OSH

"Why are you calling so early in the morning?" I asked before Aesul could even say a word. It was still eight in the morning and my Friday class was not until eleven today.

Typical Aesul, she didn't even answer the real question and went straight to her ranting. "He gave us a pop quiz! Can you even believe that?"

"For your Introduction to Physics module?" I didn't know why am I responding to her and how because I stayed up late last night. My eyelids felt so heavy, I didn't bother to keep them open much less sitting up from my comfortable position. I couldn't sleep last night so I tried revising for one of my major subjects and when that didn't work in making me sleepy, I opted for Netflix. I watched some random series until 3 A.M., so when my phone rang, I let it went to voice mail first. Twice. When it rang again, I had to pick it up since the caller was so persistent. I should have known it was Aesul because Jongin knew I would call him back after. 

"Yes! Who gives pop quizzes in college? He did that just for fun, right? My mark is not going to be included in my final grades, right? Because I think I did very badly."

Her voice was so loud, I had to cringe. "God, Aesul. Just calm-"

"God, Oh Sehun! Are you being serious right now? If you're going to tell me to calm down I'm going to-"

I sat up then, confused. As if the sound of the line going dead wasn't enough, I looked down at the screen of my screen to make sure. She did hang up. Despite the nickname that people gave me, my brain still needed some warming up to do this early in the morning. Was she trying to tell me that she was going to hang up if I tell her to calm down? I mean, she couldn't be that dramatic, right? While I was in the middle of a debate with myself whether I should call her back or go back to sleep, my phone rang again. It was Aesul. The connection must have been bad on her side. Yes, that must be it.

The first thing she said was, "See. It doesn't feel good to have someone hang up on you, right? So don't tell me to calm down because clearly, I'm panicking right now."

I blinked once and then blinked again. I didn't give any response because she was that dramatic. Unbelievable. What was I thinking, underestimating her like that? The only way I could survive a tornado that was Im Aesul, is to get used to her. How could I, though, when she kept surprising me after I decided that she was not that bad? For some reason, my head started to ache.

"Oh Sehun," she called out when I still didn't say anything for a moment and then I heard her sighed. Her tone had changed a bit, she didn't sound as panicked or annoyed now. "Believe me or not, I want to pass this subject."

I heard her soft sniffs through the line. Aesul had pulled off the sad girl act in our tutorials a lot of times before but this was the first time it really sounded genuine. Maybe it was because the sniffs I heard just now was so subtle, I could barely catch them, and nothing about Aesul was subtle in nature. I also didn't miss the fact that she didn't call me by my nickname but used my full name instead. I sighed instead because I had never known how to properly comfort people - especially not someone as emotional as Aesul.

"Where are you now?" I asked after a few moment of silence.

"Toilet. He is marking now and gonna pass it back to us by the end of the class."

She didn't really have to tell me that because I took 'Introduction to Physics' in my first semester and also got Mr. Jung as my lecturer. He was a fan of surprise tests and all, but if a majority of the class didn't do well, he wouldn't include the marks in the 20% in-class assessment grade along with the other two mid-tests. So, hopefully, Aesul's batch was a bad one. I nodded, more to myself than in respond to Aesul, "you have class after that?"

"No."

I stood up from my bed, already scanning my room for my towel. "Let's meet up, okay? Bring that test paper of yours."

"Why?" That was Aesul's favourite question to ask,  followed by 'what do you mean?'.

I told her that we were going to discuss the paper and where she had gone wrong, so she wouldn't repeat the same mistakes in her next two tests. She groaned somewhere in the middle of me explaining that. I wanted to groan too but I hold it in because I somehow found comfort that we couldn't really handle each other. At least we got that in common. I didn't hang up until I heard an okay from her accompanied with another faint sniff from her.

We agreed to meet up in the café near our university even though I didn't really like the place. It was always full of college people, especially the jocks, so it was often very loud. It was more of Jongin's circle than mine and since she chose this place, I guess it was Aesul's kind of environment as well. I could spot Aesul quickly even before I enter the café because she chose a window seat and the front part of the café was surrounded by glass walls. Another reason why I preferred any other café than this one was the lack of privacy. Why would I want to be seen s