"It's in the side pocket," said Sunny, from where he was sitting at his usual head of the table.

"I can't find it," said Skip, rummaging through Sunny's black bag, unzipping a few more pockets. He had forgotten his only pen in his only class of the day and hadn't noticed. It had been a final, which is why he had gone to class to begin with. Modern Trade Societies, that was the class.

"The side," repeated Sunny again, looking up from his massive textbook on "21st Century Policy and Law"

Skip pulled out some kind of wrapper, then what seemed to be a dried out branch.

"Bro, do you just keep trash in here, or what?" Skip called, holding up the barley tea wrapper in one hand and the branch with a single leaf.

"Trash?" asked Sunny indignantly. He shut his book in disgust, sandwiching a whole sheet of paper in it. "That's not trash, it's a.. wrapper.. and a—" He squinted at the branch. "Leaf.. thingy.."

"Bro, it's trash," said Skip, with a short laugh. "I'm throwing it away."

Sunny just huffed a little bit, like a miniature horse.

Skip shook his head and kept looking for the pen; he pulled it out and said, "Man, bro, you have so many pockets in here—"

"There's only three," said Sunny bluntly, not looking up from his book this time.

"I searched through like, eight," Skip protested. He looked back at the bag. There were, in fact, three pockets. "Oh, you're right—" he said sheepishly. "Sorry."

He took the pen and made to go throw the other things away, but looked at the branch for a little bit. Who didn't notice branches in their backpack, seriously.. 

"Bro," said Skip, his hand hovering over the trash bin. "Are there always.. branches in your bag?"

"Don't know what you mean," said Sunny, in a monotone. "It's a branch, must have fallen in there at some point."

Skip tried to think of a time when a branch had "randomly" fallen into his bag for no reason. He could not think of a single time this had happened. He thought he might have used a leaf as a bookmark once, but that had been when he was seven years old, so..

He frowned at it.

Sunny noticed him still looking at the branch, which seemed to annoy him, because he said somewhat crankily, "Are you obsessed with foliage or what? You're shadow is messing up my concentration—"

"Sorry," said Skip. He moved aside with the random birch branch—

Wait, how did he know that? As usual, he tried to find the source of the thought and failed.

He frowned, threw it away, and went to go back to his seat.

He and Sunny were the only ones there at the moment since everyone else had some kind of final until 4:30; it seemed that it had momentarily become a study hall as there wasn't much point to discussing much before the others got there.

Skip flipped open the textbook for his next final, Advanced Financial Management.

Something was bothering him. Ah, that was it, birch trees didn't grow in this area.. Interesting.

He must have made a face, because Sunny suddenly looked up exasperatedly. "What, what," Sunny sighed dramatically.

Skip coughed, then turned to his book again.

"What," said Sunny insistently.

"I was going to ask how your final went," Skip said, looking up. "The Ethics of Environmental Law one—"

Sunny shrugged. "It was fine, I guess—"

Skip nodded to himself and resumed reading.

"I've messed up my life," came a voice from the door. Won Do stood in the doorway, looking utterly spent. He was leaning on the doorframe, his bag in one hand, his slightly faded silver hair rumpled.

"Why, did you finally get one problem wrong—?" yawned Sunny, looking over and giving Won Do a once-over.

"It wasn't a math class," moaned Won Do, "It was a requisite class— I'm so screwed—"

"Math genius vs. writing seminar, who will win??" said Sunny, for some reason suddenly adopting the voice of an announcer.

Skip looked up in bemusement.

"I'm serious, bro," said Won Do, downright pouting at the dismissal.

"You'll be fine," sighed Sunny, "Sit, sit—" He waved Won Do over.

Won Do gave him a pitiful look, then tossed his backpack on the floor next to Sunny's bag. He took off his glasses and scrubbed at his eyes a few times with his hands.

"Skip," he groaned, turning to him instead. Skip looked up at Won Do expectantly.

"Hmm?"

"I've screwed up," he reiterated.

"No you didn't," said Skip, laughing a little. "Won Do.. you can't be good at everything all the time. Then you're not a person."

"My mom is going to send me a text—" he complained. "We didn't raise you to be stupid—"

Sunny looked up suddenly. "Your mom sends you texts like that?"

"No," admitted Won Do sullenly, "but she probably should—"

"She'd better not," said Sunny darkly. "As if being a math genius who is nice to people isn't enough—"

Skip looked up in surprise.

