Chapter 10: The Daily Ritual

It was a crisp morning, the air still damp with a cold dew.

At 7:30 AM, a blaring alarm dragged me from sleep. I reluctantly forced my body out of the warm covers and stumbled into the bathroom. After a leisurely shower, the second alarm rang, signaling 7:45.

My day always began the same way. Once I was fully prepared, I would eat breakfast. Initially, I often skipped it out of sheer laziness, but attending class on an empty stomach made it impossible to concentrate. It was a habit I had developed during my long period of homestays.

Breakfast was never anything elaborate. Just toast or a bagel. Sometimes, when I was particularly unmotivated, I’d simply pour cereal into milk. On the rare occasions I woke up early, I might even fry an egg. However, indulging in the luxury of pancakes or bacon was something I had yet to do.

I haphazardly shoved a few slices of toast into my mouth before returning to my room. Just then, the third alarm went off, precisely at 8:00 AM. I deliberately left it ringing for several seconds, knowing full well that I was the only one suffering. My sleep-loving roommate remained utterly oblivious to the clamorous noise.

I lightly tapped the flat top bunk of our bed.

“Wake up.”

The bundled blanket didn’t stir an inch.

“You’re going to be late.”

Still, there was no response.

Normally, by this point, he would at least toss and turn, but today he was completely motionless. If not for the soft wheezing of his breath, I would have believed he’d fainted.

“If you don’t get up, I’m leaving without you.”

Thankfully, he finally stirred, sparing me the effort of dragging him out of bed. A zombie-like figure emerged from the neatly arranged pile of blankets. With his eyes still closed, he looked exactly like a corpse.

“…Go together.”

“I know, now come down.”

“Carry me down.”

I flatly ignored his outstretched arms.

“Be careful coming down. Don’t fall like last time.”

I heard his plaintive cries of ‘It’s hard!’ and ‘I’m scared!’, but I ignored them all and stepped out of the room. A moment later, the sound of water gushing in the bathroom faded away.

“I’m hungry.”

That was the first thing Seo Gi-hyeon said as he emerged, shaking the water from his hair.

“Food. Now.”

Wake him up, feed him. Was he a roommate or my personal servant? Still, a servant was better than a son. I certainly didn’t want a son like that.

From the moment we met, Seo Gi-hyeon had been high-maintenance, and he hadn’t changed one bit.

It had been well over a year since we started living in this dormitory. Seo Gi-hyeon’s vague joke had, surprisingly, become a reality. He had truly followed me here. Unlike me, who had been half-prepared for this move thanks to my parents, Seo Gi-hyeon had abruptly decided to enroll in this school, barely submitting his application documents before the deadline.

Since his admission wasn’t guaranteed, I had been quite anxious, even after his application passed, waiting for the interview results. Yet, even in that uncertain situation, Seo Gi-hyeon had spoken with an easy nonchalance.

‘If I don’t get in, I just won’t go. What’s the worry? I can just keep attending my old school.’

‘What if only one of us gets accepted?’

‘That won’t happen.’

‘How do you know?’

‘I’m sure. We’re destined to be together… right?’

He still brought up the day we reunited at school, rambling about destiny. But the funnier thing was, we really did receive our acceptance notifications almost simultaneously.

After that, everything flowed as naturally as water, leading to our current situation: roommates in a managed dormitory at a prestigious high school.

Despite the significantly higher dormitory fees compared to other places, it was well worth the cost. While the 24-hour management ensured safety at the expense of some freedom, the facilities, which even included a small theater, were superior to any other. In particular, the two-person dorm rooms were incredibly neat and clean, almost unbelievable for a school dormitory. They featured two bunk beds and two desks facing each other, a bathroom with a large sink, and, most surprisingly, a small kitchen and living area with a single burner.

*Thud.*

I set the freshly toasted bread on the table. Seo Gi-hyeon, who had been sitting like a chick waiting for its mother, immediately snatched a piece and bit into it. It was 8:15 AM, time for Seo Gi-hyeon’s breakfast.

“What do you want to drink?”

“Anything.”

As I handed him a bright red tomato juice, he, who had been engrossed in his food, looked up. He gave me a thumbs-up, his mouth still full.

“Eat a little slower.”

