“Dammit, are you guys’ still in the house? Get out!”

He should know when we wake up; I don’t understand why he bothers yelling at us knowing that we still live under his roof.

 Ugh, I’m in a lot of pain. The usual “get beat up by dad” happened again last night. Only this time, he was pissed off that he didn’t get laid by one of his female friends.

What girl would find him attractive?

 Stupid love struck woman. They don’t know what they’re in for once they’ve fallen in love.

“Oppa, I finished. It’s your turn to use the bathroom.”

“Huh? Oh, okay Hayeon, I’ll be back.”

As soon as the water from the shower hits me, it felt like a thousand bullets were attacking my body.

“Gah.”

 My ribs are still in a lot of pain. I’ve convinced myself that they’re broken. I don’t know why I still haven’t seen a doctor, I guess it’s because I find it useless giving another lie. It won’t help anything; they’ll just patch it up and wrap my body in a bandage.

But it won’t heal the pain I feel inside.

“Oh, Hayeon you’re dressed already?”

“Yes oppa.”

 “Okay, let’s go to school.”

 “Can we stop for breakfast?”

 “Of course.”

She quickly holds my hand as we ascend down the stairs, knowing that we’re growing closer to dad makes her scared as crap.

“Hayeon, my beautiful daughter! Did you sleep well?”

 Geez, does he ever brush his teeth?

 I tighten my grip on her hand as she remains quiet. My eyes remain glued on dad as I watch him take a step closer to us.

“Hayeon, give daddy a kiss.”

 Again, nothing but silence. It’s so quiet that I can even hear my heart beat.

“Hayeon? What’s wrong? Is Taeng giving you a hard time? Want me to teach him a lesson?”

 “N-No appa. I’m fine. We just really need to get to school.”

 Me? Giving her a hard time? To Hayeon? Funny dad. Because I’m the one giving my little sister a hard time.

 I tighten my grip on Hayeon and shove past my dad towards the door; I could hear him snarl as I know that I’ve ticked him off. It’s not my fault, he’s the one pissing me off, trying to hurt my little sister and accuse me of her pain. I’m not going down without a fight.

I quickly get Hayeon in my car and back out to drive on the main road.  I hear Hayeon sadly sigh, I gaze over at her and ruffle her hair.

 “You okay?”

 She weakly nods, “You know…It’s just the same as always.”

She’s right, same different day. Is it ever going to change?

 “I know… But don’t worry okay? I already told you that I’m going to find us a way out of here.”

 “You promise?”

 I’m not sure about promising her…Promises are meant to be broken right? 

“I-I don’t know Hayeon…”

 “You can’t promise me?”

“I won’t promise, but I will try my hardest. Is that okay?”

 I gaze over to her and see her looking at the dashboard, her eyes filled with sorrow. I reach over and squeeze her hand, sending her a reassuring smile.

“Okay. I promise.”

 In an instant, her eyes gleam up and the smile I love seeing spreads on her face.

 “You promise.”

 I tried stringing her away from keeping promises but I know for sure that I won’t be breaking this promise.

“Oppa, can we stop by the café for breakfast?”

 “Yeah of course.”

The café we always go to is our favorite place; we practically go there every morning for breakfast. The owner of the shop is really nice, she’s a middle aged woman with 2 kids younger then both Hayeon and I. She treats us like her own kids and it makes me miss mom even more.

 As I take the turn towards the restaurant, Hayeon tugs on the sleeve of my arm to grab my attention.

“Yes?”

“Oppa, where did you get that burger yesterday?”

 Oh, the one Tiffany bought me. I completely forgot about that, but now that I’m thinking about it I’m still confused to why she bought me it in the first place. We don’t even know each other and she’s already spending money on me. Why waste your money on someone who doesn’t even know you?

Hayeon looks at me with curious eyes. Maybe she wants to know if Sunny bought it for me.

 “Er, some girl bought it for me.”

“Some girl?”

 “Yeah.”

“Is she your friend?”

 “Tch, no. She’s a friend of Sunny’s.”

 “Oh…I see. What’s her name?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“I just want to know so if I ever meet her I want to say thank you for buying my oppa a burger.”

 I wonder if Hayeon realizes that she’s too nice sometimes. That’s probably why I can’t trust her on her own, she’s going to trust too easily and not fight on her own.

“It doesn’t matter.”

 “How come?”

“Because she’s not my friend.”

 “So? I just want to know her name.”

