a/n: wow this is so late i apolog its not good but try to enjoy it i guess

[ x ]

"I can't do this," Chanshik bemoans, slumping over his unfinished calculus homework with the disheveled appearance of an aged college student despite being in his second-to-last year of high school. His eyes fail to focus on the mahogany wood specks of his desk upon close proximity, and he shuts his eyes to avoid a full blown-on headache from the ordeal. "This is too hard."

Junghwan offers no sympathy, paying more attention to his ice cream cone than his friend. Chanshik has a working theory that Junghwan only comes over to his house to eat him out of house and home. "That's your own problem. Who told you to go and take higher-up classes?"

The younger boy presses his cheek flat against the worksheet badly inked from being copied one too many times and mentally accepts the fact that he's going to die alone in his life due to stress from integrals and linear approximation. "I just wanted to get credit for college," he sadly whispers out. "Help me, hyung."

Junghwan laughs, as if Chanshik had just told a funny joke. "Sorry, not doing anything math-related. There's a reason why I'm a vocal major other than my dazzling voice and personality, little one."

Sunwoo lets out a loud "HA!" at Junghwan's newly made statement. Everyone present ignores him.

"Why don't you just switch back to regular courses, Chanshik?" Shinwoo tries in a friendly tone, only to slightly flinch as Chanshik raises his head and darkly-rimmed reddened eyes stare back at him.

"The college credit," Chanshik blanches, eye bags and all.

Sunwoo pads over from his perch in front of Chanshik's television screen and his eyes widen in disbelief. His hand reaches out to prod at the sagging skin depicting fatigue and misery. "Jesus, Chanshik, when was the last time you even slept?"

Chanshik hollowly laughs. "What's sleep?"

"You looked like my my freshman year of college, and I don't even think you're supposed to look anything near that right now," Jinyoung comments, eyebrows furrowing together in the picture-perfect portrayal of a worried mother.

The others nod. High school is supposed to be rejuvenating and youthful where teenagers prance around in their nubile youth, and Chanshik looks no more different than one of the extras cast in The Walking Dead show that they've been marathoning.

"Ah, the pains of being so smart," Junghwan dramatically inputs, avoiding a swat and a scowl from Sunwoo for opening his mouth. "Slaving over your studies and never being satisfied with your grade point averages!"

Sunwoo mutters a small remark about how Junghwan should've gone into acting rather than be a vocal major and Junghwan promptly flicks him hard on the forehead. Chanshik stays in a catatonic state on his desk while Jinyoung and Shinwoo each hold the arguing duo back from tearing into each other as another bickering match begins once again.

Everything comes to a full stop, however, when Sunwoo's arm jerks out from Jinyoung's hold and his elbow slams into Junghwan's ice-cream-holding hand.

The four present watch in slow motion as the perfectly-molded vanilla scoop of ice cream tip over and fall to its demise. His mouth opens in a silent scream, and Junghwan swears he can hear opera music in the background.

As the ice cream glob smashes painfully into the carpet, Junghwan slips out from Shinwoo's arms and falls to his knees. "My ice cream," he whimpers.

Sunwoo quietly stammers out a half apology while Jinyoung sighs and clucks his tongue, Shinwoo already bustling out of the bedroom to find a cloth to clean the mess up with before it stains the carpet.

Chanshik is still unmoving.

[ ix ]

[duckie lord] [10:49 AM] hey can someone send me the notes for oh's class?

[duckie lord] [10:49 AM] this is extremely important and also i think he's going to launch a pop quiz on us

[duckie lord] [10:49 AM] i knew i should've studied last night on the endocrine system

[chansatan] [10:50 AM] i'm not even in college yet hyung

[jinyoungun] [10:52 AM] not in your class, so i can't help :-( sorry for that junghwan

[duckie lord] [10:53 AM] @chanshik yea i know i just need someone's help

[duckie lord] [10:53 AM] @jinyoung hyung yea ok please dont.... use emoticons............

[shin dongwoo] [10:53 AM] isn't sunwoo in your class?

