Mask Taken Off Second Time

Jongup was so absorbed in writing down notes from different books that he wasn't aware that Daehyun had been standing behind him for quite sometime now.  Daehyun watched how Jongup's notes were very organized, detailed and straight to the point.  It was very easy to understand.
 

"Are you trying to make a fool out of yourself?"  Daehyun suddenly asked, making Jongup slightly jump out of his seat in surprise.
 

"Hyung, you scared me."  Jongup clutched his shirt on the chest part.  "And what do you mean by trying to make myself a fool?"  He pouted because all he does everyday is try his best only to end up with bad results.
 

"You make very good notes and I practically see you studying here in the library everyday.  How could you only have barely passing grades?"  Daehyun didn't understand Jongup's situation at all.
 

"I...I..."  Jongup never thought that someone would notice him working so hard.  People only thought of him as dumb and weird evne his parents no longer expected him to get high grades.  They became fine with his barely passing grades.  For the first time, he ended up spilling his real problem. "I get very nervous on the day before the exams.  I get very nervous every time I see a test paper in front of me.  I get so nervous that I either forget a lot of things that I studied or my mind simply becomes blank.  The same thing happens when I'm given a script for a drama.  I memorize everything and then I get stage fright and mess up everything and there are more other situations like that."
 

Daehyun figured out that Jongup's real problem was his nervousness and huge lack of self-esteem.  "I think you need to see a psychologist and have him prescribe you anti-anxiety medications."
 

Jongup's eyes widened.  He didn't think his problem was that bad.  "I-it's okay... I'm fine."
 

"Are you really fine with just barely passing? Doesn't it frustrate you and make you really angry that you're not getting good results after all that hardwork?"  Daehyun questioned him.
 

Jongup looked down.  For the second time, Daehyun saw him not smiling.  Instead, Jongup looked like he was about to cry.  "That would require money which I don't want to burden my parents for and they don't really have high expectations for me so..."  For the first time, Jongup allowed himself to cry in front of somebody.
 

Daehyun really doesn't understand why he found Jongup attractive when the usual smiling dork was not smiling but what he really wanted was to see Jongup's genuine smile because he was curious as to how it would look on Jongup's face since the other had been wearing a lot of fake and bitter smiles.  He vowed to himself that he would help Jongup and witness a genuine smile gracing upon Jongup's lips.
 

But for now, he took off his mask and wiped Jongup's tears with it.

To be continued...

A/N:  I actually have a rule to update only once per day and today, I updated my exo Xiumin/Tao fic "Ice Magic" because it's Tao's birthday  but the whole day today, I kept on getting more subscribers for this fic and because I felt loved by you guys, I decided to update this fic too ^_^

So show more love please by commenting!!!