Bang. Shin Hye closed her locker shut. The thought of being with Mr. Jung afterschool had her in complete shivers. How could I fail on a test? What happened to me? Math used to be my subject. My father..I have to clear his name.

Shin Hye couldn’t bear to give her a father more of a bad name. Especially, since he died with a huge amount of debt. So much pressure.. Since she was very young, she had to prove herself and make sure that she doesn’t screw up due to her father. Ok its after school help, then I’ll see if I should find a job..but I also have homework..ugh.But that's okay..I have to do this.

“Excuse me, student.” Irene was annoyed because she has been trying to get Shin Hye’s attention while Shin Hye was lost in thought. “Student.” Irene said in a firm voice.

“Ah yes.” Shin Hye looked to her left. Irene was standing before her.

“Don’t close the locker too hard. Or you’ll have to pay for it.” Irene growled.

Shin Hye gave her a blank stare. “Sorry. Excuse me.” She looked at the post it note she was holding and began to look for the classroom Yong Hwa had told her to come to. Irene scoffed. “This girl is something else. I’ll keep my eye on her.” All of Irene’s life, everyone was nice to her, well in front of her. She couldn’t understand why this student just wasn’t like the others, for a lack of a better term. Irene’s phone vibrated. She grabbed her phone from her pocket. It was a text message from her ex-boyfriend saying, “We need to talk.” She rolled her eyes.

Shin Hye arrived at the empty classroom. All the windows were opened which gave a comforting breeze as she was sweating in her uniform. She heavily sighed as she sat in one of the desks to wait for him. She took out her math notebook and pencils. Where could I work? My mom still has to pay her debt on the credit card. Stupid her had to waste it on useless things. I still have the debt to pay..should I ask for more hours at the convenience store?Or..ask my grandma for help..

“The point of your pencil is going to break, Shin Hye.” Yong Hwa came in and put his briefcase on top of a desk. Shin Hye was unconsciously making a continuous circle in the corner of her notebook with her mechanical pencil. He was right, it suddenly broke. Shin Hye tried to avoid making eye contact with Yong Hwa.

Yong Hwa sat right next to her in the student’s desk. “Also Shin Hye before we start, remember worry about school. You need to get into a good college right? Don’t worry about looking for another job.” Shin Hye immediately looked at Yong Hwa as he said those words. How did he know that I was worrying about that? Am I that transparent?

“Why are you looking at me like that?” He didn’t know how to react to Shin Hye’s awfully scary stare. He suddenly smirked. “Did I guess right?” That smirk irked Shin Hye.

How can he be so handsome but annoy me so much? Shin Hye looked away.

“Ok so let’s start? I just printed out some problems so you work on.” He opened his briefcase. Shin Hye nodded her head. He took out the practice problems.

“The more practice you get the better!” He handed her a sheet. Yong Hwa was excited because trigonometry was his favorite part in pre-calculus. Shin Hye looked at the time on her phone, she really wanted to get this over with. “These practice problems are similar to tonight’s homework. So that way you’ll be able to do them easily at home by yourself.” Shin Hye looked at the sheet. Well crap.

“Do you have your notes from today’s class? You’ll need it.” Yong Hwa smiled at her. But she didn’t notice because she was too focused on the sheet. She skimmed through the pages of her notes as she looked at the first question.

In ABC, A= arcos- square root3/2. What is the value of A expressed in radians?

“Oh..thats right..” Shin Hye muttered under her breath as there were hardly notes in her notebook, only random lines made by her. Yong Hwa was observing the whole time. He clearly remembered during class time, Shin Hye would hold her pencil towards the paper but have her eyes closed. Her head would swing from side to side. He chuckled. How cute.

“Shin Hye, do you want this?” Yong Hwa took out a paper which was a copy of his lecture which were today’s notes. Shin Hye looked at the piece of paper he was holding.

“Please?” Her expression softened a bit.

“Here you go. Make sure to copy them down.”

