chapter 2:  A MIX OF JEALOUSY AND ANNOYANCE

'TIME FLIES WHEN YOU ARE HAVING FUN.'

Have you ever heard of that saying? I did, I heard it a lot of times. Do you believe in that saying? Yes. Because before I know it, there was only a week left before exams start. Not just any normal exams like last time— it was the final exam of my first year in high school. That means every topic that we learnt will be tested. Add more time to studing and minus some of the playing and sleeping time. Oh that's just great, don't you think so? Things had suddenly gone from relaxing to beyong stessing.

But hey, after this exams, no more lessons! Optimism at its finest, huh?

I was putting all my things inside my bag when a smooth voice called out my name. "Saera, don't forget to come to the library to study Math with us." I was planning on just going home and study all by myself but I somehow agreed to study with Sumin, Howon, Sungyeol, Woohyun, and Myungsoo. Oh now I remembered why I accepted to go to the study group, because Myungsoo was going to come too. Pretty sneaky, I know. The things I do for love.

"Yes yes yes, Shin Jjanggu. I know! Now let me just eat before I go there. I'm really hungry," I gave Howon a cheeky smile. Howon  looked at me for the last time before going off. "Okay, the guys and I will go hang out for a while."

I nodded at him and continued on what I was doing earlier. I was happy but at the same time, a little unexcited for the studying part although that was the main purpose of why we were going to meet in the library. I promised myself something. It was not related to studying nor Math. That 'something' was that I will sit next to Myungsoo or at least sit across him. For "inspirational purposes".

"Saera," I heard Sumin say. "Ready to go?" I turned to see her just beside me and nodded at her. We then walked to the canteen to fill our empty stomachs.

Minutes later, Sumin and I were satisfied with what we ate and we decided to head to the library.

I opened the library door and searched if the guys were already there. I spotted them near the windows and walked to their direction along with Sumin. The table that they picked were a bit huge. Eight people could use the table and since only the six of us would study, there was enough space.

Howon and Sungyeol were sitting beside each other and Woohyun and Myungsoo sat across them respectively. Sumin and I could either take the sit beside Sungyeol or Myungsoo. Like what I planned, I was going to sit beside Myungsoo but, "Saera! Sit here! Sit here!" Sungyeol said quite excitedly. Eh? Sungyeol? Excuse me but I want to sit beside Myungsoo. Before I could even say no to Sungyeol, Sumin already took the seat beside Myungsoo. Why Sumin-ah? I just lost the opportunity to sit next to my beloved crush but you stole it!

Okay, now I feel like a bad best friend. Did I actually say that just because she took the sit that I really wanted? Jung Saera, I feel like killing you right now. 

"Hey Saera. What's with that stupid face? Just come here!" Sungyeol called out. "We're in the library now so shut up," Howon hissed after lightly hitting Sungyeol's arm with his elbow. Having no choice, I walked to the seat beside Sungyeol and sat down on my seat.

Or should I say almost sat down on my seat. Just when I was supposed to sit, this freaking bastard named Lee Sungyeol of class 1B, put the seat away so that I would fall on the ground. Everthing happened so fast. I was still on the floor, completely frozen. My hurts from the very stong impact and I did not dare to stand up.

I could hear Sungyeol trying to hold back his laughter. I could feel the others giggling. I could feel the embarrassment all thanks to Sungyeol. I slowly stood up while trying to ignore the pain from my . After standing straight, I stared at Sungyeol with a glare then placed my right arm around his neck and I was ready to strangle him to death.

"Do you want to die, Lee Sungyeol?" I looked down at him. Sungyeol bursted out his laugh and tried to remove my hands around him. "Saera, let go of me!"  I could hear the giggles from the others. "I want an apology," I demanded. "Okay I'm so— What is this?! No, I'm not going to apologize." Sungyeol shook his head sideways. Stubborn little kid.

"Apologize!"

"No!"

"Now!"

"In a million years you—"

Out of the blue, a hand slapped my right arm hard, real hard that I stopped trying to kill Sungyeol. I rubbed my right arm with my left hand to ease the pain. I turned to Howon, who was the owner of the hand. He had that very serious and frightening face, that don't with me face. "You're all too noisy. We're in a library!" he tried hard not to shout even though he was clearly really annoyed. After giving Sungyeol a glare for the last time, I decided to go back to my seat and just start with my homework. And so did the others. After the mini entertainment from me and Sungyeol, we all started on our Math homework.

We were focused on solving the questions in the worksheet until Sumin faked a cough. "Uhm," Sumin started. "Can someone help me here?" People might think that Sumin was the goddess who was just simply perfect. She may look beautiful and lady-like but being her best friend since middle school, I could say that when it comes to studying, Sumin was just lazy. She would sometimes doze off when the two of us study together. I'm serious.

