One thing has always been certain for most high school students across the country: your sleep schedule will no doubt get ruined during the summer. 

 

And of course, another certain fact is that many procrastinate on fixing it until last minute, so for students like Park Jisung, who just never end up doing it, you start getting ready to go to sleep at 6 am, ready for a good night sleep, only to discover your alarm is ringing when you’re brushing your teeth before bed. 

 

Oh no. 

 

“You got to be kidding me!” Jisung yelled at himself to the bathroom mirror, gripping the toothbrush in his hand tightly. “I can’t go to school like- like this!” 

 

Why, you ask? Because mister bright Jisung over here had been playing Minecraft with his friend Mark Lee for the past four hours, after having his third dinner at 2 am, and he could feel the eyebags under his eyes that were supposed to go away after sleeping, but now that obviously won’t happen. 

 

He turned off his alarm after it shrilled for over a minute, and brushed his teeth in anger. This was not how you were supposed to start sophomore year. 

 

Not even five minutes after his alarm rang, when Jisung changed out of his pajamas that he wore for fifteen minutes into his school clothes, his phone starting blaring again, this time the Nex7 song Wait A Minute playing throughout his room. 

 

He knew exactly who that was. 

 

Rubbing his eyes for a good five seconds, Jisung picked up his phone and pressed the button accepting the call, pulling the phone up to his ear. “DON’T! YOU DARE!”

 

“What do you mean, don’t you dare?!” Chen Le screamed from the receiver end. “I wasn’t going to say anything, I was going to ask a favor!”

 

“I am sleep deprived, my dear best friend,” Jisung explained. “And I am about to combust.”

 

He didn’t hear anything from Chen Le immediately, so he took advantage of that to put his phone on speaker and throw it on his bed, grumbling again as he looked underneath his bed for his favorite sneakers. 

 

“JISUNG!” he heard Chen Le yell from the phone. “Can I ask you for the favor now?”

 

Jisung grabbed ths shoes and sat down on the bed, untying the laces. “Go ahead, nothing else will kill me,” he muttered. “Like those aliens last year.”

 

Ah, yes, the aliens, or what the world has dubbed as the Korean Terrorist Attacks of 2020, when aliens came to Earth and it was cool for five minutes until they tried to kill them. Ah, good times. 

 

Well, not really. Jisung now has some scars on his arms from when they tried to kill an alien with acid and some got onto him, but his main concern was why the hell did they have that on school property. Good thing that the government paid for the hospital bills, though. 

 

“OKAY!” Chen Le yelled. “Open your window!”

 

“Open my- what the ?” Jisung picked up the phone off his bed, yelling at it. “What did you say??”

 

He didn’t get a response, instead, hearing a sudden tap on the glass of the window, which was covered with curtains. 

 

Jisung pulled them away, suddenly struck with Chen Le’s face behind the glass, his phone against his ear. He had on his big grin as always, and he was already dressed for school. 

 

 He pulled the curtains away, unlatching the latches on the window before pulling them up, successfully opening the window. “How long have you been up?” he asked Chen Le, who gave him a wave. 

 

“That’s the thing!” Chen Le said. “I never went to sleep! I was just so excited, I couldn’t sleep at all.”

 

“Oh, this is about to be a fun day,” Jisung muttered, stepping away from the window to let Chen Le come in. “I was brushing my teeth to go to bed when my alarm rang.”

 

“It better not be because you stayed up late playing Fortnite with Mark,” Chen Le said, jumping into the room, closing the window behind him. 

 

Jisung scratched the back of his neck. “I didn’t play fortnite,” he muttered. “I can’t wait until this school year is over, it’s going to .”

 

“It won’t be that bad,” Chen Le said, grinning. “Come on, what’s going to happen, another alien invasion?”

 

Jisung cleared his throat, lifting up his hand. “We’re gonna get Mark and Haechan with their PDA,” he started, lifting up a finger. “Then we’re gonna get Renjun with his sock filled with pebbles-”

 

Chen Le shrugged. “Could be worse, could be a knife-”

 

“You know he’s probably tried to sneak one in,” Jisung reminded him, lifting up another finger. “Also, I have Mr. Wu this year.”