She slowly grabbed the piece of paper and immediately started to read it. After taking a minute to read, she steadily turned her head to face Yong Hwa. He was looking at her the whole time, amused. She let out a small slight smile and said, “Thank you.”

Yong Hwa was amazed at the fact that one small smile made a difference, her facial features turned completely soft. This made Yong Hwa feel a bit accomplished, he was excited. What other surprises can his student, Park Shin Hye give him and what other things can he learn about her. He was excited to see her growth, so he told himself.

“This is why I told you to focus on school that way you can get a full night sleep.” He crossed his arms as he laid back on his chair and looked at her attentively. “What would you do if I didn’t give you those notes? Fail again. F ..Minus.”

Shin Hye’s expression changed back to her cold stone emotionless self. Alright I get it, stop rubbing it in my face. “Okay.” She looked back at the notes.

Yong Hwa chuckled at her response. “Okay, well let me show you how to do that problem. You can look over the notes at home.” Yong Hwa suddenly moved in closer to Shin Hye. “Ok, let me see the problem…” Shin Hye awkwardly moved the practice sheet to him.

“So..the expression arccos -square root3/2 means the angle whose cosine equals - square root 3/2. Angles whose cosine equals that are 150, 210, -150, and -210. So if you look at the unit circle graph, you can see that. Since the principal value of an arc cosine of an angle is the positive angle having the smallest numerical value of the angle, 150 or 5PI/6, is the principal value of angle A.” Yong Hwa was smiling and his eyes were shining. No wonder he’s a math teacher.She couldn’t help but feel immersed in his cologne as he explained. It reminded her of the warm hug he had given her. The hug, that hug. The memory of the hug didn’t let her concentrate.

Without even noticing, Shin Hye was slowly moving away from Yong Hwa in her seat. “Did you under-”

Boom. Shin Hye unknowingly fell from her chair. You’re letting your guard down, don’t let it. Very risky. It didn’t hurt as much. Shin Hye was already accustomed in getting physically hurt. Yong Hwa’s eyes widened. “Shin Hye are you okay?How did that happen?” He immediately rose from his seat and came by her. Shin Hye tried to stay composed and calm as possible. “I’m fine.” Her voice was monotonous trying not to convey how she truly felt. Don’t look vulnerable, Shin Hye. Her eyes gazed up, and there he was, Mr.Jung holding out his right hand. “I guess that math problem scared you huh?” He tried joking because he wanted to get another reaction out of her. Shin Hye stared at the hand. Psh, I wish.Corny. “But don’t worry, I’m here for you.” Those words struck her. I’m here for you.. It reminded her of the days when her father would drink by himself until he was super drunk. He had a special room in the mansion they used to live in just for that. She would lightly knock on the door and quietly come in the room to check up on him. It was actually the only time when Shin Hye could find out what was on his mind and what was bothering him since he didn’t like to show his emotions, just like her. “Father..are you okay?..” The room was fully dark and it was only lit by sandalwood scented candles. You would hear the soft ghibli soundtracks play in the background. “Shin Hye...shin Hye. I try. I try to be okay. I love your mother. I love you.” Shin Hye only nodded her head as he spoke. “If only they didn’t make it so hard on me, I love you both. I love you as if you were my own daughter but I can’t really show it can I? What’s the point of me living then?” Shin Hye would sit at the edge of the couch he was sitting in. He would continue saying, “But show them, show them Shin Hye who you can really be. Always, remember...I’m here for you.” After he said those words, he would fall asleep. Shin Hye would grab a blanket and lay it upon him. Then she would quietly walk out of the room and gently close the door.

Unconsciously, Shin Hye grabbed Yong Hwa’s hand. Damn it, why didn’t you resist?! He helped her rise to her feet.He was still grabbing onto her hand. He looked straight into her eyes, “Shin Hye, your hand is cold.Are you cold? I’ll close the window if you want.” At that moment, Irene stood by the classroom door witnessing that moment. The care and endearment in his eyes, she saw them. It reminded her of the times she would get hurt and he would always be there to disinfect and put a bandaid on her knee or wherever. What if he’s interested in her? Irene thought. It can’t be, what am I saying...she’s just a student. I definitely do miss him.. Her phone vibrated again. Ugh what does he want now? She looked at it the text message, Call me. We need to talk. She received another text message from the principal, A boy was carrying around . He’s in the office. She rolled her eyes and walked away.

