"An abnormal reaction
to an abnormal situation
s normal behaviour."
Viktor E. Frankl.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In the middle of the busy cafeteria, there was a lone bespectacled girl in a simple oversized shirt and black jeggings. Her hair was loosely bundled up with the sole aim of keeping her hair out of her face. In one hand, there was a spoon that seemed to be on pause mode for it had been empty and hovering in the air for a while now. The other was busily flipping through a book of handwritten notes.

It was lunch hour for most students but for Yein, it was lunch hour and study hour. She had one more paper to complete and was feeling under-prepared. It was the weightiest subject, and also the one she had been struggling to keep up with.

The clanging of a couple of trays sounded as they made contact with the table she was at. Looking up, there were three people towering over her.

"Goodness Yein, you look like you could do with more sleep," said Jisoo. When she saw Yein's mouth opening, she immediately raised her hands in defense and added, "though I know you can't."

"But you should eat," Jiyeon said in concern, pointing at Yein's food that was barely half-eaten.

Yein quickly stuffed as much as she could take and said in between doing so, "Sujeong unni. How do you even study for your med exams and still look fine?"

"No such secret," she answered, starting on her food. "I look terrible back in my room."

"But besides that, tonight's still on right?" asked Jisoo.

Sujeong nodded. "Yeah. At Taehyung's place."

"We can head there together if we're all leaving from here," Jiyeon suggested.

"Yein?"

Yein looked up from her notebook. "I'm going but I think I might oversleep."

//

And indeed, she did.

It was already eight thirty and the gathering was set at six thirty. They did tell her it was okay to be late because she was the only one who had a paper that day. Still, Yein set an alarm but out of fatigue, her body didn't respond at all.

In an attempt to stretch, Yein rolled over but because she was still groggy, she accidentally bumped into the side of her wardrobe. Holding her arm in pain, she wriggled around and groaned. She was still awfully exhausted from having slept a total of four hours the past two days.

"I don't wanna get up," she mumbled, eyes still closed and was that close to drifting off to sleep.

As if the heaven's didn't want to let her rest, her phone began buzzing, causing her to groan once again.

"Hello?" Yein mumbled as audibly as she could.

"Yein?" It was Sujeong's voice. "Are you up?"

"Mhmm..."

"You think you can be ready in half an hour?"

"Yeah..."

"Okay, then I'll send Jungkook to fetch you!"

"Eh? Huh--"

The call ended.

Yein let the phone drop out of her hands. She didn't want to move. She didn't want to open her eyes. She didn't want to do anything.

Forcing herself up, she remained seated in a daze with her eyes shut. She proceeded to raise her hands and gave her back a good stretch. Feeling more determined, she began to shuffle around the room, taking her stuff to shower. The extra two hours of nap was starting to work.

//

All fresh and refreshed, Yein was lazing on her bed when she received a text from Jungkook.

'I'm downstairs.'

Hastily typing her reply, Yein jumped out of bed and slipped on her sneakers. Switching all the appliances off, she locked her door and headed down.

Upon reaching the