D21, D22, D... Oh, here it is.
Lam Tuc stopped in front of Room D25. He knocked, then pulled out the room key. Gently pushing the door open, Lam Tuc walked in, dragging his worn-out suitcase behind him. Suddenly, a voice came from the bed.
“Who is it?”
“I’m Lam Tuc, and I—”
“Oh, you’re my roommate, right? Just put your stuff over in that corner. I’ll come out and divide up the personal space after I finish this movie.”
Lam Tuc raised his head and looked toward the voice. It belonged to a young man with a somewhat gloomy face, wearing a T-shirt printed with some female character. Lam Tuc took a closer look and thought, “This guy looks kind of familiar... Wait, why is someone with a perfect score in the natural sciences section staying in a D-class dorm?!”
Noticing that someone was staring at him, Minh Triet said:
“What are you looking at? Got something to say?”
“I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m Lam Tuc, and I’ll be your roommate from now on. I don’t know much about Japanese pop culture, but I’m pretty into it, especially manga and anime. I’m studying information technology.”
“Hi, I’m Minh Triet. It’s nice that you’re into the same things. You’re probably wondering why I’m here, right? I don’t really know either. Maybe my social sciences scores dragged me down. I’m in the same major. Let’s help each other out from now on.”
Lam Tuc was surprised that his roommate’s attitude had changed a full one hundred eighty degrees the moment he heard they shared the same interests. He was also curious just how terrible Minh Triet’s social sciences scores had to be to drag down that pile of perfect scores. But before he could ask, the other boy continued:
“As for our stuff, aside from personal items like toothbrushes, we can share everything else. It’s not like I’m short on any of that. Now, let’s decide who’s older. I was born in December. What about you?”
“I was born in January. Call me whatever you want.”
“Then I’ll call you Bro Tuc from now on.”
Lam Tuc said nothing. It was almost time for the personal missions to be announced, so he got up to prepare dinner. He didn’t want to reveal his own mission, and he had no interest in looking at anyone else’s.
Standing in the kitchen, he opened his phone.
*Student: Lam Tuc *The Supporting Character’s Path: Help others achieve success without being discovered (can be repeated)
Lam Tuc was a little confused. “What’s the school trying to accomplish by assigning a mission like this? And what exactly counts as ‘success’?” He quickly set the questions aside, deciding to look into them later.
Lam Tuc came out of the kitchen carrying two cups of instant noodles.
“Want some?”
“Of course.”
After eating, Lam Tuc decided to go to bed early. He was somewhat looking forward to his first day of class.
“I’m going to bed first. Remember to use headphones while you watch the movie.”
“Sure. Go ahead and sleep. I’m just going to finish this episode.”
And so, Lam Tuc drifted off to sleep.