Juggling the fun of organising a secret birthday party with final exams was, well, tiring. Mingyu had the privilege of having Vernon relay all of our plans to him at night, but I basically visited Vernon almost every other day to study and discuss the ideas. Eventually being lazy college students, as we rightfully were, we just focused on studying and cramming the last bit of knowledge into our hurting brains. The worst was trying to keep the secret from Minghao everytime I met him to give him his extra class. On the bright side though, the test was putting his mind off other negative thoughts. With Jun boosting his morale at work (Minghao told me Jun had recently started telling him Mandarin jokes and dancing a bit in the kitchen to put a smile on his face) and me helping him along with his work, Minghao was a lot more eager about bringing the test down in the upcoming week. 

On the other hand, a certain giant was very distracted. Or rather, he wished he could be distracted. With the impending pressure of the finals, Hyeyoung had decided to shut herself in our room again, poring through her notes and typing away furiously to finish her last assignments. Since I was out so much anyway, I had decided to give my room up in the day for him to occupy and study with her, but apparently because he was disturbing her so much in between his study breaks, she ultimately kicked him out. And so Mingyu was left to crash some of Minghao and my study sessions, or otherwise left to study alone. Three days before our actual test, the boys were so sick of stuffing Linguistic rules into their minds that they seemed on the verge of tearing the pages of their notes off. Even Vernon could be seen trying to sneak his homework behind the cashier. He was a computing major, so he had to complete a number of code-related assignments. He was so stressed that the banana milk and juices were permanently out of stock, since he was binging on them during his work. 

"Ta-da!" 

Mingyu and Minghao looked up simultaneously from their work to see me holding on to four tickets for the bazaar near school. Just two days ago, these roommates had been complaining about how the dates clashed with their exams. And here I was, waving the four tickets in their faces.

"How about a night off?" 

Mingyu pulled me into an excited embrace, despite the stares in the library. "You're the best Sooyoon," he whispered. What a giant baby. I made a mental note to talk to him about physical distance one day. This was getting unhealthy. Minghao smiled slightly, and agreed in the trip too. 

"Who's the last ticket for?" 

***

Vernon was already rocking on the balls of his feet waiting for us at the entrance. Wrapped in a scarf and new jacket that his mum got him, his nose was already red from standing out in the open on a cold November evening. 

"Any longer and I'll be frozen."

We each gave Vernon a brief hug, before I grabbed his shoulder and dragged him into the fair together, with Mingyu the kid leading the way. 

The bazaar was rather international, which made it double the fun compared to the local ones we went to. We went past a couple stalls of Spanish ice cream and French crepes, which Minghao and Vernon were surprisingly excited about. Minghao spared no thoughts in getting a tower of ice cream (12 scoops) for all of us to share, which made no sense to me because it was really cold and we were all huddled together for a reason. 

"Ice cream is the best thing in winter," Vernon said almost too seriously. 

"You said that during summer too," Mingyu piped in. 

"Food is for any season," Minghao said as he nudged me to try the pistachio flavour on top. It was good. The boys laughed as they watched how astonished I was to find eating ice cream in winter enjoyable. Within ten minutes, the ice cream had disappeared, which was a personal record for all of us. Of course, Mingyu and Vernon had also managed to buy two crepes, two bars of Belgian chocolate, a small pack of Australian nougat and some fortune cookies all within those ten minutes of trying to finish the ice cream. 

Food was not the only thing at the bazaar. Mingyu was now boasting to Vernon and Minghao about how great he was at the various games they had there, which were quite similar to those in local amusement parks and funfairs. He recalled the time both of us scored fantastic scores and prizes together, including the giant teddy bear that was now residing in my room, on my roommate's bedside. Right, I forgot about that epic day at the amusement park. I pulled my jacket closer to myself as I felt a slight chill passing through me. Mingyu went on detailing about how he taught me all the tricks that day, before Minghao finally stuffed the last bit of crepe onto his open mouth. Vernon, meanwhile, took out his beanie and shoved it on my head, "cover your ears, it's getting chillier." We placed our arms around each other, and continued through the crowded bazaar.

Eventually Mingyu did put his words into action. Demonstrating his affinity for funfair games,