Shin Hye couldn’t help but stare at his hand holding hers. Snap out it. She quickly took her hand away. “Uhm..yes. I’m cold..thank you.” She sat in her seat again while he closed the windows that were opened. He sat right back down. “So uhm..let’s continue..ok?”

She nodded her head and was determined to understand what he was going to teach her for the next thirty minutes.

“Alright, without my help..do this problem. I’ll be waiting.” He smirked as he took out his phone. “Are you seriously going to time me?” Without knowing, she was giving him a death stare. “Maybe…” He set the timer. He was enjoying the fact that he could get to see the different emotions from her. “And start!”

He was amused seeing her in action and concentrated in doing the subject he enjoyed most, math. For some unknown reason, he couldn’t help but just stare...and stare.

It's been two minutes and Shin Hye had completed the problem using one of the trigonometric identities. She handed over the sheet to Yong Hwa who was right beside her. “Wow Shin Hye...very neat..and good job! You got the answer correct. That concludes our session for today.”

“Thank you for your time.” She rose from her seat, ready to leave. “Good bye.”

“Okay then..see ya.” He slightly waved. Always so formal, damn I need to find out more about her.

She left the classroom.

------------------------------------------------

Yong Hwa was talking to Baekhyun as he was driving home. “I don’t know for some reason, I feel like I can actually get over Irene now. Seeing her at the school, doesn’t phase me any more.”

“Bro, I still can’t believe you still had feelings for her. Wow, what makes you say that?” Baekhyun spoke from the other line.

“I don’t know. I guess teaching really helps get your mind off of things. Some of my students are very peculiar. It makes me wonder. Also, I think she is still with her boyfriend.” Yong Hwa made a right turn to drive into his street.

“Oh wow. I don’t think she still is from what I’ve heard. Anyways, I’m happy for you. Gotta tell me about how weird they are when we hang out. Also, does that mean you’ll be able to go with me on a blind date..my parents are kind of forcing me..so annoying..”

“Eh sure why not..just tell me when.”

“Alright,will do.”

“Alright, I’m going to..hang up.” As Yong Hwa got closer to his house, he saw Irene and some man..aggressively talking. She seemed upset and frustrated.

“Ok bye.”

Yong Hwa stopped his car in the middle of the lonely street and came out.

“STOP. You cheated on me. I don’t want you near me.” Irene aggressively spoke and snatched the bouquet of flowers from her ex boyfriend and stepped on them.

“Look, babe. I still love you..things just happen. You know, you gotta understand.” He suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her in for a hug. “I love you.” He hugged her tightly as she tried escaping his embrace.

“Let go!! You only loved my money.” Irene exclaimed.

Yong Hwa walked over to the scene. “Let her go, or I’ll call the police.” He had his phone out. Irene was in shock, is that really him?

“Mind your own business.” The ex growled as he tightened the embrace.

“Uh hello police, yes we have a man being aggressive and violent..” Yong Hwa faked the call. Immediately, the guy let go of Irene and dashed towards Yong Hwa. Bam. Punched him right in the face.

“I’ve never liked you.” It was the same guy from university. With that, he walked away.

Irene came up to Yong Hwa all worried “Its okay, don’t worry about me. Go home and rest.” His face was in pain. Tears streamed down Irene’s face. “I’ve missed you..” and suddenly wrapped her arms around his waist.

Am I really over her?

A/N: I AM BACK.

                          so sorry, semester started for uni so..lots of work and I had a breakdown. Was being all emo and stuff ahh but IM HAPPY TO SAY ILL BE UPDATING FREQUENTLY. THANK you for staying!! Hopefully each month by the 20th, ill update. trust me. I really hoped you liked this chapter!! Stay tuned love ya!!