Chapter Text
“Y/n, just hurry up and open it!”
“Alright! Stop rushing me, I’m just nervous!”
Sitting on your clothing-infested floor across from your friends Yamaguchi Tadashi and Shimizu Kiyoko was nothing out of the ordinary. The two met up at your house so often after school that it was almost a daily routine between the three of you. But this time it truly was different. The glow from your laptop hit your face at an almost eerie angle and your fingers shook with nervous anticipation as you finally hit the ‘status update’ that Yamaguchi and Shimizu had been trying to get you to press for the last forty minutes. You shut your eyes tightly as the screen loaded, your heart feeling as if it was going to pound itself right out of your chest. When you opened your eyes, they immediately widened to twice their size as you read the first sentence on the admission letter.
“Y/n, I’m dying over here! Did you get in or not? Shimizu spewed out at you as she and Yamaguchi tightly held each other's hands while staring at you with pleading eyes. They wanted you to get in—no—they needed you to get in. The three of you had known each other since childbirth, with your parents being friends before you were even born. Honestly, to your parents, it felt like a weird coincidence that all of your mothers got pregnant around the same time and gave birth to all of you within three months of each other. But to the three of you, it was fate, with Yamaguchi going as far as to say it was destiny.
You, Shimizu, and Yamaguchi were unbreakable, unstoppable, and the epitome of pure friendship. With a childhood pact that the three of you would stay together forever, it was a no-brainer that you’d all want to go to the same University. Shimizu had received her decision first and of course, had gotten in, Yamaguchi getting his acceptance shortly after. It took another week for you to finally get yours, losing more hope each day that you’d get in like the other two. But your computer screen read otherwise. You read the entire letter but you didn’t even need to after seeing the word ‘CONGRATULATIONS’ in big bold letters. You looked back up at your two friends with teary eyes.
“I got in…” Your voice cracked as you set the laptop to the side and prepared yourself for the biggest bear hug of your life. They barely gave you a chance to breathe before enveloping you in their arms, tears now streaming down all three of your faces. “I can’t believe it!” Yamaguchi wailed out while your and Shimizu's sobs grew louder. “We’re going to college together!”
Your father had seemed to take notice of the loud crying and burst through your room door with immediate concern. “What’s wrong?! I heard yelling—Wait, why are all of you crying?” He said as he stared down at the three tear-stained faces in front of him.
“I got in, Dad. We all got in.” You said between sniffles as you lifted your laptop to show him the admission letter. His eyes widened just as yours did and he also began to wail happily, dropping to the floor and hugging the three of you tightly in his arms. This only added fuel to the three of you, now creating a chorus of crying so loud that if people had heard you, they’d think something was seriously wrong.
When the tears had died down and the smiles began to beam through, you couldn’t fully be happy for yourself at the moment. You all lived in California but when searching for universities the three of you fully agreed that Shibui University was the top contender. Your current dilemma? Shibui University was twelve hours away from California, residing in Japan. The three of you, along with your father, had been okay with that at first. But after fully taking in your acceptance letter, you realized that moving to Japan meant leaving her behind.
“We just got to the campus… It’s huge.”
You stood with Shimizu and Yamaguchi in a large line where students received their identification cards, their dorm locations, and the keys to their dorm. You moved mindlessly forward while on a Facetime call with your father, subconsciously noticing the difference in the time of day, as it was a bright afternoon in Japan but a growing night in California. “Show me pictures later, Sweetie. I have work early in the morning, so I’m gonna go to sleep. Stay safe and stay with Kiyoko and Tadashi!”
You agreed with your father, giggling at how he could still be so overprotective while being that tired. When you hung up the phone and looked up, you were only one person away from acquiring your must-haves from the administration, sighing happily because you’d soon be able to set down your many belongings. You thought about calling her as well to give a quick update but after some thought, you chose not to. Leaving her was hard but you knew as good as anyone that she needed her rest.
After you, Yamaguchi, and Shimizu received your dorm arrangements, you were a bit bummed to find that the other two would be staying in the same dorm building, with you in a completely different one. “Aw, come on! Of course, I had to be in a different building than you guys.” You huffed while Yamaguchi ruffled your hair with a wide smile. “Relax, you big baby. It’s not like we won't come over to spend time in your room and vice versa.”
Shimizu agreed with him, fixing the straps of one of the bags she had slung over her shoulder. “If it’ll make you feel better, we’ll walk you to your dorm room first and then go to ours.” You eagerly nodded at Shimizu’s suggestion and led the way to your dorm building, using the information you’d been given earlier.
“This is so not what the first-year dorm looked like online..” Yamaguchi muttered in awe of the dorm that stood before him, and you were in great shock as well. The dorm was nothing like you’d expected it to be but not in a bad way. You had been given a living room, a beautiful kitchen, and two separate bedrooms. You immediately thought it to be a mistake but you couldn’t argue with the dorm arrangements you’d been given, or with the key that easily unlocked the door, or with the plague on your front door that paraded your name in bold letters.
“And you have a shower in your room?! This is so unfair!” Shimizu yelled from one of the rooms, clearly jealous of your living arrangements. “This can’t be a first-year dorm!" You shouted in disbelief. "But neither I nor my dad put in a request for a better dorm room, we both assumed I’d be living the cramped one-room lifestyle with communal showers..” The situation made your brows furrow in genuine concern, but after a twelve-hour flight, you didn’t have too much energy to argue about it. “I guess I’ll go talk to the housing office about it at some point.”
