“Why are you so upset right now?” Yoongi asked Hoseok, the latter still wearing a frown on his face. “What’s up?”

 

“I’m fine,” Hoseok muttered, picking up the pace. Hoseok left the cafe when the meeting ended in a hurry, not wanting to spare another glance at Yoongi, but of course his friend had to follow him.

 

“Bro, serious, aren’t you always telling us to be more positive and ?” Yoongi asked. Hoseok also asked them to stop cursing so much as well, but Yoongi clearly didn’t want to remember that. “Hoseok, you can always tell me anything, you know?”

 

Hoseok stopped in his tracks, still refusing to look at Yoongi. “I know,” he said quietly. 

 

He knew Yoongi wasn’t a malicious person, he knew that; he wouldn’t be friends with him if he were, much less have a crush on him. 

 

But seeing Yoongi laughing at someone in the club having a crush on the barista…  a tiny part of Hoseok wondered if Yoongi would laugh at him as well if he knew that Hoseok liked him. 

 

“I have a lot on my mind right now, Yoongi.” Hoseok turned to look at him, the two maintaining eye contact. “I can’t tell you.”

 

Yoongi sighed. “I won’t force you to tell me, Hobi,” he said. “I just… you know I hate seeing you upset. I feel like you’ve been down more often these days."

 

Hoseok had been feeling down, Yoongi was right, but there was no way Hoseok was going to tell him why, after all. 

 

There was so much that Hoseok just wanted to tell him, how much it all pained his chest. He had Namjoon and Seokjin but Yoongi, Yoongi had his own views and attitudes towards certain topics and just life in general and Hoseok just admired his carefree self. 

 

Yoongi would be telling him to ask his crush out, that if he got rejected so what? That peron wasn’t worth a of Hoseok’s time anyways, Hoseok was a thousands time more valuable than that ing loser. 

 

Tears welled up in his eyes. Hoseok just wanted to tell him. 

 

“I’m scared,” he said, forcing down a sob. 

 

Yoongi looked at Hoseok, an unreadable look on his face. Was it… what was it? Concern? No, it… it was different, Hoseok was sure. “You’re allowed to be scared, Hoseok,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with fear. Like, , we all have a right to be scared, if someone makes fun of you for it tell them to off-”

 

Hoseok laughed, wiping his face with his hands. “Its’- Yoongi, I don’t want you to get in trouble for fighting,” Hoseok said, reiterating what he always told Yoongi. 

 

“I’d do it for you Hoseok. I would.”

 

***

 

Cookie Club

 

Yuta

 

Hey I need help with an essay question

 

Hanbin

 

 

San 

 

You guys have homework? LMAOOOOOOO

 

Yuto

 

Bro I JUST saw you at the Japan club earlier, procrastination king

 

Si Cheng

 

You said you were done with your homework? 

 

Yuta

 

Guess what, Si Cheng?

 

I LIED

 

Hoseok

 

Idk how you guys are so comfortable

 

San

 

What

 

Yuta

 

Anyways 

 

So the question is about have we ever tried to reinvent ourselves

 

Complications, discoveries we made along the way, etc

 

San 

 

I pretended to be from Jeju 

 

Horrible mistake

 

Yoongi

 

That sounds ing complicated

 

Yuto 

 

I told myself that if I could eat an entire bag of pizza rolls then maybe I was an okay person

 

Yoongi

 

Tf does that have to do with anything

 

San

 

Wait

 

Could you???

 

Yuto

 

YES!!!!

 

Hoseok

 

I tried to make myself a more colder, less emotional person during my first year of university

 

Hanbin

 

Me but on a daily basis

 

Yuta

 

Woah what?

 

What was the results? 

 

Yoongi

 

Wait when tf was this

 

Hoseok

 

I don’t know

 

San

 

I don’t know, Hoseok, pizza rolls sound easier. 

 

***

 

Yuta took out his phone, setting the group chat on mute now that he was almost at the restaurant that he had agreed on with Si Cheng. 