 

“Okay, Mr. Negative, what are you looking forward to this year?” Chen Le said, crossing his arms. “Don’t say lunch period-”

 

“Lunch- damn.” Jisung sighed. “What about… making fun of the freshman?”

 

“JISUNG!”

 

“WHAT, IT’S TRUE, THEY’RE SO STUPID-”

 

“WE WERE JUST FRESHMEN LIKE THREE MONTHS AGO!”
 

——

 

Taeyong was tying his shoelaces in the living room when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. 

 

He was already ready for school, his backpack right next to him on the couch, since Jaehyun had asked if he could come and pick him up early. They have been a thing for quite some time now, so it wasn’t unusual for Jaehyun to always pick up Taeyong, though last night, he gave Taeyong some “unfortunate news” of some “unwanted guests” in their ride today, not that Taeyong minded. 

 

He grabbed his phone and opened the message, which was indeed by Jaehyun, with the first line reading hello baby :), followed by GOD JOHNNY AND DOYOUNG ARE AT MY LAST WITS END. 

 

Assuming it was his cue to come outside, Taeyong grabbed his backpack and swung it on his back, taking out his keys from his pocket to lock the house. There, parked on the side of the road, was Jaehyun’s recognizable car, and there in the backseat he could see Johnny and Doyoung in what seemed to be a heated discussion. 

 

Taeyong walked up to the car, bouncing in his steps as he gave the passenger side glass a knock, a grin on his face as the mirror rolled down. “Hello.”

 

“Oh my god, Taeyong, I miss you,” Jaehyun said, watching Taeyong unlock the door and getting inside. Once Taeyong was seated, Jaehyun leaned over to give him a kiss. “I’m so sorry about these two idiots, I hope you had a good night’s sleep-”

 

“Call me an idiot like the rest of our classmates and I’ll tear your neck off and shove it in a blender,” Doyoung argued with him. 

 

“Why? It’s not like Jaehyun lied,” Johnny said.

 

Doyoung raised an eye at Johnny. “You think you’re funny, don’t you? All charming and ? I hope you realize everyone finds you a nuance-”

 

“They’ve been like this since I picked them up,” Jaehyun muttered under his breath. “Doyoung’s older brother is visiting and has to use his car, and Johnny accidentally crashed his-”

 

“I did not crash it,” Johnny interrupted him. “The other car was texting and driving-”

 

“And Ten says you were eating spaghetti,” Jaehyun reminded him. “That is not better in any way.”

 

“We all know Johnny can’t multitask,” Doyoung mumbled. “Why didn’t you just ride with your own boyfriend, idiot-”

 

“Because Ten’s parents have been on my case since I tried to marry him last year,” Johnny said. “They don’t know what it’s like to be on the brink of death-”

 

“It’s not really good for you to know that, either.”

 

“Well, does it look like I wanted us to get invaded??” Johnny pointed out. “Besides, at least I have a boyfriend, why didn’t you ask Taeil for a ride on his-”

 

Doyoung took off his seatbelt and grabbed his backpack off the floor, ready to throw it at Johnny. “YOU’RE NOT FUNNY-”

 

Jaehyun slammed on the horn on the wheel. “You two are going to shut up right this second,” he said. “I was nice enough to offer you guys a ride, and you return the favor by arguing in front of my boyfriend.”

 

The two in the backstreet stopped their bickering after Jaehyun’s comment; it was, well, true. Everyone in school and in their friend group knew that since the two officially became a thing the week after the alien invasion, Jaehyun always brought Taeyong to school and they have knowingly interrupted them. 

 

“You know I argue out of love-”

 

“I don’t,” Doyoung interrupted Johnny. “You’re annoying as -”

 

“Jaehyun, let’s just go to school,” Taeyong said, resting a hand on his shoulder. “It’s fine, I don’t mind-”

 

“You don’t want your morning bagels?” Jaehyun whispered to him, faking a pout. “I want to treat you- Johnny I can see you from the rearview mirror, watch your mouth or I’ll kick you out.”

