The late evening sun slanted through the tall windows of a classroom, scattering golden rectangles of light across scattered textbooks, notebooks, and the occasional unopened bag of chips. The air was heavy with the uneasy silence that always came before exams, a silence that wasn't really silence at all, but a mixture of pages flipping, pencils scratching, and muffled sighs of despair. Eight students studied in the room, bound together by the same looming fate: upcoming midterm exams.
Dakota sat hunched at his desk, with a hoodie pulled halfway over his head. His history textbook lay open before him, but instead of taking notes, he stared into the abyss of a page filled with small-font paragraphs and impossibly long names.
Dakota: "Why are there so much content in history?" he muttered under his breath, his pencil tapping nervously against the desk.
Across from him, Remi leaned her elbow on the desk, watching him with faint amusement.
Remi: "At least try taking notes Dakota, they actually help."
Dakota groaned: "I'd rather do math than study all these chapters of overflowing information."
Remi: "Math is even worse. Numbers are crueler than people."
Remi wasn't one to study in groups, but Erika invited her to the study group so she couldn't decline.
Remo: "In any case we need to stop whining. We'll drag the mood down and no one's gonna get anything done."
Her voice wasn't harsh, but it carried the steady firmness of someone who knew they needed to make some progress. Dakota gave a half-hearted groan but picked up his pencil again and started taking notes.
Meanwhile, Erika had neatly arranged her desk like a shrine to studying: sharpened pencils, pastel sticky notes, an open planner filled with doodles of stars. She smiled brightly at everyone, radiating the kind of sunshine that made them forget the terrifying midterms coming up.
Erika: "We should do it like a study circle!" she suggested cheerfully, clapping her hands together. "We can each take a subject we're good at and help the others. That way, no one gets left behind!"
Austin: "That's actually not a bad idea."
Yuji grumbled: "As long as I don't have to teach."
Dakota: "You'd be the last person I'd ask."
Austin "It wouldn't be a bad idea. But y'know what studying circles usually turn into? Circles of not studying. We'll spend the whole time talking about nothing, and then Dakota will cry at the end."
Dakota: "I'm not going to cry," he said automatically, though his voice cracked just enough to betray him.
Austin only raised his eyebrows at the imaginary camera that didn't exist, the ghost of a grin on his face.
At the back of the room, Yuji who reluctantly showed up was scowling at a thick literature textbook like it had personally insulted him. A mechanical pencil dangled precariously between his fingers.
Yuji: "These poems suck. They have no rhyme or meaning."
Sylvie: "They're supposed to have meaning," she said gently, though her encouraging tone did little to soften his annoyance.
Yuji: "The only meaning I see is wasting my time."
Shinatsu: "If you're looking for deeper meaning, you might want to start by actually reading the first page."
Yuji shot her a glare, he held himself back from saying anything.
As for Esmarie, she he had a math workbook open, though it looked more like an abstract sketchbook with doodles of cats filling the margins.
Esmarie: "Hey," she suddenly burst out, "what if we make up songs for the formulas? Like, turn them into lyrics! That way they'll stick in our heads during the test."
Remi: "I don't think anyone wants to sing about math."
Erika: "I do!"
Esmarie: "See? Erika's on board. We'll have the catchiest quadratic formula in the Academy."
Yuji groaned: "This is hell."
Shinatsu: "Honestly, if you guys spent half as much energy studying as you do yapping, you'd be fine."
Esmarie: "You tell em ice princess!"
Shinatsu didn't dignify that with a response, though she did glance briefly toward Dakota, as if daring him to make one of his jokes.
Despite the differences in energy levels, Erika's encouragement, Dakota and Yuji's despair, Remi's quiet drive, Esmarie's bounciness, Austin's dry humor, Yuji's gruffness, Sylvie's supportiveness, and Shinatsu's mighty brain, something about the group worked.
Slowly, the classroom shifted from scattered individuals to a rhythm of reluctant cooperation. Erika explained English grammar to Yuji. Austin worked through math problems on the blackboard. Sylvie supported everyone right behind Shinatsu. Esmarie kept everyone from collapsing into boredom with her jokes, though her formulas-as-songs plan didn't quite take off.
Dakota and Yuji occasionally bickered over whose study method was lazier, while Shinatsu kept them tethered to actual progress, though her patience wore thin every time Esmarie interrupted.
