“You ing idiot! What the hell did you do?”

In any other class during any other period, such a disorderly explosion of expletives would surely warrant detention and a severe scolding for all students involved. Yet because this was fifth period chemistry and the lab table causing the ruckus was Table 3, no one so much as batted an eyelash.

“I didn’t do anything!” Chanyeol protested, eyes wide and defensive.

Choi Haneul snarled, nearly foaming at the mouth. “What did you just say? You didn’t do anything?” She gesticulated at the flask in her lab partner’s hand. “If you didn’t do anything, Park Chanyeol, then why is our titration solution purple? It’s supposed to be orange -- for God’s sake, I don’t even know how you managed to turn it purple using the substances we’re working with!”

Chanyeol winced. “I don’t know, okay? I thought I followed the lab procedure to a T! Look, I even - oh , was I supposed to put the acid in the left burette or the right burette?”

Haneul’s hands twitched toward her lab notebook, and Chanyeol automatically ducked, having been hit over the head by the increasingly heavy book too many times since the beginning of the term.

“Don’t throw it!” Sehun dived in front of the burettes, shielding them with his body. “That’s six-molar hydrochloric acid in there, and I don’t want to end up in the nurse’s office with acid burns again!”

Partially out of pity for Sehun and partially fearing the teacher would outright fail her in the class if she accidentally shattered any more expensive glassware, Haneul relented, settling for a vicious glare instead. Ever since she was assigned to the same lab group as Park Chanyeol and Oh Sehun, her grade in Chemistry had been dropping faster than the pH of their titrated solution. Sehun wasn't so bad - sure, maybe he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but at least he could follow a basic lab procedure. Chanyeol, on the other hand, had not made it through a single lab the entire term without messing it up somehow, and for some unknown reason, Haneul’s grades were the ones suffering. Perhaps it was because the teacher blamed her for all the trouble her lab group caused, or perhaps it was because she spent so much time in class screaming at Chanyeol that she couldn’t focus on actually learning the content, but one thing was for sure: model student Choi Haneul was no longer a model student, at least not in Chemistry.

“C’mon, I’m sorry, Haneul.” Chanyeol flashed his infamous puppy eyes at her, face open and pleading. “We’ve still got another twenty minutes left of class - maybe we can fix it.”

“No, no, no,” Sehun intervened, “you’re not fixing anything, hyung. Last time you tried to ‘fix’ something, we all ended up in detention for a month.”

Rage, renewed in its intensity, rendered Haneul’s vision red at the reminder of that particular lab. On their first day as a lab group, Chanyeol had condemned them all to being the most hated students in the chemistry department that year, or potentially in the history of their school. After spilling an entire beakerful of hydrobromic acid onto the counter, Chanyeol had postulated (quite convincingly) that because strong bases and strong acids neutralized into water and a salt when combined, pouring another beakerful of strong base onto the countertop was clearly the solution. Needless to say, that particular experiment had ended very poorly.

“Well, that’s certainly an… interesting titration solution you have there, Chanyeol,” the teacher said, eyebrows arched as he peered over Sehun’s shoulder. “Shall I just put down a zero for your lab group right now and save myself the trouble of coming over to grade later in the period?”

“No!” Haneul cried, horrified at the prospect of her grade dropping even further. “Please, Mr. Do, there’s still another twenty minutes left. We’ll redo the titration and get it perfect this time!” At this, Lab Table 2 burst into poorly concealed snickers behind them.

Whipping around, Chanyeol glared. “Don’t you laugh at her. Maybe next term I’ll get assigned to your lab group,” he threatened, and they sobered immediately, turning back to their own work.

Mr. Do frowned, clearly reluctant to let this lab group use any more of his expensive chemicals. “You get one more try,” he said, holding up a single finger as if speaking to kindergarteners. “If you mess this up too, that’s it. You’ll get a zero for this lab, and that's final.

Sehun nodded. “Yes sir. I promise we won’t let Chanyeol anywhere near the solutions this time.” Looking like he was already regretting his offer, Mr. Do heaved a sigh and turned to Haneul.

“You’d better keep an eye on the two of them, Haneul. I don’t know why your grades have been slipping so much lately, but I still trust you more than I do these two.”

Haneul nodded, but internally she scoffed. He knows exactly why my grades have been slipping. It’s because I’ve been put in a group with a lab partner straight out of hell!

“Chanyeol, go wash out the burettes,” she ordered, taking the ruined solution from him and pouring it into the waste flask. “And Sehun, you go get more of the acid; we’re out.”

“Hell, no. No more acid for me!” Sehun crossed his arms. “I’ve already been burned once this term. You go get the acid this time.”

“Are you serious?” Haneul gave him the stink eye. Sehun returned it stubbornly.

She groaned. “Fine. Don't let Chanyeol touch anything while I'm gone. I'll be back in a minute.”

The moment she left the table, Chanyeol abandoned the burettes in the sink and latched onto Sehun’s arm. “Sehun, please -”

“No!”

“But -”

“I said no!”

“But -”

“Look hyung, I don't care how much you like this girl, I'm not risking my grade in this class just so you can try and fail to impress her with your nonexistent lab skills!”

“Shhhh,” Chanyeol hissed, eyes darting around nervously. “You can't just say it out loud like that, Sehun!”

The younger boy looked bored. “I've been watching you try to make her like you all term, and you're failing pretty miserably, hyung.”

