“Welcome home, baby.”

I frowned, halting half way through the glass doors of Daehyun’s (second home) midnight workplace. He looked amused, the corners of his lips pulled to a pleased smirk. “Home?” Better yet, baby?

He laughed, without reason, eyes squinting to half crescents at my frown. Sometimes (most times), I just didn’t understand him at all. “Well, you’re only here every day,” only because of you, “it might as well as be your home.”

I contemplated this. It was true, I had come to the store more often than I’d intended at first. Had the shop owner actually gone through all the cctv recordings, he might have come to believe I was another worker he’d forgetfully hired. One that was stupid enough to not show up on pay days.

Maybe I was coming too often.

Sighing, I’d only just turned around when Daehyun was wailing again, sputtering out a sort of an apology to stop me. “Sheesh, I was kidding, don’t leave me alone!”

Skipping around the counter, he came to pull me away from the door, his arms woven tightly around my waist – an action I (oddly) didn’t find uncomfortable at all. I let him tug me to his liking, not making a struggle as he pushed me down in the seat he’d been occupying seconds earlier.

“So what’s that?” He gestured the textbook I’d brought along (now resting on my lap between my folded hands) with a nudge of his chin. “I mean, why’d you bring it, I know it’s a book,” he clarified just as I’d opened my mouth to speak.

Within the last week – the week I’d spent avoiding my phone, computer and the outdoors in general – I’d come to the conclusion that, despite the fact I’d spent the past two years (and then some) with Daehyun, I knew nothing about him. The only thing I had known, until now, had been that he was friends with him. They were friends, and that had been the only thing I’d cared about.

I suppose it was time to change that.

Glancing down at the hard cover book on my lap, I lifted it to place on the counter. “I’m going to teach you.”

I didn’t know much, but I did know that Daehyun was all but failing class. Had hour school system required that he actually pass class to graduate, he wouldn’t have had a chance at getting that diploma. (He couldn’t help it; after all, he spent the majority of waking hours at work.)

“Why?”

Why? That was a good question; why was I doing this?

I shrugged half-heartedly, opening the text to what we’d gone over in class today. I wanted him to pass class. I didn’t want people to just assume he was an idiot, when really, they knew absolutely nothing about him. “Let’s start here.”

His fussing didn’t stop, but obediently, Daehyun pulled up another plastic chair, pressing his cheek to the cool counter, while keeping his eyes on me. He was staring at me (making me feel self-conscious), eyes searching.

“Do you have a question?” I coughed awkwardly, shifting to look at anything but the dark orbs that raked me up and down, analyzing me.

“I do. Why’re you trying to help me?”

To be honest, I hadn’t thought that far into things when I’d decided to head over to Daehyun’s workplace again. I guess a part of me just wanted to see him again. Was that wrong?

“Because I like you.”