Chapter 89 Move-In Day

The three days of packing and lounging went by for Lee Seng. He lugged his suitcase and duffle bag into the living room. He set the duffle bag down and turned around to head back into his room. He passed the opened door and walked into the bathroom. He grabbed the toiletries and moved back into the room and grabbed the backpack sitting on his desk.

Lee Seng combed through the contents and double-checked the contents.

"Notebooks, laptop, tablet, laptop charger, tablet charger, pencils, pens, eraser, earbuds, and toiletries." Lee Seng slipped the toiletries into another smaller compartment and zipped everything up. He put the backpack on and glanced around the room one last time. "They said they'll keep this apartment since they already decided to just buy it and keep it. Hopefully, they keep up with the maintenance work in here."

Lee Seng walked out of the room and shut the door behind him. He stuffed his hands into his hoodie pockets and slipped his shoes on by the front door. He grabbed and strapped the duffle bag on his shoulder and across his chest while dragging the suitcase behind him. He opened the door and pushed past and reached to close the door, looking at the apartment one more time before closing it.

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Lee Seng came to a stop at the familiar Academy District gate. His music blared, loudly and his phone was attached to a metallic plate that kept his phone up while he used the GPS. He lowered the music and pushed his window down. There seemed to be a lot of people coming in and out of the Academy District gate. Lee Seng slowly pulled up to the gate attendant as he watched the car in front of him move forward.

"Hello. Identification, please." The gate attendant said. Lee Seng handed the gate attendant his identification and they began to scan the ID. "You're transferring here?"

"Yup." Lee Seng smiled.

"And the car is staying with you?"

"Mmmhm. I got the badge with me here too if you need to see it." Lee Seng grabbed the badge and held it up to show the gate attendant.

"Alright, have a good day. Welcome to the Academy." The gate attendant handed back the ID. Lee Seng nodded and grabbed it and quickly raced to slip it back into his wallet as he slowly rolled ahead. Lee Seng popped in from the Year 1 gate like last time, so he followed the road straight for a while until he reached the 'halfway point.' He turned left and followed the road.

He eventually met at the familiar portal building he had popped out of with the other Numbers. He snaked through the roads and turned right a couple of blocks after the portal building. He followed the GPS directions until he got to a huge building.

"Dorm Building, Year 3 is up ahead." The GPS said. Lee Seng pulled into the lot and drove up to the front and parked his car in one of the unloading sections. He didn't see anyone unloading, so he guessed he was one of the few transfer students who had a car with them. He grabbed his phone and stopped the music.

He unlocked the doors and let himself out. He closed the door and walked to the trunk, setting his hand on the hard button and pushing at it. The trunk clicked and he opened it and fished for his things, strapping the backpack and duffle bag onto him. He moved the suitcase out and closed the trunk and locked the car doors.

"'Kay, now I have to figure out where my room is." Lee Seng muttered. He fished his phone out and tapped on the Academy app. He had logged into the app yesterday night when he got an email about syncing the necessary information for the move for today. He tapped on personal information and scrolled for his dorm room number. "204."

Lee Seng slipped his phone back into his pocket and pulled his suitcase up onto the raised sidewalk. He moved towards the door and hit the automatic door button and watched as the door opened. Lee Seng moved into the cool lobby. There weren't many students around. It was Friday and most students would either be in class or hanging out somewhere. The lobby was fairly small. Two elevators sat in the back and on each side was a hallway going past the elevators as well as hallways diagonally from those hallways.

Lee Seng hit the button the go up and heard the right elevator ding and open. He moved into it and hit the second floor. The elevator door closed and began its ascent upwards. The elevator came to a stop and dinged, opening. He pushed through and saw room markers to his left. '250-270' it stated. Lee Seng turned right and moved over. He stopped to look at the room markers and noticed rooms '200-220' were on this side.

Lee Seng glanced left and right, paying attention to which side was odds and which side was evens. He noticed the right side was odds, so he landed on the third door on his left. The door had a keypad that functioned as a lock. From what he read, he could scan the barcode on his phone to be let in or punch the code in.

Lee Seng fished for the QR code and held his phone up to the scanner. The scanner beeped and the door unlocked. Lee Seng pushed the door open and noticed the room wasn't lit. The shades covered any sunlight. Lee Seng pushed through with all of his things and moved to the open room to set his suitcase.

He peeked over at the left side of the room and noticed it was being used. Whoever his roommate was seemed to be comfortably settled in. Lee Seng turned around and shut the door. He slipped his shoes off and grabbed them and sat them next to the nightstand closest to the door.

"Guess he didn't have time to open the shades?" Lee Seng muttered. He moved to the curtains when he noticed something on the roommates' bed. It looked like something was slowly moving the comforter. He crept closer and felt a fan blowing and sighed in relief. "That would've been awkward if I met my roommate now."

Lee Seng turned and opened the shades. The large windows let in a lot of light and Lee Seng could see his car.

"Oh, I should probably move that and put the badge up." Lee Seng snapped his fingers. He turned and passed his twin bed and things. He slipped his shoes on and checked his pockets for his keys and phone as he made his way to the door. He opened the door and stepped out.

"Didn't you say there were tloads of Third Year transfer students?" A familiar female voice asked.

"Mmmhm." A male voice answered. Lee Seng watched as the two voices rounded the corner.

"Man, Transfer Hell Weekend is gonna be fun for you. You're gonna be disturbed." Elizabeth spoke. Lee Seng recognized the raven-haired woman. She was one of the four students MCing the third event. The guy standing next to her was...

'Shit, it's Manny.'

"You got a transfer student too." Manny playfully poked at Elizabeth. Lee Seng pulled the door shut and the two looked up. Manny's eyes grew in surprise and excitement. "He's here." Manny pulled Elizabeth towards Lee Seng who seemed to squish himself into the corner of the door and wall. His tail awkwardly protruded between his legs as he forced a smile.

"Oh, Lee Seng," Elizabeth recalled. She waved at him and Lee Seng awkwardly and quickly nodded at the both of them. "You're gonna be the poor guy rooming with Manny? Oh, man...!"

"Oh, yeah, I guess." Lee Seng stuttered.

"So Dad was right. You would room with me. It's like old times." Manny smiled.

"D-Dr. Valentin told you, I would room with you?" Lee Seng asked. Manny nodded. "Isn't that kinda... too convenient for you?"

"Well, I guess. I thought we could, y'know, restart."

Lee Seng bit his lip. He squinted his eyes and tilted his head. Manny knew this as Lee Seng was thinking about it. Manny reached to pat Lee Seng but Elizabeth quickly read the situation and grabbed Manny's hand.

"You should respect his space for now, Man. He seems uncomfortable with all of this. Just let him breathe." Elizabeth spoke, pulling Manny's attention towards her.

"Wh-why? T-this is good for both of us. We can start over." Manny spoke.

"Start over? We're just gonna sweep everything that happened under a rug and let it be?" Lee Seng's voice rose.

"T-that's not what you meant, right? You don't mean that, right, Manny?" Elizabeth quickly asked. She was darting between Lee Seng and Manny. Manny's head turned straight back towards Lee Seng and he narrowed his eyes.

"You and I both know what happened. I know I shouldn't have done it and I still did it. I will take all of that responsibility onto myself so you can ease your pain. I just want us to restart and be friends again." Manny moved closer to Lee Seng, pulling his arm away from Elizabeth. "Why is that so hard to do? You can be friendly with people you barely met for an entrance exam but you give me the cold shoulder? Don't you think that's a bit unfair?"