Good things were supposed to happen in the last year of college. Graduating, homeworking, and dying were just a few of those things. Except in Baekhyun’s mind, it was a little bit more than that. Yes, most people were worried about getting a job, receiving an internship, or being accepted into graduate school. Hell, Zhang Yixing was literally trying to finish his graduate school application as Byun Baekhyun was thinking about it. But Baekhyun knew there was much more to life than achieving something. When Jongdae kicked open his apartment door, raised a blackest of black, equivalent to Baekhyun’s soul, journal in the air like the Holy Bible, he knew for sure that there was more to life than achieving something.

Because that Thursday night Kim Jongdae told his two best friends one thing, and one grand thing only.

“Stop what you’re doing. We’re going to make our senior year the most epic year of our poor pathetic careers.”

First off, who used epic anymore? And second off, Baekhyun was pretty damn sure he didn’t have a poor pathetic career. But he couldn’t say anything because Jongdae dropped the black hardcover journal on his beige carpet without their permission. The book opened, and Yixing was the first one to snort at it.

“You want us to make a bucket list?”

“What good is that going to do?”

Honestly, this was his worst idea yet.  Yixing chucked it back at Jongdae, who pouted at the two for rejecting his idea. Instead of getting too hurt though, he flipped through the empty blue lined ruled pages, and found his strength in a heartless journal.

“C’mon, we’re all graduating this year, and this may be the last time we ever see each other. Do you really want your life to come to an end like this? With an orthodox, predictable, and boring diploma? And with crippling student debt?”

Jongdae was looking at Baekhyun, and to be fair, he had a point. After he graduated, he would have to start paying off those loans. All he did at this college was use the library and get coffee. But that was totally okay because he had some great friends like Jongdae and Yixing. Well, Yixing was his roommate and Jongdae barged in whenever he wanted. Hell, Jongdae did more in the one year he was here than he did in four years. He ing won the university’s pageant. How the did this transfer student do that?

“I mean, we can’t all be like you. Some of us got plans,” Yixing muttered. Because out of all three of them, Yixing was probably the most organized one who knew what he wanted to do after graduating. Those engineering students always knew what they were doing. It was kind of in their blood. Well, seventy-five percent was blood, the other twenty-five percent was the amount of ink in their veins because of the cheating they had to do. And then there was Jongdae, an English major who was minoring in Mathematics because why the hell not?

“Do you know how many people I heard that from? Too many. Those plans end up failing. You’re going to run out of backup plans.”

Yixing went silent. Point one to Jongdae. If there was anything that Jongdae had the upper hand in, it was that he was the most sociable among the three. And he knew many students who said the same damn thing. Waiting for their comebacks, Jongdae plopped himself on their couch with a smile on his face. Because while Jongdae at a lot of things, he was always prepared for counterarguments. It was how he got Yixing to join the dance team on campus, and how he got Baekhyun to buy alcohol for them all.

“And you think that making a bucket list is going to be better than getting ourselves ready for the real world?” Yixing asked.

Lying down on the couch, Jongdae started kicking his legs without a care in the world.

“Listen, you could spend the rest of your life “preparing.” If you don’t actually do anything, what’s the point? What I’m saying is our lives are made up of good experiences, life stories, and a resume, of not our selling points, but how we live our lives to the fullest.”

Jongdae slid off the couch and crawled towards Yixing. Lying next to his good friend, he chuckled. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t apply to graduate school, or you should always have fun, or that you should give up on college altogether. I’m saying we gotta make the most out of this last year. Next year, we’ll be off working, doing things, and slaving away. Let’s have a few more adventures.”

“You’ve watched way too many movies.”

Jongdae smirked. “Taking philosophy and film lit together was the best decision of my life.”  

When Baekhyun realized what Jongdae said, he stared at him in almost repulsiveness. “So this is what you’ve meant by take the ‘L.’” And Jongdae spun towards him, shot some finger guns, and in Baekhyun’s horror, nodded his head. For days, Jongdae was sending the same message in their damn group chat, and no one could get him to stop spamming it.

“I swear to God if I don’t get into graduate school because of you…” Yixing trailed off. But Jongdae ignored his statement and kissed him on the cheek. (Yixing promptly wiped his kiss because he was most certainly not interested in Jongdae.) Baekhyun was sure that this was Jongdae’s attempt to persuade Yixing, but he also knew that he couldn’t have this ty reasoning to get them into his trap.

