Jae slumps on to the cafeteria table, cheek against the cold surface as he whines. 

"What's wrong with him?" Sungjin says as he approaches their table, looking to Wonpil and Dowoon for answers,

"I'm not gonna graduate," Jae replies, reply slightly muffled by his pout,

"Relax Jae, you have a week!" Wonpil comforts, amused at his friend's seemingly approaching demise.

"I don't have a week I have 5 days and that's including today! Have fun at grad guys, I'll watch from the back,"

"Why wouldn't you graduate?" Sungjin asks, sitting down beside Wonpil and taking off his hoodie to reveal he was in uniform just in case the annoying monitors were to scold him. Jae shows him the pink paper he got in first period,

"Jae didn't know you needed community hours to graduate," Dowoon explains, and Sungjin snorts,

"That's your fault, sorry man," Jae sits up and scowls at Sungjin,

"No one told me!"

"And yet everyone else seemed to know," Sungjin replies when Jae goes back to sulking as Brian makes his way to their table, sitting down beside Jae,

"What's up with him?"

"Bri!" Jae smiles, looking at him with expectant eyes,

"Please tell me I'm not the only one who didn't know about community hours," he looks at his best friend. Brian looks at Jae, then at the 3 other boys before shrugging,

"What community hours?" and Jae lets out a sigh of relief,

"Knew I could count on you, Bri Bri," he says.

"Do you guys share a brain, like is that how best friends work?" Sungjin muses,

"That would mean you share one with all of us," Dowoon points out,

"Just you and Wonpil 'cause we got our hours in. I don't claim those 2," he replies as he takes a bite of his lunch. Brian leans back in his chair,

"Why the Hell would they remind graduates 4 days before the 40 are due?!" Jae says,

"You use the term graduate so freely, Jae," Sungjin teases and Jae throws the wrinkled up pink paper, hitting the boy on top of his shaved head as his expression darkens while Wonpil and Dowoon laugh. 

"That was your diploma leaving your grasp." Sungjin comments calmly after picking it up off the ground, and Wonpil snorts while Dowoon starts coughing on his sip of water, Wonpil points out,

"To be fair, they sent those reminders on Friday,"

"I wasn't here Friday,"

"That's not the school's fault," and Jae scoffs, offended his friends aren't more of an emotional support at the moment.

"Bri, what're we gonna do? We're not gonna graduate, I already spent money applying for unis, my parents are gonna-"

"Relax, Jae," Brian says, amused,

"We have 'till Friday, right? Easy, let's just do everything this week. No hanging out with you guys this week, sorry," he looks to Sungjin, Dowoon and Wonpil, 

"Where do we even get hours?" Jae asks, and Brian thinks for a few seconds before getting up,

"Let's go,"

"Where? Volunteer?" and his best friend laughs,

"Not yet, we gotta find places first, so let's go," and Jae gets up,

"We'll see you guys later!" Brian says, and swings an arm around Jae's shoulders,

"Good luck," and Jae turns,

"That was the first supportive thing you've said since you got here."

Sungjin throws the same pink piece of paper at Jae, and he catches it,

"Hah, you missed!" he says, tongue stuck out like a child,

"Read it, idiot," and Jae listens, seeing an address,

"They're pretty generous with hours if you're nice," Sungjin says, eyes on his food before taking another bite and Jae gives him a cheeky smile,

"Thanks Sungjin!" and Brian laughs because Sungjin doesn't respond,

"Thanks!" and they exit the cafeteria.

"Ridiculous." Sungjin whispers,

"And yet you gave them the place you got your hours," Wonpil points out with a cute smile,

"Well, think about it in the long run. If both of them don't graduate, they'll just be annoying once we start uni, non-stop complaining, so I was just doing future me a favour." 

Dowoon scoffs,

"Why can't you just admit you wanted to help them and continue eating your lunch?"

"I wanted to help myself." he corrects and Wonpil nudges him with his elbow with an amused laugh.

"Wait Bri," Jae says as they're already almost at the guidance office,

"I didn't eat yet,"

"What, why not? I was late to lunch,"

"I was too busy sulking," and Brian rolls his eyes before going into his bag and pulling out a bun, tossing it to Jae,

"Eat that for now, I'll get you something after we figure out a gameplan, okay?"

