a casual voice, but the blonde's face flushes, probably with embarrassment like Rumi's just did.
"Mira! You're making a bad impression!" Zoey hisses as she gets up from the couch and moves toward the taller girl with purpose. "Sorry, Skylar, I'm stealing your girl for a minute." Zoey tells the blonde girl before trying to pull Mira toward the living room, but the blonde's face flushes further and she bites her lip as if she was suppressing a moan, and suddenly, Zoey's face splits into a shit-eating grin as she turns to Mira.
"Really, Mira? Right here in the entryway?" She asks the pink-haired girl, and Mira shrugs. "She couldn't wait." Mira replies, lowering her voice to speak to Zoey without Rumi or Jade overhearing her.
"Mira, please stop fucking-" Mira's free hand claps to Zoey's mouth before she can finish her sentence, and her occupied hand discreetly slips from under the blonde girl's skirt. "Shut up, Zoey, or else I'll-" Mira stops speaking as she feels something wet against her palm, and her face contorts with disgust as she yanks her hand back from Zoey's mouth.
"Zoey, did you just... lick me?!" Mira says, her voice filled with a mix of exasperation, shock, and disgust as she wipes her hands on her jeans. Zoey just smirks and grabs Mira's hand and leads her to the living room, where Jade is actively suppressing a smile, and Rumi's face is bright red.
"Hey, I'm Mira." Mira says as she stands next to Rumi. Rumi looks up at the girl, and quickly averts her gaze as her face reddens impossibly further. "I'm Rumi." She says, her eyes on her bowl. Mira's eyebrows raise as a smirk curls her lips upward.
"Rumi. Nice to meet you. I would shake your hand, but..." She says, and glances at the blonde still shaking in the entryway. "Anyway. I'll see you around." Mira says, before stepping back and grabbing Skylar's hand and leading her down the hallway. The soft 'click' of a door told the three girls that Mira had fully left., and at once, Jade and Zoey start snickering.
"I can't believe her..." Jade snorts, rolling her eyes. Zoey just shakes her head, chuckling with a mix of amusement and exasperation.
"I mean, come on. In the entryway? That's bold, even for Mira." Zoey giggles, and Rumi's head snaps up.
"She... does she do... that... often?" Rumi asks slowly, her face heating up again. Both Jade and Zoey nod, still snickering,
"Mira's kind of a player, if you know what I mean." Zoey says through near-wheezing laughter. Rumi's eyebrows furrow, then relax as her eyes go wide with understanding.
"Oh... OH! She... I feel like I shouldn't know that about my roommate..." Rumi mutters, her words muffled as she buries her face in her hands.
"Yeah, well... she has Skylar over a lot. She's Mira's current... um, plaything." Jade says, in the same condition as Zoey.
"Oh, god, please, stop." Rumi groans, sinking deeper into the couch, partially wishing she could unsee what she just saw. Zoey pats Rumi's knee playfully as she calms down enough to say, "Welcome home, Rumi."
{x-o-x-o}
The scent of ramyeon still lingers on her clothes as Zoey sits down on her bed, laptop in hand. She's just decided to settle on 'Vampire Diaries' for the millionth time when there's a knock on her door. "It's open!" She calls out cheerfully, and the door swings open and Mira slips inside before closing it again.
"So. The new girl." Mira says, her arms crossed over her chest. She was wearing an oversized shirt that hung on her frame just right, her hot pink hair pulled up into a ponytail, which didn't hide the red marks on her neck whatsoever. Zoey sighs and makes space for Mira on her bed silently, patting the space next to her. Mira crosses the room to sit on the bed, ignoring the pile of plushes at the end of the bed to focus on the younger girl. "Spill."
"Her name's Rumi. She seems kind of shy, introverted, maybe." Zoey says, leaning against the headboard as she observes Mira. Something about her had always put Zoey at ease, but she didn't even know what it was. Maybe it was her quiet confidence, her innate way to read Zoey like a book, or maybe it was because they'd been through some heavy shit since they became roommates. Whatever the reason was, though, she relaxed.
Mira's eyebrows raise behind the gold-wire rimmed glasses that sit delicately on her nose, as if she was waiting for more information from Zoey. There's a pause after Zoey finishes, and Mira looks at Zoey again. "And? What else?" She asks, but Zoey shrugs. "I don't know, Mira. She's closed off. Barely spoke. Can't get much information out of that." Zoey replies.
"You? Not being able to tease information out of someone with your charm?" Mira snorts, a half-smile rising to her lips that quickly fades when she sees Zoey's serious expression. "Wait, seriously? You couldn't get anything out of Rumi?"
Zoey nods, looking exasperated. "Look, I tried. I helped her unpack, I made ramyeon, which was my best attempt yet, by the way." Zoey says, and Mira rolls her eyes, but there's a tiny curling of her lips that gives away her amusement. "All I got is her name, and that she seems shy and closed off. Be happy I gave you anything after you scared off our last roommate." Zoey replies, a hint of teasing in her voice. She didn't mind Mira's inquiries into their roommates, not really, anyway. Mira had a quiet way about caring for people that never failed to make Zoey feel warm, like making coffee in the morning for everyone before she left, or buying their favorite snacks occasionally whenever she saw them.
"Man... I was hoping we'd get another extrovert like you so we'd be balanced out, since Jade and I are introverted, too-" Mira says, but she's cut off by Jade's voice as the red haired girl pushes into the room, immediately moving to flop into Zoey's desk chair.
"I'm not that introverted." She says with a sigh. Mira rolls her eyes, but there's quiet amusement in her eyes.
"Riiight, because hiding in your room after major college functions isn't 'introverted'." Mira deadpans, then glances at the red head. "What do you think of Rumi? I kind of want to make a better impression on her than I did today."
Jade's eyebrows furrow as she thinks, her foot tapping absently against the floor. "She's... quiet. Like, almost like she's scared to breathe too loud kind of quiet." Jade says finally, meeting Mira's eyes evenly. "Kind of like how we were when we first moved in, but somehow... worse." Mira sighs at that, her expression darkening for a moment.
"That's not great to hear." Mira murmurs, her voice soft. Both Jade and Zoey nod in agreement. They'd both separately noticed the tension lining Rumi's shoulders, the way she seemed to choose her words carefully, like if she said the wrong thing, she'd get screamed at or worse, iced out. They'd seen the way her thumb ring spun around her finger when a question was a bit too prying, the way she seemed to avoid talking about family when Zoey had asked if her family approved of her living away from home.
Mira straightens, and heads to Zoey's door. "Guess we'll just have to take it slow with her." She says before swinging the door open and half-stepping out before turning to look at the two again. "By the way, Skylar's crashing here tonight." Zoey and Jade snort at the same time.
"Can she still walk?" Zoey asks teasingly, then dissolves into full on giggles as Mira flips her the bird before closing the door behind her, fully stepping out of Zoey's room now.
"God, she's so easy to tease." Jade chuckles. Zoey nods in agreement, still giggling. "Way too easy."
They laugh for a bit longer before Jade moves to the bed. "Let me guess, 'Vampire Diaries' again?" Jade asks as she motions to Zoey's now-asleep laptop. Zoey nods. "You know me well. Wanna watch with me?" Before the question even out of Zoey's mouth, Jade's already settling under the blankets like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Ready whenever you are." Jade says, and Zoey chuckles softly before running her fingers over the drag-pad to wake up the laptop. She clicks play, and the introduction starts as she settles into the blankets, curling up next to Jade, her eyes already glued to the screen.