I looked up from my Math worksheet. "Sure, which question?" I asked her.

"Question 15," she answered.

"Wow, you're so fasy! I'm only in," I paused for a while and checked which question I was doing, "12. I just started doing question 12!" I was always a slowpoke. I always wanted to make sure that I do things slow, surely, and steady.

Howon joined in the conversation. "I'm only in question 10," he added, "I must be the slowest then?"

I noticed Myungsoo trying to take a peek at her question paper. "Erase your previous workings. You started off wrongly," he softly told Sumin, his eyes still glued on the paper. Sumin eyed Myungsoo then quickly erased her workings. And with that, Myungsoo started explaining Sumin how to solve question 15.

I observed the two of them. And again, I was jealous of Sumin. Even if I did not really have problems with the questions, I would really love if Myungsoo taught me. The way Myungsoo looked at Sumin as he patiently taught her, it made me jealous. They were close. Well, Myungsoo closed the distance between the two of them. Sumin could not really do much though since she was in corner of the table. Myungsoo, how obvious. You better thank Sumin for being a little dense.

Myungsoo's explanation was quite long. Some questions started popping inside my mind ...

Possible reasons why Myungsoo takes such a long time to teach Sumin:

Did Sumin did not really get the question? Did Sumin fell for Myungsoo's charms and pretended to not understand so that Myungsoo could explain it longer? Was Myungsoo teaching her the difficult and long way so that he could interact with Sumin more? Or was the question really that difficult?

I sighed and turned to next page and tried out question 15. It took me about three minutes to do it. It's not that much of a difficult question to be honest. It's easy! So now, I can safely cross out the last question on my list. I glanced at them to see them working on their own worksheets. Thank Goodness. If Myungsoo was still teaching Sumin, I'll just get even more annoyed.

I was jealous Sumin. And I was annoyed at Myungsoo.

Yes, a mix of jealousy and annoyance.  That was what I felt.

Days (which felt like weeks) passed and we finished taking our exam results. The last results that was given to us was Math and History. I was extremely pleased with my marks for Mathematics. I got 89 out of 100. I thought I was the person who got the highest marks in Math because seriously, I think Math was the only subject I was good at. But when I asked Howon for his marks, he told me he got 90. 90?! Him saying his score kept echoing in my mind.

Just one more stupid mark. What the heck is this!

History one of the main problems. I got a very low mark for it: 59. Right after I saw my exam results, Sungyeol sprinted to my seat and asked me for my marks. Of course he knew that I got a low mark. He knew that History was my weakest subject. I hugged my exam paper, hiding the '59' that was written on the top left corner of my paper. Sungyeol easily took it from my arms and ran back to his seat. I brisk walked to his seat and reached for my paper but Sungyeol made use of his height. I was about 20 centimeters shorter than him. He read my marks while raising his hand that was holding my paper. I jumped and jumped attempting to grab my stupid History exam paper but Sungyeol was too tall. That giant.

Still raising his hand, Sungyeol turned to me and teased me with my marks. "Ow! Our Saera only got 59! While the mighty Sungyeol got 65!" I smacked his arm. Hard. "It's only a few marks away from me! What is there to be proud of?!" I stormed away from his seat and decided to ask Sumin for her marks. Sumin was seated in front of Sumin. She must be unlucky to be seated in front of a guy like Sungyeol. But surely lucky enough to be liked by a guy like Myungsoo.

"So did you pass the exam?" She turned to me with sad eyes. "No, I didn't."

"Cheer up! I also got a low mark for History!"

"You failed?"

"No but I only got 59!"

"Ah! I think I'm the lowest!"

I patted her back and comforted her, "Not the lowest for the whole cohort! Plus, there's still a next year! And a next next year! And a next next next year! And—" "I get it. Thanks." she smiled at me. I gave her a thumbs up and went back to my seat. Sungyeol will give me back my History exam  paper soon. Besides, he has no reason to keep it and I did want to see that damn exam paper anymore.

After History was homeroom. Our homeroom teacher, Ms. Kang explained us about the coming mini festival. I was excited about it but more importantly, I was so happy no more stress because exams are over! After dismissing us, I stood up and stretched with a grin on my face. "Finally, no more studying!"

[14/9/12] Words. They cannot express my love for the Infinite She's Back Japanese Ver. Photobook (photo credit: x) BTW, should  I add Sungyeol in the tag? There may be lots of Saera and Sungyeol moments but the story is just starting, just wait and see. I really like Sungyeol's character and the love-hate relationship of Saera and Sungyeol is cute. But that's too common. Plus, Sungyeol is not the leading man. Wait for the next chapter! I'm pretty sure you're anticipating for Myungsoo and Saera moments?