By the time the sun dipped low, painting the classroom in soft orange light, the chaos had mellowed into something quieter. That's when a teacher showed up and kicked them out of the classroom. But now, there was an unspoken sense of camaraderie in the air.
Erika leaned back in her chair, smiling at the others: "Studying together isn't so bad, huh?"
Yuji sighed: "Speak for yourself."
Dakota: "Studying makes me feel like I'm aging."
Esmarie stretched her arms high above her head, grinning: "That just means you're wiser now!"
Dakota: "Or closer to death."
Remi smirked: "Same thing, depending on how the exams go."
Sylvie chuckled under her breath, while Shinatsu snapped her notebook shut with finality.
As they packed up their things, the classroom filled with the rustle of bags and the scrape of chairs. Despite the dread of the midterms ahead, there was something comforting about the chaos they'd shared.
Erika: "See you all tomorrow," she said brightly, waving as if midterms were just another fun event.
Remi: "Yeah. Let's do our best."
Yuji stuffed his hands into his pockets, muttering something about poetry being useless, while Esmarie hummed a nonsense tune about quadratic formulas. Shinatsu walked ahead, calm and composed as ever, though the faintest trace of amusement lingered in her eyes.
And Austin? He glanced once toward Dakota, smirked faintly, and muttered just loud enough for he to hear: "Place your bets now—who's failing first?"
Dakota "I hate you," he replied instantly.
But as they left the classroom one by one, the golden light fading behind them, the oppressive weight of exams didn't seem quite as heavy anymore.
Because somehow, against all odds, they weren't facing it alone.
***
The last of the footsteps faded down the hallway, swallowed by the hum of evening. Dakota sat slouched at his desk, staring at the pages of his history textbook without really reading. There was a reason he stayed behind.
Because he wasn't alone.
Remi had stayed behind as well, flipping calmly through her math notebook. She hadn't said anything when the others packed up, hadn't even looked up when Erika chirped her bright goodbyes. She was locked in, pencil in hand, brow furrowed slightly in concentration. Austin noticed and decided to let her concentrate on her own, though he didn't notice Dakota was staying behind too.
Remi glanced up: "Hm?" She hadn't noticed someone was still there with her. She tilted her head slightly, strands of her short hair brushing her cheek, before giving a little wave and returning to her notes. The movement was casual, but Dakota caught himself watching longer than he should have.
At this point, they were going to break curfew. Remi was genuinely lost in her studying, while Dakota was still there for her. The classroom wasn't completely silent, there was the occasional sound of her pencil tapping against paper, or the soft flip of a page. But compared to earlier, it felt calm.
Remi worked with a quiet focus, lips pressed into a faint line. Dakota noticed she didn't chew on her pencil like Esmarie, didn't scowl like Yuji, didn't sigh dramatically like people usually did. She just… worked. She knew she had things that needed to be done.
It was oddly soothing. And it made him feel a little ashamed that he only stayed to spent time with her, even though they weren't talking.
Dakota dragged his eyes back to his notes, trying to make sense of the tangled paragraphs about old politics: "Ugh… these names all blur together…" he muttered.
Remi looked up again: "Want me to quiz you?"
Dakota blinked: "Quiz me?"
Remi: "Yeah." She leaned back in her chair, folding her arms over the backrest. "It's easier when someone else asks you the questions. Otherwise you'll just skim and forget."
Dakota hesitated, then gave a small nod: "Fine. But don't expect much."
She smiled faintly and reached for his book. Their fingers brushed for a split second as she pulled it toward her side, and Dakota's heart stuttered in his chest. He froze, trying to keep his expression blank.
Remi didn't seem to notice, already flipping to a random page: "Okay," she began, scanning the text. "Who was the Hunter that led the—"
Dakota: "I don't know," he interrupted immediately, slumping deeper into his chair.
Remi laughed: "You didn't even let me finish."
Dakota: "Because I already know I don't know." He didn't know if he knew the answer or not, he just wanted to lighten up the mood a bit.
Remi: "You're hopeless." She chuckled again.
Remi started reading out questions, Dakota fumbling through half-guesses, sometimes getting them right, more often wrong.
At first, Dakota thought she'd get annoyed with how bad he was at this. But she didn't. Each time, she corrected him gently, explaining things in a straightforward way that made sense. She wasn't like Shinatsu, sharp and intimidating, or like Erika, overly cheerful. Remi had a steady, grounded presence, as if she knew he could actually improve if he just kept trying.
