Hell week.

It’s that time of the school year. Unusually crowded libraries, students practically living in coffee shops, and people filling the timeline with tweets ranting about how much studying they still have to do (instead of actually doing the work). Students are scattered around the campus settling on a comfortable spot for them to have a last minute recap of what they have memorized so far, some are pacing back and forth as they rehearse their parts for that midterm group presentation, while some are huddled with their friends as they review together and occasionally argue on which is the right answer.

Aside from the lack of sleep and palpitations due to caffeine that as a result heightens the panic and stress over the possibility of failing in class, at least there is a bright side — it’s Friday, last day of the hell week. Dahyun could finally stop worrying about her future (for the meantime) after she survives the remaining three midterms for the day.

It’s 2:27pm which means she has exactly one hour and three minutes until the last subject. She is currently cramming for the midterm test for their Fundamentals of Business Analysis class, she has actually been trying since last night to fit half of the semester in a span of less than 24 hours.

Tzuyu is quiet, doing her best to concentrate. With her brows furrowed while looking intently at her neatly written and color coded notes that she spent more time writing and organizing instead of actually understanding.

Chaeyoung with her elbow on the table and head in her right hand while staring blankly at her textbook — keywords and phrases highlighted in two different colors with her signature strawberry doodles on the sides of the pages. She’s most probably not absorbing anything right now.

Dahyun is clearly in panic, trying to make sense of her careless handwriting that doesn’t help with her so called photographic memory so she just keeps on flipping the pages, going from her notebook to her textbook — scanning through paragraphs, frameworks, and equations. Trying to retain something. Anything. Other than the cute little penguin with hearts all around it and a speech balloon that says “fighting!!” that Mina drew on the corner when they were bored out of their minds during a lecture on the topic Business Statistics.

At this point, she is undoubtedly regretting that she chose to have a thriving social life over academics. It seemed like yesterday she was just meeting her professors for the first time, discussing the course syllabus for the term, and then suddenly she wakes up and she needs to swallow half of the learning materials and digest seven chapters of theories, concepts, and analytical models. Time does seem to fly when you’re having fun (and avoiding your immediate responsibilities).

Contrary to how the three of them are, Mina who is across Tzuyu and sitting beside Dahyun, is all poised and collected while skimming through her notes and reviewing everything as she makes sure she got them right. She looks composed as she reads the problems on the practice test and confidently writes down her computation. She smiles to herself as she checks the reviewer answer key seeing she got them correct.

“I am seriously gonna flunk this test.” Dahyun flatly states with a sigh.

“Come on, we still have time just calm down. Breathe in.” Tzuyu inhales deeply. “Breathe out.” She exhales slowly. Although it’s probably herself she’s trying to convince to calm down and not Dahyun. “Read one page at a time maybe that would help.”

“I mean really, what’s the point?” Chaeyoung says as she’s pinching the bridge of her nose, eyes shut closed, shaking her head in frustration.

“The point is, we can’t fail this subject. It’s a prerequisite for majors.” Mina says as she briefly looks up from her notes.

They are business majors, taking together one of their remaining general business subjects before they completely go on their separate fields — Tzuyu in finance, Chaeyoung in advertising, Dahyun in marketing, and Mina in international business studies.

“So, isn’t it such a good idea for you guys to learn more than two months worth of information all in one night?” Mina sarcastically throws them a question as she closes her notebook and takes out her phone for a little break.

Of course they have been given reasonable time to prepare for this test but bad decisions and wrong prioritization got in the way. She just gave more time to having fun justifying they had to live a little, college is short anyways. It started with maybe just for one Friday night that turned into maybe just for the weekend. Unfortunately, it turned into weeks of slacking off and now it’s too late. And just as how fast the first half of the semester went by, that’s how faster one hour and three minutes is.

“Let’s just go and wing it!” Chaeyoung exclaims as she hurriedly packs her stuff.

“Yeah right, sure. We got this.” Although Tzuyu’s face says otherwise. The only response Dahyun manages to give is a grunt as she stacks her stuff and shoves them into her bag.

“Good luck.” Mina whispers to Dahyun as she held her hand. Dahyun gives her a smile and intertwines their fingers as they walk side by side behind their two friends.

It turns out the test wasn’t that bad. At least she got to use her common sense for the multiple choice category and then relied on context clues for the true or false. It wasn’t that good either. Considering the fact that when she read the first problem solving question she already had zero idea which among the topics does it belong in. She tried to use every possible computation she can squeeze out of her brain and even jumbled them into whatever combination she can think of but keeps on failing to come up with an answer that would seem to make sense. It still could have been worse though.

“I’m sure I’ll barely pass. I should do way better in the finals.” Dahyun says as the four of them stepped out of the room.

“It’s just the first half of the semester anyway. I’m sure you can catch up.” Mina reassuringly tells Dahyun as she clings to her right arm and Dahyun instinctively grabs her hand as they walk the hallway.

“I’m just happy it’s done already.” Tzuyu lets out a breath, obviously relieved. “We could pause stressing out for a while.”

“I’m not saying our below average effort is worth the celebration, aside from you Mina because you really worked hard. But wow we actually got through the week!!” Chaeyoung can’t contain her excitement as she skip walks ahead of her friends.