[duckie lord] [10:54 AM] he wasnt in the dorm room this morning so he mustve passed out at jiho's and kyung's dorm

[duckie lord] [10:54 AM] my bets are is he's oversleeping again after partying and thus hes useless to me

[duckie lord] [10:54 AM] what kind of idiot parties on a tuesday night

[chansatan] [10:54 AM] hyung u should study instead of talking to us

[jinyoungun] [10:54 AM] is anyone close enough to go get sunwoo right now? i'm in music theory.

[shin dongwoo] [10:54 AM] already in the middle of a physics lecture.

[jinyoungun] [10:54 AM] sorry junghwan, we cant help you this time. good luck on the test :-)

[chansatan] [10:54 AM] i believe junghwan hyung is now on his way 2 class and has accepted his fate

[duckie lord] [10:55 AM] im prepared to go down fighting

[barororo] [2:37 PM] junghwan

[barororo] [2:37 PM] mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell

[duckie lord] [2:40 PM] ur useless to me cha sunwoo

[ viii ]

The five of them are scrunched together on Shinwoo's tiny sofa, eating buttered popcorn straight from the bag.

"Don't you have homework you need to do?" Sunwoo asks the youngest as the episode pauses for a commercial break.

A garbled "Shut up, hyung" comes through a mouthful of sweet goodness and Jinyoung shoots Chanshik a look for not chewing before talking.

[ vii ]

"You said you'd help me," Shinwoo pleads, eyes darting to the young woman sitting in the lifeguard's chair overseeing the entire vicinity.

Sunwoo rolls his eyes, back slumped forward to allow Junghwan the room to slather sunscreen on tanned skin. "Hyung, you're older than all of us. You should not be having this much trouble asking someone out." A hand slithers around to jab him in the side and Sunwoo jumps with a scowl, craning his head around. "Hey, watch your hands, duckie."

Chanshik was sitting next to them in the comfort of the shade of a large umbrella over a pool chair, clad in a loose tank and swimming shorts despite the fact that he probably wouldn't even go near the water. His sunglasses hide his eyes as he rifles through yet another college prep textbooks. "Just go up to her and ask her to get lunch with you," he mutters, flipping a page apathetically.

Shinwoo wrings his hands nervously. "What do I even say?" he hoarsely asks, and the others have never seen him so agitated in all their years of knowing each other.

Jinyoung walks up to them in his swimwear and a shirt, wrapped ice cream bars in hand. "He still hasn't gone up?" He asks, clucking his tongue.

"He wants to stick to the plan you made up, hyung," Junghwan sighs, wiping leftover sunscreen all over Sunwoo's face and ignoring the other's splutters when some smears on his lips. "I swear, you don't need a wingman for this kind of thing." Jinyoung distributes the ice cream and Junghwan is the first to tear off the plastic wrapping for his and shove the bar in his mouth. Sunwoo looks at him with disgust.

Chanshik doesn't even look up. "No."

"Why?" Shinwoo questions, despair written in his eyes.

"I'm studying, hyung."

Jinyoung sits down beside Chanshik on the chair. "All you ever do is study nowadays."

Chanshik peers over the rim of his sunglasses to look at Jinyoung with a dead stare, long legs stretched out on the pool chair, then turns his head to watch Shinwoo fidgeting with the plastic wrapping of the ice cream bar and a desperate look on his face. The youngest sighs, shuts his book, and sets it down beside his ice cream bar on the circular glass desk aside the chair before standing.

"So you've come around," Jinyoung says appraisingly as Chanshik kicks off his sandals, only to receive a face-full of cotton as the latter tosses his tank at him.

Sunwoo whistles. "Nice body, Chanshik. I'm almost blinded by how pale you are. Of course, that could be because you always stay inside to do homework."

Chanshik eyes him menacingly, a sneer on his lips, before slipping into the deep end of the pool on their side, and the boy pushes away from the edge of the pool with a sigh. "This is so stupid. Shinwoo hyung is a grown man," he grumbles to himself, before he waves his hands in the air to convey panic and speaks in a monotone. "Oh dear. Help me. I'm drowning."

Junghwan palms his face and Jinyoung sighs tiredly.

"Your plan's not working, hyung," Sunwoo comments after a bite of his ice cream. Shinwoo has gone off somewhere, probably the toilet, to cry over the realization that he'll remain single forever.

