For the next following days, Aerin’s college experience goes by pretty smoothly. Aerin joined a community service club, academics weren’t too hard, and her social life was the liveliest it's ever been. Being a freshman wasn’t so hard after all.

Or so she thought.

One of the only three tests in her Korean Literature class is approaching, and Aerin takes tests very seriously. In high school, her teachers gave away A’s liberally--any effort they saw on a piece of paper, it would be deemed an A. In college, however, professors measure one’s entire grade on about 3-4 tests the entire semester. There was no homework to make sure you knew the material, or any classwork since lectures filled up the whole class time. Just tests.

Aerin's making sure she wouldn’t get anything below a high A, and fortunately, her friends has the same mindset (except that their desired score was at least a B). So, they all planned for a massive studying group in Chanyeol and Baekhyun’s flat. Aerin's quite excited as she’s never had a studying group before, and though it was over a lame reason, she's glad she was doing something new.

“Everyone got their laptops?” Chanyeol asks, as he clears his living room floor for all of them.

“Yup,” Suho replies.

“Energy drinks?”

Jongin yelps, “Yup! And I got 5 extra if anyone needs it.”

“Snacks?”

Kyungsoo speaks up, “I thought you were providing them.”

“Ugh, I guess I can,” Chanyeol sighs. “Okay, so I guess it’s time to get studying!”

The rest of them and Aerin huddle around each other in a giant circle, surrounded with pillows and blankets and Red Bull drinks. As they immerse themselves in reading their textbooks, Aerin couldn’t help but notice the fact that there was a gap in the circle, which was reserved for Baekhyun. They all invite him to be a part of the studying group, but Baekhyun did mention that there was a big party at a bar downtown. Though she didn’t want to admit it, she was disappointed in him, and now she knew for sure the boy had absolutely no care for his education.

Aerin brushes it off, as she didn’t want to be distracted by something like that whilst studying. She reaches over to grab a bottle of water from across her, grazing Chanyeol’s arm in the process. Her shorter arms could barely touch the bottle itself, and Chanyeol chuckles as he reaches over and swoops the bottle up in one go.

“Cute,” Chanyeol says as he put the bottle in Aerin’s lap. That was now the second time that she was complimented by him, and she didn’t know if she could interpret it if he thought of her as a sister or not.

“Thanks,” Aerin says and Chanyeol went back to studying. Aerin didn’t want to stop conversation there, though, so she blurts out, “C-can you help me with this part?”

“Aerin, the genius, asking me for help?” Chanyeol says, bewildered. “Sure, what is it?”

Aerin points to a part of her book about hyangga, a type of traditional poetic form. She could probably give her own lecture from her knowledge about it, but weirdly, she just wanted Chanyeol’s attention now.

“Can you give me a brief history about hyangga?” Aerin asks Chanyeol.

“Uhm, well, it was the first unique form of Korean poetry. It’s characterized by a lot of formal rules, like it must consist of four, eight, or ten lines. Most of the ten-line poems were written by Buddhist monks.” Chanyeol answers. “Did that help?”

Aerin smiled, impressed at his knowledge. “Yeah, it did. You’re actually pretty smart.”

“Did you think I was dumb before?” Chanyeol chuckles. “That’s so kind of you, Aerin.”

Aerin playfully slaps his arm, “No, I didn’t mean it like that! It’s just--”

“Uh, hello, kids! We have a test to study for!” Suho yells from the right of them. “Save your flirting for another time, please!”

“We weren’t flirting,” Aerin is haste to say and takes a quick glance at Chanyeol. He has a sly smile on his face, and Aerin doesn’t know how to read it. Is he agreeing with Suho, is he embarrassed? Regardless, though, she thought his smile was cute.

The next few hours were pretty silent, with the exception of the sound of pens tapping on textbooks and Jongin’s random bursts of “I’m going to ing drop out” occasionally being heard. Aerin’s book is stuffed with neon-colored sticky notes, Chanyeol’s hair is nearly an afro from how many times he’s scruffed it from frustration, and Suho has five crushed Red Bull bottles around him. Aerin looks around, sees the absolute mess that is her friends, and quietly giggles to herself.

Aerin eyes the clock that’s hanging on the wall. It’s close to 3 AM, and Aerin gasps to herself how late it’s getting. “Shoot, guys, I should start walking back to my dorm.”

Suho scoffs, “You’re crazy if you think you’re going back at this time. Just spend the night here, all of us are.”

Aerin eyes widen, “Where do I sleep?”

“In the middle of all of us--it’ll be 3 of us on each side and you right in the center!” Suho says jokingly, “You can take Baekhyun’s room, it seems like he won’t be coming home. We’ll be in the living room.”

“Oh okay. Cool,” Aerin replies back. This will be her first sleepover ever, and she’ll be spending it with a group of males. If her mother ever found out how college was going for her...

“I actually think I’m good for this test tomorrow. I reread all of my notes thrice already,” Kyungsoo says out loud.

Jongin agrees, “I’ve read all sections in the book that we’ve learned so far.”

“And I took all of the practice quizzes and got 100s on all.” Suho adds. “So, should we call it a night?”

“We should,” Aerin says, “I’m beyond tired.” Right when Aerin finishes her sentence, Chanyeol’s doorknob wiggles from the other side, and the door is pushed wide open shortly after.

Baekhyun trudges in, his eyes are red as ever and his shirt has all different types of stains on the