The break passed with a blink, and only two months are left before their finals as high school juniors. When Hyukjae and his friend entered the school halls, they saw the latter’s friend from 3C, with Donghae beside him. However now, instead of Hyukjae talking to his friend (and his friend’s friend), he went straight to Donghae and they talked about something random that they had discussed about over text— which surprised their two friends because, well, those two had never spoken in front of them before.

As weeks go by, the usual pairs from different classes agreed that it was a good idea to hang out as a group of four now, sometimes just sitting at the same table during lunch breaks, sometimes playing in the field, or borrowing notes between the four of them if someone missed class because of a club activity.

“Hey it’s nearly finals.” One of their friends suddenly spoke up from while the four of them were busy re-writing notes or reading something unrelated to their academics. “Do you guys think we can study all together for this? I really need help at this one class and whatever I do, I just. Can’t. Understand anything.” He rambles, then punctuating each syllable of his last few words with a hard press of his pen against the paper and slumped his head down afterwards with a groan.

Donghae, who was reading a random novel instead of revising for a quiz after lunch, hummed distractedly. “We should. Or else you might even forget to study. (He had to dodge when his friend threatened to hit him) Kidding, kidding. Let’s find a routine we can all work around learn on.” He finishes, then leaned over and took a sip from Hyukjae’s carton of strawberry smoothie, earning a startled ’hey!’ from its rightful owner.

As lessons pass by quickly, they had figured out how to absorb at least some information when they gather to study. Hyukjae’s classmate is very attentive when it comes to class discussions while he’s a bit sloppy when taking notes, Hyukjae makes up for it since he writes fast enough to be able to jot down any visual pointers their teachers may give during the lesson so every time they go with Hyukjae’s notes, his classmate will supply whatever information the other could have missed. Donghae is good with remembering key words and he helps with drawing easy to understand diagrams for his friends, it helps them get reminded most of the things they learned when they see the keywords while Donghae’s classmate is good with coming up with possible questions related to what they were studying, he would randomly quiz his friends even outside of their study sessions, sometimes he’ll catch his friends off guard with a question that seems tricky, they’ll check the information they have, jot down anything useful that wasn’t there before. Their cycle goes on until it was only a handful of days until their finals.

They stopped staying back to study around three days before the exam, while most of the students crammed to review and study everything, the four thinks that they had enough understanding of every topic they’d been taught as it goes. They agreed to rest their tired minds for the remaining two days, individually go over what they studied if they want to. When they have any questions, well, they can call one of the remaining three and panic.

 

“Do your best on your exams today.” Hyukjae’s older sister sees him out as he puts on his school shoes by the entryway. “And don’t forget an umbrella, the news said it might rain today.”

“Yes~” The younger calls out softly, turning to his sister with a grin on his face. “Thank you for worrying about me.” He then unlocks the door and waves as he walks away.

Donghae, Hyukjae, and their two friends met by the gates, there was still well over an hour before the exams starts as they walk to their floor, doing quick Q&A at each other. While their two classmates walked a bit in front of them, Donghae turned his body slightly towards Hyukjae and softly called out to him. With a hum of acknowledgement from Hyukjae who just looked up from his notes, Donghae lifted his hand from inside his bag and handed Hyukjae a pocket-sized carton of a yogurt drink.

“Here. It’s a bit frozen so when the exam starts it’s still cold.” Donghae says, voice soft as if giving something to Hyukjae solely will make his friends mad (which, knowing them, probably will). “I hope you’d like this brand.”

Before Hyukjae can say anything, they’ve already reached his classroom. Donghae and his classmate waves as they walk away farther down the hallway and to their own class.

 

“I think my brain got a bit fried.” Donghae heard his friend mumble as they drag their feet down to the canteen, from the bottom steps of the stairs he can already see Hyukjae’s head. They settled down on the table with their preferred snacks and drinks already there, they had texted Hyukjae earlier and he bought their snacks since the other two had finished earlier. As Donghae’s friend handed over the money, Hyukjae moved over a juice bottle towards Donghae’s direction. “I can’t believe we’ll have 5 more years where we’ll fry our brain every semester.” His friend continues his whines, opening his sandwich bag and chomping down.

“If our results are good,” Hyukjae’s classmate says, sipping from his coke bottle, “let’s continue that routine for a while with some spicing up when it comes to revising. If not,” he shrugs “then we’ll see where we got things wrong and check if we need to change the studying we did.”

When the quartet got their results back, they breathed a collective sigh of relief knowing they passed all of it.

Aside from studying as a group, the four of them had also begun to hang out on weekends when their other friend groups from respective classes don’t ask them out first. They went to the arcades together, bought materials for projects of a shared class together, and sometimes waiting for one of their club activities to end so they can all walk home together.

Out of the four, it was Hyukjae and Donghae who lived the closest to each other so it was no wonder they would get to spend more time together whether it was to meet and go together to a meeting spot. The two would usually be getting their snacks during their study sessions too.

 

Senior year, aside from their usual load of lectures and academic-related tests, they were also starting with their preparations for college entrance examinations. The now fourth years went to seminars, several orientation and other things that were supposed to help them get ready or choose what they would really to take up as their future careers.

Being a senior also meant that they were almost kicked out of every time-consuming club activity to focus on their requirements instead. Each member of the small circle of friends found themselves being literally pushed outside of the clubroom or forced to sit down on a desk there and study instead of running errands or even taking down the minutes of the meeting. (“That’s the role of the secretary!!” one younger club member says, to which Donghae had snorted where he was being squished by two of his closest third year members, replying with an “I am the secretary!!!” even though it was already a new academic year and therefore he was replaced by someone else for this year, it was the reason all of the remaining members except for the first years who weren’t close to him had yelled back at him with a loud chorus of “Correction: was!!!”.)

Even Hyukjae was nearly tied up when he kept on wanting to join the contests that his club was entering. His call of “At least let me have a say in the theme!” was met by “just a say, you’re not allowed to do anything aside from that.”

And so, as they got busier with their senior lives, with more things to study and remember, the four spent more time sitting in a circle with their noses buried in textbooks and notes.

 

Their talks about college soon entered the picture, one time while they were sat on the living room floor of Hyukjae's house, drinking ice cold water and munching on treats Hyukjae's older sister had given them as they take a break after 3 hours of studying. Their friends had decided to apply for a university in another district, while Donghae and Hyukjae said they prefer to stay and go for a nearby college.

A beat of silence passed, they seemed to forget that chance of going different ways when this next stage comes.

 

Another hour later, Hyukjae was waving good-bye to his friends from the entryway after wrapping up their study session for that day, cheerfully calling out their thank you to his sister who was waiting a bit behind Hyukjae, the trio went home.

That same night, as Hyukjae and his sister sat down at their dining table across their parents the youngest realized that the talk about college and more about his future is still going to be the topic.

Despite his own inner protests and wants, Hyukjae had applied for a course to get a degree that his father insisted for him to take, his small circle of friends continued seeing each other, less to have fun and more to study. Sometimes at Hyukjae’s place, sometimes Donghae’s since those two were closer to the school, and other times staying in the school library until it was time to close.