INFERNO ༄ PARK JISUNG

thirty six

"Remember, breathe." Jeno reminded her as they sat together in a local cafe.

It was his recommendation, seeing as though she was barely taking care of herself, let alone focusing at home with Aerin around. Their essays were due tonight at 11:59 p.m., meaning it was definitely rush hour for the both of them.

Seorin tore her eyes away from the screen, taking a sip from the coffee she had ordered, Jaemin's recommendation. Although it tasted like actual battery acid, she persisted, knowing it'd keep her awake from the lack of sleep she'd gotten the whole week.

The bags on her eyes had grown heavy, casting a dark shadow on her usually clear skin, along with a pimple or two on her forehead. Her veins were pumping caffeine, making her oddly energetic for only the next couple of hours. Her long, dark locks were tied up messily in a large bun, you'd think she would fall over by the looks of it.

Of course, she was curled up in a hoodie way too large for her, which was Mark's, along with a random pair of leggings she managed to find in her disaster of a room.

Needless to say, Seorin was living and breathing as your average honors high school student.

"Are you almost done with yours?" she questioned, seeing his screen way more filled than hers. He met his eyes with hers, letting out a deep sigh.

"Sort of, I don't know how to word this and google translate can only do so much." he raised his eyebrows, making a small laugh escape her lips.

She leaned over to view his paper, proofreading his minuscule mistakes. "Hm, instead of saying he is a incredibly hardworking student, you could say he relied on his girlfriend for a year to get his high rank." she grumbled, making him raise an eyebrow.

"You guys really didn't end on good terms, did you?"

"Not in the slightest." she rolled her eyes, disgusted at the thought of him.

"Seriously though, just make sure you add a comma there and it looks like it'll make sense." she shrugged, not completely understanding the foreign language either.

"Thanks, Ri." he began correcting his mistakes, but her heart slightly dropped at the sound of the old nickname. Regardless, she shrugged it off, refocusing on his screen.

"You know, sometimes I ask myself why I choose to put myself through the stress of advanced classes. It's like asking for a death wish." she joked, making Jeno chuckle in response.

"It's like we have our whole lives set out for us, yet we still need to do this to prove that we're something more than that." he replied, making her purse her lips.

"I've never heard my feelings put into words so perfectly."

"Being one of the Republic's kids is a lot of pressure, I have too much time to think about it." he shrugged, turning his head to make eye contact.