It’s a busy night for The Owl.

Aptly named because they’re open from 6 am until 2 am, this café is a favorite among students, including Jungeun. The place is large enough, the atmosphere is conducive to learning, and they serve the best coffee while also providing small but quieter rooms upstairs for people really dedicated to cramming.

Which is exactly why Jungeun chose this place for Kahei’s treat, a week after the fair.

“Did you really have to add three shots? You already had three cups of coffee before I came! At this point you’ll be dead before you submit your poems to Haseul,” Kahei whispered to Jungeun.

She knows the girl is very dedicated to the Writing Club, but she also knows the thin border between dedication and burnout.

“Are you listening to me? If you can’t finish writing them because of exams I can tell Haseul about it. She’ll understand,” She whispered once again, this time, grabbing the other girl’s attention.

“No way. You’ve all done your part to help by pushing through the Message booth and submitting your stories. Besides, I only need, like, uh… ”

The older girl started collecting her things and sighed in defeat. “I know you just don’t want to disappoint Haseul, but --”

“I only need ten more poems. Sad ones. And I’m done. I can do it. And it’s only Monday. She doesn’t need it until Friday. I need to do this for her so she could stop worrying about our club,” replied Jungeun.

Obviously unconvinced, Kahei left Jungeun after taking her frappe and wishing her good luck, leaving the desperate girl alone with her books, laptop, and her writer’s block.

Oh boy, I only have one brain cell left.

Jungeun continued to rack her brain for prompts and ideas for another hour when Jinsoul greeted her.

“Wow, you really are working so hard, aren’t you?” the confident girl sat down in front of her, eyeing the four cups of coffee on the table.

“Thanks, but I’m not really getting anything done here,” Jungeun sighed.

She looked up from her laptop to meet Jinsoul’s eyes. She was surprised to see her looking right at her, with her chin resting on her hands.

Jungeun looked away shyly, wondering why Jinsoul was sitting right in front of her looking like a stunner while she sat there in her hoodie and shorts with dark circles under her eyes.

“You know Jinsoul I’m kind of busy here. I need all the time I have left until midnight so—“

“If you’re studying for tomorrow’s exam we can study together so I could help you stay awake. It’s only 8 o’clock, you can’t order another coffee when you’ve already had so many.”

Jungeun could only nod. She’d been up since 5 am and hasn’t taken a nap since, with all the caffeine running in her system. A study buddy should help her stay up for another four hours.

“Stay here, I’ll get my things,” Jinsoul flashed her a smile.

“Why is she suddenly being nice to me?” Jungeun wondered to herself. She knows they kissed once last week, and remembers every single detail of it, which is why she feels stiff towards the other girl. She hasn’t been able to focus properly on her revisions for a full week. Every day she sees Jinsoul, she finds herself relieving the whole scene in her head. This girl talks to just anyone at class when she feels like it, but Jungeun secretly wished she’d about it so she’d know if she’s not the only one who remembers.

A couple of minutes later, Jinsoul placed her study materials on Jungeun’s table and put her bag under the chair. Then a waiter arrived with Jinsoul’s order of two cups of milk.

“I didn’t expect you to like milk,” Jungeun said, shooting Jinsoul with an intriguing look.

“What can I say? A girl needs her calcium every day. And I can easily stay up if I want to, so I don’t really drink coffee.”

The two went back to doing their own work for another hour when Jinsoul broke the silence.

“Hey, so I’m gonna start asking you with the sample questions in the book to see if you’ve got it down by now. About chapter seven—”

“Wait, wait, wait! I haven’t read anything about—“

“What the actual are you doing then?”

Jungeun took a sharp breath.

“It’s this thing for the Writing Club. I need to write ten more poems so we could start printing our chapbook,” she tells her, sighing in defeat.

Jinsoul put her book down and continued to press Jungeun about the issue.

“Remember when the seniors released a chapbook last year? Anyway, those were actually full of subversive pieces we wrote about a professor