"It's his flair for justice," said Won Do with a sigh, though he looked at Sunny warmly. Somewhat more cheerful, Won Do also pulled up his chair and sat down.

"I can't believe everyone's having finals now," he said, putting his head on the desk. "I'm tired," he yawned. Suddenly he sat up again, remembering. "Oh no, I have to tutor calculus tomorrow— man, I hate finals—" Still mumbling, he started rummaging around in his bag for a pencil; he had already pulled out his graph paper.

"Oh no," he repeated sadly. "My pencil is out of lead—." He clicked his mechanical pencil experimentally a few times, as if his disappointment could manifest pencil lead. "Skip," he asked hopefully, turning to him. "Do you have—" He held up his pencil.

"Sorry, I left my pen in my other class, I'm using Sunny's pen," he said ruefully, looking at the black pen somewhat embarrassedly.

Won Do turned his attention to Sunny. "Sunny..?" he said somewhat haltingly. "Sunny, you look really handsome today—"

"Ahhh, you," Sunny said irritably.

"Really handsome," said Won Do. "You look like a good-looking Creamsicle—"

This earned him a swat at his head from Sunny, who despite not quite being able to reach all the way to Won Do's seat still made his point.

Won Do's comment wasn't exactly false, Sunny's temporary orange hair had faded over the weekend to a pastel orange, which he had been stuffing under various hats over the last few days.

"Creamsicle????" said Sunny indignantly. "From now on, I'm ignoring you—"

"No, no," said Won Do hurriedly. "No, bro, please— I just need a pencil— can I please borrow one—"

Sunny looked at him irritably. "You called me a creamsicle and now you want to borrow a pencil? What am I, a stationary store?"

"Please?" said Won Do, making the most endearing expression he could. Unfortunately, this seemed to not work very well. Sunny scoffed at him and then nodded over to his backpack without another word.

"You're the best," said Won Do happily, getting out of his chair to go rummage through Sunny's back.

He started unzipping pockets. "This is deja-vu," Sunny complained. "You people have to go and lose your pencils on the same day—"

"What's with the leaf?" asked Won Do, pulling out another leaf. Skip realized it must have fallen off the branch he had found in there earlier.

"No idea," said Sunny dully, narrowing his eyes in annoyance.

Won Do shrugged and put it back in his bag.

Skip thought about the branch again. Why was it nagging at him? Maybe because he was trying to picture an entire branch "randomly" falling in someone's bag while hiking? 

He had a sudden idea. Oh.. what if Sunny's mystery job had something to do with plants? He knew birch had medicinal properties.. anti-inflammatory compounds were found in the bark. Again, he couldn't recall where he learned this information. Could Sunny be apprenticing to learn traditional medicine? That would explain why he was wanting to keep his job a secret, a lot of people thought it was a sham science.. Obviously, this wasn't quite true, many of the plants and other products used did have some medicinal purpose, though some of them definitely didn't...

Skip snuck a glance at Sunny again. That was possible.. He was always talking about the doctor.. he definitely had a hobby of thinking about medicine.

But he couldn't mention this to anyone because if it was true, then Sunny would be embarrassed. Skip decided to keep this information to himself. He'd have to see if he could find any more clues before coming to conclusions, anyways.

Breaking his stream of thought, Daisy suddenly walked in. "It's done," he said with a long, drawn-out sigh. "My final final—"

"Already??" Won Do whirled around, surprised. "We still have two weeks of school—"

"Yeah," said Daisy, "Poetry and Rap." He flopped down into his seat. "Everyone else still hasn't come?"

"Nope," said Won Do, scribbling at his calculus notes. "I heard Deulgi had a hard art class final today, Hyeonmi might be doing something else though.. I didn't think he had that many finals for physical education."

"Does he have to bench over 100 kgs or what," laughed Sunny. "Well, he can probably already do that."

"Yeah, he's like, buff," said Skip, mindlessly turning the page.

"Does someone want to get coffee with me?" asked Daisy somewhat hopefully, seeing that everyone had their books out.

"Weren't we waiting for everyone else?" asked Won Do.

"Yeah, I wanted to grab some coffee and stuff for everyone and bring it back here," Daisy explained.

"Oh, good idea," said Won Do, scrambling out of his chair. He caught his foot in the leg on the way up and the chair fell to the ground.

"Yaaaa," said Sunny loudly. "Careful—"

"I'm fine," said Won Do.

"The chair," said Sunny. "He may be injured."

"He can sue me in court," Won Do declared. "Come on, Daisy."

Daisy patted Sunny on the shoulder, who suffered this affection with silence.