“I *am* eating slowly.”

Seo Gi-hyeon ate three slices of toast with peanut butter and still wasn’t satisfied, so he added two more slices of bread generously filled with cured ham and cheese. Only then, with a look of contentment, did he finish his meal. He swept the fallen bread crumbs from the table and asked,

“Should we start eating breakfast at the cafeteria too?”

“Why, are you finally tired of this?”

“No. I just thought it might be troublesome for you.”

This meaningless conversation was not new.

“My trouble aside, do you think it’s even possible?”

“…Probably not, right?”

“You know it well.”

This topic, which surfaced at least once a week, was Seo Gi-hyeon’s go-to whenever he felt apologetic. It came up every time his conscience pricked him with guilt for having slept an extra thirty minutes.

‘We can just buy food at school.’

The dorm cafeteria only offered dinner via catering. So, we had initially planned to eat breakfast at the campus cafeteria, believing it would be perfectly feasible. However, due to Seo Gi-hyeon’s inability to wake up, we were consistently late, leaving no time to stand in line, get food, and leisurely eat.

One day, I even went to the cafeteria alone for breakfast, leaving Seo Gi-hyeon to sleep. But the guy I had explicitly woken up still hadn’t shown up even after the first period. It was then that I realized that living with a roommate who slept so soundly he wouldn’t notice if someone carried him away meant giving up on the dream of breakfast at the cafeteria.

“Then, starting tomorrow, let’s at least eat together here. Don’t eat first; just wake me up ten minutes earlier.”

“If that were possible, I would have done it ages ago.”

Sleep was a formidable force for Seo Gi-hyeon. Waking him up just five minutes earlier would take more than ten minutes to get him coherent. Waking him at 8:00 AM meant he’d be up at 8:05; waking him at 7:55 AM still meant he’d be up at 8:05. In that case, it was better to just stick with the current routine.

“Or, what about you sleeping an extra ten minutes and then we eat together?”

Of course, I had tried that too: sleeping in and getting ready later. But when my usually relaxed mornings became rushed, my whole day felt off. Given that I couldn’t possibly match Seo Gi-hyeon’s eating speed, having a leisurely breakfast in the same amount of time was simply impossible.

“If I could do that…”

“…You would have.”

After hearing the same answer three times, Seo Gi-hyeon finally shut his mouth. Still, he didn’t forget to thank me for the meal.

Returning to his room, Seo Gi-hyeon took an unusually long time to choose his clothes today. The guy who usually finished all his preparations in three minutes, excluding showering, emerged after five, grumbling as he pulled on a hoodie.

“I think this is the worst. It’s so dull, so drab.”

To me, all his hoodies looked the same, so I wondered what his complaint was about. It turned out to be the color. Seo Gi-hyeon, who wore a hoodie every day, had worn dark navy the day before yesterday, gray yesterday, and now brown today.

“It’s bad, right?”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine. I don’t like it.”

Seo Gi-hyeon never cared about what others thought. He usually believed that any clothes were fine as long as they were comfortable, so seeing him complain like this meant he genuinely disliked it.

“All the others are bad too, but this one is definitely not it. Who even picks a color like this? People actually pay money for this? No matter what, it’s really not suitable for a school uniform, is it?”

As Seo Gi-hyeon said, the only flaw in this otherwise perfect school was the uniform. While the collared T-shirts were at least presentable, the hooded ones were truly the worst.

“Then why did you wear it?”

“Because it’s all I could find.”

“How did that happen?”

“I couldn’t find my other clothes.”

At his words, I immediately rummaged through his drawer. It was already a chaotic mess, having been turned upside down. Amidst the disarray, I effortlessly found a spare hoodie. He only ever looked in the most obvious spots, so there was no way he would find the neatly folded clothes tucked away deeper inside.

“Here.”

As I handed him the shirt I’d retrieved in ten seconds, he looked at me with an awestruck expression. Seo Gi-hyeon quickly changed his clothes and hastily grabbed his bag from the sofa.

Even after more than a year, I sometimes felt as though this moment was a lie. What if we were still back then? We’d probably be going to school with different people, from our respective homes. Imagining that made our already close relationship feel even closer.

At 8:30 AM, we simultaneously left the room. It was the start of another identical day.