Just a heads up, dialogue written in italics is the characters speaking Korean. This will mostly be between Bubblegum and Lady. I don't speak/read the language and I don't want to use Google translate and run the risk of writing down something completely different. So this is the method I came up with.

Thanks again for reading!


After a week and a half of school Bubblegum finally started falling into a comfortable routine. Wake up early, eat breakfast across the street at the dining hall, go to classes, eat a quick lunch, more classes, study at the library, eat dinner with Lady at the dining hall, and finally study in bed until she fell asleep.

Having a routine comforted Bubblegum, sure most of it was boring, but on occasion Finn and his brother Jake would come by to add a little excitement with their crazy antics. Bubblegum suspected they only did so because Jake had a huge crush on her roommate.

Lady had moved in around thirty minutes after Finn helped move her stuff into the room. She was very tall with long black hair, the ends of which were bleached. Bubblegum thought she pulled off the hairstyle nicely and likewise Lady had really liked Bubblegum's pink hair. The two girls connected instantly and soon became comfortable sharing a living space. They had spent that first weekend curled up in blankets watching old Disney movies and eating popcorn.

Although Lady can understand English, she has a lot of trouble speaking it. So she and Bubblegum just stick with speaking Korean, with Bubblegum occasionally having to translate for her when around other people.

The second Wednesday after school began started off like any other day, with a blaring alarm and a lot of grumbling from Bubblegum. After she took care of her morning routine, the girl walked over to Lady's bed where her roommate was still fast asleep.

"Lady," Bubblegum gently shook her shoulder. "Do you want to go to breakfast with me?" Her question was met with a few loud moans which she took to mean no. Over the last few days, Lady very rarely joined her for breakfast, which is fine. Breakfast is when Bubblegum likes to get in a bit of extra reading anyway.

When she got to the dining hall almost all the tables were full of groggy students either clutching coffee cups or shoveling pancakes into their mouths. After securing her food, Bubblegum made her way to a small table with only two chairs at the back of the large room. She sat down and immediately opened a book, absentmindedly eating a few bites of her oatmeal between page turns.

She became so engrossed in the book that she almost didn't notice someone plop down in the seat across from her, almost. Bubblegum looked up from her page to tell the person that she would really rather eat alone but was surprised to see that the person in question was Marceline.

She had managed to forget her plan to avoid the dark haired girl because as luck would have it their paths hadn't crossed since meeting in front of the elevator on move in day. "Um what are you doing?" Bubblegum asked.

"What does it look like Bonnibel? I'm eating breakfast." Marceline replied without missing a beat, tossing her backpack on the ground next to her feet before taking an alarmingly large bite of an omelet.

Bubblegum sighed, "Yes I can see that. But why are you sitting with me?" she didn't mean to sound rude, but the fact that Marceline just sat down uninvited had kind of thrown her off. That plus the use of her first name, no one ever used her first name and quite frankly she is surprised that Marceline remembers it in the first place.

"Well you see Princess," Marceline said the title with a sneer. "There are no other tables available and I sure as hell am not gonna be eating my food while standing awkwardly in a corner. So if you have a problem with that you can just go ahead and leave."

The two sat in silence glaring at each other for a minute before Bubblegum finally grumbled "Fine." She turned her attention back to her book and attempted to pretend like the other girl wasn't there. But after only one page Marceline's voice grabbed her attention again.

"Why do you hate me so much anyway?" That caused Bubblegum's head to snap up and meet Marceline's dark brown eyes which were staring straight at her. "I..I don't hate you." She stuttered. The question caught her more off guard than when Marceline had sat down. Although the Marceline had tried to hide it, Bubblegum caught the momentary insecurity in her voice.

The other girl scoffed and took another bite of her breakfast. "Yeah well you coulda fooled me. Is this still because of that time freshman year? Or do you have a whole new reason to hate me? Come to think of it you started hating me before high school."

"I don't hate you Marceline!" The words escaped her mouth before she could really register what she was saying. "I just avoid you…" Yeah saying it out loud made it sound ten times worse.

"What did I ever do to you?" Marceline's question made her stop and think, the two of them had been best friends for as long as she could remember. Up until Bubblegum was forced to make a choice that is. What hadMarceline done? Absolutely nothing, but Bubblegum couldn't explain everything to her. "You…haven't done anything I guess. I just became a real jerk and started avoiding you but after a while it sort of became a habit. I always thought you were avoiding me too."

Something flashed across Marceline's face at that moment; it was an emotion Bubblegum couldn't quite pin down. Maybe she had just imagined it. They sat in silence for a moment; Marceline broke their eye contact and began scrutinizing her omelet again. Squishing the uneaten food into a nasty looking mush with her fork.

After a minute had passed Bubblegum decided she needed to say something. All of a sudden she felt awful. Looking back on things, and yeah she'd thought she had good reasons, but it seemed pretty stupid to distance herself from the dark haired girl. How could she have done that to her best friend in the whole world?

"I'm sorry Marceline." The girl in question slowly looked up from her omelet. "I was being dumb; you didn't deserve to be treated like that."

Marceline shrugged, "It's okay Bonnibel, I've been treated a lot worse, you didn't really do anything. Plus it doesn't matter, I guess I did kinda avoid you too." Bubblegum could feel herself smiling now and after a beat she was happy to see it mirrored on Marceline's face as well.

They both returned to eating and a comfortable silence filled the space between the two. When she finished consuming her omelet mush Marceline stood up, slinging her backpack over her shoulder as she went, "Well I'll see you around Bonnibel."

She started to walk away but Bubblegum abruptly called after her, "How come you use my real name?" She didn't know why but suddenly the question became very important and Bubblegum needed to know the answer.

Marceline turned to face her mid-stride and continued walking backwards, "Because it's prettier than Princess!" She smirked and twisted back around, depositing her trash in the trash can on her way out of the dining hall.

Bubblegum sat staring at the doors long after Marceline had left. A warm sensation filled up her gut and spread to her chest, Marceline thinks her name is pretty. Marceline thinks her name is pretty. She smiled as the words spun around and round in her head blocking out all other thoughts.

Bubblegum shook herself and turned back to her forgotten breakfast. No! This was not happening again, she couldn't allow it. Why the heck did Marceline's words affect her so much, and where the gloop was this feeling in her chest coming from?

Maybe it's because no one ever uses her first name, it's been years since anyone other than her parents had used it. Bubblegum noticed then that her hands were fiddling with the hem of her sweater nervously.

She took a deep breath to center herself and calm the static in her brain caused by Marceline. Now that she thought about it, it had been nice to talk to her without any tension. Maybe Marceline would show up and eat breakfast with her again.

That thought made Bubblegum smile as she packed up her stuff and headed for her lecture across campus. Ten minutes later as she sat in her seat at the front of the class she was still grinning.