After the class finished, you quickly put your things in your bag and hurried towards Sunhwa. You still hadn’t gotten a chance to congratulate her on her achievement the past day in the audition, and that seemed like the right time to do so.

You called her name as she was about to leave the class, and she looked over her shoulder at you. She scoffed and completely ignored you. It was no use to go after her now since she had already left and you still had to speak to Mrs. Lee. But it still hit you, weren’t things supposed to change between us?

--

You rushed repeatedly looking at the time. Crap I’m late… Don’t get mad at me please… You kept thinking and mumbling. Breathless you finally arrived to your destination. You quickly signed in the front desk of the library and tried not to make loud noises due to your hurried and heavy steps.

You stopped when you spotted the pair sitting in the same table of the day before. You took a deep breath and hoped for the best.

“Sorry I’m late…!”

Youngjae looked up at you with a smile. As for the girl she kept her head down.

“You made it!” –He beamed.

You bowed and apologized.

“I’m so sorry I’m late. I got assigned to clean the class after the meeting because I was late.”

He chuckled. “I imagined… I also got a punishment after class. But take a seat, I need to finish this part first and then she’s all yours. I already told her you were helping out.”

You smiled and sat in front of them. Yeon Ae kept her eyes straight on the book. And again the same uncomfortable feeling of the other day was present. The question remained in your mind, how am I supposed to tutor someone who doesn’t even want to look at my face?

--

“This is what she’s studying right now, and this is what she’s having more problems with.” –Youngjae pointed at the page filled with equations.

“Okay… This is going to be fun!” –You said when you saw the amount of work. –“But we can do it, right Yeon Ae?”

You tried to reassure her with a smile, which she couldn’t see since her eyes and mind were elsewhere.

“So you’re set?” –Youngjae asked to make sure.

He could tell you were sort of insecure so he gave you one last smile and a fist bump to encourage you. You did the same and he walked backwards keeping his eyes on you both.

--

The tutoring session didn’t go smoothly, just like you expected. It was as if the more you wanted to make her talk, the more she hid behind the wall she had created. The girl surely had her own issue, and at that moment math was not it. Your only objective now was finding out what, and why she was acting like that towards you.

“So you understand?” –You pointed at the problem you had just explained for the tenth time.

It wasn’t that you didn’t explain it right, is just that she didn’t speak to tell you what exactly was confusing her.

She nodded softly and you sighed a bit. You looked to the side trying to think of something. When you did, you saw Youngjae peeking from one of the aisles between one of the shelves. He had left the area, but he still was watching over the both of you, which made you feel touched that he was concerned about you.

You closed the book and looked at Yeon Ae. It was now time to change the subject at hand and try to get her to open up and trust you. That’s the only way you were going to get some progress from her.

“You’re new around here in Seoul right?”

She looked at you with the corner of her eye and nodded.

“Has anyone ever taken you around? You know visit some stores? Sightseeing?”

You leaned forward trying to engage eye contact. She shook her head a little fearful.

“Well, how about we call it quits for today and I take you for a while around the area. I’ll pay dinner too… What do you think?”

She didn’t answer, as expected.

“Come on! It’s going to be fun, plus, you must be starving, I know I am!”

You closed her books