gathered around wonwoo and jun's shared dorm was the 'golden eight', which is the name that everyone calls them (jun, mina, jisu, kai, wonwoo, mingyu, yuna, and soonyoung).

"you know, it's been a long time since we've hung out as eight." kai sighs, as she takes a sip from her coffee. 

"5 months," yuna states, talking a bite off of the cookie in her hand. 

"you counted?" mina and jisu say simultaneously, surprised that their friend had been keeping track of the months they haven't hung out together like this. 

yuna just sighs and takes another bite off her chocolate chip cookie. 

"i kinda miss middle school..." soonyoung smiles, finally saying something after stepping into the small dorm. he was remembering the times when they lived on the same street, always going from house to house just to talk to each other. playing stupid games at noon, to watching the starts from jun's backyard; that was only if he didn't have any filming though. 

when they were 10, they discovered that jun was an actor in china and moved to seoul to continue his career there. he meet mina on the first week he arrived, she was always with 6 other kids, especially the ones he mentally nicknamed: sharp eyes, tree, foreigner, and buns or princess leia (the little girl had her hair tied up to buns when she was at 5th grade). it took the group a year to befriended jun, and since then he was included in everything they did together. 

"oh, and remember the little competition we had about who could run up the hill fastest?" wonwoo says, his mouth full of chocolate cake. 

"and i was the winner every time." mingyu stood up from his seat proudly, praising himself for having such long legs. the rest boo'd at him jokingly before continuing their conversation. "that's 'cause you have long legs! it's really unfair!" mina complained as the others laughed.

"i remember when we all had our first crushes," kai reminisced happily. "we were all so inexperienced in life, and now here we are with a little too much experiences in a lot of things."

wonwoo nodded, agreeing with her. "yeah, probably because drama comes when you've got a lot of people in your friend circle."

"speaking of drama," yuna began. "when do you guys think it's gonna end? it's pretty much the start of the semester, and we already have problems on our hands."

"i don't know." jisu put her hands up defensively. "but the '95 line hasn't been doing good lately."

"that kb person was right though, joshua has been skipping the classes he has with jeonghan, and joshua's supposed to be some kind of saint! jeonghan's been more quiet lately and seungcheol tries to talk to him." 

"it's kinda scary, you know?"

"what's scary?" asked mina. "the '95 drama or the kb person?"

jun shrugged. "both. it's scary to see all of us so worried and and afraid of this kb dude or girl," jun quickly added as he explained himself.

"hey, kai?" jun asks, breaking a short silence silence. kai looks up from her food, signaling him that she's listening. 

"what are you doing to minghao? i mean, not to sound mean or anything, but he's been avoiding me lately. he's been hanging out with you a lot, and i just wanna know what you guys have been talking about. is it anything bad about me, or?" 

"you should really stop drinking junhui, it makes you forget a lot of things..." kai answers, making everyone confused. 

"like...?" 

kai shakes her head at his clueless response. "you should know."

"know what?" 

"you know what? you really need to figure things out yourself. talk to minghao or something, when he's ready at least. there's a lot of things you don't know about him, junhui, but he really cares about you." kai sighs, and tries to ignore the stares and confusion that everyone was giving her. 

"now, excuse me, i need to get a new cup of coffee."

"anyway," wonwoo begins then asks "who do you think the kb person, is then?" his mouth still covered in chocolate. 

"or people..." soonyoung says, as kai comes back, and takes a seat beside yuna and mingyu. 

"to be honest, i think it's one of our other not-so-close friends," yuna says, with full of mini oreos and cookie crumbs.

"doubt that." mingyu shakes his head. 

"true, no one is that cruel to expose any of us." jun takes another bite of his cake. 

"yeah, but not even we know these stuff, so it could be anyone at the moment," mina shrugs.

"kim ara," soonyoung blurts out in a low whisper, thinking no one would be able to hear him. 

mingyu freezes at the sound of the name, and immediately asks "what did you say soonyoung?" not taking his his gaze off the floor. he looks up again at soonyoung with a mix of anger and sadness seen in his eyes. then soonyoung said loud enough for all eight of them to hear.  

"kim ara."

at the sound of those two short words, the rest of them freeze, and a silence passed over all of them. once they realized what soonyoung had just said, they sent looks of worry and upanic towards him and glanced at mingyu, worried about what he might say next.

"it's been years, mingyu, get over it," wonwoo softly told mingyu as he rested his hand on his shoulder.

mingyu turned and looked at wonwoo in the eyes. "get over it?" he questioned him, his words barely even a whisper. 'he must be joking' he thought.

"look," wonwoo started. "she could be anywhere right now, okay? she could be well and alive in china, or she could be dead for all i know-" he got cut off by a saddened mingyu's shout.

"SHE'S NOT DEAD, WONWOO!" he cried, making everyone jump in surprise. mingyu never raises his voice, knowing that made the rest realize how much ara really meant to him. 

then in a much softer voice, mingyu continued, "she's not–" he shook his head "–dead, okay? she's in china like you said, or something, but she's not dead, alright?"

"how would you know that?" wonwoo questions him. "none of us have talked or seen her since sixth grade." he makes sure to put emphasis on the words 'sixth grade', trying to make mingyu realize that it was ridiculous to still have hope for the girl. 

