WITH GRACE.

INTERLUDE

─────────────────── pre-exam period

the week before the college division's exams were hectic. every single place on campus was occupied by students. even the usually barren oval during non-training hours were occupied. everywhere in campus was filled with people, except the highschool division.

it was comforting for the highschoolers ㅡ daniel, jungwon, ni-ki and taki ㅡ that their exams were conducted earlier than the college's schedule. for now, they can freely roam the high school grounds during free periods without having to think about chapters and lectures to review. however, the anxious and tense eyes of the college students never escaped the curious eyes of the younger ones. even when their division is separated by a distance from the colleges, college people must first pass by their grounds if they enter the university's main gate.

anyhow, it was afternoon already which meant training time.

with his bag slung on his back, daniel paced the halls to fetch his jungwon hyung from one of the twelfth grade rooms.

"jungwon hyung! i'm here!" he called out once he was outside jungwon's classroom.

"wait!"

daniel sighed. jungwon was messily stuffing his uniform inside his bag ㅡ his new bag that daniel and his eunhye noona got for him. daniel also noticed that jungwon was barefooted.

this was a usual sight for daniel. it would be a miracle to see jungwon prepared before he comes to fetch him. jungwon also dislikes wearing shoes, so he monopolizes all the time when he can wear slippers, or even be barefoot.

it took nearly five minutes before jungwon was done preparing.

"let's go!"

daniel was dongkyu for his noona and his jungwon hyung when at home, but in school he was mostly called by his english name. apart from teachers, there was no one else who called him dongkyu. not that he allows just anybody to call him that. for him, 'dongkyu' meant intimacy and closeness.

jungwon always comes to the practice room with daniel. it was like their shared habit in school. for him, it was important to have someone all the time. it's not that he's bad with directions. instead, he was bad with time, time management and he needs someone to piggyback him all the way to the practice room if he ends up still in barefoot several minutes before training starts. daniel was perfect for the job. although young, daniel was considerably taller and stronger than him. moreover, daniel doesn't seem to mind piggyback-ing his hyung either.

when they opened the training room, only ni-ki and taki was present.

"are the hyungs coming?" jungwon asked the two.

"not sure if they asked to come late today, but i feel like they might arrive quite late. k hyung went out to fetch us some snacks before he starts teaching us the new choreography," taki explained.

jungwon and daniel were quite familiar with the two japanese members, plus their k hyung who was their trainer and mentor. the three were the 'japanese neighbors' their eunhye noona have just known (by names, that is) during jungwon's birthday. taki and ni-ki were on the same grade level with daniel, only that they were in a separate classroom as the two just transferred over a year ago. ni-ki, taki and their k hyung were cousins, close ones at that. when their k hyung was offered a mentor position in another country's university, they willingly followed him and enrolled in the high school division as soon as they could.

"i guess they'd really be late. college must be tough," daniel said.

"we really have to enjoy being highschoolers while we still can, especially you jungwon-hyung," ni-ki supported.