"What flavour?"

"Edible, now shh, it's the mean one working today,"

"Edible? What the-" and Brian pushes the bun into Jae's mouth, muffling the profanity as he opens the door to the office,

"Hi Miss," Brian greets with a polite smile,

"Can I help you?"

"Do you know where the community hours forms are?" and she points to the basket that has a sign written, her expression clearly unamused.

"Oh sorry, didn't see that," he says and grabs some forms,

"One more question," and she looks up from her keyboard,

"Is there a list of places we could possibly volunteer at?"

"On a board near the attendance office,"

"Okay, tha-"

"Do you need help finding that too?" she cuts off and Brian pauses, Jae looking at his best friend, who just smiles,

"No, I'm good. Thank you," and exits with Jae in tow

"How did that help us?" Jae asks, pocketing a bite in his cheek,

"We need these to submit hours. And now, we go to the bulletin board, which should be right..." Brian walks, making a left at the crossroad of hallways as Jae continues eating,

"Here," and he tells Jae to hurry up,

"This is actually pretty good, is this red bean?"

"Yes," Brian answers with an amused smile,

"Okay, let's plan." he says and Jae looks to the bulletin board,

"Woah, a lot of places,"

"Which is perfect for us!" Brian says, eyes darting around the board to find suitable volunteer opportunities,

"Did you make this?"

"Jae, can you focus?" he asks, laughing as Jae immediately puts the bun down and begins looking around the board,

"No, I bought it." he answers and goes back to looking.

"Okay, great this is something we can do today," Brian says, pointing to a piece of paper,

"We'll do this after school,"

"Bri, are we gonna get enough hours in time? We got 5 days, including today, and 40 hours to complete. That's 7 hours per day, and that's after school,"

"We'll worry about that burning bridge if we get to it, for now," Brian replies, tapping Jae's back in comfort,

"Free up your week. We got to graduate, Park!" and he pushes the paper on to Jae's chest,

"I gotta get to music, I'll see you after school, yeah?"

Jae reads the paper and smiles,

"Okay," is all he says as he thinks about how well Brian actually knows him, watching Brian walk down the hall before he halts to an abrupt stop and makes his way back, slipping Jae some money,

"Get yourself lunch," he says and Jae just accepts the money, slightly shocked because the bun was satisfactory.

"I ate the bun though," Jae points out as Brian's already back to walking,

"I said I'd get you a proper lunch, but I forgot I had a music thing, so just get something!" he replies, walking backwards so he can show Jae a dashing smile and Jae says a,

"Thanks!" and Brian nods with a wink. Jae ends up buying something for the both of them, making a mental note of remembering to give it to Brian after school.

JJ: there's like no one here

Bri Bri: i'll be there in 5, just hiding my bass in a practice room lol

JJ: no i meant besides Ms. Yoo

Bri Bri: who dat

JJ: the friggin librarian bri

Bri Bri: oh LOL my bad ok 

Bri Bri: i'm surprised you guys aren't on a first name basis 

JJ: just hurry up 

Bri Bri: imma moonwalk there dw

JJ:  JUST COME I WANNA GRADUATE

"Wow, you really pout when you shift to caps," Brian says and Jae looks up from his phone as his best friend enters the library.

"How come no one's here?"

"If we didn't need these hours, would you be here?" and he looks at Jae,

"Right. You would," and Jae shoots him a wink,

"I usually am here, waiting for you to finish band so we can go home together,"

"We've been over this, you could easily just take the bus,"

"But why do that when my best friend drives?" and Brian scoffs,

"You can drive too!"

"But I don't have a car!"

"Wow. You use me for my car?"

"Duh, what else do you have to offer?" 

"You know what, fine, have fun doing victory lap," and Jae grabs his arm,

"C'mon, you need to graduate too," he says and Brian mocks him with his tongue stuck out.

"Oh, Jaehyung!" Ms. Yoo greets as she's passing by with a few books,

"Hi Miss!" he says with a smile and pulls out the piece of paper from his pocket and Brian snorts, leaning in and whispering,

"You stole that off the board?"

"What, you gave it to me,"

"To read. I thought you were gonna stick it back on the board," he says, laughing at the end as Jae pouts,

"Oh, you boys are here to help me out?"

