Exams are fast approaching so he and Taeil put a temporary halt on their excursions and decided to pour their energy on studying for the prelims so they can do a big one after it. Aristotle and Dante had to be tucked away for a while, replaced by books on art history, literature, music, and visual arts. Johnny always studied ahead as he likes to keep organized notes and it always takes so much time to color-code and rewriting and around a few days before the Arts and Humanities Departmentals, he’s finished studying and all he’s left with is reviewing. He still hangs out with everyone else by the library, though, although the only ones he could seriously help were Taeil, Jaehyun, and Doyoung since he wasn’t very familiar with the curriculum of the Dance Department. Music majors and Art Majors, however, had very similar minors. But it’s not like Doyoung needs help, anyway, the guy was always much more prepared than he is. Most of his attention turns to Taeil, who seems to be frustrated with all his readings.

“Hyung,” he whispers, poking his hand as he sits right across him. “Any problem?”

“Reading,” he smiles sadly, pointing to his Art History and Literary Art books and lecture notes: words all printed tightly together. He tears a paper from his notebook and scribbles something on it, before passing it to Johnny. “I’ve been trying to finish this page for hours now.”

Johnny looks up at him and frowns, as the other goes back to his work. He huffs in frustration, trying to make sense of what he’s reading.

Suddenly, Johnny gets an idea. He reaches inside his bag for one of the unused notebooks that he carries around just in case and starts writing his notes for Art History, but now with bolder letters and wider letters, more pronounced edges and curves, and keep a certain amount of distance in between them. He writes a sentence and passes it to Taeil.

“Can you read this easier?” he whispers. Taeil looks down to read the paper and gets a certain glint in his eyes, slowly smiling. He nods, yes, and gives the paper back to Johnny.

---

It’s 2 am and Johnny’s hand starts to cramp, but he’s on the last parts of his notes for Literary Art and he really wants to finish the whole thing within the day since Taeil only had a few days left before the departmentals for Art History and L.A. The spot where the pen usually rubs against his finger has reddened from friction, but there’s no pain a blue band-aid can’t alleviate. He stretches for one more time before he starts writing again.

After a few minutes, he starts to hear something, a low groaning which makes him look around him. He tries to ignore it and continues to write, but the groaning comes back, but this time it’s louder, and eerily sound like his name. He breathes heavily, convincing himself that it’s just his tired brain telling tricks, so he forces himself to go back to writing.

However, the groaning continues, almost like a chant, and Johnny gets goosebumps, and he startles when a loud thud follows it.

Johnny… thud. It happens louder, and louder, and Johnny is just getting more and more scared, but the louder it gets, the more familiar the voice sounds like. “Johnny… come here.”

“Hyung?” Johnny calls out, identifying the voice as Taeil’s. “Hyung why are you trying to scare me?” he follows up. Thud, thud, thud. Even though he’s scared less and his heart is hammering against his chest, the fact that Taeil’s voice is calling out to him (maybe in distress, or asking for help, he should find out), he feels the need to check the sound out. So he carefully opens the door of his room, only for a sleeping Taeil to fall into his arms, failing to bump against the door. When he lands on Johnny’s arms, he starts snoring and mumbles his name a few more times before snoring again. He’s sleepwalking and sleeptalking.

“That’s cute,” he coos, trying to balance him in his arms. Since Taeil was much shorter than he is and set much narrower, it wasn’t difficult for him to wrap his arms around him, and lift him up, carrying him. Instinctively for the sleeping boy, he snuggles to Johnny’s warmth, and wraps both legs around the boy, sniffing him in the process. “Johnny…” he mumbles into the others’ neck. Johnny flushes, slowly walking out while making sure the boy wrapped around him doesn’t wake up. The door to Taeil’s door was open, and he kicked off one of his books in the process of sleepwalking, and the other kicks it aside. He gently puts the other down, who immediately snuggles against Blue, Johnny’s favorite plushie who sometimes finds refuge in the other boy’s room, and immediately starts snoring again. The taller boy leans over him, smoothing his hair and clears his face of it, smiling at Taeil’s sigh as he combs his fingers through his hair. “I know you like it when I do that,” he whispers under his breath, “But I still need to finish your notes, okay?” he sighs, then goes back to his room to finish the notes, now fairly sure there aren’t any ghosts in his apartment, just a beautiful boy who sleepwalks and sleep talks.

---

The others are still in class while he and Taeil decide to hit the books again, him reviewing, and Taeil slaving over his books, trying to make sense of the words in front of him. He finished the notebook at 4 in the morning, but now, he has no idea why he did it in the first place if he can’t manage to give it anyway. But he’s still unsure, isn’t the notebook too much of an effort? What if he figures it out? He glances at Taeil who has closed his book and has leaned back against his chair, rubbing his face in frustration. Johnny reaches for the notebook inside his bag, debating with himself the entire time. Eventually, he decided to just it and places the notebook on top of Taeil’s book. The other still had his face in his hands so he didn’t see him put it there, quickly, he puts on his headphones and blasts the l