Emily and Juliana are both in their first year of college at Oakwood. Juliana is studying creative arts, specializing in painting, while Emily is specializing in ceramics. On any given day, either one of them resemble a pack mule carrying a mountain of art supplies, papers, and textbooks. Emily is fumbling through her oversized bag trying to ensure that she didn't forget anything in her mad dash to get out of the room, when she meets a rather solid object. 

Michael, a mechanical engineering student in his first year at Oakwood, is mindlessly reading a text on his phone while sipping his morning coffee on his way to class. Oblivious to his surroundings, he is suddenly brought to an abrupt stop. He is brought out of his stupor at the sudden burning sensation that is now generating itself centrally on his chest.

"Oh, excuse me, my apologies. I'm late." Emily says hurridly as she continues on her way before pausing and reaching into her bag, pulls out a wad of napkins. She turns around and walks back towards Michael, who is standing motionless and confused. "Here". Emily hands the crumpled wad of napkins to Michael, and with a soft smile, turns and hurries off to class leaving Michael even more bewildered than he was before.  Shaking his head, Michael shrugs his shoulders slightly and chuckles as he looks down at the wad of napkins in his hand, and begins to wipe off the coffee from his shirt.

"What happened to you?" a familiar voice calls out from not so far away. 

"Oh, Joseph. When did you get here?"

"Just now. What happened to your shirt?" 

Joseph, a first year architecture student is out-going, quick witted and an avid Manga reader. His rather pleasant disposition and warm smile seem to make people flock to him. Joseph generally lives a carefree life, unlike his roommate Michael, who tends to be more centered and down to earth. Probably because as the oldest of three, he has always had to take on a more mature role starting from an early age, whereas Joseph is an only child and fewer responsibilities growing up.

"Well, what happened to you shirt?"

"A cyclone struck me."

"Oh, really? Did this cyclone have a name?"

Half ignorning Joseph, Michael continues to wipe off the coffee from his shirt. "Huh, I don't know. Probably. It's my fault, though. I wasn't watching where I was going. I bumped into her, not the other way around."

"Her?" Joseph says with a teasing smirk.

"Yeah, her" Michael spits back.

"Did you at least get her number?" Joseph teases. Having met at a stem camp in high school, Michalel has grown accustomed to Joseph's immature nature, and gives him an irritated look. "You know, for dry cleaning purposes." Joseph retorts with a playful smile.

"Seriously man, let's just get to class, we're gonna be late." Michael states as he playfully slugs Joseph in the shoulder.

"Who cares if we're late. I, for one, am not looking forward to it. I don't even know why we have to take this stupid class. What does it even have to do with my major." Joseph says with a sigh.

"Come on, you're an architecture student and you don't know the importance of psychology and your field of study?

"Geez, man. Whose side are you on anyway." Joseph lets out a rather loud sigh in exasperation.

Reluctantly Joseph turns and follows Michael towards the direction of class. Finishing his coffee, Michael pauses to throw his cup away in a recepticle before turing back towards Joseph. "Do you have any plans for later today, after your classes are done?

"Not really, I was just gonna go back to our dorm room and start reading the new manga that I picked up yesterday." Joseph says with a smile.

"More manga? How many books are you expecting to fit into our small room? You already have so many that your bookcase shelves are warping. I guess I just don't get the appeal, since I've never ready any.

Joseph perks up at the chance to share his manga passion with his friend. "They're actually quite good, once you get the hang of reading them."

"That's always been my challenge. Trying to figure out how to read them, what panel is read first. I mean it's just so confusing." Michael says shrugging his shoulders slightly.

"Well, the book I just got 5 Centimeters per Second, by Makoto Shinkai, is exceptionally good. The images are drawn very well. The plot is compelling. It was even turned into an anime." Joseph's eyes light up as he talks. "I think you'd really like it. If you want, I can loan it to you when I'm done. Or, you can always borrow one of my other ones, and if you need help reading them, you can just ask me."

"As appealing as that all sounds, I'll have to think about it. I have a feeling I'm going to have enough trouble just keeping up with the readings for my classes this semester."  Michael says with a slight look of concern. "Thanks for the offer, though."

"Sure thing. Let me know if you change your mind." Joseph and Michael get to class just in time and before the professor has even arrived.  Upon entering the classroom, Michael spots the "cyclone" from earlier. She is sitting in the second to last row of chairs all the way at the far corner. Directly behind her, a petite frame in the last row of chairs buries their head in a manga.  Joseph is quick to pick up on the manga itself, and nudges Michael to get his attention. Michael; however, is too fixated on Emily to pay any attention to him.

"That's her" he whispers to Joseph motioning casually towards Emily.

"Seriously?" Joseph whispers back. Michael nods as if in a trance. "Hmm, interesting" Joseph says as he playfully punches Michael in the arm.

"Cut it out." Michael declares, coming back to this senses. The two start to enter further into the classroom, when Joseph suddenly grabs Michael by the arm, stopping him in his tracks. "Hey, who is the girl behind her?" he asks timidly.

Prying his arm from Joseph's grasp, Michael looks at the girl and shaking his head, whispers, "How should I know?"

The two continue to pick on one another quietly and playfully as they go to their seats, which are diagonal from the girls seats. Although neither of them will admit it, these seats were chosen on purpose. From this angle, Michael can secretly observe Emily without being to obvious.

