▲▼▲ LEDAPPLE - I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU (ENGLISH VER.)

For the first time in his life, Sehun had been working his off in school. His only goal at the moment was to let his grandmother to be proud of him. Maybe his parents too, and he will achieve. His daily schedule was school, work, then study. He was mostly around Minyoung, and his friends have been giving him weird looks. Instead of being around them, Sehun was around Minyoung, and obviously Chanyeol, Baekhyun and Kai tried to get him away from her. But Sehun never listened to any one of them. Why? He found extremely immature that his friends were telling him that Minyoung was different in many ways, and not anyone in the whole school liked her. Even when Sehun told them that she was helping him with his studies, they told him to forget about it. Truthfully, Sehun felt no support from his friends at all.

“Sehun, she’s not a good person to be around with!” Chanyeol says, practically shouting as Sehun and his friends sat in the library. Chanyeol was reminded that he was in the library when he heard hushes around him. Sehun sighed and shook his head, his eyes still attached to his books. “Look at what she turned you into! You’re studying! The last time I remembered, Oh Sehun came back to Seoul to get away from school back at home, and slack. Not try to learn,” he said and guffawed.
Sehun’s jaw tightened as Chanyeol continued to talk. “Why are you even trying to study? It’s not like anything good will happen if you study,” Kai says.
Sehun stopped his actions and closed his books, gathering them all into his bag. “You will understand if you listened,” he said before pushing his way out the library.

When school ended, Sehun and Minyoung immediately started working. Sehun wiped down the tables while Minyoung worked at the counter. Every time Minyoung glanced at Sehun, he was focused on his work. But at times, she’d notice him tracing his fingers against the tables as he cleared the table. Minyoung knew those gestures well, and she smiled at times. Employees had thirty minute breaks in between their shifts, being the smart one, Minyoung takes that time to study instead of eating. The only unusual thing that would happen nowadays was that Sehun joined her. He always asked her questions on a problem of their homework, thanked her when she finished explaining, and ended up getting the same answers as Minyoung. For once, he felt accomplished, which he was still uncomfortable to the feeling, but he liked it. At least he was trying.

Work ended, which meant Sehun and Minyoung had to go their separate ways for the night, also meant that he’d spend the night by himself. He didn’t like the feeling of being by himself, so he decided to visit his grandmother. When he had gotten there, he found his grandmother looking at the TV. He saw that she had became so weak and fragile already. As Sehun entered her room, his grandmother looked up with a smile. “Sehun-ah~” she says with a smile, and Sehun responded back with a smile. “How are your studies? Minyoung told me that you’ve been studying non-stop.”
“Really?” Sehun asked.
“Mhm. Studying for midterms?” Sehun nodded. His grandmother smiled and sighed. “Have you been sleeping well? With studies, surely you must not have much time to sleep.”
Sehun gives her a reassuring smile, “Yes, I have, gran’.”
“After exams is Christmas break. Spend that break to relax and sleep in, okay? Don’t bother to come here.”
“And leave you here to celebrate Christmas alone?” Sehun said, slightly frowning.

“Don’t worry. The people around here celebrate Christmas alone all the time. I’ll be fine!” she says. “Oh.” His grandmother clapped as she remembered something. She reached for the drawer of the nightstand beside her and pulled out two knitted scarves. “Here,” she said, handing Sehun the black and white scarves. “There was only black and white yarn, so I used them. Couldn’t find any other colors. But you like black right?”
“What’s this for?” Sehun asks.
“Christmas presents.” Sehun blinked and looked at his grandmother. “For you, and Minyoung. She deserves one since she was so kind enough to get you a job and help you with studies. Be kind enough and please take one of these to her, okay?” she said with a smile.
Sehun nodded. “But I can’t leave you here and not spend Christmas without my grandmother.”
His grandmother shook her head and let out a soft laugh. “Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself. I’m old, I’m used to it.”

▲▼▲▼▲

Sehun exhaled as he entered the school with Minyoung. “Why do we have to take exams on the day before Christmas Eve?” Sehun asks Minyoung. “We should have exams a week before Christmas!”
“It’s better to take exams, have three days of Christmas break, and come back,” Minyoung says.
“Is this what Seoul students do all the time? Study?”
“Pretty much.”

