Grades: (doesn't necessarily match up with their actual ages)

Freshmen: Chan, Minghao

Sophomores: Hansol, Mingyu, Seokmin

Juniors: Jihoon, Seungkwan, Junhui, Soonyoung, Wonwoo

Seniors: Seungcheol, Jisoo, Jeonghan

School had never been hard for Jihoon. From a young age, he had been taught to do well in what matters, and that virtue followed him throughout his school years. He wasn’t a genius, not like Jisoo and Jeonghan. On a good day, he was slightly above average. But he tried his best, turned in his homework on time, and paid attention as much as necessary. Choi Seungcheol, on the other hand, was a straight-D student. He tried to do well, he really did, but his classes were just so boring and making up his lost sleep in class was so nice. His friends had tried, countless times, to motivate the poor kid, but to no avail. Seungcheol simply wasn’t made to be an honor roll student.

Which is why Hansol wasn’t surprised when he found the boy’s face buried in his hands, undoubtedly failed test laying on the lunch table in front of him. Still, he frowned, patting his older friend on the back as he slid into the seat next to him, “Don’t stress about it, man.”

“Don’t stress about what?” Hansol turned to the voice’s owner, smiling a greeting as Seungkwan sat down across from him, followed shortly by Jeonghan, Jisoo, and Chan.

“Cheol got his test back from-” he paused, leaning over to read the heading on the paper, “World History.”

“I’m sure the teacher will let you retake,” Jisoo reassured Seungcheol, picking up the paper to assess the damage.

“This was the retake.” Seungcheol sighed, finally sitting up, “I’m honestly so screwed.”

“Have some more faith in yourself- as long as you do well on the exams you’re fine. And those aren’t for what, another three months?” Jeonghan said as his eyes scanned the test over Jisoo’s shoulder.

“If I can’t even get a good grade on a review test, how am I supposed to do well on the exams?”

“Get a tutor!” Chan suggested with a smile, “That’s what I did when I was failing math and now I have a B. Isn’t Jihoon good at history? I’m sure he’d help you out.”

“What are you volunteering me to do?” Jihoon raised an eyebrow at the youngest, taking his usual seat next to his pouting friend.

“Seungcheol needs a tutor.” Jisoo informed him, “Chan wants you to do it.”

“Hell no. Not in a million years.” Jihoon shook his head, eyes focused on his lunch.

“But Jihoonie!” Seungcheol whined as he reached over to grab a piece of chicken from Jihoon’s salad, “I’m gonna fail my exams if no one helps me out. And everyone knows that you’re the best at history.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Choi Seungcheol. What does it matter to me if you fail, anyway?”

“I’m your childhood friend! We’ve known each other for a decade! I won you a goldfish in seventh grade!”

“Also, If he fails, there’s a chance he’ll be here to annoy the hell out of us again next year.” Jeonghan spoke up, shrugging off the offended ‘hey!’ from Seungcheol and warning slap on the arm from Jisoo, “Just trying to help.”

“As much as I hate the thought of Seungcheol being around another year, I am not desperate enough to tutor him.”

“Fine,” Seungcheol frowned, grabbing another piece of chicken and ignoring the offended glare, “I’ll just find someone else to do it.”

“Good.”

“Fine!”

He spent the rest of lunch ignoring the younger, much to Jihoon’s pleasure.

<><><><><>

The subject was dropped, long enough for more important things to take over Jihoon's mind. The rest of the day passed easily enough, his classes moving quickly enough to be slightly above dreadful, but nowhere near quick enough to be enjoyable. But soon enough he was pulling his bag out of his locker and heading down the hallway to lean against Seungcheol’s.

“Wanna go get something to eat?” He smiled brightly up at his friend, much happier now that he was free for the day.

    Seungcheol didn’t respond though, continuing to rifle through his messy locker for something.

    Jihoon knew he was quiet, but there was no way that Seungcheol hadn’t heard him, the hallway was practically empty at this point. He cleared his throat and tried again, “Hey, Cheol! You there? Let’s get food, I don’t even mind if you pick where we go.”

    Still, the dark-haired boy stayed quiet, instead shutting his locker door with a bit too much force and turning on his heel. Jihoon frowned harder, jogging to catch up with him, “This isn’t about the whole tutoring thing, is it?”

    Seungcheol stopped walking and turned to face Jihoon, not even moving when the latter slammed into his chest, “Yeah, Jihoon, it is. I thought you would care more!”

    Jihoon frowned. He did care, of course he did. He just didn’t have the time- or the patience- to put up with tutoring Seungcheol. Jihoon didn’t do well with stress and frustration, and those were the two common themes when it came to Seungcheol and schoolwork. Tutoring would only lead to fights between the two. But Seungcheol was right, they were good friends, best friends really, and it would be terrible if the senior got held back a year. Jihoon glanced back up at Seungcheol’s face, regretting his decision to do so when he saw the notorious pout on his face. The damn boy was lucky Jihoon had a soft spot for him

With a sigh, Jihoon nudged his friend, “Fine. I’ll tutor you. But the second you make me mad, I’m out, okay? I don’t want to fight with you for the rest of your senior year.”

Seungcheol finally smiled properly, and it stretched up to his eyes as he thanked the younger. He would regret this later, but Seungcheol’s smile put butterflies in Jihoon’s stomach, and that made it worth it. For now at least.

“Now seriously,” Jihoon started again, pulling his backpack strap up higher, “Let’s go get food because someone ate all of the chicken from my salad.”

“Let’s get pizza!” Seungcheol chose to ignore the teasing and instead grabbed the younger’s wrist, tugging him down the hallway to where their friends were waiting by the door.

“No, you know I absolutely hate pizza.”

“You said I could pick though~” Seungcheol sing-songed, fingers moving down to link with Jihoon’s, the blush spreading across the younger’s cheeks proving to be enough to shut him up.

Wow, this chapter was reaaaaaaaally dialogue heavy and kinda mediocre, sorry guys. I really wanted to get this first chapter up tonight and start building up the plot as quickly as possible, and dialogue is really good for that. I'm trying to figure out how to fit the other ships that I like into this story, too. I might throw in a chapter that is focusing on a different couple eventually, but who knows.

Oh! And thank you for 14 subscribers on this story already <33