School became a living hell. 

All the grades were scattered just about everywhere, study hall, the library, at lunch there were books in their laps and sandwiches hanging from their mouths. There was no place for privacy, not even the janitor's closet, and sometimes the janitor would swear to himself this wasn't the reality he had always wanted. It was everyone's hellish nightmare, these two weeks of midterms, that and finals week, which was at the end of May, but no one gave a about that now. 


Hyukjae was suffocating in madness. 


He spent hours and days looking over his notes and memorizing textbooks word by word. Sleep deprivation was a main result of this, and as hard as it was to get back on his feet the next morning, he couldn't feel the need to roll out of bed and think what a wonderful time to be alive. Coffee never helped him in any cause. He tried drinking four cups once and still managed to drop dead in the middle of the day.  


From: Sungmin 10:23 PM
QUICK AT WHAT CONFERENCE DID THE ALLIES DECIDE TO DIVIDE KOREA


From: Hyukjae 10:23 PM
THE MOSCOW CONFERENCE


From: Sungmin 10:23 PM
POSTDAM CONFERENCE STUPID SON OF A YOURE GOING TO FAIL


Studying at school was hard to do with everything going on, all the noise and hysterical crying from students who just took a difficult exam. There was so much to do, so little time, and Hyukjae might had to succumb to cheating if he was becoming that hopeless. During these rough times he drowned himself in music and forced his mind to focus on the more important things, like how he wasn't taking physics anymore and yet somehow was drawing a resultant in his binder. 


At this rate, Hyukjae would be digging his own grave by the time he turned nineteen. 


If he could live for so long. 





--





Hyoyeon was not impressed by today's performance. Half the dancers were sloppy, their timing off, and one of them did a different routine entirely. "That was crap. That was absolute crap. It makes me skeptical about the fact if you guys practiced at all. Did you even try? What the hell is up with you people today, we have three months until the festival, and if you think that's a long time it's not. I better see some improvement in the next week or we're staying here until midnight for the rest of the time we have left." There were groans circling around the room. "Yeah, I ing thought so. Get your lazy asses off the floor and let's do it again from the first track." 


"But we're tired," Jongin, one of the young dancers, spoke up. "It's been like four days of midterms and we're not getting enough sleep." 


"And?" Hyoyeon prompted, putting hands on her hips. "Isn't everyone like that? The sports teams, after-school clubs, all of them don't feel the same way you do? I'd rather go home and bathe in chamomile tea and lavender and watch reruns of Breaking Bad while ting my pants about hot boy bands but I'm here with you guys so let's all get along just for the sake of this. Then maybe we can go home." 


"You still do all of that anyway," Junsu muttered, taking a sip of water. He choked when a hand slapped his head harshly. "ing me and my big mouth." 


"When do we get to go home? I have a chem midterm tomorrow and it's going to be really bad, like really bad," Yoona said. 


Hyoyeon shrugged, "Soon, if all of you stop messing up. It won't be that bad, just another hour or so." Another round of groans sounded. "Wow, aren't you guys dedicated. Come on, from the top. And we're starting at the five second mark, okay Sehun?" She rolled her shoulders backwards. "All right, press play. Hyukjae, did you – where the  is Hyukjae?" 

"Something tells me that's him," Hyuna replied, pointing at the heap of limbs in the corner of the floor with its legs wrapped around a backpack.


"I think it's dead," Junsu commented, flicking water at the lifeless body. 


Hyoyeon's nostrils flared and she put out a hand. "Someone give me a bat from the storage closet." 


The rest of the dancers felt the pain of the bat when Hyukjae started screaming in agony as he woke up in tears. 





--



 

Hyukjae went home with a limp, although halfway home he realized it was his back that was damaged and not his leg. He was going to have to sue Hyoyeon one of these days and body slam her when she wasn't looking. 


He would do it. 


After taking a long needed shower and kissing Choco hello, he sat on his bed while going over the study sheets Sungmin and him painfully and meticulously created during lunch and half of English when Mr. Han droned on about Macbeth. He spent thirty minutes going over his Government notes and another four hours for Precalculus, chewing on a piece of beef jerky he found in one of Sora's secret guilty pleasure stashes. 


From: Donghae 11:14 PM
amber tells me she caught u staring at ur math teachers chest yesterday 


From: Donghae 11:14 PM
and that ur dirty. r u dirty ? 


Hyukjae stared blankly at the screen.  


From: Hyukjae 11:15 PM
yeah, she would because she obviously didn't get the entire story that there was a meat stain on her blouse goddamn it why would you listen to her?? and what do you mean by dirty exactly, dude wtf


From: Donghae 11:17 PM
idk man her story sounds pretty legit 


From: Donghae 11:17 PM
i meant ert dirty. ur a ert apparently 


From: Hyukjae 11:18 PM
and you'd believe such people? we've been talking for how long now? 


From: Donghae 11:18 PM
i saw the magazines in ur bag. and a month and five days

From: Hyukjae 11:19 PM
is it bad to be a normal human being with needs. wow you actually remembered.


From: Donghae 11:19 PM
u had five of them !! and ofcourse i did who do u think i am


From: Hyukjae 11:20 PM
sungmin has seven sometimes. and sorry, forgot you were desperate for friendship


Choco barked at something, then jumped on the bed, waggling her tail and settling down on Hyukjae's lap. He fed her a piece of his jerky, scratching her ears after and she snuggled closer to his chest. 


