"Guys, knock it off."

I wasn't sure what'd possessed me to agree to it. Finals were stressful enough when I was suffering through them on my own; why had I let myself get dragged into a study group? I wasn't really a group person. Not when it came to getting school work done, anyway. Maybe I was a little uppity in thinking that most other kids didn't quite meet my standards, but that theory didn't exactly get disproved when I gave them the chance to prove me wrong.

Or maybe it was just Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

I liked the two boys, sure. They were entertaining and cool enough to include me in their circle. Under normal circumstances I would have been giddy in their company. Who wouldn't have been giddy in their company?

I asked myself that questions as I watched them play with Animal Crackers. It was Chanyeol's elephant versus Baekyun's lion in the ultimate space showdown. The battle arena was the map of the solar system they were meant to be reviewing.

I seriously considered switching places with someone who'd been smart enough to leave their friends at home.

"Sorry, Ahri," Baekhyun said through a snicker. He didn't bother to keep his voice too low, but even his normal tone was a welcomed break from the 'grr!' and 'pshew!' sound effects he'd just been dishing out. Besides, the era had long past since libraries were actually quiet; Baekhyun hadn't been the only noisy one in the room.

"Yeah, sorry," Chanyeol agreed, looking and sounding just a smidge more contrite than his partner in crime. As a sign of genuineness, he popped his war-worn elephant into his mouth before offering me the cracker box, his eyes wide and asking: "Want some?" I shook my head and looked back down at my astronomy notes.

There was a moment of peace. But it didn't last long.

"I don't know why we're bothering with this," Baekhyun commented, brushing the crumbs off his book and scooting them straight off the table and onto the floor while munching on his lion. "The world's gonna end tomorrow anyway."

I peeled my eyes away from my notes to give Baekhyun a look. "No, it's not."

"How do you know?"

I averted my stare. "I don't know, but I doubt the planet's going to spontaneously combust or something."

"I don't doubt it," Baekhyun said easily, almost cheerily. Even a conversation about a possible Apocalypse couldn't bring that kid down. "I mean, I can't say the world's going to spontaneously combust either, but something's gonna happen. It has to."

"Yeah, something is going to happen," I shot back, lifting my head again and jutting my chin forward. "It's the last day of finals. You're going to take a test. And if you don't start studying, you're going to fail it."

"I'll be fine." Baekhyun waved my warning off. "I know what I'm doing. One night of not studying isn't going to make me lose all of my smarts."

I rolled my eyes but didn't retort. I could have said something about what an Baekhyun was and jabbed at his supposed "smarts" but I knew Baekhyun really did make good grades. He was one of those students who didn't seem to have to try too hard to do well.

Which was why he played with Animal Crackers instead.

Since I couldn't say anything, I swiveled to the left so that I could see Kyungsoo. He was beside me while Chanyeol and Baekhyun sat across from the two of us. The last two seats were vacant. I didn't wonder why.

Sometimes I did wonder how Kyungsoo had ended up with Chanyeol and Baekhyun, though. If he hadn't been the duo's third dorm mate, would he have been into their company some their way? Kyungsoo was younger and much more reserved than his roommates, but his nurturing nature did a lot to counter balance the pair's child-like personalities. Sometimes opposites really did attract I guess.

When I caught his eye, Kyungsoo sent me an odd sort of grin, his upper lip curling some so that it formed a bow shape. It was his way of validating that there was nothing either of us could do about Baekhyun being Baekhyun.

We were the quiet ones in the quartet, Kyungsoo and I. Kyungsoo was actually more timid than me in most situations, which was really saying something. Being around him made me feel bold in comparison, and being exposed to Chanyeol and Baekhyun brought out the brighter colors in both of us. That kind of chemistry made our friendship natural, and I was thankful for it. I wasn't the most social of butterflies, so easy friends were my only friends.

Kyungsoo broke my gaze and looked to the other two before circling back around. "But seriously," he said, his eyes opening up into their signature owl shape. "What do you guys think's going to happen tomorrow?"

There was another moment of silence before I cut into it.

"I told you," I said, "we're taking the last of our finals. That's it."

The last of our finals were taking place on December 21, 2012. That was the last date on the Mayan calendar. Some people -- a lot of people -- took that to mean that it was the last date period. It would be the end of the world, or the end of the world as we knew it.

I didn't know much more about the predicted Doomsday than the next person, and truth be told I didn't particularly care to. I guess I figured that if I knew any more about it I might have some reason to believe it, and I didn't want to believe it.

