I returned to my room after talking to an extremely stressed out Mingyu, only to see an equally if not more stressed out Hyeyoung. The girl had her head buried in her notes, typing away to some form of essay. On her table, a half-eaten sandwich lay untouched. The tea in her cup looked stale and cold. 

"You alright?" I asked cautiously, knowing that she really wasn't. She hadn't been okay ever since she found out her marks for one of her midterms. The two of them were stressed for such conflicting reasons that I had no idea how to help them reconcile anymore. 

"Not really, but I'm working on it," she mumbled without looking up from her screen. 

Good luck with this Mingyu. Doesn't sound like she would be alright any time soon. 

I quietly approached her desk to clear up the piling food and trash mixed with her notes. She looked up briefly, casting me a grateful look before turning to type away again. I played out the options in my head - I could interrupt her work and tell her about Mingyu, or I could leave her to the depths of her working hell. Okay, maybe the second one was not really an option. For the better of both Mingyu and my roommate, giving her up to the stress of her work was not ideal. 

"I met Mingyu just now." I said, feigning nonchalance. Hyeyoung stopped her rapid typing, and let out a deep sigh. I would have expected her to either ignore me or look up curiously. Anything but a defeated sigh like this. The change in subject clearly disconcerted her. She swiveled around in her chair to face me, a trace of worry lining her pursed lips, which she bit on nervously. 

"Did he mention anything about me?" 

Well he mentioned ONLY you. 

"Yes, he did." I replied simply, sensing the matter might be a lot worse than just a misunderstanding over his hairdo or her recluse during the test season. It was something awkward, something misplaced and that was confusing both of them immensely. 

"Was he mad?" 

"Wait, what?" 

She looked at me, almost too determined to get her message across. "Was he mad when he talked about me?" 

"Of course not! If anything, he was only worried about you." She seemed surprised by my answer, as I equally was by her reaction. I tugged my knees close to my chest as I sat at my table, waiting for her to offer an explanation. 

"I haven't been talking to him much over the past week..." Okay, got that from the other half already, "and our last few study dates did not go that well." Alright, the statements corroborate, and now I'm stuck in the position of who to side with. The only thing I was certain was that both of them felt deeply apologetic in some way or another. The girl before me had always been the sort to isolate herself in a study bubble whenever the stress hit her, and it was just unfortunate that my dear friend had to feel the impact before understanding it. 

I decided to test the waters, "well, did you guys get into an argument over something trivial during your study date or something?" Definitely trivial. Mingyu's hair and his sometimes questionable and sloppy fashion? DEFINITELY TRIVIAL. To me, at least. 

"To him, maybe. But I can't help but feel bad. I know he's worried about me during this period, and so he's been extra kind. Like delivering milk to me, asking me out for study dates rather than to play...But whenever we go to cafes, he always recommends this frap that he absolutely loves. But I just...well I hate coffee. And I can't help but feel that his disappointed gaze everytime I turn down his recommendations on the menu, from the latte Minghao likes, to the Cappucino that you introduced to him once."

It was then that she started sobbing a little, and I had to pull her into a hug to reassure her that everything was alright. It was clear that her tears were motivated by a lot more things accumulated over the weeks, from academics to Mingyu, to whatever deprecating thoughts she had been feeding herself while typing away on her laptop day and night. 

"Trust me, the Mingyu I know? He doesn't care. If he recommended those - well, he just wants to share the good memories he had with you. Nothing big." 

She coughed lightly into my shoulders, trying to stifle her gasps in between her sobs. "Really?"  

"Yep. I can guarantee you that. In fact, he thought he ruined the dates due to his hair."

She pulled herself away from me for a second. "Really?"

"Yes, he told me that." I winked at her,