From: Donghae 11:22 PM
im just saying. ur pretty infamous for that thing u got goin on in ur bag. YOU TAKE THAT BACK. 


From: Hyukjae 11:22 PM
you realize that kind of doesn't make sense and hahaha no~~ 

From: Donghae 11:22 PM
it makes sense. and u. 


He heard the door close and keys being thrown on the table. Sora's three knocks came on his door, a head popping out with a wide grin attached. "Guess who got a raise and decided to spend all of it on Thai food?" The smile wiped off her face. "Is that my jerky." 





--





From: Hyukjae 12:21 PM
don't you think i'd make a good star? 

From: Donghae 12:27 PM
what

From: Hyukjae 12:54 PM 
i asked someone else and they said yeah i would so i tried to get your opinion to see what you thought


"What the is this even," Sungmin frowned, reading the latest text. "Since when did you guys get so close? star? Are you ting him? And why don't you text me everyday? I'm offended." 


Hyukjae snatched his phone away and shoved it into his back pocket so that if Sungmin tried to take it again he'd pull a fast one on his arm. Well, before Sungmin dislocated Hyukjae's shoulder. "I am making new friends because I don't want to be tied down to you for the rest of my life. You make me feel bad." 


Sungmin scoffed at him. "Didn't know it affected you so much, Hyukjae. You should have told me so." 


"Yeah, well. You never listen to me either." 


"I thought I was your lapdog." 


"I thought that too. But then you started to change." 


"You're talking weird again. How much sleep have you had these days?" 


"You don't need to know," Hyukjae snapped. "You don't care about me. I can do stuff on my own. Beans taste good when Sora heats them up the day after she makes them. I want some now." 


Sungmin sighed. He didn't bother talking to Hyukjae when the latter's mind went half insane and the other half was clouded with thoughts of food and . He ignored him when Hyukjae shoved his face into a book and groaned aloud. Hyukjae's head snapped up when his phone buzzed against his jeans. 


From: Donghae 12:59 PM
in that case then yea i think you'd make a really y star





--





Kyuhyun's zombie eyes almost made Hyukjae scream in fear out loud but he stopped himself in time. He stared boringly at the older boy but there was a chance Kyuhyun would fall and turn into ashes. His hair was a mess of some sort, as if he got out of bed the first second and came to school just as he was. 


"What," he said flatly, evidently not in the right state of mind, but then again no one was, and Kyuhyun was usually this dead. 


Hyukjae cleared his throat, placing a hand down on the table. "You have my volume." 


Kyuhyun stared at the hand in front of him and glared hard at the redhead. "You think I'm going to go search for your stupid manga, carry it under my armpit to the desk and keep it for your grubby hands to manhandle, all for your ty entertainment, and waste my freaking time doing absolutely nothing that benefits me? All for your ing ridiculous manga?" 


Hyukjae kept silent. "I'll go get it later then," and walked away without checking a volume out for once this entire year. 





--





From: Donghae 1:16 AM 
how long do u think itll be until we're all dead 


From: Hyukjae 1:19 AM
is this one of your insightful monologues again


From: Donghae 1:19 AM
no


From: Donghae 1:20 AM
i think i could make a good motivational speaker


From: Donghae 1:21 AM
dont u


From: Hyukjae 1:22 AM
go back to studying
 

--

 

From: Donghae 1:50 AM
u dead yet 


From: Hyukjae 1:51 AM
shut up

 

--
 

After thirteen days of raw, brutal torment and sporadic lunacy, Hyukjae finally, finally, muddled through. Although his grades weren't as great as he wanted them to be, it didn't matter because he was done with this goddamn ordeal of taking several exams that may or may haven't killed off a part of Hyukjae's sanity. 


Whatever. He got it over with, he didn't have to see another fifty questions mocking him until June, and that's all that mattered. 


Kyuhyun seemed to calm down and become his regular self just as mayhem dissolved away. 


"It's in the back," Kyuhyun replied when Hyukjae asked for his volume. "Too much work to get it for you." 


Hyukjae leaned in close, attempting to be intimidating. "One day I will file a report that you are a volunteer. And that day I will laugh when someone else takes your place." 


Kyuhyun rested a cheek against his fist. "Do you ever wonder why I got this position? You think anyone would want to be at the front desk when they know they'd have to deal with people like you?" 


Hyukjae thought for a moment and imagined himself in Kyuhyun's shoes.


Oh.


Well.


"I see." He turned around. " you anyway." 


He walked past tables and new book displays, going between two shelves and avoiding the couple that made out furiously against the wall. Along with shooting Hyoyeon in the head and defeating Kyuhyun once and for all, he put getting laid as one of his Must-Do-Before-Dying-Inevitably things. 


It didn't take long to get to the manga section in the back, and when he did, his phone vibrated. 


From: Donghae 3:12 PM
someone almost tried to take ur volume today. ur welcome. 


He noticed the dents on the front cover and a corner that was bent out of shape weirdly. Laughing to himself, he picked up his phone. 


From: Hyukjae 3:13 PM
you're a crazy son of a you know that? 


From: Hyukjae 3:13 PM
and thank you


 
 

i'm trying this thing where the chapter's format goes with the mood/pace of the story or something, but that doesn't seem to be doing a good job so all this is inconsistent as . ugh, i'm trying to get this done so i can write something else. my regret for writing this is taking place sigh. thanks to those who read, commented, and subscribed!