I swear Sunny is rubbing off on people. Everyone is so persistent.

 “Uh, her name is Tiffany.”

“Tiffany? I’ve never heard of her, is she a new student?”

 “Yeah.”

“Wow! She must really be nice then.”

“Tch, whatever.”

“Is she pretty?”

Why is she bombarding me with all these questions? Didn’t I already explain that I’m not friends with her? Thank goodness that we’ve arrived at the restaurant, I can’t stand anymore of these questions.

 We quickly enter the café and order our food to go, we bid our goodbyes to “umma” and I drop Hayeon off to school.

 Before I stepped out of the car I checked my face in the rear view mirror. The bruises and cuts were healing so I don’t think I’ll need my mask today. I grab my backpack and my bag of food, heading out into the halls of the university.

“Look, there’s Taeng.”

“He doesn’t have his mask, maybe his gang members kicked him out?”

 “No way, everyone knows that s are afraid of him. He is the leader.”

 I wonder who was the person that started all these rumors, I wouldn’t mind having them as my personal entertainment seeing that all they do is spit lies out of their mouths.

 “Hey Taeng.”

 “Hi Sunny, what’s up?”

 “Nothing, hey your bruises are healing.”

“Yep, give it a week and they’ll be back.”

 He restlessly sighs, remaining quiet as we both walk to our first class together.

Surprisingly my eyes find its way to Tiffany, who was quietly reading her book. I’m not sure why my eyes are always drawn to her. If anything, they shouldn’t be looking at her at all.

Sunny wraps his arm around my neck and leads me to our seats. I take my seat and watch as Sunny quickly turns around to face Tiffany.

 “Good morning Tiffany!”

 His obnoxious aegyo makes me want to throw up; I actually got to give credit to Tiffany. She actually seems used to his annoying personality trait.

“Good morning Sunny.” I hear her reply, her voice bouncing off my back.

 I felt myself shiver. I knew she was staring at me. Too bad I’m not going to turn around and greet her. We’re not friends. I don’t need to say one word to her.

“Good morning class, let’s get started.”

 And here comes my nap.

 

“Taeng, Taeng, TAENG.”

“Urgh.”

“Taeng, wake up. Professor Kwon is calling on you.”

“Ugh.”

 Why did she have to interrupt my nap

“Kim Taeng.”

I restlessly sigh, my eyes groggily open and I lift my head up from the desk. Professor Kwon looks like she wants to shoot me right now. I can actually imagine that, she hated me ever since the first day of class and I slept right through it. I chuckle, making Professor Kwon’s eyes flame up with anger.

“Taeng.”

 “Yes?”

 “Why are you sleeping in my class?”

 “You just realized that now? I sleep every day.”

 The whispers attack me again.

“Tch, he thinks he’s so cool.”

 “He’s got a lot of balls.”

“Dude, remember last year when he almost got in a fight with Professor Jung?”

“Yeah! , I would have put my money on Taeng.”

 I would defend myself but what’s the point? I only almost got in a fight with Professor Jung because he threatened to hurt me. I didn’t start anything; he was the one who initiated it. But of course, the quiet kid gets all the made up rumors and reputation.

  I shrug my shoulders, “Look Professor Kwon. I don’t understand why you’re getting mad at me. I’ve passed every test and exam. I don’t see a problem with me sleeping.”

She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, rubbing the temples of her forehead with her fingers.

“Dude you really did it this time.” Sunny whispers to me, I could only shrug again in response.

 Professor Kwon sighs again before she opens her eyes and looks at me with the same deadly glare. “See me after class.”

 Right on cue the bell rings and everybody quickly gathers their things and leaves the room, even Sunny. Whatever, she’s probably going to give me detention again. Or make me do another project.

As soon as everyone leaves I approach Professor Kwon who was sitting at her desk, her fingers tapping against the surface of her desk.

 “Okay what now Professor Kwon? Another essay? Detention?”

 “No.”

 Well, that’s surprising.

“No? So I’m free to go?” I quickly turn to the door and walk away from her.

“Taeng stop.”

Darn.

 I pivot around and face her.

 “What?”

 “Your punishment for sleeping in my class something different.”

“Okay? Cleaning your room?”

 “No. This is required, you must do this or else I’m going to fail you.”

“Tch, go ahead and fail me.”

“Really? You don’t want to graduate? You want to pay extra money to make up for this credit? I’ll be glad to do that.”

Okay, she got me. I guess I have no choice. I need to graduate so I can leave, so she’s got me trapped.