 

He didn’t like the cryptic questions teachers were always giving them to write essays about. Like… seriously? Reinvent themselves? Are they talking about when you started a new school year in high school and tried to be cool and mysterious? That’s the only answer Yuta could think of. 

 

Plus, he wasn’t even a ing freshman! The he had to do with this stupid question. 

 

Ah, he had all the time later though to write the essay. Because right now, he and Si Cheng were going to eat some delicious food, and that’s all Yuta wanted to think about right now. 

 

He realized very quickly that he was starting to develop a crush on the latter, which slightly complicated things. . 

 

Yuta put his phone in his pocket and looked up, wanting to look for Si Cheng, only to get startled as he was already standing a good fifteen away from him, arms crossed.

 

“Hey, Si Cheng.” Yuta walked up to Si Cheng, grin on his face. God, he was down bad, he couldn’t believe it. “I don’t know about you, but I’m STARVING.”

 

Si Cheng didn’t say anything, glaring at Yuta with his arms still crossed.

 

Well, now something was wrong with him. “Dude, why the long face-“

 

“Don’t you have an assignment due?” Si Cheng asked, referencing what Yuta said in the group chat just minutes before. 

 

“Got me there,” Yuta muttered. “Okay, to be fair, that was just assigned today.”

 

“Yeah, I don’t believe you.” Si Cheng rolled his eyes and headed towards the restaurant door. “And I am ing starving, mind you-“

 

“Oh, you can’t be mad at me forever- wait for me!”

 

***

 

Seonghwa stared at the tiny jewelry box in his hand, wondering what his excuse should be. 

 

He should know this. He had expertise in talking to people; you had to be charismatic in business, after all. Learning how to please people, how to appear confident and secure in your statements, was a must. 

 

But for Hongjoong… it was different. Cause Seonghwa wasn’t selling an idea, a business deal, a stock investment. He was selling himself.

 

He sighed, shoving the box back in his jacket. Maybe another day. He keeps pushing it back, but one day, Seonghwa promised himself.

 

Any second now, Hongjoong was going to run out of that door and head towards his lab. It was 3 hours long, so Hongjoong always took a nap beforehand.

 

Seonghwa stepped back, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

 

As if on cue, not even a minute passed when the door flew open, Hongjoong stepping out of it hastily. His backpack was half falling off his shoulders as he hurriedly combed his hair, his black t-shirt wrinkled along with his plain light jeans and dark sneakers.

 

Hongjoong was muttering to himself about his lab assignment when he noticed Seonghwa in front of him. “What are you doing here? I have-“

 

“Your lab, I know.” Seonghwa extended out his hand, offering to hold Hongjoong’s backpack for him. “I was going to walk you there.”

 

“I- okay.” Hongjoong was stumped but nonetheless handed Seonghwa his backpack, already walking away while continuing to comb his hair. “I barely finished my report in time before taking a nap.”

 

Seonghwa grinned, wanting to laugh but holding it in, knowing how Hongjoong irritated easily. “Well, at least the report is done, I know you would have been upset if you didn’t complete it.”

 

“Course I would, they are like the only thing that’s graded in the ing class.”

 

The two walked down the stairs, Hongjoong finally satisfied with how his hair was tangled-free, handing his comb to Seonghwa. “Can you put that in there, please?”

 

“Yeah, I got it,” Seonghwa said, grabbing it from Hongjoong.

 

At that moment, someone was coming up the stairs, who they both recognized as Yeosang. “Hey, guys!” 

 

“Yeosang, hey!” Hongjoong gave him a small wave while Seonghwa muttered a small sup, still focused on the backpack in his hands. 

 

“Damn, Seonghwa is looking like your boyfriend right now, Hongjoong.” Yeosang laughed at his own comment, walking past the two on the stairs.

 

“Aish- YEOSANG!” Hongjoong turned around and marched up the stairs, chasing a laughing Yeosang who was attempting to run away. 

 

That left Seonghwa on the stairs alone, thankful no one was able to see how red his face was. 

 

***

 

“That’s why we use this method,” Yuto said, circling the equation again with his pencil.

