never not | markhyuck

fourteen ♣

   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."