You sighed and waved goodbye to Yamaguchi and Shimizu as they reluctantly made their way to their dorm building, all of you agreeing to meet back at seven o’clock to get dinner together. You shut the door behind them and stood in the living room in momentary silence, wondering what had been done to warrant you getting this wonderful dorm room. But you couldn’t spend too much time thinking, as you had two large suitcases, another two stuffed backpacks weighing you down, your violin case, and the rest of your belongings coming in via a moving company in about two hours. Just before you made your way into the empty room that Shimizu had just resided in and claimed it for yourself, you decided to take a sneak peek at your roommate’s space that was just across from yours. When you opened the door, you were surprised to find that it was fully put together, with a nice desk setup, a perfectly made bed, and what you assumed would be a fully packed closet if you opened it.
“She was probably one of the lucky ones that moved in a day early..” You muttered to yourself as you closed the door and opened the one to your room. The amount of space was surreal and the best part about the room, in your opinion, was the bathroom. You’d been blessed with a full bathroom, thanking the gods that you didn't have to share your shower with anyone.
You immediately set all of your belongings down in the middle of the room, groaning in relief when you felt the weight being moved off of your body. You wanted to get a head start on unpacking before the rest of your belongings came and so you did, opening both your suitcases and getting to work.
After an hour had passed you’d finished organizing your closet and were setting up your toiletries in the bathroom when you thought you could hear a door opening from outside your room. “I guess I should meet my roommate before I continue with anything.” You said, leaving the mess in the bathroom and leaving your room to greet the individual you’d be spending the school year living with. But you were surprised to find a tall, blond, and kind of scary-looking guy standing next to the front door, now staring back at you with the same confused look you gave him.
“Oh, hello! I thought you were my roommate, Tsukishima Kei. Are you one of her friends?” You asked the boy, your mind drifting back to when you’d been emailed the name of your roommate and noting that Tsukishima Kei was a bit of an odd name for a woman, nevertheless, still excited for what was to come. But the boy’s eyes only widened as he opened the front door back up and checked the room number as well as the two name plaques on the door and looked back at you.
“Are you seriously telling me that you’re L/n Y/n?” His voice was a bit deep and his tone was very blunt, as if he didn’t believe you’d be living here. You furrowed your brows at him, cocking your head to the side a bit. “Um… Yes, I am... Is something wrong—” You were interrupted by his quick disappearance as he rushed out of the room. You still had no idea what was happening, but something in your gut felt uneasy staying there in the room, so you rushed to follow him. When he stopped running and you finally caught up to him, you noticed that both of you were standing in front of the resident director’s office.
He swung open the door with a force that startled you a bit but you followed him inside and sitting at the desk in the middle of the room was, who you presumed to be, the resident director. “Can I help you two? I don’t appreciate people that just barge into my office—”
“The housing department made a mistake. They paired me with a girl.” His words rang in your mind, almost giving you a splitting headache with how loaded they were and how tired you were getting. But you looked at him up and down with widening eyes as you realized, This is Tsukishima Kei… They gave me a male roommate…
The resident director didn’t seem to look shocked at all, in fact, the expression on her face seemed like she’d prepared herself for this talk. “You must be Tsukishima Kei, and you must be L/n Y/n.” The two of you turned to each other for a moment and then back to the resident director, nodding slowly. “I’ve been waiting for you guys… See it actually wasn’t a mistake.”
It felt like you were in a dream, or more accurately a nightmare, as the resident director began to explain to you both that the university had accidentally accepted too many freshmen this school year and didn’t have an even number of students to successfully pair two women and two men in one room. She also explained that they were fully stacked on students this year and had no more dorm rooms to spare. You felt your jaw drop more and more as she continued. “We gave you two the last remaining senior dorm so that you’d have at least some separation in your daily living, and we're charging you the price of a first-year dorm to make up for all the trouble.” The two of you were silent until you finally spoke up. “So, there’s nothing we can do about this?”
The resident director sighed and shook her head. “I only have two suggestions for you guys, the first being to try to find some off-campus housing, and the second… Withdrawing from the university.” The second option shook you to your core. You couldn’t leave yet, you’d only just gotten there, and leaving Yamaguchi and Shimizu wasn’t an option. “Well, I’m not leaving,” Tsukishima said as he turned to face you, almost challenging you with his tone. Your face twisted a bit in disgust at his words, getting somewhat angry at him subtly suggesting that you should leave the dorm. “I’m not leaving either. I didn’t fly for twelve hours, just to be told I have to go right back home.”
Tsukishima didn’t seem to like that, his eyes growing even colder than they were previously. You were sure that if you continued to look into them you’d turn into stone. “Well, I guess it’s settled then.” The resident director said as she stood up from her desk, walked over to the two of you, and began to usher you out of her office. “We’ll contact you if there are any rooms that open up unexpectedly, but don’t hold your breath, we don’t usually get dropouts.” She said before shutting her office door behind the two of you. Tsukishima didn’t take a second to process exactly what just happened as you did, he huffed in frustration, leaving you alone in front of the office.
“I can’t believe this is happening to me..”