It was dangerous. Because he fell even more for her.
And that scared him a little.
Because that meant caring. And caring meant risking disappointment.
Dakota twirled his pencil between his fingers, staring at the grain of the desk to avoid looking at her too long: 'She thinks I'm just a classmate. A friend at most. That's good. That's safe.'
But then she leaned a little closer, pointing at a line in the text, and Dakota held his breath.
Remi: "See this? This is what a lot of people forget. If you connect it to the date before it, it's easier."
Dakota nodded quickly, trying to focus on the words, not the warmth of her presence just inches away: "R-right. Got it."
She gave him a satisfied smile, then leaned back again, returning to her seat.
Dakota let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
Remi glanced at him from the corner of her eye as she flipped another page: 'Dakota's… strange. Not in a bad way, just different.'
When she first saw him a couple months ago, she'd expected him to be the kind of guy who avoided people. He looked tired and like he was one step away from skipping out entirely. But when she saw him in class and got to know him, she realized he was more than he let on. And despite all his complaints, he never gave up.
She found him easy to be around. She found herself smiling faintly as he scowled at another question, scribbling nonsense in the margins like the words themselves offended him.
He didn't notice her smile.
After about an hour, Remi finally set down the book and stretched her arms above her head, sighing softly: "That's enough for now. My brain's fried."
Dakota: "Finally," he muttered, dropping his pencil as if it weighed a ton. "I thought you'd keep going until I died of exhaustion."
Remi: "You're exaggerating," she said, though her tone was amused.
He rested his cheek on his desk, staring out the window. The sky outside had deepened to indigo, the first stars flickering faintly.
Remi: "Well, we're gonna be in trouble. It's past curfew."
Dakota: "What's the worst that can happen?"
Remi tilted her head, studying him for a moment: "You push yourself more than you admit, don't you?"
The question caught him off guard. Dakota turned his face away: "Not really."
But Remi only smiled, as if she'd seen through him anyway.
On the way back, Dakota was lost in thought: 'She's out of my league. She'll never see me that way. Don't be stupid.'
Remi: "You'll be fine, y'know," she said suddenly.
Dakota: "Huh?"
Remi: "The midterms. You'll be fine. You complain a lot, but… you're smarter than you think." Her tone was casual, but sincere.
Dakota stared at her, words caught in his throat. He wanted to say something, anything, but all he managed was a weak: "Maybe."
Remi smiled: "Maybe, huh? I believe it."
And with that, she waved lightly and stepped into her dorm, her footsteps fading away.
Dakota stood there, the echo of her words lingering in the air. His chest felt tight, his thoughts tangled.
He slumped on the ground, burying his face in his arms. He was hopelessly in love.
As he started to head back, he heard yelling that could probably wake up every student in the dorms. Then it clicked.
Dakota: "Remi's definitely getting chewed out."
He slipped his hoodie over his head and made a beeline straight for his dorm room.
***
Midterms passed. The classroom of first period buzzed with an energy that was half excitement, half dread. Students crowded around the bulletin board at the front, where the exam results had been posted. The list stretched from top scorers to bottom, every name exposed for the whole class to see.
Dakota lingered near the back, slouched in his chair. He had no intention of joining the rush.
Remi: "Don't you want to check?" she asked, sliding into the seat beside him. She carried her usual air of calm, but even she was leaning forward slightly, as if the curiosity tugged at her despite herself.
Dakota: "Ignorance is bliss. It would be, but Erika's gonna check for me anyway."
Remi: "You studied. You should at least see if it paid off."
Dakota: "Exactly why I don't want to look." He groaned, sinking deeper into his chair. "If I bombed, then I wasted all that time. If I did okay… then it means I could've tried harder. Either way, it's suffering."
Remi smiled faintly: "You're impossible."
The group at the front was growing noisier. Erika's voice rang out cheerfully. Esmarie groaned loud enough to shake the windows. After a minute, Erika returned.
Dakota: "Well? How bad was it?"
Erika: "How bad was it? Dakota, you passed!"
Dakota blinked: "Wait, seriously?"
Erika: "Seriously."
Dakota couldn't help but throw his hands in the air: 'Absolute cinema.'
