Raeha

I sat down in Park-ssam’s office in relief, remembering that today was finally going to be the last day of training for this tiring contest. Strangely enough, I didn’t feel nervous for the contest at all. But then again, I rarely feel nervous about anything. Being nervous takes too much out of me.

I was still all alone, so I stretched my arms above my head. “Ah. Finally, this thing is coming to an end soon.”

“What makes you think that?” Kyuhyun appeared, striding into the room and placing his bag into his usual seat.

“It’s finally the day before the contest, and afterwards it’ll be all over, right?”

“Did you forget that there were regionals, nationals, and international rounds to go through if we win? Or did you just think we wouldn’t win?” He scowled, but I suppressed my anger, because raising my voice would just get me even madder.

“I just forgot. And I was quite happy when I thought it would be the end.” I sighed and crossed my arms. The two of us maintained an awkward silence as we waited for our teacher to arrive. Strange. He was usually very punctual.

“Hey kids, sorry I’m late.” Park-ssam rushed in, practically flinging his papers onto his desk. “I’m afraid I’ll be very busy today, because finals are coming up, and all my test files have been corrupted, so I have to make a brand-new test. I’ve just prepared some questions for you guys to answer, here.” He shoved a stack of papers at each of us. “I trust the two of you to behave while I’m gone, and I expect the two of you to have finished by the time I get back.” He hurriedly grabbed a stack of books from the back of the room and left the two of us in a confused silence.

I sighed and turned my attention back to the questionnaire he gave me. It must be tough being a teacher. I wondered if Park-ssam had a life other than schoolwork. Would it be like a movie where he was a spy or cop disguised as a teacher? At night, did he like to sneak out for drinks with other teachers? Is that why so many of them are so cranky in the morning?

“Jung.” Kyuhyun called my attention. “You’ve been staring at your paper for three minutes. Shouldn’t you start answering?” he sounded annoyed.

I sighed in exasperation but took out my pen, scribbling messy solutions and picking the correct answers at a glance. I skipped the questions I didn’t know and left them for later.

When I had reached the end of the test paper, however, I realized too many were blank. Checking the time on my phone, I realized we had been sitting here for an hour. My eyes felt dry and tired, and I closed them for a while.

I heard a grunt from beside me, making me open my eyes and turn. Kyuhyun was raking his hair with his hands, and his face was on the desk.

“You alright there?” I asked.

“I’ve been stuck on the same stupid question for thirty minutes!!” He yelled in exasperation as he flicked the stack of papers.

“Maybe you should just leave it alone for a while. Get back to it later.”

He looked at me in confusion. “What do you mean? How does that help?”

I shrugged, not knowing quite how to explain it. “Just leave in and after a while, go back to it, and you’ll see it in a different way.”

He still looked confused, looking back to his paper then back at me.

“How do I say this… you’re so busy looking for the answer that you don’t bother looking for the process in obtaining it.”

He stared at me. “Why does that strangely make sense to me?”

I shrugged again. “Because I’m a genius?” He scoffed.

Ignoring him, I went back to answering the questions I had left blank. Sure enough, I had every question answered by the time I reached the end a second time. Just as I finished, I heard a joyous yell form Kyuhyun. “Yes! I got it!” he lifted the paper to bring it closer to his face, and I saw the question that he had had such a hard time with before.”

“See? What did I tell you? You just need to be less stubborn.” I replied. He chose to ignore me and went back to finishing his questionnaire.

He finished just in time for seonsaengnim to arrive and sit down, obviously tired, but accepted our papers with a smile and began checking them.

“Great job as usual, guys! Here.” He handed us our papers back. “Take these home and study your mistakes. Get lots of rest, too! Tomorrow’s a big day, so we need a lot of energy. Hwaiting!” he said, raising his fist. He was probably more excited for tomorrow than I was.

We bid him goodbye with bows and left him to collapse exhaustedly onto his desk.