 

Johnny, who had already made a disgusted face and was about to make a smart comment, rolled his eyes. “You’re no fun, getting injured is more fun than this.”

 

“Being dead would be preferable,” Doyoung muttered. 

 

——

 

To any outsider, the hallways of the school looked like, well… chaos everywhere. 

 

The screaming, the running, the vast amount of students, the humidity. And this was how it looked like to Xiaojun last year on his first day of school. But by now, he was used to it. 

 

“I think Jaehyun got fed up with him and killed him,” Ten said, looking at his apple watch. Gotta love the big checks they were given last year. “Doesn’t Jaehyun get to school early? Cause of Taeyong?”

 

Xiaojun shrugged, stuffing half of his notebooks into his new locker. “Didn’t your boyfriend get in a car crash recently?”

 

Ten sighed. “Yep. He must have caused another incident,” he mumbled to himself. “Hey, Yangyang said he’s getting a car next month, how long do you think he’ll have before he crashes it, too??”

 

“I’d rather not think about our classmates crashing and dying,” Xiaojun said, shutting his locker. 

 

“Yeah, the PTSD is strong in our school- oh, speaking of boyfriends-“ Ten gave him a mischievous grin, pointing behind Xiaojun. “Yours is right behind you-“

 

Immediately, Xiaojun saw black, as he assumed someone right behind him covered his eyes. “Hello.”

 

“Since when is Hendery my boyfriend???” Xiaojun asked Ten sternly. “Ten, are you blind?”

 

“I’m his what?” Instantly, Hendery took his hands off Xiaojun. “Eww, gross, anyways see you guys later!”

 

Hendery ran off, leaving Xiaojun confused and Ten smacking himself on his forehead, sighing. “What the hell is wrong with that guy-”

 

Xiaojun rolled his eyes, turning around and saw his actual boyfriend this time, Kun who was watching the two of them, puzzled as well. “Why did Hendery cover your eyes and then say gross?”

 

“I’m going to assume Ten was talking about you,” Xiaojun said, shrugging. “I don’t know what’s up with Hendery-”

 

“I was teasing your man over here saying his boyfriend had arrived but Hendery has to ing ruined everything,” Ten groaned, looking at his watch again. “WHERE THE IS JOHNNY-”

 

“It’s the upcoming Yangyang Drought,” Kun explained, leaning down to give Xiaojun a kiss on the lips. “Morning.” 

 

“Morning to you- Yangyang Drought?” Xiaojun asked, raising an eye. “What’s up with Yangyang?”

 

“You guys are gross- wait, what do you mean what’s up with Yangyang?” Ten asked. “Oh, wait, you were a new student last year, that explains why you don’t know.”

 

“Considering the alien thing caused some border restrictions for a good amount of time, not to mention public fear, there was only one drought last school year, and you weren’t here to see it,” Kun explained. “Remember when you went to China for winter break? That’s the last time we had a Yangyang drought.”

 

“Ever since Hendery realized his feelings for Yangyang back in middle school, the Yangyang Drought has been more insufferable,” Ten explained. “You know how Yangyang basically lives on a farm in the middle of nowhere? Well, there’s a guest house and every now and then, all of his extended family in China come to stay at the Liu guest house for who knows how ing long and they just go wild. So many aunts and uncles and cousins and god knows what else-”

 

“Yangyang likes to spend time with family,” Kun explained to Xiaojun. “And he’s never been back to China for so many years, so it’s the only time he gets to see them, thus he doesn’t spend every waking moment with us, leaving Hendery depressed. You know how close those two are-”

 

“I just don’t know why Hendery doesn’t go to all these stupid events,” Ten tells Kun. “Literally Yangyang invites him, Hendery is just a stupid coward who gets jealous of these people stealing Yangyang’s attention-”

 

“Wait, do you guys just never go hang out with his extended family?” Xiaojun asked, confused. He had so many questions but all that he was getting was more proof of Hendery’s hopeless crush on Yangyang, something he himself noticed on his first week of school last year. “Why not?”

 

“Too many people,” Kun said simply. “I hate it.”