It’s almost mandatory to have fun after exam week so naturally, Dahyun and her friends will go out. She admits that her midterm performance is less than mediocre, she basically doesn’t deserve it but she seems to always find an excuse to let loose — she survived the week and it’s a Friday night. They find themselves in the nearest pub within the vicinity of the campus and dormitory, only two more tables left unoccupied while the rest enjoy their time under the dim yellow lights as R&B music blasts through the scene. Nearly everyone in school goes there, you’d definitely spot a familiar face somewhere in the crowd.

Like Sana, who is standing by the entrance, talking animatedly with her bestfriend as they wait for their other friends. She is someone particularly difficult to miss with her out of this world beauty and charming personality that effortlessly captivates people with a simple smile. Dahyun had a couple of classes with her and she’s been friendly, even maybe too friendly sometimes. But of course Dahyun doesn’t mind.

Sana’s bestfriend, Nayeon, seems to be a little buzzed judging from the way she leans against the wall for support. Dahyun has one class with her this current semester and they have decided to remain seatmates ever since they clicked during the first day. Dahyun is beyond grateful to have an irresistible ball of sunshine beside her during long boring hours in the classroom.

She also noticed Mina’s crush, Jeongyeon, when she passed by the beer pong tables. Mina has mentioned before how adorably goofy she is when they were group mates and couldn’t stop gushing when Jeongyeon asked for her number. She’s playing with her friends, Momo and Jihyo, and they are definitely winning this round.

Jihyo is that all-around achiever students would normally dream of becoming and Dahyun has been witnessing this firsthand — since the start of the semester they have already been assigned to group for a final research project and Jihyo never misses an opportunity to accomplish tasks regardless of the non-threatening deadline.

During the few times Jihyo dragged Momo along for their project meetings Dahyun has learned that Momo is a great company, all happy and giddy and curious about the world. She has that refreshing childlike energy that would lighten up the mood.

Placed on a wooden square table are: a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, a liter of Coca-Cola, a bucket of ice, four glasses, and a platter of nachos right beside a bowl of Philly cheesesteak fries. Dahyun and her friends start off the night with a the Dealer card drinking game, and Dahyun’s luck as a dealer is not on her side for this evening much to the entertainment of her friends. The card has been guessed correctly on the first try for three times in a row already, at this rate she will be drinking more than she could in a short amount of time. They move on to spin the bottle and begin with lighthearted truth questions like what did you really feel about Chaeyoung having orange hair and awkward length baby bangs? And very casual dares such as to pay for the ride home or free dinner for a week. They spend the night talking and laughing over nonsense that you would normally find funny only when you’ve had a little too much to drink.

Chaeyoung starts singing her heart out, shouting the words of the song. ~And I can't stand you. Must everything you do make me wanna smile. Can I not like you for a while~ She raises her left arm and waves it with the beat while she puts her right arm around Tzuyu and makes her sway with her. Tzuyu follows as she pretends to be holding a mic of her own and sings along dramatically. ~But you won't let me. You upset me, girl. And then you kiss my lips. All of a sudden I forget (that I was upset)~

Mina just watches them and can’t help but laugh. She’s usually reserved but when she drinks she enjoys how carefree she can be around her friends and strangers that would only vaguely remember how the night went. She also enjoys how she could just let herself feel and act on it because there’s a selfish part of her consciousness that tells her she could easily make an excuse by blaming it on the buzz when consequences become an inconvenience. So for the past couple of hours she hasn’t been holding back, she even took Dahyun’s hand and placed their intertwined fingers on her left thigh and hasn’t let go except for when she had to wipe off cheese on her finger. And that time she momentarily removed her hold and let Dahyun rest her hand flat on her thigh, right beyond the hem of her skirt — which she certainly did on purpose.

The jack to coke ratio Dahyun has been pouring for herself might have been miscalculated seeing that everything looks hazy and her two friends singing across her seem to be a lot funnier than they should. She can still feel her left hand but it can’t quite properly grip her glass anymore but what she feels for sure is that her other hand has been holding Mina’s under the table and all Dahyun could process right now is that they have been and still are tooclose and she would gladly want to get closer. Although she knows she has to stand up and go pee as soon as possible but her legs seem unstable for a short walk to the toilet. For now, she tries to regain herself, tries to focus on something. So she turns to her right and looks at Mina.

Mina faces her, “What?” and asks with a little giggle.

Dahyun unconsciously forms a little smile but fails to give an answer and just continues to let the world blur away as she gives all her attention to Mina. It didn’t help in stabilizing her tipsy self and even made it worse because now she is internally conflicted.

You know how alcohol comes with a newfound confidence or could more likely be described as a misguided sense of confidence (at times is also better known as an increase in stupidity). Dahyun just stares, not fully aware of how inconsistent her thoughts and actions are at the moment. She is currently having a fast paced rambling in her head. She’s still holding my hand. I love it when she holds my hand. We always hold hands. It’s normal, nothing special. But wow Mina is really pretty, she’s always been. I’ve probably liked her for a few months now. No, for sure more than a few months. And it’s not making things any easier. So yeah I’ve liked her for a little while now, maybe more. But who cares? We’re friends. I can’t tell her. Why would I tell her? I won’t tell her. Ever. That will be wei—

But Dahyun still suddenly blurts it out.

“I like you. I really, really like you.”