The week has come.

The hallways were a organized mess, if that made any sense. There were crying students lining up by the teacher's offices with their mugs and books open if they could still read the words, and teachers would be handing out hot chocolate or tea (all of which were bought thanks to the previous student council, how sweet). Some student organizers were approached multiple times by students that wanted to make sure their efforts will be counted, leading to moving mini-conferences throughout the areas. Most of the students in the classrooms were pacing around while retaining dates and applying concepts, others had earphones on to scan the material peacefully. And then there were the student circles in between, they asked each other questions (some to test their classmates, others on information they genuinely did not know).

Other than the teachers handing out drinks for the 'dead', the staffs were gathered in the special subject rooms and seperated by grade level. They rechecked the test papers and organized it all as needed as fast as possible, so that they could get a few moments of relaxation before the first term final.

As for the super seven, Sungjong was in the line of the crying students with an extra-large thermos, Sungyeol and Myungsoo were in their own question groups back in their classrooms, Sunggyu and Dongwoo organized their time to be half-pacing and half-peaceful scanning, and Woohyun and Hoya were mainly at the recieving end of their question group. Those two didn't accelarate for nothing.

"Relating to the concept of cell division, give possible reasons of the rising trend of this graph," Kibum showed his classmates a question from a past paper he found online. 

"The trend-" Woohyun tried to answer.

"Oh I know this one!" Howon exclaimed, desperate for a chance. "Everyone shut up first!"

"Alright alright so the reason of the failure of proposal 1.3 is from the..." Sungjong trailed off, scanning over his notes once again. It irritated him on how fast the information just flew away from him. He simply bowed his head once he reached the hot chocolate station, giving himself a good 3 minutes of waiting for the thermos to fill up.

"I can't believe I only brought a mug," a student behind him sighed.

"Everyone makes mistakes," Sungjong said with a hint of sass while walking away.

"Soo how did you get from fallen hair to symbol of love?" Sungyeol asked while scanning his friend's annotations on a random poem they were practicing on.

"That's the beauty of the arts: subjectivity." 

"Let's see you say the same thing when you move to section B."

"Ah! Enumerate the types of passive membrane transportation!" Dongwoo pointed at Sunggyu while jogging in his place.

"Under passive transport there is simple-" Sunggyu walks towards the back of the room "- and facilitated diffusion and osmosis!" He exclaimed.

"Now - " Dongwoo showed a blank diagram "- differentiate the types of enzymes found in the cell membrane diagram!"

"Hey no fair it's my turn to ask!"

Perhaps it was the fun of the moment that they were able to feel eased while preparing for the finals. The fun continued for the rest of the hour, soon taken over with the lines of teachers and staffs walking to their designated classrooms. The little drink stations were put away and the students left in the hallways were pushed until they enter their classroom.

"The time has come everyone," the facilitator says while walking in Sungjong's class. The other facilitators may have said it differently, but there will always be the same ending sentence:

"Remember, you got yourself into this."

And the time starts now.

-------

"I swear I cannot go any lower than section A!" Sungjong said in frustration. 

"None of us can," Sungyeol said and patted the younger's back. He turned to Myungsoo who was walking right beside him, "right, Myungsoo?"

"I swear I didn't do it again!"

The finals week had just finished and the three youngest were walking to Sungjong's house like usual. The two boyfriends went off on a well-deserved date, awhile Woohyun and Sunggyu would be anywhere doing anything, just not together (or each other). The three youngest would be trying to corner the two again, but they just finished finals. It's mental health first, as Myungsoo said the moment he left the classroom (Sungyeol was pissed that his best friend had a better exit).

"Why are you scared of bumping down a section though?" Sungyeol asked the youngest. "Did you any test up?"

"I am 75-percent confident that I didn't."

"Woah," said Myungsoo. "That's too low Jjong, especially for you."

"It's just Business! I feel like I'll lose points on analysis," Sungjong groaned.

"And to think you wanted to run as Treasurer," Myungsoo chuckled.

The three finally arrived and went straight for the kitchen, naturally creating an assembly line with ingredients in each 'station'. They initially did this when they were in second grade when their parents were thinking of a way to make them independent. They ended up doing it out of habit whenever the three were together, and their parents were just amazed on how far it went. 

"Wanna go out?" Sungyeol asked the three after they finished getting food, now all sitting on the couch and watching a random show they found.

"What're we going to do?" 

"Uh, go outside?" Sungjong flicked the forehead of the older.

"Why would you even suggest leaving comfort?" 

"I'll be honest Myung, I don't even know."

And so the three continued relaxing and watching cartoons for the rest of the day.

As for the couple, their date did not go as planned. Dongwoo initially hoped to watch the new movie Howon was looking forward to, and Howon wanted to go to try out this escape room Dongwoo stared a few seconds too long at the last time they walked by. They just wanted to relax and have fun after the hellish week, but they were no match for their instincts. The moment they saw Sunggyu and Woohyun in opposite sides of the mall floor, about to collide and meet each other, the two had to pause their walk to the cinema. They sat on a bench nearby, the older getting his phone out while his boyfriend is stuck staring at the two.