“Alright fine. What do you want me to do?”

 “You are going to tutor Tiffany for the rest of the semester.” She points her finger to the rows of desk, I turn my head and I was surprised to still see her here at her desk.

 You have got to be kidding me.

Why her?

Again?

 Out of all the stupid people in this class, I end up with her?

“Seriously? Her?”

 “Yes Taeng. And ‘her’ has a name.”

“But why her? You realize that half of your class is a bunch of idiots right?”

 “TAENG.”

 I sigh and run my hand through my hair, “Okay okay. Fine. I’ll tutor her.”

“Good and you better not leave her. I will be getting updates from her so don’t try anything.”

 Damn, she really thought this through.

 I watch as Tiffany grabs her books and stands up from her desk, she walks over to me and sends me a small smile.

Whatever.

 “Alright Tiffany, meet your new tutor.”

 I roll my eyes and walk out the door, not even bothering to check if Tiffany was following me. But of course she was because I can hear footsteps trying to catch up to me. We both remain silent as we walk down the halls. This is really awkward.

“Don’t you have another class?”

She quickly straightened up and shook her head. “No, my next class isn’t until later this afternoon.”

Damn, I guess I am stuck tutoring her. I don’t have a class until later as well.

This .

“So do you mind if we study in the library?”

And she picked the worst place in the campus.

I knew she was going to be troublesome.

“Whatever.”

 We both quietly make our way into the library, as we enter she immediately walks to the farthest table that’s deep into the library. Can she be even more of a burden?

She sets her books down and takes her seat, her eyes looking at me with curiosity. I sigh as I pull out the chair next to her and take my seat.

This is going to be a long day.

“So I’m just going to work on some problems and if I need help I’ll just ask you. Is that okay?”

“Tch, whatever.”

 She shortly nods and returns her attention to the book.

 I knew this was going to be pointless. Does she even need a tutor?

 I lean back against the chair and take a deep breath. I pull my hood over and zip up my jacket to its max. I don’t want people to know I’m here in the library or with Tiffany, I don’t need any more made up rumors to spread around.

“So, did you like the burger?”

 I gaze over at Tiffany whose eyes were still in her book.

Why is she trying to make a conversation with me? I’m here as her tutor by force. That’s all I will ever be. Her tutor.

“Does it matter?”

 She slightly chuckles, sending another shiver down my spine.

 “Well I mean…I wasn’t sure if the type of burger I got was right. I wasn’t even sure if you wanted all the toppings and condiments.”

“It was fine.”

“Oh, I’m glad.”

“Why did you buy it for me anyways?”

She shrugs, “You seemed like you were hungry.”

“So you just buy random hungry people burgers?”

 “No. I was just trying to be nice.”

“Tch, whatever.”

 I can sense that she wants me to thank her for buying me food. But I’m not going to; she went against her own will to buy me something. I don’t need to thank her.

 “Do you like it here?”

Again? More questions?

 “What?”

“This university. Do you like it here?”

 “I don’t really care.”

“Really? Then why did you choose to study here?”

 “I don’t know. I just chose it.”

“I see…”

Geez, I feel like I’m being interrogated. Can she just do her assignment in silence? I feel like faith heard my silent plea because she stopped talking, all the sounds I hear was the scribbling of her pencil. I lean forward and cross my arms on the desk, slowly dying of boredom as she works in her book.

“What’s your next class?”

 Great, just when I thought things were going smooth.

“Doesn’t matter.”

“I mean we share like 3 classes…I was just wondering-”

“You don’t need to ‘wonder,’ if we have the same class then we have the same class. End of discussion.”

“Why won’t you just tell me?”

 “Why do you keep asking me questions?”

“I don’t know... Fate always seems to bring us together. I figured that it’s a sign that we can become friends.”

 “Look, I’m not here to become your friend. I don’t want to be your friend. I’m forced against my own will to be your tutor and that’s all I will ever be, your tutor and nothing else.”

She grows silent; I knew that would shut her up. Telling my honest opinion is my best move to make people stop talking to me.

“Okay I understand. You’re just my tutor.” She said softly, looking at me while sending a small smile.

“Tch, glad to see we’ve established that.” I stand up from the chair, making Tiffany’s eyes stay glued on me with curiosity. “Do you even need my help?”

“Well…no not right now-”

 “Good. I’m leaving.”

Without giving her a chance to talk, I walk away from her and leave the library.

Screw Professor Kwon.