 

Hyunggu nodded. “That makes sense!” he said, writing down notes in his notebook. “I’ll have to remember that.”

 

They were in the library, the two of them doing homework. Yuto didn’t mind helping Hyunggu at all, thankful for the distraction; his dorm was being quite chaotic right now, as all male dorms tend to be. 

 

Hyunggu appreciated all the help he could get for his homework, he explained to Yuto. He had cried way too many times already everytime he had a deadline, but practicing a new study routine had been helping. 

 

Speaking of practice, Yuto had actually been practicing making cookies on his own time, trying a drop cookie recipe today before coming over. Even though he messed up the recipe (he knows he added way too much butter), he still brought over some for  Hyunggu to try, who was happily munching on some between problems.

 

“Honestly, once you fully grasp the concept, the exercises get insanely repetitive,” Yuto said. “But, I mean, this is all new material. Don’t sweat about it.”

 

“I mean, it’s kind of hard when you’re used to doing well in school,” Hyunggu explained. “It’s been… stressful.”

 

“Well, you’re a freshman, it’s going to take some time for you to get used to it.” Yuto closed the textbook, as they had just completed the last problem, cracking his knuckles. “I know, are you free Friday? The Japan Club is throwing a party in one of the houses, you should come.”

 

Hyunggu looked at him, a surprised look on his face. “Oh, uh… are you sure?”

 

“Course I am! I’m even making cookies for the event, macarons.” Yuto flipped his notebook to the back, where he had scrawled on a recipe. “I wrote a list of ingredients, apparently it’s hard to make but . It’s free food so I better not hear anyone complain.”

 

“I can help!” Hyunggu exclaimed. “I love raspberry macarons, they’re so good.”

 

Yuto laughed. It was cute how excited Hyunggu got over making macarons. “Sure. Let’s show them how good we are at making cookies.”

 

***

 

Jinhwan came back to the room, taking out his keys from his pockets when he heard someone from the other side crying.

 

Confused, Jinhwan hastily unlocked the door, surprised to see his roommate, Bobby, sitting at his desk, face red streaked with tears.

 

Jinhwan quickly panicked. He didn’t even know his roommate had this many emotions. “I- are you okay?“

 

Bobby, realizing his roommate just walked in on him look pathetic, sniffled and wiped his face, embarrassed. He’d rather Jinhwan walk in on him , to be honest. Which he only did in the shower out of habit. He had a ton of siblings, for crying out loud. “Hey.”

 

“How can you- never mind.” Jinhwan closed the door, dumping his backpack on the floor. “Is something wrong?” 

 

Bobby shook his head, laughing. “I’m fine,” he said. “I’m just homesick, I guess. One of my siblings is having a birthday party. She kept asking about me.”

 

Jinhwan’s face softened. He didn’t have siblings, but he felt bad hearing about a kid who just wanted her older brother for her birthday. “I- that , I’m sorry.”

 

He didn’t say anything else, watching Bobby continuing to dry his face. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry. It’s just… been hard adjusting, I guess.”

 

That was something Jinhwan could definitely agree with. It was a no brainer, but college was not like what they showed on television.

 

“Oh, I know what will cheer you up.” Jinhwan walked towards his own desk, grabbing a contaimer on the desk. “There’s this guy that I’ve seen outside who gives me cookies honestly, he gave me some the other day.”

 

At the mention of cookie, Bobby instantly perked up. He had eaten all of the cookies he made at the Cookie Club yesterday, so any new ones were appreciated. 

 

When Jinhwan stood in front of him, though, showing him the cookies inside, Bobby’s face fell. 

 

There were sandwich cookies that they had been given, and chocolate chip cookies that they made themselves at the club meeting. 

 

Jinhwan noticed Bobby’s stare, wondering if the cookies reminded him of his siblings again. “Is something wrong with them?”

 

“No, it’s just- it’s the ones we got at the cookie club,” Bobby explained. “Huh. I didn’t know you knew somebody in it.”

 

“That’s… that’s mildly interesting,” Jinhwan muttered to himself. “I guess I do.”