Monday Morning, Week 1

Back on campus.

The start of term came with a lot of mixed feelings for Changsub. On one hand he was greatly relieved to know that he would never have to sit through another syllabus reading ever again after that first week of class, but the inevitability of graduation was definitely sobering. He had been so eager to finish his degree and be done with college before meeting Chorong and now it all felt too short with just one semester left.

Changsub sighed as he perused the stapled syllabus packet on his desk, skimming the contents absently without really taking it in. He knew some of it would probably end up being important but he'd seen so many  by now that he really didn't feel like wasting his energy.

Next to him, Hyunsik looked up from his copy with a pointed frown.

"This prof must be insane." Hyunsik said in a low voice. "Look at the grading system."

Eunkwang, who was sitting on the other side of Hyunsik, gulped nervously.

"I think I'm going to fail." He whispered in a tiny voice.

"Well that'll be lucky for you won't it? You'll get to stay another semester with Bomi." Changsub joked dryly.

"It's not funnyyy!" Eunkwang whined.

"…For this class there will be no homework. Your grade will be entirely based on the final, which I will give at the end of the semester and there will be no curve on the exam." Announced the professor.

Eunkwang covered his face in despair as a collective groan emanated from the rest of the class.

"I'm so done for…" He lamented dramatically.

Changsub had the urge to tell Eunkwang to it up, but knowing how bad Eunkwang's test anxiety was, he decided against it. He'd teased the poor guy enough for one day.

Later at lunch however, Eunkwang was still being uncharacteristically stressed and glum.

"Oppa, are you sure you can't drop the class and switch sections?" Bomi asked.

Eunkwang poked at his food with a depressed sigh.

"I went to the counselor but they couldn't fix it, I have too many required classes in the way." He explained sadly.

"It's okay hyung we'll help you study." Said Hyunsik, patting Eunkwang reassuringly on the back.

Eunkwang smiled weakly.

"Thanks Hyunsik-ah."

"Aigoo…" Tsked Bomi.

She picked up a piece of mandu from Eunkwang's tray and shoved it in his mouth. "Here. Eat up or your brain's not going to work. You still have a whole semester until the exam you can do this okay. You hear me?"

Her voice was stern but the look in her eyes was comforting as she patted his stuffed cheek.

"Bomi-ya…" Eunkwang sniffed through his mouthful of mandu.

"Oh get married already will you." Changsub groaned in disgust.

"Yah. Changsub oppa. What's up with you huh?" Bomi scowled from across the table. "Are you jealous 'cause Rong unnie doesn't feed you like that?"

"I will not in a million years-" Changsub began.

"Oppa say ahhhh." Bomi taunted, waving a piece of mandu in front of his face.

"Oh god." Said Changsub shooing Bomi's hand out of the way.

"Chugga chugga chugga chugga choo choooo!"

Hyunsik and even Eunkwang began to laugh as Changsub continued to protest against Bomi's embarrassing food train which was finally put to an end by Chorong's arrival at the table.

"Bbom-ah what in the world are you doing?" Chorong asked as she came up to the table looking bewildered  but not very surprised.

"Feeding your cranky boyfriend." Bomi replied while Changsub loudly mouthed, "Make her stop."

Chorong laughed, shaking her head as she sat down beside Changsub.

"What did you do." She questioned jokingly.

"I didn't do anything." He insisted.

"Of course you didn't."

"Rong…"

"I know I'm just kidding."

She elbowed him in the side with a teasing smile that made his sour expression crack slightly. It was hard to stay irritated when she smiled like that.

He'd really missed that side of her.

"Mmm look who's being cute now." Bomi teased.

Changsub made a face but chose not to answer her and instead turned his attention back to Chorong.

"What kept you so long?" He asked.

"I had to have a little talk with Namjoo." Said Chorong.

"Namjoo?" Asked Hyunsik.

"Yeah…you know. About what happened at the party."

"Wait what happened? Did she do something?" Bomi asked looking around confused.

"You were passed out." Changsub reminded her flatly.

"I was???"

"Very passed out." Chorong confirmed, "Anyways, she said she doesn't remember what happened that night and I don't know whether to believe her or not."

"Hmm…" Said Hyunsik thoughtfully. "I mean she was pretty drunk."

"You think she's lying?" Changsub asked.

"I don't know." Chorong sighed. "She could be, or she could be telling the truth. But either way being drunk at the party doesn't excuse her for whatever she did to him back then and I'm gonna have to find out from both of them somehow."

"Hold on a second, who's he?" Bomi interrupted.

"Later Bbom-ah. I'll tell you later." Said Chorong, waving her hand dismissively with a tired shake of her head. "For now I just need to get to the bottom of this and I don't want you going around making more rumors about rumors before I've had a chance to make things right."

"But that's not fair! I wanna know the tea too." Complained Bomi.

"Then don't pass out next time." Changsub muttered under his breath as Bomi continued to pester Chorong for more details.

He looked across the table to make eye contact with Hyunsik but paused when he noticed Eunkwang still picking silently at his food.

"Hey hyung, you feeling okay?" Changsub asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah. I'm just…not very hungry but I don't want to waste…"

"Here, I'll finish it." Said Hyunsik, taking Eunkwang's tray.

"Thanks." Eunkwang replied.

Changsub watched him with some measure of concern. This kind of behavior was highly unusual for Eunkwang who would normally be full of bad jokes and excitement especially on the first day of class. Come to think of it he couldn't think of a time when he'd ever seen Eunkwang this down.

"Surely it can't be all because of that class?"

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A/N

Hey. Long time no see. A lot has happened. Imma be honest I've been a bit stuck with this story because of BTOB things, Ilhoon, Pentagon, Kingdom and what not, but I am going to try to get back into writing. Thanks for hanging around, there is still more story to come :)