As the sun shone through the window, Lee Hyunwoo woke up from his sleep. Hyunwoo was immediately greeted by the sunlight after he opened his eyes. His skin shivered in the presence of the winter's cold wind and gloomy atmosphere.

  'It's nearly been years since it last snowed.'

  Not long after Hyunwoo woke up, his mother entered his room, slamming the door in the process.

  "Rise and shine, Hyunwoo! The summer break is over, you have to go to school now. Get ready and come downstairs for breakfast, you can't be late for your first day back to school!"

  "Ah… yes. I'll come down in a second."

  His mother nodded in response with a clear smile drawn all over her face as she slammed the door once again on her way out.

  Hearing the door getting treated roughly, Hyunwoo's father shouted from across the house.

  "Sweetie! Stop slamming the door! It costs a lot to fix!"

  "Sorry, Honey! I'll keep that in mind!"

  "I love you!"

  "I love you too, Honey!"

  Hearing his parents shouting their love to each other, Hyunwoo cringed up a smile as he felt happy but weirded out.

  'They're still going strong after 21 years... Mom and dad are so energetic and outgoing, I wonder how did I turn out like this.'

  Hyunwoo became immersed in his thoughts right after his mother left the room.

  'I'm almost 18 this year but it's still hard interacting with others. You'd think their vibes would've rubbed onto me by now.'

  While Hyunwoo was still drunk on his thoughts, his mother called out to him with evident anger in her voice, Hyunwoo had been too immersed in his thoughts to notice that he was now late for school.

  "Hyunwoo! Get the hell up already!"

  "Yesss!!"

  ??????

  Hyunwoo sighed in exhaustion on his way to school. Wearing heavy clothing, he walked through the puddle of rain that failed to become snow, his warm breath visible to the naked eye as he exhaled.

  'Mom was so angry, she made me eat so fast I thought my end was going to be by choking on food!'

  Hyunwoo kept walking towards his school, his hand put between his scarf and coat on his throat.

  "Ugh?"

  His throat throbbed in pain from his mother frantically forcing food down his throat due to him being late.

  Still walking through the cold with his hand shivering inside his coat's pocket, Hyunwoo was consumed again by the train of thoughts running through his head that he failed to notice someone walking towards him from behind.

  "Ow!"

  It was then someone hit him on his back.

  "Hyunwoo! Long time no see, Whassup?"

  "Jake?"

  "In the flesh!"

  Jake took a proud stance with both his hands on his hips and lifted his chin high up in the air.

  "You repeated the year?! You got such bad grades that I thought they sent you back!"

  Tears erupted from Hyunwoo's eyes.

  "I was sad the entire break thinking they sent you back, you bastard!"

  Hyunwoo launched onto Jake, put his arms around Jake's neck, and began to choke him while berating him with insults.

  "Blee? I can't breathe?!"

  Fume shot out of Hyunwoo's ears as he choked Jake due to how angry he was. Even though Hyunwoo had an averagely small physique, he had his fair share of muscles, so choking Jake, who wasn't any bigger, wasn't that hard for him.

  "Ah?"

  Hyunwoo's choke blocked Jake's airways, making him tap on Hyunwoo's back in an attempt to tell him to stop.

  "Coff? Ugh, talk about a reunion. Hahaha!"

  "Dude, how did they not send you back? You totally bombed every single one of your exams!"

  Hyunwoo was in total disbelief, he knew there was no chance they would've let Jake just stay and slack off after doing terribly at school for the last couple of semesters.

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  "Dude, yours aren't any better. Besides, don't you know?"

  "Shut up, I still scored higher than you. Anyway, what do you mean by "don't you know"?"

  Hyunwoo was oblivious, but Jake teased him instead of straight-up telling him what happened.

  "Heh? whatever you say, dude. I didn't know you lived under a rock."

  Jake casually shrugged off Hyunwoo's protest and continued belittling Hyunwoo as revenge.

  "You know I don't get myself involved in others' business. Plus, my parents grounded me and took away all of my electronics then forced me to study the whole break!"

  "So that's why you were so unreachable, huh? I thought you made some friends among the worms under that comfy rock of yours. Kekeke?"

  Just when Hyunwoo was starting to forgive Jake, he struck again. Hyunwoo's temper shot back up as he went for another choke.

  "You little? hyup!"

  "Ah? Ah? Ok, ok, I'm sorry!"

  Hyunwoo had an angry expression on his face as he begrudgingly let go of Jake's neck.

  "Coff? fine I'll tell you, I guess."

  Jake put his hand on his throat, trying to relieve some of the pain.

  "So? What happened?"

  Jake glanced at Hyunwoo before answering, his lips moved with difficulty.

  "Everyone failed."

  Jake's voice was so low, it could be considered a whisper, too low for Hyunwoo's ears to pick up what he said properly.