The two were only two shops away from each other, and Dongwoo ended up squeezing Howon's hand in excitement. Their hands were practically numb the closer their friends were to meeting each other.

"Sunggyu!" Both look to the left and watch another person give Sunggyu a milkshake. He smiled and put an arm around the person's shoulder and walked away from the route.

"Oh! Hi guys!" Woohyun spots them and walks over to their bench.

"Hey Hyun!" For some reason, Dongwoo's grip wasn't getting any more relaxed. "What're you doing here?"

"Honestly I was just bored at home so I visited the hair salon."

"Your hair doesn't look different though."

"Oh no, I went for the gossip. Did you know that Manager noona and Manicure noona have been trying to set their kids up with each other?" Woohyun's eyes glowed as if drama fueled the boy.

"Manicure noona with the triangle nails or the square nails?" Howon asked. All he could feel were the short nails of his boyfriend.

"Triangle. But they never stay in the same place! Do you know how irritating that is?!" Woohyun exclaimed. Dongwoo finally sighed and relaxed, releasing Howon's poor hand.

"You have no idea."

------

"Alright hyung, good luck with that!" Sungjong ended his call with Sunggyu, who he found out is left running to school. His bus left him and his parents couldn't bring him; his mother was out of town awhile his father was sick.

"Hi hyungs!" He greeted Sungyeol and Myungsoo who were approaching him at the school's bulletin board. It was a new week, and the lists were already pinned. The walk to school was the longest walk Sungjong ever had, a heart beating fast at every step he took. So when he found the results, his mind had one thing and one thing only.

Pure joy.

"Look at Sungjong being at the first of the Section A list!" Sungyeol ruffled the younger's hair, and the latter just continued smiling and jumping. Myungsoo joined in on the jumping, but he needed to check for his and Sungyeol's name too. 

"Guess who isn't in Section B Yeol?" Myungsoo asked proudly while pointing at their grade level's list.

"I would've thought it was 'cause you dropped to C," Sungyeol commented. "Joke! I'm proud you didn't up Myungie!" He then moved to hugging his best-friend.

"And where am I at the list?" Sungyeol finally looked for his place.

"How," he stared at his name for minutes. It just felt so surreal for him. He didn't even notice how he's been squishing the two in a hug while staring.

"Well don't you guys look happy?" The two squished tried to turn around as much as possible to see Dongwoo, Hoya, Woohyun walking over.

"Sungyeol's having a moment after seeing his name way over here," Myungsoo pointed at his friend's name placed right at the top of the list. 

"We're so proud of you!" The three joined in the hug, waking Sungyeol up from his trance. "What?" 

"You did well Yeol!" Woohyun exclaimed. They broke free from the hug a few seconds after.

"Time to check where we're at hyung," Hoya pulled his boyfriend to look at the first list. "What about me?" Woohyun asked.

"Stop rubbing it in our faces Hyun," said Dongwoo.

"Ooh, Woohyun's got more competition." Hoya teased. This alarmed the mentioned boy who immediately scanned over his name, exhaling heavily when he saw him still in second place. He was amazed to see only decimal point differences between him and the new person in third place.

"Hey I made it to top 5!" The oldest exclaimed. The group continued talking to each ther while walking away from the bulletin board as more students crowd around.

"Hi Minseok!" Sunggyu greeted the familiar face as they both walked towards the bulletin board. There were only 10 minutes left until homeroom, so the crowd of students luckily decreased.

"Section A!" The two shared a high-five seeing that they had made it to the same section. They quickly walked to their classroom and went right into the room as the door was left open.

Similar to Sunggyu's first day, the students were in their own groups. Minseok simply waved goodbye to Sunggyu when he found his group of friends, leading to the latter walking over to what sees to be the seventh seat in the front left empty. Perhaps it was anxiety from not seeing familiar faces, but all he could do was stare at his table. Howon and Dongwoo were in a small chat with Woohyun, Kevin, and Kibum with their backs facing Sunggyu earlier; so he couldn't spot them easily. 

"Perhaps it wouldn't have hurt to be a little late," Sunggyu whispered to himself.

He kept his head slightly tilted down at his table, but he could see his classmates in their groups from their corner of his eye. 

"Hi new seatmate!" A voice as cheerful as Dongwoo said. Sunggyu wasn't sure if it was directed at him, so he made a little plan to keep himself from embarrassment. He turned his face to the side with a neutral face, immediately switching to a smile when he saw the other.

Little did he notice that the little groups behind him changed a bit, and that a few students left their groups for awhile. They still continued to be distracted of their discussions though.

"What rank did you get?" The person tried to start a conversation.

"I don't really remember," Sunggyu laughed. "I was just excited to get into A and ran right after."

"That's nice."

"I'm Sunggyu," the boy smiled.

"You know that name sounds familiar..."

"And I have yet to know if yours is too."

The two chuckled.

"Woohyun."

Happy New Years!!
See y'all in the next arc~

Oh and 31 subscribers? A new upvote? How? Thank? You?

No kidding thank you so much!!