Remi smiled at him, simple and sincere, and Dakota quickly looked away before she noticed how his face was turning red.
Dakota: "Can't get too excited yet, there's 5 more midterms I don't know how I did on."
Remi: "You worked hard. Believe in your own efforts."
Dakota: "What about you? How'd you do?" he asked after a pause.
Remi: "Me?"
Dakota: Yeah. You probably aced everything, right?"
Remi shook her head: "Not aced. I did fine."
Dakota: "Fine for you probably means top five."
Remi: "I said fine, not amazing," she corrected gently. "And honestly, I don't care about being the best. As long as I don't fall behind, I'm happy."
Dakota: "I see."
Remi: "I did land in the top 10 though," she adds with a grin.
Erika: "Better than me, I was right in the middle!"
Esmarie came crying over: "I'm doomed. I need to take supplemental lessons."
Remi: "Good luck, girl. I feel for you."
It was chaos. The usual chaos of exam results.
As the noise in the room reached its peak, Remi leaned a little closer: "You see?" she said softly, just for him. "I told you you'd be fine."
Dakota stiffened, caught off guard by her closeness: "Y-yeah, well… I still don't trust exams. They're evil."
Remi smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners: "Then next time, we'll fight evil together again."
Dakota wanted to say something that could match how much those words meant to him. But nothing came out. Just a simple: "Yeah."
When the teacher finally entered to calm the noise and move on to the next lesson, the results were left behind on the board. Students slowly filtered back to their seats, still buzzing, still comparing scores. Remi moved back to her seat as well.
Dakota stared at his notebook, not really hearing the lecture. His mind kept circling back to her words.
"We'll fight evil together again."
He's sure she didn't mean anything by it. She just said things like that, kind, steady, encouraging. That was who she was. But for him, those words felt like an anchor.
***
The clock had struck 7 p.m, and the student hall had been transformed. The long tables were crowded with snacks, board games, and the uneven laughter of eight unlikely companions.
The midterms were over, that was reason enough to celebrate.
Esmarie: "Supplementals for two classes…"
Erika: "There, there."
Esmarie: "Grrr.. Forget that, let's party!"
The student hall was dimly lit, the warm glow from the overhead lights spilling across the scattered assortment of food: chips, cookies, instant ramen cups, and a pile of canned sodas. Also filled with dozens of other students also celebrating.
Austin: "Two hours until curfew. Plenty of time for bad decisions."
Erika: "Bad decisions?" She tilted her head innocently.
Austin: "Like letting Remi be banker in Monopoly."
Remi: "Hey, I'm not that bad!"
Yuji grunted from the other end of the table, fiddling with a deck of cards: "Board games are pointless. If you want competition, cards are the way to go."
Austin: "Ho? I do hope you'll provide me with some amusement then."
Esmarie was already bouncing in her seat, tearing open snack bags like a kid at a festival trying to forget about her failures: "Okay, okay, so I brought Uno, Jenga, and hot potato."
Shinatsu: "You said you were bringing board games," she said flatly, arms crossed.
Esmarie: "They can be if we make it one!" she grinned, already spilling Jenga pieces onto the table.
Erika clapped her hands together: "Ooh, this looks fun! Let's play it!"
Yuji groaned: "Kill me now."
They settled on Jenga first, the wooden blocks stacked precariously on the table.
Erika: "Who goes first?" she asked, eyes shining.
Austin: "Loser from exams," he said immediately, his smirk aimed squarely at Esmarie.
Esmarie: "Low blow," she frowned, but her hand was already reaching for the first block.
The game quickly devolved into chaos. Sylvie took turns with delicate precision, Erika smiled brightly every time the tower wobbled but didn't fall. Shinatsu was calm, steady, her moves careful and calculated. Dakota sweated bullets each time. Esmarie, on the other hand, treated the game like a drum solo, tapping the block dramatically before yanking it out at random.
Dakota: "How is it still standing?"
Esmarie: "Skill," she declared proudly.
Shinatsu: "More like luck."
Yuji was tired of this, so he jabbed at the tower like it had personally wronged him. The tower collapsed instantly.
Austin: "…That was on purpose."
Esmarie cheered anyway: "That means time for a snack break!"
The group shifted into eating mode, the table littered with crumbs and half-empty cans.
Erika passed out cookies: "Isn't this nice? Studying was tough, but now we can all relax together!"