“That's exactly why I need you to let me do something simple,” Chanyeol stressed. “Let me do something really easy that I can't possibly mess up so I can get back on her good side.”

“I don't think you were ever on her good side.”

“Oh come on, please, Sehun! I won't stop annoying you until you let me.” His friend shot him a horrified look.

“Blackmail!”

“Pleeeease.” Chanyeol used his whiniest, most annoying wheedle. Sehun groaned.

“Fine, fine, if it'll make you shut up. When she comes back with the acid and fills up the burettes, turn the stopcock on the left burette so it's horizontal.”

Chanyeol blinked. “That's it?”

“You asked for something you couldn't mess up,” Sehun said, deadpan. “That's about as simple as it gets.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Haneul, back from the supply counter, eyed the two boys suspiciously, clutching the acid to her chest like a baby.

“Nothing,” Sehun fibbed. “Hurry up, class is going to end soon if we don't work faster.”

She stared at the two of them for a moment longer before giving up. “Alright, whatever. I need to pour the acid into the burette now, so someone hold the stopcock closed while I do that.”

Sehun directed a pointed stare at Chanyeol. “Yeah, we got it.”

I'm ready! Chanyeol thought, lightheaded with giddiness. I'm going to do something right for once, and we’re going to titrate this correctly, and Haneul’s going to love me because I'll save her Chemistry grade!

Haneul clipped the burette in place vertically, leaving one hand below it, aligned the lip of the beaker to the top of the burette, and slowly tipped the beaker. Simultaneously, Chanyeol flipped the stopcock so it was parallel to the rest of the burette.

“Wait -” Sehun grabbed for the stopcock, but it was too late. Acid gushed down the burette and straight through the open stopcock, landing directly onto Haneul’s hand.

Chanyeol shrieked, letting go of the stopcock. “Oh my God! I'm so sorry! I got nervous and I blanked and forgot which way was horizontal, and , is your hand burning off yet oh my God I spilled acid on you Haneul are you going to die are you -”

“Just shut up!” Haneul screeched, already holding her hand under the tap. “God, you really don't pay attention in class, huh?”

Chanyeol blanked. Eh?

Mr. Do, who had been observing nearby precisely because he expected something like this to happen, sighed. “You've been watching too many movies, Chanyeol. Acids don't burn your skin that fast, even strong ones. Haneul washed it off pretty fast, so she’ll live. The burn will probably start peeling and itching in a few days, but for now just take her to the nurse, will you?”

“But my lab grade, Mr. Do,” Haneul protested from the sink. The teacher rubbed at his temples, probably questioning his career choices.

“Just go!”

“Sehun, what do I do?” Chanyeol wailed, pacing outside the nurse’s office like an overgrown puppy waiting for its owner.

The tall blonde shrugged, eyes trained on the game he was playing on his phone. “Curl up in a ball and die? Cry your eyes out and eat tubs of ice cream until you puke? Get plastic surgery and show up at school devastatingly handsome so you can charm her off her feet?”

“Something helpful, Sehun. I already am devastatingly handsome; no plastic surgery is needed.”

“Just give up on her! I don't get why you like her so much anyway,” his friend complained. “She's not that pretty, and she's super bossy and uptight. Not to mention, she thinks you're really stupid, and she's not afraid to say it. All she cares about is her grade in that class.”

Chanyeol whirled upon him, pointing a finger in accusation. “Liar! Blasphemist! Scoundrel! Haneul is perfection! So what if she cares a lot about her grades? Good for her - education is important, and I respect her for sticking to that principle!”

“Yeah, education is important to her, and you're standing between her and getting into a good college,” Sehun said distractedly, mashing at a button on his screen. “In case you haven't noticed, she's been so preoccupied screaming at you for messing up our labs that she hardly pays attention in class anymore. I saw her checking her grades the other day, and she's pretty close to failing Chemistry now.”

Chanyeol drooped. “Really? Am I that much of a nuisance to her?”

Sehun snorted. “Hell, yeah. I've been telling you that since the day I figured out you liked her. And don’t forget about me. I've been suffering at your hands too, remember?”

Chanyeol didn't respond, too deep in his own thoughts, not even looking up when Haneul emerged from the nurse’s office. He knew what he had to do now, but he had a feeling his academic advisor wasn't going to like it.

“Did you hear? Park Chanyeol dropped out of Chemistry -- three days before the end of the term! He was so close to finishing half of the course, but now he's probably going to have to go to summer school to retake all of it!”

“I know! I almost cried with relief when I heard. I was terrified he was going to be assigned to my lab group next term. He might be a nice guy, but wow, that boy is a walking disaster when it comes to labs.”

Haneul slammed her lunch tray down on the table, tuning out the girls chattering away at the table next to hers.

“Well hello there, Little Miss Sunshine,” her friend remarked, moving her textbooks to make room for Haneul. “What, are you still grumpy you don't have anyone to flirt with in Chemistry anymore?”

“I wasn't flirting with anyone!” Haneul dropped her backpack with a thud. “I'm just upset because today, Sehun said Chanyeol dropped Chem because he felt like he was burdening me.”

“Well, he was,” Soojung said. “You were always going on about him ruining your reputation as a model student.”

“Yes, but - that's not the point! I don't like being the reason someone has to take summer classes!” She slammed her hands on the table for effect. “He was almost halfway done with the entire course, and now he's going to have to start all over again because of me.”