It’s Monday, and I’m dying in Math class. Apparently today, Sojin-seonsaengnim decided to give us all a pop quiz; no wonder we went to the computer lab. We had ten questions to do, and since our answers were going to be scanned electronically, we would have our results immediately. I was so thrown off by the material and the fact that I was so unprepared left me hopeless. And, as I sit here moping at my desk while Sojin-seonsaengnim continues her lesson, I could already feel that I had failed the quiz. If it weren’t for the fact that I was starting work today, I would be totally unenthusiastic for anything else.

            Last Friday was our specialty classes—our curriculum consisted of Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for our academic classes and Tuesdays and Fridays for our more ‘artsy’ classes. On those days I have Dance, Vocal, and Instrument classes. Friday seemed extra tiring for me, but I’m just glad it’s over, even if I enjoyed them too. One hurdle at a time. And this math class was a huge obstacle.

            I jotted down more notes absently and soon it was nearing the end of class—which means I would be closer to starting my first day of work! That was the single drive to keep me trucking through the day.

 “Everyone, I looked over all of your tests. After finishing the notes, you may leave.”  We all started scribbling more notes. I asked Soonyoung how he did and he just smiled really wide at me.

 “I passed!”

            I groaned at his ambiguity but yup, he proved that he continues to fare better than me in this class.  Everyone began filing out as usual after finishing up their notes but Sojin-seonsaengnim stopped me before I could escape with Soonyoung.

 “What’s up, seonsaengnim?” I tried to keep it casual, but her stony expression was enough to make my tone falter.

 “What’s up is that you failed your test,” she instantly fired back.

“I know, I’m sorry… I need to study more—”

 “You need to study a lot more, honestly, because your grade was the lowest in the class.” Her comment made my heart drop. Was I really that terrible? I couldn’t muster up the words to reply now, I felt like I had shrunk three sizes.

“You can’t fail another test, Jinhyun, not even a quiz like this. If you do, you won’t be able to pass this class,” She spoke gravely. I cast my eyes down at my feet, too ashamed. I was stupid to be excited for my first day at work and not focus on my studies.

 “I don’t know what we can do, because your grade dropped a lot from this. You’ll need to really get good scores on your other tests—”

“Excuse me, seonsaengnim? I can help him out.”

I stood befuddled at Mingyu’s suggestion that came out of nowhere. Okay, what? I didn’t even notice he was still in the room, putting things back into his bag. So he heard all of this and, most weirdly, he wants to help me? The prick that smirks at me for no reason, acting all smug and everything? I was speechless as he cast a simper at me, as expected.

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea.” My teacher’s reply made my head at her unintentionally.

“May I ask why?” I had to know.

“Well Jinhyun, Mingyu here got the best score in the whole class.” I stared at Mingyu, who was trying to look as innocent as possible now. Is this for real….?

 “I-I appreciate the offer, but I think it’s okay. I can just study on my own.” Sojin-seonsaengnim locked eyes with me sternly, frightening me.

“No, I strongly suggest you take Mingyu up on his offer. He knows the material. And, to be frank, you need the best help that you can get. So I’ll tell you what. If you do get help from Mingyu, and your next test score improves by at least 50%, I won’t count your failed quiz score, as long as you keep showing that you improved.” I widened at my eyes at the proposition; it would really save my grade if this was a success. But would I really have time to be tutored by Mingyu?

            I sighed and decided to take Mingyu up on his offer. Sojin-seonsaengnim told me she’d be extra attentive to my work and dismissed me. Mingyu was already out of the door already, striding rather quickly. Before he could disappear, I ran past Soonyoung who was waiting for me, because I needed to know why exactly he would offer to help me, a stranger he barely knew. Plus, he just gave me this weird vibe, as if he’s so smug. I caught up to Mingyu and practically leapt in front of him, effectively stopping him in his tracks.

“Hey, why did you offer to help me? We barely know each other,” My tone came off pretty huffy. I made eye contact with him and up close like this, made me notice how smolderingly handsome he looks. Instead of replying right away, he smirks, as he always does, and just lets our eyes connect. However, looking at him for too long this intensely made me uneasy.