With a serious face, I turned to Kyuhyun. “Cho,” I extended my hand and said sincerely, “good luck for tomorrow. Let’s do our best.”

He shook my hand with a poker face, as well. “You better not mess up, tomorrow, Jung.” He seemed to be serious, but his eyes were joking. Did he… just… joke with me? I was surprised, but happy that somehow he hated me a little less.

I just nodded and started to leave. He pulled out his phone, and I heard him say, “Hey, Sungmin…… No, we just finished.…… You and Hyeri? Wouldn’t I be disturbing your date?…… Well, it’s pretty much the same thing as a date.…… Tch. Fine, I’ll head over there. Just to watch you squirm.” He chuckled and hung up. He looked up, surprised to see me still standing there.

“Hey, you going to hang out with Hyeri and Sungmin?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Why do you ask?”

“Cause I wanna go, too.”

“Why?” Ugh, why do you have to ask so many questions?

“Hyeri’s my best friend.”

“So?”

“So Sungmin likes her, right?” He seemed to be caught off guard by my question.

“W-Wh—How did you know that?”

“Everyone knows that. Except her.” I rolled my eyes. “So, anyway, I could totally help him with her. She’s not interested in anyone particular right now, anyway.”

He paused, then sighed resignedly. “The things I do for this guy.” I smiled and followed him down the hall and to the study hall.

“Okay, let’s take this slow, Sungmin.” I heard Hyeri tell Sungmin as we entered the study hall and approached their table. The both of them looked up when they heard us greet them. “Hey, Raeha! Hey Kyuhyun!” Hyeri greeted us. I waved happily while Kyuhyun acknowledged her greeting with a nod.

“Don’t mind me. I’ll just study here.” Kyuhyun sat down at another end of the table and pulled out the review materials Park-ssam had just handed us. I sat quietly beside Hyeri and motioned for them to continue with what they were doing.

“All right, so, here’s the question. So you have to find this,” Hyeri was pointing at things on the paper with her pencil, and I pretended to watch what she was teaching, but secretly stole glances at Sungmin, who was listening attentively. Occasionally, he would glance at Hyeri when he thought she wasn’t looking, but quickly look away when she looked up to ask him a question. He was so obviously smitten. It was too cute to watch. I decided that later I should probably have a little talk with Hyeri.

“All right, I guess we got everything done today. Great job, Sungminnie!” Hyeri said cheerfully, giving him a pat on the back. He blushed while Hyeri packed her things, oblivious.

“Hey, Hyeri, let’s walk home together. I need to tell you something.” I called her over. She happily skipped over and bid the guys goodbye.

“So, what did you want to talk about?”

I kept silent until we were far away enough from the school gates. Then I abruptly turned to her and smiled mischievously.

“What do you think of Sungmin?”

“Eh? He’s a good student.”

I facepalmed myself. “No, you idiot! I meant, do you think he’s cute?”

She blushed. “Eh? I—I guess—but why do you ask?”

I smiled. “Because he likes you.”

“Wh—what? N-No, he doesn’t!”

I rolled my eyes and chuckled. “Oh please. Anyone with eyes can tell he likes you.”

“W-well…” her voice dropped to a soft whisper.

I widened my mouth, but covered it with my hand. “Oh my god.” She only turned redder. “Oh my god, you like him!” I squealed in glee. “When did this start?”

She lowered her head. “I-I’m not even sure I like him! It only began w-when I started tutoring him.”

I clapped. “You know I support you in this, right?” I hugged her tightly.

“Really?” she looked surprised. “I thought you wouldn’t like it if I told you.” She looked away.

“What would make you think that?”

“Because he’s Kyuhyun’s best friend…”

“Psh. He’s nothing like Kyuhyun.” I waved my hand dismissedly. “You should confess something! Hwaiting!”

“W-WHAT? But I’m not ready!!” she looked frantic.

“Don’t worry, I can help.”