"What's the answer to number 13?"

Jimin leaned over, his eyes peering at my paper. I made a halfhearted attempt to cover it, but he swiped the paper away. "Do your own work," I said tiredly, rubbing my temples as my head throbbed again.

"How are you already on 16?" he lamented, copying the answer on his own assignment. I retrieved my paper as he moved on to the next question. "God, I fucking hate AP World."

"Why'd you take it, then?"

"I thought it would be easy. What time is it?"

"It's almost lunch time."

"Thank God," he said. He stuffed his papers into his folder, which swiftly disappeared into his backpack. "I'm just going to do this at home."

"You can't just say that. There's a reason we get in-class work time."

"I'm just not in any mood to do work right now." Jimin paused. "To be honest, I haven't been in the mood to do work since, like, when we were doing college apps. And besides, there's nothing I could do now that could affect my chances of getting into a college. I bet none of us have any motivation."

Me too, I thought. It was true that none of the seniors could possibly have any motivation, but for me, it was even more so. Maia was gone, and she'd seemed to have taken my work ethic with her, leaving me with a sense of lethargy. It might have been stupid for a girl to affect me this much, but I'd always been in tune with my emotions, always been the person who knew what to say. I'd always prided myself on that, but now, I resented myself for it.

"I can't wait to go back to Korea," Jimin continued, sighing. "It's been so long."

I nodded absently. Jimin, being an exchange student from South Korea, had not visited his family in seven months. I'd always had a respect for how he could be separated from his loved ones for so long. But then again, it was Jimin who had wanted to spend nine months as an exchange student.

He looked at me. "You haven't spoken much this whole day. What's up?"

I returned the side-eye. "I'll tell you guys at lunch."

Jimin left it at that. We jostled our way to the crowded cafeteria and sat down.

Since the students had no say in their lunch time, only four out of the seven members of our friend group could join us. Not long after, Seokjin and Jungkook joined us, bickering about something.

"Jin says that texting someone is a perfectly acceptable way to ask them to prom," said Jungkook.

"Well, I think it doesn't matter," said Seokjin. "I'm just wasting my own time and money, and that money isn't even for the actual event. It's just so I can seem like a good person, and besides, after we all leave this hellhole, no one will give a shit about how I asked my date to prom."

Jimin frowned, sticking his fork into his lunch container. "Would she care about your means of promposal?"

"But you're supposed to keep it a secret from your date," Jungkook interjected, "so Jin wouldn't know anyway. Therefore, he should just play it safe and do something cool. Otherwise, he runs the risk of hurting her feelings."

"Yeah, but Claire and I had a discussion a couple months ago," said Seokjin. Claire was his girlfriend. "And she said that she couldn't care less about how someone asked her to prom."

"Her opinion could have changed since you had the discussion," Jungkook pointed out.

Jimin laughed. "Don't get so pressed over this. It won't matter in a year."

"See?" said Seokjin to Jungkook. "He--"

"Anyway," said Jimin over Seokjin. "What do you think, Tae?"

"Um," I said, shifting uncomfortably in my seat. "Well, she did say herself that she was okay with no fancy promposal. So in your case...it should be alright."

"I told you," said Seokjin to Jungkook. But the younger had already turned his gaze on me.

"What are you going to do about Maia?"

I opened my mouth, but I couldn't get myself to speak. I felt my cheeks flare as Jimin looked at me. An uncomfortable silence fell on us, and it seemed to stretch for eternity.

Finally, Jimin said, "What? Did anything happen between you two?"

I couldn't reply.

His voice softened. "Oh. I'm sorry."

"Yeah," I squeaked.

"Oh," said Seokjin.

"I'm sorry," said Jungkook.

"I don't want to talk about it," I mumbled.

"That's okay," said Seokjin. "If you ever want to vent or something, the group chat is open."

"Oh," said Jungkook. "Would you want to tell the others?"

"I guess," I said. "I'll tell them later. But...could you please not mention it?"

"Of course," said Jimin. "This stays between us."

I nodded, grateful for their companionship. Jimin had been a part of our friend group for all of seven months, yet, I wasn't afraid to tell him things like these. Sure, I wasn't as close with him as I was with the other five, but I really, truly enjoyed his presence.

Seokjin and Jungkook erupted into another conversation about the recent Calculus test they'd taken, and Jimin joined in. I didn't know the word for it, but even though I wasn't a part of their conversation, I felt as if I was included, as if I really was debating about my test answers with them.

I'm lucky, I thought to myself. It was a beautiful feeling, to be included, to be a part of a group. Yes, that was what I wished for every person in the world--that they could experience the lightness, the comfort of feeling included, of feeling normal, of feeling understood. It was almost a hug, in a sense, a hug that said, It's okay. You're okay. Breathe.

"Come on," said Jimin suddenly, offering me a hand, and I realized that it was time to leave. The four of us left the cafeteria, and Jimin and I parted ways with Seokjin and Jungkook.

He accompanied me to my next class, which was English. "Don't feel bad about her. Most likely, you'll stop talking to each other by the time you finish freshman year of college."

I knew he was trying to make me feel better, but I felt worse about it instead. "You're right, I guess. But unfortunately, this doesn't comfort me at all."

He frowned, as if he was pondering something. I looked at him, waiting for him to speak. Finally, he said, "I'll text you after school."

a/n: i Cannot stop doing the renegade dance and it's kind of a problem

on a more serious note, my midterms are in about a week so y'all prolly won't get another update until the last week of january