Jinyoung rubs his temples, watching the youngest along with the rest of them as he performs his act of 'drowning.' "Yeah, somehow, this all ended up better in my head."

[ vi ]

During his quest to study for college entrance exams, Chanshik remembers when the older boys were still in high school and there was that one time Shinwoo got a high B in biochemistry for the semester and locked himself in his room for three days straight.

He wonders if he'll end up like that from the upcoming calculus test worth 40% of his semester grade.

[ v ]

"Hey, where's Chanshik?" Junghwan asks on a Saturday night as he settles on Shinwoo's worn couch once more, popcorn bowl firmly nestled in his lap.

Sunwoo shrugs, reaching over to grab a handful of popped kernels. "Jinyoung hyung went to go fetch him earlier. Chanshik's mom said that Chanshik locked himself up in his room since Wednesday."

[ iv ]

Dear Diary,

It has been approximately two weeks since I've last written in you. I apologize; I've been busy with maintaining the rowdy children and keeping Junghwan from strangling Sunwoo again. I say again because he made Sunwoo turn blue just last Friday arguing over whose waffle fries belonged to who.

Everything is the same as it's always been. My previous assumption that classical conditioning could work on Chanshik had been correct. I have associated lack of studying with our Saturday night affiliations, so every single time he comes over without his study material, he's rewarded with chocolate and thus has not brought over his books for the past two sessions. Further experimentation will be required to see if Chanshik will bring his books or not when waned off sweet treats. Perhaps this will help him rest (he needs rest; even his mother thinks so).

My accident calendar is mounted up onto my wall again. Jinyoung seems to find the antique item tacky, but it does rise to fit the occasion. Every time our group of friends make it through a day without killing each other, I change the number on the sign that reads "___ DAYS ACCIDENT-FREE!" It gives me hope that perhaps seeing the calendar will encourage the younger children to play nice with each other.

So far, it has been three days since our last accident Please excuse my chicken scratch as the counter has been restarted to 0 days. Sunwoo has tampered with Chanshik's study guide books and has promptly been thrown onto my coffee table. Jinyoung is now checking to see if the table is alright per my request. That table was a gift from my mother.

Jinyoung has just notified me that my coffee table is okay. I wish to see a day where we live in a violence-free world.

Signing,

Shin Dongwoo

[ iii ]

Junghwan is the type of person to procrastinate until the very last second to work on his homework and projects.

Sunwoo knows this because there are ten hastily unsaved documents open on his laptop that he and Junghwan share, and another tab open to a YouTube video of fuzzy baby animals cute enough to elicit tears acting as a destressifier for one certain college student.

[ ii ]

"This is the longest thing I've ever written," Junghwan sobs into Shinwoo's shoulder, a word document open on the laptop precariously balancing on his folded legs, and Jinyoung cranes his neck to check the word counter at the bottom of the page.

Words: 27. Page: 1/1.

[ i ]

"Hey. Hey Jinyoung hyung."

Jinyoung doesn't look up from his economics homework, but a sigh escapes from his lips. He seems to be doing that a lot more often lately ever since their group of friends started hanging out every other day instead of just Saturday, and has a working theory that every single time someone that isn't Shinwoo makes a remark to him, he ages a month more. So far, he's approximately ten years older than his physical body conveys. "What is it, Junghwan?"

"Look. Look at this. It's worth your time, I swear."

Jinyoung highly doubted that, but he sets his pencil down and looks skeptically at Junghwan and Sunwoo sitting together. "Alright. You two have my attention."

Junghwan beams while Sunwoo glances up at the ceiling distatesfully, and then Junghwan reaches over to squish Sunwoo's cheeks together with a hand, making the younger have a kissy face. "What do guppies do?" he animatedly asks.

Sunwoo speaks in a bored tone. "Guppies don't smile, but I do," he mutters, drawing out the "I" and then proceeding to smile to the best of his ability with his cheeks squished together. He looks ridiculous and Junghwan is about to burst into laughter at the sight.

Jinyoung stares at the duo for a long, drawn-out pause, and then returns to his homework without another word. He's now nearing eleven years older than his physical body conveys.