Nari walked over to her seat and sat down, peering at Hoseok next to her. She quietly took off her backpack and hung it on the hook on the side of her desk before turning slightly to him.   “Good morning,” she said with a small smile.   Hoseok glanced at her with surprise in his eyes that melted away a second later. He nodded and focused back on the workbook on his desk.   Relieved that he didn’t outright ignore her, Nari took out his history notebook from her bag and held it out to him with both hands. “Thanks for letting me borrow it yesterday. It was a life-saver.”   Without looking at her, Hoseok turned to stare at the notebook in her hands and took it after a moment. “You’re welcome,” he muttered, stuffing the notebook into his desk.   Nari grinned at his voice, once again satisfied with how things were going. Hopefully, Hoseok would slowly open up to her ㅡjust like how he had in the past.   ~~   Namjoon arranged the books needed for the lessons of that day on his desk and drummed his fingers on the wood when he was done. It seemed like his friends weren’t going to show up today as well, he thought as he looked up at the clock indicating there was only ten minutes left until class started. He sighed and leaned back in his chair.   Maybe he should just quit school like Yoongi had and work. What was the point of studying when he wouldn’t even be able to afford for college anyway? What with the birth of Seungjoon and the increase in the price of school materials needed for his other younger brothers’ schoolwork…   He sighed and laid his head down in his arms on his desk. Might as well make up for his lost sleep instead of worrying.   “Hey.”   Namjoon raised his head at the voice and was surprised. “Kim Taehyung! What are you doing here?”   Taehyung smirked and took his seat next to him. “I’m a student. Where else would I go instead of school?”   Namjoon scoffed and retorted, “Yeah, and that’s why you kept skipping, right?”   Ignoring him, Taehyung hung his backpack on the side of his desk and laid his head down as Namjoon had been doing a minute ago. “Wake me up when class starts.”   His friend snorted in amusement and opened his mouth to reply, but just then, someone sat down in the desk next to his across the aisle. He whipped his head to that direction and found Jungkook sitting there.   “Jeon Jungkook?” Namjoon swiveled his gaze between the two boys on either side of him, not being able to believe the sight that was taking place. “Whoa, what is happening here?”   Taehyung lifted his head to look at his friends. “Hey, for the record, I come to school more frequently than him.” He gestured with his eyes toward Jungkook.   Jungkook smirked and dumped his backpack on the ground. “Can’t argue with that.”   Recovered from his earlier shock, Namjoon placed an arm around each of the boys and marveled, “I don’t know what’s gotten into you guys, but it’s been a long time since we three were all together like this, hasn’t it?”   “You’re such a girl, get your arm off me,” Jungkook replied curtly, though he had hints of a smile on his face. He wouldn’t admit it, but it was nice to be with his friends again.   Namjoon ignored his complaint and pulled both of them closer. “It would be better if the whole group could get together, right? It would be just like old times.”   “Aish, get away from me!” Jungkook tried wrenching himself away, but that only led to Namjoon trapping him with both of his arms.   As his two friends bickered, Taehyung looked at them, smiling at the familiar sight. It reminded him of their middle school days. Just as Namjoon had mentioned, there were times when he wished the group could get together and go back two years or so in their memories. When they were still young enough not to know much about the world, when they thought these moments would last forever…   Shaking his head, Taehyung decided not to dwell too much on things that wouldn’t happen and laid down his head on the desk again, closing his eyes.   ~~   Jimin entered the room quietly, careful not to make a ruckus as he scurried to the group of waiting candidates at the back. He quickly placed his bag down and got to stretching like the rest of them.   It was a few minutes later when a third-year sunbae wearing a black beanie came to the middle of the room. The room instantly stilled to a silence at his presence.   “We’ll now be starting the auditions. Check your preassigned numbers as we’ll call you by them,” he said, giving the group a once-over. He slightly smirked and was about to go but stopped to turn around again. “And just to tell you beforehand, we’ll be announcing the results after each audition.”   Jimin felt his hands sweat at the aura of the sunbae and his words. He took in a deep breath and followed the older student with his eyes as he walked over to a small group of other seniors seated in front of the mirror.   Surely, they wouldn’t be auditioning here, would they? In front of all the other candidates?   “Number 1, your turn!” another sunbae with glasses yelled from where he was seated.   Jimin watched with unbelieving eyes as a student went running to the middle of the room. He turned his head to look around and saw that everyone was staring at that student. His hands started getting clammy.     “Stop.”   Jimin lifted his head from mentally reviewing his steps at the word.   A sunbae in gray sweatpants pushed off of the mirror he was leaning on and placed his elbows on his knees. “This dance, if you could even call it one,” he scoffed as if dumbfounded, “it’s one you got off the internet or something, right?” He stared up at the current auditioner, lifting his eyebrow.   The student shifted his feet and stared at the ground, unable to respond, and Jimin felt sorry for him.   The sunbae scoffed again and leaned his back on the mirror again. “You failed. Next.”   The room was eerily silent, all except for the sound of the former student’s sneakers scuffing on the floor as he hurried out of the room in embarrassment. Jimin lowered his head, thankful that it wasn’t him next. These sunbaes were scary, especially ‘Gray Sweatpants’.   “Number 15!”   No one responded. The girl senior wearing a pink snapback tried again, “Number 15! Last call!”   “Just skip it,” the ‘Black Beanie’ from before said with a wave of his hand.   “Alright then. Number 16!” ‘Pink Snapback’ called out.   Jimin startled awake from his reverie when he heard his number being called. Without delay, he raised his hand and ran to the middle of the room, hat in hand. “Yes, I’m here!”   ‘Pink Snapback’ smirked a little and crossed her arms over her chest. “Yeah, we can all see that,” she said amusedly.   Jimin rubbed the side of his neck sheepishly. When he looked up, ‘Gray Sweatpants’ was staring straight at him. He gulped.   “You saw the student before you, right?” When Jimin nodded, he continued, “I don’t want to see whatever you prepared beforehand. Dance freestyle.”   “Wh-what?” Jimin felt his heart clench. Freestyle? He had never tried freestyle before…   “Music, cue.”   A different song from what he had prepared came flowing out of the speakers. Jimin clutched the hat in his hand nervously. He told himself to calm down and listened carefully to the music.   He nodded along, his mind reading the beat and envisioning the moves. Without thinking much about it, his body seemed to move on its own as he threw his hat to the side of the room. For a second, he forgot he was going to be judged and threw himself in