A/N: Forgive the grammar and the flow. i wrote this bcos we need more science-related fics.

Taking the fall (9.8meters per square second)

“I love you Mina unnie.”

Mina stops reading the passage though her eyes never leaves the book. She’s never gonna fall for Son Chaeyoung’s antics. Again.

Mina feels her heart rate picking up. No Mina focus. She reprimands herself.

Mina clears and covers her face with the book in attempt to hide the pink hue creeping into her cheeks. She continues where she left off.

“So I was saying, the magnitude of the acceleration due to gravity is denoted by a lower—“

“You’re seriously pretty unnie.” Chaeyoung boldly remarks.

Mina sighs in resignation and puts the book down, sternly looking at Chaeyoung. “Chaeyoungie you will never learn this way.”

“But I’m tired,” Chaeyoung whines, obviously not liking the idea of them studying. She props her elbows on the table and rests her chin in her hand. “We’ve been studying for like 3 hours straight.”

“It’s only been an hour.”

Chaeyoung stabs her worksheet with a pen. “The lesson’s quite boring. I hate physics.”

“You’re being unresonable.”

Chaeyoung pouts and looks at Mina with puppy eyes.

 Mina closes her eyes and heaves a sigh. Chaeyoung always wins. When was the time she did not?

 “But I guess we could take a break.” Mina finally concedes. As expected, Mina always gives in.

Chaeyoung beams with a wide grin as she stands up. “You’re the best Mina unnie. Although I wasn’t kidding with what I told you earlier.”

Mina halts from collecting their things to look upon Chaeyoung who’s already making her way towards the door.

“What? That I’m seriously pretty?” Mina asks with a knowing smile.

Chaeyoung holds the door open before turning to look at Mina in the eye, her cute dimple resting on her right cheek. “No, the one before that.”

Mina responds with a baffled expression. Chaeyoung smiles at this.

“That I love you Mina unnie.” Chaeyoung says in all sincerity before closing the door behind her.

And that leaves Mina to a blushing mess. Well a small part of Mina tells her to give the younger girl a piece of her mind for not finding her ‘seriously pretty’.

***

Mina had to think of another way of teaching the so-called boring lessons to Chaeyoung.

Since the younger girl has the attention span shorter than that of a goldfish’s, Mina opts to break away from the old-fashioned ways of teaching and tries a new approach.

Instead of tutoring Chaeyoung within the four walls of her bedroom, she proposes to have their lectures at the park a couple of blocks away.

Mina supposes it was effective. After few days, Chaeyoung has become more attentive.

“Look at this Chaeyoungie,” Mina says as she crumples a piece of paper on her hand while holding a tennis ball on the other. “If I drop these items from the same height and at the same time, which do you think will hit the ground first?”

“Of course the tennis ball.” Chaeyoung says, her attention focused solely on Mina.

Mina fires a follow-up question, “What makes you say that?”

“Obviously the tennis ball weighs more than the paper and since it’s heavier, the stronger the gravity will act upon it.” Chaeyoung reasons out.

A smile scampers across Mina’s lips, “Okay lets see if mass affects the speed of a falling object. Look closer.”

Mina drops them at the same time. Chaeyoung watches motionless as the objects fall under the force of gravity.

Mina looks at her. “So which item hit the ground first?”

“Uhh,” Chaeyoung scratches her cheek, eybrows knitting in confusion. “I guess….. both?”

Mina bends to pick up the crumpled paper and the tennis ball. “Yes that’s right. Both objects hit the ground at the same time, regardless of the weight. That is what we call the free fall. It is a state where the speed of a fallling object is not affected by its mass, assuming there is only gravity acting on it.”

She walks up to Chaeyoung and beams her gummy-smile. “You’re first answer is not entirely wrong though,” she hands over the crumpled paper to Chaeyoung and produces another sheet of paper. “Heavier things will feel a greater pull or force acting on them, but they will not accelerate at a different rate.”

“So that means the mass of an object plays no role in determining how quickly it will fall towards the ground?” Chaeyoung spells out.

Mina nods, reaffirming what she has concluded. “Now drop them.”

Chaeyoung does what she’s told and drops the crumpled paper and the sheet of paper from the same height and at the same time.

“The crumpled paper lands first….” Chaeyoung mumbles. She whips her head to Mina, looking at her with big, quizzical eyes.

“Air resistance. That’s what makes falling objects fall at different rates.” Mina feels proud of spiking Chaeyoung’s curiosity.“Because the sheet of paper has a large surface area, it has to move much more air out of the way than the crumpled one. It will move relatively slowly. As a result the crumpled paper accelerates much faster than the paper.”

Mina then bends down to pick up both objects. “But when they are both in the state of free fall, the only force we’re dealing with is gravity; no air resistance or friction effects of any kind.”

She holds the crumpled paper on her right while crushing the other piece of paper on her left.

“Only when in the state of free fall….”  Mina drops both. “Will objects accelerate at the same rate and will land at the same time.”

Now two crumpled papers lay motionless on the ground.

 “9.8 meters per square second.” Mina adds.

 “That’s the free fall constant. Everything falls at 9.8 meters per second every second. Twice as fast at the following second then three times as fast at the next and so on………That only means when you fall, you’re falling increasingly fast.”  

Chaeyoung stares at the crumple papers for a moment. “9.8 meters per square second huh?”

She gazes up at Mina, her lips parting in a genuine smile as a new thought occurs to her.

"Hey Mina unnie, if your heart is in the state of free fall, do i have to be faster than 9.8 meters per square second to catch it?"

“Yes wait--what?”

may be continued on the next chapter or be abandoned.

Happy April Fools Day