"…soma…Dasom… Hey! Kim Dasom! Wake up!" 

Dasom slowly lifted her eyelids and glanced up, only to see Junhee ready to smack a rolled-up magazine across her head. She glanced over and saw Jieun and Taemin desperately trying to pull Junhee back. Dasom took her time to sit up and yawned, drowsily rubbing her eyes.

"Hm? What's going on?" Dasom asked, still dazed.

"School ended. Let's go," Junhee told her, crossing her arms. "What? Were you sleeping the entire day? That's not like you."

Dasom took out her phone. "I've been bored for the past few days, so I went on dates with other boys. The boys these days are such a bore. They're no fun at all."

"That's right. The third years are taking their college exams," Jieun murmured. "I wonder how Myungsoo and Baekhyun are doing."

"I'm not too worried about Myungsoo," Taemin said. "I overheard the teachers talking one day, and a lot of them are looking forward to Myungsoo's results. Apparently, he's a bright student."

"That's weird. Why would a smart guy like Myungsoo date someone like Dasom?" Jieun asked. When she saw Dasom glare at her, she raised her hand in defense. "I don't mean it in a bad way, Dasom. I'm just saying that studious guys don't seem to be your type."

"Right, right," Dasom murmured. She got up and grabbed her bag, leading the group outside of the empty classroom. "So where's Byunghun and Eunji? Byunghun was supposed to wake me up."

"Club activities," Taemin answered.

"That reminds me—There's an autumn festival coming up, right?" Dasom asked. "Third years have the first choice."

"It's okay, Dasom!" Jieun exclaimed. "We'll be third years next year! Then we'll have the first choice!"

Dasom stopped walking and watched her friends walk pass her. The three continued to chat, but stopped when they felt like something was wrong. Dumbfounded, they turned and stared at Dasom, who only blinked her eyes and stared back.

"Um, Dasom? Did I say something wrong?" Jieun asked, still smiling but in an awkward manner.

"H-Huh?" Dasom shook her head and forced a smile. "No, nothing! I was just thinking that we're actually going to become third years next year…"

"Hm. Time flies by quickly," Taemin commented. "I should seriously clean up my acts a bit and study for the Seoul University's exam."

"Seoul University? Wow, Taemin. You're quite ambitious for targeting the country's top college," Jieun said in awe. "I'm going to go to cooking school. I'm going to learn to make all of Hyunwoo's favorite foods!"

"I'm thinking about going to an art college to pursue music. I think that'd be kind of fun," Junhee said.

The three started to ramble on about their future and their dreams, leaving Dasom unable to join their conversation. She wasn't able to keep up with anything. It was difficult for her to speak. Here she was, listening to everyone talk and talk about what their future was going to look like. 

Were they all thinking about their future all this time? Was she the only one who wasn't thinking about her future? All this time, it always looked like the six were facing the present, but now, she wasn't so sure that they were looking at the same thing she was looking at.

She suddenly felt butterflies in her stomach. There was an embarrassing shade of red that colored her cheeks. 

"Dasom? Are you okay?" asked Junhee. "You're awfully quiet. It's not like you."

"I…I…" Dasom wasn't sure what to say. "I'm just thinking, that's all…"

"About what?" Jieun asked her.

"Just about what I should do from now on," Dasom said. She let out a small laugh. "Everyone seems to know what they want to do…"

"I doubt it," Taemin said. "You should ask Byunghun and Eunji. I don't know if they have anything, but yeah, try asking."

"Yeah. Try asking Myungsoo and Baekhyun, too. Maybe they'll say something that will inspire you," Junhee suggested.

Dasom pressed her lips. She looked down at the ground, then glanced at the window.

"You guys said that those two are at club activities, right?" asked Dasom. The group nodded their head. She took a deep breath, then waved her hand at them. "You guys go ahead. I'm going to talk to the two, okay?"

She started running off, leaving the three alone. Taemin glanced at Jieun.

"I feel like this is your fault," he said.

Jieun dropped her jaws. "What? How is this my fault?"

"Yeah, I also feel like it's Jieun's fault, too," Junhee agreed. The two turned and continued walking away, while Jieun chased after them, asking them what she did wrong.

"Huh? My future? I want to be a coach," Byunghun said in the midst of shooting some hoops. "My goal is to be a high school coach, but I think it'd be nice to be a coach for an actual team."

"…Eunji? How about you?" Dasom asked, turning to the manager of the basketball team.

"Me?" Eunji asked, handing someone a bottle of water. "Hm… I haven't given a lot of thought into it."

Dasom smiled in relief. "That's goo—"

"I think I might want to be a nurse, though," Eunji said. The smile faded away from Dasom's face. Byunghun stared at Eunji with surprise.

"A nurse?" Byunghun repeated.

"It's only a thought for now," Eunji said. She gave Dasom a small smile. "I think staying in the hospital inspired me to consider nursing."

"I think that would fit nicely with your personality," Byunghun said.

"W-Well, nothing's confirmed," Eunji replied bashfully. She laughed lightly before looking at Dasom's troubled expression. "Is anything wrong, Dasom?"

"Huh?" Dasom snapped out of her thoughts and shook her head. "No, no. A nurse would be lovely for you, Eunji."

Eunji could see right through Dasom. "Come on, Dasom. Something is bothering you, and I can't tell what it is. What's going on?"

Byunghun looked over at Dasom and stared at her. Dasom bit her bottom lip, then started to rub the back of her neck.

"Was everyone thinking about what would happen after high school already?" she asked them. The two paused, wondering how to answer her question.

