exam dates had been posted a few days ago, and donghyuck was getting to see how the students dealt with the pressure. there was the group of people who seemed to be procrastinating. they played more and hung out freely, but the way they fidgeted with their fingers or bounced their knee in class gave away how anxious they were inside. the other group of students were the ones who were nonstop studying. they skipped out on hangouts with their friends, and brought textbooks to the table during meal time. 

   then, there were people like donghyuck who tried to balance it out. he made time for his friends but added extra studying time to his daily schedule as well. 

   "yeah i'll see you next week," donghyuck waved, picking up his towel and water bottle, waving at a senior from the dance team. clubs and after school activities were scheduled to happen less often during the exam season so that students could have more time to focus on their studies. donghyuck was very grateful for that.

   he walked to the hallway where jaemin caught up to him from behind. "wanna study together?" jaemin asked, sipping from his sports drink. "sure," donghyuck smiled, "i definitely wanna shower first tho." the brunette nodded in agreement, "actually you go on first, i'm gonna find jeno and bother him, but i'll meet you in the library?" to that, donghyuck giggled and waved him off, heading back to the dorms alone. 

   he grabbed clothes and a towel and tried to take a fast shower, washing the sweat off of him and massaging his tired muscles. after his shower, he combed his hair quickly with his fingers and got dressed. the bruises on his wrist caught his eye as he rolled up his sleeves. he traced the ones on his left arm with his finger, wincing only slightly at the pain. while the color was fading, it was still very much visible, so he'd been careful about keeping them hidden.

   after rolling down his sleeves and looking in the mirror one last time, he left the bathroom, collecting some books and notebooks along with his pencil case to study. the walk to the library was silent. oddly enough, he didn't run into anyone at all. no teachers, no students, no friends. but it was peaceful, and he liked it.

   the moment donghyuck set foot in the library, he noticed that was where everyone was. it was a lot louder than usual and most of the tables had already been claimed. he took a brief moment to look around until he spotted a table for four near the history books. it was the perfect spot in case jeno or mark wanted to join them later.

   donghyuck walked over and took a seat, spreading out everything he brought along with him, then he set to work. he felt confident about most subjects, but science, math, and english were the classes that he worried about. to study science and math, he'd need to do that without jaemin or jeno interrupting. as for english, he was almost ready to give up.

   with a tired sigh, he began reading out of his geography textbook while taking notes on the side. a few minutes later jaemin showed up looking not so enthusiastic, followed by jeno shortly after. jeno and jaemin bickered back and forth, making small jokes between eachother, but they weren't loud enough to disturb donghyuck's wall of concentration. then, the chair next to him was pulled out, and a stack of books was set down on the table next to him.

   "hey guys," mark greeted, taking a seat. "hey," donghyuck replied, goosebumps littering his skin. mark looked towards him and smiled which caused donghyuck's cheeks to heat up. he hurriedly went back to studying.

   "i don't know about you guys, but all this studying has made me hungry," jeno said, leaning back and stretching. jaemin scoffed, "you only wrote one sentence this entire time." jeno glared at him before standing up, ignoring the comment. "i heard that we're allowed to go to the coffee shop down the street or the juice bar, and i need a walk anyway, so i'm gonna pick up something." jaemin seemed to be weighing his options as he stood up too, "i'll go with you."

   it took longer than it should have for the two of them to leave, but as donghyuck watched their retreating backs leave the library, he came to terms with the fact that he was alone with mark. again.

   he didn't dislike mark or anything at all, in fact it was very much the opposite. he liked him too much. his skin wasn't supposed to tingle when they touched, his breath wasn't meant to get caught in his throat, he didn't want to have his words stuck on the tip of his tongue. things weren't supposed to be that way. yet, it seemed as if he couldn't help it.

   mark must've noticed how loud the silence surrounding them had gotten as he spoke up, "how's studying going?" the sun kissed male sighed, shrugging, "I honestly can't tell, and i'm worried that i won't have enough time to cover everything before exams begin." the older male hummed, "we have a week and a half left, i think you'll do fine. you know my english offer is still up, right?" he mentioned.

   donghyuck stilled. a bit of one-on-one english tutoring was exactly what he needed, but the thought of being with mark for even more time made him nervous. somehow he managed to do something stupid or embarrass himself one way or another. after having a quick mental debate with himself, he decided it was too good of an opportunity that he couldn't pass it up. plus, he didn't want to start avoiding mark just because of his habit of overthinking things.

   "you know," donghyuck turned his body to mark for the first time that day, "i'll actually take you up on that. i really don't feel like failing." it was amusing to watch as mark tried to cover his grin by looking down and busying his hands. unfortunately for him, he was a dead giveaway.

   "when works for you?" mark asked, clearing his throat, once again trying to mask his smile but failing miserably. "almosy anytime," donghyuck replied, pulling out his schedule and showing it to mark, "here are my study periods, and i only have to meet up for dance twice. plus we still have after school hours and lunch breaks to meet up. what about you?" mark's schedule was similar to his, but he had less study periods, and more basketball practices.

   luckily they managed to find three times a week to meet up for private studying sessions, the first time planned for the following day. "i noticed you hardly touched math and science as far as studying goes," mark mentioned in a way that donghyuck could tell he had been thinking about it for a while. he coughed, "yeah, um, i guess it's just hard to work on those subjects around jeno and jaemin since i haven't found the time to tell them yet."

   mark nodded, getting back to whatever history essay he'd been working at. "well, we can work on them together if you want," he said. "that'd be nice," donghyuck smiled, biting the inside of his cheek, now being the one hiding an obvious grin.