 

“And I almost died last time,” Ten told Xiaojun. “Rumor has it that Yangyang’s immediate family - you know, him, his siblings and his parents -  is banned from China. Another is that Yangyang is part of a dynasty that will take over soon and he needs to be protected-”

 

“Please stop with your theory again,” Kun said, grabbing Xiaojun’s hand ready to pull him away. “First of all, he’s from Taiwan, not the mainland, second off all I told you it’s ridiculous-”

 

“SO MANY of Yangyang’s nightmares and dreams have become a reality,” Ten explained. “Something is up!! Plus, we know aliens are real, too, so it’s not far-fetched-”

 

As Ten was speaking, Jungwoo appeared out of nowhere, tapping on his shoulder. “Ten hyung,” he asked, “have you seen Lucas anywhere?”

 

“BRUH you scared the out of me,” Ten said, jumping back a little. “And no, I have not seen Lucas, and speaking of searching people, have you seen Johnny-”

 

“I’m really glad you’re not insane,” Xiaojun muttered to Kun, making sure only he heard him. “Because I would have died of cardiac arrest if you pull any of this type of with me.”

 

“Well, they do drive me insane sometimes,” Kun replied to Xiaojun. “They’re tame, though-”

 

Right at that moment, Ten, who had pulled out his phone to call Johnny, frowned when it went to voicemail. “I swear to ing god, if Jaehyun crashed that damn vehicle and gets all of them killed that would be my last straw!”

 

“Hmm.” Jungwoo, who they just now noticed had someone next to him, turned to look at his friend besides him. “Don’t know where Lucas is, I’ll have to introduce him to you during lunch-”

 

“Oh, is that your friend?” Xiaojun asked. “Who is he?”

 

Jungwoo grabbed the guy’s shoulder. “This is Sungchan!” he exclaimed, the so-called Sungchan guy waving his hand awkwardly. “I’ve known him for years, we’ve been friends and hang out everytime I see my aunt in Gwangju, and what do you know! He moved to Seoul and now goes to school with us!” 

 

Ten glared at Kun, who in turn gave knowingly eyes back to him, leaving Xiaojun clueless. 

 

“Nice to meet you guys.” Sungchan bowed aggressively, being the youngest out of all of them present. 

 

“Uh, hey, nice to meet you bud, uh, I’m gonna go find Lucas-“ Ten said, darting away from the group. 

 

Xiaojun raised an eye. “Doesn’t he mean Johnny?”

 

Kun shook his head. “No, he means Lucas.”

 

——

 

“This is ing ridiculous,” Renjun said, his eyes squinting in the sun. “Where the are they?” 

 

Mark, who had his arms around Donghyuck, back hugging him while on his phone, shook his head. “I don’t know, you know how impulsive Chen Le is.” 

 

“They still have three minutes,” Donghyuck said, even though he wasn’t looking at the time. He liked making up. 

 

They were outside, waiting for the one minute warning bell to ring before rushing to their home rooms because two people still haven’t had the audacity to show up.

 

Jaemin and Jeno were playing with a soccer ball on the grass, the two in a serious competition with one another. They started playing around while waiting for Jisung and Chen Le, but of course they were going to have to cut the game short. 

 

“Maybe Jisung overslept,” Mark said. “I know he slept late.”

 

“How do you know that if you slept at a reasonable time?” Donghyuck questioned Mark.

 

, now he had to think of a lie. “He- uh- something of a Fortnite match at 3 am he had scheduled-“

 

“You’re a bad liar-“

 

A car pulled up on the parking lot, not even stopping all the way when the door opened and a student jumped out. “I’M GOING TO BE LATE-“

 

“Thank god, WHAT TOOK YOU GUYS SO LONG?” Donghyuck shouted. 

 

Chen Le dashed out of the car, heading to where they were, Jisung following behind him. “Mark! We got no sleep!” 

 

“Ah, I love it when you guys burn each other,” Renjun said. 

 

The warning bell rang, causing Jaemin and Jeno to stop in their tracks and sprint towards the door. “!” Jaemin shouted, Jeno carrying his soccer ball with him. 

 

“You didn’t SLEEP?” Donghyuck accused Mark.

 

“Oh, would you look at that, we’re going to be late to clas-“

 

“MARK LEE!!”

 

——

 

Si Cheng was at his locker, finishing his cup of frozen yogurt. 

 

He took one last scoop, accidentally smearing some on his lip. That poor yogurt. School hadn’t even started yet, and Si Cheng already wanted to go home so that he could eat more yogurt. 

 

“BABE!” Si Cheng turned his head and saw Yuta running up to him, hiding something behind his back. “God, I knew I should have given u a ride.”

 

“I told you, I had to buy a smoothie-“

 

Yuta leaned down and gave Si Cheng three pecks on his lips, tasting the yogurt. It definitely had berries in it, that’s all he knew. “You just like blasting music in the car by yourself.”

 

“I refuse to have you hear me sing badly to Blackpink,” Si Cheng defended himself.

 

“ANYWAYS!” Yuta still hasn’t shown Si Cheng what was behind his back. “I got good news!”

 

“Oh, really?” Si Cheng leaned towards the right, trying to see what was behind Yuta. “What is it?”

 

Yuta grinned. “We’re parents now.”

 

“WHAT?!” Si Cheng screamed. Last time he remembered, they have yet to , and they both had aka no accidental knock-ups. Yuta must have been on LSD or something, which would have been it’s own problem. “SINCE WHEN?”

 

Yuta brought both of his hands up front, revealing them to be empty- wait. “As of today!” 

 

“I’M NOT READY!!” Si Cheng continued screaming. Never has he ever been so thankful that the hallways were already chaotic on their own so no one paid attention to them.

 

Yuta took a step to his left to reveal- oh.

 

There was a student behind Yuta, a tad bit shorter than him, who had yet to say anything, big smile on his face. 

 

“This is Shotaro,” Yuta explained. “He’s a new sophomore. I want to keep an eye on him, so now we are his school parents.”

 

“Thank god,” Si Cheng said, pressing his free right hand to his chest, the other still holding the empty yogurt. “Nice to meet you, don’t listen to your dad he’s crazy-“

 

“No I am not!” 

 

“OH REALLY?” Si Cheng yelled at him. “Who got himself STABBED last year?”

 

“That- that was an accident!” Yuta exclaimed.

 

“NO IT WASN’T-“

 

***

 

Taeil opened up his locker, taking out the textbooks he had gotten over the summer when he felt someone tap his shoulder. 

 

He grinned, thinking it was Doyoung, only to frown when he realized it was Lucas. “Damn it.”

 

“HEY!” Lucas shouted at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

 

“I thought you were someone else- what’s up?” Taeil said, dodging the question. 

 

He didn’t know Lucas that well, all he knew was whatever Jungwoo said about him. Oh, and they also survived an alien attack together last year. Not much. 

 

“I was going to ask you if you knew- oh, wait, give me a second- YANGYANG!!”

 

Taeil looked down the hallway where he could see Yangyang sprinting towards Lucas. “I CAN’T FIND ANY OF THE 127 MEMBERS!”

 

“I FOUND TAEIL!” Lucas shouted back. 

 

“WOOOOO, TIME FOR TAEIL!” 

 

Taeil raised an eye at the two. “127 members for what?”

 

“Oh, well, since the anniversary of the alien attack is coming up, Yangyang thinks we should do something fun, all twenty one of us,” Lucas explained. “I don’t know 127 that well, I would ask Jungwoo but I haven’t been able to find him in school all day-”

 

Taeil would be down for whatever the two had plan, unless it was something drastic. Because he knew Doyoung well be there as well. Or at least, he hoped Doyoung would be there. Doyoung rarely speaks to Taeil willingly. He’s too busy yelling at someone.

 

“What are we going to do?” Taeil asked Lucas who was in mid ramble.

 

Yangyang caught up to where the two were standing, placing his hand around Lucas’ shoulder. “Do you think going to the forest is too recent?” Yangyang asked. “Maybe we can skip school and light up a cake-”

 

“There’s a lot of us,” Taeil corrected him. “Might need two cakes.”

 

***

 

Wonwoo set his caramel latte down softly, soon tucking his hands under his thighs. “I can’t wait until tomorrow,” he said, looking out the glass side door window.