Most of the time his schemes were spontaneous and wonderful, but this one involved a black journal. It involved actual thought and actual time to get it done. How the hell was this stupid English major going to get them involved?

“Just one thing for me, please?”

Thrown off, Baekhyun covered his mouth with his hand, Yixing’s eyes went wide. And it wasn’t because Jongdae asking for something was new, it definitely was not, but it was the way he asked. Jongdae was not a polite man. Whenever he wanted something from someone, he got straight to the point and didn’t put a front up unless it was in front of a professor. He must have been desperate. Those puppy dog eyes of his weren’t going to get them though.

But when he slammed the black Holy Bible onto his lap, he knew that Jongdae was going to win this battle. His pleas weren’t desperate but convincing. When Baekhyun opened the cover, their names were written in the prettiest script. In Jongdae’s tidy handwriting, underneath the script, were the words Bucket List. When he turned that page, black ink filled the pages.

This wasn’t just from his senior year, but Jongdae had been secretly recording all their wishes and desires since he met them. When Jongdae transferred, these two were his first friends. Not taking it for granted, he wrote down every little thing they ever wanted to do. There were even some he crossed off in blue ink.

“You sentimental piece of putty,” Baekhyun stuttered when he saw the pages. “You’ve been doing this since last year.” Yixing looked away from his graduate school application in surprise. Jumping up, he ran towards where Baekhyun was standing, and snatched the thing out of his hands.

“There are even Polaroids here…”

No one ever thought that Jongdae would be like this. On other pages, there were paragraphs about something they accomplished, and those photos were now artifacts. One after another, they started to recall every single memory from the year before.

There was an outline of a key on one. It was a memory that Yixing would never stop laughing at. It must have been winter quarter, but Joonmyeon, Yixing’s good friend, always wanted to hook up with Jung Jessica, an acquaintance, and they concocted a possibly illegal plan. They took Joonmyeon’s keys, stole his car, and left it in Jessica’s driveway in hopes that they would mingle. Instead, they learned that Jessica was into girls, and when Joonmyeon got his car back, there were two pairs of in his car. Baekhyun didn’t know how the two girls got into the car, and Joonmyeon wanted to kill them for three weeks before Jongdae bought him some good whiskey.

There was a bottle cap taped to one of the pages that said, ‘warning: consuming this product may cause joy.’ The roommates laughed. And Baekhyun just couldn’t help but smile at the bottle cap. Because when they were still living in the dorms, Baekhyun decided to walk twenty minutes to the sketchy Safeway, and buy them bottles of lemonade because finals were killing them. He bought twenty bottles and they stayed in the community room for the rest of the day, becoming delusional from all the studying they were doing.

“And I thought Yixing was a crier…” Baekhyun snorted before Yixing slapped Baekhyun with the book. Right, Yixing was never a part of their teasing because of his malevolent tendencies. But the engineering student glared at the poor business major before flipping through the pages once again. And while the mastermind took a seat on their kitchen’s counter, there was a hint of smug victory on his face. Baekhyun had to admit that this guy was good. With his emotional persuading, he got two very dedicated school kids who only wanted to graduate to participate in making their senior year their best year.

“So are you nerds in, or do I have to actually cry and beg on my knees and buy dinner?”

Well, Jongdae wasn’t actually that great at persuading. He was better at bribing. It was the same difference, but Baekhyun and Yixing both looked up from the journal at the same time. Glancing back and forth, the two finally sighed in defeat.

“Fine, but you really should at least buy us dinner if you plan on distracting me from my grad app.”

Throwing up some okay sign, Jongdae nodded. “How about coffee for the rest of the year?” he countered. The other two nodded their heads, and Jongdae gave them a grin. Because if he could get these guys to stay for some kind of caffeine addiction, he would be good for the rest of the year.

“Good, we have some very important matters to discuss there anyways.”

“Better drive us to the coffee place then.”

Baekhyun wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be expecting this year, but when he saw how Jongdae lit up as they agreed to his idea, he knew that amazing things were going to happen, and he would have to blame it all on Jongdae. That would never be a bad thing though.