"Do you guys want anything?" Daisy asked, making some last minute adjustments to his denim bucket hat.

"Can I get a small Americano in a large cup with extra ice?" asked Sunny, without looking up.

"Man, you should just get a single shot of espresso and get it over with," Daisy sighed. "What's the point of drawing it out—"

"I'll have a normal americano," said Skip. "Thanks, you guys. You don't need help bringing stuff back?"

"I think they give you a bag anyways," said Won Do. "No worries. We'll be back."

"Where you going?" asked Jjim suddenly, blocking the door as he entered.

"Jjim!" said Daisy delightedly, "How was your final?"

"Wasn't really a final," said Jjim, shrugging, "It was our last quiz but it is only 10% of our grade."

"Must be nice," muttered Won Do, "My writing seminar final was 10 X 10% of our grade."

"Did you choose 'C'?" asked Jjim. "My advice is to always choose C, not sure why but it seems like it's auspicious—"

"It was an essay," said Won Do bitterly. "I think I used the letter 'C' quite a few times, though."

"Well, then I can't help you," said Jjim cheerfully. "Anyways, where are you going? To get food? I'm starving—"

"We were going to get coffee for everyone," said Daisy, "But we can get some bread and stuff too—"

"I want a sausage bread," declared Jjim. "There's a bakery in the lobby of the administration building, I think—"

"Oh, that one?" remembered Won Do, "Okay, sure."

"Go go," said Daisy.

Skip waved to them.

"Tell everyone we will bring back some foodstuffs," called Jjim. "When they get here."

"Got it," replied Skip, with a thumbs up.

The three of them set off towards the nearest bakery. Jjim hurriedly put on sunglasses.

"Everyone knows it's you," said Won Do, sighing.

"I can pretend not to see people, though," said Jjim conspiratorially. "Making eye contact is the worst—"

Won Do walked backwards so he could try and make eye contact with Jjim.

"Ahh, stop," said Jjim fretfully, "I'm trying to walk coolly—"

Won Do laughed and started making weird faces at him.

"I don't know him," said Jjim. "Who is that—"

"Hey," protested Won Do.

Daisy snorted with laughter. "Man—"

After little other incident, they made it to the Paris Baguette. "It's Paris Baguette," said the store clerk, as they walked in.

"Sausage bread," said Jjim, immediately picking up three and putting them on a tray.

"We need three?" asked Won Do doubtfully.

"It's for protein," he insisted.

Daisy was over by the croissants. "Two croissants?" he asked, holding one in each hand.

"Sure, but make one chocolate," Won Do said, "I think Hyeonmi will like chocolate."

"Let's get two chocolate and one regular then," Daisy decided.

Won Do found some cream bread, a red bean bun, and then held up a mini loaf. "Yo, Daisy," he asked, "Don't you like this chestnut milk bread?"

"Yeah, it's the best!" said Daisy. "Maybe we should get two."

"Ok, two," he agreed. "This seems like enough."

They checked out before going to the adjacent coffee shop and ordering the coffees; three iced Americanos (one small Americano in a big cup with extra ice), an iced chocolate, a mint tea, a peach tea, and an iced latte.

"Good thing three of us are here," said Won Do. "If not it would be hard to carry."

"True," said Daisy. "Thanks for showing up, Jjim."

"I'm delighted to come," said Jjim, already eyeing the sausage breads in his bag.

By the time they got back, Hyeonmi had also joined Sunny and Skip. He appeared to have just gotten back from a run, judging by his headband.

"Hi," said Won Do happily. "Good run?"

"Hot," said Hyeonmi with a sigh. "Ugh."

"We brought you iced coffee," said Jjim, waving an Americano at him.

Hyeonmi reached out to grab it; Won Do emptied the bread onto the table.

"There's seven of us, not fifteen," said Sunny, eyeing the pile with narrowed eyes.

"I count as eight," said Jjim.

Sunny sighed, then quickly changed his tune when he saw his favorite one. "Wow, red bean bread— you guys are the best," he said, with some actual emotion for once.

Won Do pretended to smack himself in the face.

"Where's Deulgi," asked Won Do. "Not here yet?"

"Nope," said Skip. "I guess he'll be here soon."

As if on cue, Deulgi walked through the door with his bag on one shoulder and a tubular artwork case slung on the other.

"Man, its hot," he said.