Remi nodded, sipping her soda: "It does feel different. Like the tension's gone."
Dakota muttered: "The tension just moved to my stomach… too much soda."
Yuji was surprisingly devouring the chocolate snacks. He was somehow doing it on the down low so nobody noticed. Shinatsu, meanwhile, was quietly sampling each snack without comment, her expression unreadable. But when she reached for a second cookie, Erika's eyes sparkled.
Erika: "You like them, don't you?"
Shinatsu blinked, then set the cookie down with careful grace: "…They're acceptable."
Austin: "Which means she likes them," he translated.
Shinatsu shot him a glare sharp enough to cut glass. Sylvie chuckled, she was enjoying everyone's company.
When the snacks were cleared, Esmarie slammed the Uno deck onto the table with a grin: "Alright, prepare yourselves for the ultimate friendship-destroying game!"
Remi: "I thought that was Monopoly."
Austin: "Uno is worse," he said, already shuffling.
The game started simple enough. Colors matched, numbers stacked. But soon, alliances formed.
Esmarie: "Draw four!"
Sylvie: "Why me?"
Esmarie: "Because you have the aura of a someone with good cards!"
Dakota: "That's not a thing!"
Erika giggled as she gently placed a skip card: "Sorry, Dakota…"
Dakota grumbled: "I see how it is."
Remi reached over and placed a +2 on Yuji with a calm smile.
Dakota: "Yes!" he sat up, a grin flashing across his face. "Justice at last!"
Austin: "Don't celebrate too soon," he warned, dropping his own +4 onto the pile.
The table erupted into groans, laughter, and shouted protests. Even Shinatsu, though maintaining her composure, narrowed her eyes when targeted and retaliated mercilessly the next cycle.
By the time someone finally yelled "Uno!" (Esmarie, of course), the group was laughing too hard to care who actually won.
As the chaos died down, the clock ticked closer to eight. Just an hour left before curfew.
The group sprawled across the hall's chairs, full of snacks and laughter.
Erika stretched her arms with a yawn: "This was so much fun… we should do this again sometime!"
Sylvie: "I'd love to."
Dakota: "Not until I recover from that Uno massacre."
Remi: "I won't lose next time."
Austin: "Next time, let's try to be less chaotic."
Esmarie: "Chaotic's better."
Yuji: "I've had enough chaos for a while."
But Shinatsu spoke softly, almost to herself: "…This wasn't unpleasant."
The others looked at her in surprise, but she simply crossed her arms, refusing to elaborate.
Esmarie: "Hold on guys. We still have time for one more game."
Yuji got his wish. He slammed the deck of cards he'd been carrying right onto the table: "Poker," he declared. "No gimmicks, no nonsense. Just skill."
Austin: "Skill and lying," he corrected.
Remi: "Same thing."
They played a few rounds, the chips substituted with leftover cookies. Erika was terrible at bluffing, giggling every time she had a good hand. Hina was steady, her expression calm whether she won or lost. Esmarie played recklessly, betting everything just to "make it exciting."
Austin was unreadable, winning half the time just by smirking. Shinatsu played with sharp calculation, taking the game far more seriously than anyone else. Sylvie was just happy to be there.
And Dakota… well, Dakota tried.
By the time the clock struck 8:45, Yuji had eaten nearly all the "winnings."
Yuji: "This is what true games are about," he said with satisfaction, crumbs dusting his uniform.
Austin: "You sure you didn't just want free cookies?"
As curfew neared, the group began to quickly pack up. Snack wrappers stuffed away, board games stacked in messy piles.
Esmarie: "That was the best!" she said, stretching her arms with a grin. "We should make this a regular thing."
Erika nodded eagerly: "Yes! After every big exam, let's have a party together!"
Yuji didn't outright refuse. Alexia, though silent, didn't object.
As they filed out of the hall, Dakota found himself walking beside Hina again.
Remi: "You looked like you had fun," she said quietly.
Dakota: "…Yeah," he admitted, hands shoved in his pockets. "It was a blast."
Her smile was soft, steady, and somehow brighter than all the chaos had been.
Remi: "Good. Then we'll do it again."
By the time they reached the dorms, everything was quiet. The evening had been loud, messy, and chaotic. But as Dakota slipped into his room, he realized something.
For the first time in a long while, he didn't feel weighed down by anything.