I was afraid. I was afraid of the thought of dying, or maybe the thought of waiting to die, knowing I would die.

So I preferred not to think about it.

"There's no real evidence of anything," I went on, pretending to scan my notes all nonchalant-like as I spoke. I rested my cheek against one of my fists and sunk into my normal, ruined posture. "There are tons of theories and no solid proof to support any of them. Science proved most of them wrong, actually, so there's no reason to buy into it." I glanced at Kyungsoo and let my eyes soften a notch as I concluded. "Don't worry about it."

It might have been unethical to tell Kyungsoo not to worry about it and act like I was as cool as a cucumber, but what good would worrying do? I was sick of hearing about the Doomsday and sick of trying not to hear about the Doomsday. The media did a pretty good job of keeping mum so as to not cause unnecessary chaos, but less formal news portals were having a field day as go-time crept up. People were eating up whatever was served to them, not matter how far-fetched and spineless. It was like a video gone viral, the Second Coming of Psy. It was everywhere.

No matter how set my resolve was, I couldn't escape it. I literally couldn't escape it. December 21 was coming and there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn't very well stick my nose up if by chance the Earth did implode, could I?

There was one more stretch of silence between us after my miniature rant before Baekhyun took over.

"You're no fun at all."

My brow shot up, and I pinned Baekhyun under my stare: my infamous, intense, stare. "Fun? You think discussing the end of the world is fun?"

I paused to let Baekhyun nod. Honestly, I agreed with him, but destructions stories were only fun if they were hypothetical. I had an unsettlingly hard time thinking of the matter at hand as hypothetical.

Disregarding my indecision, I shrugged. "Fine. You're right. What do I know? The world's probably going to fall into a vortex tomorrow and send all of human civilization spiraling into another dimension. Maybe that Planet X they're talking about is going to swing back around and slam into us like it was supposed to. Or maybe the Earth really will fall off its axis and nature will go haywire. But that would make it hard for the alien invasion, so UFOs would have to attack first, take a bunch of people up for experimentation and enslavement, and leave the rest of us to die an excruciating death. That is, assumig we're still able to feel pai after the zombie virus turns us all into the walking dead. Take whichever scene sounds more 'fun' to you, Baek."

I flipped to the next page in my notes even though I hadn't finished reading the previous set. I was acting moody and I knew it. I was stressed and sleep deprived. I could blame some of it on finals but I'd be kidding myself if I said I didn't have Doomsday weighing on my mind, too. It was ridiculous to worry about something like that but when it was all anyone talked about it became hard to ignore. What happened to college kids cramming during the last week before break? Why were so many people more interested in a possible Apocalypse than their real lives?

The boys weren't stupid. They realized that I was having one of those "girl moments" when I snapped at them for seemingly no reason and was considerably less of a joy to be with. It didn't take them long to scatter.

"We're meeting up with some of the guys for food," Chanyeol told me as he and the others packed up. He finished first and sent me a smile. "We'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"If there is a tomorrow," Baekhyun sang. He took the initiative to grab Chanyeol's free hand and wrap it around his own arm. Despite his snark streak, Baekhyun's parting smile was nothing but heartfelt. "Good night, Ahri! Don't study too hard."

"See you," Kyungsoo said on his way out, sending me another one of those weird simpers of his.

And then I was alone.

I didn't mind. I was emotional or hormonal or whatever, so I didn't blame the guys for wanting to ditch me and meet up with more of their own species. The other guys Chanyeol had referred to were most likely an upper-classman named Joonmyeon and two freshman named Jongin and Sehun.

Joonmyeon was nice. Almost too nice. I couldn't decide if Jongin was arrogant or just awkward, and on the single occasion I had met Sehun I didn't think the kid has said a single word.

I was fine with my four boys, but things got weird when you were the only girl in a bigger group. I was very okay with being left out of that crowd.

It wasn't like I was a tomboy who couldn't fit in with other girls. I was willing to get up early and make myself look pretty. I thoroughly enjoyed looking pretty.

That could have been my problem. I saw other girls as competition. I wasn't sure what we were competing for, but I was never completely comfortable with members of my own .

Boys were just easier to get along with. Communication was easier, more primal.

I liked boys.

But people in general, gender aside, were distracting. I needed to be able to concentrate that night, because I was going to get straight A's.

Even if it killed me.

So when you put it that way, it was perfectly plausible that December 21, 2012 would be the death of me. Only if I did die, it would be from something like academic suicide. But I could be okay with that.

Any death was better than a decimation-of-the-planet death.

Any thing was better than that.