forced to be ' zhang hao au

027

"I'm freaking the hell out, shin hyejin. I'm literally going to fail." rei whines as she continues pulls and pushes hyejins arm, causing it to feel a sense of pain as she grips onto her wrist. hyejin looks over to her distressed friend with a tired expression, she hasn't slept in days because of the intense exams. teachers were constantly pressuring the students to work harder, causing them all to be sleepless and tired.

"do you think we're gonna graduate?" hyejin suddenly asks.

"maybe you are, but not me. hyejin, you're literally top student in the whole school, i don't know why you're freaking out." rei pouts.

"girl, those days are over. i don't know what happened to me." hyejin scoffs, gripping onto her book as she stares at the exam hall with her heart burning. this is the most important exams a Korean had to take. it decides their destiny, this 8 hour long examination, consisting mostly of multiple choice questions of back to back papers, it is made up of 6 sections - Korean, maths, English, history, social studies, and a second foreign language.

the students were all huddled up, trying their hardest to quickly review everything as they were being called into the halls. the pressure was tremendous. this was the exam the students have been preparing for their entire lives, it decided wether they'd get into the college they wanted to go to or not.

rei let go of hyejins arm as they parted ways into the exam hall, everyone is sat.

hyejin made one last prayer before being handed the papers that decided her future. she took a deep breath, staring at the questions written. she began circling and circling the answers. hours felt like minutes as she continued choosing from the questions, the stress was horrid.

"5 minutes left."

hyejin looked up from her paper, a shock sending through her spine as she stared back at the paper on her desk. she didn't realize it was already finishing time. hyejin quickly rechecked everything to make sure it was correct, she had made a couple mistakes without even realizing. she was thankful to have realized and fixed them.

a couple minutes went by until everyone was leaving from the exam hall with a heavy feeling in their heart. hyejin and rei reunite.

"oh my god, i almost died? ive never been so stressed in my life, it literally hurts to breathe." rei yells as she wraps her arms around hyejin, rubbing her face on her jacket as she whines.

"i don't even know how i did. I'm gonna kill myself if i don't get into my dream college. like i'll actually get a gun and shoot myself." hyejin replied with a blank expression. this exam had made her so nervous that literally nothing else mattered to her right now.

zhanghao dizzily walks out of the hall, talking to ricky. "dude you look like you're about to pass out." ricky worriedly states, rubbing the back of his friends back.

"i thought i was getting better, but i guess not." zhanghao replies, grabbing a dark colored bottle out of his bag and then drinking from it. his nose scrunches as he attempts to drink more of the drink.

ricky confusedly looks over at him asking, "what the hell are you drinking to make that weird face?"

zhanghao takes another sip, again making a disgusted face as he answers, "ginger tea." 

ricky stares at him in confusion but then finally decides not to say anything else. who in their right mind likes ginger tea?

"anyways. we just took the exam of our lives, why do you look so calm? ricky asks, brushing his blonde hair back with his fingers. zhanghao lets out a little laugh, "to be honest, it felt like a normal exam, but 8 hours. the only thing bothering me was the constant pain and dizziness, otherwise this exam was kinda easy."

"you are not normal." ricky scoffs as he continues walking. his eyes suddenly shifted to hyejin, who was stressfully reading through her math book. ricky places his hands on her shoulders causing her to jump out of fear. she looked over at him before yelling and smacking him in his arm.

"ricky what the hell? you scared the shit out of m-" hyejin yells as she places her book on the floor, but then suddenly getting jumpscared again as she realizes zhanghao was beside him. "oh, hey." she calms said, her stress faded away for a second.

"hey." he awkwardly replied, suddenly reaching in for his bottle again. he was determined to finish his tea. zhanghao took another sip, this time his whole body flinched. it was that bad.

"what's with him?" rei scoffs, pointing her face in zhanghaos direction. ricky looks over at him, "not sure. he keeps drinking this ginger tea for no reason. come on dude, who likes ginger tea?" maybe someones grandma." he comments again, seems like he was really judging him.

hyejin surprisedly glanced at zhanghao who looked a little flustered as rei and ricky continued making fun of his interesting drink choice.

"anyways, my moms probably crying outside so i'm just gonna go and disappoint her more." rei lets out a little laugh as she tries to cope with humor. she made sure to hug hyejin before leaving. the duo soon parted ways and now hyejin was left with the other two boys.

she awkwardly looked to her side, flashing a weird looking smile at the both of them before excusing herself outside.

she walks outside of the building, scanning every parent as she patiently looks around for her own. her eyes landed on a familiar figure before running towards them. "dad? where's mom?" hyejin asked, grabbing onto her fathers arm in excitement.

"she'll be here soon but," her father leaned in for a hug as he tightly grasped onto his daughter. "i'm proud of you kid."

hyejin looked up at her father, he had never looked so happy before. it sparked something inside of her. the approval that she had been begging from her dad was finally showing.

minutes later, her mom finally showed up. hyejin ran up to her mom, hugging her tightly.

"it's okay hyejin, you'll do amazing." her mother reassured her as she held onto her daughter.

"let's have a family dinner tonight, just us three. we haven't done those in a while." hyejins father suggested. she was so excited by the idea, it kind of brought tears to her eyes. hyejin looked around at all the students that were talking with their parents, it gave her a sense of comfort. she looked back at her father, her eyes sparking. "let's go then."