  "What? The whole class failed?!"

  This took Hyunwoo by surprise, 'the whole class was filled with people whose only goal in life was school. Those bunch failed?', it seemed absolutely impossible to him. But Jake wasn't done.

  "Nope."

  "What now, the whole year?"

  Hyunwoo was truly oblivious to what was happening in the outside world whilst he was grounded.

  "Not quite."

  He had no access to any news source, be it television or social media. His only pastime was sleep, studying, and working out.

  "The whole school?!"

  "The whole nation, dude."

  So when the news finally reached him, he refused it resolutely.

  "No, you've been smoking something bad lately, haven't you?"

  "I'm telling you, everyone failed. Even in other countries, almost no one passed the exams, that's why they didn't send me back to the US."

  Jake snickered at the impossible event that was their reality, happy that he wasn't going to get sent back, leaving Hyunwoo to stare holes into him.

  "How in the hell would an entire nation fail one specific set of exams? And not just that, but all the other ones as well? If you're gonna lie, don't make it this obvious."

  Hyunwoo threw his hand at his face as he finished his sentence, Jake's words which he judged to be a lie made him facepalm in disappointment.

  "I'm serious, look, ask anyone else, they'll say that I'm right! Someone like, uhh- Yeah, ask him!"

  Jake's hand moved to point at someone trying to cross into their street.

  "Who? Suho-ssi?"

  "Yeah! Ask him, he'll say that I'm not lying!"

  Han Suho was crossing the street, the walkway was a few meters away from Jake and Hyunwoo, so he naturally didn't notice them.

  Hyunwoo, only now noticing him, called out to Han Suho with his arm waving up in the air, trying to catch Han Suho's attention.

  "Suho-ssi! Over here!"

  Han Suho, who had finally noticed them, held up his hand at chest level and waved back as he stood still after crossing the street, waiting for Hyunwoo and Jake.

  Hyunwoo and Jake started running toward Han Suho.

  "Jake-ssi, Hyunwoo-ssi, hello."

  Han Suho greeted the two with a bright smile when they reached him.

  "Suho-ssi, Hello!"

  "Suho! Tell this idiot that I'm right!"

  Hyunwoo, noticing how Jake was acting rude early in the morning, had hit him in the back of his head.

  "Hey! Behave yourself, idiot."

  "Ow! What was that for?!"

  But Jake didn't respond kindly to that, so he stomped on Hyunwoo's foot.

  "Ow! Hey, you little-!"

  Han Suho, who was bewildered by the two's energetic nature at such an early hour, lightly laughed.

  'Hm~ I'd love to have that much energy to spend in the morning.'

  "What is this about?"

  The two stopped bickering after having heard Han Suho. Hyunwoo, who noticed first, turned his head towards Han Suho with one hand holding Jake's arm away from him, and the other on his to keep him away, but Jake still found a way to reach Hyunwoo's face and stop him from talking properly.

  "Ah? Suho-ssi, this idiot? he said something about everyone failing the exams? I only checked up on Jake's score? so is it true?? Hey, stop you idiot!"

  Han Suho watched the two with joy in his eyes, the sight of the two of them seemed rather adorable as he thought of it as something only good friends would do.

  "Yes, it's true."

  Hyunwoo, surprised, stepped away from Jake in astonishment, causing Jake to fall face first. Han Suho's confirmation left him completely speechless.

  Jake spat the dirt that got into his mouth after falling and cursed at Hyunwoo, but Hyunwoo's full attention was now on Han Suho.

  "Ptto? damned brat!"

  "Wait, how is that even possible?"

  "I'm not sure, but every country had the same exams, and out of all those who took the test, only a few thousand people or so passed."

  Hyunwoo listened to Han Suho with one question on his mind.

  "How did I miss all of that?!"

  "It was televised a month after the exam period ended. It's no surprise that you haven't heard of it since you were grounded. I came to your house a while after the news and your parents didn't let me see you."

  "Ah, you did? They didn't tell me…"

  Hyunwoo's disappointment was on full display, he felt that he was robbed of something.

  'My parents made me feel bad the entire break, thinking that only I and Jake were gonna have to repeat the year, but apparently everyone is…'

  Hyunwoo had mixed emotions about the situation, whether to feel anger and sadness about what his parents made him go through or to feel happiness after he knew that he wasn't going to be separated from his friends.

  "I'm not sure about this, but I'm happy that we're staying together!"

  "Same here!"

  "Agreed."

  Han Suho, Lee Hyunwoo, and Jake, finally reached their destination as happiness radiated around them, until Han Suho brought something to their attention.

  "By the way, where's everyone?"

  They had been walking for a long while now, but so far, even after reaching the school's gate, they have yet to meet anyone. Not even the gatekeeper.

  The area was dead-silent.