The Scientific Method • Kim Junmyeon

Construct a Hypothesis

It was rather scary how easily everyone forgave Junmyeon, or at least it would be scary to anyone that wasn't familiar with the friend group. The ten misfits never held a grudge unless it was something serious that had happened, thankfully nothing like that had happened yet in their four years of friendship.

In the current moment Haewon was splayed out on her bed in her own dorm, as she often did when she wasn't playing babysitter for her friends. Without any upcoming exams or big projects, and having already been caught up on all her homework, she found herself completely and utterly bored. Boredom breeds thoughts.

Haewon often found herself wondering about how things would have been if she hadn't met Kim Junmyeon. Perhaps she would have made some close girl friends, joined a sorority or something. Or maybe she might have delved into an interest besides the sciences. She even could have fallen behind in her studies instead of spending sleepless nights with Junmyeon endlessly mulling over test criteria.

Many things were made possible when she met Junmyeon in that Science 101 class in Freshman year. For instance, befriending the rest of the boys, and now the two were Seniors at Hankook University along with Minseok and Yixing. Soon enough the four of them would be graduating in the Spring and getting real jobs, escaping the Uni life. While that was amazing, Haewon already knew she'd miss the simple things like walking through the quad randomly or going to all of the school's hidden nooks and crannies.

Inevitably once they graduate they'd meet new people, get into new relationships, and start families of their own at one point or another. Of course the ones that would still be college students wouldn't let them escape, so Sunday Game nights would probably be constant for a few more years until everyone gets too busy.

Haewon couldn't help the uncomfortable feeling that sat in the pit of her stomach at the thought of some people starting relationships, namely Junmyeon. It wasn't as if she didn't want them to, that would never be the case. However, that irking thought that Jun might have begun a relationship was like a slap across the face. She wanted to be a part of that journey for everyone and cheer them on along the way. Though it was rather discouraging if even her bestest friend couldn't tell her whether or not he was dating someone.

But alas, she wouldn't dwell on it too much. There were still plenty of months from the current November to when they get their diplomas in June. Plus, who knows, some might even get an extended education in order to get their PHds or Masters. As they were often taught in the field of science, the world is full of variables and anything is possible if you can prove it to be so.

Just like how it was possible to prove who Junmyeon was meeting and for what purpose he was meeting them. And to do that, she would need a hypothesis.

Sitting up from the mint sheets of her bed, Hae reaches over to her nightstand to grab her little notebook in order to record her findings. A hypothesis is essentially an educated guess, it's formatted as "if (blank) is related to (blank), then (blank)".

If Junmyeon meeting up with someone is related to him spending less time with their friend group then it will continue to happen until their friendship ultimately perishes.

Okay, it's a bit of a far off and dramatic conclusion. Their friendship might not completely fall to pieces, but there was a chance that they could drift apart. However, that hypothesis isn't really testable, so she needed to find a better one she could put into action. With an annoyed little sigh the girl aggressively scribbles out the previous sentence.

If Haewon trying to get Junmyeon's attention in a romantic way and failing is related to Junmyeon constantly meeting with an unknown person, then he had a girlfriend.

The girl pushes up the bridge of her glasses as she stares contemplatively at the sheet of lined paper sitting in her lap. The hypothesis was decent, she could test it well even if it was at the expense of her own dignity. The conclusion seemed a little flawed though, because Junmyeon might just not be remotely attracted to her; that doesn't necessarily mean that he has a girlfriend, or if that is even who he's meeting.