Sehun sighed and glanced ahead as they walked towards homeroom. For the first time since he’s gotten to Seoul, he’s finally receiving weird stares from people around him. He found it weird, but ignored it. Minyoung stops at homeroom and turns to Sehun. “Boys and girls take exams in separate rooms. You’re taking yours here,” she said and walked away. Sehun blinked and tilted his head. *Why is she acting so differently?* He shrugged. *Probably because she’s too stressed out about exams.* Sehun walked into the room and found his desk. By the time he sat down, the bell rang and exams were passed out. Sehun exhaled as he filled in the last of his information on the bubble sheet before proceeding onto the exam. For the first few pages of his exam, he felt confident, but now he was entering a harder stage of the exam. He felt pressured, feeling like he knew the answer but he can’t figure out what it is. His hands became clammy, and stared at the questions. He furrowed his eyebrows in frustration and pressed his lips into a straight line. The more he stared at it, the harder it seemed to be. He exhaled and quickly took a guess, and proceeded on.

He then reached to the last subject of the exam: math. He at it, and he felt more pressured. He can’t remember the formulas at all now. He then remembered a technique that Minyoung used to remember the formulas. He didn’t know why, but that made him smile. Not math, but the way how Minyoung was intelligent and able to remember millions of formulas. He followed her technique and carefully did the math exam. When he was finished, he double-checked everything until the bell rang, ending the exam. “Pencils down. Put your answer sheet in your booklet and pass the exam forward.” Sehun exhaled and passed his and other exams forward, and the class was dismissed.

Sehun walked outside, and found Minyoung waiting for him. She wore a blank face, and didn’t bother to look up at Sehun. The two left the school without a word, which Sehun found awkward. He was the first to break the silence between them. “How did you do?” he asked.
Minyoung shrugged, “Okay. I guess...” A moment of silence filled up again. “How’d you do?”
Sehun smiled, “Good. Kinda felt pressured, but I think I did good. I used the technique that you used to remember the formulas,” he said.
“That’s good.”

Silence surrounded them again. The two walked at a slow pace. They had nowhere else to go. No work for the next four days, family members were all gone. When they reached to Minyoung’s house, Minyoung turned to walk into her house. “Wait,” Sehun said, which made Minyoung stop and turn back to him. “Is everything okay?” he asked the girl in front of him.
Minyoung nodded. “Yeah. Everything’s fine.”
Silence. “...When we were walking into the school, why was everyone staring at us?” he asked.
Minyoung pressed her lips into a firm, straight line. “You can ask your friends that,” she said.

Sehun frowned. Before she turned around to walk back inside, Sehun grabbed her hand. “Wait, again.” He took off his backpack and pulled out the white scarf that his grandmother had given him. “Here,” he said, handing the scarf to her.
Minyoung raised a brow. “Shouldn’t you give this to me on Christmas?”
“On Christmas, I’ll be asleep for those two days. Might as well give this to you now before it’s too late,” he said. Minyoung glanced at the soft material in her hands. “My grandmother made it for you. It’s for thanks and Christmas so, use it well.”
Minyoung looked up at Sehun and gave him a small, unnoticeable smile. “Thanks, to you both.” She turned around and walked inside her house as Sehun walked to his.

▲▼▲▼▲

A sigh came from Sehun’s uncle back in Incheon. He stared at his paperwork in front of him, then glanced at the mail on the right. He picked up the mail and looked through them. “Bill, bill, bill, Jinsung’s school, Seoul Center High...” His uncle raised a brow and looked opened the envelope. The first thing he saw was his nephew’s name and he scoffed. “Probably F’s everywhere,” he said, clicking his tongue. He gazed down the paper, finding exam grades. “...A+.”

SUMMER BREAK HAS STARTEDDDDD! YAY.
/sigh/ but stressed.
I HAVE PIANO LESSONS AGAIN. Not happy. OTL
lmao.
NEW STORY BELOW. C: