Aerin jolts herself awake. The moment she wakes up, it’s like five different sensations hit her all at once--why is it so bright? Why am I on Chanyeol’s couch and not my own bed? What is this banging feeling in my head? Why am I so dehydrated?

Aerin rubs her eyes and digs into the inner corners of eyes to get the gunk out of there. She tries her best to sit up and looks around the room in confusion. There’s an unopened board game box next to her, a few, scattered beer cans on the floor, and a mountain of gifts in the corner of the room. Ah, Aerin finally remembers, it was Chanyeol’s birthday celebration yesterday. I guess that explains why I’m on this couch--wait, does it?

Aerin jolts once more when her phone alarm blares through the empty living room. She annoyingly tries to turn it off, but once she sees the time & alarm note, all notes of annoyance quickly turn into fear, then despair.

On her alarm note, it says, “Treat yourself for just killing that exam, Aerin! Go you!” It’s 9:30 AM. No way…, Aerin thinks. I just missed a whole exam. She had a test at 8 AM this morning.

Aerin’s jaw drops to the floor. She, Song Aerin, just missed an entire exam. An exam that was 20% of her final grade. She can’t believe it--she can’t believe herself.

“How did I let this happen?!” Aerin yells to herself and makes a fuss on the couch. “You’re so ing stupid, Aerin!” She’s so mad that she can’t even cry--yes, she’s that mad.

“Hey,” Baekhyun peeks over from his room and starts walking towards the living room, “what happened?” He’s brushing his teeth and he’s still dressed in his boxer shirts, but Aerin doesn’t even take notice of that. When he speaks, his words are messy and muttered, covered by the suds of toothpaste.

“I’m so dumb,” Aerin blankly replies to him. “I ing missed my exam this morning. I’m not even late to it--I completely missed it. How did I let this happen? Why didn’t I go home?”

Baekhyun sets his toothbrush to a side so he can start taking, coherently this time. “Uh, you didn’t go home because you were drunk as . You wanted to stay here and said you didn’t have anywhere to go tomorrow.”

Aerin looks at him in disbelief. “I was drunk? What?! I don’t even remember drinking. What?!” Now, she’s beyond confused. She doesn’t remember being in any state of where she was rowdy and stumbling from drinking (or, her normal state of being drunk). But to be quite honest, she didn’t even remember how she fell asleep.

“You drank like two and a half bottles of soju. You didn’t get messy at all though, just fell asleep right then and there.” Baekhyun says calmly. He then points to the empty green bottles next to her feet.

Aerin looks down and immediately regrets her decisions last night. “Damn, you’re right. This --I don’t even remember drinking. That’s really bad.”

Baekhyun comes back into the living room once he’s done brushing his teeth. “I guess it’s bad, but don’t sweat it. Just ask your teacher to take a make-up exam. You’re a ing straight A-student, they’ll be lenient on you.”

“I’ll try,” Aerin says. This was a terrible start to her morning. She quickly gathers her things to go straight home. All she wants to do is take a shower, get ready, and meet with her professor to ask for a make-up exam.

Aerin yells out before she closes the door, “Bye Baekhyun! See you later!” She faintly hears Baekhyun say something back and hastily walks down the stairs outside. Aerin takes out her phone and texts her boyfriend:

I’m so sad. I missed my exam this morning.

Chanyeol:

WHAT?! Did you forget about it? How did this happen? You told us you had nothing going on tomorrow. I’m so sorry, if I knew, I wouldn’t have let you drank.

Aerin:

Why are you saying sorry? That’s dumb, it was all my fault.

I guess I really did forget. That soju is so ing dangerous, just like you said. I forgot about everything.

Chanyeol asks her how much she drank, and she replies back with the number Baekhyun told her this morning: 2.5 bottles.

Chanyeol:

2.5? Geeeez, that’s a lot for you. I didn’t know you drank that much. It’ll be okay, Rinnie. You can ask your teacher for a make-up.

Aerin:

I know, it just tasted so good. Baekhyun knew I liked it, so we kept drinking it together.

And I know, I’m going now to meet with him now to ask. Hopefully it works out.

Chanyeol completely disregards her second text.

Chanyeol:

Baekhyun kept giving you drinks?

Aerin:

He knew I liked it so he was just giving me more. He did nothing wrong.

Aerin sighs, did she just start something again? She meant what she said; Baekhyun had no intention of ever doing this to her. He just knew she enjoyed it and wanted her to keep enjoying it. He had no fault, she thinks to herself.

Chanyeol:

Just text me what your professor says.

Aerin rolls her eyes. Yes, she just did start something again.

--

Aerin tries to forget what Chanyeol is probably thinking right now and forces herself to focus on what’s important right now: having the most convincing story ever and ask her professor for a make-up exam. On her way here, she thinks of all the stories she could say to him: a family emergency? A family relative’s funeral?

She settles on a family emergency; faking a death was too extreme for her. Aerin makes her way into the classroom with a heavy heart and she catches the attention of her professor by saying out loud, “Dr. Yoon! Do you have a minute to talk?”

Her professor whips around and looks at the girl in surprise. “Aerin, I was worried when I didn’t see you this morning for the exam. Are you okay?”

Aerin gives him a light smile, “Yes, I’m fine--thank you. Dr. Yoon, I’m so, so sorry that I missed the exam this morning.”

“It’s fine, Aerin. I know something like this is not typical of you at all--just e-mail me and we can work out a time for a make-up exam.”

Aerin looks at him plainly. That’s it? No questions asked? “I will do that. Thank you so much.”

Dr. Yoon lets out a soft “of course” before his phone rings in his blazer pocket. “You have a good day, now.”

That’s a cue for Aerin to leave and she bows in gratitude before heading out. That just took a good 50 pounds off Aerin’s shoulders. She texts Chanyeol the good news and goes about her day.

That was beyond easy. Too easy. Perks of being a nerd I guess?

--

Chanyeol storms inside his complex and sees Baekhyun lying on the couch, with a bag of Ruffles and the TV remote on his stomach. His shirt rode up a bit, and Baekhyun’s toned stomach peeks through. For a man who’s diet was mainly beer and junk food, he’s definitely not in bad shape.

“Yo,” Baekhyun says mid-bite. “What’re you so loud for? I couldn’t even hear what Chandler got Monica as a gift!”

Chanyeol fumes but tries his best to keep his cool, “Turn off your ing TV.” He furiously picks up the remote control and pressed the red power button up top. “You know Aerin missed her exam today? You gave her too much to drink that she literally missed an exam--you know, that’s her worst nightmare.”

Baekhyun gets the gist of what’s happening and instantly puts his guard up. “You’re not blaming me for this again, are you?”

“Well, what do you think? Did you or did you not do that?”

“Well yeah, I did that. But how was I supposed to know she would get drunk like that? How was I supposed to know she had an exam? You’re pointing it all on me but it’s not like I meant any of that !”

Chanyeol doesn’t want this to be an exact do over of their previous fight. “You’re right. Sorry.”

Baekhyun looks like he’s taken aback from Chanyeol’s response. That was it; no continuous fighting or nothing. Chanyeol just admitted to an apology right away. It was weird--maybe too weird for Baekhyun. To compensate, Baekhyun replies, “I’ll apologize to Aerin. It wasn’t my intention to make her miss it but I shouldn’t have given it to her--it was a school night after all.”

“Yeah,” Chanyeol coolly replies. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Baekhyun says, awkwardly. Chanyeol nods and presses his lips together, “Well, I’m going to my room now.”

“Okay,” Baekhyun uncomfortably says. “You go do that.”

Chanyeol walks through Baekhyun’s space and trudges to his room. Baekhyun watches the figure go inside and just thinks about how beyond weird that argument was. Can he even consider that an argument?

Baekhyun makes a mental note to say sorry to Aerin tonight.

--

Everyone spontaneously decides to go watch a movie tonight, all but Chanyeol. He caught caught covering someone else’s shift, and his boss offered to pay him a time-and-a-half. Chanyeol couldn’t refuse that.

Aerin was a bit bummed her boyfriend couldn’t make it, but once Chanyeol assures her he’ll treat her out with the extra cash, she had no reason to be mad.

Aerin arrives at the theatres solo, and the boys get there shortly after her.

“Did you come alone?” Suho says with a bit of a worry in his voice. “You could’ve texted us, we had an extra seat in our car.”

“It’s fine guys, thank you though.” Aerin can always count on Suho to make her feel welcomed. When she finishes that sentence, a couple Aerin can’t make out makes their way towards them. They come close enough for Aerin to hear the click-clack of bootie heels, Aerin can tell right away that’s Soojin.

“Hey guys,” Soojin excitedly says, “I’m so excited for the movie, I haven’t gone to the theatres in so long.”

“Me too, I can’t even remember the last time.” Aerin replies, then actually starts recall