I’ve made numerous bad decisions in my life. To be honest, I didn’t really remember any good choices I've made and that, in itself, best described how messed up my life was. I never learned from my mistakes, constantly settled with lie over truth, bred poor values in my life, and hung out with bad people. Funny thing was, I admittedly actually tired of leading this kind of patched life but simultaneously too lazy to change anything.

“Are you listening to me?”

“What?” I snapped out from my self-pity and saw Baekhyun staring at me. Right, I almost forgot. He was was honestly a strong motivator for me to change my lifestyle. Or at least, limiting the number of lies I spewed. Because of Baekhyun, my life took a deep dip: it became out of my control and filled with problem after problem. And there was no lack of terrifying situations either, just like this one. Instead of sitting on my comfortable bed in my safe bedroom, I was forced to stay in school with Baekhyun, who was trying to teach me math while I tried to stay focused—which didn’t come easily with him sitting just an arm’s length away from me. I could genuinely feel the angry aura coming out from him.

“Stay…” he raised his hand and flicked my forehead “…focused. I feel like I’m talking to the wall.” I hissed and massaged the place where he hit me because it sure hurt like hell. He definitely wasn’t the most gentle person I knew. Baekhyun shoved the book laid open. on the table in my direction and pointed at the next unanswered exercise, “Do it.”

I looked at the combination of numbers and variables and winced because it did not look engaging or interesting at all. I wasn’t in mood to learn math and I definitely wasn’t happy being taught by Baekhyun, but I didn’t have a choice. Pretending to care about the equation he gave me, I started writing something in my notebook.

“Hey…“ I tried to divert his attention from math to something else, hoping he will forget about all that ‘tutoring’ thing. “Why do you want to be my boyfriend?” I glanced at him and when our eyes met, I quickly fixed them back on my book “I mean, pretend…to be my boyfriend?”

I heard quiet sigh coming from him “Wrong formula.”

“Huh?” I raised my head to look at him. He was sitting with his hands crossed, looking a little bored now. With a jerk of his head, he indicated towards my notebook.

“You’re using wrong formula.” Baekhyun stood up from his chair and leaned closer to me, and a second later his cologne enwrapped me; it was the same scent from the day we first made this (horrible) agreement—only this time, it didn’t reek of cheap perfume. He grabbed my pen and started scribbling in my notebook. Having nothing better to do, I decided to take this opportunity and examine his face, because I’ve been too busy cursing him out or flushing in front of him to do so. I mean, there were countless occasions to do just that, but most of them involved being pinned to the wall or glared at in premonition of my murder because I did something wrong, as usual. During those times, even I, idiot extraordinaire, valued my life much more than inspecting his beauty.

But right now, seeing as we weren’t in any lewd or dangerous position, I gratefully took that time to observe him. And as much as I didn’t like him, even I had to admit that Baekhyun was incredibly handsome. He was a guy you would want to show off to your friends and family: a naturally handsome face with perfectly structured proportions. His skin was flawless, he had longer eyelashes than I, and his lips…his lips were just…  

“Do you get it?” he suddenly turned to my direction and looked at me straight in the eyes. My heart skipped a beat when I realized that our faces were just centimeters apart, and I could feel his warm breath on my skin. When he squinted his eyes in scrutiny for a moment, I knew I was busted for not paying attention to him. Regardless of the both of us knowing I hadn’t understood anything he said, I snatched my pen back and started impulsively writing numbers down from the top of my head.

“I get it, I get it!” I said a little too loudly, causing him to collapse back in his chair in utter defeat. There was an awkward silence following my defensive statement, and I could feel my cheeks getting red from embarrassment. Oh God, why was I always so easily flustered around him? He’d start getting crazy ideas that I liked him or something…I chewed on my lip in frustration, covering my eyes with some loose strands of my hair.

“I have more peace now.” I heard Baekhyun’s voice after few minutes of silence. This time I didn’t dare look at him or ask him what that meant, albeit having no clue what he was talking about. I tried to focus on the formula he gave me, but moments later, he just grabbed both my notebook and my pen away from me. Dumbfounded, I glanced at him. “Girls from our school don’t bother me as much with their stupid love letters now,” he started speaking again while scribbling something on the paper. After a moment of comprehension, I finally understood that he was answering my previous question. “Getting five confessions a day was frustrating. Now, because of you, most of them have already given up and stopped following me like lost puppies.” He placed my pen on the table, looked at me, and tossed me my notebook back (which I somehow managed to catch while flailing my arms around). “Are you satisfied with this answer?”

“Then why do you waste your time tutoring me?” I looked at the notebook in my hands and switched my eyes back on him, still not sure what he just wrote in it. He didn’t have to pretend to be my boyfriend after school and could’ve just said something about being busy. Or we could just pretend that he was tutoring me at home.

He shrugged, “I don’t want people to think I like stupid girls.” Baekhyun slid my pen in my direction and stood from his chair again, taking his bag with him. Was he going home? Not that I minded, but his tutoring session of ten minutes wasn’t going to improve my grades much. As he reached the door, he turned back to me with a small smug smirk that I swear I hadn’t imagined. He opened the door and swung the bag on his shoulder, “Don’t forget that tutoring isn’t free either.”

And before I could come up with any reply, he disappeared behind the door. Shivers went down my spine as I recalled the last time he said something similar. I knew very well that the price will be painful and he wouldn’t hesitate to make me miserable again. Cursing in my mind, I flipped my notebook to the most recent page and, to my surprise, saw a formula he wrote down. I almost choked when I saw something the message following the math equation. Right, how stupid was I to think that Baekhyun would forget—or neglect to remind me—about the incident in the cafeteria this morning. I reread the words he left for me in complete disbelief and abhorrence at his shamelessness.

Wondering how it would be to kiss me? Stop staring at me and use your brain for studying, idiot

I tugged on