"Yes," Brian says,

"Perfect, could use some extra hands, today especially!" she says as she gestures towards the mess of books near the computers,

"Woah, what happened?" Jae asks,

"Some kids were rough housing inside and knocked over the shelf," she explains,

"And no one offered to help you clean up?" Brian says, eyes narrowed in irritation,

"I kicked everyone out before I could explode," she replies with a sweet smile that makes Brian laugh,

"Oh so that's why no one's here," Jae comments,

"Yes, but I didn't mind you because you're Jaehyung," she says,

"Miss, if you're busy, you can leave this to us," Brian informs,

"Are you sure? I can help,"

"Your desk is looking a little busy, if you don't mind me observing," Brian points out and she laughs,

"Well then, thank you boys in advance." and she walks off, leaving the 2 with a huge mess before them.

"Should we start with the shelf?"

"Yeah, let's just move these out of the way first," and the boys push the various books,

"Miss, at least it fell this way, huh? Would've been horrible if it set off like dominos," Jae comments and Ms. Yoo nods,

"I think I would've had a breakdown if it did," and Jae laughs.

"So, we just lift this," Jae says, squatting down to grab part of the shelf,

"Jae, leave it,"

"Hm?"

"I'll do it,"

"Bri, it's heavy,"

"Nah, it's not," Brian assures as he's already lifting from the middle,

"Oop," he says and Jae thinks he's stuck so he moves to help him,

"Jae, your foot, I don't wanna crush it," he says with light laughter as he manages to get the shelf back up,

"I could've helped," Jae says with a pout, and Brian laughs, patting his back,

"Not with that lifting posture. You would've destroyed your back,"

"I did exactly what you did!"

"Nope, if you did, I wouldn't have asked you to step back," and Jae gives up arguing.

"Let's arrange these first and then we'll shelve them," Jae suggests, sitting down amongst the books and Brian sits beside him, crossing his legs as he looks around,

"These are a lot of books." he comments,

"Perfect to accumulate some hours," Jae says and starts looking at the spines of the various paperbacks and hard covers.

Jae usually spends a lot of time in the library, loves being surrounded by the stories that seem to be neverending. The time waiting for Brian to finish band always sped by when Jae was immersed in an interesting narration, new adventure, the undoing of an antagonist or the simple conversation of characters. 

"Oh Bri," he says, eyes still on the back of the book as Brian looks up, moving closer to Jae to see what he's talking about,

"I loved this one," Jae says, as he shows Brian the cover,

"The Namesake?" Brian reads,

"Mhm," he smiles,

"The loose sentences were really satisfying to read. Struggle of identity, real subtle but highly relatable, you know?" Jae looks at Brian with a small smile,

"Sorry, I don't know why I'm telling you-"

"No, tell me about the books you've read. I'm curious as to what you do while I'm at band," Brian tells him, and gives him a fond smile.

"If you see any books or even authors you like, talk about them," and Jae nods,

"It's eerily quiet, I can hear Miss typing," he whispers and Jae laughs.

The library is both naturally and artificially illuminated. The large windows and wide skylight allows for lots of sunlight to enter. As the room grows golden and the artificial lights become more prominent, Jae talks about books he's read. Brian listens with his chin in the palm of his hand, with interest, because he loves the way Jae talks about the plot, characters, conflict. The classic plot graph has nothing on the way Jae speaks about the , the tension, the way he himself was invested in the story. Brian likes the way Jae sometimes got carried away and ended up ranting about how likeable the antagonist was, rambling on about how interesting the plot was. He likes getting to know Jae through the novels he's read, and he pictures his best friend sitting on one of the bean bags and not minding waiting for Brian because he loves the stories he gets to read while he does. He also likes the way Jae leans on the book shelf behind them, leg bent to prop up his elbow as he uses his hands to explain some books, the setting sun coming from the window making him appear soft and warm. Brian likes it, he acknowledges with a small smile as Jae's reading him the synopsis. 

They've been there for what's approaching 2 hours and they've finally organized the books, Jae knowing the filing rules, so they're now just placing them back on the shelf.

"Oh Bri," Jae says, as they're finishing up,

"Hm?" and he walks to Jae,

"Leonard Cohen?" he reads from the back and immediately starts singing Hallelujah and Jae smiles, ignoring the flutter of his heart when Brian sings,

"He's a great musician,"

"His poems are beautiful too." and Jae turns the book to show him the title, a collection of poems.