"goddamnit, wonwoo!" mingyu shouted at him. "she's alive, okay? and you need to believe that! all of you need to believe that!" everyone silences, looking down at the tiled floor, trying not to show the sadness in their faces. mingyu saw mina wipe a tear off of her face, and he immediately shook his head. he turned around to focus on wonwoo, ready to hear whatever he had to say next. 

wonwoo's facial expression softens at the sight of his friend at his current state. "look, mingyu. the girl we knew with little buns in her hair in sixth grade is gone. the girl who played tag with us everyday is gone. ara, our kim ara, our best friend is gone. maybe she's dead, maybe she's not. maybe it doesn't even matter right now. look, it's just better to think that she's dead, that she's gone. after what we did to her, we're probably dead to her too. mingyu, just forget it. please?" 

mingyu just shook his head again. he moved towards the door and left, slamming the door in frustration. wonwoo froze, and after he snapped back into reality he ran after mingyu, who was running away. 

down the halls of the dorm, he could hear the sounds of whispering and murmuring around him. 

"where's mingyu going?" 
"why is wonwoo running after him?" 
"what's going on?" 
"did mingyu do something stupid?" 
"what's happening?" 
"is this about kb's last update?"

'goddamnit, stop it' wonwoo mentally told them. 

he stopped his his pace when he was meet with the sight of mingyu crying. he was sat the end of one of the staircases, tears spilling out of his eyes. wonwoo slowly walked down the long stairway and towards him. he tapped his shoulder and sighed. he took the spot beside mingyu, and tried to comfort him. 

he put his hand on mingyu's back and said "i'm sorry, mingyu. i-i didn't mean it, i'm sorry. i just wanted you to try and forget about her. s-she's probably happy right know-" he stopped and cut himself off when mingyu suddenly pulled him into a hug, holding him tight and crying into his shoulder. 

"wonwoo?" he asks, his voice cracking. 

"y-yes?" he responded, still shocked from what mingyu abruptly did. 

"i want to go back to middle school, when it was only us, and mina, and yuna, kai, soonyoung, junhui, and , i want ara there too. don't get me wrong, i love everyone with us now, but-" he paused to cry into wonwoo's shoulder more.

"sorry about your sweater," he chuckles, and wonwoo says it's nothing to worry about, before continuing.

"-but everything was so simple then, it was so simple, life was so simple, and i wish we didn't have to go through all of this-this kb dude is scaring me, and i don't like it."

"mingyu, it's okay to be scared, things will get better, i promise. we'll sort this out together, and-and we'll be happy, like in middle school. okay?" 

"okay." he responds, letting go of wonwoo. "ah, its weird to cry in front of you" 

mingyu apologizes to wonwoo multiple times about his sweater, and they start talking as if nothing happened awhile ago. 

"hey, we never finished that pun war we had two days ago" wonwoo smiles, and mingyu glares at him. "it never finishes does it?."

"well, it did but i just wanted to say that if you were a vegetable, i'm one hundred percent sure you'd be a cutecumber" mingyu cringed and playfully punched wonwoo's shoulder. they exchanged more jokes before both couldn't breath anymore. 

that was when wonwoo understood what mingyu meant about wanting to go back to middle school, back when it was simple, and anything seemed fun. 

the other six friends were all in different places in the shared dorm. kai was in the kitchen, trying to process what happened, and yuna was with her, trying to calm her down and explain why soonyoung could've mentioned her. 

"i just don't get why soonyoung would bring her up. doesn't he remember how much it hurt to see her leave us? mingyu, mina, ara, you and wonwoo literally started this group in 5th grade just to see ara leave the next year without saying anything." kai ranted. 

"kai, calm down, he just blurted this out by accident or something-" yuna was cut off by a frustrated kai.

"still, like, even you, she meant so much to you too! how are you not even mad or sad right now?" 

"oh, believe me, i am sad about this..." and yuna's voice was drowned out by the others who weren't in her current conversation with kai.

mina was sat down on the couch in the living room, staring emotionlessly at a spot on the floor. jisu and jun were right beside her, trying to get mina to talk to them but failing miserably. she mumbled something along the lines of 'i miss her', making jisu and jun sigh, then finally deciding to leave the girl alone to get cups of coffee for themselves.

"i know about the ara thing and all, but i got in this group late, so i'm really confused at the moment." jun took a sip from his hot coffee.

"so you don't know about the-no, never mind, i'll tell you some day, just not now," jisu stuttered out.

"do you think you can you tell me now?" 

"i-fine, you know how she used to trust us with her life?" jun nods.

"mingyu and yuna-you know what? not here, i won't tell you here." jisu shook her head, placing her coffee down on the coffee table in front of them.

"but-" 

"not here."

"a-alright."

soonyoung was standing at the side feeling guilty as he saw mingyu and wonwoo's fight unfold, believing that it was him to blame for even bringing up a girl's name.

the eight of them just wanted to have some fun like they did when they were in middle school. when all they did was talk about crushes and grades, family vacations and how they'd like to live together as friends until the end of time. but things don't stay the same. their friend group grew and so did their happiness and problems. 

now they're the head of the drama in their university. everyone has heard of them, everyone has opinions about them, and everyone seems to know more about them than they know themselves. 

and they hated that.

[a/n]:
this is what happens when school starts soon and you get really sad. you write a dramatic and angsty chapter. 

this turned out longer than expected, but what do expect from a sad carat who only ever reads angst????

also, out of all the girls, who's your favorite character so far???