"Well, I don't think anything's confirmed, but thinking about the future would be nice," Eunji said.

"Yeah. If you have a goal, then you'll learn to use the best of your life trying to get there," added Byunghun.

Dasom paled a bit more. "O-Oh, I see…"

"It'd be nice if you could find something you'd like to do," Eunji told her with a smile. She glanced at the teammates, and noticed that Naeun was distracting a few guys from playing. She let out a frustrated sigh. "Honestly, this club has two managers, but it only feels like one." She blew her whistle and started to march her way towards Naeun. "Hey! Naeun! We need to talk again…!"

Dasom and Byunghun watched her for a moment before resuming their conversation. Dasom let out a sigh while Byunghun gave her a gentle pat on the back.

"Don't stress too much about it, Dasom. I wasn't even thinking about my career until recently," Byunghun said.

"At least you still have one," she muttered under her breath. She started to walk away from the gym, drowning herself in her thoughts.

That night, when Dasom was walking back home (after hours of aimlessly wandering around), she noticed a figure standing in front of her door. The figure looked up and made eye-contact with Dasom. For a second, she was startled, but when she squinted her eyes and saw the man approach her, she knew to calm down.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Byun Baekhyun," Dasom murmured.

Baekhyun, who was holding his phone, pushed it in his pocket. "Where were you? I called, but you didn't pick up."

"I was on a small journey," she stated vaguely.

"It's dangerous for a girl to be alone this late. Your parents were worried. You usually come earlier than this."

"Whatever." She paused. "How'd you do on your college exams?"

"Not too sure about Myungsoo, but I definitely failed it."

"I hope you failed it."

"That's not funny, Dasom. I worked really hard."

"I think it's funny," she said, smirking. "Now all you third years have is the autumn festival."

"Everyone's talking about it. Our classroom wants to do a haunted house or a game room, but I don't know if the student council will allow us to do that," Baekhyun murmured.

"Well, the autumn festival goes by classrooms instead of clubs, so I'm sure that there's going to be a competition for ideas," Dasom said.

"True," he said, nodding. He stopped, then sighed. "Dasom, what's wrong?"

She stared at him. "How'd you know?"

"Please, don't doubt my skills in reading people. Besides, I've known you for a long time. I should know," Baekhyun said, shrugging his shoulders.

Dasom pressed her lips. "Baekhyun, what are you going to do?"

"What topic are we on?"

"Your future. Like, what are you going to do after you graduate?"

"I'm going to study in college if I get in—"

"Yeah, but what's your dream job? What are you going to do?"

Baekhyun scratched his head. "My parents want me to become a doctor or a pharmacist, but I feel like I want to be more of a teacher. Doctor or a pharmacist seems to hard. Teaching seems easier, though."

Dasom groaned and finally rubbed her temples. "Gosh, this is so frustrating! Did everyone have something they want to do?"

"Woah there—"

"How do people do that? How do people enjoy their youth and think about what they want to do?" she asked.

"I—"

"All this time, I thought my friends were looking at the same timeline as me, but it turns out that all of them were looking just a bit further into the future than me. Now I'm going to be a third year soon, and I just have no idea what I'm going to do and—"

"Myungsoo doesn't know what he's going to do," Baekhyun blurted. Dasom stopped and stared. "If you ask Myungsoo, he still doesn't know anything."

"But he took the college exams."

"He took them, yeah, but he has no idea what he's going to study."

Dasom started to calm down. She kept oddly quiet before asking Baekhyun another question.

"Why is it that everything always links back to Myungsoo?" Dasom asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I feel like if I need comfort, it always goes back to a topic on Myungsoo," she stated.

"That could be your imagination," he pointed out.

"I know, but…" She paused. "When do the results come out?"

"After the autumn festival."

"So Myungsoo has nothing in mind?" she asked him.

"I didn't hear anything," Baekhyun said. He glanced at Myungsoo's house. "Well, if you really need to talk to him about that, go and visit him."

"What's he doing?" she asked, noticing that Myungsoo's lights were still on.

"I don't know. Maybe thinking about his future. After all, he just took the college exams without a concrete idea of what he's going to do for a living," Baekhyun said. he smiled and patted her head. "Not everyone find their dreams in high school. People who have dreams in high school are lucky. You can be less fortunate than those lucky people, but just know that you're not alone. There are tons of people searching for an answer to what they should do. You just need to keep looking at different places."

Dasom paused and listened to every word Baekhyun said. She slowly nodded her head, took a deep breath, and let out a sigh of relief. She glanced up at Myungsoo's house.

"It kind of comforts me to know that Myungsoo doesn't know what he's going to do in life," she commented.

"Well, I'm going inside. I'm exhausted," Baekhyun said. He yawned and started to walk back to his house.

"Wait!" Dasom called, stopping him midway. "Why were you at my doorsteps?"

Baekhyun glanced at Myungsoo's house. "He told me to."

She blinked. "Myungsoo did?"

"Yeah. His parents wanted him inside early and well-rested after the exams, so he asked me to stay out in his place," Baekhyun said. He chuckled. "He cares a lot for you."

"We decided to be friends," Dasom stated firmly, glaring at him.

"Yeah, yeah. I know," Baekhyun said. He waved. "Good night, Dasom!"

"Good night," she said. She watched Baekhyun disappear into the streets. Before going inside her own house, she stopped and glanced one more time at the house next door. The light to Myungsoo's room switched off. She took a deep breath, then whispered, "Good night, Myungsoo."

She stepped into her house, feeling more eased about her situation, while her heart started to skip beats for the boy next door.