   "also you don't have to be so worried about telling jaemin and jeno that you're taking a  few senior classes. you should be proud, and they should be proud of you too," mark said, without looking up. the younger shifted, "i know it's not that big of a deal, i guess i'm just worried that they'll think that i think i'm better than everyone else or something like that. i had to deal with a lot of shit at my last school for that reason."

   mark noticed how the memory seemed to bother donghyuck, so he stepped in, tearing the smaller male away from his own thoughts. "well i can promise you that you won't get the same reaction here." "you're right," donghyuck agreed, another smile slowly breaking out, making mark feel like the happiest person alive just by being the reason behind it.

   "look what i've got!" jaemin said, taking a seat with jeno quick behind him. "that was fast," donghyuck said, suprised. "dude, it's been almost half an hour, what do you mean?" jeno laughed, seating himself next to jaemin.

   jaemin set a white paper bag on the table and pulled out for fruit tea's with boba. then he took out four cookies and a box of donuts. "you've really out done yourself, jaemin," mark said, impressed.

   "i figured it would help get our brains working better," he explained, grabbing one of the drinks himself. "just so you guys know, i paid," jeno clarified. donghyuck giggled, taking a cookie and then they all set back to work.

---

   "how am i supposed to turn this into that?" donghyuck stared at the block of clay on his desk, looking back and forth from it to the sketch of the tree he'd done. "that is completely up to you," renjun said, sounding content. donghyuck groaned, "i wasn't born with these talents."

   "save it for the pillow."

   there was a moment of silence while donghyuck processed his words. "wait, did you just quote abby lee?" "what?" renjun shrugged as if there was nothing weird about it, "i binged 'dance mom's' last weekend." "this is offcially the last time i question something that you do," donghyuck decided.

   "stop talking and get to work," the teacher called from the front of the room, tone soft. with a final sigh and figuring that overthinking was getting him no where, donghyuck allowed his hands to work on the clay and let his natural instincts take over. if it came out ugly... well, fingers crossed that it wouldn't.

   he cut the clay in half, saving the other part for later. then, he began molding the cube shape into a rounder one. "what season did you visualize yours for?" donghyuck asked renjun, just to make conversation. 

   "summer."

   "oof."

   "'oof'? why 'oof'?"

   "i didn't say 'oof'."

   "you literally just did!"

   "oh, you're right."

   "are you high?" renjun laughed. "i do feel a bit lightheaded," donghyuck admitted with a playful smile. "i think i've breathed in too much clay for one day." renjun shot him a look, "oh yeah, that would definitely explain it."

   the two worked in silence again for a while until renjun returned to his earlier question. "why'd you say 'oof'?" donghyuck hummed, "i don't know, there are a lot of leaves in summer, which means a lot of detail. i assumed it'd be pretty hard to do." "well you got that right. it's going to be impossible," the smaller male said, sounding tired just by thinking about it.

   "but you're going to stick with it?" donghyuck asked, dipping his hands in the bowl of the water placed on the table for he and renjun to share. his hands returned to the clay, molding a steady shape and pillar which would hold up all the branches that were to come. "i am," renjun answered his question. "even if it comes out horribly, the teacher should still give me bonus points for aiming high. i'm counting on it to save my grade at least," he explained.

   "you're great at art though so i think you'll make it. the teacher showed me your portfolio on my first day of art class becasue i had come so early and there was a lot of extra time. you're talented," donghyuck praised, thinking back on the drawings and paintings the teacher showed him before. "thank you, but this is my first time working with clay so it's pretty different. how did you end up in this class?"

   "my main major is music," donghyuck thought momentarily, "but i wanted to try something a little out of my comfort zone since i'll most likely start taking music next term. i wanted to try something that i could get a little more extra credit for," he said. when there was no response, he looked up from his project and at renjun.

   there was a sad expression on his face, indicating that something had brought down his mood. "everything okay? did i say something wrong?" donghyuck asked, worriedly. "no no," renjun looked up, putting on a small smile, "i'm just really going to miss you if you stop taking art. you're one of my only friends, you know," he explained.

   donghyuck wished he could say that he shouldn't worry, and they could still hang out if he stopped taking art, but he realized that wouldn't really work our for obvious reasons. "who knows? maybe i can do both, so don't worry. plus, i need to actually get through this semester first," he said, reassuringly. 

   they continued working and talking on the side until the bell rang. then they cleaned up and collected their things.

   "i've got one last class so i gotta go," renjun said, "see you on friday." "sure thing, i'll see you later," he waved, now being the only person in the classroom. he watched the chinese male exit the room and into the hallway and stand just outside of the door way, looking down the hall as if he were searching for someone. then a familiar face appeared and the two males briefly looked around themselves before embracing eachother in a hug. 

   had renjun and yangyang always been that close?

   donghyuck glanced at the clock, before realizing that he had a study date in ten minutes to get to. date as in the non romantic kind, just a simple and platonic planned time and meeting. though he repeated that to himself again and again, it didn't prevent his heart skipping a beat nonetheless.

-----

word count: 2317

tysm for 1k <33

a lot of markhyuck next chapter, i promise

✎ ---- dreaminghyuck⤾