 

“I can, it’s Monday,” Jihoon said, shoving another handful of shredded cheese in his mouth. “It means I have to wake up and I don’t want to.”

 

Wonwoo brought up his right arm, circling the rim of his mug with his finger. “Me too, I just want to sleep all day,” he said, raising his cup again to take another sip. 

 

The two were at Wonwoo’s place again, sitting at the kitchen table right next to the sliding door glass that led outside. Mingyu, Wonwoo’s husband, had been here when Jihoon came, but he left for some accounting meeting, leaving the two guys alone. 

 

It was, of course, Sunday afternoon here in the United States. Jihoon doesn’t particularly remember doing anything special today; breakfast consisted of him managing to eat two ice cold waffles out of the box until Soonyoung yelled at him to stop, so he flipped it on the grill for ten seconds before smearing it with strawberry jam, all during noon because Jihoon overslept. 

 

Well, you can’t blame him, it’s the weekend. And last time he remembered, he paid for those waffles, so he can eat them however the he wants. The important thing is that he’s eating, right?

 

“I wonder how this school year will be,” Wonwoo said, taking one last sip of his latte before standing up to put the empty cup in the sink. “I’m so scared of teaching middle school students.”

 

“Isn’t this your second year of teaching, though?” Jihoon reminded him. Last year, Wonwoo had worked as a mixture of being a substitute and assistant for a different district, but the one they currently lived at was in desperate need of teachers for their middle school, especially in Math. “You’ll be fine, it’s practically the same thing-”

 

“Last year I worked with third graders,” Wonwoo said, turning around to stare at Jihoon. “Middle school is a completely different breed of students, it’s when rebellion and puberty starts.”

 

“Still waiting for my growth spurt,” Jihoon mumbled to himself. “Yeah, I’d rather not think about my own middle and high school years, so… just promise them a pizza party or something, I don’t know,” he said shrugging. “And a review kahoot every friday with candy? I don’t know-”

 

“HOLD ON, GIVE ME A SECOND-” Wonwoo yelled, opening random drawers in the kitchen until he found the one with the recipes and hand towels, where he hastily took out a notepad and pen. “Okay, continue with the brainstorm-”

 

Jihoon blinked in surprise. “Uh… heavy study guides? Especially since it’s math? I think it’s cool to hate math, I don’t know… wait, just ask Junhui and Minghao when they get here, they’re literally still in high school.”

 

Wonwoo sat back down on the table, continuing to write on the notepad. “Ask… Jun.. and… Hao! I have to remember all this,” he muttered to himself, scratching his head with the end of the pen. “This job is going to be so tough.”

 

“You’ll be fine,” Jihoon said, zipping the now-empty bag of cheese. He would love for this to be his dinner, but Soonyoung promised to buy Bagel Bites at the store, so he was looking forward to those. Plus, he promised he’ll eat more vegetables now. “No one is going to hate you, Wonwoo, and if they do, I’ll beat them up, that simple.”

 

“I-” Wonwoo raised an eye on him. “You’re going to beat up seventh graders? Really?”

 

Jihoon shrugged. “Yeah, them kids, I don’t give a -”

 

He stopped when he noticed Wonwoo’s concerned eyes. There was a reason they jokingly called him the “mom” of the friend group. You had depressed Jihoon making death comments, Minghao switching between mania and depressive episodes, and Junhui asking a million questions while crying from his anxiety, so that only left Wonwoo to try to calm everyone down and not produce a chain reaction. Course, a lot of his protectiveness came from his PTSD but… yeah, he was still pretty sane. 

 

Jihoon, Minghao and Junhui even called the group the Mentally ed Up ™️ gang, but of course Wonwoo didn’t like them calling themselves like that.

 

Coincidentally, but not surprisingly, Wonwoo had recently told Jihoon that he and Mingyu wanted to adopt, and that they’ll see how this year goes before starting the official process to see if they were responsible enough yet. 

 

“-except your future child,” Jihoon corrected himself. “They are the only exception.” 

 

Wonwoo sighed, resting his head on his hand again. “You’re going to feed them cheese.” 