"It's your fault for wearing that jacket," said Hyeonmi. "What is that—"

Deulgi looked down at his canvas pea coat. "It's not that warm," he said, "It's cool fashion—"

Skip started laughing. "Well, it won't stop global warming, but it's definitely a nice jacket," he said. "Come over here, they got you tea."

"Aha," said Deulgi, dropping his baggage on the floor. "Thanks." He saw the croissants and grabbed one of those as well.

"I haven't had chestnut milk bread in a few months," admitted Daisy, tearing the packaging off. "It's my favorite."

"Thanks you guys for going," said Sunny, looking at his bean bread as if it had saved his life. "I need to recharge my glucose levels.."

"Sure," said Daisy. He bit into his bread, but his serene expression suddenly turned sour. "Agh—"

"Did you bite your tongue?" asked Skip with concern.

"Is the taste weird?" asked Deulgi with interest.

Daisy looked suddenly miserable. "Why do they do this," he said fretfully.

"What, what?" asked Jjim urgently.

Daisy showed his bread to the others. "Raisins," he said sadly. "My nemesis."

"You don't like raisins?" asked Sunny, with surprise. "You never struck me as someone who didn't like raisins—"

"What does a raisin-hating person strike you as?" asked Skip interestedly.

"Not him," said Sunny vaguely. "He's got the raisin vibe—"

"Eww, no I don't," said Daisy, immediately protesting this assertion. "Your logic is like raisins—"

Hyeonmi started losing it. "What??"

"I bet you think the cereal goes after the milk—" Daisy continued darkly, looking at Sunny, who appeared supremely unconcerned.

Sunny looked hard at him, chewing his red bean bread. "I presoak my cereal," he informed him. "It's more delicious—" He stifled his own laugh with another bite of bread.

"Oh my God, he's lying, he's a liar—" Jjim suddenly yelled, as usual pointing accusingly at Sunny with whatever food he was holding (the last end of his sausage bread). "That is just a crime—"

"Who presoaks—" Won Do was groaning, as if he'd lost the will to live.

"Why does the cereal go before the milk, anyways," Deulgi was asking the general audience (none of whom appeared to be listening). "Then the milk runs all over the cereal— wouldn't it get wet faster?"

"But imagine you have to carry the bowl to the table before you add cereal, right, since you don't want the cereal to sit there too long—" Hyeonmi had tried to answer.

"Well SUNNY APPARENTLY DOES," said Jjim hotly, still not recovering from this comment.

Sunny seemed, meanwhile, to find all this prime entertainment; he was languidly watching the proceedings with moderate interest.

"But if the milk splashes," Hyeonmi was still trying to rationalize the cereal-before-milk argument.

"You could just put the milk and cereal out on the counter and make the bowl right before you eat it—" said Skip, as usual trying to approach things in a logical manner.

"I'm divorcing everyone," said Deulgi suddenly, "I've decided that cereal should be eaten dry—"

"That's why they sell snack cereal," agreed Skip.

"Just divorce Sunny, he's the one who said he's soaking things," suggested Hyeonmi.

"We were married??" said Jjim suspiciously, looking at everyone like they were going to jump him with surprise nuptials.

"Isn't that how dogs eat cereal?" commented Won Do.

"Dogs eat cereal?" asked Daisy.

"Isn't dog food cereal?" asked Won Do, "Cereal for dogs."

"But dogs never put milk on it, it's more like 'bite sized crackers'," insisted Hyeonmi, jumping into the fray. "If you never intended to put milk on it then it's not cereal—"

"So anything you put milk in is cereal?" asked Sunny, interestedly. "Then why is it called 'latte', isn't it 'coffee cereal'?"

"No, dummy, coffee is a liquid, it has to be a crunchy thing," said Jjim impatiently.

"Bean sprouts," suggested Won Do. Everyone started losing it again.

"Beans sprouts— with milk—" said Daisy, looking somewhat ill. Skip looked horrified.

"It's double protein," insisted Won Do, turning to Hyeonmi as if he wanted an endorsement.

"I have limits," insisted Hyeonmi. "That's just terrible—"

"Shrimp chips?" suggested Jjim.

"Ugh, no—" said Won Do, "That's really dog food—"

"Maybe it tastes like shrimp ramyeon?" suggested Jjim.

Skip shot him a horrified look. "No—"

"Like noodles, you can't let cereal get too soggy," said Jjim insistently. "It's like the same concept—"

"I don't presoak my cereal, guys," said Sunny suddenly, wiping his hands on a Paris Baguette napkin. "It was for the sake of debate—"

"This world is cursed," said Skip.