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youngjae couldn’t stand to stare at his chemistry book any longer. formulas were tattooed on the back of his eyelids, the periodic table danced circles around his helpless brain. he was going to physically become a chemistry book if he studied for another second. he must’ve been here for hours, days even, cemented to this plastic chair like a sad statue, a monument to the hard life of college students. he can feel the gray hairs sprouting from his head, feel his bones aging. he checks his phone.
it’s been ten minutes.
laying his arms over the book, youngjae drops his head down in defeat with a loud groan. he’s so bad at chemistry.
he stays like that, head on his arms, until something drops onto the table beside him, effectively interrupting his undeserved rest and aging him twenty years. “hey loser, aren’t you supposed to be studying?” someone jokes, pulling out the chair in front of youngjae to sit down.
he takes a minute to recover his breathing, glaring at the someone—his best friend. bambam sat forward in his chair, dark brown hair falling into one of his eyes as he leaned on his palms in what most people would think a really cute pose. youngjae just found it obnoxious.
“i was studying! i was just... taking a break.” the time on his phone says that his ‘break’ was five minutes longer than the studying beforehand, but bambam doesn’t need to know that. the cocked eyebrow he sends youngjae’s way says that he knows without being told anyways. he’d probably been nearby for the last ten minutes, thinking of an easy way to scare youngjae. the brat.
“mmhm.” bambam hums in response, smirking at the glare the other sends his way. his face suddenly lights up as he goes to dig through his backpack beside him. “before i forget...” bambam trails off, searching for another moment before pulling something out with a satisfied “ha!”
he holds the item up, and youngjae gets a look at it—a keychain with a couple of charms; two small stars, a cloud, and a larger half sun/moon combo that shined even under the harsh fluorescent lighting. it was really pretty. bambam’s smile was prettier, eyes sparkling as he held the keychain out for youngjae to take.
it’s heavier in his hand than he expected, the charms a solid weight in his palm. “for me?” bambam nods, earrings swinging wildly with the motion.
“ it reminded me of you .”
youngjae’s heart warms at that, and he matches bambam’s smile, holding the keychain to his chest. his voice is unusually soft as he thanks bambam, the latter’s eyes bright as he nods. youngjae was used to things like this, oftentimes bambam would bring him something he found during his day—a bright flower, a pretty feather, a particularly cool rock—because “it reminded me of you.” but this was on another level: it was beautiful and shining and definitely not picked up from the ground, and youngjae feels his heart grow three sizes.
bambam had stopped looking at him, turning his attention to the purple notebook he pulled out of his bag, but youngjae could still see the content smile painting his face. he looks at the keychain in his hand again before clipping it to his backpack—he’d put it on his keys later—and refocusing his attention on the chemistry chapter he really needed to know by thursday.
“okay, so taking C₁₀H₁₂N₂O and adding C₈H₁₁NO₂ creates...”