***

Having settled into class, Emily turns around to face Juliana. "Hey, you see that guy over there?" Not looking up from her book, Juliana shakes her nead in objection. Sighing, "You actually have to put your bookd down to look, ya know." Juliana rolls her eyes and shrugs her shoulders, but doesn't look away from her manga. "Anyway, I accidentally bumped into him on my way to class, which caused him to spill his coffee all over his shirt. I was seriously hoping not to ever run into him again. Let alone, so quickly after that happened."

Looking up briefly from her manga, Juliana looks at Emily with a very concerned look in her eyes. As if telepathically communicating with one another, Emily responds in defense.  "Oh, no, nothing like that. He didn't seem too mad about it really. Good grief, what misfortune I have. I mean, seriously, what are the odds of him and I being in the same class?" Juliana sighs deeply, and placing her manga down on her desk, looks worriedly at her friend. "Oh stop being a worry wart, will ya. I handed him some napkins from my bag." Juliana gives Emily a quizzical look. "Yes, yes, I apologized. Geez. You know, sometimes, you're worse than my own mother, and she actually speaks." 

Juliana frowns and swats at her friend playfully, then picks up her manga and goes back to reading it attentively. Emily turns back around and glances over at Michael, whose been quietly chatting and joking with Joseph. Feeling the warmth of her gaze, Michael turns his head in time to catch it. Embarrassed, Emily shy smiles and nods her head acknowledging that the cat has caught the mouse, then quickly turns to face the front of the room, just as Professor Joohee enters.

Professor Joohee is a rather handsome man in his mid to late forties. His dark almond eyes sparkle when he smiles as he greets the class for the first time. He informs the class that today will be a short day, as their only real objective is to go over the course syllabus and class expectation. He quickly goes through the class roster, each student acknowledging their name in one form or another, until that is he stumbles upon Juliana's name. "Juliana Lee...Juliana...Is there a Juliana Lee here today?" Juliana meekly raises her hand. "Ah, Juliana, thank you. Next time, a verbal acknowledgement will be preferred." Juliana nods timidly and looks back down at her notebook that she has been mindlessly doodling in since the professor arrived.

True to his word, as soon as the objectives for the day have been met, Professor Lee dismisses the class, and tells them to be ready for an intense lecture on Wednesday. Gathering up his things, Michael turns to Joseph, "Wanna go grab some coffee?"

"Why, didn't you wear enough of it already?" Joseph says jokingly.

"Ha, Ha. You're so funny. Shut up." Michael retorts.

Scoffing, Joseph politely declines the offer. " No thanks, I gotta get to my next class. I only have five minutes to get across campus. I'm also hoping it will be a more interesting class.

"Oh, okay, what class do you have next?" Michael asks.

"CAD" Joseph says casually as Michael raises a questioning eyebrow. "Oh, sorry. It's computer aided drafting. It's part of a lab for one of my architecture design courses."

"Yeah, that definitely sounds way more interesting than Human Psychology 101" Michael teases.

***

The girls quickly gather their belongings and start to walk towrd the exit, crossing in front of Michael and Joseph. Emily naturally leads the way, with Juliana close behind her. Emily pauses in front of Michael. "Um, excuse me."

Pausing in his conversation, Michael turns to look at her, "Oh, hey."

"Hey", Emily says shyly. "S-sorry again about earlier."

"No worries", Michael smiles warmly.

Emily lets out a sigh of relief. "Um, this is my friedn and roommate, Juliana. We've gone to school together since elementary school." Juliana inches slightly more behind Emily, lowering her head, and trying to hide shyly. "Jules," Emily reaches for her and gently guides her our of hiding. "it's okay." Satisfied, Emily turns her attention back towards Michael, chuckling awkwardly. "She's not much for words."

Michael smiles warmly, "I can see that." Michael turns towards Juliana, who shifts uncomfortably, tilting her head to the side and downward, so as not to have to look him directly in the eyes. "It's fine, really," he continues, "some of the most powerful words are the ones not spoken. It's a pleasure to meet you." Juliana smiles shyly never taking her eyes off the floor. Turning to Joseph, "Well, we should be off, you don't want to be late for your next class." 

Intrigued by Juliana's behavior, Joseph ignores Michael and instead moves more towards Juliana so that he can speak to her more directly. "Nice to meet you." He offers his hand to greet her, but embarrassingly has to pull it way when she doesn't accept it, but retreats away from him slightly, lowering her head even more. Joseph shifts uncomfortably, rubs the back of his neck, laughs slightly and tries to play it off. "Ah, it's cool. I'm Joseph, and this knucklehead is my roommate, Michael."

"Pleasure to meet you both." Emily cuts in. "Well, we've got to get to the library. Catch ya around."

"Yeah, see ya." Joseph says somewhat dejectedly as he watches the two girls exit the room and head off toward the library.

"Huh",  Michael says rather perplexed.

"Huh?" Joseph questions?

"I wonder what the story is on the mouse?" Michael ponders aloud.

"Mouse?" Joseph responds giving his friend an inquizative look. "Why does there have to be a story. Maybe, she just doesn't like to speak much." With a smirk, Joseph glances casually at his watch. "Crap, I"m gonna be late...again. I'll catch ya back at the dorm room later." Looking at his watch again,"Geez, what a way to start a semester." he declares as he exits in a hurry.

"Yeah, what a way to start a sememster." Michale chuckles. Michael finishes up gathering his things and starts to leave, "I think it may turn out be an even more interesting year."