“Why not?” Came his quizzical reply, his trademark smirk still playing on his lips. I saw Soonyoung catch up but falter in his steps a few feet away from us. I can’t just tell Mingyu that I have the feeling that he doesn’t like me, or that I think he’s secretly ridiculing me in his head for quite a while and for some reason that bothers me. So I stood there dumbly, avoiding his eyes at the moment, still stuck on the fact that he’s adoringly handsome and the way he acts confuses me.

“Are we done talking?” Mingyu questioned, before stepping past me. I couldn’t string up any more words, so he ended up disappearing. Soonyoung rushed up to me with a very confused face.

“Jinnie, what was that all about?”

            We arrived at the cafeteria and got our food, then met everyone else that was waiting at the table. I sat between Minghao and Wonwoo as usual. Soonyoung brought up a topic that got mostly everyone absorbed in. I sat there and ate my food quietly, feeling quite blank from that exchange with Mingyu. He confuses me… I mean, we’ve shared at least one class consecutively for a few semesters now but we’ve never actually really talked, so why should I harbor this annoyance for him? And it’s not like we’re enemies, so why should I feel hesitant on accepting his help on a subject I’m awful at? Did I come off too snappy because I tried to confront him on why he wanted to help me? God, I’m such a fool—

“Yo Jinhyun, why are you so quiet?” Seungkwan asked, waving a hand at me.

“Yeah, you’re like a second Wonwoo.” Soonyoung added, chortling right after. That earned him a glare from both me and Wonwoo, and also a slap on the back from Jisoo.

“Is there something wrong, gege?” Minghao leaned onto me, making me smile. I shook my head.

“No, I was just thinking to myself…” Soonyoung gasped and clicked his fingers.

.

Please don’t, Soonyoung.

“Oh, it must be because Mingyu offered to help tutor him when Jinhyun failed his quiz, and he didn’t know how to react to it.”

This bastard.

 “Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with it. He got the best score in the class, dude. I’d take the help.” Soonyoung added a bit more of his two cents. The other guys agreed. Well, to sum it up, Minghao was just worried about my failed quiz and said maybe tutoring would help, Seungkwan didn’t know Mingyu so he just went with the majority and was in favor of it, Jisoo said I should just give it a chance because I shouldn’t be so judgmental on people I didn’t make an effort to get to know. Wonwoo was oddly quiet for this topic, but I figured he was being his own quiet self. I guess I was just being too callous in regards to Mingyu. I shouldn’t have been so riled up by him in the first place. What matters is, he offered to help me bring up my otherwise failing math grade. I should be appreciative and just accept it. I told them I would take him up on the offer, and the guys finally let the topic go.

“Oh yeah, Soonyoung, Jinnie’s brother Chan wanted us to come over sometime. He wanted our help for his audition. He wants to perform for his school’s talent show.” Minghao brought up. This set off a twinkle in Soonyoung’s eyes.

“Really?! Cool! It’s funny because I’ve been working on a routine lately, just for fun. I was planning on teaching it to you sometime but honestly, this routine would suit Channie a lot as well.”

“When could we come over?” Minghao asked me. I saw Seungkwan scrunch up his face.

“Now, let’s not exclude anyone! If you guys are going, I wanna go too. Why does Channie wanna hang out with only Minghao and Soonyoung? We’ve all met him before,” He whined. I kept my mouth shut.

Basically, I remember when everyone came over my house before and hung out with me and Channie. After they left, Channie basically ran his thoughts to me about all of my friends. Everyone’s impressions weren’t exactly all positive. Channie found Seungkwan to be too loud, Wonwoo was too quiet, Jisoo was nice but my brother felt awkward because he was a bit too nice. He preferred Minghao’s company the most, because they shared their interest in dancing and he enjoyed watching Minghao breakdance and was interested in learning. He also admired Soonyoung a lot and thought he was a great dancer too, but sometimes he got carried away with it and became a bit too crazy.

Jisoo raised his hand a bit. “Me too, I haven’t been over Jinnie’s house in a while.”

“It’s nice that you guys just invite yourselves over to my house.” I remarked, rolling my eyes. The guys all laughed.

“That’s what friends are for,” Jisoo replied mischievously.

“So yeah, when can we all hang at your house?” Soonyoung repeated the question, obviously excited to collaborate with my younger brother. Hoshroom just loves choreography, plain and simple. I glanced at Wonwoo and noticed he was staring, as if testing me. Oh, that’s right… when I indirectly set up a ‘study session’ with Wonwoo. But unlike with him, I didn’t set a date like I did for Min