Half past two. Baekhyun finds himself in the dining center, dragged by his suitemate Chanyeol after being caught outside of the locker rooms. He had watched over Chanyeol's shoulder as Ara walked away, wearing nothing but her soaked undergarments and his oversized T-shirt, courtesy of Baekhyun discarding her only dry clothes into a puddle earlier. A smug grin dances across his lips when he recalls her flustered expression sneaking away.

"Baekhyun, are you coming to the party tonight?" Chanyeol asks, shoving his face into a burger. Baekhyun leans back in his chair, closing his eyes as he hums a silent tune to himself. Partying wasn't really in his plans for tonight. He only had one thing on his mind and that was to knock the out after taking his mathematical logics exam. 
"I'll pass." Baekhyun waves his hand at the idea.
"What? You can't pass up on this party though!" Chanyeol exclaims. Baekhyun opens his eyes, raising a brow at his suitemate's statement. 
"Yixing invited all the hot girls and it's a pool party. Hot babes in bikinis?? You can't tell me you don't want to see that." Baekhyun shrugs it off again. 
"I lived in Cali for a year. I've seen enough babes in bikinis." He reminds the taller male. Clearly disappointed in Baekhyun's lack of bikini enthusiasm, Chanyeol rolls his eyes. 

"Hani will be there." Chanyeol tries, looking for any hint of Baekhyun changing his mind. The blond blankly stares at his friend, not a single glimmer of recognition in his chocolate irises. Chanyeol scoffs in disbelief. 
"Lee Hani." Chanyeol states as if adding her last name would help jog the latter's memory. By the confused expression painted on Baekhyun's face it's safe to say it doesn't. 
"Geez, have you gone through that many girls you can't recall any of their names?" Chanyeol clicks his tongue. 
"Lee Hani. You were literally head over heels for her s a week ago." The tall male exasperatedly explains. Again, Baekhyun shrugs his shoulders. 
"I must've been exaggerating because I don't remember." Baekhyun isn't lying. He doesn't recall a Lee Hani. True, she may have given him a good blow, but beyond that? He had no reason to remember her. She was just another girl added onto his list. 
"What will it take for you to go?" Chanyeol asks, determined to get his best friend on the party plans. After all, it wasn't a party unless Byun Baekhyun was there. 
"I'll go if it's worthwhile." Baekhyun says, knowing fully well it probably wouldn't be. Again, a party isn't a party without him.

Flustered. That wouldn't even begin to describe Ara's emotions as she sneaked out of the men's locker room this morning. After the high cleared off, nerves quickly ate her up on how she would inconspicuously make her way out of the locker room. The last thing she needed was for people to endlessly yap about her adventures at the rec center. Much to Ara's relief she was able to slip out, but she clearly remembers the smug smirk sitting on Baekhyun's face as he watched her walk away. The kind that made her want to both punch and makeout with him.

"Remind me again, why are we here?" Chaeyeon questions as she skims through a shelf of sunglasses. She picks up a scarlet rimmed pair, setting it on the bridge of her nose to check out in the small circular mirror on the wall. Also curious, Ara looks to Sooyeon, who had abruptly dragged them off campus to the shopping district. 
"You two don't know?" Sooyeon asks in shock, setting the pair of sandals in her hands back down. 
"Tonight is the pool party of a lifetime." Sooyeon says, she takes a seat next to Ara with a troublesome grin dancing on her lips. 
"And I bet a certain blond will be there. I want to see the sparks fly for myself." She adds with a giggle. Ara rolls her eyes. 
"I can't go. So you'll have to see sparks fly another time." Ara replies. 
"So there are sparks!?" Chaeyeons perks up with excitement. 
"No. It's purely ual attraction. I don't know anything about the kid." Ara explains with a wave of her hand. 
"You didn't know anything about Kai either." Chaeyeon mentions before she realizes it. 

Ara wants to be unbothered by the mention of her ex, but that's not easy. She just brushes off Chaeyeon's comment, that's all she can do, right? 
"I'm busy tonight, but I'm sure y'all will have a blast without me." Ara jumps to her feet. She wasn't lying. College wasn't party, party, party and Ara knew that. If she wanted to graduate in time before her scholarship runs out, then she'd need to bust her in the textbooks as much as she does at the beer pong table. Maybe the breakup was a good thing, now she didn't have to go to every party Kai did, which was a lot. 
"What? Not even for a little bit?" Sooyeon pouts. Ara gives her friend the look. They all know if Ara were to show up "for a little bit" that she wouldn't be heading home until 3 a.m. 

And that's how Ara finds herself mentally crying over her calculus textbook as the clock strikes 11 p.m. The only sound in her apartment is the low hum of the air conditioning and Ara's strangled groans of frustration. She presses her forward against the old pages of the textbook as if the content would magically transfer into her brain. It wasn't working. She glances over at the glowing screen of her cell phone. A string of text messages from both Sooyeon and Chaeyeon fill the display, taunting her to just put on a bathing suit and head over to Yixing's, but she can already hear her parents scolding her for neglecting her grades. 
"Why do I even need to take this class?" Ara huffs, aggressively tapping the end of her pen against the pages. It was taking all her will to not just chuck the dreaded textbook out her window and into the streets to be run over by drunk students. 

Ara inhales and exhales, something she learned from her mother about managing her anger and stress. She could do this, right? It was just a b