"I really enjoyed reading these," he says,

"Reminded me of you," he comments quietly but Brian's close enough to hear,

"Is it 'cause he's Canadian?" Brian jokes,

"You went to school in Toronto for elementary, calm down," Jae says with a laugh.

"What was your favourite one?"

"Oh, let me find it,"

"You had an immediate answer, kind of impressive," Brian says as Jae starts flipping through pages,

"I was torn between 2," he answers as he finds one of them,

"This was one of them. The Reason I Write," Jae says and Brian nods,

"The reason I write 

is to make something as beautiful as you are" he reads the first 2 lines with a small smile, as if he sympathizes with it, and that causes Brian to smile too.

"You should read them sometime," he says and Brian thinks for a bit before taking the book out of Jae's hand,

"I will, tonight. Let's finish up, hm?" he prompts, placing the book on a nearby table and they finish organizing the shelf.

"Thank you, boys!" Ms. Yoo says, 

"No problem, Miss," Jae assures and Brian takes out their forms, having kept Jae's with him too.

"Oh, Miss, I'm signing this out," Brian says, placing the Leonard Cohen book on the desk and she scans it with an,

"Of course," and Brian also gives her his school ID that she scans,

"Jaehyung would read this a lot," she says as she hands the book back,

"Ah, I assume he's read a lot while waiting for me," he replies, looking at Jae with a smile,

"Oh, you're the one he waits for!"

"Only because he wants to hitch a ride,"

"I've saved lots of money with patience and good books,"

"And a best friend that doesn't charge you for gas money,"

"We're a street apart,"

"It's still gas." and Ms. Yoo laughs,

"So, are you boys getting in some last minute hours?" she says as she receives the forms from Brian and taking out a binder,

"Yes. Definitely last minute,"

"They're due this Friday, right?"

"Mhm," and she nods as she fills in Jae's form,

"Yeah, we're trying to-" his eyes go wide,

"Miss."

"Hm?" she looks up from the paper,

"Why did you add that many hours?" Jae says, referring to the 20 she just wrote in ink, and she looks at him, almost confused herself,

"What do you mean?"

"We were only here for like 2, maybe 3 if you want to really stretch and round up," and he laughs,

"Yeah, today." 

"Huh?"

"Throughout the semester you've helped me out while waiting, I kept track," she says and Jae's jaw drops in shock as she points out the binder,

"When I remembered to, at least," she adds, smiling and Jae pouts and threatens to tear up,

"Jaehyung, are you okay-"

"He's a softie, sorry," Brian excuses with an amused smile,

"Oh yeah, I know. Sometimes I caught him sniffling with a tragedy in his hand,"

"Stop bonding over my emotions," Jae says and they all laugh,

"I figured you would come collect your hours at some point, didn't realize you would wait 'till the week it was due," and Jae laughs, reflecting on the fact that he didn't know about volunteering until this morning.

"Wait Miss," 

"Yes?"

"Do you think you could split that 20 between the 2 of us?" Jae asks and Brian shakes his head, quickly denying,

"No, it's-"

"Honestly, we didn't know about hours, so we're trying to get our 40 before Friday," Jae explains, and Ms. Yoo nods while Brian's still trying to reject the division,

"Oh," she says and looks at Brian, concluding he's a good kid,

"I can do that,"

"No, Miss, it's okay, Jae earned those, I'm perfectly fine with the 2 or 3 or whatever you decide to give me,"

"Bri, you need to graduate too,"

"Not using your hours,"

"But if we split it-"

Brian extends his fist and Jae almost immediately accepts the challenge of rock, paper, scissors, which usually determines their bickers they can't settle themselves. Brian wins with a snicker and Jae groans, throwing his head back as he whines about how it wasn't fair because he wasn't ready. It amuses Ms. Yoo, so she offers,

"How about I give Jae 17 and Brian 7? Compromise?" she suggests,

"Wait where'd the extra 2 come from?"

"My heart, because you boys don't have that long to get 40 hours," she replies and Jae laughs.

"See Miss, this is why you're my favourite," he says, leaning on her desk and she laughs as she signs off their forms. 

