When Aerin arrived to her Korean Literature class that morning, she could feel the tension in the air--the stress, the nervousness, the anxiety all of the students had towards this one test. She saw her classmates cramming in one last study session and dipping their heads into their books, some were testing each other the concepts, and one kid was actually praying.

Aerin chuckles lightly before sitting in her seat. Honestly, Aerin felt great about this test. She had gone over everything last night at Chanyeol’s place; there was no way she couldn’t ace this test (unless the professor was a complete ).

She sees her male friends walking through the door and up the stairs towards her; she can tell just by their faces that they all didn’t even bother washing their faces last night. Their under eye circles are extra pronounced this morning, and they are wearing the same exact clothes yesterday night.

Following behind them is a rather cheery male, Baekhyun, that is skipping to his seat.

“You’re a bit happy this morning.” Aerin says to him once he sits down.

“Well, I had a great night,” Baekhyun winks. “Nothing can ruin my mood. Not even a stupid test!”

“Uh huh. What about--if you failed this stupid test? Would that ruin your mood?”

“Oh, don’t be a Debby Downer. I’ll do fine.” Baekhyun says confidently, and prepares his pencils from out of his backpack. Aerin eyes him weirdly, as she is pretty sure Baekhyun is not ready for this test whatsoever--there’s no way. She then sneakily shifts over one seat, making sure tall Chanyeol will be in between them.

When the professor enters the room, the entire classroom immediately drops whatever they’re doing. Mouths are shut, and desks are cleared. The professor doesn’t even need to utter a word, as it’s expected from college students to know exactly what to do and how to behave (which is no talking, no cheating, all of that). He just simply plops a giant stack of test papers on one student’s desk, and the stack starts being passed around.

When the stack reaches Aerin’s row, she watches as each of her friends takes a quick glance at the test and smile to themselves; they all think it’s easy, Aerin thinks to herself.

That trend quickly comes to an end, though, when Baekhyun receives his test. When he first gets the the paper, his hand quivers a little bit and he forcibly purses his lips together. Aerin knows that this is not a good look.

Aerin brushes it off, and then takes her own test. Once she scans the paper for a quick second first, she is instantly relieved--she knows all of this.

--

“I can’t believe I got a 90!” Kyungsoo exclaims and highfives his friends.

“92 over here!” Suho proudly says once he opens his test paper and sees the grade on the very top.

Going down the row, each one of Aerin’s friends get all A’s, and she couldn’t be any happier for them. Studying until 3 in the morning, especially with all of them, was extremely rough, but she knew now that it all paid off in the end.

“Yes!” Chanyeol exclaims in joy once he sees his grade in red, “A 96!”

“Congrats, bro!” Jongin says from the end of the row. “That’s the highest of all of us!”

“But this is no competition,” Suho adds in. “Last but not least, Aerin?”

Aerin turns back in her seat and delicately unravels the test paper in front of her. Her anticipation is high, as she’s sure she aced this test.

“Oh wow,” Aerin says, rather blandly. “I got a 100.”

“What the !” Kyungsoo exclaims in disbelief, “, you’re perfect--it’s unfair!”

“Did you just call me a ?” Aerin laughs.

“We’re proud of you, Aerin,” Chanyeol pats his elbow partner on the back. “Celebratory ice cream?”

“Yes, yes, please!” Aerin jumps up and down in her seat like a little kid.

“Okay,” Chanyeol chuckles, “Let’s all wait for Baekhyun.”

When it was Baekhyun’s turn, everyone turned their heads towards him, waiting for the guy to open his test paper. Baekhyun tries to be discrete and open it little by little, but when he sees his grade, he simply just sighs and puts the paper in his bag.

“I got a 32.” Baekhyun says blandly, as if he doesn’t have a single care he scored that low. Aerin, on the other hand, isn’t all too surprised at him, but she does think even if you knew nothing on a test--you should’ve at least gotten a 50. “Welp, at least we got it over with.”

“I know right,” Suho answers, “And it’s a Friday. Anyone got plans for tonight?”

“I have work,” Chanyeol says, and no one else adds on--meaning Chanyeol has to unfortunately sit out for this one.

“Bummer.” Baekhyun says sarcastically and pouts his lower lip. “Downtown bar tonight?! We haven’t gone together in a while, and , last night was so crazy.”

“I’m down,” Jongin says, and the guys second to that one by one. Then, they all look to Aerin, who is purposely looking away from the crowd and pretending she is not listening. She was with Chanyeol at her first party, who looked after her the entire way. It wasn’t that she was doubting that the rest of guys wouldn’t take care of her, but she just felt most secure with Chanyeol’s presence.

“Uhm,” Aerin eyes Chanyeol quickly, but then Baekhyun gets irked by the pause.

“Just come on and go!” Baekhyun yells out before Aerin says anything else. “Girls go in free on weekends anyways!”

“Can I invite Soojin?” Aerin asks, and Baekhyun smiles like a kid who just got a birthday gift.

“Yes, do that!” Baekhyun grins, eager to say his new female friend. Baekhyun then twirls around and leads the group of guys outside.

As they’re walking, Chanyeol grabs Aerin’s wrist and pushes her a few steps over to quietly talk. He then whispers in her ear, making sure no one around can hear, “Watch yourself tonight, okay?”

Aerin is flattered, once again, by Chanyeol’s care and assures her that she will be fine. Though the feeling of his worry was very securing and safe, she admitted that she was an adult--her own person--and shouldn’t have to rely on other’s. She was grown, and she could look after herself.

“I’ll be fine, Chanyeol. No need to worry!”

Chanyeol scoffs, before stepping back into the rest of the group, “I don’t think that’s possible.”

--

When classes were over, Aerin asks Soojin (who said an immediate hell yes! to the invite to the bar) to come over and get ready together. Soojin is an incredibly talented cosmetologist, and she couldn’t wait to get her hands on Aerin’s make-up free face.

Tonight, Soojin goes for a sultry, bronzed look and gives Soojin a light plum-lilac color on her lids complimented with a matching lip. Aerin looks at herself in the mirror--her brunette locks are gently curled and parted on the side, her outfit is a sleek, strapless dress that stopped right above her knee, and her shoes are an uncomfortable--but, nonetheless, cute, pair of open-toe heels. A look like this is definitely not Aerin and definitely not something she would ever allow herself to wear--but Soojin’s convincing skills are impeccable and Aerin felt the need to look nice tonight.

Aerin takes another look in the mirror, but now Soojin pokes her head in and exclaims, “You look so ing good!”

“Really?” Aerin asks again, but in the back of her head, she already knew the answer. “Thanks--it’s all thanks to you!”

“If anything, I’m the happy one here.” Soojin says and touches up on Aerin’s hair. “It was so much fun playing on your face! We should do this more often.”

Aerin sees no problem with that, if the outcome would end up like this. “Sure!”

They both hear a knock on the door, presuming that it’s all of the guys (that is, excluding Chanyeol) there. Instantly, they both look at themselves in the mirror again, perfecting their hair and outfit, before opening the door.

There shows exactly who they thought there would be. Baekhyun is left agape at Soojin, and the rest of the guys are shocked at Aerin’s sudden change of look.

“How’d you do that