Cha Soo-jin is the kind of student who always has her head in the books and her eyes on the prize. Straight-A's, organized notes, perfect attendance-she knows what she wants and doesn't let anything distract her. Here comes Sim Jaeyun: campus heartt...
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[Saturday — November 15 — 7:18 a.m.]
Soo-jin woke up to sunlight pouring through the curtains, her room warm with the soft orange hue of early morning.
No alarms. No stress. Just... stillness.
Her phone buzzed with messages.
[Yeji] happy birthday bby 🩷 see u later! bring extra clips for your hair pls
[Yunjin] birthday girl 😏 you're not allowed to sulk today. we're buying cake. NO EXCUSES.
[Hyunjin] happy birthday, Soo. see you later. i picked your playlist. hope you don't hate it. 😉
She smiled faintly.
She scrolled through her messages further more down.
Still no messages from him.
Of course not.
She sighed. She shouldn't have checked.
─── ⋆⋅ ❤︎ ⋅⋆ ───
[Saturday — 1:04 p.m.]
Meanwhile, in another part of town, Jaeyun was in Sunghoon's living room, lying upside down on the couch, legs dangling over the armrest as Jay and Heeseung wrestled over game controllers.
Heeseung had insisted they celebrate Jaeyun's birthday with snacks, games, and "stupidity, not sadness."
Jay had brought pizza. Sunghoon brought chips. Jaeyun brought nothing but his stubborn silence and a weird ache in his chest.
A pillow hit his face.
"Hey!" He whined.
"Dude," Sunghoon said, exasperated, "at least pretend you're having fun."
Jaeyun groaned and sat up, shoving the pillow off. "I am having fun."
"No, you're thinking about her," Jay said bluntly. "You should try to forget about her sometimes, you know. It won't hurt to give it a try."
Jaeyun froze.
The room went quiet.
Heeseung cleared his throat. "You think she remembers?"
"Of course she does, it's her birthday, too," Jaeyun muttered, voice barely audible.
The silence returned—heavier this time.
Jay exchanged a glance with Heeseung.
Then, quietly, said, "You should go."
"What?" Jaeyun blinked.
"Go where?"
"To the studio," Jay said. "I heard from Yeji they rented the place. Birthday thing. Just their group."