The boys accept their forms, Brian repeatedly saying thank you and Jae says it multiple times as well, and they exit the library, stopping by the music room to pick up Brian's bass, and as they're in the room, they talk about the plan for tomorrow.

"Let's pass by the bulletin board again, maybe?" Jae suggests as they're leaving the room and Brian nods before snapping his fingers,

"Actually, I have an idea," he says,

"I'm scared," and Brian scoffs,

"It was my idea to volunteer at the library and look how great that turned out,"

"It turned out great because I was there throughout the semester,"

"And that is because you wait for me, so it all comes back to me,"

"Ridiculous," Jae says, shaking his head as he laughs as they exit the school, walking to Brian's car,

"You've only spent a total of 20 hours there?"

"I've spent a total of 20 hours helping her," Jae corrects, sitting down,

"Put on your seatbelt," Brian reminds as Jae is already do so,

"I've definitely spent longer there this semester, ever since you started having practice 3 times a week,"

"I'll skip this week, 'cause we!" he looks to Jae as he turns the key, starting the car,

"Have to graduate, my friend."

"That we do," Jae says, laughing.

"Oh, here," Jae says once he remembers, grabbing the bun and milk from his bag,

"What's that?"

"I ate your bun earlier, so I got you this," 

"With my money?" and Jae nods, proudly,

"Hey, at least I got you the melon milk you like,"

"Oh did you? Can you open it and-" Jae already has the straw in the carton and extends his arm to allow Brian to drink without taking his hands off the wheel or eyes off the road.

"Thank you," Brian says, with a giddy smile and Jae starts opening the bun, feeding Brian in intervals.

They're almost home, jamming to the radio when Jae asks,

"Wait, so what's the plan tomorrow?"

"You'll see, just bring your guitar,"

"My guitar?" Jae repeats, and Brian nods with a smile and increases the radio volume before Jae can protest.

He drops Jae off at home, making sure he gets inside safely before getting home less than a minute later.

Bri Bri: home!

He texts Jae habitually, knowing Jae always tells him to text him when he's home. Despite just living on the next street over, Jae still liked knowing Brian arrived safely.

JJ: okay! thank you for today Bri

Bri Bri: of course ;D 

Bri Bri: don't forget Mery

JJ: wow you remember her name??

Bri Bri: yeah because i couldnt believe you didn't name your guitar after me

JJ: ???

JJ: i've said this before. WHY would i do that?

Bri Bri: cause i helped you choose the model!

JJ: YOU DID NOT

Bri Bri: YES I DID

JJ: YOU SAYING YES TO ME SAYING 'isn't she pretty?' IS NOT THE SAME AS CHOOSING

Bri Bri: okay anyway (:

Bri Bri: don't forget

JJ: you're annoying, i won't forget

and Brian laughs as they continue texting.

It's late at night, Jae's about to sleep, just doing one more social media check before putting his phone on his nightside table and sleeping. His phone buzzes and he squints to read the message from Brian,

Bri Bri: Owning Everything is beautiful 

and Jae smiles, because that was the other one he was torn between. 

JJ: ikr?

JJ: are you still reading?

Bri Bri: mhm

Bri Bri: some of these are really short

Bri Bri: and its like spaced out weird LOL

JJ: structure is purposeful, bri!

Bri Bri: are you sure

Bri Bri: cause in some of them, it just looks like the person typing passed out on the spacebar

Jae snorts, 

Bri Bri: and just didn't bother to edit it lmfao

JJ: i hate you

Bri Bri: good night to you too, JJ

and Jae smiles,

JJ: night, bri bri!

and the fact that Brian is reading something Jae suggested warms his heart. Well, Brian is his best friend after all. Jae smiles to himself as he recalls their time together in the library. It was nice, being in the place where he usually waits for Brian, with Brian. For some reason the library felt warmer today, and he blames it on the days that are growing longer and hotter, definitely not because his crush was sitting beside him while surrounded by some stories he loved.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hi Hello, my name is Zen! :) hope you guys enjoyed that first chapter. If you can guess by the chapter title, I'll be uploading on the apprioriate days (can't guarantee this week though LOL but hopefully!) please comment any thoughts and thank you for reading!

I'm always down to make MyDay pals, so feel free to reach out on:

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