 

“I am not afraid to admit that I am not mature enough to be a parent,” Jihoon admitted. “And Soonyoung would accidentally kill a child. He almost did it once at the orphanage-”

 

Right at that moment, sudden excessive pounding at the front door interrupted their conversations. “WOO! WONWOO! Woowoowoowoowoo-”

 

“That’s Minghao,” Wonwoo said, getting up from his chair to go open the door. 

 

“Guess he’s in a good mood if he’s yelling with excitement,” Jihoon said, standing up to throw away the empty bag in the trash. He’s tempted to buy Gouda cheese and just bite straight into it. 

 

Wonwoo looked at Jihoon before opening the door. “Bet Mingyu’s stash of oatmeal pies Junhui is with him right now-“

 

“No fair-“

 

Without hesitating, Wonwoo opened the door to Minghao with both hands in the air, 2 inches away from Wonwoo’s face. “Bruh, I almost HIT you!!”

 

Junhui, as always, was right behind Minghao, sighing. “He’s been like this all day,” he said quietly, being afraid of Minghao hearing him. “I’ve been trying to ask him why-“

 

“I’m not having mania,” Minghao quickly denied. 

 

Dealing with Minghao was like flipping a coin. “Well, I know you two start school tomorrow,” Wonwoo said. 

 

“Oh my god, don’t even mention school.” Minghao threw his bag in the foyer, crossing his arms. “I can’t ing STAND the teachers, they are so goddamn STUPID, gosh, I already want to skip-”

 

“You’re in a good mood,” Jihoon repeated, though now he was being sarcastic. 

 

Junhui beamed. “We checked out schedules and we have lunch together!”

 

“The ONLY good thing about tomorrow!” Minghao shouted again. “Also, Vernon and Seungkwan from KAA are also in our lunch period!! So we’re all gonna sit together!”

 

Oh, KAA. Korean American Association. How fun that’s been.

 

Near DC back in ia, Soonyoung’s friend from university Seungcheol had created the club in his city, which did not have a big Asian community. He formed the club on his own, trying to find other like Koreans as well. 

 

Soonyoung had been invited, of course, and he brought Jihoon with him in the first meeting, which is actually where he meant Wonwoo and Mingyu. 

 

Wonwoo had been nice to him and all at the meeting, but it wasn’t until the end when he said he had to go cause of group therapy, which had shocked Jihoon. Group therapy? Therapy for what? Wonwoo looked totally normal. 

 

Wonwoo was taken aback, wondering if Jihoon was insulting him, until the latter explained his own diagnosis, and Wonwoo invited him to tag along. In one of the first few sessions Jihoon had gone to, they were told to form groups of four, which introduced both of them to the high schoolers Junhui and Minghao, and that’s how their group was formed. 

 

Minghao and Junhui also go to KAA, even though they are Chinese. They like hanging out with Jihoon and Wonwoo, and they also like the free food.

 

In their group chat, Wonwoo had named it to Group Therapy Friends, but the other three always change it to Mentally ed Up ™️. Jihoon still thought it was funny. 

 

“That’s cool!” Wonwoo exclaimed, leading them to the kitchen. “At least lunch for you guys would be a chance to rest and catch up with friends-“

 

Jihoon soon dozed out, sitting back at the kitchen table with Minghao and Junhui. Wonwoo had pull out a cooking tray from the bottom cabinet, wanting to make cookies from pre-made dough for them. 

 

He crossed his arms at the table, resting his head down. He didn’t sleep, though, keeping his eyes opened and hearing the chatter going on. 

 

Wonwoo quickly realized Jihoon was lacking energy, so instead of asking him what’s wrong, he simply went to the living room and draped a blanket over Jihoon’s back, letting the latter rest peacefully. 

 

If you told him eight years ago, right when Jihoon was finishing high school alone, that he would have a nice job, a group of friends, and… Soonyoung as his boyfriend (which he had yet to grasp), he would have laughed at you. His depression was hitting a new low by then, had lost all hope his entire life. 

 

When Wonwoo set a plate of cookies in front of him, rubbing his back softly, Jihoon soon let himself drift off to dreamland.